Every week iMore’s editors carefully cull through hundreds of thousands of iPhone and iPadapps and games, and countlessaccessories, to find the three most interesting, innovative, and exciting iOS products for you to check out. They might might be the latest and greatest or the most newly updated, or they might be classics or hidden gems. The only constants are, they’ll always be among our very favorites, and they’ll worthy to join the exclusive ranks of iMore’s new picks of the week.

This week we have an old social favorite with new social hook, the sequel to the sequel of one of the best shooters ever, and way to give your iPhone an incredible new set of eyes…

App of the Week: Flipboard with SoundCloud

Flipboard is a dynamic, up-to-date, but highly personalized magazine created from everything being shared to you from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Reeder, LinkedIn, Flickr and most recently added, SoundCloud.

That’s right, now you can enjoy amazing sounds created and shared by your friends and people you follow on SoundCloud as well as explore dozens of recommended audio feeds in new Audio category in the Content Guide.

Using Flipboard is joyous. You simply flip through the different stories in your feeds that are displayed with big images and an expert of text. When reading an article, advancing through pages also requires the act of “flipping”. It’s actually pretty fun.

Flipboard is one of ourfavorite personal magazine apps, and it also supports our favorite read later services:Instapaper, Pocket, and Readability.

Free -Download Now

Game of the week: N.O.V.A. 3

This week, there was really only iOS game worth talking about: Gameloft’s N.O.V.A. 3. The franchise has long been meeting the needs of hardcore Halo fans looking for something similar on their iPhone, and over time, N.O.V.A. has very much come into its own.

You play the role of Kal Wardin, a reluctant (and supposedly retired) military man who’s the only one with the skills to fend off the usual intergalactic threats. Your standard assortment of shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenades, and missile launchers are supplemented by superhuman abilities like slowing time, telekentic force pushes, and freezing enemies. Though there’s a 10-level single player campaign, the real game takes place online, where you fight 6 v 6 across a variety of classic game modes, like team deathmatch, free for all, and capture the flag. As you play, win or lose, you gain experience points and level up, which unlocks new weapons, equipment, and add-ons to spawn with. One of the most exciting elements of multiplayer is the ability to hop into a variety of awesome high-tech vehicles, like walker mechs and jeeps.

This sci-fi first-person shooter boasts Retina-optimized graphics for both iPhone and iPad, but be warned new iPad owners – the price for razor-sharp textures is steep. In order to keep the framerate up, you’ll be sacrificing lots of cool effects like depth of field and motion blur. Gameloft is also trying to push in-app purchases for guns, which is a trapping generally left to free games, but luckily you can earn all the in-game currency you need through regular gameplay.

N.O.V.A. 3 provides top-notch action, great multiplayer, and graphics that you will have a hard time finding anywhere else on iOS. Although many scoff at dual-stick shooters on mobile, I find Gameloft has done a great job at integrating gyroscope control since Modern Combat 3, particularly for fine aim adjustments. I also take zero issue with the “inspiration” they pull from sci-fi games on other platforms; if Halo isn’t ever going to find its way to the iPhone and iPad, then more power to Gameloft for bringing it here. For action game fans, N.O.V.A. 3 is a no-brainer.

$6.99 - Download now

Accessory of the week: olloclip lens system

The olloclip is a compact, convenient lens system that easily slides over your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S camera and turns it into a fun, flexible, photography powerhouse. The olloclip contains both a fisheye and wide-angle lens, and you can unscrew the wide-angle to reveal a macro lens as well. That’s 3 extra options in one small package.

We used the olloclip extensively at bothCES 2012andMacworld|iWorld Expo 2012and it worked fantastically well. The fisheye let us fit multiple people into frame for video interviews, and the macro let us get in really close for details. We even used the macro to capture theRetina display comparison shotsfor ournew iPad review.

Combine it with the killer tips in ouriPhone photography columnand you’re on your way to one fairly incredible ultra-mobile photo kit.

$69.99 -Buy now

Curated by Leanna Lofte, Simon Sage, Georgia, and Rene Ritchie

By Staff

The unofficial,independent Steve Jobs biopicstarring Ashton Kutcher, has gotten an official name –jOBS– a website, and has released some new details about the production.

The film chronicling the life of Steve Jobs, the Apple Inc. co-founder and charismatic master of innovation, begins principal photography in June and in keeping with the project’s commitment to accuracy and authenticity, will film early scenes in the actual Los Altos home where Jobs grew up and in the historic garage where he and Steve Wozniak founded Apple.

jOBSis produced by Mark Hulme and Five Star Pictures and directed by Joshua Michael Stern ofSwing VoteandNeverwas.

jOBS chronicles the 30 most defining years of Steve Jobs’ life, as seen through his, colleagues’, and friends’ eyes. Dark, honest, and uncompromising, jOBS plunges into the depths of his character, creating an intense dialogue-driven story that is as much a sweeping epic as it is an immensely personal portrait of Steve Jobs’ life.

On the film’s website,thejobsmovie.com, Hulme elaborates on his motivations for making jOBS.

One of the great innovators and futurist patriarchs of our time, Steve Jobs was somehow simultaneously a prophet and a pariah for millions of consumers. His is a truly fascinating story that cannot properly be told in such a short space, and that is why we are determined to bring his tale –both the good and the bad, the regrettable and unforgettable, the villainous and heroic– to the big screen.

Just recentlyAshton Kutcher was seen out and aboutin his Steve Jobs wardrobe.

jOBScurrent has the tagline “Get inspired” and is scheduled for a late fall, 2012 release. That should be well ahead of the official biopic produced by Sony and based on the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, which justhired Aaron SorkinofThe Social NetworkandThe West Wingto pen their script.

Source:thejobsmovie.com

By Rene Ritchie

Apple has reportedly sent out a shiny brochure to their new neighbors, detailing aspects of the futuristic campus they’re planning to build on the old HP lot.9to5Macgot their hands on a copy, and shared some of the details, the most interesting of which is:

Campus 2, as it is currently called, won’t replace the 1 Infinite Loop campus. Instead, it will just provide ‘research facility’ office space for an additional 13,000 employees, more than 3,000 more than 1 Infinite Loop. There is 300,000 feet of expansion space for future growth.

And yes, that seems to mean no museum, no new Company Store, and potentially no next-generation offices for Apple’s executives.

Steve Jobs originally introduced Apple’s new “mothership” the day afterWWDC 2011with avisit to Cupertino City Councilcaptured in the YouTube video below.

The images Apple introduced, and wereposted by Cupertinoandlater updated, were stunning — an enormous circle of curved glass amid an orchard.

Steve Jobs said at the time of the introduction:

There is not a straight piece of glass in this building, it’s all curved. We used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building… It’s pretty cool.

Some Cupertino residents have been concerned about what the influx of tens of thousands of new workers will do to traffic. Others simply see more tax dollars.

Apple is scheduled to begin work on the impressive new structure this year with a projected end date of 2015. Still no word on whether or not, due to its spaceship design, it will literally be able to abandon Earth and take to the stars, Wall-E style, should Google ever win the technology wars…

Check out the rest of the flyer pics and salient points via the link below.

Source:9to5Mac

By Rene Ritchie

Apple has just announced its line up for the annual iTunes Festival. The event which first started in 2007 has been hugely popular as all of the tickets are given away free of charge. The live concerts all take place at London’s The Roundhouse and it all kicks off on September 1^stand goes on until September 30^th.

Every year since 2007, the iTunes Festival has been bringing you a full month of spectacular live music. Many of the world’s biggest stars and the brightest newcomers have graced the festival stage, and this year’s brilliant line-up includes jack White, One Direction, Norah Jones and more. It will all take place in September 2012 at one of the UK’s best live music venues-the Roundhouse in London.

So far Apple has confirmed performances by Usher, Emeli Sandé, Jack White, Norah Jones and every teenage girls dream, One Direction. There will be many more artists to come over the next couple of months so this is certain to be a popular event. Even better the tickets are always free. If you want them just simply apply for them through the app or online. Apple is also running a competition to win a Festival Pass which gives you access to every concert during the festival.

If you can’t make the live shows, you can enjoy all the action live on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch via the iTunes Festival app, as well as on your Mac or PC. The iOS app even supports AirPlay; enabling you to stream the action straight to your Apple TV. Unfortunately, it looks like being exclusively for UK based users as the app is only available in the UK App Store.

Free - Download Now

Source:iTunes Festival

By Chris Oldroyd

Cuboid is a fun 3D puzzle game for the iPhone and iPad of flipping and rolling a cuboid through a maze-like puzzle placed in the setting of mystic, ancient ruins.

Cuboid is available on the iPhone and iPad as a universal app, but the screenshots in this review will be from an iPhone, only.

For those who may not know, a cuboid a rectangular solid that is in the shape of a box. In this game, if you were to cut the cuboid in half (longways), the result would be two cubes.

The goal of the game is simple, roll the cuboid through the puzzle so that you get it to fall through the square hole. It’s possible to roll the cuboid off the board, so be careful!

As you progress through the game, new elements such as buttons and teleports will be introduced to the game. When this happens, Cuboid has you play a simple tutorial level so that you understand how the new addition to the game works.

Once you succeed, you will receive 1-3 stars based on how many moves it took you to reach the goal. If you complete the level in the least number of moves possible, the level will also be marked as “etalon”. (An etalon is actually a physics device used to measure wavelengths, so I’m not really sure why this word is used.)

If you’re stuck and can’t figure out how to beat a level, Cuboid includes a hint button that will quickly show you how to beat the level from the cuboid’s current position. You are only given a few hints for free, though. If you want more, you must purchase them from the Cuboid Store.

Which brings me to the parts of Cuboid I do not understand. As you play the game, you earn coins. If you tap the button that says how many coins you have, or you tap the hint icon when you don’t have any left, you are taken to the Cuboid Store. I was expecting to be able to purchase hints with the coins I’ve earned. Nope. My choices are to buy hints or to buy coins… but I can’t figure out what I can do with my coins! Why do I want to buy 1500 coins for $4.99? As far as I can tell, these coins don’t actually have a purpose.

The other horrible thing about Cuboid is ads. Not so much the ads themselves (all ads are always horrible), but the fact that it’s not clear how to get rid of them. I’ve searched through every menu and there is no obvious method of purchasing an upgrade to remove the ads. However, through some trial and error, I discovered that if you tap the X on an ad, you’ll get the offer to remove ads for $0.99. It’s well worth the $0.99, in my opinion, but I can’t believe how difficult it was to find this in-app purchase.

In general, everything except the actual gameplay is very poorly done. There’s no written directions to be found (and that’s a shame, because I’d really like to know why HeroCraft is using the word “etalon” when perfectly beating a level). I would also like to know what all the icons mean in Settings. Music, sound, and hints was easy enough to figure out, but I’m not really sure what the movie icon is for. Despite the ample space on the Settings screen, there is no written description for what settings are actually being changed.

When tapping the ribbon on the main menu, you are taken to the ranking section in Game Center for Cuboid, but there doesn’tappearto be any way to exit this screen. It turns out that the “Done” button is just invisible. If you tap in the upper righthand corner, it briefly appears and activates.

The good

• Awesome graphics
• Addicting
• Challenging
• Universal for iPhone and iPad

The bad

• No clear, written out directions
• To purchase the upgrade for no ads, you must tap the X when an ad pops up
• Not sure what the movie icon in settings represents. Again, no words to describe what it is
• Game Center ranking page has an invisible Done button. You can’t see it, but if you tap in the upper righthand corner, it briefly appears and activates.

The conclusion

Luckily, none of the bugs I experience affect the actual gameplay of Cuboid. Cuboid is a very fun game and I really like how they’ve added a star value to each level. This allows the game to be played leisurely with the goal of just passing each level, or competitively with the goal of reaching “etalon” status for each level. With that said, HeroCraft does have some serious issues they need to address, mainly the horrible discovery of upgrading to no ads and giving an actual purpose to coins.

Free -Download Now

By Leanna Lofte

Billed as “the first mobile mixer for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, for DJ-ing anytime, everywhere” the iRig MIX is fixing to make music mixing more mobile than ever.

If you’re a pro DJ, the iRig MIX claims to have everything you need. That includes a full on EQ adjuster, a crossfader, a headphone cue and a mic input. It works with either one or two iOS devices, and with popular DJ apps so you can record your performances, share them with friends and family, or distribute them to the world.

It’s also got an X-Sync feature that lets you mix any form of audio, everything from traditional audio gear to MP3, CD, and more. All with auto tempo matching and beat syncing.

Powerful enough for the pro, accessible enough the for enthusiast, if you’re into iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and you want to get your mixing on, check out the iRig MIX. Complete press release and video below.

Source:iRigMix.com

IK Multimedia iRig MIX Now Shipping

The first mobile mixer for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, for DJ-ing anytime, everywhere

May 2012 – IK Multimedia is proud to announce that iRig™ MIX, the first ultra-compact DJ and audio mixer for the iPad, iPhone, and the iPod touch is now shipping. When used with an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, IK’s included* DJ Rig FREE app and other DJ apps, it is a complete, highly portable DJ system for practicing, rehearsing, performing and recording.

With its unique miniaturized form factor and exclusive features, designed to be used with the entire range of portable iOS devices, iRig MIX brings a new meaning to the concept of mobile DJ-ing.

A DJ Mixer

iRig MIX has everything a pro DJ needs, including full EQ adjustment, crossfader, headphone cue and a mic input. Using DJ Rig or other popular DJ apps, users can record their performance and share with friends, publish or distribute at the event. DJs can choose either a traditional setup with two devices (one plugged into each of the independent channels) OR a single iOS device.

This flexibility, combined with iRig MIX’s portability gives aspiring and pro DJs a compact system that can be used everywhere… anytime. House parties or in the yard, after-parties, and impromptu dances are perfect environments for the iRig MIX. Planes, trains and automobiles used to mean that your DJ gear was inaccessible and unusable. Now, no matter where you are or where you are going, you can mix and rehearse sets.

Plus – for the first time on any mixer – iRig MIX can be used for mixing any type of audio source (coming from mp3 players, CD players, etc.) with an iOS device using automatic tempo matching and beat syncing. This is accomplished with X-Sync, a feature that works in combination with the DJ Rig FREE app from IK Multimedia that is included* with iRig MIX.

Maximum Portability

With its slim, lightweight form factor iRig MIX is considerably smaller than traditional DJ mixers and can be carried anywhere you take your iPhone or iPad, is easy to stow and perfect for performers on the go. The iRig MIX also has minimal power requirements allowing it to be powered not only by the included power supply but also by a suitable USB battery pack or a laptop USB port for maximum mobility to mix anywhere.

Not just for DJs

iRig MIX is also versatile enough to provide the perfect mixing solution for solo musicians or small ensembles that use one or more iOS devices to play live. It features an extra guitar/microphone input that can be processed with other IK popular apps like AmpliTube® and VocaLive™ or any other app that offers real-time audio processing. Its standard RCA output connectors provide easy, direct connection to PA systems or powered speakers.

4 included apps

iRig MIX includes* 4 free apps: DJ Rig™, the new professional DJ mixing app from IK, AmpliTube, the most popular iOS guitar amp and effects app, VocaLive the processing app for singers and vocalists, and GrooveMaker®, the loop-based beat and groove making app.

iRig MIX features

• 2 stereo inputs with gain, bass, treble and volume controls, independent cue on each channel with LED indication and channel crossfader
• Instrument/microphone extra input, with volume control, can be processed by iOS real-time effects apps (such as AmpliTube, VocaLive)
• Stereo output with RCA connectors, master level and LED meters
• High quality, pristine sound
• Quality headphone output for master or cue monitoring with independent volume control
• Input switch splits Input 1 into dual-mono for use with DJ mixing apps on a single iOS device
• “X-Sync” mode allows auto-sync with any audio source using the included DJ Rig free app
• Can be powered with the included AC adapter, battery pack and laptop USB ports
• Includes 4 free apps: DJ Rig, AmpliTube, VocaLive, GrooveMaker

Pricing and availability

iRig MIX costs $99.99/€74.99 (excluding taxes) and is available from electronic and music retailers around the world.

By Georgia

Delaware courts have have called for delegates from HTC and Apple to meet on August 28 to talk about settling the patent dispute that has blockedthe U.S. import of some HTC handsets. This is all fallout from a pending case Apple against HTC through the International Trade Commission over a “data tapping” patent, whatever that is. Not too long ago, Apple was ordered intosimilar settlement talks with Samsung, though neither side has managed to secure a U.S. import ban on the other’s products just yet. There’s no saying how these mediated talks will pan out, if they do at all, but simply showing up and negotiating in good faith in something of a requirement for both partiesifwhen the case continues in court.

Despite the fact thatHTCisn’t a particularly huge threat among all of the Android manufacturers Apple has faced off against, they’ve hit up HTC in patent disputes in Germany, the UK, and Florida too. It’s likely enough that how this case in Delaware concludes would set a precedent for ongoing and future patent lawsuits between HTC and Apple, and potentially other manufacturers depending on the patents involved.

It would be pretty crazy if Apple managed to at least slow down (if not altogether stop) the import of any of the other majorAndroid manufacturersin the U.S. on top of HTC, but it’s hard to imagine a stoppage on anyone as big as, say, Samsung. How would you guys like to see these negotiations pan out — everyone gets on with it, settles out of court, and continues competing happily in the open market, or everything drags out into a protracted legal battle that potentially reveals some interesting tidbits of info about the manufacturers?

Source:FOSS Patents

By Simon Sage

Facebook has officially announced their initial public offering on the stock market with ticker symbol FB on the NASDAQ. The starting price will be $38 each of the 421,233,615 common shares, which makes their initial valuation $104 billion — an awful lot considering they had $3.7 billion in revenue last year. This is the largest internet IPO ever, and the seventh biggest in the world, but what does it mean for Apple?

The first thing that that struck me when I heard about the Facebook IPO was, “Damn, I would really hate to miss the boat on that one and be like one of those guys kicking themselves later for not buying into Apple way back in the early days.” Of course, there’s plenty of conflict of interest in our spheres when it comes to stuff like that, so I steer clear, but it’s something of a moot point considering major investment banks will have first crack at the stock and likely inflate the price well beyond $38 before individuals have a chance to snag some stock. There’s also bound to be an inordinate amount of hype that is likely to level off in the first couple of weeks, but you never know — it could just keep climbing and climbing.

The late Steve Jobs said he admired Mark Zuckerberg for not selling out, and that he thought Facebook was really the only social network worth talking about. Besides that, it’s easy to see a lot of similarities between the two — both experienced a huge amount of success in the technology industry at an early age, both practiced peculiar eating habits, and both dropped out of college (though retained a love of the arts). Zuckerberg’s net worth blew past Steve Jobs’ long ago; as of March last year, Jobs was worth $8.3 billion, while Zuckerberg was worth $13.5 billion.

Despite the similarities of their CEOs, Apple and Facebook aren’t likely to be butting heads any time soon; despitepersistent rumors to the contrarythe closest thing Facebook has ever been to making a phone was having a branded hardware button on theHTC ChaCha. iTunes has Ping, which is a social network for sharing what music you’re listening to, but that hasn’t been particularly active in the year and a half since its inception. Interestingly enough, Facebook and Apple had afalling out over Ping integrationawhile back, but that seems to be the most volatility we’ve seen between the companies to date.

That said, while it’s unlikely that Facebook’s IPO will directly be affecting Apple, the revenue Facebook generates could make the social networking giant even harder to ignore. Thelast version of iOS included fairly deep Twitter integration, and it would be hard to imagine iOS 6 being announced at WWDC without some significant and similar integration with Facebook. (Something that was rumored to have been attempted, then scrapped as far back as iOS 4.)

How do you guys see the trajectories of these tech giants crossing? Will they keep existing relatively peaceably in their own respective spheres? For a long time, Google and Apple got along well enough in their separate industries, but it didn’t take long for them to start bumping into one another; how long until Facebook and Apple start doing the same?

Source:Facebook

By Simon Sage