Nintendo on iOS? Pokédex arrives on iOS in the US and Europe, costs $2

Nintendo may not be giving up its gaming IPs to smartphones just yet, but the Japanese gaming giant is willing to work with them if it means crosspromoting games on standalone Nintendo consoles. Take, for example, today's release of the interactive Pokémon "Pokédex," available for $2 across various iOS devices -- Nintendo clearly isn't against taking fans' money in exchange for a valuable service: information on over 640 Pokémon on-the-go ... if you buy the three upgrade packs for $5.99 apiece (!!), that is.

Support for the app extends all the way back to the aged iPhone 3GS, and through to the newest iPad (as well as the iPad Mini), so you'll be able to explore the wild world of Tepig from a vast array of iOS hardware. Of course, much of this could be meaningless to you if you grabbed the free version previously available on Nintendo's 3DS, but then you put it off, didn't you? And now here we are.

[Source: Engadget]

Final Fantasy IV headed to iOS on December 20, Android version to follow in 2013

That Nintendo DS re-make of Final Fantasy IV may add 3D graphics, a variety of bug fixes, and a fresh localization, but who wants to lug around their old Nintendo DS? Thankfully, it won't be much longer before the same version of FFIV ends up on iOS, as spotted by the folks at gaming forum NeoGAF. The game arrives on the iOS App Store for both iPhone and iPad starting on December 20, and is headed to Android sometime next year. As of now, it's only got a Japanese pricing of ¥1800 ($21.77), but we expect it'll cost about $17.99 when it launches Stateside. In anticipation of the pending release, Square's marking down prices of its other iOS FF games (which are usually priced absurdly high), so now's a good time to snap them up on the cheap. If you'd like to take a gander at the first images of the iOS port, Japanese publication Gamer has a first-look.

[Source: Engadget]

Zensorium launches Tinké cardiorespiratory health and stress monitor for iOS devices

Planning a gluttonous holiday season and then a health kick in the New Year to balance it out? Well, when you start on the latter, you might want one of Zensorium's Tinké cardiorespiratory monitors to track your progress. The sensor is compatible with any of your old-fashioned 30-pin iOS devices (it'll work with the Lightning adapter, too), and with the press of a thumb, it can measure heart rate, blood oxygenation and respiratory rate using light. All this data is fed into the free companion app, which generates an overall fitness score called the "Vita Index" and logs it for later comparison. Stress levels can also be assessed, using fluctuations in your heart rate to score the "Zen Index." Sharing how unfit and stressed you are can be done via Facebook or Tinké's own network, which also allows you to compare results with other users worldwide. The monitor will set you back $119 and is available now from Zensorium in a choice of four colors.

[Source: Engadget]

 

YouTube app updated for iOS: now optimized for iPad and iPhone 5, complete with AirPlay streaming

Good news for people who love downloading iOS updates -- just hours after Google refaced its Gmail for iOS app, here comes another heavyweight in YouTube. The standalone app is now fully optimized for use with iPad and the iPhone 5, and perhaps the biggest gift of all is the addition of AirPlay streaming for videos. Other updates include the ability to tap a logo to open one's Guide of channels, the ability to add / remove videos from your playlists, clickable links in video descriptions and improved accessibility with VoiceOver. Feel free to hit the source link to dive in, and let us know how it turns out in comments below.

[Source: Engadget]

Facebook Photo Sync now available to all iOS users

As we reported last week, Facebook had begun testing a new feature called Photo Sync in its iOS app. At the time, only certain users randomly were entered into the beta, but today the social network rolled out the feature to everyone. Photo Sync automatically uploads pictures recently taken on your device to a private album on Facebook.

To access the new feature, tap on the Photos icon in the left navigation menu in the Facebook app. Scroll down to the bottom of your photos and tap on Photo Sync to set up the feature. You can also enable the feature on the Facebook site by clicking on Photos followed by Synced from Phone at the top of your photos page.

Full details on Photo Sync feature are available on Facebook's support site. You'll need iOS 6 installed on your device for the feature to work, and some users might not immediately see the Photo Sync option in the app. If you don't, try fully closing and relaunching it before checking again.

[Source: TUAW]

GTA: Vice City for iOS gets a trailer

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the second in the "GTA3" series, available on the PS2 10 years ago (!) now. Unlike Grand Theft Auto 3, which featured a silent and anonymous protagonist, Vice City lets the player become Tommy Vercetti (voiced to a tee by Ray Liotta), a tough gangster from Liberty City who's decided to take over the Miami-like Vice City, in a story that recalls the best of Scarface and a host of other neon-drenched movies from the '80s. As previously announced, Rockstar Games is planning to bring Vice City out to the iOS platform, and they've released a new trailer that you can watch below.

[Source: TUAW - Click here to read the full story]

Apple revamps Apple TV firmware, iOS Remote app to play nicely in an iTunes 11 world

If you're the early adopting type living in an Apple ecosystem, you probably upgraded to iTunes 11 almost as soon as the bits reached the servers. You might not have noticed that Apple gave its iOS Remote app and Apple TV firmware shots in the arm to match. Of the two, Remote 3.0 is the larger update and brings a simpler UI that also takes advantage of iTunes' new Up Next feature to add or prune out songs in ongoing playlists on a host computer. iPad owners reap the most rewards -- the album view now expands in place to quickly drill down to a specific track. Apple TV viewers aren't quite so coddled, although they too get Up Next support for iTunes 11 (and iTunes Match) as well as the usual rounds of speed-ups and bug fixes; we imagine a solution to some of the troubles with 5.1 is part of the package. No matter which update fits into your vision of musical harmony, you'll find details at the source links.

[Source: Engadget]

Minecraft Reality for iOS finds a home for our blocky dreams in the real world

While it's possible to translate the hours and hours spent building worlds inMinecraft to real objects, we wouldn't say the results always match the initial vision -- they're more likely to involve either a miniature 3D printout or the time and money spent on a whole lot of Lego. Mojang and 13th Lab have developed what's arguably a smarter solution with their new Minecraft Reality for iOS. After scanning the environment, the app can insert anyone's uploaded cuboid masterpiece into a perspective-correct augmented reality for viewing from any angle. Interaction is mostly limited to resizing objects, but the title will display the handiwork of anyone nearby and take a shareable screenshot for posterity. There's no word of an Android version just yet; if that's no obstacle to making dreams a (virtual) reality, however, the $2 to pay for Minecraft Reality is a much cheaper and faster alternative to a mountain of plastic bricks.

[Source: Engadget]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City hijacking Android and iOS on December 6th for $5

Following the footsteps of its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is making its way to Android and iOS. Rockstar announced today that a special 10th Anniversary Edition of the open world Scarface / Miami Vice inspired sim will be hitting the two popular mobile platforms on December 6th for $5. This spiffed-up mobile port includes updated character models, enhanced lighting effects, improved targeting and fully customizable control options. Technical upgrades aside, we caution not to drive directly against the sun while riding a motorcycle within the game; it nearly blinded us in the original console version, so we can only imagine how harsh it will be on your fancy high-res display. Don't say that we didn't warn you. Move past the break for a complete list of supported devices.

[Source: Engadget]

Facebook trials photo auto-upload feature on iOS

If you were already loving the lazy cloud storage skills of Dropbox and Google Plus' automated photo upload on iOS, you might have also thought Facebook would be the ideal place for it. The social network seems to think so too, as its latest app tweak (for a handful of people included in its early trial) offers a Photo Sync option that works in an identical manner to its Android opposite. Fear not, all photos taken will be whisked to an unpublished album to avoid any embarrassing early photo reveals. We've not been granted access to the test just yet, but you can reacquaint yourself with how it all works at Facebook's official explanation at the source.

[Source: Engadget]

New Apple retail employee holiday perk: popular paid apps from the App Store for free

This week, Apple will rollout an interesting new perk called “App Discovery” to its retail store employees. According to several sources who participated in quarterly meetings, in which the details were announced, Apple retail employees will have free access to a catalogue of popular paid App Store applications. It is possible that this is a holiday perk for employees that will not remain in place forever. 

For instance, if an Apple retail employee, starting this week, wants to download Fruit Ninja for their own iPhone, they will be able to use an Apple provided redemption code to get the application at no cost. Because Apple has agreements in place with developers who have apps featured on Apple Store iOS device demo units, we assume that same catalogue of apps is the catalogue that will be available to retail employees. With that, we speculate that Apple will use this program to allow Apple Store employees to become more familiar with the apps that they demo to customers in stores.

The program is currently iOS-exclusive, so there is no complementing catalogue for Mac App Store programs. Apple has had a version of this retail perk in place for a couple of years, but it has been exclusive to Apple’s own paid iOS App Store apps like the iLife and iWork software suites.

[Source: 9to5Mac]