Wanna play Mario on your iPhone? (D’uh)

This is most excellent news! Today Nintendo announced that, alongside Japanese mobile game maker DeNA,  they will now (finally) be creating games for smartphones, tablets and PC’s.

Mama Mia!

They’ll be creating new games based on their amazing franchises such as Mario, Pokemon and Zelda, which you’ll be able to play on you iPhone or iPad in the not too distant future. Next Fall, to be more precise.
Nintendo is purchasing a 10% stake in DeNA for $182 million, and their plan is to create a “multi-device membership service for the global market,” available next fall for PCs, smartphones, tablets and also Nintendo gaming consoles.

Whooppeeeee!

Play cards against humanity online!

Have you guys played Cards Against Humanity yet? If you haven’t, get on it! (but only if you’re not super politically correct?)

If you have, and you loved it, you’ll FUR REALZ welcome, as we did, the introduction of a new way to play.

Online B*itches!! Woop!

Yup, you read right, you can now play the game for horrible people online.

Here’s how: when the game was first created, it was created under a creative commons license, which meant that anyone could recreate their own copy of the game. Any spinoffs are perfectly fine as long as they’re not for profit.

Dawson Whitfield, a designer and a genius, has now turned it into an online browser based web app. You can play it on your smartphone, iPad or computer against your friends. You do however have to be in the same room, so it’s not perfect yet. Skype cards against Humanity is coming, though, we swear.

Featuring all the original cards along with the five expansion sets, all you need is for one player needs to set up a new game and then send its custom link to everyone else who wants to play.

It’s called Cards against Originality. Get on it horrible people!

Apple’s new iPad Ad debuted during the Oscars

Apple debuted their new iPad Ad last night during the Academy Awards, and as per usual it was an uplifting and inspiring look at what the iPad can do to improve your life. In this case, it was focusing on Artists and in particular, filmmakers.

Because it was shown during the Oscars. And they’re filmmakers, you see? And pretty much about 75% of people who watch the Oscars think about how nice it would be to be up on that stage, holding a little golden statue and saying ” You like me! You really like me!”

Apple wants everyone to achieve that dream! And use your iPad while you’re at it!

The Ad, called ” Make a Film with iPad’,  featured Martin Scorcese in a resonant voiceover and a bunch of students from a Los Angeles County high School using iPads to create films and other art. It finishes with the phrase  “Everything changes with iPad”. The ad was apparently itself completely shot on an iPad Air 2.

Check out the App store for the new featured section highlighting the Apps that can help student filmmaking, and check out the ad below!

Apps(s) of the week! Beer Edition!

Beer es gut, ya?

Yeah. Beer’s good. So here’s some Apps to get the most out of your beer imbibing experience.

*Beer App.  This is an App that sends your friends one message. The word Beer, with a question mark. The easiest and best way to invite your friends to join you for a beer.

Beer?

Free from the App Store. 

*Elixer.  A drinking community! Take a photo of your drink, use the optional filters, upload & share it, rate it, discuss it, browse where and what your friends are drinking, discuss that. Also good for making more permanent memories of where you were and what you were doing if you happen to drink a little too much. Free from the App Store. 

*NextGlass.  Kind of like Pandora for your beer-loving taste buds.  Scan the label from within the App, and it will tell you an estimate score of how much you’ll like it based on your previous activity with the App. Then once you rate it from how you actually feel about it, it’ll use that to recommend what you should drink next!

Next Glass has developed a scientific method to choose a drink based on the chemistry behind your taste. Using science and machine-learning you can determine if you like a bottle before you ever taste it. Nifty, eh? It’ll also tell you all the important info about the drink such as calories, carbs and ABV! NIFTIEST!

Free from the App Store. 

*Taphunter.  See what cocktails, specialty spirits and tasty brew are being offered up where and when with this handy app. With a list that includes restaurants, bars and liquor stores, see rankings, menu’s, drink information  and wish lists.

Free from the App Store. 

Happy Weekend! Get some beer in ye.

Record week in the App store!

It’s a good time to be an Apple! The company is currently celebrating their recent successes, namely, Apple Pay customer growth, record breaking App store success and high job creation! Yay!

The first week in 2015 set a new record for Apple’s App Store, bringing in almost $500 million. Now that’s a tasty start to the new year. Apple are also celebrating the record breaking year that was 2014 for the App Store, with a 50% increase in billings, and developers earning more than $10 million from revenue.

“This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We’re so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion.”

So… 2014 was the time to turn that dumb idea that you secretly though was the best most genius thing ever into an App. But… we think it’ll probably work in 2015 too, so go knock that bad boy out of the park!

Apple is also celebrating Apple Pay customer growth, and job creation from the industry surrounding iOS and the App Store. With just over a million jobs created or supported by Apple in the U.S,  a massive 627,000 are related directly to iOS and the App Store.

You can see the full press release here!

Tech of the week! Check out Charitweet!

Right now at iPhone Antidote, we’re all about creating good in the world, and here is a great way to contribute to that.

Charitweet is a fantastic way to empower your social network as a force for good in the world, providing you with a simple way to give to your favorite charities, whilst encouraging others in your social network to do the same.

The Boston based company is making it possible to give 100% of your donation to your chosen charity through Twitter.

Skip the middlemen, give in 140 characters, spread the word, and you’re done. Giving is good. Simple giving, where 100% of the donation goes to the charity is great.

All you need to do is tweet, making sure you include the following :

@CHRTWT
@CHARITYNAME
$(AMOUNT)

For example: “I’m donating $10 to @helpkids with @chrtwt!”

After your first Charitweet, you’ll receive a notification on your Twitter account. You’ll complete a billing form (asking only necessary information that will remain completely confidential). After that first tweet, you’ll never have to do more than tweet to donate again!

Here’s a list of the Charities that Charitweet are partnered with currently. You can also contact them to request that another Charity you might have affiliation with could partner with Charitweet in the future.

The only caveat is that in order to donate, your Twitter account can’t be private in order to process your donation, but that is something the company is working on getting around.

If you’re looking for a way to give in 2015, do yourself a favor and check out Charitweet. Spread the word! 

How you listened to music in 2014

Apple intends on releasing it’s revamped Beats streaming product in 2015, and it looks like they got the timing pretttty perfect on that, as the guys over at Nielsen SoundScan have just revealed their year-end stats for the music industry, and streaming gets a big ‘ol thumbs up.

There was a 54% growth in on-demand streams of audio and video content and total streams were up to 164 billion from 106 billion in 2013.

Sad face for the regular old retro (can we say retro yet in regards to this?) album, as digital album sales fell 9%, and digital song sales fell 12%. Physical and digital album sales fell 11%.

Happy face for the actual retro music format here, though – vinyl album sales in 2014 grew 52%. Fifty-two percent!  In fact, although vinyl sales have been increasing every year, 2014 was the best year for vinyl since 1991, and possibly only because that’s when Nielson SoundScan started keeping track of music industry stats.

Apple’s other streaming product, iTunes radio, has had a smaller than expected impact in the streaming music market, and is currently only available here in the States and in Australia.

So. The old big thing is Vinyl, and the next big thing is streaming. Which Apple knew, and is set to take a bigger advantage of the latter by revamping Beats Music, probably as a native iOS app in the first quarter of this year. It will either be entwined with iTunes or they’ll be looking to take another segment of the market with iTunes.

Beats Music will, of course, have some competition, with very loyal subscribers to Pandora and Spotify as well as other players in the market.

Currently, you can subscribe to Beats Music for $9.99 per month, or $99.99 for 12 months.

Apps to help you keep your new year’s resolutions!

Welcome to 2015 guys!

How many of you guys have made or are making New Year’s Resolutions? Resolutions are pretty great things in our book, if only for the chance to evaluate and examine your life and understand how you might like to improve it, looking for ways to inspire you to become a better person. Even if that’s all you do, that’s success.

But if you want to really stick to your goals for 2015, here’s some apps to help you out. And remember – one slip up is not a breakage, it can be a way to strengthen the resolution!

Coach.me (previously known as Lift) is a motivational tool that uses in-app professional coaching (for an $14.99 in-app purchase), community support and providing you with data that makes it easy to track, analyze, and celebrate your progress. It also includes features goal inspired plans, challenges and guides to help you achieve anything you’re up for achieving.

Free from the App Store (with in-app purchases).

StickK is an app that’s all about goals and helping you reach them. So, perfect!

When you begin, you customize and sign a contract. The contract lists the things you will do in order to achieve your goals. As part of the contract you get a ‘Referee’ , someone to report to, to motivate you and someone  to hold you accountable. You also have the option to include cash incentives to your contract. With the cash, a good example is that if you commit to $10 a week that you’ll go to the gym every day, and you fail, then that $10 goes to a charity or person of your choice. If you succeed, you get the money back.

The app also provides social media networking and weekly reports. You can sign up for free and get the app here.

Kickit is an app to help you achieve a SUPER IMPORTANT goal for 2015. Yup, we’re talking about quitting smoking. No lectures here, just take a look at the app, and see how it can provide you with the data, incentives, social media interaction and support to help you quit and let you know just how much money you’re saving and exactly how you’re improving your health.  

Get it free from the App Store. 

Want to get more in touch with yourself and your understanding of the world in 2015? Take a look at Headspace. It’s a mediation app that has been praised all over and is used by over a million people. It provides you with mindfulness techniques that work towards the creator’s mission of creating a healthier, happier world, one mobile device at a time. Sounds awesome.

You can sign up for free for their Take10 program (10 x10 mediation sessions) and download the app for free, with in-app purchases if you wanted to continue to subscribe to the Headspace material.

If you would like to give back more in 2015, check out Charity Miles.  It’s a way of turning your time and energy into Charity and giving back. After you get the App, choose a charity and how you’ll be moving about – i.e. walking, biking or running. For every mile, corporate sponsers will give  10¢ per mile for bikers; and 25¢ per mile for walkers and runners to your chosen charity.

Free from the App Store. 

Another charitable App to check out is One Today. A Google initiative, it presents you with a new Charity every morning, with the option to donate $1. It will also explain how your donation will work towards the Goals of that particular Charity. It’s a way of letting you ‘Give a little, and change a lot’.

Free From the App Store. 

Some websites to help you achieve your goals and feel inspired in 2015 –

For weight loss goals, we would recommend LoseIt! or My Fitness Pal (also available as Apps).

For saving money check out Mint.com.

If you would like to travel more, check out www.theflightdeal.com and MileValue.

Spend some time on www.freerice.com. For every quiz answer you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to World Food Programme to end world hunger.

If you would like to feel good about the state of the world (we always do) check out the AMAZING things people are doing in technology and science at www.futurism.co

Happy 2015! May you achieve all your goals and may all your wishes come true! And teleportation. We think we’d like teleportation to become a thing in 2015.

Apps to help you celebrate NYE!

Hi Guys!

Happy New Years Eve!

Got some champers? Got your party shoes on? Your fireworks viewing glasses? Your fun pants firmly in place? Got some sparkle?

Welllllll that’s pretty good, but just in case you need anything extra in the way of P-A-R-T-Y for tonight, check out these helpful apps!

Cycloramic for your party pics.

Steerclear for non-drink driving transport options.

Ali Spagnola’s Power Album: Party Hour Playlist Maker.

BrainWave Hangover Relief for, well, duh, hangover relief. 

aaaand  the Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball App – 2015

Finally – an App called Flywheel which books regular Taxis via your phone is offering a pretty incredible deal for NYE.  From 8 p.m. Wednesday until 3 a.m. Thursday, they’re offering $10 flat-rate rides in San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, and Sacramento. Rides exceeding $50 will be charged the metered balance. Get the App here! 

May you all have a safe, superb and outrageously joyful NYE. Here’s to you 2014, we liked being in you, and here’s to you too 2015, we can’t wait to meet you!

New Years Eve 2010 – Dubai Fireworks by Sarah Ackerman is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

The best Apps for iOS in 2014

The list of 2014’s most popular apps has been released by Apple! Usually a pretty solid indication of the functionality or enjoyability of an app, it’s a quick and handy way to see if there was anything you missed this year that could help you start off your 2015 right.

Here’s we go –

Best of Free Apps for iPhone

1. Facebook Messenger
2. Snapchat
3. YouTube
4. Facebook
5. Instagram
6. Pandora Radio
7. Google Maps
8. Flipagram
9. Spotify Music
10. 2048

Best Paid Apps for iPhone.

1. Heads Up!
2. Minecraft – Pocket Edition
3. Afterlight
4. Plague Inc.
5. Sleep Cycle alarm clock
6. Facetune
7. Cut the Rope 2
8. Bloons TD 5
9. A Dark Room
10. 7 Minute Workout Challenge

Best Paid Apps for iPad

1. Minecraft – Pocket Edition
2. Cut the Rope 2
3. Heads Up!
4. The Room Two
5. Survivalcraft
6. Notability
7. Terraria
8. Plants vs. Zombies HD
9. Hide N Seek : Mini Game With Worldwide Multiplayer
10. Card Wars – Adventure Time

Best Free Apps for iPad

1. YouTube
2. Netflix
3. Calculator for iPad Free
4. Skype for iPad
5. Microsoft Word
6. Facebook Messenger
7. Facebook
8. Candy Crush Saga
9. Chrome
10. Clash of Clans

Apple has also just released a Tumblr page for the best of iTunes in 2014, featuring the highlights in movies, music, books and and TV.

Check it out here!