Apple buys Chomp to 'revamp' App Store search

Apple has splashed-out on application discovery website Chomp and plans to use the technology to revamp the App Store, according to TechCrunch.

Recent speculation has hinted that an overhaul is due for Apple's application download portal so Apple's reported acquisition arrives at an opportune time.

Three year-old start-up Chomp.com arguably gives smartphone and tablet owners a more efficient way to discover new apps by simply asking 'what kind of app are you looking for?'

It brings easy access to categories like trending apps, free apps of the day, all time greats, and on-sale applications for iPhone, Android and iPad.

Moving to Cupertino

The TechCrunch report says the entire Chomp team will transition over to Apple, when the purchase is completed.

"This is not a cheap acqui-hire," says the article. "Apple has bought the Chomp team and technology and plans to use both to completely revamp App Store search and recommendations."

There has been no official confirmation from Apple or Chomp.

Week in Tech: Viva la Vita: Sony's new handheld hits right note

This week's biggest news is about something quite small: the Sony PS Vita, which went on sale in the UK this week and was topping Amazon's charts before a single unit had shipped.

It's a serious bit of kit. As you'll discover in our in-depth Sony PS Vita review, Sony's handheld console is "the most powerful, dazzling and impressive handheld games console ever built" with "not one but two quad-core processors, a sparkling 5-inch touchscreen OLED display, dual analogue stick controls and games that go way beyond what any other portable device is currently capable of."

Is it better than a 3DS? You betcha: it's "a beast among men", apparently.

FutTv : 1EH83eETugX1H

Will anybody buy one? That's a very good question. "It's a luxury item launching post-Christmas into a Western world ravaged by recession, and further hindered by Sony's desperate need to make money at a time when the strength of the Yen makes Japanese products very pricey."

But around 12.4 million PlayStation Vita handhelds will be sold in 2012, according to a forecast by Strategy Analytics.

While the PlayStation Vita represents the cutting edge of handheld gaming, some gamers' thoughts are turning to the next generation of consoles. Fancy a bit of Metal Gear Solid 5 on your Xbox 720 or PS4? Kojima productions is hiring for games running on "next-gen game engine technology." The game's years away, but that doesn't stop us from being a little bit excited.

Windows Phone 8 is coming

The PS Vita isn't the only little thing making big waves this week. While the giants of the phone world were getting ready to show off their stuff at next week's Mobile World Congress, we discovered stacks of information about the forthcoming Windows Phone 8. It'll have Skype, SkyDrive and possibly many other things starting with "Sky", and there should be four new form factors ranging from little tablets to little watches.

When Windows Phone 8 ships later this year, we might even be able to use it on 4G: according to Everything Everywhere, the terribly-named parent of Orange and T-Mobile, it could launch its 4G network by the end of this year if Ofcom lets it convert some existing frequency from 3G to 4G.

The firm also promises to complete its HSPA+21 high-speed 3G rollout by the second quarter of this year, with some lucky people getting HSPA+42 this year too.

So what sort of phones will we be using on the super-speedy mobile internet of the future? We reckon they'll look a lot like the LG Optimus 4X HD, a quad-core monster with an enormous screen and Google's Ice Cream Sandwich.

If that isn't impressive enough, it turns out that quad-core really means four-and-a-bit cores: the Nvidia Tegra 3 features hugely impressive technology with a hugely unimpressive name, 4-PLUS-1. That means the processor has four cores, with a fifth companion core for less strenuous tasks.

Technology doesn't get much smaller than processor cores, so let's look at something a little bit bigger. Fancy an enormous earth-to-space elevator? Of course you do. There's just one catch: it doesn't actually exist - yet.

That might change, because a Japanese firm wants to build it. As Marc Chacksfield puts it: "By 2050, Obayashi Corp is hoping to create a space lift, which involves a massive cable and something called nanotubes. The company doesn't know how much it will cost but promise it won't "simply be a dream". Sounds like someone has being reading too many Roald Dahl stories."

Apple shutters iCloud push services in Germany

Apple has halted its iCloud push service in Germany as a result of losing a patent dispute with Motorola.

Although customers will still be able to access their email through iCloud and MobileMe on their iOS devices, they'll have to physically log in to their mailboxes to do so.

"Affected customers will continue to receive their iCloud and MobileMe email," explains Apple's German support page.

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"New messages may only be loaded on their devices when the mail program is opened or if the device periodically retrieves new emails, depending on the configuration of the iOS settings.

"The push email service for desktop computers, laptop computers and the internet, and other service providers such as Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, are not affected."

There's no indication of how long the push services will be down though, as Apple still maintains that Motorola's claim over the relevant patent is invalid and plans to appeal the court's decision.

While all eyes will be on MWC 2012 next week, Apple will be staying characteristically quiet (unless it steals all the thunder by announcing the date of its iPad 3 event, presumed to be imminent).

Motorola is also expected to be fairly quiet in Barcelona; perhaps because it's focusing all its efforts on suing Apple and selling itself to Google instead. Or because it already launched its Droid Razr Maxx and the new Xoom this year. Either way.

In Depth: The 10 most loved programs ever

10 most loved programs ever

Recently we discovered the most hated programs of all time, but when we hit the publish button we felt a little bit sad.

We're lovers, not haters, and software has brought us lots of great moments over the years.

There's only one thing for it: let's restore our happiness by talking about the good stuff, the programs that are - or were - loved by millions.

Have we missed any of your favourites? Let us know in the comments.

1. Napster

To the best of our knowledge, nobody's ever been sent to prison for using Excel - but plenty of people were willing to risk the long arm of the law to use Napster. The software wasn't exactly a design classic, but that didn't matter, because Napster offered its users something priceless: free music. Admittedly that was free, illegally copied music, but hey! Free music! Today only the logo lives on: it's been absorbed by Rhapsody.

[Image Credit: Johnrpenner, Wikipedia]

2. HyperCard

Male music fans of a certain age go all moony-eyed when you mention Betty Boo, and similarly ancient Apple fans do the same when you mention Hypercard. Bill Atkinson's application offered a kind of hypertext years before the World Wide Web was invented, and it made application development effortless. As Douglas Adams wrote: "it's a sensationally good idea, and I would dearly love to see something like it become the whole working environment for the Mac." Sadly HyperCard was shuffled around inside and outside Apple, and the much-delayed, unreleased HyperCard 3.0 was canned when Steve Jobs lost interest in it.

[Image credit: Creativeapplications.net, CC Attribution licence]

3. MS Paint

For some, MS Paint was the first time they'd ever drawn using a computer - and for many more, it was the tool that enabled them to draw as if it was the first time they'd ever drawn using a computer. The program's fundamental rubbishness made it a top tool for comedy - it's still the tool of choice for messageboard LOLs - but it also inspires awe whenever somebody draws something good.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8-gAnDw-7k

4. Netscape Navigator

With the benefit of hindsight, stomping around the place bellowing "Raargh raargh raargh we're going to kill Windows" probably wasn't the best idea, but you can see why Netscape looked like Microsoft's destroyer: in the late 1990s Netscape owned the internet to the point where it would introduce its own technologies and web designers would implement them. Fearing the future of Windows, Microsoft did to Netscape what a bazooka would do to a puppy. Netscape's DNA lives on in Firefox. Speaking of which...

5. Firefox

We'd love to know how many early Firefox users switched because of technological reasons, and how many for ideological ones. We suspect for many people it was a bit of both. Mozilla's Netscape-derived browser suite was rather lardy compared to the all-conquering Internet Explorer, so three developers started a project to make something that wasn't just an alternative, but a really good alternative. The soon to be renamed Phoenix became enormously successful and was loved by users and web designers alike.

6. Photoshop

Plugins, layers, cliches (lens flare, page curls) and the ability to make us question whether what we're told is real is really real or just really realistic - not bad work for a single program. Photoshop's effect on the wider world has been extraordinary, and while it's (ab)used by goons and the advertising industry to distort reality it remains an astonishingly powerful creative tool.

7. WordPerfect 5.1

In the days before Windows, there were two kinds of word processing software: WordPerfect 5.1, or the rubbish your boss made you use because he hated you and wanted to make you suffer. On Windows, however, it died on its arse: the first Windows version wasn't very good, and by the time WordPerfect 5.2 for Windows shipped Microsoft's Word for Windows was in the ascendant.

[Image credit: Ozzmosis, Wikipedia]

8. Lotus 1-2-3

If it weren't for Lotus 1-2-3, we might not have any of the tech toys we know and love today: the Visicalc-inspired spreadsheet package was the IBM PC's first killer app, and you can still see its influence in more modern applications such as Excel or Numbers. Like WordPerfect it didn't see Windows coming and was stomped by a Microsoft rival, in this case Excel.

[Image credit: Ozzmosis, Wikipedia]

9. Scrivener

Writers tend to fetishise things - Moleskine notebooks, say, or IBM typewriters - but when you hear them banging on about Scrivener they're not doing so because they think it makes them sound cool and interesting. If you have to write things - any kind of things - that involve lots of research or just lots of ideas, Scrivener will delight you. It's one of those programs where you keep discovering new, cool things it can do, and if you told us it had an attachment for getting stones out of horses' hooves we'd believe you. Check out our Scrivener review.

10. Solitaire

Has any program wasted more corporate man (and woman) hours than Microsoft's card game? Its presence on an office PC was a source of great joy to bored white-collar workers, as it's quiet enough and clicky enough to make it look like you're still working without giving the game away. If we'd used all the time we've spent on Solitaire to study science, we'd have cured cancer by now.

[Image Credit: Techmdrn, Wikipedia]

Apple iPad 3 ready to leave Foxconn for US?

Shipments of Apple iPad 3 tablets are ready to depart the Foxconn plant in China and head for the United States, leaked documents have revealed.

The Apple Pro blog has obtained what it claims to be a shipping document that says the tablet is set to arrive on US shores no later than March 9th, two days after the rumoured date for the launch event.

The document shows that shipments will be made to three major airports in the United States for easy distribution around the country.

Combine the two assumptions and it seems fair to suggest that, just like last year, the Apple iPad 3 will go on sale in the United States around a week after the launch date.

Price hike incoming?

Recent reports seem to suggest that the iPad 3 will boast a much-improved Retina Display, a faster A5X or A6 processor as well as a 4G LTE radio and a camera with a larger sensor.

However, reports today suggest that Apple fans may be forced to pay more for those extra features.

Speculation from the far east suggests that the base price for the iPad 3 will be $579, rather than the $499 users are currently paying for a Wi-Fi-only 16GB iPad 2.

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Microsoft 3D desktop with Kinect concept revealed

Microsoft may be currently prepping Windows 8 for the world, but it has still found time to allow all of us a peak at what is to come in the near future, showing off a 3D desktop concept which uses Kinect functionality.

Shown off at its TechForum, the bods at Microsoft Research explained that the 3D-enabled desktop uses a see-through Samsung OLED screen and a Kinect sensor – combined they create a virtual desktop that can be controlled by swipes and gestures.

This isn't the first time we have seen a see-through OLED display from Samsung - it was also shown off in one of the company's own future-focused promos, where it was part of a flexible tablet concept.

Kinect, the best a man can get

According to the developers of the desktop, the Kinect sensor tracks all sorts of movement, including head and eye movement, as well as hand gestures.

Although the screen is 3D a normal keyboard is used for typing – so the desktop concept isn't completely motion-controlled.

It does look as if the future of desktop computing, however, is decidedly mouse-free.

Say what you want about Microsoft, the company has always been open about its future technologies – even if some of them never come to fruition.

We can only dream that Apple will one day operate the same way, but for now it looks as if Cook and co are very much working on their upcoming projects in a room with more security than the Pentagon.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGa1Q7NvsI0#%21