The Week in Review: news and features you don't want to miss

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The iPhone and iPad Blog by Simon

We haven’t seen much innovation as off late from app developers when it comes to to-do and reminder apps. Just about every feature has been integrated in apps that preexist on the App Store.

However, Handle is a reminder app that offers a unique feature that we didn’t come across in other apps along the same lines. With it, you can create reminders directly from your email account. Also, you can sync Handle with the Calendar app and add events that aren’t tied down to the calendar.

How to use Handle for iOS

After you install and launch the app, the first few items in the to-do list will tell you how to add a reminder from an email, or go to Settings and connect an email account.

To connect the Calendar app, launch the navigation drawer and connect it from Settings. Alternatively, you can just select the Calendar tab from the navigation drawer.

The app is divided into the following tabs: Calendar, Email, and To-Dos. You can switch between each via the navigation drawer or use the page navigation at the display screen’s bottom to go through them.

What sets the app apart from other similar offerings is that you can create reminders from emails. It also lets you add emails to calendars and call them events, which is a great way to line up important tasks. Got a meeting to attend? Add to the calendar from within the email and get a summary of what’s up ahead.

Handle also lets you create and add to-do items that are separate from the ones in email via the ‘To-Do’ tab. The app’s settings can be used to customize the time for reminders that can be set for to-do items.

The app does have a shortcoming. The link to the email in the calendar doesn’t open the email; rather it opens the browser where you’re asked to sign in the email.

Final thoughts

So if you want to instantly convert your emails into To-Do appoints, this app is the way to go. Apart from the shortcoming, everything else works perfectly.

You can download Handle free of cost from the App Store. It is optimized for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Let us know if you give it a try and feel free to leave comments.

This article, Handle: Create Reminders Directly From Email and Sync With Calendar App, was originally published at simonblog.com.

The post Handle: Create Reminders Directly From Email and Sync With Calendar App appeared first on The iPhone and iPad Blog.

Touch Arcade

It's Super Bowl time! It's your last chance to watch real football for the next seven months. As such, we have compiled a number of football games for you to check out on iOS, and have helpfully found ways for you to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday on your iOS device.

There are plenty of ways to watch the Super Bowl. You can watch it on TV (and if you don't have cable, pick up an antenna, all TVs in the past decade can pick up digital over-the-air signals in HD), you can watch it online on your computer from NBC Live Online. That should take care of most use cases. Here's some alternatives, in decreasing order of plausibility.

NBC Sports Live Extra , Free Thankfully, NBC this year is making the Super Bowl available to watch through their NBC Sports Live Extra without needing any kind of cable authentication at all. However, you'll have to watch it through an iPad, as they don't have rights to stream on a phone. Blame Verizon – they have the exclusive rights to NFL Mobile on phones. But just fire up the app, and you can watch the pregame coverage and the game through the app. The commercials won't be airing through the app – there's royalty issues involved – but you can catch those online, on that venerable football hotspot, Tumblr.

NFL Mobile , Free If you have Verizon, then the NFL Mobile app is your friend if you need to watch on an iPhone. It's included with certain plans, otherwise you'll need to purchase NFL Mobile Premium for your account. You will be able to watch the Super Bowl through the NFL Mobile app on your phone with that Premium subscription. You'll also get NFL Network, so you can catch the post-game coverage on their channel.

NFL Game Pass (Non-US link): The options I've mentioned have been for the US. If you're outside the US or Mexico, you can get the NFL Game Pass for $9.99 to watch the Super Bowl on your phone. If you are in the US, you may be able to find a way to get around it for your computer, but good luck on your iPhone.

The nutty, external hardware solutions: You can buy a device like an HD Home Run, which can pick up over-the-air signals and beam them to a DLNA-compatible video feed, which you can pick up through third-party apps like InstaTV Pro [Free]. Or you could rig up a solution with a Slingbox. At worst, you could pick up a cheap Windows or Android tablet and tether it to your iPhone and watch the game that way, to get around the NFL restrictions, if you really need to watch on the go and don't have an iPad.

Cut the bad influences from your life that require you to try and watch the biggest football game of the year from your freaking phone. Look, if you're in a situation where the only way to watch the Super Bowl is on your iPhone, you need to evaluate your life. How did you get here? Why are there people who are putting you in this situation? If you're working a job where you're stuck watching the game clandestinely from your portable device of choice, then I absolutely understand, we all have bills to pay. And if you're at a restaurant or bar, then hey – you're providing a valuable service. Hopefully your workplace has a TV with the game on. But otherwise? Remove these bad influences from your life. The Super Bowl is the only truly communal event in America that we have left. If someone doesn't care enough about you to let you watch the Super Bowl like a human being, on the biggest darn screen you got, then you don't need them in your life. Spouse wants to do something else? Marriage is temporary, divorce is forever. Family keeping you back? Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. Find a sports bar, a restaurant, wherever. When the clock hits 0:00 and all the confetti has fallen from the rafters, and hopefully Marshawn Lynch has won the Super Bowl MVP just for the most awkward moment in sports history (no offense, Patriots fans), you can worry about the choices you have made.

If you're looking to get some football action on before the "big game," or if the game's a blowout and you need something to do to pass the time before the end of the game, here's five options to enjoy some pigskin on your touchscreen.

Madden NFL Mobile , Free This is the most realistic NFL experience you can get. I say that not just because it's EA and the Madden franchise, the longest-running NFL series on the market. They know football video games. I say that because much like the real NFL, they are not shy about taking your money, because it's the NFL and it's an EA free-to-play game. Much like FIFA 15 Ultimate Team [Free], you can assemble a team based on real-life players, take on friends online, and compete in a number of challenges.

Football Heroes: Pro Edition , Free The original Football Heroes [Free] was a fun Tecmo Bowl tribute, but was entirely fantasy-based. This edition adds in a number of NFL players to play with, thanks to the NFL Players Association license. There aren't NFL teams, but there are a number of thinly-veiled NFL team pastiches, like the Baton Rouge Sinners! This is also about collecting star players and building the best team possible, but the indie pedigree, touch-friendliness, and over-the-top action may make this one more palatable than the Madden game.

NFL Kicker 15 , $0.99 Full Fat is well-known for their Flick games, and they have two American football variations. Take your pick between Kicker and NFL Quarterback 2015 [$0.99]. The QB game is probably more fun for the average NFL fan, because QBs are the stars, but the Kicker game is fun because you get to see buff kickers with cocky attitudes, and that's just fun for the novelty of it. But Full Fat's mastery of fun flick-based controls is undeniable in either case.

Touchdown Hero , Free Just released this week, this game gets marks for being one of the better flaplike takes on football. Also, it's absurdly difficult. Like, anything past your first touchdown is an achievement thanks to the players coming at you. Thus, this is actually a really good kickoff return simulator.

American Football: Guns & Balls , Free This deserves mention, if only because a game where one person kicks field goals while the other person tries to shoot them down is the most American thing ever. It has online play, too, because shooting footballs out of the air is only more fun when it's another persons' footblals. It's a ridiculous, ridiculous concept for a game, and I dig it for the absurdity.

Apple Watch Edition will reportedly be stored in special safes inside Apple Stores

The gold version of the upcoming Apple Watch could be stored in safes installed inside Apple Retail Store. 9to5Mac:

The safes will likely be used to carry both to-be-sold inventory as well as to store demo units from the show floor overnight. The custom-designed safes will be outfitted with Apple Watch MagSafe chargers in order to keep the demo units charged up and ready to go for the next day of business.

Apple has said in the past that the Apple Watch Sport will have a starting price of $349, but it has yet to comment on the cost of the gold and rose gold Edition collections. Rumors have ranged from over $1000 to up to $10,000. Given the small size and high value, like jewelry, some form of security certainly makes sense.

The Apple Watch ships this April.

Have something to say about this story? Share your comments below! Need help with something else? Submit your question!

AppleInsider

First look: Fitbit Charge HR fitness band with real-time heart rate sensor Posted: 30 Jan 2015 09:28 PM PST Fitbit's new Charge HR fitness band puts an emphasis on wearability with a slim and light form factor, but maintains a wealth of health tracking features including a real-time heart rate sensor and onboard display.

Google announces 40 new third-party integrations for Siri competitor Google Now Posted: 30 Jan 2015 03:50 PM PST Search giant Google on Friday revealed that it will allow select Android apps to integrate with Google Now --?the company's answer to Apple's Siri digital assistant -- allowing users of services like AirBnB, Pandora, and Lyft to pull that data into Now.

Apple's new Chongqing store shown off in photos ahead of Saturday opening Posted: 30 Jan 2015 01:38 PM PST Local media have been given access to Apple's new retail outlet in Chongqing, Southwest China, a day before its official opening and photos of the new store depict an expansive underground space not unlike the company's flagship location on Fifth Avenue.

A roundup of recent hardware reviews on TUAW

Last week, we reviewed a variety of hardware and accessories that'll complement your favorite iOS or OS X devices. Here's a quick roundup of recent hardware reviews that you may have missed:

• PicoPro: A laser projector about the size of an iPhone 6 Plus


• iMacompanion: Kickstarted accessory puts a USB 3.0 port at the front of your iMac


• Twelve South ParcSlope stand for MacBook provides style and comfort

TUAW will be back next week with another round of in-depth hardware reviews, so be sure to drop by and check out what's new and what's useful for your Mac, iPhone or iPad.

MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors

Apple made its WatchKit SDK available alongside the release of iOS 8.2 and Xcode 6.2 beta in November, enabling developers to begin creating apps and software for the wrist-worn device. Looking beyond mockups and conceptual apps, however, a new third-party Tesla app designed by Eleks Labs offers insight into both the opportunities and limitations that developers face with the first-generation Apple Watch.

According to Eleks Lab mobility business developer Markiyan Matsekh, the technical capabilities of WatchKit do not match the expectations set during the Apple Watch keynote. In developing a prototype Tesla app that allows users to control a Model S over the Internet using a web-service API, the team of software engineers found a lot of functionality to be unavailable to developers at this time.

"If you look at the opportunities available for smart watch application development, you'll also see a quite pessimistic picture," wrote Matsekh. "Apple does not indulge developers with an abundance of functionality and tools. However, we can hope that the available functions are limited because this is only the first beta version and it will get much better towards the release."

Matsekh claims that developers do not have access to the Apple Watch's gyroscope, accelerometer, built-in speaker and microphone or Taptic Engine system of tactile notifications for development. Additionally, despite the Apple Watch display being touch sensitive, he claims that only Force Touch, which displays the shortcut menu, is available for developers, while GPS is restricted to a paired iPhone.

Even with its current limitations, this Tesla app provides an early look at the opportunities that Apple Watch apps make possible. The multipurpose software brings a lot of Tesla car control functionality to the wrist, such as an overview of the car's battery, temperature and mileage, a controls menu for opening or closing the car and activating the headlights, and various screens related to charging, climate, location and the car's condition.

Despite claiming that the Apple Watch has "weak potential for programmers" based on its current emulator-only development environment, Matsekh recognizes that his assumptions are based off of the first WatchKit SDK available to developers. As with the iPhone and iPad, the first-generation Apple Watch will inevitability have some developmental hiccups that are ironed out over the years.

Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed at the company's quarterly earnings call on Tuesday that the Apple Watch is on schedule to ship in April, likely alongside a new version of WatchKit. MacRumors also learned that Apple has asked some developers to have Apple Watch apps ready for mid-February. In a short few months, a clearer picture should emerge of just how much potential Apple's first wearable device has for developers.

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