iPad Atlas

Official Stratego game debuts for iPad

Remember Stratego? It's the classic capture-the-flag boardgame. And it's now available for iPad.

Why just iPad? I'm not entirely sure. Granted, the board would be cramped on an iPhone or iPod Touch screen, but I've seen plenty of other games work around that. (Monopoly, anyone?)

That curiosity aside, Stratego for iPad does a fine job recreating the original while adding some welcome digital touches. For starters, you can create and save multiple board setups (i.e., troop deployments), a huge time-saver and a great way to test how various deployments work against your opponents.

And speaking … Read more

PhoneClean 2.0 reclaims storage space on your iOS device

Feeling the storage crunch on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad? A free utility may be able to help.

Last summer, CNET's Matthew Elliott took iMobie's PhoneClean for a test drive. The utility provides a "digital colonic" (Matt's words), cleansing any iOS device of useless and unnecessary files that might be consuming valuable space.

However, Matt wasn't willing to subject his iPhone 4S to PhoneClean's mysterious ministrations, only his iPad.

Wuss.

As the braver, dumber, blogger, I decided to let the newly updated PhoneClean 2.0 do its thing on my iPhone 4S. … Read more

128GB iPad should mean the end of the 64GB MacBook Air

Today's news: the iPad has hit 128GB. That's fine. But my real question is, why does the $999 11-inch Air still have only a 64GB SSD?

If you look at the world of business-targeted Windows 8 tablets, many of them have 128GB storage options...including the upcoming Surface Pro. The logic is clear, especially if you're in a business where you need to store tons of files locally and don't want to sync in the cloud. In that sense, a stepped-up storage option for the larger iPad makes obvious sense.

The real benefit of 128GB of storage, though, would be in the 11-inch MacBook Air.… Read more

Wickr turns iOS message self-destruct up to 11

Wickr (download) gained new secure sending and subsequent self-destructing powers in a big update to the encryption and security app today, perhaps not coincidentally Data Privacy Day.

There are four new features in the app. You can now send and subsequently self-destruct images and PDFs from Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box to other Wickr users, which expands the limits of the original send-and-self-destruct feature. You can also send up to three 30-second videos, up to 5 MB, per message. Audio messages, which function like voice mails, have been extended to 30 seconds long, as well.

Wickr can now connect to … Read more

Who ya gonna call? Try Ghostbusters for iOS

There's not much to explain the timing behind Beeline Interactive's new Ghostbusters game for iOS. It's not like there's a new movie coming out, nor even a Blu-ray or 3D re-release of the original.

But here it is all the same, a cartoony but complex resource-management sim that's reminiscent of other freemium games like Men in Black 3 and The Simpsons. If you're into that sort of thing, I'd say you're in for a treat.

The new Ghostbusters (not to be confused with Ghostbusters: Paranormal Blast, an augmented-reality action game) tasks you … Read more

Mix up your workout with Obstacles XRT for iOS

Top reasons you skipped your workout today:

It was too dark or cold outside to run. Your hotel didn't have a fitness center. You're sick to death of the treadmill. You let that pricey gym membership expire.

Here's an easy fix for these and other excuses: Obstacles XRT, which bills itself as "extreme reality training" -- a fancy way of saying it's a fitness app. It normally sells for $4.99, but from now through January 31, you can grab it for $1.99.

Two bucks very well spent, in my humble opinion. Obstacles … Read more

Orangutans monkey around with iPads at zoo

Apple's iPad is proving to be popular among a different, and hairier, type of consumer.

The Smithsonian's National Zoo recently kicked off Apps for Apes, a program that lets orangutans use the iPad as a way to stimulate their lives.

Offered through Orangutan Outreach, Apps for Apes has already been used at 12 other zoos around the world. As described by the group, the program has three goals:

Provide stimulating enrichment and immediate gratification for orangutans. Make zoo visitors aware of the critical need to protect orangutans in the wild. Promote the conservation efforts of Orangutan Outreach.

… Read more

Add an old-school camera viewfinder to your iPhone

The good: Your iPhone has a pretty decent camera. Better than decent, in fact, if it's an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.

The bad: Not everybody likes using the iPhone's screen to frame their shots, especially outdoors, where the ambient light can wash out the display. What's more, anyone accustomed to old-school, SLR-style photography no doubt misses their old-school, SLR-style viewfinder.

To the rescue comes the Photojojo iPhone Viewfinder, which combines hardware and software to give you a more traditional camera experience.

The kit consists of a round, black eyepiece that uses a suction cup to affix … Read more

Opera to sing WebKit's tune on mobile -- report

The Opera Browser will be rebuilding its mobile browsers using WebKit and a new interface that nearly entirely ditches the traditional browser buttons called Opera Ice, according to a leaked video acquired by Pocket-Lint.com.

Ice is not Opera's first dalliance with WebKit, as its current iOS offerings are also built with the WebKit engine. However, the current iOS Opera runs its server-side compression with Opera's Presto engine. It's not clear that that will continue with Ice, which apparently will debut at Mobile World Congress in February.

The video shows off Opera Ice, a browser that looks … Read more