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GTA: Vice City Heading To iOS And Android

For many, it was the definitive Grand Theft Auto, a sprawling open-world action-adventure title that broke new ground and along with it, rival open-world game developers' hearts. A staple fixture within PS2's for quite some time, GTA: Vice City is now all set for smartphones, with iOS and Android versions on their way.

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'Stalking' App 'Girls Around Me' Pulled From The App Store

Despite a supposedly rigorous, rigid and reliable approval process employed to maintain the quality, security and legality of applications within its App Store, a mobile app that we have no reservations in calling a stalker's best friend has only just been pulled from Apple's store – and not even at the request of Apple itself.

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Sky's 'F1 Race Control' For iPad Puts You In Control Of How You Watch The Race Unfold

F1 fans listen up! If you weren’t already beside yourself with excitement awaiting the first grand prix of the season at Melbourne this weekend, the lovely people at Sky (who hold the rights to every F1 race of the season, lest we forget) have unveiled a superb revamped Sky Sports for iPad app that comes packed to the rafters with a range of features for race day.

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Heikki Kovalainen To Sport Angry Birds Helmet In This Year's F1
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Heikki Kovalainen To Sport Angry Birds Helmet In This Year's F1

Remember when Angry Birds was nothing but another game on the App Store looking to make it big? It might be harder than you first think, what with the 59p App exploding in popularity, winging its way into the heart of millions and earning billions in the process. Angry Birds merchandise is everywhere; from branded kitchen-ware, to felt iPad cases, irresistibly cute plush toys, playing cards, backpacks, lunchboxes… There are even plans to open an at a theme park in the developer’s homeland Finland this summer.

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Pokemon Finally Enters The App Store, And Is Swiftly Removed...
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Pokemon Finally Enters The App Store, And Is Swiftly Removed...

Nintendo’s claims to the globally-recognised Pokémon gaming brand looked to be rocking as an unofficial Pokémon game was the first of its kind to enter Apple’s App Store for download onto iOS devices earlier this week. Titled Pokémon - Pocket Edition, little did purchasers of the $5 app know – described as “marking the Pokémon series’ glorious debut on the App Store [that] lets you verse and play as everyone’s favourite Pokémon, Pikachu, around awesome lands” – was nothing more than a scam and an illegitimate app that featured no actual gameplay, only screen captures of other Pokémon games.

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Apple accidentally releases "Gamestore" app, then removes it

 

Apple haven't exactly been 'on the ball' lately with keeping stuff under wraps, and today has been no exception.  Apple accidentally published an app titled 'Gamestore' to the iTunes app store, and removed it pretty soon after.

The app was discovered by Florian Schimanke on December 31st, and seems to be (as hinted to by the name) a store for games.  The description was rather sparse: "This application allows you to buy different things from within the app."

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Orangutan Outreach asks Apple for help popularising 'Apps for Apes'

Charity organisation Orangutan Outreach has invested both time and finance in its Apples for Orangs program, enriching the lives of these highly intelligent creatures with iPads.  After it's work with regular 'human' apps (giving Orangutans Skype to see and communicate, music/matching apps to play), they have turned to Apple to create a special "Apps for Apes" category in the iTunes app store.

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Official Xbox Live app available on iOS

Microsoft has released an official Xbox Live app, titled My Xbox Live, for Apple's iPhone and iPad.  That felt rather strange to put in a headline.

As Major Nelson announced in his blog, the app pretty closely resembles what features you see on the Windows Phone 7 variant, just without the deep integration with mobile games that WP7 possesses.

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GarageBand released on iPhone and iPod Touch

Simply put, we'd feel a tablet interface would be the most practical that a touch version of GarageBand could get.  Seems as if we were wrong, according to Apple who released a version for iPhone and iPod Touch today.

Apple's music app has let anybody from experienced musicians to teens who think they can play an instrument create and record their own music ever since its iPad release in March of this year (much earlier on OS X). Now GarageBand 1.1 is out as a universal app with support for small iOS screens.

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Editorial: No Gabe. The world is not under threat from curation. We were never open to begin with.

"Innovation is threatened."  "People's access is controlled."  "The world seems to be moving away from open platforms."  Strong words from Valve Boss, Gabe Newell at Seattle TechNW conference.

These were directed at Apple's choice of app curation over open-source values.  The argument here is that as we lose our open-ness in the face of the App Store phenomenon the opportunity of innovation and our sense of choice goes with it.  However, everything everywhere is curated so really, is this a bad thing?    

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