Weekly Mobile News Roundup – 9 August 2013

  Once again the week is coming to an end and that means it’s time for a roundup of the past weeks news!

Apple’s Cook being pushed to innovate by board of directors, FOX report says – The Apple Board of Directors has concerns about the company’s recent lack of innovation, says FOX Business News, and is reportedly leaning on chief executive Tim Cook to rectify the situation.

Apple’s iPhone activation servers knocked offline, all over again – “Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable,” used to be the unmistakable declaration of crazy high demand.

Goodbye Casual Games, These iOS Games Are Made For Hardcore Gamers Only – The App Store has certainly become the home of casual games, which might leave some serious gamers scratching their heads. The iPhone and iPad are touted as gaming devices, but with puzzle games dominating the charts, it can be hard to look at the top ranking apps and only see games like Angry Birds.

What Ashton Kutcher Did to Become Steve Jobs – A Quora-er (?) sparked the discussion by asking on Quora, “How did Ashton Kutcher prepare for his role as Steve Jobs in the new movie Jobs?”. Actor turned tech investor Ashton Kutcher jumped in the thread (he’s popped up on Quora before) to explain. To become Jobs, Ashton dedicated three months.

iOS 7 Icons Are Preferred by Users – Because it is not very hard to start a poll through Polarb, many apps developers wanted to find out the real opinion of users about the changes of the new iOS operating system.

10 iPhone Apps to Help Keep You on Budget – At first blush, the iPhone can seem like a big investment. After all, it’s not the cheapest smartphone on the market. With the plethora of powerful and effective budgeting apps available through the iTunes App Store, however, an investment in an iPhone could lead to serious savings.

Apple does the impossible: gain market share against Android in the US – Just as we predicted, Apple’s deal with T-Mobile has turned things around for the iPhone maker. The deal, in which T-Mobile became the first major US carrier to offer unlocked iPhones at full price rather than subsidized through a two-year contract, has been a big hit with consumers, who made the iPhone the number one smartphone on T-Mobile in the three month period ending in May.

Today’s Apps Gone Free: Rise Alarm Clock, Tentacle Wars HD, Stickyboard 2 And More – Rise and shine with Simplebots’ gesture-driven alarm clock app, Rise Alarm Clock. We also have a strategy game that’s easy to get hooked on, and a business app that turns your iPad into a giant whiteboard.

What OS X Could Look Like Once It Has Been iOS 7-ified – iOS 7 is a radical departure from anything Apple has done design wise, but OS X Mavericks largely still looks like the Mac operating system we all know and love.

Music platform Vevo reportedly developing dedicated Apple TV ‘music channel’ – A report on Thursday claims popular Internet music video platform Vevo is working on an a dedicated app that act as an always-on “24-7” music channel for Apple TV owners.

Shine fitness accessory lands at Apple Stores – The Misfit Shine — a crowdfunded fitness tracker that became a hit on Indiegogo — almost looks like a Cupertino product already. As Mashable reports, the sleek little gadget is about to hit the shelves of your local Apple store, where it will undoubtedly fit right in.

Hands-on with OS X Mavericks: Power, apps, and other details – With WWDC way back in our rear-view mirrors and fall just around the corner, it’s time to wrap up my series of hands-on looks at the forthcoming OS X Mavericks release.