Weekly News Roundup – 17 August 2012

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

Twitter Starts Clamping Down On Third-Party Apps With New Rules – Twitter has announced some new changes that make it significantly more difficult and tedious to develop third-party software around the social network.

Horn Brings Original Storyline, Gorgeous Visuals To iPad, iPhone, And iPod Touch – Developer Phosphor Games knocks it out of the park with a new, beautiful iOS game named after protagonist, Horn. The game uses the Unreal Engine and multitouch-based gestures to a third-person action adventure game. While the technology, visual style and swipe-based combat in Horn bring to mind Infinity Blade, it’s clear from the start that this is something different.

The iPad Helps Pharmaceutical Reps Influence Prescribing Practices Among Doctors – We talk about the iPad’s role in healthcare pretty regularly. Many physicians and health care practices have found innovative ways to integrate the iPad into daily patient interactions.

Apple files plans for Oregon data center – The Apple Oregon data center is moving closer to reality. Apple has filed formal plans with the city of Prineville, and it looks like Apple will build a 500,000-square-foot facility.

Sega Alliance launched, will provide marketing and production support for indies – Sega has announced a mobile initiative that it’s calling the Sega Alliance, which seems like a publishing division of Sega Mobile.

AAPL closes at all-time high, dividend paid – Shares in Apple closed at an all-time high today. At the closing bell at 4 p.m. ET, AAPL was trading at $636.34

Apple retail chiefs refute layoffs, address employees – Apple’s new retail chief, John Browett, told leadership teams in Apple Stores that the mothership (not his words) “messed up” (his words). In a rare gaffe, Browett’s team apparently tried what Dow Jones Newswires says were new staffing formulas.

Growl 2.0 SDK available, adds Notification Center integration – Growl has made its 2.0 SDK available, weeks after announcing that it planned to add a Notification Center action display to the program rather than letting it get Sherlocked by OS X Mountain Lion.

Apple’s new set-top box to feature DVR-like media access and iPad-like icon interface – Going away from the constant rumors that Apple is building its own TV set, yesterday evening the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is in talks with cable television operators to use an Apple TV device as a set-top-box.

German rewards club states that iPod Nanos are no longer being delivered, new release in late September – According to German publication iFun, Shell Germany awards members, who chose to get an iPod nano with their awards points, were greeted with a letter that there is an unforeseen delay in delivery of “old” iPod nanos and a new version is coming in late September.