Might and Magic: Duel of Champions bringing sword and sorcery trading card game to iPad

We took some time at PAX East 2013 to visit Ubisoft to see what they were up to. Obviously the new Assassin's Creed III content was a welcome sight to many, but Might and Magic: Duel of Champions has a lot of great things go for it. Users can fully customize their dock, the game itself will be completely unlockable by playing for free, and players will be able to compete online across platforms.

One of the things Might and Magic: Duel of Champions does right is recreate the awe of rare holographic cards. Though the idea of having a central hero card that each side is trying to destroy while keeping their own safe is relatively established, having to defend multiple lanes of attack at the same time keeps things fresh. Through multiplayer and single player matches, players earn gold which can be spent on acquiring new virtual packs of game cards.

The cash erned between each level orivudes a o if A For those hankering for a new iPad game that's decidedly different from iPad, maybe it's time to start heading out earlier. Jussying, at least it makes for more entertaining than watching an seeing exactly how the local cover service obscendenumber PAX East and 2012 of people watchng for the new 

For those interested in getting a headstart,, you can get an account right over here. 

Apple updates its ‘Why iPhone’ page with news of its ninth customer satisfaction award

Last week Apple sent out marketing emails informing its customers of reasons why they should buy the iPhone 5. Apple also launched a web page called “Why iPhone” which listed a host of features, one of which was touting the iPhone as the J.D. Power and Associates choice for customer satisfaction for a staggering eight years running. Well that page was quickly outdated earlier this week when we heard the iPhone had picked up the award for the ninth year running.

Apparently love can be measured. And it keeps adding up to iPhone. In nine straight studies by J.D. Power and Associates â€" that’s every study since the first iPhone was introduced â€" iPhone has been ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Consumer Smartphones.” iPhone ranked highest in the study, which reviewed the following categories: performance, physical design, features, and ease of operation.

Apple wasted no time updating its “Why iPhone" page with the news of its ninth award and to make it stand out even more, it made a point of just crossing out the eight with red pen and writing a nine next to it. This achievement should not be underestimated, the award is given for customer satisfaction across so many levels and to win the award every year since the iPhone launched is something rather special if you ask me!

Source: Apple

Pocket Cycle for iPhone and iPad review

Pocket Cycle for iPhone and iPad is an app designed to help women track their menstrual cycles and sync the information with their partner's device. It features a very simple interface that displays all the important dates related to your cycle in a simple color-coded dial.

The main screen screen of Pocket Cycle is a dial with 28 colored dots (unless you changed your cycle length to something other than 28 days). Each dot represents a day in your cycle with the dot at the top center representing day 1. Red dots are period days, green dots are fertile days, the blue dot is ovulation day, and gray dots are "normal" days. The large dot represents the day you're currently at.

If you need to adjust what day you are in your cycle , just spin the dial to the correct dot and tap save. You can also tap the button in the center of the dial to recalibrate. I really like the idea of simply turning the dial, however, this causes previous months to change to match the cycle length you've assigned. This is a huge flaw that needs to be addressed since most women don't have perfectly regular cycles. Past cycles need to be remained unchanged.

Pocket Cycle includes a calendar that predicts your future cycles. This can be helpful for planning vacations and events if you want to avoid certain activities while on your period.

Pocket Cycle also includes alarms for when your period and fertile days are expected to start and end, as well as reminders to take birth control. Pocket Cycle includes discrete text with these reminders, but you can also edit them to say anything you want. Pocket Cycle also allows you to add custom alarms.

When syncing with a partner, Pocket Cycle doesn't simply keep the apps identical; it only keeps the dials in sync. Reminders are kept separate and a partner is not allowed to change a dial and recalibrate cycles; he can only view it.

The good

• Simple, easy to use design
• Period days in red, fertile days in green, ovulation day in blue
• Simply turn dial to recalibrate if early or late
• View upcoming cycles on calendar
• Receive reminders when for period start and end dates, fertile days, to take birth control, or any custom alert you wish
• Edit the text of reminders
• Partner doesn't share reminders with you, but can create his own
• Partner can't edit cycle
• Optional 4 digit passcode

The bad

• Doesn't keep track of past cycles

The bottom line

If you're looking for a simple, visual way to share your cycle information with a partner, Pocket Cycle is a great choice. It's easy to use, looks nice, and saves you from having awkward conversations about where you are in your cycle.

iMore Editors' Choice: Photolettering, Slacker Radio, PWN, and more

Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week's selections include an app that tracks your sleep, an app that displays updates from your social networks, a few games, an app for History geeks, a fun photo apps, and a music streaming service.

Sleep is the most important thing you can give your body and it is also one of the most popular areas that people have trouble a with. Having knowledge of how well you are sleeping can be invaluable so you can see what effect alcohol has on your sleeping and much more.

To get this information, I use an app called Sleep Cycle alarm clock, its main purpose is to monitor your sleep so it can wake you up during light sleep so you awake relaxed and in a good mood. I don’t use the alarm part of the app but instead solely use it to monitor my nights sleep.

All you need to do is put your iPhone under your sheet next to your pillow and it will sense your movements during the night and tell you how long you were asleep for and how deep that sleep was too. The app needs at least 5 consecutive days of data to be able to tell you how good your sleep is and then you can also start comparing different sleep patterns on different nights. Because of this app, I can see how drinking alcohol severely reduces the quality of my sleep and the length too. Little things like this can help you make good life choices.

I you want to use it as an alarm, you pick a a 30 minute period when you want to wake up. The app monitors your sleep patterns during that 30 minutes and wakes you gently when it thinks you are ready to wake. Quite clever but not something that I want to use.

Sometimes I don’t want to keep opening apps in order to stay current with my social networks. Staying up to date requires jumping between apps several times per day. To make sure I keep on top of everything without constantly moving between apps, I use Screenfeeder. Screenfeeder puts all of your social feeds in one place and shows you new items as they come in, one at a time. While Screenfeeder limits you primarily to reading your feed, you can interact a little with different items. For instance, you can retweet and mark tweets as favorites or like posts from Facebook and Instagram. Screenfeeder keeps your screen on while in the app so it’s best to use it while your device is plugged in.

Screenfeeder is universal, offered for free, and allows you follow one of your feeds for free, with an option to buy access to each successive service for $0.99 each, or all services for $3.99.

I have to admit, although I've been playing this game for quite some time now I initially discovered it on BlackBerry. Not that that's a bad thing by any means, just rather interesting all things considered. Wacky Rapids comes to us via Paw Print Games with the goal of course being fairly simple. Get your racer down the river as fast as you can to both come in first place and score the largest amount of points. That may sound easy but given the obstacles and different levels you'll face its gets harder as the game goes on. Wacky Rapids is an accelerometer based game so there will be plenty of twisting and turning your device in order to keep your racer on the right track. Overall, it's a pretty fun game that's enjoyable for all ages plus, it's available as a free download. With over 120 missions to complete, it'll keep you busy.

When I was a kid, my dad assumed that because I spent all of my time playing video games, I could have a future in programming. If I was more industrious and less insolent, that might have panned out, but at least now I can pretend I'm a bad-ass hacker in this new competitive puzzle game called PWN. Players battle over nodes, which are computers embodied by little cubes connected in a network which is visible as a 3D mesh. Players can only hack into one node at a time, and it takes a few seconds to capture it. You can only capture nodes connected to ones you already control, and if nodes ever become separated from the rest of your network, they become vulnerable to attack. Players use a variety of special defensive and offensive abilities to control the whole network, and pick hacker characters that have certain bonuses when using those abilities. Every character has their own single-player campaign, or you can go up against a buddy in a multiplayer match over Bluetooth. If you've got a soft spot for the mid-90s movie Hackers, definitely check this one out.

I am a huge History Channel nerd and if I'm not watching my regular shows, I've always got a learning channel or home improvement channel on. When I came across the History Here app, I was slightly intrigued. It basically shows you all the historical areas and attractions in your vicinity. I was past intrigued when I realized there are lots of things in my immediate area that I never even knew about.

History Here will use your current location to find things around you that are of historical importance. Some of these are attractions or museums while others are parks or geographical locations. Whether you're into history or not, it's worth taking a look. Never hurts to learn something new!

John Gruber of Daring Fireball linked to Photolettering yesterday and I've been playing around with it ever since. The gist is this: take or open photos, neaten them up the way you like, then add House Industries fonts and Photo-Lettering alphabets to take them to the next level, and share away.

There's an art to layering finely crafted lettering onto eye popping photography that makes the end result far more than the sum of its parts. It's something high end posters, postcards, and book covers have done for years. And now, thanks to Photolettering, you can do it simply and easily right on your iPhone.

Photolettering is free with a few fonts, additional fonts are available via in-app purchase. They're $0.99 each or $9.99 for all of them. Check it out and let me know if you have as much fun with it as I'm having.

This week, I started working out at a gym today and since I don't have a single song stored on my iPhone and must have music to work out, I turned to Slacker Radio. I've had a membership with Slacker for a long time now and the interface on the iPhone (and web) recently received a nice makeover. There are other similar services out there, but I've always been happy with Slacker.

Now that we've chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!

Duke Nukem II arriving on iPhone and iPad in April

3DRelams and Interceptor Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing Duke Nukem II for the iPhone and iPad in April. The Duke Nukem gaming series will be fondly remembered by millions of older gamers as a side scrolling shooter type game with all the carnage and shooting you could possible wish for.

In 1993 Apogee released Duke Nukem II. Its explosive action made it an instant side-scrolling classic. 20 years later, Interceptor Entertainment and 3DRealms have teamed up to bring Duke Nukem II back. Duke Nukem II for iOS lets you experience this 90′s classic all over again on the most popular gaming platform in the world!

The iOS game will be based around how it looked and played back in 1993 with smooth side scrolling action, VGA graphics, 256 eye popping colors, kick ass weapons, 32 action packed levels, full touchscreen support, new artwork and music.

If you are already excited by this upcoming release, take a look at the reveal trailer below; if you remember and loved the original then you are not going to be disappointed with this one. Duke Nukem II will be arriving in the App Store next month and will cost $1.99.

Source: Interceptor Entertainment

Discover delicious food around you with Forkly for iPhone

Forkly is a beautiful social food discovery app that will help you find a delicious meal the next time you're out and about. It features a few different feeds so that you can browse your options by what's nearby, what your friends recommend, or something more specific. When you find something that looks good, you can mark it as something you want, so that you can easily look it up when you're hungry and ready to try something new.

The interface of Forkly is simply gorgeous and features mouthwatering photos shared by other users. For each shared item, you can "want" it, leave a comment, and see who else is interested in trying it out. You can also share to your favorite social network, email, or Messages.

Forkly is one of those apps that gets better with more users, so tell you friends, rate some of your favorite restaurants and dishes, and let us know what you think!

iPhone and iPad new user guide

Everything you need to know about getting started with your new iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or iPad mini

New to the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or iPad and need a little help getting started? Whether you're trying to set up your device for the first time, or figure out Apple features like iCloud, Siri, iMessage, Notification Center, or FaceTime, or simply get a handle on the basics like mail, calendar, or photography, we have a help guide for you -- and ultimate guide!

And if you already know everything there is to know about iOS devices, no worries! Just save this link for family, friends, co-workers, classmates, or anyone else who might need some help. We'll do the heavy lifting so you don't have to.

We'll also be updating this page with more ultimate guides, so bookmark it and check back often!

iCloud is Apple's online service designed to make managing your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV, and your iTunes content easier and more automatic than ever. Like the name implies, iCloud is based in the "cloud", which is a trendy way of saying giant data centers filled with servers that you can access from your device over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G internet, wherever you are, whenever you want. It consists of several services that work with the apps on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and with iTunes and a handful of desktop apps on Mac and Windows. Most iCloud services are completely free, although additional storage and services are available for purchase. Because the vast majority of iCloud services are free, and because they work automatically and transparently in the background to backup your data and give you access to your content, you should absolutely use it.

Siri is the name of Apple's personal digital assistant. It's basically voice control that talks back to you, that understands relationships and context, and with a personality straight out of Pixar. Ask Siri questions, or ask Siri to do things for you, just like you would ask a real assistant, and Siri will help keep you connected, informed, in the right place, and on time. You can even use Siri's built in Dictation feature to enter text almost everywhere by simply using your voice.

How to find places on the map and get turn-by-turn directions using Siri How to search the web, get answers, and find restaurants using Siri How to find movie locations, showtimes, reviews, ratings, and trailers using Siri How to look up sports scores and schedules, team rosters, and player stats using Siri How to find restaurants, read reviews, and make reservations using Siri How to open apps using Siri How to shop for Apple products using Siri

Notification Center is Apple's attempt to bring order and sanity to the myriad alarms, alerts, messages, calls, announcements, and challenges that flood our iPhones, iPods, and iPads every day. With Notification Center, you can choose on an app-by-app basis between unobtrusive banners, un-ignorable popups, and between beeps, buzzes, or nothing at all. You can badge your icons so you know how many items you have pending, and you can have everything listed for you right on your Lock screen, so you know about it immediately, or whenever you're ready. When too many notifications become interruptions, you can set a timer or flip a switch and silence it all for as little or as long as you want.

iMessage works in parallel with SMS and MMS on the iPhone, and brings the same type of messaging functionality to the iPod touch, iPad, and Mac. It only works between people running iOS 4 and later, and OS X Mountain Lion and later, so you can't use iMessage to contact people on other phones or on Windows computers, but you can use it to send and receive texts and photos, and share map locations and contacts, with anyone using the latest Apple gear. And since there's no charge for iMessage beyond data (cellular or Wi-Fi), you can send unlimited iMessages pretty much for free. Take that, carriers!

FaceTime is Apple's video chat service. It allows anyone with a recent iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Mac to make free calls to any other Apple user over Wi-Fi or cellular connection. On the iPhone, FaceTime is bundled into the Phone app. On the iPod touch, iPad, and Mac, FaceTime is a separate app. On all devices, FaceTime can connect to any Apple-registered iPhone phone number or email address. That makes it perfect for keeping in touch with family who lives far away, with the kids while traveling, with business partners at distant offices, or even with that special someone while shopping for the perfect gift.

Calendars help you keep track of what you're doing and when, which is why it's always been one of the core apps on mobile devices from the earliest PDA (personal digital assistants), to the latest iPhones and iPads. That why, when iOS launched in 2007, it included a Calendar app. Whether you simply use Calendar by itself, or whether you sync it via iCloud, Google Calendar, Microsoft, or something else, it's the default way to add and find appointments and events.

The iPhone is good enough at photography to replace a point-and-shoot camera for most people, most of the time. With a big sensor, an impressive f/2.4 aperture, an IR filter, and lots of software to make pictures as bright and beautiful as possible, the iPhone camera does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. But it still can't replace a trained eye or the human heart. You've got the latter. iMore's iPhonenography series is dedicated to helping you get the most out of your iPhone camera,

Mail is one of the core apps of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Rich, HTML email was shown off by Steve Jobs in 2007 when he first introduced the iPhone, and again in 2010 when he introduced the iPad. It was and is so important, he put it in the iPhone and iPad Dock, and by default there it still remains. Whether you use the free iCloud account that comes with your Apple device, or Yahoo!, Google's Gmail, Microsoft's Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com, your local ISP email or something else entirely, whether you have an IMAP, ActiveSync, or POP account, your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad can keep you connected to it wherever you go, and whatever you're doing.

We're adding new ultimate guides all the time, but we also have a lot of individual help articles on the Home screen, video, Reminders, iTunes, Phone, Safari, music, Jailbreak, and more. And if you have specific questions or need even more help, the iMore forums are there for you!

Edit your portraits to perfection with Facetune for iPhone

Facetune is a powerful photo editing app designed to help you edit your portrait photographs into perfection. Not only can you remove blemishes, smooth out skin, and enhance eyes, but you can also fix gray hair, fill in bald spots, defocus the background, and even reshape your subjects face.

In addition to being able to edit any photo stored on your iPhone, you can also choose from one of the three included head shots so that you can get some practice using the various tools. There's a blonde woman with a lot of freckles, a dark-haired man with a piercing and a few blemishes, and a dark-haired woman with a moderate amount of blemishes, parts of her hair look gray, and her teeth are a little yellow.

The tools included with Facetune include crop, whiten, smooth, details, reshape, patch, tones, red eye, defocus, and filters. Most of them work very similarly -- zoom and pan, then use your finger to paint on the effect.

The smoothing effect is designed to make skin look soft and is typically something that can be overdone. I'm happy to report that Facetune does a fabulous job of preserving detail when using Smooth. Skin looks noticeably better, yet natural, because you can still see pores and texture. There is also a tool called Smoother that I actually recommend you avoid unless you're going for a plastic look.

Pro tip: Avoid using the smooth tool on edges and creases on the face for the most natural results.

The Detail tool is essentially a sharpening too, and I recommend using it on eyes and perhaps lips and teeth.

One of the things that makes Facetune such a great editing app is that it has a patch tool instead of simply a spot-healing tool (both would be nice). When using the patch tool, you will be given two circles, and you can adjust their size by pinching and zooming. The circle that the arrow is pointing to needs to be placed over the area of the photo you want to change, perhaps a blemish. Then move the other circle to an area of the photo that would make a good replacement, like a clear area of skin. You can also use two finger to rotate the circle in case you need to match up a crease line or hair direction.

The patch tool is usually used for removing blemishes, but it can also be used to add hair, remove wrinkles, and more.

Pro tip: Use the patch tool before smoothing skin.

Sometimes patching up blemishes isn't enough, especially if your subject has a very bad case of acne and has red skin in those areas. That's where the Tones tool comes in handy. With this you can choose a color from your photo with the Picker or by holding down your finger, and paint that chosen color onto the photo. It will paint with a low opacity that you can be sure to layer it on in a way that looks natural. The Tones tool is also great for "removing" gray hair.

Another really awesome feature of Facetune is the Reshape tool. This is similar to Liquify in Photoshop, and when used with care, can help make someone look more flattering. For example, moving hairlines, creating smiles, raising cheekbones, and reshaping noses and chins are all things you can do with Reshape. If you choose to use it to make your subject skinnier, be aware of the background and how the Reshape tool may be making it look distorted. Use this tool with caution!

Pro-tip: Bringing in someones face just below their cheekbones will make the cheekbones appear higher. Lowering someone shoulders will make the neck longer and the person appear skinnier.

Facetune also includes a Defocus tool that is meant to be used to bring your background out of focus so that your subject pops better and it looks like you've used a higher quality lens to take the photo. Use this tool with caution, though, as it will not look natural on all photos.

Facetune also includes filters, but I'm quite honestly not really a fan of any of them besides the black-and-white ones. Though, if your white-balance was off, there a good chance you'll find a filter that'll improve the colors in your portrait. You'll also find filters to help with your lighting or add a little distortion, and frames.

Above is the before and after of one of the sample photos that I edited. I used the patch tool to remove all her blemishes, softened her skin, lightened up the dark spots under her eyes and nose, sharpened her eyes, whitened her teeth, reshaped her hairline, and darkened some of the highlights in her hair that looked gray. Noticed that I did everything in moderation to keep it looking natural. This is key when doing these types of edits.

Also, here's a before-and-after of a photo I edited of my daughter from when she had a serious case of baby acne.

Impressive! My biggest complaint is that there isn't an iPad version. Facetune on a Retina iPad would be incredible.

The good

• Crop, whiten, smooth, details, reshape, patch, tones, red eye, and defocus tools
• Skin detail is preserved when smoothing skin
• Patch tool instead of spot-healing tool
• Video tutorials for each tool
• Easily compare with original photo
• Export up to 8 megapixel images
• Share to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, Tumbler, and Email

The bad

• Can't choose to see where you've masked in an effect
• Whiten, Smooth, Details, Tones, and Defocus don't have an undo button, only an eraser
• No redo button
• No iPad version

The bottom line

I am extremely impressed with Facetune. As a photographer, I go through similar techniques with Photoshop CS6 to edit newborn and family portraits, and Facetune has done a fantastic job at mimicking those tools. It's like a tiny Photoshop in your hands. And at just $1.99, it's way underpriced. Get it now.

BugMe! Stickies for iPhone and iPad review

BugMe! Stickies is an iPhone and iPad app that lets you create notes that resemble the popular, square, colorful sticky notes that we're all familiar with. You can use these stickies to create text or handwritten notes, set alarms and reminders, and even download stationary-like stickies that can be used to send notes to your friends.

BugMe! displays all your stickies on a virtual cork board. There's a share button that lets you save an image of your cork board to your Camera Roll, send it via email, or visit the in-app store to purchase more papers.

When creating a note, you can add text or use your finger or stylus to handwrite on it. For the text, there are four different sizes, six fonts, and five colors. To cycle through the choices, you simply tap the appropriate icon. The paintbrush tool includes eight colors and two sizes for each size. You can also choose between different paper types, or choose one of your own photos to use a paper.

BugMe! also allows you to set an alarm to your notes with a list of quick option like "top of the hour", "15 minutes", "next week", "tomorrow morning", and more. If you prefer to set an exact time, you can do that too.

In Settings, you'll find options to change the default paper style, choose an alarm sound, snap your notes to grid, enable nagging alarms, and more.

The BugMe! store features six different note packs, each available for $0.99. Or you can purchase them all at once for $5.99.

The good

• Make quick notes
• Alarms and reminders
• Save notes to launcher
• Send notes to friends
• Customize the look
• Use photos

The bad

• No undo button
• The "Mega Pack" only saves you $0.05 from purchasing individually

The bottom line

BugMe! is a cute and fun way to keep notes and set reminders, especially if you're someone who used to, or still does, use physical sticky notes.