iPad Apps

Flexibits designers Michael Simmons and Kent Sutherland have improved upon their award winning calendar app Fantastical, and released Fantastical 2 for the iPad. It was just launched today and it will be available at a 33% discount for a limited time.

While the majority of calendar apps either look like regular calendars that let you enter items in the daily boxes, or have a "list view" format like the built-in iOS calendar, Fantastical 2 offers a "dashboard view" of your events, to do's, and reminders. According to The Verge, Simmons believes "Calendar's traditional month view has been done. There's already an app for that... The whole point was to change and be innovative. The goal of Fantastical is to make a different calendar app." Fantastical 2's dashboard has

ESPN has added a 2014 Winter Olympics tab to its SportsCenter app. The new tab allows users to easily keep track of news, scores and the medal count at the Sochi Olympics. Version 4.0.3 of the ESPN SportsCenter app also adds better Twitter integration and other improvements. The SportsCenter app is free to download on the Apple App Store. It is compatible with all iOS devices running iOS 7 or later.

Apple has also added a Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics section to the App Store. The new section highlights various 2014 Winter Game apps and Sochi 2014 music. Some of the apps include the official Team USA social media app, NBC Sports Talk and Medal Alert. You can find the new Sochi 2014 section by opening the App Store app on your iOS device and tapping the banner at the top of the page.

The NFL's biggest game of the year is upon us, and if you want to watch the Seahawk's league leading defense take on the Bronco's league leading offense today, but you are away from your TV, you might want to stream it on your iPad. You can do this with the Fox Sports Go app, which is available for free from the App Store.

Like the Fox Sports Go website, the app will provide a high quality stream of the game, plus pre- and post-game content. This is only available for iPad users - unfortunately for iPhone users, the app description states, "DUE TO LEAGUE RESTRICTIONS, NFL GAMES ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN FOX SPORTS GO ON PHONES." The free stream will be available to all U.S. viewers beginning at 12AM EST

A few high-profile developers have launched App Santa, a website where you can save up to 60% on award winning apps for Christmas! There are deals on several apps such as 1Password and the popular Tweetbot. You can check out a complete list below.

EA, Disney and Warner Bros. are also holding holiday app sales. Over 40 EA games like The Sims: Medieval and Dead Space are only $0.99 for a limited time, and popular Warner Bros. titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic have also been discounted. You can shop for all these deals on the EA, Disney or Warner Bros. section of Apple's App Store.

Disney is really pushing the NFC-based console game concept with the release of Disney Infinity on August 18. Not only will the game feature Skylanders-like collectible action figures, but Disney fans will be able to expand their Infinity world with the Disney Infinity: Toy Box app for the iPad.

The Disney Infinity video game will originally be sold as $75 Starter Packs for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Wii U (there will also be a separate Nintendo 3DS release). Each starter pack will include three Disney related action figures that are needed to play the game. Players will also have the option to buy additional figurines such as Francesco Bernulli from Cars at $13 a pop. The game can be played like a traditional video game, or players can use the "Toy Box" mode to create their own Minecraft-style Disney Infinity worlds.

Version 5.0 of LinkedIn's iOS app has arrived, bringing full LinkedIn functionality to iPad screens for the first time. The app has been optimized for iPad retina display users in addition to adding universal support for older Apple tablets.

Other improvements to the app include a new calendar feature that lets you see LinkedIn profile information ahead of meetings. The updates view has been redesigned to make it easier to stay in touch with connections, view groups, see industry news and more.

iPhone users got a treat last April when the Opera Mini web browser launched on the Apple App Store. Now Opera Software has announced that an iPad-optimized version of their browser is headed to iOS tablet owners soon. The company plans to demo the new iPad app at next week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The current version of Opera Mini has unique features that are optimized specifically for smartphones. For example, Opera actually uses its own servers to compress data up to 90 percent before pages are transmitted to iPhone users. This saves bandwidth and can speed download times.