Our first 'Thank Gadget It's Friday' feature, Dexim's remote controlled Monster Truck for Apple devices

We're making Fridays even more fun at the Pure Mobile blog, with a new weekly feature we're calling 'Thank Gadget It's Friday,' or TGIF for short.

What better way to wrap up the week than with our favorite gadgets? And in this feature, we'll be bringing you our top picks in mobile accessories, from the coolest smartphone cases to the best phone docks and speakers.

But we're kicking things off in style today, with an accessory that's a little out of the norm, and a whole lot of fun – Dexim's remote controlled AppSpeed Monster Truck.

Definitely a toy for grown ups, the Dexim RC Truck uses Apple devices, like iPhone, iPad and iPod in lieu of a traditional controller. All you need is the free app that's provided when you purchase the truck.

But that's not the only difference between this suped-up mobile accessory and a regular remote controlled car. Dexim's monster truck can be controlled by either traditional touch sensor or "gravity sensor," which lets you control the vehicle by tilting your device in different ways.

The truck also has multiplayer mode for racing with friends, and comes with three preset stations that let you "automatically ZigZag, Spin, or Dance your vehicle to     music."

As far as mobile accessories go, the Dexim RC Truck may not top the list of most needed, but it's certainly among the most exciting, and would certainly make a great gift for the techie in your life. Though we can think of more than a few people who'd simply want one for themselves.

Vroom vroom!

An update to Apple’s iOS 6.0 is now available for download from iTunes or over your wireless connection. Apple’s iOS 6.0.1 fixes some of the bugs that have already appeared and also provides the iPhone 5 with wireless update capability.

To download the new OS version wirelessly, go to the “Settings” menu and bring up “Software Update,” If you’re updating your iPhone 5, you’ll be asked to first download an updater for iPhone 5. This enables the wireless updates to be installed.

For older iPhone models, the iPod Touch and iPads with iOS 6 already installed, you can get the 6.0.1 update at “Settings”, “General”, “Software Update.”

Your phone’s “Learn More” gives you a screen with the information below that tells you what bugs have been fixed:

“This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Fixes a bug that prevents iPhone 5 from installing software updates wirelessly over the air
• Fixes a bug where horizontal lines may be displayed across the keyboard
• Fixes an issue that could cause camera flash to not go off
• Improves reliability of iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation) when connected to encrypted WPA2 Wi-Fi networks
• Resolves an issue that prevents iPhone from using the cellular network in some instances
• Consolidated the Use Cellular Data switch for iTunes Match
• Fixes a Passcode Lock bug which sometimes allowed access to Passbook pass details from lock screen
• Fixes a bug affecting Exchange meetings”

If you’re ready to start the download, you click on a quick user agreement confirmation, and the update begins. Your phone will give you instructions for the rest.

One of the bugs that the update is supposed to fix is the one that causes static and horizontal lines on the screen when you’re downloading a new app. So, if you thought you’d caused the problem because your new iPhone 5 has already hit the concrete a couple of times, the update will offer some comfort. Add a little insurance for future whoopsies and improve you device’s bounce factor with a good case.

Nuance Communications just released the beta version of their Dragon Mobile Assistant software for Android.

Dragon is the name of a line of speech recognition software products that can do things like make calls, keep your calendar and send texts just by giving your phone a command. The English version of the app is available on Google Play for free right now. It works on the Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 OS or later.

Nuance dominates the market for speech recognition. They’ve been working with Apple on their voice control technology, the most famous being Siri (available on iPhone 4S and iPhone 5.)

Here's how the voice recognition software works on your phone.

Start the app with the greeting, “Hi Dragon”, and then give it a command like:

“Tell Lori, ‘I’ll come find her when I get to the restaurant.” or
“Schedule a meeting for 2 p.m. tomorrow.” or
“Give me directions to the Statue of Liberty” or
“What’s the weather in Chicago?”

As long as Dragon can interpret what you said, you'll get an answer.

Nuance’s press release says it’s plan is to expand availability and debut new features by year end. “We’re at a transition point where voice and natural-language understanding are suddenly at the forefront,” said Vlad Sejnoha, chief technology officer at Nuance Communications. “I think speech recognition is really going to upend the current [computer] interface.”

If you've ever tried to call about a complaint or order a prescription over the phone, you've experienced Nuance's voice technology. It's been used in places like calls centers for awhile.

Now the rapid rise of powerful mobile devices is spreading the use of voice interfaces. One reason for the stunning advancements in voice recognition technology is that smartphones have so much processing capability. They can access high-bandwidth data connections that exist on massive servers in the cloud. The combination of more data and more computing power means sophisticated programs like voice recognition will fit into smartphones.

Apple’s Siri was the first to bring voice-recognition technology to mobile devices, and (finally!) Nuance has now brought Android a little closer to having its own voice functionality. Others like the Windows Phone platform, other mobile systems, and a lot of apps won’t be far behind. The interfaces still have to be refined, but the good news is that the capability of talking to our devices is already built in to the hardware.

Nuance doesn’t plan on stopping at cellphones. Inspired by their success, the company is working on putting speech interfaces in many more places like televisions and vehicles.

Apple’s determination to remain different may finally have backfired. It seems the Lightning connector has brought back to life an old argument over universal standards.

Back in 2009, 10 major cellphone manufacturers agreed with the European Union that there needed to be one standard design for the connectors that charge cellphone batteries. A universal connector would give a much longer shelf life to chargers if the ones purchased today would still work with the devices designed down the road.

These manufacturers agreed to use the micro-USB charger design that is used with almost every type of mobile device – except Apple products. While Apple was one of the 10 manufacturers to agree to the universal standard, it decided to show compliance through the use of an adapter. While everyone else designed their equipment for the micro-USB connector, Apple kept their 30-pin connector as the standard for all their devices.

Now, Apple has shown their continuing commitment to their own design with the introduction of the Lightning charger. But now Apple’s competitors aren’t the only ones irritated by the company’s ongoing rebellion. By redesigning their connector (which definitely was long overdue), they’ve forced all their current customers to buy new hardware in order for their equipment like docking stations and chargers to work with the next and future generations of iPhones, iPads, iPods, iMacs… you get the idea. We’ll give Apple a (very) small bit of credit for the Lightning adapter, but still, it’s another few bucks out of your pocket.

Apple no doubt is a believer in the “wow” factor. They don’t want to just make consumers happy. They want to knock us off our feet with style, innovation and technology. Apple may have seen their loyalty to a proprietary connector as necessary to maintain the Apple aura.

Apple’s connectors do more than charge and sync. From a single port all Apple equipment can be connected to every other one, and with an adapter, that same port can also output these devices to non-Apple equipment like an HDMI television. With most of the other micro-USB compatible equipment out there, you need separate ports – one for charging and one for connecting (and a lots of other functions.) More ports add bulk and can make Ironman’s suit look like the Incredible Hulk is wearing it.

Apple is going to always behave like they own the sandbox, and as long as they’re making more money than anyone else, they can. Maybe we don’t want to stop them, either. Even now, none of their competition has truly matched the style and quality inherent in most Apple products. It’s good for us that they keep trying, though.

If you haven’t pre-ordered your Apple iPad Mini or your iPad with Retina display by the time you’ve read this, your window of opportunity has passed. Within 36 hours, the Apple online store sold out of all the new iPad options.

In case you still want to be ready to click “Buy” as soon as iPad pre-orders are taken again, here are your choices. Also take note of those shipping and delivery dates. A few of them are the vague “Available to ship: 2 weeks” or “Available to ship: mid-November.”

Note: your choices for all iPad Mini models are black & slate and white & silver.

iPad Mini Wi-Fi only:

16GB for $329, Available to ship: 2 weeks
32GB for $429, delivery 11/2
64GB for $529, delivery 11/2

iPad Mini Wi-Fi + Cellular for Verizon, AT&T and Sprint:

16GB for $459,
32GB for $559
64GB for $659

All are “Available to ship: mid-November.”

Note: your choices for iPad Retina are white and black

iPad with Retina Wi-Fi only:

16GB for $499
32GB for $599
64GB for $629

All “Deliver 11/2”

iPad with Retina Wi-Fi + Cellular for Verizon, AT&T and Sprint

16GB for $629,
32GB for $729
64GB for $829

All show “Available to ship: mid-November.”

Do your research, make up your mind now and keep www.apple.com open on your browser.

Seeing is not believing: beware this bogus iPhone 5 dock

At Pure Mobile, top-notch mobile accessories are kind of our thing.

So when we came across a story on Gizmodo about a bogus Chinese iPhone 5 dock that doesn't actually work, all we could think was "for shame."

"Don't buy an iPhone 5 dock," Gizmodo warned, "because it's a Chinese scam."

Their information comes from Double Helix Cables, where a friend actually had a hands-on experience with the fake accessory. Here's what they had to say:

"Opening up the box and out pops this stinker. I did a double take because it looked like a prank, prop, or placeholder of some sort. The lightning plug on the dock looks like a damn piece of cardboard, if you can even call it that. Because it's a cardboard-like chunk of circuit board that supposedly is going to fit into my iPhone 5."

The reviewer goes on to write about the the fact that dock's cutout "isn't remotely close to being iPhone 5 shaped," and then elaborates on the "home brewed lightning plug [...] which 100% doesn't fit."

A critic of the phoney dock took major issue with its "home brewed lightning plug"

This lovely critique then ends with the writer concluding that any "further effort to make this non functional dock [work] would probably damage my iPhone."

Granted, Apple doesn't actually make a dock accessory for the iPhone 5, yet. But that's no reason for third party manufacturers to start churning out ones that simply don't work.

Many would be more than happy to produce a suitable iPhone 5 dock that actually functions, especially if they don't have to compete with Apple itself. There are plenty of fun third party iPhone 5 gadgets out there that not only work, but work really well.

And, in our opinion, there's no excuse for this kind of blatant BS when so many companies have been able to turn a dollar making affordable and functional iPhone accessories that consumers actually want.

The big Apple announcements have been made, and Apple had a very busy day. In case you weren’t in San Jose yesterday (or glued to Twitter), here is what was revealed about Apple’s new releases: the iPad Mini, the new MacBook Pro, the new version of the Mac Mini and redesigned iMacs. Apple even handed over a fourth generation iPad.

iPad Mini

The iPad Mini is a 7-inch version of the new iPad.

• A screen that measures 7.9 inches diagonally with 4:3 aspect ratio that makes it looks like it has a bigger viewing area than it really does
• Total screen area of 29.6 square inches
• 23% thinner than the third generation iPad
• The same resolution as the original iPad and iPad 2, at 1,024 x 768 (this allows use of current apps since the smaller screen size will shrink them with no app redesign required)
• 163 pixels per inch
• A5 chip – the same processor used in the iPad 2 and the new iPod Touch.
• Front-facing FaceTime 720p camera, with a 5-megapixel camera in back
• A weight of 10.9 ounces (less than half the weight of the full-size iPad)
• 0.28 of an inch thickness
• The new Lightning connector that first appeared with the iPhone 5
• Color choices of black and white
• Smart covers shrunk to fit and in multiple colors including blue, green, pink and black

iPad mini pricing starts at $329 for the Wi-Fi-only version with 16GB capacity. Wi-Fi-only with more capacity are $429 for 32GB, and $529 for 64GB. Cellular versions run $459 for 16GB, $559 for 32 GB and $659 64GB. Higher capacities and 4G LTE options are also available.

Pre-orders begin Oct. 26. Wi-Fi devices ship Nov. 2. Cellular models arrive two weeks later. Reports say Apple has ordered 10 million iPad Minis from its suppliers to meet demand between now and the holiday season.

New MacBook Pro

The new MacBook Pro computer surprised many with its size.

• A 13-inch retina display
• Three-quarters of an inch thick
• Weighs in a full pound less than the 13″ MacBook Pro
• Screen resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 (higher resolution than the 27″ iMac)
• No optical drive, USB 3.0 and a full HDMI output
• Two Thunderbolt ports

Here are the three basic models of the new 13″ MacBook Pro Retina:

• 2.5 Ghz i5 with 128GB SSD and 8GB of RAM, $1699
• 2.5 Ghz i5 with 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM, $1999
• 2.9 Ghz i7 with 512 SSD and 8GB of RAM, $2199

The MacBook Pro has already begun to ship.

iPad 4

Apple also surprised many with the announcement of a slightly updated fourth-generation, full-sized iPad with a new, twice-as-fast processor.The design is basically the same with a few exceptions.

• The Lightning connector
• A6X system-on-a-chip
• Improved LTE support (adding Sprint to the Verizon and AT&T providers)

The iPad 4 pricing matches that of the new iPad.

Updated Mac Mini computer

Apple modernized its Mac Mini computer with new features and upgrades.

• Hardwear choices are dual or quad-core i5 or i7 processor, with up to 16GB of RAM
• Intel HD graphics 4000
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Either a 1TB HDD or 256GB SSD

The basic Mac Mini model starts at $599 for a 2.5Ghz dual-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 500GB HDD. The updated Mac mini has already started to ship.

Updated iMac configuration

The iMac was last given a substantial update in 2009. The new version has some of the latest hardware in an unbelievably thin package.

• Configurations include the quad-core i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge processors and up to 32GB of RAM
• Ivy Bridge that provides connectivity with USB 3
• Drive choices - traditional hard drive, an SSD or Apple’s new Fusion Drive (Apple technology that gives a hybrid SSD/traditional HD experience. The most used and disk-intensive apps load from the SSD but your media, movies and music can still exist on a traditional hard drive.)

Here is the pricing for the new iMac models:

• The 21.5″ iMac starts at $1299 for a 2.7 quad-core i5 with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive.
• The 27″ iMac starts at $1799 for a quad core i5 with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive.
• The SSD or Apple’s new Fusion Drive are additional upgrades.

The 21.5″ iMac will go on sale in November. The 27″ iMac will go on sale in December.

Pure Mobile's got you covered for Halloween with this list of creepy apps for iPhone and iPad

We at Pure Mobile love Halloween almost as much as we love mobile devices. And when the two come together, it's a high-tech house of horrors that we just can't resist.

If you're anything like us, you'll want to celebrate the scariest (and probably most fun) holiday of the year in all sorts of ways, and thanks to some creepy smartphone apps, you can take your Halloween spirit with you everywhere you go.

As Halloween quickly approaches, we at Pure Mobile are delighting in finding all the best iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps for our frightening feature "Macabre goes Mobile."

Today's all about eerie iPhone apps, but Android and BlackBerry users can expect their own list of apps for those platforms in later instalments.

1: Free Halloween Sounds Pro for iPhone

Use sound to scare anywhere a smartphone can go, with Halloween Sounds Pro

Once upon a time, when you wanted creepy Halloween sound effects to scare trick-or-treaters, you had to play them through a stereo. And the speakers aimed at the door were kind of a dead giveaway.

But with the free Halloween Sounds Pro app for iPhone, you get to control a bunch of spooky Halloween sounds from your smartphone. Sneak up on that unsuspecting teenager who looks just a little too old to be asking for candy, or set the delay to scare the hell out of someone after you've left the room.

2: iMut8r app for iPhone and iPad

There are already a couple of apps that let you manipulate photos of yourself and of friends to make horrible monsters on your smartphone. SpookyPic and ZombieBooth are just a couple.

But iMut8r for iPhone and iPad lets you mutate into a vampire, werewolf, zombie, witch, ghoul, whatever. Mix and match elements for your most hideous Facebook profile pic yet!

Use your smartphone to turn a picture of anyone into an undead abomination with iMut8r

3: Pumpkin Ninja app for iPhone

Pumpkin Ninja revives a centuries-old Japanese tradition of slicing jack o'lanterns via smartphone

Addicted to smartphone gaming? The Pumpkin Ninja game app for iPhone lets you swipe at falling pumpkins à la fruit Ninja.

Not really scary but definitely in the Halloween spirit.

4. iDrakula app for iPhone

What's more Halloween than telling scary stories?

The iDrakula app for iPhone does just that, retelling Bram Stoker's classic Dracula novel with a modern slant through text messages, voicemails, emails and browsers in language geared for the Twitter age.

iDrakula retells Bram Stoker's classic by sending texts, emails and other messages from the characters to your smartphone

You may get a "text" from a character telling you another chunk of the plot, so the juicy story not only unfolds on your smartphone, but has interactive elements and develops at surprise moments not of your own choosing.

5. Dark Haunts app for iPhone or Android

Dark Haunts gives you directions on your phone to the nearest ghost-infested locations

Always itched to go ghost hunting?

The Dark Haunts app for iPhone claims to help you "find the closest 'real' haunted site near you."

Dark Haunts' database has over 3,200 haunted locations and is regularly adding new ones. They give you a bit of backstory, and direct you to the ghost-infested locations. You can also choose the type of haunt you want: a restaurant if you're hungry, a hotel if you want a creepy getaway.

Just don't go crying to the developers if you actually happen to run into a spectre.

iPad mini front mock-up

While waiting for Apple to unveil the iPad mini on October 23rd, we’re all over leaked photos and specs for the new device. We’ve seen plenty of mock-ups until now, but Sonny Dickson, a researcher at 9to5Mac posted some photos on his Twitter feed that are rumored to be actual pics of the tiny Apple tablet.

Many of the pictures show the iPad mini next to the new iPad. There's a dramatic size difference between the two. The mini looks to be 7.85 inches with an anodized aluminum case. There’s a rear-facing camera, two rear speakers and a nano-SIM card slot for wireless internet access.  It will likely be equipped with the Lightning dock connector, too.

Actual pic of the iPad mini on top of the new iPad?

The Wall Street journal reports that Apple is so sure that the iPad mini will be a huge seller that they and their suppliers are busy making 10 million of them.

Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire are both priced at $199. TechCrunch is reporting that the iPad mini will come in at around $300.

Apple will make the official iPad Mini announcement on October 23rd. the iPad Mini preorder date for October 26th and we can find in stores on November 2nd.

Blendtec is back with another "Will it Blend?" video, this time pitting the iPhone 5 against the Samsung Galaxy S III

Are you ready for a  ridiculous and nonsensical test which has no merit and which proves absolutely nothing?

Then, the iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S III blender test is for you!

While most of us are just trying to get our hands on one of the newest and best smartphones, Blendtec, a maker home and professional blenders is busy pulverizing them.

It's pretty much what it sounds like. With a few of these "Will it Blend?" YouTube videos under his belt already, Blendtec's Tom Dickinson asks the question again, pitting the "the latest," i.e. Apple's iPhone 5, vs. what Samsung "claims to be the greatest," the Galaxy S III.

The iPhone 5 may have a retina display, and the Galaxy S III may have a bigger screen, but which will withstand the blending?

Tom describes both smartphones, highlighting their most attractive features, and then unceremoniously chucks each into its own Blendtec Total blender.

While the iPhone 5 starts shattering pretty early on, the Galaxy S III holds in there for an impressive amount of time, but eventually meets its end in much the same way as the completely obliterated iPhone, in a pile of black powder.

In the end, as the blender lids are removed and toxic-looking black smoke wafts up, we're left having to agree with Tom, who concludes: "I think the real winner is the Blendtec Total blender."

The whole stunt kind of runs opposite to what we do at Pure Mobile. But even though we've got a mission to help people protect their devices, we can't help but get some sort of sick pleasure out of watching this total and utter destruction.

Though we'd have to agree with Blendtec's disclaimer: don't try this at home!