As most of you are probably aware, people around here like Hero Academy. In a bit of good news for the fans, and bad news for our time, Robot Entertainment announced that the Dwarven race will be added in an update on February 22nd, and available for $1.99 as an in-app purchase.

 Here’s some information they’ve listed:

PALADIN

(Class: Fighter) – Holy warrior who can heal and revive allies, healing herself in the process.

GUNNER

(Class: Shooter) – Shooter who deals high damage to a nearby enemy. AOE damage at range.

GRENADIER

(Class: Caster) – Lobs molotovs over enemies for AOE damage. Weak melee attack.

ENGINEER

(Class: Support) – Shields a single ally/crystal. Higher bonus from premium squares.

ANNIHILATOR

(Class: Super Unit) – Deals heavy damage with AOE knockback. Direct hits weaken physical defenses.

Attention AppSlappy listenership, you’re welcome –

So, Whitney Houston dies in Los Angeles of an apparent drug overdose on Saturday. Then, about 30 minutes after the news hit main stream media, the price of her Ultimate Collection album in the UK went from  £3 ($4.70) to £7.99 ($12.60).

At least according to Digital Spy, Apple itself is the culprit. The claim being the Apple is attempting to cash in the singer’s death with the only real evidence being the end price. However, it should noted that prices are not set only by Apple, but by the music label. It is equally possible, and seemingly ignored my news outlets, that the music label (Sony Music) asked that the album prices be raised. And so far neither party has commented on the matter.

At the very least, someone wanted her album prices be raised shortly after her death in what is a very obvious attempt to make more money. Exactly who those entities might be is unclear. And (so far) no official comment has been made from Apple or Sony.

It seem fairly likely that Apple is building a proper TV, it’s a question of what it can do and how much it costs. Rumors have been flying about what an AppleTV would be for well over a year and now Best Buy has added a bit of fuel to the fire with a customer survey that gives people a hypothetical scenario of a 42-inch HDTV for $1,499.

It should be noted that a ‘normal’ 42-inch TV goes for about $499. Most people are saying that this survey has very little to do with what Apple is actually doing, due to use of the term  ”iSight.” For the most, Apple has been referring to this technology as “Facetime cameras.” Calling this overpriced is fairly safe statement, though I’d imagine that if they ran this through the Apple machine it would end in people wanting one…

Superbowl commercials are generally some of the best entertainment people get in between programming all year, and this year appears to be no exception. Among them is a new Samsung commercial that makes some fun at the Apple user’s expense. It’s a bit of a tease, but it’s for the new Samsung Galaxy Note LTE. The full 90 second commercial is scheduled to air in the fourth quarter. And, in case you were curious, it was directed by Bobby Farrelly, best known for some movies like Dumb and Dumber, Fever Pitch, and There’s Something About Mary.

Apple has recently hired Robin Burrowes, a former Xbox executive, to run marketing for it’s App Store in Europe. According to his LinkedIn profile, Burrowes had started at Microsoft in 2005 as a manager, then promoted in 2008. He is only the latest in a long line of former gaming professionals recruited by Apple. In just this past year, people from Nintendo, EA, Activision and Microsoft have gone the way of iOS.

At the very least Apple would seem to know where their bread is buttered, especially considering that Apple made roughly 4 billion in revenue to date through the app store. I, for one, find it heartening that such a successful company would look into the throws of gaming to make their products stronger. On the other hand, I wish Apple would leave some of the talent alone. You watch, after Kingdoms of Amalur becomes a massive hit Curt Schilling will become Apple’s new VP of Awesome.

Nothing says the cusp of technology like an ant simulation game, and today we look at a game dedicated to our friendly household pests with Anthill. I don’t know if any of you have ever checked out the old-school SimAnt game, but here we have what is essentially the iOS version of it. Unsurprisingly, your job in Anthill is to sustain your colony by acquiring food and protecting the nest from pretty much anything that comes your way. The developer describes this as “Tactical Trail Defense” game, essentially the user drags their finger across the map to designate where the ant trail moves to. You also have several different kinds of ants to perform various functions. Based on how well you do, you earn stars that can be used to upgrade your various ant forms in between maps.

For the $0.99 you spend, worth it. And it’s universal, enjoy!

In yet another way that Valve is taking over gamer’s lives (and us blissfully welcoming them), their popular gaming portal Steam just got a bit cooler with a brand new app on iOS and Android for free. However, the service itself is still in a closed beta, meaning you can download the application but not necessarily be able to do anything with it just yet. According to Valve, the app allows the user to chat with friends, view steam games, read up on any steam news, and purchase content for their gaming library.

In order to be considered for the beta, all you have to do is download the app and log into their steam account.

As time goes on more people are expected entrance into the beta program.

In Apple’s effort to completely do away with wired networking, they plan on deploying support for WiFi 802.11ac on their devices this year, according to a report by Apple Insider. This is also called ‘Gigabit WiFi’ and, as the name implies, such a network could go faster than one Gigabit per second data transfer rate. This potentially means that Apple TVs, Macs, and mobile devices could be downloading information at much faster rate than they have been in the past. Even the prospect of such a high wireless transfer rate is enough to get many folks excited.

While 802.11ac is not an official standard as of yet, Apple has been known to be ahead of the curve when it comes to wireless technology, and consequently, they have been among the first adopters of a new consumer-grade technology in the past.

And it’s a fair bet that this will pay off again.

In a relatively modest event, Apple held a press conference at the Guggenheim in New York City with the next generation of educational applications. With that, people came away with three exciting new announcements:

• iBooks 2 - Multimedia textbooks are now available in iBooks, complete with photos, videos, and interactive diagrams. Users can search terms within the textbook, highlight them, and make notes on any page they like. Each of the textbooks are available at a price point of $14.99 or less, far less than their physical counterpart. However, each of these textbooks are only available in the United States at the moment, and take up between 855MB and 2.77GB. Hopefully with the inevitable iPad 3, we’ll have a bit more storage space to put these books in.
• iBooks Author – Now people can create these very cool books for the iPad on their Mac OS systems for free. Authors can embed animations, videos, pictures, 3D objects, and even embed custom HTML in their books. It also allows you to import chapters from Microsoft Word or Pages. One important note, please carefully read the EULA for this application before you submit any completed work to Apple. While I can’t confirm anything, but I heard some rumors of it’s far-reaching implications for the authors submitting material. I’ll add more on this when there is something to say.
• iTunes U – Not to be confused with Wii U. A service that was primarily used to deliver lectures is now getting it’s own application. Any educator, whether it be a University professor or an elementary school teacher, can distribute courses online to be consumed by anyone, and for free. This particular app is definitely exciting for anyone looking to further their learning experiences. Introduction to Robots from Stanford University, Multicore Programming Primer from MIT, School of Architecture from Notre Dame, and much more. I’m seriously considering looking up some stuff on Photoshop CS5.