Category: I-phone

When the Mac App Store opened back in January of 2011 many people questioned if we really needed an App Store for the Mac, well now less than 15 months later the Mac App Store contains more than 10,000 Apps. Even though the numbers are nowhere near those of the  iOS App Store’s 500,000+ titles, the success of the Mac App Store still tells us something about the future of software distribution.

Thanks to warm reception from the developer community and the exclusive distribution of software like Final Cut Pro X and OS X Lion, Apple controls the largest and most vibrant PC software storefront in the world.

When comparing the numbers to those of the iOS App Store, some might say this milestone is somewhat disappointing, however you need to consider that Mac OS X is very different from the iOS platform, unlike the iPhone, anyone can install apps outside of the Mac App Store in OS X from third-party developers on the web, while you have to use the App Store on iOS devices, unless you jailbreak your device of course.

What do you think? Will the Mac App Store continue to gain success or will Mac users stick with downloading through third-party developers?

Welcome to another edition of the best resources in iOS Development.  Showcasing the last week of resources on this site in order of popularity.

This week’s top iPhone and iPad developer resources include a very easy to use open source pull to refresh control, a wrapper that turns C-based OpenGL ES 2.0 components into Objective-C objects, and a tutorial demonstrating how to use the accessibility API beyond adding labels in the interface builder.

Here are the resources:

Open Source iOS Component That Enables Pull To Refresh With One Line Of Code – A great library for easily adding pull to refresh that doesn’t subclass UITableView.

Open Source Wrapper Makes It Easier To Work Use OpenGL ES 2.0 In Objective-C – Brilliant wrapper that wraps OpenGL ES objects into Objective-C objects.

Tutorial: In Depth Tutorial And Example On Using The iOS Accessibilty API – A step-by-step guide demonstrating how to make full use of the VoiceOver capability available on the iOS platform.

Tool: App To Develop iOS App Store Games Completely On Your iPad – A very cool app that allows you to use Lua to develop games (or any graphical apps) completely on your iPad.  (Mac/Xcode/iOS Developer account required to build for app store).

Open Source iOS Control For Easily Adding Elegant Customizable Hint Panels Into An App – A very versatile iOS control allowing you to add highly customizable panels which are great for giving tips to your users.

Tutorial: How To Easily Build A Location Based Social Messaging App With Parse – An in-depth tutorial and example showing how to build a social app using Parse for the backend.

Open Source iOS Control Automatically Creates Grid-Style Navigation From UIViewControllers – A very useful navigation control from LinkedIn to make creating app navigation easier.

Tutorial: How To Make Jagged Drawn Lines Smooth In Cocos2D – A tutorial inspired by the Paper app showing how to take jagged lines drawn by the user and turn them into neatly smoothed lines.

If you’d like to suggest a resource to feature on the Maniacdev.com please submit it here.  This site currently sends out over 250,000 visits per month.

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©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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With GLKit Apple made it considerably easier to work with OpenGL ES, and some time ago I mentioned a great app for developing shaders and learning to understand OpenGL ES right on the device.

Today I came across a library that complements GLKit quite well.  The developers have created a wrapper that makes it easy to create OpenGL ES 2.0 objects and encapsultes them into Objective-C objects.

Here is some further info on the project from Raphael Sebbe known as CeedGL taken from the Github repository page:

Modern OpenGL (ES 2.0, Desktop 3.0) defines a number of “objects”, that is, vertex buffers, textures, shaders, programs, framebuffers, etc. that are typically represented by handles (integers).

CeedGL proposes to model all these and their relationships with each other as actual Objective-C objects and associated methods. This in turn makes it easier to store and manipulate GL data in your app structure.

CeedGL also defines the concept of “draw command” which ties together vertex buffers, textures, shaders to provide reusable drawing primitives. It also makes it easier to access uniforms and attributes in shaders.

You can download the library along with an example project on Github here.

via @morbec

Looks like a great project for working with OpenGL ES 2.0 – definitely one to try out if you’re working with OpenGL ES 2.0 on the iOS platform.

 

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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Who loves puzzle games? Well I do for one, and there are lots of others out there who share my joy for the casual game. The Heist isn’t just a puzzle game though, it’s an interactive mission. It’s like Ocean’s 11 without the lame sequels. Or George Clooney. Or really anything other than a safe.

But what is it? Well for that answer, you’re going to have to hit the jump.  

The Concept

The game opens up with a bank vault staring you right in the face. Suddenly, your iPhone rings (which, if you’re like me, will scare the crap out of you). You tap “Answer,” then put it on speakerphone, and that’s when you find out the plan.

Sophia — the girl on the phone — tells you with great urgency that you have to open up the bank vault in front of you. To do so, you have to tap one of the icons below the vault, and then play one of the games. Once you’ve done a preselected number of puzzles, then one of the locks on the vault opens up. There are four locks in total, so there’s a lot of stuff to do. Get after it!

The Puzzles

There are four basic puzzles, and you’ve probably seen them all before in one variation or another. The first is a series of blocks. You have to get a flash drive into a port to advance, but another series of blocks is standing in your way. Move the blocks around until you can get the drive in place.

Second on the list is another puzzle that’s a little bit harder to describe. You’re given this series of rocks to place around a sand pit. Each rock has its own label, and by using the already placed rocks as a guide, you can figure out where the new ones go. It’s a bit tricky, but the starting levels give you ample hints to go along your way.

Third, we have a cube. You now play the role of a little robot dude that has to push boxes into their appropriate spots on a grid. Doing this causes various problems, so you have to be very specific about how you take each step.

Finally, there’s a wire system. You’re given a 3X3 display filled with 8 tiles. You have to move around the tiles until the wiring displayed on the tiles connect the lights on the sides of the screen. Some levels have just one color, some have more. Again, the further along the game you progress, the more complicated it becomes.

Advancing the Heist

Along the bottom of the screen is a progress bar. This indicates how far along the way you are, and how many puzzles you have left to beat before the next lock opens. Speaking of, those lock indicators are just to the right of the vault door, and there are four of them total. Once one lock is opened, the next series of puzzles in the system are opened up.

The game itself starts off pretty easy, but things get very complicated as soon as the first lock in the series is completed. The puzzles become the type that can either drive you nuts or push you harder to get things going. In my case, it made me a little irritated, but fortunately there are enough other puzzles that stay open that give you enough other options. It helps you keep your sanity without losing the game completely.

Is It Fun?

The most important question to ask about any game, and of course, we should ask it here as well. In my case, I really enjoy puzzle games, but these are the type that can really make me elated to beat the task at hand, or so pissed off that I never want to see the game again. I felt both those emotions in my time with The Heist.

The difference here is the story. I pushed on with the game because I wanted to open the vault and see what was inside. In my time with the game so far, I haven’t done that yet — but that’s also why I’ll continue to play. If, at some point, it becomes so irritating that I never finish, then that’s what I’ll do. It’s the balance between irritating and fun that makes me recommend, yet with some reservations, The Heist.

Final Thoughts

So yes, I do recommend The Heist, particularly if you’re the type who enjoys a good puzzle every now and then. Thing is, you may not be able to play this for long stretches without wanting to toss your iPhone across the room. For me, that’s a fine balance, and you may feel the same.

The game is pretty affordable (it was on sale when I made the review), and even if it goes up in price I still think it’s fun to play. Just be warned, if you get frustrated easily, this might not be the app for you.

There are countless reasons that one might need to convert from one unit to another. Maybe you are an mechanical engineer who needs to convert your water pressure from inches of mercury to kilopascals. Or maybe you are just a high school student who wants to convert square feet to square meters for a geometry problem. Convex is an app that converts a variety of measurements between different units and does so with a simple, intuitive and beautiful package.

There are lots of apps out there that convert between units of measurement on the app store and claim to be the best, the easiest or the most powerful. An example of a great measurement conversion app is Convertbot, by Tapbots. Clearly, these two apps are similar, from the wheel of units that the app is based around to the clever ways that each of the different measurements are displayed. But how does Convex stack up?

Why Convex?

Convex aims to be “a revolutionary, stylish converter for iPhone and iPad that is so smart, it actually understands you.” And it really does make the job of converting to and from different units a lot of fun. The main source of all the joy is its use of a wheel which can be rotated, animated widgets for each measurement which can be manipulated by swiping, the arrows on either side, or by typing the measurement value manually.

As for the variety of Convex’s functionality, the wheel offers 20 categories of measurement that range from radioactivity to data size. For each of these categories, you can access 40-50 different units by tapping the unit name under the value at the top. That adds up to a lot of possible conversions and infinite ways to use this app. To set up a conversion, you first select two units which you would like to use. Then you adjust the value of the measurement and the app converts your measurement to the unit on the right automatically. If you want to convert back to the original unit, just tap the button between the two units. It’s that simple!

The Interface

The interface for Convex is very fun but also functional. Basically, the application’s wheel, which appears when you open the app, spins around to different categories of measurement and when you click on one of the measurements, a unique interactive graphic widget with which you control the measurement. For example, when you click on the water droplet, an animated stream of water appears. You can adjust the volume of liquid up or down by swiping up or down on the water flow. To add to this, each widget makes sounds appropriate to their measurement, specifically the sound of water flowing for the water widget.

Likewise, the hourglass widget used for measuring time makes the sound of sand moving and the gear metaphor used for power makes the sound of clinking gears. And if you don’t like the widgets and metaphors or they are not precise enough for your needs, you can always swipe down from the top and reveal a white text bar in which you can type the exact value that you want for your measurement. Overall, the design is one of the most intuitive and creative that I have seen in a utility app.

Sharing Options

Conveniently, the app lets you share your conversions right from either the main menu screen or any of the individual widget screens. It also gives you the option to share through email and Twitter. Additionally, you can copy it to the clipboard or even save it as a voice recording. So if you are working with a partner on a project, this app makes it extremely simple to share the results of your conversions in a number of ways.

Performance

Convex is generally very smooth on my 2-year-old iPhone 4, but it is not perfect. The wheel at the beginning is pretty smooth, but some of the graphics on the different measurements get pretty choppy. This is especially evident and annoying when you are trying to move the arrows which reside on both sides of the widget, and you can’t get the measurement right because it keeps jumping up and down because of lag.This is not a huge problem because you can manually type in measurements, but it is something to keep in mind. However, this is not to say that the app is not usable by any means — actually, quite the opposite. For the most part, most aspects of the app run very smoothly.

Conclusion

Convex is a great option for anyone who needs to do some quick conversions. Able to do almost any conversion imaginable, Convex goes about it in a fun and intuitive way that is easy to understand and master. Its beautiful interface and creative widgets just add to the charm and appeal this app possesses. Despite a couple of performance hiccups (which hopefully will be resolved in future updates), the app is smooth and functional.

Though I’ve only used Convex’s biggest competition, Convertbot, a couple of times, I can’t imagine that it trumps this app by much if any. I thoroughly enjoy using this app and would recommend it to anyone.

We’ve made it to the weekend, everyone take a deep breath. If you’re ready for your quick fix of new App Store games, then you’re in the right place and have some sweet new titles to look forward to.

Discover the lighter side of a werewolf’s curse, crusade against ducks, seek burgers, and more in this week’s roundup — see you on the other side!

 

 

 

 

 

What Have You Been Playing?

Those games have been keeping us entertained this week…what about you? Tell us about what you’re playing these days in the comments, and we’ll see you next week with more!

Lume is one of those rare puzzle games that you just can’t put down once you start. The design and background music are impeccable in setting a somber yet elegant tone. The puzzle challenges inside are also fun and quite the brain teaser.

The app was created by State of Play Games who have already begun work on the sequel, Lume 2. The popularity of Lume is not unfounded, as it certainly offers a unique mobile experience. There are some iOS users who just hate buying games and do not enjoy playing them, but if you like complex puzzles or even enjoy colorful app interfaces Lume is an amazing example.

Music & Visuals

I have to point out the game’s visuals before anything else. The whole world is created using paper and cardboard coupled with tricky lighting effects. It sets a tone of surrealism and really gives off a naturally creative vibe.

And another big contributor is the musical tone. When first launching the game you’ll be presented with a colorful intro piece. This is where you can pickup from a previous save file or start a new game from the beginning. Their music is both spooky and enchanting, which is a very mysterious combination if you think about it.

On the graphics and music alone I’d have to say Lume blows the competition sky high. There really aren’t many other game developers working on a similar idea. The Lume dev team at State of Play Games put together their own demo video, and it goes over this interface and some of the internal game screens. Check it out directly on Vimeo or find it on the Lume project page.

Simplified Gameplay

I have to admit that lacking any system of controls was a bummer. It doesn’t take away from the game’s overall feel, but it does make everything way too simple. There is almost no replay value after you’ve completed the initial puzzles.

The only interaction is created by tapping on a section of the screen to target that area. Your character will run to the spot and interact with the object if possible. This is also the same setup for creating a new game file and scrolling through text bubbles in the menu system.

It’s definitely a puzzling experience compared to some alternative mobile games. Objects which you can use are not always evident right away. There is a lot of guesswork involved and frequently results in breaking down to find a walkthrough guide online. But if you dig these insane puzzlers then these controls are right up your alley.

Complex Puzzles

Speaking on these crazy puzzles, they actually follow in a similar visual style as the game world. You are often found interacting with different pieces of the game world in a closer view.

In the early stages of the game you need to rewire her grandfather’s solar panel. It appears as a jumbled mess of wires with rotating squares to form a 2-dimensional picture puzzle. Another example is the doorknob and lock combinations found inside the house. Each piece uses the same answers on every new game, so they are difficult at first but quick to memorize.

Lack of Replay Value

Unfortunately, there are some downsides to Lume. Unless you are sharing the game with your friends it’s unlikely that you’ll ever play through the series 3 or 4 times. The puzzles are so easy that once you understand what to do there is practically no challenge left.

Additionally, the game has a built-in help system if you are ever stuck. The tips are pretty obvious and you’d be hard pressed to still be missing the solutions. And there are even online guide walkthroughs to help you the rest of the way. But I have to admit that without any idea of what to do, Lume is extremely challenging. You won’t regret spending the $1.99 and having this game around to kill some time.

The Future of Lume

I find the game can be completed in 2-3 hours at most. If you have some idea of how to go about the puzzles you can move quickly in about 1 hour, but the pace picks up in rapid succession so it’s worthwhile to move slowly and take your time.

It’s a great puzzle game and very creative for the genre. In the App Store I’ve seen Lume featured plenty of times and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. I would be really excited to see their designers crank out a second game with a bit more incentive. Many of these puzzles could have been setup with random values at each new game file.

Granted, it is understandable that the developers would have wanted to quickly get a product into the store, and Lume 2 promises to be an even broader expansion of the idea. It’s difficult to say exactly who this game is targeted for, but I feel Lume has entered an untargeted niche with plenty of room to flourish, and maybe even breed some other exciting ideas.

Final Thoughts

I’d have to highly recommend Lume to anybody who is interested in iOS apps, especially developers or user interface designers. The music is simply stunning and the visuals are beyond anything I’ve seen before.

I was not disappointed with the game at all — in fact, I’d argue Lume has given me a whole new perspective on what mobile gaming could be about.

That’s right, AppStorm is now on Pinterest!

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web, and we’ve already got a few pinboards up for you to check out! Browsing pinboards is a fun and visual way to discover new things, head over to Pinterest now to see our collections;

• Beautiful App Icons
• Gorgeous Games
• Amazing iPhone Accessories
• Awesome iPad Accessories

Follow AppStorm for app-related goodness!

We will be adding more as time goes on, and the editorial team gets inspired, but feel free to suggest any great ideas you have for pinboards in the comments!

As more people are getting interested in design and it becomes a preoccupation across the Internet, typography is moving out of a realm reserved only for graphic artists and print publishers. Typography is instead now becoming accessible to the masses who just want to make a document, blog or landing page look really good. There’s a lot going on in those little letters though, and choosing a typeface comes down to more than just which is the prettiest.

That’s where Typography Insight comes in. If you’ve ever wondered what the difference between a typeface and a font is, or how to tell a serif from a sans serif, Typography Insight is there to help. With font comparisons, type inspectors and a dictionary of typography terminology, Typography Insight aims to help you learn the ins and outs of type.

A Typography Tutorial

Typography Insight starts you off with the basics of type, introducing terminology and historical typeface lessons that get you geared up for the other app functions. There are definitions for basic concepts and lots of diagrams pointing out type anatomy. (Who knew fonts had eyes and ears?) Bullet points and red markers draw the user’s attention to the attributes that set each type apart.

Six typefaces are displayed to demonstrate the history and evolution of typography. No actual dates or contextual information are included in the timeline, but Typography Insight gives you links to the Wikipedia article for each typeface if you want to learn more. I do wish the app had been beefed up a little here and included some of those useful facts without having to look elsewhere.

Playing Around with the Alphabet

That’s the book learning. For the fun stuff, you have to jump to the comparison functions of the app, which allow the user to overlay individual letters and place them alongside one another. You can make the two letters larger or smaller or look at the entire alphabet at once. It’s difficult to compare two letters of similar fonts when they’re side by side, and it’s here I miss the markers indicating font characteristics.

The overlay feature is the standout. A single letter is presented in a particular font and color with the same letter overlapping it in a different font and color. You can enlarge and move both letters or just one of the letters, placing parallel to or above one another. The app lets you choose which letter to examine, or even choose numbers and a few symbols. What makes the overlay feature so great is that here you can play with the fonts, get a real feel for what makes typeface families different, and compare the intricacies of each one.

That said, the ability to view an entire word overlayed in two fonts would go a long way to improving the functionality of this app. Comparing individual letters is a great way to learn about typefaces, but if you’re choosing a font for a document, you’ll want to see how words and entire sentences look, and the overlay and juxtapose functions could be really handy here.

Design App Lacking in Design

For what ultimately boils down to a design app, Typography Insight doesn’t look that great. The menu screen is uninteresting and the layout of the menu items is equally boring. The majority of the app consists of an interactive off-white foreground set on an off-white background. It’s not an app you want to hang around in for any period of time, no matter how useful it may be. It functions as a quick resource you want to get in and get out of quickly, and the design, unfortunately, supports that.

But What Will I Do With It?

With its definitions and basic comparison tools, Typography Insight is likely going to be most useful to typography students or armchair designers looking to learn more about the technical side of design. It’s a close at-hand reference that will give you the basics and nothing more. Brushing up on typeface elements is a breeze here and the interface allows you to switch among the definitions and diagrams quickly.

Professional designers and even those just looking to improve the look of their next PowerPoint will require an app with more features and, most importantly, more fonts, but anyone looking for an inexpensive guide to the basics will be happy with Typography Insight.

Conclusion

Where Typography Insight falls short is the feeble number of typefaces presented. Only sixteen are included with the app, with no option to download more. It’s certainly interesting to overlay Helvetica and Times New Roman, but if I’m truly shopping around for a font to use in a project or learn the ins and outs of modern and historic fonts, I will probably want to compare very similar typefaces or different versions of a single typeface, like Helvetica and Helvetica Condensed. With other more attractive, feature-rich, and admittedly more expensive apps out there bringing users vast type libraries, Typography Insight feels a little lean.

I kept struggling with what I wanted Typography Insight to be — an app that will help me make better design choices. Taken as a tutorial app, Typography Insight does the job; it gives you a few quick clues on how typefaces work and some tools to explore that new knowledge. As anything more that a learning aid, Typography Insight can’t stand against other apps with better tools that do give you real, applied insight into typography and design.

When it comes to evaluating the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today’s topic is Apple operating systems.

In Steve Jobs’ road map when Lion was first presented, he discussed what would later be known as the “Post PC” world. He talked about including lessons from iOS in the new operating system, and highlighted how consumer-centered products were the future.

Now, with Mountain Lion, that convergence grows stronger. With OS X 10.8, many iOS core features like Game Center, Notifications, and Reminders, have made the jump over to OS X, joining the Mac App Store and natural touch scrolling as mobile-inspired developments.

Are the two operating systems set to merge even more? Most minds think yes. But how close will they go? Is a single OS on the horizon? Or will the fear of toasterfridges keep them distinct?

You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your analysis.

View Poll

You’re the Pundit: Are iOS and OS X headed on a collision course? originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Newer Technology produces a wide variety of storage solutions for the Mac OS X world, and one new product is sure to be popular with anyone who needs the security of RAID storage in a portable package. The Guardian MAXimus mini is a rugged pint-sized RAID box using a pair of 2.5″ SATA hard disks or solid-state disks to provide RAID-1 mirroring for mobile Mac users.

Design

The design of the Guardian MAXimus mini is what I’ve come to expect from Newer Technology. The storage solution features a rugged aluminum case measuring about 5.25″ deep, 3.5″ wide, and 2″ high. On the front of the case is a backlit 2-line blue LCD and a set of tiny buttons that are used to check the status or change the settings of the array. There are also a set of LEDs to indicate activity and status of the two drives.

The review array came with two 7200 RPM Hitachi 500 GB drives installed in a RAID-1 mirrored configuration. For maximum storage, the array could be configured as a 1 TB RAID-0 striped set. On the back of the unit are two FireWire 400/800 ports, a USB 2.0 port, and one eSATA port. When connected to a Mac via FireWire 400/800 or USB 2.0, the array is bus-powered and doesn’t require external power. If you’re using eSATA, you’ll need to either plug in the included AC adapter or use a FireWire cable for power. Using FireWire 800, you can daisy-chain a number of the arrays for ultimate portable storage. Cables for all three interfaces are included.

The array is fanless and very quiet, making just a slight noise that would disappear when filled with SSDs. Pricing of a bare Guardian MAXimus mini is US$114.99 if you wish to supply your own drives; Newer Technology also sells the array pre-loaded in mirrored configurations of 5400 RPM 320 GB ($219.99), 500 GB ($249.99), 750 GB ($319.99), or 1 TB ($394.99) hard disk drives; 7200 RPM 500 GB ($329.99) or 750 GB ($394.99) hard disk drives; or 120 GB ($449.99), 240 GB ($829.99), or 480 GB ($1659.99) solid state drives.

Changing out drives requires a standard Philips screwdriver to remove two screws on the back of the case. Once those screws are removed and a small door is opened, the two drives are visible and easily accessed.

Benchmarks

TUAW uses a standard industry benchmark to compare the I/O capabilities of disks and arrays. The benchmark uses the AJA System Test, which simulates reading and writing video. The specific test I used was the Disk Read/Write test, also known as the DiskWhackTest, set at a video frame size of 720 x 486 8-bit and a file size of 128 MB.

I tested the array in both RAID 1 and RAID 0 configuration. The test results are compared to the internal SATA drive of the test iMac. What’s odd is that the RAID 0 configuration (striped set) is supposed to be faster than the mirrored set. At least in the testing I performed, RAID 1 was faster — particularly in writing to the drive where it was almost twice the speed of RAID 0.

Compared to some other FW 800 drives and arrays I’ve tested, the Guardian MAXimus mini in mirror mode was slightly slower in writing data but one of the fastest I’ve encountered in reading data.

Conclusion

For those who use Apple’s MacBook Pro or MacBook Air notebooks in their daily work, the Guardian MAXimus mini is a perfect redundant storage companion. Being bus-powered means there’s no need to drag along another power supply, and the RAID 1 capability provides a complete backup of your data at all times.

Personally, I’m thinking seriously about purchasing a pair of these little arrays to replace a much larger and more problematic array in my office. The Guardian MAXimus mini won’t take up as much space, won’t require a separate power supply, and will certainly be much quieter. The small size means the array can also travel with me, useful for trips where I need high-capacity and relatively fast storage for video work.

With the pricing, design, and performance of the Guardian MAXImus mini, Newer Technology has unleashed another winner product on the world.

Newer Technology Guardian MAXimus mini portable RAID solution originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One week after Apple announced it would create another 500 jobs at its European headquarters in Cork, Ireland, the employees there got a visit from none other than Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny. The visit happened yesterday, reports MacWorld UK, and during that time Kenny was snapped chatting with Apple employees, though it’s not known exactly what he talked about.

There’s no doubt the news of 500 new jobs pleased the PM, as Ireland is one of the EU countries most affected by the current recession. Apple’s headquarters and plant in Cork is not only the home of all of Apple’s European operations, but it’s also an assembly point for the MacBook Pro.

Apple’s current plant in Cork was opened in 1980 and was the first non-US headquarters for the company. The location now employs 2,800 people who work in backend, supply chain and distribution operations for Europe. Apple plans to add the additional 500 jobs over the next 18 months.

Irish Prime Minister visits Apple’s European headquarters originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Josh Gad is in talks to play Steve Wozniak in Jobs, the independent film staring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs. Gad is best known for his starring role in the South Park creators’ musical “Book of Mormon.” He is also a correspondent for The Daily Show and has appeared in feature films such as Love and Other Drugs.

Jobs will be shot on a shoestring budget of around US$5 million beginning next month in Texas. The film will chart the story of Steve Jobs from his days as a teenager to when he founded Apple — and perhaps up to his return to the company in 1997, depending which reports of the script are accurate. The Ashton Kutcher-led Jobs film is not to be confused with Sony’s official adaptation of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography, which is due out late this year.

Photograph credit: Dimitrio Kambouris/Getty Images.

Broadway star Josh Gad to play Woz in Jobs biopic originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just over two months after Apple acquired the app discovery service Chomp, the company has removed features that allowed users to search for Android apps in addition to iOS apps. Chomp is a search tool that lets users to search for an app based on what it can do, instead of by the name alone. The service works using specific algorithms that sort through and compile what an app does based on its description, user reviews, and capabilities.

Apple bought Chomp in February for US$50 million. It is assumed that Chomp was not just a talent acquisition, but was also purchased so that Apple can use Chomp’s technology in future versions of the App Store. During Apple’s financial earnings call last week, the company announced the App Store now has more than 600,000 apps and the Mac App Store has over 10,000 apps. One of the biggest complaints from developers and users alike is that it’s hard to discover new and interesting apps with the existing App Store search function.

Apple removes Android app searches from Chomp originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld reported late yesterday that Oracle has announced direct support of Java for OS X. This appears to be a reaction to the rather widespread outbreaks of malware that took advantage of exploits in Java before Apple was able to provide an update. Oracle’s Henrik Stahl announced that the company will be updating Java for the Mac directly and on a release schedule concurrent with other platforms such as Windows, Linux, and Oracle’s Solaris OS.

Stahl also announced that the Java Development Kit 7 and JavaFX Software Development Kit 2.1 for OS X are now available for download. Support for the Plugin and Web Start elements of Java won’t be available until later in 2012 when JDK 7 Update 6 arrives. Oracle also noted that the new versions of Java will only support OS X Lion and higher.

[via The Verge]

Oracle providing direct Java support for OS X, updates to be more timely originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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