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Macgasm brings us word that Twitter has expanded the in-page previews on its website to include iOS App Store app details. Although originally designed to do inline previews of made-for-Twitter image services like yfrog and TwitPic, Twitter has been expanding the concept in recent months; it now includes Flickr images, YouTube videos and images from the insanely popular Instagram service.

The preview for the App Store is quite detailed; as you can see, it includes the app icon, description and screenshot. If you haven’t disabled iTunes opening automatically for web previews already, this might help prevent those annoying and unwanted “Aargh! Why is iTunes open now?” moments.

Two notes about this feature: you’ll only see the thumbnails on the “new Twitter” web interface. They don’t work on the old site, nor do they work in any Twitter clients — including the official ones for Mac OS X and iPad. Secondly, the previews seem to be only for iOS apps; for whatever reason, Mac App Store links don’t preview.

Twitter website adds inline App Store previews originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google may debut its new in-app purchasing and subscription system to compete with Apple’s controversial model. Similar to Apple, the Google system would let users purchase upgrades and other digital content within an application using Android’s built-in payment system, Google Checkout. The new system for Android would give developers a 90% cut, while Google would grab the remaining 10%. This revenue split is more attractive than Apple’s current 70:30.

Google is reportedly rolling out this system as soon as today and is possibly introducing early it to capitalize on the dissatisfaction that is brewing over Apple’s recent changes to its subscription and in-app purchasing policy. These changes now require content providers like Amazon to offer in-app purchases of content that is offered for sale via another channel. Application developers have until June 30 to comply with this new requirement or risk having their application removed from the App Store.

This change would affect a wide variety of applications including the Kindle app, Hulu, Rhapsody and others. Rhapsody has already responded negatively to these changes and other developers may follow suit. Will Google’s Android model be enticing enough to get developers to jump ship or is everyone blowing this out of proportion?

[Update: The original rumor is slightly incorrect. It is not Google’s in-app purchasing model that is rolling out today. Instead, Google announced its One Pass subscription service for publishers. The service lets publishers set their own rates for content which will be accessible via the web, tablets and smartphones. In-app purchasing will be available but only through mobile applications that can process an in-app purchase outside of the app store (i.e., probably not iOS). Revenue sharing is set at 90:10 and the service provides direct access to subscriber’s data. It is designed to help publishers promote and distribute digital content.

Google may introduce in-app purchasing to compete with Apple’s model (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research predicts Apple could increase its addressable handset market by 6X in unit volume and 2.5X in revenue with the launch of a smaller, less expensive iPhone model, says Forbes. These projected numbers come from his analysis of handset market share and Apple’s current market reach. Sacconaghi suggests Apple misses 60% of the handset market with its current strategy that limits distribution to select carriers and sells the iPhone at a relatively high price point.

Sacconaghi predicts Apple could take two approaches with the cheap iPhone. In one scenario, Apple would produce the iPhone Mini, a scaled-down version of the iPhone that would offer a less robust Internet and App experience. The handset would be less data-intensive and would debut with a low-cost data plan that costs $15 or less per month.

The other option would be to sell an ‘iPhone touch,’ which would be an iPhone without a data plan. This hypothetical beastie would have all the capabilities of the iPod touch plus voice calling, but no cellular data. 3G connectivity would be available but optional, a scenario that would let users rely on WiFi for all their data needs. [It’s not clear from the Forbes excerpt of the report if Sacconaghi is explicitly saying that hardware-wise, an ‘iPhone touch’ is identical to an iPhone — Apple would need to include all the 3G radio chips, antenna and corresponding battery power to handle 3G data if it’s a customer-selectable option. –Ed.]

Sacconaghi suggests that both of these handsets could debut with retail prices close to or less than $149. if Apple could capture even 5% of its missed market share with a cheap iPhone, the Cupertino company could see a minimum annual profit boost of $4.50 a share. [Another bit of confusion here; it’s not at all clear that Toni S. is considering the unsubsidized price of the current iPhone, which starts at $599 and goes up from there. How we get from that price down to $149 without the full support of a carrier subsidy — harder to justify without a revenue-rich data plan attached to the phone contract — is not really clear. –Ed.]

While Sacconaghi expects Apple will make this move to a less expensive model, he believes the chance of a summer launch is low. The analyst points out that Apple’s iPhone 4 supply is still constrained and the manufacturer would not want to steal the thunder from the launch of the iPhone 5 expected in June. If Apple were to pursue this low-cost option for the iPhone, perhaps a fall launch tied into its annual iPod refresh might be a more realistic possibility. Thoughts anyone?

Analyst: iPhone mini could increase Apple’s market reach by 6X, revenue 2.5X originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Finally out of beta, Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac is now available in the Mac App Store. The app lets those with a Windows Phone or a Zune HD and a Mac (an odd mix indeed) move photos, music and video between their devices and Macs running iTunes and iPhoto. Also, Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac can be used to update your Windows phone.

Note that, when syncing music, only unprotected (non DRM) tracks are supported. The app is free and, like we said, available right now.

[Via Engadget]

Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac OS now in the App Store originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another report reinforces the rumor that Apple’s MacBook Pro refresh will land in early March. This latest leak from AppleInsider claims volume production is underway, and assembled units will begin shipping the first week of March. The source of this information also hints that the MacBook Pro will see new product enhancements besides the Sandy Bridge processor. Details on which aspects of the notebook will see an upgrade were not provided, but we could easily see some of the popular features of the MacBook Air, such as a standard SSD drive or instant-on capability, coming to the MacBook Pro line.

This isn’t the first time this rumor has been tossed around. Earlier this week, Danish blogger Kenneth Lund issued a similar report that predicted a March 1 launch date. Earlier this month, new dummy SKUs thought to be for the MacBook Pro were spotted in Best Buy’s inventory system. Combine these rumors with the observation that current generation MacBook Pro hardware inventory is low, and you have multiple signs pointing to the imminent release of new MacBook Pro hardware. Anyone excited to find out what Apple has in store for its premier notebook lineup?

Rumor of MacBook Pro refresh in March getting louder originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By the time you read this post (or 12 PM EST, whichever comes first), Cows vs. Aliens should be live on the App Store and ready for purchase. I first got to see the game back at Macworld (where we also talked about XMG Studios’ comments on EA’s big holiday sale), and as you can see from that video, the game is a pretty simple affair. It’s completely touch-controlled, and the idea is that you push cows into the barn to keep them away from aliens, who you try to push off the precariously situated cliffs on either side. The gameplay comes in waves, and I believe there’s only the one mode, but there is Game Center integration for leaderboards.

Cows vs. Aliens seems like good fun, especially for younger players. If you want something more complicated, there’s plenty of that on the App Store, but if you want something for the kids to play (or something you can play with them — the iPhone version works great on the iPad, and the game supports all 11 points of touch, so multiple people can play at the same time), Cows vs. Aliens seems like a good deal. It’s US$0.99 on the App Store now

TUAW’s Daily App: Cows vs. Aliens originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Kindle app for iOS (my personal reading app of choice) got a nice update yesterday that brings “real” page numbers into the app. Now, as you read along in some e-books, you’ll get to see where you’d be in the printed version, so if you’re reading Kindle books along with a class or book club, you can find the same pages you’re all reading together. The update also adds information on the homescreen that shows your progress through the books on your iPhone, and you can now look up words using Google or Wikipedia directly within the app itself. Pretty groovy — like I said, this is my reading app of choice on the iPhone, and the update only makes it better.

Some of these features were already seen in the Kindle for Mac app available on the App Store. But we’ll probably see another Kindle update coming soon anyway, as of course, the app has to comply with the new restrictions on subscriptions, including offering the same in-app deals that are offered outside of the app, per Apple’s new subscription rules. That shouldn’t be too hard to do — if indeed Amazon wants to do it. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Kindle for iOS updated, adds page numbers and progress meters originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in June 2010 we first reported on a pilot program by Qantas Airways’ low-cost airline Jetstar to offer iPad rentals as in-flight entertainment, and now we have learned that Jetstar will finally start offering them in April for AUD$10 per flight. According to Australian Business Traveler, the in-flight iPads will come loaded with “movies, music, magazines, books and games” and will be available on Jetstar’s A320 flights in Australia and Asia.

Jetstar had initially intended to launch the rental program in time for the holiday season after successful trial runs last summer, but due to contract negotiations and pending licensing agreements with Apple, they weren’t able to get it ready in time. In talking with Australian Business Traveler, Jetstar marketing manager David May said that “if the trial works, we want to put them on every aircraft because they’re so much slimmer and lighter than our existing units,” and I imagine we will be seeing many other airlines follow suit.

With some airlines already offering integration between iPods and in-flight entertainment systems and iPads being used as electronic flight bags for pilots, just how far off are we from flying Apple Airlines? Anyone care to take a guess?

Jetstar airline to offer in-flight iPads in April originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shortly after the first iPad shipped last April, there were some allegations from users that the device overheated quickly in warm weather or direct sunlight. By July of 2010, three disgruntled iPad owners — John Browning, Jacob Balthazar and Claudia Keller — had filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple. Due to the alleged shut down problem from overheating, the trio stated that they felt that they had been taken in by Apple marketing claims that said that “reading on iPad is just like reading a book.” Since books never overheat and shut down, the group accused Apple of fraud, deceptive advertising, and violating State of California consumer protection laws by producing, advertising and selling defective tablets.

Last Thursday, US District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel dismissed the lawsuit, saying that the trio’s charges were “inadequate” and that they should have cited specific advertising where the claims of “reading on iPad is just like reading a book” were made. He’s given the group 30 days to file an amended complaint with the information he’s requested.

I don’t know about you, but I have never thought that reading on an iPad is like reading a book. I don’t have to charge a book, I don’t have to turn a book on, and a book can’t do other things (like play music in the background) while I’m reading it. Have you ever had your iPad overheat and shut down? If you have, let us know in the comments.

[via The Mac Observer]

Overheating iPad suit dismissed originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hit the fight bell, because here we go — Harry McCracken reports that Rhapsody is the first company to pass on Apple’s new subscription rules, saying in a statement that Apple’s arrangement is “economically untenable.” Typically, they say, a Rhapsody subscription only costs them a 2.5 percent credit card fee, but with Apple asking for 30 percent of any subscription payments accepted through the app, it just wouldn’t work for Rhapsody to offer that service. And in what could possibly be seen as a veiled threat, Rhapsody mentions that it will “be collaborating with our market peers in determining an appropriate legal and business response to this latest development.” Legal, you say? Interesting.

In reality, one of two things is likely to happen here — either Rhapsody will change its mind and decide to take the hit from Apple, or it will not be allowed to release the app on the App Store at all, and it will have to look elsewhere for users. Apple’s unlikely to back down from the 30 percent deal — that’s the deal it’s seen lots of success with in the rest of iTunes, and I’m sure there are plenty of companies happy to offer subscriptions and let the cut go.

The bottom line, whether Rhapsody likes it or not, is that Apple built this platform up, and it’s Apple’s prerogative to charge what it wants and allow apps or not based on its own guidelines. If we see lots more companies take this tack, Apple might be forced to change, but as long as others buy into the subscription model, Apple’s unlikely to back down first.

Rhapsody won’t sing Apple’s subscription tune originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Software Update calls your name… the latest version of Apple’s iWeb site editor (part of the iLife suite) is available now.

The iWeb patch contains “bug fixes and improvements,” including: resolving an issue when using the iSight Movie widget on certain Macs; an issue publishing iWeb sites using FTP; and “improves compatibility with Mac OS X” (an odd thing to say, as it presupposes that iWeb might be compatible with some other operating system that we didn’t know about). The update is 186 MB.

Removed the Aperture update detail, as it was indeed an old update — sorry for the false alarm.

iWeb 3.0.3 update released originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The New York Times has an interesting writeup of a growing new trade built around services commonly used as smartphone apps: music-tracking, or music-identifying services. You’ve probably played with Pandora or Shazam on your iPhone already, and the article profiles just how all of that music gets tracked down and identified for your listening pleasure. A surprising amount of it is still done simply by human hands. While everything is still fed into the system, obviously (computers do have to know what the music is and what it sounds like), humans do a lot of the actual tracking down, both finding new tracks to index and implement, and listening in to describe to the computers how it sounds.

The other side of it is interesting, too — Shazam’s employees will keep an eye on what’s showing up on television or in movies, and make sure that the database can identify any songs popping up and being tagged a lot. It’s really wild. Of course I know that there are networks of people and computers behind these apps tI only use for a moment every day, but they’re such a small part of my life that I tend to forget just how much work goes into them.

[via Engadget]

How to go music hunting for Shazam and Pandora originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Picture-sharing service Instagram (driven only by the popularity of its free iOS app) has hit a whopping 2 million users already. As TechCrunch notes, the service hit its first million users in just three months, and six weeks after that, it has doubled that number. That’s pretty astounding growth — even other popular sharing services usually don’t hit those milestones until a year or more after they start operation.

But Instagram certainly seems like it’s hitting at the right place and time — it’s a super simple sharing service that offers a lot of features that tie in very well with all of its users walking around with connected HD cameras in their pockets. Instagram doesn’t even have an Android app yet (though presumably we’ll see one very soon), and also noted by TechCrunch, you can’t even sign up for the service on the website — it’s all driven through Apple’s iOS platform. That hints at quite a future for Instagram and its service.

Instagram photo sharing service reaches 2 million users originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s guidelines for developers who place their wares in the App Store have been updated, with a few key bullets. Changes to accommodate the new subscription models are there in section 11, along with a stern warning up front to developers who might game the review system or steal other devs’ work: “[Y]our apps will be removed from the store and you will be expelled from the developer program.”

Additions and changes also include more specific examples of problematic me-too apps in section 2.11 (now noted “such as fart, burp, flashlight and Kama Sutra apps”); section 2.13 citing “simply web sites bundled as apps” or “do not provide any lasting entertainment value”; section 2.21 suggesting apps that are media-only should be submitted to the iTunes store instead.

Section 2.22 warns against arbitrary carrier differentiation in apps (no ‘Angry Birds for Verizon’!); section 3.11 cautions apps not to warn users to restart before installing; and section 3.12 tells developers to have all included URLs live and working when the app is submitted (otherwise known by its street nickname, “The Embargo Crusher”). Where Apple was previously “thrilled” to have developers invest time and talent in creating App Store apps, now the company says it is merely “pleased.”

The document (hosted behind the Dev Center registration wall) retains its conversational and just-us-geeks folksy introduction — “We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, “I’ll know it when I see it.” And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.” The opening section still ends with the familiar namaste for responsible and user-centric development:

Lastly, we love this stuff too, and honor what you do. We’re really trying our best to create the best platform in the world for you to express your talents and make a living too. If it sounds like we’re control freaks, well, maybe it’s because we’re so committed to our users and making sure they have a quality experience with our products. Just like almost all of you are too.

Our favorite clause remains 4.2: “Apps that use location-based APIs for automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other devices will be rejected.” If you want to use iPhones as the brains of your army of drone dirigibles, you’re gonna have to jailbreak.

[hat tip MacRumors]

App Store guidelines updated for subscriptions, more tweaks originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we reported earlier, Apple announced the arrival of new subscription services for apps in the App Store today. According to the press release, subscriptions purchased from within the App Store will utilize the same billing system currently employed for app and in-app purchases. Publishers are free to set the length and price of the subscriptions, which can be weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly. Then with one click, customers choose the length of their subscription and are immediately charged for it.

The great thing about these digital subscriptions for customers is that they can cancel their subscription at any time with very little hassle. They simply need to go to their personal account page to stop re-billing or cancel a current subscription. Anyone who has ever dealt with the headache of getting out of a magazine subscription will recognize this as a huge benefit of Apple’s subscription model.

However, as we’ve already seen, many content-based app publishers might not like all the new terms that Apple has laid out. All publishers of content-based apps (like Netflix, Hulu, etc.) must comply with Apple’s new subscription service guidelines by June 30 or risk removal of their app from the App Store. The guideline compliance was originally rumored to go into effect March 31, but it seems that app publishers have four more months to make their apps compliant. Content-based app publishers are still free to sell content outside of the apps (like buying a Kindle magazine subscription from Amazon.com), but they now must offer the same content available for purchase directly within the app itself at the same or better price.

Continue reading Apple’s subscription model is boon to consumers, bad for publishers

Apple’s subscription model is boon to consumers, bad for publishers originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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