This week has been another quiet one in terms of app news but we’ve still found a couple of stories to keep you ticking over till next week.
Enjoy!
Tighter Twitter integration expected in next release of iTunes
We already know that Ping will be dropped out of the next version of iTunes, version 11, which is expected to be released sometime in the coming months (along with the possible release of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6) however The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has been finding more and more ways of increasing Twitter’s presence across its entire product line. Currently, Twitter support in iTunes is limited to finding followed users on Ping, the built-in social network.
A screenshot from the web version of Twitter, showing iTunes album listings directly in the app.
Twitter really has been a hot topic for Apple over the past year and really does show how much faith the company is placing in the social network. iOS 5 featured built-in support for Twitter and allowed users to tweet links, YouTube videos, photos and more directly from iOS and Mountain Lion also brought tighter Twitter integration into the OS, with built-in tweeting directly from the new Notification Centre feature.
Although there were rumours that Apple was buying Twitter (and detailed talks between the two companies seemed to confirm this), these were simply to discuss tighter product integration and it may be that iTunes 11 is the first product of these talks. We will keep you updated on this front.
Chrome 21 released with retina-display support
If you’re lucky enough to have a new retina MacBook Pro, then there’s good news for you. Chrome 21 was released back on Tuesday with support for the new retina display, meaning that the company has kept its promise that it made several weeks back in June when the new MacBook Pro was announced that Chrome will support the higher-resolution display.
The new version of Chrome, version 21, updated for the MacBook Pro’s retina display.
Chrome 21 also includes a new API (application programming interface) called getUserMedia which lets users give access to websites to access their computer’s webcam or microphone without having to install an additional plug-in (usually, a Flash authentication is used here) and a new WebRTC API allows web applications to take pictures of users, such as the experimental Sketchbots in the Chrome Web Lab does.
The new update also fixes several bugs and security loopholes and is therefore recommended for all users. If you’ve got automatic downloads on in Chrome, then it should have already installed itself for you, otherwise simply update your browser to the newest version.
Tweetbot for Mac receives another update
The Tapbots team are firing on all cylinders at the moment as the alpha version of Tweetbot for Mac received another update this week to version 0.6.3.9, alpha 4 (now that’s a mouthful). The new version brought along TweetDeck-like columns for your mentions, favourites, direct messages and so on, along with a new status bar icon and notifications for multiple accounts on Mountain Lion.
My 3-column view of Tweetbot for Mac.
The window snapping feature is pretty easy. Simply click on the feature that you want (mentions, direct messages etc) then click on the gear in the lower-right hand corner and hit Open in New Window. Then drag the new window next to the original one and line up the top-right corner of the old window with the top-left hand one of the new one – they will automatically stick together.
With the rapid update turnaround for these alphas (we’re almost on one a week), we can rest assured that the final version will hit the App Store very soon. The paid version will also feature iCloud integration in the Mac version, meaning that your timeline is synchronised across all your devices.
The update to the alpha is free and if you haven’t yet got it, head over to Check for Updates in Tweetbot to grab it.
Heard Anything Else?
If you’ve heard anything else exciting that’s happened this week then go ahead and post a link to it in the Comments section below for the benefit of our other readers!