Author: Blancer

We’ve featured selective color applications before on the Daily Mac App, and today we’re going to take a quick look at another — Colorize.

Colorize caters for the non-artists among us with almost idiot proof usability. To get started you simply drag-and-drop an image of your choosing and let Colorize desaturate it for you. You then re-saturate only the portions of the image you want to highlight using a paint brush-type tool.

You can vary the brush size using a slider, zoom in and out from the tool bar or using pinch-to-zoom, or switch between colorizing and ‘uncolor’ with nice large buttons on the toolbar. If you make a mistake you can hit the undo button, or save your image in its original size when you’re done.

There’s not much else to the app, which makes it incredibly simple and easy to use, but if you’re looking for a boat load of advanced features, Colorize will disappoint. I also experienced an odd bug when testing the app, in that it wouldn’t let me re-saturate the image at maximum zoom — the brush tool simply didn’t work — but I’m sure that’s a bug that can be easily fixed.

Colorize isn’t the first selective color app in the Mac App Store, and it won’t be the last. If you’re a keen artist, then this isn’t for you. But for those of us who can’t afford Photoshop, or just want a quick and fun tool, this app will do the job.

Colorize is available for US$2.99 from the Mac App Store, but if you want slightly more functionality check out ColorWash, which we featured last week.

Original photo credit: Jonathan Gill

TUAW’s Daily Mac App: Colorize originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the next effort to go toe-to-toe with Apple, Amazon took a swing at the Mac App Store and launched the Mac Download Store today. While its offerings aren’t as robust as the Mac App Store, Amazon scored some big points by offering Mac software for download that Apple doesn’t have — namely Microsoft Office, Quickbooks and Roxio’s Toast.

In a battle that has thus far involved Amazon launching a cloud music service first and pending court discussions over the what exactly is an “app store,” Amazon is doing its best to wrestle a piece of the Mac-user pie for itself.

The Amazon downloads require OS X 10.5 and higher. Purchases can be downloaded an unlimited number of times and are stored in Amazon’s Games and Software library.

[Via The Loop]

Amazon says ‘no MAS’ with Mac Download Store originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An Apple Store in New York City’s Upper West Side has been sued by two customers after an alleged case of racial profiling. AppleInsider reports that two African-American men were told, in no uncertain terms, that they were not welcome in the store. The pair believes that their race was the deciding factor.

According to the plaintiffs, 34-year-old Brian Johnston and 25-year-old Nile Charles, an Apple Store employee told them, “You know the deal. And before you say I’m racially discriminating against you, let me stop you. I am discriminating against you. I don’t want ‘your kind’ hanging out in the store.” Johnston and Charles allegedly began recording the incident on their cell phones, prompting another employee to tell them to leave and to “consider me God.”

The men also claim that when they addressed the store manager, he had store security call 911.

The incident allegedly took place on December 9th of last year at 3:20 p.m., and the suit was filed last February. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary compensation for “emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, and other non-pecuniary losses.”

[hat tip Gothamist]

New York City Apple Store sued over alleged racial profiling incident originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As a convert from Mail.app to Sparrow (US$9.99) , I naturally got a bit overexcited when I heard that version 1.2 of the Mac email app was going to be unveiled at TechCrunch Disrupt yesterday. After downloading and installing the latest version from the Mac App Store, I’ve got to say that I like some of the changes, while a few of the updates aren’t making me as ecstatic.

The developers of Sparrow refer to Sparrow 1.2 as “the world’s first social email client” and proudly display the Facebook icon in their marketing materials, but the integration with Facebook (below) is actually quite limited. First, you can add Facebook friends directly from Sparrow, eliminating the need to make a separate trip to Facebook to do that. The update also provides an option for users to link Sparrow to their Facebook account so emails from friends display their Facebook avatars. Sparrow 1.2 also grabs images from Address Book and has support for Gravatar, providing a way to quickly identify incoming emails by sight. In his announcement at TechCrunch Disrupt, Sparrow co-founder Dom Leca noted that the company is working on integration with Twitter, LinkedIn, and and Tumblr as well.

In theory, this is pretty cool. Seeing TUAW Editor-in-chief Victor Agreda, Jr. peering at me from my inbox is enough to get my attention. In practice, some of us get a ton of emails from individuals and corporations that we don’t follow on Facebook and don’t have Address Book entries for. That means that the inbox is cluttered with the default avatar image, which is a boring gray head on an even more boring light gray background. Fortunately, there’s a preference setting for hiding those pictures.

Continue reading Sparrow 1.2 first look: A lot to like and a few minor gripes

Sparrow 1.2 first look: A lot to like and a few minor gripes originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Sarasota Herald-Tribune is reporting that the owner of the Westfield Southgate retail mall is attempting to lure an Apple Store to the Florida location, possibly by the end of 2011.

Mall owner Westfield Corp. cited the results of recent customer surveys, which indicated that visitors to the shopping haven wanted an Apple Store more than any other retail outlet. For Sarasota residents, having a local Apple Store would eliminate a 55-mile drive to either the Brandon Town Center or Tampa International Plaza stores, or further to the two stores in the vicinity of Naples, Florida.

As the newspaper notes, analysts maintain that the Sarasota area possesses “plentiful discretionary income.” We can only hope that Apple retail officials decide to help Sarasota residents part with some of that income in exchange for shiny electronic goods.

Apple in talks for Sarasota, Florida retail location originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A report from the Korean Times suggests Apple is negotiating with Samsung about its AMOLED display technology. Apple reportedly wants to drop LCDs and use an AMOLED display in its next version of the iPad. Samsung is the primary manufacturer of AMOLED displays and uses this technology in its popular Galaxy S line of handsets. In the past, Samsung supplied these displays to HTC for use in the Nexus One, the DROID Incredible and the Desire.

Though they are now battling in court, Samsung and Apple have a close relationship. Apple is one of Samsung’s largest customers and gets LCDs, NAND flash and A4/5 processors from the Korean company. Samsung recently introduced a 10.1-inch Pentile display with a 2560-x-1600 resolution. At 300dpi, it rivals the Retina Display currently used in the iPhone 4 and iPod touch. Instead of AMOLED, perhaps this new high-resolution display is the subject of these rumored discussions.

[Via 9to5Mac]

Apple eyeing Samsung AMOLED display for the iPad 3 originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some folks are talented and build interesting gadgets in their spare time. Take, for example, the man who spent two weeks building a white tablet he calls the iPad 3. He handpicked all the parts and assembled the device into a functioning tablet, complete with a stuck-on Apple logo.

Sadly, he chose Windows XP for the OS, which makes the logo and iPad 3 name seem a bit awkward. Like others before him, he filmed the project from start to finish and published it as a time-lapse video for the world to see. Geeky folks not put off by the Microsoft influence should read on and check out the video.

Continue reading Building a homemade “iPad 3”

Building a homemade “iPad 3” originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve ever been surprised by a black or obscured screen on your iPhone or iPad when viewing the display through polarized sunglasses, then you’re going to appreciate that Apple has filed a patent application (United States Patent 7911565) for improved displays that minimize the effect.

In the application, found by AppleInsider, Apple notes that existing liquid crystal displays (LCDs) utilize linear polarizers on their front surfaces. Polarized sunglasses work on the principle of only allowing light with a vertical polarization to make it through to your eyes. When you look at an LCD through polarized sunglasses at certain angles, you’ll see a black or obscured display due to the additive effect of the two polarizers.

Apple hopes to minimize this effect by creating a display that emits circularly polarized light. This invention also allows for better outdoor viewing of LCDs, which could make using devices in bright sunlight less of a squint-inducing situation. As visible in the photos from the patent filing at the top of this post, a special film added to the LCD makes the display much brighter when viewed through sunglasses.

Although displays with the technology described in this patent application may never make it to future Apple products (and definitely not for your Memorial Day weekend fun on the beach), it’s good to see that the company is looking for ways to improve the use of its products outdoors.

Apple testing sunlight-friendly screens originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This upcoming MacDefender patch is not the first time Apple has tweaked Mac OS X in response to a malware threat. Many people forgot that recent versions of OS X were designed with a built-in malware detection system. Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 Leopard had a validation system called File Quarantine. In Leopard, it triggered a warning dialog box when you opened a file that was downloaded from your browser, email client or iChat. OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard improved upon File Quarantine by adding a system to check files against known malware definitions. These definitions were stored in the XProtect.plist file.

Just last year, the 10.6.4 release of Snow Leopard contained a malware tweak to detect a backdoor Trojan horse. This fix was not mentioned in the OS X documentation, but security firm Sophos noticed a new entry in the XProtect.plist file for the Pinhead-B threat. This Trojan horse was distributed as a ripped copy of iPhoto. If you installed the fake program, hackers could use your Mac to send spam, take screenshots or snoop through your files.

Unlike the MacDefender threat, the iPhoto Trojan horse was dismissed by the Mac community. Infected people were pirating software and brought this upon themselves. MacDefender, though, is a whole new ballgame. People encounter it while innocently browsing the Web and are easily duped into believing the Apple Security Center is real. It’s not the apocalypse, but it’s definitely a wake up call.

[Via Sophos and Macworld]

Upcoming MacDefender patch is not the first AV tweak to Mac OS X originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve posted about the “Dash” time management games before — traditionally, they’re just basically tap-and-wait titles that have you managing a diner or a spa. But Parking Dash, out today on iPhone, is the most involved one I’ve seen. The app still has a plucky female heroine (these apps tend to appeal to women, a fresh moneymaking audience on the App Store) working for more and more pay. This time, some parking-style puzzles make things more fun for hardcore players.

You’re still just tapping and waiting, but now you’re also tasked with parking colored cars, and combo-ing colors in various spaces can earn you lots of points, lending a little bit of strategy to the mix. I like it — like the other Dash games, the gameplay is colorful and ramps well, and pulling cars in and out of their spots is a lot of fun.

I like the direction of these time management games — originally, they were basically cheap repeats of popular PC titles (and there are certainly still plenty of those to go around — Parking Dash itself originally started on the PC). But more and more, the games are being designed for the App Store and the iPhone’s audience and UI, and I think the genre as a whole is improving because of it. Parking Dash is available now for US$2.99.

TUAW’s Daily iPhone App: Parking Dash originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You could argue that there’s not much need for a separate dictionary app any more. With dictionary services built into nearly every interface and Google and Wikipedia searches just a tap away, it’s not hard to find out what a word means or how it’s spelled any more. But sometimes you may just want to browse around or look a word up for yourself, and for those times, there’s the Merriam-Webster Dictionary app, which is now available on the iPad for free.

It’s certainly not the only dictionary app available, and the renowned Oxford English Dictionary has its own edition available for the iPad already. But that one costs US$54.99, and the ad-supported Webster dictionary benefits not only from a lack of initial cost, but features like voice search, audio pronunciations, a search history and a browse mode that lets you search and learn new words as you like. It’s a solid dictionary app from an old name in the word-indexing game, and even if you only use it occasionally, it’s probably worth having around on your iPad.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary now available on iPad for free originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in February we told you that the popular Mojang sandbox game Minecraft would be making its official debut on iOS later this year (there had previously been an unofficial Minecraft for iOS). While it’s still on schedule to debut for iOS in 2011, today Gamasutra broke the news that Minecraft will launch on the Sony Xperia Play first before it comes to other Android and iOS devices.

Minecraft originally debuted in 2009 as a Java game and allowed players to build worlds out of colorful cubes. While most traditional video games have invisible walls or visible barriers that restrict where players can go, Minecraft is a sandbox game where players can roam anywhere in the game’s world.

The Minecraft game released with the Sony Xperia Play will feature controls that work with the handset’s physical joysticks, but future Android and iOS versions will only allow for control via touchscreen. There’s no word on how similar the game will be to the desktop version, but a Mojang employee told Gamasutra, “When playing on smartphones you will have a different screen size compared to PC, different hardware, different attention spans, and thus the game needs to be customized to fit the mobile specifications.” Currently there is no pricing available for the game and no firm release dates, although Mojang is expected to reveal more details at E3 in June.

Minecraft iOS debut set for after Sony Xperia launch originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, you remember iSync, right? You there, with the RAZR, you remember iSync? I remember using iSync to somewhat handily sync my contacts and calendars way back in the dark ages when phones had monochrome screens and most iPods had spinning plates inside them. Then, one day, it quit working and joined the long list of “applications time and Victor forgot.”

Well, goodbye, iSync, we barely used ye. Lion users are telling us that iSync is nowhere to be found in Apple’s next OS, along with FrontRow, Java runtime and Rosetta (as AppleInsider reported earlier this year). One wonders if a better solution will take its place (MobileMe?), or if Apple felt it was legacy cruft needing to go.

What’s next on the chopping block, Grapher?

No more iSync in Lion originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A week ago, I did my public service duties and linked the MacDefender protection and removal guide that Steve Sande wrote to my Facebook wall. Then I braced for the comments. Luckily, none of the taunts I expected about Macs now being subject to malware came to light. What I did get was general surprise that Mac users had to be aware of such a thing.

“I thought Macs couldn’t get viruses and such,” one commenter said.

Sadly, it’s not the case any longer. As fast as we’re educating people on how to fight MacDefender, and Apple is developing a patch to fight it, the malware is morphing and coming up with different methods of worming into your system — including now being able to install sans password. It’s a battle that Windows users have long grown tired of, but Mac users are still blinking their eyes and not quite believing that it’s our turn.

Macworld published an excellent piece on what MacDefender really means to the Mac community. As Macworld says, even though this is the monster under the bed that Mac users have evaded until now, it doesn’t mean a malware apocalypse is upon us.

Continue reading In a MacDefender world, practice constant vigilance

In a MacDefender world, practice constant vigilance originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Matt Tubergen heads Recharge Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of W3i that invests in the development and marketing/distribution of freemium mobile games.  W3i is a market leader in distributing and monetizing apps with over 500 million apps distributed for W3i clients. Recharge Studios is actively seeking new investment opportunities, if you have a great idea for a game contact us.

Everywhere we go we read about the battle between Android and iOS. It’s simply impossible to get away from the conversation of which platform is better, where’s the money, which monetizes better, what the cost of porting is and even which OS is sexier…  Setting all the noise aside I wanted to do a simple comparison to see what the actual popularity is for freemium on each platform.

In my search I choose to do a simple count of the top grossing free apps. I also segregated the counts out by relative deck placement (i.e. top 10 apps vs. top 200).

iOS has twice the amount of freemium apps in the top 200 grossing yet both have similar ratios in the top 10 grossing. What does this tell me? Freemium opportunities on Android exist, but the market has yet to meet the demand. See below for full details.

Why go freemium on Android?

Beyond the fact that freemium has exploded on iOS, there are many other reasons to go freemium on Android. The first and foremost reason to move your business model to Android is due to the ramped increase in piracy. I have heard multiple horror stories from AAA premium developers that for every 1 paid install they are seeing 100 pirated installs…. Ouch!

Other reasons for going freemium on Android include cost of user acquisition. Predictable user acquisition and discoverability is far worse in the Androids market comparable to iOS. Going free allows for a greater opportunity to increase distribution without risking cash for means of unknown distribution sources.

Do you have a question about freemium gaming or a topic you’d like us to explore? Let us know in the comments or catch us on twitter @rechargestudios or @w3i.

Freemium Game Blogs are published in partnership with the series on W3i’s corporate blog.