Category: I-phone

We had an explosion of news apps this week. Zite added an iPhone version of its app, so did Flipboard. Now Google has joined the party with Google Currents, a free app that creates a magazine for you based on sites that you like, as well as content from particular bloggers and commentators. The app is universal for iOS devices.

When you open Currents for the first time you’re taken to a setup page. You can select from ‘Publisher editions’, which include sources like Forbes, Popular Science, Fast Company and many more. Those magazines may include video, animations, maps and social streams.

Then Currents provides what it calls ‘trending editions’, using Google algorithms to find the top stories in categories like sports, science and entertainment.

You can also incorporate blogs or feeds, and Google provides a helpful list, or you can select your own favorites. Currents can be used to read your content offline, and if you have more than one iOS device it will sync the content between them. You can also add anything from your Google Reader subscriptions

There is a handy search function, which many of the competing news apps don’t have, and of course stories can be emailed, saved to Instapaper, or forwarded to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. The layout is easy on the eyes, and the various controls are obvious with buttons for home, back, forward and share.

There are some negatives. In multiple sessions with the app I found it rather slow using an iPad on a WiFi network. Yes, there is a lot of background downloading and processing, but competing apps like Zite, Flipboard and Pulse News are much faster. I don’t see any indication that the app learns from my selections, which is the real attraction of Zite.

In Currents, I pick my sources, and I explore them. It does’t have the wonderful news discovery aspect of Zite, and that will keep my use of Currents to a minimum. This is, of course, a first stab at an iOS magazine app from Google, and it will doubtless get better. That said, much of the competition is better now, but if you’re looking for a news app, give it a trial to see if it meets your needs.

Google Currents is latest Newspad reader-feeder app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tapbots’s popular twitter client, Tweetbot, goes on sale for just $0.99. It’s first time that Tweetbot has gone on sale in the appstore, which is likely to capitalize on users who are…

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If you have always dreamed of working for Apple then this might be your chance, Apple is currently looking to hire experienced developers to work on Siri.

According to the Twitter site of Siri UI manager Dan Keen Apple is looking for a pair developers to help improve Siri, which doesn’t really come as a surprise since the artificial intelligence-driven digital secretary was launched as a beta product, something Apple never does.

According to the Job posting Apple is looking for someone who will be responsible for developing new features, maintaining existing code, fixing bugs, and contributing to overall system design.

While the fact that Apple is looking for developers to help with Siri doesn’t automatically mean they will open up Siri to third-party apps, I really think it is more a matter of time before Apple decides to allow third-party apps to use Siri, as 9to5mac.com puts it “Think talking to your apps, saying stuff like Update my Facebook status saying ‘Is anyone up for a movie tonight?’”

If you think this is the job opening just waiting for you to send your resume check these links.

iOS Software Engineer
Sr. iOS Software Engineer

Early this morning, while thousands of NYC commuters trudged by, mostly unaware and uninterested, a modest band (about 100 at 8 am) of diehard Apple fans congregated in a long underground corridor waiting for the opening of the Grand Central Terminal store. The grandeur and architectural majesty of the station’s main concourse and the massive staircase leading up to the new retail outlet were invisible from the utilitarian and bare Northeast Passage, where security personnel and store employees kept the line waiters out of the main flow of pedestrian traffic.

Grand Central serves as the terminus for the Metro-North commuter railroad and a hub for several subway lines, but despite its role at the heart of the “city that never sleeps” it actually does close for a time every night; from 2 AM to 5 AM, the building is inaccessible to the public. That meant that the 12 or so folks who were actually waiting to get into the store at 10 AM Friday had to step out to the sidewalk for three hours. That’s some dedication right there.

Here’s a video visit with Jacob, who held the first spot in line.

His wait, and the wait of hundreds of others who eventually joined the line before and after the opening (including a mom & two sons from New Jersey who made a day trip of it; Harrison, the 13-year-old, is an iOS and Mac developer), found ample reward with cheers and high-fives from the red-shirted Apple staff lining the staircase and the store floor. See below for video clips of the opening moments; the main GCT concourse was full of people watching the spectacle.

The store itself covers a huge swath of the terminal’s balcony, with most of that real estate dedicated to systems & iOS device sales, workshops, Genius Bar support and other high-touch activities. Accessories and software occupy only one small hideaway, two flights above the main sales floor.

Weekday hours will be 7 AM to 9 PM, and you can safely bet that the commuter rush hours will be packed solid — but midday and early afternoons should be pleasant enough in the store, with plenty of room to spread out. The store may also take some of the shopper load off of the 5th Avenue store, which is just over a mile away.

Unfortunately the store launches with some controversy already in place, as the New York Post reports. At least two inquiries are pending regarding Apple’s deal with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, concerning the lack of revenue sharing for the store (a contingency of other rental deals in GCT).

Here’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt’s linewalk video — you can see me at about the 39-second mark, waving.

Thanks to Rich Rose for the countdown video.

A grand opening for the Apple Store at Grand Central Terminal originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just in time for Christmas, Apple has dropped the price of its refurbished iPad 2s by $80, which means you can now grab a sweet returned iPad 2 for as low as $419. These are of course items that have come back to Apple retail stores or otherwise not been sold due to defects, but they’ve been fixed up, tested and certified, given a brand new battery and shell, and are good to go with a one-year warranty.

Sure, I bought my iPad 2 brand new, but I also spent another hundred bucks or so (I also went with the 32 GB — the $419 price is for the 16 GB model). But if you’re panicking about getting a sweet tablet under the tree this year, you won’t find a better bang for your buck.

[via AppleInsider]

Apple cuts prices of refurbished iPad 2s originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has apparently hired an executive from HP to handle its IT channel business in the UK, and the company is still searching for a global channel director, according to Channelnomics. Apple hired one Trevor Evans to run things in the UK, who joined the company after resigning from HP while on leave. And the company is reportedly looking under every rock it can to figure out who can run its global IT channel, making sure that all of its various retail outlets and groups have all the right connections they need. Apple’s criteria are “stringent,” say the reports, so Cupertino wants to make sure it finds the exact right person for the job.

Obviously this is an important one — as great as Apple’s retail experience can be, there is a huge opportunity to be had on the back end as well, making sure that sales go smoothly and that sales professionals are well-informed and connected. As Apple’s retail business continues to grow around the world, it’ll need to make sure whoever steps into the position can handle things well.

Apple searching for global channel chief originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skyrim is an action, role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios that’s filled with magic, potions, and dragon shouts. The game follows the main character’s quest to defeat Alduin and the other dragons that returned to Skyrim. It’s the fifth installment in the Elder Scroll series and one of the best so far.

If you’re a Skyrim fan, here are five apps that’ll improve your alchemy skills, level up your character and help you find all the powerful weapons you’ll need to slay some dragons (as well as Storm Cloaks or Imperials, depending on how you view the war). All prices are USD.

Dragon Shout (Free; universal)

Dragon Shout is a simple Skyrim map application. It launches with a blank map and you get to fill it in as you travel and complete quests. You need a free account if you want to add markers, and you can sign up for one within the app. Once you have an account, you can start adding markers to the map and give them a name, description and custom icon. A journal feature keeps a running list of your markers for future reference.

All your markers are stored in the cloud and shared across devices. You can choose to keep your markers private or share them publicly. It isn’t implemented yet, but Dragon Shout will eventually let you share your public markers with the Skyrim community. You’ll also be able to chat with other people who are using the app.

Dragon Shout shows promise and will shine when the community features are enabled. It’s available for free, so you have little reason not to download it.

Guide for Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Fast Leveling, Money, Master Spells, Unique Weapons and Armor ($1.99; universal)

Guide for Elder Scrolls Skyrim is a general guide to all things Skyrim. It has tips on how to level up spells, increase your smithing skills and master the art of enchanting. Instead of text-based instructions, the guide often shows a YouTube video within the app. You can literally watch and learn.

The app also has a long list of unique weapons and unique armor (armor, rings, shoes, etc). The list will tell you where each item is located, what quest you must take to earn the item, and its effect. There’s one small oversight with the effect attribute, though. The effect is listed for the armor, but not for the weapons. So if you look up the Sanguine Rose, the guide won’t tell you the staff summons a Dremora Lord to fight on your behalf. I talked to the developer, and this is something that’ll be added in a future version of the app.

The app has a nice UI and is an excellent first effort. It works on the iPhone and the iPad, which is perfect for the video clips.

Skyrim Alchemist ($0.99; iPhone only)

Skyrim Alchemist does one thing and does it well. It helps you find the ingredients you need to mix up potions. The Alchemist app lets you find ingredients or find effects. It’s broken up into 4 panes — the top lets your browse ingredients and the bottom lets you browse effects. When you select an ingredient at the top of the app, it will show the effects of that ingredient on the top right. When you click on the effect the top, the bottom wheel will scroll and show you all the other ingredients that produce that effect. It’s a fantastic resource for making potions and works exceptionally well on the small screen of the iPhone. You can also use it on the iPad at 2X view.

Unofficial Guide for Skyrim ($1.99; iPhone only)

If you could only afford one app, then you should spend your money on the Unofficial Guide for Skyrim. The app has a tabular UI that’s somewhat plain, but the app makes up for it with information. The Unofficial Guide has detailed quest walk-throughs and information on races, skills, perks, locations, and achievements. There’s also a FAQ for commonly asked questions. You should think of the app as a well-organized, information-packed Skyrim wiki on your iPhone. It’s formatted for the iPhone’s screen, but it works on the iPad, too.

MAppZ- Skyrim edition ($1.99; universal)

MAppZ- Skyrim edition is a map-based app that’s similar to Dragon Shout. What sets MAppZ apart from its competition is its pre-filled information. When you launch MAppZ- Skyrim edition, you are greeted with a map filled with noteworthy locations. Each location has an icon and tapping on the icon will bring up its name. Unfortunately, there is no description. You will have to search outside the app if you want more information on that marker.

Similar to Dragon Shout, you can add custom markers to the map and save them for future use. You can also submit them to the database for inclusion on the map. There’s also a search feature that’ll let you find both pre-filled locations and the custom markers you added. MAppZ also has a nice UI and an easy-to-use menu bar which makes it a pleasure to use. At $1.99, it’s another must-have for the Skyrim player.

5 iOS Apps for Skyrim originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday, Amazon introduced Kindle Direct Publishing Select (KDP), featuring a multi-million dollar seed fund. KDP Select allows authors to earn royalties by lending out their books through Amazon’s Prime Kindle Owners Lending Library.

Authors who choose to participate will share in a US$500,000 pool per calendar month, apportioned by the number of titles lent. To participate, they must pledge to make their titles exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days. In return, they have a monthly chance at a portion of that half-million dollar pot.

On the whole, iBooks revenues and market share seem to lag behind those of Kindle. That holds true even though the audience that prefers to purchase through iBooks is passionate and visible. One reason for this is Apple’s limited deployment. The Amazon ebook store offers readers on nearly all mobile and desktop platforms — even letting readers get at their books with just a browser — while Apple’s iBooks are currently limited to iOS, without even a Mac client to improve the reach.

KDP Select provides a strong incentive to pull books from Apple’s store, particularly books from independent authors. In some ways, it’s like iAds for ebooks, providing a revenue stream for material that is otherwise free to access. Borrowers who like and want to keep the books they borrow can return and then pay for a permanent copy, offering a further win for all parties involved.

Amazon has pledged $6 million for 2012, as well as an initial $500,000 for December 2011. Money will be divided on a strict market share basis, regardless of the book’s royalty option. (Amazon offers two royalty programs that return either 70% or 35% of a book’s sale price, and may involve delivery fees.)

This program will appeal particularly to small independent writers who do not have strong sales reason to remain in iBooks, the Nook store, and other vendors like Smashwords and Lulu. By stepping back those markets, and giving Amazon an exclusive, Amazon will gain a much larger catalog.

I decided to test KDP Select with my short Kindle Fire ebook, a topic that seemed naturally native to the Amazon ecosystem. Will it match the revenues from the AppStore with iAds? I somehow doubt it, but I did want to give it a try.

From here, it now becomes a gold rush as to who can and will best market their books for lending popularity. A book that gains buzz and traction this way can not only draw from a bigger portion of the seed pot, but also lend the Amazon catalog a bigger cachet. The negatives, of course, are that Amazon’s expanded catalog will likely include a much larger collection of material that will continue to struggle to find an audience.

On the whole, Amazon has tried to corner the market for small indie book writers. You can upload a Microsoft .doc file to KDP in minutes, and have the book go live within days. With iBooks, you must establish a vendor account, apply for ISBNs, and wait weeks for your ePub-validated books to pass review. The iTunes Connect reporting system is slow and hard to use in comparison with KDP’s user-friendly updates.

Is KDP Select a shot across iBooks’ bow? I strongly doubt that the iBooks business model relies on cornering the small independent market, and I also doubt that any larger publishers will agree to exclusivity without a guaranteed income vs. a shot at a royalty pool. So why did Amazon go this way, and why did they choose to demand exclusivity?

My guess is that they are hoping to mine an ever growing pool of Kindle-aires, authors making their names and reputation on the Kindle book store. KDP Select is as good a program as any to help the market decide who the next winners will be, and to grow a stable of Kindle-exclusive authors from the ground up.

Update: Indie Pub Smashwords says Amazon is showing their predatory spots with KDP Select.

Amazon introduces $6 million Select program for exclusive Kindle authors originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You win a few, you lose a few. This week, Apple was up against the ropes in the patent infringement fights going on all over the world.

In Germany, Motorola won a verdict against Apple when a court in Mannheim ruled that Apple had violated one of its 3G-related patents. This could be serious for Apple, possibly banning sale of 3G devices including iPads and all iPhones prior to the iPhone 4S. What can Apple do to avoid the ban? Motorola could choose to license the patent to Apple, or Apple could decide to change future designs to get around the patents.

It’s expected that Apple will appeal the loss, and it is also trying to invalidate the 3G patent and several others in a Federal Patent court in Munich. If Apple wins that case, the decision would invalidate this Motorola victory and leave it defenseless against claims that Apple has made.

Meanwhile, the Samsung/Apple fight in Australia continues. Apple had tried to get a stay on an injunction down under that would have essentially blocked the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 through the critical holiday shopping season. Australia’s High Court heard arguments from both companies this morning, and decided in favor of allowing Samsung to start sales of the iPad lookalike on Monday.

Motorola, Samsung score in legal battles against Apple originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for December 9, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret that the iPad is a hit in the healthcare industry, but doctors love more than just the sleek tablet. A study earlier this year showed that a full 75 percent of US physicians owned some sort of Apple device. In a post Wednesday on MedPage Today, blogger Iltifat Husain tabulated the reasons that doctors love their Apple products, and why they mourn the passing of Steve Jobs.

Husain listed three main reasons: Simplicity, solid build quality and uniformity. In terms of simplicity, Husain mentions that so many medical devices and systems are functional, but poorly designed and often difficult to use. Having Apple devices in their lives gives them something to appreciate, not only because doctors are working around complex devices the rest of the time, but because their profession is so complex as well.

When it comes to solid build quality, Husain said Apple devices extend the solidity of well-built medical equipment into the personal devices carried by physicians. Husain’s word about Apple products sound like a love letter: “The feeling of a Macbook Pro confers this; just compare the aluminum unibody hardware build to the majority of plastic casing laptops — it’s a completely different experience. This type of comparison extends into the smartphone and tablet arena as well. The iPad and iPhone 4 have a clearly superior build quality compared to their competitors.”

The third reason, uniformity, deals with the user experience — if you know how to use an iPhone, you immediately know how to work with an iPad. Husain notes that physicians don’t have a lot of free time to sit around and figure out how to use new devices and “We don’t want to root a mobile phone (Android), just so we can take off the silly skins that a manufacturer throws on so that we can get a better user experience.” Doctors want something that just works, and that’s something that late Apple CEO Steve Jobs intuitively understood.

Doctors list why they love Apple products, and miss Steve originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During December and January, The Unofficial Apple Weblog is soliciting your nominations and votes for the best products for Mac, iPhone/iPod touch, and iPad. We’ll start with nominations in a category, and then tally your votes for the top-nominated products a few days later. The winner in each category receives the highly-coveted title of TUAW Best of 2011.

Today’s category for Best of 2011 nominations is Mac game apps. The Mac has gained in popularity as a gaming platform over the past few years, and there are a number of excellent titles that have been keeping Mac users happy this last 12 months.

Perhaps it’s the Angry Birds franchise that keeps you from doing work, or maybe you’re busy with Civilization V: Campaign Edition. The dark backstory of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas might have your attention, and fans of the Star Wars universe can always nominate Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as their favorite. And who can forget Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare?

It’s time for gamers to nominate their favorite title of 2011 for special attention from TUAW. Just leave a comment below with your favorite game, and we’ll see which titles seem to be the most popular. In a few days, you’ll have your opportunity to vote for the best Mac game of 2011.

Nominations close at 11:59 PM ET on December 11, 2011.

Best of 2011 Nominations: Mac game apps originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One thing that drives me mad is when applications try to phone home with information. Usually, these requests are benign; the app is either looking for the latest update or making a serial number verification request. If it’s a rogue app, though, it could be sending back information you’d rather not share.

To find out which apps are phoning home, you can install Little Snitch. It’s a US$30 app that alerts you whenever a program tries to establish an outgoing Internet connection. You can choose to block this connection, or let it through on a case-by-case basis. You can also specify a rule to handle this connection attempt in the future, so you don’t have to be alerted each time the app phones home again.

Little Snitch gives you fine control over these connection attempts. Besides permanently blocking a connection, you can also choose to stop it for a single session. This session-based blocking is convenient for travelers who are using a cellular connection and want to limit their data consumption.

Little Snitch is an excellent app for tracking your outgoing Internet connection. You’d be surprised by the number of apps that try to phone home and how often they do it. Google Chrome is one of the worst offenders in this group as it tries to connect to the Google mothership several times a day. If you want to try it out yourself, there’s a limited time trial of Little Snitch that runs for a 3 hours at a time. The full, unlimited app costs $30 and is available from Objective Development’s website.

Friday Favorites: Using Little Snitch to stop apps from phoning home originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s an app with a funny name, but a lot of power. Snapseed, from Nik Software, is a powerful photo editor for the iPad. You can enhance color and exposure of any photo with a single click, or just tweak your photo using a variety of powerful tools that can transform a mundane photo into something compelling. The app also lets you crop, straighten and rotate an image, or even take new photos from within the app.

Perhaps the most powerful tool in Snapseed is the ability to selectively filter an image. This comes from Nik’s innovative U Point technology, which was perfected on Photoshop plug-ins that are used by the pros. It’s impressive to see that same function being brought into an iOS app.

I tried Snapseed on a variety of photos. The tools have an interesting user interface designed specifically for a touch screen. Slide your finger up and down and to reveal a list of tools. After you select an effect, slide left or right to decrease or increase the effect. After a bit of use, the operation becomes a reflex.

In addition to the tools mentioned, Snapseed lets you create frames for your images, and can produce a very striking black-and-white image or emulate some old color film styles. There is a useful sharpening tool that does’t just devolve into noise as so many others do. There is also a tilt-shift function and a very useful compare button to show you before and after images before you commit to your changes. Completed images can be shared via email, Facebook, Flickr or Twitter.

I’ve just scratched the surface of what you can do with Snapseed. At US$4.99 it is not the cheapest photo editor on offer, but I think it is clearly among the most powerful.

Snapseed is universal, so when you buy it you’ll get the iPhone version as well. The app requires iOS 4.2 or later and is a 26 MB download. Check the gallery for some samples I created as I used the app. Highly recommended by me, and now Apple, as Snapseed has been named iPad app of the year.

Daily iPad app: Snapseed originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zite is probably the most-used app on my iPad. I love the way it crawls hundreds of thousands of news sites for the stories I am going to find interesting. It’s a bit like Pandora for news, and I can give any story a thumbs up or thumbs down while the app constantly tunes the news choices it brings to me.

iPhone owners, your day has come. Zite is now a universal app, and it is terrific. If you signed up for a Zite account on your iPad, your preferred topics will appear on the iPhone version when you log in. If you’re a new user, Zite will ask for for subjects you’re interested in, and you’re good to go.

I’ve been using an advance build of Zite for a few days and I can say the GUI for the iPhone version uses screen space very well. Stories scale nicely to the iPhone screen, and navigation is obvious from the get-go.

There is one feature that has yet to be added that I think is important. I can’t control the order of the topic list, it’s just alphabetical. I’d like to re-order that list in a way that makes sense to me, based on my interest in a given category. For an app that is so highly personal, it seems like a big omission.

Beyond that, I think Zite is a must have for news followers. Flipboard is also an app I like, and it has just appeared this week in an iPhone incarnation, Still, the on screen presentation and ease of use of Zite makes it my favorite news discovery app. It’s free, and I suggest you download it and see if you agree.

Zite personalized news now comes to the iPhone originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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