Category: I-phone

Last week, The New York Observer claimed an anonymous source within the Metropolitan Transit Authority confirmed that Apple has killed plans to lease space within New York’s Grand Central terminal. Today, the Wall Street Journal refutes that report with its own sources that suggest Apple is still considering the lucrative retail space.

According to the WSJ, the MTA has spoken with Apple and is hopeful the retail giant will bid on a balcony space, which will be available this summer. The site is the current home of the Métrazur restaurant, which is closing July 1st. Owned by celebrity chef Charlie Palmer, the restaurant has a lease on the spot until 2019, and any prospective bidder would have to pay Palmer a lump sum to vacate his lease.

It’s a small location with a mere 15,000 square feet of retail space. Apple may also find it difficult to customize the site to its liking as Grand Central Station is a historic landmark, and all renovations require approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Despite these limitations, the retail space is a high-profile location with tens of thousands of visitors each day.

WSJ: Apple still eyeing Grand Central terminal for new retail store originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Patently Apple has uncovered a new patent application from Apple that might give us a glimpse of part of Apple’s future internet strategy. This approach looks beyond OS X and could bring apps like Pages to the PC and other platforms.

The patent talks about a new word processing platform that allows documents to be edited across all platforms. It also allows them to be formatted and shown exactly the same way on various devices. Similar to Google Docs and Microsoft’s 365, the system would work within a web browser. While the patent is centered on a word processor application, it isn’t limited to such documents and could be applied to any document presenting text on a screen.

Is this something you would use if Apple produced a device-independent word processor — or even a suite of apps that you could use on any platform? Let us know in the comments.

Patent shows concept for platform-independent word processor originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Byword is a full-screen, “distraction-free” word processor that has an interesting twist: it focuses on just the text around your cursor (or even just the current line), dimming the rest of your composition so that even that can’t distract you. Byword (and its predecessors) are based on the idea that you’ll be at the top of your writing game if there’s nothing else on your screen. Whether you subscribe to that theory or not, it’s becoming an increasingly crowded field. Thankfully, there’s more to Byword than just a blank screen and blinking caret.

Byword, which can also run in a windowed (non-fullscreen) mode, brings great typography along with its minimalist interface. Some of its brethren, like OmmWriter Dana, have done this as well, but if you add in excellent keyboard navigation, hyphenation support and its unique focus mode, Byword begins to stand on its own.

Oh, one more thing. While I don’t personally subscribe to the distraction-free idea, Byword has added one thing that always gets my attention in any writing environment: Markdown support. MultiMarkdown support, actually, with footnotes, tables and other fun stuff. Wondering what I’m talking about? Have a look at TUAW’s Markdown Primer and the MultiMarkdown documentation for more advanced features. Use Markdown syntax while you’re writing, then flip over to the Markdown Preview to see your rendered text. The preview mode has buttons for copying HTML source (great for pasting into blogs) and for exporting the HTML to a file (optionally including the Byword visual styling).

Markdown is a great move for Byword. I’m seeing increasing support for this popular format across the board, which I think is a great thing. I do wish for a few things, including my usual plea for advanced editing tools, such as auto-pairing of brackets and automatic list continuation. I would also love to see an option for printing the rendered document directly from Byword. You could print straight to PDF that way, too.

If you want a good-looking editor for plain text or minimal rich text and don’t want all of the extra buttons and formatting options, this is worth a peek. There’s a free trial available on the Byword homepage, and you can pick up Byword on the Mac App Store for US $9.99.

Byword 1.2, now with Markdown support originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Backblaze is adding a new feature to its US$5/month online backup service that adds another level of protection to your Mac or PC — locating the computer in case of loss or theft.

This morning at 6 AM PDT, Backblaze launched Locate My Computer, a free addition to the company’s backup service that determines the location of your computer, displays the location on a map, provides the name of the internet service provider and the IP address being used by the thief or finder, and shows you any changes that the “new owner” has made to your computer.

Gleb Budman, the co-founder and CEO of Backblaze, said that the company decided to add the Locate My Computer service after several customers used cloud-based backup information to view changes that thieves had made to their machines. One customer was able to see that the thief had taken a Photo Booth portrait of himself and also made a bad video of himself dancing to Tyga’s “Make It Rain.” The customer, Mark Bao, promptly posted the video of the thief’s impromptu dance solo on YouTube and was later able to recover his MacBook Air.

If you’re already a Backblaze user, switching on the Locate My Computer service is as simple as logging into your account and then clicking the “Turn On” button on a special Locate My Computer page. It takes up to a few hours for the location to appear, but the ISP and IP address info show up almost immediately, and you can begin your quest to recover your Mac.

Backblaze adds free Locate My Computer service to backups originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Z2Live is the Seattle-based developer behind the popular freemium Trade Nations title for iOS, and the company’s latest release is another freemium app called MetalStorm Online. As you can see from the picture above, it’s a combat flight simulator, which has you piloting a series of jets through the air and trying to take down enemies both real and computer-controlled.

It’s relatively simple, so flight buffs will be disappointed with how superficial the game is, but as an arcade flight simulator, I liked it. The plane is controlled by tilting your iPhone and tapping or swiping on the screen to fire or perform flight maneuvers, making for a simple but satisfying combat game. It’s all freemium, so you can earn coins by playing (or buy them with in-app purchases), and then use those to upgrade your plane or its various components.

You can play a versus match online with friends or strangers, and it worked surprisingly well for me when I played with a random person over Wi-Fi. You can also try single player against waves of enemies, or play co-op with a friend. Yes, the in-app purchase notices are annoying, but there’s a fun flight shooter here even without spending a dime. MetalStorm Online is free in the App Store right now.

TUAW’s Daily iOS App: MetalStorm Online originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

According to MacRumors, yet another Apple-styled phishing email is making the rounds. This one seems to be a lot more insidious than another phishing email that circulated last week. While the earlier email had several aspects to it that were dead giveaways it was fake, this new email could very easily trip up anyone who doesn’t pay attention to the latest Apple news. The “from” line says the email comes from Apple.com ([email protected]), lending an air of credulity to it that the earlier email lacked. The message claims to be concerned with the debut of the iPhone 5, and it contains images pulled from various sources around the Web alongside some copy written in a very Apple-y style.

Our readers will no doubt recognize these images as fake right away, but they might appear plausible to people who don’t follow the news very closely. As such, this email is potentially more dangerous than the one that was circulating last week, particularly since an inviting “check it out” link downloads a Windows executable file that could contain just about anything.

It probably seems obvious to us Apple fans, but for everyone else it bears mentioning: Apple doesn’t announce new products via email like this, especially not flagship products such as the iPhone. For major product launches, Apple puts on a keynote event that gets wide media coverage; for minor product refreshes, sites like this one get the word out even when Apple doesn’t draw much attention to them itself. If you get an email like this that claims to be about the latest and greatest Apple product, but no one else on the internet has discussed it at all, don’t bother clicking anything and just delete the message.

Better yet, until this latest round of phishing emails gets monkey-stomped into the digital dirt, it’s probably a good idea to avoid clicking on anything in any unsolicited messages that appear to be from Apple. If you really want to see what’s new on the Apple Store, the URL is very easy to remember: store.apple.com.

Another phishing email takes on Apple themes originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

In the world of computer-aided design (CAD), Autodesk’s Design Web Format (DWF) file format is a common way to send drawings to others who need to view, review or print design files. Through the use of compression schemes and a way of sending only what recipients need to see, DWF files are small and easily transferred through email. To this point, one of the few ways of reading DWF files on a Mac or iPad was through Autodesk’s Freewheel web service.

Now Austin Silver Software has launched an application called McDwiff for opening, viewing, converting and printing DWF files on Macs (US$9.99) and iPads ($6.99). The Mac version has been available since January, while the iPad app went on sale in the App Store about two weeks ago. McDwiff utilizes Freewheel as a backend to process the DWF files, with an appropriate front-end app on your Mac or iPad to obtain files (locally, on a website or in Dropbox) for processing.

Want to see how McDwiff works? Check out the video on the next page for a quick overview of the features of this handy utility.

Continue reading McDwiff reads DWF files on your Mac or iPad

McDwiff reads DWF files on your Mac or iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

If you’ve ever spent time on hold with tech support, you’ve likely listened to a lot of tinny, cheesy music coming from your phone as you grit your teeth and count the seconds. Instead of making things better, hold music seems to make the minutes stretch into hours. Believe it or not, in the late 19th century people used to pay to listen to music over the phone. A French service called Théâtrophone was basically a steampunk version of Pandora Radio that allowed subscribers to have live music pumped into their homes at a price of 50 centimes for five minutes — roughly one or two euros in today’s money.

Microphones set up on stage would pump live music to a central switchboard, and from there it would go out to hotels, restaurants and homes across Paris. Scientific American wrote a piece on the théâtrophone system way back in 1892, and at that time there were about 100 of the devices running throughout Paris. The system sounds downright hokey today, but it was ingenious for the time; keep in mind that this pre-dates wireless transmission via radio, much less modern improvements, such as iPhones and internet-based “cloud” storage for music. The théâtrophone system actually ran for quite a while, and it wasn’t shuttered until 1932.

Today, we’re able to cart around weeks worth of music in a device about the size of a deck of playing cards, and if Apple’s “iCloud” service really takes off, it may reach a point that we’ll be able to store and stream more music than we’ll actually be able to listen to in one lifetime. Meanwhile, the next time you’re on hold with tech support and forced to listen to Huey Lewis and the News against your will, just be thankful that’s not the only way you can get tunes into your ears.

What ‘cloud-based music’ looked like in 1892 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Electronista has discovered an Apple patent that would allow users to set privacy viewing parameters on their device’s displays in order to keep unwanted eyes from seeing what they are doing. The patent, titled Systems and Methods for Electronically Controlling the Viewing Angle of a Display, describes a way that LCDs could use embedded “scattering modules” to “selectively steer a device generated light beam to one of two or more scattering regions of its associated scattering module.” In other words, users could choose who sees what on their screens by setting viewable angles.

The patent shows the technology in use on an iPod classic, but it’s conceivable that it could be applied to iPhones and iPads as well. This technology, if Apple ever enacted it, would be a boon for those working on sensitive documents in public places, like in cafés or on public transportation. It would also be great for teenagers, because they wouldn’t have to wear out the Exposé and Spaces keys every time their mom and dad walk by.

Apple patents privacy displays originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

On Friday, Needham analyst Charlie Wolf released a research note stating that Apple had made some huge advancements into the government, enterprise and small business markets in the US — sectors typically dominated by Windows PC sales. Total shipments of Macs increased 66 percent in the first quarter of 2011, while PC sales only increased 4.5 percent.

Apple’s gains get more interesting when you break them down into sectors. In the same time period, Mac sales increased 94.7 percent in enterprise (large businesses) and 80.4 percent in small businesses. In government, Mac sales were up a whopping 155.6 percent, while PC sales were up just 2.3 percent in the same market. In the education market, Mac sales only increased 1 percent, but PC education sales decreased by 6.5 percent in the same period. Finally, home or consumer sales were up 21.6 percent, while PC sales were down 4.4 percent.

Considering the stagnation of the PC market in the same period, those Mac sales numbers are extra impressive. Apple’s growth isn’t limited to the US either. In Europe and Asia, Mac sales increased 8 percent and 70 percent, respectively, while PC sales fell between 10-20 percent.

Apple making huge strides into government, enterprise and small business originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple has updated its Apple Store iPhone app. The update incorporates several new features, including an enhanced in-store mode that lets users get help and support quickly when they’re at an Apple Retail Store. The app also allows users to custom-configure a new Mac with build-to-order options (such as more RAM or a larger hard drive).

The Apple Store app is also debuting in many European countries, having previously been limited to the US. The app is a free download.

Apple Store app updated with new options originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 23 May 2011 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Since the day Posixninja tweeted about iPad 2 jailbreak with Greenpois0n, numerous iPad 2 users started asking about the release date of the iOS 4.3.3 and iPad 2 jailbreak. To respond all those queries, Chronic Dev-team has posted detailed answers.

On Greenpopis0n compatibility with iOS 4.3.3:

“In the past I have also said that 4.3.x support was on hold for greenpois0n to focus on iPad 2 jailbreak exclusively, our course has slightly changed (primary focus has never shifted from iPad 2 since it was released) it has now become possible to easily update and execute a workflow to enable RC6.2 (tentatively speaking… mmm #dirt) to be released “soon”…”

The above statement clearly explains that Greenpois0n RC6.2 is on its way to jailbreak iOS 4.3.3 firmware on iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad, iPod Touch 4G, 3G.

As far as iPad 2 jailbreak is concerned, Chronic Dev-team explains:

“As I’m sure many people have heard, Josh (posixninja) has recently been quoted saying the iPad 2 jailbreak is coming in “weeks”, I know I have been very publicly abrasive and non-commital on giving any kind of timeframe or comment on this matter, but at the behest of Josh (in conjunction with his need for a swift kick to the ass for motivation) we’re ALL going to hold him to that!!! I’m not going to get into extensive detail about this, but what I will way one of the missing puzzle pieces may have reared its head and cast a glance in our direction… take from that what you will.

NOTE: WE will hold him to that, please do NOT badger him with “is it done yet, when will it be ready?!?!, does it wear a slipcover from an elevator sandwich?””

So, they are working on jailbreak iPad 2 and Greenpois0n with iPad 2 support will be out as soon as it’s ready.

I personally don’t feel any need for Greepois0n update when RedSn0w, and PwnageTool are up-to-date. However, iPad 2 Jailbreak is what the jailbreak community is eagerly waiting for.

via [Chronic Dev-Team]

You can follow us on Twitter, Google Buzz, Facebook, and Subscribed to RSS Feed to receive latest updates.

Apple has updated the Apple Store App for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch which now lets you custom configure a new Mac and features and enhanced in-store mode.

What’s New in Apple Store 1.3

• The ability to custom-configure a new Mac with the options you want.
• Enhanced in-store mode lets you get help and support quickly when you’re at an Apple Retail Store.

It’s the best way to get the most from the Apple Store — whether you’re on the go or at the store. Wherever you are, you can research and buy products, read reviews, make Genius Bar and One to One appointments, view in-store events, and more. And when you’re in an Apple Retail Store, you can request help, receive meet-up alerts, and more

Here’s what you can do with the Apple Store app

• Research and buy the latest Apple products, accessories, and software and get them shipped to your door.
• When at an Apple Retail Store, request help, check in for reservations, and receive meet-up alerts.
• Make Genius Bar and One to One reservations and sign up for workshops and events.
• Get free iPad and iPod engraving and signature gift wrapping for select Apple products.
• Custom-configure a new Mac with the options you want, including larger drives and more memory.
• Reserve iPhone and other select products for pickup at an Apple Retail Store.

You can download Apple Store app from the App Store for free. [Download Link]

You can follow us on Twitter, Google Buzz, Facebook, and Subscribed to RSS Feed to receive latest updates.

There is no question that being able to design game scenes using a visual editor can be a terrific time saver.   The CocosBuilder project aims to allow you to create interactive game scenes using the Cocos2D engine without needing to write any code.  It is also free (and hopefully stays that way!).

The project has come a long way recently now supporting sprite sheets, and while still in the early stages it is looking like a very good tool.  You can download it and see for yourself.

Check out the CocosBuilder webpage here with the latest download and instructions (not that it needs much instruction).

A great tool for anyone who wants to use Cocos2D, but doesn’t want to have to lay everything out by hand.  The author is looking for feedback so be sure to let him know what you think of it, and encourage him to keep it up with what looks like a great project!

 

©2011 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

.

It has been another great week in iOS development.  While we did not get any official announcements about the latest edition of the iPhone, or iOS 5 it looks like something big is likely just around the corner.

Once again there have been many great resources released in the community, and these are the most popular that have been shared on this site within the last week.

Enjoy, here they are:

Tutorial: iOS Push Notification Services For Beginners – Nice tutorial starting right at the beginning for those looking to add push notification services in their apps – from certificate creation to server creation.

Open Source: Lightweight And Fast Regular Expressions Library – Great open source library for those looking to add support for regular expressions into their apps.

Tutorial: Update Cocos2D Within An Existing Project And Actually Get Things Working – Handy little tutorial for those looking to add in a newer version of Cocos2D into an existing project so that you can avoid the linking errors and “base sdk missing” errors.

Tutorial: Adding Metadata to iOS Images – Nice little tutorial with sample code for those wanting to add meta data like that in the camera app to their own photo apps.

iOS Device Controlled Robotic Ball Releases SDK – Interesting little upcoming toy known as the Sphero that can be controlled by iOS devices that has an open source SDK so anyone can create apps for it.

Tutorial: Instance Variables In Objective-C Categories – Make categories more useful using this little trick to simulate instance variables within an Objective-C category.

Tutorial And Tool: Cutscenes With Cocos2D – Cool keyframe based tool for Cocos2D with a nice little tutorial so that you can create your own cutscenes with Cocos2D.

Open Source: iPad Air Hockey Game Created With The Corona SDK – A nice sample game for the iPad utilizing the Corona SDK.

Thanks for reading, please share and bookmark this post!

©2011 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

.