Category: I-phone

Three big updates just showed up in Software Update: Aperture 3.1, Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3, and ProKit Update.

Aperture 3.1 weighs in at nearly 375 MB. Aside from the usual improvements to “overall stability and performance,” Aperture 3.1 brings compatibility with the brand new iLife ’11 suite. There’s also a whole host of bug fixes — too many to list here, honestly.

Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3 is about 78 MB and updates Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_22.

The ProKit Update “fixes issues with user interface software that is shared by Apple’s professional applications,” which includes Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Aperture, Final Cut Express, Soundtrack, Logic Studio, Logic Pro, MainStage, WaveBurner and Logic Express. The specific issues this ~14 MB update addresses:

— Improves reliability for browsing iPhoto libraries in Aperture.
— Addresses cosmetic issue with appearance of disclosure triangles in Aperture.
— Fixes a problem in Logic Pro and MainStage where numeric parameters display incorrect information.

All three updates are available via Software Update now, so fire it up.

Software updates: Aperture 3.1, Java Update 3, and ProKit Update originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has posted the Review Guidelines for what will soon be the omnipresent Mac App Store, and many developers aren’t happy with what they’re seeing. Like the iOS App Store, Apple will control the gates and review each application before it’s posted. 70% of the profits will go to the developers, and 30% will presumably pay for chairs in which Steve Jobs and the rest of his executive team will sit to watch the iOS App Store money roll in.

We took the liberty of rounding up some of the most intriguing lines from the document so that those of you who don’t have access to the developer portal can get the highlights. According to Apple, your Mac app will be rejected if:

• It is a “beta,” “demo”, “trial,” or “test” version
• It duplicates apps already in the App Store, particularly if there are many of them
• The developer is “spamming” the App Store with many versions of similar apps. You will also be removed from the Developer Program if this occurs.
• It is not packaged and submitted using Apple’s packaging technologies included in Xcode – No third party installers are allowed.
• It require license keys or implements its own copy protection
• It spawns processes that continue to run after a user has quit the app without user consent
• It has metadata that mentions the name of any other computer platform
• It uses location-based APIs to control vehicles, aircraft, or other devices (Saying goodbye to my Macbook Air tank project. Sigh.)
• It uses location-based APIs for dispatch, fleet management, or emergency services
• It has misspelled Apple product names in its name (i.e., GPS for Imac, iTunz)
• It looks similar to Apple Products or apps bundled on the Mac, including the Finder, iChat, iTunes, and Dashboard
• Your user interface is “complex or less than very good”
• It changes the native user interface elements or behaviors of Mac OS X (Well, that just wiped out 90% of the best Mac apps in a single, flaming fist punch.)
• It creates a store inside itself for selling or distributing other software (i.e., an audio plug-in store in an audio app)
• Your game portrays realistic images of people or animals being killed or maimed, shot, stabbed, tortured or injured. (Such as Counter Strike, Halo, and pretty much every other good video game ever produced.)
• “Enemies” within the context of your game solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity. (I wonder if this applies to zombies…)
• It contains user generated content that is frequently pornographic (like “Chat Roulette” apps)

Even with that daunting list of red tape, Apple managed to round off the Review Guidelines with a really nice message to those who are creating the apps that sounds like it could be the words of Steve Jobs himself:

“Show them their world in innovative ways, and let them interact with it like never before. In our experience, users really respond to polish, both in functionality and user interface. Go the extra mile. Give them more than they expect. And take them places where they have never been before.”

Now that is a philosophy I can get behind.

Apple posts guidelines for Mac App Store (and we have highlights) originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Does your feed reader overflow with juicy Apple news? Are you capable of writing crystal-clear copy backed by a deep knowledge of Apple gear and software? TUAW is looking for you!

We’re looking for three news bloggers. Here are the specifics:

• You must be over 18. Sorry, no exceptions. It’s US law and AOL policy.
• If you live on the East Coast and keep regular business hours, this is probably not going to work for us. We are looking for bloggers on Pacific Time (GMT -7:00), somewhere a few hours ahead of the UK (GMT +2:00, preferably) and Asia (GMT +9:00). Bloggers in those time zones will get bumped to the top of the list (unless you keep very odd hours).
• Fluent English is a prerequisite, but more than that; you must be a master of writing clean copy and understandable headlines, plus you need to grok the use of tags and understand the basics of search optimization.
• While we love switchers, we’re not looking for Apple newbies; you need an experienced view of Apple’s products and platforms. We’re not necessarily looking for hardcore coders or engineers, either; somewhere in the middle is probably best.
• You should have a solid understanding of the news business, be familiar with how articles are picked from the hundreds of potential stories out there, and be willing to accept editorial leadership and guidance on a daily basis.
• Lastly, you must be willing to commit to a regular schedule and post frequently within that schedule. We are looking for dedicated writers with energy, stamina and commitment.

Continue reading for the rest of the details.

Continue reading TUAW is looking for news bloggers

TUAW is looking for news bloggers originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No matter how good your application is, no matter how novel, how brilliant, how special — none of it matters if you don’t have anyone to use it. The iOS App Store changed the way developers work by providing a streamlined channel between software developers and potential customers.

Consider my APIkit scanner application. After opening the app to public beta a few months ago, I may have gotten about 200-300 users. Total. (And a grand total of zero feedback, but that’s a completely different gripe about public betas.) Contrast with App Store.

As far as I can calculate, I have now shipped well over a million apps in App Store — that’s extrapolating from the 600+ thousand copies that iTunes Connect tells me I’ve pushed out in the last six months, not including updates and such — just individual purchases. And no, I haven’t earned much from those purchases because nearly everything I’ve put on App Store to date has been free.

That’s not the point.

Being able to touch that many people’s lives, and offer them a few nice utilities, that’s the point. Even as a primarily free developer, it’s brilliant to know that I can create apps that matter, that entertain, that help. I love when people write me and say: “This app is fun” or “helpful” or “silly” or “delightful.” And I wouldn’t have been able to do that without App Store.

I’ve got a ton of lonely little Mac apps sitting on my back burner that I think can help a lot of people. And now there’s a chance I can share them in a meaningful way.

Now step back and consider this from a business point of view. If App Store has done this much to help me reach people as a free dev, consider what it can do for a Mac developer’s bottom line. App Store sells apps. It connects customers to content, developers to an audience. And that’s why it matters.

Why the Mac App Store rocks for developers originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the wake of such huge news from Apple today, it’s hard to concentrate on anything else. Here’s one story you wont want to miss, though: Chillingo, the publisher behind the wildly popular game Angry Birds, was acquired by EA Games for a cool $20 million in cash.

Not to worry, though, because Angry Birds isn’t going anywhere. The rights to the game are actually owned by the developer Rovio, who updated his Twitter profile earlier today to clarify that Angry Birds was not part of the sale and will not be controlled development-wise by EA. Even so, it’s no secret that the App Store’s most popular game of all time certainly helped to sway EA towards this acquisition. With many successful apps available, Chillingo probably looked pretty delicious to all of the big fish in the game industry who were hoping to cash in on the mobile market.

Now, time to fire up Angry Birds to do some additional research on the story. What? Why are you giving me that look? Yes, I’m working!

Angry Birds publisher Chillingo acquired for $20 million originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As part of our continuing coverage of Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event today, TUAW TV Live is starting a little bit earlier than usual so we can provide you with all the news that’s fit to broadcast as soon as we can.

Join me and my fellow TUAW editor Mike Rose as we discuss everything that went on at today’s celebration of the Mac. How do you join on the fun? From your Mac or PC, just go to the next page by clicking the read more link at the bottom of this post, and you’ll find a livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application.

iPad users haven’t been forgotten, either, as you can tune in to TUAW TV Live on your iPad! That link will send you to a non-Flash page, although you won’t have access to our chat tool. And one final note — if the show has started and you’re seeing a previously recorded show instead of the livestream, you can always pop on over to ustream.tv/tuaw to join the show in progress.

Continue reading TUAW TV Live: special ‘Back to the Mac’ early edition

TUAW TV Live: special ‘Back to the Mac’ early edition originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple today has announced a Mac App Store based upon the popular iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad App Stores. The Mac App Store will offer one-click download of Mac apps, auto-installation, auto-updates, a 70/30 split for developers, and all the apps you buy are licensed for use on all your personal Macs.

A Mac App Store is something that has been suggested in the past by press and readers alike, but few thought one would ever materialize. It will be interesting to see how Mac developers respond to this and if any major developers (like Adobe, Microsoft, etc.) join in. The Mac App Store will be a stand alone app available for Snow Leopard and Lion.

Application submissions start in November and the store opens 90 days from today.

Mac App Store announced originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple announced two new flavors of the MacBook Air today, starting at $999 for a 64GB Air that has no hard drive or optical drive. The $999 MacBook Air has an 11.6-inch screen while a 13.3-inch Air, starting at $1299, will start at 128GB flash storage.

Both MacBook Airs have unibody construction with the SSD chips placed directly on the logic board. The 11-inch MacBook Air will have up to 5 hours of battery life, the 13-inch will have 7 hours. Both will last up to 30 days in standby mode.

The 13-inch MacBook Air has a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo processor (upgradeable to 2.13 GHz),
2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (upgradeable to 4GB) and a NVIDIA GeForce 320m graphics card with 1440×900 screen resolution and up to 256GB flash storage.

The 11-inch MacBook Air has a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (can upgrade to 1.6 GHz processor), 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (upgradeable to 4GB) and
NVIDIA GeForce 320m graphics card with 1366×768 screen resolution and up to 128GB flash storage

The new MacBook Air is available today.

MacBook Air refresh features SSD storage, smaller sibling originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After some initial downloading hiccups (but thanks for those extra copies of the iWork demo, Apple) the FaceTime Mac beta is up and running.

Setup is dead simple — enter your MobileMe or Apple ID, or sign up for one if you don’t have it. Sign in and you’re ready to go. Your email address is your service locator, that’s how folks will find you.

There’s no resolution settings, no tweaking to do — considering that most of your chat partners are on iOS devices, that makes perfect sense.

When your contact list comes up (pulled from Address Book), just start typing a name and the list will scroll to the contact. Double-click to call. You can add favorites to distinguish between iPhones and desktop FaceTime setups.

Josh noted that you can also start a call from Mac OS X via URLs like facetime://appleid or facetime://email@address or facetime://phone# — just put them in Safari’s address bar.

In the Preferences, you can add secondary email addresses that callers use to locate you; you’ll have to validate those before they’re active. The beta status of the app is evident in some text corruption in those fields, but video and audio seem smooth. You can quickly switch from portrait to landscape, but that’s about it.

Click through to the rest of the post to see a quick screencast demo call with Megan.

Continue reading FaceTime for Mac: Video hands-on

FaceTime for Mac: Video hands-on originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs has just announced the eighth iteration of OS X, dubbed Lion, complete with a monumental new feature, the Mac App Store. Other changes are still pouring in, such as improvements to syncing, full screen app displays, auto-updates, Mission Control (a combination of Spaces and Expose), gestures and more.

Read more about OS X Lion on Apple’s site here.

Updates: Lion will be available summer 2011. The Mac App Store will be available in 90 days.

OS X 10.7 “Lion” Announced originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xander Soren with Apple’s product marketing showcased several new features in iLife ’11‘s GarageBand including:

• Groove matching, termed an automatic “spell checker” for bad rhythm, or as TUAW’s Kelly Guimont just observed: “Thanks to GarageBand, your second grader’s Christmas concert can sound like the cast of Glee!”
• Flextime to make an audio clip longer or shorter
• Piano and guitar lessons built into the software that includes music recorded by an Indiana chamber group. You get scored on lessons and can see exactly where you missed — shades of Rock Band and Guitar Hero

New GarageBand will match your grooves and teach you how to play guitar originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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