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HBO iPad app scheduled to arrive in six months

Do you need to catch up with Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm? Do you want to re-watch that interview from Real Sports? Soon, you’ll be able to do just that on your iPad.

HBO Co-President Eric Kessler said that the premium cable channel is planning on releasing an iPad app (dubbed HBO Go) that will enable viewers to view a library of up to 800 hours per month of the channel’s movies and TV shows. Best of all, if you’re already a paying HBO subscriber, you can access content on the iPad app for free.

The content streaming app ecosystem on the iPad includes ABC Player, Netflix and Hulu Plus, and HBO Go is set to join this space. HBO plans to release HBO Go for the iPad in six months, which means that the app will likely be on the App Store sometime during the early part of 2011.

[via Mashable]

TUAW HBO iPad app scheduled to arrive in six months originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How To Use Xcode’s Folder References

If you’ve been programming on the iPhone and iPad you may have noticed that the way you format file paths can seem quite odd.

I know they certainly do for me, and for the most part I have avoided separating the resources in my apps into separate folders to avoid having to go through the multi-line and annoying process of setting up the correct paths.

I came across an excellent post from Matt Rix explaining how to easily use folder references, containing a very useful macro so that makes things very simple which can be found here:
XCode Folder References

A nice little tip and timesaver.

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Easily Create A Custom UIView For 5-Star Ratings

There are many iPad and iPhone apps where custom ratings could be useful, such as news apps, and picture rating apps. The problem with programming a custom UIView is that it is a pretty laborious process, and it’s easy to get something wrong along the way.

If you decide to go with the UIView approach, some of the tougher things are having the ratings follow along with your finger, and displaying the correct number of stars. You may have noticed when browsing the web that some of these don’t work at all on iOS devices.

Ray Wenderlich has created an excellent tutorial on How To Make a Custom 5 Star Rating UIView that goes through the process of creating a custom UIView. It is a bit laborious for something so simple, but it definitely works, and works well.

Ray’s guide is also very useful for just learning how to customize UIView’s for other purposes

A custom 5-star rating UIView is also included in the handy TouchCustoms library.

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Most Interesting Chrome Extensions

Today we present the collection of most useful extensions for Chrome browser.

The above image is a picture of the iPad’s screen, multiplied by 24 times over. Keith Peters at Bit-101 used his new USB microscope to examine a few different e-reader displays up really close, and the results are definitely a fun read. The iPad doesn’t do too well, actually — I think the Kindle looks much cleaner, although there’s some debate about that in the comments, so each to his own. At any rate, it’s cool to see how these displays “work” — the actual pixels going into the picture that our eyes just collate into full text. The 400x newspaper, book, and magazine closeups are very interesting as well. With all of the digital display talk going around, you tend to forget what those displays are actually trying to recreate, which is really very organic smears on a thin fabric.

Unfortunately, Keith didn’t get his hands on the Retina Display, and you’d assume that’s a game changer. With four times the pixels seen in the image above, the iPhone 4‘s display probably gives the Kindle a nice challenge, and might even start competing with the actual paper printing. Still, until that display makes its way to the tablet, this is the best we’ve got for now.

TUAW Kindle, iPad, and paper examined microscopically originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Found Footage: Sony attacks iPhone gaming in new PSP ad

Well, when you get big enough, there’s a target painted on your back. Sony has gone after the iPhone and the App Store in a new ad for their PSP gaming system. As you can see above, the ad comes from the “Marcus PSP” series (starring 30 Rock’s hilarious Bobb’e J. Thompson as an advice-giving kid), and calls out iPhone gamers for not playing “big boy games.” The ad then shows games like Twisted Metal: Head-On and Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee, bragging that they are all available for $9.99 (though the small text confirms that they are $9.99 each, not together).

Very interesting. Truth be told, the ad is kind of weak — it doesn’t tell you to not own an iPhone, just that phones are better meant for texting and calling. But the biggest attack point here is that iPhone game developers are amateurs compared to Sony’s stable, with a Doodle-esque “Game Castle” going up against high profile franchises. Nintendo has pretty much ignored iPhone gaming in the past, admitting that Apple is an eventual enemy, but generally staying unconcerned about the App Store, even as its share of handheld gaming grows. But this is the first time a competitor has publicly acknowledged the competition to consumers, and given Sony’s rough history with the PSP lately, it looks a lot like a guppy trying to bite a shark.

TUAW Found Footage: Sony attacks iPhone gaming in new PSP ad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No criminal charges in Pennsylvania MacBook spying probe

The Associated Press is reporting that a federal investigation into the possible misuse of webcams on Apple laptops did not find criminal intent.

The investigation was at a suburban Philadelphia school district that used special software that wound up covertly snapping images of students who were at home with their school provided MacBooks.

The FBI opened the investigation to see if there were violations of federal wiretap statutes or privacy invasions. The school has said the security software had been purchased to track laptops that had been reported stolen, but one student, Blake Robbins, claimed he had been photographed more than 400 times during a two week period on a laptop that had not been reported to be stolen.

The dropping of the federal probe does not have any bearing on a civil lawsuit against the Lower Merion School District. Another student has also joined that legal action.

The school district issued 2,300 MacBook computers and installed software from LanRev to track stolen laptops. Parents and students were not notified the software was on the laptops. The civil suits allege that students’ text messages were intercepted, and they were photographed while sleeping or only partially dressed. The school has since deactivated the anti-theft software.

TUAW No criminal charges in Pennsylvania MacBook spying probe originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Photojojo has real camera lenses available for your iPhone

I love the camera on the iPhone 4, but I’ve always disliked digital zoom and do whatever I can to avoid using it. Photojojo has responded to my inner camera snob with two glass lenses that can be attached to the phone via a magnetic ring.

You can always rig an existing camera lens to your phone, and the progress on the iPhone DSLR project is amazing, but this looks to be a more portable solution. A fisheye lens is available for $25 and a wide angle/macro lens is $20. You can get both together for $40.

Be warned that the lens does cover the flash on the iPhone 4. The lens can be used with a case as long as the case is tight against the phone.
The ring itself is attached to your phone with adhesive and some will be reluctant to mar the surface of their phone with it, but using a case may offer a solution if you’re willing to take the risk of possible light leaks.

TUAW Photojojo has real camera lenses available for your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FedEx delivery person robbed of Apple gear by co-workers

robber Somehow I think there’s an easier way for a FedEx employee to steal electronic goods.

Last week, a California FedEx driver was held at gunpoint by four masked men, forced to hand over his delivery truck’s shipments. Among the items in the cargo area were boxes of Apple products, though it’s not clear what they were.

As usual, the suspects bumbled the heist by allowing the license plate of their getaway vehicle to lead right to one of the suspects. One suspect, though, just so happened to be a FedEx employee who worked in the same area as the held-up driver. Apparently he saw what was being loaded in the co-worker’s truck and made his hasty plan.

So now the question is: were these robbers over-the-top Apple fans, or did they think they could get away selling these on the black market?

TUAW FedEx delivery person robbed of Apple gear by co-workers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Discussion Boards to receive major overhaul

The Apple Discussion Boards have long been a great source of help for Apple end-users and professionals looking for both Apple-supplied and community-supplied assistance. In my personal experience, though, it can sometimes be a frustrating place to visit.

Apple has announced that what has been known as “Apple Discussion Boards” will be renamed “Apple Support Communities” and sport some new functionality and design elements.

One of the biggest changes will be the concept of a user-designed homepage, where one can customize it with social sharing elements, widgets and discussion activity alerts. Another new feature will be user avatars, which is likely meant to make the site feel more social and friendly and less like a place where pros will tell the novices to get the hell off their lawn.

What’s been your experience with the Apple boards up until now? What do you hope they’ll address in the update?

[via MacFixIt]

TUAW Apple Discussion Boards to receive major overhaul originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Snow Leopard Graphics Update available

Apple has released a Snow Leopard graphics update to address some graphical issues introduced in Apple’s 10.6.4 update for OS X. Specifically, the update fixes frame rate issues with Valve’s games Portal and Team Fortress 2, and it fixes a problem that may have caused Aperture 3 or StarCraft II to crash or become unresponsive. The update also resolves graphics corruption issues brought on by disconnecting and reconnecting external displays while a Mac is running.

The graphical issues with Valve’s games following the 10.6.4 update received a fair bit of publicity. Fortunately, this update should resolve those issues. Let us know in the comments how it goes for you.

Snow Leopard Graphics Update is 69 MB and is available in Software Update or via direct download here.

TUAW Snow Leopard Graphics Update available originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vimeo now on iPad, iPhone

Popular video site Vimeo (think a more artsy YouTube) has changed its code to be completely HTML5 compatible, which means you can now browse the site completely on the iPhone or the iPad. I just pulled the site up on my iPhone, and I have to say, I think it’s a smoother browsing experience than the browser itself — you just get a list of videos, and clicking on whichever one you want (like, for example, the great Dennis Liu music video above) opens it right up in Quicktime. Good deal. Vimeo’s been flirting with HTML5 for the better part of this year, but this switchover means everything (including embeds when seen from an iPhone or iPad) is in HTML5 from the start — bye bye Flash.

The new update also adds a “Watch Later” feature to accounts on the site, so you can save videos and pull them back up on the device of your choice, even if you’re not using something that works well. Eventually, the Watch Later feature will be added in to the Vimeo API, and there’s also a new Vimeo channel available on Roku set-top boxes if you’ve got one of those.

But the HTML5 change is the biggest one — one more site leaves the Flash fold and becomes extremely accessible to Apple’s platform.

TUAW Vimeo now on iPad, iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Power your iPad from underpowered USB ports

The new iXP1-500 Dongle claims to eliminate the “Not charging” issue that some iPad owners experience when connecting to older machines. We haven’t tested one, but our initial instinct is dubious at best.

Shortly after the iPad was released in the US, users noticed a “charging issue.” Specifically, the iPad would report “Not charging” when connected to an older MacBook Pro, Macbook, iMac or non-Apple machine. We later confirmed that the iPad actually does charge in that scenario, just very slowly.

Honestly, we’re skeptical about this thing. Click below to find out why.

[Via Cult Of Mac]

TUAW Power your iPad from underpowered USB ports originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple awarded patents for Slide to Unlock, keyboard letter pop

In the fast-changing world of smartphone design, often the most valuable thing that a company can own is a patent for a specific feature they’ve invented. No matter how seemingly trivial the design feature is, a company like Apple will seek patent protection in order to maintain the uniqueness of their product.

Three years ago, Apple filed for patents on two features that iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users see every day — the Slide to Unlock feature of the Lock screen and the pop-up letters that appear when you’re typing on the iPhone keyboard. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has today awarded Apple a series of two patents titled “Animated graphical user interface for a display screen or portion thereof ” that provide Apple with patent protection for the animated unlock screen and keyboard.

Even though most other smartphone manufacturers have avoided having the same design elements on their own phones, the patent protection awarded by the USPTO means that Apple can now require license fees from any company that seeks to use the same or significantly similar elements.

You can view the two patents here:
D621849
D621848

TUAW Apple awarded patents for Slide to Unlock, keyboard letter pop originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Streaming app Grooveshark pulled from App Store

Grooveshark, the music-streaming app that’s had a home on Cydia for the past year, was kicked out of the App Store after Apple notified the company that they received a complaint from Universal Music Group UK.

While Apple has approved streaming music apps (such as Rhapsody) in the past, Grooveshark’s woes appear to be related to a lawsuit between the company and Universal Music Group. The lawsuit, reported by CNET in January, alleges that Grooveshark is distributing illegal copies of the company’s music. A similar suit with EMG was resolved in 2009.

Grooveshark is still available for other mobile devices, so if you’re a fan of the service, you may want to stick with your Cydia copy if your iPhone is jailbroken or download it to one of those. I don’t think we’ll be seeing this app back in the App Store until this lawsuit is resolved.

[Via ReadWriteWeb]

TUAW Streaming app Grooveshark pulled from App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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