Category: Tutorials

Back in April, I told you about the upcoming iZettle. The iZettle is made by a Swedish company and allows European merchants to accept credit card payments on an iPhone just like Square does in the US. However, the iZettle accepts the chip-and-pin credit cards that are standard in Europe and other parts of the world. It also plugs into the iPhone’s dock connector instead of the iPhone’s headphone jack like the Square reader does.

I’m happy to announce that iZettle is now shipping the device in Sweden in very limited numbers. As a matter of fact there’s only 2,000 of the devices to go around right now. If you want one, hurry up and download the free iZettle app (Swedish iTunes Store only) and register for an iZettle account through the app. The first 2,000 people to register will be sent a free iZettle credit card reader.

If you don’t get on in the first batch, you can still use the iZettle software to accept credit card payments, you’ll just have to wait for the chip-and-pin reader as production ramps up.

As for other countries in Europe, iZettle says that for now, it’s Sweden only, but they expect to expand to more of the EU “soon.”

iZettle credit card reader for iPhone now available in Sweden in limited numbers originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did you weep into your cornflakes over Antennagate last year? Me either, but a new study suggests that some people might have. According to Ars Technica, researchers at the University of Illinois discovered that attacks upon people’s favorite brands can be perceived as attacks against their self image.

The study claims that people with high “self-brand connections” were more likely to perceive personal psychological injury when their brand was attacked, while those same people were likely to gloss over or ignore negative news concerning their brand.

We at TUAW get accused of this kind of behavior all the time, naturally. All of our writers own multiple Apple products. Our benevolent corporate overlords at AOL (not, as many have claimed, Apple itself) pay us a modest sum to write about them. Does this mean that I lunge for the Prozac every time some Android-plugging pundit insists that the iPhone is “dead in the water?” Nope. When various pundits go out of their way to slam Apple and prop up the competition by making outlandish, unsupportable, and linkbaity claims, what depresses me isn’t that it’s an assault on Apple, but an assault on logic.

Another common criticism that some of our more fervently anti-Apple commenters regularly like to toss at us is that we never report any negative news about Apple and spin everything to make the company look favorable and pristine. Just from my own back catalog of posts I can tell you that’s far from the case. Here’s some proof:

• Baffling inconsistencies in OS X Lion Multi-Touch
• OS X Lion Bug: Safari guzzling massive amounts of RAM
• Lion bug: Some iMacs locking up after playing video
• Apple issues recall for some iMac hard drives
• And my favorite: Why my next Mac won’t be a notebook

Of course, stepping up to defend myself and TUAW like this is just what you’d expect a “fanboy” to do, right? And the scientific minds behind Cracked would point out that poo-pooing study results like those from U of Illinois is extremely common, that we all delude ourselves we’re above that sort of thing. “Certainly,” we’ll say, “there is an Apple cult, but I’m too self-aware to be part of it. This is why I stay with Apple, not because I salivate every time I see a precision-crafted piece of unibody aluminum.”

I will say that my loyalty to any company goes only so far. My PlayStation 3 died yesterday as a result of a well-known manufacturing defect, and my PlayStation 2 died an untimely death only four years ago because of yet another manufacturing issue. Both happened well outside of Sony’s pitiful warranty period, so all repair/replacement costs came out of my own pocket. So guess what? I’m not buying a PlayStation 4. Sony, you and me, we’re done professionally.

As for Apple and its products, the second a single company comes out with a notebook better than a MacBook Pro or Air, and a phone better than an iPhone, and a tablet better than an iPad, and an operating system better than OS X, and customer service better than AppleCare, and integrates it all so tightly that from top to bottom there’s no mistaking the quality of the products or the experience of using them, I will kick Apple to the curb without regret.

I mean, wouldn’t you? …No? Pfft, fanboy.

Study confirms: Some people are way too invested in their favorite brand originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The developers behind the iOS game Hungry Shark recently released some statistics showing just how powerful the freemium model (in which customers download an app or game for free, and then support it with in-app purchases) can be. While the game floundered as a paid app, it’s gotten much more popular after going free, and actually increased its revenue by five times over. Currently, says Future Games, the average in-app purchase is as high as $3.26, and that’s in addition to having a daily active user base of 250,000 people. Clearly, the freemium model, when combined with the right game and the right audience, works very well.

But what’s the other side of the equation look like? Mobile advertising firm Flurry also released a report recently, and said that almost overwhelmingly, the main items sold in a freemium game are a “consumable” — a boost or temporary ability that a customer can use up. That’s opposed to a “durable” item, like a new weapon that stays around, or a “personalization” item, like a name change. Flurry says that since consumable items can often directly affect the game, consumers are much more interested in spending money on them, sometimes in surprising amounts.

Now, I’d argue that beyond all of this data, it still depends on just what game and which items you’re talking about. If a game is terrible, it’s far from guaranteed to make any money no matter what model you’re using. And I know for a fact that some consumers will backlash against a consumable item that affects gameplay too much, like a double-damage token in a multiplayer game, or anything else that could be seen as cheating.

But for the right games, and for items used and sold in the right way, freemium can support an app and even a whole developer with significant amounts of revenue. Angry Birds has been cited before as a great example of how to implement freemium content, with its Mighty Eagle consumable item. And there are a number of other games out there that have figured all of this out, and have the monetary rewards to prove it.

Freemium items may make money for devs, but aren’t kept by consumers originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile game developer Digital Chocolate, one of the biggest developers on the App Store, has acquired Sandlot Games, makers of Cake Mania and a few other popular App Store titles. Sandlot has offices in Seattle and Eastern Europe, and Digital Chocolate says it plans to use the developer to expand operations in both places.

Unfortunately, there’s no word on how much the deal is worth. Both companies have seen plenty of app downloads, and have big titles on multiple platforms, including Apple’s devices and the PC, so this is likely a substantial acquisition for both sides. As Digital Chocolate’s Trip Hawkins says, “We expect to be the leading game company in at least 5 of the 7 cities where we now have development studios.”

That said, I don’t think this is the last we’ll hear of either company. This space is extremely volatile at the moment, and it’s just as likely that we’ll see Digital Chocolate pick up more developers as it is that we’ll see a larger company buy out the whole company if so inclined.

[via Touch Arcade]

Digital Chocolate buys Sandlot Games originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are dozens of weather apps for the iPhone, but most are based on traditional data from places like the National Weather Service in the US, or the Met Office in the UK.

For the last few days I’ve been using the US $0.99 WeatherTrends360 Pro which has a completely different approach to weather information and forecasting. Rather than a standard 5 or ten day forecast, this app lets you look months or a year ahead. The forecasts work pretty much anywhere worldwide, and are based on trends, historical data from 6.4 million locations in 195 countries. The company claims about 80% forecast accuracy which is certainly better than flipping a coin. Weather Trends International provides forecasting services for many Fortune 500 companies including Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart and Johnson and Johnson.

In addition to the really long-range forecasts, the app offers animated maps of recent lighting strikes, wind speeds, satellite images, even earthquake locations.

I can’t vouch for how good the forecasts are a year out, but the app has lots of information that is useful on a daily basis. There are 10 regional animated weather maps, and more traditional short-range forecasts that can give you hourly predictions. I found those forecasts solid at my location.

If found one glitch when I couldn’t get my chosen location to stick, but when I exited the app and launched it again, everything was fine.

If you want to play around with the data you can check the WeatherTrends360 website but at the low $0.99 price, this app will give you a lot of weather data for a very small investment. I’m already finding this app to be really useful, and expect that if you care about detailed weather information you’ll agree. The app is not universal, but runs on the iPhone and iPod touch, and the iPad. It requires iOS 3.1.2 or later.

WeatherTrends360 Pro lets you peer into your weather future originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apparently “net issues” weren’t the only reason the Apple Store was down this morning; MacRumors notes that social features have been added to the Mac Pro configuration page, allowing you to share any of the various Mac builds on Twitter or Facebook. I’m not especially convinced that this is absolutely new, but we don’t seem to have mentioned it before, so there you go. If you’ve been itching to tell your social network about the Mac you’re planning on buying, Apple’s made it easy to do so.

Apple seems to be pretty friendly with the social networks lately, seeing as it’s also set to include some major social integration in the upcoming iOS 5 release. And why not? This kind of stuff is easy to implement, and it lets users share and talk about the brand without much effort on Apple’s part.

Apple Store now features social sharing originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Logitech has announced the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 for Mac. It’s the company’s first solar-powered keyboard, for environmentally conscious Mac users. The K750 offers the standard Mac layout, with the addition of brightness and music controls, eject keys, and command keys. It also offers a full numeric keypad. Along the top of the K750 you can see the solar cells that keep the keyboard charged. They work off of both sunlight and indoor light. The keyboards come in five colors: all-silver, all-black, or silver with pink, green, or red solar strips at the top.

Overall, the K750 has a nice design and form factor. Not having to keep buying batteries is always a plus, and its 1/3 of an inch thinness is appreciated. However, the big drawback of the K750 is that it doesn’t connect via Bluetooth. Instead it uses a proprietary Logitech dongle known as the Logitech Unifying receiver that needs to stay plugged in to your Mac in order for the keyboard to stay connected. Also, while Logitech says the keyboard itself works with your Mac right out of the box without requiring software, the Unifying dongle does need software to be compatible.

I like my wireless accessories to use Bluetooth, but if the environmental aspects of the keyboard are more important to you than the connection technology it uses, the K750 is a fine choice for you. The Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 for Mac costs US$59.99 and ships later this month.

[via MacWorld]

Logitech solar-powered wireless Mac keyboard loves the sun, shuns Bluetooth originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome back to another episode of TUAW TV Live, the only live streaming show on the Internet where you can try to figure out what the host is drinking, see what hat he’s wearing, and ponder the ageless question — is he wearing pants?

On today’s show, I’m planning on working the crowd in the chat room quite a bit, although I do have some app demos and a few third-party accessories to show off. I’ll also be taking some suggestions for things you’d like to see on some pre-recorded TUAW TV Not-So-Live episodes that will be coming up next month. Oh, and that “special” thing in the headline? Just trying to get your attention…

Below, you’ll find a Ustream 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 and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It’s a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat.

We’ll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you’re seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you’ll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.

TUAW TV Live: Special mid-August episode originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skype has just released Skype Wi-Fi, a free iOS app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch that allows users to access more than one million paid Wi-Fi hotspots around the world, and pay for them via Skype Access.

Here’s how it works: Let’s say you’re in Budapest, Hungary and you’ve got your AT&T iPhone 4 with you. You’ve got data roaming turned off because you don’t want to get a huge bill, but you’re at an airport that offers a Wi-Fi hotspot. However, the Wi-Fi hotspot costs money. Maybe you don’t want to enter your credit card info in on the spot for security reasons, or maybe the instructions for how to pay are in a language you don’t speak, or maybe the hotspot forces you to buy a day’s access for $30. You can bypass all of that with Skype Access.

Simply launch Skype Wi-Fi and you’ll see a list of paid Wi-Fi hotspots around you, along with their per minute price. Select the one you want to use and tap “Go Online.” You’ve then got Wi-Fi Internet; it’s that simple. Once connected, close the Skype Wi-Fi app and you’ll be able to access the Internet however you want: through Safari, Mail, or various third-party apps. Best of all, you are charged only per minute the length of time connected, it doesn’t matter how much data you use. Also, don’t worry if you forget to disconnect. You’re automatically logged off every 30 minutes unless you choose to stay connected and you can go offline at any time (even after only a minute).

Skype Wi-Fi seems like it might be a great way for international travelers to save a ton of money while accessing the Internet abroad. If you just need to log on to check your email for two minutes, it would only cost you about US$0.12 to do so, versus paying the standard $5-12 fee for connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot for a fixed amount of time at an airport, for example.

Skype Wi-Fi is not a universal app (meaning it isn’t designed for the iPad) but it does run on the iPad in addition to the iPhone and iPod touch and is available today as a free download. We’ll have to test it out going forward and see if it’s as terrific a solution as it seems.

Skype Wi-Fi iOS app lets you access the Internet on a per-minute basis originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW,

There’s a tiny spider running around just behind the glass of my iMac. Hopefully it won’t be cause for a service call!

[The photo is attached at the end of this post.]

Your loving nephew,

David R.

Dear David,

Obviously your Mac isn’t running the Robot Exclusion Standard that keeps spiders off of it.

That’s a little Auntie geek humor.

All in all, it’s probably harmless if a little unsightly. It probably got in through one of the ports or the speaker grill. Give it a few days and it will either find its way out or fall to the bottom, where it will go peacefully to eternal sleep and decompose to dust.

Auntie consulted with Josh Carr of Denver-based MacWorks, who demurred. “If someone brought this in to me, first thing I’d do is disassemble the iMac to take a look around to see if the spider had made itself at home and laid eggs. If the nest is on the board, it could potentially short out.”

He mentions that the iMac glass can be removed with a couple of suction cups, but that’s something that freaks out Auntie’s sensibilities. She’d more likely than not break the glass while trying to lay it down on the ground. Your mileage will vary.

In any case, you may want to get it looked at by an Apple Authorized Service Provider but things are probably going to be just fine without.

Hugs and kissies,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: There’s a spider in my iMac originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:45:00 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 stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect 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 listening through iTunes, click here.

Daily Update for August 17, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Many of us spend hours seated before our computers, and that’s not a good thing. A study conducted by the American Cancer Society linked extended periods of sitting with an increased risk of death. That’s a nasty side-effect, my friends. BreakTime (regularly US$4.99, currently on sale for $2.99) by excited pixel prompts you to get up and move at regular intervals. Plus, it’s unobtrusive and easy to use. Here’s my look at BreakTime.

This simple utility lives in your Dock or Finder menu bar (you choose) and ticks away your designated work period. When the session ends, it begins counting down your custom break period and then immediately begins the next work session. Here’s how to set it up.

Set it up

The preference pane is quite simple (above). First, use the sliders to determine the length of work and break sessions. Work sessions can range from 60 seconds to 2 hours while breaks can run from 5 seconds to ten minutes. You can tweak these settings a bit. For example, enter “93” seconds into the work field or “18” minutes for a break. Just don’t go nuts (my request for a 360 minute break was accepted).

The Enforce Break feature is nice. It prevents you from switching out of BreakTime while a break session is active. No quick peeks at Twitter or Facebook. This is a break time, so back away from the Mac and go look out a window. Remember outside?

There are four advanced features: show Dock icon, show menu item, play sounds and magic reschedule. Most of those are self-explanatory, but let me explain magic reschedule. If a work session expires and BreakTime does not detect any activity, it re-schedules the break time. In other words, it assumes you’re already away from your desk doing something else. Pretty nice, though not flawless: you could be zoning out with your iPhone, iPad or who knows what.

Use

I’ve disabled the Dock icon (a restart is required) so that only the teeny, tiny menu bar icon remains. As soon as it launches, the work session countdown begins. You can click the menu bar icon at any time to see how much time is remaining, turn the timer on or off and access the app’s preferences (see below).

Once your work session is down to 10 seconds remaining, the countdown window appears. As it ends, your display’s brightness dims and BreakTime’s break window appears, counting down the break time (see below). If you’ve elected to enforce breaks, the “Done” button on the right will be disabled. If not, it’s ready to receive your break-denying click.

If you happen to be right in the middle of something that absolutely, positively cannot be abandoned (like the the last golden egg in Angry Birds), click the In A Minute button to delay the break period by one, five or 15 minutes. Note that the In A Minute button remains available even if you’ve elected to enforce breaks.

BreakTime and Pomodoro

Some of you know that I’m a huge fan of the Pomodoro Technique. In a nutshell, it teaches you to alternate work/break periods all day long. For example, you’ll work for 25 minutes and then break for five. Repeat the process, taking a longer break (15 minutes) every five “pomodoros” (which is Italian for tomato). Pomodoro practitioners can easily use BreakTime as a Mac-based timer.

Years ago, computers were primarily work machines. Today they’re increasingly used for leisure activities, commandeering even more of our time. If I monitor my own behavior, I notice that I sit at my desk from 7:00 AM to about 3:00 PM daily, then take a four- or five-hour break and return around 8:00 PM for several more hours of sitting. This sedentary lifestyle isn’t doing me any favors.

Not only does work require me to park it, force of habit influences my behavior, too. “I”ll just check email,” I think, or “Let’s take a quick look at Twitter.”

I fully expect to live a slothful existence aboard the Axiom within a few years.

Fortunately, BreakTime is here to intervene. It’s a steal at 4.99 and a “no-brainer” as the kids say at three bucks. Do yourself a favor and let BreakTime nag you into motion.

Daily Mac App: BreakTime originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Andy Miller, Mobile Advertising VP and Former Quattro Wireless CEO, is reportedly leaving Apple to join Highland Capital. Highland Capital is a Boston venture capital firm that previously funded ad company Quattro Wireless. Quattro was scooped up by Apple in an early 2010 acquisition. The ad platform was eventually shuttered when Apple decided to focus its efforts on iAd.

The departure reflects poorly on iAd which has been slumping. After a launch filled with enthusiasm, the mobile advertising platform has not lived up to performance expectations. To improve adoption, Apple has sliced the price on its iAd campaign by as much as 70%. Apple was initially charging clients US$1 million but those prices may have dropped to as little as $300,000. Even at that reduced price, Apple still has to compete with less expensive alternatives like AdMob and Millennial Media.

Apple’s mobile ad head Andy Miller leaves for Highland Capital originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Santa Monica (California) Planning Commission is considering a proposal tomorrow for what appears to be a new, giant Apple Store for the L.A. area. While the building permit application delivered to the commission and architectural renderings don’t specifically mention Apple as a tenant, the design of the proposed building is a dead giveaway that the company is planning to replace the existing Third Street Promenade store with this new location.

ifoAppleStore reports that the new facility would encompass almost 12,500 square feet of space, covered with a 34 foot tall arched glass roof. The existing Third Street Promenade store opened in July 2003 about two blocks away from the new location, and has been one of the Apple Store’s busiest locations. It helps that the average household income within five miles of the store is $106,012, almost double the average for other Apple Stores.

The architecture of the proposed store is very similar to the Upper West Side store in NYC that opened in 2009, although that store has an angled front due to the shape of the property on which it is located. We’ll keep you updated on the status of the proposed store after the meeting tomorrow.

Plans reveal huge LA Apple Store expansion originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After having a few weeks of guest appearances on TUAW TV Live, it’s back to flying solo for a week. What does that mean? Oh, an hour of fun conversation in the chat room, some app demos, and perhaps even the chance to show off some new accessories for Apple products. Perhaps we’ll know by show time why the Apple Store was down all morning, and yesterday’s OS X Lion 10.7.1 update — and what it did and didn’t fix — should be good for discussion as well.

As usual, I’ll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we’ll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you’re unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.

TUAW TV Live at 5 PM: Flying solo originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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