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Do you like reading articles on the web, but hate all of the cruft that ends up making posts hard to read? Relax. Readability is going to be available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch for free on March 1, 2012.

Readability is somewhat akin to Reader in Safari on the Mac, only much better. Both provide the capability to read web pages sans ads in an very text-centric format, but the similarity ends there. Readability adds extra functionality, including the ability to change text size to accommodate aging or tired eyes, swap fonts, tweet links to posts to your followers, and easily browse a pre-saved reading list.

Users of the popular Tweetbot apps for iPhone and iPad know just how handy Readability can be. The Twitter client includes a way to switch linked web pages to a Readability format for easy reading — I’ve found that it’s my preferred way to view websites on an iPhone.

For a tantalizing glimpse of Readability for iPad, be sure to watch the video below.

Readability: Coming to an iOS device near you on March 1 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zynga’s gotten a lot of flak for creating basically a clone of Tiny Tower, and you could make the argument EA has done the same thing with its new freemium title Monopoly Hotels. The game features a set of freemium goals as you set up a series of businesses in Monopoly’s famous establishments, and just like Tiny Tower, you’re recruiting guests, building shops, and so on.

But while Monopoly Hotels is definitely influenced by the popular freemium trend, there’s enough here that it’s really a different game. There’s not nearly enough love for the craft as Nimblebit puts into its titles, but there is some really good thinking about reward cycles (money occasionally falls from the sky in Monopoly Town, tasking the player to grab it by tapping away with glee), enough to suggest that if you’re all done with Tiny Tower, this one’s probably worth a look as well.

Of course, EA is shameless with the product placement, so you can build rooms branded around Mr. Potatohead and My Little Pony, and even the rooms themselves (you start by building a “horse room,” a gardening themed-room, and a cupcake store) are squarely targeted at the younger, more feminine audience.

But the game is well-designed anyway. It’s a nice chance to see what a big but open-minded studio like EA can do with the freemium genre (largely led, so far, by indie developers, or at least developers that used to be indie). If you’re not a young girl or a freemium junkie, you might find this all a little boring, but hey, it’s free. Why not?

Daily iPhone App: Monopoly Hotels checks in on EA’s freemium expertise originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know Bungie, the game studio that developed Marathon and Halo? Well, one of its founders, Alex Seropian, is now working on a new mobile-focused project. He’s one of the brains behind Industrial Toys, a start-up development studio that intends to focus on mobile titles for core gamers.

“We are driven to innovate beyond industry standards and trust in these inherent truths: that the future of gaming is about being accessible without sacrificing quality,” says the company on its Facebook page.

Industrial Toys has a star lineup; working with Seropian on the project is former Bungie veteran Brent Pease and Seven Lights alum Tim Harris. The group has a Twitter account and a Facebook page where you can follow its progress.

[Via The Loop and Gamasutra]

Bungie co-founder starts new mobile studio originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Those of us who watch hours of the Food Network know that Umami is one of the five basic flavors. iPad users might be more familiar with the word from the Umami TV companion iPad app (free), which today received an update that adds social aspects for sharing your TV-watching experience.

The two new features, which should come in handy this weekend while watching the Oscars, are FreezeFrame and Dishboard. FreezeFrame lets you easily take snapshots of the show you’re watching, then share them on Twitter and Facebook.

Dishboard (seen below) is described as a “social TV dashboard” that shows how many people are talking about the show you’re watching, what shows are trending, and what other viewers are sharing while using Umami.

Version 1.2 of Umami is available immediately for download, and those who have used the app in the past will definitely want to update as soon as possible. While you’re at it, try to make as many snarky comments about the questionable outfits on the Oscar red carpet as you can. We’ll all appreciate your candor and humor.

Umami TV companion app gets a big social update originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s share of the overall mobile market seems to be heading dramatically upward, at least according to inMobi. The company measures how ads they serve (almost 100 million ads deployed each month) are filtered onto mobile devices.

The figures are striking. Apple’s share of ad impressions went from 23.2% in October of 2011 to 35% in January of 2012. At the same time, Android devices declined 3.2%.

That’s a reversal from a year ago when Android was topping the list. Android has also slipped 8.9% to an 11.6% share.

The company also measures the top 3 handsets and they are all Apple products. The Apple iPhone 4, the first generation iPad, and the iPod touch are the devices that view the most advertising.

Anne Frisbie, InMobi’s Vice President and Managing Director, says, “The iOS growth we are seeing may be attributed to the tremendous success of iPhone 4S and iPad in the ecosystem.”

Of course ad viewing is not the same as total market share, but it is an indication that Apple has made a rather large dent in connected mobile devices.

[via AppleInsider]

Report: Apple’s iOS accounts for 35% of mobile ad impressions originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:00:00 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 February 24, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ZDNet (via Macgasm) has posted a couple of neat iCal tweaks that should make your life a bit easier: Enabling the debug menu and showing two weeks worth of appointments at once.

The trick involves a couple of Terminal commands. To enter debug mode, use the following:

defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu 1

And, if you want to remove it, use the following command:

defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu 0

Once you’ve got the debug menu activated, restart iCal. Here’s what you’ll see.

There’s quite a few tricks here, including the ability to have to multiple iCal windows open at the same time. You also can expand the week view to glimpse up to 28 days at once, which is a little too much. But like ZDNet says, being able to see two weeks at a time in week view is pretty handy.

To switch the views, select the desired time from the “top sekret” menu and toggle between week and another calendar option. The new mode is enabled once you return to the week view.

How to enable iCal’s debug menu originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s rare to come up with a Friday Favorite for something as seemingly ho-hum as a USB hub, but this particular model caught my eye a while ago when a colleague brought it with him on a project. “What is that?” I asked, wonderingly. The blue glow of the ports was so hypnotic that I nearly missed his explanation, “It’s my favorite USB hub; I bring it with me everywhere.”

The Satechi 12-port hub wouldn’t look out of place on the control deck of the Death Star. It comes in one color — black — and features two banks of ports that glow enticingly when switched on for power via the twin rocker switches at the back end of the unit. One bank includes six ports atop the hub; the second bank has five on top and one front-facing port.

You can use the hub with or without the power adapter, but with it connected you can support self-powered devices; you can charge an iPhone (or multiple iPhones) with ease. iPads will trickle-charge (“No Charging” indicator on screen) but, like most hubs, the Satechi unit doesn’t support the double-wattage port spec that the iPads need for rapid charge.

You may not think you need twelve USB ports, but if you’re dealing with flash drives or other peripherals, or if you have a MacBook Air and want to maximize your expansion options, the Satechi hub is a perfect fit. The hub currently retails for US$27.99 and comes with a power adapter and a one-meter extension cable.

You can check out our other Friday Favorites, hardware and software alike, here.

Friday Favorite: Satechi 12-port USB Hub originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s 30-pin Dock connector has spawned generations of cables, docks, and accessories that all use the wide dongle we’ve all become familiar with. But is it something that has outlived its usefulness and is ready for replacement? That’s the question iMore’s Rene Ritchie discussed in a post yesterday, and his opinion is that Apple may move to an updated “micro dock” this year.

Why? Ritchie notes that design changes like this are not unprecedented in the world of Apple, citing the move from mini SIM cards to micro SIM for the original iPad and removing the antenna from the inside of the iPhone for the iPhone 4 and 4S. The changes provided the extra space under the hood required for a larger battery, a power-hungry Retina display and backlight, 802.11n Wi-Fi and more.

Ritchie points out that the current dock connector takes up a relatively large amount of space that could be better used for a 4G LTE radio. While the change might not occur in the next generation of iPad expected to be announced in the next few weeks, it could be a requirement for the iPhone 5. Ritchie doesn’t think Apple would go to Thunderbolt, since iOS doesn’t use the PCI Express architecture, nor does a micro-USB connector make much sense as it doesn’t add a lot of speed to the connection.

There’s less of a need now for a connector that does more than just charge the device. With Wi-Fi sync and installation of apps and AirPlay connections to speakers and TVs, the need for a wired connection has waned. Last year’s move to iOS 5 brought about the “PC-free” era, no longer requiring a PC or Mac to complete the initial setup of an iOS device.

Apple would, Ritchie comments, upset a lot of customers and accessory manufacturers with a change to a new connector. But the company has always been willing to take a chance, pulling floppy disk drives, optical drives, and FireWire ports from new Macs as the need for those components disappeared.

What will take the place of the 30-pin Dock connector? Your guess is as good as mine (or Rene’s). This year seems like a likely time for the change to come, and we’ll all get a chance to embrace change for better or worse.

The case for ditching the Dock connector originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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