In iOS 8, Apple is adding some new Core Location features that let app developers get precise indoor positioning data from an iOS device’s sensors and it’s even letting venues contribute by signing-up to get help enabling indoor positioning. We first exclusively detailed the new feature last year, which taps into the iPhone’s M7 processor and uses WiFi technologies to provide extremely accurate indoor mapping and navigation features to developers.
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Instagram today released a major update to its popular photo sharing app for smartphones. The latest release, Instagram 6.0, packs in several new photo editing tools including light and dark adjustments, sharpening effects, color adjustments, filter strengths, and more.
When you go to select a filter, you’ll now see a new wrench icon. Tap it and you’ll find a tray of photo editing tools ready for you to explore. You can also now adjust how much of a filter you apply to a photo by double tapping the filter icon.
The update comes just a day after Apple previewed iOS 8 which includes its own photo editing advancements in the native Photos app similar to those found in apps like iPhoto.
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Sherlocked. It’s a word that often gets thrown around after Apple casually integrates a feature offered by some other software into one of its operating systems. Its origin goes back to a time before OS X’s Spotlight feature when Sherlock was the Internet and file search software offered by Apple. Watson, at the time, was a third party utility by Karelia Software that offered very similar functionality, and one of Apple’s versions of Sherlock closely resembled the popular Watson.
Yesterday Apple introduced a more powerful version of Spotlight on OS X after quite a while of letting the feature remain unchanged. The easiest way to describe the updated version of Spotlight is to compare it to the popular Mac utility Alfred. For this reason, several Alfred users voiced concern about Alfred’s fate going forward, enough people that its creators addressed Alfred’s place in a Yosemite world on their blog:
A few users have voiced concerns that Spotlight in Yosemite looks more like Alfred, and wonder whether this changes anything for Alfred and his future.
What you have to remember is that Spotlight’s primary objective is to search your files and a small handful of pre-determined web sources. Meanwhile, Alfred’s primary objective is to make you more productive on your Mac with exceptional and powerful features like Clipboard History, System commands, iTunes Mini Player, 1Password bookmarks, Terminal integration, fully bespoke and customisable user-created workflows and much, much more.
Their message is very similar to last year’s WWDC when Apple introduced its iCloud Keychain which closely resembles a specific feature of 1Password and similar apps. 1Password has since shipped several updates adding new features to its software on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and it sounds like Alfred is planning to do just the same.
In fact, we’ve been working on some pretty special and truly amazing new features that you’ll hear about over the next few months. We think these will blow your mind and can’t wait to tell you more.
Apple has released WWDC 2.1 for iOS bringing with it the ability to download session videos. Previously, viewing session videos required an active connection to the Internet and watching videos over again required a stream as well. The update also includes bug fixes according to the release notes. WWDC for iPhone and iPad is available for free on the App Store.
https://twitter.com/gregbarbosa/status/473585851180777472
Popular password manager app 1Password received a nice update today for iPhone and iPad that introduces a few notable new features and the return of one previously removed. Version 4.5.2 of the app now includes automatic backups of data that users can access via iTunes. It also sees the return of item printing, bug fixes and more.
The app also makes some overall performance improvements. Developer AgileBits notes “Sync is now much sync-ier” and “That pesky flickering while viewing an item’s details is no more.”
Version 4.5.2 of the 1Password app for iPhone and iPad is available on the App Store now.
What’s New in 4.5.2
◆ 1Password now keeps automatic backups of your data that are accessible via iTunes
◆ Item printing is back, baby!
◆ Sync is now much sync-ier
◆ That pesky flickering while viewing an item’s details is no more
◆ The report of bug deaths is *not* an exaggeration
BlackBerry has announced an upcoming release of its BBM client for iOS devices that includes an easier signup flow and an improved process for adding new contacts.
The new simplified registration process will request only a name, password, and email address, as opposed to the current app which requires much more information. The update will also improve the process for adding new contacts. Currently users who get an invite need send their own PIN back to the other party so they can be mutual contacts. In the new version that step will be automated. Tapping the invitation link in the email will complete the entire process.
The update also adds new emoticons to the app’s existing selection. BlackBerry Messenger 2.2 will be available on the iOS App Store in the coming days.
Subscription music streaming service Rdio updated its iPhone and iPad app today with one notable new feature for version 2.5.9: Push Notifications.
The new push notifications feature will allow you to get notified for a number of different activities within the app such as music that’s being shared with you, subscribers to your playlists, new followers, and more. You’ll also be able to select which notifications you’d like to receive if you, for example, only want to know when users share new music with you and not every time someone subscribes to one of your playlists.
The app also includes “various UI improvements and minor bug fixes” in the latest release.
Version 2.5.9 of the Rdio app for iPhone and iPad is available on the App Store now.
– Push Notifications. Get notified on your mobile device about the activities of your choice, such as music shared with you, new followers, subscribers to your playlists and more.
– Various UI improvements and minor bug fixes.
PDF Expert, the powerful PDF viewing and editing application from Readdle, got a big update today that features few new features and tweaks to make it even more useful along with a big speed boost.
The big news, though, is that PDF Expert is a universal app for the first time. Where previous versions were device-specific for the iPhone and iPad, PDF Expert 5.1 brings both interfaces together in one app. To accommodate the change, the old iPhone version has been retired. Version 5.1, which was formerly iPad-only, will now work on the iPhone as well, with all features supported across both devices.
After a brief public beta period, the popular RSS client Reeder is out with the first update to its Mac software since Google Reader broke support Reeder last year.
The new version supports a number of RSS services that have proven popular since Google Reader ended (like Feedbin, Feedly, and Feed Wrangler), and it now serves as a standalone RSS client without syncing so you won’t have to depend on an RSS service to use the app in the future.
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HockeyApp, one of the last big independent, cross-platform app testing platforms after Apple acquired TestFlight (and pulled Android support) earlier this year, gets a big update today with version 3.0. The full change log includes a long list of new features, enhancements, and fixes, but the company ran through a few of the most notable new features in a blog post. One of the most requested new features is Team Management:
You asked for it, you (finally!) got it. You can now create and manage users in teams with HockeyApp. Once a user has accepted your team invite, you can add this team to apps without sending further invites. Our new User Control Center shows you which teams and users have been added to the app, which device are not provisioned, and which users have applied to become a tester.
The release also includes a new feature for adding Organizations that are owned by multiple people, a new notification system, feedback attachments, and a much improved user interface and overall user experience. In addition, you’ll find updated pricing plans and more details on the company’s website here.
TechCrunch notes
that Apple has quietly made some changes to the App Store Top Charts by reducing the top 300 apps previously listed across Paid, Free and Top Grossing categories to just 150. It’s what I expect will be a welcomed change that shows Apple is attempting to clean up the App Store ranking system, but it’s not one that most users are likely to notice. As noted by app tracking company Appsfire in the report, “most users don’t even get to that part of the ranking – except industry watchers. If there’s any good reason to remove this part, it’s because it’s not used.”
It is, however, still up for debate if this will have any impact on the mostly smaller developers that will get booted from the top charts as a result. The change so far is only on the App Store on iOS.
It’s a sign at least that Apple is attempting to improve the App Store charts and app discovery in general, something it’s been doing behind the scenes on a regular basis. The change won’t do much to combat the shady tactics used by some developers to game the charts, but hopefully Apple has some bigger changes in store for iOS 8 that we’ll see at WWDC early next month.
In other App Store news, mobile analytics firm App Annie, which is often the best source around for tracking App Store related data that Apple doesn’t provide, announced today that it is acquiring competitor Distimo. With the acquisition, the company is now tracking more than 600,000 apps and has 270,000 registered business users. That includes “90 percent of the top 100 app publishers by revenue.”
Google updated its Chrome app for iPhone and iPad today with a few minor features to make the browsing experience more comfortable. First up is right-to-left Omnibox support for Arabic and Hebrew after adding initial autocomplete support for right-to-left languages in the previous update. The company said the update also brings the ability to “Easily refine your search queries and view more results” thanks to a slightly revamped search results page.
In addition, Google will now let you “see your search term in the omnibox, instead of the long search query URL.” That means when you enter a search query and land on a Google search results page, you’ll no longer see a long, confusing URL in the omnibox but rather just your search term much like in Apple’s Safari iOS app.
• Added right-to-left support to the omnibox for Arabic and Hebrew
• See your search term in the omnibox, instead of the long search query URL
• Easily refine your search queries and view more results on the search results page
• Stability improvements and bug fixes
Apple today has released yet another stability patch to iTunes 11.2 on OS X. The latest version, iTunes 11.2.2, specifically addresses an issue with unexpect podcast episode downloads, according to Apple. The software update also includes stability improvements.
Apple first released iTunes 11.2 alongside the release of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3; a subsequent update followed with the release of iTunes 11.2.1 with a security fix.
The update is available via Software Updates in the Mac App Store.
Alongside a minor update to the app, Adobe Revel has changed their business model slightly. Before, free accounts were limited to uploading just 50 photos every month. Going forward, free accounts get 2 GB of fixed storage for uploads.
Update: Brent Simmons write on his blog that Vesper for Mac is indeed next.
Vesper received a major feature update overnight bringing one of the most requested features to the note-taking app: support for sync. Vesper, the project of John Gruber, Brent Simmons, and Dave Wiskus under the name Q Branch, was released almost a year ago for the iPhone and decidedly lacked iCloud sync (due to reliability) or any alternative. Simmons has since been journaling his experiencing with building an in-house sync solution for Vesper on his Inessential blog if you are interested in reading the behind-the-scenes work that goes into such a project…
Tapbots, the development team behind the popular Tweetbot Twitter client for Mac and iOS have issued a mandatory update for all users. According to a post on the Tapbots blog, all current mobile versions of the app will cease to function soon due to a change in the app requested by Twitter.
Updates for both iPhone versions of the app are rolling out now. Users on iOS 6 running Tweetbot 2 can look out for version 2.8.8, while users on the newer Tweetbot 3 can already find version 3.3.2 in the App Store. The Mac and iPad versions of the app aren’t mentioned in the post, so it’s possible they won’t need to be updated. (Update: The iPad version has been updated to version 2.8.8 as well.)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR8XBZRkkao&feature=youtu.be]
YouTube announced today that it will be releasing regular “Creator Preview” videos letting YouTube creators know about upcoming features so they can provide feedback ahead of time. In the first Creator Preview, the company announced that it’s working on a separate mobile app just for creators in addition to a few other interesting new features:
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Following a series of software releases over the last week including OS X 10.9.3, iTunes 11.2, Safari 7.0.4, and Podcasts for iOS, Apple has tonight released a point update to its iAd Producer software in the developer center. The previous update to the software was released earlier this year in March. The update includes, among other improvements, support for full-screen iPhone banner iAd creation. Full release notes after the break.
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Parents who share their iPads with their kids for playing games and other entertainment will want to check out this novel idea from the startup company Tangible Play. The product is a combination of iPad game apps and iPad accessories that use the front-facing camera to connect real world gameplay and interactions with what is happening within the compatible apps. At launch, three apps will be available: Tangram, Newton, and Words.
As TechCrunch points out, the company behind Osmo is founded by former Google employees:
The company was founded by ex-Googlers, including Pramod Sharma, who had earlier seen the the intersection of physical and digital when he helped build Google’s book-scanning machine, and Jérôme Scholler, who had worked on Chrome for Android.
For parents and iPad owners interested in Osmo, the game set is currently available for pre-order in a crowdsourcing campaign to raise funds for development. Early backers can join in on the fun at $49 and the final product is expected to ship later this fall. Osmo will be regularly priced at $99 starting June 22nd, so interested backers will want to jump in soon.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbwIJMz9PAQ]
The Pixelmator team is relentless, releasing significant updates to the application every few months. Version 3.2 (codenamed ‘Sandstone’) is no exception and can be downloaded from the Mac App Store now. Codenamed Sandstone, this iteration adds a majorly-revamped Repair Tool, 16-bit channel editing for all Macs (not just the Mac Pro) alongside a whole bucket of other improvements.
The Repair Tool now uses color-correction to match repaired areas seamlessly. It also has clever smarts that mean you don’t have to precisely select an object anymore, the software will remove the whole object automatically. Pixelmator will also try its best to infer the structure of the background area, for a more natural final edit.
The Repair Tool now has three different options, Quick, Standard and Advanced. Quick is meant for small blemishes, whereas Standard and Advanced tackle the removal of larger objects from a scene. It’s not exactly clear under what circumstances you are supposed to change mode, so I chose ‘Advanced’ every time in my testing and the results were fantastic. It’s sort of like magic. You can see an example of what this is capable of after the break …
We’ve covered Algoriddim’s djay for iOS, the popular all-in-one DJ system software, in the past including the debut of djay 2, and today djay is out with a major new feature that unlocks over 20 million songs: Spotify integration. Previously, the DJ app relied solely on songs downloaded and stored in the iPhone or iPad Music app. The latest version of djay focuses on music access and discovery and also includes set list sharing using Spotify playlists as well as more than 30 new audio effects to unlock within the app. I’ve had the opportunity to test drive the new version of djay with Spotify integration over the past week, and it’s definitely a major benefit to users of the DJ system software.
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQSJx2nI9I]
Bubble, a new app launching this week, is about to make it super easy for anyone to link real world items to websites using Apple’s new iBeacon Bluetooth LE technology. Up until now retailers, event planners, and more have been using iBeacons in order to send relevant notifications to users in proximity, but that required users to actually have that specific retailer’s app installed. Bubble, on the other hand, acts as an iBeacon browser of sorts allowing users to discover web content as they come in contact with real world items.
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Alongside the release of OS X 10.9.3 and iTunes 11.2 last week, Apple released Safari version 7.0.3 and 6.1.4. Apple has since released a minor bug fix to that version of iTunes, and today Apple has released a security update to Safari bringing the latest version to 7.0.4. Users can find the latest version in the Mac App Store.
Safari 6.1.4 and Safari 7.0.4
- WebKitAvailable for: OS X Lion v10.7.5, OS X Lion Server v10.7.5, OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5, OS X Mavericks v10.9.3Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description: Multiple memory corruption issues existed in WebKit. These issues were addressed through improved memory handling.
Read Apple’s documentation on the latest version of Safari here.
According to multiple sources, Facebook will unveil a new service today that can identify television shows and music playing in the background. The new software, which will be available via an updated App Store app on iPhone and a Google Play app on Android, will work in tandem with your smartphone hardware’s microphone. Facebook is said to be integrating the feature so Facebook users can more easily share what music they are listening to or what TV show they are currently watching to their Timelines. In iOS 8, Apple will unveil a new Siri feature in partnership with Shazam to identify songs playing in the background. Update: Official announcement after the break…
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