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Spotify for iPad finally lands in the App Store

Jordan Kahn May 2 2012 - 5:34 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yXdD-2wJUac]

There were leaks last month showing what might have been our first look at the Spotify iPad app, but today the company officially launched its long-awaited app with a blog post and the video above. The free app has already landed in the App Store as a universal download (an update for users of the iPhone app), and the service offers a 48-hour free trial for non-Premium subscribers with the ability to increase it to 30 days.

Our iPad app looks great. We’ve included Retina graphics and high-definition album art to make browsing a pleasure. Enjoying all the world’s music instantly on your iPad has never been easier. And with the brand new full-screen view and AirPlay integration, Spotify and your iPad are perfect for each other, both as your pumped-up living room stereo and your lean, green music machine when you’re on the move.

Compared to Spotify’s iPhone experience, the iPad app has been completely redesigned with a layered UI more familiar to Facebook iPad app users and packs most of the service’s features apart from the recently launched Web apps. It also includes a new full-screen mode with Retina graphics to take advantage of the device’s display and AirPlay support. Missing is “Collection” view and few other features only accessible through the online service.

The full set of features, as described by Spotify community manager Andres Sehr, is below:

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Samsung denies organizing anti-Apple ‘Wake Up’ campaign

Élyse Betters Apr 27 2012 - 10:14 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ldq2tNLRDwA]

Samsung just officially denied any involvement with the “Wake Up” protest held outside of an Australian Apple Store earlier this week.

According to SlashGear, the company stepped forth today and rebuffed any ties to the affair: ”Samsung Electronics Australia has nothing to do with the ‘Wake-Up Campaign’.”

For currently unknown reasons, a puzzling demonstration with anti-Apple cues occurred outside an Apple Store in Sydney April 22. A black bus boasted the phrase “WAKE UP” and a slew of paid picketers with coordinating signs paraded along George Street while chanting, “Wake up!”

The staged fuss accompanied a series of billboards posted around the city, as well as “WAKE UP” written on the bottom of Bondi Ice Bergs’ pool, and a baffling website at wake-up-australia.com.au that features a focal point countdown. The URL is registered to ad agency New Dialogue, which underwent rebranding and now goes by the name “Tongue.”

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Twitter for iPhone updated with enhancements to search and notifications

Jordan Kahn Apr 26 2012 - 11:11 am PT

Twitter just announced on its blog that its iPhone client will get an update today with enhancements made to “discover, search and notifications.” The update does not appear to be live, but it will be available here when it is.

Included in the update is a new “Activity” stream within the Discover tab. The blog post explained:

With this update, you can see Activity on Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android. Activity is a stream of updates that shows which Tweets are favorited or retweeted by the people you follow and which accounts those people follow or add to lists… Activity appears below the redesigned stories in Discover. Now you can tap any story once to see Tweets about a particular trend or news article. You can then read the entire story or join the conversation by replying, retweeting or favoriting related Tweets.

Improvements to search include suggestions for spelling and related terms, autocomplete for first and last names in the Connect tab, access to your most recent queries in the Discover tab, and the ability to jump directly to a user profile by tapping usernames in Connect.

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LinkedIn releases iPad app with calendar syncing feature

Jordan Kahn Apr 26 2012 - 5:34 am PT

[slideshow]

A long-awaited iPad version of popular professional networking service and social network LinkedIn has finally arrived alongside an updated iPhone app and new interfaces for the service. As you would expect, the app provides much of the same features of the previous iPhone version with access to “Updates,” “Profile,” and “Inbox” through a completely redesigned interface. The new iPad version also does a good job of pulling calendar data from the device’s calendar app and merging it with data/events from the network.

The app appears to be designed entirely in HTML, which might mean LinkedIn has plans to bring the same experience to other platforms. You can grab the updated LinkedIn iOS app for iPhone or iPad now.

2012 Apple Design Awards now accepting nominations for iOS and Mac apps

Jordan Kahn Apr 25 2012 - 7:00 am PT

With the announcement of the 2012 Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple also opened its Apple Design Awards nomination page for iOS and Mac developers. Apple announced last year that the annual awards would now only apply to Mac and iOS apps residing in the App Store, which appears to be the case this year as well.

Through the website set up for WWDC, developers can sign up and nominate apps for inclusion in the awards. To be considered, the app must be on the App Store or Mac App Store by May 1. Note: Apps that are not nominated can still win an Apple Design Award if they catch Apple’s eye.

Last year’s winners included iPhone apps Infinity Blade, Cut the Rope, and Golfscape GPS Rangefinder, and iPad apps djay for iPad, Osmos, and Our Choice. For Mac developers, apps including Capo, Pixelmator, and Anomaly Warzone Earth took home last year’s awards. At WWDC 2011, Apple also handed out awards to student developers, which will likely happen again—especially given Apple’s new scholarship program for the 2012 event.

Winners will get an Apple Design Award trophy and usually some Apple gear or prizes that have not been announced. Apple broke down the criteria for apps considered for the awards:

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$110B in the bank and other monster numbers

Jordan Kahn Apr 24 2012 - 2:24 pm PT

Apple just announced during its Q2 2012 earnings call that it currently has $110 billion in cash reserves, which is up from $81.5 billion in September 2011. Apple was also up in every other segment with $18.4 billion in short-term marketable securities (up from $16.1 billion) and long-term marketable securities at $81.6 billion, which is up from $55.6 billion in the previous six-month period ending September 2011.

Other numbers that Apple reported today for the quarter:

iTunes and App Store:

-$1.9 billion in iTunes revenue (a 35 percent YOY increase)

-600,000 apps (200,000 iPad specific apps)

iOS devices:

-365 million iOS device sales

-$22.7 billion in revenue from iPhone and accessories

-6.6 billion in revenue from iPad and accessories.

-7.7 million iPod sales

-94 percent of Fortune 500 and 75 percent of global 500 testing or deploying iPad

iCloud:

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Cargo-bot, the first app created entirely on the iPad, hits the App Store

Seth Weintraub Apr 23 2012 - 10:50 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mPWWDOjtO9s#!]

Using a development environment/ app called Codea (formerly Codify), Two Lives Left created a free iPad game called Cargo-Bot. It is now available in the App Store.

Cargo-Bot is a puzzle game where you teach a robot how to move crates. Sounds simple, right? It features 36 fiendishly clever puzzles, haunting music and stunning retina graphics. You can even record your solutions and share them on YouTube to show your friends.

The app itself looks good but where it gets interesting is that it was made entirely on an iPad using Codea ($9.99 App Store). Codea uses the Lua programming language and has called the GarageBand of iPad coding for its visual ease of use. Until now, apps built using Codea were only able to play inside the app. Using a preview of a new Open Source exporter tool, Codea exported the Cargo-bot app and submitted it to the App Store where it was recently approved.

It’s the first game of its kind, prototyped, programmed and polished on iPad. Cargo-Bot was created by Rui Viana, a Codea user who developed his initial prototype and shared it with the Codea community. Two Lives Left reached out to Rui in order to turn his prototype into a published App Store game. They also enlisted the aid of Fred Bogg, a composer who developed a music library for Codea, to create the music for Cargo-Bot.

Coinciding with the release of Cargo-Bot, Two Lives Left is releasing the Codea Runtime Library source code under the Apache License Version 2.0. Registered Apple iOS Developers will be able to export their Codea projects into the Codea Runtime Library in order to release them as standalone apps, just like Cargo-Bot.

How long until iPad game creation is mainstream? Xcode for iPad certainly couldn’t be too far off?

Press release follows:

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Cue on agency model: ‘I don’t think you understand. We can’t treat newspapers or magazines any differently than we treat FarmVille.”

Jordan Kahn Apr 23 2012 - 6:59 am PT

By now you probably know that the U.S. Department of Justice launched an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and two publishers this month following an investigation into Apple’s eBook pricing agency model. Three publishers, including Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster, decided to reach a settlement with the Department of Justice to return to Amazon’s set-your-own price wholesale model. Meanwhile, Apple, Macmillan, and Penguin will take the fight to court.

Interestingly, a report from The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by the HarperCollins’ parent company News Corp, suggested Apple was only ever trying to continue its App Store business model. The Wall Street Journal’s L. Gordon Crovitz described visiting Senior Apple Executive Eddy Cue to discuss changing Apple’s policies for publications. He quoted Cue as comparing book pricing to apps and not wanting to treat publications differently than app developers:

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App allows users to watch premium TV live without a subscription or jailbreak [Update]

Apr 22 2012 - 7:24 am PT

Update: As expected, this is not what it seems. It looks like the developer switched all of the advertised premium content over to an ad for Futobox. Premium content vendors take note: People are willing to pay for good streaming content.

Update 2: TV Premium removed from the Apple Store over 24 hours later. We’re hearing from multiple sources that Apple issuing refunds.

A new iOS app released in the App Store this weekend called “TV English Premium” that allows users to watch premium TV stations without a subscription. Most of the channels on the app are English-centric and include BBC Two, Three, Four, BBC HD, and Eurosport channels, but there are some native USA channels, such as: History HD, National Geographic HD, ESPN HD.

We downloaded and tested the app, and it seems to work as advertised. We only paid the one-time app fee of 99 cents, and then we were free to browse all the channels the app has to offer. A couple of times the app stopped to buffer, but we did not experience any other real pain-points. Needless to say, we do not expect this app to last too long in the app store, so you may want to act fast if you are interested. It is a universal download for iPad, iPod, and iPhone, and it is available here (iPad screenshot and video below). Buyer (obviously) beware.

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Padcaster iPad case turns your iPad into the ultimate camera

Jake Smith Apr 17 2012 - 5:49 pm PT

The Padcaster case was just announced this week at the National Association of Broadcasters conference as an awesome way to turn an iPad into the ultimate on-the-go filming and editing machine. Available soon for $199, the case allows you to attach an iPad to a tri-pod, and then attach multiple lenses and an external mic to get even higher quality video. To attach a lens, you will also need to purchase the $79.99 mount. From there, you can use iMovie, YouTube, Camera.app and more from the App Store to edit videos right as they are shot.

As you can see in The Verge’s hands-on with the case shown above, it looks very useful. Of course, it is not something that you would want to keep on all the time, but rather for situations when you need to record, edit, and upload video quickly. Nonetheless, the iPad looks to make an awesome 10.1-inch view-finder. Check out this sample video from the rig below:

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NYC Apple Stores will host free events for Tribeca Film Festival

Élyse Betters Apr 16 2012 - 4:14 pm PT

Apple just announced that its retail stores at West 14th Street and SoHo in Manhattan are participating in the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival by showcasing Hollywood’s top artists as guest speakers.

“To celebrate the spirit of independent filmmaking, we’re hosting free events and workshops from April 20 through April 28. And everyone’s invited to attend,” explained Apple on its website and in a circular email.

There is an official “Tribeca Film Festival” app for free at the App Store that details all the workshops taking place.

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Official Spotify iPad app leak surfaces, might unveil next week

Élyse Betters Apr 16 2012 - 12:20 pm PT

A leaked image of Spotify’s official iPad app surfaced today.

Swedish technology consultant Statigram posted a purported picture of the app’s beta version on Instagram (link now redirects). The caption simply read: “It’s getting closer!”

The above screen capture depicts an iOS Twitter-like user-interface, with play options located along the bottom and a Search bar on the left side featuring icons for What’s New, Inbox, Playlists, and Friends.

Last Friday, Spotify sent invites for a special announcement in New York City for April 18, and current rumors indicate the app might unveil at the upcoming press event.

So much for Instagram defections, displaces its buyer Facebook as No. 1 iOS App (9to5mac.com)

Apple updates ‘Cards’ app for Mother of all greeting card holidays

Jordan Kahn Apr 16 2012 - 10:31 am PT

Apple updated its “Cards” app for creating and sending physical greeting cards that originally launched in October of last year at the iPhone 4S unveiling. Included in version 1.1 of the iOS app are new letterpress cards for Mother’s Day, which are just in time for the holiday that is celebrated in most countries during April or May (May 13 in the United States this year).

Other additions include “Get Well” cards, new designs for birthdays, thank yous, and other categories. As always, you can grab the update from the App Store now as a free download.

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Apple finally comments on DOJ antitrust charges: ‘We’re breaking monopolies not starting them’

Jake Smith Apr 12 2012 - 6:45 pm PT

Apple finally commented late this evening on the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust suit against the company. What did Apple think up with those extra 48 hours? Peter Kafka got the scoop from Apple’s Tom Neumayr:

The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true. The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.

The civil antitrust suit alleged that Apple’s move to let publishers set their own prices—and it is a requirement that publishers do not sell their digital books for cheaper elsewhere—forced consumers to pay millions more for books than they should have.

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Rockstar’s original Max Payne lands in App Store with Retina graphics

Jordan Kahn Apr 11 2012 - 11:33 am PT

[slideshow]

Update: The app is live on most stores now including the U.S. store for $2.99 here.

Rockstar announced a couple of weeks ago that the iOS port of classic PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox title “Max Payne” would make its way to the App Store April 12. One day early, it looks like the game is already available in App Stores around the world with the New Zealand store, the Australian store, and others already listing the game.

The game in terms of plot and gameplay does not stray far from the original, but Rockstar updated the port with new high-res textures and graphics with full support for the iPhone 4S and the third-generation iPad’s Retina displays. Controls were reconfigured for the touchscreen, and Rockstar is bundling support for its Social Club Xbox Live-like network for iPhone 4, 4S, iPad 2, and the new iPad users. The game will also support cheats, such as the “Skip to Level.”

We will keep you updated when “Max Payne” lands in the United States store, most likely for around the ~~$4.99~~ $2.99 mark. When it does, the universal app will be compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 4, iPad 1, iPad 2, and the new iPad.

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So much for Instagram defections, displaces its buyer Facebook as No. 1 iOS App

Élyse Betters Apr 11 2012 - 6:59 am PT

O.K., here is another Instagram story, but now its about the iOS app landing the No. 1 free app spot in the App Store for the first time—despite much media attention on the subject of it selling out to Facebook.

Hipsters everywhere donning their skinny jeans took to Twitter to post one last heavily filtered image, while threatening to delete their Instagram accounts after news broke earlier this week that social network giant Facebook bought the app for a cool $1 billion.

Many tweets and reports even detailed how to keep Instagram photos from Mark Zuckerberg’s acquisitive hands through export services like Instaport.me that essentially leave users free and clear to erase the Instagram app from their smartphones.

The public’s warning now seems empty, of course, as Instagram itself used Twitter this morning to announce its sudden surge in popularity. It looks as though the intense press scrutiny only encouraged the iOS app to soar up the charts. Meanwhile, its new parent company does not even sit in the top 25 free apps in Apple’s App Store.

[tweet https://twitter.com/#!/instagram/statuses/189845445458132992]

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Dolphin Browser iPhone app updated with ‘Sonar’ voice control functionality

Jordan Kahn Apr 4 2012 - 6:44 am PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JD3EN48gwhY#!]

Popular third-party Android browser Dolphin made its way to the App Store in August of last year bringing highly customizable gestures, built-in translations, and a dock-style sidebar for quick access to tabs, bookmarks, and speed dial. Today, developers MoboTap Inc. pushed out an update to the iPhone app that, among other new features, introduced voice search functionality called “Dolphin Sonar.”

Dolphin Sonar is super easy to use and can do almost anything. Instead of typing, tap the microphone at the bottom left or just shake your phone (because who doesn’t want an excuse to do that!). Then say what you want to say and Dolphin will do the rest… use your voice to search the Web, find exactly what you’re looking for on sites like Facebook or eBay, bookmark your favorite website, and (like a real Dolphin!) use Sonar to navigate. Ask Dolphin to search on Facebook or create a new tab…all without having to type a single letter.

Other additions to the update include the return of the URL keyboard “by popular demand,” new search engine options to switch between four default settings, three font size options for browsing, and the ability to dim the screen with a single tap using “Night Mode.” Like the default Safari browser, Dolphin will also now save images directly to your iPhone’s photo album. You will also get the usual stability and performance enhancements when you grab version 4.0 of the Dolphin browser on the App Store (iTunes link).

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Apple subsidiary FileMaker releases new version of its flagship product, makes iOS version free

Mark Gurman Apr 4 2012 - 5:59 am PT

Apple subsidiary FileMaker has announced a new version of their flagship software product, FileMaker 12, with new database creation tools and themes. The Mac version of FileMaker 12 gain improved 64 bit support as well as wide area network support, enhance support for large databases, and add fast file and multimedia-content streaming. Database and project creation are now easier and faster with new and more intuitive themes on the Mac. The most important addition to the product is its more streamlined interface for creating interfaces that run on iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches. Additionally, a new iOS device application is available for free. The app takes many features from the desktop product but is mostly used to run Mac-created databases. The Mac and iOS apps work in tandem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LQl1FdbEyME

The full press release is after the break.

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Remember Microsoft’s Courier idea? J Allard funded ‘Tapose’ iPad app goes live today

Jordan Kahn Mar 27 2012 - 12:40 pm PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQO0hzKFHiw&context=C47a510dADvjVQa1PpcFMSCsaAUS5ozxlAxBOlWOizoy3tZSlgrKg=]

We told you in May 2011 that a new company called “Taposé” aimed to bring functionality from Microsoft’s dual-screen Courier tablet concept to the iPad. The iPad app was still early in development then, but has since reached its funding goal on Kickstarter. It also received backing from Microsoft’s J Allard who headed the Courier project at Microsoft, and now Apple finally approved it for the App Store:

(Update: It is live now!)

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Rejected twice by Apple, ‘Find My Facebook Friends’ app finally goes live on App Store

Jordan Kahn Mar 27 2012 - 10:45 am PT

Rejected twice for being too similar to Apple’s “Find My Friends” app, a new app from developer IZE called “Find My Facebook Friends” is now live on the App Store. The app essentially works the same as Apple’s, allowing you to see your friend’s location on a Google map. It also provides privacy settings to control who can view your location. The difference is rather than using your Apple ID and iCloud account, the app allows you to sign-in and invite friends through Facebook. We talked to the developers who told us the story behind why Apple rejected the app the first two times…

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Apple adds $124.99 and $174.99 price tiers for apps

Mark Gurman Mar 27 2012 - 10:27 am PT

Apple today told developers that it was adding two new price tiers for high end apps at the $124.99 and $174.99 price points giving developers new price points from which to sell their apps.

Click to enlarge – new price points at Tier 63 and Tier 69

We’re not exactly sure why Apple made the move but there you go…

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MOG unlimited music hits the iPad ahead of Spotify

9to5 Staff Mar 25 2012 - 5:22 pm PT

[slideshow]

MOG is a Spotify-like service that streams 14 million songs to your devices and allows you to download music for offline viewing. The free version allows you to stream music against advertising. Meanwhile, the $4.99 version allows you to not only listen to ad-free music but also download music. The $9.99/month version allows unlimited downloads on mobile devices. Today, MOG added one new big device to its list: The iPad.

The iPad version (not universal?) hit the App Store today joining the earlier iPhone version. Perhaps, if you like your music on a native iPad-sized app, it is time to move to MOG (14-day free trial here with unlimited downloads).

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Apple updates its Trailers.app and iTunes trailers for Retina Display

9to5 Staff Mar 22 2012 - 7:09 pm PT

(Screenshot of The Lorax from Trailers App – Click to enlarge to full size)

Apple updated its Movie Trailers.app today to Retina graphics, which you will immediately notice bring videos to a higher 1080P quality.

iTunes Move Trailers 1.1 is now designed for the spectacular Retina display on the all-new iPad.

This would have been a good app to showcase when launching the Retina display. Either way, the video quality is impressive to the point that it makes the app addictive.

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Air Display update makes iPad a Retina monitor for Mac, enables HiDPI mode

Jordan Kahn Mar 21 2012 - 9:09 am PT

Developer Avatron announced its “Air Display” app, which allows iPhones, iPads and Macs to act as a second or third monitor, would be implementing support for the 2048-by-1536 resolution of the new iPad’s 264-DPI Retina display. That means you will soon be able to use your third-generation iPad as a 2048-by-1536 computer monitor.

The update will also benefit the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S with “dramatically better frame rates.” In addition, the upcoming update will allow you to enable HiDPI mode in Lion or Mountain Lion, a “feature in Mac OS X that renders with double-resolution on a double-resolution screen.” The results of turning on HiDPI mode in OS X is viewable in the image to the right. Avatron explained on its blog:

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