Apps

Today, the company behind the speech recognition software baked into Apple’s Siri, Nuance, announced the latest version of its Mac application would go head-to-head with Adobe Acrobat. For $99, the company launched version 3 of its “Nuance PDF Converter for Mac” with a ton of new features.

Perhaps the biggest new addition is integration with Nuance’s servers, allowing you to save and access PDFs anywhere through Evernote or Nuance’s own PaperPort Anywhere platform. Other new features include the company’s optical character recognition technology for creating searchable PDFs and one-click word and spreadsheet documents through Nuance OmniPage Document Conversion integration. Nuance is also integrating FormTyper, a feature “which accurately and automatically converts PDF and scanned paper forms into professional looking electronic forms that can be filled, saved and shared online.”

Nuance PDF Converter for Mac will be live later today for $99 through the company’s website here. The previous version of the app is also available through Apple’s online store, so version 3 will likely make its way there soon. Nuance noted the app is just a fraction of Adobe Acrobat Professional for the Mac, which sells for $449. The full press release is below.

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The Sparrow team just announced version 1.1 for “Sparrow for iPhone” on its official blog, while also revealing Push API is coming to the iOS app’s next version:

Thanks to your amazing support, we feel confident that Apple might revise its position on the Push API. We’ll submit a first version of Sparrow 1.2 including it. This might delay Sparrow 1.2 validation but we’re already working with some partners to include Push in future versions of Sparrow without needing Apple clearance.

Push is coming. With or without Apple.

The team also said version 1.2 will include localization in nine languages, landscape mode when composing, and swipe up and down gestures to move between messages.

A screenshot gallery and version 1.1 updates are below. 

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[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 has always provided 70% of application download revenues to developers, but has only provided 60% of the revenue for iAd clicks. Now, Apple has boosted the iAd revenue share to 70%. In this long run, this may mean a major boost in income for developers who rely on the iAd platform for their income. (While today is April 1/Fools day, this comes direct from Apple’s developer iTunes Connect website.) Apple notes the change in an updated developer agreement:

(a) Apple Campaigns. Developer shall receive seventy percent (70%) of the Net Advertising Revenue derived from the sale of advertising on the Developer’s Mobile Properties (“Developer Revenue Share”) net of any applicable taxes as provided in Section 6 of this Agreement. The Developer Revenue Share percentage may be adjusted from time to time at Apple’s sole discretion. Notice of material changes to the Revenue Share percentage will be posted on the Company Portal. “Net Advertising Revenue” is defined as gross advertising revenue recognized through the delivery of ads by Apple less: a) any allowances actually made or taken for returns, credits, cash discounts and promotional allowances; and, b) Agency and agent fees, discounts, commissions and referral fees.

While we can’t confirm this independently, a possible explanation for the revenue share increase has been posted by developer zSprawl. According to the developer, Apple – starting today – will only count impressions, not clicks, for developer revenue. If this is true, it can be assumed that Apple is including the extra 10% to make up for the lost click money. Also, advertisers apparently only have to create $100,000 (or up) accounts with Apple, which is down significantly from the former $500,000 and $1,000,000 minimums, according to the developer.

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Retina Display iPads are fully supported

The iPad App Store is packed with many Twitter clients, but most of these clients offer a similar experience. A user interface with a timeline, a button to open up a tweet sheet, and several more advanced features like direct messaging, tweet quoting, translating and more. Crest ($1.99), however, throws the concept of a typical iOS Twitter client away and offers a brand new way to view your Twitter timeline. This view is a plain black background with falling tiles of Twitter user profile pictures. A user taps the small icon and then that particular user’s tweet will popup.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/38238960 w=400&h=225]

The application also allows you to view that user’s profile by tapping on their name. You can view your own profile by swiping your finger across the display to the right, and you can post tweets by swiping to the left. Additionally, you can swipe to the right on a tweet to reply to it. Tapping the top of the user interface brings up a settings module and a search bar. The application is very minimal and we can’t recommend it as a Twitter “power-user’s” only iPad Twitter client, but we can recommend it to Twitter users who focus on reading tweets, and we can definitely recommend it to any Twitter user who wants to complement their main Twitter application with a fun alternative. I’ve been using Crest for about a week and have enjoyed the unique and convenient experience.

[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 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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Square updated its “Card Case” app with a new design, new name, and a shiny new icon (literally) less than a week after PayPal announced its triangular Square competitor.

Unlike the previous version of the app, which used a credit card metaphor for each store you had an account with, version 2.0, now called “Pay with Square,” uses a list of businesses nearby that accept Square payments and allow you to quickly open a tab at any of them. You can also search a map for nearby Square-compatible businesses and add your favorites to a list for quick and easy access on future visits.

What’s new in Version 2.0, below:

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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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In October, the “DirecTV” app added the ability to stream video over home networks. Today, an update to the app adds the ability to stream shows and movies over 3G and Wi-Fi anywhere. The new feature is limited to video content, meaning live TV streaming still requires a Wi-Fi connection on your home network. Engadget points us to an early review of the new feature that is apparently called “DirecTV Everywhere” from The Solid Signal Blog (below).

According to the video, it looks like available content for the feature is limited to DirecTV’s Audience Network, HBO, Cinemax, Encore, Sony Movie Channel, and Starz. The update also adds a “social module” that lets you check which friend’s on Twitter and Facebook are watching, as well as Miso check-ins and the ability to resume watching programs on the iPad where you left off. You need to be a DirecTV subscriber to get access to the content, and you will find a long list of requirements for various features on the iTunes page with version 1.5.0…

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-7Pb6qCcT4]

Just a small tidbit from the iOS 5.1 release regarding Siri and Yelp: now, when you click a Yelp listing in Siri, you are taken to Yelp’s App Store app rather than nowhere.

Well, last week, Apple launched iOS 5.1 and with it, an updated Siri and Yelp integration on iPhone. Now when searching for a recommendation on local businesses, Siri will return Yelp-reviewed businesses and when you tap the star rating (BOOM!) you are immediately taken to the Yelp business profile page. Oh, the places you’ll go… now that you’ll have faster access to Yelp review highlights, quick tips, hours of operation, address, phone number, photos — the list goes on.

This is seemingly a nice addition to Siri as it gives Yelp fans a quicker way to access more details on the place they are looking for. The video above from Yelp demonstrates the minor enhancement. If you don’t have the app it takes you to the App Store download page.

Also Zerozero, mentioned above, makes a solid pizza.

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Pictionary-like drawing game “Draw Something,” developed by OMGPOP, has quickly become one of the hottest mobile apps for both of the industry’s leading platforms. A few days ago, the developer told TechCrunch it reached 25 million registered users, 10 million active daily users, and close to 1 billion paid ad impressions every day. That is just over 5 weeks after launching. With even more press following reports that Zynga is in talks to acquire developer OMGPOP, the app is continuing to climb app charts in both the App Store and on Google Play.

Currently the app sits at No. 1 in both stores as the No. 1 Top Paid and Top Free iPhone app in the App Store, and the No. 1 Top Free app on Google Play. The app is also currently the No. 1 Top Free iPad app in the game category and in the Top 5 of many other charts in over 80 countries. It looks like the company might get picked up by Zynga, which is not surprising, because a gain of 3.5 million daily users over the last week saw Draw Something take over Zynga’s “Words With Friends” as the most popular Facebook Connect game, according to AppData.

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The second developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion, which seeded to developers on Saturday, introduced support for location-based reminders in the “Reminders” app. In developer preview 1, users could only create due date-based reminders.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_xpeAXCfLc]

The last we heard, Apple was working with developers of Siri alternatives such as True Knowledge, the developers behind “Evi,” to iron out similarities between the app and the iPhone 4S‘s flagship feature. Apple is quick to warn developers who are submitting Siri-like apps not to mimic native features of the OS. Apple wants an app’s features to remain “distinctly different from the iOS behaviors and interfaces to avoid causing user confusion.” Developer Sparkling Apps reached out to let us know Apple rejected its latest app submission called “Voice Answer,” with Apple telling the developer the Wolfram Alpha-powered alternative is “too similar to Siri.”

Apple is not flat-out rejecting all Siri alternatives/competitors. Sparkling Apps already has an app called “Voice Ask” on the App Store that sits in the top charts of the Reference category. Evi remains on the App Store as well. However, the Voice Ask app employs the same True Knowledge database as Evi. While Apple did not offer a specific reason for why the app was rejected, it is possible that Apple is more inclined to reject Siri-like apps using Siri’s Wolfram Alpha knowledge base. Unsurprisingly, the developers decided to release Voice Answer as an Android-only app on Google Play. So why would you want a third-party Siri alternative anyway? There are a few features an app like Voice Answer, if Apple were to allow it, would provide that Siri does not.

First off, the app would run on all devices with iOS 4.2 and up. It also provides spoken answers, optional keyboard input, and configurable items stored in the app’s memory. According to the developer, Voice Answer’s “speech recognition works better than that of Siri, especially with foreign accents,” and the app includes a chatbot called “Eve” that you can teach answers. While most of these features are also baked into Evi, it is unclear exactly why Apple is working with some developers to coexist peacefully with Siri, and then flat-out rejecting others without discussion. It is clear that iOS users are interested in these apps. With the 99-cent-Evi sitting around 200,000 downloads shortly after release, and Siri currently limited to only the iPhone 4S, there is definitely a market for voice-powered assistants if Apple allows it. However, Apple’s reasoning is vague for allowing some Siri competitors and rejecting others. An excerpt from Apple’s rejection to Sparkling Apps and screenshots of the unreleased Voice Answer iOS app are below. Unfortunately, if you want to try the app, you will have to on an Android device for the time being:

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With the launch of the new iPad just hours away, there will be a flood of new iPad owners looking for apps that boast the device’s 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution Retina display. To make it easier, Apple posted a new section on iTunes that lists Retina-ready apps recently updated to take advantage of the new display. The section currently consists of about 24 apps, some of which include “Tweetbot,” “Skitch,” “Infinity Blade II,” and “Sky Gamblers.” However, there are surely countless devs submitting updates to their apps right now. Go past the break for the full list of apps.

The Twitter iOS app was just updated to version 4.1.2 with the only new feature being high-resolution graphics for the new iPad’s Retina display. The update is available in the App Store now (iTunes link).

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Although there are a few unofficial apps in the App Store that allow you to access content from the Khan Academy, the online education portal just launched an official iPad app. Available free in the App Store now, the app provides access to the organization’s 2,700-and up educational videos. The videos cover a range of subjects from K-12 math and science to history and finance. The biggest difference between the new official app and those from third-party devs is that you can now log in to your Khan Academy account; get credit for watching videos, and track goals and achievements from within the app. The app also provides fully subtitled videos with the ability to browse by subtitle, an enhanced video scrubber, and lets you download videos and playlists for offline viewing.

Spend an afternoon brushing up on Statistics. Discover how the Krebs cycle works. Learn about the fundamentals of Computer Science. Prepare for that upcoming SAT. Or, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, learn how fire stick farming changed the landscape of Australia.

The app does not currently include actual exercises offered through KhanAcademy.org to go with the videos, but the service promises they are “coming soon.” According to FastCompany, there is also a feature to sync progress between devices. You can grab the free Khan Academy app here.
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Path’s iOS app was just updated in the App Store to introduce a number of new features, including Nike+ GPS Running Stories, Music Match for identifying and sharing currently playing songs, and camera improvements with “Focus & Exposure” and “Pow!” comic book effects.

Perhaps the biggest part of the update is the Nike+ integration. Path has a website up showcasing a demo of the new GPS Running Stories feature. Now in Nike+, there is an option within Share Settings to share on Path. The demo explained, “When you start a run, Path will let your friends know. If they add an emotion or comment on your run, you’ll hear a cheer!” Path will also display when your friends “cheered you on” and when you hit your best pace. Today’s update does not address the privacy issues over address book data that came up last month, but apparently there is an update for that on the way…

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Apple demoed quite an impressive iPhoto app today during the new iPad unveiling, and the app is now officially live on the App Store for $4.99 [iTunes]. In case you did not know, the app is a universal download for both iPhone and iPad. You can grab iPhoto for iOS now (iTunes link). Apple also boasted updated versions of iMovie and GarageBand today that you can already get on the App Store here and here for $4.99 each (free update for current owners). The updated GarageBand app features a Note Editor, Smart Strings orchestra feature, and Jam Sessions for realtime playing and recording with up to three other iOS devices.  You can read our full break down of the new iPhoto app here.

In addition Apple updated iBooks Author today to “take advantage of the Retina display on the new iPad” and did the same for the iTunes U app. The updates also include the usual stability and performance improvements.

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GarageBand for iPad was given a significant update today at Apple’s new iPad unveiling. Some of the new features include Smart Strings, Note Editor, and new iCloud and sharing features. We will update this post with more information when we get our hands on the new GarageBand, which is available today. Apple did boast one cool feature, however, known as “Jam Session.” The feature allows you to jam with up to three other iPad users in real-time. Stay tuned for more.

Get all the details on the new iPad’s Retina display, LTE-capabilities, new camera system, and A5X quad-core graphics processor at 9to5Mac.

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We’ve gotten a few more tidbits about tomorrow’s Apple TV announcement (Oh, there will be a new iPad too!).  The Apple TV J33 model, MD199LL/A – J33 BEST -USA, which we’ve covered before will come in at the same $99 price point (and similar prices globally).  We know from previous reports that it will have updated hardware internally including Bluetooth 4.0 Broadcom chip as well as a higher powered processor capable of 1080P video. 

It will likely look the same as the current Apple TV with similar ports otherwise, though that hasn’t been confirmed.

Also, the new mystery B82 accessory part just got a price as well: $39.  We’re still not sure what exactly it is (Dock, A/V cable – currently $39, remote – currently $19, etc.).  We’re not expecting anything too spectacular however under $40.

Finally, MacRumors confirms tips that we’ve been hearing today.

Apple appears to be making a similar transition for the iPad with tomorrow’s introduction of the iPad 3, rolling out a $99 AppleCare+ for iPad warranty that would replace the current $79 standard AppleCare package.

AppleCare +, which also covers accidental damage with a $49 deductible, for iPad has shown up on a number of occasions in EasyPay as a $99 option leading our tipsters to believe that it will debut tomorrow.

We’ll be covering all the action tomorrow live, so make sure you stop back.

As always, thanks Mr. X!
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Microsoft just updated Skype for Mac to version 5.6 with some notable improvements:

• Automatic Updates
• Improved UI for group video calling
• New full screen mode in OS X Lion
• Ability to delete conversations
• Ability to disable Audio Gain Control

Also Skype fixed a few bugs as well.  The new version, the last you will ever have to download, is here (22.7MB).
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