Apps

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Adobe just took the wraps off the iOS version of Adobe Reader, which admittedly doesn’t bring much functionality we don’t already have with third-party apps. Either way it’s a welcome addition to their iOS app lineup and could possibly have the potential to be more than just a reader down the road.

The app allows you to read and share PDFs from your email, the web, or any other third-party app that supports “Open In”– pretty straight forward. Everything seems to work as advertised, although for some reason it just doesn’t feel as smooth as iBooks when zooming in and out.

It does however build in all the features you’d hope for including the ability to open encrypted PDFs, (supports up to AES256 encryption and LiveCycle Rights Management), the ability to search text, place bookmarks, and print using AirPrint. A nice addition is the single page mode allows you to tap the edge of a page to switch to the next, but the good old continuous scrolling will probably feel more at home on the iPad.

The iPad version looks a little more fine-tuned than the UI on the iPhone. Perhaps even fine-tuned enough to give iBooks a run for its money as your PDF viewer of choice.

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Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been working with 9to5Mac exclusively to port the iPhone 4S Siri voice command system to the iPhone 4. Troughton-Smith was able to get the beginning steps of a full port rolling after installing the iPhone 4S Siri and Springboard files onto an iPhone 4. As you can see in the video, Siri’s interface loads up with all the features from the iPhone 4S implementation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pue5Yl3WrZA

Siri running on an iPhone 4 (video). Update: Faster version below fold.

Siri on the iPhone 4 can recognize spoken commands in both the standard Siri view and the keyboard Dictation view. The only issue at this point is that Apple is not authenticating (obviously) commands to its servers from iPhone 4 hardware. The Siri port to the iPhone 4, at this point, also has the ability to speak back to the user. You may notice Siri and the iPhone 4 acting very sluggish in the above video. The issue here is not Siri, but is that a special GPU driver for iPhone 4 is needed; and it is obviously not included in the iPhone 4S binary cache – where the Siri files are located.

Perhaps the biggest news here is that we’ve determined that there is no technical reason for Apple not to allow Siri to run on the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 hardware can support the Siri artificial intelligence system, as the A4 processor is said to be powerful enough. We are not entirely sure why Apple is making Siri an iPhone 4S exclusive but it could be due to special microphone support, or because the A5 may allow it to run slightly quicker. After all, Apple is the company who blocked custom wallpapers on the iPhone 3G because the animation is slightly slower than the animation on newer iOS devices.

We are, of course, working with Troughton-Smith to improve the Siri iPhone 4 port. Stay tuned.

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Swipe over an item to reveal the Hide button.

With iCloud, Apple has enabled people to re-download their iTunes purchases such as apps, e-books, movies and television shows, free of charge and as many times as needed. The relaxed policy brought the new Purchased tab in both desktop iTunes, Mac App Store and iOS storefronts, such as iTunes Store, App Store, iBook Store, iTunes Tone Store and Newsstand Store.

If you’re like me, you download too many apps each and every day, basically to try out and ultimately remove the vast majority of items after a couple runs. Unfortunately, each download is automatically added to your Purchased list, no exception – even if you never run the program. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could hide individual purchased items from view? Well, now you can and it’s real simple…

Reveal your hidden item in the iTunes in the Cloud section of your account settings.

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Following in the footsteps of Dropbox, which is treating buyers of HTC’s high-end smartphones to five additional gigabytes of online storage, cloud storage provider Box.net announced today an offering Apple fans will find hard to resist. Think 50 gigabytes of free online storage for anyone with a free Box Personal account on an iOS device, ten times the amount you get with iCloud, at no cost. This cloud storage space will be yours forever and always completely free, no strings attached.

You can use your Box.net storage to keep your photos, documents, music, videos and other personal assets safe in the cloud, for easy access anywhere there’s network connection, saving local storage space on your device. The Box.net for iOS client can be downloaded for free here (iPad screenies below). To claim your free storage beginning tomorrow at noon, just use the client to log in to your account or register for a new one directly from the app. Don’t underestimate the power of marketing: Box.net did the same 50GB thing with Hewlett-Packard and folks were buying TouchPads to claim their free Box.net account – at least until HP shuttered webOS. More info below the fold.

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With just about every other app getting the iOS 5 treatment, it isn’t that surprising that Apple just dropped the updated Xcode 4.2 in the Mac App Store with SDKs for iOS 5 and Mac OS X 10.7. You can also grab it from the Apple Developer site, if you prefer.  Full release notes after the break.

Earlier today Apple updated their iMovie, Remote, and Find My iPhone apps, and released updated versions of Pages, Numbers, Keynote. They also released a new iTunes Movie Trailers app and made their new Cards app available for download.

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Apple has also released, as promised, its brand new iOS app for mailing gorgeous cards, right from the palm of your hand. The Cards app, according to Apple:

The new Cards app from Apple lets you create and mail beautifully crafted cards personalized with your own text and photos — right from your iPhone or iPod touch. Take a quick snapshot and with a few taps and swipes, an elegant letterpress card is on its way to any address in the world. Each card is just $2.99 when sent within the U.S. and $4.99 when sent to or from anywhere else. And that includes postage.

The killer feature? If you mail your card within the United States, Apple will slap their own custom-designed stamp and use the United States Postal Service Intelligent Mail barcode to send you a notification the day the card is due to arrive – so you know when you’re about to make someone’s day. The Cards app is available free of charge from the App Store here. Our international readers may want to wait a bit until the program propagates throughout all regional iTunes Stores. Release notes after the break.

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With the Mac OS X 10.7.2 update released earlier today, Apple has also updated Safari to version 5.1.1. On top of the obvious iCloud support, Apple just posted this support document claiming the new version is 13 percent faster in Javascript performance. Definitely a welcomed performance boost.

Of course version 5.1.1 also includes the a number of fixes and overall stability improvements. You can check out everything included in the update in the support document after the break.

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Apple has just released a new app into the App Store called iTunes Movie Trailers, which allows users to view trailers for upcoming movies and movies in theaters. Along with trailers, the app displays movie release dates and more importantly movie showing times, as you can see below. The Top 25 section of the app lists the top trailers played. And of course, you can favorite your favorite trailers.

Apple filed a patent this summer for purchasing movie tickets inside of an app. While you can’t actually do that in this app, look at the resemblance among the app and the patent drawing. This is certainly a future possibility for Apple, and then add Siri to the mix…

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The update bonanza continues… Apple has just issued an updated iPhoto application to go with your latest iOS 5 firmware and the just released Lion 10.7.2 software update. iPhoto 9.2, which brings compatibility with iCloud and its Photo Stream feature as well as a number of other improvements and fixes. iPhoto 9.2 enables compatibility with iCloud and iOS 5 features, including Photo Stream that automatically imports all photos taken on your iOS 5 devices with the Photo Stream feature turned on. The 376MB download requires OS X Lion. The software is available via Software Update in Mac OS X or via the Mac App Store at this link. Don’t panic if you don’t see it yet, these things take a while to propagate. Full release notes after the break.

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Following both the major iOS 5 release and the Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 update, Apple has just issued Lion Recovery update. Release notes accompanying the 452MB download only mention “improvements to Lion Recovery and addresses an issue with Find My Mac when using a firmware password.”

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Great news from Cupertino, California: The wait is finally over. After nearly four months of extensive public testing, bug squashing, teeth gnashing and under-the-hood tweaking, Apple today released the final consumer version of iOS 5, a major and most ambitious upgrade to its mobile operating system yet.

Note: iOS 5 may not be available for some users yet as usually these things take a while to propagate thoughout all regional iTunes stores. iOS 5 is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, third- and fourth-generation iPod touch, as well as both iPad 1 and iPad 2. However, some features are resource-intensive and thus only available on recent devices. Note that Siri, an intelligent personal assistant users can converse with, remains exclusive to iPhone 4S for the time being.

Preceding the iOS 5 roll out, Apple earlier this morning posted Find My Friends and AirPort Utility apps, enabled iCloud accounts for everyone, flipped the switch on the Newsstand Store and rolled out music re-downloading service dubbed iTunes in the Cloud in the U.K., Canada, Australia and other international markets. The iOS 5 software is available as a free firmware update in desktop iTunes. Just connect your device to a Mac or PC and follow the onscreen instructions in iTunes.

Due to iOS 5 installation being a major brain transplant, you’re strongly recommended to back up all your devices in iTunes before proceeding. In addition, you should copy your device backups and keep them safe, per instructions after the break. Also worth mentioning, the iTunes Terms and Conditions have been updated this morning, related to iTunes Match terms and collection of certain information from your iTunes library. The iTunes Match service is due for public consumption end of October. It is also rumored to go worldwide should Apple secure necessary licenses from record labels.

Now, onto iOS 5. As you know, iOS 5 has over 200 new features plus a handful of biggies.

Take iMessage, Apple’s proprietary messaging protocol for instant messaging with other iOS 5 devices free of charge. iMessage bypasses carrier’s costly text or MMS messages (requires data connection though) and delights with the typing indicator, read receipts and the ability to exchange photos, videos, contacts or locations. For a more in-depth overview, check out 9to5Mac’s exhaustive iMessage guide.

Another big feature is the Notification Center which brings all those annoying notifications from app into a tidy panel accessed with a pull-down gesture. Twitter integration and support for other social accounts make sharing in iOS 5 more secure and uniform across apps. Other noteworthy goodies include wireless device sync with your computer or iCloud, all-new Reminders and Newsstand apps, new Camera features and a whole bunch of other improvements and little tweaks evident throughout the system. If you’re interested in everything iOS 5 has to offer, TiPb has a monster walkthrough.

Now, before you apply that firmware update…

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A dedicated Store button has begun appearing in the Newsstand app to some iPad owners with iOS 5 GM installed. Clicking the button brings up a new iTunes section listing all digital magazines that have been updated for Newsstand. This is a built-in store in much the same way the iBookstore is integrated right within the app. You can filter the list by Featured or Release Date. The initial selection included about 120 digital publications optimized for Newsstand at press time. Apple yesterday began populating the iOS 5 Newsstand app with first digital magazines.

Newsstand is a special folder on your iOS 5 device sporting a nice-looking wooden shelf that keeps all your digital publications in one place. Note that publishers are required to update their digital publications with Newsstand functionality. Otherwise, “old” digital publications will still populate your home screen and your iPad won’t be able to automatically download new issues for you.

After updating your digital publications using the App Store mobile client or desktop iTunes, your device will automatically move the icons of compatible publications inside the Newsstand folder. There have been some questions about how Newsstand functions, including why can’t one simply drag a publication’s app icon into the Newsstand folder. More info and two iPhone screenshots after the break…

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With a ton of iOS apps inevitably getting updates with iCloud and iOS 5 support today and over the next little while, we also expect to see Mac App Store apps incorporate the cloud functionality. While there doesn’t appear to be many live just yet, we did spot SingleText, which was just released and designed specifically for iCloud.

SingleText is essentially just a simple text box, allowing you to take notes and have them automatically stored in iCloud. The app doesn’t actually have any settings, simply enter your iCloud login and you’re good to go. You can then retrieve any text entered into the SingleText text box through the iOS app companion or any Mac with the app installed.

Both the Mac and iOS apps go for $0.99 each and are available to download now. We expect to see many more iCloud compatible apps popping up shortly.

Apple has just released a new section in the iTunes Store that lets users buy text and alert tones. While the store has always featured ringtones, the alert tones feature is new and requested among many users. You can access this new store by going to Settings > Sounds > Buy More Tones. This was hinted at a few weeks ago.

Ringtones are listed for $1.29 and alert tones for $0.99.

Finding the perfect instant messaging client on the App Store is a pretty big challenge, but a new app called Verbs is pretty close to it. Verbs is available on both the iPhone and iPad and includes support for Google Talk, AIM, MobileMe, and Facebook. With all of these services bundled in one, Verbs becomes the perfect place to chat with friends. Instant messaging is really direct and sleek and the WebOS cards-like feature (seen after the break) makes switching between chats easy. But, Verbs has a lot more to offer.

Other supported services included in Verbs are CloudApp and Droplr for sending images, an iWork and Office document viewer, Instapaper, and the ability to link your AIM and Gtalk buddies with your Address Book.

Verbs Pro in-app update costs a one time fee of $5 and includes Push Notifications (a biggie while chatting) and encryption.

This app blows every other IM app out of the water, because it’s simple, but yet feature packed. Verbs is available on the iTunes App Store for $.99. If it makes you feel better, most of the 9to5 Staff uses this app on a daily basis. Two promo codes are after the break (get them while they last):

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Last week, we detailed the internal docs Apple uses to tell its employees how to sell the iPhone 4S, the new iPods and the new Cards app. Today a tipster added to the trove two more internal docs. iCloud and iOS 5 First looks. These are the cheat sheets that Apple employees use to sell customers these products. Both below:

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Update: It is live, we’ve taken a walkthrough below.

According to The Verge (formerly known as This is my next), the elusive Facebook for iPad app is about to go live “momentarily” on the App Store. The iPhone app will also get updated, the publication has it, with bookmarks to apps, a new Requests dialog that will display app notifications, and support for Facebook Credits for in-app payments. VentureBeat quoted Facebook engineer Leon Dubinsky as describing the software on the Facebook blog, but no such post had gone live at press time. While the social networking giant has yet to formally announce the program, they already have a dedicated URL up and running at facebook.com/mobile/ipad.

The page invites users to download the free Facebook for iPad app here. That URL actually leads to the existing iPhone app, which indicates that both the new iPad app and the existing iPhone client have been merged into a universal binary. The official list of features doesn’t disappoint: You can chat on the iPad’s beautiful 9.7-inch canvas, browse and flip through your friends’ photos, as well as play games and watch high-definition movies in full screen mode.

What’s best, it supports AirPlay technology so you can easily and wirelessly beam your videos and snaps to that big telly in your living room through the Apple TV set-top box, which is also up for an update with 1080p video output via the A5 chip. At post time, the US App Store still had the iPhone app hosted at the URL, but it shouldn’t take too long before changes propagate throughout regional App Stores. Go past the break for release notes, more screenies and a hands on video.

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The App Store has no shortage of music-creation apps that let you play virtual instruments, beginning with Apple’s excellent GarageBand for iPad which supports Mac projects and AirPlay technology. But if you really want to impress your friends, here’s a $2 download that taps iPad 2’s built-in FaceTime camera and clever programming to actually track the movement of your hands and reproduce guitar sounds as if you were playing the strings for real.

You can pick among several guitars, use effect pedals and even fret chords with your left hand. It’s the closest thing to the air guitar gimmickry – heck, it’s even better than the real thing. We’ve seen creative uses of iPad 2’s front-facing camera before, but nothing like the GhostGuitar app. Here’s to the hoping that developers will focus more on developing Kinect-like apps for Apple’s tablet.

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The store button in the Audible app (left) and the new version acknowledging the removal of the button to comply with Apple’s rules (right).

UPDATE: [Monday, October 10, 2011 at 12:40am ET]: Well, that sure was quick. A new version of the Audible app has just gone live on the App Store, without the link to Audible’s Mobile Store from the app. The development actually means someone at Apple’s App Store team messed up. We’re still bewildered how anyone could have missed the big orange button.

Back this summer, Apple instituted a change to the App Store rules which prohibited in-app links leading to external content stores. The controversial move forced the makers of programs such as WSJ, Kobo and Google Books to remove the offending store links, which essentially meant demanding users needed to find out about web stores on their own. People had been especially concerned about Amazon, even after the online retailer released an elegant workaround solution, a web-based application entitled Kindle Cloud Reader. And now, ZDNet discovers an interesting anomaly in the App Store: the updated Audible app proudly sports a button which yanks you out of the app right to their store on the web.

It could be a slip up by the App Store review team, but how could that be possible with such a large and prominently placed button? Oddly enough, release notes fail to acknowledge the addition of the button, but surely Apple’s testers actually run and test apps rather than approve them based on their iTunes description. What’s interesting about this is that Audible is an Amazon property. Perhaps this signals a store-wide change to the App Store rules. And if so, could this change be due to Amazon’s $199 seven-inch Kindle Fire tablet?

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Android apps running on your iPad? Alien Dalvik makes it possible.

In case you’re not familiar with Alien Dalvik, it’s a port of the Dalvik virtual machine, which is the software layer in Google’s Android operating system responsible for executing Android apps. According to SlashGear, the Myriad Group (the brains behind the Alien Dalvik project) announced support for Apple’s iPad in Alien Dalvik version 2.0.

As a result, the unimaginable (even unholy) becomes possible: You’ll be able to download, install and run Android software on your Apple-branded tablet. Alien Dalvik wraps each Android app file in its own virtual machine so it kinda feels as if you were running a native iPad app. The Myriad Group explains:

From a user perspective, Alien Dalvik 2.0 is completely transparent and installed without user disruption. Users simply enjoy the same rich Android ecosystem they have become accustomed to via mobile on other key screens, such as playing Angry Birds on HDTV. This all while gaining faster access to a wider range of apps, thus encouraging a higher frequency of downloads and increased ARPU.

We assume performance isn’t comparable to the experience of running native iOS apps on an iPad 2 and we’re surely expecting some hiccups and likely compatibility issues. With that in mind, this development begs the question: Why would you want to run Android apps on your iPad?

Apple’s iOS software boss Scott Forstall said at Monday’s iPhone 4S introduction that about 140,000 out of the 500,000 apps available on the App Store have been specifically created with iPad in mind. Android apps also aren’t as pretty or delightful as their iOS counterparts. But the fact that most are either free or ad-supported should mean something so we expect some folks will give Alien Dalvik a try. Stay tuned as the team promised to show off Alien Dalvik 2.0 running third-party Android apps on iPad 2 at CTIA 2011 next week.

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