Apps

Media framework strings in iOS SDK have added a new 1080p video export preset

In addition to the newly discovered ability to render 1080p videos on A4-powered devices by scaling down high-definition content on-the-fly, a tipster pointed out that the iOS 5 software development kit ups the maximum resolution for video exports from 720p all the way up to 1080p. The iOS 5 media framework now rocks a new video export option: A 1920-by-1080 full HD preset. Previously, programmers calling system APIs were only able to export video content in 720p. The change has been spotted in export preset strings of AVAsset, an abstract class of AV Foundation framework which has been around since iOS 4.

Programmers use the AVAsset class to work on a detailed level with timed media assets such as videos and sounds. It lets them examine, create, edit or reencode media files, get input streams from devices, manipulate video clips during realtime capture and playback and more. It is now clear that iOS 5 enables devices such as iPhone 4, iPad 1 and 2 and fourth-generation iPod touch (all powered by the A4 chip) are now able to both decode and encode 1080p content. This completes the picture and is another indication that the rumors of an eight-megapixel camera with 1080p video capture on iPhone 5 are likely true because there is no point in iOS 5 supporting 1080p video exports if users won’t be able to acquire full-HD content on their iPhone 5.

iOS 5 can render 1080p videos (try this out by emailing yourself a short 1080p clip) and third-party apps are no longer limited to exporting video files in 720p

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Just as MuscleNerd informed the world that the iPhone-dev Team has successfully jailbroken a developer beta of iOS 5, the team two hours ago released an updated redsn0w beta tool that lets you put unsanctioned apps on your devices running a developer preview of iOS 5. Unlockers should avoid this jailbreak as they are very likely to lose their unlockable baseband if they try to install iOS 5, the team warned. Other useful things to know…

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Today, the US Patent & Trademark Office has published an Apple patent application which outlines a brand new iPhone app for one-click movie ticket purchasing. Aptly named Movie (not related to Apple’s iMovie for iOS app), it reminded us of Apple’s previously patented app for buying concert and event tickets. The Movie app would provide access to showtimes, previously viewed movies and trailers on the iTunes Movie Trailers page that provide more information about upcoming flicks. Patently Apple has poked around and discovered other features:

It’s also tied into the iPhone’s calendar so that it could remind you of previous engagements and/or tight schedules. This app is likely to be associated with many next generation apps associated with Apple’s forthcoming iWallet. This will definitely be a great little app that all movie goers will appreciate.

Entitled “Systems and Methods for Providing Context-Based Movie Information”, the document can be found by entering the application number 20110137690 in the USPTO search engine. Apple credits engineers John Louch and Todd Ditchendorf with inventing the solution.

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Whoa, Apple has reconsidered its stance on in-app subscriptions and has changed strict guidelines of its iOS developer agreement to allow in-app subscriptions outside the App Store. MacRumors spotted a crucial change in section 11.13 which previously required that content sold outside of the app be “also offered in the app using In-App Purchase at the same price or less than it is offered outside the app”. This requirement, which applied to both purchased content and subscriptions, is no longer in effect and has been entirely removed from section 11.13. Here’s the new wording:

Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app. Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues for approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app.

Put simply, prices no longer need to be identical outside the App Store, although publishers are still barred from providing links or buttons that lead to external pages where subscriptions are being offered. In all, that’s good news for the likes of Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, eBay and other companies which rely on content subscriptions. On the downside, it’s a little late for e-books publishers like BeamIt Down Software which closed down the shop, arguing it couldn’t sell books at a loss due to Apple’s 30 percent cut on iOS subscriptions. Anyway, Apple may have just dodged an anti-trust lawsuit.

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Custom vibrations in Settings (left) and the new interface to customize vibration patterns (right)

iOS 5 comes with a bunch of accessibility improvements, like the AssistiveTouch feature that lets you use your device with adaptive accessories and even create your own gestures. Another easily overlooked addition: Custom vibrations, on a per-contact basis, as pointed out by MacRumors. This is kinda cool, not just for the hearing impaired but for the rest of us as well. Example: If you’re in a meeting and your device is in silent mode, you can tell when your wife is calling based on a vibration pattern – how cool is that?

But why stop there? Combine custom vibrations with LED flash on incoming calls, ringtones, the iTunes Tone Store where you can buy custom alert sounds and deep Twitter integration which automatically adds Twitter user names and photos to your contact cards and suddenly iOS 5 looks pretty strong in the customization department. Here’s a quick guide to customizing vibrations for your contacts…

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Now would be a bad time to be a developer of an iPhone panoramic camera app. It appears that Apple will be allowing users to take panoramic photos in the photo app, if the code we’ve discovered below proves to make it into the final iOS 5 release. We’re not sure if/how to make it work or if it makes panoramas stitching together photos or making a movie. IF you’ve figured out how to get it to work, were all ears.

Thanks SonnyD!
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The winners were announced at WWDC yesterday:

iPhone Developer Showcase

Related articles

• Is Apple recalling Verizon iPad 2s? (9to5mac.com)
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MacRumors discovered an interesting change in the App Store Review Guidelines, the one that puts DUI checkpoint apps out of their game on iOS devices. Here’s what section 22.8 of the updated App Store Review Guidelines now reads:

Apps which contain DUI checkpoints that are not published by law enforcement agencies, or encourage and enable drunk driving, will be rejected.

It doesn’t get any clearer than that. So, Apple has bent over backwards to make US Senators happy after all. Go figure. You may wanna hurry up and download those controversial apps that help avoid speed traps and speed cameras…

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The case of patent troll Lodsys suing iOS developers has taken a turn for the better. After Lodsys took seven indie iOS developers to court last week, they are now about to taste their own medicine. According to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller, all four Lodsys patents are under invalidation attack in federal court:

I have news concerning Lodsys because a Michigan company named ForeSee Results Inc. has filed a declaratory judgment suit against Lodsys’s four patents with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

This will help move legal proceedings from East Texas, which favors patent trolls like Lodsys, to Michigan. ForeSee is moving the case to another district because Lodsys’ CEO and sole employee “resides in, and conducts business from this Judicial District”. Lodsys has also issued letters to Adidas, Best Buy and WE Energies over an alleged copyright infringement related to a different patent. After issuing a mild statement, Apple appears to be keen on learning which developers are under lawsuit threats from Lodsys. A Sydney, Australia-based programmer James Wilson spotted an unusual notice when he logged in to iTunes Connect, Apple’s back-end for managing iTunes content submissions. The site asked him whether he was updating an app “because of a legal issue”, which may or may not relate to patent troll Lodsys.

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Is this what Final Cut Pro X looks like?

MacRumors has published a set of alleged screenshots said to depict the upcoming Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5. The images have been sourced from a Twitter account @BWilks2001 which has been removed shortly following the posting, presumably at Apple’s request. The images look genuine and AI confirms they most likely represent the real thing.

Final Cut Pro is due in June so expect it to hit the App Store in the next few weeks.

So, what could we expect in Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5?

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This is a pretty cool trick that works in the Camera app on iOS 5: Simply swipe your finger from left to right to bring the camera album roll up. Continue swiping from left to right to flip through your images. If you go too far, tap once to reveal the on-screen toolbar with image controls and hit Done to immediately return to your camera. Pretty neat. Thanks, Jared!

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Well, what do you know, it looks like Apple’s ambitious messaging service unveiled Monday as part of the iOS 5 software is seen as a threat to Research In Motion’s popular BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging protocol for BlackBerry devices. According to TechRadar, investors punished the BlackBerry maker’s stock Tuesday as they digested Apple’s iMessage:

iMessage announced by Apple on Monday will challenge RIM’s highly popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant chat service which has given the Canadian company an edge over its rivals. The Apple announcement made investors more jittery, plunging RIM stock on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and Wall Street Tuesday. It slipped more than three percent in Toronto to close at $36.92, and 2.8 percent on Nasdaq to close at $37.82.

Why are investors worried about iMessage affecting RIM’s chat service?

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Apple updated iBooks to 1.3 today for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.  Most notable is the read-aloud feature included in select children’s books from the iBookstore.

The read-aloud feature uses a real narrator to read the book to you, and in some books, it will even highlight the words as you read along.

Initially, it isn’t certain whether or not the narrator will be a (Nuance?) Text to speech voice or if the audio is included by the developers.

The new functionality isn’t just for children’s books. Enhanced books can now automatically play audio or video included with the book.

Apple is now going beyond the other eBookstores offering innovation and functionality that differentiates books into the realm of apps.  Apple now offers Books directly in iTunes as part of the 10.3 update yesterday as well.

The 1.3 update also offers some bugfixes and enhancements from previous versions. More below:
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Yesterday, Apple killed MobileMe and replaced it with the iCloud online services suite which will be available free with iOS 5 this Fall. Apple has published a nice Q&A explaining what the transition means to MobileMe subscribers and how the company plans to go about it. Additionally, a notice at www.me.com/upgrade says that “you’ll be able to upgrade your account to iCloud soon”. With that in mind, you may want to prep your migration ahead of the Apple-imposed June 30, 2012 cut-off time when the MobilMe service will no longer be available. Wondering how? Turns out there’s a leaked document for that!

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A new developer preview of Safari 5.1 was released yesterday in the Safari Dev Center. Safari 5.1, which ships with Lion in July, will take advantage of GPU acceleration on Windows and enable new HTML5 APIs allowing for the creation of much more sophisticated web apps. In addition to support for the latest CSS3 goodies such Text Emphasis, Vertical Text, Auto-Hyphenation and Transitions and Animations, the 45.3MB download also works with Web Open Font Format and Mathematical Markup Language (MathML). More importantly – and in line with Chrome’s architecture – plug-ins and Safari’s WebKit rendering engine now run in their own process separately of the main Safari process, meaning a misbehaving plug-in or HTML code cannot crash the browser. We’re just getting started, though.

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Apple has just updated its free Find My iPhone app for iOS devices. From the release notes accompanying the 5.2MB version 1.2 update.

• when you are unable to locate a device because it is is offline, you will receive an email if the device comes online and is located
• ability to remove an offline device from the list using the app

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With the news (that we’ve known) that iPhone 4 is the most popular camera on Flickr, Apple’s Scott Forstall unveiled new camera features of iOS 5. It is much faster and you can access it directly from the lock screen! Another steal from some third-party apps: You can use the volume up button to take photos, turn on optional grid lines to align your shots and pinch to zoom instead of using the zoom slider. You can also hold your finger to lock the auto-focus and aut0-exposure settings for higher-quality snaps.

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The rumors were true, iOS 5 will sport a tight Twitter integration. You sign in to your Twitter account in the Settings app and all apps that use Twitter can automatically use the sign-in you provided. You can tweet articles from Safari, videos from the YouTube app, location from maps and more. The Contacts app also works with Twitter, allowing you to grab photos for contacts. Twitter integration will no doubt be one of the more popular iOS 5 features, no doubt..

Scott Forstall is up here on stage at San Francisco’s Moscone West and he just unveiled a new iOS store within a store. It’s called News Stand and appears as a new App Store listing that collects digital magazines and newspapers. Looks kinda neat.

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Image credit: Engadget

Steve Jobs and the gang have confirmed during the WWDC keynote address in San Francisco’s Moscone West that the iOS 5 software sports a revamped and vastly improved notifications systems. There are over 250 new features in iOS 5 and more than 1,500 new APIs. The first feature Scott Forstall put up on slide is the new notification system. It’s called Notification Center and it’s a new place that collects all you notifications. And how do you access it? Just swipe down from the top, like on Android. Plus, you get stocks and weather in the Notification Center. Stay tuned as we update the post with more info right below the fold. Also, check out our complete WWDC 2011 coverage and follow us @9to5mac as we update you on the latest. More below the fold

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Image credit: Engadget

Apple has just confirmed what we’ve been suspecting all along, that the next upcoming Mac OS X revision dubbed Lion will be sold via the Mac App Store as a digital download price at just $29 and weighing in at a whopping four gigabytes. The software won’t retail as a boxed copy variant. It will be available in July for everyone, with developers receiving a preview build at the show, Apple executives confirmed during the keynote talk that kicked off WWDC 2011 here in San Francisco’s Moscone West. Check out our complete WWDC 2011 coverage and follow us @9to5mac as we update you on the latest.

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