Apps

Some iOS developers have reportedly taken matter into their own hands, teaming up to create a joint opposition to serious legal threats coming from patent troll Lodsys which has been seeking to extract royalty fees from iOS developers small and big alike, including the likes of Atari, Rovio and Electronic Arts, the world’s biggest publisher of entertainment software on any platform. As you know, Lodsys is asserting its license to use patented in-app purchasing technology covers store owners Apple, Google and Microsoft, but not third-party developers that put their digital warez for sale on those stores. Per ArsTechnica story:

On Monday, renowned iOS developer Mike Lee announced the Appsterdam Legal Defense Team, which will be made up of indie developers fighting patent trolls as a single unit and funded by contributions from participating companies. The goal, aside from the obvious one of being free from frivolous patent lawsuits, is to become “the ants of East Texas, minding their business until someone invades their anthill.”

FOSS Patents, the intellectual property blog, reported last week that Lodsys opposed Apple’s motion for intervention. Apple’s response to Lodsys’s intimidations has been mild, to say the least. Apple filed a motion with the Eastern District of Texas to intervene as the defendant in a lawsuit from Lodsys in June. The company ambiguously asserting it might step up in defense of third-party developers targeted by the patent troll firm. Apple’s deafening silence had even prompted EFF to issue call to arms, demanding that Apple protects its developers.

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A little tip for you weekend Lion users:

Launchpad feeling a little cluttered? Launchpad Control is a free application on OS X that will assist you in cleaning out the unnecessary apps in your Launchpad. The app is pretty simple in that you just check off which apps you don’t want to see . via LifeHacker

Download here.
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The new icons are bigger so you can filter search results without sanding down your finger.

Google last month announced a bunch of enhancements to its search engine and today they confirmed via a blog post an overhauled layout on iPad and other (read: Android) tablets, just two days after the blog Digital Inspirations leaked the new UI. From now , running a query by visiting www.google.com in your iPad’s browser produces an iPad-optimized layout in search results.

Gone is the left-hand column that had ridiculously tiny search controls, making room for bigger buttons and more white space which is definitely a lot easier on the eyes. It’s surprising how long it has taken Google to optimize web search experience on tablets, really. Now you can finally hit the controls on smaller tablets without having to sand down your finger first.

Our favorite: The big buttons right below the search box for quick access to specific search silos, such as Web, Images, News and so forth. Also noteworthy, image results are  now way more attractive due to larger previews and they continuous scroll – just reach the bottom of the page and a new batch of images will load automatically. The new layout will be available on iPad and Android Honeycomb 3.1 tablets and in 36 languages “in the coming days”, everyone’s favorite search monster noted. Another pretty screenshot right below.

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If you’re a Communicator for Mac user, you no doubt were disappointed finding out that the software crashes a lot in Lion. Worry not, as Microsoft tells us via a blog post that an update is due via the Microsoft AutoUpdate mechanism “in the next day or so”. The team’s Pat Fox also revealed that some of the most exciting features in Lion are coming to Office for Mac 2011:

Yes, we are working hard with Apple to enable versioning, auto save, and full-screen for Office for Mac 2011. I know your next question will be “when?”, and unfortunately I can’t answer that – but it’s likely measured in months not days – just to set expectations.

And if your daily productivity involves Office for Mac 2004, Microsoft warned earlier, don’t upgrade to Lion because Office 2004 was a PowerPC-based product and Lion no longer includes Rosetta, a software emulator for the PowerPC instruction set. It’s nice that major software developers are adding Versions, Auto Save and Full Screen to their apps. Are you listening, Adobe?

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Guardian reports that BBC iPlayer will launch in eleven European countries, coming later this year to United States. The subscription-based service that streams some of the finest BBC programming launched its iPad app today in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. In those markets, BBC iPlayer will require a monthly fee of 7 Euros. The app provides on-demand access to BBC’s popular news and documentaries, in addition to both archive and most recent shows such as Doctor Who and Top Gear. Initially, BBC’s catalogue will include about 1,500 hours of content, with a hundred hours added each week.

In the US, BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones told the publication, will go head to head with the likes of Hulu and Netflix subscriptions and the low monthly fee of eight bucks should help BBC compete with those content providers on their own turf. You can download the app free on App Store in select markets, but note the system won’t let you stream content unless you access it from one of the supported countries. Another goodie for international viewers: Content can be streamed over 3G cellular networks and individual episodes can be downloaded for offline viewing. Interestingly, the team worked closely with Apple on the offline feature, Smith explains:

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Today, NASA released (iTunes, Free) a cool new app for exploring Space and the world around us.

NASA science: revealed! This is the NASA Visualization Explorer, the coolest way to get stories about advanced space-based research delivered right to your iPad. A direct connection to NASA’s extraordinary fleet of research spacecraft, this app presents cutting edge research stories in an engaging and exciting format. See the Earth as you’ve never seen it before; travel to places otherwise unavailable to even the most intrepid explorers! Download it now, tap into the power of NASA’s cutting-edge research today and check for new stories every week!

More imagery below:
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Google has released an update to their Shopper app conveniently giving users information on daily deals, including Google Offers. The update adds a “Offers” and “My Offers” tab at the bottom, along with the Shop tab you know and love. The Offers tab displays deals in map view that are available in your city. The deals you find can be saved in the My Offers tab for later use.

Businesses, on the other hand, can publish deals through Google Places. If Google Offers is available in your city you can redeem your purchased offers in the My Offers tab. Check out the update in the App Store.

Cross posted from 9to5Google.
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Now that Apple let Lion out of the cage, Google is developing a Chrome browser version to take advantage of the operating system’s gestures support. The search company announced on the Google Chrome Releases blog a new developer build (version 14.0.835.0) that re-enables a two-finger gesture “which respects the system preference”. A three-finger swipe that would previously move you backward and forward in browsing history now respects system-wide preference in Lion that flips between full-screen apps. Chrome still lets you go forward and backward in browsing history by invoking a two-finger swipe left or right.

The release also comes with a multi-profile user interface improvements and support for a new communication protocol for Web Sockets. The former lets one browse the web using multiple online identities and switch them easily. Windows and Linux builds added platform-specific tweaks and changes as well. It’ll be some time before Chrome 14 makes it down to the stable channel, but if you wish to try out experimental new features without messing with your existing Chrome installation and user profile, we recommend installing the Canary build of the browser.

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Following TechCrunch’s finding that Facebook’s official iPad application can be found within their latest iPhone application update, Facebook shut down the find. Those who were not lucky enough to gain access early on are in the dark. Until now. iOS jail breaker extraordinaire, Chpwn, has managed to create a tweak that can easily turn any jailbroken iPad user’s Facebook for iPhone application into the full-blown iPad version. The tweak called FaceForward is dead simple: just install Facebook for iPhone on your jailbroken iPad, install FaceForward in Cydia, and run.

Update: Video of the installation and setup process after the break:

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In 2010 we reported that Apple snapped up a Swedish company called Polar Rose that specializes in face detection algorithms. Less than a year after this purchase, we have discovered what Apple actually intends to do with this software. Besides the fun Photo Booth effects that are now found in the OS X Lion implementation of Photo Booth – Apple will take their new face recognition knowledge to the next level with iOS 5.

Apple is not specifically planning to launch an iOS 5 application that relies on their face detection technology, but plans to do something much more important. Open up facial recognition as a public developer API for iOS 5 applications. The implications of this are obviously vast. Most importantly, an easy way for developers to integrate the sought after technology, with vast amounts of uses, into their App Store applications.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QBLKBYrgvk]

We have taken a look at these iOS 5-exclusive APIs and they are highly sophisticated. The first, called CIFaceFeature, can determine through an image where a person’s mouth and eyes are located. The second API, CIDetector, is a resource within the operating system that processes images for face detection.

•   hasLeftEyePosition
•   hasRightEyePosition
•   hasMouthPosition
•   leftEyePosition
•   rightEyePosition
•   mouthPosition

This presumably would power face detection via live motion imagery. The significance of this finding is that Apple is making face detection an even easier feature for developers to implement. Perhaps this is even a sign that Apple is working on some new iOS applications that take advantage of the software. Maybe Apple will even port OS X Lion Photo Booth’s face detection feature to the iOS version.

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  .
Before left and after right.

You kind of knew this was going to happen: Google Books is now back in the  iOS App Store, but without ability to buy books directly from online.  Note the missing button at the top left.

Apple, you win. Google, Users lose.

Cross-posted on 9to5Google.com
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new screenshot left, old screenshot with Kindle Store link (right)

It looks like not only is the WSJ and the Kobo App store relenting to Apple, but so is Amazon.  In the latest release, they’ve pulled out the link to the Kindle Store.  The remaining holdout?  Google.

Update: Nook got the same treatment which render the current screenshots outdated.:

You can read any NOOK Book you have purchased on this updated NOOK for iPhone app, however the Shop link has been removed so to buy NOOK Books from your iPhone, open your Safari browser and go to nookbooks.com. 

There are some other updates for the Kindle App release notes accompanying the Kindle update (iTunes):
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Dragon just updated its Dictate software for Mac with some interesting new additions.  Most notable is the ability to dictate with your iPhone using an iTunes app.    Also, updated is the ability to Tweet or post to Facebook or search the web with just a command:

• “Post to Facebook [I love Dragon]”
• “Post to Twitter [Tweeting is so much easier by voice]”
• “Search Google for hula dancing lessons”
• “Search Bing for wedding dress repair”
• “Search Yahoo for gondola rentals”
• “Search Mail for RSVP”
• “Search Mac for history term paper”

The 2.5 update is free for 2.0 users.  For new users, the digital download is $180 and the physical box is $200.  A package with a Bluetooth headset is $300.

Full list of improvements below:
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As Apple expands its businesses, with the iPhone and iPad reaching more nations, and their upcoming iCloud service, Apple has opened up the iOS App Store and Mac App Store in 33 new countries. Developers who wish to sell their applications in these new territories can do so by adding them to their sales territory lists in the iTunes Connect web application. Here are the new countries:

Algeria, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua, and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Iceland, Montserrat, Nigeria, Oman, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uzbekistan, Yemen

Thanks, Doug!

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According to Bloomberg, Apple is currently considering the purchase of Hulu. The popular online video playing service has reportedly been up for sale for a few months now, with potential buyers like Google in the running. Adding Apple to the mix just spices things up with Apple’s $76 billion in the bank and hints at some “neat” new iTunes-related features. Apple also has their Apple TV platform, which they are still exploring, and this potential Hulu purchase would take that to the next level.

Apple is in early talks that may lead to an acquisition offer for Los Angeles-based Hulu, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Hulu has a an iOS application in the App Store that delivers their web content to users of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Hulu also began signing deals in late 2010 for set-top-box manufactures to include support for their service. Namely, Roku did this but Hulu still seems to be an omission from the Apple TV. After all, Apple’s little black TV box features support for iTunes, YouTube, and Netflix video playback.

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FOSSPatents reports that the patent trolls over at Lodsys have just upped the ante: they have just sued five more iPhone application makers over their use of in-app-purchases. These five new companies include major game makers like Rovio, the gang behind the widely popular Angry Birds game, Electronic Arts (EA), Atari, Square Enix, and Take-Two-Interactive.

EA was sued over the use of in-app-purchases in their game Sims 3 for iPhone, Atari was sued over their ‘Greatest Hits’ iOS application, Square Enix was sued over Big Hit Baseball for iPhone and Big Hit Baseball for iPad, and Take-Two was sued over their very popular NHL 2K11 for iPhone. These new lawsuits demonstrate that Lodsys is not afraid to attack big names like EA and Rovio, and this trend is seemingly not coming to an end even though Apple has stepped in.

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Apple’s OS X Lion is off to an amazing start with one million copies of the operating system being downloaded on day one. These are all downloads from the Mac App Store and user feedback has been tremendous so far, as we noted yesterday. In just its first day, 90% of customers gave OS X Lion a five star Mac App Store review.

Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.

According to Apple, people are buying Lion faster than any other operating system in the world. This not only proves how great the Mac App Store is for desktop software distribution, but proves how vital Apple’s $29.99 price point is. This is nearly the same price as Snow Leopard last year, an operating system that was based around under the hood improvements. On the other hand, for the same price, Lion delivers 250 new features like Launchpad, Mission Control, an all-new mail application, and Multi-Touch gesture across the operating system.

Apple has not announced, specifically, how many people bought OS X Snow Leopard, so we don’t have much comparison for that. On the other hand, Apple sold two million copies of OS X Leopard (10.5) in its debut weekend. Leopard was sold exclusively on discs online, at Apple Stores, official resellers and had pre-orders. The announcement in its entirety is after the break.

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Apple’s next-generation Mac operating system, OS X Lion, just launched this morning, and it has already become the top paid app on the Mac App Store and has garnered 6756 reviews as of this writing. The most amazing part to us is the user reaction to the product, as demonstrated by the Mac App Store’s star-based review system. Some have called OS X Lion a leap forward for the Mac and others have called it an operating system that takes some getting used to.

Namely the use of Mission Control instead of features like Expose and Spaces in Snow Leopard, Multi-Touch gestures all around, inverted scrolling, auto-saving, and the lack of application indicators in the dock. These major changes don’t seem to be hurting early adopters of the software product with 6067 of the 6756 reviewers giving OS X Lion a five star rating. That’s just about 90%. Four stars comes in second, followed by three and one stars tied for third/fourth, and two stars being selected by the least amount of users.

Looking at the most critical reviews, the majority are regarding download issues and third-party application compatibility. Not necessarily the new features and major changes in the operating system that are inspired by the iPad’s innovations. The more favorable reviews seem to love the changes, with some calling it the “greatest OS ever,” “mind-blowing,” and saying “it was worth the wait.”

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As pointed out by The Loop, Apple’s App Store volume purchase program for businesses has gone live. The program, which is currently exclusive to the United States, allows businesses to easily purchase and distribute applications – with volume-based pricing – to employees. Businesses that are interested can now enroll and you will need the following to get started:

• Basic contact information to verify your business
• Dun & Bradstreet number (D-U-N-S) number
• Corporate credit card or PCard to purchase apps

App Store distribution through this program consists of iTunes redemption codes:

The Volume Purchase Program makes it easy to distribute apps within your organization. When you buy apps in volume or custom B2B apps, you will receive redemption codes for each app. You can control who gets the apps by providing these codes to users via email or an internal website. You can also use third-party Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions to manage redemption codes centrally.

A guide with all the instructions is also available from Apple.

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In addition to Lion now being available at the App Store (had you heard?) and some new Mac Hardware, today you can also download OSX Lion Server from the App Store for an additional $49.99.  Full description below…

Interestingly, Xcode has disappeared and isn’t even available by search.  We’ll likely see an update to that in the semi-near future.

Update (Noon EST): Xcode is back (free).

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Lion just hit the Mac App Store!!  Ladies and Gentlemen, start your downloads!

The $29.99 download is 3.5GB so your download times may vary.  After Lion downloads we are expecting an update to iWork shortly as well.  On the hardware side we are expecting some new Sandy Bridge MacBook Airs, new Mac Minis and a new Thunderbolt Display as well.

How fast is your download?  Are you getting the good speed?  Full specs and details below:

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