Apps

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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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Depicted above: Notifications via Cydia tweak MobileNotifier

This is my next’s Joshua Topolsky (a former Engadget editor-in-chief) has some late rumors from a source related to iOS 5. He says iOS 5 will introduce a new notifications bar at the top of the screen which may or may not look like an imaged leaked earlier today. “Messages will appear and then slide back up in a unobtrusive manner, similar to webOS”, the author writes.

Topolsky also describes a dedicated notifications window and – yes, widgets. The lock screen will also provide access to notifications “through a pulldown window which you reach by swiping at the top of the screen downward… just like Android”, Topolsky writes. The notifications screen will also provide access to web widgets such as weather and stocks. As for the BlackBerry-style messaging and widgets…

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Jay Freeman had a few seconds to explain something that had intrigued us since last night.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball has published his thoughts on what’s going down tomorrow with iCloud at WWDC. In short: “Don’t think of iCloud as the new MobileMe; think of iCloud as the new iTunes.” Gruber notes that the iOS syncing process of today requires a user to USB tether their device to their computer in order to sync music, video, apps, etc. iCloud might just be the future of iOS device syncing.

The ideal concept would be that a user can upload all of their media to the cloud, sign into their iOS device, and it will be ready to go.

But in short let’s just think about the ways that iCloud might be a major, dare I say game-changing, step away from USB tethering between iOS devices and iTunes running on your Mac/PC. Consider just the new out-of-box experience. Rather than “Take this out, plug it into your Mac or PC (after first making sure your Mac/PC is running the latest version of iTunes), wait for it to sync before you actually play with it”, you might get something like “Take this out, turn it on, sign into your iTunes account, and start playing with it.”

Gruber also published some interesting thoughts on what he would like to see in iOS 5.

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MacRumors has discovered a new addition to the iTunes App Store update page and that is a new sentence hinting at an upcoming feature called Automatic Download. The greater meaning of Automatic Download is not completely clear at this point but it seems as if Apple will give iOS users the option to have their iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch automatically download and install App Store app updates. The leak also hints at this being an option, so perhaps Apple has an iOS update up its sleeve for an imminent release.

Or if your device has Automatic Download enabled for apps, your updates will download to your device without having to sync.

Right now, users have to open the App Store app and manually pick and choose (or click update all) every time they want to update an app. The new sentence, quoted above, has appeared roughly three months prior to the rumored public release of iOS 5. Either Apple is just testing out some of their new iOS 5 literature, or Apple will be making this Automatic Download feature available to the public as soon as next week. Apple, afterall, will be talking the cloud and iOS on Monday at WWDC.

The phrasing of the new sentence does seem to be hinting at just more than App Store apps. This may be the first hint from Apple at their plans to deliver over-the-air iOS software updates and a new iOS software update solution via a new version of the Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme.

The previous wording can be seen below:

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Money-back guarantee – a promise by a retailer to give you back your money if you are not satisfied with something that you bought – is taken for granted with tangible products and re-packaged intangibles such as the MobileMe box. When it comes to apps, it just seems weird to ask for a refund in the 99-cent economy, many people feel. The Taipei City Government begs to differ, arguing the same rules should apply to digital goods. They are ordering Apple and Google to introduce a seven-day money-back guarantee for sales of iOS and Android apps, Taipei Times reports.

An official said the lack of a return and refund mechanism violated the Consumer Protection Act. In an example of the problem the city government is trying to prevent, Yeh cited a case of software bought on Apple Store on Thursday that did not work, but left the buyer without recourse.

In other words, Taipei imagines a world where you could buy an app and “return” it for a full refund within two weeks if you’re not fully satisfied. When the App Store debuted as this phenomenal virtual bazaar to buy iPhone apps, nobody ever expected someone some day could demand the same consumer protection for digital deliveries. But Taipei’s demands have their merits. After all, the city officials cut a similar refunding deal with online auction web sites. If online sites are OK with it, so should app stores be, right?

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The LATimes reports that iCloud will be a low-priced add on to iTunes costing users just $25/year, perhaps as an add on to MobileMe?

Dubbed iCloud, the service initially will be offered for a free period to people who buy music from Apple’s iTunes digital download store, allowing users to upload their music to Apple’s computers where they can then play from a Web browser or Internet-connected Apple device.

The company plans to eventually charge a subscription fee, about $25 a year, for the service. Apple would also sell advertising around its iCloud service.

Earlier CNet reported that Apple had sewn up the last major record label, Universal, to sell its products in the iCloud.  The deal had reportedly been finalized late last week (plenty of time!).

Image via
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Apple has just updated GarageBand for iPad and iMovie for iPhone/iPad with bug fixes, AirPlay compatibility and other new features. Free updates are now available on the App Store. GarageBand for iPad version 1.0.1 is a 369MB download while iMovie for iOS (supports iPad 2, iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch) version 1.2.1 weighs in at 69.2MB, priced at five bucks each. Don’t panic if those updates don’t show in iTunes or the App Store app yet, propagating changess across all regional stores can take anywhere between a few minutes to a couple hours. Here’s the official list of enhancements from iTunes release notes.

GarageBand for iPad version 1.0.1

• support for audio output over AirPlay, Bluetooth devices and HDMI with the Apple Digital AV Adapter
• import of AIFF, WAV, CAF audio files and Apple Loops (16 bit, 44.1 kHz)
• allows copy and paste of audio from supported apps into GarageBand
• addresses occurrences of GarageBand freezing while playing Smart Instruments
• improves overall stability and addresses a number of minor issues

iMovie for iOS version 1.2.1

• audio plays from your HDTV when using the Apple Digital AV Adapter
• video plays full screen from Marquee to your HDTV when using the Apple Digital AV Adapter
• resolves some cases of missing media in projects
• provides more accurate clip grouping by date in Video browser
• fixes an issue where a project’s background music would not fade in or out
• additional performance and reliability improvements

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We’ve been talking about the rumors of iWork hitting the iPhone for quite some time.  Today, Apple confirmed those rumors to be true.  Keynote, Pages and Numbers will now be universal apps that run on iPad and iPad 2, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, and iPod touch (3rd & 4th generation).

“Now you can use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on iPhone and iPod touch to create amazing presentations, documents and spreadsheets right in the palm of your hand,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The incredible Retina display, revolutionary Multi-Touch interface and our powerful software make it easy to create, edit, organize and share all of your documents from iPhone 4 or iPod touch.”

Know what is awesome about this?  Apple didn’t have enough time for this at WWDC and that’s why we are getting this a week early.  Holy.

Download the now Universal Apps: Pages, Numbers, Keynote

Full release and more images below:
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Some people are beginning to see a revamped Google search site on their iOS devices. Both iSpazio and phoneArena have noticed the changes, pointing out that big new icons have replaced the smaller top links. The new icons are visible upon running a search query on an iOS device. They essentially function the same as the smaller textual links, taking you to the search silos such as Images, Places and News. Clicking the More link pulls even more big icons for quick access to YouTube, Gmail, Maps and other popular Google services.

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Sean Kovack’s “original” Google Voice app, GV Mobile+ has now been ported to the iPad which will allow you to make calls using VoIP applications like Skype on the device or originate calls that will end up on landlines or cell phones.

The app  ($2.99 app store) also fixes some bugs on the iPhone version but isn’t quite polished yet on the iPad as you can see in the screenshot below:
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Maps+ is a universal app for your iPhone and iPad that combines common mapping features, courtesy of the Google Maps back-end, with advanced location and tracking capabilities usually found in standalone GPS tracking apps. The app can record and edit your GPS tracks and tweet your location, for starters.

But that’s so last century. How about pinning location-based alarms on the map? This is when things get interesting. For example, a location alarm lets you remind yourself to get off at a train station. Maps+ will also do route directions with alternatives, transit points and bike routes, but only if you are located in the United States. Here are two nice iPad screenies and more info…

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Just a quick hit here: For those on Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Verizon FiOS TV, you can now WatchESPN on your iPad in full glory.   WatchESPN was launched for iPod and iPhone last month.

This includes channels like ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com. You need to be subscribed to ESPN’s linear programming via Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Verizon FiOS TV to use the app. Once you type in your cable subscriber credentials, you can stream live feeds to your device from anywhere. Who needs television, anyway?

Get it free here, iPad screenshots below.  Van Gundy!  (via SAI)
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