Apps

I think we’re in for a micro-revolution in music and entertainment apps for the iPad.  MacRumors detailled DJay app last week which took advantage of a number of new features of 4.2:

• – Full access to iPod library
• – Multi-tasking: you can run djay in Automix mode and listen to a continuous, seamless mix running in the background while you surf the web, play games, etc.
• – AirPlay: you can wirelessly stream your mix to your Apple TV or AirPort Express station in real-time.
• – Fully leverages accelerated CPU extensions (SSE-like) for high-quality audio processing and analysis
• – Very low latency (< 3 msec)
• – Background audio playback (multi-tasking support)
• – Pre-Cueing (via mono/stereo adapter)

The first crop of apps that use CoreMIDI on 4.2 with the USB Camera Connection kit are hitting the App Store. Here’s Luminair:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFqSLfDIvMI&w=640&h=385]

(Remember the iPad is not a content creation tool!)

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Apple has pushed out an update to their Find my iPhone app to work for free (as announced earlier), to support 30 more languages. Also, this update is required for previous users who want to still be able to locate their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Get it here for free.

• iPhone 4, iPad, or 4th generation iPod touch owners can use Find My iPhone for free with their Apple ID (iOS 4.2 required)
• Support for 30 additional languages
• Important: this update is required for users of the previous version of Find My iPhone app (v1.0 and v1.0.1)

Some readers have let us know that free MobileMe is working on their iPhone 3GS. Anyone else? Comments or tips@9to5mac.com.

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Apple today announced in their iOS 4.2 press release that the App Store has finally hit 300,000 active applications. Interestingly enough, 40,000 of them are for the iPad making the other 260,000 apps for the iPhone/iPod touch. Apple also notes that the App Store is available in 90 countries with 20 categories of applications available.

Today, customers have downloaded more than seven billion apps from the groundbreaking App Store and more than 300,000 apps are available to consumers in 90 countries, with more than 40,000 native iPad apps. Over 125 million iOS users around the world can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

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We have been telling you about an iPad-only newspaper created by News Corp. being in the works for sometime and today the Guardian claims the project will be unveiled later this month with some interesting new information. This newspaper project will be called The Daily and will be a newspaper that is only available on the iPad as well as other tablets in the future. That means no web or print version. The newspaper will be a downloadable application that will cost 99 cents a week to use. For just under $4 a month you will have full access to this tablet-only newspaper.

The Daily will be a huge deal and will be managed right on the 26th floor of the News Corp. offices in New York with 100-150 journalists dedicated to the newspaper. The lead-editor of The Daily is yet to be announced but claims say The New York Post’s managing editor, Jesse Angelo, will take the lead job. According to the Guardian, News Corp. leader, Rupert Murdoch, has taken a huge role in the project and pictures it as the future of online news content. He believes that “consumers are willing to pay for high- quality, original content.” This corroborates with Steve Job’s vision since the iPad’s launch as well.

Apple engineers have reportedly been working on the technical side of things and the launch of The Daily is said to coincide with the launch of an Apple newspaper-subscription service. Some other reports claim that News Corp. has invested $30M into the project. The Daily will reportedly launch exclusivly on Apple’s iPad by the end of this month but will eventually make its way to other tablet devices in the near future.

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Apple has released an update for their iTunes Connect Mobile application which allows iOS developers to track and manage their App Store applications. The new update includes jazzed up graphics for the iPhone 4 and 4th-generation iPod touch Retina display, support for iOS 4 multitasking, and support for the viewing of iBookstore statistics for your books.

The application for the first time is also now a universal binary that works on the iPad. This is the same application Mac App Store developers will use to track their apps. Developers can download the new iTunes Connect Mobile app here for free.

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Apple sent out an email this evening telling Mac developers to submit their Mac ‘apps’ for inclsion in the opening of the store which should happen pretty soon.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG5pqTWVahQ&w=640&h=385]

There are probably more than a few of you out there that want to see a quadricopter under the tree this year.  Press release below:
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Reuters reports that News Corp executive James Murdoch has confirmed that News Corp will be soon revealing and launching a publication specific for distribution on tablet computers like Apple’s iPad. Murdoch told journalists that the publication is a “tablet-only product and it’s very exciting.” So far there is no specific word as to what this tablet-only publication will entail and Murdoch went on to speak about the tablet form-factor in general.

“The tablet in general, it lends itself to a type of journalism that is really new,” Murdoch said, highlighting the way print looks on tablets and the multi-touch screens that encourage interaction from readers.

The iPad was originally billed by Apple as the future of newspapers and reading and has already made a nice dent in the ebook market with their popular iBooks application along with their iBookstore. Popular publications like the New York Times and Washington Post are also believing in the iPad as a fantastic news distribution device and this is demonstrated from both of the publication’s iPad news apps.

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FireCore has announced that they will be bringing a neat software suite to the second-generation Apple TV that includes both a web browser and a Last.fm application. The software suite is called aTV Flash (black) and will be released as a beta in a couple weeks. The web browser is called Couch Surfer and it will support most browsing functions and some plugins in the future (no word on flash). Here’s a video of it in action:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRxYgWSU72Y&w=640&h=385]

FireCore will also be bringing Last.fm to the new Apple TV via an application that looks great. The streaming functionality looks fluid and you can take a peak at Last.fm for Apple TV via the video walkthrough after the break:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc5aOAGlOxg&w=670&h=527]

COMPUTERWORLD: We’re at the time of year when everyone looks anxiously at Amazon’s Black Friday deals list and races around to find the very best (affordable) objects to give to close friends, family and loved ones. The holiday season is expensive and demanding — and this year will be the year of the shopping app.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB6yuS9LNFc&w=640&h=385]

SlingPlayer has posted a full video walkthrough of their upcoming SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad application and it surely does not disappoint. The application has super-immpressive video quality and will be arriving soon for $29.99. There is an iPhone version currently available on the App Store for those wondering.

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Twitter has just released an update to their iOS client and its brings support for the upcoming iOS 4.2 along with some other interesting features and enhancements. The iPad got inline media support, user interface improvements, along with an enhanced search feature.

iPhone:
* Improved display of shortened URLs
* Correctly load reserved Twitter.com paths, such as http://twitter.com/newtwitter
* Fix connection error caused by a device clock being set incorrectly
* Additional retina graphics
* Enable geotagging in your account with one tap

iPad:
* Inline media
* Manage saved searches
* UI improvements

Twitter for iPhone received a few important fixes including better short URL support, connection error fixes, easier geo-tagging setup and better Retina display support. The biggest new feature in the version 3.2 update may be the inclusion of push notifcations. You will now receive one of those classic Apple obtrusive alerts whenever you are @mentioned.

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Firemint has just announced that their widely popular Flight Control for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch will be making its way to the Mac sometime later this month via the Steam platform. In case you are not familier with the popular game Firemint has a nice summary:

In Flight Control HD, you take on the role of an air traffic controller at an increasingly busy airport. Using your mouse or trackpad, you can select a plane and trace a path to the correct landing zone. As the airspace gets more and more busy, your challenge is to land all flights safely, without collisions!

Here’s the announcement regarding the Mac version of Flight Control HD:

The Steam version of Flight Control HD will feature a brand-new, exclusive map. The new “Stunt Flying” map will introduce an exciting new gameplay element, where you can score extra points for flying through a course of stunt cones before landing. This adds a new challenge to the much-loved and insanely addictive gameplay first made famous by the worldwide iPhone hit that has now been downloaded more than 3 million times. Flight Control HD for Steam will also feature Steam achievements and leaderboards, and will be available world-wide.

Firemint notes that a version for the upcoming Mac App Store will be available when the store launches in around 90 days from now. In the meantime, you can start practicing on your iPhone and iPod touch or iPad.

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COMPUTERWORLD: There’s utilities to boost your Mac’s memory handling, make your information easy to find, password management, background notifications and a power tool for repairing your Mac problems in this reader-submitted collection of six more essential utilities for a Mac.

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCJ5dyNDfkE&fs=1&hl=en_GB]

iPhone app Bump is already pretty popular as a way to share contact information (like an electronic business card), but now the app lets you share music too.

The most recent Bump app update lets users select songs from their iTunes collection to share with friends, just by bumping their phones together.
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TUAW reports that according to a purported e-mail from Steve Jobs the next version of Keynote will include a sort of AirPlay functionality. Specifically, users of Keynote ’11 will be able to create a presentation and stream it to the big screen via an Apple TV. This functionality will apparently also work from an iOS device (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch) to an Apple TV. This function will come in handy for many people as it could help alleviate the need of setting up projectors and annoying things along those lines.

Question:

Will the new Apple TV accept keynote presentation via iOS device or a Mac? If it will, I will go buy two at an apple store tonight.

Steve’s answer:

It’s all coming soon. Stay tuned.

AirPlay being a major feature in the upcoming iWork ’11 may also be the reason for the productivity-suite’s apparent delay. AirPlay functionaility is not even at full-force at the time of this writing and only works for audio/music streaming. Full AirPlay functionality should be coming as early as next week along with the long-awaited iOS 4.2 update which brings multitasking and many new features to the iPad.

There have been multiple reports in regards to the upcoming iWork ’11 update including the software being a Mac App Store exclusive and some hints about release dates. It would also make sense for Apple to update iWork for 64-bit compatibility but that still hasn’t happened for their iLife suite. Oh, and iWork.com has been in beta since January 2009. Screenshot of the mail exchange is after the break:

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Apple today updated the backend of their iPad iTunes application to add Ping support. Ping support was added to the iPhone right around the iOS 4.1 launch so this means we’re close to the iOS 4.2 launch. The full Ping experience is present as a tab on the iPad iTunes app and it includes your feed, who you follow, who follows you, a look at your profile, and even a section dedicated to concerts.

The concerts section shows you local concerts, who is on tour, which concerts you say you are attending, and even links to purchase tickets at ticketmaster.com. For those wondering, we don’t see Twitter integration.

Update: Ping for iPad automatically connects to your twitter account and automatically tweets every time you like or post something:

Check out the full gallery after the break:

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Rockstar Games today announced that their lovely and *very kid friendly* Grand Theft Auto trilogy is finally makes its way to the Mac. The trilogy includes San Andreas (personal favorite), GTA III, and Vice City. This is what the company behind that game has to say:

“The Grand Theft Auto series has been one of the most highly demanded titles by the Mac community. The availability of this incredible franchise on the Mac underscores TransGaming’s role in transforming the overall Mac gaming market,” commented Vikas Gupta, President & CEO of TransGaming, in the press release. “These games will be widely available and will be a great catalyst to the increasing popularity of gaming on the Mac.”

The trilogy will be released in stores on November 22nd but you can already pre-order it at Amazon. It will make a great holiday gift for the folks who are “M for mature.”

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIixUYaLufo&w=670&h=401]

COMPUTERWORLD: Apple makes such beautiful products. Take the iPad for example — it is magical, and with hot new competitor the Samsung Tab receiving destined-for-the-grave reviews, wouldn’t it be nice to run Android on an iPad, rather than spend your cash on Samsung’s not quite as good as an iPad tablet-thing.

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First, the easy one.  SkyFire is finally enabled on the Canadian App Store here.

Next, here’s how to enable Pandora on Rogers (saying “about” was all the proof we needed!!).  It isn’t anything special, just using a US based VPN.  Here are the settings.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaHh_Rz6Ewc&w=640&h=385]
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is deadly serious about its plans for the Mac App Store. The company is about to disrupt the entire retail software sales industry in order to create the world’s biggest market for consumer software sales — only on a Mac.

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