Flexbits, makers of the popular Fantastical Mac app, launched an iPhone version of its streamlined calendar app this morning with the goal of bringing the simplicity and user-friendly experience it has become known for on the Mac to iOS users. The new Fantastical app might not be as feature-filled as other third-party calendar iOS apps, but what it lacks in features it certainly makes up for in style. After a week with Fantastical for iPhone, I can confidently say the app feels like the calendar upgrade iOS 6 was missing.

One thing I love about the Fantastical Mac app compared to other calendar apps, and even Apple’s own Calendars app on OS X, is the overly simple UI. Better yet is the app’s natural language parser, allowing users to enter a sentence such as “lunch tomorrow” to automatically schedule a lunch meeting for noon the next day. While Fantastical for Mac users will feel right at home with a familiar interface to the desktop menubar app, the introduction of a touchscreen also brings a big new feature to the Fantastical UI: the DayTicker…
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News:

Pay with Square at Starbucks: We already knew Starbucks was signed up to bring Square payments to 7,000 of its stores via the newly renamed “Square Wallet” app. Starbucks just confirmed in a press release that starting today it will officially begin accepting Square payments via a scanned QR.

Fantastical for iPhone: Those familiar with the Mac OS X desktop version of the Fantastical app will be pleased to know developers Flexbits have announced an iPhone version is in the works and coming soon. The Mac version is a slick, menu bar item calendar app for access to reminders and calendar functions, but also has support for iCal, BusyCal, Entourage, Outlook, iCloud, Google Calendar or Yahoo! Calendar. You can sign up to find out when it becomes available here.

New app releases:

Clear for Mac: We knew it was coming and today the Mac App Store version of the popular Clear to do app for iPhone officially makes its way to the Mac.

Jingu Friends:Originally available as a BlackBerry app with more than a million downloads since May 2011 and 3.5 million messages sent monthly, the developers of the Jingu Friends app have released an iOS version of the app today on the App Store. The app allows you to discover new people to chat with through a lounge environment that “immediately drops you into a global conversation stream where you can listen or participate.” From there you can find out more about the messaging apps participants use:

All messages posted on Jingu Friends are public, but users can take their conversations private through seamless integration into smartphone messaging apps like BBM, Hookt, WhatsApp and Kik.

Dragon’s Lair: The classic arcade game already made its way to iPhone and iPad earlier this year, and now the Mac version is available on the Mac App Store for $9.99 now.

FreshBooks for iPad: FreshBooks is coming to the iPad today with version 1.1 introducing a universal app that now supports both iPhone and iPad.

FreshBooks – The Fastest Way To Track Time, Organize Expenses & Invoice Your Clients, Anytime, Anywhere.

Updates: 

Pinterest version 2.1: Pinterest is introducing a new feature today that allows users to create up to three secret boards to share with friends and family. In a blog post, Pinterest explained how to use the new feature: “go to your profile, tap on the Boards tab, and scroll down to the bottom until you see a button that says Create a Secret Board.”

• Block or report other users
• Create up to 3 secret boards
• Edit boards from your device

Clear version 1.2: Clear for iPhone gets a big update today that brings iCloud support, the ability to share quotes on Twitter and Facebook, quick list switching, and more:
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Ferrari announced in a press release for its 2012 financials today that Apple’s Senior Vice President Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue is joining its board of directors. Ferrari chairperson Luca di Montezemolo made the announcement during a meeting of the company’s board of directors earlier today:

“I am delighted that Eddy Cue, one of the main driving forces behind Apple’s range of revolutionary products, has now joined our board. His huge experience in the dynamic, innovative world of the Internet will be of great assistance to us.”

Cue, who recently took on new responsibilities leading Siri and Maps following the departure of iOS chief Scott Forstall, also provided a statement regarding his nomination for the board:

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From 9to5Toys.com:

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Today only, Best Buy is knocking 15% off of iTunes gift cards in all denominations both in physical and online with free shipping. Update: Best Buy Reward Zone members can get 20% off (free to sign up). The discount applies to all of Apple’s media including music, videos, movies, books, iOS and Mac Apps and more.

Perhaps you can knock out your holiday shopping a little earlier this year?

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The announcement

We knew that Browett was fired last week, but Apple was waiting for a good time to announce the move. We’re not sure exactly what was the nail in Forstall’s coffin but Inside Apple/Fortune’s Adam Lashinky’s take is that Forstall’s refusalto sign the Maps apology is what sealed his fate. Forstall was at last week’s iPad mini event but uncharacteristically didn’t present anything.

iPad Mini launch last week

Interestingly, Cook also did the apologizing for Browett’s hair-brained schemes to cut head counts at Apple Stores ahead of the holiday shopping season to save a few bucks.

Lesson to learn: Be big enough to apologize publicly. Look at Bob Mansfield. Out of Retirement Mansfield publicly apologized for the Retina MacBook Pro EPEAT fiasco; fast forward months and all of a sudden he’s got his own division and a lucrative two year contract. Apple execs should be falling over themselves to apologize for their mistakes going forward.

The rationale

Browett’s situation was simple: everyone hated him, especially his retail employees. Apple watchers, especially those familiar with Dixons in the UK (Americans: think Best Buy), were shocked at the decision to allow him to follow Ron Johnson as Apple’s Retail head.  Cook initially defended Browett but the #Firebrowett movement was too strong. So far Tim Cook is 0 for 2 in big outside hires (Mark Papermaster was hired during one of Jobs’ absences) . That might be something to be concerned about.

Forstall’s departure is an entirely different situation. Although more information may come to light, in the hours after the announcement it seems a power struggle happened, and the Ive camp won out over Forstall’s.  The two execs and Steve Jobs subordinates have faced off for years and reportedly wouldn’t be in the same meetings unless called specifically by Tim Cook. It certainly didn’t help that Mansfield didn’t like Forstall either. I think we’ll hear more of the details in the weeks and months ahead.

The new situation
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As promised by Apple during its media event this afternoon, iBooks 3.0 is now available for users to download from the iTunes App Store. Haven’t heard? The updated app offers better integration with iCloud, and it now shows purchased books across your iTunes account on one shelf for more seamless reading. Furthermore, the folks in Cupertino have added a new scroll theme that allows users to “scroll vertically through books with the flick of a finger”—infinite scrolling. It’s a feature iPad mini users are sure to love.

Competing with a similar Kindle feature, Apple also made its iBooks platform a bit more social with this update. Users can now share their favorite quote over Facebook and Twitter—a much-requested feature among the more hardcore readers.

Lastly, in the 3.0 update, iBooks grabbed 40 more languages, including: Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. You can grab the update right on your iOS device from the App Store. For you book junkies, Apple also updated its iBooks Author software with new features this afternoon.

Full feature list below:

Apple CEO Tim Cook is live on stage at the company’s special media event in California, and he just announced a new version of iBooks.

News and features:

• 400 million iBooks downloads
• Continuous scrolling
• Better integrated with iCloud— purchased books show up on shelf
• Fantastic new ways to share — tap favorite quote and share on Facebook and Twitter
• Supporting over 40 languages— new Korean, Chinese, Japanese
• Available today, free download

Education news and iBooks Author:

• iBooks textbooks reinvent the textbook full screen gorgeous layouts, interactive
• Textbook available for 80 percent of high school
• 2,500 US classrooms with iBooks textbooks
• Publishers can now take own fonts and provide custom look
• Multitouch widgets
• 94 percent of fortune 500 is testing or deploying iPad—seeing similar in smaller business

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According to a report from BGR, a reliable source informed it that Apple has begun testing iOS 6.0.1 with U.S. carriers in anticipation of a release in the coming weeks. Also mentioned in the report is a list of fixes apparently included in the update that address many of the issues users have complained about since the launch of iOS 6. Among them is a fix for the horizontal glitches that some have experienced in the iOS keyboard and folders and a number of other bug fixes for recently reported problems.

The report said the update would also bring a fix for issues with cellular data, improved Wi-Fi, as well as “a problem with the camera’s flash not going off.” Other fixes Apple will release with iOS 6.0.1 are related to iTunes Match, Passbook, and Exchange bugs:

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The 10,000 Sq ft. building currently on Apple’s property in Prineville

Following reports in February that Apple purchased roughly 160-acres of land in Prineville, Ore., for $5.6 million, The Oregonian reported today Apple has now started the first $68 million phase of construction. The new land will apparently consist of two 338,000 square-foot buildings behind a 10,000 square-foot modular data center it has already built on the property. The $68 million figure for the first phase of construction covers one of those two buildings, according to plans filed with Crook County and dug up by The Oregonian:

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It’s finally here. Tapbots unleashed a new member of their extremely popular Tweetbot family on the world today in the form of Tweetbot for Mac. The new bot has been eagerly awaited by Twitter users since it went into public alpha in the middle of July.

The OS X version of the popular iOS client boasts a similar feature-set, including timeline position syncing between devices via Tweet Marker, and even more syncing options through iCloud. Keep reading for all the details (and a ton of screenshots).

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9to5Mac readers who migrated from MobileMe are reporting that their complimentary extra storage has been extended an extra year. Apple’s support doc is here.

From: iCloud <noreply@icloud.com>
Date: October 5, 2012, 3:38:18 PM PDT
To: 9to5mac
Subject:Your complimentary iCloud storage upgrade has been extended at no charge
Reply-To:no-reply@apple.com

When you moved your MobileMe account to iCloud, we provided you with a complimentary storage upgrade beyond the standard 5GB that comes with an iCloud account to help you with the transition. Originally, this storage upgrade was set to expire on September 30, 2012.

As a thank you to our former MobileMe members, we will continue to provide you with this complimentary storage upgrade at no charge, for an additional year, until September 30, 2013. No action is required on your part. For complete details, please read this article.

iCloud Team

All of the details from Apple’s Support Doc:

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The iCloud outage, which began Tuesday and affected roughly 2 percent of Apple’s 200 Million iCloud users, now appears to be over. However, some iCloud users wrote to tell us that Apple just dumped all of their email into the Inbox with 12/31/69 dates and jumbled Subject lines. One reader’s email now looks like this:

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An excerpt from his frustrated email is below. I hate to say this about a company that makes the best hardware and OS software in the world, but it would be hard to trust my junkmail to iCloud at this point.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z0Ia5jDt4]

Creator of Apple’s “Get a Mac” ad campaign, Scott Trattner, is leaving his role as executive creative director at TBWA/Media Arts Lab. He was responsible for the creative development of many Apple product ads from the iPod, iPhone and iPad to Mac, iTunes and iCloud. According to Ad Age, after years of focusing mostly on Apple campaigns at TBWA/Media Arts Lab, Trattner will take a new role at 72andSunny to work as one of three creative directors with clients, including Samsung, Xbox 360, Hewlett-Packard, Activision and Nike.

“Scott’s track record for creating colossal impact on behalf of his clients is second to none,” said 72andSunny CEO John Boiler in a statement. “His work has not only shaped one of the biggest brands in the world, but redefined industries.”

Most notably, 72andSunny was responsible for Samsung’s “Next Big Thing” Galaxy S II campaign that “launches the Samsung Galaxy S II by challenging blind allegiance to Apple’s inferior products”. 72andSunny is also behind many Call of Duty ads and campaigns for other Activision games.

Apple’s most recent ads featuring Apple Genius Bar employees, which aired during the Olympic Games in London, were not well received due to their lack of focus on an actual product and the fact they assumed customers were not knowledgeable. Apple later removed the videos from both their website and YouTube channel.

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