The Iphone Blog

Archive for September, 2009

For years, people used to bash Macs by noting the absence of what was viewed to be an absolute essential application. Though there’s still a hold-out or two (we’re still waiting for AutoCAD for Mac, despite hints to the contrary), things are much better these days.
No application, perhaps, embodies this change more than Intuit’s QuickBooks. [...]

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Finally, the team at Dropbox have released a native iPhone app. And it’s pretty awesome.

For those of you unfamililar with Dropbox, allow me to explain the appeal: it’s the best system around for syncing and sharing files between computers and iPhones. It knocks Mobile Me into the shadows.
You get 2GB of storage space for free, [...]

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Below is today’s roundup
of news and blogs that haven’t yet hit top story status by our community. Visit
Apple iPhone news and blogs for even more
news and blogs converage.

  •   iBall Games Launches Pro Beach Volleyball 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch –
by nobody@vox.com(prMac) from Vox’s posts tagged iphone
  •   [香港] Android 手机支持 HSBC 及 麦当劳的 AR 软件 – Layar (0 回應) –
by J Chiang from Engadget 中国版
  •   RT @Katsuno: 「iPhoneがなぜFlash対応を急がないか」なんてHTML5+CSS3があるからに決まってるじゃない。もうä¦ –
by css3watcher (css3watcher) from wwdc OR apple OR iphone OR "steve jobs" – Twitter Search
  •   科技始终出于苹果？Light Peak 也不例外？（看起来无误） (1 回應) –
by Casper Kao from Engadget 中国版
  •   Touching: All Rumors Point To The End Of Keys/Buttons –
from iPhone News
  •   Things on Tuesday (U2 updates of course!) –
by Crush-Monkey from Vox’s posts tagged iphone
  •   More details on Apple tablet –
from Ubergizmo
  •   Nokia N900 clone –
from Ubergizmo
  •   Why iPhone TV Apps Are Doomed to Mediocrity [IPhone Apps] –
by John Herrman from Gizmodo
  •   @tnker まぁ見た目とか動きの部分は洗練されるだとうけど、結局は処理速度とのトレードオフになりそうだし、当面はFlashでいいことが分かった。でもiPhoneで見れるのは魅力的。 –
by izm_design (Toshiki Izumi(mot)) from wwdc OR apple OR iphone OR "steve jobs" – Twitter Search

See complete Apple iPhone news, blog, video, and photo coverage at Boxxet.

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Dropbox's iPhone app lets you access your documents on the go.

(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

Dropbox was one of the companies that I was shocked to see didn’t have an iPhone app when the App Store launched last summer. The service seems like it would mesh perfectly with the iPhone. After all, one of Dropbox’s competitors, Soonr, launched its iPhone sync app in January. Unfortunately, Dropbox was MIA from our favorite mobile device for a long time. However, on Tuesday Dropbox released version 1.0 of its iPhone app. So, how does it stack up? Is it worth the wait?

This iPhone app is a great addition to Dropbox’s offering. If you already use Dropbox and have an iPhone, then this free app is a no-brainer. If you don’t use Dropbox, this app could be the thing that pushes you over the edge. It works beautifully, giving you instant access (with a network connection) to any of the files in your Dropbox. It also includes a “Favorites” feature in which you can designate a particular file to be automatically downloaded to your phone for offline viewing.

The app can view images (jpg, tiff, gif), music, movies (mov, mp4, m4v), Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Pages, and Numbers docs, PDFs, Keynote presentations, HTML pages, txt files and vcards. If you need to access a document in your Dropbox, this app will most likely allow you to view it. One of the cooler features is the music and movie streaming. If you have music or movie files stored in your Dropbox, they can be played back easily.

Finally, Dropbox lets you upload photos from your iPhone’s photo library or take a new one to upload. While this functionality has already been implemented by many other apps (Flickr, Facebook, various Twitter apps), it still rounds out the offering nicely.

It’s unfortunate that we had to wait so long for this app, but Apple’s approval process, which often takes longer than five weeks, is partially to blame. As I said above, this app is a no-brainer if you already use Dropbox and it certainly acts as an incentive to new users.

You can download the Dropbox iPhone app here.

Originally posted at The Web Services Report

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(Credit: Apple Inc.)

Last week, Apple released iTunes 9.0.1, which addresses a number of iPhone syncing issues as well as making some performance and stability improvements.

During our first hands-on look of iTunes 9, we noted two problems with podcast episodes being listed in random order and being unable to arrange certain apps based on their being checkmarked and therefore set to sync to the iPhone or iPod Touch in question.

Later, we discovered more problems with syncing in general, including wrong episodes being synced to playlists containing podcasts, podcasts failing to sync, etc. Smart Playlists, according to users, were generally messed up and did not behave as expected.

iTunes 9.0.1 has addressed all of these issues with the exception of the Smart Playlist problem. Podcasts are now properly synced, podcast episodes display in the correct order, and you can arrange apps regardless of their sync status.

The temporary workaround for new or existing Smart Playlists that no longer work as they used to is to uncheck “Live updating” in the settings.

Uncheck Live updating for a Smart Playlist workaround.

(Credit: David Martin)

iTunes 9.0.1 also addresses other issues, including performance issues that can lead to iTunes freezing or unexpectedly quitting, problems browsing the iTunes Store, and improved app syncing for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The update is available from Software Update or via direct download from Apple’s downloads page for both Mac or PC.

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At one time or another, most of us have recommended an iPhone/iPod Touch app to friends or family members–usually by tweeting, e-mailing, or Facebooking about it.

Yappler Sync takes that concept to the next level, allowing you to build a custom list of the apps you like and then share that list via the social solution of your choice.

At the same time, Yappler Sync helps you discover more cool apps by perusing the lists built by others.

All you do is install the eponymous utility, which is available for Windows and Mac, then build your list and decide how to share it.

Unfortunately, I discovered a few irksome aspects of the service, starting with this: Yappler builds your list based on every app in your iTunes library, not just those currently in residence on your iPhone. Thus I ended up with some 270 apps to cull–and they weren’t even listed alphabetically.

Meanwhile, it’s not immediately clear how you’re supposed to “discover” other users’ lists (unless they’re shared with you directly). The Yappler site catalogs all the apps in the App Store (84,000 and counting, in case you’re wondering), with a handy advanced-search option that lets you specify criteria like price and rating.

But the only way to find other users and their lists is by perusing the reviews for any given app, then looking for clickable usernames. And once you do find another user’s list, all you really get is a batch of icons. So JoeAppUser has Buzzingo on his iPhone–how does that really enlighten me?

Of course, Yappler Sync is more about the social aspect of app-sharing, hence the ties to Facebook, Twitter, and the like. And it’s nice how it can automatically update your list when you install new apps. Plus, it’s free, so I can complain only so much.

On the other hand, this isn’t much different from posting, say, a list of books you’ve read. Without knowing more about each book and, more importantly, why you liked it, where’s the value?

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Apple announced that more than 2 billion applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch have been downloaded from its App Store, just five months after hitting the 1 billion download mark.

“The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it.”

The iPhone app store has over 85,000 apps available to download and there are now more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch owners 77 countries, and 125,000 developers in Apple’s developer program.

In late April of this year, Apple reported that it had topped one billion downloads and 35,000 applications, and announced that downloads had topped 1.5 billion with 65,000 apps on offer as of July 15 of this year.

Reference:
http://cut.io/wPS8

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If you are a fan of Twitter, there are certainly no shortage of applications for the iPhone that allow for a great Twitter experience while on the go. One of the best selling Twitter apps has been Atebits’ Tweetie for iPhone. In addition to being among the best sellers, the app also won the coveted Apple Design Award in 2009. The follow-up, Tweetie 2, is currently in the App Store review process and builds upon an already impressive app.

Mac users are likely familiar with Tweetie for Mac, a terrific desktop Twitter client. Tweetie 2 for iPhone utilizes the same code base as what Atebits calls “Bigbird”. The result being a faster, slimmer and more powerful app. Rather than add simply adding new features, the developer did a complete re-write of Tweetie. You’ll notice a host of new features, but they are built using an all new Bigbird core that as the developer puts it, “ is meant to last”.

If you are familiar with the first release, the following are new features added in version 2:

• There is full persistence – not just caching tweets for offline reading, but remembering where you are in the app.
• You could be viewing a conversation of a tweet of a recent mention of one of your followers, quit the app (or get a phone call), and when you come back, the entire UI stack is restored.
• Offline mode.
• You can favorite, follow, block, add to Instapaper and more all while offline. Next time you connect, all of those actions will be synced back up.
• There’s a drafts manager, you can even use it to compose tweets and DMs while you’re on the subway, and blast them out simultaneously as soon as you get out. (And if you’re a fan of Birdhouse, you can now send drafts to it from Tweetie).
• You can link up Twitter users to contacts in your iPhone Address Book. Forget just adding notes, you can link up with email addresses, phone numbers, and more – and even better, all of that linkage information is backed up when you sync your phone.
• Threaded conversations are there, just like the Mac version, as are nice tab bar notifications so you can see at a glance if you have new items. “Nearby” has been revamped to take advantage of MapKit (it’s even cooler than you can imagine), and Tweetie 2 already supports the new geotagging metadata coming soon from Twitter.
• Saved searches now sync with Twitter.com and the upcoming Tweetie 2 for Mac. There is deep, native integration with other services, including Favstar.fm, Tweet Blocker, and Follow cost.
• The compose screen design has been completely overhauled, with a @people picker, recent hashtags, multiple attachments manager, and a “peek” gesture when replying to a tweet.
• Plus: full landscape support (configurable, of course), edit your Twitter profile, custom API roots on a per-account basis, vastly improved gesture shortcuts, in-app rich-text email, new-style retweet support, refresh-all on launch, TextExpander, Read it Later integration (in addition to Instapaper), autocomplete recent searches, autocomplete go-to-user, improved avatar caching, inline Twitlonger, reply chain list view, preview short urls, tweet translation, block+follow from multiple accounts at once.

Tweetie 2 is priced at $2.99. Due to the constraints of the App Store, the developer is not able to offer upgrade pricing to owners of Tweetie 1. There has been much debate in the blogosphere on whether the developer should offer this as a free update to existing owners. It appears clear the developer didn’t take the easy path to 2.0 and the result appears to be a vast improvement worthy of the bump to 2.0. Ultimately, owners of version 1 can vote with their wallets.

Based upon initial feedback from the sites offered a pre-release of the beta, it’ll be hard not to recommend Tweetie 2 to those looking for a good, comprehensive Twitter app.

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The excitement of the iPhone finally getting multimedia messaging, is overshadowed by the Google Voice drama

After a long wait AT&T finally rolled out support for the multimedia messaging service (MMS) protocol. This means that iPhones can at last send pictures, video, and audio recordings like users of other smartphones.

IPhones have actually had MMS support built in since June when the iPhone OS v3.0 was released. AT&T, however, kept the functionality disabled for fear it would overload and break its network. Meanwhile, AT&T upgraded much of its network and built extra capacity to handle the service.

On September 22, early last week, it sent a free SMS text message to inform its customers that it would be rolling out the update on Friday. The message read, “AT&T Free Msg: Picture & video messaging (MMS) will be available for iPhone on 9/25. While we prepare your account for MMS capability, the current ‘view my message’ experience will be turned off but your ability to send and receive text messages will not be affected.”

Users began receiving the update when they synced their phones with iTunes on Friday. The update wasn’t without its problems — most of which appear to be software/firmware related. Some users found that their attempts to send MMS failed. Apple and AT&T suggested users first try to reset their networks settings. A more extreme fix involves selecting your iPhone’s settings in iTunes and choosing “General > Reset All Settings > enter your pin if prompted”. That fix appears to get MMS working, but you may have to reenter your Passcode, Wi-Fi passwords. You may also lose your VPN connections and remembered Wi-Fi networks. A perk, though, is that your apps are arranged alphabetically, something previously not easily done.

[via Daily Tech]

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After a 15-year hiatus, Apple has taken Newton Tablet developer Michael Tchao back into the fold.
Tchao, once part of the original Newton team,  will now be a vice president of product marketing.
Steve Dowling, the Apple spokesman who confirmed the hire did not say exactly what the man who helped create the grandfather of PDAs will [...]

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