An Apple spokeswoman has confirmed to news agency KTVZ.com that it has purchased land in Prineville, Oregon and plans to build a data center. The land, purchased from Crook County covers 160-acres and was purchased for a reported $5.6 million. Apple confirmed the purchase after they were named as the purchaser in a February 15th filing in Crook County.

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet confirmed Tuesday that “we purchased the land and it’s for a data center,” but could not speak to details beyond that, other than to say it will be a “green” facility.

Rumors of Apple scouting out land in Prineville for another large data center emerged in December last year when it was reported that Apple was in discussions over purchasing the land. The land Apple purchased is nearby Facebook’s data center in Prinneville, which is pictured above.

[KTVZ.com via MacRumors]

With a notice posted on the Mac Dev Center’s App Sandboxing webpage, Apple has informed developers that the sandboxing deadline, previously delayed to March 1, has been extended to June 1.

Starting June 1, all apps submitted to the Mac App Store must implement sandboxing. Take advantage of new sandboxing entitlements available in OS X 10.7.3 and new APIs in Xcode 4.3.

We have extended the deadline for sandboxing your apps on the Mac App Store from March 1st to June 1st to provide you with enough time to take advantage of new sandboxing entitlements available in OS X 10.7.3 and new APIs in Xcode 4.3.

Starting June 1, if you have an existing app on the Mac App Store that is not sandboxed, you may still submit bug fix updates without sandboxing your app. In addition, if you have technical issues that prevent you from sandboxing your app by June 1, let us know.

Sandboxing is a new technology in OS X Lion that limits the functionalities of Mac App Store applications to a list of “entitlements” that cover various areas of the operating system an app can access, such as networking, printing, or a user’s files. A sandboxed application would be unable to harm the system outside of its operational scope (managed by the entitlements), and this has caused some concerns as apps would lose access to the Mac’s entire filesystem, which is required by some functionalities of certain applications that aren’t necessary malicious or “compromised”. Similarly, inter-app communication would be a technical issue with sandboxing, as apps like TextExpander, Keyboard Maestro and CoverSutra — utilities that perform actions in the background without asking for user’s interaction in some cases (user-initiated actions can override the sandbox) — couldn’t get past the sandboxing requirement for the Mac App Store.

Since the release of Lion last summer, Apple has been touting the advantages of sandboxing as a way to increase security on OS X, whilst third-party developers began asking for more clarity from Apple in regards to the list of entitlements made available to them. For instance, sandboxing has been heavily criticized in the past months as it would theoretically prevent apps that rely on system-level technologies such as AppleScript from working, as they would require an entitlement that Apple isn’t providing. Similarly, apps that would require access to an entire user’s filesystem would be problematic with sandboxing fully enforced (think backup utilities such as SuperDuper).

Sandboxing recently became a topic of discussion again as Apple announced the next version of OS X, Mountain Lion, featuring a new security measure called Gatekeeper, while claiming that sandboxing would still be enforced starting March 1. With Gatekeeper and Sandboxing seemingly aimed at fixing different problems with OS X security, a number of third-party developers asked Apple (again) to reconsider the list of entitlements for the sandbox and figure out a way to work with longtime Mac developers to keep their apps in the Mac App Store.

Notably, Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software wrote:

Apple should embrace the utility of sandboxing by shifting their focus away from sandboxing only Mac App Store titles, to a strategy that would sandbox virtually every Mac app, inside the store or out. Given the current limitations of sandboxing, a significant number of developers will not adopt the technology, so its usefulness to users and to the security of the platform will be diminished. Apple can turn that around so that sandboxing is a worthy counterpart to Gatekeeper, and a technology that any developer in his or her right mind would feel foolish not to incorporate.

To increase adoption, Apple should expand the current list of entitlements until it covers every reasonable behavior that users expect from Mac apps.

As a result of the uncertainty surrounding the sandboxing deadline prior to today’s announcement, some developers have decided to stop supporting the Mac App Store, keeping their applications available for purchase on their website — something that Mountain Lion will continue to support thanks to Gatekeeper. A notable example is Riverfold’s Manton Reece, who wrote a blog post explaining the reasons behind his decision to remove Clipstart from the Mac App Store:

Clipstart also falls into the same “needs to access the whole file system” category as Transmit. It’s not just one feature; the whole app is based on the fact that it can point to video files anywhere on the system, or manage your video library in a central location on any hard drive. These are things that are difficult to do in the sandbox, but even worse, I don’t see a clear path forward for existing customers to move into such a restrictive environment.

Maybe I could file bugs with Apple for exemptions, and reduce the functionality of my app to fit within the limits of the sandbox, but I’ve made the decision that it is just not worth it. I would much rather spend 100% of the time I have for Clipstart on new features only, not playing catch-up with Apple.

Following today’s notice sent to developers, Reece told us: “The delay is great news for developers who have been scrambling to meet the deadline. With brand new sandboxing APIs in 10.7.3, it just wasn’t realistic to expect developers to be ready. And for some apps, there are still areas where the current entitlements fall short.” As for Clipstart, Reece says he’s still planning to remove his app from Apple’s storefront: “I still expect to transition away from the Mac App Store. These delays show that Apple is listening, but also that sandboxing isn’t a stable environment yet. I want to focus my time on adding new features for users instead.”

With Apple extending the Sandboxing deadline, the company will hopefully have time to come up with a broader selection of entitlements developers can use in their apps. As a side note, Apple is expected to hold its annual WWDC in June, and Mountain Lion is set to become available this summer on the Mac App Store. Apple seems to be very flexible with the new June 1 deadline, too, promising developers that they will be able to submit bug fixes without implementing sandboxing, and asking them to “get in touch” if technical issues are preventing them from implementing the new technology.

Originally announced last year, Things Cloud, a cloud syncing platform for Cultured Code’s Things GTD app, is now available as public beta. Available on the Mac and iOS, Things is one of the most popular applications to manage todos and projects, and the app even won an Apple Design Award for its ease of use and simplicity. Cultured Code, however, has been heavily criticized by its user base over the years for the lack of a cloud syncing solution that would allow Things for iOS to stay up to date with Things for Mac; the criticism was also exacerbated by the fact that other GTD apps for the Mac and iOS, namely OmniFocus and Firetask, implemented working, reliable cloud databases in a relatively short period of time, whilst also adding new functionalities to their apps for paying customers.

We’ve had incredible feedback from our users, telling us that Things Cloud is proving to be both fast and stable. Some of our users have adopted the beta entirely and created exceptionally large databases. In the coming weeks we are going to work out some kinks and performance bottlenecks related to such large databases. This is an important final step towards enabling the import of existing data. Once the import feature is ready, we’ll post another update.

Whilst we’ll leave our thoughts for a review once the software leaves beta, it’s important to note that Cultured Code has always claimed its syncing solution would require more work (thus additional time to be implemented) because of a different technology being used to effortlessly push tasks and data across devices. For what it’s worth, I have been able to test Things Cloud, and its sync process was indeed pretty fast both on WiFi and 3G. I’ll save further considerations and tests for a proper review.

To enable Things Cloud, you can head over Cultured Code’s website and download the Mac beta. Cloud syncing can also be enabled by downloading the public version of Things for iOS, following the instructions provided on Cultured Code’s website.

Microsoft’s Office Suite could be launching on the iPad App Store within weeks according to a new report in The Daily. Originally rumoured in November of last year by The Daily, Matt Hickey today says that the design team has “wrapped up the project” but an exact launch date was not known.

Hickey claims to have had a brief hands-on with a working prototype of the Office Suite app and notes that whilst the UI is similar to OneNote for iPad, it has hints of Metro. He notes that Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be created and edited either locally on the iPad or online (presumably using Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud service).

According to his sources, OneNote will also receive an update soon to reflect the Metro design. Those same sources also noted that no Android version was in the works.

[The Daily via The Next Web]

Jump the break to view all updates to this story.

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Starting from March 9th, China Telecom customers will be able to purchase the iPhone 4S. It comes about two months after China Unicom first offered the iPhone 4S in China.

Unlike China Unicom (the second largest carrier after China Mobile), the smaller China Telecom uses the CDMA technology. Though because the iPhone 4S has support for both CDMA and GSM networks, China Telecom will be selling the same hardware that customers on China Unicom and customers elsewhere across the world purchase.

iPhone has been available on China Unicom which has 37 million 3G users. New distribution through China Telecom adds 33 million 3G subs.

— Horace Dediu (@asymco) February 21, 2012

[via The Verge]

Last week Apple revealed its new Mac operating system, Mountain Lion, due out for this summer. While not a complete overhaul, 10.8 is a polished update that adds many similar functionalities from iOS 5. Among these changes, and one of the most important pieces, is Notification Center. As the name suggests, it is basically Notification Center ported from iOS, running at a system level on Mountain Lion. Besides having the same UI elements we see on our iPads and iPhones everyday, it also has a badge mode much like Growl, our favorite open source notification system for OS X. It’d be fair to say that almost every OS X die-hard uses Growl, as it’s very customizable with function and appearance. Last year, the Growl team overhauled the app and submitted it to the Mac App Store, where it quickly became one of the most popular utilities in the Top Paid charts.

Following Apple’s announcement, some people have said Notification Center will create a problem for Growl, as Apple’s own solution could hurt Growl by replacing its functionality on OS X. Now, as far as I know, Mountain Lion’s Notification Center will only work with Mac App Store apps, so Growl could still have a place for third-party apps that are installed outside of Apple’s storefront, as allowed by Gatekeeper.

Growl doesn’t seem to think Notification Center will immediately hinder installation or usage of their app, either. In a blog post from February 17th, the developers say Growl still has room in OS X to play with. They have listed some points as to how Growl will continue to go forward:

• The developers are investigating options for integrating Growl with Notification Center.
• Growl will work whether your application is from the App Store or not, as long as it supports Growl.
• They’re still on schedule to release Growl 1.4 and 2.0.
• Growl is great for customizable notifications.
• Development of other applications will continue, such as HardwareGrowler, GrowlTunes,  and Capster as Mac App Store apps.

The Growl developers are optimistic even though they are going to have to compete with Apple. With Growl 1.4 already in beta testing (with many great improvements) and work on Growl 2.0 underway, I wouldn’t say Growl has been been “Sherlocked” by Apple’s announcement.

As a side note, developer Collect3 released Hiss today, a free app that sends all Growl notifications directly to Mountain Lion’s Notification Center. So, if you have an app that supports Growl, not Notification Center, you’re in luck. This could be the first step in both Growl and Mountain Lion’s Notification Center working together in some way (much like Notification Center hasn’t hurt the extensibility of Boxcar), albeit Connect3 was quoted on The Verge as saying that “(Hiss was) just a result of us being impatient to start seeing Notification Center become useful.”

[image via Macworld]

The aim of this text then is not just in using the productivity and task management program OmniFocus, but also in getting to the creative space wherever that may be found. The hope is in getting to those things you want to do and enjoy while maintaining the responsibilities that inevitably accrue in life. Be it in work, play, or with family, we are aiming for a relaxed depth of focus and flow.

Originally released in November 2010, Creating Flow with OmniFocus by Kourosh Dini is one of the best resources available to learn more about The OmniGroup’s fantastic GTD software. Specifically aimed at Mac users of OmniFocus, the 555 pages of Dini’s book will take you through the basic concepts of the application, such as Projects and Contexts, to more advanced techniques and workflows that may involve prioritization of your tasks, context management and, overall, finding the right “flow” for your tasks and Getting Things Done system. As a reader of Creating Flow with OmniFocus myself, I’ve always been impressed with the way the author made this book about balancing your own creativity with goals and projects you have to complete in real-life, rather than simply writing a “how to” guide for OmniFocus. Sure, the book has its tutorial-oriented sections with screenshots and tips, but I found the overall “focus” on creating flow and making the system work for you quite liberating.

Creating Flow has been substantially improved since its original release. Kourosh Dini worked hard to bring the book up to speed with the latest refinements introduced in OmniFocus for Mac (now at version 1.9), and today he released an audiobook version that is available on his website. I have been able to listen to a pre-release copy of the audiobook, and it’s a good alternative for those times when you don’t want to sit down with a full copy of the eBook in your Mac or iPad PDF reading app of choice (personally, I like PDF Expert), but still would like to catch up on some great OmniFocus suggestions and discussion. In fact, I would say that the biggest advantage of the audiobook is that, once synced to your iOS device, you’ll be able to quickly navigate between chapters and instantly get to your desired section with just one tap. You’ll lose images and the overall visual style of the eBook (albeit the .zip file comes with a reference of over 300 screenshots), but you’ll gain an improved navigation that makes it easy to skip sections you don’t want to listen to again if you’ve already read the book. In this regard, existing owners of Creating Flow should consider supporting Kourosh again and get the audiobook just to have a refresh on some parts of the original book without having to go through it again.

The audiobook has been narrated by professional voice actor, Bruce Edwards, encompassing nearly 10 hours of listening material. As I wrote in 2010, Creating Flow with OmniFocus is the book every OmniFocus user should read. Now you can listen to it as well with the audiobook available here.

Back in February 2010, I wrote a post for MacStories about Lunettes, a codename of a new interface for VideoLAN’s popular media player VLC. Back then, I used to spend a good portion of my days fiddling with media players and skins for VLC, which I used to access a well-organized media library on my MacBook Pro and various external hard drives. Lunettes was promising, and it proved that VLC could have an interface design more suitable for the needs of the Mac community. I didn’t know, however, that work on the next major version of VLC, VLC 2.0, had already begun in 2008 with the first concepts and technical drafts, with Lunettes being the complete rewrite of the application that stemmed  from that original vision that eventually led to VLC version 2.0, released today.

Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux machines, VLC 2.0 is a major update that brings several new optimizations on the technical side, new features, and a brand-new Mac interface that we’ve already covered here on MacStories. It can be downloaded for free from VideoLAN’s website.

Often regarded as “the media player that can open almost anything”, VLC has indeed become many’s de-facto choice over the years when it comes to dealing with a variety of video file formats, or audio files that other media players such as iTunes won’t open. If you weren’t aware of all its functionalities and secrets, you’d say VLC’s best feat is the fact that it can launch almost any kind of file you throw at it. From the strong foundation of VLC 1.x, VLC 2.0 introduces support for new formats — as well as enhancements and fixes for the currently supported ones — with better handling of H.264, MPEG-4/Xvid and WebM thanks to multi-threaded decoding, support for 10bits codes and WMV image, completely rewritten support for images, changes in RealVideo and Real Format integration, correct support for FLAC, RV and Hi10p in MKV, and a plethora of other minor adjustments and refinements that contribute to making VLC one of the most (if not the most) versatile and customizable media players around. For instance, professional users will find support for ProRes 422 and 4444, AVC/Intra, Jpeg-2000 and DNxHD/VC-3 in 10bits and a new, faster Dirac/VC-2 encoder, whilst anime fans will be pleased to know VLC 2.0 features a “vastly improved” MKV demuxer. If you simply care about formats and the stuff VLC can open or has been optimized for, this release shouldn’t disappoint you.

With over 7000 commits to the open source project and 160 contributing volunteers in the past couple of years, however, VLC 2.0 isn’t only focused on making its media player capabilities play nicer with audio and video formats. As we detailed in our previous coverage, one of VLC’s new visible changes is the application’s design on the Mac, a radical change aimed at unifying VLC’s file management and playback functionalities in a single window that, among other things, also happens to support Lion’s native full-screen mode. Available in two color schemes — Lion gray and QTX black — VLC’s new single window interface integrates playback and browsing in a way that, for example, allows you to start playing a movie, hit a button, and go back to the browsing UI with the movie still playing in the background. In my tests, transitioning from a movie (streamed off the MacBook Pro mentioned above, now used as a media server in my house as I upgraded to a MacBook Air) to VLC’s new Library was immediate, and the footprint on system memory minimal, or not visible at all. Because the new VLC for Mac integrates media, sources, and playback in the same window, you’ll be able to open a file, invoke the Playlist shortcut from the Window menu (CMD + Shift + P), look for another file (either manually or from the integrated search view), and adjust its position in the media queue right away.

Thankfully, those who don’t like the change to a unified window will be able to revert back to VLC’s standard multi-window system with an option in the app’s Preferences. The Preferences menu has also been overhauled with a new design and more settings, including one to disable Apple’s full-screen mode for OS X Lion and enable Growl notifications on playlist item change. As usual, there’s a lot to explore within VLC’s settings if you really want to adjust the app to your tastes (and media configuration).

What I’ve always liked about VLC since I started using it in 2003 is that it can be extremely simple and accessible, or extremely complex and “advanced” thanks to the amount of options and settings it brings at your fingertips. If you really want to get geeky with video formats, inputs, codecs and streaming sessions, VLC 2.0 will most definitely have you covered with its variety of new features and tweaks to the underlying engine. If you, however, simply prefer a lightweight, elegant and powerful alternative to iTunes and QuickTime for browsing and playing your music and movies, VLC is an equally great alternative as it’s easy to use, fast, and stable. And whilst the new Mac interface will be heavily criticized (especially in its black version) by those that dislike change on principle, I think change is good, as it confirms that VideoLAN and its community strive for innovation in order to bring VLC to an even broader audience. The single window interface is useful, simple to understand, and helps you save time; performances in version 2.0 have been dramatically improved, and there’s lots more to come. Go download VLC 2.0 here.

For the release of the new VLC, I was able to chat with VideoLAN’s President Jean-Baptiste Kempf and lead Mac developer Felix Paul Kühne about the 2.0 milestone, the process that went into developing this new major release, and what’s in store for the future. Check out the interview, as well as a visualization of VLC’s development activity in 2011, after the break. (more…)

It may be on every platform under the sun and there may already be three versions of Angry Birds, but Rovio isn’t stopping any time soon with their Angry Birds franchise. In fact next month they will be launching the third game in the series: Angry Birds Space. Teaming up with NASA and the National Geographic, the new app will (naturally) feature some twists on the physics used in the game, including zero gravity and a new “lightspeed destruction” feature.

Angry Birds Space is a completely new game with innovative new gameplay, but with some of the familiar Angry Birds elements that fans already know and love — plus some surprises!

Rovio is planning on making it their biggest game launch since Angry Birds was first released and is targeting a launch on not only multiple platforms but also push the retail and publishing aspects of the game as well. Rovio will reveal more details about the game in early March, but until then you can visit the teaser site or view Angry Birds Teaser trailer below the break.

[Venture Beat via Eurogamer, Engadget]
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The ABC’s Nightline program will air on Tuesday a report from Bill Weir that delves inside Apple’s Foxconn factories. ABC News announced the program on Twitter and PCWorld notes that Apple gave Weir “exclusive access” to tour the Foxconn factories, meet with workers as well as interview a “top executive”.

For years, Apple and Foxconn have been synonymous with monster profits and total secrecy so it was fascinating to wander the iPhone and iPod production lines, meet the people who build them and see how they live. Our cameras were rolling when thousands of hopeful applicants rushed the Foxconn gates and I spoke with dozens of line workers and a top executive about everything from hours and pay to the controversies over suicides at the plant and the infamous ‘jumper nets’ that line the factories in Shenzhen. After this trip, I’ll never see an Apple product the same way again.

It’s the latest move by Apple to try and quell the backlash from media and consumers over the treatment of workers at Apple’s suppliers — particularly at Foxconn. Earlier this year they released their 2012 Supplier Responsibility Report a few weeks earlier than previous years. Apple also revealed who their suppliers are and then joined the Fair Labor Association, who are currently conducting an investigation in regards to working conditions at Foxconn.

Exclusive:@BillWeirABC Goes Inside Apple Factories in China to See How the Machines That Changed Our Lives are Made– Tues. 1135pmET

— Nightline (@Nightline) February 17, 2012

[PCWorld via TUAW]

Thanks to over 315 million cumulative iOS devices sold and the breadth of applications available, Apple’s preparing to celebrate their 25 billionth download by awarding the lucky downloader a $10,000 App Store gift card. In only four months, iOS users will have downloaded an additional 7 billion apps from the App Store since last October where Apple reached 18 billion App Store downloads. (15 billion apps were downloaded as of last July). With over 550,000 apps available (175,000 iPad-specific apps) to download, there’s plenty of great applications to choose from that fill a variety of needs on user’s devices. The App Store’s great download spike can also be contributed to the number of iOS devices purchased in 2011 alone: 156 million iOS devices were sold last year compared to a total of 122 million Macs ever sold.

As of today, nearly 25 billion apps have been downloaded worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 25 billionth app, and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card.* Just visit the App Store and download your best app yet.

To participate in the competition, you simply have to purchase or download a free app from the App Store and be the lucky winner randomly chosen by Apple. You can also enter to win without purchasing anything from the App Store by simply visiting the contest page and filling out the linked contest form. One the 25th billion download has been reached, the contest ends! (Each applicable contestant is allowed only 25 entries.)

[via 9to5 Mac]

Edit (02/19/2012): Updated final paragraph to clarify contest rules.

Apple may have released a public beta version of Messages for Lion yesterday, but from what Consomac has discovered, it may only be a temporary situation. Digging into the text strings inside the app’s resources found one particular string which said:

Thank you for participating in the Messages Beta program. With the inclusion of Messages in OS X Mountain Lion, the Messages Beta program has ended.

To continue using Messages, please visit the Mac App Store and purchase OS X Mountain Lion.

This suggests that once the Messages beta has concluded, the app will cease to work and users will have to purchase Mountain Lion to continue using the Messages app.

[Via MacRumors]