Graham Spencer

997 posts on MacStories since January 2011

Former MacStories contributor.
graham@macstories.net

Apple Releases Messages Beta, An Early Taste Of Mountain Lion

Update: I’ve included initial impressions of the new Messages app for OS X below the break. Links also added to our OS X Mountain Lion coverage.

Apple has today released a developer preview of Mountain Lion, the next version of OS X. We have full coverage of that in this article, but in short, a big part of this release will be how iOS and OS X continue to merge and interweave. One aspect of that will include Apple removing the iChat app from OS X and replacing it with a new app, simply called Messages.

The new app will allow users to chat with someone using either their Apple ID or phone number, that should ring a bell because that’s exactly what iMessage does. It’ll also retain the traditional chat services such as AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber - so don’t worry about your old iChat handle, it’ll continue to exist.As should be expected, Messages will keep conversations synced across all your devices.

Download Messages Beta and get a taste of what’s coming in OS X Mountain Lion. When you install Messages, it replaces iChat. But iChat services will continue to work. And Messages brings iMessage to the Mac — just like on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 5. Here are the features you can expect with Messages:

  • Send unlimited iMessages to any Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.*
  • Start an iMessage conversation on your Mac and continue it on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
  • Send photos, videos, attachments, contacts, locations, and more.
  • Launch a FaceTime video call and bring the conversation face-to-face.
  • Messages supports iMessage, AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, and Jabber accounts

Better yet, a Messages beta is now available from Apple’s website. Just note that it will replace your install of iChat. Jump the break for some first impressions and screenshots.

[Via The Loop]

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Apple Adds Screenshots And Promo Codes To The iBookstore For Publishers

The iBookstore now has support for screenshots and promo codes, according to an iTunes Connect letter that was sent to content publishers today and that TUAW obtained. Content publishers are now able to giveaway 50 free codes that redeem a copy of a book they are selling on the iBookstore — something developers on the App Store have long been able to do. No doubt it will be helpful for publishers trying to get their books reviewed and for when they want to run promotional give-aways.

The other big change is that publishers can now also submit screenshots of the book. This new feature will be most useful for multi-touch books that are created with the iBooks Author app. Like the App Store, Apple is specific about the dimensions and formats it will accept for this: 1024 x 768 or 768 x 1024 in RGB, formatted as either .jpeg, .jpg or .png.

Apple has also made a minor change to how pre-orders are handled on the iBookstore. From now on, publishers need not upload a cover or any other assets until two weeks prior to publication, but can still offer the product for pre-order.

[Via TUAW]

Fair Labor Association Begins Its Inspections Of Apple’s Suppliers

The first inspections by the Fair Labor Association began today at Foxconn City in Shenzhen according to an Apple Press Release issued just a short time ago. It is the beginning of special, voluntary, audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers that was announced earlier in January this year when Apple joined the Fair Labor Association.

“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”

A team of labor experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerdan will interview thousands of employees at Apple’s suppliers about working and living conditions, health, safety, working hours, compensation and communication with management. Inspections of the facilities and reviews of procedure documentation will also be undertaken in the FLA assessment.

An initial report with early findings and recommendations will be released by the Fair Labor Association and will be followed up by inspections of the Quanta and Pegatron facilities later this Spring. Apple’s full press release is located after the break.

Image via Wired.

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App Journal, Episode 10: Daedalus Touch, Lovely Charts, Inside the World of Dinosaurs, Skip Tunes

App Journal is a series aimed at showcasing apps we have enjoyed using on our iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but decided not to feature in a standalone, lengthy review here on MacStories. App Journal is a mix of classic reviews, app recommendations, and a diary of our experiences with apps that still deserve a proper mention.

After a two month period of inactivity, the App Journal is back and we’ve got some cool apps to share. From text editing to beautiful diagrams and (gasp) dinosaurs, make sure you don’t miss Episode 10 of App Journal, brought to you directly from the MacStories Team, good coffee, and, why not, Italy’s snow.

If you’ve got apps to recommend, our Tips inbox is just a click away up in the site’s toolbar. Enjoy!

Federico Viticci - Daedalus Touch

When Cody reviewed the first version of The Soulmen’s Daedalus Touch for iPad back in May, I was intrigued by the app’s unique take on portable text editing and document management, but ultimately didn’t pull the trigger on a purchase as I didn’t believe I needed yet another take on Dropbox and text editors. Cody wrote:

Daedalus is interesting. Everything you create in Daedalus becomes a sheet, which exists under a topic sheet that creates a stack. It reminds me of writing a screenplay or developing a report with a cover sheet, but what’s more interesting is how you navigate between these sheets. A majority of the interactions in Daedalus involve pinch-to-zoom actions, which is a bold navigation choice that’s almost pulled off perfectly. You zoom in and out of stacks, and are able to browse between multiple sheets with simple flicks.

After seeing The Soulmen release a couple of updates to bring new functionalities and improve support for things like external hardware keyboards and system clipboard, I thought I could give the app a shot, especially considering it’s on sale at $2.99 on the App Store. In our review, Cody detailed how Daedalus Touch is different from the majority of text editors available on iOS as it allows you to navigate multiple stacks of documents through touch-based interactions based off gestures such as swipes and pinches to navigate in and out of sheets and paper stacks. Having used Daedalus, I think what’s really cool is that – attention to detail and elegant design/typography aside – Daedalus allows you to sync different Dropbox folders independently, meaning you’ll be able to, say, keep your standard notes in a first stack and your book writing project (with additional notes, chapters, and maybe drafts) in another stack. What I’d like to see in a future version of Daedalus Touch is support for more file formats (.md would be a good choice) and automatic sync to avoid the need of hitting “Save” every time.

If you’re looking for a different take on Dropbox-powered text editing, Daedalus Touch is an interesting option at $2.99 for a limited time. Read more

The Magic Money That Apple Made From Thin Air→

The Magic Money That Apple Made From Thin Air

Jeff Price of TuneCore is happy and a little surprised, finding out their first royalty payments from the new iTunes Match came in at $10,000. He writes in a blog post that “this is magic money that Apple made exist out of thin air for copyright holders”. The service has effectively monetized the existing behaviour of consumers, giving more money to artists and copyright holders whilst the consumer just continues to listen to their music, not doing anything “new”.

A person has a song on her computer hard drive.  She clicks on the song and plays it.  No one is getting paid.  The same person pays iTunes $25 for iMatch.  She now clicks on the same song and plays it through her iMatch service.  Copyright holders get paid. Same action, same song, one makes money for the copyright holder, and one does not. This is found money that the copyright holders would never have gotten otherwise.

It may not be a complete windfall as Jeff points out, but it has something - something that if iTunes Match didn’t exist, you wouldn’t get at all. Something is better than nothing.

The music industry needs innovation. Services like iMatch, Spotify, Simfy, Deezer and others are bringing that innovation—it will take some time to learn which are the ones consumers want.  But in the interim, seeing an additional $10,000+ appear out of the thin air for TuneCore Artists by people just listening to songs they already own is amazing!

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Apple’s White MacBook Reaches “End Of Life”, Educational Sales To Stop

Several months after halting sales of the white MacBook to consumers, Apple is now completely stopping sales of the MacBook. When it stopped selling the entry-level MacBook to consumers back in July of last year, Apple continued to offer it to educational institutions, but it has now notified resellers that it has now classified the MacBook as “End of Life”.

With that MacBook now discontinued entirely, Apple’s laptop lines include just the  MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. It isn’t known when Apple stopped manufacturing of the MacBook, but it was likely a few weeks ago, with Apple just waiting for final supplies to dwindle down.

[via MacRumors]

Sprint Q4 2011 Results: 1.8 Million iPhones Sold, 45% Of New Customers Bought iPhone

Sprint has just announced their Q4 2011 financial results, revealing that they sold 1.8 million iPhones. 40% of those iPhones sold were to new Sprint customers, a high percentage and one that was needed for Sprint. After continued losses, Sprint needed to add more customers to its network and in Q4 it achieved 1.6 million new users - meaning 45% of those new subscribers signed up with an iPhone.

“Our strong fourth quarter performance illustrates the power of matching iconic devices like the iPhone with our simple, unlimited plans and industry-leading customer experience,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO

It follows the financial results from Verizon and AT&T a few weeks ago where it was revealed that Verizon sold 2.2 million iPhones and AT&T sold 7.6 million iPhones.

View the full Sprint press release after the break.

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Evernote For iOS Gets Some Nice Improvements In 4.1.8 Update

The Evernote iOS app today got a little bit better with 4.1.8 update, bringing some nice additions and improvements. We’re big fans of Evernote here at MacStories, but their iOS app isn’t as good as it could or should be. Thankfully today’s update (although minor) directly addresses some of my complaints which makes me optimistic that the team is hard at work on making Evernote for iOS a truly great app.

Perhaps the best improvement for me is the “better editing, copying, pasting and more”, which translates to faster editing and improved preservation of styles. I’ve been plagued with some weird lag issues when editing large notes, particularly when copying and pasting, so this is much appreciated on my part.

Also new is “predictive note titles” which means Evernote now uses contextual information to create a more appropriate title if you leave the field blank - so no more “Untitled Notes”. Instead it will look at calendar events, location, note contents and other info to create a contextual title that is far more useful and informative. Similarly handy is the new, easier method of sharing a notebook on the iOS app. Now you just need to go to the notebook list, tap on the desired notebook and you’ll see a share icon in the top right corner of the screen.

Notebook Stacks, which work well on the desktop are now better represented on the iPhone. They have existed but were hard to enable, now, viewing notebooks will use the Notebook Stacks view as default. Finally this update also includes the standard bunch of bug fixes and also improved stability - including faster and more reliable synchronisation. Now, if only we could get a new design for the iPad app…

For more information the Evernote Blog covers all these new features and improvements to the app in a little more detail.

Details Of Adobe Creative Cloud Revealed: $49.99 Per Month, Includes CS6, Lightroom 4 & 20 GB Cloud Storage

Adobe today announced details of its new Creative Cloud service that will launch in a few months time alongside the Creative Suite 6 release. Priced at $49.99 per month, when signed up for a year’s subscription, the service offers users the full Creative Suite 6 bundle of applications along with 20 GB of cloud storage for device and desktop syncing of documents. The price may seem high, but for those who use Adobe’s Creative Suite and like to be on the latest version, $600 per year may be a good price. Particularly when the alternative is the $2000 up-front cost of each major version, which typically hit every second year.

Adobe Creative Cloud will be available worldwide in the first half of 2012. While traditional licenses of CS software will still be offered, a membership to Creative Cloud provides more benefits than simply owning desktop software. You’ll get all the CS tools, Adobe Touch Apps, and services, plus new features, products, and services as soon as they are released — meaning immediate access to the latest Adobe innovations at no extra cost.

The Adobe Creative Cloud will also include all of Adobe’s touch apps, the Business Catalyst, TypeKit and the Digital Publishing Suite. Lightroom 4 and new web-authoring apps Muse and Edge will also be included in the service’s offerings once they launch. Users will be able to download all the apps individually and on up to two different machines.

Adobe is promising to deliver major new feature updates to their CS6 apps after they launch, many of which will be exclusive to the Creative Cloud service - they blame subscription accounting issues as the reason why it won’t also be delivered to up-front customers of CS6. For businesses, Adobe is set to also introduce a team option that will include additional collaboration and security features for the service - that will set companies back $69.99 per user.

[via The Verge]