Federico Viticci

10769 posts on MacStories since April 2009

Federico is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of MacStories, where he writes about Apple with a focus on apps, developers, iPad, and iOS productivity. He founded MacStories in April 2009 and has been writing about Apple since. Federico is also the co-host of AppStories, a weekly podcast exploring the world of apps, Unwind, a fun exploration of media and more, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about portable gaming and the handheld revolution.
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@viticci.macstories.net
viticci@macstories.net

iOS Devs Hit by Patent Infringement Notices For In-App Purchases

Here’s an interesting news that’s making the rounds of Twitter this morning, and it appears to be spreading quickly among iOS developers. As first reported by James Thomson, indie iOS and Mac developer of DragThing and PCalc, he woke up this morning to find a ”very worrying threat of patent infringement lawsuit” in a FedEx parcel. While Thomson won’t say the name of the company that is threatening to sue him before he gets a reply from Apple Legal on the matter, what’s really curious is the reason behind the alleged patent infringement: it’s not the app Thomson developed, apparently it’s the in-app purchase system he chose to implement in PCalc Lite. Apple’s own in-app purchase payment method, certainly not created by Thomson. This developer, and others with him, are receiving notices from a “patent troll” who’s going after indie developers for using IAP, rather than Apple. The legal threat is worrisome as this company claims developers are given 21 days to license the patent they’re infringing. But this patent, these developers say, it’s not about intellectual property for apps – again, it’s about the payment system. Which Apple created, not the developers.

Looking at the tweets from Thomson, this story doesn’t really make sense. Someone is threatening to sue indie developers because they’re using Apple’s in-app purchase? If so, wouldn’t it be appropriate to sue Apple, which invented the system? And why going after the indie devs in the first place – just to cause anxiety and doubt for the fear of a lawsuit? Read more

Flash 10.3 Out of Beta, Gets System Preferences Panel

Originally released as beta in March, Flash Player 10.3 finally hit stable status yesterday and it’s available now for public download on Adobe’s website. The biggest change in version 10.3, as outlined in our previous coverage, is the introduction of a new panel in the Mac’s System Preferences application that allows users to easily manage Flash Player’s local storage settings, camera and microphone options or peer-assisted networking without having to open Adobe’s website through links most users don’t even know about. It’s all integrated in the System Preferences, and personally I think it’s a welcome change for those who need to keep Flash installed, but would like a more native Mac management.

Flash 10.3 also brings some new features for developers. As explained by Adobe in a blog post, Media Measurement allows companies to check how their Flash content is distributed on a website, what the audience reach looks like, and other stats. Another desktop-only functionality (Flash is also available on Android) is acoustic echo cancellation, which allows developers to take advantage of “noise suppression, voice activity detection, and automatic compensation for various microphone input levels” to build better audio experiences in online games and conferencing software.

Flash 10.3 finally brings auto-updates to the Mac (again it’s integrated in the new control panel), and “integrates control of local storage with the browser’s privacy settings in Mozilla Firefox 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and higher, Google Chrome 11 (Available in Chrome Dev Channel), and a future release of Apple Safari.”

You can check out Flash Player’s 10.3 release notes here, learn more about the developer features on Adobe’s blog post, and download Flash here. If you’re using Chrome the plugin is already sandboxed within the browser, so you’ll have to use Safari to download the latest version. Read more

Angry Birds Rio Updated with Beach Volley Levels

As announced last week, Rovio released today an update to the movie tie-in Angry Birds Rio featuring new beach volley-themed levels. The beach volley update adds a whole new gameplay to the existing Rio levels, as well as new sounds and golden fruit.

The update is available now on the App Store, and as usual there’s plenty of choice: you can download the lite versions for iPhone and iPad here and here, or go with the full version for iPhone ($0.99) or iPad ($2.99). If you don’t feel like playing another Angry Birds title on your mobile devices, you might have heard the news Rovio released the original game for the Chrome browser, although the experiment requires Flash.

Check out the original trailer for the beach volley update below.
Read more

Tweetbot 1.1 Released: Landscape Mode, CloudApp, Fixes

If you read my original Tweetbot for iPhone review, you know it’s a great Twitter client I’m in love with. Over the past weeks I had the chance to try out an early version of Tweetbot 1.1, released today in the App Store, and once again Tapbots has managed to fit so many features into the app it’d be hard at this point to think of anything that didn’t find its way into Tweetbot. Version 1.1 introduces the much requested support for landscape mode, but there’s a catch: considering the portrait nature of the iPhone, landscape only works in three sections: compose window, for those who like to type with a larger keyboard; media, to view photos in landscape; web, to have a broader view of web pages. It makes sense to not offer landscape support in the timeline – you’d have to give up on viewing a certain amount of tweets in horizontal orientation, plus, let’s face it, it would just look weird. So landscape it is, but only for some sections of the app.

Tweetbot 1.1 is also rich in additions to the main experience. The app’s got new user and hashtag buttons added to the compose screen, to make it easier to include people of specific keywords in a tweet. The hashtag picker has been improved as well, if you’re into following Twitter trends, or have a set of tags you use often. More importantly, photos and videos can now be uploaded to CloudApp, meaning the service is not only being used for URL shortening anymore. In the timeline, Tapbots has fixed the location stuff to display more accurate locations and moved the “tweet gap” bar above old tweets, instead of below. I’m not sure I like the new gap bar better, but perhaps it’ll keep growing on me over the next weeks.

Overall, Tweetbot 1.1 builds on the excellent foundation of version 1.0 to deliver a powerful Twitter client that’s heavily based on Tapbots’ custom style, but it’s accessible for anyone who’s never used a Tapbots app before. The app is propagating now in the App Store, so check for updates in iTunes in a few minutes if it isn’t out for you yet.

Samsung Announces 2560 x 1600 Display for Tablets

At the SID Display Week 2011 International Symposium, Samsung will officially unveil and demonstrate the first 10.1-inch display with 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution specifically meant for tablets. The industry-first display, built with the collaboration of Samsung’s partner Nouvoyance, will offer a “ultra-high resolution” at 300dpi using standard LCD technology. According to Samsung’s press release, the display also relies on the PenTile technology, which allows for 40% less power consumption and two-thirds number of subpixels.

Because tablets are regularly used for viewing rich-colored images, the 10.1-inch 300 dpi display is ideal for applications that require extraordinary image and text clarity such as browsing the web and viewing high-definition movies, or reading books and spreadsheets.

“In order to develop tablets with the form and function that consumers demand, a design engineer ultimately has to determine how to get the highest resolution display possible, while still fitting within the overall power budget for their design,” said Joel Pollack, executive vice president of Nouvoyance, Samsung’s affiliate company that developed the PenTile RGBW technology.

Samsung’s announcement opens the door to the possibility of having a “Retina Display” on Apple’s iPad – the iPad 2 uses Samsung’s 9.7-inch panels alongside other displays manufactured by LG, but if Apple were to double the resolution of the current generation iPad (1024 x 768), Samsung would have to cut its new display to 2048 x 1536 to fit Apple’s (rumored) need for a screen displaying 2x graphical elements. In the past months, several rumors pointed to Apple willing to implement a Retina Display on the iPad 2, which didn’t happen and left much room to speculation for an iPad 3 featuring a higher-res screen. Among the problems with a Retina Display on the iPad, power consumption was one of the technical issues ofter mentioned by bloggers and battery experts (together with production costs); if Samsung’s new display really manages to use 40% less power than other technologies though, Apple might have a chance to consider it for the iPad 3 – though this new display uses PenTile instead of Apple’s preferred IPS technology. Technical issues aside, the lawsuit Apple filed against Samsung last month (and the series of countersuits from Samsung) led many to believe the partnership between the two companies for component supply was nearing its end; Apple COO Tim Cook, however, confirmed at the Q2 2011 earnings call that Samsung is still a valuable partner in Apple’s supply chain, although action needed to be taken against its mobile division.

Samsung’s new tablet display will be demoed at the LA Convention Center between May 17-19. Read the full press release below. Read more

Search Ninja Gives Your iPhone A Better Web Search

If you’re familiar with Swearch, a neat iPhone web app that allows you to search for a specific query on multiple websites at once, then you’re most definitely going to be interested in Search Ninja, a $0.99 app that allows you to flick through search engines, star search results, and start typing in seconds to find exactly what you’re looking for. Search Ninja’s concept is simple, but the execution is powerful in the way it meets a user’s expectations when it comes to mobile search. Upon opening the app, you’re immediately greeted with a Google search field, and the iOS keyboard ready to type. No need to tap on buttons to start searching, no need to do anything before performing a regular Google Search. If you, however, want to customize the search experience and have those extra seconds to make sure you’re navigating to the right webpages, Search Ninja features an intuitive swipe interface to switch between search engines in seconds. Both on the main screen and in the embedded web view, you can swipe to change from Google to Bing, Twitter, Wikipedia, IMDB, Youtube, Flickr and many, many more. You can even add other engines if you really feel like your favorite one is missing, although the process requires a 2-step wizard screen.

Two features I particularly appreciate about Search Ninja are favorite searches and the History section. They’re very straightforward, but come in handy if you find yourself looking for the same things on your iPhone over and over, or simply want to look up an old subject again.

Search Ninja strikes me for its simplicity and clean design. Gestures to switch engines are a plus, and a very useful one. Get the app here at $0.99.

Netflix Brings Subtitles to iOS App

Users of the official Netflix app for iPhone and iPad might want to fire up iTunes and check for updates: a new version of the app is propagating now and, as confirmed by the changelog, it finally brings subtitles to the native iOS interface. Subtitles are of course available in English, and can be turned on and off from a menu in the media player, next to the volume slider and pause button. Netflix says subtitles are recommended for foreign content, or for situations when it’s impossible to listen to audio because of noises around you – “such as when working out, or in loud environments.”

Get Netflix 1.3 here.

Halo Creators Likely Working On New Game for Mobile Devices

Take this with a grain of salt, but the creators of popular first-person shooter Halo may be working on a new online game for iOS and Android devices. As noted by TouchArcade and GameInformer today, a new filing at the USPTO confirms Bungie Aerospace has trademarked “Crimson”, a “computer game software for use on mobile and cellular phones.” Sounds intriguing, but what’s Bungie Aerospace? The company is likely a subsidiary of the “real thing” Bungie, and that’s already been incorporated in Delaware and Washington. Mounting speculation suggests that this new company is the official mobile division of Bungie, something that the Halo developers hinted several times in the past. Bungie has been busy hiring and opening positions for mobile developers in the past months, so it seems pretty clear at this point that something in mobile is going on. And mobile these days means two things: iOS and Android. If Bungie is really working on a new mobile game, than we can assume it’s most definitely coming to the iPhone or iPad.

What the game really is, however, it’s unclear. TouchArcade speculates it might be heavily online based, as also suggested by a Bungie staff writer in 2010 when he said it’s be great to have a world that’s “always there for you, with lots of stories to tell.”

What this project actually is, however, is still shrouded in a cloud of secrecy and, presumably, really hardcore non-disclosure agreements.

My gut says Bungie Aerospace and “Crimson” are connected to the studio’s next project, an original IP set to be published by Activision. Word on the street is that this game is a shooter MMO — an MMO that might just offer increased connectivity via mobile apps.

As a big Halo and Bungie fan, I’m looking forward to what’s next for the company in the mobile space. A new iOS game would sure make for a big announcement at a certain Apple event in September.

iOS 4.3.3 Users Reporting WiFi Issues on iPhones, iPads

According to reports surfaced on Apple Support Communities, many users are experiencing WiFi connectivity issues on devices running the latest iOS 4.3.3. These issues are nothing new to iOS – you might remember the problems with the original iPad and WiFi routers last year – but this time it appears they’re affecting iPhone and iPod touch models as well. The story is very similar to last year’s reports: a device fails to connect to a network or is unable to navigate; the WiFi icon doesn’t appear in the statusbar even if the device is actually connected; the device randomly disconnects from a network. You can read more about what users are reporting here, or here.

Personally, I did notice my iPhone 4 keeps disconnecting from my home network (running on an AirPort Extreme station) a few times every day. It’s kind of annoying as the disconnection lasts between 30 seconds and 1 minute, but like I said it’s not happening more than 3 or 4 times a day – surely not “all the time.” On my iPad 2, WiFi signal is stable (doesn’t drop) but it’s lower than before even a few meters away from my router. Again, these are issues I wasn’t experiencing on iOS 4.3.1 or 4.3.2 and definitely seem to fall in line with Apple Support Communities’ discussion threads.

Most of the times, though, there’s no need to panic. If iOS really has a WiFi bug, you can stay assured Apple will fix it soon with a software update – if the reports will get stronger in the next weeks, Apple will issue a new version of iOS like they did before. Several users, however, forget that having a proper network configuration helps a lot when having to deal with multiple mobile devices; if the issue is not in the network, resetting your iOS settings to factory usually helps in resolving all WiFi connectivity problems. If the issue persists (like on my iPhone), then it’s certainly something Apple will have to take a look at. [via ReadWriteWeb]