Fluid for Mac Goes 1.0, Introduces $4.99 Version for Extra Features

By Federico Viticci

Fluid, the popular tool that allows you to turn websites into “native” Mac apps, was finally updated to version 1.0 yesterday after 3.5 years of development, bringing the app to “stable” status and introducing a new $4.99 price point that unlocks “extra features” – some of them previously available for free in the beta versions. For those who are not familiar with Fluid, it basically enables you to turn any website into a standalone desktop application that – technically speaking – is nothing but a Cocoa wrapper. By wrapping a website into its own desktop package, Fluid gives you the “illusion” of having a native Gmail or Facebook app while, in fact, you’re simply running a webpage into a separate window. Fluid, however, has got its very own perks, like the possibility to choose a custom Dock icon for a website, or displaying unread badges for new items and notifications – something that a browser normally doesn’t through tabs. In this way, Fluid becomes a pretty handy solution to put your Campfire chats in the Dock, or get Gmail out of the browser and into its own desktop window.

The new version 1.0, improvements and bug fixes aside, comes with an optional $4.99 purchase that will unlock three features: userscripts & userstyles, separate cookie storage, and possibility to “pin” apps to the OS X menubar. Whilst the first two features are self-explanatory (separate cookie storage is new to Fluid 1.0 though), “pin to status bar” is the big addition to this Fluid release. Much like Twitterrific and Twitter for Mac can be toggled by a menubar item to hide / show the main window, Fluid apps can now live in the menubar and get out of the way when you don’t need them. If you combine this with some clever mobile user agent tweaking, you end up with a sweet way to create useful iPhone-like desktop apps that don’t clutter your Mac’s screen, but they’re still there.

Fluid is not available in the Mac App Store, but you can download the free version here. A $4.99 license can also be purchased here with a Paypal payment.

Lima: Browser-based Cydia Alternative Demoed on Video

By Federico Viticci

With 1.5 million users logging into the app every day and an estimated user base of 10 - 15 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users, Cydia has become the undiscussed leader of the jailbreak community thanks to the thousands of tweaks and utilities available for download and purchase. Developed as an alternative to the App Store to find a place for those apps that Apple would never approve, Cydia turned into a full-featured marketplace where users can go to find the latest modification to the iPhone’s graphic files, or hacks to enable functionalities that Apple left out in the last software update. Cydia is the single reason to jailbreak an iOS device, but some developers think there’s still room for healthy competition and fresh new concepts in the jailbreak scene.

Lima, created by the same folks behind the Icy package installer, is a new browser-based Cydia alternative that’s still in the early stages of development but will be focused on speed, reliability and ease of use. Instead of building an app package, the devs of Lima opted for the browser option: Lima will likely gets its own homepage, and let users log in with their online accounts to download and install tweaks. It’s unclear whether Lima will allow users to add custom sources and how many developers will support the platform once it’s available, but devs weighing in iPhoneDownloadBlog’s original coverage seem to confirm that Lima will offer an option to manage repositories, as well as a backup system for installed packages.

You can follow the development of Lima on the Infini Dev Team’s blog, and check out the first demo video below. Read more

iOS 4.3.3 Coming Within Two Weeks

By Federico Viticci

According to BGR, Apple is looking to roll out an iOS 4.3.3 update within two weeks and “possibly sooner” which, as previously announced, will improve the way iPhones and iPad 3G models handle the location database file required to quickly fetch nearby antenna and WiFi hotspot information.

We’ve been sent the OS and while we haven’t loaded it on our iPhone just yet, here is what we have been told it will address:

- The update will no longer back up the location database to iTunes.

- The size of the location database will be reduced.

- The location database will be deleted entirely when Location Services are turned off.

The website also reports iOS 4.3.3 will address battery life issues and introduce iPod bug fixes. On March 21st, BGR reported iOS 4.3.1 would be released within “one or two weeks” and they made a similar prediction for iOS 4.3.2, which came out on April 14th. Apple announced in its Location Tracking Q&A that an update coming out in the “next few weeks” would fix several bugs related to location tracking. With BGR posting a screenshot of the final firmware file, it’s very likely that Apple will release the update later this week.

Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:

- reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,

- ceases backing up this cache, and

- deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.

Update: as pointed out by one of our readers, the image above confirms build number of the new OS will be 8J2.

New “MacDefender” Malware Targets Mac Users

By Federico Viticci

According to several discussion threads posted on Apple Support Communities, a new malware called MacDefender.app is quickly spreading among Mac users using the Safari browser to visit certain websites, especially Google Images. The application, disguised as a virus scanning tool and completely unrelated with the official MacDefender software, gets installed automatically without a user’s consent upon opening a webpage, although it’s not clear what kind of websites allow this kind of installation, and whether MacDefender “phones home” once running on a Mac to download additional pieces of code (like most malwares on Windows do). Some users are reporting they found the app installed on their Macs after visiting webpages linked on Google Images, some say it’s only happening with the Safari desktop browser, others claim the app can’t be removed with a simple drag & drop to the system’s Trash as, once installed, the process will beging running automatically on OS X. Again, it’s not clear what kind of malware MacDefender.app is and the proportion of this “spreading” across Mac OS X machines, but the number of threads on Apple Support Communities seems to suggest at least hundreds of people have experienced the issue in these past few days. Read more

The Maglus Is An iPad Stylus That Attaches To The Smart Cover

By Federico Viticci

I’m not a huge fan of styluses and capacitive pens for iOS devices, but I can recognize an interesting project when I see one. The biggest problem with a stylus, in my opinion, is that most of the times the design is hideous and there’s no way to keep it handy for whenever you need it. The Maglus, a product that needs funding to come to life, aims at combining design and usability with the use of magnets. Just like Apple bet on design and magnets for the iPad 2, the creators of the Maglus think a stylus that attaches to the iPad and the Smart Cover is the best way to turn a stylus into a 24/7 companion for your digital drawing and sketching needs. The Maglus attaches anywhere on your Smart Cover, including the back when the cover’s folded to prop your iPad up in typing mode. Clearly, Apple’s use of magnets and cover is opening to a lot of possibilities when it comes to third-party accessories.

The project has 24 days ago, and so far €3,159.00 have been raised out of the initial €15000 target. You can check out all the product’s information and pledge here. Check out the demo video below. [TUAW via RazorianFly] Read more

Time Inc. Reaches Deal with Apple, Lets Print Subscribers Download Issues for Free

By Federico Viticci

Amidst all the debates surrounding the implementation of subscriptions for App Store apps (which are based on iTunes payments, and require publishers to give a 30% cut off every transaction to Apple), Apple is still in talks with major publishers to reach a deal before the rumored June 30th deadline, when developers of existing “publishing apps” will be forced to flip the switch on native subscriptions if they want to keeps their magazines and digital newspapers in the Store. We’ve seen Apple is trying to push their effort of building better subscriptions for everyone among the general public, but so far the sheer volume of publishers jumping on board hasn’t played in favor of Apple: a very few of them have agreed to Apple’s terms, but those who did are seemingly happy with their decisions. And according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal, a new deal between Time Inc. (publisher of iPad magazine apps like Fortune, Sports Illustrated, and Time) should move adoption of subscriptions forward as Apple now allows to give away single-magazine issues away for free to existing print subscribers, directly from the iPad app.

Time Inc., the country’s largest magazine publisher, has reached a deal with Apple Inc. to make all its iPad editions free for print subscribers, marking a break in the impasse between publishers and Apple and lending support to Time’s contention that it’s business-as-usual after the ouster of its chief executive.

Starting Monday, subscribers to Sports Illustrated, Time and Fortune magazines will be able to access the iPad editions via the apps, which will be able to authenticate them as subscribers. Time Inc.’s People magazine already had such an arrangement, but readers of most publications have had to pay separately for the iPad version regardless of their subscriber status.

The WSJ also reports Time’s general counsel Edelson has been meeting with Apple’s VP of Internet Services Eddy Cue recently to reach a deal for print subscriber access and subscriptions, and in spite of the lack of subscriptions in Time Inc.’s magazines, sources say negotiations are moving forward as the June deadline approaches. Publishers are still asking Apple to revise its policy on opt-in sharing of personal information (a vital aspect for publishers’ targeted advertising), but as more magazines and newspapers will become available in the next weeks, the quick adoption of subscriptions is looking good for Jobs and Cue.

Mr. Reader 1.1: Now With OmniFocus Support, Better Services, Readability

By Federico Viticci

Mr. Reader, the RSS app I reviewed earlier this month, keeps getting better and aims at becoming the most powerful, yet elegant Google Reader client available on the iPad. The first version of Mr. Reader was so full-featured for being a 1.0 release that it made me consider placing it on my homescreen to see how I would go by in my daily workflow (which implies dealing with at least 500+ articles per day) without Reeder, the app I’ve used for months. Mr. Reader wasn’t perfect – it still isn’t – but it was one of those promising pieces of software that showed great things to come. The developer announced a major update was already in the works, and as I kept using Mr. Reader as the only feed reading app on my iPad I wondered would could get better, and whether my main complaints with the initial version would be addressed or not. The modal window for sync is still there, but Mr. Reader 1.1 is a huge update overall that makes navigating between unread feeds and getting things done with the app a more pleasing, productive experience.

Mr. Reader 1.1 can now send articles as “tasks” to OmniFocus and Things. In OmniFocus, you’ll get a task with the title already filled in, and the article’s URL in the notes. Mr. Reader is now deeply integrated with other iOS apps and web services: the app can forward items to iCab, Mercury and Atomic Web Browser, send articles to Diigo and, more importantly, it allows you to read in Readability view. Articles can be read in fullscreen mode (you can change this in the settings), Instapaper and Read It Later got an option to remove the confirmation dialog, and switching between the unread list and a single article has been improved with the implementation of the “pinch” gesture. I find myself really digging the possibility to tap on a headline to read the article in fullscreen, then pinch to go back to the main list – it feels very natural. As far as marking items as read goes, a new tap & hold action on the “mark as read” button allows you to automatically hide items older than 1,2,3 days or 1,2 weeks.

There are several minor improvements throughout the whole app as well. For instance, images can be saved to the camera roll, and the settings have been redesigned to host cleaner service configuration options (admittedly, Mr. Reader has a lot of services to play with). The reading panel in portrait has been tweaked to automatically slide back after hitting the “mark as read” button (a minor annoyance in the first version), and the font family can now be changed in the article view.

As I said above, Mr. Reader is definitely en route to become the most powerful RSS application on the iPad, and the most-integrated with third-party apps and services. If you didn’t try version 1.0, perhaps now it’s time to consider following this link and click the Buy button.

TweetyPop Is Like Time Machine For Twitter

By Federico Viticci

Released yesterday in the App Store at $1.99, TweetyPop wants to offer a different way to read your Twitter timeline and interact with status updates. While regular Twitter clients like Twitter for iPad, Twitterrific and Osfoora are focused on empowering you to read tweets in a vertical timeline which you can interact with to reply, fave tweets, or just discover cool links to check out later, TweetyPop resembles the Mac’s Time Machine in the way it operates: tweets are placed on a three-dimensional space, and you have to move the tweet “bubbles” with your finger to fling them off the screen and move forward in the timeline. Just like Time Machine, you make progress in time: only you have tweets instead of files and you can do stuff with these tweets, too.

The app’s got a traditional list view as well, but that’s not really the point. What TweetyPop wants to achieve – and I guess the reason why the developers created it in the first place – is being the alternative app that lets you sit down and explore Twitter in time. A scrollbar on the right lets you quickly move to a couple of hours ago or a just a few minutes back; big arrows at the bottom allow you to dismiss old tweets and load new ones, or go back in time again. The concept’s really simple if you’re used to Time Machine or Lion’s Versions. In fact, the app’s even got the same space-inspired background that you can’t change. Once you get the hang of it – you can scroll, move tweets around, reply, fave and follow links – you might want to check out the additional icons along the top. These buttons enable you to use Twitter’s usual functionalities like replies, DMs and favorite tweets, as well as lists, trends, or search. In every section, tweets are displayed as bubbles against a Time Machine-esque timeline like in the main page. This might be a little disorienting at first for mentions and direct messages, but I believe TweetyPop wants to disorient you, in a good way. It’s very, very different from anything else I’ve tried on the iPad in a year of existence of the platform.

I also like the fact that the app’s got some interesting options to play with. You can send items to Instapaper or OmniFocus, filter the timeline by “all tweets” or “new tweets only” and enable auto-play to let the app automatically scroll for you and create a slideshow for your tweets. The slideshow speed is configurable in the settings.

At $1.99, I’d give TweetyPop a try if only because it’s different. Sure, it won’t replace Twitter for iPad or Twitterrific, but it has the chance to become that alternative Twitter app that does one thing well and surprises you with its original ideas and interactions. Plus, the time exploration effect for tweets is just neat. Go download the app here. Promo video below.

Apple Releases New Update for Lion Developer Preview 2

By Federico Viticci

Alongside Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 4, Apple also released another update for OS X Lion Developer Preview 2. The update weighs at around 1.17 GB and it’s available now in the Software Update control panel. It is recommended for all users running Lion DP 2.

Two weeks ago, Apple did the same and released a new build of Xcode 4.1 and the first update to Lion DP 2. The original Lion Developer Preview 2 was released in late March, and we’re expecting another major update before the WWDC, with a GM seed being seeded to developers in June. If you spot anything new in this update, leave a comment below. We’ll update this post with more notes as further details come in.

Update: MacRumors reports Lion build 11A444d has been seeded to developers.

Update #2: We’re hearing the new Lion update has a snappier Finder, a better UI for deleting apps from the Launchpad, and lots of design tweaks to changes introduced in the previous DP builds.