FaceTime App May “Freeze” On Your iPad 2

By Federico Viticci

AppleInsider points to an issue with the FaceTime app on the iPad 2 that happened to me last night: after a video call with a friend, I came back to the app and found that the image on screen was completely frozen. FaceTime was displaying a static image of the front-facing camera when I hung up the call, and starting a new one wasn’t fixing the problem. I tried to quit and re-open the FaceTime app, but the frozen image was still there. So I restarted my device, and FaceTime correctly captured video from the front-facing camera again.

It happens quite frequently,” user “leov36” wrote of the issue. “Restarting the ipad fixes the problem, BUT, it happens again with in the next two to three times i go to use it.

When I opened up FaceTime the first time, the camera was working fine, but now whenever I open it up, it just shows a still image from when I left,” user “CRK The Man” wrote. “How can I fix it?

It appears that this issue is very common among early iPad 2 adopters, and a user on Apple Discussions also claims a Verizon Store manager told him several demo units displayed the freezing FaceTime image inside the store. It seems that for now the only solution is rebooting the iPad 2, but I don’t think (unlike several users have reported on Apple Discussions) that restoring the device is necessary.

The issue will likely be fixed in the upcoming iOS 4.3.1 upgrade, but if you’re experiencing it right now all you can do is shut down the iPad and restart it.

The iPhone 4 That Survived A 1,000 Foot Fall

By Federico Viticci

Some stories about the build quality of iOS devices are just too good to not be mentioned. Take the iPhone 4 for example: in the past year, we’ve heard stories of shattered glasses and damages to the metal band that runs across the device, but in most of those stories the device always ended up being functional – although broken. The glass that Apple uses in its iPhones certainly is resistant enough to protect the multitouch display beneath it, but it may break even after a stupid fall from the coffee table. It happens.

The story shared by iLounge today, however, is quite possibly the most dramatic and, at the same time, incredible we’ve heard so far: an iPhone 4 falls off a plane flying at 130 knots, ends up in the woods, the glass breaks but the phone is still active and working. It was a 1,000 foot fall. The owner installs Find My iPhone on a second device, retrieves the iPhone 4’s position through GPS, gets his iPhone back and uses it to send an email to iLounge about what happened. Again, that was a 1,000 foot fall from a plane.

Plotting the phone’s position on maps, Mr. Walker and a friend headed out on ATVs to see if they could track the phone down, if only so Mr. Walker could attempt to back up his data for transfer to a replacement unit. Within an hour, the two had pinpointed the phone’s location near a tree, ultimately finding the phone in complete working order, apparently with nary a scratch or patch of dirt on it. Mr. Walker says that the phone only had a Griffin Motif TPU case and an aftermarket metal backing on it for protection; he believes that the phone’s fall may have been slowed by tree leaves and needles as it made its way towards land.

So the iPhone was inside a case and had a metal backing, but the fact that it’s still working after such a fall is still impressive. Perhaps the trees and leaves made the impact less strong? Maybe he just got lucky? One thing is for sure: Find My iPhone is a must-have. [via iSpazio]

What’s The Next Step For Social Magazines?→

Linked By Federico Viticci

Former Design Director of The New York Times Khoi Vinh shares his thoughts on apps like Flipboard and TweetMag for iPad, digital magazines that plug into your Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader accounts to fetch articles to display in a beautiful magazine-like view. As Vinh points out – and as we argued in the past as well – the next step for these apps isn’t optimizing performances or improving the design. It’s all about making the apps “smarter” and capable of playing an important role in your social graph:

I was thinking about this the other day. What if Flipboard was capable of looking at my Twitter stream and automatically find out the topics that I really care about? And after that, what about filtering articles belonging to those topics and visualize the most relevant ones in a top position? With the acquisition of the Ellerdale Project last year, it seems like the Flipboard developers want to bring further integration with the social graph into the app.

The process, however, includes a difficult goal: making sure the algorithm is intelligent enough to understand whether a user wants to read about content he’s interested in, or discover new articles and material thanks to the app and his friends using the same application. It’s a complex system, but someone will get there eventually. The iPad is only one year old.

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Bertrand Serlet Is Leaving Apple After 22 Years

By Federico Viticci

With a press release posted a few minutes ago, Apple has announced that senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering Bertrand Serlet is leaving the company after 22 years. Craig Federighi will assume Serlet’s responsibilities and report directly to Steve Jobs.

I’ve worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless.

Serlet has been working with Jobs for the last 22 years: the two worked together at NeXT and Serlet followed Jobs in his return at Apple to work on the modern versions of OS X as we know it. He played a key role in the development of Mac OS X and this is certainly a huge loss for Apple and the whole OS X engineering team. Serlet says he wants to focus “more on science”, and we wish him the best of luck. Craig Federighi – the guy that demoed OS X Lion back in October – worked at NeXT, too, and came back to Apple in 2009.

Press release and a video of Serlet at the WWDC below. [image via]

Quick Tip: iMovie App May Not Recognize Videos From Your Camcorder

By Federico Viticci

With the release of the iPad 2, Apple updated the official iMovie app for iOS to include native support for the device and a brand new user interface that takes advantage of the features and real screen estate offered by the tablet. With new precision controls, intuitive UI and several sharing functionalities, we have seen iMovie for iPad has become for many the perfect way to quickly import a video, edit it with cool transitions and subtitles, and send it off to the cloud. These videos can be imported from an iPhone or iPod Touch, or just shot with an iPad 2 in HD.

Weeks ago we discussed Apple needed a better way to let iOS devices communicate with each other to share information and data without the need of using the cable. Something like AirDrop for iOS. As it stands now, you’re either forced to attach cables, sync with iTunes, or upload to MobileMe or Dropbox and download media again on a second device.

But the problem with the iMovie app for iOS also lies in the fact that it doesn’t recognize “certain non-Apple video clips” recorded with non-iOS devices. A support document updated yesterday explains:

iMovie for iOS is designed to work with video recorded with iPad 2, iPhone 4, and iPod touch (4th generation). To ensure optimal performance, the app filters out certain non-Apple video clips from the Video browser. These incompatible clips cannot be added to your iMovie project.

It’s simple: videos from your camcorder might not be compatible with iMovie out of the box, so forget about the camera connection kit or other techniques. Apple doesn’t provide technical specifications, but we’re pretty sure a free app like Handbrake can help you along with the conversion of a video to an iOS-compatible format. [via AppAdvice]

Long-time Subscriber? The NYT Gives You 1 Year of Free Web, iPhone and iPad Access →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Long-time Subscriber? The NYT Gives Out 1 Year of Free Web, iPhone and iPad Access

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop reports the New York Times is refining its paywall introduction by gifting one year of full free digital access (web, iPhone and iPad) to “long-time subscribers”. Apparently the NYT started sending out emails to some subscribers earlier today inviting them to join the promotion, and the one who got in touch with by The Loop has been a subscriber for 12 years.

The customer I spoke with has been a subscriber for 12 years and received the email this afternoon. He said he took The Times up on the offer and accepted the one-year free.

In the email The Times says “as a frequent reader of NYTimes.com, you’ve demonstrated an uncommon interest in a wide variety of today’s most important topics.” The email and subscription is being sponsored by Lincoln.

The New York Times’ paywall is set to go live for everyone on March 28th.

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“Single-Issue” $1.99 Downloads Coming to WSJ iPad App

By Federico Viticci

In an effort to drive more customers to its monthly subscription plans and experiment with the App Store distribution platform, the Wall Street Journal is launching “single-issue” downloads in its official iPad app, Paid Content reports. The option, not available yet in the free iPad app, will allow users to download a day’s WSJ content for $1.99 on their iPad, and according to Dow Jones’ digital head Alisa Bowen the new system will better invite users to subscribe to the full-access digital subscription plan. Single-issue downloads will offer a relatively cheap way to sample content and decide whether or not a full subscription is worth it.

There will be limitations in the single-issue downloads, but the WSJ hasn’t provided additional details. These new downloads won’t affect in any way the current $18 subscription that gives readers complete access to the WSJ website.

Right now, any current WSJ subscriber with a log-in can get full access—to the site and all the apps—and that won’t change. In addition, the WSJ recently began offering a digital bundle offer. Basically, for $3.99 per week, you can get full access to WSJ.com and its suite of digital products (iPad, Android Tablet Edition, iPhone and BlackBerry apps), all of which works out to roughly $17 with tax for a full month.

Bowen told me that she believes readers are more likely to subscribe once they had a taste of the content. But it’s not the first time they’ve tried that approach. For example, WSJ content is available for free to users who log on to Starbucks’ digital network as part of the coffee chain’s free wifi access.

Last week, controversy arose around the New York Times’ subscription plans that will force readers to choose between three different packages for website access, smartphone and tablet apps. Many think the NYT’s plans are too expensive and complex in differentiating between smartphones and tablets; it is unclear at this point whether the WSJ will consider a unified option for iPhone, iPad and Android users or take a similar approach to the NYT by launching different subscriptions across devices. The single-issues downloads are expected to be implemented with a new version of the iPad app, which was last updated in February.

Apple TV 4.2.1 Update Released With Various Fixes

By Federico Viticci

As noted by MacRumors, Apple issued an update for the second-generation Apple TV earlier today bringing a number of fixes and stability improvements. More specifically, the Apple TV 4.2.1 software (based on iOS 4.3) fixes the color and flickering issues reported by many owners of old televisions in the past months and also fixes other problems with audio and “wake from sleep”. The changes are outlined in Apple’s support document for the device.

TV compatibility: Addresses issues that may cause the screen to flicker or display incorrect color on some older TVs.

Wake from sleep: Addresses an issue where Apple TV may not wake up from sleep.

Audio: Addresses an issue where audio may not be heard on some TV models after switching from another input.

Stability and performance: Apple TV Software Update 4.2.1 includes stability and performance fixes for Apple TV

With iOS 4.3, Apple brought NBA League Pass and MLB.tv to the Apple TV, as well as several minor changes to the interface and user experience.

Aperture 3.1.2 Released

By Federico Viticci

Apple released a minor update to Aperture a few minutes ago, improving compatibility with the importing process of iPhoto libraries and a number of reliability improvements for brushes. The new version is labelled 3.1.2; Aperture 3.1.1 was released in December.

More information about the update are available here, full changelog below.

About Aperture 3.1.2

This update improves overall stability and performance, including specific fixes in the following areas:

Importing iPhoto libraries

Reliability and responsiveness when using brushes to apply adjustments

Reconnecting referenced master images

Aperture 3.1.2 is also available in the Mac App Store at $79.99.

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What’s The Next Step For Social Magazines?

Long-time Subscriber? The NYT Gives Out 1 Year of Free Web, iPhone and iPad Access

The customer I spoke with has been a subscriber for 12 years and received the email this afternoon. He said he took The Times up on the offer and accepted the one-year free.

In the email The Times says “as a frequent reader of NYTimes.com, you’ve demonstrated an uncommon interest in a wide variety of today’s most important topics.” The email and subscription is being sponsored by Lincoln.