Build your own newsfeed and cut through the noise
The lucky folks in the US have started getting their hands on the iPad 2 after some impressive lines we’ve tweeted all day (our editor @codyfink is currently inside the Apple Store to get our iPads) and here are coming the first unboxing photos and videos.
iPad 2 line at Apple Store at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, LA. Wrapped around the entire courtyard. [Thanks, Brittany]
iLounge has posted a gallery full of photos of the retail box, and what’s inside.
With an official announcement on the Twitter Google Group, head of platform and API at Twitter Ryan Sarver has told developers to stop building third-party Twitter clients that “mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience”. Basically: no more unofficial Twitter apps that look just like the official iOS, Mac, Android or BlackBerry apps and don’t add any value to the experience. Instead, focus on different areas of the whole Twitter experience. Uh oh.
The move is quickly causing a reaction among developers on Twitter that didn’t expect such a response from the company. Basically, although in a subtle way, they’re telling everyone to stop wasting time trying to emulate the official Twitter apps because 90% of users are already using Twitter through the officially provided tools. On top of that, though, it’s not only a matter of choice: it seems like Twitter is really going to force developers to stop building apps by “holding you to high standards to ensure you do not violate users’ privacy, that you provide consistency in the user experience, and that you rigorously adhere to all areas of our Terms of Service”. Some key parts from the announcement:
With more people joining Twitter and accessing the service in multiple ways, a consistent user experience is more crucial than ever. As we talked about last April, this was our motivation for buying Tweetie and developing our own official iPhone app. It is the reason why we have developed official apps for the Mac, iPad, Android and Windows Phone, and worked with RIM on their Twitter for Blackberry app. As a result, the top five ways that people access Twitter are official Twitter apps.
Developers have told us that they’d like more guidance from us about the best opportunities to build on Twitter. More specifically, developers ask us if they should build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience. The answer is no.
As we point out above, we need to move to a less fragmented world, where every user can experience Twitter in a consistent way.
Of all the features Apple is expected to implement in iOS 5, one has gained particular interest from iPhone and iPad users recently: better file management options for documents and files created inside applications, and a way to get these files out of an iOS device quickly. Many have speculated iOS 5 will get some sort of direct integration with the Finder, with Lion’s AirDrop feature leading to think that, eventually, iOS will be able to easily communicate with a Mac nearby. But for now, we’re “stuck” with a variety of apps from the App Store that aim at providing what Apple left out – a way to group documents together, manage them, share them, edit them.
In the past months, we reviewed several of these apps with most of them being iPad apps meant for a larger screen and easier file viewing. iFiles is my app of choice with lots of features and deep cloud integration (something that’s vital for my daily workflow), but I was also impressed by the quality of Berokyo and Cloud Connect Pro, two apps to manage files in a visual grid and access documents stored on external Macs, AirPort Disks and servers, respectively. iFiles, for many reasons I outlined in my review, still wins the file management space for iOS with a universal app for iPhone and iPad, built-in WebDAV server and Rackspace / Dropbox integration.
Today we take a look at Zen Viewer HD, the new kid on the block of file managers and viewers. The app is on sale right now in the iOS App Store for $0.99, and it’s quickly climbing the charts of Productivity and Top Paid apps. What differentiates Zen Viewer from its competitors is the unique design that brings a Finder-like column view to the iPad (the app doesn’t have an iPhone version) and a bottom tabbed toolbar to access a series of functionalities with a couple of taps. Zen Viewer is a powerful application that can preview almost any kind of file, from PDFs and images to .mp3, .rtf, .xls, iWork and HTML files. Read more
Image sharing service Instagram, very popular thanks to its 2 million users but still available as an iPhone-only app, has released a new update today bringing the application to version 1.5. The new Instagram introduces a new effect, performance improvements for previous ones, a completely revamped news feed and the possibility to share photos via email.
The new filter, Tilt-Shift, comes after several requests from users that were forced to apply this specific effect in other iPhone apps like Tiltshift Gen; now Instagram integrates the possibility to blur a portion of an image with a slider directly into its interface without leaving the app. All you have to do is pinch to adjust the orientation of the blur and focus area. Other filters got a speed bost as well and now feel much more responsive, especially on iOS 4.3.
The major new feature, however, is the News Feed that’s been redesign to include more activity from your friends. Together with follow and comment notifications, you can now see what your friends are doing, the comments they post, the photos they like and the people they start following, too. I’m not sure I like this News Feed as it brings a lot more social information into the stream and it might get annoying over time, but we’ll see. For now, it’s clear that Instagram is moving towards a more social approach besides the “simple app that takes photos” concept.
Upon taking a picture, you can also share it via email to your friends and family. I’m pretty sure this sharing option should also allow you to drop pictures onto your Dropbox using this service, and I’ll make sure to try it later. This is a welcome addition to the app. Last, you can tap & hold a username to initiate a reply – I don’t use Instagram much to reply to people but I guess the heavy Instagrammers out there will insanely love this option.
Instagram 1.5 is propagating now in the App Store; it’s available for free here. Check it out, it’s a nice update. More screenshots below.
Update: Associating a Send To Dropbox email address to Instagram won’t let you automatically save photos into your Dropbox. Just a text file with the email you shared.
The iPad 2 went on sale through the Apple online store almost 5 hours ago and the shipping times have rapidly changed as people clicked the buy button to purchase the new device. Up to 5-7 business days from the initial 3-5 business days in less than 3 hours, the Apple Store now reports shipping times of 2-3 weeks.
Same applies for the WiFi + 3G models:
Are you getting an iPad 2 at your local Apple retail store today? Standing in line already? Send us pics: tips[at]macstories.net
Just in time for the iPad 2 fever that has begun a few hours ago, three of the most popular iOS games have been updated to include optimizations and new features meant specifically for the iPad 2.
First off, Real Racing 2 HD: not an update, but a brand new version of Real Racing HD from Firemint that follows the steps of Real Racing 2 for iPhone to offer 30 licensed cars, career mode, local or online multiplayer. Most of all, Real Racing 2 HD comes with full iPad 2 support out of the box with enhanced graphics and gyroscope integration. You can find it here at $9.99. Read more
There’s been quite a debate around the implementation of Apple’s new subscription policy for publishers (we’ll see the real consequences in June) and the problems faced by newspapers and magazine apps for the iPad, which most of the time don’t offer anything users couldn’t find already for free online, or in previously released printed formats. The funny thing is, sometimes the digital version costs even more than print, has a clunky purchase and download system and less content than the magazine. Newspapers, on the other hand, offer less news at a slower rate than a website. For this reason publishers have struggled, and Apple hopes to invert the situation with an easy to use subscription system that’s the first step towards a wider adoption of magazines and newspapers for the tablet. But in the meantime, the Wall Street Journal reports some interesting numbers.
The publication announced they added 200,000 new subscribers from tablets like the iPad, Nook, Kindle and Android devices in the past year. Now I’m no WSJ insider, but I guess most of these subscribers come from the popular WSJ iPad app, which is available for free in the App Store and requires a login for paid subscribers.
The 200k figure is a combination of News Corp’s paid subscriber base on all tablet-size devices, including the iPad, Android tablets, the Kindle, and the Nook. In contrast, the print edition currently represents a circulation of approximately 1.6 million.
The company hasn’t provided numbers for smartphones. With the iPad and Kindle being the ideal reading devices for many, lower performances on iPhones and Android devices wouldn’t be a surprise at all. [via Electronista]
iLounge has posted its usual rundown of what’s new in the latest Apple TV software update, and this time it looks rather huge. One problem, though: why does Apple keep naming ATV software releases inconsistently with the rest of iOS devices? Internally the Apple TV displays “4.3”, but Apple calls it “4.2 software update”. This is beyond my understanding.
Anyway, the new sports applications baked into the ATV look great, especially the MLB.TV one with all those fancy graphics, interactive menus and HD video. I’m not baseball or basketball expert (but I like an NBA game every once in a while), but these apps seem really well done.
Together with the NBA and MLB.TV apps, a new redesigned keyboard with a “recent” option for quick input, new slideshows themes, time zone and HDMI output settings and the much-talked AirPlay support also made it into this update.
iOS 4.3 for Apple TV is a solid update. Check out the full roundup at iLounge.
Instapaper, the most popular “read later” tool for the web, iOS and Kindle, received a major update a few minutes ago that brings it to version 3.0 and adds a whole social layer to the app. In Instapaper 3.0 you can now follow other Instapaper users to see the articles they “like” (a new name for “starring” an article). You can find friends via Facebook or Twitter through a simple login or directly from your local Address Book.
The app is faster with a new engine that finally grants perfect quality images, and you can now search all articles (the downloaded ones, at least) for title or content. Sharing to Twitter, Facebook, Pinboard, Tumblr and Evernote has also been implemented natively, to work offline as well. This is a great improvement over the previous versions that didn’t let you share articles that easily. I love this new feature.
Other new functionalities include a “smart rotation lock” that can understand whether the change in rotation was accidental or not (it really seems to be working) and several new tweaks in the Preferences and bug fixes. Also, you can browse for articles in-app or choose from the Editor’s Picks recommended list of content.
The app also now has a completely rewritten web browser built in, so you can browse to any website, find the articles you want to read later, and save them directly from the app. And there’s a new Editors browser, featuring the best human curators on the web who recommend great articles for Instapaper reading.
With these great new additions, many customers won’t even need the bookmarklet anymore.
Instapaper 3.0 is a free update available here, and it’s a terrific new version you should go download right away. Check out more screenshots of the iPad version below. Read more
