The European Commission Has Decided: Universal micro-USB Charger For Smartphones

By Federico Viticci

Back in August, the European Commission formally approved a policy that required all smartphones to adopt a standard, universal micro-USB charger instead of dedicated ones shipped by all major smartphones companies such as Apple, LG, Nokia and Samsung. Today, the European Standards Organization Cen-Cenelec-Etsi officially approved the request from the European Commission (Ansa news agency, italian) and published the standards that smartphones makers will have to adopt in Europe starting January 2011.

The European Commission is now expecting the first generation of standard micro-USB-enabled smartphones to become available “in the first months of 2011”. This includes devices from the 13 companies that signed the agreement in 2009: Apple, Motorola, LG, Nec, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are among those companies.

Put simply, this change will allow users to charge their smartphones using a single, universal micro-USB connector. According to the European Commission, this will lead to a better user experience and less environmental damages thanks to the lack of multiple and different chargers.

It is unknown whether Apple will introduce a micro-USB charger in the next generation iPhone and iPad 3G (data-enabled devices are included in the new policy, too), although it seems likely at this point. Apple might as well delay the availability of universal chargers in its devices until 2012, but the European Commission seems to believe all major companies will agree to the policy and update their charging systems. If Apple will have to introduced a micro-USB charger in Europe, we speculate that the U.S. market will face a similar change as well.

Is Skype The Biggest Threat To Apple’s FaceTime?

By Federico Viticci

Last night, Skype released a major new version of their iPhone and iPod touch client. Version 3.0 of the Skype app, released just in time for New Year’s Eve, adds video calling to all iOS devices with the possibility to run the app in compatibility mode on the iPad and receive video calls on screen. The iPhone app allows you to receive and initiate video calls both on WiFi and 3G, it’s compatible with iPhone 4 / iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4th gen and, when on 3G, consumes around 3.4 MB of data per minute. Previous tests showed that Apple’s FaceTime technology also consume 3 MB per minute. Skype 3.0 also lets you call desktop users on Mac and PC and check on their computer screens (sounds useful for remote troubleshooting or networking), requires iOS 4 and supports both portrait and landscape modes.

The latest Skype update is, put simply, a huge win for the millions of Skype users out there who have an iOS device always connected to the internet. We could argue on the 24/7 internet availability on devices like the iPod touch and the iPad WiFi, but there’s no doubt the new Skype for iOS is the closest thing Apple ever had to a FaceTime competitor. Forget the 3rd party apps in the App Store that allow video calls: this is Skype. Which leads me to consider Apple’s position in regards to this update: Skype lets you see your friends wherever you are, no matter what kind of connection you’re on. Apple, due to technology limitations or AT&T’s pressure, only lets you FaceTime on WiFi. But looking at the big picture, that’s not really what Apple should fear. Read more

Update: A Minimal App For Simple Sharing

By Federico Viticci

On our iPhones and iPads, we run Twitter clients. Be it Twitter, Twitterrific, Osfoora or some beta app no one knows about, many of us rely on these standalone apps to share links, thoughts and comments on Twitter. We do the same for Facebook (even if there’s no official app for iPad, third party clients are well known in the App Store), LinkedIn and other social networks. The problem: some would like to have the possibility to forward some status updates to other social networks they’re subscribed to (and likely have some friends on) without having to copy the message every single time in a new app. A few people I know use hashtags on Twitter to beam a tweet to Facebook or Google Buzz, but I don’t like the option. Next time I want to share the same message on Twitter and Facebook, what should I use?

Update is a neat $0.99 utility for iPhone which lets you do one thing: write down a status update and choose the social networks you want to send it to. Everything happens in one screen. That’s it. Once you’ve authorized the supported services (Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, LinkedIn and Hyves) in the settings, you’ll get a simple on/off menu in the compose window to choose the active services. Type, and share. You can tell the app to grab your location data or shrink URLs contained in the message. You can’t attach pictures, but I guess this is one of the non-features that make Update a great app: it’s simple and focused on text messages. If you need more, go download a dedicated client.

I like the developers’ approach with Update. It’s available at $0.99 in the App Store, and even if it’s not the app for everyone I surely appreciate its simplicity. Recommended.

Discourse, The Beautiful Dictionary App

By Federico Viticci

The iOS platform doesn’t lack great dictionary apps. From Terminology for iPhone and iPad (both of them reviewed on MacStories) to the dozens available for free on the App Store, users can stay assured there’s a way to check on word meanings, references and, at best, thesaurus with an app. After all, it would be strange otherwise.

Still, there’s always room for better. So developer Emilio Palàez (also known for his Notified app in Cydia) and designer Mathieu White set out to create the most beautiful and easy to use dictionary app for the iPhone. Discourse, which we previewed on MacStories a few weeks ago, is now available. As I expected when running the beta version, Discourse is pretty great. Read more

Not The iWork You’d Expect from Apple

By Federico Viticci

Sometimes, some people have terrible ideas. When those ideas involve Apple, trademark infringement and ripped-off logos, the story can quickly become incredibly messed up. Here’s what’s going on: there’s an iWork available on Sears’ website, but it’s not Apple’s digital productivity suite. It’s an actual toolkit Sears is marketing as “PC Toolkit” and selling at $39.99. Here’s the listing on Sears’ website.

See what they did there? They took a fancy registered and trademarked name, they took Apple’s font and even bothered adding a reflection to it. Apple doesn’t even use reflection on iWork’s logo. Sears does. Why? Two iWork logos are better than one, maybe?

Seriously, Steve is not going to approve this. Or perhaps, there’s a remote possibility he will buy hundreds of these toolkits and send them over to the folks working at the data center in North Carolina. Although I doubt Steve Jobs is capable of such jokes. [via Macenstein]

iTunes 12 Days of Christmas: Day 4

By Federico Viticci

Thanks to the iTunes 12 Days of Christmas promotion, every day from December 26th to January 6th users will be able to download a “fantastic selection of songs, music videos, apps, books, TV episodes and a film” completely for free on iTunes.

The free app for iPhone and iPad that lets you receive push notifications for daily offers is available here. Today, you can download Gameloft’s Fishing Kings for free on the App Store. Apple is giving away the regular version of the game to iPhone users, and the HD one for the iPad.

Stay tuned for promotions coming every day until January 6.

The iPad Hasn’t Saved Magazines, Magazines Haven’t Saved Themselves

By Federico Viticci

Last year, when the “Apple tablet” rumors started to grow louder and become more persistent on the Internet, many speculated such a device would be the savior of the digital publishing industry. Magazines and newspapers could finally find a new home on the rumored Apple device that was meant for reading. The iPad came out, the big names dropped their guns and released not-so-great magazine apps, the iPad didn’t save them from low sales numbers at all. According to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the iPad has failed at “saving” the digital publishing industry.

To make it simple, the numbers have been a disappointment: the Wired app sold 24,000 copies in its first 24 hours in the App Store, reached 100,000 downloads in June but then fell back to 31,000 monthly downloads between July and September and 23,000 in November. That’s a rapid decline indeed. Want more numbers? Vanity Fair sold 8,700 copies in November, Glamour went down to 2,775 downloads. GQ? Only 11,000 sales in November. Men’s Health has the worst performances with 2,000 copies sold in September and October.

Sure, the iPad hasn’t saved magazines if you look at the big picture. But let me tell you one thing: magazines haven’t done anything in their power to stand out on this new platform either. Developers of these magazine apps did, at best, optimize old PDF versions of a publication for the tablet’s screen, ignoring Apple’s user interface guidelines and people’s request for easier sharing options on Facebook and Twitter. Heck, they didn’t even make sure text was selectable in their apps. And it’s not that Apple has weird policies or “too much control” on apps: people, users, actually care about well-realized software. When they see something that’s been quickly converted or squeezed into a 10-inch screen, they don’t download. Or they stop buying. That’s what happened with the Wired app.

I understand big publications would rather have a single “tablet version” to use on a variety of devices such as the iPad or other Android tablets. I also understand that the lack of monthly subscriptions gets in the way with selling updates to App Store users. But a good app? That should always be the starting point.

Synchronicity 2.0 Released, One Day iTunes Sync Will Work Like This

By Federico Viticci

Synchronicity for iPhone and iPad is one of the best jailbreak tweaks released in 2010. We first reviewed it in August, and I haven’t stopped using it since then: Synchronicity allows you to keep using your device even while it’s syncing with iTunes. Typical scenario: you’re reading stuff in Instapaper but you need to install Rage HD or Infinity Blade on your iPhone. You don’t want to stop reading because iTunes will take 15 minutes to install the app on your device. Synchronicity comes in handy in these situations, when you want to update your device to the latest changes in your iTunes library but you don’t want to be forced to staring at the “Sync in Progress” screen for more than 20 seconds.

The best part of Synchronicity is that it’s lightweight and so unobtrusive you’ll quickly get addicted to it and forget about it being a Cydia hack. One day iTunes will work like this, with changes happening in the background, perhaps over-the-air. A major update to the tweak was released last night: Synchronicity 2.0 gets rid of the red tethering-like bar that appeared on top during sync and put a greek “Sigma” icon in the menubar to inform that an iTunes sync is occurring. The tweak has also been updated with performance improvements and bug fixes; it works really well both on my iPhone 4 and iPad.

Synchronicity is a $2 purchase in the Cydia Store. If you have a jailbroken device, I don’t see why you shouldn’t use this.

iPod Nano Hacks: Custom Firmware Files, DFU Mode

By Federico Viticci

Following James Whelton’s discovery of the possibility to bypass the iPod Nano 6G cache comparison to install blank spaces on the device and remove apps from its Springboard, well-known developer Steven Troughton-Smith has figured out a way to put the Nano in DFU mode (which, in iTunes, will return the device to its default factory settings) and send custom firmware files to it. This is the same method of installing custom firmware on jailbroken iPhones and iPads and make those devices recognize the files as signed and valid, although the Nano method is still a concept and needs some more hacking and work before it becomes a real “jailbreak”.

Troughton-Smith, however, managed to get two encrypted files, send them to the device and have them executed on the unit’s reboot. Using a modified version of popular jailbreak utility iRecovery and the extract2g tool to get the files from Nano’s OS, he believes this will certainly inspire other devs to start tinkering with the Nano 6G and start creating proof-of-concept apps.

Check out the demo video below. I don’t know what kind of “apps” it’d be cool to have on the Nano, but a mini Instapaper would be great. I think. Or Angry Birds. [9to5 via Steven Troughton-Smith]
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