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Official Google Voice App for iPhone Now Available

After months of wait, rejections, government’s involvement and third party applications, the official Google Voice app for iPhone is now available. You can find it here, and it’s free. We saw this coming after Apple published the updated App Store Review Guidelines.

The client basically allows you to access your Google Voice account right from your iPhone, and it allows you to make calls through the standard phone app. You can receive push notifications for text and voicemail messages, listen to voicemails and read Google’s transcripts or just manage your whole Google Voice inbox. Read more

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MacStories Weekly Game: Astronut

Yes, a Weekly Game on a Tuesday. It’s a day we’ll never forget, and the game we’re covering is so good I couldn’t help but play 3 hours with it last night and wake up early this morning to hit the Publish button.

Astronut by the Iconfactory is a game I was looking forward to. Since I saw the first shots on Dribbble, the promo video and I heard from people who were testing it that it was really great, I started waiting for the app to show up in iTunes with much anticipation. The app became available last night, and it’s free in the App Store. A clever move, as if you want to purchase extra “sectors” (level packs, or “zones”) you’ll have to complete a $1.99 in-app purchase. Which is totally worth it. Read more

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How To Change Your iPhone’s Default Browser

Last week I installed a new universal browser for iPhone and iPad called “iCab” which I’m going to review soon here on MacStories. The browser is so good I wondered if there was a way to force iOS to open links from any app using iCab instead of Safari. I know it’s not a recommended move and it might turn out to be pretty problematic in the future, plus I actually had tried to override Safari a few times in the past.

I didn’t know a tweak to change the iPhone’s default browser had been released in Cydia until I stumbled upon iCab’s excellent feature and decided to google that again. Browser Changer, available for free in Cydia, does just that: it replaces Mobile Safari as your iPhone default browser. Read more

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Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;

Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;

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Filopanti: Simple Time Zone Conversion Tool for iPhone

Being based in Italy, I have to deal with the fact that stuff happens in the US and I’m in a different time zone. I stay up late at night, and news keep coming in. Also, I have to consider time zone differences when setting up online meetings with developers, writers and casual contacts. Up until today, I used a neat web app called Every Time Zone which comes with an iPad-specific viewport and allows me to quickly check on various time zones worldwide.

Filopanti, however, might be a simpler solution I can fire up at any time to quickly check on U.S. time zone –namely San Francisco’s time. With a straightforward and elegant UI Filopanti lets you pick two different cities and compare their time zones. Read more

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Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;

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“Exciting Announcement from iTunes” Coming Tomorrow

Oh, look what we have here. Apple just updated its homepage on apple.com to include this banner, which states an “exciting announcement” from iTunes is coming tomorrow at 7 AM PST. “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget” – that’s quite a thing to write up on Apple’s homepage.

We know that iOS 4.2 should drop tomorrow at 10 AM PST, and we know that iPhone and iPad users will be able to download the software update using iTunes. Will Apple change the system underlying the whole software update process? But then again, how would that be something we’ll never forget? It definitely must be something else than iOS 4.2-related rumors.

What comes to mind if the long-awaited “iTunes in the cloud”, based on that huge data center Apple is building in North Carolina. Apple could deploy a cloud-based sync and streaming solution for apps and media, or the rumored iTunes subscription service for music. The possibilities are really endless, and it’s just up to Apple and how much they’re willing to deploy in the first version of “the new iTunes”. What we’re sure of is, Steve Jobs doesn’t hype something so much unless it’s totally revolutionary and breakthrough. So the cloud would be, in my opinion, the most plausible answer.

We’ll check back tomorrow at 7 AM PST. Is there going to be a live streaming of the announcement, anyway? Or just text and screenshots? We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.

Update: more speculation here.

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Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.

What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.

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Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;

Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.

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Hidden, A Simplenote Client That Keeps Your Notes Private

Simplenote is a neat web service that comes with native iPhone and iPad apps (and a couple of widgets for the Mac, too) which enables you to store your notes in the cloud. I’m a huge fan of Simplenote, and it’s undoubtedly one of the most popular apps available in the App Store.

Hidden is a new iPhone app by Coding Robots (I’m hearing the developers are also working on a Simplenote-based task management app) that can access your standard Simplenote notes, but also allows you to keep private notes no one but you can read. Read more

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Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.

What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.

Learn more here and from our Club FAQs.

Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;

Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;

Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.

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IA Writer Now iOS 4.2-ready

I’ve been waiting for this update: when IA Writer first came out, I couldn’t use it. I was already running iOS 4.2 beta on my iPad, and the app had a few bugs with the new operating system. The focus mode wasn’t working (and that feature is possibly the most important one in the app), custom keys didn’t match.

With the latest 1.0.2 that showed up a few minutes ago in iTunes, the app is finally ready for the elusive OS. Subfolders and auto-sync aren’t included yet, but they’re coming soon.

Finally, I can use IA Writer. Go get it, as it seems totally worth it.

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Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.

What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.

Learn more here and from our Club FAQs.

Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;

Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;

Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.

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iOS 4.2 “Delayed” Due to iPad WiFi Issues, New GM Build Coming [Updated]

Two days ago we reported Mac OS X 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1 were set to come out on Wednesday, with iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch to follow on Friday Nov. 12th – tomorrow. Mac OS X 10.6.5 indeed came out, without AirPrint functionality for shared printers as previously reported as well. iTunes 10.1 didn’t come out.

Basing on the information we got from a reliable source, it appears that iOS 4.2 won’t come out on Nov. 12th due to last-minute WiFi connection issues experienced by many users running the GM build on the iPad. The issues have been widely documented on MacRumors forums (here and here), Twitter and Apple’s own discussion boards, both by users and developers. You can check out a video of the bug in action below. Read more

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What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.

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Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;

Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;

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Apple’s Ping Gains Twitter Support

Good news, Ping users: Apple’s music discovery service just got official Twitter support, according to the Twitter blog:

Starting today Ping, iTunes’ new social network for music, and Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.

Read more

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Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for nearly a decade.

What started with weekly and monthly email newsletters has blossomed into a family of memberships designed for every MacStories fan.

Learn more here and from our Club FAQs.

Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with apps, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, early access to the MacStories Unwind podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;

Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus an active Discord community, advanced search and custom RSS features for exploring the Club’s entire back catalog, bonus columns, and dozens of app discounts;

Club Premier: All of the above and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.

Learn more here and from our Club FAQs.