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Discovr Apps Is Like Pandora For The App Store

Back in January I reviewed Discovr, an interactive music map that was aimed at letting you easily and joyfully discover new artists and songs based on your tastes. By providing an original interface that turned classic hyperlinking into an interactive experience with animated maps and multitouch, Discovr still holds up as one of the most original iPad apps to explore the iTunes Store in an alternate view that, eventually, also made its way to the iPhone. But after music, the Filter Squad developers might have asked themselves what is that iOS users want to discover on a daily basis. And that is apps, obviously. Discovr Apps, a new version of Discovr available in the App Store at $0.99, runs on the iPhone and iPad and, just like its music counterpart, wants to turn the App Store categories and links into a map that changes every time according to the suggestions you’re given and the apps you’re interested in.

In the main page, you’re presented with a search box to manually start looking for an app, or two tabs at the bottom: recommended for you, and suggested apps. For those who don’t know how Discovr works: after the first element – in our case, an app – pops up on screen, a tap will generate related items connected to it, thus creating a map. As you keep tapping to view related items, the map grows and the connections expand. To view an item in detail, you just have to double-tap and you’re brought to an App Store-like page with description and screenshots. If you want a broader view of the map you’ve generated, pinch to go back.

You can share discoveries on Twitter and Facebook or via email, but the main point of the app is to sit down, check out the recommendations or start with an app you like, and see where Discovr brings you with its interactive system. And as far as recommendations go, I’m very satisfied with this app-focused version of Discovr: even more than Discovr for music, I found app suggestions to be really tailored to my tastes and needs, with gems like Twitterrific, Evernote, Simplenote and Writings often showing up in my maps.

Discovr is, once again, an interesting experiment that offers an intuitive way to discover media you’d probably miss in the sea of App Store apps and updates. At $0.99 in the App Store, that’s an investment you should consider to discover more great apps in the future.

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OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 Update Released

As Lion’s development moves forward and nears the public release set for July, Apple has pushed another update to developers running OS X Lion Developer Preview 4. The new version, available through the Software Update control panel on the desktop, weighs at 656 MB and should be one of the latest updates before Lion gets its pre-announced Mac App Store rollout this summer. Lion will be available at $29.99 as digital-only upgrade for all your Macs configured with your Apple ID.

We’ll update this story with more details on what’s new as we get them, so make sure to refresh this page later.

Update: Build number is 11A494a. First reports seem to indicate the login window has got a new linen background – the login window was briefly shown during the WWDC keynote. [image via]

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Google Updates Google Sync for Better Mail and Calendaring on iOS

Not familiar with Google Sync? It’s not an app on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, but rather something that exists in the background to help you keep your Mail, Calendars, and Contacts in check. Today, Google is announcing improvements to the service so you can better push and pull information from the cloud.

The first improvements are with Mail, and I think this one is my favorite. Google is now giving iOS users the ability to search for messages stored on the server, and not just locally on your device. The next time you’re looking up an old love letter, just search in Mail for your message and it’ll continue the search on the server.

Mail is also getting another improvement in the account department. If you have multiple addresses tied into one gmail account, it’s now way easier to send as an alternate address in Mail. If you “send mail as” in Gmail, iOS will now respect those settings so you’ll never send email from the wrong address again.

Want to edit calendar events? Now you can! Accept, decline, and edit calendar event (invitations) are now possible through iOS.

For more information, and how to setup Google Sync on your device, please refer to the recent blog post and how-to-guide here.

[via The Official Google Enterprise Blog]

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Facebook Working on Instagram-like Photo Sharing App

TechCrunch has posted a screenshot of what they claim to be a new photo sharing app for iPhone developed by Facebook and soon to be released in the App Store. The new app, internally codenamed “Hovertown” or “WithPeople” according to the website, from a first look at the leaked documents looks like a mix of Instagram, Color, Path and With. With the exception of Instagram  (for those who don’t know, an iPhone app / social network that allows you to share photos in seconds with cool built-in effects and geo-tagging capabilities), all the other apps mentioned by MG Siegler are photo sharing solutions meant to capture what’s around you, with people that are with you, are share it with people you know. Basing on these alleged similarities and the screenshot itself, Facebook may be working on an iPhone app that leverages the social graph and location information to share places, people and moments in single shots or entire photo streams.

How do we know? We have obtained roughly 50 MB of images and documents outlining the entire thing.

To be honest, we’re still sorting through all of them. But again, the app looks amazing. We’ve heard that internally it is being called either “Hovertown” or “WithPeople”. And while it looks like a stand-alone app right now, there are also signs that it could be eventually integrated into Facebook’s main iPhone app — as well as the main site.

It’s unclear whether the new photo product may be integrated with the official Facebook iPhone app (which is heavily web-based as far as the interface goes) in a new photos tab or if Facebook is really planning on releasing it as a standalone application. The Facebook iPhone app is the most popular free app of all time, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Facebook growing its catalogue of official software for the iOS platform. Facebook has been criticized for not having a native iPad app, a choice that has allowed third-party developers to build their own paid and successful solutions for the tablet. Read more

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Twitterrific 4.2 Updated for Mac & iOS: MLKSHK, Pikchur, Read It Later, and More!

Twitterrific 4.2 is available on the App Store for both Mac and iOS right now if you’re so inclined to keep on top of the latest updates, and there’s some new major additions that we think you’ll really love. There’s also some big changes to how you’ll sign in–thanks to the way Twitter is requiring 3rd party clients to authorize your account–thus making 4.2 a mandatory update to comply with Twitter’s rules.

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Google Launches Desktop Voice Search, Search by Image, and Instant Pages at Inside Search Event

Google is wrapping up their latest innovations in search out of San Francisco this afternoon during today’s Inside Search press conference for June 14th, 2011, and avid Google users will want to know what Google is bringing to the table to bring you better, more accessible, and faster results from all of your devices.

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Final Cut Pro X Coming Out Next Week?

According to Japanese blog Macotakara, Apple may start selling the new version of Final Cut Pro, dubbed Final Cut Pro X, in the Mac App Store next week. Originally unveiled at the NAB in Las Vegas back in April, the company already announced that FCP X would be released in the digital store at the lower price point of $299 – without making any mention of additional apps previously included in the Final Cut Pro suite, such as Color or Motion. Apple said Final Cut Pro X would come out “in June”, but didn’t specify any release date.

Apple has announced to release Final Cut Pro X in this June via Mac App Store in price of $299 in NAV Supermeet, event for Final Cut users, at April 2011. And then Apple seems to start to sell Final Cut Pro X from next week as they told.

Macotakara also claims that the first Thunderbolt-enabled accessories will be available next week, with Final Cut Pro X likely capable of taking advantage of the new technology with high-speed data transfers and daisy-chaining.

From Apple’s original announcement of Final Cut Pro X:

Basing on live updates coming from attendees at NAB 2011, Final Cut Pro X has been built from scratch, and it’s entirely 64-bit. It’s based on technologies like Cocoa, Core Animation, Open CL, Grand Central Dispatch and it focuses on image quality. It features a resolution independent timeline up to 4K for scalable rendering — in fact, it appears the old render dialog is gone entirely as the app uses the available CPU to keep files always rendered. FCP X allows you to edit while you’re importing thanks to its new engine, and it’s also got automatic media and people detection on import, as well as image stabilization.

Apple is promoting the new FCP X as a complete and total rebuild.

Thunderbolt products have been announced by several third-party makers so far, with the most recent demoes at Computex 2011 showing the speedy side of the I/O technology. Apple’s recent update to the Mac line included MacBook Pros and iMacs receiving Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt upgrades, thus making for more powerful machines better suited for video editing at higher configurations. Similarly, the Mac Pro is also rumored to be getting an update soon to implement faster processors and Thunderbolt ports – the 27-inch iMac, for instance, comes with two Thunderbolt ports to enable complex daisy-chaining and external monitor mirroring.

In the past weeks, several screenshots have surfaced online showcasing parts of FCP X’s interface and features. Macotakara is a usual reliable source of Apple information and product leaks, though details are scarce on this Mac App Store release. [via AppleInsider]

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Apple Settles With Nokia Over Patent Dispute


Nokia today announced that they have reached a settlement with Apple over a complex web of patent disputes between the companies that have been keeping both companies (and the courts) busy since 2009. The settlement involves a one-time payment as well as on-going royalties to be paid to Nokia by Apple – the size of the fee and royalties is undisclosed, as is the length of the agreement.

We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” said Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Nokia. “This settlement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market. - Nokia Press Release

As FOSS Patents relays, the settlement of this dispute will free up precious resources for both companies – Apple in particular will need them whilst it battles three of the big Android device makers; Motorola, HTC and Samsung. The win for Nokia against Apple will be somewhat of a precedent for future potential patent battles, particularly given the veracity with which Apple had displayed in attempting to ‘win’ this lawsuit. In particular, it is very likely that Nokia will soon go after Android device makers and it is questionable whether they would fare any better than Apple did.

The price isn’t disclosed but FOSS Patents gives a brief opinion how sizeable it could be:

Theoretically, it could be a symbolic amount, but that’s very unlikely. I’m sure Nokia had to go down from its maximum demands because otherwise there wouldn’t have been a settlement. But the deal structure is very telling: a combination of a payment for past infringement as well as running royalties is a clear indication that there’s serious money in this for Nokia.

Updated: Could Nokia be earning €8/$11.50 for each iPhone sold? Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents thinks it is ‘plausible’ - in which case Nokia would be raking in something like $200m from today’s settlement.

[Via FOSS Patents, Picture via Engadget]

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Apple Starts Selling Unlocked iPhone 4 In The US, GSM Model Only

One day earlier than was predicted, Apple has finally offered consumers the ability to purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 in the United States. At the moment only the GSM variety is available but you’re free to choose it in either white or black styling and in 16GB or 32GB variety.

Regardless of the color you choose, the iPhone 4 in 16GB variety starts at $649, whilst the 32GB is $749. It doesn’t come with a micro-SIM card so you’ll need to activate one yourself from any supported GSM carrier (worldwide). Whether you plan on using an iPhone extensively overseas or just on an alternative carrier, the unlocked iPhone may be your best choice – at least if you don’t want to go down the jailbreak and unlocking road.

You can purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 from the Apple online store here, and it is expected that Apple retailer stores will have them on sale from today or possibly tomorrow – we will update when we know for sure.

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