Posts in Linked

Infinity Blade III Preview→

Modojo’s John Gaudiosi has posted a preview of Infinity Blade III, which was announced at Apple’s iPhone event earlier today. Infinity Blade III is a major new entry in Chair’s popular game franchise that takes advantage of Apple’s new hardware and that will be released alongside iOS 7 on the App Store on September 18th at $6.99.

Modojo’s preview includes a description of the new game modes and characters:

According to Donald Mustard, creative director at Chair Entertainment, the studio’s goal heading into this third game was to create the ultimate Infinity Blade experience. Infinity Blade 3 provides a universe that’s over eight times larger than that of the first game, thanks to eight huge castles spread throughout the world map. In addition, there’s a huge allotment of side quests, new multiplayer Clash Mobs and different events that players can participate in that make the world even bigger.

Modojo was also able to produce a series of interviews with the Chair development team. The interviews, linked below, include exclusive footage of Infinity Blade III’s gameplay and menus and reveal more details on the game’s creation process. They’re absolutely worth a look if you want to know more about Infinity Blade III.

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Apple Posts September 10 Keynote Video→

Apple has now posted the video of its keynote held earlier today in Cupertino. The video can be streamed here, and a higher quality version should be made available in a few hours through iTunes (on the Apple Keynotes podcast). To avoid streaming errors, Safari is recommended for the best viewing experience.

Our iPhone 5s and 5c overviews are available here and here, respectively.

Update 10:50 PM EDT: Today’s keynote video can now be downloaded in standard definition through the Apple Keynotes podcast on iTunes. 720p and 1080p versions will likely be released tomorrow.

For more coverage, check out our September 10 news hub and follow @macstoriesnet on Twitter.

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GIF Brewery 2.3→

GIF Brewery, developed by Patrick Rogers, is my favorite app to create animated GIFs (with a hard G) on OS X. Every time I need to show an app’s particular animation or effect, I mirror my iOS device’s screen to my Mac with Reflector, capture a video, and turn a specific portion into a GIF.

The latest update, released last week, contains a new preference to automatically snap text overlays to horizontal center and, even better, settings to control fade-in/out times for overlays. These two minor additions make dealing with text overlays in GIF Brewery much easier, leading to better results.

GIF Brewery is $4.99 on the Mac App Store and I can’t recommend it enough.

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Ohio Man Sues Apple Over Breaking Bad Season Pass→

Jeff John Roberts:

An Ohio man has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company owes him and other Breaking Bad fans $22.99 for not including all 16 episodes in a “Season Pass” to the show’s final season, which was split into two parts.

In a class action suit filed in San Jose, California, Noam Lazebnik says Apple engaged in false advertising by providing only 8 episodes to consumers even though its “Season Pass” page explains that viewers will get “every episode in that season.”

Better call Saul?

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Bradley Chambers’ App Idea For Grocery Stores→

This is the same idea that I discuss with my girlfriend every time we go grocery shopping: a grocery store app that is integrated with the store’s inventory system and that can guide me to the correct aisle for an item I need to buy:

Use your WiFi to determine my location and use that information to help me find the items on my list. This might be by organizing my list based on the order I will come across items or simply alerting me when I am on an aisle that has something on my list.

Imagine if the app could show you an indoor map of the store, plug into iOS’ Reminders list, learn from your shopping habits, and tell you when a product you usually buy and like is on sale. One can dream, right?

While such an idea may sound futuristic, it’s actually something that has been going around for years, only now we have better technology, more powerful devices, and more advanced software development kits. I wonder if iBeacons and iOS 7 will accelerate the development of smarter indoor location apps – supposedly, Apple is exploring this area as well.

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The Editorial Workflow Directory→

After the launch of Editorial, several readers have asked me whether there was a good way to browse workflows shared by other Editorial users. While Pinboard has provided a good temporary solution with bookmarks and tags, you’ll be happy to know that developer Ole Zorn has launched a beta of the Workflow Directory, which will be deeply integrated with the next version of Editorial.

Right now, you can search for specific workflows in the Directory or view Staff Picks and Recently Added workflows; select a workflow, and you’ll get the usual preview page where you can tap a button to add someone else’s workflow to your Editorial library.

With the Workflow Directory, the default behavior of Editorial’s sharing feature is changing: shared workflows will be posted online but won’t be listed in the Workflow Directory unless you manually publish them there. This means that, when unlisted, only people knowing the direct URLs to the shared workflows will be able to find them. This is exactly what I’m doing with the extra workflows included in my Editorial book.

The best part of the Workflow Directory is that it’s got an API to programmatically search workflows, download them, and get descriptions. It returns data in JSON, so, if you bought Writing On The iPad, you should be able to adapt one of my existing workflows that use the request module to work with the Workflow Directory API. Zorn has already made a workflow to search and download workflows (as usual, meta).

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On The Possibilities of an iPhone Fingerprint Sensor→

Between rampant rumors and speculation, there’s little we don’t know about Apple’s upcoming smartphones. One of the features expected for the iPhone 5S, the expected iteration of the iPhone 5, is a fingerprint sensor built into the home button. Craig Hockenberry, on his personal blog, talks about how that fingerprint sensor might change the way we interact with our iPhones.

 From the beginning, I’ve wanted a way to protect my personal information when sharing a device with friends and family. But any secure solution to that problem would be a pain in the butt. Typing a password before launching an app? No thanks!

Craig is thinking big, beyond the possibilities of bypassing a password or swipe-to-unlock on the lock screen. Those are the obvious things, but what about some of the unobvious things we do with our iPhones, especially with other people?

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iBooks Author Support For The iPhone→

Macworld’s Serenity Caldwell noticed a change in the wording that lists software requirements for iBooks Author books on iTunes, and she thinks that may suggest iPhone support is coming next week:

To my mind, it’s likely that we’ll see iBooks Author support on the iPhone when iOS 7 is released. The groundwork, after all, has already been laid. As I mentioned in my critique of the program last year, iBooks Author already has a potentially viable option for iPhone and iPod touch users—its reflowable portrait mode. In it, interactive elements float alongside the text, which itself can be resized by the reader. In addition, current iPhone models (and any that might get announced next week) will have more than enough power to display videos and other interactive content.

I submitted a book made with iBooks Author to Apple a few days ago, and I completely agree with Serenity. Recent iPhone models (with Retina displays and taller screens) could work well with iBooks Author’s portrait mode (where font size can be adjusted) and it seems strange that Apple still hasn’t done this. I hope that we’ll see iPhone support for iBooks Author books next week, as that would lead to a terrific boost in addressable audience for publishers.

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Sony’s QX Portable Lens→

I am intrigued by this new product line from Sony: it’s essentially a lens that uses a paired mobile device as viewfinder, leaving you with just the lens to operate. The lens is the camera.

I see some nice advantages: you don’t have to carry a full-size additional device alongside your phone and tablet, but you retain the higher quality of photos shot with Sony’s camera. Not to mention the fact that this approach eschews the need of having to deal with the poor software and controls that are often cited as drawbacks of modern portable cameras (that is, assuming that the app for iOS and Android devices is better than what could be possible on an embedded viewfinder with LCD display).

The possibility of not attaching the lens to an iPhone makes this particularly appealing to me as I’ve never liked those ugly accessories that turn iPhones into tiny telescopes with external lenses.

Vlad Savov has more details at The Verge:

Both camera modules will pair with your phone via NFC, if you have it, and will then transfer data over Wi-Fi to Sony’s PlayMemories app. The QX Smart Lenses are compatible with Android and iOS devices, will accept microSD and Memory Stick storage cards, include optional clips for attaching to the back of a phone, and also have tripod mounts for those users who want to get really serious with their mobile photography.

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