Posts in news

iCloud “Beta” Website Briefly Shows Reminders, Notes Web Apps

A few minutes ago, developer Steve Troughton-Smith tweeted a photo showing a “beta” login page for iCloud.com, Apple’s suite of web applications to access iCloud services like Mail and Calendar. The photo showed Apple’s icon-based navigation for iCloud.com, with the addition of Reminders and Notes icons in what appears to be an internal version of iCloud.com carrying future features. The login page clearly states the beta version of iCloud.com is available to developers running the latest versions of OS X and iOS.

Available at beta.icloud.com, I managed to grab a screenshot before Apple quickly pulled the website and started redirecting it to iCloud’s public website. The beta page showed a testing environment, and I was able to see the Notes icon in the background, as tweeted by Troughton-Smith.

The accidental availability of iCloud’s beta webpage seems to suggest Apple will announce more web-based functionality for the service at its upcoming WWDC event in June. Just last week, a series of web notifications were briefly showed on iCloud.com.

Update: Courtesy of reader Benjamin Crozat, here’s a larger screenshot showing the just-pulled iCloud.com website. It appears Apple also had a testing website available at developer.icloud.com, which has started redirecting to the company’s public iCloud product website as well.

Update #2: As noted by Tom Klaver, strings in website’s code suggest a beta of iOS 6 will be necessary to use the new web apps. The icon Apple was using for Reminders is also available on Apple’s servers here.

Update #3: Interestingly enough, other code strings from developer.icloud.com point to a new developer icon on Apple’s servers. Currently, Apple offers a developer portal for iCloud at developer.apple.com/icloud with links to downloads and documentation. As several developers have wished for Apple to provide more debugging tools for iCloud-enabled apps, however, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see new web-based tools for iCloud being unveiled at WWDC.

Image via SlideToLock:

Adobe Launches Creative Cloud, Proto, Collage for iPad, Updates Touch Apps

This morning, Adobe officially launched Creative Cloud, the company’s new subscription-based service that gives users access to CS6 applications, Touch apps, and other tools for a monthly fee. Described as a “digital hub” to download apps, access online services, and share files, Creative Cloud comes with various online storage options to store files directly on Adobe’s servers and access them at any time from connected apps, such as the Touch ones released or updated today.

Creative Cloud starts at $29.99 per month with a one year contract for qualified customers (all registered users with CS3 or later); standard pricing, as detailed in the image below, starts at $49.99 per month with a one year contract, or $74.99 per month with no contract required. Unsurprisingly, Adobe maintained the same pricing scheme for European customers, with subscriptions starting at €29.99, €49.99 and €74.99. The Adobe Touch Apps, available on the App Store, will give users with an Adobe ID one free month of Creative Cloud with “2GB of cloud storage plus the ability to sync between tablet and desktop, access files from the web, and easily share with others.”

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Say Hello To Amazing Alex, The Next Game From The Makers Of Angry Birds

Rovio’s CEO today revealed on Finnish TV that the next Rovio game will be called Amazing Alex and will launch within two months. Rovio will be reworking the game a little and it will center around Alex (the main character) who is a “curious young boy who loves to build things”.

“The quality pressure is high. We want to maintain the high standard Angry Birds fans have come to enjoy,” Hed said.

It’ll be based off of Casey’s Contraptions (see above image) which Rovio yesterday acquired to, from developers Snappy Touch and Mystery Coconut. On that acquisition, Rovio’s VP of franchise development, Ville Heijari, said yesterday that “The gameplay is a perfect fit in our arsenal with its approachable, fun and highly addictive take on the physics puzzler genre”. He also noted that Rovio was “reworking the title to enhance it”, so that it was in the Rovio style of “expect the unexpected”.

The Next Web points out that Rovio already owns the domain amazingalex.com as WHOIS records show. Today’s news comes after a stunning week for Rovio, hitting 1 billion Angry Birds downloads and revealing first-quarter revenues of 75.4 million euros (roughly US$106.3 M).

[yle, via The Next Web]

Pocket 4.1 Adds Dark Theme, Pagination, Refinements

Following a massive 4.0 update that saw Read It Later turn into Pocket (our review), founder Nate Weiner told us the new platform they had built would allow them to ”iterate and move faster than ever before”. Less than a month after Pocket’s launch, a major 4.1 update has been released today, bringing some new features and several refinements to the app that wants to make “save for later” mainstream.

In my original review, I noted how there was no way to manually add links into Pocket, either with a “+” button or through automatic clipboard detection for URLs, like Instapaper does. Pocket 4.1 introduces a subtle, good-looking dialog for added URLs that gracefully slides up from the bottom of the screen every time you launch Pocket with a URL available in the iOS clipboard. I still think Pocket should also have a manual button to enter new URLs, but the addition of clipboard integration improved my app-switching workflow nevertheless.

The most important changes in Pocket 4.1 are visual, as the app adds a bunch of new options to customize the look of the reading view and improve readability in different settings. New dark and sepia themes focus on high-contrast reading, and an application-wide dark option has also been enabled to make the UI easier on the eye for those who like to use Pocket at night. I like the new dark theme, as it really helps in navigating the inbox when I’m using Pocket while my girlfriend is sleeping and I don’t want to wake her with my iPhone’s display. Plus, the overall design of the theme is reminiscent of the old Read It Later in some way, which is a nice cameo. I am no fan of Sepia, but I guess it’s good to have options.

In the reading view itself, the Pocket team increased the maximum font size supported by the app – good for visually impaired users – and created a new pagination mode that lets you conveniently read long articles as single pages. Switching between “classic mode” and pagination isn’t a setting – rather, you can activate “page flipping”, as the team calls it, by swiping left or right on screen. The effect is pleasant, responsive, but I prefer to read my articles as #longreads I can scroll.

A minor change that I am deeply enjoying in version 4.1 is support for Devour and TED. For those not familiar with Devour, it is a website that collects “awesome videos” from YouTube every day, embedding them in a clean, neatly designed layout that is easy and fun to browse every day. Pocket 4.1 saves Devour.com URLs as video thumbnails, which support the fancy video player introduced in version 4.0.

Pocket 4.0 was a great app, but the improvements made to the service lately and this new version have turned the product into an experience that fits my reading and watching habits even more. You can find Pocket 4.1 on the App Store.

Facebook Introduces App Center

Facebook has introduced App Center, a new way to distribute Facebook apps to more than half a billion users in order to centralize existing apps and easily allow developers to publish new ones in the future.

Today, we’re announcing the App Center, a new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of apps to be successful.

With today’s introduction, Facebook has opened a beta phase for all developers. Starting today, developers can create and lay out their app’s detail page within the App Center (see example above) using predetermined guidelines. If you’re really fast and submit a finished layout before May 18, your app will be listed with higher priority when App Center launches. The submitted apps are checked and controlled with fixed quality perceptions in mind, and if they get approved, they’ll be available at the initial launch of App Center — Facebook didn’t specify a fixed launch date though.

Additionally, there’s a new feature added to their statistics app Insights: it’s a user feedback monitoring tool that uses a new, visual app ratings metric (see image below).

App Center will also go mobile through the iOS app, using a layout comparable to its possible future competitor, Apple’s App Store:

The App Center is designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook – whether they’re on iOS, Android or the mobile web. From the mobile App Center, users can browse apps that are compatible with their device, and if a mobile app requires installation, they will be sent to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.

To make your app ready for iOS or Android, the app just needs to use Facebook login. For the first time, there will also be the possibility to offer paid apps through App Center.

Many developers have been successful with in-app purchases, but to support more types of apps on Facebook.com, we will give developers the option to offer paid apps. This is a simple-to-implement payment feature that lets people pay a flat fee to use an app on Facebook.com.

As of now, developers can visit the new App Center tab on the developer website to create their app’s detail page for the new Facebook App Center.

10.7.4 OS X Update Now Available: Fixes “Stuck Reopen Windows” Bug [Update: Safari 5.1.7 also Released]

Apple has released 10.7.4 for OS X, which brings significant bug fixes, network improvements, and Safari 5.1.6 (a performance and stability update). Release notes for the 730 MB download can be found on Apple’s support pages.

Download links for the 10.7.4 update have been posted below:

The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes fixes that:

  • Resolve an issue in which the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled.
    Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards.
  • Addresses permission issues that may be caused if you use the Get Info inspector function “Apply to enclosed items…” on your home directory. For more information, see this article.
  • Improve Internet sharing of PPPoE connections.
  • Improve using a proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file.
  • Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to an SMB server.
  • Improve printing to an SMB print queue.
  • Improve performance when connecting to a WebDAV server.
  • Enable automatic login for NIS accounts.
  • Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
  • Improve the reliability of binding and logging into Active Directory accounts.
  • The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes Safari 5.1.6, which contains stability improvements.

Also released, contrary to the 10.7.4 release notes, is a separate download for Safari 5.1.7. This update disables out-of-date versions of Adobe’s Flash Player to address security concerns, but a manual fix is provided if you’d like to reenable the outdated Flash Player installed on your system. Information about Safari 5.1.7 can be found on the following support page. You can check Software Update, or download 5.1.7 from Apple’s website.

Safari 5.1.7 for OS X Lion and Safari 5.1.7 for OS X Snow Leopard disable out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player.

Out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player do not include the latest security updates and will be disabled to help keep your Mac secure. If Safari 5.1.7 detects an out-of-date version of Flash Player on your system, you will see a dialog informing you that Flash Player has been disabled. The dialog provides the option to go directly to Adobe’s website, where you can download and install an updated version of Flash Player.

Rovio: Angry Birds Games Reach 1 Billion Downloads

With a blog post and a video published this morning, Finnish game maker Rovio announced the Angry Birds franchise has reached 1 billion game downloads across all platforms. Just two weeks ago, Rovio said the latest entry in the series – Angry Birds Space – had become the fastest growing mobile game to date with 50 million downloads in 35 days. Today’s numbers mark an important milestone for Rovio, which earlier this week revealed its financial results for the year 2011 for the first time, hinting at a possible IPO in the future. In 2011, the company reported revenue of €75.4 million ($106,3 million), with earnings before tax of €48,0 million ($67.6 million) or 64% of total revenue in 2011, and hired 196 people.

Angry Birds downloads had reached 648 million by the end of 2011, confirming the company saw an additional 352 million downloads across all platforms in the first five months of 2012. The original Angry Birds for iPhone was launched in December 2009, and it took 6 months to reach 5 million downloads. Angry Birds is, according to Apple, the top paid iPhone app of all time, with other entries in the top free and paid charts for iPhone and iPad as well.

Angry Birds games are now available on a variety of platforms, including iOS, Android, OS X, Facebook, Google Chrome, and Sony’s PSP and Play Station 3. In November 2011, Rovio announced Angry Birds games had reached half a billion downloads.

New iPad Launches In 30 Additional Countries This Week

Off to a “tremendous start”, Apple’s new iPad has also become the company’s fastest rollout to date, adding 56 launch countries in 42 days, and, later this week, 30 additional countries with two separate rollouts during the weekend. As confirmed by Apple’s Latin America website (via MacRumors), the new iPad will launch in 23 countries on Friday, May 11; MacRumors also examined other international Apple websites in the Middle East, and confirmed Apple will also roll out the new iPad in 7 countries (including Egypt and United Arab Emirates) on Saturday, May 12.

As usual, here’s a recap of the iPad’s launch dates, plus units sold until Q2 2012.

March 16 (10 countries): United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the UK.

March 23 (25 countries): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

April 20 (12 countries): South Korea, Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela.

April 27 (9 countries): Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand.

May 5: Turkey (quiet launch).

May 11 (23 countries): Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Morocco, Peru, Taiwan, Tunisia and Vietnam.

May 12 (7 countries): Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

With this week’s launches, the new iPad will be available in 87 countries worldwide (including Turkey) after 57 days. With 12 million units sold in the past quarter, Apple said the new iPad is “off to a great start”.

Apple Releases iOS 5.1.1 [Direct Links]

Apple has just released a new version of iOS, 5.1.1. The new version is showing up now on iTunes, and should be propagating shortly to Apple’s servers. iOS 5.1.1 includes “improvements and bug fixes”; as reported from the official changelog:

  • Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
  • Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
  • Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
  • Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
  • Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

Apple’s last major update to iOS, version 5.1, was released in March.

iOS 5.1.1 direct download links below (build number 9B206).