Posts in news

Apple Releases Messages Beta, An Early Taste Of Mountain Lion

Update: I’ve included initial impressions of the new Messages app for OS X below the break. Links also added to our OS X Mountain Lion coverage.

Apple has today released a developer preview of Mountain Lion, the next version of OS X. We have full coverage of that in this article, but in short, a big part of this release will be how iOS and OS X continue to merge and interweave. One aspect of that will include Apple removing the iChat app from OS X and replacing it with a new app, simply called Messages.

The new app will allow users to chat with someone using either their Apple ID or phone number, that should ring a bell because that’s exactly what iMessage does. It’ll also retain the traditional chat services such as AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber - so don’t worry about your old iChat handle, it’ll continue to exist.As should be expected, Messages will keep conversations synced across all your devices.

Download Messages Beta and get a taste of what’s coming in OS X Mountain Lion. When you install Messages, it replaces iChat. But iChat services will continue to work. And Messages brings iMessage to the Mac — just like on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 5. Here are the features you can expect with Messages:

  • Send unlimited iMessages to any Mac, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.*
  • Start an iMessage conversation on your Mac and continue it on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
  • Send photos, videos, attachments, contacts, locations, and more.
  • Launch a FaceTime video call and bring the conversation face-to-face.
  • Messages supports iMessage, AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, and Jabber accounts

Better yet, a Messages beta is now available from Apple’s website. Just note that it will replace your install of iChat. Jump the break for some first impressions and screenshots.

[Via The Loop]

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Apple Adds Screenshots And Promo Codes To The iBookstore For Publishers

The iBookstore now has support for screenshots and promo codes, according to an iTunes Connect letter that was sent to content publishers today and that TUAW obtained. Content publishers are now able to giveaway 50 free codes that redeem a copy of a book they are selling on the iBookstore — something developers on the App Store have long been able to do. No doubt it will be helpful for publishers trying to get their books reviewed and for when they want to run promotional give-aways.

The other big change is that publishers can now also submit screenshots of the book. This new feature will be most useful for multi-touch books that are created with the iBooks Author app. Like the App Store, Apple is specific about the dimensions and formats it will accept for this: 1024 x 768 or 768 x 1024 in RGB, formatted as either .jpeg, .jpg or .png.

Apple has also made a minor change to how pre-orders are handled on the iBookstore. From now on, publishers need not upload a cover or any other assets until two weeks prior to publication, but can still offer the product for pre-order.

[Via TUAW]

SHAPE Creates iPhone App to Get WWDC Ticket Alerts

Apple’s WWDC, or Worldwide Developers Conference, is the highlight for Apple developers working with iOS and OS X operating systems. WWDC is a great opportunity for peers to meet and greet and learn more about each other and the industry as a whole. It’s also a highlight for anyone that looks forward to hearing announcements and product reveals from Apple, such as a new iPhone and major iOS updates.

After last year’s WWDC, SHAPE met with many fellow developers and in turn the experience inspired them to continue making better apps. Tickets for WWDC can be hard to come by, last year’s event sold out in less than 10 hours and many developers missed their chance to get tickets because of travel, sleep, work arrangements, etc. This year could sell out as fast or even faster than 2011.

SHAPE took it upon themselves to develop an app specifically for WWDC ticket sales that works as an alarm. It monitors twitter for the keyword “wwdc” and also patrols the official WWDC site for changes. When announcements or keywords are triggered, the app sends a push notification and will activate an alarm within the WWDC app.

Video after the break. Read more

Apple Responds to Contact Data Access, Will Now Require Explicit User Approval

It’s been a week since the Path (and other iOS apps) debacle regarding access and storage of address book data, and now Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told AllThingsD that soon apps that use address book data will require explicit user permission to do so.

Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told AllThingsD. “We’re working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release.

Apple has done the right thing by addressing this issue as it has blown up all over the Internet, The Next Web has a nice rundown of “What iOS apps are grabbing your data, why they do it and what should be done.” Apple users can be assured that in the near future no app can read and transmit contact data without the users permission.

Apple’s response comes right off the heels of an inquiry to Congress that iOS developers could be accessing and storing user data without permission.

This incident raises questions about whether Apple’s iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts,” House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Commerce Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee Chair G.K. Butterfield said in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook. “How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit information from the address book? How many of those ask for the user’s consent before transmitting their contacts’ information?

The entire letter from the committee can be read over at AllThingsD.

Apple To Stream Tim Cook’s Presentation at Goldman Sachs Conference Tomorrow

setteB.IT notes that Apple will provide a live stream of CEO Tim Cook’s presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference tomorrow. Apple has indeed refreshed its Investor page to include a link to the QuickTime audio webcast, which will be live at 12:30 PM PT tomorrow, February 14th.

Welcome to the audio webcast of Tim Cook’s presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. The presentation will begin at approximately 12:30pm PT/3:30pm ET on Tuesday, February 14, 2012. Please note that comments made during the presentation may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements.

As it happened in the past when Cook was COO, we should expect interesting details and comments from the presentation. This is the first time Cook is speaking as Apple CEO – make sure to check out reports from the 2010 and 2008 conferences.

Fair Labor Association Begins Its Inspections Of Apple’s Suppliers

The first inspections by the Fair Labor Association began today at Foxconn City in Shenzhen according to an Apple Press Release issued just a short time ago. It is the beginning of special, voluntary, audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers that was announced earlier in January this year when Apple joined the Fair Labor Association.

“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”

A team of labor experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerdan will interview thousands of employees at Apple’s suppliers about working and living conditions, health, safety, working hours, compensation and communication with management. Inspections of the facilities and reviews of procedure documentation will also be undertaken in the FLA assessment.

An initial report with early findings and recommendations will be released by the Fair Labor Association and will be followed up by inspections of the Quanta and Pegatron facilities later this Spring. Apple’s full press release is located after the break.

Image via Wired.

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VLC 2.0 for Mac Final Design Previewed, Coming This Week

Popular media player VLC is about to reach version 2.0 final and Felix Kühne, current lead developer of VLC’s Mac OS X port, has posted a series of screenshots detailing the final user interface design that we’ll see in the 2.0 update once it goes public “later this week”. The screenshots, available over at Kühne’s blog, show a dramatic change from VLC’s current design on the Mac, with a new sidebar for your playlists, Internet sources, and media on your computer and local network. The new design was created by Damien Erambert, and the first concepts date back to 2008. The interface of VLC 2.0 for Mac will offer a series of advantages over the older version from a functionality standpoint as well:

VLC 2.0’s interface for Mac is dramatically different from its previous revision, both technically and usage-wise. Playlist and video output share the same window, service discovery modules can be easily accessed through a sidebar and various audio + video filters are available through the respective panels. Besides that, the interface is noticeably faster and easily expandable. Speaking of that, we also added support for VLC’s lua-based extensions, which allow you to get info about the current movie from Allociné, post to Twitter, fetch subtitles automatically, etc.

Previously known as VLC 1.2, VLC 2.0 is a major rewrite of the application, which now includes several bug fixes, new features, and a redesigned interface. Alongside improved performances and optimizations for Lion, VLC 2.0 comes with many new features including initial support for Blu-Ray Discs, new subtitle management and blending in video outputs, support for multiple files inside RAR archives, and an all-new 64-bit version for Windows users (VLC 2.0 for Windows won’t feature a new interface as seen on OS X). A complete list of changes from VLC 1.x to VLC 2.0 is available here; the developers didn’t mention anything specific about the “mobile port” for iOS and Android devices.

VLC 2.0 will be available later this week at VideoLAN’s website. More screenshots of the final Mac UI have been posted on Flickr.

Instagram 2.1 Released: Updated UI, Lux, New Sierra Filter

A major update to photo-sharing application Instagram was released today, and for the first time it includes new interface element designed by the extremely talented (and recently hired by Instagram) Tim Van Damme. Whilst the original Instagram launched a trend of “apps with a large action button in the bottom toolbar”, Instagram 2.1 has been refreshed to include a more standard – yet beautiful to look at – toolbar with icons to browse your feed, liked items, profile, and of course take a new picture. You can see more of Instagram’s new pixels over at Tim’s Dribbble.

The new Instagram also features a new filter, Sierra, and a photo enhancing system called Lux that, according to the company, will enable you to make your photos more vibrant with just one touch. This functionality reminds me of Camera+’s Clarity effect, and it’s interesting to see how Lux is meant to enhance the original look of a photo, not apply a vintage effect. I wonder if this will signal a change in the Instagram community’s overall trend towards heavily modified photos.

We’ve given you a new way to instantly transform the look and feel of your photos. In just one tap, Lux works its magic by making your photos more vibrant and bringing out details you couldn’t see before. Use it with a filter or without.

I’ve played around with the update, and it’s solid. The app seems a little faster, the new UI is very elegant, and I think the Lux effect is very promising in that it will help users avoid the need of applying effects to photos just to make them look “different” – I like how Lux focuses on making an iPhone’s default output simply better. Other improvements in this update include the possibility of tapping on a push notification to get directly to a photo, and an option to change your profile photo from your profile page.

Instagram 2.1 is available on the App Store.

All Things D: Apple Will Announce iPad 3 In Early March

The typically reliable John Paczkowski at All Things D is claiming this morning that Apple’s next iPad, so far unofficially dubbed the iPad 3, will be announced by Apple at a media event in San Francisco in the first week of March. This rumor, if true, will follow last year’s announcement timeframe – the iPad 2 was unveiled on March 2, and went on sale on March 11 in the United States.

Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2 and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these. No word yet on a street date for the iPad 3 (assuming that’s what it’s called), though my guess is retail availability will follow roughly the same schedule as that of the iPad 2: available for purchase a week or so after the event.

In his story, Paczkowski reiterates previous rumors of a device sharing roughly the same form factor of the iPad 2, only carrying a higher resolution display, possibly a “Retina” one with 2048 x 1536 pixels of resolution. This is not the first time a major publication has weighed in to speculate on the features and release date of the next-generation iPad: back in January, a Bloomberg report claimed that the iPad 3 would feature LTE, a Retina Display, and a quad-core Apple-branded processor to power the device’s higher resolution screen. As for other rumors surrounding the device, it’s been speculated that the iPad 3 would be slightly thicker than the iPad 2 to accomodate a bigger battery and different display, with parts floating around China suggesting that the increase in thickness should be around 1 millimiter. Other parts have surfaced as well among Chinese retailers, albeit they simply don’t offer any insight into the possible functionalities of the new iPad.

All Things D has been a very reliable source of Apple information in the past, correctly predicting the iPhone 4S’ October launch and Apple education event of January 2012.