Posts in news

Adobe Releases Its Flash To HTML5 Conversion Tool

Adobe has released its Flash to HTML5 conversion tool to its Adobe Labs website for designers and developers to easily produce HTML5 (and thus iOS compatible) content from a Flash project. John Nack, the Principal Product Manager at Adobe said back in October last year (when the tool was announced) that Adobe’s goal was to “Cut the cost of targeting multiple runtimes & we’ll deliver real wins”.

The tool, codenamed “Wallaby” is limited and far from complete but it should work fine with most Flash banner ads, however projects utilizing ActionScript are currently not supported by the tool. The tool allows simple drag and drop conversion and Adobe says that it “allows you to reuse and extend the reach of your content to devices that do not support the Flash runtimes.”

Whilst Adobe is not at all backing off from backing Flash, it certainly seems that they have been forced into implementing HTML5 support in order to please its customers who see the wide usage of devices such as the iPad and iPhone which don’t support Flash. It is also evident that at least part of Steve Job’s ‘Thoughts on Flash’ article from last April is coming true;

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

[Via The Loop]

Seventh Beta of 10.6.7 Now Available in Mac Dev Center

Earlier today Apple seeded the seventh beta of OS X 10.6.7 (a Snow Leopard update, not Lion) and is available for developers at the Mac Dev Center. The build number is 10J868.

There are no known issues with the build and as has been a similar case with previous betas, Apple is asking developers to focus on Safari, Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB, and Graphics Drivers.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Rdio Gets A Native Mac App

Rdio for Mac

Rdio for Mac

If you wanted to use Rdio without the Adobe Air component (which I thought was pretty good), there is now an official Rdio player built for the OS X desktop. The custom Rdio interface takes on a life of its own by disobeying Aqua’s color scheme for the dark blue seen in Rdio’s online playback controls, and we’d be dipped if it didn’t look a little like iTunes. Similar to something like Songbird, Rdio enables users to browse the site through the music interface, and can scan your music collection just like the Air app did. If you can purchase individual songs, they’ll be added to your iTunes library.

Rdio isn’t available in the Mac App Store - the download is only available to Rdio subscribers through www.rdio.com. You can sign up for a free trial, then navigate to the Rdio for Mac page for a free download.

[via The Next Web, Read Write Web]

Jailbreak Hack Puts Verizon iPhone on Pay-As-You-Go Network

Not so popular over here in Italy but apparently widely recognized in the States, pay-as-you-go networks allow you to get a phone from shady stores / individuals with pre-paid credit to consume at your own needs. Personally I prefer to keep my iPhone in safe waters with a proper subscription and data usage, but there’s some people who really prefer the pre-paid option over a more “secure” carrier offer. As noted by Engadget, it is possible to make the CDMA Verizon iPhone run on Cricket’s pay-as-you-go network, but you’ll have to jailbreak your phone, install some utility to set up the process and let a Cricket guy flash the device’s memory for you. Hmm. Would you trust that?

Still, it’s possible. Check out the video proof below. Read more

Apple Removing 32 Games and 3rd Party Mac Products from Retail Stores

According to The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple, Apple is in the process of removing a series of boxed games and third-party Mac products from its retail stores to make room for other services that require space and additional employees. Namely, Apple has apparently decided to cut 32 games off the shelves and products like printers, hard drives and scanners to leave plenty of room for employees to work on the “personalized setups”, a service launched in January that allows customers to go through a friendly Mac setup process together with an Apple Store employee that will guide them through the first OS X installation, iTunes account creation and Mail setup.

Due to the popularity of the personalized service, Apple is expanding it and will need to make more room for employees to work with customers.

Among the products that will no longer be displayed in the retail stores are printers, scanners and possible some hard drives. These peripherals will still be stocked in the store and available if a customer requests them.

At the point of sale, the Apple salesperson will still recommend the customer purchase one of those peripherals if they feel it fits in with the customer’s purchase.

With the removal of 32 games from the Apple Store, the number of games being displayed on the shelves will go down to around 8 per store, according to The Loop. It also appears that employees will being suggesting customers to go look for games in the Mac App Store – again, a very easy way to promote the new digital online store in the heavily trafficked retail locations. Apple has also recently stopped selling boxed copies of MobileMe, which is now exclusively available online and it’s rumored to be revamped soon with a free version for iOS and Mac users.

64 GB iPhone 4 Prototypes On Sale in Hong Kong?

Take this with the proverbial grain of salt, but as noted by M.I.C. Gadget it appears that a series of iPhone 4s with capacity of 64 GB have been put on sale in grey markets of Hong Kong. The sellers are claiming these are “engineering prototypes” snatched directly from Apple in some way, running iOS 4.1 build 8B117 and carrying a lot of XXXs where the model numbers are ID should be.

According to Unwire.hk, this suspicious 64GB model has started selling in Sin Tak, the greatest grey market in Hong Kong, and the sellers claimed that these are engineered models and available in small quantity.

Do we believe this? Personally not so much, but I wouldn’t be surprised to know someone in mainland China managed to get a 64 GB prototype (which it’s very likely Apple has been testing for years) and put it on sale. What about the “small quantity” though? Did they really get multiple prototypes from a single source? Might as well be fake, considering how Apple could easily block and wipe these units remotely.

Still, a 64 GB iPhone would be great.

TweetDeck Teases New App That Will “Raise The Bar” On iOS

Popular service TweetDeck has announced this morning that a major update to their official iOS app is in the final stages of testing and it will be a completely revamped version of TweetDeck for iPhone and iPad. Ready to be submitted to the App Store “in the next couple of weeks”, the new iOS TweetDeck will apparently put huge focus on iOS 4 compatibility and Retina Display graphics, as well as the possibility to create “flexible” columns blending status updates and messages coming from Twitter and Facebook.

This totally new, fully iOS4-compatible TweetDeck app has been built completely from scratch. It is not only the most powerful and flexible mobile app we have ever produced, but also the most jaw-droppingly beautiful. This is the app your retina display has been crying out for.

A major new feature of iOS TweetDeck will be totally flexible columns. You want to create a column blending your Mentions and some Twitter Lists? No problem! Always wanted to see your Facebook feed and Twitter DMs in a single column? We’ve got you covered! New iOS TweetDeck puts you in control of your columns, giving total flexibility over which feeds appear in which columns. Your social world has never been so personal.

TweetDesk says the Android app has been insanely successful (in spit of fragmentation issues) and set new standards for the service on mobile platforms. The new iOS iteration promises to “raise the bar” for iPhone and iPad apps – something we’re pretty sure several users are looking forward to after the whole Twitter Quick Bar debacle.

Whether or not TweetDeck will prove itself to be the answer to an official Twitter client clearly shifting the focus to promoted tweets and ads, we’ll have to wait and see.

Apple Asks Developers To Update Apps for iPad 2

In a note posted on the iOS Dev Center and, most specifically, on the webpage that lists the new features of the upcoming iOS 4.3, Apple is asking developers to update their apps for the iPad 2 to take advantage of the improved hardware performances of the device.

With a new A5 dual-core chip running at 1 Ghz per core, Apple clearly mentions that most operations inside applications will be faster “ouf of the box” but developers can further tune their software with tools like OpenGL Profiler for “greater performance”. Even though Apple hasn’t stated how much RAM went inside the iPad 2, the A5 chip alone should be twice as fast than the A4 in iPad 1 with graphic performances up to 9x faster. Most apps will be generally faster on the iPad 2, but developers can manually update their apps to use the new iPad 2 hardware if they want to.

Developers are also asked to enhance their apps “with new user experiences” thanks to the iPad 2 cameras and gyroscope + accelerometer. While the possible implementations of rear and front-facing cameras are pretty obvious (self portraits and HD video, expect a lot of Photo Booth and iMovie alternatives coming from 3rd party developers), Apple has put the focus on the precision granted by the combination of gyroscope and accelerometer with “6-axis of motion sensing, including user acceleration, full 3D attitude, and rotation rate”.

The iPad 2 will be released on March 11 and it will come with a special version of iOS 4.3 (containing FaceTime and Photo Booth) pre-installed.

iPad 2 Launch Details Roundup

There has been an avalanche of information regarding the iPad 2 launch since the Apple event last week so if you are confused, unsure or just want a refresher on the launch details just jump the break for a full roundup of all the important details!

Also be sure to check out our iPad 2 roundup to get all the details what exactly is new and awesome about the iPad 2.

Read more