Posts in news

OneLessDrop: Keep Cables From Sliding Off Your Desk

Annoying scenario I experience every single day: my MacBook Pro is on my desk. It’s charging. The iPhone is on the desk as well, charging. Something happens – like my dog, walking under my desk and touching the cables – and boom: the iPhone drops off my desk while still attached to the cable, my MacBook disconnects from the MagSafe. This is very, very annoying. And you know, the iPhone might break, too.

OneLessDrop is an interesting Kickstarter project that’s aimed at keeping your cables in place, avoiding the risk of letting them slide off your desk or coffee table. The widget is made of recycled aluminum (we approve) and has enough room for supporting iOS cables, or the usual MagSafe power cord. It looks very nice (at least from the mockups posted on Kickstarter) and pledges start at $25 with free shipping in the US.

OneLessDrop is a solid block of recycled and recyclable aluminum - made from things like discarded wheels and engine blocks. Once extruded to shape, each OneLessDrop is hand finished (brushing or blasted finish TBD), then anodized for durability. Non-slip pads OneLessDrop ample grip.

Demo video is available on the Kickstarter page, together with more photos and a detailed description from the creator of the OneLessDrop. [via The Brooks Review]

Verizon iPhone Pre-Orders Break Sales Record In 2 Hours

We don’t know how many Verizon iPhones were available for pre-order last night, but Verizon Wireless has just announced that they break any previous sales record in 2 hours. This is a new record in Verizon’s online pre-order history, and the company seems to be pretty pleased with the results:

In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history.

Press release embedded below. [via Engadget]

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Verizon iPhone Already Shipping to Customers

Pre-orders are sold out since last night, and it appears that Verizon has already begun shipping the iPhone 4 to selected customers. A MacStories reader sent us the screenshot above, the order is being shipped through UPS (Engadget got a similar screenshot with FedEx delivery) but we’re not able to see an estimated delivery just yet. We wouldn’t be surprised, though, to hear that some customers will receive the unit a few days before the official launch.

If you happen to receive a shiny CDMA iPhone ahead of Verizon’s huge “It begins” day, our tips inbox is waiting for you. [Thanks, Henry!]

Finally: Previous Purchases Coming To iOS App Store

Apple is updating its iOS App Store tonight. After search filters, Apple added a much requested feature: apps already purchased get an “Install” button instead of the usual “Buy” one. Why is this a big deal? Because having the “Buy” button was confusing, as it wasn’t easy to remember which apps you had already bought. Now, if you’re trying to install an app you have already bought one, it’s much easier.

Sure, it’s not as useful as the “Purchases” tab in the Mac App Store (which lets you see all your app purchase history at once), but we think this is a great (and much needed) first step nonetheless. The new feature is only enabled on the iPad App Store right now, but it shouldn’t be a problem for Apple to add it to the iPhone and iPod touch as well (unlike filters, which require some screen space).

Thanks, App Store team.

Developers: You Can Now Generate Promo Codes for Mac Apps

An update in iTunes Connect shows that developers can now generate promo codes for apps sold in the Mac App Store:

You can now generate promo codes for your Mac apps in iTunes Connect. These promo codes can be redeemed in any Mac App Store worldwide. For each version of your app, you can request up to 50 promo codes.

Up until today, Apple didn’t allow developers to generate promo codes for Mac apps. The also-updated iTunes Connect Developer guide further explains:

Promo codes can now be generated for Mac OS X apps and redeemed through any Mac App Store internationally.

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The Daily Is Heading To The United Kingdom

The Daily Twitter

The Daily Twitter

The Daily (@Daily) tweeted the folks over at the Guardian that they’ll soon be bringing The Daily to the United Kingdom. It’s not known what The Daily would comprise, but we assume our friends across the pond would be happy not to have the American’s “snowpocalypse” on the front page. And just so we’re clear, get schooled on the difference between the United Kingdom, England, and Great Britain thanks to fantastic video.

[The Daily UK via RazorianFly, UK Explained via @jenna, @jazer]

A Great Simplenote Update: Dropbox Integration and Lists

Over the past few weeks I’ve been testing a new version of Simplenote, which just went live in the App Store. The new Simplenote, which reaches version 3.1, is a huge update that adds many requested features and a great surprise from the developers: the app now comes with native Dropbox support, configurable in the Settings. Simplenote can now sync text files back to a “Simplenote” folder in your Dropbox account (you can rename it), and syncing sessions happen every several minutes, but can be triggered manually. Dropbox integration is a feature exclusive to the Premium subscription, which can be purchased for $12 a year. In my tests, Dropbox syncing has been very reliable and now allows me to natively integrate Simplenote with a plethora of other iOS and Mac word processors that support Dropbox. Read more

Apple Releases Xcode 4 GM

Apple just released a GM seed of Xcode 4. It’s available now in the iOS and Mac dev centers. The release of the GM seed means the final version of Xcode 4 is nearing completion and should be available soon.

Xcode 4 is a major new version of Apple’s development suite which sports lots of new features and a new single-windowed UI. The first version of Xcode 4 preview was released during the WWDC in June, the second build was seeded in late July, Preview 3 was made available on September 2, Preview 4 was released in October. The latest developer seed, preview 6, was released on January 10.

From the release notes:

Xcode 4 GM seed can now be used to submit iOS and Mac apps to the App Store.

Xcode 4 GM seed includes the iOS SDK 4.2 and Mac OS X SDK 10.6.

The ReadMe file of the GM seed also comes with an interesting notice:

Xcode 4 requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or later.

Which we’re sure is just a mistake on the release notes.

Update: it appears that Apple has pulled the GM seed from the developer center, which shows Preview 6 again. Perhaps a bug was found at the last minute, so we guess it should be back shortly.

Update #2: the GM seed is available again in the Dev Center. The OS X 10.7 mention has been removed:

Xcode 4 requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later. See the installation notes below for additional information.