Posts in news

OWC To Transform Your Mac Mini Into The Media Center You Always Wanted

There’s those that live in iTunes with the Apple TV, and then there’s those that live off an assortment of digital media with a mess of HTPCs, NAS storage boxes, and long runs of ethernet. Mac Minis turn out to be pretty good multimedia centers at an affordable price point, and OWC wants to take your initial box and transform it into a powerful, redundant, and blu-ray capable monster. With OWC’s Media Center Solution program, they’ll upgrade your Mac Mini to the max, toss in a new RAID storage server, outfit your Mac Mini with an external Blu-Ray drive, and give you the option of a couple Elegato HDTV USB plugins so you have an effortless connection to your flatscreen. Why pay OWC when you could set all of this stuff up yourself? Well if you’re not terribly handy with cables, screwdrivers, or can’t stand the initial software setup between all these boxes, think of OWC as the cable installer (at least not Comcast ones): he’ll set you up and all you’ll have to do is turn on the TV. The best part of OWC’s package is that it’s easy to judge how much storage you need thanks to easy site layout – OWC plans to turn a complicated setup into a simple install starting a base price of $700.

[via Cult of Mac]

Active Storage To Replace The Discontinued Xserve

A report from 9to5mac earlier this week suggested that Apple started recommending a product from company Active Storage to customers in the Xserve, which as you may remember will be officially discontinued on January 31st. Indeed, shipping status on Apple.com for the Xserves indicates that orders will be shipped on April –  likely the last units that are being sold these days.

In the meantime, a teaser page on Active Storage’s website features a countdown to a new product that will be launched on Monday. As noted by MacRumors, the teaser device (covered by black cloth) looks like a rackmountable unit:

The teaser image appears to show a rackmountable hardware unit, seemingly in a 2U form factor, covered with a black cloth. While the company has released no other information about the forthcoming product, it does appear as though Active Storage is preparing to fill the void left by the Xserve’s discontinuation, quite possibly with Apple’s blessing and assistance.

Active Storage was founded by Apple employees that left the company in 2008. It is unclear what kind of support will Apple give Active Storage in recommending the product to its existing customers, but at this point we guess Active Storage will provide more details next week.

Doodle Jump Makes Deal with Hollywood Studio

The Doodle Jump developers Lima Sky have announced an unexpected deal with Hollywood studio Universal to bring movies into their popular iPhone game. What at first may sound like just another tie-in it’s actually something a bit more clever: Doodle Jump users will get a special Easter-themed level featuring the main character of upcoming Universal’s movie “Hop” as a bonus.

Doodle Jump isn’t new to “special levels” and themed-updates; a Hollywood deal, however, might increase the app’s popularity even more as Universal promotes Doodle Jump as the iPhone game featuring Hop.

How long is the road to Disney movies and Angry Birds now? [via TUAW]

Autodesk: Mac App Store Doubled Sketchbook Pro Sales in 20 Days

The Mac App Store isn’t even one month old and we have already heard several stories of success from Mac developers. The most notable one comes from Pixelmator, which grossed $1 million in less than 20 days into the new store; we have covered other experiences from developers in our Mac App Store hub. Autodesk (makers of AutoCAD) announced in a private event in San Francisco that the Mac App Store version of Sketchbook Pro, a painting and drawing application, has sold twice as many copies as the regular version did in the entire year. In 20 days. That’s quite an achievement, I would say.

The Loop reports Autodesk also had to ship a different version of Sketchbook Pro in order to be approved by Apple:

For example, Mac App Store apps aren’t supposed to use private APIs, can’t incorporate their own end user licensing agreements, and can’t employ separate copy protection. As a result, sharing code with the iOS version made the process easier, though SketchBook Pro is scaled up to take advantage of the increased processing power and memory footprint of the Mac.

Last year, Autodesk also released a new version of AutoCAD for Mac with an entirely redesigned interface and graphic engine, and shipped a mobile counterpart called “AutoCAD WS” for iPhone and iPad.

New Apple Distributor in Greater China To Open 500 Licensed Stores

As if Apple wasn’t having enough of a success in Greater China (the area that includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), Digitimes is now reporting that Cybermart International, a major Chinese retail chain which is part of Foxconn, has gained the status of “first-grade distributor” for Apple’s products. The plan? Open 500 new licensed stores.

Cybermart plans to set up 500 Apple licensed retail shops in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to company chairman Steve Chang. The first store will be opened in Tianjin on April 1, 2011.

This is an impressive number that will sure help increasing the popularity and visibility of Apple’s computers and mobile devices in the area. At the Q1 earnings call on January 18, Apple announced revenue in Greater China was $2.6 billion, up 4 times from the year-ago quarter. Four stores in China reported the highest traffic and highest revenue.

While authorized resellers don’t offer the same experience of an Apple Store, they sure help bringing products to the attention of consumers that live in areas where Apple Store are nowhere to be seen. And for Greater China, 500 new licensed stores sound like a good move.

iTunes 10.1.2 Now Available, Adds CDMA iPhone Compatibility

A few minutes ago Apple released iTunes 10.1.2 to the public. It’s available now in Software Update or on Apple’s website. The changelog mentions “a number of important stability and performance improvements” – we’re not really sure what they are, but I would guess on Verizon iPhone compatibility looking forward to February 10.

iTunes 10.1.2 for Windows is available here.

Update: the latest iTunes does indeed add CDMA iPhone compatibility. From the release notes in the download:

iTunes 10.1.2 syncs music, movies, and more with iPhone 4 (CDMA model) and provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.

Infographic Confirms: iOS People Use Apps More Than Web Apps

As if that wasn’t obvious enough, now we have a fancy infographic to back up everyone’s theory that iOS users care more about native apps than web apps. Created by the guys over at Appsfire, which is a neat app discovery service, the report summarizes that users spend more time in software like Mail, Instagram, Dropbox and Skype rather than applications available on the open web, which account to 12% of usage among the 1,000 devices surveyed. According to Appsfire, 32% of the time is spent in telephony apps like Phone, Messages and Skype. Unsurprising, considering that the iPhone is, well, a phone.

As for the app vs. webapp debate, it’s worth mentioning that, for as much as web technologies have improved in the past years, some functionalities of native applications can’t still be replicated in a web software. Especially on iOS, developers don’t have access to the camera app through Safari, and animations aren’t as smooth as apps written in native Cocoa Touch language. It’d be great to see webapps rise to a true level of competition over time, but right now – just take a look at the infographic below. [TechCrunch via Appsfire]

Apple & News Corp. To Hold Event on Feb. 2 To Announce The Daily

The Loop reports Apple and News Corp. will hold a media event in New York on February 2 to launch The Daily, the long rumored iPad-only digital newspaper that should rely on a new iTunes-based subscription service. This automatic billing system is rumored to be built into a new version of iOS, and we know Apple is currently testing iOS 4.3 with developers.

If the rumors are to be believed, will there be an “official” sneak peek at iOS 4.3 with subscriptions on February 2? And if The Daily will “launch” on that day, does it mean iOS 4.s3 is nearing its public release as well? Or maybe the subscription system doesn’t need to be built into iOS 4.3 at all, contrary to what the rumors suggested so far?

We will find out next week. It’s interesting that Eddy Cue, Vice President of Internet Services, will join Rupert Murdoch on stage to unveil The Daily. Perhaps these subscriptions functionalities don’t need to be baked into iOS, and could a server-side implementation on Apple’s end. It’s also worth considering that this is a News Corp. event with an Apple VP on stage – we don’t think Apple will provide an extensive preview of iOS 4.3 there.

We know that The Daily will be priced at $0.99 /week, as confirmed by News. Corp’s CEO James Murdoch.

Skype 5 Out Of Beta, Group Calling Part Of Premium Package

Skype 5 is official this morning, delivering an enhanced interface and group video calling, which is part of a paid premium package and available with a seven day trial. Otherwise, expect to pay $4.99 a day or $8.99 a month for access to the bandwidth hogging feature. Video calls are also seeing the return of the much requested full screen mode. Trimming down the interface, Skype has reduced whitespace and tightened visual accessibility, and have plans to launch a contest where Skype users can design the perfect interface for the Mac.

You can download the latest update by visiting the announcement post on Skype.com, or by visiting this direct link.