Posts in news

Apple Adds “Halloween” and “Vocabulary Apps” Sections to the App Store

Just like every Thursday, Apple added two new custom sections to the App Store: a “Halloween” one is a go this week, together with another one dubbed “Language, Grammar & Vocabulary Apps”.

The Halloween section showcases “gruesome game and other ghostly delights” such as Plants Vs. Zombies, DOOM Resurrection, Pro Zombie Soccer and Halloween Soundlab. You can check out the section (which contains more than 40 between apps and games) here.

Language, Grammar & Vocabulary Apps, on the other hand,  features reference and dictionary apps, apps for kids, grammar games and poetry applications. Gems like the official AP Stylebook app and Words with Friends are in there. You can check out the section here. Read more

Apple Seeds Xcode 4 Preview 4 To Developers

Apple has just posted a new developer preview of Xcode 4, which reaches version 4. It’s available in the Mac and iOS developer portal.

This is a pre-release version of Xcode 4, a major new release of Xcode for both Mac and iOS development. This release requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and includes the iOS SDK 4.1, to develop apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Please review the Release Notes and Readme before installing this software.

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, and Preview 3 was made available on September 2.

The Creepiest Thing You’ll See This Week: A Chinese Fake Steve Jobs

As if copying Apple products wasn’t enough, the good folks down in Hong Kong decided that setting up a keynote with a Chinese fake Steve Jobs might be a good idea. The Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway launched its official iPhone app, and they were joined by this guy to spice up the presentation a little bit.

Check out the video below. Then follow me along into thinking that this is kind of disturbing. [9to5 via WinAndMac] Read more

iPad in AT&T and Verizon Stores October 28th

Now that the iPad is being sold at Amazon, Target, Walmart and Sam’s Club, Verizon and AT&T are two more (and big ones at that!) to add to the list of the all-time fastest selling gadget. It makes sense that AT&T is going to sell the iPad in its retail stores since they already carry the iPhone line; Verizon could be making room in their showroom for the iPad because rumors are saying that a Verizon iPhone may be here very soon.

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Walt Mossberg Loves The New Outlook for Mac

Our beloved Walt Mossberg is loving the new version of Office for Mac, dubbed “2011” and dropping on October 26th. Particularly, he seems to be liking the new Outlook a lot:

I was able to import a nearly 3-gigabyte Windows Outlook data file with no problems. And I was able to easily and perfectly import all my messages and settings from Apple’s own built-in Mail program and to sync with Apple’s (AAPL) built-in Mac address book. But Microsoft is still working on syncing with Apple’s iCal calendar program, and the Outlook calendar can’t sync with Google Calendar. Also, while the new Mac Outlook can import Windows Outlook data, it can’t export its data to Windows yet. Microsoft says it is also working on that.

In general, Outlook on the Mac proved fast and capable in my tests. It doesn’t work exactly like its Windows counterpart, but Windows users will find it very similar. And it has some Mac-specific features. For instance, its contents can be easily searched by the Mac’s built-in universal search feature, Spotlight, and can be backed up by the Mac’s Time Machine backup system.

Microsoft’s new Mac Office is by far the best Mac version of the suite I’ve used, and I can recommend it.

For as much as I understand the needs of companies willing to use Macs, but stuck on Office, there’s no way I’m giving up on Mail for when it comes to desktop email. I’ll give it a try, though.