Posts in stories

Just Ahead Of Thanksgiving, Games Take Over The App Store

Frankly, I saw this coming: with all the offers and deals that have started to pop up in the App Store since last week, the rapid arise of games in the App Store charts doesn’t come as a surprise at all. Still, the results and numbers are noteworthy: while counting all the games in the App Store is nearly impossible (at least basing on official data, which Apple doesn’t provide), we can simply take a look at the “Top Paid Apps” and “Top Grossing Apps” charts to see what happened.

Games are dominating the Thanksgiving week in the App Store. Especially on the iPhone App Store, where at the moment of writing this only 26 apps out of the top 100 are non-games apps. The fact that we refer to them as “non-games apps” also tells a lot about the environment Apple created. The situation is slightly different on the iPad App Store (“only” 40,000 apps, newer platform) but the trend is just about the same on both the stores. Games are selling like hotcakes, huge discounts or not. Read more

Command Guru Is Back: Details On New Apps and Interview

Command Guru is a well-known iOS and Mac development studio based in Italy. You may have heard of them thanks to the iPhone Reality Show, an event that took place last year and was aimed at gathering iPhone designers and developers from all around the globe to create an iPhone app in just one week. All recorded and broadcasted live by the Command Guru team in their office. It was a huge event that attracted thousands of viewers and developers alike.

Now, Command Guru went under some sort of “forced silence” for the past few months, as they were focused on an internal re-organization (they acquired Doseido, makers of Sally Park and Headline for Mac) and planning of new apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Lots of things have been going around at Command Guru’s headquarters, and we had the chance to chat with their CEO to get to know more about the details of the new software. I’m testing their new iPhone app at the moment and I have to admit it’s really good.

To stay up to date with the new apps coming from Command Guru, make sure to follow @commandguru on Twitter or check out their Facebook page. A teaser website of the upcoming iPhone app is available here.

Now jump after the break, and read what Command Guru CEO Alessio Zito Rossi told us about the current state of iOS and Mac development, their upcoming apps and…an Apple II. Read more

What I Really Want From The iPad 2

Today’s another “iPad 2” rumors day. With speculations of “iPad 2” parts suppliers revealed and blogs wondering whether the second version of Apple’s tablet will carry 3 additional USB ports, a second multi-touch screen and Steve Jobs’ fingerprints embedded in the device’s chassis, I thought I might just write what I really want from the “iPad 2”.

I want iteration. I want the same refining process Apple adopted with the iPhone. We know that Steve Jobs probably already had an “iPad 2” running Apple’s cloud service in the backstage of the iPad announcement in January, and I’m pretty sure even more units of the new model are connected right now to some WiFi router at Cupertino. Heck, maybe they even have an iPad 3 prototype hidden under some black cloth in their secret labs. But I just want to explain why I don’t want and need any of the features mentioned in the rumors, and why I don’t believe that stuff won’t happen anyway. Read more

Twitter for iPad: Bitter Sweet Imperfection

Twitter released an update to their official iOS app last night. The update includes the much talked push notifications for messages and mentions which, especially on the iPhone, really help in keeping track of what’s happening on Twitter when you’re not in front of your computer. I want to focus on the iPad version, though.

People went hard on criticizing Twitter for iPad when it first came out. Admittedly, it wasn’t the easiest “upgrade” to perform: until two months ago, users were accustomed to Osfoora HD and Twitterrific, two great clients that I still keep on my iPad because I don’t mind using them every once in a while. They’re beautiful and powerful pieces of software. Twitterrific has a huge userbase, but it doesn’t differ much from the iPhone version nor does it try to walk away from the standard established by Apple in Mail.app (sidebar in landscape mode, popover in portrait) being incorrectly used in thousands of other apps. I like Twitterrific, but it doesn’t give me the sense of trying something new, something revolutionary. Apps like Twitter for iPad, Aweditorium and Flipboard do. They bring a new, fresh experience to a new kind of device that seven months after its release still manages to surprise me. Read more

Going SSD On Your Mac

Those who follow me on Twitter know that a couple of weeks ago I upgraded my MacBook Pro (15-inch model, late 2008) to the new generation of hard drives: I bought a Solid State Drive, also simply known as SSD. Many have been asking and sending emails about the best tips to follow while changing a MacBook’s internal drive and upgrading to SSD, but the truth is there is no real “guide” or “tutorial” to follow. Yet another list post of must-read tips would be useless as my experience and setup is different than yours, and I’m not forcing anyone to follow steps and procedures that might just waste time.

So instead of putting together a tutorial, here’s the story of what I did. Read more

A Day To Re-Meh-mber

Apple’s “exciting announcement from iTunes” was the availability of the Beatles’ music catalogue in the iTunes Store. No music streaming service, no subscription-based iTunes, no “iTunes in the Cloud”. It was “just” about the Beatles. Did hype take over our minds once again? Yes. But this time, Apple itself created the hype. Read more

Mac App Store Name Squatters Already A Problem for Developers

Yesterday Apple opened app submissions for the Mac App Store, which as promised at the Back to the Mac event by Steve Jobs will be opening in less than 90 days – around February 2011. Developers can now submit their applications for Apple’s approval – something you want to do now as we still don’t know what policies Apple is going to adopt on the Mac.

When a developer submit an app for Apple’s approval, he has to pick up a name. But the App Store always had a problem with name reservations: developers were able to register a name, block it so no other developer could use it and never upload an actual application for approval. The name was there, frozen, but no app with that name was ever submitted. This practice is known as “name squatting”. After thousands of complaints by frustrated developers who had seen their app’s name “stolen” by suspicious individuals, Apple acknowledged the problem in mid-September and introduced a new policy: you can register an application name, but if you don’t upload anything in 90 days you’ll receive a notification informing you that in 30 days that name will no longer be assigned to you and it’ll be “unlocked” once again. With people sitting on unused names for 2 years, that was a quite welcome change. Read more

Zuckerberg Is Right, The iPad Isn’t Mobile

Mark Zuckerberg, at Facebook’s mobile event today in Palo Alto when asked if Facebook was building an iPad app:

“I don’t want to be rude to Apple – we all love Apple products – but this is a mobile event and we want to stay focused on that. The iPad isn’t mobile in the same way.”

This can mean quite a few things, so instead of opening Tweetie for Mac to write that the Zuck’s an asshole, let’s just think about the nature of the iPad as a device. We often refer to it as a “mobile device”; now I’m asking you to think of that 10-inch piece of aluminum and glass as a “device”.

Is it mobile? Read more

On iPhone, Android And People’s Perception

I was watching Chuck last night, and just like every episode recently aired I noticed there were many iPads and iPhones around. I don’t know if this is a trend amongst producers or Apple paying for product placement, but the thing is - Apple products are everywhere in today’s TV shows. I’m referring to “TV shows” as it’s the only kind of content coming from television networks I regularly consume nowadays.

So while I was watching and yet another iPhone showed up, my girlfriend - who is not exactly a “tech savvy” type - said: “Look, another iPhone 4”. The same happens every single time in the other shows we follow.

I also noticed, though, that there are other kinds of gadgets showing up every once in a while, namely non-Apple cellphones. They’re usually Motorola, HTC, Samsung Galaxy devices (I also spotted a Nexus One on Chuck) running, as you may guess, Android. I know those are Android devices, and when I see them I usually whisper “look, that’s an Android phone”. But I know those are Android devices, because I’m a geek who’s interested in technology and reads dozens of tech blogs every day. Do regular people notice these products at all? Read more