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Apple Releases iOS 5 Beta 4

 

Apple just seeded iOS 5 beta 4 to developers. The new build, carrying number 9A5274d, is available now in the Dev Center. iOS 5 beta 3 was seeded to developers on July 11, introducing a series of tweaks to Location Services and several optimizations to the underlying code of the OS, which resulted much snappier and more responsive than previous betas. However, some developers reported that bugs with Notification Center found in iOS 5 beta 1 were still not fixed in beta 3. iOS 5 will ship in the fall, as announced by Apple at WWDC.

We’ll update this story with more information and details as they become available. Read more

An Overview of Automator Improvements In Lion

Automator, the suite of automation tools for OS X that can create user workflows, services or apps, has received a series of interesting improvements in Lion, some of them useful additions that will likely eliminate the need for certain kinds of third-party software for many users. In spite of Lion being described as a “user-friendly” OS thanks to the implementation of gestures or full-screen apps, as we’ve seen in our review and other articles following the Mac App Store launch it’s clear there’s still much room for tweaking and “taking control” of the OS when you want to get the most out of it. Take the Option key for example: Option has been capable of reversing certain behaviors in Mac apps for quite some time, but in Lion it gets a whole new usage as it can reverse the entire Resume system, show the Library in the Finder’s menubar, or change the Finder’s “Arrange By” feature to “Sort By”. And that’s just the Option key. Personally, I disagree on the assumption that Apple is “dumbing down” the operating system only by introducing functionalities that make interacting with a computer easier. The way I see it, Lion is the most powerful and feature-rich version of OS X to date (and several developers, from a technical standpoint, agree with this) and, actually, the gestures themselves can appease any power user when correctly mastered. Lion may look simpler on the surface (and to an extent, I can see why the addition of the Launchpad doesn’t help as far as this argument goes), but it’s a very powerful entry in the OS X family once you take a peek under the hood. Read more

Mono, Beautiful Growl Theme, Updated for Lion

Mono by Christopher Lobay is a beautiful theme for Growl, the popular notification system for OS X, that I’ve been using on my MacBook Pro and iMac since it was first released last year. Of all the Growl themes I’ve used, Mono was the one that provided a good compromise of gorgeous interface and usability – I like my Growl themes to be informative, beautiful to look at, unobtrusive and definitely not “sticky” on screen. I typically set my Growl preferences to display a notification for 1.5 seconds, which plays very well with Mono’s animation that makes alerts slide into your Mac’s screen from the side.

Mono has been updated to version 2.0, and while this update doesn’t bring any major visual change from Mono 1.0, it does add full Lion compatibility. Indeed I tried to configure Mono with Growl on Lion last week, but couldn’t get it to work – that was particularly unfortunate for me as my favorite theme couldn’t be tested with GrowlMail, which has been updated to version 1.3 to, again, work with Lion and the new Apple Mail. With Mono 2.0, everything works: notifications show up correctly on Lion, as do new messages from Mail. As a side note, I noticed I had to manually restart the Growl process and all associated apps to get notifications to work on OS X Lion.

Meanwhile, the Growl developers are busy building a new Mac App Store version that won’t be free, and it’s supposed to come out soon with several enhancements and new features. While waiting for the all-new Growl, you can download Mono 2.0 here.

Verizon Activates 2.3 Million iPhone 4s In Q2

As noted by ZDNet, Verizon reported its second quarter earnings today, delivering strong results and reporting revenue of $27.53 billion. The company added 1.3 million postpaid customers, with data revenues up 22.2 percent year-over-year and 189,000 FiOS Internet and 184,000 FiOS TV net additions. As with the iPhone, the earnings reveal Verizon activated 2.3 million iPhone 4 units in the second quarter, a 100,000 units increase from the 2.2 million iPhone 4s they activated in the previous quarter after roughly two months of availability in the US since the February 10 launch.

Verizon’s relatively flat growth rate with activated iPhone units doesn’t surprise when compared to AT&T’s similar trend - AT&T activated 3.6 million iPhones in the last two quarters. The difference, however, is that Verizon only has access to the CDMA iPhone 4, both in black and white, whereas AT&T sells both the black/white iPhone 4 and the older iPhone 3GS model, which is still on sale and considered a good entry option for new iPhone users that don’t want to spend a ful $200 on an iPhone 4 with a two-year contract. AT&T’s offer is diversified, Verizon Wireless doesn’t have a cheaper iPhone 3GS to sell to its customers.

Moreover, with increasing rumors of a new iPhone coming out in September (allegedly confirmed by Apple’s “product transition for the September quarter” revealed at the Q3 earnings call), it’s likely customers are holding off new purchases (and thus, contracts) as they wait for a new device to become available in the Fall. The iPhone 5 has been rumored to have worldphone capabilities with an integrated GSM/CDMA chip, and most recent speculation has also claimed Apple could be considering a new, cheaper iPhone to sell off contract at less than $200 to attract the masses of the pre-paid market.

[ZDNet - PRNewswire]

Apple Keyboards Receive (Very) Minor Detail Changes

With the release of OS X Lion and new MacBook Airs, Apple has made slight tweaks to the custom f-keys on their keyboard. The main change is that the Dashboard key (located on the F4) has now been replaced with a Launchpad key. The other change is that the Exposé button (located on the F3) key that is now used for Mission Control in Lion has seen a minor change to the icon.

Noticed by iSpazio the change has also propagated to Apple’s wired keyboards and one would presume it will soon make its way to the Apple wireless keyboard. Bundled keyboards with purchased iMac’s and Mac Pros should also soon ship with these slightly tweaked keyboards. Unfortunately these minor signage tweaks are about the extent of the changes to the Apple keyboards – no backlit keys or significant design changes.

[iSpazio via 9to5 Mac]

PopCap Teams Up With A Boy Suffering From Leukaemia, Grants His Wish Of Creating A Game

Owain Weinert, a 9-year-old boy that has been battling with Acute Lymphocytic Leukaemia recently reached out to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to see if he could have his dream of making an iOS game realised. Make-A-Wish inquired and managed to get in contact with the Seattle developer 4th & Battery, which you could classify as a ‘spin-off’ of PopCap (makers of Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies) that focuses on creating more experimental, indie or a “little flawed” games.

They granted Owain’s wish and helped him create Allied Star Police. Owain said he wanted to make something that was fun so that he would want to play the game. The result is a game that features a “combination of tower defense and real-time strategy gameplay” in which there is a “good vs. evil” story set in a “futuristic fictional world”.

Speaking of Owain, Mathew Lee Johnston, a senior producer at 4th and Battery, says that he “was like every other designer and developer I’ve worked with”. “The minute he walked in the door he handed us a fully realized game design, figured out to the last detail”. What does Owain think, now that the game is available?

My brother can’t stop playing it, my dad can’t stop playing it, and neither can I. This started off as a dream of mine and now my friends and people all over the world can play my creation.

Allied Star Police is available in the App Store for the iPhone and iPad for free. I’ve given it a quick play with two rounds and its certainly a fun game that offers a twist on the classic tower defense mechanic – it is most definitely worth the download. If you want to read more about the story of Owain and PopCap jump over to the Owain’s Wish page.

[Via Cult of Mac]

Adobe Clarifies: Flash Hardware Video Acceleration Not Disabled in Lion→

Adobe Clarifies: Flash Hardware Video Acceleration Not Disabled in Lion

Following the release of OS X Lion yesterday, a number of users immediately noticed that some of Adobe’s desktop tools, including Flash Player, had a series of compatibility issues with Apple’s new OS. Adobe started acknowledging these issues with a Known Issues official page, and TUAW noted most of Adobe’s product line was affected by the upgrade. Among the mentioned issues, Adobe stated “higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video” with Flash Player  was “possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration” on Lion. Several blogs and tech publications implied Apple had done some changes to Lion’s final build to “kill” Flash Player for OS X.

With an update and a blog post, Adobe has now clarified that video hardware acceleration is not disabled in Lion.

The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” described in a tech note suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.

From the Known Issues page:

Flash Player may cause higher CPU activity when playing a YouTube video. Possibly related to disabled hardware acceleration.

But then there’s an update below the first note:

UPDATE: The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.

Flash Player can be downloaded here, but the webpage still doesn’t include OS X 10.7 as supported OS.

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Apple to Bid on Hulu Online Television Service?

After being put up for sale by owners Walt Disney, News Corp, and NBC Universal, Apple may be considering to bid on the online television service according to ‘people familiar with the matter’. It’s your typical response to rumors small and large, but let’s look at what’s on the table. Apple has stockpiled storage in the past (presumably for storing and serving video), and today’s speculation also coincides with previous rumors that Apple is working on their own online streaming video service.

Hulu has already been in talks with AT&T, Yahoo, and Apple competitor Google. Apple has $76 billion in cash, a data center to spare, and a competitor I’m sure they’d love to prevent from acquiring Hulu’s properties. Hulu has 33,000 episodes available for Hulu Plus subscribers, mobile applications, and ties with gaming consoles and other devices in the consumer market.

Update: In an updated version of the story, Yahoo is purported to be willing to pay up to $2 billion for four/five years of content. Microsoft dropped out of the bidding for the deal.

[Bloomberg[1][2] via @emilychangtv]

Lodsys Sues Rovio Over Angry Birds for iOS and Android, More Developers

As noted by FOSS Patents, Lodsys, the company that started suing app developers over alleged patent infringement for in-app purchases and upgrade buttons back in May, has amended its complaint including more companies allegedly infringing on their patents, like Rovio.  Lodsys has left out Vietnamese company Wulven Games from the suit, but has now included other bigger names like the makers of Angry Birds, EA, Atari, Square Enix, and Take-Two Interactive. In total, Lodsys is now suing 37 defendants – smaller independent companies like The Iconfactory were first sent notices by Lodsys in May.

Lodsys is still not impressed by Apple’s assertion that its own license to Lodsys’s patents extends to its app developers. I also pointed out that Apple’s “exhaustion” theory is not necessarily accurate. Also, Lodsys may be able to capitalize on contractual commitments that might preclude Apple and Google from challenging Lodsys’s patents and the related infringement allegations.

With today’s amended complaint, Lodsys is currently suing a total of 37 defendants, and there may be more to come.

In the first weeks of June, Apple filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings between Lodsys and app developers hit by the patent infringement claims – which Apple claimed have no basis as Apple is “indisputably licensed” to the patents, and the app makers are protected by the development agreement with Apple. Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents doesn’t seem to share a similar view, and we recommend you check out all the updates and timeline of events over at his blog.