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Video Of iOS 5 AirPlay Mirroring

One of the big features coming with iOS 5 on the iPad 2 is AirPlay mirroring, a new functionality that, using the AirPlay technology for streaming content introduced in iOS 4.2, will allow users to beam their iPad’s screens directly to an Apple TV without the need for a cable. In spite of the iPad being capable of mirroring its screen through HDMI to a TV, Apple has decided to step its game up and allow Apple TV owners with a decent local network to stream apps, games, and whatever it is people do on an iPad without anything but a WiFi connection and a control button in the multitasking tray.

TUAW points today to a video posted by Apple’n’Apps that details how AirPlay mirroring will work with the iPad 2. The setup is very easy: once you’ve made sure both the iPad and Apple TV are running iOS 5, all you have to do is enable AirPlay Mirroring from the switcher’s controls and check out the iPad’s screen on the TV right away. In the video, you can see the Springboard, as well as regular apps and games being beamed from the tablet to the Apple TV. Scrolling doesn’t look as smooth as it is on the device when you’re directly interacting with it, but we assume it depends on the kind of wireless connection you have.

In a similar post, Engadget shows AirPlay Mirroring with Angry Birds Rio HD for iPad and Real Racing 2 HD.

For this game (and we imagine many more to come), you use the iPad as the controller – both while navigating through menus and in race mode – while the game appears only on your TV (though the tablet does display some vitals, and a map of the track). There’s noticeable lag between the iPad and Apple TV when using AirPlay, which may be an issue for games where timing is important, such as Rock Band, but didn’t seem to set us back while playing Firemint’s racing game.

Firemint has announced that Real Racing 2 HD will support AirPlay Mirroring once iOS 5 comes out this Fall, and it appears that the feature is already enabled in the first beta of iOS 5 available now to developers. Check out the videos after the break. Read more

#MacStoriesDeals - Friday

In case you missed yesterday’s Deals, we kept them in today as well. Happy early Father’s Day! Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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Dropkick Brings Its Task Cloud Sync To The iPad

Sure, Apple may have unveiled a gorgeous Reminders app at the WWDC that looks great, does location-based alerts and will come for free with iOS 5, but until then, those looking for a simple to-do list application that sync seamlessly over the air and runs now on iOS and OS X might want to give another try to Dropkick, an easy to use and useful app we’ve already covered a couple of times on MacStories. The big news today is that Dropkick finally has a native iPad counterpart, which is free on the App Store and, like the iPhone version, can be unlocked to enter unlimited tasks with in-app purchase. Whilst the iPhone app will set you back $2.99 (and the Mac app is also available as free trial on the developer’s website, paid app on the Mac App Store), unlocking the iPad app comes at $3.99.

The iPad version of Dropkick is really, really simple. You can create tasks and lists, delete them, sync back to the cloud with your account. You can move tasks around, and see them in the greater detail using the popover menu. That’s it - the interface doesn’t get in the way and everything’s kept super-accessible. As usual with Dropkick, tasks are pushed almost instantly to the Mac and iPhone, and I can’t wait to see this taking advantage of iCloud’s unified sync service for developers (and users).

Dropkick for iPad doesn’t have all the fancy features and graphics of Reminders for iOS 5, but it’s available now and it’ll help you stay focused and get things done. Go download it here.

Apple amends complaint against Samsung, asserts more intellectual property rights against more products→

Apple amends complaint against Samsung, asserts more intellectual property rights against more products

Florian Mueller on amendments that Apple made to their complaint against Samsung yesterday,

Many of the changes are designed to portray Samsung’s alleged infringement as an incredibly outrageous act of copying. The original complaint already accused Samsung of “slavishly copying” Apple’s designs. The amended one stresses that Samsung “has been even bolder” than other competitors emulating Apple’s products and has created “products that blatantly imitate the appearance of Apple’s products to capitalize on Apple’s success.”

In their amendment Apple significantly expanded the complaint from 38 to 63 pages and are now asserting more patents and other intellectual property rights than before, and onto an extended list of Samsung products that Apple claims are infringing.

One of the amendments emphasized how similarly the Galaxy Tab 10.1 mimicked the iPad 2. Apple goes so far as to pull quotes from recent reviews of the tablet, citing Eric Franklin of CNET in one of their examples. “Taking another page from the iPad 2’s school of sexy tablet building, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has one of the cleanest designs we’ve seen in a tablet.” I don’t disagree with Apple that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was purposely built to copy the iPad in form.

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Alien Blue Reddit Client Coming To The Mac

Alien Blue, the popular Reddit client for iPhone and iPad, is coming to the Mac with a native version that will be released on the Mac App Store. For those who haven’t tried Alien Blue, it’s an unofficial Reddit application that’s been very successful on the App Store thanks to its clean design, possibility to create shortcuts for subreddits (categories) to reduce the number of taps to navigate the website, as well as inline media viewing for pictures and video, undoubtedly a huge part of Reddit’s success. Alien Blue for iOS (an app that I’ve personally enjoyed using over the past months), is a full-featured Reddit client with login features to check on your Reddit account and leave comments, Read It Later, Instapaper and Readability integration and many more functionalities including a “search” feature to look into Reddit’s archive of posts.

The Mac version of Alien Blue, teased on the app’s website today, looks very elegant and falls in line with the iOS counterpart’s minimal, yet powerful approach to the social sharing / commenting website. Alien Blue for Mac will have a three-panel interface with a column on the left to switch between front page, subreddits and your account’s sections. The mid panel will be used to scroll posts, or check on your messages and notifications. The right panel, the larger one, will allow you to see the actual posts, images and videos. As you can see from the screenshots, everything will be reformatted and redesigned to fit Alien Blue’s aesthetics and color scheme. From a first impression, the app seems to be slightly inspired from Reeder, Sparrow and OS X Lion in general in the way it makes use of monocrome icons, large rounded buttons and a compose window similar to the one seen in the alternative mail client. It looks very intriguing overall, but of course some things may change come the final release.

The developer also writes on the website Alien Blue for Mac will integrate HTML5 technology for YouTube and Vimeo videos, implement Readability to elegantly lay out webpages, and folder for groups of subreddits.

To follow the development of Alien Blue, you can check out Reddit’s dedicated section, or follow the developer on Twitter.

Survey Claims iTunes Has 10% Market Share Of Online Video

In a survey based on the results of a poll of an unspecified number of “Web users” over the last week, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney says Apple’s iTunes Store has roughly 10% of market share for online video. In the poll, the usual suspects are mentioned by users: YouTube leads with 69.2%, and surprisingly enough Facebook comes at #2 with 27.1%, leaving Netflix in the third spot with 24.5%. However, as the analyst notes, if you’re paying to watch web video, you’re using Netflix; neither YouTube or Facebook have premium subscriptions for videos in place, although Google’s video platform has tried several times in the past to expand to other possible profitable segments like live streams and movie rentals. However, the standard YouTube experience remains free and users are able to upload high-quality, HD videos without restrictions of sorts. These videos are then consumed on YouTube.com or connected devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Android handsets, thus making YouTube the leader of online video, without a price.

The “Hulu” seen in the graph above sits right below Netflix, but it’s worth mentioning that most of its visits come from free subscribers, and not Hulu Plus accounts. Similarly, Apple’s iTunes at 9.8% doesn’t include streaming options like its competitors – unless we consider the second-generation Apple TV as part of the reported 9.8% market share, but it’s unclear how many Apple TV units Apple sold since September 2010, and it’s also not clear which devices the users polled by Mahaney own. Apple was rumored to be planning an expansion in web video with the launch of a Netflix-like service, an Internet-connected television and a massive upgrade for iTunes video storage, though recent announcements at WWDC put the focus on iCloud as a delivery platform for iOS devices, rather than a video service. [via All Things Digital]

Kickstarter: iBamboo Speaker Is A Really Cool Eco-Friendly iPhone Speaker

We’ve talked about a number of really cool Kickstarter projects over the past few months and today we’ve found another one; iBamboo speaker. Using just a foot of bamboo it uses the natural resonance to amplify the sound coming from an iPhone to create an ‘electricity-free’ speaker.

Merging the latest high tech with the simple beauty of nature, iBamboo is a100% eco-friendly speaker made from a whole length of bamboo.

Brilliant in simplicity, the iBamboo speaker is literally a foot of bamboo that has only had minor modifications; a slot for the iPhone, a flattened out base (so it sits flat on a surface) and the two edges of the bamboo tapered to direct the sound forward.

These speakers combine the high-tech of the modern day with the simplicity and aesthetics of nature. Since bamboo is a natural material, no two iBamboos are alike. Every piece has the same functional parameters, but each one is unique in its appearance and beauty.

You can support the project on Kickstarter from $5 and if you pledge $25 or more you’ll be pre-ordering your own iBamboo speaker.  Jump the break for a video demonstration of the iBamboo speaker in action.

[Via Tree Hugger]
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Intuit And Apple Working To Try And Get Quicken 2007 Working On Lion

With Lion launching next month, some users who rely on Quicken for Mac 2007 may want to hold off updating for a while. As it stands it Quicken relies on Rosetta, an engine that allows PowerPC code to run on Intel Macs, but Lion removes support for Rosetta – rendering Quicken for Mac unable to run on Lion.

The Mac Observer talked to the Aaron Patzer of Quicken to find out a bit more about the situation and found that PowerPC codebase is the foundation for Quicken for Mac 2007. Patzer says it “has many intricacies – including its own custom-built database engine that are very much PowerPC specific”. He explains that porting the code over would take a significant amount of work, which is why they recently decided to develop Quicken Essentials, a brand new app developed on the Intel code.

For many Quicken Essentials or perhaps another Intuit owned service, Mint.com, would suffice in replacing Quicken for Mac 2007. However because of its lack of some features, most critically bill pay and detailed investment tracking, it may not be enough. Well there is some, potentially, good news for those users. Patzer said that Intuit has been working “closely with Apple” to potentially get Rosetta (or parts of it) running in Lion.

The project has been underway for the past few months, with Intuit working to possibly embed specific Rosetta libraries into Quicken For Mac 2007 to get it to run. This, too, is not a simple project and may never come to fruition.

Patzer says they will know by the end of summer where the project stands and whether or not the old Quicken for Mac will run in Lion. However in somewhat more positive news, Intuit is on their way to deliver an iPad app for Mint.com within the next few months.

[Via The Mac Observer]

NYT: Facebook iPad App Launching “In The Coming Weeks”

Nick Bilton at The New York Times reports Facebook is in the final stages of testing its first official iPad application, which should launch in the App Store for free in the coming weeks. The lack of an official Facebook app for the tablet contributed to the rise of third-party solutions in the past year that were nothing but redesigned versions of Facebook’s website wrapped inside the iPad’s screen; according to The New York Times, Facebook’s iPad app has been carefully designed and tested by Mark Zuckerberg himself to ensure the quality of the product and a great Facebook experience on the tablet. For instance, the app will sport chat and Groups integration and will allow users to upload photos shot with the iPad’s cameras. Or, users will be able to browse photos in full-screen in a completely new, beautiful Facebook UI.

People briefed on Facebook’s plans say that in coming weeks the company plans to introduce a free iPad application that has been carefully designed and optimized for the tablet.

The app has been in production at Facebook for almost a year, going through several design iterations, and is now in the final stages of testing, according to these people, who declined to be named because they were discussing confidential product plans.

With more than 600 million Facebook users out there and 25 million iPads sold since April 2010, the potential for adoption is huge. There’s been some talks lately as to whether Facebook is really planning to launch an HTML5-based development platform to take on Apple’s Mobile Safari, and indeed The New York Times is also reporting Facebook will launch a new version of the regular website for the iPad’s browser. It’s unclear when all this will launch (NYT says the iPad app will be available in the “coming weeks”), but it’s safe to assume the new website won’t offer as many features as a native app. The Facebook app for iPhone has been around since 2008 and it’s the most popular free App Store download of all time.