Apps now show in parentheses what category it is classified under. 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!
#MacStoriesDeals - Thursday
TV Purchases & Streaming Now Available For Australian, Canadian & UK Apple TV Owners
Owners of the Apple TV in Australia, Canada and the UK were given a nice surprise today with an over-the-air update enabling TV Shows to be purchased and watched directly on the device. It was a curious absence from the Apple TVs in those countries because although users could purchase TV shows from iTunes and on iOS devices (even stream it to the Apple TV with AirPlay) - until now they couldn’t purchase TV content directly from the Apple TV.
Apple hasn’t made any announcement about the update, but prices remain the same as they did previously. The update also introduces the “cloud locker” feature that was introduced with version 4.3 on the US Apple TV. If you are unaware of this feature, it allows you to play previously purchased TV content (the same feature is available for music, apps and books) - all thanks to iCloud.
[Via Engadget]
OnLive Gaming Service Launching on iOS and Android
OnLive has announced that its brining its streaming online gaming service to tablets and mobile phones via a playable client that will soon be available in the App Store. The OnLive app will make available console games previously unavailable to the iPhone and iPad, as digital gaming content is streamed over the Internet from a central location (processing and gameplay is done “in the cloud”). Those that have the bandwidth available can instantly pick up and play new titles without having to consume local storage or wait for the game to download. As games are played in the cloud, all save data is completely mobile and can be accessed from any device.
From the press release:
Over 25 OnLive titles, including L.A. Noire, family titles like LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and 5-7, and indies like Defense Grid Gold, will work with touch control on tablets and smartphones. And most of the nearly 200 games in OnLive’s growing library, including recent top-tier releases like Batman: Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Lord of the Rings: War in the North, are immediately playable on virtually any device with the Universal OnLive Wireless Controller, which utilizes OnLive’s exclusive adaptive wireless technology to automatically find an optimal wireless connection for a given tablet, smartphone, PC, Mac, TV or Blu-ray player. The Universal OnLive Wireless Controller will be available soon for purchase in the US and the UK, for $49.99 and £39.99 respectively.
The OnLive app will make use of OnLive Cloud Touch controls so you can manipulate the game on a touchscreen, but an optional controller is available for an additional fifty dollars that should seamlessly work with your iPad or Android tablet. OnLive says the iPad version should be available soon. TechCrunch notes than an iPhone version of the OnLive app is planned, but won’t be immediately available for the mobile launch. While the app itself will be free, you still have to pay to play games per title through OnLive’s PlayBack Bundle. Anyone who downloads the OnLive app will be able to play LEGO Batman free of charge.
New Revisions for Apple’s Spaceship-Campus Reveal New Solar Roof and Renderings
It was back in June when we last talked about Apple’s 2nd mothership, or the proposed circular spaceship-like campus that’s currently planned to occupy a 98-acre plot of land purchased from Hewlett Packard (the total campus area includes 175 acres of land). On Wednesday, new revisions surfaced from the City of Cupertino detailing the new campus submissions from Apple, which includes new renderings and details about the structure’s massive size.
#MacStoriesDeals - Wednesday
Apps now show in parentheses what category it is classified under. 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!
Game On With the Official Xbox LIVE App for iOS
Microsoft has released the official Xbox LIVE app for iPhone and iPad users, dubbed My Xbox Live, allowing you to read and send messages to friends, manage your friends list and accept invitations, edit your Xbox LIVE profile, change and customize your avatar with new clothing and items, and view the achievements you’ve been awarded through the metro-like interface. Resembling the recent Dashboard update the Xbox 360 received as Microsoft brings UI parity with Metro, the Xbox LIVE app can be downloaded for free on the iTunes App Store.
Screenshots past the break!
[via Major Nelson]
Sparrow 1.5 Hits the Mac App Store with Dropbox Integration and Search Tokens
Sparrow, last updated with CloudApp integration (for large email attachments) and pull-to-refresh with version 1.4, has reached a milestone this morning with their 1.5 update now available on the Mac App Store. In this release, Sparrow continues to integrate Gmail natively with optional loading of remote images and token based searching for messages.
Instagram Now Boasts 15 Million Users
Just a little over 2 months since it celebrated its 1 year anniversary and milestone of 10 million users, Instagram has today revealed that they now have 15 million users. The announcement was made by Kevin Systrom during his speech at LeWeb ‘11 today.
As the above graph demonstrates, Instagram has grown at a stunning pace, and continues to do so at an even more rapid rate. Systrom only recently revealed that Instagram had gained an additional 2 million members in the month of November alone.
Instagram is still a small operation with staff of only 10 people - but Systrom has revealed that they do have 2 staff members working on a (much anticipated) Android version of the app.
[Via The Next Web]
Flud 2.0 Brings Social Interaction with a Revamped Interface
While I’ve taken a look at Flud before, its initial resemblance to Pulse left me uninterested. Flud, in their attempt to meld the news you were interested in with social media, never quite stood out enough from the competition or encouraged me to actively share articles with my friends. That was the case, but like Flipboard, Flud has a substantial update with a second version of their social news reader.
Flud 2.0 throws out its sharp-edged interface for an elegant carousel, containing the subscription’s headlines which scroll vertically to reveal more content. The interface, fluid and responsive when article images don’t need to be cached, differentiates itself from the likes of Flipboard and Pulse — sidestepping a magazine or traditional RSS-like experience — by presenting an open canvas (or in other words a very fancy grid) to discover content. There are some similarities with services like News.me in the updated Flud, with the main focus revolving around following your friends or idols who will curate interesting content.