Opera Mini for iPad Now Available

A few months after the first teaser shots and previews that confirmed Opera was working on an iPad version of its alternative browser featuring visual tabs and updated sharing options for the larger screen, the Norwegian company has finally released an update to its Opera Mini web browser this morning, bringing new features and an updated interface to the iPhone 4’s Retina Display, but most of all a native version to the iPad. You can find Opera for iPad now in the App Store.

We’ll have a full review of Opera for iPad later this week on MacStories, but in the meantime we’ve taken the app for a quick spin and we’re positively impressed with it. Visual tabs play an important role on the iPad, as they allow you to keep multiple pages open at once and actually see their previews concurrently on screen to quickly switch between them. Animations of the tab drawer at the top seem very smooth, though I’ve noticed that Opera Mini for iPad sometimes opens web pages in their iPhone mobile web view, rather than the desktop one as Safari for iPad does by default. This might be related to the server-side compression Opera does to speed up browsing, but we’ll make sure to further look into the Settings to resolve this issue. As for other features, a big Opera logo in the upper left corner allows you to access a popup menu with Bookmarks, History, Settings, and Sharing options, which include Facebook, Twitter and My Opera. Pages can be opened in background tabs, and overall the interface has been polished to look great on the iPhone 4 with minor tweaks here and there as well.

From the changelog:

  • Updated design with a fresh new look and feel
  • Super smooth pinch-to-zoom and panning
  • Support for iPhone 4 retina display, iPad, and iPad 2 devices
  • Direct share on Facebook, Twitter, and My Opera
  • Open new page in background tab
  • Improved international font support for Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, and other non-latin languages

Opera Mini for iPad can be downloaded here for free. Check out more screenshots and the promo video below. Read more

Spotify Adds Play Queue to iPhone App

Following a recent redesign that brought a completely new look and clean design to the mobile app and an update to the desktop application which enabled sync for iPods and a variety of other perks for Premium subscribers, Spotify announced another minor update for the iPhone app this morning, finally bringing the much desired “queue” functionality and a new action bar to quickly share songs and add them to playlists.

Whilst there’s still no version for iPad available – but we know they’re working on it – the latest Spotify for iPhone allows you to add a song to the play queue and listen to it as soon as the song that’s currently playing is over. As you build your queue, Spotify will keep adding songs on top of each other, letting you choose which songs you want to listen to without constantly going back to a playlist and hit the play button. Unfortunately, it looks like there’s no queue management interface just yet, and the only sign of animation I could find is the album artwork that “flies” onto the Now Playing button when you add a song to the queue. But other than that, I couldn’t find a screen specifically detailing my existing queue.

Another new feature is the Twitter-like swipe bar that contains buttons to star a song, add it to a playlist, jump to an artist or album page, and queue. The design is very nice and I think this will make me save a lot of time when starring songs and checking out artist profiles on Spotify.

The Spotify iPhone app is available for free in the UK App Store. Get it here.

Chengdu Plant Shut Down May Reduce iPad 2 Production By 500,000 Units

Last week’s explosion at the Chengdu Foxconn plant may in fact lead to a loss in production of 500,000 iPads, despite contrary reports from yesterday. The figures come from IHS iSuppli, which did note the exact figure will depend on how long the plant remains closed.

Yesterday’s report, from China Times, reported that production would unlikely be impacted because the Shenzhen Foxconn plant would pick up any drop in production from the Chengdu plant. IHS however says that Shenzhen will struggle to make up for all of the lost output. It may even result in Apple missing the 7.4 million iPad 2 shipments that IHS iSuppli has forecast.

The Chengdu plant is said to produce 30% of all iPad 2s and some, including Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets last week speculated that the impact could even be as large as a loss of production between 1.8 million and 2.8 million iPads. Whilst others such as Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee doesn’t believe the Chengdu shut down will have much of an impact at all on iPad 2 production, with other plants picking up the slack.

The explosion at the Chengdu Foxconn plant last week took 3 lives and injured 15 people, nine of which are still hospitalised. The exact cause of the explosion is still unknown but early signs point to inadequate venting leading to a build-up of highly explosive aluminium dust that combusted.

[Via Bloomberg Businessweek]

 

ForeverSave 2 Giveaway

There’s nothing worse than working on an important document only to have the power cut, and it can be heartbreaking if your most recent changes haven’t been saved before beforehand. Dropbox is an excellent tool for making sure files are backed up, but what if you imbued Snow Leopard with a powerful library capable of browsing file history (outside of Time Machine of course), storing those multiple iterations in Dropbox, and automatically invoking that command-S keystroke at timed or inactive intervals so you’ll always have the most recent version of the file on hand? ForeverSave 2 is my Textmate, OmniOutliner, Pages, and otherwise all-around document companion for constantly saving multiple versions of my documents in preparation for the worst-case scenario. ForeverSave 2 is a convenient menubar utility with a simple activation and reminder scheme for initial setup (just check out our review), and it’s currently available for $19.99 in the Mac App Store. We want you to remain vigilant with your backup regimen, which is why we’re prescribing ten copies to ail those versioning blues. Rules after the break.
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Photo Shows Alleged iPhone 5 Back Part

As noted by MacRumors, Taiwanese website Apple.pro – a usually reliable source of Apple information and product leaks – posted today [Google Translation] what they claim to be the back part of the next-generation iPhone. The iPhone 5 back panel is shown in white, with two different holes for the camera lens and flash as previous speculation and case design suggested. A rough Google Translation seems to suggest that Apple.pro can’t confirm the authenticity of the picture though:

SHOW pictures out of the back cover a picture of white iPhone

camera with flash, but the difference with iPhone4

Is separated

Of course now I can not verify the authenticity of this picture

But frankly, I personally think this picture should be PS Follow the following chart last week, I do

Authenticity of unknown origin

The first case design indicating the iPhone 5 would get separated camera lens and flash holes was then pulled from the e-commerce website it appeared on. Another report from Apple.pro the same week re-confirmed the rumor of a distinct camera flash showing different components for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5. The next-generation iPhone is rumored to be a minor refresh of the existing iPhone line with speedier processor, better cameras and more RAM, though some recent rumors also pointed at Apple working on a major update for the device featuring a bigger edge-to-edge screen, dramatically thinner design and NFC capabilities.

Byword for the Mac, Now with Markdown

Byword might be your text editor of choice thanks to its choice of colors in white or black shades, the intuitive and consistently convenient formatting pop-over, or its writer-esque text preview that lets you focus on just a few lines of text. If you’re not yet a convert for Byword’s good looks alone, Markdown support has been added under the hood for the many of us who prefer the popular, readable language over tag-numbing HTML code. Byword’s latest update to 1.2 brings Markdown and more, all reviewed just after the break.

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Report: iOS Devices Streaming 80% of Mobile Video

Freewheel, a video monetization startup, is reporting that Apple is dominating mobile video – 80 percent of it. FreeWheel said in its Q1 2011 report that the majority of video views are occuring on Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPhone and iPod each grabbed about 30 percent of all mobile video views while the iPad grabbed 20 percent; the remaining 20 percent belonged to Android devices. Everything else accounted for less than 1 percent of all video views on mobile devices.

FreeWheel attributes Apple’s dominance in mobile video to the early lead the company has had in the mobile video market with their line of iOS devices. They also believe that greater viewership on Apple devices represents the adoption of video publishers and mobile developers who build their apps / videos for iOS devices first before moving to other platforms. Despite having sold just 20 million tablets worldwide, the iPad already accounts for 20 percent of videos viewed on mobile devices, according to FreeWheel. GigaOM said in their article that “We thought the iPad would be an ideal device for viewing video when it was announced, but the extent to which it has been embraced by even traditional video producers and distributors speaks to the power of the platform. TV networks like ABC and HBO have built applications for the iPad, as have pay TV operators like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and others.”

While mobile video viewing accounts for only one percent of all online video views, much of it is driven by news and live events. Mobile views peaked during the Japanese tsunami / earthquake crisis and also during the NCAA Men’s College Basketball March Madness Tournament. This makes sense because much of the Japan / basketball events happened during “working hours” when viewers turned to their smartphones and mobile devices because they couldn’t watch TV at work.

The 20 percent that the iPad gets is the biggest stat in my opinion; most people don’t take their iPad with them everywhere they go, like an iPhone or iPod Touch. Most people use it after working hours, and to have that 20 percent is outstanding. [via GigaOM]

Dragontape for iPad Lets you Browse, Share, and Edit Video Mixtapes

We traditionally think of the classic mixtape as an audio compilation of power songs and remixes that we’ll then share with friends or pass along to the cute girl two seats behind you in math class. Recently brought to my attention was Dragontape, a website that takes the concept of the mixtape further by combining YouTube and SoundCloud, effectively allowing you to create video & audio playlists of music, concert, and related promotional videos for your favorite artists, gigs, and tours. With Dragontape for the iPad you can watch the latest mixtapes, browse through what’s popular, and revisit favorites all without the need of your web browser.

While it’s obvious you can preview the collections of video, not-so-obvious is the ability to edit movies iMovie style to clip and cut your way to the perfect mixtape. You can save and edit mixtapes to your liking, though I didn’t find the controls initially intuitive (you’ll also need a Dragontape account to save any edits you make to a mixtape). Too, the iPad app is still reliant on sometimes fussy YouTube videos, which may not play on the iPad. “Not optimized for mobile,” it says. What’s interesting to me, however, is how Dragontape handles the integration with SoundCloud with YouTube video. For a clip, Dragontape displays a synth-y, pixelated equalizer that bounces to the beat of the music that’s used as a placeholder for video.

There are some quirks about Dragontape, as pinch-to-zoom for video has been replaced with simple taps, and the background image displayed when browsing mixtapes ends up being a pixelated, centered mess that attempts to be cool, but is unfortunately unappealing. Otherwise, the menu and video controls look incredibly sharp: perhaps Dragontape is aiming for distinctness between the interface and background album art in their own, weird way. Simply changing the fading between tracks prompts users to save the altered mixtape: you’ll quickly develop that dismissive “Cancel” reflex. The app has crashed for me a few times, but I’m interested in Dragontape’s mobile interface enough to keep me from deleting the app off my homescreen as others may do.

There’s flaws, and the app icon doesn’t make clear the that name is Dragontape (and not Drag On Tape), but this is a novel idea that needs to be explored. Those YouTube playlists you peruse can all be intermixed for a better browsing experience, and I sense an opportunity for discovery as Dragontape moves out of beta and integrates with other popular video sites. I personally enjoyed watching lots of promotional tour videos with Dragontape, but maybe you’ll have a much more creative use for it. The price for admission is free on the App Store. You can learn more about the service and create a Dragontape account on their official website and iPad landing page.

Analysis of Apple’s Letter To Lodsys→

Analysis of Apple’s Letter To Lodsys

Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents breaks down today’s letter from Apple to Lodsys CEO Mark Small, detailing a possible scenario iOS developers might soon find themselves into:

App developers have to understand that Lodsys can still sue them. Apple’s letter does not prevent Lodsys from doing that, and it would be a way for Lodsys to pursue its agenda. It wouldn’t make economic sense for Lodsys to sue a few little app developers based on the damage awards or settlements Lodsys might get out of such a lawsuit. However, for Lodsys it would still be worth it if this resulted in a lucrative settlement with Apple, or if it (alternatively) scared potentially thousands of app developers so much that they would pay. Lodsys would sue some app devs only to set an example, and for the ones to whom it happens, that would be an unpleasant situation.

As other bloggers have already written and tweeted, Apple’s letter might be heartwarming for developers, but the story is far from over. Apple is stepping up to defend its developers and that is great news for sure (see developers’ reactions here), but in case of Lodsys deciding to sue anyway to set a precedent, these indie developers would still have to deal with actual court duties, lawyers, and the fact that they’d need to directly ask Apple to back them up. Apple hasn’t explicitly stated they would pay for every legal expense in today’s letter (unless the emails sent to developers, and not Mark Small, have additional details we’re not aware of), though Mueller believes that sending a copy of the letter to Mark Small to developers is a good sign of the company taking things seriously and considering paying for any kind of expense if Lodsys sues.

Again, it’s not over yet, but the general consensus seems to be that this is a great first step to defend the App Store, Apple’s own ecosystem and in-app purchases, and independent developers.

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