Rdio Launches API for Mobile Devices

Music streaming service Rdio, quite popular in the US and Canada but currently unavailable due to regional restrictions in the rest of the world, announced yesterday the release of an API for iOS and Android devices that will allow developers to build apps that are integrated with Rdio’s music and social functionalities. The API – documentation available here and here – will let third-party devs build apps that search “all the artists, songs, albums, playlists, and top charts in Rdio’s catalog of over 8.5 million songs.” On top of that, the API will also bring playlist creation and editing outside of the official Rdio app, as well as the possibility to show a user’s Heavy Rotation, collections or follow other people. For a first release, it sounds like a solid API for iOS and Android.

Attending Google I/O 2011? Take a closer look at our Mobile API on Android devices at Rdio’s Developer Sandbox at Moscone Center in San Francisco. If you won’t be there or want to see the API in action yourself, download the Rdio Music Quiz from the iPhone App store.

While our Mobile API doesn’t yet support our affiliate program, it will soon. So make sure to sign up for it now and start building that incredible mobile app you always wanted to make.

The current API and service terms won’t let developers create paid apps that directly plug into Rdio. Still, with Spotify struggling to launch in the US and an impressive userbase and app selection after a few months, Rdio has the chance to maintain a healthy ecosystem for music streaming apps in the US, and take it from there to Europe. Rdio has big plans for sure, and it’ll be interesting to follow its developments in the next months, especially after Apple will unveil its rumored cloud music service with full labels’ support.

Adobe Finally Releases Its Photoshop Touch SDK iPad Apps

It was supposed to happen last week, but today Adobe finally released its three iPad apps that use the Photoshop Touch SDK. The three apps, including Adobe Eazel, Adobe Nav, Adobe Color Lava, were built be Adobe to demonstrate the potential of the Photoshop SDK for creating powerful companion apps for mobile devices from the iPad and iPhone to Android and BlackBerry. See below for brief descriptions of each of the three apps and if you want more information be sure to check out our original coverage of the apps and the Photoshop Touch SDK. Screenshots are included after the break.

Adobe Color Lava ($2.99) is a simple utility that allows you to mix colors, organize and save palettes and color groups to send to Photoshop wirelessly. Upon sending a palette to Photoshop, you’ll be able to see details on the colors you mixed, and send via email to someone else if you don’t want to share colors with your local Photoshop installation. The colors will appear in the Swatches panel of desktop Photoshop.

Adobe Eazel ($4.99) is perhaps the most innovative app of the initial rollout, as it features some interesting multitouch controls and menu choices I haven’t seen in any other iPad app before. Eazel is a drawing app, but instead of placing controls for brush sizes, colors, or opacity in dedicated toolbars, Adobe decided to develop a “five-finger touch UI” that takes a bit of learning, but it’s actually pretty clever once you get used to it. Basically, controls are placed above each finger, through a series of overlays that you can interact with using your fingertips after selecting an item. Sounds more complex than it really is, at least after some practice. When you’re done painting, you can send your creation to Photoshop and keep editing or refining there.

Last, Adobe Nav ($1.99) is the app we believe will be most successful among Photoshop users, as it drives the application’s UI remotely and allows you to see open documents on the iPad’s screen. Most of Photoshop’s tools and palettes are displayed on the iPad’s screen as bigger buttons meant for touch interactions, enabling you to select and modify the controls that you see on the desktop. There’s no doubt Nav will be tested by many as a complete replacement for Photoshop’s on-screen controls, which may get a little obtrusive on smaller portable computers. Alternatively, you can also browse open documents in Nav and instantly change the file you’re working with in Photoshop for Mac or Windows.

Adobe’s new iPad apps are available for download on the company’s App Store developer page. Check out the official promo videos and screenshots after the break.
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Mobile Devices Claim Largest Share Of Digital Game Downloads

Digital game downloads have been on the rise in recent years and according to the latest NPD report, a large portion of that increase can be attributed to mobile devices which count for nearly half of all video game downloads. The report, which focused solely on full game downloads (not micro-transactions, add-ons or previously purchased games), notes that even those who owned a console would generally download more games to their mobile devices.

Following mobile devices were personal computers as the second most common platform for downloading games, no doubt driven primarily by Steam, then consoles and finally portable gaming devices (Nintendo DS, Sony PSP). Obviously it should be pointed out that, typically, a full game download for a mobile device is priced far lower than a game for consoles and even computers. Nonetheless, Anita Frazier notes in the report “Mobile gaming represents one of the fastest growing segments of the digital games market, and potential for future growth remains strong.”

Interestingly, of those that have purchased a mobile game in the past three months, a surprising 60% said they still spend the same amount on console or portable gaming device games. The report also revealed that if a game was available in physical and digital form at the same time, at the same price, 75% would buy a physical copy because they liked to own a “real” copy – the remaining 25% mainly cited convenience as their reason.

[Via TUAW]

Zynga Hires Key Contributors Behind cocos2d for iPhone

After the acquisition of Wonderland Software late in April, gaming giant Zynga (you might remember these folks for Farmville, among other things) announced they hired key contributors of the cocos2d for iPhone framework Ricardo Quesada and Rolando Abarca. The two developers will join Zynga’s team while still maintaining cocos2d for iPhone community and official website – which the company did not acquire. Cocos2d for iPhone, a framework for creating “2D games, demos, and other graphical/interactive applications” used by hundreds of developers including Atari, ngmoco and Zynga itself, is an open-source project that currently supports the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac. Quesada and Abarca will continue supporting and contributing to cocos2d for iPhone; the “talent acquisition” from Zynga is clearly aimed at enhancing the company’s portfolio in the development field, which ranges from 2D and 3D games to advanced HTML and social experiences. Zynga has a pretty rich catalog of mobile games, too.

Zynga has long been an advocate of the open source community and we are excited to have Ricardo and Rolando continue to support and contribute to cocos2d for iPhone while in their new roles at Zynga. Games and applications will continue to operate on cocos2d for iPhone as they always have. Zynga did not acquire the community site, cocos2d-iphone.org, which will continue to be managed separately by Ricardo along with the other cocos2d for iPhone administrators. We look forward to advancing the cocos2d for iPhone open source project alongside the cocos2d for iPhone developer community.

At this point, we can’t tell how Zynga will use the talent of cocos2d for iPhone’s contributors to enrich their gaming experiences with complex physics engines and integration with other third-party graphic libraries. What’s for sure is that Zynga doesn’t have a problem in opening its wallet to purchase assets and other smaller companies, considering today’s talent and partial asset acquisition is the 13th one in the last 12 months.

Duke Nukem Forever Also Coming To iOS?

As noted by TouchArcade, popular yet never released console and PC game Duke Nukem Forever might be coming to iOS devices, too. Duke Nukem Forever is particularly interesting as a title as it’s become synonym of vaporware online: development started in 1997, but the game never actually came out (in spite of promotional material and screenshots being handed out to the press and fans) due to multiple delays from the original developers, 3D Realms. If you’ve been following Duke Nukem Forever’s history throughout the years, you know that the brand’s userbase came to the point where many lost any kind of hope in seeing the game officially out: that was until 2010, when game studio Gearbox revealed they had picked DNF off 3D Realms’ hands and were busy working on a full adaption and rewrite for current-gen consoles. They announced a release date for May 2010, but the game was delayed again. It should be finally coming out after 14 years on June 9, 2011, and it’s already available for pre-purchase on Steam.

Digging into the game’s manual, a TouchArcade reader found out the developers included “Apple App Store Additional License Terms” – a bunch of legalese that most gamers usually skip, but it’s intended to inform users about licensing terms, agreements, and so forth. This could mean a mobile version of Duke Nukem Forever is also in the works, which wouldn’t be surprise considering the App Store userbase nowadays and the fact that the Unreal Engine runs on iPhones and iPads. Gearbox hasn’t confirmed they’ll use the Unreal Engine in the game, but that’s a possibility if DNF is really being ported to iOS devices. As TouchArcade notes, the license terms might also refer to the Mac App Store, although Gearbox specifically stated there weren’t any announcements related to the Mac or Linux platforms – and the terms clearly mention the iPhone and iPod touch in regards to the software license.

After all these years, it’d be nice to see the Duke on the iPad.

TouchUp for iPad Gracefully Adds Effects to your Photos: Review & Giveaway

The photographs you’ve dumped onto your iPad via the Camera Connection Kit are already pretty swell, but what if you had an app that took an ordinary shot and turned it into something seriously beautiful? With TouchUp by RogueSheep, you can quickly swipe over your photographs in an elegant and friendly interface that encourages creativity. Example photos are included to get you familiar with what’s possible with TouchUp, and we’ll be taking a look at one of these pre-included items to help you get started.

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The iPad 2 Could Have Been The World’s Fastest Computer in 1985→

The iPad 2 Could Have Been The World’s Fastest Computer in 1985

Jack Dongarra, researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, conducted a study to determine the position of the iPad in the list of the world’s 500 fastest computers in history. Using the Linpack computing benchmark, “a linear algebra test that measures  the mathematical capabilities of computers”, he came to the conclusion that the iPad 2 would be the perfect rival for the four-processor version of the Cray 2 supercomputer, an eight-processor machine that was the world’s fastest computer in 1985.

To date, the researchers have run the test on only one of the iPad microprocessor’s two processing cores. When they finish their project, though, Dr. Dongarra estimates that the iPad 2 will have a Linpack benchmark of between 1.5 and 1.65 gigaflops (billions of floating-point, or mathematical, operations per second). That would have insured that the iPad 2 could have stayed on the list of the world’s fastest supercomputers through 1994.

The Cray 2 was an unusual computer even by the standards of its designer, Seymour Cray. About the size of a large washing machine, it was cooled by immersion in a liquid called Flourinert that had been developed by 3M, and that was occasionally used as a human blood substitute during surgery.

The obvious difference is that, whilst the Cray 2 required to be placed in a large room, the iPad 2 fits in your hands, it’s touch-based and runs thousands of different apps. To put things in context, Steve Jobs also left Apple in 1985.

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Time Inc. Has Chosen Not To Use Apple’s Subscriptions

Time Inc., one of the major magazine publishers in the US, has announced they’re not looking to implement Apple’s in-app subscriptions in future updates to their iPad magazines like Fortune, Sports Illustrated, or Time. The news comes after it was revealed last week the company had reached a deal with Apple to offer print subscribers free access to digital content on the iPad, breaking an impasse between the publisher and Apple, which wasn’t allowing apps to recognize a subscriber’s status and give out free content. It’s not clear at this point how Time Inc. will manage to keep their existing apps in the Store considering the developer’s deadline set for June 30.

AdAge reports Steve Sachs, Time Inc. exec VP for consumer marketing and sales, confirmed Time Inc. “has chosen” not to implement subscriptions, although the possibility of updating the magazine apps to use subscriptions in the future hasn’t been completely ruled out.

We have chosen not to do that,” Mr. Sachs said in an interview, “because when we look at who to partner with, the key parts of our principles include of course making sure that the look and feel of products is great for consumers and the ability to set pricing terms, but also receiving key consumer data about subscribers.”

“That is one of the major issues for us that we haven’t been able to agree on with Apple,” he said. Things could of course change eventually. “We’re not going to rule out having digital subscriptions down the road with iPad.

Clearly, Time Inc. couldn’t agree with Apple’s subscription terms, which require users to log in with their iTunes accounts, grant Apple a 30% cut off every recurring transaction and allow readers to opt-out from sharing personal information with the publisher – a key detail the publishing industry relies on to trigger targeted advertising. Today’s Time Inc. announcement follows a flood of recent reports that saw many US publishers jumping on Apple’s subscription system, like Hearst last week or Conde Nast today with the release of The New Yorker for iPad featuring monthly and annual in-app subscriptions.

Apple Already Running Nuance Tech in New Data Center, WWDC Announcement?

Following last week’s speculation of Apple negotiating a deal with voice-recognition company Nuance for future integration in iOS devices, TechCrunch reports today more details on the rumored collaboration between Apple and Nuance, which should be a major announcement at next month’s WWDC in San Francisco. According to the website, the partnership between the two companies goes as far as to allow Siri – previously purchased by Apple – to be integrated into iOS 5, using Nuance’s voice recognition technology in the backend. Siri, in fact, was based on Nuance’s tech while providing more information of its own, and since the acquisition last year Apple had to make sure Nuance would still license the software (they even hold multiple patents for it) to use in the future version of Siri – likely a native feature in iOS 5.

For this reason, TechCrunch speculates Apple may be already running Nuance’s tech on its servers in North Carolina, through the massive data center that should begin operations this Spring. With deals likely already inked ahead of the WWDC, Apple might want to pass information through their own cloud to make voice recognition faster for all users, scalable, and more secure.

In digging into the information about the relationship between the two companies, we had heard that Apple might actually already be using Nuance technology in their new (but yet to be officially opened) massive data center in North Carolina. Since then, we’ve gotten multiple independent confirmations that this is indeed the case. And yes, this is said to be the keystone of a partnership that Apple is likely to announce with Nuance at WWDC next month.

More specifically, we’re hearing that Apple is running Nuance software — and possibly some of their hardware — in this new data center. Why? A few reasons. First, Apple will be able to process this voice information for iOS users faster. Second, it will prevent this data from going through third-party servers. And third, by running it on their own stack, Apple can build on top of the technology, and improve upon it as they see fit.

Valued at over $6 billion, an acquisition of Nuance was quickly dismissed last week as an expense Apple wasn’t ready to consider, suggesting a partnership would make more sense in order to keep things running (in Siri and the future iOS integration) at a lower cost. The fact that Apple may be running Nuance’s tech on its own backend, however, seems to suggest that Apple has at least negotiated a way to get direct control of the service, which, again, should power the next version of Siri for iOS 5. TechCrunch speculates voice recognition will be one of the WWDC’s big announcements, although it’s unclear whether third-party developers will get immediate access through a series of APIs or not.

The WWDC kicks off on June 6, and Apple has already formally announced that they’ll unveil the future of iOS and OS X at the developer-oriented event. Voice recognition has long been in the rumors as a major new functionality of iOS 5 – alongside a new notification system, maps, and social services – which should be previewed next month and released this Fall at Apple’s usual September media event.