Constantly we’re bombarded or introduced to new text editors and word processors that attempt to redefine and strike a balance between what’s necessary and what isn’t. I’m personally getting to the point where enough is enough, as the focus on being new and imaginative in the iOS and Mac App Store has degraded into providing more of the same under a different name and a slightly different interface. While most of us are perfectly content with trend setters such as PlainText and Elements, Essay ended going above and beyond my expectations for an iOS text editor. Sure there’s SimpleNote, but with DropBox sync and a slew of formatting options I’ll sacrifice instant sync with Notational Velocity for HTML goodness.
Essay: The Smart, Intuitive HTML Powered Text Editor for iPhone & iPad
Angry Birds Seasons Will Get “Amazing Update” for Easter→
Angry Birds Seasons Will Get “Amazing Update” for Easter
With a series of tweets posted on the official @RovioMobile account, the Angry Birds developers have confirmed to their fans that Seasons will get an amazing and “great” update for Easter. A preview of the new features will be posted soon, but if we had to guess we wouldn’t be surprised to see more eggs and some kind of evil rabbits. Angry Birds Seasons was updated in the past to include Halloween levels, Christmas specials, a Valentine’s Day edition and a green St. Patrick’s Day version. The update is expected to drop in the App Store before Easter (which is on April 24 this year).
With other tweets, Rovio is also suggesting Angry Birds Seasons for Mac will be released before Summer, and a huge update for the regular “Angry Birds” game is set to come out in the next few months, hopefully around May / June. Check out Rovio’s Twitter timeline here to get more details on the updates the development studio is working on. Honestly, we can’t wait to have some more Angry Birds in our hands. And with a new record of 10 million downloads in 10 days, I’m pretty sure the next updates will dominate the App Store once again. [via]
YouTube is going LIVE→
YouTube is going LIVE
Today we’re announcing the initial roll out of YouTube Live, which will integrate live streaming capabilities and discovery tools directly into the YouTube platform for the first time. This begins with a new YouTube Live browse page (www.youtube.com/live), where you can always find the most compelling live events happening on YouTube and add events to your calendar. Subscribe to your favorite YouTube live-streaming partners to be notified of upcoming live streams on your customized homepage.
Broadcasters like TWiT already stream their content live when it hits the air, but imagine how much exposure independent or amateur content creators can get through the power of YouTube. We’ve started to see the shift from traditional news outlets to independent blogs and journalists, and the same disruption is happening with consuming video. While Hulu, Netflix, and others are making strides to offer content outside of traditional cable media, the launch of live video on YouTube will make this transition more apparent and continue to deliver more options to consumers. I’m not surprised that Hak5 is already streaming, and Geek Beat will also have upcoming programming this evening. Also of interest: there’s already sports programming for the NBA Playoffs. Could good independent vloggers unroot traditional news channels like ESPN? The exposure YouTube brings, plus what it chooses to feature on their live page, will be significant.
Hands on With iheartradio for iPad
It’s Friday afternoon, and if you’re not already slacking off at work why not put your feet up on your desk and turn on some tunes. The iheartradio app has launched on the App Store, giving you access to all of your favorite artists, local (Clear Channel) and national radio stations, artist interviews and videos, and image galleries captioned off for your entertainment. It’s been a while since I’ve checked out an iheartradio app (which is gratuitously advertised by my local radio station), but I have to say I’m impressed with just how fast the iPad app is. Radio station’ connect instantly, there’s AirPlay built in to pipe tunes and video to your Apple TV, and you can favorite stations so you can quickly access all of your favorite radio channels from a handy playlist. If you hear a song that tickles your boom-tubes, you can purchase the song from iTunes in a snap. The features only get better, and we’ll conclude our short review just past the break.
#MacStoriesDeals - Friday
If you didn’t already know, we’ve set up a new twitter account for Deals, it’s @MacStoriesDeals. We’ll tweet the daily deals there as well as exclusive weekend deals too. Help spread the word! Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!
Cydia Tweak Activates Multitasking Gestures On iPhone
With iOS 4.3, Apple introduced the possibility for developers to activate “multitasking gestures”, a set of multitouch-based four and five-finger gestures that allow you to quickly switch between apps, go back to the homescreen, or invoke the multitasking tray. The gestures didn’t make it into the public version of iOS 4.3 (they were meant for dev test-only since the beginning), but they still can be enabled with a copy of Xcode, also sold in the Mac App Store at $4.99. Personally, I love multitasking gestures on my iPad and I use them all the time. Gestures are the future, and on the iPad they help me do things faster, in a much more intuitive process.
A new Cydia tweak called MT Gestures allows iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4g owners to turn on the multitasking gestures – with the same preference panel seen on the iPad. These settings have been there all the time, but they need to be manually enabled with an hack. This is exactly what MT Gestures does, for free. It’s available in ModMyi’s repository.
We don’t think, however, multitasking gestures are that great on the iPhone. If you want to be reminded why, check out the video below. [via Redmond Pie] Read more
What’s Going On With Apple and Best Buy?
An article published by CrunchGear last night suggested Apple “blacklisted” Best Buy over a misunderstanding between the company and the retailer which, allegedly, had been holding off on selling iPad 2 units they had in stock. Apple didn’t like the strategy, and stopped sending new iPad 2 shipments to Best Buy altogether. CrunchGear also reported it was unclear why Best Buy would keep iPads in stock without selling them (telling customers iPads weren’t available at all), with this information coming from “a reader who works at Best Buy.” The report also went on to claim that – according to the tipster – Tim Cook was involved in negotiations with Best Buy, and the situation was pretty bad for the American retailer.
As it usually happens with rumors involving Apple, the report got picked up by several blogs last night. But since CrunchGear posted the tip they received from a Best Buy employee, it all got more interesting. CrunchGear updated their original report with a purported email from Tim Cook sent to the tipster. Read more
Apple Design Award Winner Star Walk Brings Augmented Reality to iPad 2
We’re huge fans of Vito Technologies’ Star Walk products here at MacStories: winner of an Apple Design Award in June 2010 and released on the Mac under the “Solar Walk” brand a few months ago, Star Walk is an incredible product that enables you to explore the universe (stars, constellations, planets, satellites) with swipes and taps thanks to iOS multitouch integration.
If you own a copy of Star Walk for the iPad and you recently bought an iPad 2, a brand new update is awaiting in the App Store. Released 2 days ago, Star Walk 5.2 (also available on the iPhone, the app is not universal) celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight (completed by Yuri Gagarin in his Vostok spacecraft on April 12, 1961) by adding several features like full Augmented Reality support. Similarly to how the SkyView app we reviewed in March allowed you to point your device to the sky and see the position of stars and constellations in real-time, Star Walk now lets you do the same and it works really well on the iPad 2. Among various bug fixes and enhancements to the control buttons, Star Walk 5.2 also includes a calendar of celestial events to plan your stargazing sessions within the app, and the possibility to search through all categories at once. We feel the Augmented Reality introduction is, however, the biggest and most important addition in this update, and you should consider giving a try to the app if you’ve heard of Star Walk in the past, and you just got an iPad 2. Exploring the universe is way more comfortable and elegant on the tablet’s large screen.
Star Walk for iPad is available at $4.99 in the App Store. The iPhone version is available at $0.99 here.
Apple Releases Boot Camp Update for MacBook Pro 2011 Owners
Boot Camp, the utility OS X users rely on to natively install Windows on their hard drives, was updated late last night to address several issues with the MacBook Pro 2011 models released in February. The update, available here, fixes some issues with unexpected shutdowns and Japanese / Korean keyboards, and it’s highly recommended for owners of the new MacBook Pros.
For more information about Boot Camp, visit Apple’s dedicated webpage.