3 Column Reader Safari Extension Makes Google Reader Beautiful

Based on the Pure Reader mod for Google Reader we covered back in December, 3 Column Reader is a new Safari extension released in June and updated last week that enables you to turn the Google Reader website into a beautiful, three-column reading experience for your RSS feeds. Developed by Zackary Corbett, 3 Column Reader is only compatible with Safari for now, and it’s got a minor glitch with the settings icon from Google’s new sharing toolbar launched alongside the Plus social network. However, the extension is being actively developed so we wouldn’t be surprised to see a fix for users logged into Google+ soon.

For everything else, 3 Column Reader looks great: the extension takes Pure Reader’s color scheme (which reminds us of Reeder’s sepia background and monochrome icons) to lay out a three-column setup perfect for widescreen monitors: folders and feeds are listed on the left, a mid panel visualizes the feeds’ titles and excerpts, and the full articles with images are displayed on the right. You can hide the source list by hitting an icon in the mid panel, and most of Google Reader’s web app functionalities are retained, such as popup menus to sort articles, or buttons to mark items as favorite. I didn’t encounter any other compatibility issues when using 3 Column Reader on Safari 5.1 for Lion GM. Read more

Capture: The Fastest App To Record Video On Your iPhone

Released today at $0.99 on the App Store and created by the same developers of Canned, Capture is a minimal and simple utility for the iPhone that addresses a common issue with the iPhone’s Camera app: sometimes you need to capture a moment quickly, but the app takes too long to launch or switch to video recording. Brought to my attention by Ben Brooks, Capture is simply great at what it does: the developers describe it as “a record button for your home screen” and, really, that’s not too far from the truth. Capture starts recording a video as soon as you tap on its (beautiful) icon. You launch the app, and it starts recording after one second. No need to switch to the “video” tab as in Apple’s Camera, no need to wait because, and I don’t know how exactly, Capture is immediately available after you tap on it.

I can see why Capture could become an essential tool for many: by placing the app on the iPhone’s dock, you have quick access to video recording by pressing an icon. This is certainly useful for people who want to “capture” a particular moment in their kids’ life or, overall, users frustrated by the general slowness of Apple’s Camera when it comes to recording a video quickly. For reporters and citizen journalists, Capture might be exactly what they were looking for.

Capture is fast, elegant, lets you activate the iPhone’s Flash but has no support for switching between rear and front facing cameras yet. If you need an app to record video in seconds without waiting, get Capture at $0.99 on the App Store.

The WSJ iPhone App and Negative App Store Reviews→

The WSJ iPhone App and App Store Reviews

Jakob Nielsen at UseIt.com offers an interesting breakdown of the issues behind the design of the WSJ iPhone app’s initial login screen, which is causing customers to leave negative iTunes reviews as they think the newspaper is forcing existing subscribers to pay again to read content on the iPhone. That is not true (subscribers of wsj.com can access the app for free), but according to Nielsen a poorly designed login screen that puts the focus on new subscriptions and registrations, rather than login, is tricking users to believe that existing subscriptions don’t count against iPhone access.

Wildly persistent users might notice the much smaller Log In area at the bottom of the startup screen. However, they’re unlikely to press this button because their experience with the app so far has taught them that they must register (and pay extra) before being allowed to log in.

Those few users who do press Log In will finally see that they can use their existing www.wsj.com credentials to access the app. However, as the many negative App Store reviews attest, few users ever make it this far.

The full report with screenshots of the WSJ iPhone app and proposed mockups to address the issue is available here. Subscriptions and logins for existing subscribers have always presented usability problems for developers of mobile newspapers and magazine apps, struggling to find the best way to promote both new subscriptions and free access for existing, paying customers. Apple wants to improve the process with its native subscription system based on iTunes accounts, and indeed several publications are experimenting with the new APIs provided by Apple to offer web-based login screens that allow for new registrations and iTunes subscriptions, like The New York Times did in its latest app update.

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Ahead Of “Awesome” Launch, Screenshots Show Facebook’s Project Spartan

Last week, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg revealed the company was preparing for an “awesome” launch this week. A formal announcement is expected today at a media event at Facebook HQ, but several blogs in the past few days have claimed Facebook is set unveil a partnership with communication giant Skype (recently acquired by Microsoft) to bring video chats to the social network, an interesting possibility at the light of Google’s new Plus foray into the social sphere, which among other things features a Hangout functionality to start group video chats with multiple contacts at once. TechCrunch, however, seems to believe that Project Spartan, an HTML5-based development and distribution platform that’s being built with Mobile Safari for iOS in mind, won’t be part of the announcements today, which may or may not also include the long-awaited official iPad app, supposedly nearing a public release. Read more

Fluid App Adds Lion Compatibility and Full Screen Mode

With OS X Lion expected to make its public debut on the Mac App Store in the next few weeks, it is no surprise developers are starting to release updates to their applications to support the new OS and introduce features built upon the new APIs created by Apple. Last night, Panic released four updates to bring Lion support to Coda, Candybar, Transmit and Unison. Fluid App, the popular tool to create native applications for OS X off any website or web app, has also been updated to bring proper Lion compatibility, a few bug fixes and, more importantly, support for Lion’s full screen mode.

Whilst Lion compatibility can be seen in the Fluid changelog here, full screen support is listed under changes to Fluid apps. Indeed,when I opened the Google Plus Fluid app I created earlier this week, I was prompted to perform an update in-app to enable Lion and full screen support, as well as new URL handlers in the Preferences. As with most Apple apps on Lion, full screen mode can be entered by hitting a keyboard shortcut, or pressing an icon in the upper right corner. To return to the standard window view, you’ll have to click the (blue) full screen icon in the menubar again. Animations for my Fluid app on my late-2008 MacBook Pro with SSD were fast and smooth.

Fluid App is available for free, but you can purchase a license at $4.99 via Paypal to unlock additional features like the aforementioned full screen on Lion, separate cookie storage and possibility of pinning apps to the OS X status bar.

JailbreakMe 3.0 Released, Jailbreaks iOS Devices Including iPad 2

The long-awaited new version of popular jailbreak tool JailbreakMe has been released today and, as previously announced by developer and hacker comex and the Dev-Team, it is capable of jailbreaking a variety of iOS devices running iOS 4.3 and above, including the iPad 2. The procedure of jailbreaking allows users to install unauthorized software on their devices, like Cydia, an alternative marketplace that contains apps, tweaks and graphical modifications Apple can’t approve for sale in its App Store. The popularity of JailbreakMe raises from the fact that the tool is entirely Safari-based, enabling users to press a button in their browser to install Cydia with ease, without having to plug the device into a computer, restore, and follow other additional steps. JailbreakMe takes a few minutes to install Cydia, and it’s completely reversible in iTunes with a restore.

Because of the issues with people leaking the hack behind JailbreakMe 3.0 in the past week, creator comex was forced to accelerate the release, fearing a patch from Apple coming soon with a software update. Just like JailbreakMe 2.0, in fact, the new tool uses a vulnerability in iOS’ PDF display engine to allow the installation of Cydia from Safari. The hole will likely be fixed soon by Apple with a software update, perhaps iOS 4.3.4, but the same Cydia developers are offering a tweak called PDF Patcher 2 (available in Cydia) which patches the JailbreakMe vulnerability after the jailbreak.

JailbreakMe 3.0 supports the following devices as explained by a Dev-Team blog post:

  • iPad1: 4.3 through 4.3.3
  • iPad2: 4.3.3
  • iPhone3GS: 4.3 through 4.3.3
  • iPhone4: 4.3 through 4.3.3
  • iPhone4-CDMA: 4.2.6 through 4.2.8
  • iPod touch 3g: 4.3, 4.3.2, 4.3.3
  • iPod touch 4g: 4.3 through 4.3.3

The Dev-Team also illustrates the current scenario of restoring a device to older versions and SHSH blobs:

Q: Will I permanently lose the jailbreak if I need to restore my device?

A: For all except the iPad2, saving your SHSH blobs should let you always restore your device to iOS versions where this jailbreak works. The iPad2 is a little more complicated. If you have a wifi-only iPad2 and saved SHSH blobs, you’re in good shape. But if you have the GSM or CDMA iPad2, you won’t be able to restore to 4.3.3 or lower once Apple stops signing its baseband. There are a few ideas that might work to get around this limitation, but for now it’s best to assume there’s no going back to 4.3.3 once 4.3.4 is out for iPad2 GSM or CDMA owners.

As we said above, the exploit will likely be fixed soon by Apple (some bloggers are already claiming as early as this week), so if you’re willing to jailbreak your iPad 2 on iOS 4.3.3 or iOS device, head over JailbreakMe.com now, and follow the steps to install Cydia. For Cydia app & tweak recommendations, check out our coverage from the past months, and give a try to Cydia Search to browse available software for your jailbroken device from your desktop.

Analysts Forecast 17 Million iPhones, 8 Million iPads Sold in Q3

According to the latest estimates by amateur (non-Wall Street) Apple analysts at The Mac Observer’s Finance Board as relayed by Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune, Apple is on track to sell more than 8 million iPads and 17 million iPhones in the third fiscal quarter of 2011. Apple has confirmed that the Q3 2011 financial results will be announced in two weeks, on July 19, and Wall Street’s consensus already claims “the company earned $5.69 per share on sales of $24.67 billion”.

According to the Finance Board (which, among the polled members, includes Horace Dediu of Asymco), Apple will post revenue of $26.5 billion with a 69% year-over-year growth, as outlined in two different reports by Paul Leitao at Posts at Eventide.

The June quarter represents the first fiscal quarter in which Apple iPad sales are a factor in the prior-year performance. This factor alone will will have an impact on year-over-year revenue growth. iPad unit sales and the resulting revenue were not a factor in the prior-year financial performance comparisons in the December (FQ1) and March (FQ2) quarters.

In Q2 2011, Apple posted revenue of $24.67 billion, with 4.69 million iPads, 18.65 million iPhones and 3.76 million Macs sold. Overall, the company posted quarterly revenue growth of 83% and profit growth of 95%. For the third quarter, the Apple Finance Board estimates the Mac’s sales will be consistent with the platform’s recent growth, whilst as far as the iPad 2 goes, Apple’s ability to meet demand (following the alleged supply issues due to the Japan earthquake and tsunami) will play a key role in determining a growth for the device’s sales up from roughly 5 million in Q2. As for the iPhone, Leitao writes:

The average estimate of AFB members suggests the March quarter unit sales growth trend will continue in the June quarter. Last year Apple significantly reduced iPhone unit shipments in the June quarter ahead of the  release of the iPhone 4, leading to favorable conditions for year-over-year unit sales gains in the June quarter this year.

We will know more on July 19, when Apple is expected to post the official financial results for Q3 2011.

MacStories Product Review: The Toddy Smart Cloth

Our gadgets occasionally need a good wipe down thanks to our junk food stained fingers, and there’s nothing quite as gross as trying to watch your favorite Hulu and Netflix programming through a thin buildup of grease and fingerprints. You might not care to notice, but your iOS devices are probably filthy fingerprint magnets that you’ll rub on a pant leg or sweaty workout t-shirt just to clear away the sweaty fog. Even if it’s not about the germs, your devices deserve to shine unfiltered from any dirt or grime that’s accumulated on those glass displays. Today I’m looking at one amazing little cloth that’ll wipe away the sludge better than any towel or necktie I’ve ever used.

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Panic Updates Transmit, Candybar, Coda and Unison for Lion

Panic, makers of popular software for the Mac like website creation tool and code editor Coda or UI & icon customization manager Candybar, have released four updates to their flagship applications for OS X tonight, adding Lion compatibility ahead of the upcoming Mac App Store release for the new OS. As tweeted a few minutes ago by the company’s Twitter account, Transmit, Candybar, Coda and Unison have all been updated with a series of bug fixes and 10.7-related improvements.

Candybar, the desktop app to change system icons and other graphical files, has received a substantial update to version 3.3 that prevents the application from doing “harmful customization” to Mac App Store icons (this has been an issue since January when the Mac App Store came out and users found out changing applications’ resources could be a problem for the Store’s update mechanism) and also introduces other interface changes. Candybar was last updated on October of last year, and today’s new version brings a smarter slider that presents common export sizes as you interact with it, and copy of icons onto Collections in the Info window.

Other changelogs for the updates Panic released today:

Transmit 4.1.6

  • Improved compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)
  • Added support for AWS Tokyo region
  • Added bookmark importing from Cyberduck 4
  • Dates are now read properly on SabreDAV servers
  • Improved Unicode filename support with download Syncing

Coda 1.7.1

  • Improves compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)

Unison 2.1.5

  • Fixed an issue that could cause preferences to be reset
  • Fixed a possible crash when playing an audio file
  • Improved decoding of Chinese messages
  • Sped up the performance of header loading with lots of “Ignore Sender” rules
  • Images without filenames in HTML messages are now shown properly

Currently, the new updated versions can be only downloaded from Panic’s website. The Mac App Store counterparts will likely receive the updates as soon as Apple processes them, so make sure to keep an eye on the developers’ Mac App Store page.