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Apple Launches Free App To Browse iAds

Released a few minutes ago in the App Store, iAd Gallery is a new iPhone app developed by Apple and aimed at showcasing the best iAd campaigns that landed on iOS in the past weeks. The app collects several iAds for iPhone, you can browse by advertiser, category or ad feature thanks to a spinning wheel that lets you easily jumo through ads and select the ones you want to “watch”. You can also learn more about the advertising agencies behind a campaign, and check out the latest ads from the iAd network. You can also “love” specific iAd campaigns and access them at any time from the Loved tab in the bottom toolbar.

The iAd Gallery is a celebration of advertising, featuring iAd campaigns from some of the world’s best brands and their advertising agencies. The iAd Gallery gives you easy access to a selection of the fun and informative ads that have run in some of your favorite apps. Use the Browse feature to discover ads you haven’t seen, or to find those you want to see again. Even lets you tag your favorites to a Loved section that’s all your own.

From a first quick test, it appears that the app takes a few seconds to load the initial gallery (even on a fast WiFi network), but once loaded everything is quite responsive. Browsing through ads in the wheel feels smooth and fast; in the More section, you can contact the iAd team to ask for more info about joining the network. Clearly this is an app meant for media and business to showcase the capabilities of iAds, and perhaps also educate App Store users about the interactivity of Apple’s ad platform. We’re not sure what kind of message Apple is sending to advertisers here, and if the impressions generated in this app account for the iAd campaign itself. It is worth nothing, though, that Apple recently cut the minimum iAd buy in half to $500,000 from the previous $1 million, and a released a desktop tool called iAd Producer to simplify the creation of iAds for designers and developers. Advertisers claimed that iAd wasn’t off to a happy start at all after the initial hype, although we’re hearing iAd revenue for iOS devs has seen a huge rise in the past three weeks. Apple also rolled out fullscreen iAds for the iPad.

You can find iAd Gallery here. More screenshots below. Read more

nvALT 2.0 Launches with (Multi)Markdown, HTML/CSS Template Support

Notational Velocity is a huge productivity tool for keep tracking of internal notes with tags and content linking, and followers of Brett Terpstra are probably already big fans of the nvALT project that’s designed to add power-user friendly features to a favorite text client. With help from ElasticThreads, nvALT 2.0 has been released which highlights lots of killer features that can be added to Notational Velocity. I’ve listed just a few below (I encourage you to check out Brett’s site and the project page) for a quick taste of what nvALT 2.0 has to offer.

  • Textile and (Multi)Markdown support with Preview window (hold down Control to view temporarily)
  • Custom HTML/CSS templates can be included in saved output from the Preview
  • Convert imported URLs to Markdown, and optionally strip excess content with Readability
  • Word Count (hold down Option to view temporarily)
  • Full-screen mode

As a fork of Notional Velocity, nvALT is a keyboard-focused text editor that’s being improved to deliver rich features that writers such as myself rely on to get things done, take notes, and quickly exit ideas from my brain box. If you’re already familiar with Notational Velocity, it works with Simplenote on your favorite iOS device, and it can be extended thanks to the great nvALT project Brett and other volunteers are working on. It doesn’t replace Notational Velocity, but runs alongside it with it’s own set of preferences and additional features.

[via Brett Terpstra]

Camera+ hits 2 million sales / Revealing details about upgrade numbers and in-app purchase sales→

Camera+ hits 2 million sales / Revealing details about upgrade numbers and in-app purchase sales

If we were to stay on the same weekly pace that we’re currently on (~160k sales per week), we’ll get to 3 million in only 1.5 months from now. But with the volatility of the App Store, our fortune could change in a heartbeat. The one thing you learn to count on as an iPhone app developer is not to count on future sales based on past performance.

John Casasanta has been on a roll lately with his latest set of iPhone tips & tricks, and now he’s released the sales figures for Camera+. By far Camera+ is one of the most successful photography apps on the App Store, and according to the charts it’s one of a few apps that customers are consistently using on their iOS devices. The sales figures for in app purchases are telling, and Casasanta notes that while customers are buying for and requesting new effects packs, that’s not where you want to make the bulk of your cash.

There are companies with free photography apps that are trying to have their business models revolve around selling effects via in-app purchases, but it’s very unlikely that this can be an effective business model.

Camera+ is a success because tap tap tap doesn’t need in-app purchases to unlock features or drive their business model. All of the functionality you need is provided in the app, and additional effects don’t fundamentally alter your experience - they only supplement the tools already available if you find yourself using the app a lot. You’re sold the entire experience upfront, and in-app purchases are like adding an extra flower to the already delicious icing on the cake.

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#MacStoriesDeals - Tuesday

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!

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Apple Asks Toyota To Take Cydia Theme Down

Two days ago we reported Toyota launched a new advertising campaign in the Cydia through ModMyi’s repository based on a custom theme iPhone users could install on their jailbroken devices. The theme promoted Toyota’s affiliate Scion 2011 tC vehicle, with graphics on screen depicting the car in various elements of the standard iOS interface. Toyota didn’t directly get in touch with Cydia’s creator Jay Freeman to launch the ad campaign, which was organized and hosted through ModMyi’s repository. Many saw the advertising campaign as the first step for large companies like Toyota to avoid the App Store altogether to promote their brands and products on the iPhone. With 10-15 million jailbroken devices out there, launching an ad campaign in Cydia through a third-party repo must have sounded like the perfect opportunity to Toyota.

Too bad Apple didn’t think that was a really good idea. In fact, Toyota was apparently asked by Apple to take the theme down, and Toyota accepted to “maintain their good relationship with Apple.” The campaign had been in the works since April 2010 with Toyota and advertising agency Velti.

Kyle Matthews of ModMyi reports:

Apple also heard about the theme and ad campaign. I received a call from our contact at Velti this evening as well as an email asking me to please take the theme out of Cydia. On the phone, he explained Apple had contacted Toyota and requested they remove the theme and stop the advertising campaign. They (Velti) in turn contacted me relaying the message.

Apple doesn’t obviously like jailbreak (they called it “illegal” before the Digital Copyright Millennium Act updated its rules and observed jailbreaking a phone is in a consumer’s rights), and they’re taking another hard stance against those who promote or support (or make business with) Cydia in any way. Sorry Toyota, but you’ll have to take that theme down.

MailTabs Brings Safari-like Tabs to Mail.app

If you use Mail.app on your Mac desktop to stay on top of your inboxes and messages and you’re that kind of user who opens a lot of Mail windows to navigate between accounts, folders and new messages, perhaps you’ve thought about getting a new email client with support for tabs. In web browsers, tabs are the best way to open multiple links at once without being forced to clutter your screen with dozens of standalone windows (although some people still prefer to keep separate sets of tabs organized in different windows); furthermore, new solutions like Mozilla’s Panorama for Firefox enable us to literally open hundreds of tabs and visually switch between them retaining some free space in the toolbar. Tabs have basically changed the way we browse. How about enabling them in Mail.app now?

That’s what a new plugin called MailTabs does. Available for free and supporting auto-updates (that means you won’t have to download a new version every time), once installed MailTabs will put Safari-like tabs in Mail for OS X. New messages, conversations and inboxes will open in a new tab sitting below the top toolbar instead of a new Mail window. The UI is far from perfect in this first release, but tabs really work and sessions are even restored when you close Mail.app and open it again. When you send a new message from within a tab, the tab is automatically closed as soon as you hit Send. The plugin has no other configuration options available in the Settings, and I’m hoping the developers will add further customization possibilities in the future updates. MailTabs also seems to have a small footprint on CPU resources and RAM.

If you’re a fan of plugins like TotalFinder and, overall, tabs for web browsers, you should try MailTabs. It’s a free download here.

Zen Viewer Adds AirPlay Support, Can Open Files In Other Apps

Zen Viewer is a beautiful file manager for iPad with a unique interface design we reviewed a few weeks ago. The app impressed us with its original approach to file management on the tablet: Zen Viewer makes great use of the iPad’s large screen by providing a split view that allows you to easily browse files, and preview media like songs in the upper panel. From our review:

The first thing to understand about Zen Viewer is the column interface with “Library” on the left and “Files” in the other panel. Files is where all your imported documents will end up in, and you can choose to organize them at a later time in the Library. Files is your “everything bucket”, whilst the Library is meant for organization purposes and management. You can move, copy and paste files by just hitting the gear icon in the Files toolbar and selecting the items you want to move or copy in a different location (like a folder in the Library).

The app went under two updates in the past weeks, and whilst the second one is aimed at fixing bugs discovered in the previous releases, the first update introduced the possibility to stream audio and video files through AirPlay to an Apple TV or compatible AirPlay speakers; Zen Viewer can now also receive files from other apps (like iFiles or GoodReader) thanks to the addition of the “Open In” menu. Similarly, Zen Viewer can send files to other apps installed on your iPad.

You can find Zen Viewer at $2.99 in the App Store. If you’re looking for an innovative and great-looking iPad file manager, Zen Viewer is one of the new apps of 2011 to try out.

Radio Reporter Uses iPhone 4 As A Replacement For Bulky Equipment

A decade ago Neal Augenstein packed and took with him a suitcase full of heavy equipment so that he could cover news events in the field for the WTOP radio station. Today? It’s an iPhone 4, iPad and a few accessories.

As a radio reporter, the fundamental aspect for Augenstein is audio capture, currently that role is fulfilled by the iPhone 4’s inbuilt microphone (the third-party one he used to use with his 3GS doesn’t yet support the iPhone 4) and whilst it isn’t quite up to the quality he previously experienced, he says it is 92% as good as before. For audio editing he uses the VC Audio Pro app that lets him quickly and easily pull cuts, edit, assemble and adjust the volumes on a three-track screen. This is Augenstein’s favorite improvement on his previous workflow, because he is now able to push out a report in something like 10 minutes rather than 30 minutes.

For live reports Augenstein experimented with two expensive options but left unsatisfied went with the tried and tested Skype which gives him (and his station) a free VoIP service that he says “often sounds as good as the pricy apps”.  Twitter has also become a complementary avenue of reporting and he writes that he will often “break stories on Twitter, and follow-up with audio and website reports.”

Augenstein also carries an iPad primarily for taking down notes during press conferences and a “jury-rigged” stand for the iPhone for when there is no podium to place the iPhone on. In essence Augenstein highlights the very benefit of ditching his old equipment for the iPhone 4 when he says: “I can produce intricate audio and video reports, broadcast live, take and edit photos, write web content and distribute it through social media from a single device.”

[MediaShift via TUAW]

 

Stephen Colbert Already Wants An iPad 3 [Video]

The iPad 2 came out a few weeks ago and it’s still the hot new gadget among Apple aficionados and average consumers, right? I mean, some people didn’t even get the chance to buy one, as they’re still waiting in line at the local Apple Store hoping for new stock to become available. Stephen Colbert got one though, he loved it as a device to send emails and tweets or check out his photos…and then he got tired of it. “Anyone know when the iPad 3 is coming out?”, he asks. “I just want something new, you know?”

Hilarious. Check out the video below.[MediaMemo via Colbert Nation]
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