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The Daily Just Got Its First Update

The most popular iPad newspaper these days, The Daily, just got an update that aims at improving performances and stability of the app and fix Twitter login and posting issues experienced by several users.

Version 1.0.1 indeed feels slightly faster in some sections from our first tests, although the carousel view is still pretty slow to browse. The initial download of new issues takes too many seconds. Overall, there have been some improvements but the main structure of the app still doesn’t feel as responsive as a digital newspaper should be.

The Daily is available here.

Developers: Xcode 4 Will Drop Support for 10.5 SDK

A notable change in the Xcode 4 GM seed Apple released last week is the lack of support for OS X 10.5 SDK, Leopard. Several developers on Twitter and Apple’s Discussion Boards have noted that the latest release doesn’t come with the 10.5 SDK installed by default, and even though it appears that it can be enabled with a Terminal hack, an Apple engineer confirmed on Apple Discussions that Xcode 4 final won’t support building apps for 10.5:

Xcode 4 does not support building for Mac OS X 10.5. If you want to build for Mac OS X 10.5 (obviously a valid thing to want to do), you need to keep a copy of Xcode 3 around. For example installing a copy of the latest version of Xcode 3 into “/Xcode3”.

The 10.5 SDK is still included in the Xcode 4 Preview 6 Apple seeded in January. Many developers who still need to build apps for 10.5 Leopard will likely keep Preview 6 or Xcode 3 on their computers in a different location, but admittedly Apple’s move to drop the 10.5 SDK within Xcode makes sense considering we’ll soon move forward to OS X Lion.

Xcode 4 development seems to be moving steadily with new developer builds released every few weeks, so we guess it’s possible that we’ll see the suite becoming available before the WWDC in June.

New Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs To Start Shipping February 20th

The most probable next generation processor for MacBooks will start shipping on February 20th. The new Intel core i5 and i7 processors, based on the Sandy Bridge architecture shown off at CES, comes in flavors ranging from 1.4 GHz to 2.7 GHz, drawing 17 watts to 35 watts respectively under load. The new processors could be used to update Apple’s MacBook, 13” MacBook Pro, and 15” MacBook Pro line, while quad-core Sandy Bridge CPUs would populate Apple’s higher end MacBooks and desktops. Apple’s MacBook and 13” MacBook Pro continue to utilize Core 2 Duo processors, and may receive a Sandy Bridge update later this year.

Why is Sandy Bridge so impressive? Our friends over at The Next Web explain.

[via Macworld]

My New (Old) Favorite Service: Back to My Mac

Back to My Mac is often ignored by Mac users as just another feature of the equally ignored MobileMe set of online webapps, sync tools and desktop settings. Back to My Mac allows you to display a remote Mac on your local machine’s Finder as if it was within reach, just a few clicks away. Select the remote Mac in the Finder’s sidebar, browse its contents through the Finder itself or just connect to its screen using OS X built-in Screen Sharing features. Back to My Mac, ultimately, enables you to virtually sit in front of your Mac even if the computer is actually miles away from you. All of this happens over the Internet, routed through MobileMe. Read more

Apple Planning Retail Store in Grand Central Terminal?

The New York Observer has a lengthy piece today on Apple’s rumored new location for a retail store in NYC: Grand Central Terminal. The Observer reports:

Sources tell The Observer that the maker of ubiquitous iGadgets—from computers to cell phones—hopes to open a store in the transportation and retail hub, though it has yet to begin the long approval process necessary for opening in a city landmark.

The publication also notes Apple and Grand Central’s leasing agent obviously declined to comment; Apple’s most popular stores in New York, the Fifth Avenue store and the one in Upper West Side, share a similar design approach with glass (Fifth Ave.) and stone walls (UWS). Recently, Apple has been rumored to be considering a revamp of the current Palo Alto retail store basing on the design guidelines from New York’s Upper West Side location.

As The Observer also notes, if the rumors are to be believed and Apple is indeed in the early planning stages of a Grand Central store, it will be interesting to see how Apple will manage to put a full-featured store in the famous retail hub. Although we think Apple’s shiny glass and minimal design philosophy would be a great fit for Grand Central.

BBC iPlayer App for iPad Coming This Week

In late January we reported the official BBC iPlayer app for iPad was rumored for a February release; it now appears that the app is real, it’s launching this Thursday and it will require an active WiFi internet connection for full browsing and playback experience.

As tweeted by Interactive Operations Engineer at BBC Geoff Marshall, iPlayer for iPad won’t allow you to stream videos over 3G. Marshall also confirms the UK Radio Player was set to launch this week, but it’s been pushed back to March. It is very likely that the initial version of iPlayer for iPad will be available to UK users only, although some rumors point to BBC Worldwide planning a subscription-based international version for all App Store. The native iPlayer app is expected to bring a much smoother and stable experience to iPad owners who have relied on Mobile Safari for months now.

We will keep you posted as soon as iPlayer for iPad shows up in the App Store.

Mac App Store Gets Purchase Confirmation Warning

When Apple launched the Mac App Store on January 6, one of the most notable missing features was the “purchase confirmation warning” when buying apps. We’re talking about the dialogue box that usually pops up in the iOS App Store when you’re logged in with your Apple ID and you hit the “Buy” button; the confirmation warning is an effective way to help users prevent accidental downloads (and thus credit card charges) when browsing the Store. It happened a few times in the past that I was scrolling a list of apps (usually the Top Paid chart) and accidentally clicked on the button to download a (paid) app.

The Mac App Store now displays an additional pop-up menu after clicking the “Buy” button in the Store. It appears that there is no option to disable the warning for now, unlike the iOS App Store. As you can see in the screenshot above, you’ll have to click on a second “Buy” button before start downloading an application.

The feature is a nice addition, although we would like to have it as an option, rather than enabled by default. Other features we’re still waiting for include a better uninstallation process (would be great to have an Uninstall tab in the Mac App Store’s window), possibility to gift apps and a Wish List, which is still surprisingly missing from the Mac App Store.

Turn Off Ping’s Annoying Email Notifications

Last week, I noticed Apple started sending me emails about people following me on Ping. Yes, Ping: remember it? Apple’s “interesting” attempt at doing social networking within the iTunes Store. Something that has received awards like worst product of 2010. Still, back to email notifications. It looks like Apple turned these on by default recently, without asking for user’s confirmation, apparently. Another little trick to remind us Ping exists, I guess. Indeed, the Ping homepage features these new notifications as “What’s New In Ping”. Read more

FUNDED: Kickstarter Project Adonit WRITER

Back on January 26, I posted about the Adonit’s WRITER, an iPad case + keyboard. At the time, they were trying to raise $10,000 to fund this project and had $7,000. Well, I was doing a checkup on the Kickstarter project a few days ago when it ended and the Adonit team ended up getting 268% of the funding that they needed, or over $26,000. I’m glad to see a great iPad accessory get the money it needed to move forward with production. Read more