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Mac App Store: Miro Converts Videos for iOS, For Free

Available for free in the Mac App Store, Miro Video Converter is a little utility that converts almost any kind of video to formats compatible with iOS and other Apple devices, Android handsets, WebM, Theora and a variety of other platforms. As you can guess, Miro Video Converter comes from the creators of Miro, video player and torrent downloader.

The app doesn’t offer all the control and customization possibilities seen, for example, in the popular Handbrake video conversion tool, but it’s got a nice and simple interface where all you have to do is drop a file, select the output and hit Convert.

Miro Video Converter is available here. Check out the list of supported formats and devices below. Read more

Netgear CEO Makes A Few Predictions on Apple, Steve Jobs→

Netgear CEO Makes A Few Predictions on Apple, Steve Jobs

Netgear CEO Patrick Lo doesn’t get it:

At a lunch in Sydney today, Patrick Lo said Apple’s success was centred on closed and proprietary products that would soon be overtaken by open platforms like Google’s Android.

Lunch was not the main point. Here it is:

Lo said Apple’s closed model only worked because, in many product categories like MP3 players, “they own the market”.

“Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform,” said Lo.

This is a common mistake: thinking that Apple’s integrated model is somehow linked to Steve Jobs’ personality or physical presence at Apple. But there’s more:

Right now the closed platform has been successful for Apple because they’ve been so far ahead as thought leaders because of Steve Jobs,” said Lo.

Wrong again. They have been successful because they predicted what consumers wanted, not because of Jobs’ personal tastes.

Eventually they’ve got to find a way to open up iTunes without giving too much away on their revenue generation model.

What does this mean, exactly? This is business lingo. I think he wants Apple to accept any kind of app. The real gem is about Flash:

What’s the reason for him to trash Flash? There’s no reason other than ego,” he said.

Or maybe – but you know, I’m just guessing here –  it was a business decision.

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Marco Arment’s MacBook Pro Speculation→

Marco Arment’s MacBook Pro Speculation

Marco Arment predicts a new MacBook Pro 15” inspired by the success of the new MacBook Airs:

And I’m guessing that the 15” will undergo its most significant change in a very long time: it will adopt the wedge shape of the Air, losing its thick, uncomfortably sharp front edge. Removing the optical drive will free up a lot of space inside, leaving room for a rearrangement that can enable the wedge shape without giving up a significant amount of battery volume.

No glass and SSD by default may end up on the new MacBook Pro as well. The problem with a wedge design is that it leaves small room to “big ports” like FireWire and Ethernet, something users are really used to have on the MBP 15-inch. I agree with Marco when he says there’s little sense to keep the 13-inch MacBook Pro in the line-up now that the 13-inch MacBook Air is so portable and powerful.

Also, Apple’s homepage says it all: MacBook Air is the next generation of MacBooks. We just have to wait to see where do we go from here.

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Windows Phone 7 Theme Coming to iPhone

If you have an iPhone but you’ve been keeping an eye on the devices running the promising Windows Phone 7 operating system, I guess you know one of the biggest selling points of Microsoft’s mobile platform is the concept of “Springboard” that’s entirely different from those seen on iOS and Android. Instead of presenting a background with app icons, Windows Phone 7 offers “live updating tiles” with real-time information for third-party apps and default software like calendar and weather.

Theme creator Wyndwarrior thought it’d be nice to port the Windows Phone 7 experience to the iPhone, so he designed a theme that replicates Microsoft’s homescreen on the iPhone, live tiles and application list included. The theme is in pubic beta and more details will be added come the final release, in the meantime check out the demo video below. [ModMyI via AppAdvice] Read more

Woz Says White iPhone 4 Will Be Released Soon

The white iPhone 4 has become the mythical beast in Apple’s product line up. First expected to launch alongside the standard black iPhone 4 last year, the device got delayed multiple times and never came out. At the latest Engadget Show that aired tonight, Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak confirmed Apple has fixed the problems with the painting of the white iPhone and that the device is coming out soon. He also said he got custom white parts from the kid who used to sell them online, and indeed those parts lead to light leakage issues and washed-out pictures.

A report surfaced last week suggested a new Japanese paint has fixed the issues with the white iPhone, and the unit was spotted on various international carrier websites. Back in December, another report pointed to the iPhone 4 becoming available in “Spring 2011”.

At this point, we’re pretty confident the white iPhone 4 is real and its production woes a thing of the past. We also believe, though, that a white iPhone 4 on Verizon’s big launch day next would have been perfect.

Mac App Store: Developers Make App Free, Gain 24,000 Downloads in 48 Hours

Todolicious is a neat todo app for the Mac we originally previewed ahead of the Mac App Store launch. The app was priced at $4.99 and, since the new Store’s grand opening, has been selling hundreds of copies, slowly sliding to lower sales numbers due to new apps taking over the Top Paid and Category charts. That’s what usually happens after the launch of a new app, when new apps are released and you’re not Angry Birds.

The Mustacheware developers, however, tried to make the app free for two days to see how would the experiment play out. It turns out, making a simple and useful app like Todolicious free for 48 hours over the weekend brought in more than 24,000 downloads. See the graph above to see the difference between paid vs. price drop.

We have heard several stories of success in the Mac App Store in the past weeks. Autodesk announced the new Store doubled a year’s sales of Sketchbook Pro in just 20 days, Pixelmator grossed $1 million in the same amount of time and another developer went from 7 sales a day to 1,500. Given the youth of the Mac App Store, it’s too early to say “free apps do better than paid apps”, because Pixelmator and Sketchbook Pro are here to remind us paid software can do great as well. It also needs to be mentioned, though, that Todolicious was sold at $4.99, not exactly the “premium” $29.99 you would spend for a graphic editing app. As strange as it sounds, many users are willing to pay a premium to download a pro app rather than “yet other 5 bucks” to download a simple Mac app. Still, the numbers are in and they are surprising: 24,000 downloads aren’t bad for a small indie development studio that’s seeking to build a user base for the future iPhone version of the app, and whether or not these 24,000 people will stick around the exposure provided by the Mac App Store and Top Free charts is incredible.

iPad 2: No Retina Display, Anti-Reflection Screen, iPod touch Cameras?

A new report by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities details the components of the iPad 2 and the features Apple is expected to implement in the next-generation model of the device. The analyst believes the iPad 2 won’t have a 2048x1536 Retina Display, as resolution isn’t what Apple is focusing on at the moment due to production volume and costs. Rather, the iPad 2’s screen will be built with anti-reflection technologies and a thinner form factor to put it in direct competition with Amazon’s ebook reading device, the Kindle. Anti-reflection is indeed one of the key features in Amazon anti-iPad commercials.

According to the report, iPad 2 will also have faster processor, RAM and graphics as previously reported. The new tablet will likely come with an ARM Cortex-A9 dual core processor, Imagination’s SGX543 dual core GPU and 512 MB of RAM. Currently, the iPhone 4 has the same amount of RAM but the original iPad only has 256 MB. The graphic technology Ming-Chi Kuo thinks will go into the iPad 2 should be 200 - 300% more powerful than the iPhone 4.

Last, the report mentions the iPad 2 will feature iPod touch-like cameras, rather than higher-quality ones found on the iPhone 4. Cameras should be 0.3 mega-pixel VGA front-facing one and a 1 MP (iPod touch-like) rear one. Because of the 1024x768 rumored resolution, these cameras should be enough to guarantee good picture quality. Previous rumors suggested the iPad would get cameras similar to the iPod touch’s ones, although earlier reports pointed to Largan Precision as the selected manufacturer for 5 MP camera lenses.

See-Through Springboard Coming to iPhone Via Jailbreak

A new tweak developed by Limenos, coming soon to Cydia, will enable users to activate the iPhone’s camera directly on the Springboard, and see the results in real-time as a live updating wallpaper. This tweak, which supports Activator gestures to come in the foreground inside a popup menu, will also let users set a picture as the Springboard’s background without opening the Photos app – something that’s pretty neat if you’re into that kind of backgrounds. CameraWallpaper can record videos and take photos with the rear and front-facing cameras and activate the iPhone’s flashlight, too.

More importantly, with CameraWallpaper it will be possible to achieve some sort of see-through Springboard that can come quite in handy if you’re walking and looking at your iPhone at the same time. We think it looks really interesting, so make sure to check out the demo video below. [Youtube via iSpazio] Read more

A Beautiful Google Analytics Widget for OS X

Created by designer Adrian Kenny and developer Adam Aganou, this one is a beautiful and unobtrusive widget for Google Analytics you might find useful if you’re the Dashboard kind of user. Once authorized with your Google account, it will display visits for the current day, the past day, week, month and year. It’s minimal and elegant. The icon is sweet and the color choice attractive.

There are many Google Analytics widgets out there, but none of them is as sexy as Adrian Kenny’s design. Free download here.