Cydia 1.1 Is Here! Speed, Stability and Search Improvements Plus A Resume Feature

Jay Freeman, a.k.a Saurik just tweeted out that Cydia 1.1 is out; the update focuses on being even “faster, slimmer and more stable”. It also adds an improved search algorithm and a “resume where you left off” feature in what is a really solid update to the app. To get the update all you need to do is run Cydia and it will prompt you to run some updates.

Cydia 1.1: faster, slimmer, and more stable; including an improved search algorithm and “resume where you left off”. Available in Cydia now!

Many people will be glad to hear that speed has most definitely been improved in the app and it is now far quicker at loading to a fully loaded state as well as checking for updates, searching and loading the various categories of repositories. As Freeman says in his tweet, there is a new search algorithm, which as he explained in a comment earlier this month includes “an integer-arithmetic radix-sorted relevancy algorithm” which does make a little bit of difference from my quick testing. Perhaps more helpful is that the search results screen has been tweaked to make the results slightly smaller so that more can fit on the screen at any one time, helpful to quickly scan across the results to the one you want.

One of the oft-requested features for Cydia was support for multi-tasking, however as Freeman explained in some comments, this is not feasibly possible because of the requirement that Cydia run as Root whilst SpringBoard (which controls the suspension and resumption of apps) does not, meaning it could not control Cydia like it can a normal app and let it run in the background. However in Cydia 1.1, Freeman has managed to largely resolve the issue of multi-tasking with a “resume where you left off” feature which lets you quickly (I experienced less than 4 seconds wait time) get back to exactly where you were in the app, whether it be on a search page or inside a section folder.


Retina Display Featured In Latest “If You Don’t Have An iPhone” Ad

The iPhone 4’s Retina Display is the latest feature to be showcased in Apple’s new advertising campaign characterized by the “If you don’t have an iPhone” tag line. It highlights how without a Retina Display,  ”movies aren’t this dramatic”, “maps aren’t this clear”, “emails aren’t this detailed” and “memories aren’t this memorable”.

Jump the break to watch this latest ad, as well as the other four featured in the “If you don’t have an iPhone” ad series which demonstrate Game Center, the App Store, iBooks and the iTunes store.

Read more


OS X Lion GM Coming Soon?

TechCrunch reports tonight Apple has been gathering feedback and crash reports from developers testing the first preview build of the next major version of OS X, 10.7 Lion, and the operating system is now nearing the “GM” stage. When a new OS reaches the Golden Master status, that means it’s usually ready for public release – although Apple previously announced Lion wouldn’t ship until Summer 2011. Indeed, TechCrunch also speculates a public release could happen around the WWDC – which should be scheduled for June as usual.

Specifically, Apple is gearing up to deploy an OS X Lion update to developers that they may be classifying as the “GM1″ release, we’ve heard. “GM” or “Golden Master” is a title reserved for software that is complete. But from what we’ve heard, this is only the initial Golden Master candidate. In other words, don’t get too excited just yet.

If Apple is planning to deploy multiple GM builds of Lion, that would keep them on track for another (possibly final) GM build / release candidate seeded at the WWDC and public availability soon after that. As MG Siegler notes, the GM seed of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was released a few weeks ahead of the public launch.

The first developer preview of Lion was seeded on February 24th. Apple decided to rely on the Mac App Store (and the redeem code system) for the distribution of the developer preview, which saw several issues with canceled downloads and slow loading times arose at first. Apparently Apple has fixed the issues with the Mac App Store distributing OS updates on a large scale, and the GM build is almost ready to go. In February, TechCrunch correctly suggested a beta of Lion was about to be released just a day before the actual developer seed. Among the new features of Lion (such as a complete Finder rewrite, new Mail app, multitouch gestures and the Launchpad), many speculate Apple might bring direct integration with the Finder and iOS devices wirelessly, through the new AirDrop utility.


Kalimat Takes On Words With Friends; Remix For Speed Play

If you haven’t had enough of word based tile games for your iPhone, Kalimat is ready to take on Scrabble and Words With Friends as your go to game of choice. While I’m personally not a fan of the OpenFeint ecosystem in general, I was able to anonymously create a new profile with a gamer name to play online. Kalimat is interesting not because of differentiation in run of the mill gameplay, but because of its additional remix mode. Remix mode is interesting because there’s a timer (no casual thinking / cheating here), and you can swap out one letter per turn. The speed based gameplay is pretty wicked, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. There is also an additional secret tile (kind of like landing on a bonus in Jeopardy… okay it’s nothing like that) that awards you an additional fifty points. The Ali Baba can change the game at any time, so you’ll always want to be thinking of high scoring words to stay ahead. Kalimat supports multiple users, and the game board itself is easy to use with simple drag and drop controls. If a player drops a word on the board you’re unfamiliar with, you can look it up in the dictionary or simply chat with your opponent. For $2.99 in the App Store, Kalimat is a refreshing alternative in the word-game genre.


The Best PDF Reader for iPad, PDF Expert, Now Available on iPhone

I am a huge fan of PDF Expert on the iPad: developed by Readdle, I choose PDF Expert when I need to read documents on my iPad (and now iPad 2) because the app’s fast, has a nice interface, can import things from Dropbox and other online services and, most of all, has support for annotations / text notes / highlights / signatures and forms. Put simply: it’s great. And now it’s available on the iPhone, too.

First off, a complaint: I don’t like the fact that the iPhone version is sold separately at $9.99 and it’s not an universal app. Considering the similarities between the two versions, PDF Expert should become a universal app priced, perhaps, at a slightly higher price. PDF Expert for iPhone is basically a “mini” version of the iPad counterpart, and by “mini” I mean that it just fits on the smaller screen. All the features of PDF Expert for iPad have been ported over: highlights, notes, annotations, forms, online services, fast engine. It’s really the same app, working on the iPhone’s screen.

If you already own PDF Expert for the iPad, you know it’s a great app. So if you would like to have it on the iPhone as well, you’ll have to spend $9.99 again. If you don’t have PDF Expert, make sure to read my initial iPad review and then choose carefully between the two versions because it’s not a universal app.


Apple Wins First Round of Patent Battle Against Nokia

According to Reuters news agency, a US panel has said that Apple didn’t infringe any patents from Finland-based cellphone company Nokia. The 5 patents claimed by Nokia in the past months included mobile phones, portable music players and computers.

A judge at the International Trade Commission, which hears many patent cases, said that Apple did not violate the Nokia patents.

In the past months, the two companies fired back at each other with a series of lawsuits. In September 2010 Apple sued Nokia in the UK over 9 cellphone-related patents the company had purportedly implemented in their products, and sued again in January challenging one of the seven patents filed by Nokia in its lawsuit against Apple in Germany. Indeed, had previously sued Apple in the U.S., U.K., Germany and the Netherlands over 37 patent infringements claiming that Apple “owed it royalties for using Nokia technology that allows such basic mobile tasks as sending email or downloading applications”.

More specifically, Nokia sued Apple in May 2010 over five patents related to “enhanced speech and data transmission, and antenna configurations that improve performance and save space” that, according to the Finnish company, Apple implemented in their iPhones and iPads. Before that, Nokia had filed a lawsuit in October 2009 accusing Apple of infringing 10 patents and demanding royalties for more than 51 million iPhones sold since then.

We’ll update this article with more information as details surface in the next hours.

Bloomberg reports a statement from Nokia:

While we don’t agree that there has been no violation, we’ll wait to see the details of the ruling before we decide on any next steps,” said Laurie Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Espoo, Finland-based Nokia.

Apple has a “no comment”:

Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple, said the Cupertino, California-based company had no comment. The judge’s reasons will be released to the public after both sides have a chance to redact confidential business information.


Fring for iPhone Now Lets You Switch Between Cameras, Has In-App Purchases

After a series of updates that brought fullscreen video calling with “dynamic quality” and cheap calls to landline and mobile phones, the latest version of video calling + IM service fring for iPhone, released earlier this week, allows users to switch between the rear and front-facing cameras. Like in Apple’s FaceTime, you can switch cameras with the tap of a button and show your friend on the other end what’s around you and what are you looking at.

Another new feature of fring 1.2 is the possibility to purchase fringOut credit using your iTunes account. The developers have complied to Apple’s terms and have enabled in-app purchases as the easiest way to buy additional call minutes without even leaving the app.

This update also includes bug fixes and “improved battery efficiency”, but it’s no universal yet. We don’t know if the fring developers are planning to release an iPad 2 version, but we think it’d be perfect to extend the service to other iOS devices. You can find fring for free in the App Store.


#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!

Read more


Apple Releases Xcode 4.0.1

Together with iOS 4.3.1, a few minutes ago Apple released an update for its development application Xcode, which reaches version 4.0.1 and adds a number of bug fixes and stability improvements. Xcode 4 was released on March 9th.

First off, Apple fixed a bug in the installer that caused the app to hang at 99% complete, never finishing the installation process. Apple also fixed another error that prevented indexing of projects, and another one that didn’t allow developers to have automatic downloads of documentation from Apple’s servers.

You can find the full changelog below, and Xcode 4.0.1 in the Mac App Store or Apple’s website.

  • Improved Assistant editor logic when switching among different file types
  • Fixed a bug in “Install Xcode.app” that hangs at 99% complete, never finishing
  • Fixed a bug that prevented indexing of some projects
  • Fixed a bug related to nil settings in the Core Data model editor
  • Fixed a bug that prevented automatic download of iOS documentation
  • Fixed a bug in LLVM GCC 4.2 and LLVM compiler 2.0 for iOS projects
  • Additional bug fixes and stability improvements