iTunes 10.1.2 Now Available, Adds CDMA iPhone Compatibility

A few minutes ago Apple released iTunes 10.1.2 to the public. It’s available now in Software Update or on Apple’s website. The changelog mentions “a number of important stability and performance improvements” – we’re not really sure what they are, but I would guess on Verizon iPhone compatibility looking forward to February 10.

iTunes 10.1.2 for Windows is available here.

Update: the latest iTunes does indeed add CDMA iPhone compatibility. From the release notes in the download:

iTunes 10.1.2 syncs music, movies, and more with iPhone 4 (CDMA model) and provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.

iPad Now Available in India→

iPad Now Available in India

A year after the official announcement, the iPad is now finally available in India, although I guess people who really wanted one in 2010 didn’t wait for Apple to make up its mind and release it. About pricing: a 16 GB standard WiFi model will cost you Rs 27,900, which is around $610, including taxes.  It’s curious that today Samsung slashed the price of the Galaxy Tab in India, too.

Product page available here. What’s up with the website? [via Smoking Apples]

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Infographic Confirms: iOS People Use Apps More Than Web Apps

As if that wasn’t obvious enough, now we have a fancy infographic to back up everyone’s theory that iOS users care more about native apps than web apps. Created by the guys over at Appsfire, which is a neat app discovery service, the report summarizes that users spend more time in software like Mail, Instagram, Dropbox and Skype rather than applications available on the open web, which account to 12% of usage among the 1,000 devices surveyed. According to Appsfire, 32% of the time is spent in telephony apps like Phone, Messages and Skype. Unsurprising, considering that the iPhone is, well, a phone.

As for the app vs. webapp debate, it’s worth mentioning that, for as much as web technologies have improved in the past years, some functionalities of native applications can’t still be replicated in a web software. Especially on iOS, developers don’t have access to the camera app through Safari, and animations aren’t as smooth as apps written in native Cocoa Touch language. It’d be great to see webapps rise to a true level of competition over time, but right now – just take a look at the infographic below. [TechCrunch via Appsfire]

Instagram 1.1 Released: Now With Hashtags

Popular photo-sharing / mobile social network Instagram has released an update to their iPhone app, which reaches version 1.1 and adds a couple of interesting new features. First off, #hashtags: called “Topics” by the Instagram developers, you can now tag your photos just like you can tag a status update on Twitter, and perform a search for that specific hashtag. Thus, topics can create alternative photo albums that have their own RSS feeds you can subscribe to and to which anyone can contribute by using the same hashtag in other photos. If you’re a Twitter user, you know the drill. As in typical Instagram fashion, it’s all very easy and user-friendly.

Instagram now has a proper comment management system, too. You can manage your own comments on other people’s photos and delete inappropriate ones on yours as well. And if you really don’t like a user, you can now flag him and block him. I guess spammers found their way onto Instagram, and now we can do some cleaning. Personally, this one’s a welcome feature.

Last, the usual bug fixes, more languages and overall improvements. No new filters this time – maybe they will come with version 1.2. Instagram 1.1 is available now in the App Store.

Eric Schmidt: “Steve Jobs Is Absolutely Brilliant”→

Eric Schmidt: “Steve Jobs Is Absolutely Brilliant”

Soon-to-be-ex Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has some nice words about Apple, iOS and Steve Jobs:

Schmidt also took on Google’s competition with Apple. Google partners with Apple, he said, on search, maps and YouTube. It competes, of course, on phones. Google also might in theory compete with Apple’s Macintosh computer business with its Chrome OS hardware that Google hopes “to announce later this year,” Schmidt said.

“Steve is absolutely brilliant,” said Schmidt, referring to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, where Schmidt was a longtime board member. “(He’s) the most successful CEO in the world anywhere.” Comparing Apple’s iPhone and iPad platform to Android, he said: “They managed to build an elegant, scalable, closed system. Google is attempting to do something with a completely different approach.

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Apple & News Corp. To Hold Event on Feb. 2 To Announce The Daily

The Loop reports Apple and News Corp. will hold a media event in New York on February 2 to launch The Daily, the long rumored iPad-only digital newspaper that should rely on a new iTunes-based subscription service. This automatic billing system is rumored to be built into a new version of iOS, and we know Apple is currently testing iOS 4.3 with developers.

If the rumors are to be believed, will there be an “official” sneak peek at iOS 4.3 with subscriptions on February 2? And if The Daily will “launch” on that day, does it mean iOS 4.s3 is nearing its public release as well? Or maybe the subscription system doesn’t need to be built into iOS 4.3 at all, contrary to what the rumors suggested so far?

We will find out next week. It’s interesting that Eddy Cue, Vice President of Internet Services, will join Rupert Murdoch on stage to unveil The Daily. Perhaps these subscriptions functionalities don’t need to be baked into iOS, and could a server-side implementation on Apple’s end. It’s also worth considering that this is a News Corp. event with an Apple VP on stage – we don’t think Apple will provide an extensive preview of iOS 4.3 there.

We know that The Daily will be priced at $0.99 /week, as confirmed by News. Corp’s CEO James Murdoch.

Tapu: iPad Browser That Looks Like Chrome, Plugs Into Facebook

Looking for great alternatives to Mobile Safari, I have stumbled upon a lot browsers for the iPad. Some of them are really nice, like Grazing and Browser+; some them are the result of strange experiments gone terribly wrong, like Super Prober. Overall, the trend amongst developers seem to be that of trying to reinvent Safari by adding features over features that, without good software engineering and quality control, may end up cluttering an app, making everything barely usable. It happened with many browsers I have tested so far. Read more

Ions: Impressive Particle Visualizer for iPad

Soon after the iPad came out and Apple launched an App Store specifically meant for it, an app quickly jumped to first position of the charts: Uzu. The app, launched as free and eventually priced at $1.99, is a neat particle visualizer that supports multitouch input and allows you to create patterns with your fingers. Check our demo video here if you missed.

Ions, developed by Douglas Applewhite and available in App Store at $0.99, is an equally impressive particle visualizer that, unlike Uzu, gives you more control over the particles of light moving on screen. In fact, Ions might just be the most powerful and technically advanced particle visualizer we’ve seen on the iOS platform. The app comes with different particle light styles that you can switch at any time; you can control gravity with a slider or de-activate it from a popup menu; most of all, you can place emitters and negative fields on screen to control the movement of particles, which can go up to 20,000. Everything runs at 60fps and I haven’t noticed a single slowdown in my tests. Even with the maximum amount of emitters and fields particle were still running smoothly and fast.

You can also control the amount of particles released by an emitter, adjust the orientation and speed of the flow. Once you’ve achieved an interesting layout, you can save it and load it later to show it to your friends.

Go download Ions here. Demo video after the break. Really impressive. Read more