Software Developer Group Rebuts Senators Claims Over DUI Checkpoint Apps

If you recall, last week we reported on a request from four US Senators that Apple remove apps that warn and alert users of where DUI (driving under the influence) checkpoints are. Well the Association for Competitive Technology, a group of thousands of independent software developers has responded to this request by the Senators and objected to the reasoning of the claims.

Rebutting the contention that the apps are “harmful to public safety”, the group’s president, Jonathan Zuck, said that the concerns raised are actually “in conflict with the public interest on the issue of traffic safety.” Citing the National Highway Safety Administration, he goes on to say that heightened awareness of DUI checkpoints acts as a deterrent to illegal behaviour and that “several of the apps in question have received particular commendation from the law enforcement community.”

Furthermore some of the apps in question, including PhantomALERT (which is part of the A.C.T. group) and Trapster use data from the public domain - some of which is required by law to be published, this data will continue to live on regardless of whether some smartphone apps are pulled. Meanwhile, RIM last week removed PhantomALERT from it’s app store and was applauded by the Senators who issued a statement saying “Drunk drivers will soon have one less tool to evade law enforcement and endanger our friends and families. We appreciate RIM’s immediate reply and urge the other smartphone makers to quickly follow suit.” Jump the break for the A.C.T. group’s full response to the Senator’s request.

[Via Cult of Mac]

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Amazon Cloud Player Doesn’t Work On iOS — But It’s Not A Flash Issue→

Amazon Cloud Player Doesn’t Work On iOS — But It’s Not A Flash Issue

On Android devices, Cloud Player works by way of the Amazon MP3 app. This app does not exist on the iOS platform because it would compete with Apple’s iTunes Store. Presumably, Amazon could make another stand-alone app for Cloud Player or include it in one of their other Amazon iOS apps, but Apple new platform rules on subscriptions make this a bit murky (Amazon’s Cloud Drive is free for 5 GB but costs a yearly fee for more storage).

You’d think the alternative would be to simply launch an HTML based web-app at this point. @GlennF points out that Safari can support background audio with iPhone 3 software as well, though Siegler reminds us the audio player simply doesn’t work. I worry that the lack of support for iOS devices at launch is a huge missed opportunity, especially when you could have directly insulted Apple by playing on their own turf. Now, the talk won’t be about that Amazon launched cloud based storage and streaming, but that they aren’t on the most popular media devices at launch. I’m under the presumption that Amazon wants a native app in the App Store (but can’t), but then again we’re talking about the same company that requires Android owners to install the Amazon Appstore in eight steps. Thankfully for the Amazon MP3 app, it only takes one.

On the upside, 5 GB (then 20 GB for a year if you simply buy an album) of free cloud storage is incredibly generous, and I suspect John Gruber might be right about the development of a tablet or phone to coexist with a new media ecosystem (see the 8-Steps link above).

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Amazon Launches Cloud Player for Web, Android Devices

Monday night just got a lot more interesting. Amazon has just announced their own music streaming service for the web (for all you MacBook Pro and MacBook Air owners), and Android if you’re living on the edge like I am. Current (existing) Amazon customers can get 5 GB of cloud storage free, with an upgrade to a 20 GB (free for one year) upon the purchase of a hot new album. Appropriately called a Cloud Drive, Amazon enables you to upload 5GB of your music collection (non-DRM) to the digital shelf for playback on Amazon’s Cloud Player for the Web, or Cloud Player for Android. If you’re a loyal Amazon customer, those MP3 purchases can be saved right to your cloud space thus removing the need to download to your computer. As a bonus, storing purchased Amazon MP3s to the Cloud Drive doesn’t count against your total storage. Awesome stuff! To get music to the cloud, you can use Amazon’s MP3 Uploader tool, which will scan your iTunes library and playlists so you can decide what to upload. You can check out the new addition to the Amazon family via the source link below.

Might I add, “Game on?”

Update: There’s much more to cloud storage than just meager 5 GB and 20 GB plans. Past the break, we’ve got a handy chart with prices for up to 1000 GB of cloud storage. Sure it’ll cost you, but the fact that you can actually buy that much cloud storage is intriguing (and slightly frightening).

[Amazon via Engadget]

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WWDC ‘11 Sold Out In Less Than 10 Hours

The WWDC 2011, announced earlier today, is already sold out, as you can see on Apple’s official webpage for the event. This year’s conference sets a new record for Apple and the developers community: last year, WWDC tickets sold out in 8 days. For the 2011 edition, Apple managed to sell all tickets (which start at $1,599) in less than half a day since the announcement this morning – which saw developers from all around the globe quickly buy tickets to secure their presence in San Francisco from June 6 to June 10.

As a quick recap, the WWDC 2011 will focus on “the future of iOS and Mac OS” with:

  • more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of technology-specific topics for developing, deploying and integrating the latest iOS and Mac OS technologies;
  • over 1,000 Apple engineers providing developers with code-level assistance, insight into optimal development techniques, and guidance on how they can make the most of iOS and Mac OS technologies in their apps;
  • the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPad®, iPhone® and Mac developers from around the world;
  • Apple Design Awards which recognize iPad, iPhone and Mac apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.

Giveaway: Ten Copies of DoublePane for Mac Up for Grabs

DoublePane is an app for those maniacs who like to stay on the keyboard, but want complete control over window positions on their Mac. Similar to what you’d get on a Windows 7 machine, you can replicate the Snap functionality with a few keystrokes by snapping windows left or right, and make them fullscreen if you need to utilize the app’s full real-estate. The latest edition of DoublePane allows global shortcuts for every action, and will now restore the window’s original position before you activated the snap. It’s a great menubar utility (especially if you want to keep a web browser and a word processor open for research), and only costs $2.99 in the Mac App Store. The latest features in DoublePane vastly improve the whole snapping experience, and we want to give away ten copies so you have further control over the desktop space on your Mac. Giveaway info and rules can be had after the break.

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Obama Has An iPad→

Obama Has An iPad

Sure the President knows how to sign iPads, but how about owning one? Even if it’s been called “a distraction” in the past? MarketWatch reports, indeed, President Obama has an iPad:

Do you have an iPad?” asked Ramos next.

I do have an iPad,” Obama replied, joking later about also having his own computer.

I mean, Jorge, I’m the president of the United States,” Obama said. “You think I’ve got to go borrow somebody’s computer?” said Obama to laughter. “Hey, man, can I borrow your computer? How about you? You’ve got one?

Obama also says he uses a BlackBerry phone. Perhaps RIM could trust him to have a preview unit of the PlayBook? There shouldn’t be problems with “leaks” at the White House anyway.

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Rumor: Siri “A Big Part” Of iOS 5, Demo At WWDC

Following this morning’s formal announcement from Apple about the WWDC ‘11, a number of reports surfaced indicating this year’s conference will be a software-related event, with the focus on iOS and Mac OS X Lion. Several bloggers and journalists have reported there won’t be a single hardware announcement at the WWDC, meaning a new iPhone – for the first time in years – won’t be announced at the June event.

Such an announcement, of course, lead many to speculate what features of iOS 5 (Lion has already been demoed and released as a preview to developers) will exactly make their way to the WWDC stage. TechCrunch now reports Siri, the startup bought by Apple last year, will play a big role in iOS 5 and a first demo of the integration of the technology will be shown at the WWDC.

Oh, and one more thing. Following our report on iOS 5, we heard a tiny bit more about it.

A year ago, Apple bought Siri, a virtual personal assistant startup that had released a very cool iPhone app. The Siri team and technology are now said to be a big part of iOS 5.

The use of Siri’s artificial intelligence and assistance technology is said to be deeply integrated into the OS for all the different services offered. And the team is now putting the finishing touches on the elements that will be demoed at WWDC, we hear. This tech may also be opened to developers for use in third-party apps — though that information isn’t quite as concrete.

The Siri iPhone app is still available in the App Store for free, and it allows users to “speak” to their iPhones to book restaurants, movie tickets, taxis and much more. Siri is undoubtedly a great piece of technology and this rumor, combined with previous reports of Apple looking to improve speech recognition functionalities and navigation in iOS, certainly backs up the theories of Cupertino engineers building a completely new OS focused on speech, new maps and more “human” interactions.

Another report by TechCrunch yesterday pointed to iOS 5 being released this fall with new location and music services. With an iOS 5 beta (likely) to become available at the WWDC in June and the time needed for developers to update their apps, it makes sense for Apple to wait until their usual September music event to launch the new OS and cloud services. In the meantime, you can check out the old Siri demo video and product description below. Read more

This Music Video Features iPhones with FaceTime

After the music video shot entirely using the iPad 2’s cameras, here comes another one – this time from Canadian band The Blue Stones – which features a couple of iPhone 4s and FaceTime. The video itself was recorded using an HD camera (you can tell from the 1080p option available in the Youtube embed), but band members had the idea to add a unique geek twist to the whole concept, and play the song back recording everything via FaceTime.

Duct tape was used to cover the FaceTime UI on the iPhones (pretty much like movie directors constantly modify the iPhone’s on-screen interface to maintain the “fiction” effect) and, overall, the result is interesting. If only because it shows how much popular iOS devices have become over the years and how FaceTime video quality is far from perfect most of the times (unlike Apple’s webpages suggests in the screenshots).

Check out the video below. [via TUAW]
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LogMeIn for iOS: Remote File Transfer Made Easy

Reviewed a couple of times in the past by our editor Cody Fink, LogMeIn Ignition for iOS has been around for a while in the App Store. In fact, in spite of popular apps like Edovia Screens and iTeleport allowing users to remotely access their computers’ screens, thousands of users installed LogMeIn’s software for the iPhone (and later, iPad) on day one and never thought of going back to another app. That’s what Cody did, whilst I settled with Screens as my go-to app for displaying my Mac’s desktop on iOS devices. Recently, however, I decided to take LogMeIn Ignition for a spin, and I was surprised to find out the new features introduced in the latest update are exactly what I was looking for.

LogMeIn comes with VNC functionalities, but I will keep on using Screens for that. It’s a matter of a personal preference, and you can read more in my Screens review. Edovia’s elegant and simple solution to remotely connect to a Mac’s screen has incredibly useful, reliable and easy to configure for me, so I won’t switch over to LogMeIn as far as screensharing is concerned. Rather, I’ve been intrigued by LogMeIn “file transfer” option added in version 2.0, which aims at offering users a simple way to copy and move files across computers and iOS devices using LogMeIn’s desktop companion. Best of all, once you spend your 30 bucks to purchase LogMeIn Ignition in the App Store, screensharing and file transfer will be offered as free services with no need to buy an additional LogMeIn Pro subscription. Read more