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CoverSutra: A Fistful of Dollars


Developer Sophia Teutschler is having a hard time trying to deal with her most popular application for the Mac, CoverSutra, becoming a Mac App Store exclusive. As we discussed here, the latest CoverSutra 2.5 version is only available in the Mac App Store at $4.99, instead of the $20 it used to be on Sophia’s website. The problem is, years ago Sophia promised to customers who bought a license for CoverSutra 2.0 that they would get the 3.0 upgrade for free; CoverSutra’s development slowed down, Sophia got involved in more projects and won an Apple Design Award in the meantime, Apple introduced the Mac App Store. CoverSutra 3.0 isn’t out yet, but the 2.5 version is a paid app in the Mac App Store. Clearly, that is not the free upgrade until 3.0 Sophia once promised.

This is a very serious issue that doesn’t originate specifically from Sophia, but provides a good example when looking at CoverSutra because of the way Sophia decided to handle things. As you may be aware of, Apple is not offering trials, upgrade policies and existing customer migration on the Mac App Store. You can release apps, for a price or for free. That’s it. You have been selling apps on your website all this time? Good for you. But there’s no way to migrate people who already bought a license to the new Store. Read more

Social Radio Reads Your Friends’ Status Updates Aloud

Social Radio for iPhone is a new app developed by @anshuchimala which is available at $0.99 in the App Store. And it has to be one of the weirdest, most original and useful utilities for Twitter and Facebook I’ve seen in a while. Or should I say “listened to”. This app, in fact, once granted authorization to access your Twitter and Facebook timelines, can read your friends’ status messages aloud. And, you can control the app with your voice, too. That’s it.

What’s cool about Social Radio, besides the fact that it’s developed by our friend Anshu, is that it looks minimal, it’s got Helvetica and it really reads Twitter and Facebook with iOS’ built-in accessibility features. I also appreciated the fact that each status updates comes with the original author, so you’ll listen to the app say something like “Federico Viticci wrote”. Usernames will be spoken aloud, http:// links will be excluded. Smart. The app plays a continuos stream of messages from your timeline starting from the most recent ones, until you hit pause or tell it to stop. You can swipe on the screen to move between status updates or just let Social Radio do its job and auto-play them.

Social Radio may look like a silly experiment to get iOS to read Twitter and Facebook messages. If you think about it, though, the app can be very useful for the visually impaired (just set it up once, then listen to it) or for when you’re driving and you really want to stay on top of your social networks.

Social Radio is a cool app that can be yours for just .99 cents. Give it a try.

iCade iPad Arcade Cabinet Is Real, Coming This Spring

Remember the iCade? It was one of the few dozen of fake iPad arcade cabinets we covered here on MacStories last year. But while many of those cabinets will never see the light of day, or at least won’t ever be produced for public release, the iCade has become a reality that will ship to consumers this Spring. As reported by Engadget in their CES 2011 coverage, the Bluetooth-based controller will be available at $99 and realized by Ion, who has teamed up with ThinkGeek to make the iCade (which was born as an April Fools’ joke) a real, working peripheral.

The first games specifically built for the iCade and iPad will be developed by Atari; they already have a working demo of Asteroids that seems to be working very well on the tablet’s screen through iCade’s retro buttons and sticks. Any game that support Bluetooth controls, however, should support the iCade out of the box. An API will also be released to allow iOS developers to create iCade-compatible games.

More details are available on ThinkGeek’s website. Check out Engadget’s hands-on with the cabinet below. Read more

VLC for iOS Pulled From The App Store, Now on Cydia

Just like we expected in October, VLC for iOS has been removed from the App Store. But this time, the removal of one of the most popular free apps for iPhone and iPad has nothing to do with Apple and the app review team’s rules. Instead, we have to thank developer Rémi Denis-Courmont, who since October has been busy trying to get the app out of the App Store because it violated VLC’s GNU public license. Rather than keep calm, carry on and let other developers (Applidium, the guys behind the VLC port to iOS) distribute VLC for iOS for free, he forced to get the app removed. Read more

How Apple Could Fix The Issue with “Installed” Mac App Store Apps→

How Apple Could Fix The “Installed” Mac App Store Issue

Since the Mac App Store launched yesterday, hundreds (if not thousands) of users noticed that apps previously installed on a Mac through a developer’s website show up as, well, “installed” on the Mac App Store. That may lead you to think the new Store can handle updates for apps purchased and downloaded out of it just fine, but it can’t. Either a bug or a “feature” in Apple’s system, those apps seems to be “installed” simply because the Mac App Store sees the bundle identifier of an app already present on your Mac’s hard drive. So say you have iPhoto, Pages, Panic’s Coda or Coversutra already installed on your Mac and you fire up the Mac App Store, those apps may be listed as “Installed”. But they won’t go through the handy automatic update process apps you really purchase in the Mac App Store have. It happened to me. And if you ask me, that’s bad user experience.

Daylen Yang has an interesting mockup on his personal blog of a simple feature that could fix this issue of apps showing up as “Installed”. Apple could simply offer a way to re-purchase applications found on your Mac although, yes, you’d have to pay again. But considering that several developers are moving to App Store-exclusive applications offering discounted prices now looking forward to future free version upgrades (example: you can buy Pixelmator again now at $29, but the future 2.0 version will be a free update), it doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Or, Apple could evolve the concept seen in this mockup developing a way for the Mac App Store to recognize installed apps and provide more detailed information and options about what you can do.

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Kevin Rose: iPad 2 Announcement on February 1, Retina Display

Here’s an interesting tidbit from Digg’s founder Kevin Rose, whose previous track record when predicting Apple products and new OS features has been either fairly accurate or terribly wrong. So take this with the proverbial grain of salt, as Kevin Rose tweeted and wrote a new entry on his personal blog about the next iPad, the iPad 2. According to Rose, the device will be announced in the next “3-4 weeks”, possibly on February 1.

He also claims the next-gen iPad is going to feature a Retina Display and dual cameras, although in an update to the post he clarifies saying a source told him it won’t be a Retina Display, but a “higher dpi” screen.

I have it on good authority that Apple will be announcing the iPad 2 in the next “3-4 weeks”, possibly Tuesday February 1st. The iPad 2 will feature a retina display and front/back cameras.

If you’re thinking of buying an iPad, hold off for now.

Spoke w/another source, the display has a “higher dpi”, but not technically a retina display. This seems odd to me, we’ll have to wait and see..

Yes, we’ll see. Previous iPad 2 rumors suggested the device would get a Retina Display and rear / front facing cameras as well.

Verizon iPhone Announcement on Tuesday, Jobs To Join On Stage

Earlier today, Verizon sent out invitations for a special event the carrier will hold on Tuesday, January 11 in New York City. As the invitations went out and media outlets started reporting about it, speculation immediately arose about the event being focused on a very special announcement: the long-awaited Verizon iPhone. By making a few guesses basing on the invitation list ( Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, MG Siegler of TechCrunch and Andy Ihnatko were invited – they’re all Apple reporters / bloggers) and through some rumors heard earlier today about Apple imposing a vacation freeze on its employees in the first week of February, many are reporting the speculation is real, and the Verizon iPhone will be announced on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal weighed in to confirm the carrier managed to close a deal with Apple and will be able to sell a CDMA version of Apple’s phone. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber says it’s going to be about the Verizon iPhone as well. On a side note, tech blog Gizmodo wasn’t invited to the event – they say it’s because Apple isn’t inviting them to events anymore after the iPhone 4 leak last Spring.

All Things Digital is now reporting Apple CEO Steve Jobs will join Verizon’s President and COO Lowell McAdam on stage for the announcement.

While the appearance isn’t 100 percent assured, sources in position to know tell me that, barring any unforseen circumstances, Jobs will likely join McAdam onstage in New York when he announces the addition of the iPhone to its handset line-up.

For Verizon customers waiting for the iPhone and current users willing to switch on Big Red’s networks, it looks like the wait will be finally over on Tuesday with the iPhone on Verizon announcement.

Trimensional - An iPhone App That Does 3D Scanning

Rank this one under the ‘how the eff did they do that’ apps, right up there with Word Lens. Trimensional, from Grant Schindler, is a 3D scanner for your iPhone 4 or iPod Touch (requires front-facing camera). It detects patterns of light reflected off your face to build a true 3D model. Here’s how - it models images in 3D simply by turning down the lights, turning up your iPhone screen’s brightness and holding close to an object, like your own face.

When you’re done with your 3D image, you can view a 3D slideshow, email or save tehm to your camera roll. Trimensional averages 4 out of 5 stars in the App Store and was released January 5, 2011.

Video after the break. Read more

Mac App Store’s First 24 Hours: Developers Post Sales Numbers

The Mac App Store was released as part of the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update earlier than expected. The new Store to discover and download Mac software opened its doors a few hours earlier than many initially thought, which means it’s been out for more than 24 hours now. Still, several developers were waiting anxiously this morning to check the sales numbers of their apps in the first day of the Mac App Store, as provided by Apple’s iTunes Connect service. And while many are still experiencing issues when trying to generate reports from IC’s “Sales & Trends” section, the first numbers are in. And they’re pretty interesting. Read more