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Echofon Acquired By PostUp (Who’ve Previously Acquired Twidroyd)

When Tweetie started to fall on the feature front, I immediately switched to Echofon and haven’t looked back. Why would you settle with an old, featureless, and bulky Twitter client like Tweetie when you can have a fast, streamlined, and full fledged app like Echofon? (It looked pretty, but I was never a fan of the original Tweetie.) Once the Streaming APIs hit the client a few months ago, it’s been one of my favorite apps on the Mac. Today, the company who develops Echofon, Naan Studio Inc., has been acquired by PostUp to compliment their previous purchase of Android’s Twidroyd. PostUp has a Twitter search algorithm that’s implemented on many sites to watch topics (our source TechCrunch uses it for example), and we can’t wait to see what exciting changes PostUp plans to make to improve Echofon.

[via TechCrunch]

iWork Update 5 Includes iWork.com, Keynote Updates Galore

Time to head over to Software Update iWork users: There’s a huge iWork 5 update in queue with your name on it. Most prominently featured is a major Keynote upgrade which allows you to play presentations over iWork.com with support for fifteen Steve Jobs’ approved animations. Keynote Remote 1.2 gets an upgrade as well, so you can playback hi-def slides on your iPhone during those killer presentation (eyeballs rejoice!). Some improvements have been made to the export of ePub files on Pages, but most importantly we’ll have public and private sharing options available for all iWork documents via iWork.com. You can read more about version 9.0.5 here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4386

Native Union Is Perfect For Cranky CEOs, Moms Who Want A Wireless House Phone

Remember those wireless house phones? Me neither. Native Union thinks you’ll want to take calls with the familiar shape and feel of a household handset through the power of bluetooth. Coming out of the 90s, we might fondly remember the angry clack of the phone as your mother hung up on your step-dad, or the times we spent talking to the girl down the street until the batteries went dead. Well you can relive those moments and charge your iPhone at the same time, and possibly power some wicked desktop speakers thanks to the 3.5mm output jack. Even more badass is your color choice of black or white, but unfortunately for Native Union, that white model might not sell until a matching white iPhone makes an appearance. This plastic block is $150, which I think is way overpriced for what you get. I’m calling it: “dead on arrival.”

[via Engadget]

Rumor: iPhone 5 Taken Apart, Shown Naked On Video?

The Boy Genius Report has uncovered an iPhone video from Youtube via Global Direct Parts, who claim to have the parts for the next generation iPhone. If this report is true, internally some of the changes could be speed bumps (such as we saw between the 3G and 3GS). On the outside, the steel band will see a relocation of the dividers that separate the antennas. Externally, we don’t imagine a visual difference between the iPhone 4, and the iPhone 5 (4G?). There’s been slight internal retooling of the next generation iPhone antenna, which may give customers with dropped calls some relief. Lastly, we can expect incremental improvements all around the board, but as you’ll see in the video after the break, we haven’t seen everything yet.

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To The Future! Apple Granted Liquid Metal Patent For Fuel Cell Casing→

To The Future! Apple Granted Liquid Metal Patent For Fuel Cell Casing

Apple’s new patent describes “amorphous alloy” collector plates for fuel cells, an electrochemical battery that uses hydrogen to generate electricity. Although the patent doesn’t reference the Liquidmetal trademark, the material is an amorphous alloy or “ metallic glass.”

Last year, Apple signed an exclusive agreement to use the Liquidmetal Technologies’ IP in consumer electronic products. But of course, the ever-secretive company hasn’t hinted at its plans for the material. The possibilites are endless. Liquidmetal is a super lightweight, high-strength, scratch-proof metal that NASA says is “poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.”

I don’t think we’ll see anything like this our next iPhone, but the prospect of having a fuel cell iPhone is intriguing. If you thought battery life was excellent now, just imagine not having to charge your iPhone for an entire month. The collector plates enable the chemical reaction that generates power - liquid metal is preferred because of it’s strong qualities as being durable and anti-corrosive.

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Mac App Store and OS X 10.6.6 Coming Tomorrow at 12 PM ET

We know the Mac App Store is launching tomorrow, on January 6. We also know that Mac OS X 10.6.6 will be required to use the Mac App Store. Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop, however, confirms that according to his sources (and when Jim says “my sources tell me” he always means “someone at Apple told me”) the Mac App Store is launching tomorrow at 12 PM ET, 9 AM Cupertino time.

According to my sources, the Mac App Store will be available at 12:00 pm (noon) ET on Thursday. That puts it at about 9:00 am PT where Apple is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif.

Of course, this means that come 12 PM tomorrow we should fire up Software Update and find a 10.6.6 update that, among fixes, will include the Mac App Store as a new system app. It is still unknown whether or not Apple will also offer a standalone Mac App Store download for 10.6.6 users on its website.

So anyway, get your credit cards ready: we’re 23 hours away from the Mac App Store.

Skype 5 Out of Beta?

As noted by a poster on Italian forum Italiamac, it appears that Skype 5, launched as beta in November, has now gone “public” – out of beta – for everyone. When trying to download Skype for Mac from its usual download page, the website doesn’t return a download of Skype 2.8 (which is still featured as the latest public release for Mac) but “forces you” to download a new version of Skype 5.

The beta version, indeed, has build number 5.0.0.6378, while the new version we just downloaded is 5.0.60.7598. Build number aside, there doesn’t seem to be anything new in the Mac app. This is a direct link to the download of the new version of Skype 5 for Mac.

Of course this might just be an error on Skype’s end, but with the recent release of video calling for iPhone and iPad we’re hoping for an announcement of Skype 5 final later today. Read more

Realmac Announces Mac App Store Pricing, Courier Becomes App Store Exclusive

Our friends over at Realmac have been busy deciding the approach to take for the Mac App Store, which in case you somehow missed by living under a rock for the past three months, is launching tomorrow as a free update for every Snow Leopard user. The Realmac team has evaluated all the options on how to best port all their applications to the new Store, while retaining the possibility to sell software to customers through their own website.

There’s been plenty of discussion about what developers will do with their apps and pricing, so today we’re announcing some pricing changes that will come into effect once the App Store goes live. Customers who purchase one of our applications via the Realmac Store will not be affected by these changes as, where applicable, they’re being applied to our own store.

First off, Courier – a beautiful app to send any file to a variety of online services we reviewed here – is going to be a Mac App Store exclusive priced at $4.99. The great news is, if you purchased Courier at full price in the past and you’re willing to re-download the app from the Mac App Store (you know, to keep a neat app library and forget about manual updates) the developers are offering a full refund. Just buy the app from the Mac App Store and send both the receipts (the old one, and the new iTunes receipt) to Realmac’s email address to get a refund for the old, full price. More details here.

As for Realmac’s other apps, RapidWeaver 5.0 is going on sale at $39.99 for a limited time, with LittleSnapper seeing a price drop as well to $24.99. The new prices will be effective tomorrow both on the Mac App Store and Realmac’s website.

Realmac is another example of long-time OS X developers that are believing in the new platform as the best new way to reach millions of new customers and Mac users. For other app previews and details, check out our Mac App Store hub.