Apple Updates iWork.com with Keynote Animations, Private Online Storage

A few minutes ago Apple sent out an email to iWork.com beta users to inform them of some new features such as support for 15 new Keynote animations, private online storage for documents and sharing on social networks with a Public link. Support fo the new Keynote animations was actually introduced with the latest iWork update 5, although now Apple is letting users know that they can access presentations shared on iWork.com online with an iPad and swipe with their fingers to advance slides.

As for the new storage options, you can access documents marked as private from anywhere. iWork.com also provides a link to embed presentations on a website or blog now, which we think is a pretty neat feature.

Check out the full description and screenshots of the new features below. Read more

Acclaimed Film Director Creates New Movie with an iPhone

South Korean film director Park Chan-wook has a new favorite gadget: an iPhone. The director of popular movies such as “Old Boy” and “Thirst”, in fact, managed to realize his latest short film using only an iPhone. The fantasy-horror movie, called “Paranmanjang”, was shot with an iPhone 4 and has a budget of around $130,000. It will debut in South Korean theaters on January 27.

Park Chan-wook says realizing the 30-minute with Apple’s smartphone was easy and fun, and minor edits were required in the post-processing stage. The only downside to the experiment is a little shakiness in the first minutes of footage – although this “real life” feeling of the film should help as far as “horror” and anxiety are concerned.

The short is a fantastical tale that begins with a middle-aged man fishing one afternoon and then, hours later at night, catches the body of a woman. The panicked man tries to undo the intertwined fishing line, but he gets more and more entangled. He faints, then wakes up to find himself in the white clothes that the woman was wearing. The movie’s point of view then shifts to the woman and it becomes a tale of life and death from a traditional Korean point of view.

Intriguing (and kind of insane) plot aside, it’s exciting to see filmmakers and directors exploring new ways to produce content using Apple devices. We know the iPad is already popular among directors at Hollywood, and we look forward to seein its little brother, the iPhone, in the credits of more movies and short films in the next months. [9to5mac via Wall Street Journal via Yahoo]

Developer Goes From 7 Sales A Day to 1,500 With Mac App Store

We have already seen what the Mac App Store effect looks like. The new Store for Mac users is providing an easy way to discover and install Mac applications and, together with that, a better way for developers to showcase their software to a larger audience, as the Mac App Store is installed  by default on every system running OS X 10.6.6. Several developers reported good sales for the Mac App Store launch day, but we think LittleFin Software might be the best example of the power of the Mac App Store so far.

LittleFin was selling between 6 - 10 copies of Compartments, a simple home inventory app for the Mac we reviewed here, a day through their website. The day before the Mac App Store launch, they sold only 7 copies. But as soon as the Store launched on January 6 and Apple featured the app in the Mac App Store homepage and its “Great Mac Apps” webpage, LittleFin saw a terrific increase in sales. In fact, they sold 1,547 copies in the first 24 hours of the Mac App Store. The app, now featured under “Staff Favorites”, is available at $9.99. Before the Mac App Store the app was sold at $24.95; the developers decided to lower the price as an experiment. Since January 6, the app has been selling 1,000 copies a day on average. Read more

Apple Announces iTunes Festival London 2011

Just like every year, Apple has announced the dates for the iTunes Festival 2011, which will take place at the Roundhouse in London. For entire month of July, more than 60 artists will perform 31 consecutive live performances – among these artists, Linkin Park, Duran Duran and Rumer.

Tickets for the iTunes Festival are free, and can be obtained by entering a series of competitions from Apple. You can apply to win the first free tickets here. Entrants must be UK residents and over 14 years of age – sorry US folks, but you can’t enter the contest.

Regular updates about new confirmed artists will be sent out through the website’s newsletter, but you can also follow iTunes Festival on Twitter, Ping and Facebook. In 2010, Apple reported that more than 2 million people applied for tickets.

OmniVision’s New Camera Sensor Would Be Great On Future iPhones

OmniVision, the company behind the current iPhone 4’s camera sensor and among the rumored iPad 2 camera suppliers, has announced a new native 16:9 CMOS image sensor that will provide 1080p HD video recording with simultaneous 10 MP image capturing capabilities. OmniVision is promoting the OV10810 as the “ideal choice for digital still and video camera hybrids and high-end smartphones”, and there’s no doubt such specs would be more than welcome on a future iPhone – perhaps not the iPhone 5 that should come out later this year as that’s likely already been built and it’s in the middle of testing stages.

Still, this new camera sensor from OmniVision sets the bar higher for digital cameras and smartphones, thanks to its 1080p or 720p video recording at 30 fps and the possibility to capture photos at the same time. Sounds a bit like the future of smartphones – no doubt several camera / smartphone makers will adopt this in the next months.

In the meantime, check out the press release below and imagine an iPhone with 1080p videos. [via Engadget] Read more

iPhone 3GS at $49 Now Available from Apple, Too

Last week, we reported the iPhone 3GS was set to be available at $49 at AT&T with a two-year contract. Earlier today, Apple quietly updated its website to include the new price, which applies to the 8 GB model of the older model. The same 8 GB model was previously available at $99; now Apple is matching AT&T’s price, without any major announcement or press release. A two-year contract with AT&T is still required, but users can now purchase the device directly from Apple.

The iPhone 3GS at $49 is available on the Apple online store, or Apple retail stores. The same deal should be available at any AT&T retailer, as long as you subscribe a two year contract. The iPhone 3GS at less than 50 bucks is a very good deal if you don’t care about the iPhone’s new cameras and Retina Display, as the 3GS can run the same operating system with the same features such as multitasking, folders and AirPlay.

Come January next year, we wonder if Apple will offer a $50 iPhone 4 with AT&T or, well, Verizon as well. An iPhone 4 at that price would be a great deal.

More Hints At Verizon iPhone Announcement Tomorrow

Last weekend, the big news was that Verizon is holding a special media event tomorrow in New York. Rumor has it, the event will (finally) be about the long-awaited Verizon iPhone. After years of speculation and rumors from major publications such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, it looks like the announcement is happening and the device is going on sale in the first week of February.

Over the weekend, further hints to the device have surfaced online. SAI reports of AT&T public relations head Larry Solomon “attacking” the rumored CDMA iPhone saying that Apple’s phone is built for speed, and that’s not what you get with CDMA:

The iPhone is built for speed, but that’s not what you get with a CDMA phone. I’m not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane.”

He says AT&T’s GSM technology is faster than Verizon’s CDMA technology.

Read more

Touchless Gestures for iPad Demoed at CES [Video]

A few weeks ago, a Norway-based company called Elliptic Labs made the rounds of the Internet as they promised they would demo a touchless gesture technology for iPad at CES. The prototype is based on a docking station for the tablet, which has got an ultrasound system built-in that can pick frequencies out of the human range and, through a complex set of reflection calculations, determine the position of your hands in space in front of the device. This means you’ll be able to perform touch-based gestures such as swipe and scroll, without really touching anything.

The unit seen in the video is still a prototype, but it’s already been deployed in a Norwegian hospital where surgeons can control the iPad’s screen without touching it – clever implementation considering surgeons most likely have protective gloves on their hands. The system will also gain support for more gestures in the future, including multi-touch inspired ones. Right now, the demo shows how to flip through a photo gallery by just waving your hands, but the creator says it will be useful for say, changing music and control the iPad when driving. We bet it’s going to be interesting to see this in use in the kitchen, too.

In the video below, courtesy of the folks over at TUAW, you can see the prototype in action via a WiFi station and a custom iPad app. We think this is really cool, and we can’t wait to see version 2.0 of the prototype at CES next year. Read more

Apple Launching “Custom Configure” Service for Macs

As noted by 9to5mac, a new service has been recently introduced in a number of Apple Stores: “personal setup” for Mac computers. The personal setup service for iOS devices has been around for a quite a while now; to better introduce customers to the OS X ecosystem, Apple is now rolling out this new service to help new users get around the basics of a Mac, the Mac App Store, iTunes and email accounts.

This is minor news for Mac aficionados but will be very helpful for people new to the Mac and for the wider range of consumers. The service will go live in some stores as soon as Tuesday but we’ve heard that other stores will be launching the service in the next few weeks. The new service is very similar to the “setup room” that is currently featured at Apple’s Covent Garden store in London.

The service was actually launched a few days after Christmas in some Apple Stores, we’ve been told from a separate source. The internal name for the service is “Custom Configure” – “personal setups” are actually One to One data transfers. It is unclear whether or not the service will be branded “Personal Setup” in the future. As part of the equation, Apple is also going to feature dedicated “Mac stations” to better help customers through this Mac setup process and Stores will soon replace some iPod and iPod touch tables for “personal setup tables”, we’re told.

This new personal setup service for Macs is going to be a big part of the experience at Apple Stores. Just like the Genius Bar for customer support, Apple wants to offer easy and immediate help to people who just bought a new Mac. We think it’s a great idea.