This Week's Sponsor:

Textastic

The Powerful Code Editor for iPad and iPhone — Now Free to Try

Is This The First iPad 2 Case? With A Rear Camera?

Just in time for today’s iPad 2 rumors, iLounge is reporting of what appears to be the first case the second-generation iPad. Produced by Chinese manufacturer Shenzhen MacTop Electronics, the case shows a slightly more curved design and a hole in the upper left corner for a rear camera. Just like on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th generation.

The Crystal Case for iPad 2nd Generation also sports a much bigger speaker opening. There have been rumors recently about the “iPad 2” coming out in less than 100 days, and there also have been rumors about Apple willing to implement features such as FaceTime camera, Retina Display and a USB port on it. But a rear camera? That’d be new to the rumor mill. Read more

iTunes Rolling Out 90 Second Song Previews

Back in November we reported that Apple sent notifications out to music labels to tell them that Apple is getting ready to extend iTunes Music previews from 30 seconds to 90 seconds for songs that are at least 2 minutes and 30 seconds long.

Today, still unofficially unannounced, Apple has begun to roll out the extended song previews in the iTunes Store. All of iTunes’ current top albums have the 90 second previews, but most songs still have the original 30 second previews. Apple has yet to issue a press release announcing the feature but we can expect one before the week’s end. Keep checking Apple’s PR page or just keep watching on our site.

Apple Posts The Best iPhone & iPad Apps of 2010

Just like every year, the iTunes Rewind section in the iTunes Store lists the best music, movies, TV shows, podcasts and audiobooks of 2010. This year’s iTunes Rewind is available here, and it includes a huge selection of apps, too.

As you can see in the screenshot above, Apple is showcasing Hipstamatic, Angry Birds, Flipboard and Plants Vs. Zombies in the iTunes Rewind 2010 main page. As you click through, you can check out the “Hot Trends” in iPhone and iPad apps in 2010 – and many more apps are listed there.

The “Hot Trends” contains other sub-sections, such as “Shoot, Edit, Share” (iTunes) which features apps like Instagram and Path. Read more

Mac App Store Actually Coming in January 2011→

Mac App Store Actually Coming in 2011

At the Back to the Mac event in October, Steve Jobs said the Mac App Store would open in 90 days – thus giving it a January 2011 release date. According to rumors surfaced a few days ago, though, it seemed like there was the possibility of an early launch next week.

Well, Jim Darlymple over at The Loop reports:

Reports earlier this week claimed Apple would launch the Mac App Store on December 13, ahead of the holiday shopping season. However, according to my sources, Apple will launch the store in the new year.

While a specific date was not given for the official opening of the store by my sources, Apple will meet the 90-day deadline given during its October “Back to the Mac” media event.

Please note that Darlymple’s sources are usually spot-on and correct. Those rumors never really made sense to me either, considering Apple didn’t notify developers about an early launch.

So there you have it: the Mac App Store is indeed coming in January.

Permalink

iPhone Game Guru Leaves Apple→

iPhone Game Guru Leaves Apple

Devine said he can’t comment on whether his position will be filled and Apple did not respond to request for comment. But Devine says that gamers into playing on the Apple devices shouldn’t worry.

“Apple has the smartest and most talented group of people I have ever worked with,” he said. “Every day I would walk in and feel I was working alongside geniuses and I the guy with crayons in the corner.

He’s back to developing his own games.

Permalink

iPhone Clock Icon, Animated With WebKit

WebKit Clock is a neat experiment by Ono Takehiko aimed at recreating the original iPhone clock icon in CSS3 and animate it using the WebKit rendering engine. Actually, the whole website is based on modern web technologies such as HTML5 canvas, CSS3, JavaScript, Web Fonts, SVG. No image files are being used.

As you can see on the website, you can move an airplane between cities in the world based in different time zones, and see the icon update in real-time. It’s very cool.

In the past we have seen many other iOS-related experiments, such as the iPhone icons rendered entirely using CSS3.

Apple: No Promo Codes In The Mac App Store

The good news today is that promo codes for iOS apps are no longer limited to the U.S. App Store, but it looks like the upcoming Mac App Store (set to launch in January 2011, even though someone says it may open as early as next week) will be based on a different system. In fact, it appears that developers won’t have the possibility to generate promo codes for Mac apps sold through the Mac App Store.

In the iTunes Connect Developer Guide (version 6.2, last updated on November 1, 2010 - PDF) Apple mentions that promo codes are exclusive to iOS and won’t be available for Mac apps:

Promo Codes button (for iOS apps only). See the Requesting Promo Codes section to learn about promotional codes)

Promotional codes are not available for Mac OS X apps.

Read more

Apple Is Improving Security of Push Notifications

Seems like Apple is changing quite a few things for developers today. First they announced promo codes have gone international, now, as reported by iClarified, Apple apparently sent out a notification to some developers informing them that, starting December 22, Apple will improve the system behind the Push Notification Service to use more secure connections.

On December 22, 2010, the production Apple Push Notification service will begin to use a 2048-bit TLS/SSL certificate that provides a more secure connection between your provider server and the Apple Push Notification service.

To ensure you can continue to validate your server’s connection to the Apple Push Notification service, you will need to update your push notification server with a copy of the 2048-bit root certificate from Entrust’s website. This will not require a change to your iOS apps – this update only applies to provider servers.

Developers who have released apps that rely on push notifications will need to update their provider servers with the new certificate. More info available here.

Finally: App Store Promo Codes No Longer Limited To The U.S.

This is great news. With a brief note on iTunes Connect’s website, Apple informed developers that promo codes, the ones to redeem apps in the App Store, are now working worldwide:

Your promo code distribution is no longer limited to U.S. customers. Promo codes in iTunes Connect can now be redeemed by all App Store customers worldwide. Your Team Agent can request 50 codes per version of your app in iTunes Connect and your customers can redeem these codes in any App Store. To learn more about requesting promo codes in iTunes Connect, see the iTunes Connect Developer Guide.

Previously, promo codes only worked in the U.S. Store, forcing developers who were willing to gift apps to the press or users to make sure they had a U.S. iTunes account. Now promo codes are international. In the past we at MacStories indeed had a few headaches trying to explain you guys that, due to Apple’s limitations, promo codes were only available for US customers.

It took Apple two years, but it’s over. Really good news for users, developers and bloggers.

Finally! [9to5 via MacKinando]