Apple Silently Discontinues Compact Wired Keyboard

Introduced in 2009 together with a new iMac line, the “compact” Apple wired keyboard was basically identical to the standard wireless keyboard but it also featured two USB ports on its sides. As noted by AppleInsider, that keyboard has been quietly discontinued by Apple, as it is not offered as an option on the online store anymore.

Part number is MB869LLA, and it’s still available on some retailer websites – until they run out of stock, I guess. Apple’s wireless keyboard that ships by default with every new desktop Mac is available here at $69.

Apple Looking For iAd HTML5 Engineer

Just ahead of the launch of European iAds (although we still haven’t managed to find the Renault iAd running on any app) and the Japanese rollout in 2011, a new job posting on Apple’s website reveals that the iAd team is looking for a skilled HTML5 engineer “to help build iAd’s HTML5-based platform for rich content”.

The job posting, which among requirements lists extensive CSS3 knowledge and preferred WebKit development, also confirms that members of the iAd team will have to collaborate “with many groups outside iOS engineering”, namely content publishers who need assistance with the iAd JS framework and user interface design teams at Cupertino.

With the release of iOS 4.2 many expected iAd campaigns to become available on iPad apps as well, but, in spite of the changes in iAd’s framework to support the tablet’s screen, advertisements on the iPad are still nowhere to be seen.

Weet for Mac Beta Now Available, Looks Beautiful

Weet, a popular Twitter client for iPhone released a few months ago (my review here), is now available for Mac users as “beta”. You can download the first version here.

From what we have seen so far, Weet for Mac looks like an extremely polished and elegant app to access your Twitter timeline. It seems like the developers did a great job in implementing lots of features, too. The app presents a tabbed interface at the top to let you switch between your timeline, mentions, direct messages, lists and search. The search tab contains your saved searches and trending topics. In the Lists tab, you can subscribe to a new list or check on your existing ones.

Weet’s interface is very clean and resembles the iPhone counterpart, great pixels by designer Marcelo Marfil are all over the place. After 5 minutes of usage, I can say I like the subtle tones of the “message bubbles” in the timeline, but I’m not sure about the huge scrollbar you can see in the screenshots. The app comes with multi-account support and lots of other stuff to tweak in the preferences. It’s also pretty fast at fetching tweets, although there’s no visual notification of refresh. Weet for Mac also features a Mute feature and keyword block functionalities.

Look for a detailed review here on MacStories tomorrow.

More screenshots below. Read more

iTunes Connect “Sales & Trends” Down For Developers

We received several tips from developers this morning informing us that “iTunes Connect was down”. We just checked, iTunes Connect works just fine but the “Sales and Trends” section (where developers can check on detailed reports of their app sales in the Store) is down.

When trying to access it (link), iTC returns the following error:

Your access is in the process of being set up, please return in 24 hours.

It seems like a maintenance routine that will be finished by tomorrow or later today, but we can speculate Apple will also roll out smaller improvements to the Sales interface once it goes back online. Anyway, developers, don’t worry: it’s not just you. It’s down for everyone, you just have to wait.

The Sales and Trends page is also unaccessible from the iTC mobile application.

Update: many developers are reporting Sales and Trends are back up. It sure is for us now.

FlickrExport 4.0 for iPhoto and Aperture Released

FlickExport by Connected Flow is a popular plugin for Apple’s iPhoto and Aperture which allows users to upload photos to online photo sharing service Flickr without having to leave the app. Today Connected Flow announced the release of a major update to FlickrExport, which reaches version 4.0 and, among a number of overall performance improvements and a simplified user interface, adds several new functionalities to an already powerful and full-featured package.

FlickrExport for iPhoto adds the possibility to upload videos, while both the iPhoto and Aperture versions got support for multiple Flickr accounts. All you have to do to add a new account is open FlickrExport’s window (which will sit on top of iPhoto or Aperture) and log in with your Flickr credentials. Switching between accounts is as easy as selecting one in a dropdown menu. Both versions are now also capable of uploading photos to multiple photosets, a much requested feature in version 3.x. Last, FlickrExport for iPhoto finally lets you edit a photo’s license once the photo is uploaded. Read more

The iPhone: A Small Tablet→

The iPhone: A Small Tablet

After a few seconds it struck me that what we’ll end up calling these things is tablets. The only reason we even consider calling them “mobile devices” is that the iPhone preceded the iPad. If the iPad had come first, we wouldn’t think of the iPhone as a phone; we’d think of it as a tablet small enough to hold up to your ear.

The iPhone isn’t so much a phone as a replacement for a phone. That’s an important distinction, because it’s an early instance of what will become a common pattern. Many if not most of the special-purpose objects around us are going to be replaced by apps running on tablets.

Insightful analysis by Paul Graham.

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OpenFeint X: Sell New Content Without Updates

After Apple released Game Center, OpenFeint’s survival plan was to provide even more services on top of the Game Center functionality, now OpenFeint X hopes to cash in on this. It’s a service that allows iOS developers (plus other mobile platforms) to add over-the-air purchasable content to their games on top of Apple’s already popular in-app purchasing. OpenFeint X works outside of Apple’s store, and allows devs to quickly add in-app content without going through Apple’s approval system. Only a few devs have worked with it so far, but it’s new and more will surely follow soon, especially after their “Million Dollar Challenge” announcement.

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djay: Full-Featured DJ System For iPad With A Gorgeous UI

When the iPad was announced back in January, many of us realized that the device would be perfect for professional DJ software. A large multi-touch surface, a brand new device developed by Apple backed up by the App Store – obviously the iPad was meant for DJ and music applications. Even more than the iPhone (which saw the rise of music making software anyway, in spite of the 3.5-inch screen) the iPad was too perfect for turntable interfaces to not take the risk and start developing one soon after the announcement.

What happened is history: just take a look at DJ Rana June’s Youtube channel and open the Music category in the App Store to get the idea of the success of professional music making / mixing software on the iPad. There are hundreds of apps out there that allow you to record and mix music, and there are dozens of quality DJ apps in the App Store.

The just-released djay by Algoriddim, however, takes the game a step further. It comes with an impressive feature set and underlying technology, it takes advantage of iOS 4.2 audio and streaming functionalities, it’s got stunning user interface and animations. Here’s why you should check it out no matter if you’re into DJ software for iOS devices (and Mac) or not. Read more