This Week's Sponsor:

Quip

A supercharged clipboard manager for Apple devices with on-device intelligence, iCloud sync, and text expansion.

ReadSquare: RSS Reader with a Reeder-like UI, But I Don’t Get It

On the iPad, Reeder is my default app for RSS feeds reading. It’s so beautiful, fast, feature rich and, at the same time, elegant I don’t see myself switching to another application anytime soon. But our job is to try new apps and keep you in the loop, right? So when I stumbled upon the preview page of this new iPad app – ReadSquare – I was very excited to try the app and I started waiting for it to show up in iTunes.

Last week, the app was released as free for a limited time. It’s available here for download. But while I was looking forward to see the app in action and whether it could deliver on what the developers promised (what actually got me interested in the first place), I now have to admit the execution is, sadly, very poor.

Read more

iAds Rolling Out Internationally [Screenshots]

It appears that Apple has flipped the switch on iAds, which are now showing up for iPhone users outside the United States and United Kingdom. I’ve personally downloaded a free iAd-supported iPhone app and I got to see two different campaigns: a CitiBank one and an AT&T one. Both the iAds are working fine in Italy.

With Apple getting ready to release iOS 4.2, a worldwide launch of iAds for iPad as well wouldn’t be much of a surprise. Read more

Google Rolling Out Instant Search for iPhone

Update: official blog post from Google.

In September we announced that we were working to bring Google Instant to mobile, and today we’re making a beta version available to most iPhone and Android devices in the U.S. To try it out, go to google.com in your phone’s browser and tap the Google Instant “Turn on” link beneath the search box (if you don’t see the “Turn on” link, try waiting a moment and then refresh the page).

Like the desktop version of Google Instant, when you type on your mobile device you’ll see predictions of what you might be searching for. If you type [anse], for example, you should see [ansel adams] along with other predictions.

We hope you’ll enjoy using Google Instant for mobile as much as we enjoyed making it. It’s currently available for Android 2.2 (“Froyo”) devices and iPhones and iPods running iOS 4 in the U.S. in English.

According to a screenshot posted by 9to5mac, Google has started rolling out the Instant search to iOS devices. In the screenshot, you can see it’s labelled as “beta” and you have the option to turn it off. Read more

MacStories Interviews: Ben Brooks

[MacStories Interviews is a new series of email interviews and conversations with with well-known developers, bloggers, journalists, geeks.]

Please welcome Ben Brooks, author of The Brooks Review. Ben was one of the first people to accept my invitation for MacStories Interviews. You can follow him on Twitter as @benjaminbrooks. The interview was conducted from October 9th to November  3rd.

- Tell me a little about yourself: who are you, what do you do, etc…?

My name is Ben Brooks and I live in Seattle, WA with my beautiful wife. I run a commercial property management company in Lakewood, WA that I co-founded. During my free time I write over at The Brooks Review (brooksreview.net) talking mainly about technology.

When I am not glued in front of my computer I love to get out and hike, or shoot some pictures around town. My wife and I are also seriously addicted to chilling at home in front of our TV watching shows and movies, because the weather in Seattle can often demand that you stay in.

- What’s your current setup?

There are computers scattered throughout my house and office, but my main computer is a first generation unibody MacBook Pro (2.8ghz 6GB RAM 240GB SSD). I compliment that computer at work with a 24” LED Cinema Display. On the road I have a 16gb WiFi only iPad and a 32gb iPhone 4. I pack that all in either my Booq Taipan Shadow Messenger bag or my Booq Boa Push iPad bag - both of which I love.

At my office, other than the monitor, the only other thing that I attached is a Fujitsu Scansnap to stay paperless. I use a Bluetooth Apple Keyboard at both places and a Magic mouse at work.

At home I keep my MacBook Pro on a Rain Design mStand and have a Magic Trackpad paired up in addition to the keyboard. I also have 3+ terabytes of external hard drives for backups and media storage. I keep a well used Mac mini (original G4 1.42ghz model) hooked up to our TV in the living room for a media center.

Two things that come with me when I carry either the iPad or MacBook Pro are my Bose in-ear headphones and my Verizon MiFi for constant Internet access.

I used to be all about big crazy setups but over the past two years I have slimmed it down (still have way too much) to just what I need. I also try to keep the wires to a minimum because no matter what, wires tangle up on me. Read more

IMDb Releases Improved iPhone and iPad App

Movie, TV and celebrity database IMDb released earlier today a brand new version of its official iOS app for iPhone and iPad.

Version 2.0 of IMDb for iOS brings a lot of bug fixes and overall performance improvements, a redesigned dashboard with the latest news from a variety of media sources, support for movie showtimes in 13 more countries including Canada and UK, possibility to rate movies and TV shows using your IMDb account.

As TechCrunch reports, IMDb released an iPad app shortly after the iPad came out and it was very successful. The 2.0 update (universal for iPhone and iPad) anticipates the major redesign the website is undergoing at the moment.

IMDb for iPhone and iPad is available for free here. Check out the full 2.0 changelog below. Read more

The Glif for iPhone 4 Raises $137,417, Will Be Available Soon

The Glif is an innovative tripod mount and stand for the iPhone 4 by Thomas Gerhardt and Dan Provost we first covered a month ago when the NYC duo started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the projects. The Glif is based on a pretty expensive manufacturing process called “injection molding” which ensures great build quality and durability.

Unfortunately, the cost of the process was too high for the two designers, so they started a campaign and get covered on many Apple-related publications hoping users would find the idea interesting as much as we did.

Glif is a simple iPhone 4 accessory with two primary functions: mounting your iPhone to a standard tripod, and acting as a kickstand to prop your phone up at an angle.

The idea for the Glif was first formed when we realized the iPhone 4 is literally the best camera we’ve ever owned. With the addition of HD video recording and High Dynamic Range photography, it’s clear Apple is positioning the iPhone as a very high quality portable camera. But because of its small form factor (and Apple’s minimalist design approach) it will never contain a threaded nut for attaching a tripod – standard on almost all photo and video cameras.

The good news is, The Glif campaign managed to raise more than $130k in less than 30 days, while the developers set the initial goal to $10.000. Not a bad accomplishment at all. Thanks to all the users who pledged and supported The Glif, the project is now becoming a reality and will soon be available on The Glif’s official website. You can sign up now to be notified when the product becomes available.

If you missed it, check out The Glif promo video below. [via The Next Web] Read more

Xmarks Sold To A “New Owner”, Definitely Not Dead

Good news, Xmarks fans: the service is not dead. Actually, it’s definitely alive and looking forward to introducing free and premium plans under a new owner, the official Xmarks blog reports.

I’m pleased to announced that we’re in the final stages of completing a sale of Xmarks to a new owner who is 100% committed to keep our great browser sync service running smoothly.

The Xmarks service will evolve to have both a free component and a premium component – we’ll share all the details once the deal is done.

Many doubts and questions arose when Xmarks announced it was shutting down back in September due to the impossibility to find a feasible plan to keep things going. Loyal and regular users of the free bookmarking service signed dozens of petitions to keep the service alive and pledged thousands of dollars through unofficial campaigns to save Xmarks.

We look forward to the future of Xmarks.

Mac App Store Name Squatters Already A Problem for Developers

Yesterday Apple opened app submissions for the Mac App Store, which as promised at the Back to the Mac event by Steve Jobs will be opening in less than 90 days – around February 2011. Developers can now submit their applications for Apple’s approval – something you want to do now as we still don’t know what policies Apple is going to adopt on the Mac.

When a developer submit an app for Apple’s approval, he has to pick up a name. But the App Store always had a problem with name reservations: developers were able to register a name, block it so no other developer could use it and never upload an actual application for approval. The name was there, frozen, but no app with that name was ever submitted. This practice is known as “name squatting”. After thousands of complaints by frustrated developers who had seen their app’s name “stolen” by suspicious individuals, Apple acknowledged the problem in mid-September and introduced a new policy: you can register an application name, but if you don’t upload anything in 90 days you’ll receive a notification informing you that in 30 days that name will no longer be assigned to you and it’ll be “unlocked” once again. With people sitting on unused names for 2 years, that was a quite welcome change. Read more