SoundPrism by Audanika is one of the coolest music apps available for iPhone and iPad. Allowing you to create “always great music” that sounds “just right” by letting you tap on colored panels that produce different sounds, SoundPrism has gained attention amongst App Store dwellers thanks to its peculiar interface and innovative feature set. Read more
SoundPrism 1.1 Adds Recording Features, Ringtones for iPhone
Adium 1.4 Released With Twitter and IRC Support, Improved Group Chats
Adium, the popular free instant messaging app for Mac, has been updated to version 1.4, an update that’s been in the works for more than two years. The new version, which now requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, includes support for Twitter, IRC, comes with improved group chats and group chat bookmarks and also includes hundreds of under-the-hood enhancements and bug fixes. Read more
Apple’s Next Macintosh OS→
Apple’s Next Macintosh OS
Compare the bulldozer approach to what Apple did when it designed the A4, the “dark inside” of the iPad. Apple’s next Mac processor could be a multicore (or multi-chip) ARM derivative. And the company has proven time and again that it knows how to port software, and its support of the Open Source LLVM and Clang projects give it additional hardware independence. We all know the Apple Way: Integration. From bare metal to the flesh, from the processor to the Apple Store. Hardware, OS, applications, distribution… Apple knows how to control its own destiny.
And indeed, they’re committed to making a centralized integrated ecosystem the bet on their destiny.
Apple Grabs 26% Of U.S. Smartphone Market, Google Leads With 44%
According to Canalys’ latest report, Apple grabbed 26% of the U.S. smartphone market (still considered the biggest and most relevant in the world) but Google, thanks to its multitude of devices running Android, is still leading with nearly 44%.
The numbers, which refer to Q3 2010, also show that Apple really took the lead from RIM, stuck at 24%. Nokia is still leading the worldwide share with a resonant 33%, and Google’s share is expected to increase as more devices running Froyo and the future Android Gingerbread ship.
In the meantime, Apple somehow managed to obtain a 50% worldwide profit share with the iPhone. Not bad.
Rumor: Microsoft’s iPad Team
Microsoft is currently distributing 4 apps in Apple’s App Store: Bing, Wonderwall, Windows Live Messenger and Tag Reader. Plus, Office for Mac 2011 came out last week with much anticipation. According to a tidbit by iPhoneDevCamp founder Raven Zachary, Microsoft has a “dedicated” iPad team in one of its offices in California.
As Electronista also speculates, it’s not clear whether the Microsoft employees Zachary heard talking at a bar (oh, these bars in California) were referring to a development group for iPad or a product team focused on building a Microsoft alternative to the iPad. The former option is more likely, as we heard rumors of Microsoft developing software for Apple’s tablet before and, frankly, I think an iPad version of Office would sell like hotcakes. With Apple growing strong in Enterprise, a full-featured version of Office 2011 for iPad would be huge. Read more
The iPad As A Device For The Disabled→
The iPad As A Device For The Disabled
In Brooklyn, New York, a nearly paralyzed boy, who cannot talk, uses an iPad to tell his mother what he wants to be for Halloween.
The original article is now available for NYT members, but you can still watch the video. Moving.
iPhone DST Bug Spreading Across Europe - And The US?
It happened a few weeks ago in New Zealand and Australia and it’s happening again in Europe: not that European countries have switched from Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time, the annoying iOS 4.1 clock bug that makes alarms go off an hour later is spreading like a virus across European users and it’s making the rounds of Twitter.
Apple promised a fix to ZDNet Australia when the bug was first discovered weeks ago. We speculated that Apple might release a fix the same week to prevent the same bug from happening in Europe (last weekend) and the US (they’ll switch to DST on Nov. 7). No fix has been released yet, and iOS 4.2 is scheduled to ship this month. Perhaps they’ll just wait for the new OS to release a DST fix? Read more
The Addictive Allure of Instagram→
The Addictive Allure of Instagram
But Instagram is, maybe more than anything else right now, a community of people who enjoy making & taking charming photos, sharing them with their friends and seeing what their friends have shared. It is a community that lives on top of other, existing communities, and has pulled this off seemingly without any pain or friction. The Instagram community is composed of people from Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Flickr, which of course has helped it tremendously in gaining widespread adoption so quickly.
Starting where Camera+ left off, the Instagram developers have a huge opportunity on their hands.
You Can Now Use Your iPhone On Mount Everest
Oh, how many times in the past I wished I could add stuff to Instapaper while climbing the Everest. I mean, that damn mount had seriously bad 3G coverage. We were forced to use those ugly satellite phones every time, and man those things don’t even run Twitter. Or Cydia. Or Angry Birds: Snow Edition. I was so pissed I even sent Steve Jobs an email and told him I wanted my money back because no Everest mention had been made on Apple’s website. Lack of support. 1 star.
If you happen to climb the good ol’ Everest nowadays, though, you might be lucky enough to be able to use the iPhone up there. Reuters reports that Nepali telecom company Ncell installed a new 3G facility at the base camp of Mount Everest – which in case you don’t know, is the world’s tallest mountain at 29,035 feet. Read more