Why Developers Create Apps for iOS→

Why Developers Create Apps for iOS

Marco Arment:

The problem is that hardware manufacturers and tech journalists assume that the hardware just needs to exist, and developers will flock to it because it’s possible to write software for it. But that’s not why we’re making iPhone and iPad software, yet those are the basis for the theory.

We’re making iPhone software primarily for three reasons:

Dogfooding: We use iPhones ourselves.
Installed base: A ton of other people already have iPhones.
Profitability: There’s potentially a lot of money in iPhone apps.

With this in mind, think about the installed based of Macs.

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iPad Guesswork One Year Later→

iPad Guesswork One Year Later

The answer is just the same for the iPad. What is it for? Well, I use mine to browse the Internet, cook in the kitchen, play games, manage my finances, earn a living, entertain the children, look at photos and so on. In other words, it’s a computer and that’s how I use it. The novelty of its appearance, functioning and so on seems to require re-categorization or a some highly-specialized usage scenario. Of course in many ways my iPad is significancy different than my MacBook Pro, but in others it’s quite the same.

Here’s what I’m going to do this weekend: find old articles about “Apple’s tablet” speculations and see how many got it right.

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Cydia Update Coming Soon, Better iPad Support

As tweeted by iPhone hacker and developer Musclenerd a few hours ago, Cydia is undergoing a major update that will bring overall performance improvements, a refined UI and a more native interface to the iPad.

As we can see in the screenshots posted by both @Musclenerd and developer @chpwn, the “Who Are You?” window has been completely redesigned and now provides more explanation about the categorization of packages in Cydia.

The iPad version will sport modal windows and, finally, landscape support – the current version of Cydia only works in portrait mode. We can also see in the bar sources and installed packages no longer live in a single “Manage” tab. Seems like a good choice to me.

According to chpwn, the new Cydia will be released “when it’s ready”. We’ll wait.

Apple Showcases Cooking Apps Ahead of Holiday Season

Just like every Friday, today Apple launched new sections and new games / apps of the week in the App Store. We already noticed the App Store Hall of Fame which showcases the 50 best apps of all time. Together with that section, Apple is also featuring the best cooking apps users can download aheda of the holiday season.

The section is organized in 5 sub-sections: Recipes, Chefs & Cooks, Drinks, Shopping and Tools & Basics. Free and paid apps for iPhone and iPad are featured, with notable examples such as Epicurious, The Photo CookBook and 20 Minutes Meals.

You can check out “Holiday Cooking” here.

Apple Launches App Store Hall of Fame

The App Store was launched exactly 848 days ago in July 2008. Today, Apple launched a new section in the App Store called “App Store Essentials: Hall of Fame” which is aimed at presenting the “very best of the best” and contains 50 apps for iPhone and iPad, both paid and free.

Among the apps, there are true gems such as Angry Birds, Hipstamatic, Instapaper, Reeder for iPhone, Siri (which was acquired by Apple), Zen Bound 2, Facebook and Photogene. Surprisingly enough, the official Twitter app didn’t make the list, nor did other clients such as Twitterrific or Weet. The list will likely grow during the weekend and the holiday season, so perhaps more apps will be added.

You can check out the Hall of Fame by following this link in iTunes.

Apple Discontinues Xserve, Mac Pro Server Goes Live

As MacGeneration notes, with a note on its website Apple announced Xserve will be discontinued and will only be available until January 31st. The note links to a PDF available here called “Xserve Transition Guide”.

Apple will not be developing a future version of Xserve. Xserve will be available for order through January 31, 2011. Apple will honor and support all Xserve system warranties and extended support programs. Apple intends to offer the current ship- ping 160GB, 1TB, and 2TB Apple Drive Modules for Xserve through the end of 2011 or while supplies last. Apple will continue to support Xserve customers with service parts for warranty and out-of-warranty service.

The Xserve was first introduced in 2002. Entire racks of Xserve systems are still used by many companies and universities in their networks. As Xserve gets discontinued, the Mac Pro Server goes live in the Apple Store. It can get configured up to 12 cores and ships in 2-4 weeks.

Apple Seeds Mac OS X 10.6.6 To Developers, 10.6.5 Coming Any Day Now

As noted by 9to5mac, Apple just seeded Mac OS X 10.6.6 (build 10J521) to registered Mac developers. 10.6.6, another version of Snow Leopard – we thought the upcoming 10.6.5 would be the last before Lion.

The only information provided in the changelog:

- Contains developer support for fetching and renewing App Store receipts. See “Validating App Store Receipts” for more details.

The release of a first 10.6.6 seed means the 10.6.5 version we’ve been talking about for months could be coming later today, tomorrow – any day. It’s ready, just waiting to be released publicly.

Simplepedia Is A Minimal Wikipedia Reader For Your iPad

I don’t know how I missed this in June. Maybe I was too busy shooting pictures with my iPhone 4. Remember when we first saw the Retina Display? Yeah, good times.

Simplepedia, developed by the same guy behind PDFMate, is a minimal and, well, simple Wikipedia reader for iPad. It comes with a standalone iPhone version, too, but I haven’t tried that one. On the iPad, the app can do two things: search for Wikipedia articles and save them for offline reading. That’s really it, folks. Read more