iOS X

Like it or not, Apple is going back to the Mac. The regular Mac user, fan, fanboy – whatever you’d like to call someone who showed a deep affection to Apple’s desktop operating system for the past decade – should like the fact that Steve Jobs confirmed Apple is still committed to making the best personal computers, based on OS X. The same regular Mac user, though, is immensely scared by the concept underlying Jobs’ statements: Apple is going back to the Mac, taking the good things learned in 3 years of iOS development with them. OS X turned into iPhone OS. iPhone OS became iOS for iPhone and iPad. Now, everything’s going back to where it all started: the Mac.

We have heard this story before. In fact, we all commented on Apple’s October 20th event by saying that, with the right approach, the Mac App Store and some iOS elements coming to the Mac might be the best thing that ever happened to the platform in years. Read more

“iBand” Plays Christmas Songs With iPhones and iPads [Video]

Here we are again, featuring a band that doesn’t make music with actual instruments, but decided to go the iOS way instead. The “iBand” from the North Point Community Church (website), indeed, played 3 Christmas songs (Carol of the Bells, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and Feliz Navidad) using only iPhone and iPad apps.

The result, as you can see in the video embedded below, is fantastic. The songs turned out great when played through the apps, and the members of the iBand actually had fun when performing on stage all together. Crowd was cheering, the video is going viral on Youtube – all thanks to the power of quality music making apps released in the App Store these past two years.

Reid Greven from North Point writes on his personal blog:

Jared arranged “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “Feliz Navidad” using the apps, and creating a demo by multitracking them in Apple’s Logic software (though any Digital Audio Workstation would do the trick).

Jared, Eddie Kirkland and I arranged the first song, “Carol of the Bells“. It’s amazing what you come up with when you sit in a room, hook 3 iPhones up to some speakers, and get adventurous!

The apps used in the performance include SoundGrid, Guitarist, iGog, Pianist and Percussions. Back in October we featured New York-based band Atomic Tom, performing a song using only iPhone apps.

Once again, I’m amazed by the results some people can accomplish by solely relying on modern Apple devices and applications. Check out the video below, then tweet it. It has to go viral.

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Jobs: Rockstar and CEO Of The Decade→

Jobs: Rockstar and CEO Of The Decade

Jobs’s legacy stretches back several decades and includes the development of a few more groundbreaking innovations from his first go-round at Apple in the 1970s and ’80s: the Apple II, the Mac and elaborate computer graphics, to name a few. Along with being likened to Edison and Bell, comparisons with such captains of industry as Walt Disney — of whose namesake company Jobs would later become the biggest individual shareholder — spring to mind for many.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards.”

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MacUpdate Bundle: 1Password, DEVONthink, Interarchy… 12 Apps at $49→

MacUpdate Bundle: 1Password, DEVONthink, Interarchy… $49

The latest bundle offering from MacUpdate looks like an absolute must-have for Mac users: 12 top-notch Mac apps, available at $49.99 instead of $534. The apps are: 1Password, MacFamilyTree, DEVONthink, Flux, Default Folder X, Art Text + Fonts, Swift Publisher, Chronories, Interarchy and Typinator. First 10,000 buyers also get Mail Stationery and Stars Wars Jedi Night II for free.

Gems like AgileWeb’s 1Password (a staff favorite here at MacStories), DEVONthink, Interarchy and Typinator are definitely well worth the bundle price.

Do yourself a favor for Christmas and go buy the bundle here.

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There’s An Official Inception App In The App Store. And It’s Mind-Blowing.

I specialize in a very specific type of coverage. iOS apps coverage.

In all seriousness, I think Inception is the best movie of 2010. I watched it four times already, my friends love it – we all love it. There’s no need to keep saying that Inception is a great movie. But the iPhone app released today and developed by Remote Control Productions, the film music company run by Hans Zimmer? It’s completely awesome. And kind of surreal. An experience that it’s not easy to describe in words. Read more

Flight Control for iPhone Update: Online Multiplayer, Voice Chat

Flight Control, popular iPhone game from award-winning development studio Firemint, was updated a few hours ago to version 1.9.2. As promised by Firemint developers before the public release of iOS 4.2 in November, this update follows “HD” iPad version and introduces support for online multiplayer through Game Center, with the possibility to start a voice chat with your opponent.

You can invite a friend to play, or let the app search for a random match in Game Center. The voice chat option is turned off by default but can be activated at any time. I just tried the online multiplayer mode with one of my Game Center contacts and it works pretty well, although I noticed some lags.

Flight Control is available at $0.99 in the App Store. Check out the full changelog below. Read more

Shocker: iPad 2 Won’t Use AMOLED

As noted by 9to5mac, Digitimes published yet another report last night about the next generation iPad – or, “iPad 2” – claiming that Taiwan-based company Coretronic has been selected to supply the backlight units (BLUs) for the new device to Chimei Innolux and LG Display.

The second generation iPad is expected to hit the market at the end of the first quarter of 2011 and suppliers in the supply chain are estimated to start shipments in the first quarter.

It is understood that Coretronic is the only BLU supplier of CMI for iPad 2, while LG Display is getting iPad 2 BLUs from Coretronic and Radiant Opto-Electronics.

So according to this new report, the next iPad won’t use the popular AMOLED screens (well, at least popular on Android devices thanks to Samsung’s “Super AMOLED” units) but will keep relying on standard LCDs instead.

Surprised, huh? Don’t be: Apple never really liked AMOLED screens, and with the iPhone 4 they decided to deploy their own LCD solution with extremely high resolution and call it “Retina Display”. The iPad also comes with IPS (in-plane switching) technology, which allows for improved viewing angles and picture quality.

The real question is: will the iPad 2 have some sort of Retina resolution?

Untethered iOS 4.2.1 Jailbreak Coming Before Christmas, Will Support New Apple TV

Great news for jailbreakers this morning: the Dev-Team has been busy working on an untethered solution for the current iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak (which requires to boot the device using Redsn0w) and it should be released before Christmas. Last night, @musclenerd tweeted a video showing the untethered method running on a jailbroken iPod Touch 4th gen which relies on the kernel from iOS 4.2 beta 3.

According to @musclenerd, the current implementation doesn’t use any new exploit, but @comex is working on a better system that will perhaps be implemented in the final release. Read more