Apple Finally Has A Better Short URL for Ping: iTun.es

Tonight I went out to show some friends of mine Infinity Blade for the iPhone (they all loved the graphics, by the way) and when I came back home 10 minutes ago I decided I would take 10 minutes to check out The Smith’s albums that were released in the iTunes Store earlier today.

I had configured my Ping account to share items on Twitter, so I clicked the “Post” button and noticed something interesting: Apple has finally deployed a new short URL for Ping tweets, itun.es. The itun.es domain was purchased by Apple years ago, and since Apple announced the Ping - Twitter integration in November many thought itun.es would be a great option for those tweeted items. The itun.es links are now ready to go and they show up in the iTunes Store when sharing a song / album on Twitter. Read more

Cydia Is Coming To The Mac

Well, well. Look what we have here. We’ve been hearing rumors all week about the Mac App Store launching soon, we found out that the upcoming store won’t allow Mac developers to generate promo codes and won’t feature in-app purchases and Game Center integration, Apple clarified its position on demos and trials.

Now Jay Freeman, a.k.a. Saurik, creator of popular alternative store Cydia for jailbroken devices, told the attendees of 360|MacDev that Cydia is coming to the Mac. Read more

Angry Birds Developers Launching Their Own Pig-Based Payment System

Rovio, the crazy folks who developed Angry Birds, are planning to launch their own mobile payment system.

Wait, what?

Not only did they sell more than 12 million copies on their iOS and Android game, now they want more money, too? Easy, nerds. The system they have set up, properly named “Bad Piggy Bank”, will be initially rolled out in Finland (Rovio is based in Helsinki) through the nation’s biggest mobile carrier, Elisa. The Angry Birds-themed system will let you easily pay for Rovio’s apps, games and bonus stuff by taking money from your monthly cellular bill. Sounds simple. Read more

Cobra iRadar for iPhone Will Let You Avoid Speed Traps

Driving too fast for the law? You shouldn’t, seriously. But if you just like to test your car’s performances every once in a while and you want to get caught by a speed trap, we may have an app for that. The Cobra iRadar, an iPhone app you have to pair via Bluetooth with a tiny black handset, will identify commonly known speed traps, cameras and intersections for you.

The app [iTunes link] comes with a good number of control settings and, truth be told, it also looks beautiful – although we wouldn’t recommend to look at the sexy pixels while driving.

Retail price is $170, but we heard it’s available at $100 if you know where to look. Check out all the details on Cobra’s website. [via]

Zombie + Snow White = Etsy iPad Sticker

ZOMG! Now we’ve seen it all. Walt Disney would roll in his own grave if he wasn’t already a zombie. This Snow White only eats Apple Fan Boy hearts! A creepy twist on a popular genre and look at the scary detail on this thing! But in all seriousness, this is creepy cool - just peel and stick this die-cut vinyl decal on your iPad. It’s from Etsy for $15 and also available for MacBooks and iPhones.

Read more

Free iPad GUI PSD For iOS Designers→

Free iPad GUI PSD For iOS Designers

We’ve always just created this file for ourselves and shared it freely. It takes a good deal of time to create and maintain but it saves us a lot of effort on projects and pitches – we hope it does the same for you. So, this time around we’re asking anyone who actually gets some use out of it to pay whatcha’ like. Hate it? Don’t pay anything.

Free to download, pay if you like. Go get it here.

By the way, it’s from the creators of TweetMag.

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How Soon Is Now? The Smiths *Now* On iTunes

Short version: The Smiths are now on iTunes, as reported by TUAW. Long version: no, the popular band from Manchester didn’t get the same kind of attention granted to another English band we’ve heard a certain CEO is a big fan of.

Apple’s promotion aside, yeah – you can check out The Smiths on the iTunes Store here. Seven albums are available, a bunch of music videos and before you ask: The Queen Is Dead, Meat Is Murder and The Smiths are all available for purchase. At least the band got a nice profile page.

Perhaps the Smiths’ arrival on iTunes won’t be regarded as a day we’ll never forget by Apple, but Morrissey and Marr are in there, guys. Morrissey and Marr’s band.

I’m off to download now.

Instagram Update Brings New Sharing Features, Posterous Integration

The Instagram developers have been pretty busy recently. The service – which is actually “only” an iPhone app for now – skyrocketed to 100,000 users in its first week and rumor has it 1 million people signed up in the first month. That’s quite an achievement, right? There’s more: the developers quickly released updates to improve the performances of the app and fix bugs and also got Twitter to officially support pictures shared through Instagram on Twitter.com inline media viewer.

Put simply: Instagram is doing great. And with today’s update, we bet it’ll be doing even better. Read more

Apple Bans Charity Donations in iPhone Apps

Apple has banned charity donations on its iPhone apps, and nonprofit organizations that rely on monetary gifts to help them with their causes claim this could hurt their business, according to a recent New York Times report.


According to the article, people who use the iPhone apps created by charities or organizations cannot donate money directly through the application, they are re-directed to the organization’s website.

“When you’re popped out of an app, you then have to go through a whole bunch of clicks to make a donation,” Beth Kanter, CEO of consulting firm for nonprofits Zoetica, told the Times. “It’s cumbersome and it doesn’t have to be.”

She plans on replacing her iPhone with an Android device, which allows app users to donate directly through apps. Kanter has started an online petition to get the attention of Apple to convince them a policies change.

An Apple spokesperson declined to explain Apple’s reasoning for this ban but told the NY Times, “We are proud to have many applications on our App Store which accept charitable donations via their Web sites.”

Earlier this year, after the earthquake in Haiti, Apple asked for donations for the American Red Cross through iTunes, establishing what some considered as a model for iPhone-assisted donations. That increased speculation that the real issue was money.

Apple takes 30 percent of purchases made from the App Store, and that would be frowned upon if it were to be taken out of a charitable donation.

I can understand why Apple won’t let charity donations work through iPhone apps  - they set a precedent in their rules and if you bend it for one group, how many others will also try something similar. A few extra taps aren’t going to ruin your experience or busy day.

[via The New York Times]