Did you check out the iTunes Rewind 2010 section Apple posted this morning in the iTunes Store homepage? It features the best music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks and podcasts of 2010. It also features the best & top selling iPhone and iPad apps of this year.
I’d like to take a second look at the top apps charts, because something interesting lies in there. Something that confirms an idea that has been floating around in our minds for months. Read more
Just in time for today’s iPad 2 rumors, iLounge is reporting of what appears to be the first case the second-generation iPad. Produced by Chinese manufacturer Shenzhen MacTop Electronics, the case shows a slightly more curved design and a hole in the upper left corner for a rear camera. Just like on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th generation.
The Crystal Case for iPad 2nd Generation also sports a much bigger speaker opening. There have been rumors recently about the “iPad 2” coming out in less than 100 days, and there also have been rumors about Apple willing to implement features such as FaceTime camera, Retina Display and a USB port on it. But a rear camera? That’d be new to the rumor mill. Read more
Back in November we reported that Apple sent notifications out to music labels to tell them that Apple is getting ready to extend iTunes Music previews from 30 seconds to 90 seconds for songs that are at least 2 minutes and 30 seconds long.
Today, still unofficially unannounced, Apple has begun to roll out the extended song previews in the iTunes Store. All of iTunes’ current top albums have the 90 second previews, but most songs still have the original 30 second previews. Apple has yet to issue a press release announcing the feature but we can expect one before the week’s end. Keep checking Apple’s PR page or just keep watching on our site.
Just like every year, the iTunes Rewind section in the iTunes Store lists the best music, movies, TV shows, podcasts and audiobooks of 2010. This year’s iTunes Rewind is available here, and it includes a huge selection of apps, too.
As you can see in the screenshot above, Apple is showcasing Hipstamatic, Angry Birds, Flipboard and Plants Vs. Zombies in the iTunes Rewind 2010 main page. As you click through, you can check out the “Hot Trends” in iPhone and iPad apps in 2010 – and many more apps are listed there.
The “Hot Trends” contains other sub-sections, such as “Shoot, Edit, Share” (iTunes) which features apps like Instagram and Path. Read more
At the Back to the Mac event in October, Steve Jobs said the Mac App Store would open in 90 days – thus giving it a January 2011 release date. According to rumors surfaced a few days ago, though, it seemed like there was the possibility of an early launch next week.
Well, Jim Darlymple over at The Loop reports:
Please note that Darlymple’s sources are usually spot-on and correct. Those rumors never really made sense to me either, considering Apple didn’t notify developers about an early launch.
So there you have it: the Mac App Store is indeed coming in January.
He’s back to developing his own games.
WebKit Clock is a neat experiment by Ono Takehiko aimed at recreating the original iPhone clock icon in CSS3 and animate it using the WebKit rendering engine. Actually, the whole website is based on modern web technologies such as HTML5 canvas, CSS3, JavaScript, Web Fonts, SVG. No image files are being used.
As you can see on the website, you can move an airplane between cities in the world based in different time zones, and see the icon update in real-time. It’s very cool.
In the past we have seen many other iOS-related experiments, such as the iPhone icons rendered entirely using CSS3.
The good news today is that promo codes for iOS apps are no longer limited to the U.S. App Store, but it looks like the upcoming Mac App Store (set to launch in January 2011, even though someone says it may open as early as next week) will be based on a different system. In fact, it appears that developers won’t have the possibility to generate promo codes for Mac apps sold through the Mac App Store.
In the iTunes Connect Developer Guide (version 6.2, last updated on November 1, 2010 - PDF) Apple mentions that promo codes are exclusive to iOS and won’t be available for Mac apps:
Promo Codes button (for iOS apps only). See the Requesting Promo Codes section to learn about promotional codes)
Promotional codes are not available for Mac OS X apps.
Seems like Apple is changing quite a few things for developers today. First they announced promo codes have gone international, now, as reported by iClarified, Apple apparently sent out a notification to some developers informing them that, starting December 22, Apple will improve the system behind the Push Notification Service to use more secure connections.
On December 22, 2010, the production Apple Push Notification service will begin to use a 2048-bit TLS/SSL certificate that provides a more secure connection between your provider server and the Apple Push Notification service.
To ensure you can continue to validate your server’s connection to the Apple Push Notification service, you will need to update your push notification server with a copy of the 2048-bit root certificate from Entrust’s website. This will not require a change to your iOS apps – this update only applies to provider servers.
Developers who have released apps that rely on push notifications will need to update their provider servers with the new certificate. More info available here.
