VLC for iOS May Soon Be Gone From the App Store Due To Videolan’s Complaint

VLC, the popular media player for Windows, Mac and Linux that landed on the iPad in September and on the iPhone last week, may soon be gone from the App Store. Rémi Denis-Courmont, one of the primary developers of VLC, explained that Videolan sent a formal notification of copyright infringement to Apple regarding the way VLC for iOS is distributed in the App Store. VLC for iOS is developed by French 3rd party studio Applidium.

Basically, here’s the problem: VLC is an open source program distributed under the GNU General Public License (also known as “GPL”) while VLC for iOS is, as you may guess, distributed under Apple’s iTunes Terms and Conditions, which don’t allow users to install both free and paid apps on more than 5 devices. This restriction is also known as “DRM” which stands for Digital Rights Management. So even if VLC for iOS is free, Videolan can’t accept the fact that Apple’s DRM goes against the original GNU license VLC’s code is based on. Read more

Alarms for Mac Updated With Better Timeline, Bug Fixes

Alarms is a Mac app developed by Media Atelier we previously reviewed here. For those who missed the review:

Alarms is a fast and lightweight reminder app for Mac that lives in your menubar. It’s not a GTD application, yet it’s a perfect companion for softwares like Things or OmniFocus. I basically use Alarms to save little things I need to do later that aren’t worth creating a new entry in OmniFocus.

Getting stuff in Alarms is simple and takes seconds. Once you install the app a new icon is added to your menubar. Click on it, or drag an item over it, and a white horizontal panel slides down (great animation) letting you choose in which part of your working day should the new entry go.

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Steve Jobs: USB 3.0 Not Happening on Macs “At This Time”

9to5mac reports of a new email from Steve Jobs to a user who asked whether Apple would integrate USB 3.0 on Macs in the near future. Jobs, as you may guess, said no. But it wasn’t his usual “nope”:

We don’t see USB 3 taking off at this time. No support from Intel, for example.

So according to Jobso, it’s not that USB 3.0 is never happening. “Not at this time”, and lack of Intel support is mentioned as an example for their decision to exclude USB 3.0 on current Macs.

Can you believe Jobs’ words, though?

Facebook To Unveil Official iPad App on Wednesday?

Two hours ago Facebook sent out invitations to several tech blogs to invite them to a media event focused on “Mobile” on Wednesday at Facebook HQ.

Mobile could mean many things when it comes to Facebook. My first guess is the long-overdue official client for iPad, which Facebook has apparently been working on for months now but decided to not announce at the latest media event. With 8 million iPads now out in the wild, it would be about time to release an official iPad application.

Mobile could also refer to the much rumored Facebook Phone, more Places feature and the rumored “Deals” functionality, as Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch suggests.

Apple Silently Updates Ping Sidebar To Include Genius Recommendations

Earlier today Apple silently updated the Ping sidebar in iTunes, which is now simply called “iTunes Sidebar” and doesn’t require a software update.

Together with a name change, the sidebar now features the comeback of Genius Recommendations, a functionality many users were missing since iTunes 10.0.1 introduced the “Ping Sidebar”.

Ping’s “like” and “post” actions are still available in the sidebar, and so is Recent Activity. Genius’ items are listed below them. To turn Genius on, click on “Store” then “Turn On Genius” in the menubar.

To remove Ping’s dropdown menu, follow our previous tutorial.

Apple Addresses Data Loss Issue with iPhoto 9.0.1 Update

A few hours ago Apple released an update to iPhoto, version 9.0.1, aimed at fixing issues with data loss, as reported by many blogs and users on Apple’s discussion boards.

This update addresses issues that, in extremely rare cases, could result in data loss when upgrading a library from an earlier version of iPhoto.

Further information about the download (35MB) are available here.

The Value Of “Pro”→

The Value Of “Pro”

I say ‘Pro’ makes more sense only if you develop an app that has two versions, one free and one paid and the free version is made to be a scaled down version that can stand on its own (meaning you don’t run out of “levels” as you would in a game). You are in effect giving away a full version of your app for free, and selling a version with more features as a ‘Pro’ level which is in line with what the consumer mind expects.

Either route you go I doubt you will get rid of the rude comments that plague the App Store.

Game developers won’t stop using the “Lite” tag. But I also can’t picture an “OmniFocus Pro”. The Mac App Store is going to be an interesting subject.

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MacStories Weekly Game: Samurai II

For this week’s “MacStories Weekly Game”, I needed a good ol’ action game to talk about. You know those hack & slash type of games, where you usually wander around levels focusing on killing enemies and making combos? I grew up with them. Then God of War came around and the new kids got a new concept of hack & slash. But Samurai II is different: while clearly inspired by the post-God of War generation (the level schemes, the rich graphics, the bosses, the upgrades, the roll), it retains a somewhat old-style feeling that I was missing on the iPhone.

Samurai II: Vengeance is the sequel to last year’s Samurai: War of the Warrior, featured by Apple in the Best Games of 2009. It was indeed a great game, packed with stylish manga-like graphics, swipe-based controls and good action. Quite possibly, the original Samurai for iPhone is still one of the best action games out there. With Samurai II, though, the developers enhanced the whole system, create even better graphics and took away a few things. Read more

On iPhone, Android And People’s Perception

I was watching Chuck last night, and just like every episode recently aired I noticed there were many iPads and iPhones around. I don’t know if this is a trend amongst producers or Apple paying for product placement, but the thing is - Apple products are everywhere in today’s TV shows. I’m referring to “TV shows” as it’s the only kind of content coming from television networks I regularly consume nowadays.

So while I was watching and yet another iPhone showed up, my girlfriend - who is not exactly a “tech savvy” type - said: “Look, another iPhone 4”. The same happens every single time in the other shows we follow.

I also noticed, though, that there are other kinds of gadgets showing up every once in a while, namely non-Apple cellphones. They’re usually Motorola, HTC, Samsung Galaxy devices (I also spotted a Nexus One on Chuck) running, as you may guess, Android. I know those are Android devices, and when I see them I usually whisper “look, that’s an Android phone”. But I know those are Android devices, because I’m a geek who’s interested in technology and reads dozens of tech blogs every day. Do regular people notice these products at all? Read more