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Twitterrific 4 for Mac: A Sneak Peek

As promised last weekend on Twitter, the Iconfactory has just posted the very first sneak peek of Twitterrific 4.0 for Mac, a major new version of the popular Twitter client.

There’s no release date or pricing info yet, but the app will require Snow Leopard due to some of its new features and, from the looks of it, it appears that Twitterrific for iOS highly inspired the development of this new version.

Back to the Mac, indeed.

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“A Sledgehammer Called OmniFocus”→

“A Sledgehammer Called OmniFocus”

Finding the right tool to keep track of your projects sometimes feels more like a journey than a destination. Many task-management apps have come and gone (some of us have tried them all). But in the past few years, as task-management software has increased its footprint on the Mac, the one app which has stayed in active development and which continues to grow and improve is OmniFocus.

Insightful, in-depth, must-read OmniFocus review and analysis by Shawn Blanc. You can save it in Instapaper, or create an OmniFocus action just for this piece.

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Hollywood Is Hooked on iPads→

Hollywood Is Hooked on iPads

The actress Dana Delany, who will star in “Body of Proof,” a coming ABC drama, said she now has revisions sent to her digitally. “I think it’s the greatest invention in years,” Ms. Delany said. (The iPad will be a fixture in the medical examiner room on “Body of Proof,” which will start in early 2011.)

Mr. Orci’s iPad has served as the daily “call sheet” with the day’s instructions; acted as a map in an unfamiliar location; and allowed him to keep tabs on “Fringe” and “Hawaii Five-0,” two shows he helps produce.

Content consumption, indeed.

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Backflip Studios Making Half A Million Dollars Per Month With In-Game Ads

So much for in-app advertising being a non-sustainable business mode. Backflip Studios, developers of the popular Paper Toss and Ninjump games for iPhone, is making half a million dollars per month from in-game ads alone. The company dramatically increased ad revenue since last May, when they confirmed they had managed to make $1 million in six months.

Backflip generated more than 45 million installs on iOS, 5.5 million on Android devices.

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VLC for iPhone Now Available

VLC, the popular media player already ported by developer Applidium to the iPad, is now available as a universal app for iPhone. The latest 1.1.0 update, approved last night, adds support for iPhone 4, 3GS and latest gen iPod Touches, introduces in-app file management without the need of having to go through iTunes to delete files and increases the compatibility of the app with different filetypes.

No word yet if the app supports beta versions of iOS 4.2, guess we’ll have to find out on our own.

VLC for iPhone and iPad is free and available here. Check out the screenshots and full changelog below. Read more

Apple’s Massive Data Center Beginning Operations “Any Day Now”

Apple’s $1 billion million data center in Maiden, North Carolina is where iTunes in the cloud will live. And the Mac App Store. And MobileMe. And whatever Apple has in mind for its cloud-based features.

According to a report by DataCenterKnowledge, the data center “is expected to begin operations any day now”. Which means it’s ready, and as Apple promised in July it’ll be up and running before the end of the year. Read more

EXCLUSIVE: There’s An App for Apple Store Check-ins Coming Your Way

Apple has wanted to put a location aware app on your phone for a while now. Specifically, Apple envisions a future where your phone integrates into various retail stores and commercial establishments (such as libraries) through temporary, location based applications. A source close with MacStories has informed us that we could begin seeing some of this technology arriving as early as next week in Apple’s own retail stores.

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Mac App Store and Micro-Apps→

Mac App Store and Micro-Apps

MG Siegler:

This weekend, Ryan Block put up an interesting post on gdgt entitled: Will the Mac App Store have enough to sell? He raises a number of good points for why Apple may not be able to replicate their current App Store success with this new desktop store. But I’m left wondering if the store won’t lead to a new class of app: a sort of micro-app for the desktop.

Block makes the following points: a) high-end software like Photoshop won’t be placed in this store because Adobe won’t want to give Apple a 30 percent cut of all sales. b) most paid desktop software is dead or dying due to free replacements on the web. c) Apple’s strict rules will prevent developers from using this new store for test or demo software. I agree with all of those points. And that’s why I’m wondering if this store won’t instead lead to this new type of app environment.

Yours truly, two days ago:

The worst scenario would be: “simple apps” are sold in the Mac App Store, “real apps” are available on the developers’ website. For as much as the Mac App Store is a great opportunity and I’m sure it’ll be huge among consumers, I can imagine some developers, frustrated either with Apple’s restrictions or lack of trial support, will end up selling software only on their websites.

Either “micro” or “simple”, it is clear that the biggest issue Apple has to face is convincing the big names to jump on board. Or maybe Apple doesn’t need them, as they’ll come back on their own once they’ll see the money “simple micro apps” can make.

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