Expenditure 1.1: iOS 4 Ready, More Currencies, Still One Of The Best Financial Apps for iPhone

When I reviewed the first version of Expenditure by Shape HQ in July, I called it one of the best financial apps for iPhone. I stand by my statement: even if I have a problem with financial apps, Expenditure is one of the finest implementations of the “track your income and expenses” system. It’s got a clean UI which doesn’t distract and doesn’t get in the way; it’s easy to navigate; it took 3 months for the developers to release the 1.1 update.

In spite of the delay, the new version of Expenditure is still great: there’s full iOS 4 support now, and the app finally really shines on the Retina Display. But the developers went further than a simple device and OS update, they implemented many (much needed) new features requested by Expenditure’s active userbase. The app now contains 13 new currencies: it should be enough for everyone. An import / export feature has been added, but I haven’t been able to test it; together with it, a passcode lock option for the privacy freaks among you.

The categories screen has been redesigned to provide a better overview, and now you can also rename categories - thank god. Last, there’s an option to reset sums every month. Oh, and lots of bug fixes.

Expenditure 1.1 surely sits on top of the best financial apps together with Squirrel, MoneyWell and MoneyBook. I may have my issues with these apps, but I acknowledge the quality. Two bucks in the App Store. Read more

Steve Jobs’ Personal Gift To Chilean Miners: An iPod

After 68 days of fears and hopes, the Chilean miners trapped underground have been rescued earlier today. You may have already heard of this great news. As a personal gift from Apple’s charismatic leader Steve Jobs, each of them will be getting an iPod.

LeFigaro is reporting the news, and we don’t know which model they’ll get, but I guess an iPod Touch 4th gen would be more than appropriate. If only they had FaceTime before, they would have had the chance to see their beloved ones during those terrible days.

[via AppAdvice] (photo: The Big Picture)

Is The Mac Ready for Multitouch?→

Is The Mac Ready for Multitouch?

As good as I think Apple’s touch products are, I find it hard to believe they’d let the Mac grow stagnant, especially when sales continue to climb. The Mac may have taken a backseat to iOS products at WWDC, but it’s going to remain a core product for the foreseeable future. They’re not going to suggest you write iPhone apps on a Windows machine, if nothing else.

That’s why there’s some speculation—at least in the Gizmodo editor’s chat room—that the October 20th event could hold a big reveal for a new MacBook Air that includes some sort of new multitouch method, a flip-over touchscreen that turns the Air into a tablet. Instead of running iOS, however, the new Air would run OS X.

Something feels off to me about that idea. I have a hard time imagining that Apple would release a hybrid product that instantly makes current Macs feel outdated and makes iOS products like the iPad seem less powerful.

But at the same time, if Apple were going to experiment with bringing multitouch to the Mac, the Air would be the product with which to do it.

Joel Johnson over at Gizmodo argues that the Mac’s transition to multitouch technology is inevitable. I agree, but I think it’s in Apple’s best interest to keep product lines well separated and distinct. I frankly don’t see Apple releasing a “convertible computer” because the way I see it, Apple thinks compromises suck. They never liked “half & half” products. I may be mistaken (we’ll know on Wednesday), but I don’t see Apple ever shipping something like this.

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How Much Does It Cost To Develop An iPhone App?→

How Much Does It Cost To Develop An iPhone App?

We started the iPad development from scratch, but a lot of our underlying code (mostly models) was re-used. The development was done by two experienced iOS developers.

With such a short schedule, we worked some pretty long hours. Let’s be conservative and say it’s 10 hours per day for 6 days a week. That 60 hours for 9 weeks gives us 540 hours. With two developers, that’s pretty close to 1,100 hours. Our rate for clients is $150 per hour giving $165,000 just for new code. Remember also that we were reusing a bunch existing code: I’m going to lowball the value of that code at $35,000 giving a total development cost of $200,000.

Craig Hockenberry is one of the Twitterrific developers. The whole reply is a must-read.

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Tasks Touch: The Simplenote of GTD Apps

Maybe you don’t need OmniFocus, and you don’t need Things. You don’t care about whatever David Allen has to say and seriously - the Emergent Task Planner? You just want to enter tasks and have them always available, right? I got you. You’re that kind of user who don’t care about features and UX innovations as long as what needs to be accomplished during the day is driven by a simple software that doesn’t get in the way and doesn’t require you to read a manual.

You’re anything like me, but I think I’ve got the app that might just change your productivity worfklow on the iPhone: meet Tasks Touch, the Simplenote of productivity apps. Read more

US iPhone Data for International Visitors: A Guide→

US iPhone Data for International Visitors: A Guide

I’ve just returned from a two-week holiday on the West Coast of the US, and during my trip was asked a number of times how I was using mobile data whilst away. As I gather a number of people are interested, here’s what I was doing during the trip. This method will likely work for most carriers around the world (you just have to get the right SIM card and set up your unlocked iPhone’s data settings correctly): but I’ve tried and tested it on AT&T with a GoPhone account.

Great tips.

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Intel CEO: “Apple Did A Wonderful Job With The iPad, But We’ll Win”

Rumor has it the iPad is the fastest selling gadget in history. As Kanye would say: the best selling gizmo of all time. What’s curious is that PC manufacturers used to ditch the tablet category and make fun of Apple and its iPad back in January, but after a few months of blockbuster sales they had to revise their position and rush to get some tablets out in the market. As it stands right now, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is coming out in a few weeks (though hundreds of review units are somehow circulating amongst tech blogs) and lots of other models have been announced but they’re still nowhere to be seen. Read more

Assorted Mac OS X 10.7 Hopes & Predictions

So Apple is holding a media event on October 20th and, judging by the invitation Engadget and BGR got, it’s going to be an event focused on MacBooks (October / November is the usual timeframe for new MacBook models to drop) and a new version of OS X, namely “10.7. Lion”. I mean, there’s a lion in there. It has to be a lion.

Tagline debates aside, I’ve been thinking about this a lot: Snow Leopard is state of the art desktop computing, how could Apple reinvent the wheel and introduce us to an even better, revolutionary (and yeah, maybe there’ll be a magical in there too) kind of desktop and portable computing?  Apple constantly iterates, yet sometimes they put a giant milestone in their timeline and they build the next 5 years around it. Look at Leopard: it set the foundation for the huge success of 10.5, and the evolution of 10.6. I think 10.7 will be another milestone, a new OS Apple will use as a foundation for years to come. 10.7 will set the bar really high once again, and it’ll mark the long-overdue definitive integration of the iOS ecosystem with OS X.

I’ve collected some hopes, predictions and expectations for October 20th event that have been floating around in my mind for quite a while now. See you on Wednesday, on the other side of modern computing. Read more

Apple Holding Media Event on October 20th - 10.7 Lion Coming?

Apple is holding a Mac-focused media event on October 20th, Engadget just got the invitation.

The event is dubbed “Back to Mac” and…is that a lion we see in there? Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, perhaps? Or maybe this is just a teaser, and we’ll simply see new MacBook models, which usually drop in the October / November timeframe? Next Wednesday can’t come soon enough. For all your predictions and expectations, we’re awaiting in the comments below.

We’ll be discussing the event live on MacStories. Stay tuned.