From iPhone to Android

Justin Williams (@justin) developer at Second Gear, has written a very insightful piece about switching to Android. Must read.

“After a week of using Android, I’m conflicted. If you had asked me last Wednesday what phone i’d be using a week from now I’d without a doubt say the iPhone. Now that we’re here, however, I am sticking with Android until the new iPhone ships. Widgets, home screen customization, background processes and the notification system are things that I’ve grown incredibly fond of and would miss if I went back to the iPhone today.”

[via Daring Fireball]


AudioBookShelf, Bringing ‘AudioClassics’ to Life. Review & Giveaway!

Let’s step into the world of audiobooks often promoted by great figures like Leo Laporte to understand why such things are so good. One might wonder, “Why would I want to listen to a book when I can just read it?” Of course, don’t knock it until you try it. Being able to crank out MacStories rants and reviews often comes with aid of podcasts like The 404, or recently the mellifluous tones of AudioBookShelf (App Store link). If you’ve ever wanted to step into the realm of audiobooks, this is where you start.

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Wired iPad App Sells 24.000 Copies in 24 Hours

The Wired iPad application has sold very well in the first 24 hours of availability in the App Store. Executives of Wired have announced that the app has sold 24.000 copies, for around $80.000 of revenue in just one day.

Also from Wired.com:

“In press briefings before they released their app, Wired and Condé Nast executives emphasized that more and better features would be rolled out in the immediate coming months — including the leveraging of iPad functionality not tapped in the June issue — as part of a continuing R&D process.”

We can’t wait.


GotProject, iPad-compatible Webapp To Save Any Kind of Content from the Web

If you think about it, there’s no way to easily share content between a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad. I’m not talking about documents and songs - you can use iTunes for that - I’m talking about web content, the stuff you stumble upon every single day on the internet. Articles, images, videos, quotes - where are they when you change your device? They are tied to each machine’s local storage and browser, and there’s no way to keep everything in sync. When you change your machine, content is lost.

So one would think the cloud is the perfect solution to this, and indeed it is. If I could manage to browse the web on my Mac, close the browser and find the same links, the same videos, the same anything again on the iPad screen - I’d be a happy man. I want to be able to browse and save content, have it organized and backed up, then synced to all my other devices.

GotProject is a new web application developed by a University of Colorado student that, through a clipper bookmarklet, allows you to save any kind of web content you like and access it later no matter the device you’re using. Cool thing is, it works excpetionally well on the iPad - touch gestures included.

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Ballmer Not Worried About Apple’s Market Cap

When asked about Apple’s market cap milestone, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said:

“I will make more profits and certainly there is no technology company in the planet which is as profitable as we are. Stock markets will take care of the rest.

We are executing very well. That’s going to lead to great products and great success.

It’s a long game and we have good competitors… We, too, are very good competitors.”

Still no word about Microsoft’s real plans about mobile devices though. Because the Kins are not a plan, right?

[via Appleinsider]


Time Warner and NBC Won’t Adopt HTML5 For iPad

According to the New York Post, several media companies including Time Warner and NBC Universal told Apple that they won’t adopt HTML5 for iPad playback and that they will stick with Flash. As sources report, “such a reformatting would be expensive and not worth it because Flash dominates the Web.”

The New York Post goes even further and reports:

“In addition, one media executive pointed out that Apple’s ability to dictate terms to the media giants will be weakened further by Google TV, a software product that enables viewers to watch online video on their big-screen TVs.”

I’d wait until this fall season to see what’s going to happen with media companies and their playback offers. If the iPad will turn out to be a bigger success than the iPhone, of course they will jump on the HTML5 wagon.


Barnes and Noble now has a Piece of iPad too

The iPad’s bookstore is starting to get a little crowded, now that both Amazon & Barnes and Noble are competing for homescreen domination. It’s not a surprising move as the iPad takes up considerable market share (last we checked 13%) in the e-reader market, but when the Nook isn’t selling, what do you do?

Gizmodo reports that this may be the best e-book store and reader on the iPad right now, thanks to its synching ability across devices; lending (borrowing) features; a myriad of customization options; and dictionary prowess. But don’t take their word for it: download the app yourself and tell us what you think.



Apple Market Share In Europe Rises to 6.8%

According to Hardmac, Apple market share in Europe has risen to 6.8%, two percentage points higher than last year. Ok, maybe Europeans are not so into the whole Apple thing, at least not as much as American people are, but still these results are promising and I wonder what’s going to happen this summer and fall with the iPad and new iPhone. 10% market share by May 2011?  I would bet on it. [via TUAW]