SketchyPad, Easy Wireframing on the iPad

After the iPad was announced developers started working on new applications for it, and we all remember that. What you probably don’t remember is the huge amount of previews that were floating around on the Internet back then: video previews, exclusive screenshots, leaks. Put simply, every single development team wanted to gain some attention for their new products, and now - two months later -  we’re waiting for the second wave of great iPad apps, because let’s face it - the first one hasn’t been that great after all. There was this app though, called iMockups, which managed to actually gain a lot of exposure, be it for its name (the “i” prefix is still pretty strong) or for its purpose. Cody has already reviewed iMockups here.

Today I’m going to take a look at a similar app which has been recently released in the App Store, SketchyPad.

Read more





Apple Reaches UK iBooks Distribution Deals

Is there someone who seriously believed that Apple wouldn’t manage to reach distribution deals for iBooks in the end? Of course it happened, and what Apple achieved in the UK is pretty impressive: publishers Hachette UK, Penguin, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan are available on the iPad with their titles.

As the BookSeller reports though, books comes at a higher price than Amazon’s hardback versions:

“Prices are in the main more expensive than the equivalent print versions available on Amazon.co.u. For example, the paperback of Wolf Hall is £3.60 on Amazon, but £6.99 on the iBookStore. Thousand Autumns… is £11.99 via Apple, but Amazon is charging £9.41 for the hardback.

However, readers can download more than 100 pages of Wolf Hall for free, with an option to buy it while reading the sample. Nearly 100 pages of Mitchell’s novel can also be downloaded for free.”

The platform has to grow, and this is just the beginning.


OpenFeint is Huge, Boasts 25 Million Users

OpenFeint: 25 Million Users. Apple’s Game Center: 0. Gaining a huge follower-ship in a relatively short amount of time, OpenFeint spans 85 Million Devices under 1900 App Store games. That’s pretty impressive, and TUAW reports OpenFeint will be Game Center compatible, allowing one to transfer stats to the new service. A private message to investors, “This is where you should spend your iPhone play money.”


Apple Quicktime Patent Could Axe iTunes Playback

So let’s say you go online to watch a movie trailer at trailers.apple.com. When that beautiful HD trailer loads, it’s of course done through Quicktime. But imagine if you actually wanted to buy the movie, but didn’t want to be redirected to iTunes. Well, Apple is certainly considering that position: allowing you to go from trailer to movie right in your web browser. Pretty cool huh? It’d certainly be more convenient.

Read more