Recently we reviewed a small but cool application called MicroCRM, but we’re not done with that developer just yet. Having a knack for keeping things simple, a brand new application hit the App Store that’s not only free, but it’s something that anybody can make use of.
Savings Goal, for that Special Something
Win a Copy of Radar for Basecamp
Radar, which we mentioned in our Basecamp and Backpack post here, is a small and simple utility which displays Growl notifications for every new item in your Basecamp account.
We have 10 licenses up for grabs, all you have to do is leave a comment here. No tweeting required!
Winners will be announced on Monday, March 15th.
Good luck!
Quiet Read Pro Winners Announced
Thanks everyone who entered the Quiet Read Pro giveaway. Also, we’d like to thank the Bambooapps developers for the licenses they gave to MacStories.
Here are the winners:
Ricardo
Giovanni Lanzani
thetechmonkey
Dennis Houston
Veronica Andersson
You’ll receive the licenses in your inbox in a matter of a few days. Stay tuned for other giveaways coming this week.
In the meantime, you can follow the official MacStories Twitter account as @macstoriesnet .
Opera: “We’re Very Much Following Apple’s Rules”
CNN reports that Opera’s spokesman Thomas Ford demonstrated Opera for iPhone at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, confirming that the app has reached a pretty much stable beta stage, claiming a six times faster browsing speed than Safari. The submission to the App Store is now “weeks away”, and Opera is almost ready to show their newest mobile browser in public.
Also, from the same post:
“I wouldn’t say we’re trying to back Apple into a corner,” Ford said. “We feel that we’re very much following their rules.”
If you ask me, I think the app will be approved - especially after all the Apple / Google thing. But on the opposite, are we sure that sending all the traffic through Opera’s server is an acceptable compromise to have a faster experience?
Basecamp and Backpack, Quintessential Business Tools – As Seen from Web, Mac and iPhone.
As soon as I started searching for contributors who wanted to write for MacStories, I also started looking for a good application to manage that kind of team. A team that doesn’t deal with designs or clients, but with tons of text, screenshots, milestones and news. I guess managing a blog’s team is one of the most complicated things to do on the web (especially if you work in different countries) because from what I can tell so far, there’s no dedicated software to for bloggers. Not a great one at least. For this reason, and because I read a lot of posts about the subject,I subject, I decided to try the applications from 37signals, Basecamp and Backpack. I heard that there were some very good clients too (both for Mac and iPhone), which is really important to me.
In this article we’ll take a look at Basecamp and Backpack, the third party apps Cody and I are using to interact with them, and some additional tools we discovered. We believe you’re gonna start using the 37signals products too.
Apple Loses Bid to Control Use of ‘i’ in Product Names
An Australian trademark tribunal has rejected Apple’s attempt to prevent some companies from using a lowercase “i” in their names, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. At the center of the case is DOPi, a brand of bags and cases for Apple products sold by the Sydney-based Wholesale Central.
Apple complained to IP Australia, the government body behind the tribunal, that people could potentially confuse DOPi products for its own, as the name is a reversed take on “iPod.”
Good news is, now you can name your company “DAPi”.
All the Hidden iPad Settings Spotted in a Video
Thanks to a video submitted over at iPadevice.com, we can now see all the settings that the iPad should contain at the official launch. The author of the video has enabled these settings by editing some strings in two .plist files. Passcode lock, picture frame and file sharing are included.
Watch the embedded video below.
Specific iPad Apps Get a “Special Section” in the App Store
From the iPad’s official webpage:
“The App Store will feature new apps designed specifically for iPad. You’ll find hundreds that make the most of its large display, responsive performance, and Multi-Touch interface. iPad apps appear in a special section of the store, so you can find and download them easily.”
A special section in the Store, which sounds like a category filled with other sub categories for different apps. Put in this way, it doesn’t sound like they’re pushing the thing too much.
Apple in Talks with Italian Publishers
According to this post from Macity (Italian blog) Apple has started contacting publishers in regards of the imminent iPad launch, scheduled for late April. It seems like Apple is pushing for digital version of school books, a market which (personal experience) is really bloated in Italy. The launch of the Italian iBooks Store is rumored to happen this fall, and school books should be one the strongest selling points of the initial lineup.
Could Apple really save or reinvent the Italian publishing industry? Starting with the school system, I do hope so.