Posts tagged with "iOS"

Quick Tip: iMovie App May Not Recognize Videos From Your Camcorder

With the release of the iPad 2, Apple updated the official iMovie app for iOS to include native support for the device and a brand new user interface that takes advantage of the features and real screen estate offered by the tablet. With new precision controls, intuitive UI and several sharing functionalities, we have seen iMovie for iPad has become for many the perfect way to quickly import a video, edit it with cool transitions and subtitles, and send it off to the cloud. These videos can be imported from an iPhone or iPod Touch, or just shot with an iPad 2 in HD.

Weeks ago we discussed Apple needed a better way to let iOS devices communicate with each other to share information and data without the need of using the cable. Something like AirDrop for iOS. As it stands now, you’re either forced to attach cables, sync with iTunes, or upload to MobileMe or Dropbox and download media again on a second device.

But the problem with the iMovie app for iOS also lies in the fact that it doesn’t recognize “certain non-Apple video clips” recorded with non-iOS devices. A support document updated yesterday explains:

iMovie for iOS is designed to work with video recorded with iPad 2, iPhone 4, and iPod touch (4th generation). To ensure optimal performance, the app filters out certain non-Apple video clips from the Video browser. These incompatible clips cannot be added to your iMovie project.

It’s simple: videos from your camcorder might not be compatible with iMovie out of the box, so forget about the camera connection kit or other techniques. Apple doesn’t provide technical specifications, but we’re pretty sure a free app like Handbrake can help you along with the conversion of a video to an iOS-compatible format. [via AppAdvice]

Long-time Subscriber? The NYT Gives You 1 Year of Free Web, iPhone and iPad Access→

Long-time Subscriber? The NYT Gives Out 1 Year of Free Web, iPhone and iPad Access

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop reports the New York Times is refining its paywall introduction by gifting one year of full free digital access (web, iPhone and iPad) to “long-time subscribers”. Apparently the NYT started sending out emails to some subscribers earlier today inviting them to join the promotion, and the one who got in touch with by The Loop has been a subscriber for 12 years.

The customer I spoke with has been a subscriber for 12 years and received the email this afternoon. He said he took The Times up on the offer and accepted the one-year free.

In the email The Times says “as a frequent reader of NYTimes.com, you’ve demonstrated an uncommon interest in a wide variety of today’s most important topics.” The email and subscription is being sponsored by Lincoln.

The New York Times’ paywall is set to go live for everyone on March 28th.

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#MacStoriesDeals - Tuesday

If you didn’t already know, we’ve set up a new twitter account for Deals, it’s @MacStoriesDeals - please follow for Deals-only posts. We’ll tweet the daily deals there as well as exclusive weekend deals too. Help spread the word! Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

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Shazam Adds “Friends” Feature with Facebook Integration

Shazam, the popular music discovery tool for iOS, was updated earlier today to include a new feature that, similarly to Apple’s Ping or the recently reviewed SoundTracking, lets you connect with other people to see what music they’re listening to. The new functionality is called “Friends” and it’s displayed as a new tab in Shazam’s bottom toolbar. To get started with Friends, you’ll have to login through your Facebook account and link the device to your Shazam profile – all the social interaction of Friends happens through Facebook and your friends that are already using the mobile app to tag songs.

Once you have some friends using Shazam (right now, I don’t), the songs they tag will show up in the Friends tab alongside the album artwork, a preview you can listen to and a link to buy the song on iTunes. Tapping on an item brings you to the usual Shazam view where you can share, check lyrics and Youtube videos, get tour info for a specific artist or jump to Last.fm. The Friends functionality is very streamlined and doesn’t provide all the options offered by an app like SoundTracking, but it’s a start and a welcome addition to Shazam.

Shazam Encore is available for $5.99 in the App Store. The free version got updated as well. Read more

Rumor: Valve “Looking Into” iOS for Steam Expansion

If you’re familiar with the PC and Mac gaming scene, then you have most definitely heard of Steam: a game distribution platform by Valve that collects thousands of games in a single marketplace that’s easy to use and aggregates users worldwide enabling them to communicate through the platform. Steam, first released on Windows PCs, came out on OS X last year after much anticipation, quickly becoming many users’ favorite way of discovering and downloading games for the Mac.

Member of Steam’s forums Political Gamer recently visited the Valve headquarters and reported an interesting tidbit from his visit and talk with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell: Valve is apparently “looking into” iOS and Android as possible platforms for Steam’s expansion in the future:

After waiting in the lobby for a few minutes it turned out Gabe was in the office and wanted to say hi. To my great delight he was playing DOTA 2 when we walked in and from what I can see the game already looks very promising. After a little “sneak peek” we sat down to talk about Steam and other goings on in Valve. During this chat he confirmed that Steam will get a video recorder very soon, also he said they were looking into the iOS/Android platform for possible expansions with Steam. He also siad that the Source film maker is in the pipeline for a public release. After the chat was over he happily signed my copy of the Orange box and sent me on my way to Robin Walker.

The report doesn’t provide any additional details on Valve’s plans for a mobile Steam, and we only speculate that the development studio might be considering an iPhone or iPad client to check on your online Steam account and friends. Certainly Apple would never approve an iOS Steam app that lets you download and play games out of the App Store, whilst on Android Valve could easily deploy and alternative store like Amazon did (and got sued for the name choice). On iOS, Steam as we know it would be a difficult goal to accomplish: Apple doesn’t allow the installation of apps from alternative sources (the so-called “side-loading”) and the possible implementation of in-app purchases wouldn’t fit Steam’s growing catalogue of games.

Apple has turned its iOS and Mac App Stores into the perfect place for users to discover and buy games, and we don’t expect Steve Jobs to change his mind anytime soon about allowing other developers to “break the ecosystem” with unofficial app stores. So perhaps Steam for iOS will be a simple app to manage your online account? Or a “brand” for App Store developers to publish their games? We don’t know yet, but it’s interesting that Valve is at least looking at the possibilities offered by iOS. [via]

#MacStoriesDeals - Monday

If you didn’t already know, we’ve set up a new twitter account for Deals, it’s @MacStoriesDeals - please follow for Deals-only posts. We’ll tweet the daily deals there as well as exclusive weekend deals too. Help spread the word! Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

Read more

#MacStoriesDeals - Friday

If you didn’t catch all the deals we had yesterday, here’s a link back to the page. Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

Read more

I Want This Tetris-like Stand For iOS Devices On My Desk

This product will likely never see the light of day on retail stores’ shelves, but it’d be so perfect on my home desk next to my iMac. The Polyply is a multi-device stand designed by Andrew Kim, and it’s made out of acrylic plastic and birch plywood. Realized as a two-week project by Kim to see how such an accessory would fit on an Apple’s fan desk, all parts were cut on a laser cutter. The Polyply could easily keep in place an iPad, an iPhone, and iPod and a stylus. It’s got room to plug in your Apple 30-pin dock connector and it even lowers for a better typing angle.

The design is simple and clean and, in spite of the times, it’d be just right for my desk that is daily cluttered by iPad, iPhone and, yes, an iPod Classic.

Like I said though, this was just an experiment. But I’d be ready to open my wallet if it was a Kickstarter project. [via Cult Of Mac]

Scribd To Switch Millions of Old Embeds Over to HTML5, iOS Devices Rejoice

Social document sharing service Scribd has made a major announcement today: they’re in the process of switching millions of old Flash-based embeds scattered around the web over to the new HTML5 layout they started implementing last year. The conversion process will be automatic, shouldn’t break anything for publishers and website owners and, most of all, will dramatically increase the quality and speed of Scribd embeds.

As Scribd swaps Flash with HTML5 on old document embeds, iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad will benefit from the change: the HTML5 tool developed by Scribd is fully compatible with iOS’ Mobile Safari and now every webpage containing a new or old Scribd document will be perfectly viewable on Apple’s phones and tablets.

When Scribd launched its HTML5 reading platform last summer, they said user engagement with the Scribd experience “surged”. The conversion of 20 million embeds to HTML5 should definitely make things even better for Scribd.