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More than 1 million sales are comin' round Monument Valley
Monument Valley, an Apple Design Award-winning game that twists player perspective like an MC Escher painting twists stairs, has surpassed more than one million sales. We're not sure what that number means to a game that cares nothing for the laws of physics, but developer ustwo seems pleased enough to start planning for post-release content. Producer Dan Gray told TechCrunch that the team plans to double the average gameplay time of 90 minutes with additional "lost scenes" for the game. Gray wasn't sure if these scenes would be sold or free to download, but either way they'll take place outside of the main story. Ustwo is aiming to release the extra levels sometime in the fall. If you're not sure what all the fuss is about, Monument Valley - along with its fellow Design Award winners - is on sale in the iTunes store. [Image: ustwo]
Apple Design Award sale discounts Threes, Monument Valley, and more
The iTunes App Store is hosting an unannounced sale on several Apple Design Award-winning apps, giving frugal players the opportunity to check out some of the best games to hit iOS devices this year. Featured games are Asher Vollmer's sliding number-cruncher Threes (99 cents), ustwo's perspective-shifting adventure game Monument Valley ($1.99), and Denis Mikan's touchscreen puzzler Blek (99 cents). Other award-nominated sale highlights include Tengami ($1.99), Eliss Infinity (99 cents), and Lost Toys ($1.99). There's no word as to when these app discounts will expire, so grab 'em while you can. [Image: ustwo]
Threes, Device 6 take home Apple Design Awards
Apple doled out its Design Awards earlier today, giving its stylish, pearl white nod to several games. Alongside lifestyle apps like Cinemagraph Pro and Sky Guide, Apple recognized Threes, Device 6, Blek, Monument Valley and Leo's Fortune for combining design and technology in "creative, compelling, and powerful ways." Apple praised each of the games, calling Threes "intuitive, charming, broadly appealing, and bewitchingly addictive." Device 6 was labeled "mesmerizing and immersive," Blek was said to engage both left and right hemispheres of the brain, and Monument Valley was compared to experiencing a museum. Finally, Leo's Fortune was hailed as "intricate and nuanced." Works for us. We just love having good games to play. [Image:Simogo]
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for June 3, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Apple announces 2014 Apple Design Award winners
Apple just delivered a fantastic WWDC keynote and is following up all this developer goodness with its annual Apple Design Award, which recognizes the best apps in the iOS and OS X App Store. The initial winner's list for 2014, as reported by the official App Store twitter account, is presented below. Congratulations to all the winners! Leo's Fortune [iOS Universal; $4.99] Leo's Fortune is a platform adventure game where you hunt down the cunning and mysterious thief that stole your gold. Beautifully hand-crafted levels bring the story of Leo to life in this epic adventure. Read our review. Blek [iOS Universal; $2.99] The goal is simple: shape a line that collects all colored circles avoiding black holes on its route. There are no specific moves that you need to master. To every level countless solutions exist, from delightfully simple to exceptionally deep and complex, yet always elegant. Read our review. PanoPerfect [iPhone; Free] PanoPerfect is a fun, free and simple way to share beautiful panoramic photos on your iPhone. Teachley: Addimal Adventure [iPad; Free] Developed by former teachers and experts in children's cognition and learning, Addimal Adventure is an engaging game that teaches single-digit addition. Monument Valley [iOS Universal; $3.99] In Monument Valley you will manipulate impossible architecture and guide a silent princess through a stunningly beautiful world. Read our review. Sky Guide [iOS Universal; $1.99] A star and constellation guide has never been more beautiful and easy to use. Just hold it to the sky to automatically find stars, constellations, planets, satellites and more. It's stargazing fun for all ages and experience levels! Read our review. Storehouse - Visual Storytelling [iPad; Free] Share your world through Storehouse. It's the easiest way to create and discover beautiful stories. Read our review. Device 6 [iOS Universal; $3.99] A surreal thriller in which the written word is your map, as well as your narrator. Read our review. Threes! [iOS Universal; $1.99] Explore our little game's deep challenge and grow your mind beyond imagination. Read our review. Yahoo News Digest [iPhone; Free] Yahoo News Digest provides a definitive summary of all the important, need-to-know news. Read our review. DayOne for Mac [OS X; $9.99] Record life as you live it. From once-in-a-lifetime events to everyday moments, Day One's elegant interface makes journaling your life a simple pleasure. Read our review Cinemagraph Pro [OS X; $24.99] Mesmerize your audience by creating flixels with Cinemagraph Pro.
Ridiculous Fishing creator reeling from Apple Design Award, talks TU
Vlambeer founders Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman didn't think Ridiculous Fishing would win an Apple Design Award. Sure, it was in the running, but it was a long shot, and they had other places to be during the ceremony at WWDC on June 10 (E3, anyone?). Just in case, they asked Ridiculous Fishing collaborator and indie extraordinaire Zach Gage to go to the show, and he did. In flip flops. And shorts. And Ridiculous Fishing won. "Holy shit," Ismail laughed during our chat at E3. He was still getting over the fact that Ridiculous Fishing won an Apple Design Award, and that Gage collected it in what's commonly considered summer beach attire. So far Ridiculous Fishing sales have hit the "hundreds of thousands," Ismail said, and after the Design Award, sales spiked again. Even Elijah Wood got hooked on Ridiculous Fishing – or, as Ismail put it, "The Hobbit played it!"
Apple announces Apple Design Award winners at WWDC 2013
The WWDC keynote may be over, but the developer's conference is just getting underway. First on tap is the Apple Design Awards, which recognize the best of the best in the iOS and OS X App Store. The initial list, as reported by the official App Store twitter account, is presented below. Congratulations to all the winners! Student Developers: Finish. By high schoolers Ryan Orbuch and Michael Hansen Mosaic.io. By Ishaan Gulrajani, Alex List & Zain Shah. iOS and OS X Apps Coda 2 Ridiculous Fishing WWF Together Evernote 5 Badland Yahoo! Weather Letterpress Procreate SkyGamblers Other student winners, including Louis Harboe, Bryan Keller and Puck Meerburg, were recognized for their work on the apps they submitted to earn their scholarship to attend WWDC.
2012 Apple Design Awards showcase standout apps on iOS, OS X
While we tend to get caught up in keynote hoopla, Apple's WWDC event is about connecting with the third party developers of software for its various platforms and it highlighted a few with its annual Design Awards yesterday. While 2011's winners included standouts like Infinity Blade, selections for 2012 included high profile pics like the Paper sketchbook app for iPad, the game Limbo on OS X, National Geographic's National Parks iOS app and several others. Hit the source link to see all the winners including student projects daWindci and Little Star, along with descriptions of why they were picked. Unsurprisingly, tight integration with the various APIs and services Apple is pushing (plus a polished and widely appreciated user experience, of course) is the way to its heart -- worth keeping in mind for those hoping to be in the winner's circle for 2013.
Apple announces Apple Design Award winners at WWDC
Corrected to list Where's My Water as an iPhone winner and D1 Drum Machine as an iPad runner up. Apple has announced the winners of this year's Apple Design Awards at the WWDC conference, and 2012 is apparently the year of games on the Mac. Two games, Deus Ex and Limbo, have claimed both spots in the Mac ADAs this year, which is the first time in my memory that two games have done so. Games have won before but usually it's in specifically game-centered categories, and productivity apps are usually highlighted. This year it's two games that originally started out on Windows and Xbox, which is pretty crazy. Drawing app Sketch is also highlighted on the Mac. The iPhone winners are Where's My Water and the great game Jetpack Joyride, with the National Geographic's National Parks app as a runner up. D1 Drum Machine is a runner up on the iPad, where Bobo Explores Light and Paper took the win. And both of the student winners are on the iPad: Da Windci and Little Star. All of these are really great apps that highlight some fine examples of what Apple developers can do. Apple has picked this out of the bunch to represent their highest design values. Congrats to all of the winners on their great success!
Apple opens nominations for 2012 Apple Design Awards
Every year Apple recognizes those iOS and OS X developers whose work is a step above the competition with its Apple Design Awards. Nominations for these outstanding apps start in the spring and the winners are announced at WWDC. This year will be no different. Starting today, Apple has kicked off the 2012 nomination process. You can head over to Apple's WWDC awards website and login with your developers ID to nominate your favorite app. Apple is looking for apps that are well-designed, state of the art and innovative.
2011 Apple Design Award winners announced
The 2011 Apple Design Award winners have been announced at WWDC. Although the Mac got left off the radar last year, in 2011 Apple's chosen to recognize greatness in all of its platforms. Winners get a MacBook Air, iPad 2, iPod touch and a snazzy trophy. They also get heaps of free coverage from sites like us, which means all of these apps can likely look forward to massive upticks in sales over the next week. The winners are below. For apps we've covered before at TUAW, we've got links to our reviews/first looks. For the few apps we haven't covered yet, we've linked you directly to the App Store. Many thanks to Steve Streza, who live-tweeted the results from the event. Student Grades 2 by Tapity Pennant by Vargatron Pulse News Reader by Alphonso Labs iPhone Cut the Rope by Chillingo Golfscape GPS Rangefinder by Shotzoom Infinity Blade by Chair Entertainment Mac Capo by SuperMegaUltraGroovy Pixelmator by... Pixelmator Anomaly: Warzone Earth by 11 bit studios iPad Osmos by Hemisphere Games Our Choice by Push Pop Press Djay by algoriddim Congratulations to all the winners! Enjoy your well-deserved spoils.
Apple Design Awards: Would past winners be eligible?
As we reported Monday, Mac software is once again eligible for an Apple Design Award with the caveat that it be available on the Mac App Store by May 23. Not only does it exclude companies that can't enter the Mac App Store, but it also cuts out a good bit of past winners. Out of the past 22 winners of the Apple Design Award spanning 2006 to 2009, nine apps would be eligible for the 2011 awards. Thirteen are out of the game, though two developers have indicated future Mac App Store plans. A couple pieces of past winners are no longer actively developed. Read on to see a list of past winners -- 2010 excluded, of course -- and their current status regarding the Mac App Store.
Want to be eligible for an Apple Design Award? There are two App Stores for that
Last year's Apple Design Awards were met with a minor brouhaha, as Apple restricted eligibility to apps in the iOS App Store. This year Mac apps are eligible, with a caveat. The WWDC FAQ states that "Apps must be available on the App Store by May 23, 2011, to be considered for an Apple Design Award." Which App Store is Apple talking about? Both, actually. The ADA home page states, "This year's Apple Design Awards will be awarded to developers whose iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps are currently on the App Store and demonstrate excellence..." Of course, if your Mac apps are ineligible for inclusion in the Mac App Store (by design or by circumstance), you can't enter the ADAs this year. Hardly sporting, Apple. Good luck to all entrants, and to those of you who'd like to be considered but aren't yet in the store, you have until May 23.
Apple Design Awards go to popular iPhone and iPad apps
There were no Mac apps in this year's Apple Design Awards, but Apple did recognize some popular iPhone and iPad apps in this year's winners. The list is as follows: Doodle Jump Financial Times Brushes for iPhone TabToolkit for iPad Articles 20 Minute Meals Star Walk for iPad Real Racing Pinball HD Most of those are actually pretty popular (and quite a few of them have been featured by Apple before). 20 Minute Meals and TabToolkit are probably the most obscure picks of the bunch, though when you actually look at them, it's not surprising at all that they were chosen. All of these are really terrific apps, but Apple definitely didn't dig too deep to find really out-of-the-way titles. Then again, when you're choosing fewer than 10 titles out of the larger App Store, you should probably go with what works. We'll be chatting with a few of the winners this week here at TUAW -- stay tuned for interviews and updates from a few ADA winners and lots of other developers, live from San Francisco at WWDC 2010.
Developers speak up on the 2010 ADAs
Developers are talking, debating and speculating about the exclusion of Mac desktop apps from this year's Apple Design Awards. We contacted some of our friends in Mac development (and several former ADA winners), and gathered their responses for you. Some are outright disappointed, some portend that this belies good things to come, and some are pretty understanding of the way Apple is handling the current drive toward mobile development. Here's the first batch of responses: Aaron Hillegass, Big Nerd Ranch "It seems likely that in the future everyone will be using mobile devices to access data in the cloud. At the moment, however, the applications that we use all day, every day are desktop applications. Eliminating the Apple Design Awards for desktop applications in 2010 is premature and an insult to the thousands of programmers who devote their days to making the Mac desktop a fun and productive environment." Oliver Breidenbach, Boinx Software "We are very proud that Boinx Software, together with TheCodingMonkeys, won what may turn out to be the last ever Apple Design Award for a Mac application with BoinxTV. Of course it is sad that Apple turns away from Mac desktop developers in what seems like a brutal fashion, but it is understandable that they focus their limited resources on the winning horse. At least, the momentum of the success of iPhone OS seems to fuel a growth in Mac sales, so keeping the momentum going is a smart thing and probably also benefits Mac developers. However, it would be nice if Apple could spend a little of the vast profits on additional staff for the developer relations team so that they could go on supporting the Mac developers as well as they do iPhone developers these days."
Apple disses the desktop?
Photo by Magic Madzik As we noted, the WWDC 2010 dates have been set, and the new pages have been posted. Several folks are noting with dismay, though, that the Apple Design Awards appear to have completely forsaken desktop apps this year, instead only allowing submissions which are available on the App Store. This obviously would make the ADAs specific to iPod touch, iPhone and iPad apps, disallowing any of the magnificent software for the desktop that we've seen highlighted in years past. I passionately support mobile development, but I can't say that I do most of my computing on an Apple mobile device. Desktop software still rules my computing world, and not supporting its development seems to me to be a travesty. An ADA is a pretty big deal, especially for the independent developers who've been stars of the show previously. Without recognition, and the sales boost that goes with it, desktop developers will have one less reason to keep making great software. I'm hoping I'm missing some information here, but it looks pretty cut and dry to me: Apple is shunning the developers who make the Mac the great platform that it is. Update: One of the first to notice this desktop snub was Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software. We contacted him for comment, and I think his response reflects what a lot of developers are feeling this morning: "Mac developers are some of Apple's most passionate and faithful boosters, and they build most of the software that makes the platform great. It's understandable that Apple is focused on the iPhone and iPad this year, but they shouldn't squander the huge success of the Mac. I think the omission of Mac software from the ADAs represents a missed opportunity for Apple to sustain enthusiasm among Mac developers. It makes me wonder if Apple will make an announcement at WWDC about the future of the Mac, and whether the omission will make more sense in light of that. Otherwise, it just seems like botched publicity, and an unnecessary jab at developers who are already feeling less appreciated by Apple than they did in years past."
WWDC quick cut: AJ from Marketcircle on Billings' ADA
We caught AJ from Marketcircle again shortly after a surprise win in the Apple Design Awards for Billings 3. Here's a quick reaction! Direct Link
Apple Design Award winners announced
It's a point of pride for the developers and a highlight of WWDC week -- tonight, courtesy of Jim Dalrymple at The Loop, we congratulate the winners of the Apple Design Awards for 2009. The list includes several TUAW favorites (Things, BoinxTV, Tweetie, Billings and MLB.com) along with some fantastic efforts from students. The full winner list thanks to The Loop and Apple's ADA listings: iPhone Developer Showcase Tweetie from atebits Topple from ng:moco MLB.com At Bat from MLB.com Postage from Rogue Sheep Mac OS Leopard Developer Showcase Billings from Marketcircle Versions by Sofa Things from Cultured Code BoinxTV from Boinx Best Mac OS X Student Product Fontcase by Pieter Omvlee Best iPhone Student App Wooden Labyrinth 3D by Elias Pietil Best iPhone OS 3.0 Beta App Accuterra by Intermap Technologies Congratulations to all the winners!
Apple announces deadline for Design Awards
Apple has announced the submission deadline for the Apple Design Awards (ADA). The ADA take place every year during the World Wide Developer Conference, and recognizes the best efforts in several categories including user experience, overall application, student project and more. Previous winners include Coda (best user experience 2007), CSSEdit 2.5 (Best Developer tool, 2007) and Comic Life (Best New Product for Mac OS X, 2005). New this year is the iPhone category, which should be very exciting. The deadline for the 2008 ADA is May 12.
Widget Watch: iStat Pro 4, iStat nano 2
The crew over at iSlayer have been busy releasing major updates to their killer system monitoring widgets, and not a moment too late for this year's Apple Design Awards (entry deadline is April 23rd). Earlier this month we missed a major upgrade and UI overhaul to iStat nano, bringing the compact system monitoring widget to v2 and adding a ton of new features.With the release of what almost looks like an all-new version of iStat pro v4, however, iSlayer has brought a consistent, uniform UI to both widgets. While I agree that you should probably sit down and take a deep breath before reading through the extensive list of changes, the big-hitters include: support for the battery meters in bluetooth keyboards and mice, instant update for things like network changes and disk mounting, a choice between memory and CPU usage in the process panel, as well as drag and drop re-ordering of sections inside the widget, allowing you to customize the layout to your heart's content.That isn't all though - go check out the huge list of changes for either of these widgets and consider showing iSlayer some donation love for all the stellar work they've done on two of the inarguable kings of system monitoring widgets for Mac OS X.
