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Two things iOS 4.2.1 is missing
I love my iPhone and iPad, but two slight revisions to iOS would make my holiday wishes come true. These may not be earth-shattering to you, but they would make my life much simpler. Mail It's lovely that iOS pushes mail to my devices, but Apple just didn't go far enough with it. When mail is pushed, or fetched for that matter, the only things pushed are what belong in your inbox. I have around 20 IMAP mailboxes that mail gets filtered into using Rules in Mac Mail, and nothing gets pushed to them. I verified this with Apple. Since I spend a good deal of time with no Wi-Fi, and in many cases no cellular connection either, what I would love is to have an option where all mail gets pushed to me, regardless of what IMAP mailbox it's in. That way I can take my iDevice on a train or a plane and catch up on all my email while offline. I understand that this would be a drain on the battery, but if you were able to do it using a toggle, and not a persistent setting, I don't think it would matter. You would use it when you want and not be bothered with the power drain when you're not. I have a feeling this would help out a lot of people. See the other wish I've got right after the break.
Bart Decrem on Tap Tap Revenge 4 and the Disney acquisition of Tapulous
Tapulous (purchased by Disney earlier this year) has released Tap Tap Revenge 4, the fourth iteration of the extremely popular iOS music game, and the new version brings a whole lot of new features to the series. The game is now compatible with the Retina Display, includes Game Center integration, and has quite a few new social modes that let you "like" various songs, as well as see which of your friends have also "liked" that same music. Like Tap Tap 3, it's a free app that sells music packs and avatars as in-app purchases, with music from artists in all genres, from Linkin Park to Rihanna, The Killers, and quite a few more. Earlier this week, TUAW sat down to chat with Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem about the new game, and how his company has changed since it was not only acquired by Disney, but since he was placed in charge of the entire Disney Mobile operation. Read on to find out just how well Tap Tap Revenge 4 is doing (it's showing "the biggest download numbers ever," according to Decrem), and how he sees Disney's future in the mobile app space.
Coverage? for your iPhone and iPad is helpful yet depressing
Coverage? (US$0.99) is a new iPhone/iPad app that will let you see detailed cell phone coverage maps for all four of the major US providers. The app can find your location, then show you AT&T coverage. Even better, it will allow you to also see Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile coverage, and you can overlay any combination of coverage maps over your position. If you're traveling, you can show any location in the US, and you can also see what the good or bad news is for other destinations. Of course, that is the depressing part. Seeing the Verizon and AT&T maps together for where I live in Arizona isn't pretty. You can compare the 2G maps, 3G coverage, or even where there are roaming agreements. In almost every comparison, Verizon simply looks better. In southern Utah, where I spend time doing photography, the comparisons are even uglier. %Gallery-111857%
Navigon updates MobileNavigator North America with new features and iPad friendliness
Here's a nice holiday present from Navigon. MobileNavigator for North America has just caught up with features recently added to the regional versions. In version 1.70 you now get an animated Active Lane Assistant and travel and restaurant guides through Zagat, which is a US$5.99 in-app purchase. Also added is the ability to report changes in roads to Navigon for verification and distribution in a map update. The new version of the app is universal, so it runs on the iPad as well as the iPhone. You can now share stored favorites between all of your iOS devices, allowing you to plan a trip on your iPad, for example, and transfer that info to your iPhone via email. MobileNavigator North America currently sells for $44.99. No date yet on an update to the USA only version, but it should arrive soon. The update is free for all owners of the Navigon North America app.
Apple looking to hire voice technology, speech recognition specialists
Apple is looking to hire several voice and speech recognition experts for iOS, according to four new postings on Apple's job board. The new hires would join the iOS Application Framework team and would be working on "speech-related development activities." These multiple listings come hot on the heels of the public release of several patents detailing contextual voice commands for the iPhone. If you add in Apple's acquisition of Siri, you have the possible beginning of a robust voice control system for the iPhone and other iOS devices. Improved speech recognition would be a welcome addition to the iOS platform. In my experience, the current implementation of voice command on the iPhone is mediocre. While third-party applications like Dragon Dictation are superb, native speech control is wrong as often as it is right. Apple needs to refresh this portion of its mobile OS as it is falling behind Android in voice control technology. Google recently added support for personalized recognition to its popular Voice Search application for Android. In its current form, the app can be fine tuned to your voice so that you can dictate a text, navigate to a destination or place a call with increasing accuracy. [via 9to5 & CNET]
Apple updates iPhoto '11 and the iPhone Config utility
Apple has posted a few new patches in Software Update. There's an update that sends iPhoto '11 to version 9.1.1, allowing photos to be emailed with an external email client, and a size to be specified when sending (similar to the options already available on iOS). Additionally, the update fixes a few minor issues with Events and photo sorting, and adds a few new themes for emailing. iPhoto '11 users can download the 65.6 MB update right now. The iPhone Configuration Utility has been updated as well, though since the program is really only used for things like updating provisioning profiles and checking out device logs, only the developers will probably need to worry about that one. Most users can just deal with their iPhone configuration through iTunes itself. Nevertheless, there's two updates from Cupertino to install if needed. [via MacUpdate]
Lots more iOS games on sale for just a buck
We're heading into the final day before the App Store freeze on Thursday, and so there are lots more price drops popping up on Apple's digital outlet for iOS apps. Here's a few of the sales we've heard about so far. Bulkypix is holding a 99 cent sale on its titles. Freeverse has dropped a few apps to just a buck, including Skee-ball and Flick Fishing, and it's giving away Moto Chaser for free. Sega has a big holiday sale going on, including Gunstar Heroes and Phantasy Star 2 for just 99 cents each. Telltale has a sale going on, including the excellent Puzzle Agent for just 99 cents. And don't forget the iOS indie games "bundle", offering up excellent deals on some of the best indie games on the App Store. Lots of terrific games available for cheap on the iOS store this week. Stay tuned -- we'll probably see some more drops tomorrow, and then on Thursday, as Apple freezes store releases, everything will be nailed in for the busy holiday weekend.
Setting your iPad to the correct time may be harder than you think
Setting a computer to the correct time should be the simplest of tasks. It can easily be done by hitting a time server on the internet. Your home computers do it. Your iPhone gets the current local time from AT&T here in the states. It's a built-in feature of just about every computer OS. For iPad users, it's a different story. I noticed it the other day with my 3G iPad, when I saw that the tablet was six minutes ahead of my iPhone and MacBook Pro. I checked my desktop, and it was ahead of that too. It was equally ahead of my wall mounted Atomic Clock that gets the time from the National Bureau of Standards. My iPhone, the government clocks, and my desktop and laptops all matched. The iPad was clearly out of sync. I restarted the iPad but that didn't solve it. So I explored the iPad preferences, dutifully went to Date and Time, and guess what? There is no 'set automatically' option. There is one on the 3G iPad, but hitting a time server when connected to Wi-Fi is not exactly rocket science, so why isn't it an option on the Wi-Fi iPad? All you get is the manual setting option. Not exactly high tech.
Huffington Post overhauls iPad app with 2.0 release
The Huffington Post has just released version 2.0 of its popular iPad app. The release is a complete overhaul and revamp of the previous app. Gone is the huge drop-down menu that you used to navigate through the Post's various sections. It has now been replaced by an always-there Huff Post NewsGlide menu that allows you to quickly switch between sections with the tap of your finger. Each NewsGlide section is divided into ordered news, blogs, slideshows and popular sub-sections. The slideshow sub-sections are particularly well laid out to take advantage of the iPad's "flick through your photos" navigation. Tap on an article and a window slides onto the screen containing the exact page you would view if you were browsing the Huffington Post through Safari or Chrome. That means the articles window contains all the comments -- and the ability to comment -- directly in the app. Overall, the new app is an improvement upon the old one. However, I think the new menu navigation takes some getting used to. The old app had a very newspaper-like feel to it as far as navigation goes. The new app seems to be the love child that would result if the BBC for iPad and Twitter apps hooked up. Personally, I like my newspaper apps to have the layout of newspapers. If you feel the same way, you'll be consoled to know that the Huffington Post team has placed a "feedback" button on the top of the new menu. The Huffington Post for iPad is a free download.
Apple pulls WikiLeaks app from the App Store
Apple has quickly pulled a WikiLeaks app (Google cache) it approved for sale on the App Store earlier this week. The unofficial app went live on the App Store on December 17. The WikiLeaks app gave "instant access to the world's most documented leakage of top secret memos and other confidential government documents," according to The iPhone Download Blog. The blog noted less than two days before the app was pulled that it was "actually surprising that Apple approved such an app, with all of the legal problems that Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks organization have been facing worldwide." TechCrunch has reached out to Apple and the developer for comment, but only the developer has responded so far, saying that Apple changed the official status of his app to "Removed From Sale." It's not too much of a shock that Apple pulled the app, as being seen as associating with or even facilitating funding to WikiLeaks is as about as controversial as you can get right now. The WikiLeaks app sold for US$1.99, but the developer, Igor Barinov, was donating half of his proceeds to WikiLeaks, which could be the ultimate reason why the app was pulled. There are sure to be many questions about why Apple approved then pulled the app in the days to come, but I would love to know what's more worrisome for Apple: the potential pressure/sanctions from various governments if they didn't pull the app, or the fact that the Cupertino company has now probably really, really irritated Anonymous.
TomTom adds Map Share so users can update their own maps
Here's a rather cool idea from the TomTom folks. An update available today to the TomTom iPhone nav apps (price varies depending on countries covered) allows you to edit the information on your maps and then submit those changes for others to access using what TomTom calls Map Share. This feature is also present on many dedicated TomTom GPS units. Map Share lets users edit street names, set driving directions and block and unblock streets directly on the maps, and then share those changes with the TomTom community. Once the changes are verified, everyone gets updated maps. The updates come automatically once a week, or you can force a check on demand. That feature should go a long way toward answering complaints that navigation apps like TomTom's, with built in maps, are never as accurate as apps that provide navigation data on the fly. Of course, even freshly downloaded maps can be out of date, so that really isn't a very compelling argument. The TomTom nav apps are on sale for the holidays. The US version is US$39.99, while a North American version covering the US and Canada is $49.99.
AirFlick turns Macintosh into an AirPlay data server
If you own a Macintosh and an Apple TV, I have created a new tool that allows you to stream data outside of iTunes. It's called AirFlick, and it's now available in alpha form for download and testing. Last week, I put together a related application called AirPlayer that allows you to stream video from your iPad using Apple's built in AirPlay services and demonstrated it on TUAW. AirPlayer works by emulating an Apple TV using your Mac's built in Bonjour networking capabilities. Below is a description and brief video explaining how it works. Update: TUAW reader BC adds: How to Add Live Conversion to Erica Sadun's AirFlick App Ok, by doing this hack, you can stream ANY video format sitting on your Mac to your AppleTV. I'm testing out an mkv file right now, and it works like a charm! Download the unofficial Mac AirVideo client here. Start playback of a video using live conversion from within this unofficial client, it should hand off the streaming video to Quicktime X. Inspect the stream by viewing the Movie Inspector (check the "Window" menu for Quicktime). Write down that url. Paste that url into Erica Sadun's Airflick app and boom now your AppleTV can basically play any video you throw at it! Looking forward to someone streamlining the process into a neat little app. OPTIONAL One extra little note: you don't have to necessarily download the unofficial Mac AirVideo client above. You can instead begin playback of a video from within the AirVideo iphone app, then go to the mac serving up the stream, and type "ps ax | grep ffmpeg", and grab the alphanumeric string following the --conversion-id flag. Then paste into AirFlick the following: http://[YOUR-SERVER'S-IP-ADDRESS]:45631/live-playback-2.4.0/index_[CONVERSION-ID].m3u8
Lunar eclipse viewing made easier with free SkySafari Lite
If you're going to grab a look at the total lunar eclipse tonight (actually early tomorrow morning U.S. Eastern Standard Time) we've got just the app for you. The developers who brought you the excellent SkySafari astronomy app are offering SkySafari Lite for free today to help you track the eclipse and learn a little more about it. What makes the early morning show unique is that it comes at the same time as the Winter Solstice. The last time that happened was 1638, and it won't happen again until 2094. Expect the Moon to turn reddish in color, and depending on conditions it might completely vanish for at least part of the 72 minutes that it is within the shadow of the Earth. The eclipse begins at 1:32 AM EST. The entire disc of the Moon will be covered at 2:41 AM and totality, as it is called, ends at 3:53 AM. The Moon will move completely out of the shadow of the Earth by 5:00 AM. If you're in other time zones, just subtract the correct number of hours for your location. %Gallery-111719%
TUAW's Daily App: I Must Run
The popularity of Canabalt seems to have spawned a whole genre of games on the App Store. I remain a fan of Monster Dash, and Tomena Sanner is another fascinating spin on the very basic one-button gameplay. Now here comes I Must Run, another running-style game that has you as a character running on a 2D field, trying to avoid gaps and obstacles by jumping and punching your way through. Despite the fact that this borrows a lot (if not actually everything) from Canabalt and its followers, there's no denying that "IMR" (as developer Gamelion Studios calls it in a teasing FAQ on the app's description) has its own verve as well. The style is very well done. You play a prisoner running from a prison, and there's a little more story here (some of it in the form of a motion comic) than the other games that tend to go more arcade-style. Gamelion promises there's an end to this one, though good luck trying to get to it. There are also a few gameplay tweaks. You can punch through obstacles and duck under overhangs, so if you want to beat the whole thing, you'll really have to stay on your toes (or fingers, as the case may be). I Must Run is only US$0.99 on the App Store right now, and it's earning some nice buzz around the gaming community. Looks like there might be room for a few more running titles on the App Store yet.
Princeton and iOS DHCP still not getting along
It seems that every time Apple squashes one DHCP bug in iOS, another one pops up. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a system of automatically assigning IP addresses on a network, which mostly happens behind the scenes and without users noticing anything about it. Without an IP address, a device such as an iPhone, iPad or any sort of computer cannot access the network. DHCP uses a "lease" system where a computer can use a specific IP address for a certain length of time. In contrast to a static addressing scheme (where each device has a permanently-assigned IP address), DHCP allows many more devices to use the network -- as long as they are not all online at the same time. Initially, iOS devices had two different problems. First they would hold on to their IP addresses after the "lease" expired, when they were supposed to be done with them. Apple apparently fixed that problem, but created another one: devices were asking to renew their DHCP leases too often. The latter problem was fixed in iOS 4.1, but that was only released for iPhone and iPod touch devices, not iPads. With iOS 4.2, that bug is finally fixed. But don't get too excited. According to Princeton's tech team, the latest versions have a problem that they're listing as "iOS 4.1 - 4.2.1 Allows DHCP Lease to Expire, Keeps Using IP Address." Does that sound familiar? It's eerily like the earlier report from Princeton, "iPhone OS 3.2 on iPad Stops Renewing DHCP Lease, Keeps Using IP Address" -- so the issue is not taken care of yet. If you only use your iOS device on a small home or office network, you may not be aware of this flaw, but -- and I hate to have to be so obvious, but a lot of people have apparently missed this -- managing a computer network on a university campus is a whole lot different than your home Wi-Fi network. Despite reports, Princeton has not "banned" iOS devices, but their workaround includes disabling Notificatons, Find My iPhone/iPad, FaceTime and removing all VoIP applications. Hopefully, Apple will figure out how to get the iOS DHCP client to work efficiently on larger networks one of these days. In the meantime, you can keep track of the issue on Princeton's Apple iOS Networking page.
Screens: an easy and elegant VNC app for iOS
VNC (virtual network computing) has been around for a long time, but lately there seems to be more and more interest in it, perhaps because of all the iPad and iPhone owners who want to connect to their computers back home or at the office. Screens, from Edovia, is a new entrant in the VNC app race. It is on sale at US$14.99 for a limited time, after which the price will go up to $24.99. The app is universal, so your purchase allows you to install it on both an iPad and iPhone, or an iPod touch. Like many other similar apps, Screens has support for many multi-touch gestures, as well as squeeze motions to enlarge or shrink the screen back down. The main difference is that with the other apps, you use those gestures to move a cursor around the screen or, in some cases, move the screen around a stationary cursor. Screens allows you to control the remote computer using your finger as a virtual mouse or trackpad. Of course, you have to run a VNC server app on the machine you want to connect to, and you can find those for Windows and Linux. OS X has VNC built in; you just activate screen sharing in the Mac Sharing preference pane. If you have multiple PCs set up to connect to, you flick between those screens on your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone. I've tried it at home, and I was easily able to connect to my desktop Mac and a Windows XP PC. Using the app was a pleasure, and because of the way touch is integrated, it felt like a pure multi-touch app rather than a screen emulator. There is a dedicated keyboard, and a second one with keys that relate to the type of computer you are connecting to. For example, you can invoke a Spotlight search with a tap when connected to a Mac. %Gallery-111639%
SmartPush iPhone app dead, reminds us apps are not forever
SmartPush was a neat iPhone app from a small startup, Syphir, which allowed the configuration of clever filters for Gmail push notifications. For example, the user could configure rules like "always send me a push notification for all emails from my wife," "don't send notifications between 11 PM and 7 AM" or "don't sent me a notification if the email was sent to more than three people." Our own TJ Luoma was very positive when he reviewed it back in July, and said it was a good way for people with busy inboxes to calm down the incessant beep-beeping of their iPhones. Sadly, one of the founders of the company has confirmed on a post to their customer service forum that the iPhone app is no more. He's attempting to keep part of the company going, but the other two founders have left, and he can no longer afford the infrastructure costs for the push notification service. He has had to turn it off and remove the app from sale. This means that people who paid for the app during its nine month lifespan (between $1 and $3) are now out of luck -- it will no longer work for them. The sums of money involved in this case may be small, but the principles are large. The explosive popularity of the App Store, as well as its accessibility to small startups, has drawn many new companies into the fold, and we all know that a lot of apps use the iPhone's wireless networking to hook into always-on web services. Let's be frank: not all of these companies are going to have reliable revenue streams, and when they fold, people who bought their product are going to be left with broken apps and no compensation. This is particularly problematic for apps that offer push notifications. Because of how Apple structured them, any developer adding notification support to their app has to commit to keeping servers alive to send the notifications through -- even if the app doesn't have any other need for hosting. Once the app sales saturate, the developer is left with dwindling income but a significant fixed ongoing cost hosting and maintaining the servers.
OpenFeint's promotional app now called Game Channel
Social gaming network OpenFeint has had its own app for a while now, offering up news and information for players playing games with the technology built-in. But the app recently underwent a re-branding of sorts -- it's now called Game Channel (not to be, or possibly to be, confused with Game Center), and is now built around a Groupon-style model. The app has offered up a Free App of the Day for a while now, but in addition to the freebies, it now also has a feature called "Fire Sale," in which players can "vote" for certain games to go on sale. It'll be interesting to see how that works -- one of the biggest issues developers are facing on the App Store is simply getting their app discovered by players, and this seems like yet another outlet for OpenFeint-enabled games to find their customers. The app also helps with discoverability in other ways as well: you can see what your friends are playing, and track leaderboards and all of OpenFeint's other stats right there. It's tough to actually call this an attack on Game Center, since Game Center isn't really in competition -- it's already installed on every mobile iOS device anyway. But Game Channel does look like a little innovation from OpenFeint in terms of getting its apps out there. If you haven't picked up the app now called Game Channel, it's a free download from the App Store.
TUAW's Daily App: Tron Legacy
Yes, the new Tron Legacy movie is out this weekend, and if you haven't heard about it yet, you probably will soon. There has been a free promotional app out for a while now (and it actually has a few little games to play with), but Disney has also released an official Tron Legacy game, now available on the App Store. This one's a full-fledged 3D game, featuring a Light Cycle racing mode along with an on-rails shooting mode that puts you behind a "Recognizer" (one of the big ships they fly around in the movie). The games in this one work pretty well, though the app itself is a little disappointing -- there's no real storyline or overarching campaign to the map you play through. You're basically just competing in a series of events (and even those are pretty inexplicable -- why are you piloting a Recognizer and racing Light Cycles?). But as a US 99 cent game, it's not bad, and the Tron stylings are enough to remind you how awesome the movie is. The app is universal and even has Game Center integration to track achievements (That's a first for a Disney mobile game; it's good to see them endorse Apple's social gaming network.) If you're looking for a nugget of official Tron goodness on iOS, the game is worth checking out.
Navigon updates MyRegion versions with new features and makes it a universal app
Navigon today released version 1.70 of the MyRegion versions of our top rated GPS app. The North America, USA version and Canada version updates will follow shortly. The new goodies include: Navigon is now a universal app, so it works at full resolution on both the iPad and iPhone with no extra charges. Route planning can be done on the iPad, then routes can be sent to the iPhone version. The active lane assistant includes animation to show the proper route at intersections. An orange line displays the suggested way to go. The feature can be turned off. Map Reporter allows the user to update road names, changed speed limits, new one way streets and to submit them to Navigon where they will be conformed and added to updated map releases. Improved Retina Display support. The Zagat survey of restaurants is available as an in-app purchase for US$5.99 until January 6. There are price reductions on all the Navigon apps until January 6. The North America Mobile Navigator, normally $59.99, is now $44.99. The USA only version is discounted $15.00 to $34.99, as is the Canada only version. The MyRegion apps, covering the East, Central or Western U.S. have been discounted $5.00 to $24.99. No date has been offered as to when the Canada, North America and U.S. apps will get this update, but it should be soon. Purchasers of those versions will get the update at no charge when it's available. Current owners of the Navigon apps will also get the updates for free. For now, these updates only apply to the North American versions of the apps. Navigon is also celebrating the company's 20th anniversary with some free apps in 2011, with the first released to the App Store today. The first, called help2park, finds nearby parking facilities, with a list and directions. The app can be used stand alone, but it also integrates with any of the Navigon MobileNavigator products. We haven't tested these new features, but will soon.
