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Twitterrific released in two flavors for iPhone
The friendly friends at The Iconfactory have released two editions of Twitterrific for the App Store: one is a free version supported by advertising, and the other is a paid version that omits the ads. Twitterrific (the free version) periodically shows ads via The Deck, similar to its free counterpart for the desktop. Twitterrific Premium is $9.99, and omits the advertising. It also includes an extra display theme. Both apps are available via the App Store. I'd personally like to congratulate the ADC-award-winning team on their efforts: It looks great, and I'm very much looking forward to using the software on my iPod touch. Update: The Iconfactory has posted a blog entry about the release, including details about a detail view for each tweet, and a mini-browser to quickly look at links (without having to open Mobile Safari -- but you can if you want to). They even posted some screenshots. Looks awesome!
Iconfactory prepares Twitterrific for the App Store
Our favorite little blue bird has been getting a lot of attention on the Apple site, thanks to its upcoming appearance in the new iPhone/iPod App Store. In their blog, Gedeon Maheux of the Iconfactory talks about the native version of Twitterrific for iPhone and iPod touch. "We feel both excited and privileged to be a part of the new App Store and are committed to bringing our users the best software we can offer," he writes. According to Ged, the pricing displayed on the site is "for position only": meaning no decisions have been made about pricing yet. Also, expect Twitterrific to work across EDGE, 3G, and WiFi networks. In related news, Twitter survived the onslaught of WWDC! Hooray! A short service interruption in their data center caught them off guard, but otherwise they were up for 97.3 percent of the day. Twitter received an order of magnitude more traffic yesterday than they do normally.
Anticipating Indiana Jones? Your Mac is, too
Forget WWDC, the iPhone App Store and the Apple Design Awards. The one thing we want to see this summer is the new Indiana Jones movie!We're sure some of you feel the same anticipation, so why not let your Mac in on the fun? The workers at The Iconfactory have launched their month-long tribute to Dr. Jones with Indy-themed freeware icon sets, one for each movie. So far, the Raiders of the Lost Ark set has been released, while The Temple of Doom, Last Crusade, and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull icon sets will debut later this month.If your using CandyBar (we've written about CandyBar several times), you can make use of the Indy-themed Dock. Finally, round things of with this great desktop picture (it's also available for the iPhone!).
Craig Hockenberry on iPhone SDK and backgrounding
Craig Hockenberry is the man, the myth, and the legend behind the absolute best Twitter application on the Mac (he works for the Iconfactory). We would all love to see Twitterrific on the iPhone, but Craig offers up a "healthy dose of reality" regarding the iPhone SDK and backgrounding services (applications that run in the background even though the phone is running a different foreground app).In a recent blog post, Craig attempts to explain why Apple will not be giving developers access to backgrounding services on the iPhone. He points out that in a mockup design of "Mobile Twitterrific," based on the jailbreak/community toolchain, refreshing the XML data from Twitter every 5 minutes led to a dead iPhone battery in only 4 hours. "The heart of the problem [is] the radios. Both the EDGE and Wi-Fi transceivers have significant power requirements," he says. "Whenever that hardware is on, your battery life is going to suck."He also reiterated what Apple said about the "Core Location" feature that Apple provided in the SDK: use it only on an "as-needed" basis. Craig said that the issue of backgrounding services may get addressed later on, but right now Apple is preventing iPhone developers from "shooting themselves in the foot." He said that it will take months before the desktop developers have gotten the mindset of an iPhone developer, and that thinking like a desktop developer will lead to bad designs.
Talkcast 32 now online
Sunday night's talkcast was a delightful discussion, as we were joined by the personable and knowledgeable duo of Craig Hockenberry and Gedeon Maheux from Iconfactory. Ged and Craig gave us the lowdown on the history of the company, the origins of Twitterrific (it's amazing what inspiration comes to you in the shower), the coevolution of Twitter with the now-dominant Mac client, and the promise of the upcoming iPhone development explosion. We even gave away a few copies of Frenzic to our lucky listeners, courtesy of our guests. Great questions and contributions from Brett, Christina, Dave, Cory, and last-minute contributor Erica rounded out an extra-long (1:15!) show. Download direct, listen in your browser or subscribe to the TalkShoe feed in iTunes. Join us again on Sunday night for our next live show, 10 pm ET, where we'll be reviewing Thursday's press event and the upcoming roadmap for iPhone development. Assuming that UPS gets its act together, I should be able to offer some impressions of the new MacBook Pro as well.
iPulse 2.1.9 now available
Earlier this week, The Iconfactory released iPulse version 2.1.9 (we've written about iPulse before). For the uninitiated, iPulse is a great system-monitoring utility which tracks information like CPU usage, motherboard temperature, available disk space and a whole lot more. As you would expect from Iconfactory software, its appearance is customizable by applying any of a great number of skins, or "jackets," from the jacket gallery. Changes to v. 2.1.9 include Support for reading temperature on all Intel Macs A new Dock menu A global preference to hide the dock icon There's more, of course; you can get the full run-down here.iPulse requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, and can be downloaded from the Iconfactory website. A single license costs $12.95 USD. Version 2.1.9 is a free upgrade for registered users.
xScope 2.0
If I had any talent whatsoever in the area of graphic design xScope would be a go to app in my toolbox. xScope, for those not in the know, is a great little app that makes measuring onscreen elements a snap. xScope 2.0 raises the ante by adding a Dimensions tool that works as if by magic. Turning on the Dimensions tool lets you find dimensions between various elements (or using a lasso tool) quickly and easily. It is tough to describe, but check out this cool video of it in action.There are a bunch of new features and improvements, all of which are listed here, which make xScope 2 more than worth the $26.95 for you pixel pushers out there.
Candybar 3.1.2 is ready to go
The developers at Panic have released CandyBar version 3.1.2. If you're unfamiliar, CandyBar 3 is a super simple and fun way to customize Mac OS X's icons and dock (Leopard required). Version 3 introduced some very cool features - like Pixadex integration - that make this killer app even cooler.Changes to version 3.1.2 include: Importing Pixadex libraries on first launch is more reliable Application and volume icons update more reliably in the Finder Fixed a potential problem with generic file icons There's more, of course, and you can read the change log here. CandyBar 3.1.2 is a free upgrade for registered users for version 3.x (a single license will cost you $29US).
Dine-o-Matic 2 will be released tomorrow
Phill Ryu did us a solid and dropped a quick note about an early preview of Dine-o-Matic 2 from Iconfactory. Just install the widget, punch in the names and numbers of your favorite restaurants, and a meal decision is only one click away. New in this version is categorization of the different places, more restaurant information, price filtering, and Google maps integration. I don't know if the original version had this, but the satisfying coin click and the neon buzzing are nice touches.No more arguing about what to eat, or passive-aggressive "I don't care, whatever you're in the mood for is fine" back-and-forth. It is kind of a bummer that you have to type everything in (would be nice to integrate it with Grubhub or some other site like that) but considering that I only order from maybe five or six different places anyway, it's easy enough to punch them all in and have them ready to go when I'm up for some random ordering. If you're the type that orders out almost as much as you eat in (guilty as charged), Dine-O-Matic is worth checking out.Thanks, Phill!
Frenzic 1.2.1
Frenzic is a frantic game which has the player match and then move colored game pieces to form pies. Trust me, it is a lot more fun than that sounds, and it is even more fun when you play against someone else.Sadly, as with any game based on color recognition, there was a small portion of society that couldn't play Frenzic (or at least not very well). That's right, I'm talking about the color blind people of the world, of which I am one. Happily Frenzic 1.2 introduced a new option to help those of us who have trouble distinguishing colors.The current version of Frenzic is 1.2.1, the most recent update fixed an issue with the demo timing out. Frenzic costs $14.95 (though there is a guru package which includes an lifetime of online play for $24.95).
iPhone contact icon tutorial
Here's a fun little tutorial by Ged from Iconfactory, showing how to easily use icons (exported to a certain size) as contact images for the iPhone. His example is with the Dino-o-Matic icons from IF, which are (cheer!) free this week, but the fact is that this is a great idea for almost any contacts that you don't have a readily available picture for. You could use any icon you like, use Pixadex to get it in the right form, and then plug it right into your Address Book.As Ged notes in an update, while this is perfect for iPhone, it could be used for anything, including just Address Book itself. Because why say with a crappy, out-of-focus picture what you could say with a beautiful icon?
Images from the web as iPhone wallpaper
Last week, we pointed out the good news that The Iconfactory had resized their entire collection of desktop images for use with the iPhone (how cool does Nibbler look on my iPhone at right? Very cool). The problem is that it's kind of a pain to get them onto your iPhone.The method I came up with is the same process that's described on Gedblog: Download the image to your desktop computer Drop it into iPhoto Sync your iPhone, making sure that it's going to synchronize pictures, including your new desktops On the iPhone, go to Settings > Wallpaper. Select your library of images Navigate to the image you're after and select "Set as wallpaper." It's not the most difficult procedure in the world, but it would be nice to grab the image from Safari on the phone itself.Update - Reader Michael writes, "...right click on the image in Safari and then select 'Add image to iPhoto library.'" Thanks, Michael!Now that you know how, why not check out the iPhone Wallpapers Flickr group?
iPhone wallpapers
While you're waiting to get your hands on an iPhone, why not head on over to the Iconfactory? They just announced iPhone versions of each of their free, high quality, wallpaper images. The pixel pushers over there took the time to artfully crop each image into an iPhone worthy piece of art. At least this way you'll be able to find your iPhone in a pile of the little wonders.
Help make Frenzic an iPhone app
Frenzic is an addictive puzzle game from the folks at The Iconfactory and ARTIS, which we took a look at back in February. It's really quite fun, and would be right at home on the iPhone (or iPod for that matter). I can see myself playing Frenzic while sitting on the train.The folks at The Iconfactory pitched the idea of Frenzic for iPhone to Apple at WWDC, but they could use a little love from you, The People! Check out this post at gedblog to learn how you can pester ask Apple to make Frenzic an iPhone app. Good luck, guys!
Twitterrific 2.1
You either love or hate Twitter, the simple web phenom that asks, 'What are you doing?' We here at TUAW are unabashedly in the 'love' column, and our love for Twitter is greatly enhanced by the Iconfactory's free Twitter client, Twitterrific.We wrote about the Twitterrific 2.1 Beta not too long ago, and now the final version of Twitterriffic 2.1 is available for download. New in 2.1 are: Support for multiple logins Enhanced Applescripting Growl support Dragging of tweets into other apps (it pastes the tweet's permalink into the app) And a host of other small enhancements. Twitterriffic 2.1 is free, Universal, and available now.
New Twitterrific beta brings host of fixes, hint at future Growl support
The Iconfactory has announced a new public beta of Twitterrific 2.0, their killer Twitter client. Glen Wosley got a sneak peek last Friday just before the public beta was announced, and this 2.0 beta v6 update addresses a number of issues with the new version as well as dealing with Twitter's own growing pains, as well as hints at the possibility of future Growl support. As with the previous version, we echo The Iconfactory and highly recommend reading through the What's New file to learn about the changes, but the gist of the story is that this version adds Quit/Configure buttons to Twitterrific's startup screen (the one you see while its downloading the first batch of tweets), and it also adds some logging and fixes for the network issues everyone is experiencing due to Twitter's exploding popularity. The end of this What's New file is also where the company hints at Growl support in a future version, though it merely states they're reading the SDK (Software Development Kit) for now.To grab a copy of this latest beta, hit up the announcement tweet from the Twitterrific Twitter account.
Twitterrific 2.0: Glenn Wolsey gets first look
It's an understatement to say that we TUAW bloggers have caught the Twitter bug, as many of us have personal accounts in addition to our main TUAW twitterings. With our latest web 2.0 obsession live and kicking, Glenn Wolsey just made our day by posting some sneak peek screenshots of a Twitterrific 2.0 beta (what, Iconfactory: no TUAW private beta love?). There are apparently over 25 new features and changes in this major upgrade to The Iconfactory's slick and sexy client, and I can personally say I'm the most excited for the option to have names and tweets both in-line (pictured). I'm not quite so hip on the decision to leave the username on its own line though; why not simply bump the tweet up next to their name like most IM clients? This would save a lot of space by compacting updates and leaving room for more tweets.Personal UI design requests aside, head over to Glenn's post for details and screenshots on some other big changes, including an expandable text entry area and the ability to chose between a few update sounds. If you're just as excited as we are to get your hands on Twitterrific 2.0, stay tuned here or follow their Twitter account for the news of when it drops.
How to make Mac icons
I love trying out new desktop icons from sites like the Iconfactory. In fact, my copy of Pixadex is bursting with nearly 3,000 icons. I guess it was inevitable that I'd eventually want to try to make my own.Luckily, Macinstruct has posted a great tutorial on making icons for the Mac. It's fully illustrated and provides easy to follow, step-by-step instructions. Now I know what I'll be trying this weekend.[Via Macsimum News]
Frenzic
I should start this off by admitting that I am not very good at puzzle games. They often frighten and confuse me. Add that to the fact that I am not all that bright (as evidenced by my work on TUAW) and things do not look good for me and puzzles. I'll tell you what does look good though (see what I did there?): Frenzic.Frenzic is the new puzzle game from the good people of the Iconfactory and ARTIS Software. I can't really explain how it works, though obviously it involves colored wedges and some power ups (what good game doesn't have power ups?). You have to play it to get a feel for the game, luckily there is a free demo.Frenzic also has an online component allowing you to compete against other players, and land yourself high atop of the leaderboards. There are a few different ways to buy Frenzic: $14.95 gets you unlimited local gameplay and 6 months of free online Frenzic play (you can renew your online subscription for $9.95 a year) $24.95 gets you unlimited local and online gameplay forever (and you get to support cool software)
Twitterrific 1.0
It would seem that I am not the only Mac geek that enjoys Twitter, at least if one judges from the number of Twitter specific applications that are being developed.The latest Twitter app is Twitterrific from the good folks at the Iconfactory. It is a very small app that lives in the menubar and alerts you to other people's posts to Twitter. It also allows you to post to Twitter right from the app itself. Not seen in the screenshot to the right is Twitterrific's list of your friends recent Twitterings.Twitterrific 1.0 is Universal and free.
