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Some Toyota car audio systems not working with iPhone in Australia
Australian newspapers are reporting today that Toyota is contacting more than 200 dealers to let them know that iPhones and iPod touch models running iOS 4.1 are locking up the audio systems of 2009 and 2010 cars. Models having problems include the Yaris, Corolla and Prius. The glitch is somewhere between the iOS software and radios supplied by Fujitsu Ten. When drivers plug their iOS device in, the screen gets stuck on the word "load," and then the radio locks up and will no longer operate until the iPhone is removed. Owners can listen to their Apple device using the headphone jack, but using the custom Apple USB interface simply won't work. iOS 4.1 was released in September, and currently Apple is at iOS 4.2.1. It isn't clear if the bug is fixed in the later releases. In a bulletin to dealers, Toyota notes that "Investigations have revealed that iPhone or iPod operating systems introduced in September 2010 are not compatible with the audio unit and will not allow music playback via the USB interface." Toyota is working with Fujitsu Ten on a field fix.
Apple's message to eBook vendors and users isn't yet clear, but points toward only in-app purchases
It's been a busy day for App Store watchers. With a New York Times article last night citing in-app book purchasing as a key issue in the rejection of the Sony Reader app, and Apple's later non-clarifying clarification of the company's policy on parity for purchasing in and out of apps, we're all left a bit confused. Can you have a third-party ereader app on iOS at all without Apple's purchasing infrastructure? Where can you buy content? Is the Kindle app doomed? I don't think the Kindle app is going anywhere right away; for one thing, it's always handled book sales through Safari rather than in-app (something Sony's infrastructure wasn't tuned for, as Christina Warren points out, but that it may be ready for now -- see the second half of this post). Sony says that it "submitted [the app] in accordance with the precedent set by other eBook retailers," which could mean just about anything. Jason Snell's analysis over at Macworld is intriguing. But there's a deeper question that needs to be asked: Can Amazon or Barnes & Noble remain on the App Store without introducing a way to send more money in Apple's direction? When Apple's new in-app purchase policies came to light recently, pundits wondered what it might mean to eBook developers in the App Store. Apple had initially allowed web-based commerce to provide content for App Store items, including subscriptions or individual purchases. Then, Apple began rejecting subscription-based magazines that used external channels rather than in-app purchases to make money and updated its developer agreement to make this stance clear.
Macworld Expo 2011: Marketcircle Daylite, Daylite Touch, and Billings Pro
If there's one company that always shows off their best side at Macworld Expo, it's Marketcircle. The company's products won the Macworld Best of Show awards for the last two years, and it wouldn't surprise me to hear that they've won again. Marketcircle's products are designed to help small businesses grow. Daylite and the companion iOS product Daylite Touch can be used to handle customer relationship management and track projects, while Billings, Billings Touch, Billings Pro and Billings Pro Touch are all aimed at making sure that companies get paid. While at Macworld Expo 2011 last week, I spent some time with Amin Rahmani of Marketcircle for a quick look at the company's product line. I was especially impressed with Daylite Touch on the iPad, which really benefits from the extra room afforded by the iPad screen. Listen in on Amin as he gives us a tour of Marketcircle at Macworld Expo. The video is on the next page.
TUAW's Daily App: Legendary Wars
I got to see Legendary Wars at Macworld last week, and it's a fun title. It has a good mix of many different game genres and a lot of solid game content to explore. At its core, Legendary Wars is a fantasy-based real-time strategy game, but there's a Plants vs. Zombies feel to it as you summon various fantasy creatures and send them off to fight against the bad guys. That's the core gameplay, but there are lots and lots of different variants on it, from a tower defense spin-off to some more action-based levels, and even a Canabalt-style running level. This is developer Orian Livnat's first game; he and his family and friends are responsible for the Liv Games company. Legendary Wars shows that he and his fellow developers took a lot of pride in what they did, because the title is bursting with polish and care. With no shortage of things to do and a lot of fun to be had through a few different game modes (and an update with Game Center integration on the way), Legendary Wars is an excellent title on the iPhone for US$2.99.
Macworld Expo 2011: Vito Technology updates the Walk apps
Russian company Vito Technology was in one of the booths around the Mobile App Showcase at Macworld 2011 last week, and they kindly sat down to show off new versions of their apps, all coming up in the next month or so as free updates on the App Store. Popular astronomy app Star Walk was first. It's getting a visual enhancement in the next version, with a brand new sky and a new look to the stars that's more visually interesting than the current setup. The other feature that will be added is a "calendar of celestial events," where things like meteor showers or lunar eclipses will be tracked (per your location) so that you can see when something interesting is coming up. Later on, Vito wants to add other cultural displays to the app, including constellation charts and other star maps from Hawaiian, Arabic and Native American viewpoints. Star Walk is also going to be integrated into some of Macmillan's science textbooks, so students will be able to work directly with the app as they learn. We also got to see updates for the other Vito apps, including Solar Walk and a very different Geo Walk.
TrueHDR adds Geo-tagging and drops to $0.99 for a limited time
As a frequent landscape photographer, I've enjoyed exploring HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging for quite some time. With HDR, your camera takes multiple images, usually at different shutter speeds, to capture both bright and dark areas at their best. Then the images are combined with software. Although most of my work is with a Canon DSLR, I've been impressed with some of the iPhone HDR apps that can help you get some really nice pictures under difficult lighting conditions. Although Apple includes HDR software in the iPhone 4, I've found that both Pro HDR and TrueHDR can give superior results. TrueHDR has just released a big update to its app, and now offers Geo-tagging support, better alignment algorithms and some improvements in the light metering software. I've tried the app, and I do like the quality of the images it produces. My only complaint is it takes a bit too long to merge and align the images. In my tests, True HDR produced an image in 24 seconds. Pro HDR processed the same scene in 12 seconds, and the Apple built-in HDR saved quite quickly ((2 seconds) but didn't look nearly as good as images from the other two apps. TrueHDR (which requires iOS 4.0 or greater) is currently on sale for a limited time for US$0.99. If you're interested in HDR photography and want to go beyond the Apple built-in HDR, TrueHDR is worth a dollar.
Macworld Expo 2011: PhatWare and TUAW chat about apps, handwriting recognition
Nestled in the cozy confines of the Mobile Apps Showcase at Macworld Expo 2011 was one of my personal favorite iOS developers – PhatWare. This company has taken note-taking on the iPad and iPhone to a new level with three products: PhatPad, WritePad and PhatNotes. I had the opportunity to speak with PhatWare CEO Stan Miasnikov at the PhatWare kiosk and catch up on the latest updates with PhatPad. What's new? How about sound recording that can be synced to individual pages in order to create and show self-running presentations? Miasnikov noted that the company didn't look at the Newton when working on PhatPad, which features excellent handwriting recognition. Instead, he refers to the app as what would result if WritePad and Keynote had a baby. Voice recording takes about 10 MB per 20 minutes, so the software developer doesn't recommend letting voice notes last for more than that amount of time. Check out the video with Stan on the next page as part of our continuing coverage of Macworld Expo 2011.
Macworld Expo 2011: Hands-on with Splashtop Remote
iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners who'd like to remotely control their Mac or Windows machine with full audio and video streaming now have another solution available in Splashtop Remote. The free Mac server software, required in order to connect from your iOS device, is now out of beta testing and is available at http://www.splashtop.com/remote. We caught up with the folks at the Splashtop booth today and were able to see the app in action. If you are interested in the software but have not yet made your purchase, the video accompanying this post shows how the application works to stream audio and video from your Mac or Windows PC to your iOS device. Give it a look, and then consider downloading the free version (time-limited) of the iPad app to give it a try.
Doodle Jump makes deal with Universal, gets movie tie-in
Here's an interesting story out of Macworld this week. Doodle Jump, recently featured as the Top Paid App of all time, is going to Hollywood, but not quite in the way you might think. Rather than a Doodle Jump movie, the movies are instead coming to Doodle Jump, as Universal has announced a deal to put the main character of its upcoming film, Hop, in the popular iOS game as a promotional download. The movie comes out April 1, but in February, Doodle Jump will get an Easter-related level, with the official Universal character in the app as a bonus. Sure, it's probably not the most exciting iOS tie-in -- the film was directed by the same guy who did the recent Alvin and the Chimpmunks movies, and unless you brought kids, it wasn't much to write home about (and even then, we hear it wasn't all that great). But still, this is an iOS title that's making a major deal with a Hollywood studio -- very impressive for the folks over at Lima Sky, and it's probably an indication that we'll see more collaboration between indie iOS developers and other forms of entertainment in the future.
TUAW's Daily App: Cashish
Whenever we TUAW bloggers all get together, we tend to pass around our favorite iPhone apps of late, and this week at Macworld has been no exception. Last year at WWDC, Victor Agreda recommended Taxi Magic, and this year at Macworld, our own Mike Rose told me about Cashish, a financial app with about as narrow a purview as they come. The idea of Cashish is that it tracks your available cash, as simply and as quickly as possible. You may think it's not too necessary to use a whole app to keep track of what's in your pocket, but Cashish not only tracks what's there, but what goes out and where it goes to as well. Every time you spend some cash, you can track how much it was (the app wisely doesn't get involved in the details and just sticks to whole dollars), assign it to a category, and the app will help you monitor your spending over the last week or month. If you (like me) often pull out money and then wonder just where it goes off to, Cashish will help you figure that out -- and maybe even make sure you stay a little more judicious when dropping the dollars. Plus, it's completely free, so you won't have to drop even a single penny on it. Excellent little app -- it's very focused on just the one task, but it does that one task quite well.
HP at Macworld Expo 2011: ePrint and environmental stewardship
HP creates more products that work with Macs and iOS devices than any other electronics manufacturer on the planet. That's why TUAW always seeks out the former employer of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak for on-the-floor video. This morning I had the opportunity to speak with several HP employees who are manning the booth at Macworld Expo, to hear what the company is doing for the benefit of Apple fans. The new ePrint technology developed by HP uses Bonjour for discovery of printers on a wireless network, allows users the chance to email documents directly to a printer for printing and supports Apple's iOS AirPrint. TUAW featured a review of one of the ePrint printers, the PhotoSmart Premium e-All-in-One C310a, in early December, and I found the device to be easy to set up and use. In the accompanying video, you'll see the HP Envy 100 e-All-in-One D410a printer (which looks a lot like it came out of Jony Ives' design labs) in action, see a new HP app that determines what consumables are required by your printer and lets you order the new cartridges from your iPhone, hear about HP's incredible success in recycling of electronic components and even find out about the opportunity to play a game at Macworld for prizes. TUAW will be giving away an HP Envy printer during the show; be sure to stay tuned to our Twitter feed for information about the giveaway.
Updated TUAW application now available on the App Store
Update: We're getting feedback that the app is not working on the iPad, and we're saying the same problem here -- our development team is aware of the issue and they're working on correcting it ASAP. If you haven't emptied your Trash yet, the older version of the app (1.0.1.7) is still there -- you can pull it out to the desktop, delete the 2.0 version in iTunes, and drag the 1.0 .ipa file into your iTunes library to downgrade. You can't have one version for your iPhone and another for your iPad, unfortunately, unless you sync them on different machines. We'll advise as soon as we have a fixed version in the store. Also note that the new version of the app uses a different mechanism for saving posts than the older version did and the saved posts do not migrate to the new app, so please jot down your saved articles before updating so you can find them again. --- It's here! The iPhone update all faithful TUAW readers have been asking about (and asking about...) is now available on the App Store. Although it's not universal for the iPad (sorry!), it does up the ante with many notable improvements including support for Retina Display resolutions. The app also lets you share news, photos, videos and other tech stories via Twitter, Facebook and email. For those of you that like to organize and store your content, we even added the ability to save articles for offline reading in-app or to Evernote, Instapaper or ReaditLater. A few UI enhancements make it easier to navigate within the app, and an integrated mini-browser lets you view content without leaving the app. Overall, we think it's a much improved experience, and we hope you like it as much as we do. The TUAW app is available on the App Store for free. Grab the latest version and let us know what you think in the comments (or leave reviews on the store, too). Enjoy!
Ongo for iPad is a good start, but it's far from a home run
We told you yesterday that Ongo was on the way to the iPad. It's now on the App Store, and I've had some time to play with it. Ongo is a joint venture by several newspaper companies to create a paid, ad-free news aggregator that is easy to use and will appeal to the news junkie. After some hours using the app, I found it attractively designed and easy to use. You can see and share top stories from several publications like the New York Times, USA Today and the Washington Post. The app doesn't cache much, so reading offline does not appear to be an option. You can save stories, called clippings, but once saved, I could not retrieve them without a data connection. The app allows you to sort news by type, like US or Arts and Entertainment, but there are no sections for tech (!) or even politics. It seems a glaring omission. You can certainly read stories on those subjects, but you can't sort them on your own. All the news in Ongo is created by a staff of five editors, so you're not getting the full NYT or USA Today. The staff choose what will be available, which I found troubling. Also, when searching for "Opinion," I only got material from the Washington Post. Worse yet, Hints from Heloise came up under the "Opinion" heading, with tips on cleaning pewter. Sorry, but I don't think that was a good editorial choice. There is a search function, and a query for Steve Jobs brought up many stories, none of which were relevant. They were just stories that mentioned someone named Steve and had the word "jobs" somewhere in them. An identical search in Google News worked perfectly. %Gallery-115241%
Navigon introduces the Design Car Kit at Macworld 2011
We are live on the ground in San Francisco this week for Macworld 2011, and one of our first meetings was with Navigon, which has reinvented itself in the US over the past few years, going from a company that makes personal navigation devices to strictly a software company thanks to the MobileNavigator iOS app and its variants. The overall smartphone nav app market has grown by 117 percent in the last few years, and largely due to the iPhone app (which reached 1 million downloads last August, a number made much more impressive when you realize the app usually sells for US$50 and up), that's pushed Navigon's own growth hugely as well. In the past year, the company released version 1.7 of the software, which added improvements in the form of a paid in-app Zagat rating tie-in as well as free updates, like Google Local information. The last update also added across-the-board compatibility with the iPad, and Navigon told me that many of its iPad users were not using Apple's tablet in the car itself, but at home to plan out and see in motion the routes they later transferred over to their mobile devices. The company hasn't released any hardware in the US for a few years (though "our main business is still hardware" in Europe, they said), but that will change with the Design Car Kit, an iPhone 4 holding stand that attaches via suction cup to your car's window -- it's designed to hold your iPhone while it runs MobileNavigator (or any other app, really -- there is a charging cable included that's "extra long" for easy access, but there are no electronics in the kit itself). Navigon told me that they thought there was a place for a quality holder on the market, and the device certainly seems well-designed, with the suction cup attaching via a release that won't let go easily when locked down.
XMG Studio attacks EA for Christmas app promotion at Mobile Games Forum
While we're in San Francisco at Macworld this week, there's also a Mobile Games Forum going on in London, and one of the discussions over there got a little heated when the talk turned to EA's big Christmas sale on the App Store. Mobile developers have said before that EA's big push down on even its most premium games to 99 cents before the big App Store freeze over the holidays, flooding the App Store's top list with its own titles and claiming lots of the big holiday boosts in sales for itself, was a questionable move. Ray Sharma, founder of indie game developer XMG Studio, had this to say: "I think Electronic Arts really screwed the industry at Christmas time, and it's unfortunate, because of what Apple did to support them... They basically saturated the whole iOS community, they got 160 million units out there, and as a developer you had to sit there and watch Electronic Arts saturate the whole app economy." Sharma also said he estimates that XMG lost 15-20 percent of December revenue from its iOS games because of EA's move and Apple's support of it. Of course, we're not sure where Sharma can get a number like that -- it's very hard to estimate what people would have bought that they didn't, not to mention that a lot of people see developer complaints about EA's pricing as sour grapes. But it is interesting -- Sharma also promises that if the push towards freemium apps on the App Store continues, EA will eventually regret dropping prices so low, as it won't be able to compete with indie developers at the same price levels, given the costs in creating its premium, often licensed games. We'll be talking to more developers of all kinds of software here at Macworld, and we'll be sure to gauge other reactions to EA's price drops as the week goes along.
Ongo News app coming to iPad
Ongo is something new for news consumers. It just launched on the Web this week and has just been released for the iPad late this afternoon. It's a collaboration between The New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today and others to provide a subscription news service for US$6.99 a month. The aim is to provide readers with the best of those papers and other media outlets that join up. They already have the Financial Times and newspapers from Boston, Charlotte, Louisville, Detroit, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Kansas City and Miami on board, among others. Some of the content providers provide complete access. Other content is curated. Some content is an additional $0.99 a month, but other publications can cost up to $14.99, which is just a tad pricey. You can sign up for a free day pass or get 30 days free if you want to test drive the concept. I tried the web version on my iPad, and generally it worked well just using Safari. You can change the size of the text, save and share stories and search for topics. I had some trouble launching stories, as the app sometimes failed to register a finger tap. Ongo will be in competition with Rupert Murdoch's new publication, The Daily, which is due this month at almost half the price. Ongo is ad-free, and it will be interesting to see if people are willing to pay for news that is generally free on the Web. The browser interface is intuitive and a nice environment to read in, but ultimately the consumer will decide how it all shakes out. We'll review the iPad app soon. %Gallery-115155%
TUAW's Daily App: iMacworld
The Unofficial Apple Weblog is live here in San Francisco, ready for Macworld 2011. There are some pre-show activities happening today (along with a few offsite meetings we're working on), and then tomorrow the real fun begins, with the show floor opening (it's much larger this year than last) and our full video livestream running straight from the floor all day long. If you're around Moscone this week, the official Macworld app is a must-download -- it's got all the information you'll need about where to find exhibitors (we'll be in booth #1012), conference sessions or certain products, as well as information about local resources and even a community board running during the show. If you're not here at the show, the app isn't all that useful. You'll probably be able to glean some news out of it, but even better, you can just keep your browser pointed at TUAW all week long, since we'll have lots of interviews, hands-on demonstrations and plenty of other news from and insight on the conference. It's mid-January, and Macworld is here again -- it's going to be great!
Apple approving third-party AirPlay apps
Appadvice.com notes that Apple has approved a third-party app that supports AirPlay. The app is called StreamToMe and requires iOS 4.3, which has not yet been released to the public, although beta versions have been released to developers. This suggests that iOS 4.3 may be getting close to release for the general public, but more importantly, it signals that Apple is opening the door for other applications to use AirPlay. If you're not familiar with AirPlay, Richard Gaywood wrote a brief intro to AirPlay back in September. [via MacRumors]
TUAW's Daily App: Dungeon Raid
I am a sucker for both puzzle games and RPGs, so Dungeon Raid is right up my alley. It's a puzzle game where you have to match up various icons on a grid, as you can see above, but the real draw here is that all of those icons map to various RPG abilities that then let you level and grind out a sword-and-sorcery style character. Matching up swords and skulls, for example, lets you attack monsters, while matching coins piles up gold to spend on items later on. Leveling up grants various abilities and spells that affect combat, and as you play the puzzle game, you're also building up a character and casting spells at the same time. It's a great mix of the two genres, done in a pretty original way, and the game moves quickly enough that it's easy to summon up that "just one more turn" feeling as you play along. The game's polished and runs great, full Game Center and OpenFeint integration provides leaderboards, and there are four difficulty levels to play with and lots of random items to pick up as you play. Dungeon Raid is currently US$2.99 on the App Store.
100 Cameras in 1 latest non-game app to use Game Center on iOS
Back when Apple first introduced Game Center, one of the first big questions was whether or not apps that weren't actually games could use the service to share achievements and leaderboards from user to user. Since then, there have been a few examples of this poking around, but this is probably the most blatant: a new app called 100 Cameras in 1 offers not only over 100 Instagram style "effects" for your iPhone 4's camera, but full Game Center integration as well. Unfortunately, the limit isn't really being pushed here as the achievements only give you some bonus points for using the various filters (and I agree with Wired -- it would have been nice to see some invention here, maybe achievements for taking a picture in multiple countries or taking a picture of a certain object). "Gamification" is kind of a buzzword being passed around lately, and it refers to the fact that companies of all kinds are finding ways to use gaming principles, either in things like managing their employees or rewarding customer engagement. Whatever you think of the idea itself (lots of people are seeing it as the latest business fad, and perhaps it is), it remains true that Game Center is still one of the best ways for iOS developers to spread the word about people using their apps. Through leaderboards and the Game Center app itself, all of your Game Center friends can see what you've been "playing," and vice versa -- it's a potential bonanza for companies wanting to share word of their apps. I'm still curious to see more non-game apps use the service. Game Center integration, especially when used well, can be that "secret ingredient" for utilities trying to make a bigger splash on the App Store.
