iOS 4
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Google helps developers deliver Flash content to HTML5 with Swiffy
With minimal fanfare, Google has released Swiffy. It lets developers convert Flash SWF files to HTML5 so they are usable on Mobile Safari and other platforms that do not support Flash. For Adobe, the company that created Flash and aimed to have it to be the major animation and video standard on the web, this means that designers and animators can continue to use the well-known (and expensive) Flash authoring environment while addressing the growing number of HTML5 clients. The utility won't convert Flash videos, but seems to work quite well on web animations. You can see some examples from Google here and here. If you're viewing the demos from Safari with the Flash Player plug-in on a Mac, you'll see both windows, the original Flash version, and the translation. If you view on Mobile Safari, you'll only see the translation on the right. If you'd like to test it all yourself, Google will let you upload an SWF file and you'll get an instant conversion. Steve Jobs has famously resisted Flash on iOS products, saying it crashes and is a battery hog. It's not clear exactly where Google is positioning itself here, as the company's Android mobile OS does support Flash, but relatively few devices have enabled it (and even fewer in a way that customers like). Google has posted an FAQ on Swiffy with more details.
Apple has become Australia's top mobile brand
There are a lot of iPhones in Australia, and IDC reports today that the number has grown enough to make the iPhone the top smartphone "down under." Apple is reported to have a 40% market share of Australia's smartphone market, a rise of about 10% quarter-to-quarter. Android has a 30% share, while Symbian is plunging to a third place 22%. The IDC analysts expect the Android OS phones to eventually be the top sellers, which is something we've seen here in the states. Meanwhile, Comscore is reporting that the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch account for 50% of Australia's mobile traffic, while Android devices consume 10.5%. Comscore is also reporting that the iPad is the dominant tablet in Australia, which is no surprise, as that aligns with numbers collected from other countries.
Pioneer's AppRadio delivers iPhone integration, automotive and audio bliss for $400
We knew Pioneer's AppRadio car stereo was coming to cozy up with our iPhones, but we didn't know how much its iOS integration capabilities would cost, until now. Turns out 400 bucks buys you one, and it's picked up some new capabilities since we got handsy with the device last month. In addition to letting you listen to tunes stored on your iPhone, access Google Maps, and make calls, the AppRadio now has access to your iPhone's contacts, calendar, videos, and photos as well. Unfortunately, there's still only four other apps (Rdio, Pandora, MotionX-GPS Drive, and INRIX) available, though Pioneer says more are coming. With a name like AppRadio they ought to get here soon, as in immediately. Peep the PR after the break for the full monty.
Average US smartphone data usage climbs 89%, cost per MB drops 46%
Using your iPhone more and more? You're not alone. Data usage on all smartphones is soaring, according to new research by Nielsen. In a monthly analysis of cell phone bills for more than 65,000 lines, smartphone users, especially iPhone and Android users, are using more data than ever. Nielsen notes that 37% of all US mobile users have smartphones. Comparing data from a year ago, smartphone data consumption is up 89%, averaging a monthly 435 MB. Nielsen also notes that users are paying about the same for data as they were a year ago, so when factoring in the increased usage, the cost per unit has dropped about 50%. These numbers have huge implications for carriers who are surely going to want to increase prices to make up for the explosion of data consumption. Most carriers, including AT&T, have dropped unlimited data plans, and it's likely that when new models of phones come out, AT&T and the others will force those who are grandfathered with unlimited plans to give them up.
Adobe adds support for iOS development into Flash Builder, Flex
Adobe has updated its Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 tools to support the Apple iPad and iPhone as well as the BlackBerry PlayBook. The app development tools let a developer build one app and distribute it across multiple platforms. Developers can add support for tabbed applications and landscape mode. Apps can also be optimized specifically for the iPhone or the 9.7-inch display of the iPad. A change in Apple policy last September paved the way for developers to create iOS apps using third-party tools like those made available by Adobe. Earlier this year, Adobe introduced Wallaby, an experimental tool that lets developers convert FLA files to an HTML5 format compatible with iOS. Developers interested in Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 can buy the tools as stand-alone applications or part of the Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium and Master Collection. Below is a video of the tools in action.
Flare for iPhone shoots 'HDR-like' video
Note: Flare by greenlike, which we've reviewed here, is not to be confused with Flare by The Iconfactory. Flare for the iPhone is an interesting app for video hobbyists, notable for the technical wizardry on display. It can shoot video with a quasi-HDR effect and do it in real time. It isn't easy to apply filtering effects on the fly, and that's just what Flare does. Flare is not shooting real HDR. You're not acquiring concurrent video streams of multiple exposures. What you are getting is some extreme filtering, sharpening and contrast expansion that gives you a hyper-saturated picture. Some will love the effect. Others might just scratch their heads. The app gives you some switchable settings to determine how extreme the processing is. You can lock white balance, exposure and focus with two quick screen taps. AirPlay is supported. You're not going to get full HD on the iPhone. Expect 640 x 360 resolution at 24 frames per second on an iPhone 4 and 16 frames per second on a 3GS. I noticed a couple of video stutters on my iPhone 4, but generally the app ran well. Flare is clever and not overpriced at US$0.99. It's an impressive achievement in software coding. Getting real-time video processing on a cell phone is not a walk in the park. If you like the effects, I'd say go for it, but don't expect real HDR quality. It's just beyond the scope of the iPhone hardware/software capabilities. On the other hand, if you're looking for some stunning, juiced-up video, Flare might be for you. I've put a few samples in the gallery, and as always, your comments are appreciated. Note that the screen grabs are not as good a resolution as what you can expect in the real world. Flare requires iOS 4.1 or greater. %Gallery-126666%
Magellan updates Roadmate for iPhone with new interface and free 'lifetime' map updates
Magellan has pushed out a rather massive and free update to iPhone Roadmate users. The entire engine and user interface have been freshened up and greatly improved (to my taste, that is). Yelp! and Google search are included, and the app has added personalization features to the display, including arrival time, distance to destination, and your speed. The update is free for current users, and the USA version of RoadMate sells for US $34.99. The North American version is $54.99. In a quick test of the app I found it functioned smoothly, and I like the addition of lane assist and Google searching. One thing to note is that Magellan defines 'lifetime' updates for maps and traffic data as "the life of the product or 3 years, whichever is reached first, or until Magellan no longer receives relevant map and traffic data." That's not that long, but it's better than no updates at all. I've generally liked the Magellan iPhone product but still prefer the Navigon app for day to day driving. With Navigon about to be purchased by Garmin, I'll be keeping my eyes open to see how competition develops.
Google Sync adds mail server search, appointment confirmation to native iOS apps
Google Sync has pushed Gmail messages, calendar updates, and contacts to iOS since its launch in 2009, but this half-baked solution previously lacked some key functionality. Beginning today, users can finally perform mail server searches and confirm appointment requests from their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. This means that you'll be able to search for messages in your entire mailbox, not just for emails stored on your device -- a feature that first appeared with iPhone OS 3, but without Google Sync support. You can also respond to calendar invites from within the Calendar app. Fancy that! A third update brings support for sending messages from other addresses listed in your Gmail account, though only the first two features worked when we took Sync for a spin this afternoon. (Curiously, Google omitted a "Send Mail as" screenshot on its blog, so this last update may not actually be available yet.) This latest trio of updates is available for both gratis and Google Apps accounts, so head to the source link for set up instructions and the full feature rundown.
Apple iCloud brings previously purchased apps back from the dead
Lamenting the time you restored your iPhone and lost that beloved VLC app because it's no longer available on the App Store? Cheer up, there's an iCloud for that. The service allows you to re-download any app you've previously purchased on any of your iOS devices -- including killed apps. We decided to give it a whirl, testing our luck with an iPhone 3GS humming along on iOS 4.3.3. Upon browsing the Purchases section of the App Store, we beheld Tris, an app that hasn't been available in nearly three years. Sure enough, we pressed the iCloud icon and within seconds, the ol' Tetris clone was back in action. So if you were one of the four people that downloaded I am Rich before it was killed, you'll be sure to enjoy that $1,000 investment for years to come. [Thanks, Chris] Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Waiting for a taste of the iCloud? Check your iPhone
The waiting, a great man once said, is the hardest part. And while seeing all of today's WWDC promises come to fruition will certainly take patience, iPhone owners can take some solace in the fact that the updates have already begun. At least a portion of the new functionality is now available by opening up the "Purchased" tab in iOS 4's App Store, revealing a history of apps that have been downloaded with your account, including those not currently on your device. Those not presently installed will feature a cloud icon, making it possible to re-download them onto the handset. It's not quite iOS 5, sure, but it's a start. [Thanks everyone who sent this in]
Comscore says the iPhone now tops RIM in US subscribers
It's probably not a gigantic surprise that Apple has slipped past the RIM BlackBerry phones, but it's a benchmark that should be noted. There may even be a few toasts in Cupertino. Comscore keeps an eye on mobile trends, and a report released today says Apple has increased market share from 24.7% to 26% from January until April of this year. Google (Android) rose 5% to 36.4%, while RIM has 25.7% of smartphone subscribers. Microsoft, even with the addition of its new Windows Phone 7 line, has dropped 1.3% to a 6.7% share. A look at the numbers shows Android on top and gaining market share along with the iPhone, while RIM, Microsoft and Palm are all declining. The report also describe how those polled use their phones. A full 68% of users send text messages, which is the most popular activity. Meanwhile, 39% use a browser, 37% download apps and 26% play games on their phones.
Pulse News app now saves and syncs
Pulse News app for the iPhone and iPad received a nice update today allowing selected stories to be saved and automatically synced to other Pulse News apps you have or retrieved via the web. Sign-up for the service is free and can be done from within the Pulse News app. All that's required is a user-name and a password. When you see a story you want to save, click on the star symbol. If, for example, you did that on your iPhone, you can pick up your iPad and the saved story will be there too, assuming you have a web connection. The story is also accessible from the Pulse.me website. Saved stories can also be sent to Instapaper, Evernote or Read It Later. If you import newsfeeds from Google Reader, marked stories will also mark them in Google Reader. After some difficulty with iTunes this morning, I was able to download the app for both the iPhone and iPad. Saving a story on either device made it immediately available on the other. It's a nice feature. With the links to the web component, I'd really like to be able to set up my master set of sources on one app and have them sync to the other, but at least for now, it's not a feature Pulse provides. %Gallery-125192%
The San Francisco Chronicle comes to the iPad
The San Francisco Chronicle's app is out today for the iPad. It joins the roster of major newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today that have all added iPad editions in the last several months. Of that group, only the USA Today app does not charge non-subscribers (of the print editions) for access. The Chronicle app is free for 30 days. Monthly subscriptions are US$5.99 and $59.99 annually. Current subscribers will get the iPad app for free. Unlike the 'dead tree' version, the app continually updates throughout the day and has features the regular print version can't duplicate, like 360 degree panoramas, animations and very current weather and traffic information. Subscriptions auto-renew unless you notify the Chronicle 24 hours before the subscription runs out. The digital edition does have ads. I took a brief look at the app and found it stable and easy to navigate. Checking the Chronicle website, I found that a paper subscription is $9.75 per week if you live in the Bay area, making the iPad edition a pretty good deal. Many of the newspapers and magazines are charging as much or more for electronic editions than for paper ones, and it remains to be seen if that is a very good business plan.
100 Cameras in 1: Amazing effects, incredible integration
Trey Ratcliff of Stuck In Customs Media is one of those photographers who constantly amazes people with his photos, and then explains his skills with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography and the artful application of filters and textures. Back in December, Stuck In Customs came out with a US$0.99 iPhone / iPod touch app ($2.99 for the iPad version) named 100 Cameras in 1 that uses a unique and easy-to-understand user interface to make your iPhone photos look great. Unfortunately for Trey, the app hit the App Store the same day as the highly-touted Camera+ debuted, so 100 Cameras was overlooked by many of us in the Apple media. What I'm finding after using the app over the long US Memorial Day weekend is that 100 Cameras in 1 is going to allow me to delete a lot of other photography apps from my iPhone, and I'm going to start using the iPad version of the app to retouch photos that I upload from my digital camera. In this short review, I'll discuss both versions of the app, and how the combination of 100 effects and excellent integration with social networking sites makes 100 Cameras in 1 an app every iPhone and iPad-owning photographer should buy. %Gallery-124891%
A complete iPhone solution for reverse caller lookup
Number Guru gets you information when caller ID doesn't. This free iPhone app allows you to input any phone number and figure out who is calling you. It's particularly nice when you get spam telemarketer calls, because the app has some crowdsourcing features that can provide more information than just a company name. The app covers 100 percent of listed US landlines and about half of US cellular numbers. The app will also identify the carrier the call came through, although it can get confused over ported numbers. I saw that myself, because I'm on AT&T after originally being on Verizon, and Number Guru misidentified my carrier. Verizon doesn't supply any caller information, so a Verizon call won't be identified. Number Guru asks (but does not require) you to upload your contacts. According to the developer that information is not shared with anyone else, but will be part of some future enhancements to the software. (I opted out.) The app also has one of the longest and foggiest terms of service agreements I have ever seen. It's a long scroll on your iPhone, and you can't use the app without agreeing. I couldn't see anything evil in the TOS, but it's available online if you want to read it yourself. The developer says it's going to work on shortening the TOS and making the terms clearer. Number Guru does what it advertises. There are similar services on the web already, but some of them cost money. This app has a comprehensive database, and in my tests it worked well. If you're constantly wondering who is calling you, this is a handy app.
ooVoo releases long awaited video chat client for iPhone
The new ooVoo app offers free video calling to PCs, Macs, Android phones and of course other iPhones. There's also text messaging, and up to 3 people on audio or video calls. PC or Mac users can receive the chats in a browser, and the app supports 3G and Wi-Fi. It's a boatload of features. The app came out earlier this month but released a version with bug fixes today. User reviews have been positive. ooVoo also offers some enhanced paid plans that include calls to landlines up to 500 minutes a month and up to 6 people on video or audio calls. The paid version is ad-free with a basic plan for US$9.99 a month. You can get more talk time, call recording and other features at $29.99 a month. You can get plan details here. I think the free version has plenty of desirable features, and it further points out how far Apple's FaceTime is falling behind with Wi-Fi only calling and no calls to anything but an iDevice or Mac. Of course there are always apps like Tango, Skype and Fring, but the advanced feature set of ooVoo is worth a look and perhaps a download if it meets your needs. ooVoo Mobile runs on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, but is not native on the iPad. It requires iOS 4.0 or later. Mac and PC versions can be downloaded at the ooVoo site. I haven't tested the ooVoo app extensively yet, but I'm planning on a feature by feature comparison of all the video chat apps for iOS soon.
ooVoo brings its webcam wares to iOS with six-way video calling and more
If getting your family together under one roof feels like herding cats, then you might consider ooVoo Mobile as a far less painful solution. It's now available for iOS and supports (nearly) free six-way video chatting for you and five webcam-toting friends. The one catch is that someone in the conference must purchase a monthly plan, otherwise you're limited to three participants. We've already seen this app released for Android, and both versions feature: six-way conferencing, group texting, voice calls to other users, and -- if you're willing to purchase credits or a monthly plan -- outbound calling to landlines and mobile phones. Subscription prices start at $9.95 per month if you want to use the service to its full potential, but it seems there's plenty to enjoy without spending a dime. And if you're a cheapskate who's determined to have it all, perhaps you can convince someone else to foot the bill.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Touchgrind BMX
Illusion Labs' Touchgrind was one of the first iPhone games I ever saw in action. Honestly, it wasn't very successful as a full game, but using the iPhone's multi-touch screen to control a fingerboard was fun. Now, Illusion Labs is bringing the brand back with Touchgrind BMX, a game that changes your mode of transportation to BMX bikes, and opens up the view a bit. One of the big issues with Touchgrind was that, because the camera was top down, you had a hard time seeing exactly where you were going. Illusion has fixed this in Touchgrind BMX by moving to a more from-behind view, and setting the bike along a path rather than letting you freely explore. But you still control the bike with two fingers, flipping the handlebars around with one, and spinning the bike's body with the other. It still takes quite a bit of getting used to, but it's much friendlier than the original Touchgrind interface. There are plenty of extras to find and explore, including goals and scoring medals and challenges, along with a nice replay mode that even lets you send videos off to YouTube and Facebook. There's no Game Center integration, strangely, which would have been nice for leaderboards and achievements. But if you're interested, the app is now available for US$4.99 on the iPhone.
Aelios is a new way to get the weather on your iPad
Perhaps it's the fact that summer is just around the corner in the Northern Hemisphere, but lately we've been seeing a lot of interesting weather apps for iOS and OS X. A new iPad app called Aelios Weather (available at a special launch price of US$2.99) is a refreshingly unique take on getting the weather info you need. On-screen, you see what looks like a finely crafted piece of jewelry. You move this virtual instrument around the screen over a Google satellite map of the world. The app has a little animated pointer that locks onto the nearest weather station and gives you the current temperature, wind speed and direction. In a few seconds, icons appear and show you the forecast temperatures and winds for the next 24 hours. Changing a setting makes a multi-day forecast available for viewing. The app can figure out your current location and display weather information for wherever you are. You can also search for any city in the world to see what the weather there is like. Midnight appears at the top of the dial, with noon at the bottom. As you push the instrument north, you can see night getting shorter as the days get longer; at least that's what happens in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year. Aelios Weather is an interesting idea for an app, and it is beautifully rendered. One of the developers, Mehdi Aminian, told me the idea was to make an app that was different and more functional than standard weather apps, so they included an atlas, time and weather information. It's fascinating to move the instrument around from low altitude to a nearby mountain top and watch the temperature and winds change. %Gallery-124257%
3D (sort of) on your iPad without glasses
There's a nifty little free demo you may want to pick up that uses the iPad camera to do some head tracking and create a kind of faux 3D on your iPad display. We took a look at an early demo for this last month, and now the app has arrived for your downloading pleasure. Unlike stereoscopic 3D systems, i3D doesn't send two images to your eyes. What i3D does instead is show you several scenes that change perspective as you tilt your iPad side to side and up and down. The effect does not depend on the gyros built into the iPad, but instead uses the camera to track the position of your head and render a changing perspective in real time. The demo was developed by Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay, and as you use it, you can just imagine the possibilities for games and educational apps. The app only works in portrait view at present. There is an iPhone version, but screen size makes a difference and the 3D effect on the iPad version seems stronger. I've seen some similar demos that use the built-in gyro, but they don't seem as responsive as this app. It's hard to give you a feel for this app in a static screen shot, so I'd suggest that you check out the fascinating video on the next page to get a good idea how it all works. %Gallery-124231%
