Alex Heath - page 27

Up until now, iOS 7 on the iPhone 4 has been painful to use. The New York Times calls it “planned obsolescence,” but it’s really just old hardware having a difficult time powering new software.

The good news is that the newly released iOS 7.1 has noticeably sped up animations on the iPhone 4, reports Ars Technica. “iOS 7.1 solves the problem for people who don’t tweak their devices’ settings or for people who like the way the animations look but not how they feel,” according to Ars. “Animation durations have been shortened noticeably throughout iOS 7.1, and toggling “reduce motion” is now purely cosmetic.”

Apps open generally faster, and opening interfaces like Control Center feels smoother. Since iOS 7.1 will likely be the last major update that’s available on the iPhone 4, there is no reason to not download it.

Source: Ars Technica

Today Apple updated its Remote iOS app with some additional options for playing content through the Apple TV.

You can now control iTunes Radio like music played through a shared iTunes library. The ability to browse purchased movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store has also been added. Apple added the option to stream purchased content last September, and now it’s easier to navigate an online iTunes library from an iOS device.

Update 4.2 to the Remote app includes bug fixes as well. It can be downloaded for free in the App Store.

Source: App Store

Last week, the Churchill Club in Menlo Park, California gathered a small panel of journalists who all share something in common: they’ve written recent books about Apple.

Cult of Mac editor-in-chief Leander Kahney, author of Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products, joined former Wall Street Journal reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane, author of Haunted Empire: Apple after Steve Jobs, and Fred Vogelstein, contributing editor at Wired and author of Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution. The panel was moderated by Adam Lashinsky, senior editor-at-large of Fortune Magazine and author of Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired – and Secretive – Company Really Works.

The hour-and-a-half talk covered a wide range of topics, from Apple’s post-Steve Jobs identity to the products the company is working on for the future.

An updated version of the iTunes Festival app has appeared in the App Store. According to Apple’s release notes, the update includes a “refreshed design” and the ability to stream the upcoming festival at SXSW next week.

While the update is visible in the App Store, it can’t be downloaded in the U.S. currently. Instead, a message saying the app is temporarily unavailable is displayed.

A recent rumor said that the iTunes Festival SXSW update would require iOS 7.1, but Apple has yet to release that update. The App Store says iOS 7.0+ is needed to install the new iTunes Festival 5.0 app.

Update: Users in most countries are able to download the app now.

Source: App Store

Via: MacStories

Apple is working on a smarter version of Siri that can interact more closely with third-party apps and services, according to The Information. Right now, Apple has struck deals with partners like Yelp and OpenTable for Siri, but the goal is for the person assistant to work with just about any app.

The report mentions how Siri can’t do things like call a cab or book a hotel room, both of which are common duties of real, personal assistants.

What Apple is allegedly working on would allow Siri to send a message through an app other than iMessage, or look up weather from a different source than Yahoo. The improvements Apple is making to Siri would also work well alongside the rumored iWatch:

Those devils at Oscar Mayer have found a way to wake you up in the morning and torment you at the same time. They have created an iPhone alarm clock that plays sounds of bacon sizzling and emits the associated smell of deliciousness.

You got hungry by just reading that didn’t you.

Popcorn Time is an open source app for Mac, Windows, and Linux that acts essentially like Netflix for streaming video torrents. The project is “the result of many developers and designers putting a bunch of APIs together to make the experience of watching torrent movies as simple as possible.”

Yes, it really works. Is it legal? That depends.

Apple is planning to bring fullscreen video iAds to iOS, according to a new report from AdAge. The ads will be interstitials, meaning that they will interrupt whatever you’re doing to briefly take over the screen.

In the past, iAds have only been displayed as small banners that can be tapped to bring up fullscreen adverts. Newsstand publications can already do this on the iPad, but in the future fullscreen interstitials could be in any kind of app, including games.

AdAge has previously reported that Apple is hiring executives left and right from the advertising industry to beef up its iAds division. The same site also recently reported that Apple is building its own ad exchange to sell iAds to the highest bidder. When you put the pieces together, it looks like Apple is gearing up for a heavy iAds push for developers.

Source: AdAge

The fine folks at Twelve South have brought the popular SurfacePad case to the iPad mini. The cover is made from Napa leather, and it bends to form a viewing stand or typing wedge.

One of the coolest design aspects of the new SurfacePad is how the iPad mini is held in place when upright. Instead of resting the iPad in little leather notches like most bendable cases, the edges of the iPad are secured by invisible magnets.

Apple designed CarPlay “from the ground up” to be the future of car dashboard systems. And while technology is still based on iOS, how it communicates with the car is another matter. CarPlay utilizes QNX, the leading platform in the growing “infotainment system industry” that is owned by none other than Blackberry.

Apple is listed as a partner on the QNX website. QNX runs the embedded systems in many vehicles, including luxury brands Apple has associated CarPlay with, like Mercedes.

Yesterday Apple announced CarPlay, and we’ve already seen the software working in Volvo and Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Apple’s head of iOS marketing, Greg Joswiak, took the stage with Ferrari at the Geneva Motor Show to unveil CarPlay in the Ferrari FF, the world’s fastest four-seater.

CarPlay is launching this week with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo on board. Apple says more partners are coming later this year, including BMW, Ford, Kia, Land Rover, Nissan, and Toyota.

iOS 7.1 has already been expected to drop this month, and now a more specific timeframe has been given by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber. According to Gruber’s source, iOS 7.1 will be required to stream Apple’s SXSW iTunes Festival from its dedicated app.

Since the festival begins in a week on March 11th, that means iOS 7.1 should be released “any day now.”

The fifth developer beta of 7.1 was seeded a month ago, and Apple released iOS 7.0.6 with bug fixes a couple of weeks ago.

Source: Daring Fireball

This week Apple announced CarPlay, a rebranding of ‘iOS in the Car’ from WWDC last summer. The software is an extension of iOS that is designed for hands-free use of Siri, Apple Maps, Phone, Messages, and services like iTunes Radio.

While Apple’s focus with CarPlay is clearly on its own apps and services, the company has chosen to launch with four “select third-party audio apps.” It’s good news for the chosen four, but how Apple plans to work with other developers on CarPlay integration in the future remains unclear.

Ridiculous Fishing had a good 2013. The breakout game from the Dutch developers at Vlambeer was Apple’s best iOS game of the year. It also won a coveted Apple Design Award. We called it “stellar” and “addictive” in our roundup of the best iOS games of the year, and it spawned countless clones in the App Store.

Now the same two-man studio is at it again with a new game that’s coming out on March 18th, Luftrausers.

Teenage developer Ryan Orbuch already has an Apple Design Award under his belt thanks to Finish, his popular to-do app that’s billed as an anti-procrastination tool. Today Finish is going free in the App Store for good, but there’s a catch.

That’s right, here comes the “f” word: freemium. Users will be limited to 10 tasks and certain times can’t be associated with tasks until a $0.99 in-app upgrade is made to unlock Finish More. Calling it Finish Pro is “boring and sounds way too fancy,” according to Orbuch. Existing users won’t have to pay for the in-app upgrade.

This past week Readdle released Documents 5, the big iOS 7 redesign of their popular document manager. The download is a free update to existing users, and it brings a much-needed design refresh and several feature additions.

Apple has been in talks with record labels about releasing more albums exclusively through the iTunes Store, similarly to how Beyonce released her self-titled album in December.

According to Billboard, Apple’s VP of the iTunes Store, Robert Kondrk, had “tense” talks with label executives in January during Grammy Week in Los Angeles. Kondrk used the success of the BEYONCÉ album as evidence when arguing for the new iTunes Store model.

Apple will launch “iOS in the Car” with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo as partners at the Geneva Motor Show next week, according to the Financial Times.

While Apple has said that it has more than a dozen automobile manufacturers on board, the company is reportedly choosing to launch with the three aforementioned brands only. Apple executive Eddy Cue is a member of Ferrari’s board of directors.

Originally unveiled alongside iOS 7 at WWDC last summer, iOS in the Car is Apple’s interface for dash displays in vehicles. The extension of iOS lets the user navigate using Maps, make phone calls, control music, and use Siri without needing to touch an iPhone in the car.

Apple has said that iOS in the Car is a “key focus” for the company in 2014. A redesigned interface for iOS in the Car was discovered in iOS 7 last month. Automobile makers like Honda have been preparing their newer cars for the software with large touchscreens.

Source: Financial Times

If you buy an Apple TV by March 5th, you will receive a $25 iTunes gift card from Apple. The promotion began today and only works at Apple retail stores or through the company’s online store.

Apple rarely does deals like this, and the timing is interesting. A new Apple TV is rumored to come out as soon as March, and this time of year is when Apple has updated its set-top box in the past. But that doesn’t mean you should expect a new one in the near future.

The Apple TV made a staggering $1 billion in sales in 2013. Tim Cook shared the news during Apple’s annual meeting with shareholders today in Cupertino, California.

“It’s a little more difficult to call it a hobby these days,” said Cook during the meeting. For years, Apple has referred to the Apple TV as a hobby, but the company’s tone towards the $99 product is starting to change.

Google has released a major update to its Hangouts iOS app. Most notably, the new version includes a design makeover that’s more akin to iOS 7. Short video messages can be sent to contacts, and location data can also be shared.

Here’s the full changelog:

The vibe will certainly not be killed at SXSW this year, as Apple has added rapper Kendrick Lamar to its lineup of artists performing at the iTunes Festival. Lamar performed at the iTunes Festival last year as well.

ScHoolboy Q, Isaiah Rashad, Band of Skulls, and Capital Cities have also been added as supporting acts. Soundgarden was added to the lineup yesterday.

Apple has been named Fortune’s most admired company for the seventh year in a row. Amazon ranked second and Google came in at third. Samsung and Microsoft didn’t make the top ten.

Oscar-nominated director David Fincher is in talks to direct Sony’s upcoming biopic about Steve Jobs, according to Variety. If Fincher did direct, it would team him up yet again with writer Aaron Sorkin. The last time the two worked together was on The Social Network.

Fincher is currently finishing up post-production on his latest movie, Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck. He directed the first two episodes of House of Cards and is an executive producer for the show. The last project he directed for Sony was 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Aaron Sorkin finished his script for the Jobs biopic earlier this year. He has said in the past that the story will be divided into three distinct acts, and each act will take place backstage at an Apple keynote. No rumors on casting yet.

Source: Variety

The tale of Flappy Bird is almost unbelievable. A frustratingly simple iPhone game from an indie game dev in Vietnam with no prior notoriety becomes an overnight success. It dominates the App Store charts and starts making $50,000 per day in ad revenue. Then, out of the blue, the dev decides to pull it from the App Store at the height of its popularity.

It was a story too good to be true. Except that it was true.

In the wake of Flappy Birds’s removal, countless knockoffs have tried to fill the gap. “Flappy Bird being taken off the App Store has created this vacuum,” says Jeremy Olson, founder of the award-winning app studio Tapity. In an effort to make a worthy successor to Flappy Bird, Olson and his small team have created Buffalo Wings.

Instead of a bird, you guide a flying buffalo over and under walls by tapping the iPhone’s screen. Hit a wall at any point and you have to start over. The gameplay mechanics may be the same, but Tapity is hoping that Buffalo Wings has what it takes to capture lightning in a bottle twice.