There are over 200,000 apps in the iTunes App Store now and everyone can agree that wading through all those apps trying to find the real gems is a big problem. We all muddle through somehow and find an app gem or two usually by word of mouth, a Cult of Mac review, or other means. I’m happy to announce that I’ve found another way to find good apps and this solution is entertaining to boot — Adam Curry’s Big App Show app.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueKtv6OITjk&feature=player_embedded
Not sure if you managed to successfully order an iPhone 4 from AT&T after their untested pre-order system collapsed and they started randomly canceling completed pre-orders?
AT&T’s hipster mouthpiece Daniel is here to tell you how you can make sure that Ma Bell didn’t bungle your pre-order and that an iPhone 4 is actually heading out to you, despite the fact that a better spokesperson for the job would be Private Snafu. Don’t mistake him for a corporate suit, though — see, he’s wearing a vintage thrift store shirt, albeit one with stripes exactly corresponding to AT&T’s own corporate colors! But that tossled bed head mop and immaculately groomed beard don’t lie: this is a guy with Williamsburg street cred written all over him.
[via 9to5Mac]
We start the week off with a different sort of speaker deal. This time we bring you the iOctopus speaker system by Pixxo. It includes an iPod dock and 3.5mm jack for $13. Also available, an 8GB iPod touch for $139 and some screen protectors for the soon-to-be shipping iPhone 4.
Details on these and many other bargains are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Still haven’t gotten that geeky dad of yours anything for Father’s Day? Here’s a late last-minute suggestion: Run out to your local bookshop and grab a copy of 62 Projects To Make With A Dead Computer. It’s a sort of $15 Maker Faire for dummies that’ll keep him busy for months, get rid of some of that junk lying around and maybe save him a little moolah in the process.
Apple put together a video love letter to itself where app developers from A-list firms talk about how delighted they are to work with the Cupertino company.
About halfway through the 5-minute or so video, the execs start talking about how much they don’t like working with other platforms. (Read: “Android?”)
“We’ve actually spent some time working with other platforms, it’s a night and day difference,” says Calvin Carter of Bottle Rocket apps who made the NPR app. “They are more difficult for the user, they don’t have the power or the tools available, they don’t have the distribution network. They don’t have the standards, both in hardware or software.”
“It is that handset fragmentation, if you will, that causes developers a lot of problems,” says Skarpi Hedinsson of ABC TV. “Because you’re now targeting individual devices.”
“It’s really evident in Apple’s APIs, in the developer’s tools, that you’re working with something really mature,” remarks Tom Conrad of Pandora. “Not something that was invented two years ago.”
Via Jordan Stark
In certain corners of the Internet, it has become received wisdom that the iPhone will appear on Verizon any time now. Timelines are speculated upon. AT&T’s rampant incompetence is cited. And then Apple announces another must-have product that only works on AT&T’s network in the U.S.
So, in case you’re wondering, the iPhone 4 isn’t coming to Verizon in September. It’s not going to T-Mobile (in spite of what some misinformed analysts think, it’s still not 3G-compatible) or Sprint, either.
This is understandably frustrating, as every U.S. iPhone user has, at one time or another, experienced complete AT&T meltdown — full bars but no connectivity, battery life dropping at more than a percentage per minute, and dropped calls every few steps. But the sad fact is, AT&T was and is the only credible partner for Apple to work with on the iPhone and the iPad. And the reason for that has very little to do with the United States and everything to do with the rest of the world. They’re stuck together until everyone goes 4G.
If you intend on upgrading to iOS 4 on Monday, the first piece of the puzzle has landed on Software Update: iTunes 9.2 is now available for download.
It’s a pretty tiny update, with the only non-iOS 4 specific feature being some new album artwork improvements, including a new transition effect. Apple’s clearly saving all the big new features for iTunes 10, which we can probably expect to land in September with some sort of cloud-storage and streaming functionality.
Here’s the change log:
• Sync with iPhone 4 to enjoy your favorite music, movies, TV shows, books and more on-the-go
• Sync and read books with iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4 and iBooks 1.1
• Organize and sync PDF documents as books. Read PDFs with iBooks 1.1 on iPad and any iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4
• Organize your apps on your iOS 4 home screens into folders using iTunes
• Faster back-ups while syncing an iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4
• Album artwork improvements make artwork appear more quickly when exploring your library
Get it now through Software Update, or download it directly from Apple.
We start off the day with another deal on MacBook Pros. ExperCom is offering a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo with 17-inch screen for $2,147. Next is a number of iPods, including a 4GB iPod nano for $69.99. Our last top deal is the latest batch of freebies from the iPad App Store, including “Air Guitar HD,” which simulates an actual instrument.
Along the way, we check out some new case for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3 and iPhone 3GS. Also up is the latest App Store price reductions for iPhone and iPod touch users. As always, details on these and many more items are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
We’re 100% chugging the Kool-Aid on the iPhone 4 upgrade. What an amazing package:
We’ll be upgrading for sure, especially thanks to AT&T’s new upgrade plan.
What do you guys think?
Apple’s getting into the advertising game with their iAds network, and Jobs says the goal is Emotion + Interactivity. The idea is to make it painless for developers to put ads in their apps: just tell Apple where you want them and they’ll inject it themselves. Likewise, it should be painless for viewers to see them: tap them and it’ll expand. You’ll never be hijacked into the browser.
They’ve only been selling iAds for eight weeks, and already attracted a huge number of advertisers, including Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Sears, JCPenny, Target, Best Buy, DirecTV, TBS network, and Disney.” Overall, iAds has brought in $60M in advertising, and makes up 48% of US Mobile Display Advertising Spending in the second half of 2010.
The demonstrated advertisements look pretty good, admittedly. Certainly more like interactive applications than musty old banner ads. They’re almost like mini-apps that dynamically download when needed into an existing program. The new interactive Nissan Leaf iAd is particularly impressive, which allows you to interactively compare a $1 of gas when driving the fully electric Leaf compared to other hybrids.
iAds probably isn’t going to be very good for consumers — I despair that there will be literally no reason for a developer not to put ads even in paid apps anymore, and that too much of the iPhone’s screen real estate will be taken up with advertisements — but it should be a windfall for both Apple and the developers taking part in the iAds ecosystem.
