FaceTime is one of the absolutely best features of iOS 4, but you already have to be sitting in a phone call with someone to use it. A new app called FacePlant aims to change that, though, by bringing something of an iChat-style contact list to FaceTime.
Here’s how it works. On first load, FacePlant asks you to sign up for a free account, using your name and telephone number. Then it combs through your contacts and tries to match them against other FacePlant users. If it finds them, it then keeps track of their online status, and allows you to easily kick off a FaceTime video chat with them.
Contact offline? No problem. You can leave them a video message, accessible even through 3G.
It looks fantastic. FacePlant should be coming to the App Store soon.
When things on your Mac go kablooie, the incredible AppleJack repair utility is the single best pro tip you can be given. Developed by Kristofer Widholm, AppleJack is run when you boot into single-user mode and will repair your disks and permissions, flush your caches, validate your preference files, and — in general — give your Mac something of a software tune-up.
The only problem with AppleJack is that it wasn’t compatible with Snow Leopard, but lo, from the tech support angels come an update, giving AppleJack the same license to plunge inside the honeycomb of your Mac’s recesses and fiddle with its digital junk under 10.6 as it did under 10.5.
If you’re worried about your Mac’s health and want to give it a colonic, download AppleJack now.
Apple usually updates its iLife and iWork suites at roughly the same time, so yesterday’s discovery of an iLife ’10 For Dummies book to be published on September 22nd necessarily hinted at an update iWork 2010 to hit around the same time… providing those dummy guys knew what the hell they were writing about.
Today, though, independent confirmation: an iWork 2010 guide called iWork ’10: From Zero To Hero has popped up on Amazon Germany.
Of course, without any confirmation from Apple, iLife and iWork ’10 are mere speculation, but it’s been seventeen months since the last update, and it certainly seems, at least, that the software guide industry knows that something is afoot. Maybe they’re not dummies after all.
What improvements would you guys like to see in iWork ’10?
Apple has just been named co-dependent (along with nearly three dozen other companies) in a patent infringement lawsuit yesterday relating to spam filtering technology.
“Email as we know it would essentially stop working if it weren’t for InNova’s invention,” said InNova’s lawyer “More than 80 percent of email is spam, which is why companies use InNova’s invention rather than forcing employees to wade through billions of useless emails. Unfortunately, the defendants appear to be profiting from this invention without any consideration for InNova’s legal patent rights.”
And what is this amazing invention Apple stole from InNova? InNova came up with the idea of using a contextual database to identify emails a user wants from unsolicited ones according to conditions like whether or not a “From” address had been emailed before.
Spam filtering’s an amazing invention, no doubt, but it takes more to invent something than being the first to register they had the idea with the government. This is a totally scurrilous case, filed by parent troll InNova Patent Licensing in the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall, well-known as a friendly court for pursing patent infringement cases. The list of defendants include Google, Dell, HP, IBM, Yahoo… as well as the likes of JC Penney, Snapple and Dr. Pepper. Really. Dr. Pepper!
Are you impressed by the living, breathing Wall o’ Apps on display by Apple at WWDC every year? Polish developer iApp has created a desktop simulacrum of the App Wall in the form of the AppWall screensaver.
It doesn’t work precisely like the real App Wall, in that the icons aren’t pulled from real-time purchases, but rather pulls icons from the top free or paid apps, but it’s still pretty swank. Even better, it’s free!
We haven’t seen a new iLife release since January 2009, so common sense says that the software suite is probably about due for an update early next year.
So should you take this Amazon.fr iLife 2010 for Dummies as confirmation of a forthcoming update?
It’s hard to say: one the one hand, the book is set for release on September 23rd, so unless Apple announces iLife 2010 at their September iPod conference, we’re not going to see it this year.
On the other hand, iLife 2008 was released in August, so it’s not completely unprecedented for Apple to just drop an update into the middle of the year like this without a lot of fanfare.
Personally, I’m hoping for the latter: at the very least, I’d welcome an update to iPhoto.
With the iOS 4 update, a surprising number of iPhone and iPod Touch users are reporting a mysterious and contentless email popping up in their mailboxes, straight from the past: December 31st, 1969. Let the conspiracy theories commence!
The emails only seem to appear in MobileMe or GMail accounts, and appears without a sender, subject of content. Even stranger, the email can’t be deleted: once you’ve been 1969ed, you can’t easily go back.
The good news is there are fixes, but they are often temporary, and one involves 34 distinct steps. No official word from Apple yet on whether they’ll fix it, or what it all means… but somehow, I’m guessing, it all ties in to Roswell.
Apple has just brought their Filemaker database software to iOS devices for the very first time, and while FileMaker Go isn’t going to replace your Mac when it comes to database creation, it is a slick way to access Filemaker databases on the go.
Filemaker Go allows users to update and modify existing databases on their iPhone or iPad after they have been created and designed through Filemaker Pro. You transfer them to your device through iTunes or email, or even access an existing database online by clicking on a web link.
Filemaker Go requires iOS 4.0 or higher on the iPhone. Filemaker Go for iPad requires iOS 3.2 or better, and it will read database files as old as Filemaker 7. At $19.99, it’s not a cheap app, but for professionals who do a lot of work in Filemaker database, it’s the best solution out there.
With the iOS 4.0 update, Apple finally figured out how to bring free major updates to the iOS operating system to non-contract devices like the iPod Touch…. which makes this rumor coming out of Stuff.tv pretty questionable.
According to their app developer sources, a paid update to iOS 4 for the iPad is a “definite.” That’s a pretty big contradiction of Apple’s own iPad EULA, which reads:
Apple will provide you any iPad OS software updates that it may release from time to time, up to and including the next major iPad OS software release following the version of iPad OS software that originally shipped from Apple on your iPad, for free. For example, if your iPad originally shipped with iPad 3.x software, Apple would provide you with any iPad OS software updates it might release up to and including the iPad 4.x software release. Such updates and releases may not necessarily include all of the new software features that Apple releases for newer iPad models.
Of course, Apple’s free to change course on this, but if they figured out how to bring iOS 4 to the iPod Touch without a fee, there’s little doubt in my mind they can manage it for the iPad… even if Cupertino was tempted to go back on its word.
Fantastic. 25 years after it was first written for the Mac, Apple has chosen donate the source code of MacPaint and QuickDraw to the Computer History Museum, making one of the earliest and most efficient pieces of art software ever available to public scrutiny for the first time ever.
Originally released back in 1984, MacPaint was a revolutionary piece of software that first introduced common image editing conventions like the lasso tool and the paint bucket. From a programming perspective, though, MacPaint is even more impressive: it was so efficiently programmed and its memory constraints were so tight that MacPaint actually revealed bugs in the underlying system that could only be exposed by running so close to the edge of available memory.
According to a whimsical Steve Jobs, up to twenty-four man years went into the writing of MacPaint. If you’re interested in taking a glimpse at coding perfection spread across 5,804 lines of Pascal and 2,738 of assembly, go take a look.
To solve the iPhone 4 Antennuation problem (or, at the very least, the PR disaster of that problem), Apple’s giving out millions of dollars in free cases to anyone who bought an iPhone 4… but maybe they should have saved their money and just shipped out some of these adorable, Band-Aid style Antennaids instead: $4.99 will patch the signal boo-boos of up to six iPhone 4s, although without a kiss from Papa Steve first to make the hurt better, who can really say how effective they will prove to be?
9to5Mac has gotten their hands on some leaked details, showing off more about how Apple’s FaceTime videochat protocol will work with the WiFi-only iPod Touch.
As we reported before, FaceTime on the iPod Touch is all linked through an email address linked to your Apple ID… although interestingly, it appears you can set up multiple e-mail addresses where FaceTime contacts can contact you. Then there’s the FaceTime icon, seen above.
Interesting, and I can’t wait to try it out. My only question: does this mean the new iPod Touch is getting a mic as well, or will FaceTime users be expected to wear mic-enabled earbuds on their calls? That seems like a lackluster implementation of a new software feature Apple intends to use as the headliner of this generation of iOS devices. My money is on the iPod Touch getting a mic.
Citing “reliable sources,” Greek iPhone site iPhone Hellas is reporting that iOS 4.0.1 might be released today.
The rumor doesn’t quite sound right: iPhone Hellas’ report suggests that yesterday’s iOS 4.1 beta seeded to developers might actually be iOS 4.0.1, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. “The final version of 4.1 will be released much later, probably in September, after several beta versions,” iPhone Hellas’ asserts.
That said, iPhone Hellas doesn’t have a completely ignominious background when it comes to iOS update predictions: back in 2008, they successfully predicted the released of iOS 2.2 over ten days ahead of time.
If the rumor is true, the best news of all might not be the much-talked about “software fix” for the iPhone 4 reception issues, but the fact that the jailbreaking community has been waiting on iOS 4.0.1 to release many of their new exploits, including an updated version of Spirit. Can’t wait!
Ostrich is a Twitter client made of Safari Extension stuff. You might find it useful if you like to keep an eye on your tweets while you browse the web, and especially if you like to share a lot of URLs via Twitter.
After installing, you need to click the “Sign in with Twitter” link at the bottom of the Ostrich installation instructions page – this will take you to Twitter and let you grant access to the application.
From then on it’s plain sailing. Ostrich lives in your Safari toolbar and can be summoned with a click, no matter where else you are on the web. It has a button to instantly add a link to the current page to new tweets you create.
Not everyone’s cup of tea (I still like YoruFukurou and I’m sticking with it), but might be of interest to some.
iShred LIVE, a free application from Frontier Design Group, and GuitarConnect, from the venerable peripherals company Griffin Technology look to raise the bar for making Apple’s flagship portable devices essential pieces of gear for musicians of any skill level.
The $30 GuitarConnect cable features a 1/4″ spur that connects easily into guitars, basses, or any instrument with a 1/4″ input, and a stereo 1/8″ mini-plug that connects directly to iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad for use with audio applications such as iShred LIVE. The 6 foot cable provides an additional stereo 1/8″ mini-jack to connect headphones or audio cable for connection to a home stereo, amp, mixer, or other audio source.
iShred LIVE (iTunes Link) is a mobile app with amp modeling and stomp box effects for guitar, bass, and other instruments, letting users play real instruments through their device.
During the WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs’ efforts to show off the improved speed of Mobile Safari on the iPhone 4 were thwarted by a catastrophic WiFi meltdown, but a month later, our good buddy Obama Pac-Man is here to prove what Steve could not: Mobile Safari on the iPhone 4 is wicked fast.
In a showdown against the iPhone 3GS on 3G with WiFi turned off, Mobile Safari rendered all the tested sites significantly faster on the iPhone 4. It’s all a matter of a few milliseconds here, a half a second or so there, but that time adds up in an app as integral to the iOS experience as Mobile Safari.
Extra points go to Obama Pac-Man for his stylistic choice of silence for the video: anyone else would have supplemented it with a loud soundtrack of moist mouth-breathing or, failing that, phlegmatic nu-metal. Bravo.
In the iPhone, Apple has the biggest non-dedicated mobile gaming device in the world, while in the DS, Nintendo controls the most successful dedicated mobile gaming console. There’s a war on, and while it won’t be a battle to the death, Nintendo understandably doesn’t want to give Apple any more help than it has to when it comes to gaming… least of all by creating iPhone versions of its more popular franchises.
During an investor Q&A, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata confirmed that you shouldn’t expect an iPhone version of Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda anytime soon.
“Other companies don’t share Nintendo’s values or traditions when it comes to creating devices,” he said. “We are absolutely not thinking of [releasing software on other platforms].”
Iwata wasn’t specifically referencing the App Store, of course, but the message is clear: Nintendo’s gaming franchises are long-term strategic assets Nintendo isn’t going to lend for a quick buck to promote another console. If you want Nintendo games on your iPhone, you’ll have to turn to jailbreaking and emulation.
I was still shooting JPG on my digital camera until a few months ago, but buying a new MacBook and being given a copy of Aperture gave me a chance to switch to shooting RAW.
That also meant a new workflow for managing and editing photos. I didn’t want my Aperture library to be filled up with crud, so I decided to import images to a folder and manually weed out the useless shots before transferring what remains to Aperture.
After doing this in a Finder window I realised I needed a better tool for the job, so I went looking for lightweight image browsers.
Firefox has just announced that their not-really-a-web-browser-so-Apple-can’t-reject-us app, Firefox Home, has just been sent off to the App Store for approval
Based upon Firefox Sync technology, Firefox Home allows iPhone users to always have access to their Firefox browsing history, bookmarks and open tabs, as well as access to their “Awesome Bar,” which allows them to browse to a site with the minimum of typing fuss. Find what you want, and Firefox Home passes on any opened pages to Mobile Safari.
There shouldn’t be any hangups getting Firefox Home through the approval process, given the existence of other Safari-competitors on the App Store, like Opera Mini or the Atomic Browser. If you’re a major Firefox user and you want to take your sessions — but not your browser — on the road with you, you can set yourself up for Firefox Home here in wait for an official thumbs up.
Apple’s taken to list making with their latest addition to the App Store, Awesome iOS 4 Apps. It seems a strange and disparate bunch of apps to highlight, and while many of these are awesome apps indeed, the vast majority of these apps don’t take particular advantage of iOS 4 except through Apple’s new built-in save stating option. Still, it’s always interesting to see which apps in particular Apple has their eyes on.
What it is:Auto Verbal Pro (iTunes link) is handy, if not quite full-featured augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) software that gives non-verbal people an inexpensive tool to communicate using an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.
Why it’s cool: Other high-end AAC solutions such as Proloquo2go (iTunes link) cost well upwards of $100 while Auto Verbal Pro hit the iTunes store a couple of weeks ago at 99¢. The introductory price won’t last long but even when NoTie Software kicks its offering up to $30 it will still be a bargain for the help it can bring to people with autism or other conditions that make it difficult for them to communicate verbally.
With over 100 pre-programmed icons in its intuitive interface, Auto Verbal Pro makes it easy for a non-verbal person to say basic phrases such as “I am tired,” or “I am OK,” and things such as numbers, days of the week, shapes, colors, food items, animals and so on. There are 10 icons which can be custom programmed to utter more complex phrases, such as “This software is the bomb, isn’t it?” and a text entry field in which any phrase can be typed and played through the device speakers. Users can choose between large and small buttons, which can be very useful to the visually impaired or fat-fingered, and between male or female sounding computerized voices in low-fi or hi-fi quality.
While great strides have been made in recent years developing software to speak for us, Auto Verbal Pro showcases some of the limitations that persist. The built-in low-fi voicings are certainly intelligible but lack any kind of nuance or expressiveness. Hi-fi voicings are even more intelligible and slightly more expressive, but they require WiFi Internet access in order to work, since the files live on NoTie’s servers. When a custom or typed phrase is called on to use a hi-fi voice, the software connects to NoTie and plays back the sounds using QuickTime, which results in clunky, irritating delays. Where no Internet access is available, the program defaults to the low-fi voicing.
All and all, this is useful and potentially even quite amusing software; with good reason it quickly jumped into the Top 5 Paid Medical apps on the iTunes App Store.
Where to get it:Auto Verbal Pro (currently English-only, but with French, Spanish, and German versions planned) is available on the App Store for a limited time at 99¢, after which its price will jump to $30. It’s well worth investing a dollar now to see if it’s something that could be useful to you or someone you care about.
Following the steps of their comic book competitors Marvel, DC Comics has just released their own iOSself-branded comic reading app for iOS, built for them by Comixology.
Like the Marvel app, comics cost between $0.99 and $2.99 an issue, and there are some free comics available… although the selection of those is quite paltry compared to Marvel’s offerings, although no doubt this will change. The best freebie right now is probably a black-and-white comic by Neil Gaiman and Simon Bisley that portrays the Joker and Batman as actors working on a television series.
Otherwise, if you’ve used Comixology or the Marvel app, you’ll be pretty familiar with how the DC Comics app works. It really only trades in Spider-Man for Superman.
What it is: i2KQuickage is curiously named but unbelievably powerful photo panorama software from the genius minds at DualAlign, software developers whose primary markets have long been medical communities and defense sorts. There’s no reason to keep this software’s incredible charms from the broader photography market, though – it gives even the humblest talents and rigs (such as those possessed by this reviewer) the power to make arresting panoramic images with just one click of the mouse.
Why it’s cool: If you ever spent time using photo editing software to stitch together several photos into a panorama, you likely praised the heavens with the arrival of auto-stitching and panorama tools to Photoshop. But even Photoshop users — and users of other specialized software such as Double Take, which integrates well with both Aperture and iPhoto — still have to deal with quite a number of considerations to get the job done. Image registration, correction for exposure anomalies across the range of images used to build a panorama, distortion correction, seam selection and blending, and final image processing — Photoshop, Double Take and other solutions all require multiple user choices and steps to achieve optimal results.
i2KQuickage ends all that. Its proprietary algorithms produce stunning panoramas — with the user’s responsibility being no more than selecting the images to be used and clicking the “Create Montage” button. Even using images captured with a camera set in the “Auto” mode, which can led to dramatic differences in illumination and exposure between
images, even with movement of people and natural phenomena (such as waves on a beach) in the photos, the results produced by i2KQuickage are outstanding.
Wondering why your iPhone 3G didn’t get background wallpapers? So was Gizmodo reader Erica, who rattled off an email to Steve Jobs with a request for an explanation.
Jobs’ response? Backgrounds on the 3G just didn’t meet their performance standards. But there’s a little more going on here.
Erica’s email to Jobs read:
Hey Steve! I just upgraded my iPhone 3G to iOS 4 and was really looking forward to setting a background on my home screen. Guess that’s not happening, but I’d like to know why.
See, I get why you don’t include multitasking. My iPhone gets pretty hot when certain apps run, couldn’t imagine how multitasking would fry my phone.
But the background thing, I don’t see how that would be memory intensive and/or battery draining. It doesn’t seem like that feature needs to be exclusive to the 3GS and 4G.
Jobs’ response:
The icon animation with backgrounds didn’t perform well enough.
