News tagged ‘applications’

It is known, that iPad has a restrictive DRM shackles, which makes Apple the only available supplier of software for this device. So if you buy an iPad, you will have to download software only from the Apple’s AppStore. Yes, there is a big possibility of jailbreaking the gadget within the first 48 hours after its shipping since it’s based on the already jailbroken OS iPhone, but still this is not the best way of downloading applications for most of the people.

There are people, who disagree with a DRM-based strategy of software distribution. Some of them created an Anti-DRM group named Defective by Design. They told us they created an online petition that has been signed for 8,800 times since its inception 4 days ago. DbD has already sent off their first 5,000 signatures in the form of a giant postcard, which is in the photo above.

DbD’s operations manager John Sullivan says their main target is to get Apple to remove DRM and DRM enforcement from all its media and software. This is especially valuable for the iPad designed to be widely used by non-technical people who might not be aware of DRM.

- What Apple is doing with software is quite different. This is a scary step … as Apple move towards this model in the future,

said Sullivan.

Just over a week ago, Apple published a table that showed the percentage of the number of applications that were approved and therefore also those that were rejected during the review. These numbers are a bit higher now: 98 to 97% for new applications and 99 to 97% for the updates.

There are more than 140,000 applications in Apple AppStore, so a change of 2 percentage points is certainly not as small as it may seem. The number of rejected apps might increase even more in the future. The most important concern for developers right now is the obligation to add metadata to their applications.

We have spoken several times about Flash CS5 that will allow to transform the Adobe Flash applications in real native iPhone apps ready to be distributed through the AppStore. This video shows a quick overview of everything that Flash developers will be able to:

The are many possibilities. The only limitation is the skill of the developer. You can create games using the accelerometer, a multitouch applications, apps with video, pictures or even Twitter. We are looking forward to Flash CS5 release.

A few days ago Epocrates Inc., the developer of mobile software for healthcare professionals, revealed a new study of more than 350 clinicians who were asked about their opinion about iPad. The results were stunning - 9% said they will buy an iPad when it will be available, another 13% plan to purchase one in the first year. That means that one in five physicians will likely have an iPad in a year.
Epocrates Inc. also announced that it intends to improve clinical reference applications so it could run on iPad.

By optimizing our software for the iPad, we are capitalizing on the larger screen real estate and interactivity provided by this sophisticated device. We are committed to providing the most productive experience at the point of care, keeping physicians informed and focused on the patient rather than searching for answers.

- said Epocrates SEO Rose Crane. The company's software has more than 275,000 subscribers among physicians in America and over 900,000 worldwide.

As time passes by, more hospitals look at potential of the iPad. One San Francisco program even aims to use tablets to provide charts, X-rays, notes and prescriptions to hospital workers at the touch of a finger. That looks like a whole new way of enforcing last technologies to make our life better.

Apple has improved their new iTunes Preview service by activating in-browser previews for iPod and iPhone applications.

iTunes Preview was launched by Apple in November. It worked for those iTunes links, which used to simply open the application. Before that your browser would open a blank page and prompt you to open the link with the iTunes application. Now you are also able to view screenshots, changelogs, descriptions and reviews for iPod Touch and iPhone applications.

Besides, last month Apple also started using QuickTime to offer 30 second song samples encoded in 44.1 AAC 300+ kbits/second.

Google released a software update for Android-based Nexus One smartphones. The update offers a number of enhancements, but the most interesting one is a support of the multi-touch technology in phone's Browser, Gallery and Maps applications. The new functionality is called "pinch-to-zoom".

Google previously had an agreement with Apple, that Android OS would not support multi-touch in the U.S. Now it looks like all the agreements are gone.

Engadget posted a video of the Nexus One's pinch-to-zoom functionality:

Once Apple began allowing VoIP over 3G we can now expect this functionality to apper in real iPhone applications. Fring already implemented it. Skype has announced via it's blog that a new version of Skype app for iPhone will support 3G calling:

You may have seen other apps offering calls over 3G, but we’re holding ours back for a little bit longer. Why? So that we can give you the very best audio quality we can. When our 3G-capable Skype for iPhone app is released, it’ll let you make calls in wideband audio, giving you greater clarity and fidelity – because that’s what you expect from Skype.

Watch the video for more details:

Along with a new firmware for iPhone and iPod Touch Apple released a new version of SDK - 3.1.3. It's a required update, otherwise Xcode will not recognize or work with your 3.1.3 device. You can download it at iPhone dev center.

As usual the iPhone SDK includes Xcode, the iPhone simulator, and other tools for developing applications for iPhone and iPod Touch. If you want to develop for the iPad, you'll need the SDK version 3.2 instead.

The specialists from RedmondPie made a video showing how to turn the interface of the iPhone into that of an iPad. They used simple packages that are already available via Cydia (for jailbroken iPhone).

Everything is very simple, just follow these steps:

• Install Winterboard from Cydia.
• Install the Winterboard theme "Simple iPad Theme" from Cydia.
• Install MakeItMine from Cydia. This utility is needed to change the Carrier name to "iPad".
• Download the application Shrink to reduce the size of the icons.
• Install NYTimes, Classics and Kindle applications from AppStore.

The result is shown on the photo above!

Here is a full instructional video:

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As the new A4 CPU is rumored to be the next CPU for the 4th generation of iPhones, MobileCrunch proposes four more features to transfer from iPad to iPhone:

1. Bluetooth Keyboard Support.

Apple iPad is claimed to support Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR that lets you connect Apple Wireless Keyboard, wireless headphones or other devices. This feature isn't supported yet in iPhones.

2. Desktop file syncing for third party applications

Now iPad allows you to drag-and-drop files from computer to the storage folders of third party applications. At one moment you're editing your document on a Mac, and at the second you're viewing it on your iPad.

3. Apps identify themselves as supporting their specific file types.

On the iPhone even if you have installed a specific application, you will need to find a way to get that file into the application's storage space. On the iPad you can open a file from the desktop or even from an email.

4. PDF Creation Support

There was always a problem of saving files that other people need to see in the friendly format. New iPad has built-in PDF creation functionality for iWork, which is very convenient.

With this improvements iPad can obviously be considered as a sign of innovations to come for the iPhone.

Users can run all different applications on iPad. Here is a photo gallery of Apple apps running on iPad. You can see familiar iTunes, iPod, Safari, Contacts, Maps, Photos, Mail, Youtube, AppStore, Notes and Calendar. The is a also new one called iBooks. Take a look:

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Here is our live blog from Apple's event:

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A lot has been said about the rumored Apple Tablet, and after evidence was discovered that Apple was interested in the name "iSlate", many have adopted that as the most likely name for Apple's new device. New evidence however has revealed that Apple may, in fact, be positioning "iPad" as the name for the imminent tablet device.

A search in the trademark databases reveals that several companies applied for a trademark "iPad" in Canada, Australis, New Zealand, Europe and Hong Kong. The filing dates for most of these trademark applications are July 2009, the latest ones are January 15th, 2010.

We believe that Apple is behind these trademark applications for iPad and that it may be the name for Apple's new tablet device to be revealed next week.

BoyGeniusReport published the first details about the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0:

• Global multitouch gestures.
• Background apps/Multitasking.
• UI enhanced for easier, more efficient navigation (maybe refreshed homescreen).
• The update will supposedly be available for only the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS (might also be for future iPhone 4G).
• New syncing ability for the contacts and calendar applications.
• Will put iPhone way ahead of smartphone market, more like “full-fledged computer”.
• Apple people “really excited”.

The iPhone OS 4.0 firmware is expected to be announced at Apple's special event on January 27th.

According to a new patent application filed by Apple, the new and upcoming iPhone OS could offer contact icons on the home screen. These icons can be used to invoke apps, retrieve and display contacts information, or can be modified to display related info, tied to an individual contact. This patent, which was filed back in July 2008.

The icon can also be used to invoke one or more applications that are personalized to the contact. The icon can be modified to display information related to the contact. In one aspect, an icon associated with an entity can be temporarily displayed on the mobile device based on the proximity of the mobile device to the entity.

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office today has accepted Apple’s filing. This could probably mean that we may soon see this feature being introduced in the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0, which is expected to be announced with the next-gen iPhone in summer.