While this is based upon info taken from people using Chitika's service, we've found overall trends are quite nicely tracked by this data. The latest report says that a full 15 percent of eligible iPhones, iPod touches and iPads are already running iOS 6. Considering it was released just yesterday? That's impressive. As TechCrunch points out, after two months of Jelly Bean (the latest Android OS) availability, Google has seen an adoption rate of only 1.5%. Apple customers are a little quicker to react and install whenever a new iOS appears, it seems. Of course, considering iOS 6 was Apple's first full version update over the air (5.0.1 saw the debut of OTA updates), adoption is likely that much faster as a result.Ad network Chitika reports iOS 6 on 15% of compatible devices originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Monday, 24 September 2012
Compatible Devices-Chitika-Ios
Friday, 31 August 2012
Facebook-Ios
Facebook has released a completely rewritten iOS app that is significantly faster than the prior version. With more and more Facebook users accessing the social network via mobile, the company views having a fast mobile app as increasingly essential. News that the update was forthcoming was first reported back in June.
With the updated version, Facebook's engineers have dumped the HTML5-based app and rebuilt it using Objective-C programming to make it perform more like a native iOS app. From All Things D:
“People have different expectations when it comes to using Facebook for iOS,” Mick Johnson, Facebook iOS mobile product manager, told me in an interview this morning. “They expect a level of performance and speed that just wasn’t there.”
Johnson says that the largest pain points — scrolling through the feed, photos and loading the app — will all be much faster, by a factor of three. Also, Facebook mobile developers working on the three separate iOS apps — Facebook, Camera and Messenger — all all now sharing a code base with each other, so Messenger and Camera are actually running inside of the proper Facebook app, bringing many of those features to Facebook for iOS. (As a bonus, a shared code base means faster development cycles, so we’ll probably see improvements sooner.)Facebook for iPhone is available free via the App Store. [Direct Link] read more..
Friday, 17 August 2012
Mac Blu-ray Player software plays HD movies on your Mac
Want to play a Blu-ray disc on your Mac? Apple doesn't include Blu-ray as an option, but they are readily available through 3rd parties like Amazon or Other World Computing. You'll also need software to play the disc, which is where the Macgo Blu-Ray Player comes in. I reviewed the Macgo Blu-ray Player software more than a year ago and found it pretty flaky. It dropped frames, was slim on features, and not something I could get to excited about. The updated player is a completely different story. I tested the software on a Mac Pro, and also an older (2006) MacBook Pro. I'm pleased to see that the Blu-ray movies I tested it on worked just fine, there were no dropped frames, even when running movies full screen. That's much better than my last outing with the software, and smooth playbook on my aging MacBook Pro was impressive. The app also supports DTS5.1 surround sound if you have hardware that can play it. The Blu-ray Player software requires an internet connection when you first put in a new disc. This is due to the copy protection scheme built into the discs by the motion picture studios. One a disc gets its keys, you shouldn't need to go online again. If you try another disc, it's the same process. The Mac app has added some new features, including screen grabs, and what they call 'AirX' which allows you to beam a Blu-ray movie playing on your Mac to an iOS device -- on your same WiFi network, of course. This new version works much better than the old versions I tried, and movie playback is flawless but I can't say the same for the AirX feature. When I first tried it, Blu-ray Player crashed, then a second try went a bit further, but my iPhone and iPad reported a 'can't find the server' message, even though I'm sure I followed the setup instructions correctly. I think there's more work needed on this feature. The app has extensive help and an actively updated website. You can download a free copy and test it to see how it works with your hardware. If you want to view Blu-ray movies on your Mac, this is pretty much it right now, other than some open-source hacks that don't work very well and aren't as easy to use. There is a summer special on the Macgo Blu-ray player software for US$39.99, which is $20 off. The sale lasts until August 19th. Apple has never officially supported Blu-ray on the Mac, and the late Steve Jobs famously called the licensing terms a "bag of hurt." Even so, some people like the 50 GB capacity of Blu-ray media for backup, and if you have the hardware, wanting to play a movie in HD is an obvious next step Check the Gallery for some screen grabs and a look at the GUI for Blu-ray Player. Gallery: Mac Blu-ray PlayerMac Blu-ray Player software plays HD movies on your Mac originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Iphone 3G-Ios
Cocoanetics has noticed something that's become apparent to most iOS developers already: with the advent of iOS 6 in a few weeks, Apple is essentially phasing out support for iOS on the iPhone 3G. Apple is slowly deprecating frameworks that iPhone 3G-compatible apps require from Xcode and app libraries, and the upcoming version of Xcode (4.5, currently in development) specifically states that it does not support armv6 devices or anything below iOS 4.3. In other words, both the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G have become extremely difficult for iOS developers to support, and by the time iOS 6 rolls around this fall, there will be essentially no reason for devs to try and make sure their apps and games work on the older hardware. While it may be technically possible to maintain separate codebases for newer and older hardware (by running old versions of Xcode), even the largest developers won't have financial reasons to do so. And the audience likely won't care much anyway. The number of people this affects grows smaller and smaller every day -- most phone contracts last about two years, which means it's been a few generations since the iPhone 3G was released in 2008. And there are a whole lot of new technologies for developers to take advantage of, including iCloud, Automatic Reference Counting, and Storyboard development, that make apps easier and quicker to develop and would never work with the older iPhone models anyway. Apple's never been accused of sticking with a product for too long -- the company has a reputation for moving on to the newer and better as quickly as possible. For developers, the iPhone 3G is essentially being lowered into the ground for good. Of course, that doesn't mean consumers are obligated to dump them; the existing apps they run will still work.iOS developer toolchain will bid farewell to the iPhone 3G originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Apple Tv
A weekend feature from Gizmodo's Brian Barrett explores the Apple TV's increasing importance with the recent addition of Hulu Plus and other features. The interesting part of the article is the numbers: 1.3 million Apple TV units sold in the previous quarter along with US$2 billion in sales of digital content from the App Store, iTunes and iBookstore. Barrett thinks this information shows that the Apple TV has become the company's most important product, and future dominance rests with the little Apple TV box rather than a dedicated television set. Forbes agrees with Barrett's stance, wondering if the Apple TV has become a legitimate platform rather than the hobby Steve Jobs tinkered with. I think it'll achieve this status when an Apple TV SDK comes out. It was something I hoped would happen at WWDC, but now I'm wondering if that might come out this fall with the expected slate of new iPhones and iPods. I disagree with the Forbes estimate that Apple will eventually allow its content to be licensed on premium TVs. That's not the way Apple runs things, and it's why I think the Apple TV's price is $99. If you're picking up a new TV, another $99 isn't going to matter in the long run if you're using the Apple TV constantly. Yes, Hulu Plus and the Amazon Instant Video app for the iPad are competitors to Apple's content, but you're still using Apple's hardware to view said content. Chances are, if you're using an iPad to watch Amazon Instant Video, you're likely to upgrade to another iPad somewhere down the road. Amazon gets your money, and so does Apple. Over time, as features are added, I've noticed that the Apple TV has become more important in my living room. At first, I wasn't using it much. Then came AirPlay and Netflix. Then came AirParrot. Now there's AirPlay Mirroring and Hulu Plus. The only thing it's missing is Plex. We're still using the PS3 to access Plex content. Oh, and BBC iPlayer, but I think there's a chance of pigs flying before getting it in the U.S. There's an excellent jailbreak community surrounding the Apple TV, but the hassle to unjailbreak the ATV to upgrade it was just too much to bother jailbreaking it again. But with the recent new features, anything I can pull up on one of my Macs can be sent to the Apple TV. I can use HippoRemote to control the Mac streaming the content. We're to the point that we happily dropped cable early this year and haven't looked back. It's so convenient that whenever we get a new TV, I know I'll grab another Apple TV to go along with it -- and that's exactly what Apple wants.The Apple TV's increasing importance originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Simulator-Ios
9to5Mac reports that it has discovered through some testing with Apple's official iOS simulator that iOS 6 is capable of automatically scaling its home screen display to fit a taller 1136x640 display, compared to the current 960x640 display. Numerous rumors and part leaks have indicated that Apple will be including a taller display on the next-generation iPhone to be introduced next month.Thanks to some tweaks to the iOS Simulator application that is included in the iOS development tools, we were able to run the simulator at the rumored next-generation iPhone display resolution of 640 x 1136. We did this running both the current public release of iOS 5.1 and the upcoming iOS 6.0 The iOS 5.1 simulator displayed the home screen with a stretched set of four rows of icons. On the other hand, iOS 6 displayed five complete rows – as our sources said Apple was testing for taller iPhone displays.
iOS simulator at 1136x640 with five rows of icons under iOS 6 and four rows under iOS 5.1
Notably, setting the iOS simulator to resolutions other than 1136x640 does not result in automatic scaling, with the software instead simply defaulting to an "iPad-like home screen layout" different from what is seen for the iPhone. The observation suggests that there is something special about that 1136x640 resolution that suggests Apple has at least been working on an iOS 6 device supporting that screen size. read more..
Monday, 6 August 2012
The Winners-Atari-Pong
The winners have finally been announced in the long-running Atari/Pong Indie Dev Challenge, and the three winning entries have been revealed prior to their eventual release on the App Store. Atari's contest sought out modern versions of Pong for the App Store, and offered cash prizes and revenue sharing for the top contestants. Before we go through the winners, please note that I served as a volunteer, unpaid judge on this contest, along with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, developer David Whatley, and Pocket God's Dave Castelnuovo. That means I got to play through all of the finalists and deliver scores based on my impressions of the games. According to those scores (as well as Atari's input and a popular vote), zGames' Pong World came out in first place -- it's a very colorful take on the old school game, with furry creatures as paddles and lots of ball tweaks and fun twists. Mad Ruse's Pong Tournament picked up second place, featuring a very wild 3D version of Pong, with high level tournament play and quite a few powerups and extra items to try and protect your wall while a ball is passed back and forth between two players. And Eppy Games' Fong variant got third place -- it's a really crazy circular version of Pong, with some strange rotational controls and some really frantic action elements. Each of those winners will get a cash prize for winning and a three-year revenue share agreement, enabling them to use the Pong name for their titles as well as earn money alongside the commercial releases. There's more information on those coming soon, so hopefully you'll be able to play some of these titles when they arrive.Winners revealed for Atari's Pong Dev challenge, Pong World earns first place originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Encryption Scheme-Removable Drives-Contextual Menu-Mountain Lion
[Post updated, see below.] Whole-drive encryption isn't one of the sexiest features in OS X, but it's nice to know it's there. FileVault 2 (introduced in Lion; the original FileVault began in 10.3 Panther) can be very useful, especially for Mac users with sensitive information on their hard drives. The ability to lock down either a boot disk or a removable drive means additional security for Mac users when they need it. In Mountain Lion, Apple has made the encryption process easier and faster by adding a contextual menu option to the Finder. Removable drives can be encrypted simply by choosing the Encrypt option when you right-click (or control-click, or two-finger click -- we need a better word for that task) the drive icon. Note that only drives with a GUID partitioning setting can be encrypted, and the resulting encrypted volumes can only be read on other Macs running Lion or Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion also adds encryption as an option for Time Machine backups, and there's a new command-line tool (fdesetup, well-described by Rich Trouton) that allows third-party tools and system administrators to monitor and adjust FileVault settings. ML's FileVault can sync credentials with a directory system in enterprise environments, and the overall encryption scheme is in the process of certification under the US government's FIPS 140-2 standard, appropriate for "sensitive but unclassified information." Encrypting removable drives is now three-clicks easy, but if you want to encrypt your startup disk completely the process has not changed markedly from Lion. Head into System Preferences under Security & Privacy and choose the FileVault menu. You will need to turn on FileVault there. You'll also need to make sure Recovery HD is installed on your hard drive. It should have been when you first installed your system, but it may not have if something went wrong. Then you'll need to have a password for all users using the encryption. Once you activate FileVault, you'll get a recovery key, which is a last-ditch effort to recover your files if your password is lost or forgotten. After that, your files are locked down. You can use the computer normally, but if you ever lose your password and that recovery key (or if someone tries to sneak in without those), your files won't be accessible. There is an option to save the key with Apple itself, but you'll have to answer some other security questions to retrieve it. FileVault also offers an "instant wipe" feature, which will wipe the encryption key and all of your files from your Mac. So if you do encrypt your files and ever need to pass it on to someone else, you can be sure none of your secrets will make the trip. FileVault is a powerful feature, and if you need to keep a secret, it can make an important task very simple. Update: Clarified that the new features in Mountain Lion are the Finder contextual menu, encrypted TM backups and the command-line fdesetup tool, not the underlying FileVault 2 encryption. Our apologies for the mixup.Mountain Lion 101: Finder encryption via contextual menu (updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
App Store-Creators-Iphone
Tilt to Live was a fairly early hit on the iOS App Store. It used the iPhone's accelerometer to make a frantic but fun and addictive shooter. Now, developer One Man Left has released a very different game called Outwitters. We first saw the title at GDC earlier this year, and the final release version is just as nice as the one that was in development. The game offers up asynchronous turn-based strategy combat, in the same vein as Robot Entertainment's great Hero Academy. But there are a few big differences, the first being that the board is much bigger, and allows for a few new moves and turns. The backend is also built out a lot more. In addition to the usual games with friends and random players, there's a whole matchmaking league system, so the best players have a huge, well-run ladder to climb. There are three different races (one is free, and the others you'll need to buy), each with its own units and resources to deal with. In short, the game is gorgeous, perfectly designed and offers much turn-based action for players (like me, ahem) who really enjoy moving units around a board like this. Outwitters is a free, universal download, and everything in the in-game store is on sale right now for a limited time.Daily iPhone App: Outwitters is the new app from Tilt to Live creators originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Monday, 9 July 2012
Apple-Ios
Late last month, Wired covered the emergence of a cottage industry of businesses selling access to iOS developer betas prior to their official launch. Apple offers these developer betas to registered iOS developers. The fee for such a registration is $99/year. Some enterprising individuals have turned around and started selling their 100 possible device slots to users looking to install the iOS betas prior to their official launch.Behind the scenes, each service uses the same simple backdoor: Registered iOS developers can activate up to 100 unique device IDs (or UDIDs) for their account, an essential tool for testing apps on multiple devices. Once registered with Apple, the activated device is also able to run pre-release versions of iOS, though developers are forbidden from sharing pre-release software outside their own team.
Ignoring these warnings, activation services charge a small fee to add a customer’s device to their developer accounts. When they hit the 100-device limit, they just register a new account with Apple.This has been going on for a couple of years with no particular intervention from Apple. As Wired notes, it seems Apple just didn't seem to care, despite their wide availability.
That may have changed since the publication of the Wired article. MacStories has noted that many of the services listed in the original Wired article are no longer available. After reaching out to the sites, it seems that Apple has started taking action against these services. While most of our emails bounced, we heard back from one of the site owners (who asked to remain anonymous), who confirmed his hosting provider took down the site after a complaint for copyright infringement by Apple. Similarly, the CEO of Fused tweeted in a reply to Andy Baio that Apple had been “fairly heavy-handed” with DMCA requests to UDID-selling sites hosted on their network.MacStories exchanged emails with the owner of one of the services which made $75,000 since the release of the iOS 6 Beta in June. read more..
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Video Game Consoles-Component Video-Video Footage-Hd Pvr
Game capture is a bigger and bigger business lately -- with YouTube views earning money for partner channels, indie devs needing to capture video footage of their games, and lots of players just wanting to record their own gameplay for various purposes, there's a big call these days for full, HD video of gameplay captured from video game consoles. Hauppage has been making the HD PVR for a little while now: It's a run-through set-top box that's designed to capture video footage, specifically from a satellite or cable box (so you can record an HD TV signal as it comes in). But just a few months ago, Hauppage also introduced the HD PVR Gaming Edition, basically the same box, but designed to work directly with the top video game consoles: The PS3, Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii. And with the help of an app called HDPVRCapture, Hauppage's box works with your Mac computer. I've run the system through its paces, and I can say that despite some issues I had with setup (and a few missing features), the HD PVR Gaming Edition is an excellent way to capture high quality video game footage. Getting the unit plugged in was the hard part: All of my video game systems are well-ensconced in my entertainment center, so having to dive back into that tangle of wires was probably the hardest issue I had. For most of the capture, I used my PS3, so I had to pull the component cables out of my television, and then run the included cables with the HD PVR from the PS3 to the unit, and then a separate component cable from the PVR to the television. To go from the box to my Macbook, there was just a simple USB cable, so that part was super easy in comparison. The HD PVR itself has plenty of options: You can run through the component video hookups as I did (along with right and left audio), or run with Optical video out and in. On the front of the unit, there are also connections for SVideo, if you happen to be running that, or composite video from another console. The hookups on the box are solid, and the component video worked well. The HDPVRCapture software allows you to set a bitrate for recording the video, which mainly just affects hard drive usage (more video information obviously means more hard drive space used). To test, I first set the bitrate super low (at 1000 kbps), and as a result, the output video was grainy and hazy, albeit still usable. Running at a higher bitrate, however (I kicked it up to around 10000 kbps), creates really beautiful video -- full 1080i footage, perfect for playing on any HD television or projector (or, more likely, YouTube's HD settings). In fact, the video file that I created by running the device for about 30 minutes was so big and so HD that my little years-old Macbook actually had trouble running it, at least until I closed some other apps. Editing or even viewing video of that quality could be a problem if you have an old computer to work on. But most video editors will have computers much more powerful than my little laptop, so high quality video shouldn't be a problem. The HDPVRCapture software has plenty of options for recording and converting the video afterwards (the streams I recorded came out as .m2ts files, easily converted into .mp4 for playing on most video systems), and there are also controls for video light levels and sharpness, along with an option to hook up to iCal for a recording schedule (in case you do want to use this with a cable system to record TV shows). There's also a few network options, so you can hook up the software to automatically send recorded footage to a network drive, streaming it live or later on. I did have a few issues with Hauppage's box, however. First and foremost is the lack of an HDMI connection -- the component video looked great, but I usually run my PS3 with an HDMI cable, so to set the box up, I had to actually switch the system's video back over to component to use it. Elgato makes a competing box that only runs on HDMI, and since Apple sells an a read more..
Sunday, 1 July 2012
The International Space Station-Star Walk
The two bestselling astronomy apps, Star Walk and Solar Walk for iOS, can now find and track the Space X Dragon, the first commercial vehicle to visit the International Space Station. The Dragon was launched Tuesday. When you search for the spacecraft, you'll see it's current position. As I write this, it's in orbit next to the ISS. Using the augmented-reality feature, you likely can find the Dragon when it is in a good position overhead. I didn't try to find Dragon in the night sky, but it was easy to find on my iPhone. I could use the search command to find by name, or I could look on the last 30-day launches list. It appears centered on the screen in the correct orientation to the ISS and the star background. You also can get some specifics on the Dragon position and a bit of history. Use AirPlay mirroring and an Apple TV, and you can get it on the big screen, great for teachers or sharing with friends. I was interested in how the spacecraft was added so quickly to the app, and the developers told me they were contacted by the Space X people and wanted it added. Space X helped with the math and collaborated with Vito Technologies to get the 3D model correctly displayed. Star Walk is available for US$4.99. Solar Walk is a $2.99. Some screen shots are in the gallery below. Gallery: TheDragon spacecraft as seen in Star Walk for iOSStar Walk and Solar Walk apps now track the Space X Dragon originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 24 May 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Russian Hacker-Iphone 4-3D Maps-Ios
This had the smell of inevitability about it. Yes, a Russian hacker got 3D maps working on an iPhone 4. It's not complete and turn-by-turn directions aren't working yet, but it's a start. SlashGear has the story via Russian site iguides. There are instructions on the web, but they are not for the faint-of-heart and require the just released iOS6 jailbreak. I expect there are a lot of disappointed iPhone 4 users out there who are pretty upset that the maps app has so little functionality on their older phones. I could make a half-case for leaving the 3D flyovers off, but certainly turn-by-turn would have been nice to allow. Dozens of other apps have no trouble running on the iPhone 4 or even the 3G model. So readers, are you understanding about this Apple decision, or mad as hell? [via SlashGear]Russian hacker gets iOS 6 3D maps running on iPhone 4 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Game Developer-Disney Mobile-Game Tester
Disney Mobile has made a number of really smart moves over the past few years (starting with acquiring Tapulous, all the way up to allowing a game tester to make them a great game). Now here's another brilliant move: they've signed a deal with developers Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckynova (also known as the very nice married couple behind Imangi Studios) to help them make a Brave-branded version of Temple Run. The game itself is actually being put together by a third-party game developer, but Imangi had input on the finished product, and the deal has actually been in the works for quite a while, even before Imangi saw all of its astronomical success with the golden idol running game. Imangi told me at GDC this year that they were being careful about choosing partnerships, but apparently this partnership with Disney met with their approval. Temple Run Brave should be in the App Store for 99 cents on June 14 (though my guess is that given how popular Temple Run has been as a free game, it'll drop to free soon after that). Disney has shown a lot of insight into the App Store in the past, and this latest deal with a very hot indie studio is no exception.Disney taps indie studio for Temple Run Brave originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Monday, 25 June 2012
Mountain Lion-Mobileme
There was a good deal of gnashing of teeth, including mine, about the loss of MobileMe galleries which will vanish June 30 as MobileMe becomes iCloud. It was dead easy to take a collection of photos and get them on the web, so clients, friends, and grandma and grandpa could share the images. Apple today announced a halfway-but-welcome enhancement to Photo Stream in iOS 6. You will be able to select photos from your Photo Stream for sharing. You tap a share button, select the photo or photos, and out they go. Friends and family on iCloud who are running iOS get the photos delivered instantly. Macs running Mountain Lion get the apps in the Photos app or iPhoto. They also can be delivered to an AppleTV. Here's the big improvement: If they aren't running Apple software and hardware, they can see the photos on the web. It's not quite as slick as the MobileMe galleries, but seems just about as easy. Even better, the shared photo streams don't count against your storage on your iCloud account, and you can share over a WiFi or cellular network. Of course iWeb and many of the MobileMe features, like iDisk are dead, and if you had Apple hosting a MobileMe website, you've already been warned to clean it out before it vaporizes at the end of the month. Still, I was hoping Apple would offer some worthwhile photo sharing options, and we'll have them in iOS6 and Mountain Lion. Is the enhanced Photo Stream something you are happy about? Let us know in comments.Enhanced Photo Streams somewhat rescue soon-to-be-missing Galleries originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Sunday, 24 June 2012
Ios
This week’s roundup of iOS accessories will help you run, jump, and see the world around you just a little better than you could before. Here are some accessories that caught our eye. read more..
Ios
Scott Forstall has just revealed some pretty significant stats for iOS 5 and Apple's mobile operating system platform in general. Check 'em out:
- 365 million iOS devices have been sold (through March 2012) since the first iPhone went on sale in June 2007.
- 80% of iOS devices are running iOS 5. That's compared to only 7% of Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Android's OS -- which was released at the same time as iOS 5.
- There are 140 million iMessage users. One billion iMessages are sent per day and over 150 billion iMessages have been sent so far.
- Since adding Twitter support to iOS 5, Twitter usage on iOS devices have grown three-fold. 10 billion tweets have been sent from iOS 5 and 47% of photo's posted to Twitter come from iOS 5 devices.
- Game Center has 130 million active accounts. Five billion scores are recorded each week. Sixty-seven of the top 100 games have Game Center integration.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Interaction Sequences-Verification Tests-Automated Tests-Interactions-Test Suite
Telerik's free Test Studio for iOS offers an exciting new tool for developers. It allows you to record and execute automated tests in your mobile apps and websites. Users can also use the tool to provide feedback to your team as they test. Telerik worked closely with Apple to get this app into the iOS App Store, and it provides an astonishing utility to anyone who develops. It allows you to run tests in separate apps that you create. It also works with stand-alone websites. To make your app Test Studio-compatible, you do need to compile in a small static library so Test Studio can see it on your device or in the simulator. Website testing works straight out of the box. The test suite is aware of all installed applications that have been prepared for use with these tools. In the testing mode, you create a series of validation sequences. These sequences consist of interaction events, which you can record directly from your app, and verification tests, which you specify in the built-in action editor. These tests ensure that user interactions match certain expectations that you set. A special-purpose menu, which appears directly in-app, lets you pause, add tasks, and review the steps that you have already taken. Anyone who's used a UI recording tool will be familiar with this kind of interface. Nicely, the menu can be easily flipped out of your way if it obscures things you need to work with. A lot of work has gone into making this suite usable for developers. This app works in the simulator as well as on devices; it also works in off-line mode, so you can create your tests while on-the-go if you're away from the Internet. Once recorded, you can then play back these interactions directly to the app or website. The integrated library will simulate all user interactions in the test, and confirm that the interface matches all your verification targets. Since these sequences are stored outside of the app/website environment, you can test your evolving product as you work on new features and bug updates for each build. The test suite resumes control when tests fail, so you can inspect where and why the interaction sequences failed. A secondary mode allows you to deploy your app through ad-hoc testing to solicit user feedback. It offers in-app bookmarking, screen shots, and e-mail, so users can respond to you as they work with hands-on deployment during your testing phase. The app is available for free, with the developers monetizing through future cloud services. "The big thing for us," said spokesman Chris Eyhorn, "is offering a tool that scales for us from one-man development shops all the way up to the enterprise." He says they plan to offer free versions indefinitely, to be an active part of the Apple developer ecosystem. DevJuice: Test Studio for iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments read more..
Thursday, 21 June 2012
The Universe-Tim Cook-Blogger-Goatee-Ios
What's in iOS 6? When is it coming out? What devices can run it? We answer these questions and others by running down what you need to know about iOS 6. read more..
(Insider) The Macalope Daily: The universe where Tim Cook has a goatee
A CNet blogger lets his imagination run away with him. If only it had taken him further. (This story is viewable exclusively by Macworld Insider members.) read more..
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Apple Store-App Store-Ios
Apple today rolled out an update for its Apple Store [App Store] app for iOS devices, adding two new features to enhance the functionality of the app.
The first feature is support for Express Checkout, which has been available through the regular online store but is now available through the app as well. With Express Checkout, a user placing an online order can bypass the shopping cart system and simply click the "Buy Now" button and enter his or her password to complete the order. The order will automatically use the default billing and shipping information associated with the account. A preference allows users to specify whether Express Checkout should default to shipping purchases, picking up purchases, or asking each time.
The second new feature, which is only compatible with the iPhone 4S, allows users to alert Specialists at their local retail stores that they are arriving to pick up an order. Typically, users have had to find a Specialist upon arrival and wait for their orders to be collected, but with the new advance check-in system their orders can be ready the moment they walk in the door. read more..