Posts tagged with "iOS"

Hockey: An Open Source Platform For Distributing Ad-Hoc iOS Betas

Buzzworks has announced version one of a new open source platform for distributing ad-hoc betas to iOS testers called Hockey. As an alternative to TestFlight, Hockey faces stiff competition from developers seeking a “happy meal” solution for rapidly exchanging the latest iterations of applications with minimal setup. The immediate difference between TestFlight and Hockey comes down to the developer’s willingness or want to host their own their own apps: Hockey requires initial (though minimal) setup in combination with a PHP5 server. Arguably every developer has their own hosted nameapp.com website which they can utilize for this purpose, but what benefit does this provide to the developer? Satisfying the testers.

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Android Gains 22% Of Tablet Market, Becomes #1 Smartphone Platform by Shipments

According to two different reports surfaced this morning, Google’s Android mobile operating system has gained 22% of the tablet market share and has become the world’s leading smartphone platform with 33.3 million shipments in Q4 2010.

The first report, as noted by The Loop, details how Android-based tablets grabbed 22% of the market in the fourth quarter of 2010, and while the iPad is still “dominant”, the Samsung Galaxy Tab drove sales of tablets running Google’s OS.

Strategy Analytics sees continued growth for Android-based tablets in 2011 with the release of Motorola’s Xoom and other high-profile devices. The company expects that as more Android devices hit the market, media developers in the United States and elsewhere will increasingly support the devices with content.

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Macworld 2011: The Future of the Mac [Video]

Here’s a 48-minute video for your typical Sunday morning: at Macworld Expo 2011, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, Macworld’s Jason Snell and Dan Moren and Tidbits’ Adam Engst talk about the future of the Mac, the Mac App Store as the biggest innovation happening to the platform, the iOS influences on OS X and much more.

One argument that really made me think after watching the video is the idea of two kinds of Macs in the future: a “simplified Mac” with a closed system similar to iOS, and a Mac for advanced users. I don’t know how I would react to a closed, straightforward and really  simple Mac personally, but I do know that I would appreciate a new system for managing and deleting apps. Perhaps Launchpad will bring some fresh air on Lion. But then again, should Apple just make the Mac as simple as possible and let “power users” enable the features they want (like, say, the Finder) in the machine’s preferences? And how does the Mac App Store fit in all this? Great discussion in the video above.

Google Rolling Out “Instant Previews” for iOS Devices

In the past months, Google has been very busy improving the experience of iOS users on products like Gmail, Google Docs and the Google homepage: Google Docs editing came to Mobile Safari, then Google launched Instant for Mobile, which similarly to the desktop lets you see search results as you type. Most recently, Google has enabled Cloud Print support for Gmail in iOS Safari and improved the mobile weather widget on its homepage.

As noted by 9to5mac, Google has also begun testing a new feature for iOS browsers (and Android as well, we guess) which hasn’t been officially announced yet but was spotted by some users. Google “Instant Previews” will let you have a quick preview of a website by tapping on the magnifying glass icon – again, just like on desktop browsers you get a preview inside a popup menu on google.com. On iOS though, it looks like the feature will really be redesigned to sport a much better touch interaction: previews will open in a dedicated window that reminds of Safari’s tabs and you can flick through them to quickly preview search results.

It is unclear at this moment whether the feature is being tested among some users in the United States or worldwide, and when Google plans to launch it or at least announce it.

Coming Soon: iPhone Voice Control for Everything

Voice Control on the iPhone and iPod touch, in spite of the number of commands it supports, is far from “full-featured”. Sure you can ask the iPhone to play and pause music, even call people – but you can’t do more. A new tweak by developer chpwn, soon to be released in Cydia, will give more power to Voice Control by letting it open apps, launch URLs and perform any Activator action, like take a screenshot.

VoiceActivator will have a dedicated settings panel where you’ll be able to create the voice shortcuts you want, and have them recognized by iOS’ built-in support for voice command. So say you want to open MacStories in a new Safari page, assign “macstories” to a new action in VoiceActivator, speak it and Safari will launch. Just like that. Kind of fancy to show off to your friends, although I’m not really huge on the whole VoiceControl UI. Still, the possibilities VoiceActivator will open seem pretty neat.

The tweak will be released soon in Cydia. Demo video below. Read more

Rovio Announces “Angry Birds Rio”, Coming This March

There is a new Angry Birds game on the horizon, and this time it’ll be the result of an exclusive partnership between Rovio, the makers of the original game, and Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox. The game, named “Angry Birds Rio”, will be a crossover of Rovio’s series with the upcoming animated film Rio, which – guess what – tells the story of two birds, Blu and Jewel, that have to fight animal smugglers in Rio de Janeiro.

The new Angry Birds game will follow a plot similar to the movie: the original Angry Birds are kidnapped and taken to Rio de Janeiro, but they manage to escape and set out to save Blu and Jewel, the characters of the movie. Sounds like Rovio and 20th Century Fox really collaborated to make the series fit together – how couldn’t they, considering we’re talking about a blockbuster game and a new film from the creators of the Ice Age trilogy?

Angry Birds Rio will launch in March 2011 with 45 initial levels, and more will be added with software updates. The app will be released for “smartphone and tablets” – we guess iPhone and iPad support is pretty much obvious. No word on pricing yet, but we think $4.99 is the usual sweet spot. Full press release available here, and trailers of the movie and game embedded below. Read more

We Reviewed Berokyo For iPad: Now We’re Giving It Away

Berokyo is an app you never knew you needed until you actually get your hands on it: presenting a one of a kind management system that organizes your contacts, photos, documents, and media onto an array of bookshelves, you always have access to your most used content. We were especially excited by its capabilities with Dropbox, and now we have ten promocodes to giveaway thanks to the awesome developers at Think, Code, Release. Click past the break below for the full rundown of contest rules.

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