Posts tagged with "iOS"

Google Introduces New Ad Formats for iPad Devs

In case you can’t wait for iAds to show up on the iPad and there’s no way you’re going to charge for your free app, Google has just launched new ad formats specifically targeted to iPad apps developers. (based in US and Canada)

Google explains in a blog post:

“The new iOS SDK supports ad serving in iPad apps using three of the most common online ad formats, instantly making it easier for developers to grow their businesses and for advertisers to expand their presence to the iPad.

Advertisers whose campaigns run on the Google Display Network and include text or image ads in the above sizes can now show ads within iPad applications – provided their campaigns are targeting mobile devices or specifically the iPad.”

Here’s my suggestion, though. If you really care about the look of your application, look elsewhere. Wait for iAds. Make it paid. Think about it.

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Super Prober: Sort Of Like Chrome for iPad, Gone Wrong

Two years of App Store and I still haven’t found a decent alternative to Mobile Safari. Something I could keep on my homescreen for more than 2 days. The reason is obvious: you are not Apple. Developing a browser is not like building a Twitter client: we’re talking about the primary tool to access the web here. And if Apple ships an almost state-of-the-art mobile browser by default, well then - sorry if I don’t trust you.

Mobile Safari is a simple application that lets you navigate the web, we call it “browser”. Developing a browser for a cellphone is a difficult task: you don’t have windows, you don’t have tabs, favicons don’t make sense on a small screen. Also, the elegant interface of the iPhone makes it really hard to implement features seen in desktop browser without looking awkward.  Have you seen Opera Mini? Exactly.

But the iPad is magical, right? It’s got a larger display, it’s a tablet, you can put your hands on it! Let’s develop a full-featured browser for the iPad! Not so fast, cowboy. For as much as the iPad is indeed bigger and more suitable to richer applications, take a second look at what Apple offers: Safari for the iPad is, again, simple. Sure, it has those beautiful thumbnail previews for open tabs. Sure, there’s a bookmark bar. Still, it doesn’t overwhelm you with dozens of features that would probably look cool in the App Store description page, but kill usability. Mercury Browser, I’m looking at you.

It turns out, though, someone decided to develop some kind of Chrome-like browser for the iPad and call it Super Prober. I went into the App Store and bought it. Here’s what happened.

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Flickit Pro 2.1 Released with Background Uploading to Flickr

Flickit Pro, the Green Volcano Software client for Flickr.com, was updated to version 2.1 last night, which brings full support for iOS 4 and iPhone 4. Besides improved video quality upload and overall upload speeds, version 2.1 brings the much-request background uploading to Flickr and UI optimizations for the Retina Display.

I’ve been beta testing Flickit Pro 2.1, and it works like this: in the Settings you can choose to hide / show a notification for when the upload is complete. Choose some photos, send them to Flickr, close the app and they will be uploaded anyway. It works really well.

Personally, I think Flickit Pro is the best Flickr client for the iPhone. The new and improved version makes it even better. Available at $4.99 in the App Store.

Over-the-Air Updates for iOS Beta Apps? Yes, Please.

Writing for MacStories, I test many beta versions of new applications coming out for the iPhone and iPad. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the situation, but installing betas on iOS devices is a pain: you have to download the app’s file and the .mobileprovision profile, add them to iTunes, sync and hope that iTunes doesn’t screw up. With each version of the beta (Beta 1, Beta 2, Beta 3…) you have to repeat these steps.

Now we have a solution to this problem: an upcoming open source framework that will allow beta apps to update over the air by directly contacting the developer’s servers, without the need of syncing the device via iTunes. Pretty much like Mac applications do.

I’m seriously looking forward to this. [via Ken Yarmosh]

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First Look: Cloud2go, a CloudApp Client for iPhone

Cloud was one of the hottest app released for Mac OS X last year. Clever marketing techniques (remember the “every Mac user’s wet dream”?), invite-only beta, a great “Raindrops” plugin system: Cloud app quickly became for many the de-facto standard to share stuff on the web. Whether you want to upload and share links, pics, archives or documents, Cloud is perfect: powered by an elegant web view and beautiful short URL (cl.ly), I’m still using it.

Now you know what’s missing from the Cloud ecosystem: a mobile version. And that’s exactly what Cloud2go is all about: it’s the first unofficial iPhone client for CloudApp.

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ITV Executives Planning to Sue Apple Over Some Rumors

A few days ago Engadget posted a scoop about Apple’s plans for the upcoming new Apple TV: iOS integration, no 1080p support, new brand. According to Engadget, the new name should be “iTV” - which sounds pretty likely if you ask me, considering that Apple has recently put a lot of products under the “i-” prefix.

Now, there’s a very little problem. There’s a major UK broadcaster called “ITV” and its executives are getting furious over these Apple speculations and are planning to sue Steve Jobs and all his crew.

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Time Warner Cable Prototype iPad App [Video]

Time Warner Cable is working on an official application for the iPad, not publicly available yet, and they’re showing it off in a series of videos where TWC CEO Glenn Britt, CTO Mike LaJoie, VP of Web Services Jason Gaedtke and Director of Digital Communications Jeff Simmermon discuss the future of their online services and the possibilities that new devices like the iPad create for content publishers.

Even in its early development stages, the app looks good. It embeds a TV guide, and allows you to schedule recording with a few taps. Another section of the application lets you stream content to the iPad, but it’s still unknown whether the first version of the application will allow you to sync the status of your watched shows across multiple devices.

Check out the video below, and find other vides of the discussions here, here, and here. [via Engadget]

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OmniFocus for iPad Reinvented My GTD Workflow

To me, GTD apps used to be worse than Twitter clients on the iPhone before Tweetie: ephemeral.

Yes, even worse than financial apps: I didn’t know how to choose one and keep rolling with it. You know - that new kid on the block could be better and has a beautiful UI. You know the drill. I was a GTD user who couldn’t manage to find an actual GTD to get going with. To better understand the situation, it’s important to specify the workflow I used to have, and the one I have now. Before the iPad came out, I organized all my tasks and projects on my Mac (whether in a desktop app or online service) and didn’t really care about achieving a cloud-based workflow. I had an iPhone (a 3GS, to be exact) but I just didn’t see it as a device to carry my GTD database around. I tried Things, iCal to-dos, Basecamp, Backpack - all sorts of productivity apps / project management tools out there. None of them survived.

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