Posts tagged with "iPad"

The “Re-Imagined” TweetDeck 2.0 iPhone App Hits The App Store

TweetDeck has today released its completely new 2.0 iPhone app that has received a “Hollywood re-imagining”, being rebuilt from the ground up to be “fast, flexibe and full-on powerful.” The update, which has been a long time coming, adds a number of new features and improvements whilst retaining the “guiding principles” of the original.

One of TweetDeck’s new and innovative features is the use of pinching on a column to access the columns’ settings so that any combinations of Twitter timelines, mentions, DMs, Facebook feeds and so on can be merged into one customized column. The whole user interface has also been redesigned, following the direction that their Android and Chrome apps have gone in, and of course it now takes advantage of the Retina display.

Also improved is multiple account handling and gestures, which although not extensive as those present in Tweetbot, are greatly improved adding the ‘pull to refresh’ and pinch for column settings gestures and general improvements in swiping through your various feeds. Finally there is built-in Deck.ly support, letting you write those longer messages on Twitter without hassle.

The 2.0 version comes after “several months of feverish work” and a promised iPad revamp of the app is also coming in a Universal binary “in the next couple of weeks”. In fact technically TweetDeck 2.0 is not an update and the old versions of the app have been temporarily removed from the App Store to avoid confusion. So don’t go to the updates tab of the App Store, it won’t appear there, you’ll have to download the new TweetDeck app from the actual store.

Jump the break for some more screenshots of the new update.

[Via TechCrunch]

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Apple No Longer Pursuing “POD” Trademark

Seven years in the making, Apple is giving up on pursuing the POD trademark. While this doesn’t have an effect on on Apple’s iPod brand, it does open up the opportunity for competitors to brand their products using the POD nomenclature. Patently Apple makes this point clear:

Any competitor who wishes to brand a device with the word “Pod” is able to do so without any legal ramifications from Apple. That should make copycats like Samsung, very happy indeed. Will someone try to introduce something like an “ePod” device in the future? – Yes, more than likely.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has published Apple’s abandonment, citing April 13th, 2011 as the day Apple dropped the trademark. Although Apple is no longer pursuing securing the Pod trademark, do they have anything to worry about? The iPod is a household name, and consumers are every skeptical of “copycat” products in the marketplace. You only need to look at iPad and MP3 competitors to see how well Apple dominates, and I doubt anyone else using the word “POD” is going to confuse Apple educated consumers.

[via Patently Apple]

Kickstarter Project: Smart Shell - iPad 2 Case That Works with Smart Covers

Alex Britton of SnapCases.com has an idea to keep the back of your iPad 2 scratch free while letting you use the Apple Smart Cover you have purchased - the Smart Shell.

Apple’s Smart Cover doubles as a screen protector and a stand; it even turns your device off or on when hiding or revealing the screen. The Smart Cover doesn’t offer complete protection to the back of the iPad 2, so it is still exposed to scratches and dents. The Smart Shell helps out where the Smart Cover doesn’t, it’s a 0.8 milimeter thin shell and prevents those ugly scratches and dents. Additionally, it comes in a clear color so you can still show off that beautiful Apple logo. The Smart Cover snaps right onto the back of the iPad leaving space to attach the Smart Cover.

Video after the break. Read more

Apple Facing Regulatory Scrutiny In South Korea Over Location Log File

The commotion over that iOS log file, which can to some extent, track the movements of your iPhone or 3G iPad is definitally not fading away. Bloomberg, is today reporting that South Korea’s communication regulator is investigating the issue to see whether or not Apple is breaking South Korean law.

The Korea Communications Commission has issued Apple a series of questions over what information is collected and saved and whether users have a choice over whether it is saved or deleted. Furthermore it has asked Apple to clarify why such data exists and whether it is at all stored on the company’s servers. The Commission has also been formed to investigate how to increase privacy protection for smartphone users.

Earlier today we reported on an email from Steve Jobs in which he said of the issue “We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.” It comes after US Senator Al Franken last week called for an explanation for the file, saying, “it raises serious privacy concerns”. The researchers who discovered the file demonstrated that the log file in question records an approximate location of an iPhone or 3G iPad based on cellular tower vicinity and is presumed to exist either for battery performance or as a reference for the device. Many believe that it is either a bug or oversight that the device does not periodically delete the log file.

[Via Bloomberg]

A market for iPads, not for tablets→

A market for iPads, not for tablets

Apple seems to have captured something with the iPad that is far more than just a tablet-shaped computer. They hit upon some “X factor” in the combination of the pleasing physical design of the iPad, and the simple, intuitive and pleasing look-and-feel of a user interface.

This X-factor, whatever it is, will be very hard to duplicate by companies that aren’t Apple. Other companies will build products to compete with it, but they’ll never manage to build anything that comes close to what consumers see as the real thing. In fact, I’m not sure that tablets will ever be a space where numerous brands with strong product offerings will constantly fight it out for market share. The “front-runner and also-rans” dynamic will always exist.

I wouldn’t be surprised if many critics would argue (with a fair bit of snark) that the x-factor is the Apple logo alone. However, people who’ve gotten their hands on the iPad and have explored the App Store ecosystem know the iPad is much more than just good looks wrapped around a mediocre OS. Apple gets both hardware and software right: whatever you think of their multitasking solution or lack of openness, the “limited” features critics bash it for work a hundred times better than the “real deal” competitors are supposed to be offering. Everything on the iPad is fluid, simply just works, and for the “lack of features,” no one seems to be complaining about missing anything once they’ve set up their iPad. Apple is smart to know that they’re going to implement features and make that experience perfect before shipping lots of features that are half baked. This is what puts Apple above the competition.

Not to pick on the Xoom as there are other competitors, but I’ll be blunt when I say it’s a joke. Honeycomb is jittery as you scroll and navigate apps, Adobe still can’t get Flash to run buttery smooth on something that’s dual-core (Flash being an advertised feature that’s supposed to just work), and Motorola shipped the Xoom without 4G and an unusable SD card slot. Apple would never ship a product like this, which is why the delay has been so great on the white iPhone (presumably an issue revolving around light sensitivity with the proximity and camera sensors). If Apple does have a software bug in their product, they promptly fix it with an update via iTunes. Aren’t those 3G Honeycomb tablets at the mercy of the carriers? Android feels messy - this is why the masses don’t want to buy these tablets.

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iPad App Takes You Behind The Scenes of Portal 2

The Final Hours of Portal 2 is a new iPad app that combines a 15,000 word article with lots of audio, video and other interactive elements (some never before seen) to tell the story of the development and evolution of Portal 2 - perfect for those of you who (like me) love Portal. It’s written by Geoff Keighley, who also wrote “The Final Hours of Half-Life” which kick-started his career in game journalism, and like that first insight, he was again given extensive access to Valve’s offices and employees.

It really is more than just a 15,000-word essay on Portal 2, the interactive elements and multimedia in the app is really done well, definitely exceeding what the Wired app does in its iPad editions. Some of the most interesting elements include user polls, failed experiments by Valve, insights into a shelved Portal prequel and early versions of that memorable end-credits song by Jonathon Coulton.

The Final Hours of Portal 2 is on the App Store for $2 and whilst it is only on available on the iPad at this stage, Keighley is open to expanding it onto other platforms and devices if the iPad app does well and there is demand for it.

[Via MacNN]