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1) eBooks outnumber games in the App Store
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/ebooks-outnumber-games-in-the-app-store/
Filed under: App Store, iPad
The number of eBooks in the App Store has surpassed the number of games for the first time, and the spread is widening. Mobclix, a mobile device advertising agency, reports that as of last month, there were over 27,000 eBook apps while games were relegated to the runner-up position of 25,400 apps. Over the last reported month, new introductions of eBook apps more than doubled that of games (158 eBook versus 71 game apps).
There are a number of reasons being kicked around to explain this phenomenon. It's easier to churn out an eBook than a game app. There are more free eBook than gaming apps, since many of the eBooks are out-of-copyright classics or collections of free content; this lowers the cost of development. Once an eBook engine is built it's fairly trivial to use the framework for another book. Currently there are over 10 times more free eBook [...]
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2) Automatically open Bittorrent files using Dropbox and Hazel
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/automatically-open-bittorrent-files-using-dropbox-and-hazel/
Filed under: Internet, Internet ToolsEvery year there is a torrent made to let listeners download most of the music for SXSW. This year's torrent has recently been posted (previous years' are also available at the same site). I don't usually use Bittorent, so I asked around for client suggestions; Transmission seems to be a favorite among several of my TUAW colleagues.
I also remembered a tip from my friend Guillermo Esteves (who did the awesome Star Wars crawl using only HTML and CSS), about using Dropbox to start torrents remotely. Guillermo provides some detailed instructions for Transmission and µTorrent to set them up to "watch" a folder for new .torrent files, with an important caveat to make sure that you don't download the files to your Dropbox.
One additional Transmission tip: be sure that you un-check the box next to "Display 'adding transfer' options window" so that files [...]
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3) GDC 2010: From concept to Top Paid with Unity iPhone
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/gdc-2010-from-concept-to-top-paid-with-unity-iphone/
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer
Unity Technologies hosted the sponsored lunch panel during GDC 2010 today, and their "product evangelist" Tom Higgins gave a quick rundown of the software platform that enables developers to assemble and release games extremely quickly on multiple platforms.
The company was actually founded in Denmark, but has since expanded around the world with just two products: Unity Pro and Unity iPhone Pro. The second product, as you might imagine, allows developers to put together an application that can then be exported out into an Xcode project and released on the App Store. Higgins said that they've had over 90,000 people download the software since it was released for free last fall, and that more than 500 games in the App Store were authored by Unity.
He also ran a short demo of the software at the panel. While some of the coding got a little [...]
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4) Black Swan brings Google Voice back to the iPhone without the App Store
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/black-swan-brings-google-voice-back-to-the-iphone-without-the-ap/
Filed under: iPhone, App ReviewGoogle Voice on the iPhone has been something of a sore subject for me. If you need a full-recap of the whole sordid iPhone/Google Voice story see this story from December or more of our coverage. I even started a little site devoted to waiting for Google Voice on the iPhone called IsGoogleVoiceAvailableForTheiPhone.com.
It has been 6 months and 19 days since Apple claimed it had not "rejected" Google Voice but was "studying" it. During the course of Apple's "study" the company moved to purge all existing Google Voice apps from the App Store.
There were three reactions to this from developers:
Google revamped the Mobile Google Voice page so that it looks a lot nicer on the iPhone.
GV Mobile released its app for free on Cydia for those who have jailbroken iPhones.
The folks behind Voice Central went a different route. They decided to make a web app instead. [...]
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5) Daily Deals for March 9, 2010
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/daily-deals-for-march-9-2010/
Filed under: DealsToday's deals are all generated from a friendly search-based robot courtesy DealNews. We didn't pick 'em this time, so no warranties expressed or implied. Aol uses a referral code for these deals.
Apple Store: [iPods] Refurbished Apple iPod touch MP3 Players from $139 + free shipping
iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] App Store Price Drops: Pocket Heart, Diner Dash, Magellan RoadMate, more
MacUpdate Promo: [Security/Anti-Virus Software] Lockngo 4 for Mac downloads for $10
Buy.com: [Networkable Hard Drive (NAS)] Linksys NMH300 Two-Bay Media Hub for $130 + free shipping
eBay: [Supplies] Quartet Magnetic Dry-Erase Board for $8 + free shipping
Buy.com: [802.11g Wireless] Zyxel 802.11g Wireless Powerline Router for $40 + free shipping
Adorama: [Printers] Canon SELPHY ES30 Compact Dye Sublimation Printer for $50 + free shipping
Dell Home: [40" - 42" LCD TVs] [...]
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6) Microsoft updates Office for Mac 2008 and 2004
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/microsoft-updates-office-for-mac-2008-and-2004/
Filed under: Productivity, Software Update
Microsoft has just released updates to the 2004 and 2008 versions of Microsoft Office. According to the company, the updates, which weigh in at 9.7 MB and 221.5 MB respectively, provide "fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code" as well as improvements to stability and performance.
The update for Microsoft Office 2004 can be downloaded here, while those with the 2008 version can find it at this link.
As with most Mac OS X-related updates, whether from a third party app or a system update, you should consider backing up your data before proceeding.
Keep in mind, as you install this update, that right around the corner is Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. Notable updates for the next version of the suite for the Mac include the replacement of Entourage with Outlook, [...]
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7) Slate comes to the iPhone, along with a lot of advertising
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/slate-comes-to-the-iphone/
Filed under: Multimedia, Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch, App ReviewI've always liked Slate Magazine on the web. It's sometimes sassy and irreverent, but always interesting -- an eclectic mix of politics, culture and tech news.
Now, Slate has come to the iPhone in a US$1.99 app that features all the articles from the site, as well as the blog posts, staff tweets and streaming video from the Slate podcasts. Once content is downloaded you can read it off-line, which is a worthwhile feature. Access to Slate on the web is free, and you can read Slate from any mobile browser by going to mobile.slate.com.
So why the charge for the iPhone app? Slate says it cost something to develop it, and it gives you a much richer experience in a portable form. I can't argue with that, but I can argue with the ads that appear absolutely everywhere. Even the splash screen popped up with an ad. I think [...]
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8) GDC 2010: Ngmoco explains how Eliminate was built
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/gdc-2010-ngmoco-explains-how-eliminate-pro-was-built/
Filed under: Gaming, Software, Other Events, Developer, iPhone
The 2010 Game Developers Conference kicks off today in San Francisco, and TUAW is in attendance to check out the latest and greatest in iPhone game development. The conference boasts a whole track dedicated to iPhone gaming this year, and all week long, we'll be bringing you panels, news, and interviews straight from the conference floor. This morning, panel number one was from Stephen Detwiler and James Marr, two engineers at Ngmoco, to talk to developers about how they put the server software together for Eliminate, the "freemium" first person shooter that's serving as their flagship app lately.
tweetmeme_url = "http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/gdc-2010-ngmoco-explains-how-eliminate-pro-was-built/" tweetmeme_source = "tuaw"
As they explained during the presentation, they had a heck of a goal with this project: they wanted [...]
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9) Report: RIAA pressured Apple into creating iTunes LP
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/report-riaa-pressured-apple-into-creating-itunes-lp/
Filed under: iTS, Retail, iTunes, Apple
This feature over at GigaOM has quite a few interesting insights about the iTunes LP program -- while Apple sells it wholeheartedly as "the visual experience of the record album," it appears the story behind the story is not quite so clean. According to an anonymous source in the industry (note, not Apple themselves), the service didn't come from Cupertino. Instead, it was designed by record companies, and agreed to by Apple as a "concession" to "make a gesture in favor of album sales." The piece also states that Apple subsidized the creation of the first few "LPs," some of which cost up to $60,000 to assemble and license.
As you might expect with any other less-than-popular product at Apple, iTunes LP isn't exactly being thrown into the spotlight, either. While a much more visual music experience would be perfect for the iPad, GigaOM notes that [...]
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10) Tekken bound for the iPhone
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/tekken-bound-for-the-iphone/
Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, App StoreNamco is bringing the popular Tekken franchise to the iPhone. It's not confirmed whether it's a port of the original game -- released back in 1994 in arcades, then on the PlayStation -- or the current Tekken 6.
This comes a few weeks after Capcom announced the release of Street Fighter IV for the iPhone, leading to an eventual fighter game showdown in the App Store. While both games on the iPhone is pretty awesome, I'm waiting to see how they will look and play on the iPad. I also wouldn't mind seeing even more Namco titles on the iPhone - especially selections from the Tales RPG franchise.
Namco has a number of games in the store, including classics like Galaga, which was "remixed" for the iPhone, Burger Time Deluxe, which graced arcades way back in 1982!
Here's hoping for old-school Tekken.
[Via Gizmodo]TUAWTekken bound for the iPhone [...]
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11) EFF releases iPhone developer license agreement
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/eff-releases-iphone-developer-license-agreement/
Filed under: Developer, iPhoneIn a step towards transparency, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has made the entire iPhone Developer Program License Agreement available for the general public. This is the document that all iPhone developers must agree to when they become part of the iPhone developer program.
As EFF points out, public copies of the license agreement are pretty scarce thanks to developers being locked under a non-disclosure agreement as part of the contract. EFF used the Freedom of Information Act to get its copy from NASA, which is the version from approximately a year ago (Rev. 3-17-09). The agreement has been updated since then.
The EFF characterizes the agreement as "a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn," and that's not an overstatement. Some of the clauses and conditions in the Apple developer agreement do smack of "our field, our ball, our [...]
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12) Found Footage: Deconstructing the iPad Ad
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/found-footage-deconstructing-the-ipad-ad/
Filed under: Found Footage, iPad
Neil Curtis, the guy behind the adjective-filled iPad mashup video we presented last month, has taken the iPad commercial shown on the Oscar broadcast and clarified it. Our own Sang Tang did a graphical breakdown of the ad's focus earlier today, so this is a nice companion piece.
In his version, he slowed down the ad to 15% speed, which gives you a much better idea of what's really going on. He also comments on a few 'Emperor's New Clothes' moments like switching models in mid-stream and how a graphic dragged into text continues to move without any user intervention. Take a look at this iPad video and see what else you can find.TUAWFound Footage: Deconstructing the iPad Ad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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13) FileMaker 11 now available with charting, reporting improvements
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/filemaker-11-now-available/
Filed under: SoftwareApple subsidiary FileMaker has been busy; the flagship database app grows by another leap today with the release of version 11. We were lucky enough to get a pre-release demo at Macworld Expo in February and were duly impressed. As someone who's been using FileMaker since version 6, I'm thrilled with some of the additions to this update; let's get to it.
Launch
Right off the bat, the introduction screen is new (after the splash screen "wobbles" into view). It's wider with more options, like a link to the online resource center. There you'll find video tutorials, starter solutions (more on that later) and access to consultants. They're all extremely useful and aimed at users and developers alike.
Charts
The big news starts with built-in support for charts. For years, developers and users have employed plug-ins and other 3rd-party solutions to get charting done, [...]
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14) iPad will lack some standard iPhone apps at launch
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/ipad-will-lack-some-standard-iphone-apps-at-launch/
Filed under: Hardware, Software, App Store, iPadWired's Brian X. Chen noticed that Apple's iPad press release touts "12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad." Take a look at the screenshot at right and you'll see twelve apps: Videos, iPod, Maps, Photos, Mail, Safari, App Store, iTunes, YouTube, Contacts, Calendar and Notes. That means a few apps that ship with the iPhone -- Stocks, Calculator, Clock, Weather and Voice Memos -- are missing.
Thus, the mystery begins. Where are The Final Five? Chen suggests that they'll be released as free apps in the App Store. John Gruber believes that design problems caused the team (specifically, Steve Jobs) to withhold the apps. I agree with John and Brian.
Consider the calculator app. It looks great on the iPhone, as the iPhone is about the size of a pocket calculator. If it were simply "blown up" to accommodate the iPad's screen, [...]
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15) Found Footage: iPad intro video as captioned by Google
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/found-footage-ipad-intro-video-as-captioned-by-google/
Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, iPad
Update: Some folks aren't seeing the captions. To ensure that you do, click the right disclosure arrow then make sure "CC" is selected. Next to "CC," select "Transcribe audio." It should be on by default, but if not, that's how to fix it.
Auto-captioning, introduced last year by YouTube in a pilot test, uses voice recognition to create text captions for uploaded videos (via the same massively distributed approach that Google uses for machine translation, and with the same underlying engine that Google Voice uses to transcribe voicemail). Just last week the feature was opened up to all YouTube uploaders -- but apparently it still struggled with the iPad introduction video, with unintentionally hilarious results. I now want "and it helps so many basic technology of the applications the baltic countries are going" on a t-shirt.
Yes, you've might [...]
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16) Steve Ballmer compliments Apple, Hell freezes over
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/steve-ballmer-compliments-apple-hell-freezes-over-needs-pic/
Filed under: Apple Corporate, RumorsThe Seattle Times is reporting that Steve Ballmer, who notoriously laughed at the iPhone, had some good things to say about it last week in a speech he gave at the computer-science building at the University of Washington. "Apple's done a very nice job that allows people to monetize and commercialize their intellectual property," he said.
Ordinarily, a comment like this might not be significant, but in this case it adds fuel to the fire that Apple will replace Google with Bing as the default search engine in the next iPhone OS. Google and Apple are increasingly at odds and it's possible that Apple may see an alliance with Microsoft as a way to stave off Google's mobile growth.
For Microsoft, a deal that puts Bing on the iPhone would be a huge win as mobile search is becoming increasingly common. Smart phones are becoming more mainstream and the [...]
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17) Postbox adds Things and OmniFocus support
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/postbox-adds-things-and-omnifocus-support/
Filed under: Software, ProductivityThe first time I heard about Postbox, it was a relatively new email client for the Mac. Based on the details in the first announcement and my trial run, I was very intrigued. I recall telling the rest of TUAW that -- if its stated goals were achieved -- it had the potential to take over my Mail.app setup.
See, I love my setup, but everything that I really like about Mail has been added by plugins, and those plugins require a certain performance and stability sacrifice. It would be bittersweet to part with everything I've built there, but it would be a welcome change if it were a step up. With better task management, great search features, tabbed views, a plugin architecture and more, Postbox has always struck me as a serious challenger.
Since the last time we mentioned it, Postbox (which is Mozilla-powered) has continued to become more Mac-like, with [...]
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18) A look at the framework of Apple's iPad ad
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/a-look-at-the-framework-of-apples-ipad-ad/
Filed under: iPad
The iPad, like the iPhone, used the Oscars to make its ad debut. As is typical with an Apple ad, the iPad's ad featured a montage of different uses for the device, all while set to the backdrop of a catchy tune.
In making his case for the iPad, Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that it would offer a better experience than a smartphone and a notebook computer in the following areas:
Browsing
Email
Photos
Videos
Music
Games
eBooks
The iPad's first ad reflects this ideal. The ad, when analyzed based on the on-air time dedicated to a particular function, reveals a device that will be marketed for jack-of-all-trades functionality, with a particular focus on its media consumption appeal and differentiation.
About 80 percent of all 720 frames (30 seconds of total ad's total time multiplied by 24 frames per second) of the iPad's ad showed an app being used. And within this [...]
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19) CBS Sports March Madness app will stream your games live
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/09/cbs-sports-march-madness-app-will-stream-your-games-live/
Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
I'm much more of a baseball fan (go Cubs!), but of course it is now March, and that means college basketball is about to heat up. CBS Sports has now released an official March Madness On Demand app, and just like the great MLB iPhone app, this one also offers streaming video on demand of 63 March Madness games. Video even comes over 3G and EDGE, so no matter where you are, you'll be able to keep up to date on what's happening in the big tournament. The app also offers scores and bracket updates (so you can see how your picks are playing out), as well as connections to Facebook and Twitter, so you can do a little trash-talking, too.
There is a lite version that offers up just scores and news, but the US$9.99 premium version gives you live video of all the games, and/or audio broadcasts as they happen from [...]
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