Apple has an official Twitter account for the App Store, appropriately named @appstore, which promises “official App Store tweets including featured apps, exclusive offers, and more.”
The first post from the account came only a few hours ago, but there are already 80,000 followers signed up.
One of the questions that people have had with the Mac App Store was the question of “discoverability” of apps on the store that aren’t “featured” or on the “top” lists; hopefully this account will be one more way for Apple to get the word out about new apps that you might not otherwise hear about. If you aren’t a Twitter user, you can always follow the RSS feed for the account. If you’re on Facebook, App Store is there, too.
Apple started the countdown to 10 billion earlier in the week with a counter on its homepage, so we knew the time was near. The are hundreds of thousands of apps to chose from in the App Store in a number of categories.
As of this writing Apple has not said who downloaded the 10 billionth app or what that app was. The page on the company’s Web site announcing the 10 billionth app says the winner is Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK.
Davis downloaded Paper Glider, an app that tests how far can you flick and fly a paper plane.
For downloading the 10 billionth app Davis will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift card from Apple.
Nearly two months after a licensing issue arose between the creators of the open-source VLC platform and creators of the VLC iOS application, Apple has removed the application from their App Store.
If that wasn’t enough, Courmont’s response to Apple pulling the VLC app from the App Store comes off as incredibly spiteful: ” At last, Apple has removed VLC media player from its application store.
But this time, the removal of one of the most popular free apps for iPhone and iPad has nothing to do with Apple and the app review team’s rules.
The situation is one of the prominent examples of conflict between the open-source GNU General Public License, which is tied to the VLC player, and the terms detailed in Apple’s own App Store licensing.
In a move that’s sure to make users stand up and say “Hallelujah,” the latest update to the Skype app for iPhone finally adds video calling.
The newest version of the app will allow users to make video Skype to Skype calls from their iPhone via Wi-Fi and 3G, and also call Skype desktop users on both OS X and Windows (and we presume their sorely neglected Linux users), as well as those using Skype on their iPhones and iPads.
Naturally, if you’re on an iPad, you won’t get to send video back — and you have to deal with the iPhone interface since there isn’t a native Skype app for the iPad. But, iPad 2 could change that. If the new hardware is released with a camera, Skype will be ready for it, and hopefully with an iPad-optimized app as well.
So, have fun with video chatting via Skype and let us know what you think of it in the comments!
Thanks for the fast tip, Daniel!
NFC technology comes to the iPhone 4 thanks to the Japanese
carrier SoftBank, which is offering Sony’s FeliCa payment system
for the iPhone 4. The system includes an NFC-enabled “seal” that
affixes to the back of the iPhone 4 and is compatible with the
official Apple bumper case. From the carrier’s press release, the
system functions independent of the iPhone, so you do not have to
install specialized software for the system to work. Three
different vendor systems will be available including those from
WAON, Nanaco and Edy, a bitWallet solution. This NFC solution will
be available for ¥2,980 (US$36) starting February 2011. Of course,
iPhone customers interested in NFC technology may want to wait for
the iPhone 5 to arrive. The next generation iPhone may include an
integrated NFC chip that would let you use your smartphone as an
electronic wallet, a security passkey or even an eTicketing device
for concerts, conferences and more. Such capabilities would boost
the iPhone above the Android-powered Nexus S, which is being used
in an NFC pilot program for local businesses in Portland,
Oregon.
WordPress for iOS has updated to version 2.6, which adds the ability to record video from within the app and upload it to a blog.
Other improvements include an overhaul of locally saved drafts, which brings it more in line with the web version — including the ability to autosave while the post is being written. Also, version 2.6 implements a full media library within the app.
WordPress for iOS 2.6 is a free download from the App Store and available now.
Just made iPhone version of Nepali Calendar. Want to have Nepali Calendar on your iPhone? It is very simple to integrate.
1) Open this link (http://www.ashesh.com.np/calendarlink/calendar.php) on safari browser
2) adjust the view size
3) tap on ‘+’ sign and
4) tap on add to home screen.
This will add Nepali Calendar icon on your iPhone home screen.
Whenever you want to see Nepali Calendar , just tap tap it on your home screen.
Here is the desktop version of Nepali Calendar.
Security firms are warning of a vulnerability in Apple’s iOS for iPhone, iPad and iPod.
Symantec said that it could be exploited by remote attackers to take
complete control of a vulnerable device .
Experts said that the threat, at present, only exists on paper but that Apple need to issue a fix before it becomes a reality.
Apple said that the company was aware of the report and was investigating.
The problem lies in the way Apple’s Mobile Safari handles Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.
As the browser automatically opens PDF files, a hacker could embed malicious code into this file. Read more…
You have probably seen the term “HTML5″ if you have read any of the recent articles about Apple and Flash. HTML5 is a new web page coding standard in advanced stages of development. Among other goals, it aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-ins and add-ons (Flash, Silverlight, Java, etc.).
HTML4 came out more than a dozen years ago, when the web was just a toddler, and it is in serious need of spiffing up. HTML5 introduces new elements and attributes, including <nav> for navigation and <footer> for the bottom of a page. The elements <audio> and <video> will provide additional media functionality. Some old elements, including <font> and <center>, are being dropped in favor of cascading style sheets (CSS). In addition, HTML5 specifies new application programming interfaces (APIs) for drawing, offline storage of data, document editing, and drag-and-drop functionality.
Before: HTML4 After: HTML5 Read more…
Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers–Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products–but beyond that there are few joint interests.
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven–they say we want to protect our App Store–but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain. Read more…
