Posts tagged App Store Apps
Netflix app updated to support iPhone, iPod touch
Aug 26th
It’s taken a while but Netflix has finally updated their iOS app to universal binary — that’s right, it now supports not only iPad but iPhone and iPod touch as well.
“Apple has changed the game for mobile devices,” said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and chief executive officer. “We’re excited that our members can now carry Netflix around in their pockets and instantly watch movies and TV shows streamed from Netflix right to their iPhone or iPod touch.”
Requires iOS 3.1.3 or higher, and works over both Wi-Fi and 3G.
If anyone has tried it out yet, let us know how it’s working for you.
Netflix app updated to support iPhone, iPod touch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
iDygest for iPhone – app review
Aug 23rd
iDygest is just what it sounds like — an app that will congregate all feeds Apple into one sleek timeline for you to browse through. I know I have quite a few iRelated websites that I browse through everyday, I’ve even got an Apple group in Google Reader that syncs with my RSS app on my phone. But lately I’ve found myself opening up iDygest if I just want to see a quick highlight of what’s been going on the world of all things Apple.
When first launching iDygest, the app will populate the latest Apple feeds into the first tab. You can then browse through those or choose to look at top stories. You can also search for Apple news. The app really seems to catch a lot of the same Apple news you’ll get from browsing 5 different sites. One obvious advantage to this app is when browsing through, you don’t get double-posts as the app uses an algorithm to pull stories, it isn’t random. I have several Apple sites in my RSS feed and one thing I see is duplicate stories (which we all know will happen when you’re browsing news sites). This somewhat solves that problem by only pulling in the same story one time. At least I haven’t run into duplicates as of yet. One down side I have noticed is the search feature doesn’t seem to be that accurate.
It definitely won’t completely replace your RSS app (unless all you do is skim iNews and nothing more). There were few times I saw stories stories we had posted as well as other sites, but they still never made it into iDygest. For the most part, they were little things that maybe iDygest’s algorithms won’t pick up on. Either way – if you want a way to quickly browse through iNews, this is a more than decent solution.
Pros
- No double posts like you see when congregating several feeds that may contain the same story
- Slick interface and UI
- Quick load times
Cons
- Sometimes misses stories
- Sometimes slow with scrolling (tested on an iPhone 4)
- Pull to refresh would be a nice addition
- Search doesn’t seem to be very intuitive
iDygest for iPhone – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Facebook for iPhone not playing nice with Jailbreak, fix coming soon
Aug 21st
If you read the comments on our Facebook 3.2 and Facebook 3.2.1 posts, you might see that the latest version(s) of the uber-popular social networking app is having a little trouble on Jailbroken iPhones. Looks like Facebook is aware of the problems and working on a fix:
If you have a jailbroken device, you may have experienced problems with our latest updates. We’ve identified the issue and have an update with a fix coming soon. Thank you for your patience.
BiteSMS for Jailbreak is often mentioned as a source of conflict. Until the fix is pushed out, you can uninstall it to get Facebook working, or just use touch.facebook.com to get your social on.
[Facebook, thanks Robert!]
Facebook for iPhone not playing nice with Jailbreak, fix coming soon is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
PEOPLE Magazine for iPad available, free for print subscribers
Aug 21st
PEOPLE magazine is now available for iPad. The application is free to download, but each issue is a $3.99 in-app purchase. However, if you are a subscriber to the print version of PEOPLE, you get the iPad version for free! Unfortunately, there is not a subscription model in place with the app. So subscribing to strictly the iPad version is not an option.
In addition to the content of the print version of PEOPLE, the iPad version offers even more:
- Double the number of Star Tracks pics, plus bonus, iPad-only, photo galleries throughout the issue
- Special celebrity videos
- Movie trailers, TV previews, song samples and other entertainment extras
- Instant breaking news updates on our top stories throughout the entire week
It’s great to see big media making a step in the right direction concerning digital distribution. I initially found it odd that PEOPLE magazine did not implement an in-app subscription model, but this decision was likely made because Apple gets a 30% cut from subscriptions. If I’m interested in a digital subscription to PEOPLE magazine, I can subscribe to the print version and get the iPad one for no extra charge. Meanwhile, PEOPLE is getting 100% of my sign-up fee instead of only 70%.
Is this a smart choice, though? PEOPLE would cut the cost of making and shipping prints if they had an iPad-only subscription available to customers. But would these savings balance out the 30% cut to Apple? Also, it’s much less convenient for me to sign up for the print version than just a quick tap for the iPad version. I likely may never actually sign up for the magazine even if I intended to. So PEOPLE magazine just lost me as a customer. How many potential customers are being lost by not having an iPad subscription available? These are all things that PEOPLE magazine and Time Inc need to take into serious consideration.
One exciting thing about PEOPLE magazine’s iPad release is that it’s a good sign that other Time Inc magazines will be hitting the app store soon. It is expected to see the rest of their apps in the next 30 days.
Any PEOPLE subscribers taking advantage of their free digital copy? I purchased the most recent issue and find the app to be very well made. Does availability on the iPad entice anyone to purchase a print subscription? Are you subscriber to a different Time Inc magazine and eagerly waiting the release of an iPad app? Lastly, what are your thoughts on their current business model? Are they making a good choice, or do they need to provided an in-app subscription to customers?
Sound off in the comments below!
[All Things Digital, PEOPLE Magazine - iTunes link]
PEOPLE Magazine for iPad available, free for print subscribers is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Facebook for iPhone updated to 3.2.1 to fix bugs, deny Places to those outside US
Aug 19th
Yesterday saw the launch of Facebook 3.2 with Places support for iPhone, and today sees Facebook 3.2.1 with bug fixes and the explanation that Places is being rolled out slowly and is currently not available outside the US.
If this update solved any problems you were having, or clarified any confusion, let us know!
[Thanks @shlov1]
Facebook for iPhone updated to 3.2.1 to fix bugs, deny Places to those outside US is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Awesome iPhone and iPad apps and updates – August 19, 2010
Aug 19th
We’re shifting our focus from iOS 4 compatibility updates to any iPhone or iPad app or game, new or updated, that seems especially awesome. So if you guys see anything you think deserves some special attention, let us know in the comments and we’ll look at including it in a future roundup! Continue on to see what we found this time!
Pandora
Pandora recently updated their current app to support hi-res images on the iPhone 4. It also fixes several issues with the last version of Pandora. This will also change control settings for volume control and fix crash issues. Since downloading this update, Pandora’s been a lot more stable for me. How’s it been for you guys?
Box.net
Box.net is a great service for sharing files and viewing them on the go. They offer free accounts as well as paid accounts. There’s a lot of options for file storage and sharing out there, and Box.net is definitely a worthy competitor. This update adds fast app switching as well as some tweaks to the general UI. It also adds speed improvements for viewing files by adding caching. If you have it, grab the update, if you don’t, try it out and let us know what you think!
Cannon Cadets
Cannon Cadets is a new game coming to us by the same people responsible for Little Metal Ball. (If you don’t have Little Metal Ball, check that one out too!) Most of their games are physics based games that require maneuvering and use of the accelerometer. This game combines a story into puzzles and 80 graphically awesome levels. Definitely worth a try. You can also choose an in-app purchase that’ll allow you to unlock all the levels if you want to skip around instead of playing in order. If you pick it up, let us know what you think!
Photoshop Express
Photoshop has long been a favorite of many graphic junkies, and while the iPhone and iPad (yes, I said iPad) versions of Photoshop won’t do you any good for hardcore editing, for on the go picture editing and adding fun little tweaks to your pictures, Photoshop Express is great. This version adds compatibility for iPad too! This version also allows native uploading to Photoshop.com and Facebook. The general UI seems to be revamped a bit as well as some of the workflow spaces.
Dragon Medical
This app is mainly focused on professionals in the medical industry. You can use voice controls in order to look up drug interactions, diagnosis information, and much more. It aggregates from some of the more popular databases on the internet. So if you’re a medical professional or student in the medical field, it may be an app worth a second look.
Awesome iPhone and iPad apps and updates – August 19, 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
Clearcam for iPhone – app review
Aug 19th
Clearcam for iPhone is an app that compliments the already existing camera app. Instead of tapping camera, you take your pictures through Clearcam. I found myself using this app when I wanted clearer pictures or when I was in an area that pictures came out either blurry or dark. The concept is quite simple, it’ll take several shots of the same thing and either overlays the shots or chooses the best one (depending on what setting you choose). The app claims to up quality of the camera from 5MP images to around 11MP images.
When first loading Clearcam, it looks somewhat similar to the iPhone camera app. It adds a few options that are the basic foundation of what the app really does. You’ll see the shutter button and then two options. One labeled “quick” and one labeled “enhanced”.
The quick setting is just that. It will take 3 shots in rapid succession. It will save the best one to your camera roll. It works like it says it does and typically always gets a good shot.
The enhanced mode will take 6 shots quickly and it will take the best parts of each one, essentially stitching them together to create a better all around image. In my experience, it was somewhat touch and go. I also would take the same picture with my stock camera app. In some scenarios, it seemed like the stock camera app took better pictures than what Clearcam stitched together. It was rare, but it did happen occasionally. I’m not sure if maybe the app has trouble stitching certain pictures together or rendering them, but there’s definitely a bug there.
The app performs better in low light settings than the default camera in all instances (at least in my experience). I’d probably attribute this to the fact that it’s picking either the best picture or rendering 6 pictures together to create the best possible image. If the exposure was a little dark in some places, it will pull the better pieces from another picture. Having this app in low light settings is enough to justify purchasing it in my opinion.
(*Side note about pictures, most of them are better quality than shown here, we have a limit on image uploads so I had to downsize some of them which will reduce the quality a bit)
Pros
- Increases the quality by a landslide, especially in low light situations
- App is responsive and doesn’t take forever to save to the camera roll like other photo apps
- Increases quality in darker pictures
- Very simple to use
Cons
- Some photos come out blurrier than the default camera app (assuming this is some kind of bug)
- No settings other than Quick and Enhanced and tap to focus, would like to see some native contrast and saturation settings to make up for the lack of settings in the default camera app
Clearcam for iPhone – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog
