Why your favorite iOS apps may look different six months from now

Why your favorite iOS apps may look different six months from now:
If Apple is “de-glitzing” iOS to make way for a flatter look with fewer real-life textures later this year, as has been reported, it’s likely to inspire a App Store-wide re-evaluation of what makes an app look good. After Apple shows off a new-look iOS at WWDC, it’s a good bet third-party app makers are going to want to make sure their apps look more in tune with the new overall look and feel of the operating system.
Since the beginning, Apple has set the bar for good design, which is reflected in the majority of what you find in its iOS App Store. But as the iOS platform has aged, new design trends have emerged. The faux-leather texture on the Contacts app, or the wooden bookshelves on iBooks and Newsstand were welcoming and familiar six years ago. But like smartphones, they are no longer new. And as a design philosophy, the overly textured look that incorporates real-world objects is becoming less necessary in a world where mobile computers are more familiar than ever.
That’s why we’ve already seen some of the best and most adventurous third-party designers on Apple’s platform already embracing new design techniques on their own, incorporating flatter design elements as seen in places like Microsoft’s Metro design for Windows UI and elsewhere.
But if Apple embraces a new look that’s flatter and tones down the stylized textures, more will probably follow what we’ve seen in Letterpress, Clear, Embark and others: apps with a flatter look that still incorporate what we’ve come to understand as the standard iOS user experience.

Good design practice

Major design tweaks will ripple out into custom-designed apps, Phill Ryu, co-founder of mobile design shop Impending and a designer behind Clear, told me.
“Apps with custom UI benefit from, and in a way rely on, incorporating design features from the OS that its users would already be familiar with, as stepping stones to guide them through a new unexplored experience,” he said. “The stepping stones may need to be swapped out or tweaked if iOS 7 changes significantly.”
Michael Simmons of Flexibits, maker of Mac and iOS app Fantastical, pointed out that the most important aspect of app design isn’t following trends, it’s that they’re easily understandable to users.
“The point of native apps is the user is familiar with that — give them an app with that same user interface so they don’t have to learn something new,” he said.
“If Apple changes the user interface … we would have to adapt at some point to make our app more OS-like. We have a red header [in Fantastical, which stands out from Apple's usual neutral blue] but we still use standard [iOS] controls,” Simmons said. “It still fits into the ecosystem. And that’s the key: you do want to follow what Apple’s doing because you want your experience to be as close to the native experience as possible.”
Still, if there are changes to iOS 7, he isn’t anticipating them to be so startingly different that it will require app makers to retrain iPhone and iPad users.
“Apple doesn’t make drastic changes — they evolve,” Simmons points out. “It’s never been Apple’s thing to make a massive change.”
A good bet as to the kinds of changes we’ll see? Apple’s own Podcasts app. The recent redesign didn’t alter the overall user experience, but they did nix the old-school reel-to-reel tapedeck. It still kept the basic functionality, but freshened up the look and feel with less gimmicky elements.
Design philosophy is just one aspect of the changes afoot at Apple. The competitive field in mobile is vastly different than it was when Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone and iOS. As we’ve seen already, the company no longer can market the iPhone the same way it used to six years ago or even two years ago, so it’s adapting with new tactics to match a more realistic understanding of that market. The same is true for mobile OSes: a redesigned iOS 7 would be another example of how the company is looking toward the future by breaking with the past. The key will be to help third-party app makers and their users navigate these changes as painlessly as possible.

Ailing UK School Makes Dramatic Turnaround

Ailing UK School Makes Dramatic Turnaround: A new video profiles Essa Academy, a once struggling school in one of the most disadvantaged areas of England. New principal Showkat Badat has reinvented the school as a hub of technology-assisted learning, and helped incorporate an ecosystem of Apple products, including iPad, Mac, and iTunes U, into the classrooms. The students’ excitement about the technology and direct access to information is reflected in dramatically improved test scores. Since adopting the technology, Essa went from a 28 percent pass rate to 100 percent. “I don’t see technology as an add-on, a nice option to have,” says Badat. “It’s what enables learning and creates an environment that sparks creativity.”

Can the iPad Rescue a Struggling American Education System?

Can the iPad Rescue a Struggling American Education System?: Across the United States, teachers are using iPad and other tablets to reinvent the presentation and management of educational material. According to
a report in Wired magazine, “tablets’ simplicity, ease of use and the massive range of academically minded applications available are drawing teachers and educational technologists to the platform in droves.” iPad is leading this charge, as “the most popular tablet among educators,” and “Apple’s iTunes U is one tool making iPad-based course integration easier by helping teachers create and curate a wholly digital curriculum.”

Apple Takes Laptop Magazine’s Top Rating

Apple Takes Laptop Magazine’s Top Rating: Laptop Magazine has awarded Apple the top prize in
its Best Brands feature for the fourth year in a row, placing first in five of the eight categories it measures. In addition, the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display took honors as the magazine’s top notebook of 2012, with editors praising the screen, performance, battery life, and design. Software and tech support were also highlighted. “Apple continues to epitomize the best of the best,” say the magazine’s editors.

Unlocking the Power of iPad for the Blind

Unlocking the Power of iPad for the Blind: Bloomberg West profiles Ed Summers, who, as head of accessibility at international software company SAS, “has made it his mission to help other visually impaired people unlock the power of the iPad.” Summers is traveling around the United States to teach educators how to maximize the device’s built-in accessibility features in their classrooms. Bloomberg notes that tablets are growing in popularity among educators, and Summers says iPad is “opening up a whole world” for visually impaired students. “We’re working to make sure that students and professionals of all abilities can succeed in the classroom and the 21st-century knowledge economy,” Summers says.

Apple Reports Second Quarter Results

Apple Reports Second Quarter Results: Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2013 second quarter ended March 30, 2013, posting revenue of $43.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share. During the quarter, Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. And it sold 19.5 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 11.8 million in 2012. “We are pleased to report record March quarter revenue thanks to continued strong performance of iPhone and iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off June 10 in San Francisco

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off June 10 in San Francisco: Apple announced that it will hold its annual
Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 10 through June 14 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At the five-day conference, developers from around the world will learn about the future of iOS and OS X. WWDC will also feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by over 1,000 Apple engineers and hands-on labs to help developers integrate new technologies. And the popular Apple Design Awards will showcase the most outstanding apps available through the App Store and Mac App Store. Tickets for this year’s WWDC go on sale Thursday, April 25, at 10 a.m. PDT.

Apple is Tops When It Comes to Computer Tech Support

Apple is Tops When It Comes to Computer Tech Support: According to the latest Consumer Reports reader survey, Apple tops the list of brand-name computer manufacturers for the quality of its tech support, far surpassing other large companies. The report points to “ease of contacting staff, clarity of advice, technical knowledge, patience, and time for follow-up” in the phone and online support areas. Service at the Genius Bar rates equally highly. In addition, Apple improved on its own scores from last year’s survey.

Notebook Refresh to Be Highlight of WWDC, Non-Retina MacBook Pro to Continue?

Notebook Refresh to Be Highlight of WWDC, Non-Retina MacBook Pro to Continue?: KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a new report forecasting that the product highlight of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which kicks off on June 10, will be the introduction of new models of the company's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines based on Intel's latest Haswell processors. The projection is in line with previous reports from Kuo and other sources, as well as recent claims that Apple will begin ramping up production of the new models in mid-May.


On the MacBook Pro side, Kuo is reversing his earlier predictions suggesting that 2013 would see Apple discontinue the non-Retina MacBook Pro lineup and shift consumers to the slimmer and more expensive Retina line introduced at last year's WWDC. Kuo believes that continued strength of non-Retina MacBook Pro models, particularly the 13-inch line, have led Apple to continue producing the non-Retina lineup for the time being.

Contrary to our previous projection, we now think Apple will continue to make the MacBook Pro alongside the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro because the 13” MacBook Pro remains the most popular product in the MacBook line. Also, there is still demand in emerging markets, where Internet penetration isn’t advanced, for optical disk drives.

Kuo believes that the updated versions of the non-Retina MacBook Pro could begin shipping very soon after WWDC, but that the new Retina MacBook Pro models will begin shipping somewhat later due to production bottlenecks on the displays.

For the MacBook Air, Kuo also believes that the new models will be introduced at WWDC and ship very soon after, but he indicates that Apple is unlikely to include Retina displays in the updated lineup. He believes that cost, thickness, and production concerns will continue to keep Retina displays out of Apple's lowest-cost and thinnest notebook line for the time being.

Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10 pm ET: iTunes store turns 10, quarterly results

Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10 pm ET: iTunes store turns 10, quarterly results:

It's a big 1-0 for everyone's "favorite" music store, which has evolved far beyond its humble Rip, Mix, Burn origins to become the digital hub for a new generation of digital devices. Happy birthday, iTunes Music Store, and here's hoping that you make it out of your adolescence wiser and more mature.
Also this week: The results of Apple's most recently concluded fiscal quarter are in the books, and while the company continued to make money hand over fist there are some troublesome signs for analysts: eroding margins and the possibility of the high-end smartphone market (where the iPhone owns the roost) starting to squeeze.
Apple's response, in part, is to return more cash to its shareholders (via dividends) and repurchase outstanding shares. Apple's even getting into the debt markets to finance these programs, rather than repatriating overseas profits and facing a hefty tax bill.
We'll talk iTunes' 10th birthday, the quarterly reports and the rest of the week's news (including a look ahead to this week's TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York) tonight at 10 pm ET on the Talkcast. Join us!
To participate live during the show, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, the best way to have your voice heard is to call in.

Apple Considering Lower-Priced iPad Mini at $199-$249?

Apple Considering Lower-Priced iPad Mini at $199-$249?: Along with his recent research note addressing Apple's notebook launch plans, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also published a note examining Apple's iPad prospects.

In particular, Kuo looks to the iPad mini as the future of the company's iPad portfolio, but with Apple's efforts to bring a Retina display to the device said to be pushing a launch back to the fourth quarter of this year, he suggests that Apple may be looking at a lower-priced iPad mini.

Prior to iPad mini 2 launch, Apple might roll out a more affordable iPad mini to compete with Android products. To cut costs, Apple might push for lower component prices, use a more advanced process to produce the A5 processor, simplify metal casing production, remove the rear camera, cut storage to 8GB and find more component suppliers to lower costs. We think this cheaper iPad mini retail for US$199~249.

Kuo does not believe that such a device would offer a significant boost to Apple's overall iPad sales, but it could help stave off erosion at the low end of the market at the hands of cheaper Android-based tablets.


The $199-$249 price range is one that many potential customers had hoped Apple would be able to hit with the original iPad mini, but the company surprised many by introducing the iPad mini starting at $329. Even at that pricing, Apple has noted a number of times that the iPad mini's profit margins are below the company average.

Apple is said to be pursuing a similar strategy for the iPhone, working on a lower-cost iPhone with a polycarbonate shell rumored for launch later this year.

Overall, Kuo sees relatively small sales growth for the iPad in 2013, with the full-size iPad being cannibalized by the popular iPad mini and the upgraded iPad mini with Retina display not debuting until late in the year.

With Android tablets also beginning to gain footholds in some markets and driving Apple's estimated share of the tablet market below 50% in recent quarters, Kuo expects that Apple will remain competitive but see relatively slow growth until the launch of the Retina iPad mini.

Apple does partial backtrack on changes to iOS 6 VPN settings

Apple does partial backtrack on changes to iOS 6 VPN settings: Apple has partially reversed course on its decision to change the way iOS 6 handles VPN connections, a modified Apple support document reveals. "Apple no longer plans to change the behavior of the VPN On Demand feature of iOS 6.1 for devices that have already been shipped. The 'Always' option will continue to work as it currently does on these devices," the company says....

Apple's Share of Smartphone Market Slips as Smartphones Outsell Feature Phones for First Time

Apple's Share of Smartphone Market Slips as Smartphones Outsell Feature Phones for First Time: Research firm IDC yesterday released its estimates on worldwide mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2013, showing Apple losing some ground in the smartphone market with only 6.6% year-over-year growth compared to 41.6% growth for the entire market. Still, Apple maintained a firm grasp on the number two spot behind Samsung, as challengers LG, Huawei, and ZTE were unable to reach the 5% mark during the quarter.


Worldwide Smartphone Shipments in 1Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)

Apple's smartphone shipment volume hit a new first-quarter high thanks in part to the iPhone 5, with volume growing 6.6% year over year. However, the last time the iPhone maker posted a single-digit year-over-year growth rate was 3Q09. The iPhone maker has held the second spot in the smartphone rankings for the past five quarters. Apple's mix of models shipped to market is increasingly diversified as it tries to reach new buyers.

Apple does, however, continue to ride the wave of popularity for smartphones, with IDC noting that smartphones outsold feature phones for the first time during the quarter. As a result, Apple's 6.6% year-over-growth outpaced the 4.0% growth rate of the mobile phone market as a whole, allowing Apple to creep up to an 8.9% share.


Worldwide Mobile Phone Shipments in 1Q13 in Millions of Units (Source: IDC)

Despite Foursquare’s struggles, Chicago’s Evzdrop isn’t scared of the check-in — or “drop”

Despite Foursquare’s struggles, Chicago’s Evzdrop isn’t scared of the check-in — or “drop”:
Foursquare has a lot of imitators, making the check-in ubiquitous — and even a little passe these days — across social networking apps. At first glance, Chicago startup Evzdrop looks like one of those clones. Instead of checking in at places, users “drop” their locations on the map and, just like Foursquare, you can take the temperature of all of bars, restaurants, clubs and other venues in your area.
But then you start noticing some differences. There’s no option to find your friends, and certainly no mechanism for following them. You can interact with anyone who “drops” into your location, but you’re most likely dealing with a complete stranger. If you ask a question or make a positive or critical comment, you’re just as likely to get a response from the venue’s owner as you are from one of its patrons. And once you’ve left a location, you’ll still be able to see all of the activity going on there, but you’ll find your ability to interact with the locale much more limited.
Evzdrop CEO David Rush said he and fellow co-founder Eric Brown were inspired to start Evzdrop in 2012 because of the difficulty of sorting useful information about a bar, restaurant or event from social networks.
“There’s a fire hose of information coming out of Facebook and Twitter,” Rush said. “Check-ins are more about showing where you are to friends, which is what Foursquare has become today. … We wanted to create an app that allows you to share a common interest in place — one that lets you get the perspective of people who, along with you, are actually at an event.”
To that end, Evzdrop has created a kind of geofenced social network, allowing only people who are actually at a location to engage with one another and the business itself. Everyone else is just a voyeur. They can follow all of the drop posts going at location, but they can’t participate themselves except to comment on other people’s drops.
From my experiences fiddling with the app, many of the drops aren’t terribly useful — “Dude, this band rocks!” — but as more people use the app, more useful information rises to the top through a “props” system that allows other people at vote up the most entertaining or informative posts.
The idea, Rush said, is to create not just a repository of immediate information — older drops disappear from the site — but a real-time dialogue between all of the people sharing the same space. That differentiates it from Yelp and other reviews sites, Rush said.
If Evzdrop can reach critical mass it should be able to tell if the Hamachi at the local sushi bar is particularly fresh or foul on any particular hour. Sports bar owners will be able to alert you to which games they’re showing in playoffs, or respond to requests from customers on the premise to switch to a different game. Concert attendees can demand a band play a particular song.

Do we really need another check-in app?

Of course, to get this kind of depth out of the service, Evzdrop really needs to scale. Right now it’s still a tiny operation. It has six employees and $500,000 in angel funding, and its Android and iPhone app only has a miniscule 11,000 downloads. Growing that base is going to be difficult to say the least. Not only are there numerous competing apps promoting their own take on the check-in, every major social network, review app and location-based service — from Facebook to Yelp to Google Latitude — have added check-in capabilities. The last thing most consumers want to do is download and register an account with another check-in app.
Building a business around social-location is also proving to be a difficult even if you 3.5 billion check-ins like Foursquare. New York’s check-in pioneer just raised another $41 million in financing, but it’s under intense pressure to prove it has viable business model.
Rush said that Evzdrop hopes to gain traction by targeting business owners and event planners, getting them to promote the app to their customers. Rush thinks the app would be particularly appealing for helping track customer sentiment and complaints at big events like concerts or benefits, where organizers can communicate with a lot of people en masse.
To that end Evzdrop is making venue owners a key part of the network, rather than just peripheral participants. They don’t get control their local social networks like, say, moderators on a discussion board. But they can communicate privately with their patrons, Evzdrop provides them with real-time data about the sentiment of their clientele. Rush said Evzdrop considers itself just as much a customer relations management (CRM) platform as it does a social networking app.
That business focus is also key to its business model. While any business owner can register their place with Evzdrop, gaining access to its customer communications tools, Evzdrop hopes to build a premium platform that would allow businesses to market promotions to their most frequent customers as well as give them more control over the interaction within the walls of their social networks.
Rush said one tool Evzdrop plans to implement is a means to flag negative sentiment, allowing a proprietor to intercept a critical drop before it goes live giving them a chance to address the complaint immediately. Rush said Evzdrop would never allow businesses to censor posts — every drop would still go live – just create a kind of early warning system for negative feedback.
It seems Evzdrop is trying to walk a fine line. It’s admirable that Evzdrop is trying to develop its business model at the get go, as opposed to Twitter and Foursquare, which built their social networks and then tried to figure out how to make money. But if patrons start perceiving Evzdrop as just a promotional pulpit for businesses, they won’t use it as a social network. And if Evzdrop can’t build up a social network, it doesn’t have a business.

Collective for Mac retains your clipboard history, saves you time

Collective for Mac retains your clipboard history, saves you time:
Collective (US$1.99) is a clipboard history utility for Mac. It keeps track of everything you copy to your Mac's clipboard, which in turn allows you to paste different items without having to go back and forth copying and pasting over and over again.
Since I've not used a clipboard utility app before, I know this frustration all too well! So when I got the opportunity to try out Collective, I jumped at it.
To use Collective, copy items as you normally would to the clipboard, whether it be an image, file or text. When you come to paste an item, hit Shift + ⌘ + V instead of the usual ⌘ + V, the Collective window will appear with a history of all you've copied to the clipboard. Either click and drag what you want to paste or select it and press ⌘ + V. If you're pasting multiple items the click and drag technique will be the easiest and quickest.
Of course, with copying so many things to the clipboard, Collective will soon become quite full, but Collective has some nifty features to help you keep on top of your clipboard. You can live search the Collective clipboard, filter items by the application they were copied from and Quick Look items directly from the clipboard. Collective also gives a thumbnail preview of non-text items. Furthermore, Collective copies text formatting but also lets you paste as plain text.
Finally, Collective has Retina display support, is restart resistant (meaning if you restart your Mac all clipboard items will be saved) and supports apps running in full screen mode. Collective won't duplicate items you happen to copy more than once and you can blacklist Collective copying from certain apps, like password managers.
Having spent the last few days using Collective, I'm really pleased with how it works. Aside from getting used to the new paste keyboard shortcut, Collective has been a pleasure to use and has improved my workflow.
You can get Collective from the Mac App Store now, or why not try out some of these other trusted clipboard utilities recommended by the TUAW team: Flycut or Clyppan.

Apple changes plans on VPN On Demand behavior, 'Always' option to stay unchanged for some devices

Apple changes plans on VPN On Demand behavior, 'Always' option to stay unchanged for some devices: Apple will not be changing the behavior of its VPN On Demand services for some iOS devices, despite having lost a $368 million judgment to VirnetX.

Smartphone Platform Loyalty

Smartphone Platform Loyalty:
John Paczkowski, on a report by Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe:

So, Android’s seemingly inexorable ascension over the iPhone? Not
quite so inexorable anymore. Apple’s smartphone continues to gain
share over devices running Google’s mobile OS in the U.S.; so much
so that, according to the Yankee Group, iPhone ownership in the
U.S. will exceed Android ownership by 2015. The reason: Platform
loyalty.

Bold projection.

Eric Schmidt Says Talking to Glass Can Be Weird, Inappropriate

Eric Schmidt Says Talking to Glass Can Be Weird, Inappropriate:
Aaron Pressman, Reuters:

Talking out loud to control the Google Glasses via voice
recognition is “the weirdest thing,” Schmidt said in a talk on
Thursday at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

People will have to develop new etiquette to deal with such
products that can record video surreptitiously and bring up
information that only the wearer can see, Schmidt said.

“There are obviously places where Google Glasses are
inappropriate,” he said.

Weird and inappropriate. Perfect product for Google.

Macminicolo Forever Promo

Macminicolo Forever Promo:
My thanks to Macminicolo for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Mac Minis make great servers, and Macminicolo is a high-end data center dedicated to hosting them. There are a bunch of good reasons to host a Mini server with them, but here’s just one: the developers of Day One — a great journaling app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac — are using a hosted Mac Mini as a development build server.

Macminicolo’s “Forever Promo” is a special offer for DF readers, with a low rate, no contract, and inexpensive rental options.

App Store gains 'Learn More About In-App Purchases' section

App Store gains 'Learn More About In-App Purchases' section: Apple has added a "Learn More About In-App Purchases" section to the App Store, AppAdvice observes. Tapping on the option explains what in-app purchases do, and the way the in-app purchase scheme works, specifically pointing out that while an Apple ID password is needed for an initial purchase, a 15-minute window exists during which more things can be bought without re-authorizing. Apple also places an emphasis on the Parental Controls menu under Settings, where people can turn off access to in-app purchases entirely....

Daily Deals for April 26, 2013

Daily Deals for April 26, 2013:
It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD).

Deals from Dealnews

• 
  all4cellular.com: [Design & Multimedia Software] PogoPlug Premium Software for PC and Mac for $10 + free shipping
• 
  GamersGate: [PC Games] GamersGate Spring Sale: Up to 90% off game downloads for PC or Mac
• 
  Verizon Broadband: [Computer Services] Verizon FiOS Triple Play w/ $100 Visa Card, router, no activation for $80/month
• 
  Best Buy: [Clocks & Clock Radios] Philips Clock Radio for Apple iPhone / iPod for $20 + free shipping
• 
  TigerDirect: [USB Flash Drives] Centon 64 GB USB Flash Drive, security software for $0 after rebate + $4 s&h
• 
  Griffin Technology Corporation: [iPhone Accessories] Griffin Technology coupon: 15% off sitewide, includes iPhone 5 accessories
• 
  Best Buy: [iPad Accessories] Haier America Flex Docking Station for iPad for $25 + free shipping
• 
  MegaMacs: [MacBook] Refurb Apple MacBook Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz 13" Laptop for $330 + $17 s&h, more
• 
  Rakuten Shopping: [Computer Speakers] Refurb Harman Kardon Soundsticks III 2.1 Speakers for $100 + free shipping
• 
  Vault: [iPhone Accessories] Yamaha Speaker Dock for iPhone / iPod for $44 + free shipping
• 
  Network Solutions: [Computer Services] NetworkSolutions.com: 1-year domain name registration for 50 cents
• 
  Wayfair: [Computer Desks] Sauder Beginnings Desk for $80 + free shipping

iOS Software

• 
  Sight Words & Spelling with Pixopop HD [iPad; Category: Education; Now free, down from $2.99] Join Stitch Bunny and friends and learn Sight Words in a fun and engaging way.
  
• 
  Audubon Guides - A Field Guide to Birds, Mammals, Wildflowers, and Trees [iOS Universal; Category: Reference; On sale for $4.99, down from $19.99] The newly updated Audubon Birds section has all the right tools to enhance your birding experience.
  
• 
  MindMapper [iOS Universal; Category: Business; Now free, down from $2.99] MindMapper is a mind mapping tool that helps users to think visually.
  
• 
  Worms 2: Armageddon [iOS Universal; Category: Games; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99] Grab your grenades and prepare for battle, as the worms are back, bigger and better than ever in Worms[TM]2: Armageddon.
  
• 
  Gorilla Workout : Fitness Aerobic and Strength Trainer on a Budget [iOS Universal; Category: Health & Fitness; Now free, down from $0.99] Looking to lose weight and build muscle only using the weight of your own body? Gorilla Workout is the perfect fitness app for you.
  
• 
  MoneyWiz - Personal Finance for iPad [iPad; Category: Finance; On sale for $0.99, down from $4.99] Do more with your money. View all your accounts, budgets and bills in one place.
  
• 
  Ticket to Ride Europe Pocket [iPhone; Category: Games; Now free, down from $1.99] A digital adaptation of the best-selling Ticket to Ride EUROPE board game that introduced Ferries, Tunnels and Stations into the game.
  
• 
  InstaFonts [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; Now free, down from $3.99] Get more Likes, engagement and followers for your photo creations, by adding beautifully designed text.
  
• 
  Infestor [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] As the INFESTOR you need to reach the exit in each level by taking over your enemies and controlling their body.
  
• 
  Billy Frontier [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $2.99] Billy Frontier is a space cowboy who's mission is to rid the galaxy of alien outlaws.
  
• 
  Cro-Mag Rally [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $3.99] Cro-Mag Rally is the wildest racing 3D game since man invented the wheel!
  
• 
  Audubon Birds [iOS Universal; Category: Reference; On sale for $0.99, down from $14.99] The award-winning Audubon Birds field guide with 820 species, gallery view for easy search, Find Birds powered by eBird, and NatureShare. Most Audubon apps are on sale as well.
  
• 
  iLuv Drawing Dinosaurs HD [iPad; Category: Education; Now free, down from $2.99] Whether you are dinosaur fan or you want your child to learn more about them, then learning to draw dinosaurs is a great place to start.
  
• 
  IM+ Pro [iOS Universal; Category: Social Networking; On sale for $1.99, down from $9.99] Chat on Skype, Facebook, Google Talk, Twitter and more.
  
• 
  Hidden Doodles [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] Train your memory playing in this awesome "hidden objects" game.
  
• 
  Tapatalk Forum App [iOS Universal; Category: Social Networking; On sale for $0.99, down from $2.99] The #1 forum app on mobile with advanced push notification systems that keep you stay connected with your favorite discussions.
  
• 
  Lost Robot - A Physics Puzzler [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] 5 chapters with 60 levels (more to come). Innovative physics gameplay.
  
• 
  Timeline - Calendar [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $1.99] Timeline Calendar presents your built-in calendar as a timeline in a visual and intuitive way.
  
• 
  Bee Leader [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Now free, down from $1.99] The bees need you! Become a Bee Leader and help the bees fill their hives with honey. Apple's Free App of the Week.
  

OS X Software

• 
  Textual [OS X; Category: Social Networking; On sale for $2.99, down from $4.99] Textual is a lightweight IRC client for the Mac.
  
• 
  Appy Fridays [OS X; Category: Various; Now free] Appy Fridays is offering three free OS X apps. Title include Converto, Phlo and FX Photo Studio HD. Sale starts today and goes through the weekend.
  
• 
  Music Converter [OS X; Category: Music; Now free, down from $1.99] Convert Video & Audio to Music.
  
• 
  Glui [OS X; Category: Productivity; Now free, down from $2.99] Glui is the simplest way to capture, annotate and share screenshots.
  
• 
  Delicious Library 2 [OS X; Category: Reference; On sale for $9.99, down from $34.99] Catalog, browse and share all your books, movies, music, video games, gadgets and even clothes -- rediscover your own home library. (NOTE: This version is for users running OS X Lion and earlier. If you are running Mountain Lion, Version 3 will be available in a few days, so you may not want to buy this version.)
  
• 
  Collective [OS X; Category: Utilities; On sale for $1.99, down from $3.99] Meet Collective. Clipboard history for your Mac. Done right. Nearly anything you can copy, Collective will remember.
  
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  Rock in Code [OS X; Category: Games; Now free, down from $0.99] "Rock in code" brings you to a legacy pixel style world of code, line by line
  

Other Hardware Sales

• 
  MacBook Pro 13" [Mac Hardware; Now $1,349.99, down from $1,499] For two days, Best Buy is taking $150 off the 13.3" MacBook Pro with Core i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM and 750 GB hard drive. Model no. MD102LL/A.

Loyalty to Apple driving iPhone market share gains vs. Android - survey

Loyalty to Apple driving iPhone market share gains vs. Android - survey: A new poll of smartphone users reveals that loyalty to the iPhone is chipping away at Android's market share lead, and could lead to the iPhone overtaking Android in the U.S. in just a few years.

Wavii confirms purchase by Google, shuts down natural-language service

Wavii confirms purchase by Google, shuts down natural-language service: The Seattle-based newsfeed company Wavii has closed, after confirming earlier reports that Google has bought the company. Its website has been updated to confirm the purchase by the search giant, while also shutting the service down in order to work on using its natural-language research within Google itself....

AI readers now get lowest prices on Apple's iMacs & MacBooks with new coupons

AI readers now get lowest prices on Apple's iMacs & MacBooks with new coupons: AppleInsider, which has long teamed with Apple Authorized Reseller MacMall to offer the lowest prices anywhere on Apple's MacBook family through the addition of exclusive 3% discount coupons, is pleased to announce that those coupons have now been extended to the iMac family.

Mailbox is working on iPad app, desktop and other versions are in the future

Mailbox is working on iPad app, desktop and other versions are in the future:
In what should be one of those no-brainer decisions, the developers behind Mailbox have plans to bring the app to iPad, with desktop and Android clients not far behind, TechCrunch reports. There is no ETA on a desktop version, Mailbox developers tweeted, but it did confirm that the iPad version is in development.
Mailbox did away with its reservation system last week, the first key step in expanding to the iPad and other platforms. While the app initially gained a lot of users, expanding beyond the iPhone is imperative for users to keep using it. It was one of the key criticisms TUAW staffers had when we reviewed Mailbox collectively, and my stint with Mailbox lasted a couple days until I realized that Mailbox just couldn't integrate with my workflow as long as it remained iPhone-only.

iPhone Predicted to Surpass Android Market Share by 2015

iPhone Predicted to Surpass Android Market Share by 2015: Apple's market share of the worldwide smartphone market may have slipped, but a new Yankee Group survey (via AllThingsD) shows some promising data points for the company.

In a survey of 16,000 U.S. smartphone users, the company found 91 percent of iPhone owners plan to purchase another iPhone when it's time to upgrade, while for Android the number is just 76 percent. And, three quarters of those looking to switch from Android plan to buy an iPhone.

Yankee Group believes the incredible customer loyalty that Apple holds will drive market share gains well into the future. The firm predicts that, if these loyalty numbers hold, Apple will surpass Android in U.S. market share by 2015.

Think of the Apple and Android ecosystems as two buckets of water. New smartphone buyers — mostly upgrading feature phone owners — fall like rain into the two big buckets about equally, with a smaller number falling into Windows Phone and BlackBerry buckets. However, the Android bucket leaks badly, losing about one in five of all the owners put into it. The Apple bucket leaks only about 7 percent of its contents, so it retains more of the customers that fall into it. The Apple bucket will fill up faster and higher than the Android one, regardless of the fact that the Apple bucket may have had fewer owners in it to begin with.

The iPhone has traditionally demonstrated strong platform loyalty, and Tim Cook has played up both Apple's ecosystem of interconnected devices and apps, and the iPhone's "halo effect" as significant strengths for the company in recent earnings calls.

The 'catch' in T-Mobile's iPhone plan

The 'catch' in T-Mobile's iPhone plan:

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson isn't happy with T-Mobile's recently instituted plans to replace the traditional two-year contract for an iPhone with an installment plan. Ferguson's main beef with the magenta network? That although T-Mo tells customers on the new plan that they can cancel their service at any time, the company has not made it clear that customers have to pay the remaining cost of the phone if they cancel service.
TUAW has discussed the no-contract Simple Choice plans previously. A T-Mobile iPhone 5 can be purchased for a US$99.99 down payment plus $20 monthly payments for 24 months, or a customer can choose to purchase the phone outright for $579.99 (for a 16 GB iPhone 5). Only if a customer has paid for the phone up front can they just walk away from T-Mobile's plan without any form of cancellation fee.
Notification of the need to pay the "device loan balance" upon cancellation has been on the T-Mobile website since the first day of sales. Ferguson felt that the company wasn't making that stipulation clear enough in their advertising, and as you might be able to see in the image above, it was rather well-hidden in the fine print at the lower center of the store description.
Ferguson's complaint has had a positive impact on Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA. The company has agreed to warn customers across the USA about the lump-sum phone purchase payments since they can end up being higher than the early termination fees charged by other carriers for cancellation. In addition, T-Mobile USA has agreed to issue full refunds upon request to any customer in the country who bought a phone from the carrier between March 26 and yesterday.

iTunes turns 10. What’s in store for the next decade?

iTunes turns 10. What’s in store for the next decade?:
One of the first stories I wrote for my college journalism class involved me interviewing people on campus about whether they’d ever even possibly consider paying for music with this — at the time — brand new iTunes service. The story isn’t online, but I recall that most interview subjects laughed, curled up their noses in disgust or said something along the lines of, “Pay 99 cents for a song I can get from free from Napster? Uh, no.”
Ten years later, paying for music — whether through downloads or subscription access — is by now a long-established practice. It’s sort of hard to believe it’s been a decade since iTunes launched, but it’s true: Sunday is the 10th birthday of Apple’s download service that seismically restructured the music industry and how we think of buying and owning music. iTunes’ effect on digital entertainment is a well-worn story, of course. But the occasion of iTunes’ 10-year anniversary is a good one to recall how far it’s come — and how the competition for digital music is fiercer than ever.
Here’s a look at iTunes through the years and how it stacks up today to its chief rivals in music: Google,, Amazon and Spotify.

iTunes is about much more than music today: It’s about mobile apps, movies, TV shows, ebooks, podcasts and even education. And over the years, Apple’s added more cloud services for customers to access their entertainment remotely. It’s not uncommon to hear people complain that the desktop version of the software is unwieldy (though I’ve found it to be fine for my needs).  iTunes is a huge download and has many moving parts because so many services are tacked onto it. The common refrain is for Apple to unbundle the desktop software, separating the App Store app from Music and Videos apps, like the way it’s handled within iOS. That, of course, would be a major philosophical change and one that Apple would not confront lightly.
But more than the software itself, it’s music that likely is going to determine what happens to iTunes.
While Apple still has the advantage in overall song titles, as the graph above shows, its competitors have been innovating on ways to offer their comparatively smaller catalog of songs. The pay-for-high-quality download service was innovative a decade ago, but now Apple is the one that will be forced to make some changes in order to keep its lead: subscription music services and web-based streaming are the future, and Apple knows it. And that’s why the company is looking to offer a streaming, web-based music service – dubbed by the press “iRadio.”
As a recent NPD study showed, ownership of music is still important to people. But streaming music discovery services encourage people to find and buy more music, and Apple needs to be a part of that.
iTunes is an important piece of tech history. But as attitudes about music ownership change, iTunes’ next 10 years will likely be more challenging than its last.

Google buys Wavii for an estimated $30 million, reportedly outbidding Apple

Google buys Wavii for an estimated $30 million, reportedly outbidding Apple: Natural language processing startup Wavii confirmed on Friday that it has been acquired by Google, and some sources report that the search giant bought the startup from under Apple for more than $30 million.

Glitch in Apple's iMessage deletes words 'Obama,' 'surprise'

Glitch in Apple's iMessage deletes words 'Obama,' 'surprise': A strange issue with Apple's iMessage service deletes certain words when they are used at the end of specific sentences, with two cases already found pertaining to the words "Obama" and "surprise".

Free AltWWDC to run parallel to official Apple conference

Free AltWWDC to run parallel to official Apple conference: A free, unofficial developer event, AltWWDC, has been announced as running parallel to Apple's 2013 developer conference. Like WWDC, AltWWDC will be active June 10th through the 14th in San Francisco. The gathering is being hosted at the SF State Downtown Campus, only a block away from WWDC's venue, Moscone West....

Briefly: iPhone used to track Boston Bombers, Pantone iPad cases

Briefly: iPhone used to track Boston Bombers, Pantone iPad cases: According to several recent news reports, an iPhone's GPS chip was used to help track the Boston Bombers to Watertown. Time, the New York Times, and Boston.com all have reported that after the bombing the two suspects stole a Mercedes and proceeded to flee the crime. However, what the thieves didn't realize is that the car itself was equipped with an mbrace tracking system and that an active iPhone had been left inside. None of the sources directly mention Find My iPhone, but it is likely that the device finding service played a part in the location of the stolen car....

China continues to be an important driver of revenue growth for Apple

China continues to be an important driver of revenue growth for Apple:
With Apple generating tens of billions of dollars in revenue each and every quarter, analysts have long been asking how Apple will be able to not only maintain, but increase its growth in the years to come.
While there is always speculation surrounding great new mythical products the company may or may not have in its pipeline, Apple for the time being remains focused on getting its current products in front of as many customers as possible.
To that end, China continues to represent an increasingly important part of Apple's ongoing efforts to generate significant revenue growth.
During Apple's earnings conference call this week, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty claimed that Apple's growth in China was stalling and asked if Apple was hitting a wall.
On the contrary, Apple CEO Tim Cook answered that Apple's recent quarter in China was the company's best yet. iPad sales were up 138 percent year over year while revenue checked in at $8.8 billion, representing an 11 percent increase year over year.
Further, Cook emphasized that Apple remains committed to expanding its presence in China and noted that the smartphone market for first-time buyers represents a large, untapped market for Apple.

We're also innovating with our online store there, and adding different functionality to the store. China has an unusually large number of potential first-time smartphone buyers, and that's not lost on us. We've seen a significant interest in iPhone 4 there and have recently made it even more affordable to make it even more attractive to those first-time buyers. And so we're hopeful that will help iPhone sales in future.

Cook also added that Apple plans to double its number of retail stores in China from 11 to 22 in less than two years.
Of course, the holy grail in Apple's efforts to increase revenue growth is a potential deal with China Mobile, the largest cell carrier in the world with upwards of 700 million subscribers.
Rumors of the iPhone landing on China Mobile have persisted for quite some time, yet it remains to be seen just when an official deal will, if ever, be signed. One thing's for sure -- the two companies have engaged in high-level discussions in the past. Most recently, Tim Cook met with China Mobile executives this past January, though details as to the nature of the meeting were naturally hard to come by.

Games for the weekend: Girls Like Robots

Games for the weekend: Girls Like Robots:
Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.
Girls Like Robots ($2.99, Universal) is a puzzle game where the pieces of the puzzle each have their own likes and dislikes. In this game, the nerds like robots too, but that is not the problem. The problem is that the girls do not like the nerds.
Oddly enough, the nerds don’t like other nerds either. About the only puzzle piece that can tolerate a nerd is a robot. It is these very basic social rules that lay the foundation of the game. The playing board is laid out in a grid of squares, with each piece occupying a square on the grid.  Each puzzle piece can be happy, mad or indifferent.  The score you earn is based on how many puzzle pieces on the board you make happy. When every piece on the board is happy you earn the maximum points allowed for that board.

From these simple beginnings a truly complex series of challenges await. Of course the size and dimensions of each board can change. But with certain levels there are already immovable pieces placed on the board that you have to contend with. Once a piece is played you cannot move it. There is an undo that allows you to keep undoing your previous moves one at a time. Or if you prefer, you can reset the entire board and start all over again.

As the levels progress, additional player pieces are introduced. Each new piece has its own set of likes and dislikes. There are even girls who like bugs in this game. What makes the game interesting is that each player piece has a personality, and a part to play in the storyline.  If you ever forget who likes who, you can always tap and hold on each player piece to see a cheat sheet outlining its interests. There is also a heart on the screen that you can press to see how the pieces you have already played on the board like each other. Green indicates a positive relationship and red a negative one.

Some levels play out like a game of solitaire where you decide which piece is played where and when. In the earlier levels you can even see the count of pieces you have remaining. And, a s things progress, some levels present you with the exact order the pieces must be played in what can best be described as a sort of Tetris-style of gameplay. On these levels, you only know what piece is coming next.  There are levels where the pieces are moving, and you must box in these pieces in order to keep them from moving about.  These variations are what make each new level a challenge to complete.

There are three different acts to play out as well as a series of bonus levels. Each act is unlocked as you complete earlier acts. Within the acts there are over 100 levels with their own  unique story to tell, which helps explain the rules for completing that level. For instance, you may be responsible for keeping a space next to June in the cafeteria so that Ben can sit next to her.  Ben wants to ask June to go with him to the upcoming school dance.  Or you may need to situate a robot between Ben and the other girls, as Ben has become quite excited to get to the dance.

With each level played, there is a thermometer that rates the total happiness of all of the pieces on the board. The more pieces that are happy, the higher the thermometer rises. Once all of the pieces are played, a final score is tallied and you are awarded from one to three happiness points. These points are collected in your Bag of Happiness.  The bonus levels — or challenges as they are called — are unlocked when you earn enough happiness points in your Bag of Happiness.
As you get familiar with each of the characters in the game, you begin to look forward to learning what comes next in the story.  As challenging as the puzzles can become, the story continues to string them all together into the three acts of a play.  Each obstacle, additional character or new aspect to the game can be associated directly with a twist in the main plot of the story.
So this weekend you should set aside time to come to understand exactly why Girls Like Robots better than Nerds.

Odd iMessage Bug Truncates Last Word of Certain Text Phrases

Odd iMessage Bug Truncates Last Word of Certain Text Phrases: As noted by The Verge, a strange iMessage bug is causing the final word of certain phrases sent via Messages to an iPhone to be invisible to both the message sender and the recipient.

When the following two phrases are sent using iMessage, the last word is not displayed on the iPhone:

- I could be the next Obama (with a space after Obama)
- The best prize is a surprise


Both messages look complete when they are being composed, and the full text shows up in notifications, but within the Messages app itself, the words Obama and surprise are both invisible. Copying and pasting the message displays the original text.

Many Twitter users have been able to confirm the problem, which only appears to affect the iPhone.

The bug was first noticed back in December and posted on the Apple Support forums. It appears that additional phrases trigger the truncation as well, though it is unclear what is causing the issue.

Update: As noted on the MacRumors forums, the issue appears to be related to character width. From Arian19:

You can test it out, and even if you change “I could be the next Odama ” as the phrase it still gets deleted.

The problem is that the message app, thinks the phrase will fit in a one line bubble, but it actually puts the last word on a hidden second line.

It works with these two phrases because they are the exact width needed, and it is not based on character count, but character width. For example, "l" is skinner than a "w".

Bidding for coffee with Tim Cook breaks $550,000

Bidding for coffee with Tim Cook breaks $550,000:

Two days ago, we reported on a Charitybuzz auction which was auctioning off coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple's headquarters. Since the "item" first became available for bidding, the price to sit down with the Apple CEO has continued to rise to incredibly high levels.
At the time of this writing, there have currently been 78 bids with the leading bid now checking in at a whopping $560,000. Benefits from the auction will be going to the RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights. Note that Charitybuzz keeps 20 percent of each winning bid.
Incredibly, the $560,000 bid for a sit-down with Cook is an all-time record for Charitybuzz and becomes all the more impressive when one looks at the current bids for other celebrity meetings. For example, the current high bid for lunch with Francis Ford Coppola in Napa Valley is $4,500. An opportunity to meet with Robert DeNiro is currently going for $2,250, while a private tennis lesson with Rafael Nadal is going for $31,000.
The enormous bid to interact with Cook is an all-time Charity Buzz record. Previously, the highest bid the site ever received was $255,000 for the opportunity to shadow Bill Clinton for a day.
Bidding on coffee with Cook closes on May 14 so it'll be interesting to see just how high the bidding goes. I can only imagine how high the bidding would have been for a sit down with Steve Jobs.

Apple schools iOS users on in-app purchases with new App Store feature

Apple schools iOS users on in-app purchases with new App Store feature: As part of an ongoing response to the challenges enabled by in-app purchases, Apple has added a new section to the App Store explaining the ins and outs of app purchases.

Mailbox team promises iPad app 'soon,' Android, desktop apps later

Mailbox team promises iPad app 'soon,' Android, desktop apps later: An iPad edition of Mailbox is in development, as are Android and desktop versions, tweets by the app's development team indicate. The iPad app is said to be "coming soon," while the Android and desktop apps are on a longer-term roadmap. Support for other platforms may also be possible....