iPhone posts

Liquid Scale is an iPhone / iPod Touch app that allows you to resize images by removing unimportant elements in the photo, leaving the important ones untouched. It's a technique called seam carving that we've previously mentioned, but what's interesting here is that it's now available to be used on the iPhone.

For those that are unfamiliar with it, the seam carving technique analyzes images to determine the most and least important elements, and when you use it to decrease the size of an image it removes the least important parts first, in tiny 1 pixel wide slices. It can be a slow process, particularly on larger images, but the result is often much more compelling than what can be done with a simple crop. Of course, if you're not careful to use the effect sparingly, the results can go from impressive to flat-out weird pretty quickly.

Liquid Scale is available for $2US in the App Store.

[via Daring Fireball]

I almost (not quite, but almost) feel bad for Adobe right now. Apple has been unceremoniously dumping on Flash in a big way since the iPad announcement, and all Adobe can do is claim they don't ship known-buggy Flash releases and announce how much better Flash will perform on Macs when Flash 10.1 is released. Flash still has critical mass adoption among traditional computing devices (desktops and laptops), and almost all mobile platforms other than Apple's have either stated they will use Flash or are working towards it.

And yet, the size of Apple's iPhone and iPod touch (and soon iPad) markets just can't be ignored, and neither can the swelling anti-Flash sentiment coming from the very influential tech elite.

Is better performance on the Mac going to fix what ails the Adobe / Apple relationship? Don't bet on it. But since Flash isn't going away for a long time, the improvement will be nice to have for Mac users.

Apple's recent iPad product announcement fanned the flames of the Flash debate, namely whether it belongs on Apple's mobile devices -- or not. Since the release of the iPhone Apple has been staunchly against putting Flash on its mobile devices, citing performance and stability issues. In fact at an Apple Town Hall meeting just over a week ago, Steve Jobs said, "When a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash." It doesn't get much more blunt than that.

Adobe, of course, is crying foul, and their chief technology officer Kevin Lynch responded by making the grandiose statement that "Regarding crashing, I can tell you that we don't ship Flash with any known crash bugs, and if there was such a widespread problem historically Flash could not have achieved its wide use today."

Unfortunately, Matthew Dempsky begs to differ, and he can prove it. Before you click that link, you should know that unless you are running the very latest beta version of Flash, it will crash either the Flash plugin, or your entire browser, depending on what browser you are using. The thing is, Dempsky found this crashing bug in September of 2008 and reported it to Adobe then, and the bug has continued to exist in every version of Flash on every platform since.

Lynch's comment is what you'd expect any CTO to say publicly; realistically, what else could he say? It's just very unfortunate for him that someone was able to prove the inaccuracy of his statement in a very compelling way.

If you're tired of Flash giving you troubles, check out the various solutions we've presented by searching Download Squad for "flash block" or "disable flash".

[Update] Adobe has now acknowledged Dempsky's bug report, and has offered an explanation for why it has taken so long to fix it. The explanation is reasonable, but likely won't do anything to dampen the rising level of distaste for Flash that is becoming evident in the online community.

Touch Mouse [iTunes link] is a free iPhone / iPod Touch application from Logitech that turns your iDevice into a wireless keyboard and trackpad for your Windows or Macintosh computer. It's not a remote control application, so you don't get a view of the computer's screen; you simply get an alternative way to control the mouse pointer and keyboard. Touch Mouse works by relying on a small server software component that you install on your desktop computer that listens for connections from the iPhone app.

This is very useful when you have a computer set up as a PVR. Most of the time, you can do what you need to do with a remote control, but occasionally you'll need to navigate the file system or close a pesky dialog box (no, I don't want to upgrade my antivirus, thanks), and for that Touch Mouse can be very useful.

My one small concern about Touch Mouse is that there is no authentication going on; it appears that any computer that is running the Touch Mouse server software on the same wireless network shows up in the Touch Mouse app. That won't be a problem for me since I'm using it at home on my home network, but it could be a problem in other environments.

[via TUAW]

Sometimes, Apple's decisions about content in the App Store can be petty and anti-competitive -- like asking developers to remove any mention of Android. But sometimes, they make a call that seems to put users first. This time, it's a request that developers use your location to provide useful information, rather than just serving you location-based ads. Here's the text of the warning to developers, posted in Apple's developer forum:

If you build your application with features based on a user's location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user's location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.'

Developers might balk at the removal of a possible cheap and easy revenue stream, but I think Apple is doing the right thing, here. Apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow business to advertise specials, should be unaffected, because they also your location for checking in, finding your friends, and other important game elements. The kind of app being targeted here has no reason to know where you are except to show you ads, and I can get behind Apple trying to block that use of the feature.

Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb actually seems pretty angry about the situation. His point is that if an app is going to show you ads, whether it has location-based features or not, it should be allowed to show you local ads. Marshall seems to balk more at the idea that Apple wants to decide what constitutes "beneficial information." I agree that Apple may have worded that part of the warning artlessly, but I think what they mean is "non-advertising information."

What do you think, Download Squad readers? I'd especially love to get an iPhone developer's perspective on the situation.

Apparently "Android" is a four-letter word in Cupertino. The flash card app Flash of Genius was a finalist in Google's Android Developer Challenge, and the developers thought that was worth mentioning in the description of the iPhone version of their app. Apple didn't agree, and sent the developers an email asking them to remove the Android line from their app description, under threat of an "interruption" in Flash of Genius' availability on the app store.

I like Apple, but does anyone else think this seems a bit like a movie gangster cliché? It's just shy of showing up in a dark pinstripe suit, carrying a baseball bat and saying "It would be a shame if anything happened to your ... availability in the app store." There's no official ban on mentioning Android, as far as we know, so the email said that the description "contains inappropriate or irrelevant information." Apple mentioned the Android award specifically, though, without referring to Flash of Genius' other boasts about mentions in books and newspapers.

What's the deal, Apple? Is this a one-time fluke that deserves an apology, or are we going to see all Android mentions consistently removed in the future? For Flash of Genius' part, they're contacting Apple to find out if there's any acceptable way to mention their award without getting their app booted from the store.

[via Cult of Mac]

Last week Apple changed began allowing third party applications to make VoIP calls over 3G. What that means is that you can make a telephone call over the internet using a wireless broadband connection. The upshot is that you could theoretically use an application like Skype to make free or cheap phone calls while eating up your data minutes instead of your voice minutes. You can also make international calls over a VoIP application for much less money than your cellphone company would typically charge.

Right now there's only one problem: Skype's iPhone application doesn't support making calls over 3G. And it won't for a little while, because while the Skype team plans to start work on a 3G enabled version, the goal is to improve the audio quality first.

In the meantime, you can always use Fring, which already offers VoIP calls over 3G.

iPad fever seems to have gripped the iNation. If looking at your diminutive iPhone or iPod Touch is getting you down, and you wish you could be stroking a beautiful new iPad, maybe the mod described at Redmond Pie will tide you over.

Modifying the iPhone operating system isn't possible unless you jailbreak your device, but once you do a huge number of possible modifications are available. For this particular makeover Redmond Pie suggest installing the following apps from both Cydia (the jailbroken app installer) and Apple's App Store:

• Winterboard app via Cydia
• "Simple iPad Theme" via Cydia
• MakeItMine app via Cydia to Change the Carrier logo to iPad.
• Shrink app via Cydia to reduce the size of all the icons on the springboard.
• ProSwitcher via Cydia for Multitasking.
• NYTimes - The New York Times app for iPhone via App Store
• Classics - The iBooks lookalike app for iPhone via App Store
• Kindle for iPhone via App Store

For more details including a video of what the completed mod looks like, head on over to the post at Redmond Pie.

Our fantastically white-and-shiny sister blog, TUAW, has just published a guide all about the EPUB ebook format. This will be of most interest to Apple fans who are planning to buy an iPad, because it's the file format that the iBookstore will use.

Even if you're not planning on getting an iPad, EPUB is the format used by all major ebook readers (except the Kindle), so the guide is probably worth reading anyway!

EPUB is based on an international standard and is intended to be the ebook format -- to that end, it supports just about everything, including the possibility to implement a custom DRM scheme to satisfy publishers.

The TUAW guide lists a few great Mac apps for making EPUB files (including the delightful open-source and cross-platform Sigil), but Windows-only options are slim pickings, unless you fancy forking out some serious dollars for Adobe's InDesign.

You don't need a fancy device to read EPUB files, though. There are literally tons of readers -- give Stanza [iTunes link] a go if you're using an iPhone or iPod Touch, or Bookworm for an awesome web-based EPUB reader.

iPhone owners might not have access to iPhone OS 3.2 yet, but it's already running on the new iPad. Our sister site, Engadget, was able to score some of the details of the new features in 3.2, and it sounds like it's going to be great for both the iPhone and the iPad. The biggest surprise might be the inclusion of some video calling code that even includes multitasking while on a video call. This suggests a couple of things, either one of which would be awesome:

1) The next version of the iPad is getting a camera. This is the least immediately helpful possibility, but it also sounds completely likely. A lot of tech pundits assumed the first-gen iPad would include a camera, so I'd bet on seeing it next time around.

2) Multitasking is coming to the iPhone sooner rather than later. Although a video call and another task at once might be a lot to ask on the small screen - and not that useful, either - we can at least hope that the next software update brings the ability to run third-party apps in the background. The iPad already has wicked multitasking potential, with the introduction of new popover windows that don't take up the entire screen.

Another useful new feature rumored for 3.2 is the ability to download and locally store files using Safari, and open them in other apps. The lack of access to the iPhone's filesystem is one of the biggest reasons that fans of more open mobile operating systems scoff at Apple, and, although this wouldn't totally shut down that line of criticism, it would be a step in the right direction. File uploading is also reportedly included in the update.

Check out the Engadget post for more info, including possible SMS support on the iPad and some slightly more far-fetched rumors about a stylus and a handwriting keyboard.

Adobe has always been pretty miffed over the lack of Flash on the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can understand Apple's point of view though: Flash would remove their control over the user experience. It would also make the App Store irrelevant and the flow of software onto the Apple devices almost impossible to govern.

Couple the lack of iPhone support with the keynote presentation of the iPad, where Steve Jobs proudly displays the lack of Flash, and you can see why Adobe has just launched an anti-iPad smear campaign.

Not ones to tread lightly, or even scale up their assault, they've waded right in and played the porn card. As you can see, they've already removed the offensive part of the screenshot, but not before generating a lot of angry comments and even some commentary from Wired.

Adobe's poster ends with the slogan "Millions of websites use Flash. Get used to the blue legos." Maybe, as Jay said yesterday, Apple's customers don't want Flash. It performs poorly, it steals vital CPU cycles, it flattens your battery faster than an American stocking up at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Hopefully this is the kick in the butt Adobe needs to make Flash a little more efficient and less impotence-inducing. Watching --and feeling! -- my 2.2GHz laptop sit at 100% CPU usage while viewing Flash videos is truly a sad sight to behold.

When Apple unveiled their new iBooks application during the launch of the much-anticipated and unfortunately named iPad tablet computer, many people noticed its similarity to the well-known Classics iPhone app. Classics [iTunes link], if you're not familiar with it, is an iPhone app that gives you access to read over a dozen public-domain books.

There are lots of ebook readers available for the iPhone, but where Classics sets itself apart is with an exquisite user interface that mimics the feeling of going to a bookshelf, getting a hardcover book, and paging through it. It's likely that the bookshelf metaphor in Classics was inspired by Delicious Library, a Mac app for cataloging books, media, and anything else you want to catalog.

Install0us is an app that could be installed on jailbroken iPhones that would allow the user to installed pirated versions of commercial iPhone apps and avoid actually purchasing them. The developer of Install0us, puy0, recently posted in the Install0us forums that he has decided to discontinue work on the app and kill the project for legal reasons. You don't say?

Amazingly, puy0 states that he thought what he was doing was somehow legally defensible until he spoke to a lawyer and got a reality check. It turns out that helping people take things that cost money without paying for them is kinda sorta illegal.

The forum post is worth a read, just to see how ignorant puy0 actually was about the legality of stealing, or at least how ridiculous he's willing to look when groping for a way to explain his actions.

I, for one, am happy to see yet another pirate tool die off. Developers work hard for their 70% of the $1 to $3 they're able to charge for iPhone apps; they should be compensated. In the words of Wil Wheaton, don't be a jerk.

[via Cult of Mac]

AT&T made the changes that would allow iPhone VoIP on its 3G network back in October, so the holdup has presumably been on Apple's end since then. Now that Apple has lifted its restrictions, though, does this mean the iPad with 3G service will be able to pull off VoIP calls? I sure hope so. It would be nice to have just an iPad, instead of carting around an iPhone, too.

If you're impatient for a Skype update, you can test out 3G VoIP with iCall, an alternative app whose developers have been using the news of the new SDK to draw attention to it as the first app to actually enable cellular VoIP call via iPhone. iCall is free, although somewhat crashy and unreliable, and it can fill the void until Skype swoops back in.

[via Gizmodo]

You've probably noticed a complete lack of iPad/iTablet/iSlate news around these parts. That's because we don't cover gadgets, nor do we cover hyperbolic crotch-grabbing fanboy speculation. But now that it's finally been announced (forever will it go down in history that we watched Steve Jobs sit in a leather chair and surf on his iPad), we can finally get down to business.

The iPad, whether you like it or not, has implications for everyone. The early-adopter, the developer, and even the conscientious surfer and app downloader -- whichever one you are, the iPad's going to make an impact on your life. Apple has successfully controlled technological fads for almost a decade -- you can be damn sure that the iPad won't be any different.

So here's the news that affects you. Not your friends, nor the hot girls you try to woo with your tablet -- not even your jealous co-workers -- just you.