Apple now has over 300,000 apps in the iOS App Store and over 100,000 in the Mac App Store. It’s almost impossible to fathom just how successful both App Stores have been and how much more potential it has, to become even a bigger part of our everyday lives.
Late last week, Apple introduced a new promotion in both the Mac App Store and the iOS App Store, called Free App of the Week as well as Editor’s Choice. The Free App of the Week is self explanatory based on the name and builds on Apple’s past app giveaways via retail outlets such as Starbucks which began to offer select apps and even iBooks every week via promotional codes.
This week’s Free App of the Week is the normally priced 99 cents, Cut The Rope: Experiments app which is currently posted on the front page of the iTunes App Store. Apple has also added Editor’s Choice, with certain apps gettting a separate distinction than others in the App Store and posted to the front page alongside the Free App of the Week. These apps are likely judged on their usability, development, and popularity.
For this past week, the chosen apps were Deus X Human Revolution and Cobook in the Mac App Store. The iOS App Store’s Editor’s Choice apps were Extreme Skater and as expected, Facebook Camera. Apple continues to build on its App Store for both iOS products and the Mac and gives developers all of the spotlight.
This latest promotional addition will give app developers a chance to showcase the hard work and effort that they put into developing credible and fun apps for Apple’s App Store.
{via: TUAW — Image Credit: Arstechnica}
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The Loop reported on Wednesday that Apple has scheduled an education announcement on January 19th in New York City. The invitation simply reads “Join us for an education announcement in the big Apple” and does not disclose any specific information.
The New York Times later confirmed that the event is going to focus on digital textbooks and that no new hardware would be introduced.
The event will showcase a new push by Apple into the digital textbook business, but will not feature any new devices, according to a person briefed on the event who did not want to be identified talking about it before it occurs.
The event will take place in New York’s famous Guggenheim Museum, and is not open to the public, only press invited as with all other Apple events. Reports of the event were revealed last week, with many online news sources suggesting that Apple was planning to announce new hardware. The event will be highlighting publishing and digital textbooks, suggesting that Apple might ready to revamp their iBooks Store and its offerings from different publishers.
iBooks was released after the announcement of iOS 5 and gained some attention, but definitely not enough to Apple’s liking. With these new improvements, Apple will try to move further into the publishing market.
The event will be held on Thursday, January 19th, however, a time for the event has not been announced. The event will likely be held around 10AM, similar to earlier Apple events.
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Dribbble is a “show and tell” web site for designers and other creative types. The idea behind it being that you share sneak peaks of your current projects. Your peers will then give you feedback on your work, and you can respond in kind. Being invitation only Dribbble is chock full of arty people who want to be there, care passionately about design, and strive to produce work of quality.
Dunk is an iPhone based client which allows you to surf the timeline of recent Dribbble shots. You can also customise your feed so that you keep tabs on your favourite designers.
Being an app designed to showcase design, and good design at that, Dunk needs to work well and look good. So does it?
When a Dribbble user wants to show something off they produce a “shot”, which is a small screen image of their work. Typically a 400 x 300 pixels in size. Other users can then comment on that work, or fire a “rebound” back, which is another “shot” they created and is inspired by that idea. Yeah, you got it, the terminology is basketball based.
If you want to know more about Dribbble then you can visit their faq, here
But we are here to talk about Dunk…
In a word, the user interface of Dunk is beautiful. Its the kind of app Steve Jobs might use to demonstrate how good a GUI can be on the iPhone.
Dunk does all the things that you expect from a well rounded iOS app. Touch controls are intuitive, and tab and navigation bars drift in and out when needed. If you want to glide through Dribbble user’s shots then you are one tap away after app launch.
The entire Dribbble time line can be scrolled through by swiping from page to page, whilst artwork loads on the fly. It works in exactly the way that Apple’s own Photo app allows you to view images, but these are pieces of artwork loaded from the web.
To read comments, or find out other related info on the design on screen, you simply tap the bottom of the image and that info all scrolls up. It’s seamless. To keep moving just swipe forwards or backwards.
I have to admit to being quite professionally jealous of how well rounded Dunk’s UI by robocat is. Nice work guys.
You don’t need a Dribbble account to use Dunk, so if you are interested in the community and the concept give Dunk a whirl today. Its probably a must have app for designers on the move to keep in touch with a vibrant and growing community.
Price: $1.99 (App Store)
Category: Productivity
Released: Aug 06, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.0
Size: 12.2 MB
Language:English
Seller: icelantern
Copyright © 2010 Robocat
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
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Microsoft’s Courier tablet was first mentioned on tech sites a couple of months ago. At the time it was only a concept which existed in the form of a kind of User Interface showcase with cartoon hands controlling a virtual device. But those concept videos were rather impressive and very forward thinking. Of the many UI features that impressed me one really stuck in my mind. It was perhaps the simplest of them all, but it struck me as really nifty. When you want to transfer a picture or note to the clipboard you just slide it to the hinge of the device and it sticks there partly exposed on both screens. You can then flip through pages until you find the one you want. Once there you slide the clipping out onto either screen and paste it. Simple, but so cool I wanted one just so I could try it!
The User Interface of the Courier overall had the same shock and awe effect on me that the iPhone’s did when I first saw it. Before that OS X blew me away similarly.
Because at that stage the Courier was a concept no-one had any idea of the dimensions of the device. Or how much of the hardware was actually real. Or even how close to reality the incredibly impressive conceptual GUI of this thing was. All we did know was that the Courier had two screens, and opened like a traditional book with a hinge in the middle. It also supposedly had a pen, although the UI videos showed both multitouch with fingers and the pen being used. Oh, and it had a camera if the concept videos were accurate. We get to see it taking shots with that, and those snaps being filed away in a scrap book, edited and collated, and used as part of a presentation.
My initial reaction to the hinged device idea was that I wondered how people were going to actually use a device on the move which folded in the middle. How would it stay open on your lap? How would you type, draw or work with it when also having to hold it. Would the hinge be floppy or stiff? It was all the same kind of concerns that people had about how Apple’s take on a Tablet would work for typing and viewing movies etc. But I loved some of the ideas that were being explored with the Courier. Part of the reason that I worried about the folding design was that I envisioned it being around the size of a legal note pad when folded shut. So around the size of a magazine. I am not sure why, but that was my impression. My mind was stuck with the idea of a traditional tablet sized device or something about the size of the iPad, I guess.
Looking at the concept videos again it is fairly clear that this thing is not actually that big. Indeed, pictures that Engadget have today show the device (or at least a mockup) in human hands, and as being much closer to the size of a traditional paperback. For some reason this has made a massive impression on me. Engadet’s information on the device is here.
The videos (which have been around for a while now) are further down the same page. Make sure you watch them. They are obviously not real. By that I mean they are not running on a real device. But there is no reason in this day and age that a User Interface could not do all the things we are seeing there. And if Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 interface is anything to go by then the general look and feel all fits. Again though, all we’ve seen of that is flashy web sites and conceptsÉ so far.
Engadget have this to say: “Courier will function as a “digital journal,” and it’s designed to be seriously portable: it’s under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn’t much bigger than a 5×7 photo when closed. That’s a lot smaller than we expected.” With reference to that last sentence: Join the club guys!
If, and this is a big if. But if Microsoft can produce this device so that it looks as good as the pictures we have seen to date. And if the User Interface has the functionality detailed in those concept videos, then the Courier is going to be truly remarkable. And I will camp outside a store or travel half way round the world to buy one on day one. And I’ll want to develop for it too.
I am not convinced that this device will be all that the videos and pictures promise. It just seems too good to be true. But if it is then I think we could see a massive shift in power in the mobile market place.
Microsoft could really be making a rather incredible device that people simply must have.
What do you think about the Courier? Is it the iPad slayer or is it promising too much and will it underwhelm in real life?
Microsoft’s Courier: Videos of the interface in action
Images and Video Credit: Engadget
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