Cody Fink

1547 posts on MacStories since January 2010

Former MacStories contributor.

[email protected]

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Today Only: Buy Apps and Help Bring Clean Water to Developing Nations

Apps for Water is an app drive where all proceeds of apps purchased will support charity: water, a non-profit organization that brings clean drinking water to developing nations. Clean water improves health and sanitation, brings change to communities by protecting women and children, and aids in the economic growth of poverty stricken nations.

Every $1 invested in improved water access and sanitation yields an average of $12 in economic returns, depending on the project.

Today only, by purchasing one of the listed Mac, iPad, or iPhone apps participating in the Apps for Water project, your purchase will aid families in need of clean water. If you’ve been looking to purchase Smile’s TextExpander, Useful Fruit Software’s Pear Note, or Gaucho Software’s Seasonality Core, consider this an opportunity to acquire new software while giving something back in return. For those not in need of a new app, you can also donate to charity: water directly through their website.

The drive will end after Tuesday, December 20th.

[Apps for Water via Cult of Mac]

Apple Acquires Anobit for $500 Million

Anobit

Anobit

Anobit, an Israeli flash storage company specializing in flash memory used in Apple’s iPads, iPhones, and iPods, has been purchased by Apple for $500 Million according to a report from Calcalist. Anobit is Apple’s first acquisition from Israel. The half billion dollar acquisition is the largest in Apple’s history writes Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt:

The price – a reported $500 million – is larger than the $472 million it paid for NeXT, once 14 years of inflation is taken into account.

As a brief aside, Apple announced their merger with NeXT 15 years ago today.

Apple’s commitment to flash memory and in securing component supplies are core to Apple’s business. Previously, Apple has purchased P.A. Semi in 2008 for its custom chip designs, and have also acquired chip maker Intrinsity last year for ARM based chip technologies that improve the overall processing speed in products like Apple’s dual-core A5 processor in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. The Israel-based Calcalist notes that Apple has made the purchase thanks to Anobit’s improvements in flash technology. Steven Scheer of Reuters adds that “The chip may as much as double the memory volume in the new iPads and MacBooks.”

Erica Ogg from GigaOM writes:

Anobit makes flash memory devices that can use the popular Multi Level Cell (MLC) flash-based solid-state drives. Consumer devices use MLC flash because it’s cheaper, but it’s also generally less reliable than the more common Single Level Cell flash drives. Anobit’s technology makes MLC more reliable.

In addition to the purchase, Calcalist write that Apple is also planning to build a research centre in Israel, which would be their first outside the United States. Apple could join the likes of other R&D operations in Israel, such as Intel, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Qualcomm.

[Calcalist via Reuters]

 

Disruptions: Wearing Your Computer on Your Sleeve→

Disruptions: Wearing Your Computer on Your Sleeve

The big headline for many Apple weblogs this morning comes from Nick Bilton of the New York Times:

Over the last year, Apple and Google have secretly begun working on projects that will become wearable computers. Their main goal: to sell more smartphones. (In Google’s case, more smartphones sold means more advertising viewed.)

The idea that Apple and Google are working on secret projects like this isn’t interesting, but what is interesting is the idea that wearable devices are going to be sold as main drivers for future smartphones sales. The incentive to buy a future iPhone or Android smartphone would be that it ties into a wearable device you must have.

The rest of Bilton’s piece is a wishful vision that the future holds for us an augmented reality where wearable devices, powered by our smartphones, better describe and organize information in the world around us. Wearable devices will become both fashion accessories and gatherers of information.

Apple has already asked their customers to affirm wether wearing the iPod nano as a watch was a good idea. Maybe the next iPod we’ll see will be an actual watch since we’re already half way there. The iPod nano isn’t either terribly functional or fashionable as a watch in my opinion, but it desires to be a combination of both. Will it be a selling point for a future iPhone in the near future? Doubtful. People have to get comfortable with the idea first.

The tech industry is just starting to introduce wearable devices onto the market. Jawbone’s UP works with any iPhone (and eventually any mainstream Android smartphone), and the Fitbit doesn’t even require a phone tether, but it does have a companion app. These products are successful not because they’re flashy, but because they’re discreet. The UP for example not only blends in with casual attire, but it doesn’t look like a wearable computer at all. It looks like a fancy bracelet.

Smartphones are becoming more common in today’s modern world. We often focus on flagship phones, but smartphones are close to simply becoming the default. No longer smartphones, but just phones. The question we have to ask ourselves at this point is, “What’s the next compelling and logical step?” I’m not sure upselling you a wearable gadget is the answer. Just look at the MOTOACTV for today’s comparison.

But something that’s discreet and functionally works to improve your lifestyle? We’re already doing this and seeking to make it better. Augmented reality might be the next step, but smartphone software will make this a commonality long before we have separate wearable devices doing so. In the meantime people want to quantify their lifestyles. Apple and Google might be working to make wearable gadgets fashionable, but I believe it’ll be companies like Basis who’ll be pushing the envelope of wearable devices with the Quantified Self. Health and mindfulness about ourselves is where the future of wearable devices is currently headed.

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QuickShot 1.7: Back in Action With Better Dropbox Integration

QuickShot 1.7 is not just a maintenance release, but a big update if we look at the changes made to the back end. QuickShot, which instantly saves photos to Dropbox, fixes many of the bugs that were present in the earlier version (1.6.3). The bigger story here, however, is the switch to the new Dropbox SDK. Aside from a big performance boost (apps updated to use the new Dropbox SDK use less system resources in the background), the biggest new feature is a single-sign-on system.

With current Twitter apps, you only need to sign into your Twitter accounts via the Settings app in iOS. Twitter apps will look for those accounts and request access so you don’t have to sign in each time. Dropbox now works similarly; With the Dropbox app installed on your iPhone or iPad, simply logging into their app provides access for other apps using the new SDK. This of course makes logging into and using Dropbox much easier — you’re simply redirected to the Dropbox app and asked whether you’d like to accept or cancel the app link. The feature is pretty cool and it’s the first time I’ve seen Dropbox authentication like this in an iOS app.

With QuickShot, you can easily upload photographs to a Dropbox shared folder to quickly share images and videos for events, parties, and get-togethers. We think it’s a splendid little camera app, and you can give QuickShot a try for only $0.99 on the App Store.

ReadNow 2.0 Keeps your Instapaper and Read It Later Articles in One Tidy App

If you like to read Instapaper and Read It Later on your desktop through your web browser, why not give the second iteration of ReadNow a try? No longer a menubar application, ReadNow 2.0 was built from the ground up to feel like a native OS X application from the start. Based on traditional RSS apps, ReadNow organizes your Instapaper and Read it Later articles for offline access, optimizing articles for a cleaner reading experience on your Mac. ReadNow features a custom article view that let’s you style the article, change the line height and article width, and customize the font. Archiving and liking articles in the app will push those changes to the respective service in realtime. Unlike your favorite iOS apps, ReadNow lets you drag and drop articles into folders and tags to quickly move them from the reading list. You can currently share articles you find interesting to Twitter, Facebook, Pinboard, Delicious and Evernote from within the app. With support for multitouch gestures, search, and tag and folder management, ReadNow gives you access to Instapaper and Read It Later in one easy-to-use application.

An Instapaper subscription is required to use the service with ReadNow. ReadNow is $3.99 on the Mac App Store.

iTunes Match Live Internationally in UK, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and More

Last night, iTunes Match appeared to be rolling out early to International customers in accordance with emails Apple was sending out to users, signifying a December 14th launch. This afternoon, iTunes Match is working and available as a link in the iTunes Store from the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Mexico, with more countries following.

  • Australia: AU $34.99
  • Canada: CAD $27.99
  • Europe: €24.99
  • Mexico: MXN $300
  • United Kingdom: £21.99

iTunes Match launched a month ago in the US, and a couple days ago in Brazil. Apple’s iTunes Match offers the ability to conveniently download your music library onto your mobile iOS devices and other Mac computers. Be sure to check out our hands-on with iTunes Match to learn what the fuss is about and how you can take advantage of it on everything from your iPhone to your Apple TV.

Touch Arcade Reviews Sonic CD for iOS→

Touch Arcade Reviews Sonic CD for iOS

In a word, Sonic CD is incredible. It redefines what gamers can expect out of retro iOS ports, while simultaneously making all of Sega’s existing ports look absolutely horrid in comparison. The on-screen controls work great, the game performs even better than the original, and they’ve included not only the Japanese soundtrack, but also the American one. (Note: It defaults to the Japanese soundtrack, so if you’re wondering where the familiar “Sonic Boom” song is, you’ll need to toggle it in the options.) It’s even Universal. I can’t think of a single thing that’s missing or lacking in any way, in fact, they’ve even added Tails, who wasn’t even present in the original.

Sonic CD isn’t just a port of a Sega Genesis classic, but rather a complete rewrite for iOS. Being written natively for the platform, the experience is buttery smooth and the controls are solid. The folks at Touch Arcade wrote an in depth review of the iOS version of Sonic CD, which is available this evening in the App Store.

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Apple Begins International Launch Of iTunes Match [Updated]

This morning in Europe and Australia, Apple is rolling out iTunes Match a month after its US debut. Canadian, Australian, English, and our European friends are starting to see iTunes Match come online this evening, although customers trying to subscribe to the service early are currently getting an error as shown off by one Twitter user. While iTunes Match is not currently being promoted in the iTunes Store, users are able to subscribe to iTunes Match through Account Management.

Currently, the pricing for iTunes Match is as follows:

  • Australia: AU $34.99
  • Canada: CAD $27.99
  • Europe: €24.99
  • United Kingdom: £21.99

Today’s launch follows Apple’s iTunes Store and iTunes Match rollout out in Brazil on December 13th.

iTunes Match is an annual subscription service that matches an unlimited number of songs purchased from iTunes, and up to 25,000 of your own songs for immediate download on all of your iOS 5 devices. Songs that are scanned and not matched by iTunes are also uploaded to the cloud from your iTunes library. Apple’s matched tracks are downloaded as 256 Kbps AAC files, possibly offering a free DRM-free upgrade for existing, lower bit-rate tracks in your library.

For more information about how to get iTunes Match running on all of your Apple devices, be sure to check out our iTunes Match Hands On.

Update: It appears Apple’s international launch was premature. Apple is refunding customers who managed to subscribe in countries outside of the U.S. and Brazil, according to Darrell Etherington of GigaOM.

Update 2: It’s officially live!

The Humble Indie Bundle #4

The Humble Bundle has debuted their 4th charity bundle for the American Red Cross and Child’s Play, giving gamers an opportunity to pay what they want for a handful of indie games that are DRM-free while donating to two great causes. This holiday’s Humble Indie Bundle includes Super Meat Boy, Cave Story +, Bit.Trip Runner, Gratuitous Space Battles, Shank, NightSky HD, and Jamestown if you pay more than the average amount donated. Donations for the Red Cross, Child’s Play, the game developers, and the Humble Bundle folks themselves can be adjusted before checkout. All gamers are given access to a special key where they can download the games on any platform of their choice, whether it be Windows, Mac, or Linux. If you’d like to gift the Humble Bundle to a relative or a friend as a holiday gift, simply check that option before checking out with PayPal, Amazon Payments, or Google Checkout.

[via The Humble Mumble]