As ambitious as we are as students, we’re not always guaranteed good grades or perfect scores despite long nights and exam crams. With nothing more than a few syllabi and red ink, keeping track of your grades and measuring your performance with a calculator is outdated and unnecessary. Weighted grades and a failed exam can turn a trip to the calculator into a worrisome mess of numbers and unmet expectations. In your pocket, however, you already have all the tools necessary for instant grade-ification. Grades 2 is your personal performance record that crunches all of the numbers so you don’t have to, providing near instant feedback on what you need to aim for to maintain your target grade (preferably an A). Jeremy Olson is at it again, refining the user experience from Grades and delivering a free update that adds a GPA calculator and due dates to keep you on schedule.
New Final Cut Pro to be Announced on April 12th?
The ProVideoCoalition reports this evening that the new Final Cut Pro isn’t just amazing, but that it’s slated for an April 12th launch date at the tenth annual SuperMeet at the Bally’s Event Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Rumors are flying that Apple will be using the Vegas Supermeet to announce the next version of Final Cut Pro. Supposedly, Apple will be taking over the entire event for their announcement, canceling all other sponsors, including AJA, Avid, Canon, BlackMagic, Autodesk and others, who were set to give presentations.
So far, ProVideoCoalition has confirmed that Canon, Avid, and Autodesk will not be presenting on the 12th. Avid reported that Supermeet canceled their sponsorship for the event, while Canon cancelled speaker Philip Bloom’s stage appearance. However, Bloom may make a guest appearance at the event.
Early in January, Hardmac proposed that Apple was testing a beta version of Final Cut Pro, and that it was slated for a late March or early April release date. In February, Techcrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis reported that video editors were visiting the Apple campus to get a preview of the new software.
Apparently Apple is still putting the finishing touches on “the biggest overhaul to Final Cut Pro since the original version was created over 10 years ago”and wanted pro user feedback. Emphasis on “pro.”
MacRumors quotes Final Cut author Larry Jordan, who writes on his blog:
I’ve Seen The New Version of Final Cut Pro… and it’s a jaw-dropper. Last week, Apple invited a few folks, including me, to a short meeting in Cupertino where they previewed the up-coming version of Final Cut Pro. While I am under NDA and can’t talk about what I saw, I CAN tell you the meeting happened and that it showcased the new Final Cut Pro.
Ripe with rumors pointing to an April launch, I’d expect the next iteration of Final Cut Pro to launch this month. The last time we saw any activity with Final Cut Pro was in 2009, and many are expecting dramatic interface changes to coincide with 64-bit support and the launch of Lion.
[via MacRumors]
Decline, plateau, decline: New data on The Daily suggests a social media decline and a tough road ahead→
Decline, plateau, decline: New data on The Daily suggests a social media decline and a tough road ahead
The data doesn’t look good for The Daily. Its activity on Twitter seems to match my own perceptions of how they’re doing — an early rush of excitement; a decline as people lost interest and the app struggled with technical problems; a plateau once the tech got sorted out; and then another decline once the app started charging users.
The data here only takes tweets into account, and not the actual number of The Daily subscribers. While there has been a general decline in tweets with occasional upticks depending on the content being promoted for that day, I ask whether this is a fair assessment of the number of people using The Daily versus how people use The Daily. I know for a fact that I would share articles I found interesting on Twitter, but would somebody like my parents who’re switching to a digital format even bother? Once I tweet an article on Twitter, what return am I getting out of it? As MacStories writers, our whole audience is interested in tech (specifically Apple news), thus I don’t know if I’m going to see a lot of retweets if I share a sports article. Too, the social implementation in The Daily isn’t as user friendly as it could be, and without the flow that apps like Flipboard have, you’ll certainly see a decline in interest over time. The next thing to look at would be whether Facebook sharing declined and how many people are utilizing The Daily’s comments section (and audio tool).
I don’t argue that The Daily isn’t seeing a decline in readership, but I want to see (though probably impossible) heat maps of how customers are interacting with articles, complaints on Twitter about usability, and most importantly subscriber numbers. The Daily certainly got its fair share of promotion in the media, but are people prepared to move from finding free content on the Internet into a dedicated news source that they have to pay for? We’ll save these ideas for another time, but Joshua Benton has shown that social interactions with The Daily have seen a substantial decline.
Giveaway: Be Distraction Free With Byword for Mac
You wouldn’t want your fingers to glide across the keyboard to type in just any regular text-editor. Ladies and gentlemen, you deserve nothing but class and a distraction free environment that helps you focus on the text and nothing more, or nothing less. Byword for the Mac from the folks @metaclassy is a bite-sized text editor that packs a big punch in the downright-beautiful department. In your choice of a shell white for an afternoon scrawl or an alternate dark theme for evening pondering, Byword contains five typography presets for plain or rich text editing that when combined with contextual formatting presets create a pleasurable typing experience for your sensitive neural inputs. Out of love for writing, Byword helps improve text legibility by implementing text substitutions for Smart Quotes, Smart Dashes, and a user friendly interface that simply disappears as your fingers strike the keys. Reviewed at the onset of March and now at version 1.1 in the App Store, Byword is available for a small expense of $4.99.
We’re giving away five copies of Byword to our MacStorian authors who frequent our site for the latest in Mac apps, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t offer you the opportunity to put away your thoughts in this beautiful text writer. The giveaway rules can be had after the break.
nvALT 2.0 Launches with (Multi)Markdown, HTML/CSS Template Support
Notational Velocity is a huge productivity tool for keep tracking of internal notes with tags and content linking, and followers of Brett Terpstra are probably already big fans of the nvALT project that’s designed to add power-user friendly features to a favorite text client. With help from ElasticThreads, nvALT 2.0 has been released which highlights lots of killer features that can be added to Notational Velocity. I’ve listed just a few below (I encourage you to check out Brett’s site and the project page) for a quick taste of what nvALT 2.0 has to offer.
- Textile and (Multi)Markdown support with Preview window (hold down Control to view temporarily)
- Custom HTML/CSS templates can be included in saved output from the Preview
- Convert imported URLs to Markdown, and optionally strip excess content with Readability
- Word Count (hold down Option to view temporarily)
- Full-screen mode
As a fork of Notional Velocity, nvALT is a keyboard-focused text editor that’s being improved to deliver rich features that writers such as myself rely on to get things done, take notes, and quickly exit ideas from my brain box. If you’re already familiar with Notational Velocity, it works with Simplenote on your favorite iOS device, and it can be extended thanks to the great nvALT project Brett and other volunteers are working on. It doesn’t replace Notational Velocity, but runs alongside it with it’s own set of preferences and additional features.
[via Brett Terpstra]
Camera+ hits 2 million sales / Revealing details about upgrade numbers and in-app purchase sales→
Camera+ hits 2 million sales / Revealing details about upgrade numbers and in-app purchase sales
If we were to stay on the same weekly pace that we’re currently on (~160k sales per week), we’ll get to 3 million in only 1.5 months from now. But with the volatility of the App Store, our fortune could change in a heartbeat. The one thing you learn to count on as an iPhone app developer is not to count on future sales based on past performance.
John Casasanta has been on a roll lately with his latest set of iPhone tips & tricks, and now he’s released the sales figures for Camera+. By far Camera+ is one of the most successful photography apps on the App Store, and according to the charts it’s one of a few apps that customers are consistently using on their iOS devices. The sales figures for in app purchases are telling, and Casasanta notes that while customers are buying for and requesting new effects packs, that’s not where you want to make the bulk of your cash.
There are companies with free photography apps that are trying to have their business models revolve around selling effects via in-app purchases, but it’s very unlikely that this can be an effective business model.
Camera+ is a success because tap tap tap doesn’t need in-app purchases to unlock features or drive their business model. All of the functionality you need is provided in the app, and additional effects don’t fundamentally alter your experience - they only supplement the tools already available if you find yourself using the app a lot. You’re sold the entire experience upfront, and in-app purchases are like adding an extra flower to the already delicious icing on the cake.
Patent-Infringement Reversed: Apple Wins Court Battle For $625.5 Million
Penalized 208.5 million for three patent violations, Apple wasn’t going to give up a fight for a few of the most prominent features of today’s OS X: Spotlight, Time Machine, and Cover Flow. On October 1st, 2010, a jury initially awarded $625.5 million to Mirror Worlds LLC in the Texas Eastern District Court (a court which has been scrutinized for appealing to patent trolls). However, the verdict was postponed by U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis – additional post trial arguments were slated to last until November to the dispute.
Computerworld: Apple asked Davis to delay his final ruling on the verdict, claiming that the award amounted to “triple dipping” because the jury penalized Apple $208.5 million for each of the three patent violations.
The case dates back to 2008, as Yale University professor David Gelernter (the founder of Mirror Worlds Technologies) accused Apple of infringing on patents revolving around data manipulation. Specifically, the claims against Cover Flow involved how documents, pictures, and media were displayed on a computer via the Finder and iTunes (the patents also applied to the iPod, iPhone, and iPad). Today it was decided that the patents do not infringe on Mirror World’s technologies and that the damages were also too high.
Bloomberg: “Mirror Worlds may have painted an appealing picture for the jury, but it failed to lay a solid foundation sufficient to support important elements it was required to establish under the law,” U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis wrote.
Apple has also recently won an initial patent battle with cellphone giant Nokia, as the International Trade Commission ruled Apple did not infringe on a set of patents related to mobile phones, computer technologies, and portable music players.
[via Bloomberg]
Image via Engadget
Prycast: Pandora Radio Player Review & Giveaway
While I don’t think Pandora itself needs any introduction, you may not be familiar with one of the latest Mac Apps to bring your Pandora account to your desktop. Pyrcast is a menu bar radio player for your Pandora stations, allotting access to all of your favorite music and controls that can be tucked away into a standalone player, or via a drop-down menu. Pyrcast allows for global keyboard shortcuts for restarting the song, liking and disliking the current track, and for play/pausing. Additionally accessibility has been added with Growl support, though I found the Rate Up and Rate Down icons to be unintuitive in the player (just bring over the thumbs up and thumbs down guys). Pyrcast looks similar to Ecoute in terms of navigation, though you can just quickly jump to another station by clicking “Stations” at any time. Pyrcast is $4.99 in the App Store, and we’re giving away three copies in a quick giveaway to a few lucky readers. Jump past the break for contest rules.
Q&A: MLB.com Boss Bob Bowman on Android Owners, Facebook Video and Apple’s Subscription Rules→
Q&A: MLB.com Boss Bob Bowman on Android Owners, Facebook Video and Apple’s Subscription Rules
Peter Kafka: You’ve complained publicly before about the difficulty in supporting multiple flavors of Android for your apps. But this year you’ve expanded the number of Android handsets you’re supporting from 6 to 11. Did you ever consider not working with Android at all?
Bob Bowman: The short answer is no. But what we have done is that we don’t support every Android phone. Because at some point, it’s diminishing returns. The Android user typically is less likely to buy, and therefore the ROI on developing for Android is different than it is for Apple.
In comparison, the NFL Network announced that 76% of NFL Mobile Only From Verizon customers subscribed to watch video of Combine events, with a 128 percent increase in NFL.com’s total video streams from last year. The NFL Network also announced a record 2010 season with 6.6 million viewers.
In the first season of NFL Mobile Only from Verizon, a record number of fans turned to their mobile devices for NFL coverage as NFL Mobile is one of Verizon’s most successful apps.
The success of NFL Mobile was only available to select Android phones on Verizon, and I’d argue the MLB would do just fine support a few of the worth mentioning Android phones in the market. Kafka and Bowman also discuss Apple’s subscription model, and the MLB’s desire in primarily supporting the iPhone and iPad.