I recently completed Cave Story (for the thirteenth time) with the aid of niche but awesome iOS app by the name of Joypad. Turning your iPhone into a virtual video game controller, Joypad is a pocketable companion for 8 bit, indie, or emulator crazy Mac gamers who don’t have a USB controller accessible. NES, SNES, N64, SEGA Genesis, and GBA controllers are all available to smash those Cheeto flavored fingers on, but how well does a flat display work with bumpers?
Journler Now Open Source, “Per Se” To Be Successor
Philip Dow, unhappy with the current offerings of journaling applications (including his own Journler) for OS X, has opened up the popular diary app over at Sprouted as a complete Xcode project. Journler was closed over a year ago, leaving many dissatisfied customers in its wake. Looking to finally put Journler to a good end, Philip has reluctantly opened up the source code to the public in an effort to rekindle development company Sprouted.
With this rekindling comes a new and improved journaling application dubbed Per Se, which looks stunning if not bold from this first sneak peek. The end goal is to create a realistic journaling experience on the desktop, literally recreating the page metaphor as you write in an open book. Shown in the screen grab above, Per Se includes super fast calendaring, bookmarking, searching, and a tags feature so your records are never lost. We like the developer’s approach in creating an untraditional experience for desktop users, but we have to ask our readers: would you trade a text editor or alternative journaling application for Per Se’s beautiful paper interface?
[via Journler Blog]
Twitterrific 4 For Mac Review
My first exposure to Twitterrific was when MacHeist casually offered Ollie as part of their first nanoBundle, alongside great applications such as WriteRoom and TinyGrab. While the third version quickly grew outdated in part because of Twitter’s continual feature growth and the IconFactory’s focus on providing parity between iPhone and iPad iterations, Ollie remained perched in my menubar for quite a while thanks to its minimal HUD interface. It was this Aqua-less client that faded into the background as I went about my other tasks that was supposed to be a permanent mainstay on my MacBook. I loved everything about it despite criticisms of it being ugly or lacking features, and if I wasn’t as vigorous on Twitter as I am today it would still be perfect for simply reading the latest incoming tweets. Though times changed, and I shelved my favorite mascot for Echofon while Tweetie garnered droves of followers in its presence.
While the OS X version of Twitterrific remained seemingly stagnant, the IconFactory made a rather large push into the Twitter realm with the iOS versions we’re familiar with today. Starting with the iPhone, the IconFactory practiced bringing a familiar experience across mobile devices by simplifying how we interact with Twitter. There is no excess interface or useless presentation of information: the IconFactory replaces Twitter’s originally dull and now confusing web interface with an inline, color-coded approach whose design is recognizable across the Apple community. Macworld named Twitterrific the ‘Twitter Client of the Year’ in 2010’s App Gem Awards, and you can bet the IconFactory would take their award winning design to the desktop. Steve Jobs wasn’t kidding when he said everything was coming, “Back to the Mac.”
Today, I’m glad to say that with the launch of Twitterrific 4 for OS X, it has once again reclaimed dominance on my Coca-Cola bottled desktop.
MacStories Product Review: Ten One Design Pogo Stylus
Many people would tell you that you don’t need a pen to enjoy touchscreen devices. For the most part it’s true: the iPad shines as fingers flick photos into sharing bins and users check off another todo item in Things. Pen input is old fashioned, and quite frankly there isn’t a successful way to do it on a capacitive touchscreen. Though what would happen if we took the pen away from a poet, or a brush away from a canvas painter? Ten One Design defies finger philosophy with an elegant solution for the iPhone 4, iPod touch, and iPad with the popular Pogo Stylus.
World Of Goo Sells 125K In First Month: 2D Boy Talks Sales, Strategies, And Consoles
World of Goo has had incredible sales as it launched on the iPad, eventually reaching the #2 spot after a $5 price drop from $10 and lots of press coverage. In its first month of sales, the Mac famous strategy slash flubber-venture sold approximately 125,000 copies in the iPad’s App Store, having been exalted by the media on numerous occasions as well as by Apple, deservedly featuring World of Goo on the store’s front page. 2D Boy has published a rather lengthy analysis on their indie title, and we encourage you to click past the break for an overview of some of the finer points.
Sparrow Launches On The App Store For $9.99
The long awaited and much anticipated Sparrow for OS X just launched in the App Store for $9.99, with an expected launch of $19.99. Merging the elegance of Tweetie with the bravado of Gmail, Sparrow is a beautiful email client whose gorgeous interface enables users to effortlessly manage, label, and compose messages through intuitive actions. With Growl support, multiple accounts, and quick replies to seamlessly manage inbox cruft, Sparrow is a no-brainer if you live in Gmail, but don’t want the heft of a traditional email client. IMAP support for Aol., Yahoo, and MobileMe is promised for a future update. We’ve been following Sparrow for quite a while on MacStories, and I have nothing but good things to say about this sleek client after many Twitter followers turned me on this once public beta project.
You can purchase Sparrow on the Mac App Store via the following link: Sparrow for Mac
Edit: Have I told you how much I love Sparrow’s new icon? It looks great in the menubar too!
Next Generation iPad In Production: Factory Ready For Verizon, AT&T
Forget the MiFi: the next generation iPad will work on both red & blue networks out of the gate according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s a no brainer that the next generation iPad is going to be thinner, more powerful, and feature a front-facing camera, but an important tidbit from the WSJ notes:
The new iPad will be available through Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., but not Sprint NextelCorp. or T-Mobile USA in the U.S., according to some of the people familiar with the matter
2011 shouldn’t see any more iPhones or iPads on the remaining two American carriers, so don’t expect Apple to join forces with Nascar sponsor Sprint anytime soon. The WSJ doesn’t expect the second generation iPad to have a significantly greater display, but we’re get anxious to see Apple unveil their next gen tablet already.
[via Wall Street Journal]
Consumer Reports To Probably Give The Verizon iPhone A Thumbs Up
The Street reports that Consumer Reports Mike Gikas claims “key technical differences” will separate the Verizon iPhone from the AT&T iPhone. In the short video, Gikas does have concerns about Verizon throttling when data usage picks up, but that shouldn’t be a problem for AT&T users satisfied with only using a few hundred megabytes a month. Overall, we expect Consumer Reports to give the Verizon iPhone a thumbs up, but really, their initial iPhone 4 diss didn’t stop the bullet train of sales Apple incurred in 2010. Watch the video after the break.
Apple Dominating Download-To-Own Video Market
When it comes to purchasing movies, iTunes (not Amazon) is still everyone’s de facto service according to iSuppli. With two thirds of the market under it’s control, Apple accounted for 64.5 percent for Internet video on-demand for 2010, competing with Amazon’s growing user base and Microsoft’s Xbox market.
“The iTunes online store showed remarkable competitive resilience last year in the U.S. EST/iVOD movie business, staving off a growing field of tough challengers while keeping pace with an dramatic expansion for the overall market,” said Arash Amel, research director, digital media, for IHS.
While Apple hasn’t maintained their lead of 74.4 percent market-share since 2009, the iPad and the Apple TV have played a large role in keeping Apple at the top of their game. We imagine that with the next iPad and future updates for the Apple TV (it can’t be much of a hobby driving that 64.5 percent market share can it?), Apple will continue to deliver a seamless market experience by staying competitive in both affordability and how content is delivered. Too, what if Apple ever launches that unicorn status Apple television?