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iPhone Game Guru Leaves Apple→

iPhone Game Guru Leaves Apple

Devine said he can’t comment on whether his position will be filled and Apple did not respond to request for comment. But Devine says that gamers into playing on the Apple devices shouldn’t worry.

“Apple has the smartest and most talented group of people I have ever worked with,” he said. “Every day I would walk in and feel I was working alongside geniuses and I the guy with crayons in the corner.

He’s back to developing his own games.

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Jobs: Rockstar and CEO Of The Decade→

Jobs: Rockstar and CEO Of The Decade

Jobs’s legacy stretches back several decades and includes the development of a few more groundbreaking innovations from his first go-round at Apple in the 1970s and ’80s: the Apple II, the Mac and elaborate computer graphics, to name a few. Along with being likened to Edison and Bell, comparisons with such captains of industry as Walt Disney — of whose namesake company Jobs would later become the biggest individual shareholder — spring to mind for many.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards.”

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MacUpdate Bundle: 1Password, DEVONthink, Interarchy… 12 Apps at $49→

MacUpdate Bundle: 1Password, DEVONthink, Interarchy… $49

The latest bundle offering from MacUpdate looks like an absolute must-have for Mac users: 12 top-notch Mac apps, available at $49.99 instead of $534. The apps are: 1Password, MacFamilyTree, DEVONthink, Flux, Default Folder X, Art Text + Fonts, Swift Publisher, Chronories, Interarchy and Typinator. First 10,000 buyers also get Mail Stationery and Stars Wars Jedi Night II for free.

Gems like AgileWeb’s 1Password (a staff favorite here at MacStories), DEVONthink, Interarchy and Typinator are definitely well worth the bundle price.

Do yourself a favor for Christmas and go buy the bundle here.

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Instagram Gains Native Twitter.com Support With Inline Viewer→

Instagram Gains Native Twitter.com Support With Inline Viewer

We’re on a mission to give you more great multimedia content on Twitter, and today we’re adding five new companies to bring you independent TV shows, photos, works of art, slide presentations and entire songs, all right inside the details pane.

Check it out here. Seems like Instagram is really redefining the rules of mobile photo sharing, after all.

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Macworld’s 26th Annual Editors’ Choice Awards→

Macworld’s 26th Annual Editors’ Choice Awards

2010 was a big year for the Mac. The beginning of the year was all about the iPad—followed by the iPhone. But the buzz and success of those two products trickled down to the Mac. Later in the year, we saw upgrades to the Mac lineup, as well as solid signs from Apple that the Mac hasn’t been forgotten. With record sales of Macs posted by Apple, it’s a very good time to make products for the Mac.

Some curious choices, but I’m glad gems like Instapaper, Text Expander and Pogoplug Pro made the list. I wonder if Tweetie 2 for Mac will be there next year.

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Andy Rubin, Android Creator: “Everybody Is Embracing The iPhone”→

Andy Rubin, Android Creator: “Everybody Is Embracing The iPhone”

Andy Rubin, speaking at the D: Dive into Mobile event:

Rubin has some relatively nice things to say about the iPhone. “I think everybody is embracing the iPhone. They are pretty open.” Rubin said that most developers actually are having a pretty easy time getting their apps approved by Apple.

Kara: How do you consider Apple as a competitor?

Certainly they make great products, Rubin says–robust, solid, good user experiences. A lot of consistency across applications. More recently I see them getting involved in the other end of the spectrum–services like a bookstore, the app store.

Consistency across applications and devices. Something Google is perhaps underestimating? I’m excited for the changes introduced in today’s Android update, anyway. Gingerbread looks like a solid OS with lots of refinements, and the Nexus S might be the first Android phone I’m going to use on a regular basis. Problem is, I’ll have to find an unlocked one here.

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Reeder for Mac Vs. Fitts’s Law→

Reeder for Mac Vs. Fitts’s Law

It’s finally happened. Someone came out with a Mac OS application that’s clearly a touch UI crowbarred into a point-and-click universe.

And it doesn’t work.

The application in question is Reeder, a Google Reader client for Mac OS X. Yes, it looks pretty, and I feel kind of bad for making an example of it, especially since it’s in early beta.

The whole analysis is basically about the “misplacement” or “small size” of Reeder’s sharing and feed management buttons. Honestly, I haven’t really ever clicked on the wrong button because of this use of the laws, nor do I know of other users complaining about this very specific problem.

But hey, it’s in early beta. Perhaps Silvio Rizzi will follow Fitts’s Law come the final version. You know, just to prove that with the correct adjustments, apps coming from iOS can work on the Mac. [via Daring Fireball]

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BlackBerry vs. iPhone: What’s In Your Pocket?→

BlackBerry vs. iPhone: What’s In Your Pocket?

Apple says the iPhone is more than a mere appliance for sending e-mail. The device, with its sleek touch screen and ability to run hundreds of thousands of Web-connected applications, games and utilities, can be used for nearly any purpose, business or personal, a line that Apple hopes to blur out of existence.

“Most people now want to use a single device to handle both their personal and professional lives,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. “That’s what Apple’s really good at — and now RIM is playing catch-up.”

I guess the question is: can they even catch up at this point? 275,000 apps is no small difference. [via]

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“The iPad Is Not Newspaper With Moving Words”→

“The iPad Is Not Newspaper With Moving Words”

The problem for anybody wanting to believe that the iPad is a newspaper or magazine replacement is that it is not. It’s a digital device, which means people will get easily distracted and start playing Scrabble, or listening to music or whatever else one can get up to on a crowded carriage.

It’s also still too easy to jump from one news source to another, because digital has fundamentally changed people’s relationship with printed news sources. Once, a newspaper was not just a source of information, but a statement of identity, where most buyers would not dream of picking up a competing title.

Paid Content also cites a report from Screen Digest according to which the average iPad user downloads 60 apps a year – but only 6 are paid apps. Where did they get these numbers? I’m curious.

Perhaps the problem with the publishing industry on the iPad is that most newspaper / magazine apps suck? [via Brooks Review]

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