Posts tagged with "developers"

OS X Lion GM Coming Soon?

TechCrunch reports tonight Apple has been gathering feedback and crash reports from developers testing the first preview build of the next major version of OS X, 10.7 Lion, and the operating system is now nearing the “GM” stage. When a new OS reaches the Golden Master status, that means it’s usually ready for public release – although Apple previously announced Lion wouldn’t ship until Summer 2011. Indeed, TechCrunch also speculates a public release could happen around the WWDC – which should be scheduled for June as usual.

Specifically, Apple is gearing up to deploy an OS X Lion update to developers that they may be classifying as the “GM1″ release, we’ve heard. “GM” or “Golden Master” is a title reserved for software that is complete. But from what we’ve heard, this is only the initial Golden Master candidate. In other words, don’t get too excited just yet.

If Apple is planning to deploy multiple GM builds of Lion, that would keep them on track for another (possibly final) GM build / release candidate seeded at the WWDC and public availability soon after that. As MG Siegler notes, the GM seed of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was released a few weeks ahead of the public launch.

The first developer preview of Lion was seeded on February 24th. Apple decided to rely on the Mac App Store (and the redeem code system) for the distribution of the developer preview, which saw several issues with canceled downloads and slow loading times arose at first. Apparently Apple has fixed the issues with the Mac App Store distributing OS updates on a large scale, and the GM build is almost ready to go. In February, TechCrunch correctly suggested a beta of Lion was about to be released just a day before the actual developer seed. Among the new features of Lion (such as a complete Finder rewrite, new Mail app, multitouch gestures and the Launchpad), many speculate Apple might bring direct integration with the Finder and iOS devices wirelessly, through the new AirDrop utility.

Apple Releases Xcode 4.0.1

Together with iOS 4.3.1, a few minutes ago Apple released an update for its development application Xcode, which reaches version 4.0.1 and adds a number of bug fixes and stability improvements. Xcode 4 was released on March 9th.

First off, Apple fixed a bug in the installer that caused the app to hang at 99% complete, never finishing the installation process. Apple also fixed another error that prevented indexing of projects, and another one that didn’t allow developers to have automatic downloads of documentation from Apple’s servers.

You can find the full changelog below, and Xcode 4.0.1 in the Mac App Store or Apple’s website.

  • Improved Assistant editor logic when switching among different file types
  • Fixed a bug in “Install Xcode.app” that hangs at 99% complete, never finishing
  • Fixed a bug that prevented indexing of some projects
  • Fixed a bug related to nil settings in the Core Data model editor
  • Fixed a bug that prevented automatic download of iOS documentation
  • Fixed a bug in LLVM GCC 4.2 and LLVM compiler 2.0 for iOS projects
  • Additional bug fixes and stability improvements

AppAppeal Collects iOS Apps That Are Donating Proceeds to Japan

Created by developers Masashi Ono and Milo Bird (Bird is the same guy behind popular RSS reader Byline), appappeal.jp is a website that collects iOS applications whose developers are currently donating 100% of the proceeds to the Japan relief effort. As developers around the world donate their proceeds to charities like the Red Cross, App Appeal wants to provide a unified way of discovering which apps you can buy to get great software, and contribute to Japan at the same time.

The list isn’t huge for now, but Bird and Ono aim at collecting more apps as developers get to know about App Appeal and through the classic word of mouth. So, if you’re a developer and you’re planning on donating your proceeds to help the people of Japan, you should get in touch with App Appeal; if you’re an iPhone or iPad user, keep an eye on the website to see which apps you can buy now and the ones that will be added in the next days.

If you don’t want to buy new apps to help Japan, Apple also lets you donate to the Red Cross in iTunes.

WSJ Starts Selling Single-Issues Using In-App Purchases

As reported last night, the Wall Street Journal has updated its official iPad application to include the possibility for readers to buy single issues for a specific day. These single-issues downloads are available as $1.99 in-app purchases, whilst “regular” WSJ monthly and weekly subscriptions are still being sold through a website – which is embedded into the WSJ app for login and purchasing option. At this point, it seems that the WSJ is slowly complying to Apple’s in-app purchase and subscription policies but it’s not quite there yet. Recently, Apple started enforcing a rule that requires developers to implement in-app purchases as an option by default in iOS apps that come with extra, purchasable content.

Single issues (up to a week) can be viewed in the “start screen”. Here, you can choose to buy one or subscribe to the WSJ. iPad subscribers also get free unlimited access to WSJ.com, iPhone and Blackberry apps. Single issues don’t carry any kind of additional benefit as they’re simply tied to an iTunes account.

The WSJ app for iPad is free, and it’s available here. Read more

Rumor: Valve “Looking Into” iOS for Steam Expansion

If you’re familiar with the PC and Mac gaming scene, then you have most definitely heard of Steam: a game distribution platform by Valve that collects thousands of games in a single marketplace that’s easy to use and aggregates users worldwide enabling them to communicate through the platform. Steam, first released on Windows PCs, came out on OS X last year after much anticipation, quickly becoming many users’ favorite way of discovering and downloading games for the Mac.

Member of Steam’s forums Political Gamer recently visited the Valve headquarters and reported an interesting tidbit from his visit and talk with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell: Valve is apparently “looking into” iOS and Android as possible platforms for Steam’s expansion in the future:

After waiting in the lobby for a few minutes it turned out Gabe was in the office and wanted to say hi. To my great delight he was playing DOTA 2 when we walked in and from what I can see the game already looks very promising. After a little “sneak peek” we sat down to talk about Steam and other goings on in Valve. During this chat he confirmed that Steam will get a video recorder very soon, also he said they were looking into the iOS/Android platform for possible expansions with Steam. He also siad that the Source film maker is in the pipeline for a public release. After the chat was over he happily signed my copy of the Orange box and sent me on my way to Robin Walker.

The report doesn’t provide any additional details on Valve’s plans for a mobile Steam, and we only speculate that the development studio might be considering an iPhone or iPad client to check on your online Steam account and friends. Certainly Apple would never approve an iOS Steam app that lets you download and play games out of the App Store, whilst on Android Valve could easily deploy and alternative store like Amazon did (and got sued for the name choice). On iOS, Steam as we know it would be a difficult goal to accomplish: Apple doesn’t allow the installation of apps from alternative sources (the so-called “side-loading”) and the possible implementation of in-app purchases wouldn’t fit Steam’s growing catalogue of games.

Apple has turned its iOS and Mac App Stores into the perfect place for users to discover and buy games, and we don’t expect Steve Jobs to change his mind anytime soon about allowing other developers to “break the ecosystem” with unofficial app stores. So perhaps Steam for iOS will be a simple app to manage your online account? Or a “brand” for App Store developers to publish their games? We don’t know yet, but it’s interesting that Valve is at least looking at the possibilities offered by iOS. [via]

Prevent Accidental Quit In Google Chrome

In my typical work day, I keep a lot of browser tabs open in the background. MacStories articles, links from Google Reader, Twitter, Reddit and many others are always sitting there in the browser, which is an essential tool in my workflow. Perhaps the most important one. So when I accidentally hit CMD+Q instead of CMD+W and I lose the contents of an article I’m writing in my online visual editor, I usually would like to smash my computer’s keyboard. It actually never happened (otherwise I wouldn’t be here typing on this keyboard), and luckily for me it looks like such a situation won’t ever take place thanks to a subtle, yet life-saving feature implemented in the Dev version of Google Chrome: quit warning.

Enabled by default in the early dev versions (latest one is 11.0.696.14) and now available as an option in Chrome’s settings, the quit warning works a little bit different from what you’d expect: instead of putting a dialogue box up on the screen that asks you “if you really want to quit”, Google thought that it’d be best to implement a system that would prevent accidental clicking of CMD+Q. So instead of just hitting the shortcut to quit Chrome, you have to click & hold CMD+Q for a few seconds. Pure genius: this way, if I accidentally hit “Q” instead of “W”, my browser won’t quit.

To enable the feature, type “about:flags” (without quotes) in the Chrome Omnibox and activate “Confirm to Quit. Enjoy. [Mac OS X Hints]

Firemint: Flight Control for iPhone Hits 4 Million Downloads, $2 Million Budget for Real Racing 2

Developer Firemint has always been one of the biggest “players” in the iOS gaming scene with hugely popular games and Apple Design Awards won at the WWDC, and they’ve been under the press spotlight again recently thanks to the release of Real Racing 2 HD – a version of their successful racing game specifically optimized for the iPad 2 improved graphics, processor and gyroscopic controls. With more updates on the way and a brand new iOS game announced last month, Agent Squeak, Firemint has become one of the top names in the App Store for iPhone and iPad games.

In an interview with Pocketful of Megabytes, Firemint’s Logan Booker has answered some interesting questions about what’s going on behind the scenes of Real Racing and their other game franchise, Flight Control. As revealed by Booker, Flight Control, released in 2009, recently surpassed 4 million downloads for iPhone, and it keeps growing. The game was the result of weeks of sketching and prototyping back in 2008 and early 2009, when the App Store was a relatively new platform and no one really knew whether or not Apple (and third-party developers) could turn a profit out of it. Read more

Eighth Beta of 10.6.7 Seeded to Developers

As noted by MacRumors, Apple has seeded a new build of OS X 10.6.7 to developers earlier today. Build 10J869 doesn’t list known issues and, according to developers, Apple keeps asking to focus on Safari, Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB, and Graphics Drivers testing.

The seventh beta of 10.6.7 was seeded last week. This leads us to think the final release of the OS update is nearing completion, also considering the small increment in build version number from last week’s beta.

Twitter To Developers: Enough With The Twitter Clients

With an official announcement on the Twitter Google Group, head of platform and API at Twitter Ryan Sarver has told developers to stop building third-party Twitter clients that “mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience”. Basically: no more unofficial Twitter apps that look just like the official iOS, Mac, Android or BlackBerry apps and don’t add any value to the experience. Instead, focus on different areas of the whole Twitter experience. Uh oh.

The move is quickly causing a reaction among developers on Twitter that didn’t expect such a response from the company. Basically, although in a subtle way, they’re telling everyone to stop wasting time trying to emulate the official Twitter apps because 90% of users are already using Twitter through the officially provided tools. On top of that, though, it’s not only a matter of choice: it seems like Twitter is really going to force developers to stop building apps by “holding you to high standards to ensure you do not violate users’ privacy, that you provide consistency in the user experience, and that you rigorously adhere to all areas of our Terms of Service”. Some key parts from the announcement:

With more people joining Twitter and accessing the service in multiple ways, a consistent user experience is more crucial than ever.  As we talked about last April, this was our motivation for buying Tweetie and developing our own official iPhone app.  It is the reason why we have developed official apps for the Mac, iPad, Android and Windows Phone, and worked with RIM on their Twitter for Blackberry app. As a result, the top five ways that people access Twitter are official Twitter apps.

Developers have told us that they’d like more guidance from us about the best opportunities to build on Twitter.  More specifically, developers ask us if they should build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.  The answer is no.

As we point out above, we need to move to a less fragmented world, where every user can experience Twitter in a consistent way.

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