Today’s Deals include a few special offers for MacStories readers so check it out under Mac Apps! -> Here’s some great deals for today on iOS & Mac apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!
Posts tagged with "iPhone"
#MacStoriesDeals - Tuesday with Reader Exclusives
BusyToDo Syncs Tasks Through iCal & MobileMe
If you happen to live buried in a desktop calendar like BusyCal, assumedly it’s become your central hub for tracking the waterfall of meetings and seemingly endless to-do’s that direct your daily actions. Being mobile, we hate being tethered to our desktops or using clunky software on our phones when tasks could be simplified: BusyToDo from BusyMac free’s iCal’s To Do list and keeps your personal agenda synced across the cloud with MobileMe. Push notifications may remind you via any alarms you’ve set, and BusyToDo will update in the background as you move to other applications on your iPhone. Whether it’s checking off URLs, adding new items for next week’s agenda, or simply looking for the perfect mobile companion for BusyCal, BusyToDo is a brand new release that’s launched for $5 on the iTunes App Store.
Confirmed: Instagram Reaches 1 Million Users
We speculated several times in the past about social photo sharing service Instagram (which doesn’t have a website, it only comes as an iPhone app) to have reached and passed the 1 million users milestone, now it’s official. Instagram has gained more than a million users since its original release in early October.
As co-founder of Instagram Kevin Systrom told The New York Times:
Instagram, a social photo-sharing company that opened its shutters to iPhone owners just two months ago, announced Tuesday that it passed a major milestone of 1 million registered users.
“We’ve just been amazed at the growth of the service,” Mr. Systrom said in a phone interview. “My partner and I had a bet the first day about how many downloads we would get and I was off by an order magnitude.”
According to Mr. Systrom, Instagram users are “collectively uploading approximately three photos a second and tens of millions of photos have been shared on the service.”
The past two months have been a great run for Instagram, which launched its iPhone app with only a few selected users who had the privilege to try the app on board. Since then, usage of the service skyrocketed with the developers being busy keeping the servers up and running. The app reached another important milestone when Twitter announced support for Instagram photos in its inline media viewer on Twitter.com. The app also received a few updates to fix bugs and introduce more filters and Posterous integration.
Almost three months after launch and with “just an iPhone app” out in the wild, we think great things will come for Instagram in 2011. One million users is a solid foundation to start with.
First Infinity Blade Update Now Available→
First Infinity Blade Update Now Available
- 5 new Swords, 5 new Shields, 5 new Helmets, and 1 new set of Armor - Collect and Master them all!
- Maximum Character Level raised from 40 to 45!
- New Enemy - The MARROW FIEND! This creature is rumored to devour its victims, taking their bones for its blade and shield…
- Because it’s awesome, you can now listen to your own music while playing INFINITY BLADE!
- PURCHASE GOLD! Due to popular demand, we have added the ability to buy extra Gold via in-app purchase!
- Optimizations and minor Bug fixes
Infinity Blade 1.1 is available here. I can’t wait for multiplayer mode to come in the next version.
Shocker! Someone At Apple Killed The Unofficial WikiLeaks App
Three days ago we covered the unofficial WikiLeaks app for iPhone and iPad, a $1.99 piece of software available in the App Store which let you access the latest diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and check on the organization’s Twitter account. It was also nicely designed and sold as a universal app.
Developer Igor Barinov, though, wasn’t planning on taking all the money from the sales of the app. Instead, he decided to donate half of the proceeds to WikiLeaks, a move that likely pissed off Steve Jobs, or someone else at the App Store team. In fact, for some obscure reason or App Store guideline we’re no aware of, the app is gone. Killed. Kaput. There’s no WikiLeaks app in the App Store anymore. Without an explanation, the developer got an email from Apple about the changed state of his app, which was “removed from sale”.
I’m not sure this app violated any of Apple’s guidelines. It was a wrapper for a website (the CableGate documents) and a Twitter account – both of them publicly available on the internet. We all know there’s worse in the App Store, and – to tell the truth – this was also a good app. Assange and WikiLeaks are controversial and one may or may not agree with his efforts to “reveal the truth”, but there’s no reason to remove an unofficial app.
Unless, well, you’re Apple and you don’t care about your own Guidelines.
Still Relevant? MySpace Updates Its iPhone App With New UI and Features
Just in case you were wondering, yes – MySpace appears to be alive. I know, you haven’t logged in the website in ages. But what was that? Two years ago? Man, that was fast. Facebook completely replaced MySpace in our daily digital sharing and wall-posting lives.
Still, MySpace has an updated iPhone app available. Version 2.0 adds a fresh new, darker and somehow sexier look (which reminds me an awful lot of the Facebook’s iPhone grid interface), possibility to browse without login, SuperPosts to share links at the same time on Facebook - MySpace - Twitter (why would I, I don’t really know) and instant notifications.
The update also comes with a bunch of additional features, which – if you really still care – you can check out in the full changelog below. The app is available for free here. Read more
Apple Launches New iPhone 4 Ad “Under The Covers” To Promote FaceTime, Again
A few minutes ago Apple launched a new iPhone 4 commercial (available on Apple’s website and Youtube channel) to showcase, once again, the FaceTime capabilities of the device.
The commercial is called “Under The Covers” and features a kid who thinks he’s talking to Santa via FaceTime, while on the other device there’s his father dressed as Santa and calling him from their garage. It’s a pretty sweet commercial. In September, Apple launched a series of ads to showcase the iPhone’s FaceTime features in Europe; other FaceTime ads had appeared in the U.S. in July. Apple also targeted the iPhone 4’s battery life and Retina Display with commercials aired in the past months.
Check out the video below. Read more
Tap Tap Revenge 4? 25,000 Downloads Per Hour→
Tap Tap Revenge 4? 25,000 Downloads Per Hour
Decrem, who now serves as SVP and General Manager for Disney Mobile, says that the game is seeing around 25,000 downloads per hour right now, which is on par with what it saw on Christmas day last year (app downloads see a major spike on Christmas as people try out their new iPhones and iPod touches, so expect this number to surge even higher this year). Decrem says this is the fastest any of Tapulous’s games have ever hit #1, and it may be the fastest growing game ever (though he doesn’t know that definitively).
The app was released less than 24 hours ago. Apps like Flipboard, Twitter or Facebook didn’t see these numbers. But guess what? It’s a free game.
Secret of Mana for iPhone Goes Live Internationally, Coming To The U.S. Tonight
Secret of Mana, also known to the Nintendo nerds among us as Seiken Densetsu 2, was an action RPG for the Super Nintendo release by Square in 1993. I remember playing this as a kid on my SNES, and I remember the pleasure of playing it again a decade later on a modded PSP through a SNES emulator. Secret of Mana is considered one of the best games ever released on Nintendo’s 16-bit consoles, or one of Square’s finest action RPGs, period.
The fact that Secret of Mana still holds up to most similar games 17 years after its original release says a lot about the current status of role-playing games and the excellence of Square’s team back in the golden days. Still, let’s focus on yet another comeback of SoM, this time on the iPhone. Which is the same Secret of Mana you know and love, only with a couple of virtual buttons on screen to move you character, attack and change weapon. Yes, the Ring Command menu system from the original game is still there. Nothing else seems to be different.
The game is now live in most international App Stores and will likely become available in the US in 3 hours.