Following from the revelation that iOS apps could easy gain access to contact lists and other personal data, the Office of the Attorney General for California has announced that Apple has signed up to new privacy policies and requirements for apps that they sell to access personal data (via MacRumors). The agreement, made by other companies such as Amazon, Google, Hewlett Packard, RIM and Microsoft, means that the policies of apps that collect private data can be seen more transparently prior to a user downloading an app from the App Store.

“The Act requires operators of commercial web sites and online services, including mobile apps, who collect personally identifiable information about Californians to conspicuously post a privacy policy. This agreement will allow consumers the opportunity to review an app’s privacy policy before they download the app rather than after, and will offer consumers a consistent location for an app’s privacy policy on the application-download screen”

The new policies have been agreed as of today and the companies now have to work to implement them, although no timeline has been announced for the changes to be made.

Personal…

Following on from their launch of MS Office OnLive for iPad, Microsoft appear to have decided to go one further and release a native Microsoft Office iPad app. According to some screenshots leaked by The Daily, the new Office iPad app has wrapped development and will soon be getting submitted to the Apple review team for inclusion on the iOS App Store.

According to the report, sources who had some hands on time with the app are reporting an interface that has strong similarities to the UI in the Windows Phone and the upcoming Windows 8 OS. The app is initially allowing Word, Excel and Powerpoint files to be created or edited on the iPad itself, but there is no word on a release date as yet.

The app follows from the release of the MS Office OnLive app last month which allows iPad users to run virtual versions of Word, Excel or Powerpoint on the iPad. The app itself is not a native MS Office app for iPad, rather a virtualized, streamed gateway to Microsoft’s own servers which host the MS Office software. The app that The Daily has allegedly photographed is actually a native MS Office for iPad, meaning that users can create and edit documents on their device, rather than through a virtual version over a network.

The OnLive app offers a free 2GB of cloud storage but there are subscription plans for upgraded storage capacity. The new app will reportedly include Word, Excel and Powerpoint functionality all in, rather than the separate app model that Apple employs with iWork applications. Pricing may therefore reflect this and would likely be higher than the $9.99 per app that Apple charges for iWork.

Wordy…

A new set of pictures has appeared that show the iPad 2 and the iPad 3 side by side, giving a better idea of the changes in design that will be seen when the as-yet-unannounced iPad 3 is expected to be announced next month. The pictures, from MICGadget, appear to show the two iPad models on top of each other from various angles and, if accurate, seem to show that the iPad 3 is marginally thicker than the iPad 2, as has been rumored previously.

In addition, the new iPad 3 has more tapering of the aluminum rear panel near the edges of the device which is likely to make the device ‘feel’ very thin to users that handle it, despite the fact that it seems to be a little thicker than the iPad 2. The pictures also seem to indicate that Apple certainly isn’t varying very far from the design of the iPad 2 and that it would be very difficult to tell the iPad 2 and the iPad 3 apart without looking very closely.

The new iPad 3 is expected be announced on March 7th, 2012 and to contain a greatly upgraded camera, an upgraded Retina Display and a new faster processor, features which will differentiate it from the iPad 2. Given the performance increases and new technology that is rumored to be incorporated into the iPad 3, it would be no surprise that a slightly thicker form factor is required to pack it all in.

By the look of the photos however, this just seems to be rear panel rather than a fully constructed iPad 3, so it remains to be seen how thick the screen actually is when compared to the one used in the iPad 2.

Packed To The Brim…

A new report is suggesting that Apple is hard at work revamping the user interface and structure of the iTunes and iOS App Store fronts and that the new UI will launch later this year. According to 9to5Mac, the new interface will make it easier for consumers to find and download quality new apps and music, putting continued focus on purchasing, downloading and consuming content.

The site is reporting that the new interface will be more simple than the current iTunes interface and will be much more focused upon interactivity and the user experience. The new interface will likely be designed to reflect the increasing importance of the App Store in the Apple ecosystem. As the number of apps increases, so does the difficulty in finding quality apps, or quite simply, that app that you are looking for.
We have talked before about the limits of iTunes and the importance of Apple making it easier for crap apps to be filtered out and quality applications making their way to the forefront of the Store.  This revamp will hopefully address some of those issues.

The report doesn’t give any details about when the new storefront design could be launched but points out that it’s feasible for a 2012 launch. The update will also likely affect the storefronts found on iOS devices, but the launch could potentially take place either alongside the launch of the new Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion scheduled for the summer, or else, in a Fall event, perhaps with the next generation iPhone.

Music To Your Ears…

The next version of the iPhone, the iPhone 5 if following historical nomenclature, will be released by Apple in the Fall of this year, according to Japanese site Macotakara. The site reports that they have some reliable Asian sources that suggest that the company is establishing a new release schedule for the iPhone and will be maintaining a Fall release date for the next generation iPhone, as they did with the iPhone 4S.

Initially, new iPhone models were released in the summer time frame, around June or July. However, when the summer of 2011 passed by without so much as a glimpse of the iPhone 4S, there was much tearing of hair as consumers tried to work out how this would affect their upgrade cycle. The launch of the iPhone 4S in October was, therefore, a relief.

Now, if this rumor materializes, Apple is going to be keeping their next few iPhones on a Fall release cycle indicating that they plan to release at least one new iPhone a year for years to come. However, the big caveat attached to this is the source of the information. Surely this type of product cycle information would be kept under rather tight wraps in Apple and would be unlikely to leak out. Given that the company only appears to secure manufacturers months in advance of a new product, it’s unlikely that this information has leaked from a supply line.

The same site has historically reported that the iPhone 4S would be 4G LTE compatible, lack a SIM card, have an aluminum rear panel and that the iPad 3 would hit in February 2012 (suggested Jan 2012).  Best guess, therefore, is that the information is dubious and, while it may eventually prove to be accurate, is likely to be based on guesswork. Nothing more.

Fall In…

One of the best video players on the Mac, and indeed iOS devices for a time, has finally received a major update and has been released to the public. VLC, published by VideoLan, has received the major retooling involving a completely new UI and under the hood improvements. The app itself is an invaluable tool that is known for playing almost any type of video or audio file that is thrown at it and the new update certainly carries on that tradition and doesn’t disappoint.

The new interface is a big improvement over the two window dated UI that was part of the first VLC app. Now, the app is contained in a single window and users just have to drag a file on to the app and it will play. The app itself doesn’t hog system resources and has a relatively small footprint for the amount of functionality that it contains and the fact that it is free of charge just adds to the attraction. It should definitely be near the top of any list that includes video players for OS X.

As described on the website, the new app has faster decoding with multi-core processors, GPU and mobile chips as well as the ability to open more formats than ever before. It also supports BluRay playback if you want to go down that road.

VLC for iOS devices was briefly released on the iOS App Store but was quickly pulled due to some rights issues between the iOS app developer and the Mac developer. The OS X VLC app is surprisingly not available on the Mac App Store but can be downloaded direct from the VideoLan site free of charge. This is one app that will not be going away any time soon.

Nice…

When the iPhone 4 was first released, there was a lot of furor over the fact that if you held the iPhone handset in such a way i.e. by grasping your hand over the device and bridging the two antennas, there was a noticeable drop in signal strength. Despite the fact that the phenomenon occured in almost every smartphone, a significant amount of media coverage meant that Apple was forced to hold a press conference and address the issue. Unsatisfied with the response, a number of consolidated lawsuits against Apple were launched.

The lawsuits claim that Apple was “misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4–particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software”. However, as of Friday, CNET reports that a preliminary settlement for these lawsuits has now been reached with Apple now having to offer US residents who have already purchased an iPhone 4 either a free bumper or $15 in cash as compensation.

Apple already offered customers who were unhappy with the signal quality of the iPhone 4 a free case back in 2010, so this lawsuit is apparently only for those US residents who didn’t take advantage of the free case back then.  Once up and running, the website for the settlement is www.iPhone4Settlement.com, and will available in the coming weeks for those who want more details on how to claim their bumper or $15.

A Bumper Gift…

A screen which is believed to be destined for the iPad 3 has been put under a microscope and confirmed to have four times as many pixels as the existing iPad 2 models, essentially making the Retina Display enabled iPad 3 a foregone conclusion. Intrepid investigators at MacRumors managed to secure a screen believed to be produced for the iPad 3 and, after close microscopic examination, have found that it carries a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels in a 9.7 inch display, meaning that the device will have display quality similar to that found in the iPhone 4 and 4S.

As suggested, the increased resolution means that the device will now support what Apple has termed the ‘Retina Display’. This means that the pixel density is so great that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels on the screen. This also means that, with the proportional scaling up of the display, iOS developers will have little trouble scaling up their apps for the new display.

Component leaks from unreleased Apple products are fairly common on the run up to the release of a new device and components for the as-yet-unannounced iPad 3 have already been spotted in China. These components have so far included things like a headphone socket, dock adaptor and we even spotted an iPad 3 Bluetooth antenna floating around. However, this is the first time that such a reliable source has managed to secure one of these screens and examine it closely.

While it essentially confirms what was already strongly suspected for the iPad 3, it’s a great scoop.

Nice…

Entrants can either enter the traditional way and try to peg when the 10 billionth download will take place or you can complete an entry form (up to 25 per day).

The company also ran a similar competition when App Store downloads were approaching 10 billion in January of last year which means that 15 billion apps have been downloaded in a little over a year.

Big Numbers…

If you thought that there are already some weird iPad 2 cases and stands floating around, then think again. A new mounting case from SpiderArm brings some pretty funky mounting karma to the iPad 2, with 360 degree adjustability and interchangeability. The system apparently help to reduce neck strain and muscle fatigue. From the press release:

“The system includes two base units; a two-way SurfaceMount™ that is padded to protect furniture and can be secured to a table or desk, and a three-way VersaMount™ for securing onto a wall, under a cabinet or near your work station. Much like spiders themselves who can survive in all types of habitats, the SpiderArm system can be used in nearly any environment and the multiple mounts provided in the system means you can move your iPad from room to room.”

According to the company the device has “three modular extension arms with 270 degree joints that freely adjust to any angle and height. These arms help the user to “build” a system using either one, two or three of the arms, resulting in a set up that provides a precise, ergonomic and hands-free viewing experience customized just for them”.

The SpiderArm retails at $79.99 and is available at SpiderArm.com and Amazon.  It kinda scares me a little.

Phwat…