ScreenFlow 2 adds some great features to let you create sleek screencasts.  There are now new transitions to flow between different clips. If you drag two clips together a transition will automatically be placed in between. You can change the type of transition by double-clicking the transition area. You can also drag new clips in from another screen recording and you can speed up or slow down clips.

This update adds a lot of features to help you edit the audio in your clips. First off, you can detach the audio from the video clip, and even copy it to a different video. You can also have ScreenFlow automatically fade out the background audio when you have a voiceover player, and fade back in after it is over. They have added live audio scrubbing too, so you can quickly scan through to get the the section in the audio that you want.

ScreenFlow 2.0 also added a few other useful features. You can now export your video to YouTube, right out of the application. And Telestream added a feature that lets you pause the recording, and then resume it later. Finally, they added a few keyboard shortcuts, improved performance, and added Snow Leopard support.

This is a great update to a great application. It is a little pricey, $99 for a new license or $29 for an upgrade, but I think that anyone interested in screencasting should try out the demo. If you just need a cheap simple application to record your screen, you might want to try another alternative. You can download the trial and buy ScreenFlow at Telestream’s website.

In today’s MacApper How-To, we’re going to show you a little app to bridge the divide between Facebook and your Apple Address Book.

1) Head on over to the Apple.com downloads section, and grab a handy little app called AddressBookSync.

2) Once you’ve downloaded the disk image, and dragged it to your Applications folder, go ahead and launch the app. Upon launch you’ll be prompted to give it access to your Facebook account via Facebook Connect.

3) Once you connect, the app should start downloading your friends list, and comparing any names within Address Book to your friends list. AddressBookSync will also download your friend’s current profile pictures, and show them side-by-side with the current picture you have assigned to them in Address Book (if any).

4) Hit “Sync to Address Book,” and all of the photos will be assigned in Address Book.

You can feel free to trash the app once finished, but I suggest keeping it around. That way you can keep photos up-to-date for all of your contacts. Facebook’s TOS prevent developers from calling other useful info like e-mails, screennames, and phone numbers through the API (likely out of privacy concerns), but getting the photos is a definite first step. No more digging through photos and cropping!

The AppStore is known for a lot of things, but easy navigation isn’t one of them.  With tens of thousands of games on the service, knowing when a real gem comes out can be more of a challenge than it should be.  Big games may get featured on the What’s Hot or What’s New pages, and they may sit at the top of the sale numbers for a few weeks, but unless you’re actively checking to see what’s new on a regular basis it’s almost inevitable you’re going to miss a golden gaming experience.

Today we’re taking a look at 5 upcoming game worth keeping an eye out for.  Why miss out on the big names if we can give you the heads up before they happen?

Ravensword
Release Date: Shortly (currently submitted for approval)
Price: Unknown

What is it: A 3D action RPG that’s been described as equal parts Oblivion and Twilight Princess, Ravensword developers are promising a richer, deeper experience than anything that’s come before on the iPhone.

Why you should be excited: Set in an expansive world with plenty of side quests, rumor has it you’ll need 3-6 hours to get through the main quest alone.  In a traditional RPG that’s a drop in the bucket — but on the iPhone?  For a game that looks this good, that’s tremendous.

Forget about how good it looks and how deep it should play for a moment though and realize this:  what you’re witnessing here is the birth of a franchise.  The game isn’t even out yet and Chillingo’s already committed to an expansion in the next six months that should add new gameplay devices in addition to content.  Even bigger is the promise of Ravensword Online, the iPhone’s first true MMO in 2010.  An MMO.  On the iPhone.  And all of itstarts right here with the release of the first Ravensword.

Eliminate
Release Date: Shortly (currently submitted for approval)
Price: FREE

What is it: First person shooters on the iPhone have had a spotty reputation at best, but ngmoco hopes to turn that around with this upcoming online arena shooter.

Why you should be excited: Eliminate will offer instant, jump-in, multiplayer action from anywhere in the world.  Multiplayer on the iPhone has ranged from nightmarish to “meh.”  If ngmoco can pull off Eliminate, that’sall going to change.  The only downside to the game is that you’ll only have so much “energy” to use in a day, meaning you can only play so long before you have to let your character recharge.  Now that Apple allows microtransactions you’ll be able to purchase your way back into the game early.  It sounds a lot like the business model used by Zynga in games like Mafia Wars, which is definitely something I have mixed feelings about.

Galactic Keep: Dice Battles
Release Date: 2010
Price: Unknown

What is it: A role-playing game that plays less like Final Fantasy and more like… well, a role-playing game.  Remember those nights of D&D in your parents basement?  That’s Galactic Keep.  Everything down to the dice, hand-drawn maps, and monster stats replicates that old school, table-top gaming experience.

Why you should be excited: Try and forget the amazing hand drawn art style for a minute.  Forget about the brilliant table top vibe and photorealistic dice.  What you’re left with after all of the spit and polish is a role-playing game for the iPhone that accurately replicates the experience of real role-playing games in five separate quests.  Tough decisions, fierce battles, and engaging stories for what we assume will be hours on end.  If you’ve ever spent a night around a kitchen table with Mountain Dew, Cheetos, and a bag of 20-sided dies, Galactic Keep could very well be the greatest thing you’ve ever put in your pocket.

The Relic
Release Date: November 2009
Price: Unknown

What is it: Think Gauntlet, but better.  Chillingo is bringing the classic hack’n’slash action of yesteryear to the iPhone in a multiplayer dungeon crawler that they describe as “Gauntlet on steroids.”

Why you should be excited: Earlier this year, Chillingo kicked off a brand new genre for the iPhone that caught on like wild fire: the twin stick shooter.  As our review of iDracula will attest, Chillingo knows what they’re doing when it comes to crazy hyper-violent top-down gameplay.  Now they’ve taken that experience and added in bigger environments, a variety of enemies, some objectives and a storyline.  While iDracula may have come up with a great mechanic, The Relic has the chance to use that in a great experience.  If someone had told me that the iDracula team were remaking Gauntlet for the iPhone I would have squealed like a little girl.  Hearing about The Relic pretty much had the same effect.

Star Wars: Trench Run
Release Date: Unknown
Price: $4.99

What is it: Remember that last scene in the first Star Wars?  When Luke and his buddies go all Red Dawn on the Death Star?  In the Star Wars community that’s remembered fondly as the Trench Run.  Thanks to THQ Wireless, pretty soon you’ll get to fly it yourself with the magic of tilt control.

Why you should be excited: It’s a little too early to tell, but judging by the screens it looks like we might finally be getting a fresh taste of the classic X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter series that graced our desktops nearly two decades ago.  The in-cockpit view and dogfighting looks strikingly similar, and it makes our hearts smile.  There’s also a definite taste of the original Star Wars Arcade here.  If THQ Wireless wanted a game that paid homage to the classics, those would be the games to draw from.

It also looks like Trench Run might let us fill the shoes of both Luke and Vader.  There’s a moment in the trailer where the screen switches to Vader’s cockpit trying to shoot down Luke.  It’s just as likely that this may be a section of game where you’re controlling Luke and trying to evade Vader’s targeting, but we’re hoping on playing as the dark lord himself.

When you start up iterum2 your last used radio station with automatically load, so you can quickly start listening to music. While you are listening to music, you can view the artist and title of the current track along with album artwork. You can also read the lyrics for the song. Oh the side of the screen you can tap buttons to buy the song, search for the song online, or share the song in an email or in a tweet on Twitter. You can add stations to a list of favorites to easily access them.

The channels in iterum2 cover many different genres; from reggae to spiritual. There are also some stations for talk shows. Most of the music channels play at 128kbps, which is pretty close to CD quality. You can also listen to music on Wi-Fi or on cellular connections.

iterum2 is a good application for internet radio, but it still has some problems. If you are listening to music and you switch to view the list of channels, or go to the settings, you’re music will stop playing.  I also had some occasional problems with the music slightly skipping. Finally, some genres only have one channel, and it would be great if the application had a wider selection.

If you are looking for an internet radio app that is similar to satellite radio, and isn’t like Pandora Radio, then you should try out iterum2. iterum2 includes a good list of channels, and more should be coming soon. iterum2 is currently available from in iTunes for $3.99.

Like the traditional Rock Band experience, you’ll get to select between four instruments — vocals, guitar, bass and drums. Each will feature it’s own authentic experience for every song in the game, and when played with friends should sync up flawlessly.  Note our use of the word “should.”  This game has been in development for more than a year now, so we’d like to think that they’ve worked all the kinks out.  But until we get a room full of band geeks jamming out on their portables, we’ll never really know how well the game will sync via Bluetooth.  At the end of the day, this will likely make or break the experience.  Knowing the top notch quality of previous Rock Band efforts, we’re inclined to believe that Rock Band iPhone should pull this off without a hitch.

Touch Arcade were given a hands-on preview of the game, and are reporting that the following 20 songs will make up the initial set list;

30 Seconds To Mars – “Attack”
AFI – “Girls Not Grey”
All American Rejects – “Move Along”
Beastie Boys – “Sabotage”
Blink-182 – “All The Small Things”
Blondie – “Hanging on the Telephone”
Foo Fighters – “Learn To Fly”
Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
George Thorogood & the Destroyers – “Bad to The Bone”
Jethro Tull – “Hymn 43″
Joan Jett – “Hymn 43″
Lynard Skynard – “Simple Man”
Motorhead – “Ace of Spades ‘08″
Pixies – “Debaser”
Presidents of The United States of America – “Ladybug”
Rise Against – “Give It All”
Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye”
Smashing Pumpkins – “Cherub Rock”
Steve Miller Band – “Take The Money and Run”
The Go Go’s – “We Got The Beat”

The one disappointing thing we gleamed from the Touch Arcade preview was that “every instrument has its own track that you tap along with.”  If true, that means that vocals have replaced actual singing with yet another instrument track.  It’s understandable (not all App Store shoppers have access to a mic), but still disappointing.  We would have loved to learn that iPhone rockers could belt out the hits into their microphones.  Doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case.

We’re also very glad to see that this release have gone in a very different direction than Rock Band’s other recent portable incarnation, Rock Band Unplugged for the PSP.  The PSP version had players attempting to keep all four instruments in play at the same time in a frantic, mad balancing act.  It was not unlike Harmonix’s breakthrough PS2 game Frequency, but it just didn’t seem to be a great fit for the portable player in our opinion.  Keeping things streamlined and as close the original experience as possible, much as EA Mobile seems to have done here, is really the best way to bring this to the portable market.

No word on price yet, but a number of sources are reporting that this has already been submitted to Apple for approval.  Hopefully this means we’ll be seeing it in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, enjoy every second of Tap Tap Revenge you can.  Once Rock Band hits, something tells me Tap Tap won’t carry the weight it once did in the court of public opinion.

Apple’s OS X changed the playing field back in 2001, setting Apple up to succeed for the next decade while Microsoft tripped over its own feet. Tools like Spotlight, Automator, the iLife suite, Safari, and the “Core” technologies all built into each new Mac have redefined how many use their computer. We can only hope that iTunes X will have the same effect, redefining how we use our media.

iTunes X Wish List (in no particular order):

Name and icon change

It’s time to put that amazing Apple creative team to work. No longer is iTunes merely a tunes manager. It’s a jukebox, a TV and Movie Manager/Player, it’s a sync utility, it’s a store, it’s an Audiobook player, and for over 20 million people it’s phone management software. Obviously iTunes and its icon both have serious street cred, but if the iBook can survive a name change, so can iTunes. Wow us Apple, we know you can.

Tighter control over the library

How many times have you had 3 songs by the same artist all tagged as different genres? How many times have you had mis-tagged genres? Bruce Springsteen isn’t grunge metal iTunes, it just isn’t. What about when you create a new MP3 in Audacity or GarageBand and iTunes automatically adds it to your library, duplicating the track to your music folder to keep your files organized? How about duplicates? Don’t even get me started on Album Art…

When you get a big library in iTunes, it can just be a headache keeping it all properly tagged, organized, etc. iTunes has tools to combat some of these difficulties, but sometimes you just wish they were smarter.

• Automatically remove the duplicates – analyze track length, match up the wave lengths, compare the tags
• Talk to Genius/the iTunes Store and find out the right genre for a song
• Call third-party services like Last.fm, Pandora, and Amazon to fetch missing album art (I know Amazon is competing with Apple, but they offer mostly open APIs to call product info).

Genius Mixes to go: Bridge the gap between the web and the desktop

iTunes has never been good internet radio software. Most attempts at internet radio in general have failed to launch. Apple knows what kind of music I like because of Genius analysis. Let me stream my Genius Mixes when I’m on-the-go and away from my library. Offer genre stations that will introduce me to new music. Partner with Last.fm or Pandora, or maybe build something new in-house (make better use of that iTunes.com domain name?). I would even pay a small monthly fee. Bridge the gap between the desktop and the web.

Please, pay attention to playlists

I love iTunes, but the playlist system leaves much to be desired. It’s been 8 years: give me a keyboard shortcut to add the currently playing song to playlist(s). The constant dragging of songs into playlists is maddening when you’re trying to build a playlist. How many times have you used shift+click or ctrl+click, selected 50 songs, and then forgotten to hold shift/click for song #51? Make it easy to build them, easier to share them with friends, or even allow the download/sharing of playlists from an online portal. Crowd-source playlist building.

Revamp Music navigation

The iPod has always been the true pioneer of intuitive music navigation. Navigate music via Artist, Album, Track, Genre, or Playlist. iTunes has always had the ability to sort these fields, and even used to have the old browse eyeball, but it’s never been as intuitive as an iPod. iTunes developers have tried Cover Flow, Album Covers, and many iterations of list formats. Cover Flow is without a doubt one of their better attempts, but it has it’s short comings. In a collection where many albums lack album art, it’s not very pretty or useful, and it can really lag on a machine with a slower processor.

Considering we’re in the age of netbooks, having an iPod-esque navigation option would be a great addition, and provide UI congruity. With the long-rumored upcoming Apple Tablet, this would be especially handy.

Redo Movie/TV navigation entirely

The iTunes Store has turned iTunes into one of the first successful digital film/tv distribution networks. Others have tried downloads via the browser, but the browser doesn’t seem to be a successful delivery network for digital video downloads. However, the way iTunes organizes the digital video from its store (or from your own rips, if you’re tech-savvy enough) is very early 2000’s. Digital video is not music, and should not be sorted as such.

This view is hardly helpful for navigating a big collection…

Movies: Genre navigation, DVD/Blu-ray cover art, plot descriptions, director/cast/crew lists.

TV Shows: Series navigation by network/genre, season navigation, episode summaries.

iTunes should be calling services like IMDB/the iTunes Store for information on movies in your library. Plus, there’s no easy way to integrate DVD/Blu-ray extras in the current iTunes. Making the desktop movie experience more like the streaming web experience with Netflix and Hulu would make it much more powerful. If a movie I downloaded with iTunes or imported had DVD extras, exclusive interviews, etc., I would drop my DVD’s like hot pockets. Until then… I stick with buying and watching DVD’s.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks have always been somewhat of a side-hobby of Apple. If they were done correctly, it would be much more exciting to buy them digitally. Book jackets/information would be huge bonuses, extra’s from the author. A ticker showing what Page # correlates with the current time. Easier chapter skipping, built-in dictionary/glossary to look up words/characters/events. It’s currently an untapped medium: tap into it.

Revamp the Sidebar

The iTunes Sidebar is one of the more intuitive navigation systems in applications today. There’s very little clutter, it’s quick, its attractive, and most importantly it’s quite usable. However, it’s ever-growing in each redesign of iTunes. If you have a lot of playlists, shared computers on your network, connected devices, etc, it grows to an astonishing length. While it allows you to close off certain sections, that’s useless for syncing and moving content around. Try adding one the playlists at the bottom of your long list of playlists to your iPod. Case and point.

Navigation similar to that featured in the new iTunes Store would be welcome. Using both vertical and horizontal navigation is going to be vital as iTunes continues to grow bigger and bigger.

Lets get real on syncing

It’s time for some meatier syncing tools. One thing that the iTunes’ competitor Zune does quite well is give users information about what in your library is on your device. In Zune software, indicators next to each track tell users whether the item is synced or not. In the age where we rip CDs, copy music off of friend’s iPods, take backups off our own hard drives, and can purchase music directly on some iPods, it’s long-time for more powerful syncing tools. Have a view option to show what’s synced with the currently connected iPod, and whether you’re allowed to sync the content in your library over (is the track’s DRM authorized for this computer yet?). Give an estimate for the time needed to sync. Wireless syncing for the iPod/iPhone would also be a nice touch.

iTunes suite?

Lets face it: iTunes is too bloated. It just tries to do too much. With big libraries it’s just plain slow. If I’m launching iTunes to simply catch up on a podcast, I have to wait for it to load all my music, movies, audiobooks, TV shows, playlists, applications/games, and preferences. With small libraries it’s manageable, with large libraries… it’s a nightmare. Apple, it’s time to compartmentalize iTunes, and turn it into a suite of applications. Apple already kind-of does this with the ability to open core components in new windows.

• iTunes – iTunes as we know it today : an implementation of all the applications when you want everything at once
• Music application – Let users organize music, play like a jukebox, sync with devices
• TV/Film/ application – Navigate video collection, watch videos, sync with devices
• Store/Download Center application – For when you want to go on a spending spree, without lugging everything you own with you to the store. Plus podcasts – weekly/daily updated content for download and play.
• Sync manager – for managing syncing with iPods, iPhones, Apple TV and other computers on your network
• Front Row – It’s always been a side-developed app with roots in the Apple TV. Take iTunes DJ and other miscellaneous tools (visualizers, full screen cover flow, etc.) Apple has built over the years , throw them into Front Row, and give it a face lift.

Give us the option to launch parts of it, and flesh out each app. iLife is a suite for media creation. iTunes should be split into a similar suite for media playback/management.

Conclusion

There’s plenty more to innovate in iTunes. Hopefully in the next major release we’ll see see some exciting new features, and some redesigns of things that don’t work so well in the current version.

This isn’t the first time Sesame Street has showed some integration with our fruit-flavored overlords.  Last year the video podcast The Word on the Street debuted, featuring man on the street interviews with the new muppet Murray on a certain topic and classic Sesame Street clips that explore a similar theme.  As a parent to two little ones, having The Word on the Street in my pocket has made me a hero on more than one occasion.

The Word on the Street has recently been replaced by “Happy Healthy Monsters” in the same Sesame Street podcast feed on iTunes. Parents can also find other Sesame Street moments floating around iTunes.  The 1986 childhood classic Follow That Bird is available for rent or download, special episodes that touch on important subjects are available for free, and regular season episodes can be purchased in the Store.

If you’ve ever wondered where Sesame Street fits into last year’s popular ad campaign, Elmo is indeed a Mac.  Parents rejoice!

Jim Whitelaw is a man with a problem.  Jim bought his 10 year old daughter an iPod Touch so that she could play some games without having to break the bank on her allowance.  He set her up with an iTunes account, gave her an iTunes gift card, and told her to go at it.  Only, she couldn’t.  Apple Canada doesn’t allow iTunes gift cards to be used for App Store purchases.

Whitelaw contacted Apple customer support via email and was given the following reason;

“…you will not be able to purchase software, games, or applications with store credit or an iTunes Gift Card in Canada. Customers residing in Canada may only purchase software, games and applications using a credit card. This is due to Canadian Commerce Laws that the iTunes Store must strictly enforce.”

This story seemed all too familiar to me — not because I’d heard it before but because I’d lived it myself.  Earlier this year I had gone through the exact same situation.  What’s worse, the gift cards in Canada give no such warning.  At the time this occurred I attempted to look up the law in question, and failing to do so assumed the fault lie with my research abilities and not with Apple’s argument.  Jim Whitelaw, however, wasn’t content to walk away without a better answer.

When Apple customer care was unable to cite the law in question or put him in touch with someone that could, Whitelaw contacted his MPP (think Congress representative, but Canadian) for answers.  His MPP, too, could find no such law on the books, and like Whitelaw, refused to leave well enough alone.  The matter was escalated to the highest authority on the issue in Canada, the Hon. Tony Clement, Minister of Industry.  Here is the minister’s official response;

“(I) am unaware of which Canadian laws the company representatives are said to be enforcing.  I am not aware of any laws that prevent a company from accepting its own gift cards when it sells certain products.  That said, merchants are generally free to set their own policies respecting the payment methods they accept.”

So there you have it.  If the Canadian Minister of Industry can’t name the law that prevents Apple from accepting their own gift cards for certain purchases in Canada, my money says that no such law exists.  Furthermore, with no such warning printed on iTunes gift cards in Canada one could argue that this is nothing more than a dubious business practice intended to force people to spend additional funds in the iTunes Store than originally intended by referencing an imaginary law.

Mr. Whitelaw has sent an email to Steve Jobs, and is awaiting a response.  To follow his story as it develops, visit jimwhitelaw.com.

Software exclusivity is quickly becoming a thing of the past.  What once was a killer app for one system or another has now turned into the consumer connundrum of which software to buy for which device and why.  Determining a winner based on techincal differences and personal preferences takes time and research, yet one thing has become readily apparent: the iPhone is home to some tremendous bargains on some amazing software.  What you may spend $20 on elsewhere could only cost you $2 in the App Store, and it’s entirely possible you’ll end up with a better experience too!  Don’t believe us?  Take a look at these 5 examples of spectacular AppStore savings;

Burgertime Deluxe – Mac $19.95, PC $6.99, iPhone $1.99

What is it? It may not get mentioned as much as Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, but Burgertime is an old school classic that every gamer from the arcade generation holds near and dear to their hearts.  Peter Pepper needs to navigate a series of platforms to drop all the parts of a burger down to the plate, and he has to do it while battling evil foodstuffs come to life.  Namco recently resurrected this much beloved franchise with Burgertime Deluxe for the PC and Mac, with an iPhone port following shortly afterwords.  $6.99 for the PC version is an excellent price, but they have the outrageous audacity to ask nearly $20 for the Mac version!  Apple fans, don’t spill the big bills on this fast food classic.  Grab it on the value menu instead — the iPhone version is only $1.99!

Is there a difference? Technically no.  Visually the game is dead on.   So are the levels.  The controls though?  That’s a different story.  While no means a deal breaker, it’s not always as easy as it should be to get young Mr. Pepper off a ladder.  This problem only pops up from time to time, but it was definitely aggravating enough to mention.  Still — for $18 in savings it’s a small price to pay.

Star Wars Legacy: Broken – Trade Paperback $17.95, Original Issues $17.94, iPhone $1.98

What is it? Star Wars Legacy is an ongoing comics series published by Dark Horse Comics.  Set more than 100 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, it tells the story of Cade Skywalker, padawan-turned bounty hunter in a dark and sithly future.  Broken collects the first six issues of the series.  With the trade paperback you’ll need to spend $17.95 to get started on the adventure — but on the iPhone?  Broken Vol. 1 and Broken Vol. 2 are 99 cents each on the App Store, and collect all six issues when combined.

Is there a difference? You’re going to lose the tactile feel and smell of a real comic, but if you can live with that you’ll find reading comics on the iPhone is even better than the real thing.  The panels are bigger and easier to read, the backlit screen makes the colors pop, and the panel-by-panel navigation feels more comfortable than we’d like to admit.

Toki Tori – WiiWare 1000 points (roughly $10), iPhone $4.99

What is it? One of the best puzzle platformers ever created, Toki Tori tells the tale of a chicken trying to save his friends.  Rather than controlling our hero first hand, you’ll simply point him to where you want to go.  When it debuted on WiiWare last year it seemed like a good use of the system’s much touted motion controls.  But let’s be frank — this thing was made for touching.  Thankfully you can pick up our recently hatched hero on the iPhone for half the price of it’s WiiWare predecessor.

Is there a difference? Yep — it’s better on the iPhone.  Drastically in fact.  We had two major complaints with the Wii version — the default view was zoomed out much too far, and the motion controls required far too steady of a hand to be effective.  On the iPhone, both of these concerns have been addressed.  Of all the versions of Toki Tori we’ve seen over the years, the iPhone version is easily the best.

Droplitz – PC $9.99, PS3 $9.99, iPhone $1.99

What is it? Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that we become the most passionate about.  Tetris.  Bejeweled.  And now, Droplitz.  The goal in Droplitz is to rotate pipes in an attempt to guide their contents down to the drains below.  On the PC and PS3 they expect you to droplitz $10 of your hard earned cash, but on the iPhone?  You’ll only have to droplitz $1.99.

Is there a difference? The PS3 and PC versions are definitely prettier, and the larger screen allows for a bigger playfield too.  Despite this, the iPhone version is crazy addictive and captures the spirit and intent of the game perfectly.  You’ll technically be settling for less, but it’s really 10% less the experience at 80% less the price.  You do the math.

Awaken – Mac: $15, iPhone $1.99

What is it? Awaken is the Mac’s leading iTunes-friendly alarm clock.  Want to wake up to your complete collection of Anne Murray classics?  It’s all yours, Snowbird.  With everything it has to offer, $15 has always been a pretty good price for Awaken.  But if you can live with the delicate sounds of morning coming from your iPhone?  You can do that for $1.99.

Is there a difference? This is the only app on our list that has some pretty drastic differences, but that has less to do with handicapping the mobile version and more to do with the needs of each device.  While both devices serve as an alarm clock built entirely around you music library, the Mac version offers a few neat twists like the ability to set alarms to launch programs or the ability to control the alarm from across the room with your Mac remote.  If you tend to wake up, shower, watch a video podcast, and then check your email over breakfast, you can program the Mac version to do all of these things for you.  Well, almost.  You’ll need to eat that grapefruit yourself.  Awaken for the iPhone is a great choice for an iPhone alarm clock, especially if you tend to travel.  But if you want a fully-featured alarm clock that will cater to you daily desktop needs, you may actually want to spend the extra.

GPush is the first app for the iPhone that will send you a push notification any time you get a new message in your Gmail inbox.  It’s a fairly simple app that tackles a fairly simple problem, and it works.  After a simple username and password set up, you’ll receive a push notification whenever a new message pops into your Gmail account.  The push notification is similar to any text message you might receive.

One of our earlier complaints about the app, and one which we intended to focus on here was the inability to access your new mail directly from the notification.  This was addressed in a recently released update to the app, and we couldn’t be happier.  Now when you receive a new push, whether you’re in a application or not, you’ll be given the option to view the email or close the push notification.  If you choose to view the email you’ll be kicked out of your current application and taken to GPush.  Once there, GPush will take you to the new Gmail tab where it loads up a mobile-friendly version of your Gmail inbox that’s identical to the one seen in the Google Mobile App.

This new view feature is a great addition and well appreciated, but that doesn’t mean it’s not without flaws.  Clicking view only brings you to your inbox, not the email itself.  For folks like myself who much prefer using the iPhone’s built-in Mail app, having to use the web-based Gmail mobile feels a little too slow and clunky.  And the view option doesn’t work in every circumstance — if your device receives a push notification in standby you won’t have the option to view or close.  Instead sometimes you’ll be forced to open GPush the next time you unlock your device, and sometimes you won’t.  It’s flaky and inconsistent from the standby state, which is a fairly significant stumbling block when it comes to using the feature properly.

There are other annoyances with the app as well.  Many folks have multiple Gmail addresses for business, personal, etc.. but GPush only allows for one account.  And speaking of Gmail, why only the one client?  Sure Gmail is the biggest freemail provider out there, but does that mean users of Yahoo, Hotmail and Live need to be left out in the cold?  Or how about server based emails?  I happen to use several addresses, both Gmail and otherwise, and would have been delighted to have an app that could cater to all my push notification needs.

Despite our nitpicky complaints, GPush sets out with one thing in mind and it does that one thing incredibly well — it keeps me from bringing up my inbox every 5 minutes.  If it can accomplish that, it can probably accomplish anything.

GPush is available from Tiverias Apps on the iTunes AppStore for $1.99.

After looking at the changelogs—both the shiny publicized one as well as the more technical support one—I realized that the primary changes that I had issue with were all covered under the phrase “an improved look and feel.” With respect to the geniuses at Apple, this is a terrible way of doing things. The largest way a typical user interacts with a program like iTunes, whether or not it has Home Sharing, Genius Mixes, and the like, is through its UI. We get very used to these interfaces. And yet, there are never any specifics given as to what the changes to the UI actually are. This itself must change.

I’m not saying that the old iTunes interface was perfect, but it was something we were all used to. To suddenly change things around in an interface that makes sense just confuses everyone. Take the new column view, for instance. It is useless to me to have a list of all my artists, and then a small window for the songs. I preferred the old way, when I could have albums, artists, and genres all along the top, while still being able to see the song list below. This doesn’t necessarily mean it shouldn’t have to be changed, but Apple should at least tell us how to make it look the old way. I only found the options for reverting the view by wandering around in the menus for some time.

The playlist and other icons were changed in the sidebar as well. I, personally, don’t really care about this one way or another, but again it brings up the question of why Apple would do this when the old ones worked perfectly well. Is an off-center note more trendy than one in the middle? Is a cut-off gear nicer than a complete one?

About fifteen minutes after upgrading, I had reverted most changes, and made my peace with the new changes that I couldn’t fix. Satisfied with my life, I clicked the green button to minimize the window into the Mini Player I always keep in the corner of my screen. The window simply jumped slightly. Huh. I must have pressed the wrong thing. I clicked again. And again. And again. My world exploded once again. That was the most useful feature of iTunes—to have the display become small and unobtrusive. Had Apple actually gotten rid of this? Luckily, this was not the case; I eventually discovered that you could bring up the Mini Player by pressing Shift+Apple+M. Although this made it possible, it still seems like a stupid idea on Apple’s part. Why make this so much more difficult to do? I’m all for keyboard shortcuts, but if my hand is on the mouse, it would be nice to click. At least, tell me how to make it appear, rather than, once again, making me hunt through menus.

So, I’m not against change. Many of the new features of iTunes are great (I love the new Genius Mixes, among other aspects), but just, tell us about them, okay? An “improved look” is not nearly descriptive enough for me. Make sure that I—and people with less patience for scanning menus—know how to make a program do what it had always done in the past. Progress should not come at the cost of information. We’ll like the updates more if you tell us what’s in them, I swear.

Accessing the Genius function is a simple enough process.  At the top of the App Store App beside the New and What’s Hot options that we’ve grown accustomed to will be a new to access Genius.  The first time you access this you’ll need to read and agree to the Genius Terms of Service, but once that’s out of the way it’s pretty much smooth sailing as it compiles a list of recommendations.

iTunes Genius has, in my experience, offered a wonderfully appropriate list of suggestions based on my listening tastes.  They’ve turned me on to new music, suggested music I already know I love — all in all it’s been a quality service since it launched.  It’s baby sibling, however, isn’t fairing as well.

While iTunes Genius seems to base it’s recommendations off of the purchases of like-minded individuals, App Store Genius feels as though it’s pulling random apps from similar categories and dumping them in your lap.  Paypal was recommended based on my use of CBC Radio.  NFL 2010 was recommended because I have Pac-Man Remix.  While these things might technically fall under the same category, their purposes and audiences couldn’t be less similar.

Still, it’s not all bad.  Based on my use of Tweetie a number of Twitter-related apps were suggested my way.  My use of Twitpic led to a recommendation for HP iPrint Photo.  These are all things that are thematically the same.  They make sense.  The problem is that more often than not I would be recommended MLB at Bat based on Twitpic or DOOM based on Civilization Revolution.

Looking at your purchases on the whole and making recommendations based on those might have made a little more sense.  If it did Genius would learn pretty quick how much I love tower defense games, and recommendations of those would have been a welcome addition to the sea of nonsense that’s currently presented.  It may break from the system used by iTunes Genius, but maybe that’s what’s needed here.  Music and apps are two very different beasts, and those beasts need two very different approaches to be tackled effectively.

One thing that surprised me was that Genius only factored in apps currently on your device.  If you’ve purchased apps in the past but removed them, those aren’t included.  One can appreciate the logic behind this — if you’ve deleted an app you probably don’t like it — but there’s a flipside to that argument.  What if you loved the app, but just didn’t need it right now?  Secret of Monkey Island SE easily ranks amongst my favorite iPhone games, but I deleted it once I was finished because of the space it took up.  In my mind, that’s something that should absolutely be factored in to any recommendation engine that’s trying to learn about my shopping habits.

App Store Genius is a great idea, but it’s execution is poor and contrary to the it’s own purposes.  Without consistently sensible recommendations, this just isn’t a part of the App Store that you’ll find yourself visiting.

It’s not a major update by any stretch of the imagination, but there’s definitely some unexpected additions in there.  Shopping for ringtones, App Store Genius, and more.  Here’s the complete breakdown;

Shopping

• Select from over 30,000 ringtones in the new Ringtones section of the iTunes app
• See available iTunes Store credit in both the iTunes and App Store apps
• Use redemption codes like iTunes gift cards and promo codes in the App Store app
• App Store Genius introduced, recommends new apps based on previous purchases

Video

• Trimmed videos can now be saved as new clips
• Save video received via email or MMS into Camera Roll

Phone

• Voice Control via Bluetooth on 3GS introduced
• Phone numbers can now be pasted into keypad

Performance

• Improved wi-fi performance when Bluetooth is active
• Improved syncing for audio, video, and photos
• Improved calendar syncing with Microsoft Exchange
• Corrects issue that displayed incorrect app icons for some

Other

• Use MobileMe to remotely lock iPhone
• Content organization for iTunes U
• Adds options to turn on 3GS accessibility features via Home button
• Safari will now warn you of dangerous/fradulent websites
• Other fixes to support changes in the upcoming release of iTunes 9

As someone who prefers shopping for apps on their iPhone, the addition of App Genius and code redemption are a welcome change.  Beyond that though, I’m not seeing a lot offered here.  Mind you, we shouldn’t really be expecting a major update so soon after the release of 3.0.  If anything, I think Apple’s spoiling us.

iPhone OS 3.0 and iPod Touch OS 3.1.1 are available as a free update on iTunes now.

The upgrade process is, in the spirit of most Apple products, incredibly easy to figure out. I popped the install DVD into my computer after taking it out of the packaging. The packaging itself I was less than impressed by, for other than the snow leopards scattered around, there was little else specific to this release. True, there were pages in the booklet extolling the features of the operating system, but most were ones that could be found in 10.5 as well. Nevertheless, this did not stop me from continuing with the installation. The DVD’s minimalist window showed up on my screen, with three choices. Two were folders, and the only one I was interested in was the installer itself.

I double-clicked on the icon, and was presented simply with the choice to install or not. I continued through a few windows, and input my password. And that was pretty much it. Unlike some other installers, this didn’t even have to restart before initiating the install. It quit all my programs, and then I was left with nothing to do. It also took, all in all, a surprisingly short time. It estimated an hour, and it took a little bit longer, maybe an hour and fifteen minutes. Now, I chose to upgrade, rather than to wipe my hard drive and do a clean install. I don’t know how the timing of this would be different.

The waiting was the worst part, however. I was constantly watching for any sign of the petrifying greyed-out screen that signifies a kernel panic. Or even worse, a black screen (or perhaps even worse than that, the smell of burning plastic). But none of these appeared, and my trusty Macbook went through the process unscathed. The computer restarted itself and I was greeted with the same orientation video I saw a few years back when Leopard came out (still cool, but I could have done with something newer).

And then came the other fear: Did my computer still work? Did all my programs—and more importantly the system—still do what they were supposed to? The answer to this, actually, for the first few minutes, was no. My menubar was, for lack of a better word, twitching. Spotlight kept appearing and disappearing, and I couldn’t see the date, or any of the apple icons. However, with some quick Google searching I discovered that the issue was iStat menus, a very handy little program, but one that has yet to be upgraded for Snow Leopard. The only other big problem for me was that I noticed that, for some reason, I was doing everything much more slowly than usual. I then realized that my application launcher Quicksilver was no longer working, and so I was doing everything by hand. This upset me greatly, but once again Google saved the day. There were a few other necessary tweaks, but in the end it was a very painless process.

So far, I’m very glad to have updated. At least as of now, it’s the little changes that I didn’t know about that I find most useful. Exposé is tweaked to be more helpful. The Dock pop-up menus are on grey instead of white, and so fit better with the aesthetic. The menu bar can finally show the date. The list goes on, but needless to say, updating was the highlight of my day. Oh yes, one more thing. There are many desktop pictures of snow leopards. And none of them are angry.

Simplenote provides exactly what it says, a simple way to take and sync notes on your iPhone and iPod Touch. When you open an app, you see a simple page where you can add a new, view, search, and delete notes as well as allowing you to sign up/log in to your web account. Adding a note is as simple as touching the “+”, to manage syncing you simply touch the wrench button, and to delete a note you swipe your finger across the note and touch “Delete”.

When creating a new note or editing a preexisting note, the interface remains clean and simple with buttons to return to the notes list, email your note, or delete it. The app supports both portrait and landscape mode, which is very nice if you are typing a lot and prefer the landscape keyboard as I do. With no extra frills like titles, tags, locations, images, and file attachments, Simplenote runs extremely fast, even on old iPhones and iPod Touches.

The web app for accessing your notes on your desktop is just as clean and light as the app. It looks almost the same as the app and provides the same exact features. The app syncs automatically and stores local copies of your notes to allow you to view, search, edit, and add new notes even when you don’t have network access.

With the latest update of the app, Cloud Factory has added an API which allows for the creation of “Extras” which allows developers to create third party applications to interface with Simplenote. Currently the only app is a web application, Simple Backup, which allows you to backup/export your Simplenote notes into plain text, CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, and Evernote archive formats. I expect to see some exciting new features added with this feature in the future.

If you are looking for a simple, clean, and fast note taking app for your iPhone or iPod Touch that also syncs with the web Simplenote is my pick. Simplenote costs $1.99 which includes a free web account and can be downloaded from iTunes.

First of all, you have to hand it to Apple that it is, indeed, thinking different. Instead of a simple, confusable, numerical system, there is something that is easier to take a hold of and understand. Especially compared to its main competitor, who—at least up to Vista—pretty much just named their operating systems after the years they came out. Even Linux, with even more separate versions of its OS, does not have any particular system for naming them. I have had, in the past, some confusion between Jaguar, Tiger, and so on, but it’s easier than thinking “Oh, was that 10.3 or 10.4?”

A comparison can also be drawn between the ideal features of an operating system and these cats that are their namesakes. A computer should be fast, sleek, and powerful, just like a jaguar, or a tiger. Maybe a computer could do without the meat-eating nature, or the jaws and claws, but the basic features should be pretty much the same. This was probably one of the big aspects of the cats that led Apple to use them for marketing. But the system also raises some questions. Is Apple alienating some of the cat-lovers of the world by designating a strict hierarchy? Are leopards from this point on consistently better than tigers? Are snow leopards better than normal leopards? (I agree wholeheartedly with the latter, but the former I’m not so sure about…)

Snow Leopard itself seems to be milking the system for all it’s worth, more so than its predecessors. It comes preloaded with many desktop wallpapers including some lovely pictures of snow leopards in nature (including the one shown above). At least for Leopard, and I believe the other earlier systems, the only cat connection they had was the name, not any images. There is also the fact, which I think is remarkably clever, that the new update is just significant tweaks to the OS, not a whole different animal. Therefore, it’s just another kind of leopard, rather than a different family of cat.

The system seems to be good for Apple, or at least not bad. It gives people easily remembered titles, and a lot of brand recognition. It differentiates Apple from its competitors, and the names show the ideal traits of the systems themselves. But I do sort of wonder how far this is going to go. Lynx and Cougar are the two predators that are supposedly already trademarked by Apple, but that would only get us up to 10.8. In theory, there would be at least one more model, if they’re using a full decimal system. As much as I love Apple, and am always happy to buy their new systems—Snow Leopard is on order as we speak—I still think I would hesitate at least for a few minutes when presented with Mac OS X 10.9: Snagglepuss, even!

When you first launch Bevy you will want to add a few folders. Just click the gear icon in the top left and select folders. Here you will tell Bevy where to search for applications, and Bevy will display you applications in different sections for each folder. This will let you easily keep things organized. You can also exclude some items that you don’t ever need.

Bevy can display you applications in a few different ways. You can view all applications, included applications, excluded applications, or running applications. You can view them all in one big group, or have then grouped by folder. Applications that are currently open will be in a box or have a stroke around them, which you can pick in the settings. You can also change all the colors of Bevy and adjust the opacity in the settings.

But Bevy isn’t just to launch applications. If you want to open a file in a certain application you can drag the file, launch Bevy, and drop the file onto an application. All applications that can open the certain type of file will be highlighted, and all other applications will be dimmed. You can also quickly find applications by holding a letter on your keyboard. This will cause applications that start with that letter to be highlighted.

However, Bevy could use a few other features. One thing that it lacks is an actual search. Bevy also doesn’t work with Spaces, and it will only show in one space. If you open Bevy while in a different space, you will switch to the space that Bevy is in. If you want to quickly access every application on their Mac, you might want to try Bevy. Bevy is available from bergdesign for $9.95.

The point of Flickery is to move all of the functionality of Flickr to your desktop. So, of course, you can upload photos with it. All you do is go to the Upload item in the sidebar, and either drag some photos onto the window, or use the Make Screenshot button to create and upload a screenshot. You can also click the Open button to choose some files to upload. These can be either pictures or videos. But, to make things even simpler, you can record a movie to upload directly from Flickery. Once you have chosen some images and/or videos, you can then add titles, descriptions and tags to them. However, from this screen, you can’t choose what photoset it will go into when uploaded.

Once a picture or video has been uploaded, you can still edit its information just by clicking Edit Info. To add a photo to a photoset, you just have to click the Add to Set button, and then choose one or more photosets. However, the sets it is already in don’t appeared as checked (in the window that pops up), so you can’t really tell if it’s already in one. This also makes it hard to delete it from a photoset, because you can’t uncheck the box. You can also show comments, tags and descriptions of anyones photos by clicking the Show Details button when a photo is selected. I really like the crumpled paper look of this screen, but it really doesn’t match the rest of the UI, so it seems a little awkward. To view a larger size of an image, you just double click on it. Or, you can click the Fullscreen button to view the image in fullscreen.

Flickery also supports easy downloading of any picture or video. If you’ve ever browsed on Flickr.com, you know it’s always annoying to download an image or video. But Flickery makes it just the click of a button away. You just select an image or video, and hit Download. A downloads window will then appear, allowing you to manage multiple downloads. Along with this, you can also add any photo to your iPhone library (not Aperture though). You just click the Add to iPhoto library. I’m not sure why you’d want to add someone else’s image to your library, but you can.

Like Flickr.com, Flickery allows you to Explore. Exploring is just a cool way to find all images that were taken on a certain day. You can also perform and save searches right in Flickery, which is really cool. You can also see all of your contacts and their photostreams by just clicking on their name in the sidebar. However, you cannot manage contacts directly from Flickery. I assume this is an issue with the Flickr API, and not the app though.

Flickery is a great desktop version of Flickr.com. It has almost all the features the Website has and a couple extra. You can buy it for about $20, and download a 15-day free trial from their site. Anyone who uses Flickr frequently, or who wants a better image search engine should definitely try out Flickery.

For many years now, the Get A Mac ad campaign, other campaigns, and general experience have led the typical Mac consumer to think that their computer is unreachable by anything bad, and that, especially compared to Windows, there are no real threats and using a Mac is safe and secure as ever. By including a program that appears—at least from the screen shot above—to scan downloads for potential security risks, Apple is admitting that there are in fact viruses that can infect Macs, and that its users are not as safe as they might think, at least not currently.

However, by creating this app, they are also, of course, making their computers safer. The theory is, many Mac enthusiasts think, that this is less to address a current, ongoing problem of Mac malware, and rather to keep people’s systems safe for the future. It is still certainly true that there are many fewer viruses and so on made for Macs than there are for PCs, most likely because the market share remains small and it’s just not worth it for the hackers. So, the inclusion of this feature should still be a selling point for the Snow Leopard upgrade which comes out this Friday.

Apple has yet to respond to comments on this feature, which seems to be working against the company. If they discussed the utility, its limitations and features, they might well get people more excited about Snow Leopard, happy to be safe, and so on. If not, as they are doing, it seems as if they are trying to pretend that viruses just don’t exist, which in the end will hurt the company.

Ramp Champ takes the classic game of Skee-Ball and puts it on its head. The game play is pretty much as simple as it gets on the iPhone, you simply slide your finger from the bottom of the screen up to roll your ball at the various targets. Out of the box, Ramp Champ includes 4 different styles of Skee-Ball: Clown Town, Breakwater Bay, Space Spin, and the Icon Garden. But using the in-app purchasing you can get two add-ons, both costing $.99 and including 2 new themes as well as various new prizes.

By far the most impressive of Ramp Champ’s features is it’s design. The Iconfactory is known for it’s superb design and this game is no exception.Immediately upon launching the app you become immersed in the carnival atmosphere through the impressive typography and phenomenal use of texture. The user interface is simple and clean but does not stray away from the overall feel, the tab bar the garnishes the bottom of 99% of iPhone apps, for example, is still there in spirit but it’s face is replaced with various carnival style posters. If the design alone doesn’t put you in the midway spirit, the music and sounds will certainly get you there. They are so good, in fact, that I don’t think you should play the game without them.

The gameplay is as addictive as an iPhone game can be. Each individual ramp theme has a separate set of 3 goals, which are surprisingly motivating and I’ve found they actually give you some hint on how you should play the ramp. For every 500 points you receive you get a ticket, just like you would get at a carnival, with these tickets you can get various virtual prizes, including Ollie, the Twitterrific bird. Unfortunately, the game has a tendency to crash occasionally when “printing your tickets” and at some other times during gameplay. I’ve also found that on occasion the ball will get stuck on the dividers between the various levels of targets. Luckily, the ball disappears after a few seconds and the game play resumes. If it weren’t for the crashing and few bugs, this could be the perfect iPhone game.

Overall, I’ve found Iconfactory and DS Media Lab’s Ramp Champ to be absolutely deserving of it’s $1.99 price tag even with the bugs. For more coverage on Ramp Champ be sure to listen to the next episode of the MacApper Podcast, releasing Monday morning.

Apple also wrote that no discussion with AT&T about the application had taken place, and that all the concerns that had been raised were from Apple’s side and not from the phone company. As had been suspected before, the application was not immediately approved because it was seen to duplicate features already on the iPhone. However, these were described more specifically: the Google Voice application would replace the phone button on the iPhone, and voicemails would no longer be stored on the iPhone itself but on Google’s servers. The same concerns were raised about the SMS section of the application. Apple was also concerned about the safety of the contacts imported from the iPhone to Google, and the company’s subsequent use of those contacts.

AT&T and Google also wrote letters to the FCC as part of the investigation. AT&T confirmed that Apple had not consulted them about the application, and defended its position on internet calling programs by stating that they needed to be sure that enabling VoIP on iPhones would not reduce revenues for the company. Google, always trying to gain the upper hand, stated in its letter that it did not, unlike Apple, screen any applications for its phone operating system (Android), with the exception of pornographic and potentially offensive material. These letters are part of a larger investigation by the FCC into internet calling on smart phones initiated by complaints from Skype. The investigation is expected to continue to discern the rights of wireless networks to screen applications, and whether or not it would make the system more amenable to a monopoly.

Given PopCap’s track record it only stood to reason that PvZ would be ported to every console known to man.  That’s why it comes as no surprise when PopCap Games announced this morning that, in addition to an upcoming port to Xbox Live Arcade and a recent retail box release, Plants vs Zombies will be arriving in the AppStore for iPhone users in late 2009.

PopCap has had a tremendously good track record with iPhone Games.  Peggle, Bookworm, and Bejeweled 2 have all been ported to the popular portable with great success.  Few of these games, however, required the visual real estate that Plants vs. Zombies will.  It’s a question that’s begging to be asked — how are you going to manage to fit the fast paced, screen-filling action of Plants vs Zombies on a 3.5″ widescreen?

That’s not to say that PopCap won’t be able to do it.  I have no doubt in my mind that they’ll execute a perfect port — it’s what they’re known for.  But how?  Will they retool the game to create a smaller playfield?  Will they offer a “scan-and-pan” camera that lets you move around the board?  It’s a befuddling conundrum to be sure, but one I’m looking forward to seeing solved.

No price or solid release date has been announced, but PopCap assures us you can expect to see this one in the AppStore by the end of the year.  In the meantime, why not check out our review of the original Mac version?

A recent study by the market research group NPD showed that digital music purchases continued their steady rise to market dominance during the first half of 2009.  While that fact in and of itself isn’t all that surprising, what share of the overall music market iTunes now makes up is enough to knock the socks off even the most passionate Apple devotee: 25%.

That’s not 25% of the digital market — that’s 25% of the total market.  This makes them the largest music seller in the US, beating out their closest competitor Wal-Mart, currently sitting at 14% of total music sales, by a whopping 11 points.

Other figures are just as impressive.  In the digital arena iTunes isn’t only #1 — it’s blasted away the competition.  In terms of digital music sales iTunes now represents 69% of the market.  It’s closest competitor AmazonMP3 comes in at only 8%.  This runaway lead in the digital music market is in stark contrast with the relatively balanced sales in physical music.  The four leaders of CD sales — Wal-mart, Best Buy, Target and Amazon are all within a few points of each other, covering 20%, 16%, 10% and 10% of the CD market respectively.

How could one market showcase such a distinct leader while another seems to offer up a balanced competition?  Brand recognition?  Strong hardware support?

AmazonMP3 has attempted to buck the trend, offering up DRM-free music and better prices and a host of other options.  When Apple saw that the service was gaining traction it went ahead and changed its feature set to offer up the things that were making AmazonMP3 so popular.   What can a company like Amazon do to climb past 8% of the market, or more accurately, bring iTunes down from 69%?

What is iTunes doing right that everyone else is doing wrong?  What, if anything, could competitors do to level the playing field?

The current thinking is that Apple will begin shipping Snow Leopard as early as August 28th, a week or so before the launch window would supposedly open—mid-September was the previous estimate. In addition to the revelation that they are indeed ready to ship and sell the operating system (shown by the mistaken appearance of the Mac Box Set), supposed photos of the packaging emerged over the weekend. Also, the most recent version of the OS appearing on the web was most likely the “Golden Master” version, the one that becomes the commercial product.

The error on the Apple Store was discovered when a potential customer called Apple Customer Service to ask if the typical 24-hour shipping also applied to the new operating system packaged with the Box Set. Unfortunately for all of us, the answer was—of course—no. It’s unknown what caused the product to appear as being immediately available, but the operating system is still available for pre-order at Amazon.com, with a single-user license starting at $29.99.

I have received comments on both of my recent software reviews about the responsiveness and friendliness of the two developers involved. One was writing that their manner was just adding to an already wonderful app, and the other was improving on a program that was less than perfect, taking suggestions for fixes and features. And this got me to thinking. When I have loved a product, whether it was a game or a utility, what was it that really drew me into paying money, into supporting the app? And, in most cases, it was my communication with the writer of the program.

There have been many times when I’ve had questions about a program before buying it. And in most of these cases, I’ve emailed the company asking those questions. This of course only works with smaller companies, but in a way that makes it better. I felt so honored when I emailed Delicious Monster, the makers of Delicious Library, and got an answer back not only promptly but also from the Major-domo of the program himself. The personal connection just made me want to buy the program even more. On another occasion I had an issue with a certain backup tool. I emailed the developer, and got a quick, correct response telling me what I should do to resolve the problem. While it was written in a manner that my father describes as “friendly but with an edge of ‘you should know this already,’” it answered my question and made me more dedicated to use the tool—over and instead of the built-in Time Machine.

An argument can be raised, of course, that if an app is truly perfect, a user wouldn’t need to talk to the developer. No problems would ever arise, and so no communication or troubleshooting would ever be necessary. But there are two counter arguments to this. First, a program could hardly ever be this perfect. Second, one might want to contact the developers simply to thank them on delivering such a wonderful product, and encourage them to keep on going. I have done this myself many times. In my opinion, there is never a reason not to contact a developer, and in return, rarely a reason for them not to contact you. Being a friendly person, and even just a person and not a faceless company, is a wonderful way to promote an app, get people’s interest, and keep them coming back.

This week we discuss Snow Leopard and a few new iPhone apps.

Please leave us feedback and/or comments on what you would like to see in future episodes. We are also looking for sponsors for the show. Please email us with questions, comments, or suggestions. We would also appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to fill out our anonymous listener survey.

Hackers choose Windows machines because they are the low hanging fruit on the tree. There are ample ripe unprotected windows machines to spread viruses and they are the dominant machine by numbers in the market. This is the main reason that Macs are fairly safe. I would bet a talented hacker could write a virus to infect a Mac however the time and energy exerted would be far greater than writing them for Windows. Hackers, just like business people, will chase after the greatest reward for the least cost and effort. With the Mac base growing rapidly and Windows becoming more secure with Vista and Windows 7, some attention will likely be shifted towards the Mac in the coming years. Whether that equates to a successful virus will be determined in time.

There have been worms released in the Mac community. Months ago a worm was embedded in the latest iWork software that was shared through torrents. Anyone that downloads software illegally deserves to be infected in my opinion. There is also virus protection software available, however it’s hotly debated as to whether one needs to run it at this time. Some consider it a good protector for what could happen. My personal belief is that wise user behavior is the biggest deterrent for viruses. There are vulnerabilities in web browsers and operating systems that are patched all the time. To my knowledge the vulnerabilities still require the user to type in the administer password to allow the nasty virus entrance to the warm cozy confines of the mac hard drive.

This series is about my experience with the Mac at work and we chose at my work not to run virus protection on the Mac. For the companies windows machines we use an enterprise version from Symantec endpoint protection. That is controlled from a server that manages the virus definition files and will notify IT if a computer has issues or hasn’t been scanned for a while. I received a call from IT asking me to start up my Dell Laptop and run the virus protection scan so that it would be up to date recently. Its quite costly for a company to defend against viruses and I’m happy that I don’t need to participate in that process any longer, for now…

I would caution any Mac user to be very cautious about how you boast that macs are immune to viruses because once the target on the apple becomes big enough then viruses will be aimed at the target. Hopefully the recent and future advances in OS and browser security will continue to advance and make those attacks fail. So please make sure that your OS and all other programs are up to date, stay off the torrents, and clicking through sites wisely will reduce the likelihood of infection. Mac security and viruses is a story that is still being written and will never be complete.

TwitPic for the iPhone lets you log in to your twitpic account, upload any photo stored on your device, comment on it and tweet it…  and that’s it.  Essentially TwitPic is a twitter client for twitpic photos only.  In a world where Twitter clients offered zero photo functionality, this would be a godsend.  But that’s not the world we live in.  In fact, most iPhone Twitter clients not only offer image uploading features but allow you to pick from a list of hosts including twitpic.

The developers behind this app couldn’t have been oblivious to this fact, and yet their design decisions suggest just that very thing.  Adding in twitpic specific features such as browsing your photo history or the photo history of other users would have added something fresh and new here, but such features are conspicuously absent.  Going one step further they could have added in features that have been glaringly omitted from the site like a search functionality, but again, this app functions as little more than the image uploader you already have in a client.

Even as an image uploader, it’s far from perfect.  Once you enter the portion of the process where you “comment” on your photo, giving the tweet text, you’re officially locked in.  If, say, you change your mind at the last minute and decide you’d rather not post the image for whatever reason (logged into the wrong acct, don’t want to embarrass your wife, etc..), tough beans.  There’s no way to cancel at that point.  Even worse?  Logging out of the app will then force your pic to post when you boot it back up.

If you’re looking for a quick way to pop your photos on to Twitter without booting up your Twitter client for whatever reason, this is definitely going to be a handy little tool.  The problem?  I can’t imagine anyone who that situation might apply to.  It’s like entering the word processor market and offering a fantastic app for backspacing.  No matter how good it is, it doesn’t matter — every app already does that.  And this app?  It’s a sub-par backspacer at best.

Considering there are so many options that already exist for uploading photos to twitpic, this app feels completely edundant.  Had they added in some basic features like the ability to browse your twitpic acct or search through the photos of others, they may have had something worth checking out.  As it stands though, TwitPic for the iPhone offers a tiny set of features that you’ll already find built into the vast majority of Twitter clients in the App Store.

TwitPic is available for free on the iTunes App Store.

This week we discuss the USAA iPhone app, Ramp Champ, and more.

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My personal favorite kind of trial is the latter one, the feature-limited demo, but only in specific situations. Since the applications I tend to test out are games and not utilities or other programs, feature-limited trials are much less frustrating. Too many times I have been playing a demo, and gotten to the point right before a final boss, or a final move of a section, and the window shuts with the message “Thanks for playing! Your 60 minutes are up!” I much prefer games that allow you to play the whole first level or section completely, but nothing else. This occasionally translates into a shorter gameplay experience, less than an hour, but it’s much more satisfying.

However, feature-limited trials too can be incredibly frustrating. For utilities, such as system cleaners, video players, and so on, if a trial is feature-limited, then you can’t really get a good sense of what the application is like. Even if you know, in theory, all the great things it will be able to do when you buy it, you still don’t really know if it’ll work as well as they say, or whether it’s something you’ll actually use. For apps like these, it’s much better to have a trial you can use for a week, or ten days, or even just a few hours.

Compromises have, of course, been reached. There are many programs which allow you to do a certain function a certain number of times, for example fixing metadata of iTunes music, or removing duplicate files. This is not feature-limited, but also not a strict time limit, so the frustration and stress is lessened considerably. These are perhaps the nicest trials.

There is another aspect to this debate that must be brought up. Perhaps the developers do not want a trial to be perfect. My game experience, for example. When I’m cut off in the middle of a level, I want to (and often do) go right out and buy the game so I can continue immediately. And, for time-limited utilities, if it’s something like cleaning your iTunes library, maybe you can do it all within the seven-day trial and so won’t actually need to buy the application. Software trials are supposed to help the product as well as the consumer, and if the consumer can be satisfied without paying money, then that does nothing for the product. So trials are not perfect. But I don’t think they’re meant to be. They keep us on the edge, and just hooked (or angry) enough to go out and buy the full application. The developer’s know exactly what we want, and, through trials, they show us that they have it.