Highlighted during yesterday's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, Guitar Hero is now available in the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Rock out with these features anytime, anywhere: - Dont just tap... Tap, Strum, Whammy, and Slide with gameplay customized for each song - Show off your personal style by customizing your own full 3D rockstar, and use the Photo Booth to share images with friends on Facebook - Complete challenges to increase your Rock Rank as you try to master both guitar and bass - Share your scores on Facebook, see how you stack up on the leaderboards, and get updates through in-game news feeds - Download more game tracks from the in-game store, and take on all-new song-specific challenges to boost your Rock Rank - Works on all iPhone and iPod Touch hardware! Play on an iPhone 3GS or 3rd generation iPod Touch to experience your avatar in a 3D concert setting, or use previous generation devices to show off your custom look in an awesome stylized photo shoot
Guitar Hero comes with six free songs from artists such as Queen, The Rolling Stones, Weezer and The White Stripes, with additional tracks available for in-app purchase. Guitar Hero is priced at $2.99.
Back in mid-April, Apple updated its developer agreement for iPhone OS (now known as iOS) to ban analytics companies from gathering data from iOS devices being used on their ad networks. The result of the change initially appeared to be a crippling of third-party networks in favor of the company's own iAds platform, as advertisers rely heavily on analytics to assist them in their advertising efforts.
As last week's interview at the D8 conference, Apple CEO Steve Jobs forcefully noted that the change was sparked by analytics company Flurry's publication of data showing devices in use on the Apple campus. Jobs was apparently referring to was January report from Flurry showing approximately 50 tablet-style iPhone devices being used at Apple. Acknowledging the value of analytics data for a number legitimate uses, however, Jobs said that Apple would be willing to revisit the topic of data collection with those companies once Apple had cooled down over the issue, "but it's not today."
MediaMemo now reports that Apple's has again modified the relevant portion of its developer agreement, Section 3.3.9, to at least partially open the door to limited data collection for analytics purposes.
If you compare and contrast with Apple's earlier version, you'll see the message is clear: It's OK to collect user data to help sell ads -- though you will need to get their permission to do so.
There is a catch, however, as Apple's new wording requires that any analytics company receiving data be an "independent advertising service provider whose primary business is serving mobile ads (for example, an advertising service provider owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple would not qualify as independent)".
The "independent" qualifier would would seem to prohibit AdMob from receiving such analytics data due to its status as a subsidiary of Google, which is clearly a developer of mobile operating systems. Smaller competitors such as Greystripe and Medialets, however, should be free to obtain analytics data upon receiving appropriate permission.
Adobe today announced the release of Photoshop Lightroom 3, the company's professional photo management and manipulation application that serves as a competitor to Apple's Aperture software.
First released as a public beta in October 2009, the final version of Lightroom 3 introduces a completely redesigned performance architecture that better handles growing image libraries and provides an unrivaled raw processing engine with noise reduction and sharpening tools to achieve the highest image quality. The 64-bit capable Lightroom 3 includes new features that optimize workflows and allow images to be shared in creative ways, including support for DSLR video files and tethered shooting on select cameras.
The first beta version of Lightroom 3 was released in late October, with a second beta following in late March.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 is available immediately and is priced at $299 for the full version and $99 for an upgrade version.
With today's introduction of iPhone 4, Apple now finds itself with existing stock of the 16 GB and 32 GB iPhone 3GS models. Consequently, the company has dropped prices on those discontinued models to $149 for the 16 GB model and $199 for the 32 GB model. Prices are valid with a new two-year agreement with AT&T.
Apple's online stores ran dry of the low-end 8 GB iPhone 3G several weeks ago, with AT&T following suit late last week.
Apple's clearance prices on iPhone 3GS models may not be the best deal available, however, as Wal-Mart dropped the 16 GB model to $97 late last month. It is not entirely clear what Wal-Mart's plans are for clearing any remaining stock and bringing in the iPhone 4 are now that an official launch announcement has been made.
For its part, Apple will be maintaing its own $99 price point previously held by the 8 GB iPhone 3G by releasing a new iPhone 3GS similarly carrying only 8 GB of storage. While Apple almost certainly could have squeezed in 16 GB of storage at that price point, it elected not to do so, presumably to maintain differentiation from iPhone 4.
Just hours after Apple released Safari 5 with support for extensions created by third-party developers, Panic has demoed 'Coda Notes', an extension allowing for website annotation and sharing.
When you install Coda Notes, you'll get a new button in your toolbar. Click it to see all our annotation tools, built right into Safari. Draw some notes on your favorite website. Communicate changes, ideas, concepts, or problems. Then, when you're done, hit the Send Notes button and the whole page flips over as a postcard.
Panic notes that Coda Notes is buit entirely with JavaScript, HTML and CSS and was built in only four days. The extension is still considered a "quick and dirty" implementation, however, and Panic will continue to refine it before releasing it to the public.
In a blog post, Cisco Senior Manager for Public Relations Kristin Carvell reports that Cisco has licensed the "iOS" name to Apple for use in describing the operating system formerly known as "iPhone OS" that runs the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Cisco owns a trademark on the "IOS" name for its software running on the vast majority of its network infrastructure equipment.
Cisco has agreed to license the iOS trademark to Apple for use as the name of Apple's operating system for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The license is for use of the trademark only and not for any technology.
When Apple first announced the iPhone in January 2007, it too was using a name trademarked by Cisco for its line of Web-enabled telephones. Apple had not worked out an agreement to use the name prior to its announcement, however, and Cisco quickly filed suit in an attempt to stop Apple from using the name. But just over a month after the suit was filed, the two parties were able to come to an agreement that would allow both companies to use the iPhone name.
Apple has seeded the Golden Master Candidate version of iOS 4 to developers today as well as iTunes 9.2 Beta. The releases are available to registered iPhone developers. iOS 4 contains many new features which were detailed during today's keyote.
Features include multitasking, unified inbox, folders, and more. The final release on iOS 4 will be released June 21st and will be a free upgrade for iPhone and iPod touch owners.
Apple just issued a press release announcing the launch of Safari 5, but it hasn't been officially posted on their site.
Apple today released Safari 5, the latest version of the world's fastest and most innovative web browser, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction, a 30 percent performance increase over Safari 4,* and the ability to choose Google, Yahoo! or Bing as the search service powering Safari's search field. Available for both Mac and Windows, Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies that allow web developers to create rich, dynamic websites. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience.
Features Include:
- Safari Reader makes it easy to read single and multipage articles on the web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter. When Safari 5 detects an article, users can click on the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field to display the entire article for clear, uninterrupted reading with options to enlarge, print or send via email.
- Powered by the Nitro JavaScript engine, Safari 5 on the Mac runs JavaScript 30 percent faster than Safari 4, three percent faster than Chrome 5.0, and over twice as fast as Firefox 3.6.* Safari 5 loads new webpages faster using Domain Name System (DNS) prefetching, and improves the caching of previously viewed pages to return to them more quickly.
- Safari 5 adds more than a dozen powerful HTML5 features that allow web developers to create media-rich experiences, including full screen playback and closed captions for HTML5 video. Other new HTML5 features in Safari 5 include HTML5 Geolocation, HTML5 sectioning elements, HTML5 draggable attribute, HTML5 forms validation, HTML5 Ruby, HTML5 AJAX History, EventSource and WebSocket.
- The new, free Safari Developer Program allows developers to customize and enhance, Safari 5 with extensions based on standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. The Extension Builder, new in Safari 5, simplifies the development, installation and packaging of extensions. For enhanced security and stability, Safari Extensions are sandboxed, signed with a digital certificate from Apple and run solely in the browser.
According to the press release, Safari 5 should be available for free download today.
Update: The press release was pulled so we're not sure what the status of Safari 5 is at the moment.
Update 2: Apple has now officially posted the press release announcing Safari 5, and it is now available via Apple's Safari download site and Software Update. Apple has also released Safari 4.1 for Mac OS X Tiger users, bringing a significant number of enhancements in the areas of performance, usability, compatibility and security.
Apple has now posted its feature video for the iPhone 4, entitled "This changes everything. Again." The video was shown at the conclusion of Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote presentation today.
The video is similar in theme to one shown at the end of Apple's January media event held to introduce the iPad, showing off the features within the context of the user experience and offering sound bites from Apple executives discussing the new product.
With the WWDC 2010 keynote address now over, users are beginning to get their hands on Apple's new iPhone 4, and hands-on reviews and first impressions are beginning to trickle in.
Engadget posts a number of photos of the new device, as well as a video showing the new FaceTime video calling feature in action.
Some takeaways about the device:
- As we said, it's shockingly thin. - The screen is truly outrageous -- you basically cannot see pixels on it. We're not being hyperbolic when we say it's easily the best looking mobile phone screen we've ever laid eyes on. - The build quality is really solid. The home button feels much snappier, and on the whole it just feel like a tightly-packed device, but it's not heavy. - The side buttons are really nice and clicky. - iOS 4 is very familiar -- there's not a lot added to fit and finish.
Ars Technica also has a number of photos and notes the new iPhone "feels good in the hand" and is very speedy, on par with the iPad as a first impression.
The iPhone's 960 x 640 Retina display has predictably been garnering quite a bit of attention, with Daring Fireball's John Gruber noting that it "looks insane in person" and gdgt's Ryan Block "in complete awe" over the "unbelievable" screen.
Recombu has also posted another nice photo gallery showing off the Apple's latest and greatest iPhone.
On a new feature page describing enhancements coming to its Mail application on iPhone 4, Apple has included a section highlighting how email attachments can be opened in third-party applications. As an example, Apple has included an image showing a presentation with a dialog box asking if the user would like to open the attachment in Keynote.
Keynote is Apple's presentation application originally developed for Mac OS X as part of the company's iWork suite. The company made a splash when it announced an iPad version of iWork, including Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, for release alongside its new tablet device earlier this year.
The new promotional image showing an option of opening Keynote on the iPhone suggests that the company may be preparing to roll out an iPhone version of the iWork suite, although the company made no mention of such plans during today's keynote address at WWDC.
Update: Apple has replaced the image in question with a new one, replacing the "Open in Keynote" button text with "Open in iBooks" text.
The iPhone 4 was officially announced at today's WWDC keynote event and Steve Jobs reserved the "one more thing" announcement at the end of the event to talk more about its video calling capabilities.
Video calling will require both parties to be using an iPhone 4. Video calls can be done with both the front and rear-facing cameras on the new device and requires Wi-Fi to work. Apple's protocol for video calling is called FaceTime and will apparently not use cellular data networks at all, thus the requirement for a Wi-Fi connection.
While describing the feature and its restriction to Wi-Fi only in 2010, Jobs said that they "need to work a little bit with carriers," presumably to make the feature available with cellular data connections in the future.
First announced in April at a special event, Steve Jobs provided a demonstration and additional details about Apple's new in-app advertising service, iAds, at today's WWDC keynote.
Noting a number of large companies already signed up for iAds, including Nissan, Chanel, GE, Target, Best Buy, and more, Jobs stated that advertisers have already committed to $60 million in iAds purchases for the second half of 2010.
iAds is built right into iOS 4, formerly known as iPhone OS 4. iAds will keep users who tap on ads within the app instead of taking them to a web page outside of the app.
iAds will be enabled July 1st and will offer a shared revenue model like the App Store, giving 60% of revenue to developers who use the service, with Apple keeping the remaining 40%.
In addition to announcing the new iPhone 4 at today's WWDC keynote event, Steve Jobs reviewed the upcoming iPhone OS, now known as iOS 4. Previously announced at a special event in April, the OS update will include multi-tasking, a unified inbox, folders, and other features. Newly-announced today is the inclusion of Bing as an additional search engine option as well as the iBooks app, which is currently only available for the iPad.
iOS 4 has been declared Golden Master Candidate and will be publicly released on June 21st. It will be a free upgrade for existing iPhone and iPod touch owners, though depending on the age of your device not all features many be available. This is the first time that a major OS update has been free for iPod touch owners.
Along with the announcement of the new iPhone 4 at today's WWDC keynote event, Steve Jobs announced iMovie for iPhone 4. The new app will allow users to edit videos right on the new iPhone 4, which records 720p HD video at 30fps.
Randy Ubillos, Apple's Chief Architect of Video Applications, came on stage to give a demo of the iMovie app, which works very similarly to the desktop version of iMovie. It offers transitions, titles, and five themes. Editing is done in a timeline view and new clips and photos can be added anywhere in the timeline. Music from the iPod library can be added, and with certain themes, iMovie for iPhone uses the geolocation information recorded by the camera. Movies can be exported at 360p, 540p, or 720p.
The new iMovie app will cost $4.99, though the exact date of its availability was not announced.
As expected at today's WWDC keynote event, Steve Jobs announced the next iPhone model, dubbed iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 features a new design relative to previous models and is identical to the model obtained by Gizmodo earlier this year, over which a search warrant was issued and criminal charges are being considered.
The new iPhone will have Apple's own A4 chip and a larger battery that will offer 40% more talk time than the previous model. It will also be capable of HSDPA/HSUPA speeds of 7.2Mbps down and 5.8Mbs up. Surprisingly, the iPhone will not see a storage bump in this generation, maxing out at 32GB like the current iPhone 3GS.
Other new additions include 802.11n Wi-Fi, a gyroscope to detect motion on 6 axes, as well as an LED flash to supplement the new 5-megapixel auto-focus lens. The updated camera will have 5x digital zoom and will record 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. Videos captured can be edited on the device using the new iMovie for iPhone.
The new iPhone 4 will also have a secondary microphone on the top for noise cancellation, as well as a front-facing camera for video calls. It will also use the smaller micro SIM, making use of the smaller SIM standard like the iPad.
Size-wise, it will be just 9.33mm thick, which is 24% thinner than the current iPhone 3GS. It will have a glass front and back with a stainless steel band that wraps around all sides. This band is used as part of the antenna system for the GSM, UMTS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth radios.
iPhone 4 will also have a Retina Display, a new display technology that packs in 326 pixels per inch, compared to the current iPhone's 163 ppi. Noting that the detection limit of the human eye is 300 ppi, Jobs described that the iPhone 4's display will "comfortably" exceed this and that text will be seen as a "fine printed book." The new iPhone's display will be the same 3.5-inch size of the current iPhone 3GS but with a resolution of 940 x 640 pixels and an 800:1 contrast ratio and the same IPS technology used in the iPad's display.
The new iPhone 4 model will go on sale on June 24 in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. In the U.S., it will cost $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model with a new 2-year contract. iPhone 4 will be available in 88 countries by the end of September.
AT&T will be offering an early upgrade special for current iPhone users in the U.S., allowing the lower upgrade pricing up to 6 months earlier than the company normally does.
An 8 GB iPhone 3GS will also be available and will be priced at $99 in the U.S. with a new 2-year contract.
MacRumors users are already planning meetups using our iPhone 4 Meetup forum.
At today's WWDC keynote event, multiple new major apps for the iPhone were announced. First, Steve Jobs announced that the popular Netflix application, currently available for iPad users only, will be released for the iPhone this summer. In addition, Zynga's popular Farmville online game and Activision's Guitar Hero will also be coming to the iPhone.
Reed Hastings, Netflix's CEO, came on stage to demonstrate how the app works. It contains the same functionality as the iPad version, allowing users to search for movies, add items to the Instant Queue, and more. The app will also allow streaming over 3G cellular data networks.
Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, also took the stage at the keynote to talk about Farmville, noting that the application has over 70 million active users. The iPhone app will offer push notifications to let users know about withering crops and other events, and will also offer in-app purchases for the game's marketplace. Farmville for iPhone will be released by the end of June.
Activision's Senior VP, Karthik Bala, announced the immediate availability of the Guitar Hero app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app will include classic rock songs by Queen and the Rolling Stones as well as newer artists. The app costs $2.99.
