Today Apple sent out a notification to iPhone developers, informing them to begin submitting Retina resolution screenshots of 960×480 pixels with future app submissions and updates to current ones. This could only suggest one of two things. Either the company is tired of seeing blurry images in their “pixel-perfect” App Store, or this is just preparation for the end of the iPhone 3GS. With a lower resolution of 480×320, the 3GS is the longest surviving iPhone model with a sale lifespan of over two and a half years (this June would make three). Of course, this shouldn’t be a daunting task for developers as “Retina” has been in their vocabulary for over one year now.
When you create or update your apps in iTunes Connect, you must upload screenshots that are high-resolution. We require your screenshots as high-resolution images so that your app is optimized for the Retina display … The requirements for high-resolution images are 960 x 640, 960 x 600, 640 x 960, or 640 x 920 pixels. Images must be at least 72 dpi, in the RGB color space, and the file must be .jpeg, .jpg, .tif, .tiff, or .png. You can update your screenshot files at any time in iTunes Connect.
Nevertheless, this could also hint at another iPhone model on the horizon. That would push the iPhone 4 into the $0 slot, the 4S into the $99 slot, and the iPhone 5 at regular price of $199+ with contracts. Then there’s also the possibility that Apple might soon send out another call to developers for doubling the resolution for the iPad. After all, word on the street is the rumored iPad 3 will come with a shiny Retina display.
Innovative iPad accessories just keep on coming. This time, Twelve South, the makers of such great products as the PlugBug, has made an iPad stand call the HoverBar that clamps onto your monitor or desk to allow you easy, adjustable access to your favorite tablet.
HoverBar floats iPad 2 next to any iMac or Apple display with an L-shaped stand. The sleek black, flexible arm on HoverBar connects to your Mac using a sturdy, silicone-lined clamp that leaves no trace. HoverBar has enough muscle and reach to position iPad above or beside any size Mac. Flex the bar and tilt iPad in any direction to find your favorite viewing position. What could be better than one iPad hovering above your Mac? Having a second floating beside it.
This incredibly awesome arm latches onto your iMac, Cinema Display, or desk with a silicone-lined clamp, and it allows your iPad 2 to float next to you as you work. If you want to make it into a second monitor, it’s easy to do with applications like DisplayPad or Air Display. Alternately, you can keep drawing apps like PenUltimate and Adobe Ideas open for quick note-taking and sketching as you work.
If you want a HoverBar of your very own, it is available for purchase on Twelve South’s website for $79.99. If you’re in the United States, you won’t even have to pay for shipping for a limited time. Get on this!
Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore has taken note of Apple’s increasing competitive advantage with the iPad. He’s done the simple math of combining tablet sales with notebook sales to see how Apple is eating everyone else’s lunch. Not only that, but he thinks the rumored iPad 3 will expand Apple’s lead.
Estimates from Deutsche Bank, combined with data from IDC, suggest that Apple currently has a 25 percent share of the combined notebook and tablet market. The next closest competitor is HP, which had a 12 percent combined total in the fourth quarter of calendar 2011, followed by Lenovo and Acer, both with 10 percent. Whitmore said none of the iPad competitors introduced in the last 12 months have come close to the iPad, as most of the products have been “me-too” offerings with little differentiation with one another. He believes the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Asus’s Transformer Prime are “more relevant” products as iPad competitors than Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
The iPad is becoming more powerful with each hardware bump and major OS release. It is taking over tasks that notebooks used to do, and doing them better with less power and hassle. Meanwhile, the Kindle Fire, new as it is, is closer to a larger iPod touch than it is a reinvented notebook. Android and Windows tablets have a long way to go to get to where the iPad is now. Who knows how long it will be until they can start competing? They have their work cut out for them.
With so little noteworthy competition, Whitmore thinks Apple is primed to hit a stock price of $600. It’s in Apple’s reach, and 2012, just like the past two years, will be the year of the iPad.
What crashes more, iOS apps or Android apps? That’s the question being asked by Crittercism these days in its study that spanned 23 iOS operating system versions and 33 Android versions.
In the top quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 0.15% of the time they launched, while top quartile iOS apps crashed 0.51% of the time. In the second quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 0.73% of the time and iOS apps crashed 1.47% of their launches. In the third quartile of apps, Android apps crashed 2.97% of the time, while iOS apps crashed 3.66% of the time.
The study ran from December 1st through until December 15th, and shows that iOS isn’t as stable as its Android counterpart. There are some points of note, however, that should be discussed further in the future when talking about the stability of iOS and Android applications. First, iOS 5.01 was responsible for 28.64 percent of all crashes in the study. It’s not uncommon for applications on a new operating system to become unstable once a major new OS is released. That being said, iOS 4.2.1, and iOS 5.0 are both responsible for over 4 percent of all crashes, and iOS 4.1 weighed in at 8.24 percent of all crashes in the Critterrcism study.
In a bit of a twist, Datacolor is not calibrating the display on your iOS device like you would expect; instead, the Spyder calibrating tool determines the color profile of your iOS device, and then color corrects your photos using the SpyderGallery application. A Spyder device is required for the color correction, so if you don’t have one, you’ll have to purchase one.
It’s an interesting solution to the lack of display calibration granularity available in iOS. Given the possibilities of using the iPad as a portfolio viewing medium for photographers, designers, and artists, it’s a little disappointing that the iPad display can’t be color calibrated.
It’s Friday, and that means it’s time to take a look at some awesome apps for each platform: iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS. Today, we’re focusing on video content and productivity.
Thursday, film and video post-production software company Avid released Avid Studio for iPad. Currently available for $4.99 (introductory price, soon to be $7.99), it’s a clear competitor to Apple’s iMovie for iOS (which is also available on iPhone).
This mimics Avid’s “big boy” competition in the world of fully-fledged professional post software on the desktop. Since the release of FCPX, many editors have gone back to their Avid roots with programs like Avid’s Media Composer.
The goal here is clear: show existing Apple customers how great Avid’s products are, and hope they’ll flock to their more expensive products. And I have to say, as someone who has kind of stood in defense of FCPX, Avid has made a pretty good case. The only drawback with this strategy is that Avid’s companion, Avid Studio for desktop, is for the PC. While this little app is amazing on the iPad (and blows iMovie away in a number of areas), it’s a far leap to Media Composer from here.
Jailbreaker, and Cydia Store developer Adam Bell has created an application, called Overflow, that customizes your iOS dock, and turns it into something a little more Coverflow-esque.
In order to get the entire benefit from the tweak, you’ll need to install another tweak that lets you put more applications in your dock than normal. We recommend checking out Chpwn’s Infinidock to get that done.
February 7, 2012
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