Finally this update also signifies Tapbots’s successful release of their push notification system. Over the past couple releases, Tapbots has been testing this new service and now it is open for everyone. Once updated, all you have to do is go to the settings menu and enable one of the many push notification switches. You’ll be receiving alerts in no time!

1.4.3 is a free update from the iOS AppStore.

1. Convenient. With today’s fast paced society, convenience is almost a necessity. With iTunes being a web-based application, the iTunes store can be accessed from anywhere you have an internet connection, and once downloaded, you don’t need an internet connection to retrieve stored files.
2. Portable. iTunes makes your music portable. You download your favorite songs from the internet and off you go. No need to remember to bring CD’s with you or a CD player.
3. Affordable. Compared to similar service providers for music downloads, iTunes is very affordable. While some other providers require a monthly subscription fee, iTunes does not. They charge per download and the prices can vary depending on the song. There are even podcasts that you can download for free.
4. Variety. You name the song and iTunes probably has it. Their library of music is quite comprehensive and you can get anything from Country Western to Heavy Metal and just about everything in between.
5. Retrieval abilities. iTunes has come up with a great feature that allows you to retrieve previous files that you have downloaded without having to pay for them again. So if you accidentally delete them from your device, iTunes has a record of your prior purchases, and you can download it again for free.
6. Secure. Apple is constantly working to make your experience with their products safe and secure. They have systems in place that keep your data private and most purchases are done through PayPal which has its own data security systems to protect its users.
7. Organized. The application that you download onto your computer allows you to organize your files in a multitude of ways. Organize by artist, genre, year or alphabetical just to name a few.
8. Free Previews. iTunes allows you to preview your selections prior to purchasing, that way you know what you are getting before you pay for it. No more purchasing a song you know you like just to find out when you listen to it that it was the wrong artist or version.
9. More than music. Most people think of iTunes as being just for music. You can actually go to the iTunes store and rent movies or purchase books to read on your Apple ready device.
10. It’s legal. Many of us over the age of 20 remember when there was a massive amount of illegal music download companies out there and they were widely popular. With iTunes you do not have to worry about getting caught using illegal software since the company is totally legit.

This is just a small list of reasons why iTunes is so popular. But with a company like Apple behind it, iTunes is sure to succeed in this ever evolving technological industry.

OS X Lion (v10.7) is the latest Apple operating system for Mac computers, but there is some debate over whether there is any pressing need to upgrade right away. Apple says the system boasts 250 improvements, but many are superficial, and other “improvements” may not be viewed as such by owners of older Macs. In addition to just waiting for some bugs to be ironed-out, many users could lose access to favored programs with an upgrade. Below are some reasons folks might want to drag their feet a little before buying into the Lion.

1. He Who Hesitates – In this case, he-or-she who hesitates may not be lost at all. There have been reports of glitches in the system that require updating or work-arounds, problems that may be rectified before patient people purchase. There are several free apps that are still scrambling to deliver upgrades to their software to make it compatible with the Lion.
2. Snow Leopard – Early results do not demonstrate any great advantage to be gained by upgrading the operating system from Snow Leopard to Lion, though there may be tangible improvement in Photo Shop.
3. 30 Bucks is 30 Bucks – Unless you are already in the market for a new Mac, in which case the Lion is free, upgrading will cost $30.
4. Rosetta Stone Dropped – Snow Leopard allowed for a manual installation of Rosetta software, but Lion doesn't support it at all, which means Lion dropped support for all PowerPC apps. 
5. If it Ain't Broke. . . – A lot of people have been quite satisfied with their present system, and Lion may not offer enough in the way of technological advances to make it worth getting.
6. Installation Time – If the customer hasn't just purchased a Mac, installation time on older machines can run to two-hours or more.
7. Adobe Flash – In the new operating system, as opposed to Snow Leopard, Adobe Flash Player is no longer a default installation, but needs to be installed manually.
8. Front Row – The Front Row media center software has been dropped, and this will affect older Apple Macs, though there have been reports that the software can be installed on Lion with a bit of hacking.
9. File-Sharing Problems – Networking and file-sharing issues have come up, such as Macs not sharing with Windows,and even with problems involving Macs not sharing with other Macs.
10. Older Hardware – Lion will only support newer Mac hardware, which means that most Intel powered Macs won't work with Lion; there has been grumbling that this was done deliberately to force people to buy new machines.

Eventually, after the entire system is smoothed out and after the glitches have been fixed, there may be enough in those 250 improvements to warrant the upgrade, but there doesn't appear to be any great call to rush out and get a Lion, unless people just have to be the first one on the block to have the newest toys.

Even photography pros are using their iphones to capture the shots they find on the go, and…not on the go. The iphone has a great camera app and with just a little more help from additional apps, it can do a lot of things photography pros can appreciate.

1.     PhotoRaw – This is definitely an app for photography pros. This app allows users of an iphone camera to view photo files in 'raw' format and provides formats that match many of the most common cameras.

2.     TimeShift HD – Mobile Game Logic is the creator of this time-lapse photo app. It provides plenty of control over all the elements involved in time-lapse photography.

3.     ChronoCam – Chronophotographic photos are taken with this app. Tateshina Business Center has created this app to take from 1 to 20 photos per second.

4.     PhotoSync – Automatically, and wirelessly, transfer groups of photos to your iphoto software or photo servers.

5.     DSLR Remote – OnOne Software created this app that will control your DSLR camera remotely from your iphone or ipad. You can even tell your camera where you want the images saved to.

6.     CameraBag – NeverCenter named this app appropriately. It provides the lens filters that you would formerly have carried in your camera bag. Now they are all contained on your iphone.

7.     Hipstamatic – Synthetic Corp has provided this fun and flexible photo app. Take 'old school' photos while changing 'lenses' with a swipe of your finger across the screen.

8.     Pano – Debacle Software has created this app that allows you to take panoramic photo shots with your iphone and stitch them together for a full wide view. You can combine up to 16 shots together.

9.     ProHDR – Eye Apps LLC has created this app to bring top high dynamic range images into your iphone. HDR allows you to maintain clarity of both the foreground and background of images.

10.  TiltShift – If you're not a photography buff, you may not have heard this term before. If you've owned a tilt-shift lens, then you'll love the ability to accomplish these unique types of shots with your iphone by just adding this little app. Michael Krause has done a great job with this app.

With the many photo apps available for use with iphones and ipads, the carrying of an extra camera is becoming less of a necessity, even for the pros.

My name is Kris, and I'm the mind behind Funk-iSoft and the Mac OS X App Magic Media Marker. Magic Media Marker is an app for automating the very receptive tasks of converting and tagging TV Shows & Movies. Sure, you've heard of apps that do this this already like iFlicks & iDentify, so what sets MMM apart from the other guys? Automation!

Magic Media Marker's origin stems from a series of AppleScripts and Automator Folder actions put together to watch for incoming media files and automate the process of getting them ready for my AppleTV. The goal wasn't just to convert the video type, but also to apply artwork and other metadata to the files so they'd look nice in iTunes and on my various iDevices.

I started with tutorials for various aspects of what I wanted to do and built on top of it until I had a workflow that met my needs. My problems at this point is that it was a very custom set up that I couldn't easily share with people. No one wanted the hassle of settings all these scripts up and maintaing the system. That's when I decided I sit down and teach myself Objective C (the programming language used by OS X and iOS) to build my workflow into a single, easy to use app.

It took 3 months from opening a book on Objective C (and having no other programming background besides what I taught myself in AppleScript) until I had Magic Media Marker for sale in the Mac App Store. So what does Magic Media Marker do? Well, it will watch a folder and wait for new videos files to be dropped in. Once it picks up a video file it will automatically determine if it's a Movie or a TV Show by the file's name. It then downloads poster artwork, title, synopsis, genre, rating, etc and tags the file.

Optionally if your video files are not in the correct format for your iDevices you can link Magic Media Marker up with HandBrakeCLI and it will do the conversion for you as well. When it's all done it drops the video into iTunes into the appropriate library so it's ready to watch/sync. What's more is it will optionally look for TV Shows that have been watched, but not given a rating, and remove them from your iTunes library.

The idea being if there are shows that you will only watch once, leave them unrated and MMM will clear them out for you. All this is done without the need for user interaction, past initial set up, which only takes a minute. Although the focus of Magic Media Marker is automation, you can also manually feed MMM videos as well. Magic Media Marker is constantly being updated to improve the file naming conventions it understands and to add new features. I'm always interested in user feedback, many of the added features from version 1.0 were user suggestions.

For more information you can go here: http://www.funk-isoft.com

or check it out at the Mac app store here.

MacApper Editorial:

Kris did a great job of describing the application above as you would expect…  The application costs a modest $6.99 which seems like a really reasonable price for this type of help with organizing your iTunes media files. We haven't spent much time with this particular application so we would love to hear from fans or critics of the application out there to get a better feel for the benefits and/or disadvantages of using the application.

If you are a Mac or iOS developer, please take advantage of our developer submission program and we will do our best to follow up with you just like we did with Barry.

We are entering a new era. Having to open your browser to access information is quickly becoming a thing of the past. The iOS apps are being designed to deliver our content to us, rather than us having to go 'onto' the internet to find it. News is no exception. Here are the top ten apps for bringing the news, global and personal, to you.

1.     Pulse News Mini – Multitaskers love the dashboard on this app. They can be browsing new headlines while reading an article. They don't have to choose between one or the other. Alphonso Labs definitely hit the jackpot with this one. The great visual interface takes news into the digital age where it should be, and the ease of use will likely keep this app on in the top ten for quite some time.

2.     Blancspot: The Art of Now – The tagline alone is a winner, don't you think? Audio-visual news doesn't have to mean television. Blancspot provides your global news and your personal news in great visuals set to great music. I new concept that is having no trouble catching on.

3.     NBC Nightly News – If you're a fan of Nightly News with Brian Williams, then their iOS app will keep you up to date throughout the day, instead of having to go the website or watch the program on television.

4.     PBS Newshour – Download their app from the Apple App Store or iTunes. The app is very customizable to bring you just the news feed categories that you are interested in. Great functionality for multitaskers as well.

5.     Audiopress – If you want to hear your news, not read it, then Audiopress is your app. Combine podcasts, radio and your social updates (that have been converted from text to speech) all into one neat little package that feed into your headphones or over your speakers.

6.     News360 – Intuitive is the word associated most with this news app. It looks at your cloud and pulls out the news that relates to your interests and your location. The reports may be from around the world, but they are being personally selected for you.

7.     Reeder – No, that is not a misspelling. Google Reader's mobile app is being distinguished with the double-e spelling. Now, you can quickly add your online RSS feeds off Google Reader into your iphone Reeder app and follow your news without having to enter your browser.

8.     Flud – This news reader is socialized. Browse new feeds and add them quickly. 'Love' your favorite articles and share them via your integrated social networks. If you've used Stumbleupon on the web for finding, sharing and reviewing websites, you'll see some of the same types of functionality built into this news reader.

9.     Flipboard – Chosen as Apple's App of the Year for 2010, this news app bills itself as your 'social magazine'. Scroll through your social network feeds, articles by your favorite tweeps, then mark and share the ones that made an impression on you.

10.  Byline – This app by Phantom Fish draws off your Google Reader feeds. Read all your blogs and website updates on your iphone or ipad, even when you're not online. You can browse entire websites while you're in between wifi connections. 

The thing you will find in common with most, but not all, of these apps is the integration of 'personal news', such as social network feeds, with 'public news'. It is all important to us. Why should we keep it separate?

About the Game

Fragmental 3D leaves Tetris in the two-dimensional dust. You can slide, spin, and force-drop falling blocks in full 3D — building rows across the grid to clear lines, make combos, and score points. Fragmental 3D is the first and (currently) only 3D Tetris game built for the iPad.

This Universal/HD game features several gameplay modes, alternate “Fragment” collections, six beautiful environments, OpenFeint leaderboards, and more! Visit www.Fragmental3D.com for screenshots, links, and other info.

Inspiration

I’ve always loved Tetris, but Fragmental 3D (essentially, 3D Tetris) was the game I really wanted to play. Prior to the iPhone, the control scheme was always a limitation – using the keyboard doesn’t translate well to an fully-rotatable 3D environment, and a mouse feels slow and awkward. The touch-screen functionality was the key, which allows for fast and intuitive game control.

Becoming a Developer

I discovered my knack for programming in college, and it quickly became my passion. Writing software became my outlet for innovation and expression, it satisfied my never-ending desire to build and create, and allowed me to transform my ideas into reality.

After graduation in 2007, I formed a software development company called Aesthetic Interactive (www.aestheticinteractive.com). My mission for the company has always been to deliver world-class software that combines creative, artistic design with solid, functional programming foundations. I thrive on challenging work — working hard to solve difficult problems in elegant and innovative ways.

Development Process

The first version of Fragmental 3D came together in about two months. There was definitely a learning curve! Being a PC user building my first iPhone app, I was simultaneously learning Objective-C, XCode, iOS features and frameworks, and the Mac OS itself. The amount of information was overwhelming, but it was very helpful to have a goal (my game idea) in mind. At any point, I could sit back and think about how a piece of information would directly apply to Fragmental 3D.

Similar Apps

Fragmental 3D is inspired from the block-falling, line-clearing concepts from Tetris. As I built the game, I found that 3D Tetris is not such a new idea, either. The game Blockout is a top-view-only version of 3D Tetris.

Despite the shared ideas, Fragmental 3D is quite unique: the full camera rotation, innovative move/rotate control scheme, crazy block shapes, and fun environments set it apart from other games. Similar iOS games are Tetra3D, Cirrus, CubeRise 3D, and Dropoly.

App Outlook

On June 24, 2011, Fragmental 3D will have its version 2.0 release. This major update includes Universal/HD support (for iPad and Retina screens) and several other visual improvements. I’m very excited about this release — the game looks stunning on both types of devices!

Working on projects for my clients consumes the vast majority of my time. Updates are infrequent, but I do try to make the most of them! There are several ideas I’d love to pursue, everything from a “puzzle mode” to arcade-style features like bomb pieces and freeze blocks.

MacApper Editorial

Well at first we have to admit, we weren’t super pumped about another variant of Tetris, but you really have to go to the site and watch the video on this game. It’s really well done and the game looks very solid, we can’t wait to play it! There is something about manipulating blocks in 3D on the iPad that just makes good sense. While we opened with a rant about the number of Tetris clones we have seen we secretly can be found playing our favorite one so no doubt this will be a new one for some of us to get addicted to.

If you are a Mac or iOS developer, please take advantage of our developer submission program and we will do our best to follow up with you.

If you're a tweeter and you own an iphone, then you are probably aware that there are several different apps for you to choose from to access your Twitter account. Some carry basic functionalities and others are more complex and connect to a variety of social media from the one app. Some are free, while other's will cost you a small amount to purchase them. Browse through the descriptions to see which app fits best with your use of Twitter.

1.     Tweetdeck – The little black bird on a yellow background is the icon for this Twitter connection that you can use with your iphone. Ease of use is, of course, what makes it so popular, but easy doesn't mean limited. It has plenty of customizable options. Add and remove columns; zoom in and out; quickly tweet a response.

2.     HootSuite – This app has a little brown owl for its icon. You can scroll across its columns by simply swiping your finger across your phone face. You can also schedule tweets in addition to creating real time tweets, a very unique feature. Some users have felt that the setup on this app was a bit cumbersome, but if the scheduling feature is important to you, it can be worth the initial hassle. It also does come in both a free and paid version.

3.     Twitbird – This app comes in three different versions. There is a free version that is supported by the ads that come with it. Then there are two paid versions; one that allows two different Twitter accounts and the professional version which can handle up to sixteen different Twitter accounts. It will also allow for geotagging your tweets and has a built-in address book.

4.     Official Twitter – There's no sense ignoring the obvious, Twitter has it own iphone app, of course. It has your url shortening, hashtags and @ easily accessible. It also allows you to go directly to a web link from a tweet.

5.     Echofon – This app has been around for awhile and still maintains its popularity. It is very easy to use and allows you to see pics and video in your tweets. It also comes in a free and paid version. The paid version cleans removes the ads you need to deal with in the free version.

6.     Twitterific – This free app can be used on either an iphone or an ipad. You can set filters to see just what is important to you. You can also send links to your 'Instapaper' account for reading them later on. This app does have some limitations, all you have to do is scroll through the FAQ's to see the number of answers that begin with 'No' to see that.

7.     Seesmic – This is more than a Twitter app for your iphone. It is a social media app. For some, this is a great tool. If you are wanting to update and manage facebook, myspace and twitter all at the same time, from the same application, Seesmic is a good choice. If Twitter is real true love, then you might be better off with one of the other apps.

8.     TweetStack – Columns, searchable, custom tabs, retweet… lots of features available with this stack of little birdies.

9.     Twinkle – Yes, that is like in 'stars'. This little apps is all about location and getting connected with Tweeters that are nearby. But that is not all it does. You can still use it to stay connect with all your Tweets. It has gotten some great reviews.

10.  IM+ - If you spread yourself across all the social networks and online communication platforms, you may want this app. It will be hard to find an instant messaging platform this app doesn't connect to. Keep all your socializing within one app by using this one.

For base tweeting, most any of these applications would work. It is the extra functionalities that you will need to examine more closely, to see which will meet your needs best.

In addition to saving space, digital storage of pictures also allows for ease of sorting, labeling and organizing your photos. This is especially true for Mac users who have the iPhoto application. Your photos can be labeled in many different ways, depending on how you want to look for them.

1.     Faces – Facial recognition is used in the system to identify all your photos of one person. This can be a great feature when searching for photos for an event like a graduation party.

2.     Dates – When you import photos into iPhoto, it automatically sorts the photos by the date on which they were taken and labels these as 'Events'.

3.     Events – Since you may take photos of more than one event during a day, iPhoto also allows you to split photos from one day into more than one event. You can also combine several days into one event, such as a week of vacation. You can label each event to help you remember what that particular group of photos represents.

4.     Description – Each 'Event' in iPhoto also has a space for additional text to give a more detailed description of each event.

5.     Places – If you have a GPS feature on your camera, iPhoto will automatically label your pictures by location as well. If you don't have the GPS feature, you can still label your photos by location. You can then find all your photos from a given location regardless of when they were taken.

6.     Flags – When you pull up a group of photos by date, face, event or place, you can then flag specific photos to mark which ones you are wanting to select for printing or some other type of project.

7.     Last Import – iPhoto also has a record of your last import of pictures so it is easy to go back to the last group regardless of whether you know the date, location or people in that group of pictures.

8.     Albums – You can also group pictures into 'Albums', just like you would your printed pictures. You can selected pictures and drag them into your album and label it accordingly.

9.     Smart Albums – The 'Smart Album' feature is a filtering feature for creating albums of pictures that all meet certain criteria, such as the same face and at a certain location. This can save you from hunting for them yourself.

10.  Uploaded Photos – If you upload photos to the facebook, flickr or MobileMe, iPhoto will keep track of which photos you uploaded to which site and on what date.

If you haven't taken time to learn about all the ways you can use iPhoto to keep your photos organized, this should convince you to do a quick run through of the tutorial. It isn't really complicated, it is very easy. If you have a Mac, you might as well take advantage of these great organizational tools. The first time you need to go looking for specific pictures, you'll be glad you did.

Gameplay

When the game is first opened up, you have the option of choosing between two characters to play with. You can pick between the adorable and dainty Maggie or the handsome and heavy Bacon. Then the pig is launched into a slingshot on a trail to start the game. You release the pig by pulling the slingshot back, and you control the game by tilting your device from left to right. Along the way you try to collect as many stars as you can for extra points. To continue advancing in the game, you land in the blue slingshots on the trail and re-sling your pig. Sounds easy, but as in all games… there are complications. Some of the obstacles, if run into, mean game over. Rocks, fences, bushes, and logs are examples of these. Puddles force you to slip and lose momentum, but aren’t as threatening. Later on along the trail you learn to dodge moving sheep and wolves hungry for little pigs. The farther you survive the more points you earn for every meter covered and if you continue collecting stars the point values increase!

Extras

However, not all objects laid on the path are bad. Sometimes you can be rolling along just fine but not have quite enough gas to make it to the next blue slingshot. If you consume the corn and cauliflower, a gas bar will appear in the bottom right hand corner. When you seem to be running out of steam tap the screen and your pig will let out a fart. Yes, thats right, a musical, flower smelling, fart! This “luxury” will give your pig an extra push to perhaps make it to the next slingshot. The more food you eat, the more you fart, and the farther you go! Also laid along the way are yellow arrows that, when rolled over, provide a temporary speed boost.

Points

If you continue to dodge the obstacles, stay on course, and keep collecting stars, your points will start to add up! You may eventually get your best score ever! In the top left hand corner of the screen, your score is displayed along with your high score and the number of meters covered. Because of this placement, you are always looking at your best and striving to beat it! Before too long you’ll become a pro and make your highest scores ever! The high score list is on the main menu and is an option where you can look and see the game’s highest scorers and how you compare. You may even find yourself up there!

Worth it?

This game is extremely fun and easy to play. The only con is there are no instructions at the beginning of the game, so with no former knowledge, you may not be as quick to understand. But after some practice, you’ll get it in no time. The overall quality of the game is great and the easy, fun concept makes the game addicting. You’ll find yourself playing over and over again! It’s a new must have game for all devices.

Get Pig Shot from the iTunes Store

This article was written by Ashley Jo, who is a new potential writer for MacApper. She wrote this article using the new guest post section of the site. Thanks Ashley!

I cofounded Vignature, a provider of image-based electronic signatures, earlier this year. Prior to developing the Vignature app for iPhone 4 and iPad 2, I’ve had a long history of writing code. I got my first computer, an Atari 400, when I was 10 years. I started writing assembly language on an Apple IIE when I was 13 years old.

It took me a couple of months to write the iPhone app. One reason that it took so long was that I had to write a custom PDF viewer from scratch. The reason that I created the app is because I have experienced the pain of signing and returning signed documents. Having to rely on multiple machines to function (printers, fax machines, or scanners) and being in proximity to those machines is a pain. The Vignature app eliminates the hassle by allowing you to sign documents electronically, 24/7.

Zosh and EasySign are similar apps. They are both used to sign and email signed documents. The Vignature app is different, however, in that it captures a real-time photographic image of the signer. This makes the signature verifiable.

Ultimately, everyone will be giving their “Vignature” instead of their signature. Technology is moving towards easy to obtain biometrics, and Vignature sits perfectly between hardware-requiring fingerprinting and intelligible touch screen signatures.

I anticipate updating the Vignature app every 2 weeks to 1 month. New features will include a document archive and multiple document types.

Screenshot:

MacApper Editorial:

First of all, we want to thank Matt for taking the time to tell us more about what went into the development of Vignature, it really helps us appreciate the application even more. We visited the site and have to say, this is really a very professional system for collecting digital signatures (with photos of the “vigner”). What’s most impressive is how complete it is from the web application through the iOS apps that make it easy to “vign” docs anywhere you are. If you are in a business that requires a lot of signatures, you really should take a look at Vignature to see if it meets your needs. As you can tell, we have totally bought into and most likely over-used the term Vignature/Vign/Vigner, but frankly that’s just good fun with a very practical purpose. Why sign when you can vign? We wish Matt all the best with Vignature and specifically with the iOS version and encourage him to keep us all updated as he further develops his business.

If you are a Mac or iOS developer, please take advantage of our developer submission program and we will do our best to follow up with you.

1. Flixster – For the movie buff, this is a great app to have. Scroll through all the newest releases on screen or DVD. See the comments your friends have made about movies. Find out show times in your local area. A great app for choosing your next film to watch
2. Zynga Poker – If you like Texas Hold ‘em Poker, this is the number one facebook app being used on iphones to play poker with your friends. Caution! Extremely addictive and extremely fun.
3. Trapster – Know what’s coming up ahead of you on the road with this app. Known speed traps, accidents and detours can be entered by users to let other users know what to watch out for.
4. Coconut Dodge – This new game developed by EA (Electronic Arts) is a fun little app. Clarence the crab is looking forward to playing this little tropical game with you.
5. Zombie Farm – If Farmville is just a little too tame for you, then maybe you should check out Zombie Farm by Playforge. Plant corpses and harvest zombies instead silly little peach trees.
6. Quotes for Facebook – If you’re one of those people who loves to use your facebook page to inspire others, this app is an easy way to it. You can have it do a random shuffle for selection or you can search by author or keywords.
7. Smartsync – Keep your iphone contacts in sync with your facebook friends. This app will add facebook profile pics to your iphone contacts as well as their current status updates. When your facebook friends call your iphone, their profile pic will pop up instead of just their name and number.
8. Find My Friend – Looking for your friend in the crowd at the mall? Use Find My Friend to direct you to them. It uses facebook and your iphone’s GPS to guide you to your friend’s location.
9. i Napkin – Scribble your note down on your iphone and then send it to your facebook friends with this little app. For those of you who love scribbled notes over typed text, this is one for you.
10. Top Friends – Of all your facebook friends, there are only a few that you are really close friends with. This popular facebook app is also available on your iphone to keep you closely connected with your very best buds.

If there’s an app that you wish existed for your iphone and facebook connection, it probably does exist. If it doesn’t, there’s probably an app developer working on it. Just be patient. If you want, then so do plenty of other people.

Let me also tell you that while I am a scrabooking moron several of my family members (my wife, my mother, several in-laws) are scrapbooking geniuses. They frequently participate in Creative Memories parties and in fact are reps for that company (I know we have several cases of stamps, card stock, stickers, and more around the house). I only mention this to let you know that I have actually seen how pages are supposed to look and how much fun they can be to share.

So, I am not the scissors, paper, and glue type of guy so my only hope of doing something like this is either on my Mac or on my iPad. So, when I saw this application of course I wanted to give it a try (so I have something to show off at family get-togethers as well). I do have plenty of pictures on my iPad so my bases are covered there.

So the application itself is really well integrated with the iPad making it easy to grab pictures and drop them on the page. As you would expect from an iPad app you can grab, rotate, and resize by just using your fingers (try doing that with paper and scissors). You can add text, borders, and more to each page and then when you are done you can save it to your iPad, email it, or post it on FaceBook. That’s a really great feature!

I am definitely looking forward to the next family get-together so when the binders come out, I can just pull out my iPad and show them what a scrapbooking moron like me can do with a ton of help from ScrapPad.

Apple has released their iWork collection of productivity application for the iPhone and iPod touch, making it available to all the iDevices.

“Now you can use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on iPhone and iPod touch to create amazing presentations, documents and spreadsheets right in the palm of your hand,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The incredible Retina display, revolutionary Multi-Touch interface and our powerful software make it easy to create, edit, organize and share all of your documents from iPhone 4 or iPod touch.”

Keynote • Keynote Remote app (sold separately on the App Store) to control your presentation from another iPhone or iPod touch. • New document manager to easily sort your documents and organize them into folders.

Numbers • New document manager to easily sort your documents and organize them into folders. • Improved usability including Smart Zoom for viewing and editing data.

Pages • New document manager to easily sort your documents and organize them into folders. • Ability to change font style and size directly from the ruler when editing text. • Smart Zoom for viewing and editing data.

Each application from the App Store is priced at $9.99. There was several hints last year that we profiled on that gave us leads that Apple was working on bringing the iWork suite to the iPhone and iPod touch. There wasn’t any solid information on when the applications would make their debut, which led some to believe that the images that surfaced were only a prototype.

Two months ago, the folks over at Adobe released the beta version of their popular web software Flash. Flash 10.3 came bundled with privacy controls and integration with the Mac OS X System Preferences. With that came a notification system with the software for the Mac OS X front.

Adobe has taken Flash out of beta and has officially released it to the public and is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Within the software notes, the software giant gives details of what this update/download includes.

New features in Flash Player 10.3 include:

- Media measurement (desktop only) – Measuring video usage just got easier. Using Adobe SiteCatalyst with Flash Player 10.3, developers can implement video analytics for websites with as little as two lines of code for the first time. Media Measurement for Flash Player allows companies to get real-time, aggregated reporting of how their video content is distributed, what their audience reach is, and how much video is played. Mobile support will be available in an upcoming release.

- Acoustic echo cancellation (desktop only) – With Flash Player 10.3, developers can create real-time online collaboration experiences with high-quality audio for telephony, in-game voice chat, and group conferencing applications. Developers can take advantage of acoustic echo cancellation, noise suppression, voice activity detection, and automatic compensation for various microphone input levels. End users will be able to experience higher quality audio facilitating smoother conversation flow, without using a headset.

- Enhanced privacy protection – Flash Player 10.3 enables local storage clearing within browsers’ privacy settings and streamlines the controls of the Flash Player privacy, security and storage settings within the local control panel of desktop OSes.

- Security enhancements including the support of auto-update notification for MacOS – See the Security Bulletin APSB11-12 for more details.

The good people over at MacStories have chimed in stating that Apple has removed all iAds from children influenced games. A user of the iOS application “Dex,” a Pokémon associated application, documented the iAds activity on the application dropping to zero.

“Last Thursday I had a particularly awful iAd fill rate of 5%. This isn’t new, I’ve had problems before. Then on Friday a 0% fill rate, then on Saturday another 0% fill rate. I emailed Apple and posted a question to the company’s developer forums. Today I finally got a reply:

Follow-up: XXXXXXXXXXX

Hello Michael,

We periodically review the apps in the iAd Network to ensure that all apps receiving ads are aligned with the needs of our advertisers. Currently, our advertisers prefer that their advertising not appear in applications that are targeted for users that are young children, since their products are not targeted at that audience.”

Details haven’t provided information yet on whether or not this is a new policy instilled by Cupertino, or the Dex application simply wasn’t categorized as a child app. It does, however, make one question apparent which is the viability of the iAds business model. Or seems rather interesting that Apple would pull iAds from kid applications being that the advertising market don’t see the applications as being installed on devices with a profitable market. One interesting observation made by one of our readers is that Apple made such move to prevent children from accidentally making purchase to accounts. However, with each purchase from the App Store, a Apple ID and password is required.

Square has made it possible for anyone, anywhere, anytime to accept credit and debit card payments. The next frontier for the new born company is replacing the cash register. Square has developed a new aspect to their app called “Square Register” for the iPad. Square states that the application will allow users to put their whole catalog of services and products on their iPad.

The app also produces analytics to keep businesses up-to-date on their sales performance. Even more in-depth, Square provides the ability to break down those analytics in any aspect to help companies study performance sales trends. The feature is available in the company’s universal Square application on the iPad side of the software.For customers, the company has added a feature called “Card Case”. With this new aspect for the software, customers can obtain virtual business cards and see information about their relationship with the business such as transaction history service or product rendered, and updated product inventory. This feature allows customers to also keep their wallet in their pocket as they can pay for services and products and establish a relationship with that business, something that Twitter founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey said is better than to have a permanent tab with a business open.

Square Cards and Square Register are active in the field now with several businesses in New York, Chicago, DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco who already are using the application their business. The company is looking further expand the features rapidly in the coming months.

Apple has already started decorating the Moscone West convention center. Within the decor, Apple has advertise the orientation of the keynote and giving an idea of what the company will be talking about. One decoration that has made some noise on Twitter is the exposure of what seems to be the iCloud icon.The topic of discussion at the event will be obviously Mac OS X Lion, iCloud, and of course, iOS 5. To add, Steve Jobs has been confirmed to be delivering the WWDC ’11 keynote this year. This is a signal that the event will showcase something big, whether hardware or software. The event is set to take place on Monday, June 6.

Thanks to @justmattyg for the images.

Adobe this week released the first three companion applications to their widely praised Photoshop application. The company showcased a demonstration of what was possible with the new Photoshop Touch Software Development Kit.

“Adobe Eazal ($4.99)

With Adobe Eazel, you can use your iPad and your fingertips to paint beautiful works of art. Paint across your entire iPad screen, and easily access the tools you need. Send your artwork directly to Photoshop CS5 from any locationall you need is a network connection between your iPad and computer. Or do all your painting in the app, and share via email.

Adobe Nav ($1.99)

With Adobe Nav and a network connection between your iPad and computer, you can customize the Photoshop CS5 toolbar on iPad to easily access the tools you use most. Browse, reorder, view, and zoom in on up to 200 open Photoshop documents on iPad. Tap a document on iPad to make it the active document in Photoshop CS5. Disconnect from the network and use iPad to easily share files in person with others.

Adobe Color Lava ($2.99)

With Adobe Color Lava, you can use your fingertips to mix colors on your iPad and create custom swatches and five-swatch themes. Instantly access them in Photoshop CS5all you need is a network connection between your iPad and computer. Or use the app wherever inspiration strikes, and then bring your colors into Photoshop CS5 when you’re connected. Share colors via email, too.”

Developers are already talking advantage of Adobe’s new SDK and creating material to compete with Adobe’s creation. Adobe Photoshop CS5 12.0.4 (released last week) or later is required.

Recently, Apple updated their Mac OS X Snow Leopard software to remedy the MacDefender threat. As soon as Apple applied their counterattack, hackers managed to develop a workaround that would bypass the signatures that Cupertino put in place.

Good thing for all the Mac users out there Apple has reacted just as fast and has adjusted the signature to include the new breed of MacDefender threat. Issuing an update to the Mac OS software to include the new type of MacDefender threat quashed any potential mentioning of the company failing to respond to the situation. With the update, users are now prompted of the virus when they approach it.

In addition to the new update that has been issued, Apple has adde the ability for the software to update Mac OS’s security measures every 24 hours to ensure that they can push out new updates quickly to keep their users protected of any new threat they mayoccur. This probably isn’t the last time we will hear from the hackers, but Cupertino has made their mission harder with their approach to the matter.

This month, there has been information provided that states that Apple is currently working with voice recognition firm Nuance Communications to being their service to the iOS platform with the intro of iOS 5 presumably later this year. New information has been provided that stars that Apple will be using their massive North Carolina data center to power centrally-hosted voice services. This new partnership is said to be revealed at the World Wide Developers Conference in June.

“In digging into the information about the relationship between the two companies, we had heard that Apple might actually already be using Nuance technology in their new (but yet to be officially opened) massive data center in North Carolina. Since then, we’ve gotten multiple independent confirmations that this is indeed the case. And yes, this is said to be the keystone of a partnership that Apple is likely to announce with Nuance at WWDC next month.

More specifically, we’re hearing that Apple is running Nuance software – and possibly some of their hardware – in this new data center. Why? A few reasons. First, Apple will be able to process this voice information for iOS users faster. Second, it will prevent this data from going through third-party servers. And third, by running it on their own stack, Apple can build on top of the technology, and improve upon it as they see fit.”

Nuance is the leader in voice recognition technology. The group has a deep portfolio of patents that are key contributions in the field. Apple being in cahoots with Nuance would seem very likely as Apple absorbed artificial intelligence firm Siri who uses the services of Nuance. It has been said that Apple is currently working on incorporating both voice recognition and innovative AI in the next installment of the iOS linage.

I must admit I was a little skeptical when it came to the abilities of the iPad’s new musical abilities, but this changed completely once I found this video of George Lambro’s skills.  If you think that GarageBand for the iPad is a bust, check this video out!  This is where the phrase Apple so pushes “the iPad is magical” truly comes into play.

Reported by TUAW.

This month, there has been information provided that states that Apple is currently working with voice recognition firm Nuance Communications to being their service to the iOS platform with the intro of iOS 5 presumably later this year. New information has been provided that stars that Apple will be using their massive North Carolina data center to power centrally-hosted voice services. This new partnership is said to be revealed at the World Wide Developers Conference in June.

“In digging into the information about the relationship between the two companies, we had heard that Apple might actually already be using Nuance technology in their new (but yet to be officially opened) massive data center in North Carolina. Since then, we’ve gotten multiple independent confirmations that this is indeed the case. And yes, this is said to be the keystone of a partnership that Apple is likely to announce with Nuance at WWDC next month.

More specifically, we’re hearing that Apple is running Nuance software – and possibly some of their hardware – in this new data center. Why? A few reasons. First, Apple will be able to process this voice information for iOS users faster. Second, it will prevent this data from going through third-party servers. And third, by running it on their own stack, Apple can build on top of the technology, and improve upon it as they see fit.”

Nuance is the leader in voice recognition technology. The group has a deep portfolio of patents that are key contributions in the field. Apple being in cahoots with Nuance would seem very likely as Apple absorbed artificial intelligence firm Siri who uses the services of Nuance. It has been said that Apple is currently working on incorporating both voice recognition and innovative AI in the next installment of the iOS linage.

Hey Logic users!  Have you checked for updates lately?  Apple has recently updated it’s music creation apps to version 9.1.4.  This update adds support for GarageBand for iPad’s exported projects.  The logic express update is 138.74 MB and the pro update is 192.48 MB so be sure to have a good, fast connection.

You can update via software update or with the following links:

Logic Express: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1015

Logic Pro: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1014

Take a long last look at that icon because TUAW Reports that those who have been using the latest version of Apple’s pre-released operating system have noted that there is no iSync to be found.  Maybe a better solution will take it’s place?  iSync was an app that allowed you to sync your phones, palm pilots (whaaa?) and even old iPods with all of your contacts and calendar events.

It’s also important to note that FrontRow, Java runtime, and Rosetta have also disappeared.

The word is out. Eldar Murtazin, editor-in-chief of the Russian mobile device blog Mobile-Review, tweeted that the next installment to the iOS linage, iOS 5, will not be compatible with the iPhone 3G. This would in turn mean that only the iPhone 4 and later reiterations of the iPhone will be the only phone devices from Apple compatible with iOS 5

“Just one comment. Apple iPhone 3G(s) wont be upgradable to iOS 5.x. iPhone 4 will.”

Whether or not the information is valid is being verified. It’s also rather foggy on where Eldar gained his information from. However, Eldar does have a strong track record the mobile phone arena when is comes to providing information that could potentially inform individuals what’s next on a product’s road map. Eldar doesn’t frequently report on Apple news, however.

When iOS 4 was released last June, it was compatible for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4, leaving the original iPhone out of the update. With the compatibility to the other generations of iPhone, the iPhone 3G received the iOS 4 update, however, it was left out on some of the software stellar features, such as multitasking and wallpapers.

With the speculation that Apple is preparing to leave the iPhone 3G behind shows that Apple could be making a significant move forward to higher end and up-to- date components in their devices as a new standard.

UPDATE/Retraction: As you will read from the comments below, the article on this subject was older and not well edited or researched. Apple IS supporting iOS 5 on the 3GS (but not the older 3G’s, big difference). We could delete the post and be like everyone else that flat out doesn’t stand up and take their medicine. However, we think the right thing to do is to correct ourselves and respect/thank those for calling us out. We did NOT write or edit this article properly and their is no excuse for that. Thank you for your dedication to MacApper! Without you and your feedback we would be nothing!

MacStories is chiming in today with an anecdote that steps into the mind of Apple’s head honcho Steve Jobs for a bit. The story was made first available as an in-app purchase through the Fortune magazine subscription on the iPad (later made available on the web on print copies).

The story shares some interesting information about Steve Jobs and the launching of the MobileMe web service. Specifically, the article shares the reaction Jobs had to the initial bogged networks and downtime of the service.

“In Fortune’s story, Lashinsky says Steve Jobs summoned the entire MobileMe team for a meeting at the company’s on-campus Town Hall, accusing everyone of “tarnishing Apple’s reputation.” He told the members of the team they “should hate each other for having let each other down”, and went on to name new executives on the spot to run the MobileMe team. A few excerpts from the article.

“Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?” Having received a satisfactory answer, he continues, “So why the f*** doesn’t it do that?”

Jobs was also particularly angry about the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg not liking MobileMe:

“Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us.”

As a result of all the issues the service had starting off, Steve appointed a new director for the MobileMe service. Something else that a lot Apple enthusiast also found interesting is the training, or as some have stated, “the Apple way of life” after, or should, Steve Jobs decide to take a backseat.

“Steve Jobs hired dean of Yale School of Management Joel Podolny to run the Apple University, an internal group also featuring business professors and Harvard veterans that are writing a series of case studies to prepare employees for the life at Apple after Jobs. These case studies focus on Apples recent business decisions and internal culture, they are exclusive to employees and taught by top executives like Tim Cook and Ron Johnson.”

MacStories summarizes some of the other articles related to the anecdote on their website

iFans chimed in and gave some information on changes made with the Amazon Cloud Player. Among the changes, one of them was noted as Amazon making their Cloud Player software iOS compatible.

“While it isn’t quite as nice as an actual app, it provides nearly all of the functionality that you could ask for. Even the multitasking music controls work flawlessly. Sound quality is said to be ‘great,’ and the only part of it that is a little buggy seems to be the scrubbing capability”

While the new feature allows for iOS users to play music they have stored on the Amazon Cloud Drive service, it doesn’t allow for uploading content from their iOS device as that service requires Adobe’s Flash to make that possible. Drag-and-drop organization for playlist also appear to be unsupported as well as iOS compatibility seems to be only in the US. The software also doesn’t seem to auto format for iPhone, iPod and iPad making it rather awkward to use the service on the iPhone and iPod as those devices do not possess the screen real estate like the iPad.