If you think back to June last year, Picturesque - a neat lightweight image editor - was the deserving recipient of an Apple Design Award for 'Best Student Product'. So it's fitting then that, just in time for this year's Apple Design Awards, Acqualia Software has released version 2.0 of Picturesque.
So what's new? First of all, it's a Leopard-only application with a Core Animation-powered graphics engine. Throw in an entirely new all-in-one window interface, plenty of fancy new effects (such as the 3D iChat effect), a Media browser for easy iPhoto access and AppleScriptability (Picturesque meet Cory) and it all adds up to a rather tasty upgrade.
With the release of version 2.0, a license for Picturesque will now set you back $34.95 whilst owners of version 1.0 can upgrade to the latest version for just $12.95.
We may not have movies in the U.K. iTunes store, but that hasn't stopped the UK broadcasters from slowly but surely adding their wares to the UK shop. First the BBC pitched in with a selection of shows such as 'Spooks' (it airs in the US as 'MI:5') and then Channel 4 added the likes of Black Books (amongst others). So today adding to the mix is commercial broadcaster ITV, which has added 'Lewis', 'Goodnight Mr Tom', 'Brideshead Revisited', 'Cold Feet', 'The Saint' and 'Captain Scarlet' to the UK store.
That may not sound like a great deal of content, however ITV is clearly looking to milk the archive shows for all they're worth. Apple UK's Hot News quotes Dawn Airey from ITV: "[We have] thousands of hours of classic content in the archive which we are bringing to a whole new audience via iTunes". and then leaves us with the perennial teaser of "Watch out for more great additions coming soon on iTunes".
As usual, iTunes UK TV show pricing of £1.89 (US$3.75) an episode applies to all the ITV content.
Lego men abound in the set, with precision unboxing being captured (including ladders to help scale those heights) in a truly amazing set of shots. Yes, it's Apple unboxing shots. But of all the unboxing shots we've seen here at TUAW, these have quite possibly captured our hearts as the best we've seen to date.
British readers listen up! If you're a resident west of London, your choices for UK Apple Stores are -- shall we say -- somewhat limited. With just one store in the southwestern part of the UK (Exeter), and one on the south coast in Southampton, Apple's retail clout has yet to extend to the area in between (such as to other larger cities like Bristol). Fear not though, as Apple is indeed planning to open an Apple Store in Bristol later in the year.
Apple has posted job vacancies for the (to be determined) location just today - meaning that the store will likely open in advance of Christmas. If you hear anything about the location, be sure to let us know.
Thanks to all those who sent this in!
Update: Multiple tipsters say the Cabot Circus development (scheduled to open in September) is home to the new store. Thanks folks!
Are you a browser fiend? The sort of person who loves Safari, yet can't quite live with some of its peculiarities? If you hadn't guessed, I certainly am one of those people. I love the speed and simplicity of Safari, but it never worked as well as (say) Camino, particularly when it came to persuading links from the likes of Gmail to open in the same window. No number of SIMBL hacks (yes, hacks) seemed to persuade Safari to open links in the existing window - driving me away from Safari, and instead swear by Camino.
But that's about to change, as Apple has added a hidden preference to Safari 3.1 that allows you to tell Safari to stick to one window. Even in Gmail. Tipster Dennis Stevense, explains in a blog post that through a simple Terminal command, true one-window mode is finally, finally, here for Safari. All you need to enter is the command below into Terminal, hit enter, and you're sorted.
With the iPhone SDK announcement last week, some of us here at TUAW were expecting a Worldwide Developer Conference date to be announced. Thankfully, the world has been put to rights, as Apple has now announced that WWDC will run from 9th - 13th June at San Francisco's Moscone Centre (West Hall). With three tracks (iPhone, Mac and IT) if you're a developer or IT Pro this is probably a conference you'll want to be at -- and students are encouraged too, with Student Scholarships usually available. Whilst the ticket prices are forthcoming, it'll Tickets get you 5 days of sessions, Apple engineers, (likely) a Steve Jobs keynote and plenty you can't talk about. With the arrival of the iPhone SDK, we'd wager this years conference is frankly going to be a little popular (what with the full public release likely to arrive around the same time) so it might be prudent to book at your earliest convenience.
Pricing for this year's WWDC is US$1295 for a single ticket, US$5180 for 5 tickets (saving you $1295). Apple are also offering combined packages of ADC membership and a WWDC membership.
Remember the recent unconfirmed quotes from the BBC that a version of the iPlayer was coming for the hallowed iPhone? Well in a surprise move, no doubt trying to gain a little momentum with today's SDK furore, a limited selection of shows from the iPlayer have been made available to UK residents on their iPhones. It's worth noting, however, that the service makes use of existing technologies on the iPhone -- not anything announced today.
At the moment only the BBC-produced 'Whistleblower' documentary seems to be working from the iPlayer website, with content being streamed-only via the iPhone's built-in QuickTime player -- quite the surprise given the heavy use of Windows-only technologies until fairly recently -- although we'd guess there's more shows on the way.
Of course, it's a beta service (when aren't they?) so you may not be able to access all the content and the usual caveats apply. As ever, the iPlayer is only for UK residents.
For those expecting a low-level bit-by-byte account of what the SDK means, Erica will return momentarily after a break from her (epic) type-a-thon this afternoon to give you the low-down. While we all wait for our downloads of the SDK to start here at TUAW's globe-spanning offices, let's just recap on what you need to build your next, earth shattering, application for the iPhone and iPod touch:
a free Apple iPhone developer account and the SDK itself -- note that access to the SDK is not going to cost you ninety-nine bucks. It's free, though getting the application approved and out onto devices will set you back the $99.
Sadly, if you're wanting to run off and pick up a copy of said SDK, you're likely to be left wanting. Apple Developer Connection is 'pulling a Twitter' (much like Twitter itself did, during the event) and is totally unresponsive to most visitors. That said, when the ADC site comes back online, be sure to scroll to the bottom of this page to get in on the SDK (note, existing ADC members need to update their memberships too and sign up as iPhone developers to access the SDK).
Ready to crack on and unleash some applications for the iPhone later this year? Be sure to set aside $99 to get your application onto the store however, as Ars Technica reports "Developers have to register with [Apple]. For that $99, we give them an electronic certificate that tells us who they are .... if they write a bad app, we can both track them down and we can turn off the app's distribution".
In addition to the $99 licensing charge to distribute the application (whether it's a free or commercial app) companies seeking a proprietary solution will need to cough up another $200 ($299 total) for the 'Enterprise Programme'.
Another item worthy of note those still using PowerPC machines: if you want to develop for iPhone, you'll not only need Leopard, but an Intel-based Mac to run the SDK. Disagreements about architectures aside, what does your $99 get you?
Complete set of resources in the iPhone Dev Center
Testing of your code on iPhone and iPod touch
Code-level technical support from Apple engineers
the ability to reach every user via the Application Store
The paid-for Developer Programme is currently US-only "and will expand to other countries in the coming months."
As many of our readers know, London is already host to the world's largest Apple store (pictured above) on renowned shopping-mile Regent Street. However, Apple's ambitions for the UK capital have yet to be fully realised according to a Macworld UK report today - for Apple is preparing to open another store just over a mile away in Covent Garden.
The new store is touted as being a 3-storey affair taking up around 25,000 square foot. The existing Regent Street store is approximately 28,000 square foot, and according to ifoAppleStore remains one of the best performing stores - clearly Apple thinks there's plenty more custom to be snapped up and certainly TUAW visits to the flagship store have never been quiet affairs.
The Covent Garden store is apparently going to be located at 4 The Piazza, in a location currently taken by a restaurant and nightclub -- it is of course too early to guess when the new store will indeed open.
Back in early February, we reported that sources had given GearLive (of jiggly-icon fame) the nod about Flash coming to the iPhone 'very, very soon'. Unfortunately, anyone hoping to get Flash on their iPhone (or iPod touch) anytime soon is likely to be left waiting, as Steve Jobs yesterday pulled a broadside on Adobe Flash, saying it simply wasn't suited for the iPhone. Ouch.
Of course, some folks are likely to be more than disappointed with this announcement (not least Adobe and perhaps GearLive). Others, myself included, are simply relieved that our iPhones will remain clear of Flash's clutches [call me bitter, but I've seen enough 'Unresponsive Script' errors for my liking]. Either way, with Flash now brushed aside by Steve-O, it's all-eyes on Apple's Campus Event tomorrow, which starts at 10am PST, as the veil of secrecy (hopefully) rises on Apple's plans for third-party applications.
Podcasters, wannabe music stars, and GarageBand dabblers of all ages -- it's that time again for Apple has released an update to your beloved application (bumping it to version 4.1.2). It goes without saying that this wouldn't be an Apple consumer-software update without a simple one-sentence release note (Aperture 2.0.1's release notes are somewhat more substantial), so if you're wondering what's been fixed: "This update improves overall stability and addresses issues with the automation of software instrument parameters, FireWire and USB based audio devices and Magic GarageBand."
The update is available through Software Update or through Apple's Download Site, weighing in at just over 19MB. Rock on!
Here at TUAW, we've been greatly enjoying the latest version of Aperture, which hit earlier in the year. With a few minor bugs slipping under the radar, the experience has not been entirely annoyance-free, and today Apple has released Aperture 2.0.1 update. Areas receiving treatment include:
Library upgrading from previous versions
.Mac Web Galleries
AppleScript support
'Export Plugin API reliability' - presumably to fix issues with Export Plugin statuses not being showed in the Activity Window (much to the chagrin of third-party developers)
The 43.9MB update is available now through Software Update (if you're running a fully-licensed version of Aperture) or Apple's Download Pages -- if you're running the Aperture Trial, you'll need to re-download the demo from Apple's site as the updater will not work with the Trial version. Aperture costs US$199, with upgrades from version 1 costing US$99.
If you're a social-network-junkie (and most of us here at TUAW are to a certain extent), keeping all the services up to date has always been a bit of a chore. Thankfully, MoodBlast (written by our very own Brett Terpstra) arrived on the scene to cure our service-update blues, making life super simple when it came to letting people know exactly what we're doing.
One of the most frequently-requested features has been Pownce integration -- something that's not been possible due to Pownce's lack of a full API allowing 3rd-party applications to post to the service. Pownce has since released a new version of the API with posting, and Brett has been quick to add the service to MoodBlast with version 3.0.7.1, released today. Simply enter your Pownce details into MoodBlast, check the Pownce box to ensure you're posting to it, and click 'Blast' as you normally would.
MoodBlast remains donationware, and is available to download now.
If you've been giving presentations or product demonstrations and needed to highlight your cursor and keyboard shortcuts, then there's a good chance you've heard of, or even own, Boinx Software's excellent application "Mouseposé".
If you're one of the above owners of Mouseposé then you might want to visit the Boinx website, as today Mouseposé version 3 has been released with a few new snazzy features:
audible feedback on mouse-clicks (to add to keystroke visualisation in version 2), allowing you to play a sound when clicking a mouse button
window highlighting is now possible, with Mouseposé able to detect when you're hovering on a window, and expanding the in-focus area to include the entire window.
The folks at Boinx have also brought out a family-pack license (for five computers in a private household) for just $29.95, whilst a single-user license is just $16.95. Best of all, Mouseposé 3 is a free upgrade to customers who bought version 2 and is available to download now.
We may not have movies in the U.K. iTunes store, but that hasn't stopped the UK broadcasters from slowly but surely adding their wares to the UK shop. First the 
Are you a browser fiend? The sort of person who loves Safari, yet can't quite live with some of its peculiarities? If you hadn't guessed, I certainly am one of those people. I love the speed and simplicity of Safari, but it never worked as well as (say) 
With the iPhone SDK announcement last week, some of us here at TUAW were expecting a 
Remember the recent unconfirmed quotes from the BBC that a 
Ready to crack on and unleash some applications for the iPhone later this year? Be sure to set aside 
Back in early February, we reported that sources had given GearLive (of 
Podcasters, wannabe music stars, and GarageBand dabblers of all ages -- it's that time again for Apple has released an update to your beloved application (bumping it to version 4.1.2). It goes without saying that this wouldn't be an Apple consumer-software update without a simple one-sentence release note (Aperture 2.0.1's release notes are somewhat more substantial), so if you're wondering what's been fixed:
Here at TUAW, we've been 
If you're a social-network-junkie (and most of us here at TUAW are to a certain extent), keeping all the services up to date has always been a bit of a chore. Thankfully, 
If you've been giving presentations or product demonstrations and needed to highlight your cursor and keyboard shortcuts, then there's a good chance you've heard of, or even own, Boinx Software's excellent application "
