There are few apps users couldn’t live without, but one of them might very well be Instapaper, Marco Arment’s frequently praised “read later” app for iOS. The developer released an update on Wednesday night that dramatically improves the speed of page turns and adds a number of other welcome features.
Marco Arment has released Instapaper 4.2, a slick update to the .99 “read later” app that allows users to save articles from any website — and a long list of companion apps — for later reading in a clean, uncluttered UI. While competition has been heating up in the “read later” space with the release of Readability and the rebranding of Read It Later to Pocket, Instapaper continues to add new features and improvements.
The big story with Instapaper 4.2 is an all-new Fast Pagination mode, which significantly improves the accuracy and speed of page turns thanks to a complete rewrite of the pagination code. The result is near immediate page turning, but that’s not all. Users now have the option to choose an optional iBooks-style page turning animation, complete with gestures.
The update also allows the “Twilight Sepia” color tint to be selected at any time, along with subtle but welcome changes such as a new draggable dot bar, which replaces the scroll bar while in pagination mode. Users can now swipe with two fingers to close an article, and full-screen mode adds an Auto mode, which kicks in after a few seconds.
The 4.2 release notes also close with a personal message from the developer, who recently added a new member to his family. “On a personal note, my wife and I just had a baby,” Arment writes. “You, my awesome customers, let me work at home and spend as much time with my family as possible during this great time. Thank you so much.”
Instapaper 4.2 is now available from the App Store; the 11.3MB download is free for existing users and .99 for everyone else, and the universal app now requires a device running iOS 5.0 or later.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
As if Friday wasn’t busy enough for everyone trying to get their hands on a new iPad, developers had an extra treat waiting for them when they returned home: A second beta of the forthcoming OS X Mountain Lion, adding iCloud sync for Safari tabs and requesting permission before accessing contacts.
MacRumors is reporting that Apple released a second developer-only beta of OS X Mountain Lion, the next major version of the Mac operating system which is expected in late sunny summer. Technically Mac OS X 10.8, the new beta squashes some bugs but is still missing a key feature already announced: AirPlay mirroring, which is not supported with the most recent Apple TV software.
However, OS X Mountain Lion Preview 2 does introduce a couple of new features in its place, including the ability to sync Safari tabs between devices, which was originally announced as a feature of the software but missing from the first developer beta. The feature is now included with the second preview, appearing as an iCloud icon. When clicked, a popup displays a list of open tabs sorted by which device they appear on.
Taking another cue from iOS, OS X Mountain Lion Preview 2 also introduces a new prompt when apps want to access your contacts — clicking OK gives this permission, while clicking “Don’t Allow” rejects it. The change follows close on the heels of the same implementation on iOS following the discovery that Path (and other apps) were uploading entire address books without users’ knowledge.
Apple hasn’t announced a release date yet for OS X Mountain Lion other than “late sunny summer,” and plans to keep the fun coming with an annual update schedule similar to the one used by iOS.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
While a number of apps have been updated this week to take advantage of the new iPad’s Retina Display, more are still pouring into the App Store even as the tablet finally lands in customers’ hands. To help find them, Apple has added a new section to the App Store, highlighting many of them.
MacRumors is reporting that Apple has added a new section to iTunes and the App Store called “Great Apps for the New iPad.” The section currently highlights 27 apps which have received an update in the last few days to take advantage of the higher resolution display of the new iPad.
While we’ve already reported on some of the apps that got an early jump on an upgrade such as Tweetbot for iPad, Evernote and iStopMotion for iPad, other favorites include popular games such as Real Racing 2 HD (which seems to get a substantial upgrade with every new iOS hardware revision) and Infinity Blade II, RSS reader Reeder for iPad, Readability and even the ABC Player app, which also just became universal to add iPhone and iPod touch support.
There are also plenty of apps getting updated which aren’t being featured by Apple, including Cupertino’s best pal Vimeo and Evernote’s own Skitch for iPad. TechCrunch is also reporting that a number of others are expected to be approved by Apple soon, including Facebook, Flipboard and Wired — so keep refreshing that iTunes Store link to see what’s new!
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
We don’t know many tech journalists and developers who could survive without their favorite screen capture and annotation apps. But regular folks can get excited about the new Snagit 2.0 update released on Tuesday, which arrives with even more powerful image editing features than before.
TechSmith has announced the availability of Snagit 2.0 for Mac and Windows, the latest version of the company’s “ultimate screen capture tool.” The update brings new video capture functionality to Snagit as well as image enhancements, new effects and sharing to even more destinations.
The big news with Snagit 2.0 is the addition of video capture — both for recording your screen using MPEG-4 as well as the new webcam image capture feature. Developers commonly use features like this for recording how-to videos, but video capture can have endless possibilities for creative users.
Image enhancements are also a big part of Snagit 2.0. New stamps will add flair to your screen captures, while color filters can change the look and feel of your images with grayscale, sepia or color invert. Want to make the canvas match an existing color scheme? The new Snagit is happy to oblige, allowing you to change the canvas color to anything you can imagine.
Screen captures can now be rotated to add some interesting perspective, and the Cutout tool allows users to hide sensitive information, turn one capture into two or create an entirely new image altogether. The new Paste from Clipboard feature complements Snagit 2.0’s intuitive new canvas so you’ll always get the right size for every capture.
Last but not least, Snagit 2.0 allows for quick sharing of video captures to multiple destinations, ranging from TechSmith’s Camtasia for Mac (where videos can be further edited) to Screencast.com, YouTube, FTP, Facebook or Twitter. Still images can also be sent to more destinations including Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, FTP sites, the clipboard, email and more.
Snagit 2.0 is now available from the TechSmith website for .95, which nets you both the Mac and Windows versions for one price; a free 30-day trial download and upgrade pricing is also available.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
Hey, so forget what we said this morning about a news recap earlier in the day — we’re happy to announce that, starting Thursday, we’ll be back to pushing out three full news items each weekday morning, plus the very news recap you’re reading each evening to catch up with the rest of the day’s events. All because you, the loyal MacLife.com reader, deserve it! So without further ado, let’s blast off into the rest of today’s news for Wednesday, February 8, 2012.
As rumored in the last few days, Amazon today announced a new deal with Viacom which will add 2,000 more titles to its Prime Instant Video service, encompassing the output from television networks MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TV Land and VH1. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos announced on the company’s home page that the new deal brings Amazon’s offerings to 15,000 titles, including kiddie favorites like Dora the Explorer, comedy like Hot In Cleveland and reality TV, including past seasons of The Real World and yes, even Jersey Shore. (Face it: There’s no escaping it.) As usual, Prime Instant Videos require a per year subscription which also nets customers with free two-day shipping. Sadly, there’s still no sign of an iOS app for watching all this content, but you can find it on the Kindle Fire, Mac and PC computers, Roku boxes and internet-connected HDTVs or Blu-ray players.
Can you feel that red dot on your forehead, Skype? That’s the sharpshooters at Vonage Mobile marking you for death — or at least stepped-up competition. According to The Verge, the Vonage Mobile apps for iOS and Android are now offering VoIP calls “typically 30 percent cheaper than Skype’s rates, based on per-minute rates to the top 50 countries called.” Best of all, anyone can use the app — even without a traditional Vonage subscription, thanks to in-app billing in increments of .99 or .99, billed straight to iTunes or Android Market. What could be better than that? How about free calls to any number in the U.S. or Canada for a limited time, and the ability to use your mobile number for Caller ID on outgoing calls? That clicking you hear is other users rushing to download the free iOS app, we’re guessing…
Having trouble keeping up with all these iPad 3 rumors flying fast and furious? Apparently, so was the staff at Computerworld, who has just cooked up a “Crazy Apple Rumors Guide to iPad 3.” After a bit of background on how the iPad has grown over the last two generations, writer Jonny Evans lays out what we know so far: Better screen? Check. A6 processor? Check. Improved graphics processor? Check. Better camera? Check. LTE wireless support? Check. Will it be thicker or thinner? Check and check. (Say wha–?) Thunderbolt I/O? Maybe. Siri? Done and done. And on it goes, right down to NFC, 3D and Apple-supplied mapping. So when will we finally see all of this tablet goodness? How about later this month… or maybe next month. You know, those rumor mills just can’t be for certain…
As we reported yesterday, the Path iOS app was caught with its hands in the proverbial cookie jar — in this case, uploading users’ address book data without being given express permission to do so. Today, co-founder and CEO Dave Morin has announced the company is moving quickly to right this wrong. While noting that no user data has ever been used for malicious purposes, Morin explains: “We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing your personal information. We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path.” Furthermore, the promised Path 2.0.6 update is now available in the App Store, which now prompts users to opt in or out of sharing phone contacts, which is used to discover others you may know on the service. Hats off to the Path gang — and fear not, we still love you.
Ars Technica is reporting that Apple wants to lead the charge for “standardized royalty rates” where 3G wireless networking is concerned. The problem stems from smartphone players such as Samsung and Motorola “leveraging patents essential to 3G wireless networking standards in lawsuits largely aimed at Apple” — patents which were offered to standards body ETSI to “help create 3G standards on the condition that they be licensed on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.” Unfortunately, Apple’s chief IP attorney Bruce Watrous finds that the opposite is true, claiming “our industry suffers from a lack of consistence adherence to FRAND principles in the cellular standards arena.” The problem apparently stems from Samsung’s request for “a 2.4 percent royalty on the full retail price of every iPhone or iPad sold to cover its 3G-related patents, while Motorola has asked for 2.25 percent” — amounts that Apple rightfully calls “unfair and unreasonable,” which is why the smartphone makers are suing Apple for patent infringement in the first place. “What Apple is arguing here is that the royalties should not apply to an entire iPhone or iPad, but rather to the basic hardware for 3G wireless radios,” the report explains, although there’s presumably no end in sight for the problem anytime soon.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
