Apple's iCloud user base breaks 250 million

During yesterday's Q1 2013 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned several times that the iCloud storage service now has more than 250 million users.

That's not particularly surprising, since signing up for a free iCloud account is part of the setup process when you purchase any new Apple product. What is surprising is how quickly the service has grown, jumping from 85 million in January of 2012 to triple that number in 2013.

The company is investing in the data centers used for iCloud. Part of the discussion with analysts yesterday afternoon dealt with capital expenditures, with Apple planning to spend money on three primary targets -- retail stores, equipment for suppliers and data centers.

[Source: TUAW]

Apogee Electronics introduces all new “ONE”, audio interface & microphone featuring iPad & Mac compatibility, upgraded sound quality and new Maestro control app for iOS

Anaheim, California, January 24, 2013 - Apogee Electronics is pleased to introduce the completely redesigned ONE, a 2 IN x 2 OUT USB audio interface and microphone. The all new ONE is the first studio quality audio interface and microphone that makes a direct digital connection to Apple’s iPad (iPhone, iPod touch) and Mac. ONE features Apogee’s Maestro control software, iOS device charging, optional battery power for portable recording with iPad and professional sound quality. ONE is the all-in-one solution that makes it easy for musicians, songwriters, recording engineers, film makers, audiophiles, and anyone else to enjoy professional sound quality on iPad and Mac.

ONE offers three input options; a built-in omni-directional condenser microphone, XLR input for dynamic, condenser or ribbon microphones, and 1/4” instrument input for electric guitars, keyboards or any instrument with an electric pick-up. An upgrade from the original design, ONE now has the ability to record two inputs simultaneously (instrument plus built-in microphone or external microphone). The updated AD/DA converters and mic preamps deliver best-in-class, studio quality sound and allow you to capture and playback your recordings with incredible clarity and detail.

ONE’s audiophile quality headphone amplifier/DAC is a favorite for enhanced music listening on Mac. Now ONE delivers the same hi-fi quality sound to iPod touch, iPhone and iPad users for listening to streaming radio and music libraries with incredible clarity and detail. ONE’s built-in condenser microphone is a unique feature allowing anyone to record with incredible results and without the need for an external microphone. This paired with the option of connecting to iPod touch, iPhone or iPad and battery power enables studio-quality recordings to be created in any location. “We have completely redesigned ONE, incorporating highly anticipated features; iPad compatibility, simultaneous recording of guitar and a microphone, enhanced sound quality, and a much desired metal chassis,” says Apogee CEO and Co-Founder Betty Bennett. “This is an innovative interface, ideal for the musician who wants an all-in-one solution they can count on for ease of use and professional studio quality results, no matter where they are. We’re excited to welcome this next generation of a classic Apogee product and we know our customers will love it.” Apple’s iPad has revolutionized music creation with an intuitive touch interface and a universe of powerful and very affordable music apps. As a studio quality microphone and audio interface, ONE delivers key features to this new paradigm. Apogee’s Maestro software for iOS lets you control ONE’s inputs, mic preamp, outputs and set up low latency monitoring. ONE’s DC power charges iPad while in use so recording is not interrupted. The option of battery power for ONE allows for truly portable professional recording. When used with iPad or an iOS device, ONE works with any Core Audio compliant app like GarageBand, Auria and MultiTrack. For recording on a Mac, ONE works with Logic, Pro Tools, GarageBand, Ableton Live and any Mac Core Audio compliant application.

Temple Run 2 Reaches 20 Million Downloads in Only Four Days

In just four days Temple Run 2, the follow up to the incredibly popular endless runner, has garnered over 20 million downloads in the iOS App Store alone. Not only that, but despite being free, it’s already become one of the highest grossing apps because of in-app purchases. People sure do love buying little knick-knack things.

To show just how incredible Temple Run has been for Imangi Studios, an app like Angry Birds Space amassed 10 million downloads over a three day period—and that was across multiple platforms. Temple Run 2 hasn’t even hit Android yet. 

This is one of those cases where a simple (and old) idea was executed to perfection. There’s nothing particularly innovative about either game, but they’re entertaining as heck, and perfect time wasters.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Sky Go Extra saves movies on your iPad to watch on the go

The latest blockbusters are coming to your phone or tablet, as Sky lets you save movies and TV and watch them wherever you are, without Wi-Fi.

Sky is launching Sky Go Extra, an expansion of the Sky Go catch-up and on-demand service for Sky customers, the Telegraph reports. That means you can save new episodes of Girls, blockbusters like Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, or classic James Bond films on your smart device to watch on the train, on holiday, or anywhere you haven't got Wi-Fi.

For £5 per month extra, up to four users can download stuff per account, and you can download as many movies and TV shows as you want. Each download sticks around for a month. So it's not so much of a download as it is a downloan.

Get it? Downloan! I done made up a word.

Previously, you needed a Wi-Fi connection to stream movies and TV to your computer or portable device. With movies cached on your phone or tablet, you can watch anywhere without having to pay for Wi-Fi or cut into your data allowance.

It's not clear if this will be a standalone app, or just an update to the Sky Go app, which has angered Android fans by only supporting a few Android devices.

Sky has the best line-up of new films and the pick of the latest TV shows, especially from the US on Sky Atlantic. Rivals Netflix and Lovefilm don't do downloads (although Lovefilm does do those old-school downloads you used to get, the ones that take ages to download. What were they called? Oh yeah, DVDs.)

Availability of new releases is a real sticking point for online streaming services: last week it was revealed that to watch a decent selection of recent films you need to pay for both Lovefilm and Netflix.

Sky Go Extra is coming in the next few weeks. If you want to watch the latest blockbusters, but don't want to fork out for a dish and a Sky subscription, you can get films from Sky Movies channels on a pay-as-you-go basis with Now TV, Sky's spin-off app and online streaming service.

[Source: CNET]

Bump adds support for sharing files via Dropbox

I remember Bump from its early days on the App Store, when it was one of the first "contact sharing" apps with a unique gimmick: where you simply "bumped" your iPhone to someone else's to share contact information. Since then, however, Bump has been steadily upgrading its app, adding lots of other sharing functionality.

And the app's latest update adds even more: In addition to sharing any files stored on your iOS device (functionality that was added in the 3.5 update), the latest update (3.5.3) adds the ability to share any files sitting on your Dropbox. All you need to do is hook up your Dropbox account, choose which files you'd like to share and bump away. Obviously, there are loads of ways to share Dropbox files already, but if you and a friend happen to both have Bump, that's one more thing you can do with it.

There's an impressive amount of functionality they're putting into that app. Bump is still a free download on the App Store.

[Source: TUAW]

Facebook Looks Prepped to Launch Messenger for iPad

Facebook is hosting a special event on Tuesday, Jan. 15 during which the company is expected to make several announcements. One of those announcements may just be Facebook Messenger for tablets.

TechCrunch got a hold of the above image recently, which is clearly a screen shot of Facebook Messenger running on an iPad. The site said we can expect all of the Messenger features that are already available for mobile devices, just in a bigger format, plus a new option that allows users to record messages using their voice. That seems relatively minor, since most pundits are expecting a long event that spans a few hours.

TechCrunch also believe Apple will unveil some sort of product that’s being dubbed a “big deal.” Maybe it’s a Facebook phone? Unless the company has kept the hardware under tight wraps, we’re guessing it’s going to be something entirely different. Maybe we’ll finally seeInstagram for iPad.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

CES 2013: iSmartAlarm promises a sub-$100, iOS-based security system

Our sister site, Engadget, got a chance to try out the iSmartAlarm, which is a Wi-Fi camera set with LED lights that send an alert to your iPhone if it detects movement in your home. There's a number of options, including being able to see the movement, call 911 or just ignore it. You can also get a remote tag (the site boasts it will track children and pets), motion sensor and contact sensors for use in a window or door.

We've tested a number of home security systems that work with iOS, most recently the SwannSmart ADS-450 WiFi Network Camera. With a sub-$100 entry price -- the camera is $79, Engadget reports -- this system might be attractive to those looking for an iOS-based security system. iSmartAlarm is seeking funding through IndieGogo, however the page is not active yet.

[Source: TUAW]

Apple: 40 Billion Apps Downloaded to Date, Nearly Half of Those in 2012

Apple announced Monday that there have been more than 40 billion app downloads from its iTunes App Store to date.

Surprisingly, nearly half of those downloads were during 2012 alone, which just goes to show the incredible growth that Apple’s store has gone through the past year — especially as new devices, such as the fourth generation iPad, the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini begin to take the market by storm. The popular game Temple Run, for example, has already been downloaded 75 million times since its release.

The iTunes App Store now offers more than 775,000 iPhone apps and 300,000 applications for the iPad.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Hackulous closure prompts rise of portals that allow bootleg iOS apps without a jailbreak

The somewhat unexpected shutdown of Hackulous' community, and the corresponding departure of related tools like Apptrackr and Installous, left iOS app pirates in something of a panic: many of those who jailbroke their devices expressly for ill-gotten goods suddenly lost one of their main sources. While they haven't earned much sympathy, they've also triggered a surge in services that don't require a jailbreak at all. Months-old pay service Zeusmos has seen a spike in popularity, but more recent upstart Kuaiyong is drawing the most attention. It's offering others' commercial releases through the web, for free -- and on a scale into the thousands of bootleg installs per app, suggesting that it may be abusing enterprise policies rather than Zeusmos' apparent reliance on developer slots.

[Source: Engadget]

Google launches web ad promoting its iOS Dev team, encourages iOS developers to do work that ‘matters’

Since the removal of YouTube, and Maps as preloaded Google apps within iOS, Google has been especially adept at developing its own set of iOS apps. We previously detailed how Google wants to own the iOS ecosystem on the apps level, providing users with an alternative universe to most of the core features of Apple’s mobile operating system. It appears Google now has a dedicated iOS app team which builds cohesive apps rather than having each business unit build its own apps.

Even with its dominance on the App Store top charts as of late, Google has launched a web ad campaign, including on the 9to5 sites, promoting its presence throughout iOS. Google detailed what its iOS apps have to offer in the video above, including: Google Search, YouTube, Chrome, and Gmail. Google Maps is noticeably absent (we assumed that is because of when this ad was made).

The focal point of the advertisement is Google’s attempt to recruit software engineers for its iOS mobile apps team. “Do cool things that matter” the advertisement brags, almost as if Apple’s set of apps doesn’t bring any benefit to iOS users. The advertisement links to a page with a full breakdown of what the Google iOS mobile apps team has to offer and a chance for prospective employees to apply for a job. “It’s fun. People have misconception that we just copy and paste existing Google products to the iOS platform. But we have a lot of freedom and try to innovate beyond anything that Google’s done so far,” the page states. “We are always working on ideas to push the envelope on mobile search, and we collaborate closely with Google Web Search engineers to implement new features.” Interestingly, the iOS mobile apps team appears to be working as one unit now, rather than each app being done by a separate group.

It is true that Google’s iOS apps have their own distinctive design language, much different from their Android counterparts. As an example, critics claimed that the Maps application on iOS is better than the Android app—something that Google doesn’t dispute.

[Source: 9to5Mac]

Path 2.9 update introduces contextualized, personalized search

Many of us enjoy looking through our social network history to reflect on shared memories, and Path is helping users do just that with its latest 2.9 update. Adding a comprehensive search feature that uses metadata in addition to user-defined tags, searching "Photos from Thanksgiving" pulls relevant images even if they didn't have those words in the post. The same concept applies to different days and times, like "sunset" or "weekend brunch." Other contextual categories include friends, places, seasons and the weather. There's also a "Nearby" function that taps into your phone's GPS for moments captured in your immediate vicinity.

One particular search that impressed us during a hands-on briefing is the ability to search for "emotions." Similar to the "like" feature in Facebook, Path lets users mark a post with one of five emoticons (smile, frown, laugh, gasp or heart). With the 2.9 update, you can search for all the posts that received a particular emoticon ("funny" searches all the laugh-tagged posts for example). As a little easter egg, if you search for "royal flush," you'll bring up the posts that have received at least one of each emoticon. It's more amusing than useful, but we found it cute nonetheless. The search feature is only in English to start, but the company is planning on additional language support in the future. Check after the break for more screens, or hit the links below to grab the latest version of Path from Google Play and iTunes.

[Source: Engadget]

Apple releases iOS 6.0.2 update for iPhone 5 and iPad mini, promises fix for WiFi bug

It doesn't look to bring with it any major changes, but Apple has just released its latest iOS update, which takes things up to version 6.0.2. According to the company, this one primarily addresses a bug that "could impact WiFi." An issue that, incidentally, has been at the center of a number of previous iOS updates. You should be able to find the update now or in the near future in either iTunes or Software Update on your iOS device.

Update: As MacStories notes, this particular update appears to only be for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini.

[Source: Engadget]