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» After the listing of Apps – what happened?

I must say the listning of the ten favorite iPhone apps of mine had not the intention of getting any response from developers. I have though gotten notices from the developer of Homeworkr and also from the CEO at Palringo asking which bugs I’ve encountered so that they can fix those, also with questions if there are any new features liked to be seen. This is dedication to the App in my opinion. I hope the bugs I had with Homeworkr will be fixed soon and I know that the bugs I had with Palringo are fixed in the latest upgrade which means I’m back with using it as my IM client on the iPhone and really like it (and they have more goodies in store for future updates).

So I wanted to extend a little thank you to the developers that kindly addressed the issues I and many were having to continue and develop such great products, that definitely is on my top ten list.

» Apple “Let’s Rock” Special Event Wrap-up!

So it’s come to the time when wrapping up the Apple Special Event is in place. I had a really fun time metaliveblogging even though I switched to a better system in the middle which in the end worked really well and much better then before for me. I’ll definitly do it again. So here are the releases summed up

iTunes 8, Genius, HDTV Shows, NBC is back!

Apple released as predicted, iTunes 8 today which features some pretty cool new things. First off we have the new display mode called grid which lets you view your albums and artists in a grid view. In the artist view you can also flick between the albums by the artist like in iPhoto. Then we also have the new genius sidebar that will make playlists with music that "go well" with the music you are listening to. It’ll also show you music from the iTunes store. All this if you opt in.

NBC is now back in the iTunes Store and that with TV series like The Office, Monk and Battlestar Galactica. Also new, HD TV Shows will run you $2.99 and the standard ones $1.99.

iTunes 8 will be avilable on the Apple website today!

New iPod Nano

The new iPod Nano was released and it’s looking pretty slick. Apple has gone back to the old look and streamlined it a little more in the looks. It’s not just in the outside looks they’ve streamlined a lot. The menu system has gotten partially redesigned and also looks quite a bit better. It’s available in a wide range of colours in both 8gb and 16gb. The 8gb runs for $149 and is available now while the 16gb will be available later this week for $199.

iPod Classic updates

Apple did a little update to the iPod Classic as well. Upgrading the old 80gb model to 120gb and dropping the 160gb was the change in store for the classic this time. It’s going to run for $249.

2G iPod Touch

They refreshed the iPod Touch a bit as well. It now features a little sleeker case. It’s the same screen but with some new additions like on the side volume controls and a speaker. It’s also got built in Nike + receiver so you don’t need to have an external one. All these seems to be some really great updates and of course they have been focusing on environmentally friendly casing and parts. Prices: 8GB for $229, 16GB for $299, and 32GB for $399. Available today as well!

Two new headphones!

Apple also introduced two brand new headphones. Both a new in-ear version and an normal, the in ear runs for $79 and the other for $29. They both feature on-band player controls like volume up and down, play, pause and also a little microphone.

iPhone Software 2.1

Among all the other news they practically had to announce the 2.1 firmware, which they also did. According to Steve Jobs it will be fixing a lot of bugs such as fewer dropped calls, big battery improvement, and faster backups to iTunes. We’ll see if this is going to work out on Friday when it will be released. Sadly no mention of copy-paste but perhaps they’ve snuck that in? It’s a free update.

» Following: Apple Let’s Rock event” (Metaliveblog)

It’s soon time for the Apple special event, "Let’s Rock", that will start at 10a.m Pacific time (6p.m London time). I’m going to try to do a new thing for the blog here which is going to be semi-liveblogging. Because I’m not there in person, I’m not doing a liveblog but I will be following a number of different sites and blog the updates here in this post for you all to see! It’s gonna be a first so I’m hoping it’ll all go as planned. I’m also going to post the major announcements up to Twitter. So follow the event after the jump!

» Monday News Quickies

So, I’ve regained my internet connection again sadly just a little too late to be posting the podcast episode (it’s late here). It’ll come online tomorrow at noonish GMT time.

• Sometimes resorting to themes when developing your websites is a good way when you have little time but need something nice and functional. The people over at Smashing Magazine are bringing us yet another quality free WordPress theme called Agregado. It’s a slick, clean and modern theme design which works best for more personal websites. Nonetheless, it’s a great asset.
   
• Since posting my list of my 10 Favorite iPhone Apps I’ve gotten some response from some of the App Developers asking about the few problems I mentioned with some of the apps. To me, that shows real caring in the app development and I’ll be doing a rundown post tomorrow about what’s happened!
   
• Tomorrow is the day of an Apple Special Event titled "Let’s Rock". The event will if we trust all rumors, unveil the new iPod generation as well as iTunes 8. The latest rumors even mention the release of iPhone software updates. In any case we will see tomorrow and you can follow a liveblog from the event over at MacWorld. It’s all starting tomorrow, September 9 at 11a.m Pacific time.

That’s the news for today. I’m still a bit jealous of everyone that could go to Photoshop World last week after seeing all cool photos and info about this years edition.

» Thursday Dailies

• Adobe has announced that they are going to have a screencast showcasing the upcoming Creative Suite 4 on the 23rd September. It’s a free signup so Signup Now!
   
• If you’re like me and like WordPress and install it for a lot of clients, you will be interesting in this article over at WP-Candy on Five Ways to Familiarize Clients with WordPress. It might be a pretty simple content management system but can look very daunting at a first look. The ideas are really good and will work for anyone who install WordPress for clients.
   
• I’ve you’re at Photoshop World right now in Las Vegas, you are probably right in the opening keynote and viewing something cool. Hopefully all of us who can’t be there will hear about some of the cool things really soon and as soon as I do, I’ll post the stuff right up here.
   
• Yesterday when I posted about my ten favorites iPhone apps and I wrote about some bugs in Homeworkr. Now after I get an email from the creator of the app asking about the bugs so that he could fix them. I just wanted to acknowledge that they are keen on hearing from you if you have any bugs or feature requests for the app.

That’s it for now, hopefully I’ll be able to post up some Photoshop World news later.

» My Top 10 iPhone Apps

A post like this is almost a necessity for bloggers right now and why should I be any less. Actually though a lot of people are asking me which apps I use a lot and which ones I do really like. Considering that I have four (soon five) pages of apps the narrowing down must be done to the very importants. Oh, and I decided not to include the App Store even though I love browsing it on the iPhone itself Nor have I included any default apps in here that I still use all the time and are in my dock. The list is not in any top order at all, they are equal.

Twitterific
I just like Twitterific. I use the desktop version of it and it’s just my favorite way of updating to Twitter. I did write a review of the app here in the iPhone center I put up a while ago.

NetNewsWire
Again, I’m using NetNewsWire on my computer and I do really like the program and naturally the free NetNewsWire iPhone app is a good one for me because I can sync which feeds I want to access on the go from my full list. I find it works really well for most things but there are things I’d like to see, like flagging on the phone and sync those back up to the computer. Again, I wrote a review of the app in the iPhone Center.

» Tuesday News Stuff

Here’s what’s up this Tuesday:

• I’m going to start today by apologizing for the podcast being late. I had some archiving troubles on the podcast host site and thus I couldn’t upload any new episode (it is going to be fixed by tomorrow though). Look for a new episode coming tomorrow!
   
• Over at Copyblogger they ran a very interesting article called Are you Trustworthy today. It’s a pretty good article that talks about gaining your readers trust which is vital to any blogger who are looking to survive. A good read.
   
• WP Candy has a lot of different goodies and articles about WordPress and the latest today is about Frameworks, Child Themes, Filters and Hooks. It’s a pretty extensive article but it brings up a lot of good things and tips when designing for WordPress and how you can be helped using certain elements using the Thematic framework.
   
•  The iPhone has been out for a bit now and although there are quite a lot of applications in the business category of the AppStore, there are no big names released yet. Over at CIO.com they speculate in why.

Finally before we end for this news post I want to make a shout out to a buddy, Dave (known to some as PhotoshopDB). He and his wife had a very cute little baby this weekend! Congratulations guys!

» Yawn-starting Monday News

 

It’s another start of the week and after a full weekened, I’m pretty tired, yet it’s back to school again for another week. Here’s the news:

• Over at Viget Inspire they have a cool article about Creating Unique Shapes Using Actionscript and Flash! The article has some really nice demonstrations on what you can achieve with this and also allows you to download the source files for it.
   
• John Nack posted on his blog a reply to some rants sent to Adobe through the cool website, Dear Adobe. Some of the rants were very well formed and said while others are the opposite. Both the blog post and the Dear Adobe site is worth checking out!
   
• There are rumours all over that a new iPod Nano design is coming and not a day goes by before we see something new or tweaked. The addition to the rumours come now from a case maker who’ve already made and is selling a case for the rumoured upcoming 4-gen nano. We’ll see where this all is going.
   
• To wake up and start the week, we all need a bit of insperation. I’m going to send you to the portfolio of a buddy of mine, Andy. He’s got some really good photos there which he are also selling, limited edition (hence the name, One of 42).

A blog post will come up later today about the Photowalk this weekend! I say now though that it was a great event and I’m happy to be able to share some photos with you later.

» Tuesday News Updates

Here’s what’s up for today:

• iPhone 2.0.2 has been released tonight and is what Apple calls a bugfix, which is pretty undescriptive. Most users seem to find it faster than before but nothing is yet said above the 3G coverage.
   
• Speaking about Apple. They’ve decided to give out another free two months of MobileMe to subscribers "for their patience during the time". In their support document you can read more about the free extension.
   
• Smashing Magazine is an amazing resource really and today they are holding that strong as well with their newest article called "7 Principles of Clean and Optimized CSS Code". Many codes fail to realize the importance of writing clean and optimized code which hopefully this article helps with.
   
• I’m cooking up on an article I’ve been meaning to write last wee. Let’s see if I can get it done this week instead *hint*. Meanwhile, have a good Tuesday and go ad check out the Creative Suite Tips and Tricks Podcast where you can learn how to create a PDF Portfolio this week.

» Saturday News Nuggets

Saturday ain’t stopping me from sharing some news nuggets with y’all!

• One of the most debated things this week has been the iPhone application, I Am Rich which was priced at $999 and just showed a mantra if you bought it. Now, I say was because Apply removed it from the Apple store for unknown reasons, something many think is not fair. Sure, it is pointless, but if you want to buy it, you shouldn’t be stopped. Anyway there are a full eight people who apparently bought this app before it came to an end. Where do people get their money from?
   
• An article in the New York Times this week caught my eye. In it they wrote that "Tibet" can’t be in any hotmail address and suspicions arised that it was political. Now Microsoft has spoken and said that it isn’t Tibet that is blocked but that they are blocking usernames with names of banks and other similar to prevent fraud. The word that’s being blocked is actually "Tib" since there’s a bank with that name. A bit too much? Perhaps so…
   
• I want to send out the congratulations to my buddy Will King who will be getting to shoot college football games all the coming year from the sidelines, official! Congrats Will!
   
• To finish off this Saturday I’m going to send you looking at an incredible article a member of the Photography Corner forum wrote. It’s about how to shoot animals in the best way! It’s really really good!

That’s it for today, stay tuned for some tutorials tomorrow!