Last week’s debut of iOS 4 and the iPhone 4 has brought with them an avalanche of App Store updates that make improvements for the latest and greatest, and on Tuesday a trio of them went live -- one new and two updates.
New to the App Store is Hulu Plus, which the popular online streaming service calls “something different” than their traditional advertising-based website. Within hours of the news breaking Tuesday about the company’s new $9.99 per month offering, the universal Hulu Plus app went live on the App Store, compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot you can do with the Hulu Plus app right now, aside from stream from a sampling of free content -- the service requires an invitation which you can request at the company’s website, and thus far it appears no one has received one (Hulu promises to send them out in July, which is right around the corner). In addition to iOS support, Hulu Plus will be offered on Internet-enabled televisions and even consoles such as the Playstation 3 soon, and the monthly price covers you on all devices that you own.
In update news, an offline reading favorite, Instapaper, has hit version 2.2.5, adding much-needed synchronization of your position in partially-read articles between multiple iOS devices, such as an iPhone and an iPad. iOS 4 devices also get background completion so you can start updating your articles and switch to something else while it completes, improved tilt-scrolling performance and a bug fix for password input.
Long time users of Instapaper will note that developer Marco Arment has dropped the “Pro” moniker from the paid $4.99 version and the free version (which he promises to update shortly) will now be known as Instapaper Free.
Finally, Apple snuck in a 1.1.1 update to its MobileMe Gallery app late Tuesday, which now downloads higher resolution images on the iPhone 4 while connected to a Wi-Fi network as well as the always-welcome “various bug fixes.” We’re still waiting for this app to go universal, though -- the iPad has been here for three months and MobileMe Gallery is still an iPhone/iPod touch-only affair.
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SpaceTrucker
June 30, 2010 at 9:20pm
Who are they kidding?!? ~$10/mo for Hulu Plus and they're still going to shove those damn ads down your throat?!? There's no way in hell I'd pay that!!! I liked the idea of Hulu Plus right up till I read the part that they are still going to shove those stupid ads down your throat and you having to pay for them on top of it. They need to make up their mind here, either give us the ads or let us pay but, not both!!! I would possibly pay $10/month for all their movies/shows in their entire collection to be able to watch them whenever/wherever I wanted but, not when there's ads involved! If they still want to force those damn ads upon us, then they should have NOT charge for this at all!!!
