Whether you’re sharing it with a significant other or not, Happy Valentine’s Day to MacLife.com readers everywhere! Don’t forget, we love you unconditionally, 365 days a year. So don’t be cynical about this love-drenched holiday, because we’ve dug up some tasty nuggets of tech news and app updates for your reading pleasure on this fine Tuesday, February 14, 2012.
Way back in mid-November of last year we reported about the Readability service going free, with an iOS app on the way. Flash-forward three months later and the iOS app is still MIA, much to the chagrin of “read it later” fans everywhere. So what gives? According to The Verge, the app is very much alive, although there’s no word on what the holdup might be. In the interim, the Readability service has been incorporated into Twitterific, Tweetbot, Longform and Pulse in addition to Reeder, where it has been featured in both the iOS and Mac apps. As it turns out, Readability hasn’t exactly been sitting around waiting for Apple to approve the iOS app -- they’ve also created an Android version which is likely to debut alongside the App Store version. Developer Teehan+Lax claims "we're hoping to have both the apps, which we're incredibly excited about, in the hands of customers soon." Come on, Apple… let’s go!
We defer to Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies Corporation, quite a bit here at MacLife.com. Dr. Ray’s knowledge of display technology is second to none, and his input is particularly welcome in this era of tablets where the screen is everything. So what does Dr. Soneira think about the rumors of an incoming iPad 3 with a so-called Retina Display? “I would be shocked if the iPad 3 doesn't have a 2048x1536 display,” Dr. Ray commented. “Doubling the resolution is overkill, but does make it easier to scale up legacy applications.” On the subject of whether the iPad 3 qualifies as a “Retina Display” the way Apple CEO Steve Jobs explained it at the launch of the iPhone 4, Dr. Ray notes that the iPad is held 15 to 18 inches away from the user, rather than the 12 to 15 inches customary with a smaller device like the iPhone 4/4S. “As a result, to meet the 300 ppi Retina Display specification made by Steve Jobs at WWDC for the iPhone 4, an iPad Retina Display would need only 240 ppi,” Dr. Ray explains. “2048x1536 is 264 ppi so it qualifies as a Retina Display,” which is technically referred to as a “20/20 Display.” Last but not least, on the subject of brightness and power issues when going to a higher resolution, Dr. Ray offers a Tablet Shoot-Out on the subject on the DisplayMate website.
Valentine’s Day is coming to an end, but if you’re still stuck for the perfect app-related gift for that special someone, developer return7 is having a 50 percent off sale on their popular BillMinder and DebtMinder software. BillMinder for iPhone is now only 99 cents and keeps tabs on your upcoming bills, including a snapshot of what’s past due, what’s due in the next week and even what’s coming up in the next month (the iPad version is also on sale for only $1.99, a 60 percent price cut). Likewise, the universal DebtMinder app is only 99 cents and works in conjunction with BillMinder to develop a plan to pay down existing debt, with payments made in BillMinder reflected immediately in DebtMinder. Best of all, the sale is good for two days, so you can gift it to a loved one today and buy it for yourself on Wednesday, February 15 as well.
Yesterday morning we reported that Chinese authorities in one city had started to confiscate iPads from store shelves in the wake of a trademark dispute, and now the story is taking a turn for the uglier. Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that Proview International Holdings Ltd., who owns the trademark to the iPad name in mainland China, has asked customs officials there to block not only the importation of Apple’s tablet but also exports from the country as well. Apple previously purchased worldwide rights to the iPad trademark from Proview in 10 countries, which supposedly includes China. “Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China,” explained Carolyn Wu, an Apple spokeswoman based in Beijing. “Our case is still pending in mainland China.” Needless to say, halting iPad exports from China would be “catastrophic” in the words of intellectual property attorney Stan Abrams, given the tablet is manufactured there in the first place. Proview apparently seeks a settlement of 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion US), although the report cautions that amount is strictly “preliminary.” Quite a step up from the $55,000 Apple paid through a third party to acquire the trademark rights back in 2006...
One of the few things remaining on our iPhone wish list is IMAP-IDLE support for push on email accounts other than iCloud and Yahoo. While Apple happily supports it with the Mac OS X Mail app, the dream goes unfulfilled with iOS. That’s where the PushMail app has come in, gleefully letting us know when we have new mail -- complete with the classic AOL “You’ve got mail!” voice -- on our iPhone and iPad. Unfortunately, developer Simon Patarin announced via Twitter this week that he’s removing PushMail from the App Store -- but don’t despair, it may not be forever: “I have decided to remove PushMail from sale for now, mostly because I do not have enough resources to keep supporting my users as much as I would like,” Patarin explains on the app’s website. “Latest iOS 5 update has created its share of issues which I haven't been able to address in any satisfactory way. I do hope that I'll get some more time to work on PushMail in the near future.” The good news is that the servers pushing emails will continue running “until further notice” -- which means if you already own the app, PushMail will continue to work just fine. The developer promises a six month lead before he kills the app completely, at which time he would open source the client and server code for another enterprising developer to work on. Here’s hoping we’ll see PushMail back in the App Store again sooner than later!
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(Image courtesy of The Verge)
