People with multiple displays know that having just one bar doesn’t always suffice, and apparently Boastr felt our pain when they created Secondbar, an application that gives us the option to have two menubars. SecondBar is still at the very early stages of development so they do warn that you use it at your own risk. If you are interested, you can give it a try and download it from their website which is located here.

(Image after the break)

Hardmac decided to investigate why Apple sells Macs at a higher price in Europe. Please, tell us if any of the following are cheaper in Europe: Coca Cola, Nike Air Force Ones or my beloved Canon T1i. Nope? Didn’t think so. Our daily news regarding HTC compliments of All Things Digital. CNN’s Apple 2.0 blog reported that Apple gave warnings to other handset makers earlier this year. Apple won three more Industrial Designs. Apple released MainStage 2.1.1. Jonathan Schwartz (former Sun CEO) claims Steve threatened to sue him as well…

Powerbook Medic has some new evidence to support the iPad camera theory. Our favorite Apple analyst (John Gruber) decided to explain the lack of iPhone Apps on the iPad. The Loop is reporting that the iPhone and iPad OS’s will unify in OS 4.1. What happened to OS 4.0? or Steve’s claims about no tethering. Craig Berger believes that Apple will ship five million iPads in the first half of 2010.

Steve Ballmer (the guy that runs Microsoft) decided to say some nice things about the App Store, that runs in steep contrast to my take on it earlier in the day. Gigaom is reporting that our beloved RIAA forced Apple into the use of iTunes LP. Gawd we hate them. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is not exactly in love with the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. Apple has posted the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta.

I had the chance to talk withKaya Kaplancali, the founding partner and CEO of Bioserie, a relatively new company who creates eco friendly iPhone cases that “consist of a unique blend of biodegradable and environmentally friendly components, all derived from plants and annually renewable natural resources, not petrochemicals.”

Our interview with Kaya Kaplancali follows after the jump…

Hello Kaya, thanks for joining us today. How did Bioserie begin?

I was already developing another brand focused on mobile phone accessories including for iPhone for the past 2 years. Business was not as brisk as we hoped for and I was looking for a breakthrough or “hero” product. I started researching for untested materials and concepts and decided on incorporating bioplastics into our products; it seemed like an interesting and ethically advanced idea, with good commercial prospects. To cut the story short, I ended up spinning off the bioplastics project when we couldn’t agree on the business plan with my previous partners. Luckily I was able to find new partners and investors willing to back up the project, and we quickly established a new company to focus on bioplastic and environmentally friendly consumer products. We then proceeded create a suitable brand from scratch, which ended up being “Bioserie”.

What did you do before you worked with Bioserie?

I have an MBA and a PhD in Management. My early working years were spent in our family companies, involved in manufacturing textiles, mostly for industrial and technical uses. Although I have a business education background, the years I’ve spent in the technical textiles business gave me a good grasp of advanced materials and manufacturing processes. In 2003, I accepted a job offer and moved to Hong Kong to set up the operations of a first tier accessories supplier to a major mobile phone brand. In 2005, I took a new job in a well known American case and bag brand concentrating on Apple carrying accessories. In 2006, I moved on to establish my own business, and continued to work on Telecom and IT accessories business.

What was the journey like when developing this eco-friendly iPhone case?

It was fun and interesting, and since bioplastics is a new and growing field, it’s intellectually very stimulating but also challenging. We received a lot of help, both technical and marketing, from NatureWorks LLC, the producers of the Ingeo biopolymer we use. NatureWorks were very supportive of the project from day 1, and stuck with me throughout the difficult start. Majority of the creative people we worked together on the branding, marketing, and content development aspects found the subject interesting and ethically rewarding, so it was a very pleasant and productive working relationship from the very beginning. An interest point is, we actually ended up underselling the product to optimize packaging message for markets worldwide; although the whole product is almost certainly biodegradable and compostable, we’re not advertising this aspect at the moment.

How long did I take to develop this case?

Because of the material and new production process development aspects, it took more than 6 months to achieve the level we felt comfortable with. Since bioplastics is a very new field, our raw material development continues to this day, and we’ll be releasing an improved formulation product in Q3 2010, which will far exceed the product requirements. If we had to start from the inception of the idea, it would be more accurate say the whole process took one year. We’ve spent the last 6 months making sure the brand identity, written and visual messages match our brand vision; I think this was necessary to put the brand on a sure footing and help us expand the product line effectively.

How are these cases created? What is the process like?

Firstly, we’ve developed our own special bioplastics material formulation to reach the product quality we wanted. We collaborated with several world-class biotechnology and plastics companies to develop the formulation, and I believe we have acquired significant technological edge throughout the process. We operate on a strictly outsourced model, and we used this model to our advantage by collaborating with excellent freelance design talent, expert manufacturing partners and boutique creative agencies. Focusing on a single product at launch – which seemed contrary to business practice – helped us to create a superior product with real design, material, and usability innovation. We plan to continue on this uncluttered and focused product assortment path.

What can we look forward to from Bioserie?

We’re planning to continue developing bioplastic and truly environmentally friendly accessory products for Apple Inc.’s mobile devices throughout 2010. We’ll be adding iPod touch and iPod nano based accessories to our product line soon, and a product for iPad is also possible in 2010. We have ambitious plans for long term, and we want to continue developing bioplastic and best-of-class environmentally friendly consumer products for the future.

Thanks for taking the time to take with us.

Check them out at their website located here!

Review coming soon…

If you have been following “the news” in the past couple of weeks, you know that Apple’s always controversial App Store approval process has been shockingly in the news a lot. The only difference between this and the normal shenanigans? There are a variety of developments that have already massively changed the face of the App Store and will transform the nature of what some believe is the iPhone’s greatest asset. So what’s changed? We’ll detail that after the jump – but if you’ve spent fifteen good minutes on the App Store in the past couple days – you likely have already noticed some of the changes.

1. Sexual Content – Apple removed over 5,000 Apps for “Overtly Sexual Content” from February 17-20 according to MacRumors/AppShopper. This constitutes 3% of the total apps in the App Store. The much publicized crackdown seemed generally consistent, although some apps still featuring content that was banned in other’s (Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition) managed to survive. The majority of criticism seemed directed at the widespread nature of the crackdown, specifically that things would pass in a G-rated movie were banned? The end result cause a brief PR nightmare as Apple gained the reputation for being the porn police, Apple’s official responses seemed to indicate they were responding to large customer complaints:

We asked Apple what had prompted the change. “Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them,” Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller told Ars. “If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple.” Apple declined to give further details about the nature or number of complaints it had received.

Marking head Phil Schiller also commented:

Philip W. Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing at Apple, said in an interview that over the last few weeks a small number of developers had been submitting “an increasing number of apps containing very objectionable content.”
“It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see,” Mr. Schiller said.

The most interesting part of the story comes from a blog post from developer Jon Atherton (the guy behind Wobble) After posting the following list of what is believed to be the expanded, non-official rules regarding sexual content:

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

In the follow-up post Atherton highlights the similarities between Apple’s “new” rules and AT&T’s rules regarding mobile apps. He then makes the daring assertion that Apple might be complying to AT&T? (This sound seriously screwed up regarding most people’s views regarding that relationship) Whatever the case, Atherton’s list and commentary points out that Apple likely has a long way to go before making the rules consistent. Furthermore, it highlights the even larger hypocrisy that images that would be acceptable on any television show or print media format are banned from the App Store?

It’s unclear what the total impact of the move will be, but 3% of the App Store’s content is a fairly sizable move. The impact on some developers might be devastating, as some will lose all of their portfolio. What will be interesting will be to see foremost where the line is exactly according to Cupertino – something that will likely remain unclear, particularly given the aforementioned Sports Illustrated case. Second, will the developers whose apps mainly focused around (to say it plainly) boobs be able to create new apps without boobs, while maintaining the same success.

We have to raise the logical question: why was this banned? If your five year-old is running around with an iPhone (or an iPod touch), you might want to reconsider your parenting methods. Furthermore, if they have an iTunes account – there are plenty of songs (and music videos) that contain significantly worse images and content. Secondly, what about all the first-person shooters? Is violence next? If you accidentally stumbled accross iBoobs – your search terms are probably off or you should look in the mirror? Did you watch the Oscars last night? On broadcast televsision we had a refernece to a hand-job, a bunch of drunk people accept awards and a couple of Nazi/Jew jokes (they were quite good though…) If you want to live in a 19th century world, you should probably reject 21st century technology and not punish the rest of this, and this comes from someone who has three pages of Apps – the most controversial being a Craps game. Lastly, there is an app called Safari built on to every iPhone and iPod touch – if you want hardcore porn of any type – it’s much quicker and likely cheaper via that option. Look, we didn’t have any apps that we had downloaded suddenly removed from the App Store, but we also don’t like the idea of 5,000 apps getting suddenly pulled because a few people are angry. If we were a developer or a porn addict… who knows how much longer this rant would have gone.

2. Cut Out the Cookie Cutters – Perhaps we should first define what a “cookie cutter” app is: one that replicates one of the built-in features (mainly Safari) in a (usually) very specific manner. Like the “sexual content” case above, there is a large group of apps that would definitely fall in this broad category as well as a group of apps that could depending on how one choses to interpret the rules.

Do these apps hurt anyone? Probably not. Do these apps help people? Yeah, probably. The scope of the crackdown (if it came) could be quite incredible. One must ask whether Google’s Mobile App would be included or does the one unique feature outweigh the six features that would be cookie cutting. What’s important to note is that unlike the above, Apple is blocking, not banning; and according to TechCrunch:

Unlike the ’sexy’ app ban that took place a few weeks ago, when Apple gave developers no options to keep their apps on the store, over the last month the company has been reaching out to at least a few app building services to suggest what they should be doing.

Similar to the “porn” crackdown, a couple of companies would likely be devastated. Plenty of companies have emerged (TechCrunch mentions Appmakr) specializing in this type of App and if a crackdown were to go into effect – one would have to assume a couple of companies would disappear. Eric Litman (CEO of Medialets) had the following to say:

This is the ongoing balance point between encouraging innovation and growth on one side and wanting to tightly control user experience on the other. Apple wants iPhone apps to be superior to Web experiences because they are extremely sticky and drive people specifically to buy the iPhone over competing smartphone platforms. Apps that are too simple or largely indistinguishable from the Web, other apps or particularly other apps on other platforms send the message to end users that the iPhone app ecosystem might not be particularly special.

TechCrunch claims, “Overall, this will almost certainly result in a better experience for users as they have to deal with fewer spammy apps.” We are unsure. Perhaps it’s because we don’t trust Apple? We don’t really believe that the removal of all these Apps would make our “experience” any better and anyone that can read descriptions and look at screenshots we’d imagine would likely be in the same boat.

3. No More Stupid Apps - Atlantia Software tried to make an app that quacked like a duck and Apple thought it lacked a purpose. Now, do we think it has a purpose? Debatable, we aren’t exactly duck obsessed. Anymore then iFart Mobile? Nope. Did it deserve the following:

Dear Atlantia Software LLC,

We’ve reviewed your application DuckPhone and we have determined that this application contains minimal user functionality and will not be appropriate for the App Store.

If you would like to share it with friends and family, we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details on distributing this application among a small group of people of your choosing or if you believe that you can add additional user functionality to DuckPhone we encourage you to do so and resubmit it for review.

Sincerely,

iPhone App Review Team

We don’t think so. That nice letter from Apple got some nice commentary by Nick of Atlantia Software and we think the following is deserved:

This is a line I had hoped would not be crossed, but sadly it has been. I’m not sending this email because the world will be deprived if they can’t experience this application, but rather, in hopes that some or all of you will publish this story so that the public at large continues to hear about the ridiculous behavior of Apple in matters such as these. As time goes on, this platform is becoming more of a burden on developers, this will in turn lead to talented people moving on to more open platforms. In the end, the customer loses, and I sincerely hope Apple will realize this.

Would we download DuckPhone? Nope. Have we downloaded iFart Mobile? Nope. Are there plenty of apps that would follow into this category that contains “minimal user functionality” in our opinion? Yes. See points #1 and #2 about who gets to draw the line. (More on this later…)

4. Sweepstakes Apps - While Apple was busy banning boobs from the App Store, it was allowing one part of Vegas to find its way back in, sweepstakes and giveaways. Since we haven’t mentioned iFart Mobile enough, we’ll do it again. Joel Comm, the guy that created that wonderful app, discovered the following while all the strippers were getting told to put their clothes on:

3.3.17 Your Application may include promotional sweepstake or contest functionality provided that You are the sole sponsor of the promotion and that You and Your Application comply with any applicable laws.

Apple logically has avoided these apps for legal problems, as the App Store is global and few laws governing giving away iPods is not-so universal. It’s likely that there will be a flood of new apps that fall in this sweepstakes/giveaway category. Will it make-up for any of the app categories that are being removed? No. Will there be more spam? Yes. Do we really care? Nope.

5. Wi-Fi Finders? - Last week Apple suddenly sent letters to developers responsible for apps that actively for Wi-Fi networks. Cupertino’s reason: “private framework.” The impact on the App Store? Little. Yet, The Register summed it up nicely:

It’s possible that this is just part of Apple’s ongoing tidying of the iTunes store, enforcing rules more stringently, but we can’t help wondering if the “private framework” is one that won’t be available on the iPad and Apple is trying to get as much compatibility as it can before the iPad is launched.

So, what’s changing. It’s pretty simple. Apple is trying to clean up the App Store. Why? Not because of loss of profits, not because of copyrights, but rather for users. The irony, do we think users are in favor? Hell no.

Props to TechhCrunch for being massively on top of these stories.

(Images courtesy of AppShopper.com, Eurocosm, ImageShack & PokerOnAMac)

Still busy figuring out how you never heard of the Hurt Locker? Steve was in Disney capacity last night and in his Disney clothes, not his normal Apple garb. For those of you not in attendance, Apple showed off their iPad ad (three times) last night during the Oscars. (Yes, it’s smaller big brother the iPhone did the same thing) Apple has a new idea, it’s called the iKey. All Things Digital believes we might see some ridiculous numbers regarding Mac sales for February. Portal 2, Steam and other games from Valve are now officially coming to the Mac. Patently Apple found some more information regarding the changes to Apple Remote. Apple and a bunch of other companies got yelled at by Richard Durbin for not testifying before the Senate Human Rights Committee.

9 to 5 Mac (and everyone else) examined the aforementioned iPad ad and found that books are available from $7.99-$14.99, as well as some other stuff. A team of executives are heading from Cupertino to the UK to negotiate iPad pricing. IDC believes that the iPad won’t be helping Windows tablets. HP and Adobe decided to show off Flash working on the (HP) Slate. TUAW finally asked the logical question: will all the iPhone apps find their way to the iPad?

O2 decided to correct their mistake from last week regarding video calls on the iPhone. Gizmodo explained how Time Warner is going to make AT&T’s network “suck less.” The never-ending saga of the China Unicom Wi-Fi iPhone continues. AT&T tried an Android phone, the universal opinion on it: try again. Regarding the HTC lawsuit, Apple has 3,013 patents? Fact check, Patently Apple, anyone?

We have promised Kiersten that this was coming a while ago. Customs, a broken computer, Charlie wanting to make an Oscar-nominated film (you can find his video review of the Shure SRH840 and SRH750DJ here) – those are all explanations behind why this is late. One of the most crowded booths we saw at CES was that of GelaSkins and since January they have expanded their ever-growing catalog of images that you can adorn your favorite portable device to include the breath-taking images of National Geographic and some creative characters compliments of Marvel Comics. We aren’t really sure how to review something like a GelaSkins – but, we’ll make an attempt after the break.

Out of the Box:
Perhaps we should take some time to explain what GelaSkins is/are. The company makes a variety of skins to cover almost any mobile device. The concept is not exactly a new one, but what sets GelaSkins apart is the quality of the product and art. (We’ll discuss more later) We ordered this skin from GelaSkins for our 17″ MacBook Pro. Inside the envelope you get your GelaSkins, some information cards and a nice cardboard cut-out coaster (we would take pictures, but us and the coaster are a couple thousand miles apart.) You can watch a YouTube video of us taking one out of box and trying to put it on here.

Installation
We failed, twice actually. But that’s the beauty of GelaSkins, you can fail, you actually can probably fail more than twice. Somehow, GelaSkins are removable – completely. And by removable – we mean: no residue and seemingly endlessly replaceable. A couple of hints as to how to put it on. Follow the instructions provided by our Canadian friends (GelaSkins is a Canadian company) and think. For example: think about which way you want your GelaSkins to look like when your notebook is closed versus open. That was our problem and we hope that’s not going to be a problem for you. Other than our incompetence, installation was a breeze – just follow the instructions. No soapy water like a Best Skins Ever – all you need is a credit card – and we installed it on a Speck Hard Shell.

It Is Artwork
GelaSkins has over 100 artists. Not designs, artists. Frank Miller, Marvel, Mona Lisa and Monet – a collection like that puts even the Louvre to shame. More importantly – we aren’t sure what the famous French art museum can do for your iPhone. As we’ve mentioned in prior post, Spider Man and images from National Geographic are part of the collection and no matter what you choose, get ready for a handful of double takes. Particularly in our case where the computer is covered by a case – people are rather confused by what machine we are using, but even naked – these transform the appearance of any of the devices.

Why We Regretted It
It has nothing to do with build quality, nothing to do with installation, nothing to do with any quality concerns – but it is GelaSkins’ fault. When we looked over the countless designs we could have chose – we regret it. There are so many cool designs, perhaps too many. We wish that we could have a GelaSkins for every day of the week (and actually contemplated what skins we would chose for the other six…) And if the 100 artists weren’t enough – they forgot us. GelaSkins will allow you to submit your own design and then they will put it on their patented 3M skin.

In The End
We aren’t sure what more we could ask for: quality product, beautiful artwork, great designs and just a cool company. The coaster has become a staple of our desk (see in the far right, here) and the GelaSkins adorns our MacBook Pro. The skin is tough, hasn’t faded and that’s after three installations. There are a couple of ideas that come to mind immediately about what we would use a GelaSkins for. You know that problem where you and your spouse have the same device, neither want cases and you keep picking up their phone – here’s a solution. Or perhaps you are like some people we know, going to college at schools where every student is given the same notebook – another solution. You want your company to get free exposure – here’s an investment for all those late mornings in Starbucks. Need a gift – there are plenty to chose from. What’s better? If three of the four sceniaros mentioned are applicable – you can get a free one for yourself as GelaSkins offers a “Buy 3, Get 1 Free” promotion. You can purchase GelaSkins directly from GelaSkins themselves, pricing varies by type of device: phones and iPods ($14.95), netbooks ($19.95), notebooks ($29.95) and gaming devices ($14.95-$29.95) If TheMacFeed uses it everyday, it’s probably a keeper – just saying…

In a recent post by AppleInsider, analysts believe that Apple’s “blockbuster 2010 Mac sales” are “expected to carry into February for Apple.” This comes right after Apple is named the most admired company in Fortune’s survey.

A slow start to Mac sales in early 2009 will work to Apple’s advantage, potentially making strong 2010 sales seem even more impressive with numbers reflecting huge year-over-year growth, according to a new analysis.

In his latest note to investors, analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray said that Mac sales in February of 2009 were down 16 percent year over year. This represents the softest Mac comparison Munster has seen since Piper Jaffray began tracking the data five years ago.

“We expect the strong (year-over-year) growth in NPD data that we saw in (January) to continue in the month of (February),” he wrote. “We believe this presents a buying opportunity ahead of NPD data for the month of Feb. on 3/15.”

Via AppleInsder

Update: It’s now (very close to) official.

According to a recent post from MacRumors (and in the Gameinformer magazine), Portal 2 which we originally saw in the Orange Box will be coming to Mac this fall and it looks sweet. Youtube video after the break…

After Valve’s series of teaser images, it’s now been revealed that their upcoming sequel Portal 2 will also be coming to the Mac. The above image comes from a series of scans from the latest issue of Gameinformer magazine which carries a cover story about the much anticipated sequel.

The original Portal game was originally released as part of the Orange Box compilation for Xbox and PC. It was a relatively short game featuring physics based puzzles in which the player manipulated two different teleporting portal entrances

Via MacRumors

]]> http://themacfeed.com/2010/03/portal-2-coming-to-mac/feed/ 1 http://themacfeed.com/2010/03/apple-cracks-down-on-cookie-cutter-apps/ http://themacfeed.com/2010/03/apple-cracks-down-on-cookie-cutter-apps/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:19:01 +0000 Daniel http://themacfeed.com/?p=7360

According to TechCrunch, Apple has begun cracking down on “cookie cutter apps” or applications “that are built from templates using one of the many app-building services available.”

In the wake of Apple’s sudden decision to remove nearly all “sexy” applications from the App Store, we’ve been hearing that the company is also clamping down on so-called “cookie-cutter” applications — iPhone apps that are built from templates using one of the many app-building services available. This would be yet another major change for the App Store, as it already features thousands of such applications. And, perhaps more important, quite a few companies have sprung up to facilitate building iPhone applications. I’ve reached out to Apple to ask if they’d like to clarify their stance, but given their lack of transparency in the past, I’m not betting on getting anything definitive. To try to get to the bottom of the current situation, I spoke with multiple developers (some of whom wished to remain anonymous) to find out what Apple was telling them.

Via TechCrunch

This isn’t another Daniel news recap – there just wasn’t a whole lot of news. TUAW captured this weekend’s moment of “Best Buy being stupid” – here. TUAW also decided to show off Apple’s video advertising patent. In case you missed it, the next-generation iPhone is believed to have video calls. Rogers (that’s Canadien folks) is launching a turn-by-turn GPS app for the iPhone according to none other than iPhoneinCanada.ca. For the American folks, AT&T is making some improvements to their beloved network. Apple and a couple of other companies managed to get a booth shut down at CeBIT.