Hasta La Gadget!

The iPad’s lack of multitasking support makes it a crummy chat tool. While playing a game or reading a comic, for example, it’s frustrating being bombarded by a flurry of push notifications about instant messages screaming for your attention.

Fortunately, while we wait for Apple to release iPhone OS 4, which introduces the ability to run multiple apps in the background, we’ll at least have one awesome IM app for the iPad: BeeJive IM.

BeeJive was an extremely popular IM app for the iPhone, and rightly so. It’s a premium app that combines gorgeous visuals with an intuitive user interface. BeeJive has nailed it again with its iPad app, which was submitted to the App Store on Wednesday (so if it’s approved, expect it to launch in the next week). Wired.com received a near-final build of the app to give you a sneak peek.

(Note: The screengrabs would look a lot better had I not omitted the screennames, but I did so to respect my friends’ privacy.)

BeeJive IM supports multiple IM services, including AIM, Google Chat, Facebook chat and many others. The setup process is quick: hit the honeycomb icon and begin adding accounts. You can change the chat wallpaper by clicking on the gear-shaped icon if you’d like. From there on, you’re ready to chat.

My favorite part about the BeeJive UI is it lists your chat sessions in a column on the right side of the screen. You can see a preview of what a person is saying in a bubble, which eliminates the need to switch back and forth between chats over and over. Selecting a chat in the right window displays the full conversation in the center screen.

You can scroll up and down the active chat window in the center, and there are icons to send an image, record and send a voice clip, e-mail a copy of your conversation and close the chat. I was surprised by how painless sending a photo and audio clip was: Rather than require a friend to accept a file transfer, BeeJive sends multimedia in the form of a URL for the recipient to view on a webpage. It’s fast, fast, fast, which is how the overall iPad experience should be.

The app looks best in landscape mode, where your buddy list is displayed by default to the left of your chat window, but in portrait mode the app still works great. In portrait mode, the chat takes up most of the screen, and you can view your buddy list by tapping the upper left icon.

Like the iPhone version, BeeJive supports push IMs, meaning you can stay online constantly if you’d like, even when the iPad is asleep. Pushed messages pop up in the same manner as text messages.

I’ve been a big fan of BeeJive for quite some time. The company doesn’t rush to be first, but instead takes its time to get the app just right before release. The iPad version of BeeJive is a worthy successor to the iPhone version; in many ways, it’s even better.

Of course, as well designed as BeeJive may be, it doesn’t compensate for the iPad’s inability to multitask. Apple has said iPhone OS 4 will be available for the iPad this fall, so hopefully the future addition of multitasking will make the general experience of chatting feel less disruptive.

BeeJive will cost $6 when it hits the App Store for a limited time. The app will cost $10 later. BeeJive for iPad is a standalone app, meaning the iPhone and iPad versions will be sold separately.

See Also:

• You’re Always Online With Push IM for iPhone
• Meebo IM App Finally Lands on iPhone
• iPhone Push Notifications Here at Last
• Gmail Push App for iPhone Is a Workaholic’s Best Friend

The iPad has been selling for only a month, and there are already 5,000 iPad apps in the App Store. In this episode of the Gadget Lab video podcast, I highlight four apps I’ve become attached to since I bought my iPad.

The first is a game called Plants vs. Zombies HD. It’s a gorgeous 2-D tower-defense game that involves planting pea pods, potatoes and other bizarre flora to defend your lawn against a horde of invading zombies. If they reach your house, you lose. It’s a charmingly simple game, which makes it enjoyable for people of all ages. Plants vs. Zombies HD costs $10. Download Link

I also cover IM+, the first decent multiclient instant messaging app available for the iPad. It’s a little buggy, but the overall UI makes excellent use of the iPad’s touchscreen. In looks best in landscape mode, where it displays your buddy list alongside your chats. The app costs $10. Download Link

The third app I use more than anything else on my iPad: Comic Zeal, an open comic book reader. You can download any open comics you find on the web and easily load them into this app through iTunes. That’s very liberating compared to the Marvel app, which limits you to downloading only Marvel comics. Comic Zeal is eight bucks in the App Store. Download Link

Finally, I give a shoutout to the Dropbox iPad app. Dropbox is a popular storage service that gives you a folder that’s stored on the internet (aka the cloud). You can drop various types of media in your Dropbox and then access the folder on any device running a Dropbox app, including smartphones, computers and now the iPad. The iPad version is beautiful and extremely useful for carrying your life on the go. I use it a lot for work. The Dropbox service is free for 2 GB of storage per month. It costs $10 a month for 50 GB and $20 per month for 100 GB. The iPad app is free in the App Store. Download Link

This episode of the Gadget Lab podcast was produced by Annaliza Savage, with camerawork by Michael Lennon and editing by Fernando Cardoso. For more video from Wired.com, go to www.wired.com/video.

See Also:

• Video: 5 Sweet Apps to Break in Your iPad
• 15 iPad Apps You Should Download Today
• Apple’s iPad Tablet: Full Coverage

It’s appropriate that the Apple logo on the iPad is black. The Cupertino, California, company’s image is taking on some awfully sinister tones lately.

For a company that made its name fighting for the little guy, it’s a surprising reversal. In the past, Apple touted itself as the computer company for nonconformists who “Think Different.” Now the company is making moves that make it look like the Big Brother it once mocked.

First Apple tightened its iron grip on the already-stringent iPhone developer policy, requiring apps to be made with Apple-approved languages, which disturbed some coders and even children. A short while later, Apple rejected some high-profile apps based on their editorial content, raising journalists’ questions about press freedoms in the App Store. Then, police kicked down a Gizmodo editor’s door to investigate a lost iPhone prototype that Apple had reported as stolen. Even Ellen DeGeneres and Jon Stewart have mocked Apple’s heavy-handed moves.

Plenty of us love our shiny iPads, iPods, iPhones and MacBooks — state-of-the-art gadgets with undeniable allure. But it’s tough to imagine customers will stay loyal to a company whose image and actions are increasingly nefarious. We want to like the corporation we give money to, don’t we?

Here are five things Apple should do to redeem its fast-fading public image.

Publish App Store Rules

As I’ve argued before, the App Store’s biggest problem is not that there are rules, but that app creators don’t know what the rules are. As a result, people eager to participate in the App Store censor themselves, and that hurts innovation and encourages conformity. The least Apple can do is publish a list of guidelines about what types of content are allowed in the App Store. After all, Apple has had nearly two years and almost 200,000 apps to figure out what it wants in the App Store. Tell people what the rules are so they know what they’re getting into, and so they can innovate as much as possible. That would also tell us customers what we’re not getting on our iPhone OS devices.

Formalize Relationships With Publishers

Publishers are hypnotized by imaginary dollar signs when they look at the iPad as a platform that could reinvent publishing and reverse declining revenues. But after recent editorial-related app rejections, journalists are slowly waking up to our forewarning that Apple could control the press because news and magazine apps on the iPad are at the mercy of the notoriously temperamental App Store reviewers. If Apple wants to look a little less like the Chinese government, it should work with publishers to ink formal agreements regarding content to guarantee editorial freedom to respected brands.

Tweak iPhone Developer Agreement

Apple’s stated purpose of its revised iPhone developer policy is to block out meta platforms to ensure a high level of quality in the App Store. Also, from a business perspective, there is no lock-in advantage if you can get the same apps on the iPhone as you can on other competing smartphones. Fair enough, but Apple would be silly to think it can keep the mobile market all to itself, and its developer agreement comes off as a piece of literature holding developers hostage.

It’s hard to create new rules, but it’s easy to abolish existing ones. Apple should loosen up its iPhone developer agreement by snipping out a part of section 7.2, which states that any applications developed using Apple’s SDK may only be publicly distributed through the App Store. That implies that if you originally create an app with the Apple SDK, you’re not allowed to even modify it with different languages and sell it through another app store like Google’s Android market. In other words, iPhone apps belong to Apple. This rule is basically unenforceable to begin with, and Apple should just remove it, along with other similar policies.

Apologize to Jason Chen

Reasonable people can disagree over whether it was ethical for Gizmodo to purchase the lost iPhone prototype, but the police action — kicking down Jason Chen’s door to seize his computers — was overboard. It was self-evidently a clumsy move: After damaging Chen’s property, the police paused the investigation to study whether the journalists’ Shield Law protected Chen. The proper action would have been to issue a subpoena to get Chen to talk about the device first. Apple, which instigated the police action by filing a stolen property complaint, should publicly apologize to Chen (no relation to the author of this post) and reimburse him for the damages.

Get Gray Powell on Stage

When Apple accidentally leaked its PowerMac G5 a couple of years ago, Apple’s legal team forced MacRumors’ Arnold Kim to pull down his post containing the information. But a humbled Steve Jobs joked about the slip during his WWDC 2003 keynote, calling it a case of “Premature specification.” (See the video below.)

He should do a similar thing when he officially unveils Apple’s next phone, by having Gray Powell — the engineer who misplaced the next-generation iPhone prototype — make a stage appearance. Powell could walk out and hand Jobs the phone, saying “Hey Steve, I found your lost phone,” or something similar. Some comedic relief, provided by the engineer who lost the iPhone prototype in a bar, can remind us that Apple is still a company guided by a man with a sense of humor.

See Also:

• Bad PR Forces Apple to Reconsider Banning Prize-Winning Satirist …
• How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong
• A Call for Transparency in Apple’s App Store

You know how TomTom is moving to a WebKit-based UI with its new flagship Go Live 1000 satnav? Well, there’s good reason for it. While TomTom called it a “platform for innovation” at Tuesday’s press event in Amsterdam, going so far as to show a few in-house developed prototype apps for Facebook, Wikipedia, and live street cams, it stopped short of revealing its true plan: an app store it can cuddle and call its own. Pocket-lint had a sit down with TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn who revealed TomTom’s plans to launch the app store by the end of the year. Apps that will easily migrate to its in-car platform, and to and from other WebKit based devices. In essence, it’s TomTom’s consumer-focused survival plan against free turn-by-turn offerings from Google and Nokia. While there’s no doubt that dedicated satnav devices offer greater functionality and better performance compared to their part-time smartphone navigating competitors, selling the average consumer (not hardened road warriors) on the need for two devices won’t be easy. Besides, are Facebook updates really that critical when driving? Pics of the Wikipedia and street cam sample apps after the break.

Continue reading TomTom reveals plans for App Store in battle against smartphone navigation

TomTom reveals plans for App Store in battle against smartphone navigation originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blogs and message boards have been lighting up with the buzz about Apple’s family-friendly App Store policy, which bans soft porn and satire — but a game that glorifies smoking somehow got the green light.

Apple on Monday approved Puff Puff Pass, a $2 game whose objective is to pass a cigarette or pipe around and puff it as many times as you can within a set duration. So much for taking the high road, Apple.

The game allows you to choose between smoking a cigarette, a cigar and a pipe. Then, you select the number of people you’d like to light up with (up to five), the amount of time, and a place to smoke (outdoors or indoors). And you’re ready to get right on puffing.

“During gameplay you can listen to a phat track,” the game’s description reads in the App Store. Apple rates Puff Puff Pass 17+ for “Frequent/Intense Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References.”

Marijuana is not present in the game. However, an Urban Dictionary entry says the slang phrase “Puff puff pass” refers to a game in which “a circle passes a spliff, bong or other smokeage.”

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Puff Puff Pass. But given Apple’s goal to retain a wholesome shopping experience that’s appropriate for people of all ages, including children, it’s safe to guess this was a mistake on a reviewer’s part, and the game will eventually be nipped in the bud.

The App Store last year generated controversy with a number of questionable decisions. The most notable example was the approval of Baby Shaker, a game whose premise was to shake a baby to death. Apple later pulled the app amid parental outrage, admitting it was a mistake.

More recently, the company’s rejection of Mark Fiore’s Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoon for “ridiculing public figures” inspired a wave of bad press. The move raised concern among journalists (including yours truly) about the state of editorial independence for media companies distributing iPad and/or iPhone editions of their publications through the App Store.

Apple eventually approved Fiore’s cartoon app, but it did not disclose whether its rules regarding “ridiculing public figures” had changed. Then this week, Apple rejected an editorial cartoon mocking Tiger Woods.

In regard to App Store content, Apple has been blunt that it does not wish to sell porn through the App Store. At a recent iPhone event, Steve Jobs said that Google’s Android OS is a place where people can download porn, but not the App Store.

“There’s a porn store in Android,” Jobs said. “You can download porn right onto your phone. Our kids can download them. That’s a place we don’t want to go, so we’re not going to.”

Even with that said, Apple’s App Store serves the Playboy and Sports Illustrated apps, because they come from “more reputable companies,” according to Apple’s vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller. Given that rationale, perhaps Apple will pull Puff Puff Smoke but approve a game made by a more reputable company such as Marlboro.

A hat tip to Krapps for originally reporting this story.

See Also:

• Apple App Store Bans Pulitzer-Winning Satirist for Satire
• Apple Rejects Google Voice App, Invites Regulation
• Apple Imposes NDA For App Store Rejections
• Google Voice App Rejection: AT&T Blames, Apple Denies, Google Hides