Hasta La Gadget!

If the 4-megapixel camera is HTC’s big play with the One‘s hardware, HTC BlinkFeed is its big software play on the new flagship. A new homescreen for Sense 5, BlinkFeed works as a smorgasbord for “snackable” content – as HTC envisages it, the sort of instant gratification people are looking for when they whip their phone out in an idle moment. That happens more often than you might think, too; HTC’s research among its own users found they woke their phone up a couple of hundred times a day. Read on for full details and our first impressions, plus more on Sense 5 and the new universal remote TV app.

BlinkFeed works like Flipboard, collating content from online news sources, social networks, and apps on the phone into a single timeline. At first we were concerned that it would be just another FriendStream – which was an interesting attempt to bring together Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr updates, but inevitably lost out to the native apps – but HTC is keen to stress that it’s merely a launching point: news stories open in the browser (though HTC tells us it’s working with content providers to enable opening links in their native Android apps, where available); Facebook links in the Facebook app; Twitter links in the Twitter client. So far there’s no way to change from the default apps – annoying if you’re one of the many unimpressed with Twitter’s own software for Android – though, again, that’s in the pipeline.

There’s a combination of local and server-side processing going on to make BlinkFeed work smoothly. HTC is sifting through 1,000s of content providers in each geographical region – One owners will be able to pick either which categories they want to see, or which providers, or both – with display order using a mixture of chronology and an algorithm that spots interesting or important stories to include. Only the image and the headline is downloaded initially, to save data (BlinkFeed also favors against articles with no image), though HTC is working on offline caching for those times you’re in the mood for a data snack but don’t currently have service.

Like Zoe photography, BlinkFeed has some glaring gaps in its launch version. Google+ content isn’t included – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Flick are – and neither are Google Now cards and suggestions. HTC is working on the former and says it “would like [BlinkFeed] to” feature Google Now eventually, though it’s not clear how quickly that might happen. There’ll be an SDK for third-party apps to push their content into BlinkFeed, though no way for the user to add their own RSS subscriptions, at least at first. HTC has built a special landscape orientation layout of BlinkFeed, for when the One is wirelessly streaming content to a TV through an HTC MediaLink, but on the phone itself it only shows up in portrait orientation.

Of course, BlinkFeed isn’t the only change to Sense in version five. While it’s the new default homescreen, you can also set a more traditional Android desktop as your point of origin, though HTC tells us its research suggests the widget-filled span of panels it thought people were using isn’t actually so common. In fact, 35-percent of people apparently only use a single home panel, while 80-percent customize their homescreen during the first month and then never subsequently change it. The weather, clock, and a music control are the only really commonly used widgets, HTC discovered.

So, the One has two desktop panels by default (though you can add more) and HTC envisages users spending equally as much time in the app launcher, which now includes a weather widget and a choice of 3×3 or 4×5 grid layout. Folders are included, and indeed HTC’s pre-configuration of the One will organize all the preloaded apps into just two app launcher panes. There’s also been some behind-the-scenes work with carriers, to try to limit how much bloatware they add to the One; if HTC’s negotiations go as intended, all the carrier apps will be at least corralled into a single folder out of the box.

Everything else has been given a refresh too. The old tabbed interface language has gone, replaced by side-swiped panes that fit in with Google’s own pivot guidelines, and HTC has sliced away some of the less-used buttons so as to keep the UI cleaner. Interestingly, if you haven’t tried one of the new headline features – such as Zoe photography – the One will be able to suggest you give it a go, by sliding a notification into BlinkFeed. The keyboard still uses XT9 prediction, but the layout is tidier, with less space between the keys; there’s also a new lock screen which can by unlocked by either sliding up the lock icon itself or the time masthead. You can still jump directly into one of four apps by pulling up the shortcut icons along the bottom row.

What the lock screen doesn’t get is BlinkFeed content, though HTC hinted to us that it might make an appearance there one day. Nor can you get to Google Now without unlocking the phone, though access is allowed to the camera (to take photos, not review them or do anything else). Pressing and holding the power button allows you to switch into “kid mode” powered by HTC acquisition Zoodles. For drivers, there’s a new Car Mode with a more intuitive, finger-friendly UI, simplified dialler, and stripped-back music player. HTC will offer a passive car cradle for the One, which clings via suction to the windshield (and has a simple hole to give access to the phone’s microUSB port).

HTC is also particularly proud of its new online setup system, replacing the original – and under-utilized – Sense Online service. The company’s thinking is simple: an increasing number of phones are bought online, and so now new customers will be able to begin setting up their handset straight after clicking “purchase” rather than having to wait for the delivery to show up.

It’s a comprehensive system from the outset, with the ability to set up feeds for BlinkFeed, bookmarks for sites, pick different apps and games (all of which download through Google Play, so that future updates will work as normal), and other settings. Since that could be overwhelming to some, HTC has bundled select packages of apps and content into “Starting Points” such as if you’re planning to use your phone for work, or with your family. There are instant previews of what the BlinkFeed will look like with those particular settings, and you can even set ringtones or make your own, uploading an MP3 and then clipping out the section you want.

Rather than demand an HTC account be specially created (though you can do that, if you prefer), HTC is using Facebook Connect so that owners can log in via their existing social network credentials. When your new One finally arrives, you simply punch in that username and password during the wizard, and everything is installed as per your web arrangements. It works in tandem with a new version of HTC Sync Manager, which can now pull in contacts, calendar entries, photos & video, non-DRM music, and bookmarks from your most recent iPhone backup in iTunes; for Android devices, it can suck out contacts, calendar, SMS, photos & video, non-DRM music, bookmarks, and (select settings). HTC is struggling to get the same access with Windows Phone, however, and right now – just as with feature-phones – you can only transfer your contacts via a Bluetooth connection.

The flip side of the new setup system is backup, which HTC says can be set to run daily (over a WiFi connection) automatically, or alternatively manually when the user prefers. Rather than store photos and video – which, HTC told us, are generally well catered for with online gallery services – the new backup system focuses on the rest of the customizations owners tend to make. So, all of your BlinkFeed settings are stored, as well as the app grid layout (complete with folders), alarms, wallpaper, native and third-party widgets, the user dictionary, apps, and over 150 settings (more than 80-percent of which are HTC-specific).

They all get encrypted on the One before being pushed to either Dropbox – you get 25GB of free space for two years when you activate the phone – or, if you’re in China, Sina web storage. HTC is still looking at ways to backup individual app data and Zoe content, which are currently left out.

Then there’s the TV app, which uses the deeply clever hidden IR blaster discretely integrated into the power button on the top edge. The app itself is powered by Peel, which we’ve also seen preloaded on select Samsung tablets: after you run through a setup wizard, telling the app which area you live in, what type of TV service you get – DirecTV, cable, free-to-air, etc. – and what TV you have, you get a BlinkFeed-style page of currently-playing shows, a single tap on which switches to that channel.

If you leave the app running, picking up the phone automatically unlocks it so you can flip channels again (rather than demanding you manually unlock it and punch in your PIN; if you have a PIN set up, as with the camera app, you only get access to the TV app in that case). A shortcut is added to the Android notifications bar, too, with buttons to flip to what shows you’ve been watching recently, plus quick access to mute, power, opening the full remote, and more.

As universal remotes go, it’s pretty flexible, certainly for the basics. The tutorial section – if your TV is recognized – is swift, but programming non-default sets is a case of a few button presses, since the IR blaster can also learn from your existing remote. Each of the show thumbnails has a discrete progress bar along the bottom, indicating how much is left, and you can either tap in and see more information, or swipe to the next pane and see what’s coming up next. Search is supported, too, and you can dig into the settings and optionally choose which channels show up and which are hidden; if you favorite a show, the TV app will push a notification into BlinkFeed next time a new episode is coming up, and those shows and channels are automatically prioritized in the lists.

Nonetheless, it’s still early days. The TV app doesn’t know what’s on your TiVo or other DVR, so you can’t see recorded options alongside live shows, and for the moment – though HTC tells us it’s working on it – there’s no intelligence around the placement of shows and channels. They only get prioritized if you manually favorite them: the app won’t learn from your viewing habits, and it won’t make Netflix-style suggestions based on your viewing history.

Speaking of Netflix, the on-demand integration could also do with some work. In fact, Netflix isn’t even supported at present – HTC is still working with the company to include it – but you do get Hulu, Crackle, and HTC Watch, among some others. It’s all a bit more klutzy than changing channels on your cable box, however: if you have an HTC MediaLink, you can have the TV app switch you automatically to whatever on-demand show you’ve selected, but otherwise tapping it opens playback locally on the One itself. HTC tells us that select media boxes will also switch over, but it’s not entirely clear which will support the system and which won’t.

HTC has high ambitions for TV, however, and has said it will be pushing out updates to refine the experience. It’ll also be opening up the hardware to third-party developers: Android lacks a standard IR blaster API, so HTC is cooking up an SDK of its own instead. The company will also be contacting select developers to try to promote that SDK when it’s available.

Overall, though, this is undoubtedly the best version of Sense we’ve seen on an HTC device, and in a way it takes us some way back to the original premise of the software. Not just a reskin of Android, as it had become in its more recent iterations, but delivering new apps and features, and actually attempting to streamline elements of the phone experience into something that delivers more everyday usability.

Whether it succeeds at that will depend on how committed HTC is to progressively refining the software. That’s where the company has fallen flat before – remember OnLive integration, or the old Sense Online? – though the ability to make piecemeal app upgrades should help there, assuming the engineers do their job. If HTC can be as responsive as third-party developers then the native apps on the HTC One could end up staying the course.

HTC One hands-on: Sense 5, BlinkFeed and TV is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s the most exciting Android phone since the Hero, HTC’s comeback strike for 2013, and a wakeup call for the mainstream smartphone camera market: but does the HTC One deliver? SlashGear caught up with HTC for an extended play with the One – and to talk about the sometimes unusual decisions HTC made in spec’ing out the phone, such as the 4-megapixel camera – ahead of today’s official unveil. Read on for part one of our first-impressions.

To say HTC had a frustrating 2012 would be an understatement. The company’s Android range, particularly the One X (and its One X+ follow-up), offered a very capable alternative to Samsung’s Galaxy S III, with strong specifications, a decent camera, better build quality than the Korean phone, and a brilliant screen. Despite all that, however, sales underwhelmed, in no small part thanks to Samsung’s expensive blanket advertising that led many consumers to simply associate “Galaxy” with “Android.”

HTC is bringing its A-game with the One, leaving nothing – on the device side, at least – to chance this time around. That begins with a legitimate step up in construction quality from HTC – and other Android phones – before. The One takes some inspiration from the DROID DNA that came before it, such as the narrow, slightly angled side panels and bowed rear panel that allows the edges to taper from 9.3mm at the phone’s thickest to 5mm at its narrowest, but steps up from sturdy but uninspiring polycarbonate to cool, crisp aluminum.

Solid billets of a special aluminum blend – created just for HTC, one of a number of custom components that make up the One’s hardware – go into CNC machines, with each shell taking several hours to form. In contrast, most phone shells take minutes to produce. Midway through that process, narrow grooves are carved for the two narrow plastic elements that cross the rear panel, and matte finish plastic is injected; then it’s back under the cutting tool, so that the profile of metal and plastic are matched identically.

The back and sides are matched up to a slab of toughened glass, itself with slightly beveled edges so that the phone’s fascia blends smoothly in the body. It’s a minor detail, but it makes the One more comfortable to hold, as well as avoiding a sharp edge cutting into your thumb when you reach across the screen to use it one-handed. Micro-drilled panels – that hide the stereo speakers – go top and bottom; while the One might look reminiscent of the iPhone 5 or Z10, face-on in press shots, the similarities are less noticeable in the metal, and BlackBerry’s phone only wishes it could feel this sturdy.

HTC’s emphasis on metal – something, the company told us, it decided on because metal still has a premium cachet; the coolness when you touch it marks it out as simply more special than, say, plastic – does have one downside. While the One packs LTE (complete with support for the fledgling 4G network plans in Europe, which aren’t expected to light up over the next year or so but which, HTC points out, will be turned on while One owners are still within the typical two-year agreement), NFC, WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 (complete with support for the higher-quality aptX streaming audio profile), all flavors of GPS, and the usual bevy of sensors, there’s no wireless charging.

It’s the glaring omission, but we’re not sure it will be too serious in the long-term. Certainly, the improvement in hand-feel metal allows is preferable, to us, than the convenience of wireless charging. In fact, we can’t fault most of HTC’s decisions about where to focus development and investment to get the most day-to-day benefit, a great example being the One’s video and audio performance.

The One has a slightly smaller display than the DROID DNA and Butterfly – 4.7-inches rather than 5-inches – but that only makes it more pixel dense thanks to the identical 1920 x 1080 resolution. In fact, HTC tells us, the One’s screen is brighter and sharper than that of either of its 5-inch predecessors (neither of which we’d ever felt the need to criticize, frankly) and the result is a panel that’s a legitimate joy to use.

Bright colors, though without AMOLED’s tendency to unnatural saturation, the LCD3 screen makes text incredibly crisp (the condensed Roboto of the new Sense 5 interface looks especially good) while photos and videos are smear-free. While Google might prefer otherwise, HTC persists with dedicated keys beneath the display, though they’ve pared that down to just two for 2013. Touch-sensitive “Back” and “Home” buttons flank a chrome HTC logo; long-pressing the latter calls up Google Now, while a double-tap opens the pared-back app-switcher with nine panes of recent apps (which can be flicked up to close them, webOS style).

Beats Audio branding has been showing up on HTC phones for some years now, though it’s only really with the One that the promise of audio improvement is fully delivered. The two “BoomSound” amplifiers – one for the stereo speakers, one for the headphones output – from the 8X are carried over (using proprietary hybrid amp technology, no less), complete with the adaptive volume that monitors playback for clipping and distortion and adjusts it in real-time to minimize that. Now, though, the onboard speakers themselves are worthy of use: HTC has ditched the tiny piezo-electric drivers most phones rely upon, instead using floating membrane drivers sitting in chambers roughly twice the size rivals allow.

In all, it makes for a phone that’s clearer and louder – around four-times as loud, HTC tells us -than most phones we’ve heard in the past few years. Watch a video, and the speakers – one each side of the display – create a surprisingly powerful, broad field of sound, with impressive amounts of bass considering it’s a phone doing the hard work. HTC opted not to fit a rear speaker, too, meaning the One can be left face-up during impromptu conference calls (and so you can still use the screen, rather than choosing between access to your data and audibility).

The same effort that has gone into audio output is echoed in input, too, with HTC using a clever dual-mode stereo microphone pair that can dynamically switch depending on the loudness of the ambient sound. In normal use – such as when you’re on a call – there’s a standard high signal-to-noise microphone that supports 10dB to roughly 70dB; however, if you’re at a concert or there’s loud road noise, the One can automatically flip to a high sound pressure microphone that can handle 70db to 120 dB, cutting out distortion. It also means the One supports HD audio.

It’s not the pure-Android-experience many have asked for, but it does deliver Sense without some of the drawbacks that have historically gone in hand with HTC’s custom skin. The frustration, when manufacturers modify the core Android OS, is that Google’s releases generally come faster than those of device vendors, meaning owners are often left behind. By dividing the underlying platform from the value-added apps HTC includes on the One (and indeed on future HTC Android devices; Sense 5 will be on all future Android phones from the company, and may be retroactively added to some existing handsets, though not all of the features will necessarily be identical to those on the One), it gives HTC’s engineers the chance to push out more iterative updates for a smoother user-experience.

When those changes happen, they should make it to One owners faster than any HTC update before. That’s because, with Sense 5, HTC has separated out the individual apps and services from the core firmware: rather than waiting for a full OTA upgrade through their carrier, users will be able to download individual updates directly from HTC. They’ll be flagged up just as apps from Google Play use notifications when they have updates available, and HTC sees the system as liberating it from the grip of full-scale carrier testing.

From a design and hardware position, then, the One is the best HTC we’ve seen in a long time. One of our ongoing concerns about the company has been that, unlike say Samsung and Apple, HTC doesn’t manufacture its own components: instead, it’s left reliant on what it can source from suppliers. With the One, though, there’s an admirable move to including custom components – the camera sensor, the new ImageChip, the speakers, the slick and beautiful chassis – to better differentiate against rival phones. That’s just the attention to detail consumers will respond to, and that HTC has so seriously needed.

HTC One hands-on: Hardware and Design is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This weekend A Good Day to Die Hard comes out in theaters across the USA, and with it the mobile game DIE HARD for iOS and Android, ushering in a new wave of mobile games: Endless Shooters. This game is hinging on the roll-out of one of the greatest new ways to play a game in the mobile realm, an endless runner, switching it up to include danger coming at you from up front rather than behind, making you go on the attack rather than running away. In this and inside the minds of the creators of the game we’ve found this app to be a beast not just for this movie opening, but for the future as well – check it out!

We had a chat with two of the heads from the groups responsible for the creation of this game, Matt McMahon, Vice President, Fox Digital Entertainment, and Andrew Solmssen, Managing Director, Los Angeles, POSSIBLE – the developers of the app. It was Solmssen that let us know that the idea for the DIE HARD app initially started with POSSIBLE’s hit game The End: “With the success we had with The End, an endless runner, we decided there was an opportunity to expand in that vein. … We felt that we hit upon something that was kind of a different subgenre, an endless shooter.”

Adding to that line of thought, McMahon spoke up: “In contrast with the other endless runners you’re always running away from something. With Die Hard you’re taking the fight to the enemy – that’s classic John McClaine.” And indeed it is a sweet ride from start to finish – you’re playing as the real-deal characters from the movie and you’ve got nothing but blasts to take care of in a series of missions mixed with customization of your gear and experience.

UPDATE: An important note from Solmssen himself! “One important note: the group that created TheEndApp and the Die Hard game is Goroid http://www.goroid.net/, the game studio that is part of POSSIBLE.” Thanks!

For those of you wondering – this was, as Solmssen notes: “a Die Hard game from the beginning.” Having been reached out to by the folks at Fox who are, according to McMahon, “always looking for talent anywhere in the world,” it was The End that brought the two forces together. McMahon continued, “We came across the game POSSIBLE had, The End – we thought it was a really solid product and we simply reached out.”

This game is ready for action right this minute in the iTunes App Store as well as the Google Play app store, and will be available in the Amazon app store soon! It’s also worth noting that this game will not end when the movie is no longer in theaters – instead we’ve got a guarantee from Fox that they’ll be bringing “ongoing support” beyond the movie, and that they “look to update the game with new levels and new environments” well into the future. Grab it now!

DIE HARD brings on new class in mobile gaming: the Endless Shooter is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week we’ve gotten our hands on the Microsoft Surface Pro for an extended review, and one of the first things to strike us was the idea that this device might be another competitor for the MacBook Air. With the Surface Pro running Windows 8 and the MacBook Air (the newest model, that is), running OS X, there’s some things that simply cannot be compared – some people simply prefer one over the other. When it comes down to the experience and one-on-one comparisons between these two devices, on the other hand, winning features shine through on both devices.

With the MacBook Air you’ve got an 11.6-inch display while the Surface Pro works with a 10.6-inch display – you could also get a 13-inch MacBook Air, mind you, but here we’ll compare the display that’s nearest the Surface Pro. The display on the Surface Pro works with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution while the MacBook Air’s native resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels. It’s also worth making the distinction between these two displays in the fact that the MacBook Air does not work touch.

Windows 8 is an operating system that makes full use of the 10-finger touchscreen display on the Surface Pro while the MacBook Air is a machine that relies on its touchpad to mouse around, select items, and make gestures. The Surface Pro works with a cover that doubles as a keyboard, too. And in that point is the biggest differentiation point between these two machines – one is a tablet, the other a notebook.

While the Macbook Air is a notebook computer that made and continues to make a point of its ultra-thin nature and how it can work as a full-function notebook computer with as tiny an amount of bulk as possible. You’ll see from the images above and below as well as the hands-on video we’ve got prepared that the MacBook Pro is a significant amount thinner than the Surface Pro – or so it might seem at first.

MacBook Air (11-inch)
Thickness: 0.11-0.68 inches
Width: 11.8 inches
Height (front to back, while closed) : 7.56 inches
Weight: 2.38 pounds

Surface Pro
Thickness: 0.53 inches
Width: 10.81 inches
Height: 6.81 inches
Weight: 2 pounds

Both devices have the ability to store a massive amount of data, with the Surface Pro having two iterations, 64GB and 128GB. Those are the amount of internal storage the Surface Pro has in its two different iterations, each of them with their own cash cost – that’s also one of the only things that differentiates the different versions of the Surface Pro at this very moment. The MacBook Air comes int two different iterations (with several different modifications available therein), one of them 64GB, the other 128GB.

The power you’ll be able to work with in a MacBook Air is either an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor. The Microsoft Surface Pro works with one configuration at the moment for processing power, that being an Intel Core i5 – and all of the processors here are 3rd gen Ivy Bridge, mind you, regardless of Apple or Microsoft surroundings.

The MacBook Pro has a lovely collection of ports and connections including:
720p “FaceTime” HD camera
2x USB 3 ports
Thunderbolt port
MagSafe 2 power port
Microphone
Headphone port
Wifi
Bluetooth
Stereo Speakers

With the Surface Pro you’ll also be connecting with ports and wirelessly like mad:
2x 720p HD “LifeCam” cameras (front and rear-facing)
USB 3 port
microSDXC card slot
power port
Microphone
Headphone port
Wifi
Bluetooth
Stereo Speakers

You’ll notice that the 11-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t have an SD card slot – the 13-inch version of this device does, but the 11-inch version does not. The Surface Pro also benefits from its form factor in that it can make use of such sensors as an Accelerometer, a Gyroscope, and a Compass. With these you’ll be about to, for example, steer a car in a racing game, while the MacBook Air is meant to stay stationary while you’re using it.

The MacBook Air also benefits from the fact that it’s a notebook computer, able to stand up on its own with its keyboard attached, while the Surface Pro works in an entirely different way for stationary standing. The Surface Pro uses a kickstand on its back that’ll keep it upright while you tap away and also has a keyboard cover that, like a notebook computer, folds up and protects the device’s display or down for everyday typing use.

The Surface Pro also works with its own pen that sticks to the side of the tablet when not in use, utilizing an active digitizer in the display to make more than just standard capacitive moves galore. The pen creates a rather unique experience for you with the Surface Pro while the MacBook Air really isn’t the same universe – the only other place you’re going to get a digital pen experience in a mobile sense like this right now is in the Samsung Galaxy Note series – have a peek at our Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 review for more on that environment.

And this is only part of the story – for more information on both machines, you’ll want to check our full reviews of both devices. Have a peek at our MacBook Air (mid-2012) review as well as our Microsoft Surface Pro review for everything you could ever want to know!

Also be sure to let us know which of these two devices seem like they’d suit your needs given what you know today. Is there one that strikes your fancy more than the other?

Microsoft Surface Pro vs MacBook Air: a convenience war is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just yesterday the 2013 Super Bowl revealed the very first glimpse most of the world had at Apple’s URL-shortening “AppStore.com” in the Star Trek Into Darkness teaser – and lucky you, you’re already signed up! The AppStore.com structure is not one where there will be a massive “land grab” as often is the case with these sorts of things, instead Apple has opted for a more automatic sort of push, with URLs like http://appstore.com/slashgear being active automatically. That particular address will bring you straight to the iTunes App Store listing of the SlashGear app – easy as pie!

This structure also works for the Mac App Store. If you head to http://appstore.com/mac/osxmountainlion/, you’ll be taken to the Mac App Store’s listing of OS X Mountain Lion, also launching the Mac App Store as the iTunes App Store links launch the iTunes app. This shortened link structure includes both names of apps and names of companies. You’ll be able to link to link in three different ways to two different kinds of final locations as follows:

http://appstore.com/companyname/

http://appstore.com/companyname/appname/

http://appstore.com/appname/

As the iOS Developer Library lets us know, each of these also works with the “mac” inserted to head to the Mac App Store instead of the iTunes App Store. The Mac App Store, for those of you that don’t know, is made for desktop apps rather than mobile apps – while your iPhone apps come from the iTunes App Store, your MacBook apps come from the Mac App Store.

http://appstore.com/mac/companyname/

http://appstore.com/mac/companyname/appname/

http://appstore.com/mac/appname/

The way you’ll get the correct app or company name for this structure is to remove all whitespace, make sure all letters are lower-case, and make sure all copyright, trademark, and registered mark symbols are taken out. You’ll be replacing the ampersand with the word “and”, and all of the following punctuation must be removed: “!¡”#$%’()*+,\-./:;< =>¿?@[\]^_`{|}~”. You’ll need to replace all accented and “decorated” character with their most basic form (elemental character) while all other characters are left as is. So make your title as basic as possible and it should, by all means, link easily.

Above: Star Trek Into Darkness trailer displays first-ever appearance of an AppStore.com/ vanity url.

If you have trouble finding the correct structure for your app or company on either app store, be sure to let Apple know at http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter. There you’ll want to tell them the full current or desired URL you’re hoping to work with, the countries your app or company works in, and the iTunes-generated long URL you’ve been working with up until now (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app…). You can get this longer URL by right-clicking or control-clicking the little triangle next to the app’s price in your respective app store and selecting the “Copy Link” option.

Sound all good to you? Let us know if you’re pumped up about this simple yet powerful measure Apple is taking to keep links to their app stores clean and quick!

SlashGear 101: How do I get an Apple AppStore.com vanity url? is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.