Hasta La Gadget!

Writing Kit is yet another text editor for the iPad. It manages to combine a rather powerful set of features, and yet it remains very simple to use, with an uncluttered interface.

First, Writing Kit is a Markdown editor. Markdown is a syntax invented by John Gruber which allows humans to write HTML markup. You write in a straightforward way using some non-distracting conventions to style text (asterisks around a word mark it as italic, for example). Then, when you’re done, it is quickly converted into valid HTML. I use a self-customized version to write for Gadget Lab.

To help you write, Writing Kit has an extra row of keys to let you insert links, style text and makes lists and block quotes. You can also tap to select a word, tap the “more” option and choose stylings from there. To preview your document as it would appear if rendered in a browser, just tap the preview (eye-shaped) button. Previews are instant.

To help with research, there is a built-in browser. You can either make a quick look-up query, which offers word definitions and Wikipedia answers, or use the built-in web browser. This is a feature common with Daedalus Touch, another text editor I reviewed this week.

In-app browsing makes a huge difference for bloggers, letting you have your source material right there. You can even use readability to turn the page into a nice, simple text article, and you can both save to Instapaper and access you Instapaper saved articles (Instapaper subscription needed), making it even better for research.

Should you decide to link to the web page, you just hit a button and a dialog pops up asking you to name the link before letting you choose just where to insert it.

In fact, when it comes to doing things with links, there is an embarrassment of options: You can add to an internal “read later” queue, send to Instapaper, share with Pinboard, Evernote, Google Reader, Tumblr and Twitter, along with sending via e-mail.

There’s also an outliner function which will show a table of contents for your current document in a popover. This uses any headlines in your document as subject headings.

There’s a lot more in there to discover (TextExpander support), and as a writing and researching tool it works very well. But there are some rather odd omissions. There is no DropBox support , for instance, although that should be coming soon.

If you write anything on your iPad that requires you to use source material, you should probably check out Writing Kit. It costs $5, which is ridiculously cheap.

Writing Kit product page [Get Writing Kit]

Writing Kit [iTunes]

See Also:

• Essay for iPad Adds Clever Keyboard Shortcuts
• Writing
• PlainText: iPad Text-Editor from the Makers of WriteRoom
• Elements for iPad, a Dropbox-Syncing Text Editor
• Essay: iPad Rich Text Editor Shows Promise, Needs Work
• 15 iPad Apps You Should Download Today

Steve Jobs points to the audience as he announces the software development kit for iPhone app programmers in a March 2008 event. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Apple’s legal team has fired back at a patent-owning firm that was threatening to sue iPhone app programmers over usage of in-app payment technology.

Apple stated in no uncertain terms that it planned to protect Apple developers.

“Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patent and the Apple App Makers are protected by that license,” wrote Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, in a response to Lodsys (.pdf) sent Monday. “Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple’s license rights.”

The patent firm Lodsys on May 13 sent letters to several iOS app programmers, claiming that it owned a patent related to the usage of an “upgrade” button, allowing customers to upgrade from a free version of an app to a paid version, or to make purchases within apps. The letter demanded that programmers pay a licensing fee for the patent, or face legal action from Lodsys.

In the technology industry, large companies are already tangled in legal disputes over patents on technologies they claim to have invented or pioneered. For instance, Nokia filed suit against Apple in 2009 for patent infringement, Apple filed a patent lawsuit against HTC in 2010, and Microsoft has gone after Google’s partners offering Android-powered products.

However, with the case of Lodsys, it was odd to see a patent firm shaking down smaller companies for using technologies provided by a larger company.

Apple’s letter said that the technology that Lodsys claims it patented — an interface that enables interactions with a user to elicit feedback — requires the use of APIs provided by Apple to the app programmer. Therefore, because Apple owns a license for Lodsys’ patents, they extend to programmers that use Apple’s technologies, too.

Dave Castelnuovo, creator of the popular iPhone game Pocket God, was one of the first programmers to receive Lodsys’ letter. His lawyer David Alberti told Wired.com that Lodsys’ claims made against app developers seemed like a “very far stretch,” because the patents in question seemed to relate to feedback systems on hardware, such as a fax machine, and not technology in a pure software environment.

Lodsys owner Mark Small, who sent the initial letter to app developers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pocket God maker Castelnuovo said he was happy to see Apple respond very quickly and publicly to Lodsys.

“It shows that Apple cares about its developers and they are willing to stick up for them when something like this occurs,” Castelnuovo told Wired.com.

James Thomson, programmer of the pCalc scientific calculator app for iPhone, was one of the first to receive Lodsys’ letter. He told Wired.com he was glad Apple was getting involved, but the fight is not over yet.

“I’m just relieved to hear that Apple’s got our backs,” Thomson said. “Of course it’s not over until Lodsys withdraws their claims, but this is a big step. I will sleep a lot better tonight, that’s for certain!”

See Also:

• Samsung Ready to Battle Apple in Patent War
• Apple to Samsung: Stop Stealing Our Ideas

In one of many tweaks to the Android interface, a customized boot screen features scrolling lines of code. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

CyanogenMod is one of the biggest hacks to ever hit the Android mobile platform.

It’s got an estimated 500,000 users. Many Android programmers use it as a starting point for their own coding projects. And according to the project’s founder, a number of Google employees have it installed on their Android devices.

Essentially, CyanogenMod is a tricked-out version of the software you’re already running on your Android phone.

Every Android-powered device comes running a version of the operating system, from 1.5 (Cupcake) all the way up to 3.1 (Honeycomb).

CyanogenMod replaces that stock OS with a custom build, letting you make adjustments to your phone that the official version prevents. It opens the door to more sophisticated custom wallpaper, changing the graphic that appears when the phone boots up, or more significantly, tethering your laptop to your phone’s data connection. With CyanogenMod installed, you can even overclock your phone’s CPU, so you can wring every last drop of processing power from it.

“You can customize the hell out of it,” says Steve Kondik, founder of the CyanogenMod project.

How a Hack Got its Start

Of course, it all began with a phone.

Debuting in 2007 as the flagship device for Google’s Android mobile platform, HTC’s G1 smartphone was the alternative to Apple’s immensely popular iPhone.

The G1 — also known as the HTC Dream — could be easily rooted, which meant giving you superuser access to the phone’s naughty bits. Essentially, it made customizing your G1 as easy as pie.

Steve Kondik had been waiting for a phone like the G1 for a long time.

“I had followed a few other Linux-based phones before,” says Kondik, citing offerings from Motorola and Nokia, “but they never had the sort of momentum that a company like Google could bring.”

And Google’s philosophy fit with what Kondik, a software developer working for a mobile content delivery company in Pittsburgh, was looking for: a more “open” platform for coders coming from a background in open source code, like Linux. Android, after all, is built on the Linux kernel.

After each version of Android was made available for download to the public, Google pushed all of the code to an online repository called Kernel.org, free for all to poke, prod and play around with. Developers could take any and all of that code and modify it to their heart’s desire.

Which is exactly what Kondik proceeded to do. “I had been using desktop Linux for ages,” he says, “and I just tried using some of those concepts to tweak the code. I had no idea what I actually wanted to do with the phone.”

After finishing his first version of CyanogenMod, Kondik posted the file to XDA forums, a popular message board in the Android modding community. “All of a sudden, my single-page thread is one hundred pages long,” Kondik says.

Cyanogen Comes of Age

CyanogenMod was a hit. It racked up downloads from community members, each expressing how they liked the amount of control they finally had over their phones.

“As a mobile enthusiast, I like the ability to make changes to the way that my operating system runs,” says Chris Soyars, who works on CyanogenMod.

In essence, CyanogenMod’s popularity can be attributed to the very thing that draws so many to the Android platform: openness, flexibility, control. The Google-led Open Handset Alliance — a coalition of 80 carriers, manufacturers and tech companies all backing the Android platform — espouses these principles, as seen in the Open Source Project mission statement: “We wanted to make sure that there would always be an open platform available for carriers, OEMs and developers to use to make their innovative ideas a reality.”

Apple, on the other hand, fought aggressively to outlaw the practice of jailbreaking its phones, which is akin to rooting an Android device. The U.S. Copyright Office ultimately granted a three-year DMCA exemption for rooting phones, so iPhone users are free to jailbreak their devices without any legal repercussions for the time being. They don’t, however, have access to the operating system’s underlying source code to the same extent Android users do.

While Apple’s controlling, “walled garden” approach has obviously worked well for the company — the company has sold 100 million iPhones as of March of this year — Android has become the alternative solution for geeks and hackers who want more control over their devices.

For many, CyanogenMod is the key to unlocking that control.

Web Browser for Apple TV shows web pages from the iPhone on the big screen

Tap Media’s Web Browser for Apple TV is about as plainly-named as it gets. The iPhone app uses AirPlay to beam its web browser over onto your television via Apple TV.

Simple, and probably very useful, the app lets you browse the web for anything you like and then throw it up on the big screen for everyone to see. This is the exact way this should be done, instead of the Google TV way which forces onlookers to witness every mis-typed step of your browsing odyssey before you get to the actual goal. Watching somebody else browse the web is hell on earth, and it should be kept strictly private.

The browser is basic, even by iOS standards. You get bookmarking, a search bar and history, and you can display documents in-line (PDF and DOC files are listed), but right now there’s no way to show any video you may come across, which is a rather large shortcoming, especially as it works in Safari. My guess is that an app can’t have two different sources to send to the same AirPlay receiver.

Still, for quickly showing off a web page it looks handy, and at $2 the price is certainly right. IPhone only, available now.

Web Browser for Apple TV [iTunes via Cult of Mac]

See Also:

• The Hidden Secrets of Apple's AirPlay
• AirPlay Hack Streams Non-iTunes Video Between Mac, Apple TV …
• AirServer
• Beam Music, Movies, Photos from iPad to Mac With AirServer …

A gaggle of happy Google I/O attendees listens to the latest Android platform updates. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Many Android customers know the frustration of buying a new phone, only to find out that they can’t get the latest version of Android on it.

Google has heard their cries, and replied with a plan to get the most-recent updates onto more people’s phones.

At its I/O conference here Tuesday, Google announced a new initiative to fight against software version fragmentation across Android devices. In a partnership with manufacturers and wireless carriers, Google is developing guidelines for how quickly device owners will receive updates to their software.

Beginning today, any new Android smartphones or tablets you buy from participating partners and carriers will receive the most-current version of the Android software, for up to 18 months after the device’s initial release.

Essentially, this means that your phone won’t be made irrelevant through lack of software updates, even when the next generation of smartphones hits the market.

“It’s essentially a logistics problem,” said Android head honcho Andy Rubin at a press conference Tuesday. “We’re not just building one phone, there are over 100 different devices based on Android. And all the operators have different product specs and qualifications.”

Initial partners include major Android-device manufacturers HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG. Also included are the big four U.S. carriers: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. Rubin says that Google is open to as many more partners as want to join.

Fragmentation has been a side effect of Android’s success in the marketplace. The more phones that use the operating system, the more different versions of the OS are out there. Because of the way a phone’s OS dovetails with its underlying circuitry, it’s not always easy to deliver OS upgrades. On top of that, carriers and manufacturers have an incentive to encourage you to buy the latest models rather than indefinitely upgrading your old phone.

While fragmentation among Android phones declined last year, it’s still a concern for many customers and for developers.

Rubin and other Google employees didn’t announce any specific details on how manufacturers and carriers would be held to the agreement. Instead, Rubin colored the announcement as “getting [manufacturers and carriers] to the table” to discuss the problem of fragmentation. “Before we could get people to the table, it was impossible to achieve anything.”

Now that the partners are sitting at the table, Rubin claims the work can be done. But with so few details provided thus far, it’s difficult to say how Google and its partners will be able to keep a plethora of new devices current. If you take into account manufacturers with custom interfaces — like HTC’s Sense or Motorola’s Motoblur — things get even trickier.

And it’s difficult to imagine the incentive manufacturers have to keep old hardware current. As technology improves at a faster pace, more handsets are released with beefier hardware specs, like the spate of dual-core phones and tablets hitting the market this year. With more and more devices being churned out at a faster pace, manufacturers more than likely want you to throw your old handsets away and buy the latest and greatest.