This is so clever and hilarious.
Bjango, developers of some fine iOS and Mac software, have just released a major 2.0 update of their app iStat. This update makes the app Universal, brings a completely overhauled UI and adds a boatload of data and stats you can monitor.
Take a look at the screenshots here, you know you want it.
Paper’s New Update is Fantastic
The master craftsmen at FiftyThree has just released an update to Paper on the App Store that brings 3 great features to the app — a Mixer tool that lets you mix and create new colors using their “natural blending technology”, a Palette that lets you save and use your own color palettes or use the ones it ships with and a new Pressure technology that works with the Pogo Connect.
Paper is a great little app to have on your iPad and I’m happy to see the improvements the developers have been adding to it.
How many times have you been writing an email and had to reference something in another message? Saving a draft, opening the old email, and then reopening your draft wastes valuable minutes. The new compose pops up in a window, just like chats (only larger).
This makes it easy to reference any other emails without ever having to close your draft. You can even do a search or keep an eye on new mail as it comes in. And because the compose window works the same way as chats, you can write multiple messages at once and minimize a message to finish it later.
I’ve still stuck to using Sparrow and Mailplane for my email, but when I have to move back, this is going to be immensely useful. Seems to be working only on non-Google Apps accounts though.
Croma Starts Pre-Orders of the iPhone 5
Croma Retail, one of the big electronic retail chains in the country, has started pre-orders of the iPhone 5. They’re only listing the 16GB models on their site right now, but their brick and mortar stores have no idea about these pre-orders. Moreover, there’s no shipping information available on the site. While you can pre-order the phone today, Croma’s not saying when they’ll ship the phone.
Croma’s not the first retailer to start accepting pre-orders for the iPhone 5. Both Airtel and Aircel are listing the 16GB models only and are expected to ship on November 2nd. Other online retailers taking pre-orders include Saholic and Indiatimes Shopping, with the former offering a discount of Rs. 3000 on the MRP.
Additionally, premium resellers like Imagine, Unicorn and Maple are also accepting offline pre-orders.
Update: I’ve just received word that Croma is also accepting pre-orders if you visit their stores. You can pay a 30% advance to prebook a unit.
Update II: And they’re out. Croma is no longer listing the iPhone 5 in stock now.
4th Generation iPad Benchmarks
John Poole of Primate Labs writes about one early Geekbench result for the 4th generation iPad that appeared this Sunday night. The device appears to have a dual-core processor running at 1.4GHz with 1GB of RAM. It scores a whopping 1757 Geekbench score, compared to 1571 by the iPhone 5 and 791 by the 3rd generation iPad.
The new iPad is 10% faster than the iPhone 5 (unsurprising given the new iPad is running the same processor as the iPhone 5 at a slightly higher frequency). and is over twice as fast as the iPad 2 and the iPad (3rd generation). If you have an iPad and you are looking for more performance then you will find the new iPad a compelling upgrade.
While the “iPad 4” is substantially faster than the 3rd generation iPad, it still doesn’t make me want to buy it. None of the apps even appear to be sluggish or slow on it, so while the 4th generation iPad with Retina display is an amazing new device, I’m going to stick to my current device.
Major Executive Role Changes at Apple
Apple’s Senior Vice President, iOS Software Scott Forstall and Retail chief John Browett will leave the company and the rest of the executive team will take over additional responsibilities, the company has announced. Forstall will leave in 2013 and Browett will also leave at an unspecified date.
Holy Shit.
Along with the departure of Forstall and Browett, Jony Ive will be handling Human Interface across the company, Eddy Cue will be responsible for Siri and Maps while Craig Federighi will now lead both iOS and OS X development.
I’m sure as hell looking forward to Ive’s role now that he’s the Director of Human Interface. It’d be interesting to see his take on visual design in iOS.
Photo Sphere on the Nexus 4 is actually pretty cool
That’s Google’s promo video showing the new Photo Sphere feature of the Nexus 4’s camera on Android 4.2.
From the video, it actually looks like a pretty amazing feature to have. But I’d like to see a real-world demo of it just to be sure. I wonder how the stitching actually works.
The Nexus 4 will be available factory unlocked on Google Play for just $299.
[Via Ashwin]