During Macworld | iWorld 2012 last week, I had the opportunity to meet with Denys Zhadanov of Readdle. If you're not familiar with Readdle's products, you might be new to the iOS world. The company has been around for four years and has sold over 3.5 million iOS apps, most of them used for reading and annotating PDF files.

The company's newest entry into this market should be hitting the App Store any day now. Called Remarks, the app will sell for US$4.99 and is used to open, edit, and then save and distribute PDF files. My favorite part of the demonstration was when Denys opened a magazine file, tapped several pages, and created a new PDF file with annotations within seconds. Remarks has some unique navigation tools for precisely locating text or handwritten annotations, and it can save in either regular (layered) or flattened PDF formats.

A short video showing off the impressive feature set of Remarks is embedded below.

Readdle previews Remarks iPad app at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Italian Apple blog Ispazio pointed out [Google translation] an interesting new iTunes App Store feature late last week: pop-up windows that appear with a click, making most descriptive information available without having to reload a full page. This feature is available in the Mac and Windows versions of the App Store.

By hovering over an icon in the App Store, a small "info" icon appears, denoting that more information is available for viewing prior to purchasing an app. Clicking the "i" immediately displays a pop-up window with several tabs displaying a description of the app, the "What's New" information describing updates, and screenshots for iPhone and iPad if applicable.

The person perusing the information needs go no further than the pop-up to purchase the app, although they can click a "Go to this app" link if they wish to see a larger view of the particular features of an app.

The pop-ups are an easily-overlooked, but very useful new addition to the App Store. They also work with movies and TV shows, where a "play" icon replaces the "info" icon and the description includes a video preview. The movie and TV show play icons have been available for a while, but the app pop-ups are definitely new.

[via MacRumors]

App Store adds pop-up information windows originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last July, a group of Chinese authors petitioned Apple to stop distributing their books through multiple apps in the App Store. The group, called the Writers Rights Alliance, is now suing Apple for US$1.88 million for allegedly hosting pirated books.

The nine writers in the group say that 37 of their works have been sold as pirated copies on the App Store, with Apple of course taking a 30 percent cut from the proceeds. Apple refused to remove the books from the App Store after being asked in July of 2011, noting that there was not enough evidence to provide that the works were unlicensed.

Authors are frustrated with the slow pace at which Apple removes the pirated ebooks, with the executive for the Writers Rights Alliance noting that it sometimes takes two to three months before the pirated versions are canceled. Once that's done, new pirated versions often pop up.

According to the group, some of the pirated ebooks may have seen more than a million downloads without the authors receiving revenue from Apple. The company has told the group to contact the developers creating and selling the products, but the Alliance says that the contact information for developers is often bogus.

This won't be the last we hear of the Writers Rights Alliance. They're expected to file another lawsuit against Apple after January, seeking damages for alleged piracy on behalf of ten other authors.

Chinese authors want Apple to pay $1.88 million for allegedly hosting pirated ebooks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The latest TUAW Best of 2011 award should come as no surprise, particularly since the winner also topped the iPhone utility app voting. 1Password Pro (US$14.99) was voted by TUAW readers as the best iPad utility app of 2011, pulling in a whopping 56.6 percent of the votes.

Why has this app captured the attention of TUAW readers? It's because 1Password works consistently on all platforms, keeps information securely stashed away, and is constantly being updated to stay in tune with OS upgrades and provide new functionality.

The runner-up, in a distant second place with 17.1 percent of the votes, was Apple's own AirPort Utility (free). It's a very useful tool for anyone who owns an Apple AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express.

Congratulations to the AgileBits team for their cross-platform wins with 1Password Pro, and stay tuned tomorrow as the TUAW editors pick their cream of the 2011 crop.

1Password Pro grabs the TUAW Best of 2011 iPad utility app award originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A strange Apple-built iOS app called GameStore appeared and then quickly disappeared in the App Store last week. After its disappearance, we picked the app apart and determined that GameStore was essentially sample code that demonstrates how to perform in-app purchases.

Many people downloaded the app sight unseen since it came from Apple, while still others downloaded it out of simple curiosity. GameStore cost US$0.99, and according to Mac Rumors and a few other outlets, Apple is now offering refunds to people who bought the app.

An email sent to customers who purchased GameStore says that "the app was made available for sale prematurely," and refunds will be issued within five business days.

Apple offers refunds for 'premature' GameStore app purchases originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Technology market intelligence firm ABI Research provided some fascinating numbers today that show that Apple is still maintaining the lead in the tablet market despite the release of a plethora of Android tablets.

According to the ABI Research numbers, iPad users have downloaded three billion apps since the launch of the iPad in April of 2010. The iPad made it to this milestone in just a year and a half, while it took the iPhone two years to reach this point. Owners of Android tablets have only downloaded about 440 millions apps to date.

ABI Research associate Lim Shiyang notes that "Many Android tablets in the market are still using older versions of Android, which disadvantages users from enjoying the better effects of apps produced from more advanced software development kits." The ABI article notes that "Apple's iPad apps are generally considered to be of a better quality compared to Android tablet-specific apps."

Dan Shey, practice director of mobile services for ABI, noted that "Android is currently being used on many low end tablets that do not offer experiences anywhere near the iPad and this dampens the download momentum for users." Shey believes, however, that things will change as more tablet manufacturers move to Android 4.0 and device specs become closer to those of the iPad.

[via The Loop]

iPad users download 3 billion apps originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Voting has been opened up for the 2011 Best App Ever nominees. These awards have been put on every year for a few years now by our friends over at 148 Apps, and they feature many of the greatest apps you'll find on the iOS store, chosen by users. To vote on this year's awards, head over to the Best Apps Ever page, and choose your favorites from all of the various different categories from Best Overall App to the various technical choices in each category.

For the first time I can remember, the awards also talk about Android apps this year, so if you have an Android device and some favorites on that side of the fence, be sure to represent over there as well. But despite the fact that Android is being honored, Best App Ever is still planning to announce the final winners later this month at Macworld, as usual. Voting is open until January 25, and be sure to put your votes in. We're curious to see which of these great apps is crowned with a win.

Voting now open for Best App Ever awards originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We've already heard that the iPhone and iOS had a record day this Christmas weekend, and here's even more stats proving that's the case. First up, the latest data from Flurry Analytics points out that both iOS and Android saw not only record activations over the holiday weekend, with as many as 6.8 million new devices connecting up to their respective app stores for the first time. And of course with new devices comes new app downloads: Flurry says there were around 242 million app downloads on Christmas Day alone, a rise of more than 125% compared to the previous month's average (which itself has been high, I believe, ever since Thanksgiving).

GigaOm also cites some other usage figures, including the fact that over 7% of new purchases made on a mobile device this past Sunday were on an iPad. That means people wasted no time at all in breaking open their new Apple tablets and using them to buy more stuff.

All in all, it sounds like quite the phenomenal weekend for Apple, and all of the various developers and services that rely on the App Store for their livelihoods. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of these kinds of statistics. Stay tuned for more in the coming days and weeks to hear just how great a Christmas it was for the iOS ecosystem.

Reports suggest Apple retail had a great Christmas originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.