Apple Starts 'Free App of the Week'

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Late last week, Apple started a free App of the Week promotion in the App Store, much like their long-running free Song of the Week for the iTunes Music Store.

They kicked off with a game, Cut the Rope: Experiments(App Store link). I grabbed it because I had remembered a friend speaking highly of the original Cut the Rope.

Later, when on my iPad, I saw Cut the Rope: Experiments HD(App Store Link) was being offered as the free app for iPad. I almost passed on downloading it because I didn’t want to maintain two levels of progress on different devices.

Then I noticed both versions featured iCloud sync. Bingo. This is how gaming should be done on iOS. Now, I can casually play a couple levels on my iPhone, and later pick up on my iPad, with all my scores and progress synced via iCloud.

Another perk of iCloud integration? Should I ever need to delete the app (let’s say if a serious bug crept up), I could choose to leave the save data in iCloud. Reinstall the app and all my progress is still there.

I’ve greatly enjoyed Apple’s inaugural picks for the section of the App Store. And they’ve made me realize how games should start integrating iCloud for saving progress.

Coda 2 and Diet Coda

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Panic has released the long-awaited update to Coda on the Mac — Coda 2, and an all new iPad companion cleverly named Diet Coda. Both apps are 50% off today only. If you get Coda from the Mac App Store, iCloud will keep your projects in sync (highly recommended). If you do any coding for a site, Coda 2 and Diet Coda should be in your utility belt.

Frictionless

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Aaron Mahnke has launched a new project called Frictionless. His goal is to help you and me remove frictional stresses from our lives. It’s inspiring and encouraging.

I recommend that if you are reading this, you go download Aaron’s PDF of The Frictionless Manifesto. It requires signing up for his newsletter (for now), but I think that newsletter will be worth it. It’s always easy to unsubscribe if necessary. It took me about ten minutes to read the manifesto, and it is truly great. I’m already starting to rethink some of my daily routines and processes.

I have a lot of friction to remove, and a lot of work to do so. I’m sure you do, too.

Lightroom 4 Comes to the Mac App Store

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Adobe has released Lightroom 4 on the Mac App Store. Not only is this Adobe's first foray into releasing a truly professional app on the Mac App Store, but it is also their first foray into a non-archaic installation process.

OS X 10.7.4 and Safari 5.1.7 Are Out

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Apple released OS X 10.7.4 and Safari 5.1.7 today. The OS X update fixes some under the hood stuff and a big password security hole in the original FileVault system, which only affects FileVault users that upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard. Lion’s FileVault 2 system didn’t have this security problem.

The Safari update will disable Adobe Flash Player if the currently installed version is outdated. It then will prompt you to download the latest version of Flash straight from Adobe.

So, go hit up Software Update from the Apple menu.

iOS 5.1.1 Released for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

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An update to iOS is now available via iTunes or, more preferably, the Software Update feature on your device, found within the Settings app.

Here’s the changelog:

This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

  • Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
  • Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
  • Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
  • Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
  • Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

I know I experienced the camera locking up with HDR on when using the lock screen shortcut, and I’ve had run-ins with AirPlay video and the ‘Unable to Purchase’ dialog. So I am pretty pleased with this update. It weighs in around 43-55 MB, depending on your device.