Just in time for the shopping season, version 1.7 of Gift Plan has been approved.

In this update, by popular demand we are introducing notes and tappable URLs for gifts entered in the Ideas, Shopping and Bought views. Now you can keep track of things like where gifts are available in stores or online as well as any other details that need remembering.

We’ve also improved the user interface for viewing photos, making it consistent across all views as well as fixing a number of bugs.

Gift Plan 1.7 is now available on the App Store.

For almost four years now we’ve been designing and building iOS apps independently in Australia. They have been both the most creative and dynamic years of our professional lives. We really feel like we’ve played our own small part in an ecosystem that is making the world a better place.

So this year we decided to step back and look at where we want to go from here on. We knew we were driving in the right direction but we felt it was time to pull over and reassess the course. This meant setting aside any assumptions we had and taking all paths and opportunities seriously. It’s been a challenging period with a lot of important decisions to make both for ourselves and our families, but we are thrilled with the outcome.

Going forward, we’re announcing today that we are relocating to the Bay Area in California, both of us joining software teams that are changing – and have already changed – the world.

Nick commences this month and will be relocating next week. Graham starts in early January 2013. If you follow us on Twitter – @glasshouseapps & @ntakayama – you’ll know more details in time.

What does this mean for Glasshouse, and specifically our apps?

Our goal is for all four of our apps (The Early Edition, Barista, Gift Plan and Tweetglass) to continue being developed and supported into the future. As such, we are now seeking enquiries from developers or companies interested in taking ownership of any or all of them. If you are interested or know of someone who is, please get in touch. All four apps have been chosen as App of the Week by Apple and we think it’s an exciting opportunity for someone to invest in their future.

At this stage we have no plans to remove any of the apps from sale if they don’t find a suitable home.

Thank you

Lastly, we would just like to say how incredibly thankful we are to our customers for all the feedback, encouragement, fun and support they’ve given us over the years. Ever since the very beginning we’ve been receiving daily emails and tweets from customers, sometimes ranting, sometimes suggesting, sometimes just saying thanks. It’s been invaluable engaging with the people who use our products.

- Graham and Nick.

Today we’re excited to bring you version 1.1 of Tweetglass – the Twitter iPad app formerly known as Quip! (if you missed it earlier, here’s why we changed the name)

The way @getquip handles conversations is the most brilliant Twitter feature I’ve ever seen. I really enjoy it.

— Nicolas Giannetta (@CodinGuru) June 3, 2012

Just when you thought they couldn’t make a more beautiful and functional twitter app, along comes @getquip.

— David Rossi (@bogusjimmy) June 6, 2012

Quip’s approach to conversations and filtering the timeline in other ways has been so well received that ever since it hit the App Store we’ve been planning and building v1.1, which brings new features, enhancements and for the first time, localizations. We still have some more work to do on it, but we can’t wait to show you!

A new name

Version 1.1 will be a big update for another reason too – Quip is getting a new name. A couple weeks ago we received a letter alleging that the name Quip infringes the trademark of another application, built by a company in Europe. It was a very tenuous claim but came from a well-funded company and ultimately it’s just impractical for us to defend. We have families to feed and to be honest, we’d rather spend our time making great software than sitting in a court room any day.

Implications

• As of today, Quip is no longer available for download in the 27 countries that are part of the European Union. That was the demand made of us, which we have accepted.
• More importantly, when version 1.1 is approved, Quip will be rebranded with its new name and once again be available on all of the European Union App Stores.

We could get disheartened about this stuff, but we’d rather turn it into a positive and get on with what we do best. The iOS platform is changing the world and we can’t think of anything better than making killer apps for it… whatever name they go by.

After a very rough start yesterday, version 2.3 of The Early Edition is now available and contains a number of UI improvements, features and bug fixes. The image above illustrates two new usability improvements. Firstly, the Browse icon has been moved from the navbar to the newspaper so it is always visible and accessible without having to drag the paper down*. Secondly, the section titles now have a triangular UI element beside them to visually indicate that they are tappable.
*Browse view can also be accessed via two-finger swipe from left to right.

If you downloaded a corrupt binary yesterday

Yesterday there was an issue affecting many app updates, causing them to crash on launch. The Early Edition 2.3 was one of the affected apps. If you happened to download v2.3 yesterday and experience this crash, please wait until the next update to restore your feeds and sections.
If you sync to Google Reader, you should have little problem getting back on track.
If on the other hand you use The Early Edition in Standalone mode, reinstalling the app will result in losing your feeds and sections. However:

• We are going to prepare 2.3.1 in order to try and upgrade users who installed a corrupt binary but have not deleted the app, so if you are prepared to wait, this may restore your feeds and sections. Please note that we will not be releasing this update until we are confident the problem has been sufficiently resolved at Apple’s end.
• If you have previously used the OPML export feature to back up your feeds and sections, you can restore them again from this once you’ve successfully installed the app.
• If you have never backed up to OPML, you still have the option of restoring your device from an iCloud or iTunes backup (with a date before yesterday obviously), which in theory should restore you to version 2.2.1 with all your data intact.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused. If you are upset about what has taken place we would appreciate it if you could contact us directly rather than post a negative review, since this issue was completely out of our control.

We would like to thank everyone for the incredible response we’ve had since launching Quip. We set out to turn a difficult aspect of Twitter into something frictionless and intuitive and your reaction has shown us that taking risks and challenging the status quo can really change things for the better.

Our big goal was to take the work out of Twitter so you could get on with enjoying it. To our delight, that’s exactly what many, many people are telling us Quip is doing. In fact a number of people have even said that after giving up on Twitter, Quip has brought them back.

Today we’re happy to announce that version 1.0.1 has been approved and is ready to update from the App Store. This is mostly a bug fix update, however there’s one new feature that goes a step further in the treatment of conversations.

We’ve added a conversation button to each tweet, where the retweet button used to be, (the retweet/quote tweet buttons are now found in the cog popover but this can be reverted via an option in Settings). This button performs the same function as holding your finger on an avatar, however it has the added benefit of a blue highlight state to indicate what will happen when it’s tapped.

We’d like to thank everyone who has reported bugs and given us your feedback in general. This has been invaluable for us in getting this update done and in creating a roadmap for the near future.

Our new app is out! Quip. A new Twitter app for iPad.

Dude, your pixels haven’t gone anywhere! The new iPad’s retina display squeezes four of them into the space that only one occupied on previous iPads. So here’s the magic: this means they pretty much disappear right before your eyes. Apple calls this a ‘retina display’ because at normal viewing distance, your eyes can’t see individual pixels anymore. Curved lines no longer look like small dots joined together – they actually look more like vectors. To get an idea for the difference, take a look at the magnified comparison above.

A couple weeks ago, when Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced the new iPad and its retina display, he also announced that it would be in stores in just over a week. So naturally we got to work on preparing The Early Edition 2 for the new display. Four days later, version 2.2 was ready, and to our surprise it was approved the morning that the new iPad launched.

The Early Edition is now finally matched by a display so detailed that it resembles real ink on real paper.

Seeing this update for the first time in the Apple Store that morning was an amazing experience. Sure, our new graphics look as great as I’d hoped at retina resolution, but even more stunning are text and images. The Early Edition is now finally matched by a display so incredible that it resembles real ink on real paper. Photos look like high quality prints. Wow.

Naturally with any Apple release, there were the usual handful of articles labelling it an incremental update and that Apple should have done more. My local TV news simply reported that the new iPad had ‘a better screen and a faster processor’. Reports like this simply don’t understand the difference a retina display makes on a device like the iPad.

Today it will be something cool, tomorrow something you never imagined possible.

I’ve always thought of the iPad as fundamentally just a canvas. The multitouch display is its one big feature. Combined with the App Store, the iPad’s uses are limitless. Today it will be something cool, tomorrow something you never imagined possible. The device won’t have changed but what you use it for will. If you think about the iPad’s retina display as a hardware spec, you’re doing it wrong. It doesn’t make the iPad better, it makes apps better. It transforms dots into paint. It turns digital images into actual photographs. It makes digital text look like ink on a page.

There’s nothing minor or incremental about that.

The Early Edition v2.1 has today been approved by Apple. This is a big update and includes wide variety of new improvements, services and features.

One the headline features in 2.1 is a deep integration with Readability. Not only can you now view short-content feeds in Readability’s clean interface, but we’ve also included full syncing with Readability accounts, so you can even view and manage your Reading List, Favorites and Archives.

Another big improvement is the new image gallery view. Now when you tap an image you’ll go straight to the image view and when you tap text you’ll go to the feed view. You can also swap between image, feed and web view via the toolbar and keep swiping through content seamlessly. (note: for anyone who prefers the old double-tap for image view, it’s available as an option in Settings).

We’ve also included support for sharing to Evernote, Pinboard and Readability, plus a really handy ‘Quick-share’ option in Settings:

Configuring your newspaper and sections is now even quicker and easier, thanks to the one-tap shortcut menu:

The Early Edition is available on the App Store here.

Apple has approved the latest update to The Early Edition 2, which contains a number of new features, bug fixes and other improvements:

For more information about The Early Edition 2, please have a look at the Product Page or watch the video below.