Once again we’re about to start beta testing a brand new iOS app.

To celebrate the launch, we’ll be giving away a free copy to 10 people randomly chosen from the mailing list after the app is approved.

To be eligible, just add your name and email address below, (don’t worry, we won’t share it with anyone and we only use this list to let you know about our new apps, which is a few times per year at most).

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.

Gift Plan v1.3 has today been approved by Apple. This update improves workflow, adds support for ages and addresses a few minor bugs. We hope you’ll enjoy the changes. Here’s the full list of what’s new:

✔ Now displays ages for birthdays (including notifications)
✔ Adding to Ideas and Shopping takes one less step
✔ Recipient is no longer required for Ideas or Shopping entries
✔ Occasion is no longer required for Ideas, Shopping or Bought entries
✔ Entering a year is now optional when adding occasion dates
✔ Fixed bug with passcode screen sometimes not appearing
✔ Minor performance improvements

Gift Plan is available on the App Store here.

Being an app developer, it’s a given that whenever a new iOS device is announced, I’ll be getting one. I can live with that, but the downside is that our first generation iPad (which I keep for testing older hardware and operating systems) ends up lying around and gathering dust.

Ever since I got an iPad 2 I’ve been trying to think of ways to give the older one more of a dedicated use. But what? Nothing really came to mind aside from using it to play videos for the kids on long car trips, which doesn’t happen all that often. Then the other day I saw this awesome under-cabinet mount by Griffin. Perfect!

Except for two small problems: Firstly, it’s only available for the original iPad (not a problem now, but when screws are involved I like some flexibility). And secondly, even if Griffin decides to make attachments for future iPads, the mount itself is only available in the US.

Then Xavier Verhoeven (iPad accessory maker and former online editor at Australian Macworld) reminded me of an Aussie startup with a product called The Wallee. The Wallee is an iPad case with an X-shaped hole in the back, with accessories that let you hang it, hold it, swing it or do whatever you like with it. And it turns out they have a Vesa mount for it, which suddenly means it will work with hundreds of brackets from any number of other manufacturers.

So after finding a Vesa mount and confirming with the Wallee guys that it would work, I bit the bullet and ordered all the necessary bits and pieces.

Here’s what I got:

1. Brateck under-cabinet Vesa mount ($18.13)
2. Wallee iPad case ($39.95)
3. Wallee wall mount disk ($10.00)
4. Wallee Vesa adaptor ($14.95)

This is what the Wallee case looks like from the back. I got a clear one, but there are other colours available.

This shows the under-cabinet mount with the Wallee Vesa adaptor and wall mount attached to it. The hinge tilts 110 degrees and swivels 360.

Here’s what it looks like when folded away under the cabinet.

All set up. The app shown is TuneIn Radio Pro. (highly recommended – the UI is excellent and it has all the major Australian stations).

The Wallee can be rotated 90 degrees, so both orientations are supported. The app shown here is the excellent The Photo Cookbook.

Being English, my wife likes to keep up with the latest on the BBC iPad app.

All in all, I’m very happy with the result. Sure it’s not as sleek and tidy as the Griffin one, but I can live with this and my wife is stoked to have radio, email, Skype, the web and recipes all within reach and without consuming valuable bench space.

Have you got an iPad rig or dedicated use for an old iPad? Please share it in the comments!

This year I flew to San Francisco for WWDC a few days early just to find my feet and have a bit more time to see the city. One of the things I really wanted to do was go down to Baker Beach and get some photos of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset, which I managed to do as you can see from the photo above. It was a magical sight, though it’s pretty tricky getting down there.

As you no doubt know already, the keynote that Steve Jobs delivered on Monday was an incredibly ambitious one for Apple. iOS 5 and iCloud bring with them a huge set of new, incredibly useful developer APIs and tools to work with. It also means that we have a lot more work on our hands, reworking and rethinking our current projects and already shipping projects.

For me, one of the best things about WWDC is meeting so many great developers and designers. If you’ve been following my Twitter stream you’ve seen just some of them. When I get back home I’d like to collate them all and do a blog post listing them all, so I can share the experience of meeting them with you.

This year it’s been a bit different to 2010 because Nick – the other half of Glasshouse Apps – didn’t make it since his wife is due to launch v3.0 of his offspring any time now. But there’s a great bunch of Aussies like Marc Edwards, his wife Nadja and Sean Woodhouse who don’t seem to mind putting up with me.

That’s it from me for now – the beer bash is on tonight and I think I might head back to Blue Bottle to keep the caffeine levels in check and maybe even meet some more cool WWDC nerds before they start dispersing all over the globe tomorrow afternoon.

PS. “Cool nerds” – you can laugh but it’s true! (especially in San Francisco)

Just when you think you know a thing or two about the App Store, something like this happens.

We’ve been working on a pretty big iOS project for the last few months and haven’t been paying too much attention to sales figures. So when I logged in to iTunes Connect the other day and saw that our nifty iPhone app Gift Plan had reached an all-time low of 15 sales in a day, worldwide, I thought maybe we should try shaking things up a little. What did we have to lose?

So we decided to do two things we’ve never done before:

• Trial a new regular price of 99c, and…
• Make it free for 24 hours to hopefully give the price change a bit of attention.

The entire extent of my marketing plan for this little experiment was posting this tweet. Amazingly it was retweeted by about 60 people, (thanks to TiPB, Mac Stories and Desktop Magazine for being among them). Then Cult of Mac wrote a nice review, and as far as I know that was about it.

So anyway, I wake up this morning and reach for my iPhone to check the figures out. I’m glad I was still in bed or I would have fallen over. In 24 hours, Gift Plan went from 15 downloads in a single day, to 55,290. That’s right, read it again if you have to – I did.

But that was just the first shock. The USA App Store only accounted for a little over 5,000 downloads. It was France which drove the numbers through the stratosphere, with over 38,000 downloads on the French App Store. I wish I’d been able to see it yesterday, but I found out through an app ranking website that Gift Plan was the top free app in France yesterday, even beating the untouchable Angry Birds.

So… What have I learned?

• Firstly, I knew this already, but I’ve been reminded how immensely different the free app market is, compared to paid – even at a measly 99c.
• Secondly, I simply had no idea that the French App Store was so strong. We will definitely be thinking more seriously about localisations from here on.
• Thirdly, even really good apps can sell poorly if no one knows about them. Obviously I’m just a tad biased, but I really like Gift Plan and I think it deserves to sell well for all of the finesse we’ve put into it. But these days, standing out from the other 300,000+ apps is a very tough gig.
• Fourthly, I’m more confused than ever about charting well on the App Store. If I ever tell you that I’ve got it figured out, you’re welcome to punch me in the face.

Secrets. Does anyone really like secrets? My guess is that most people don’t. If information is power, then I guess the reason we hate having it kept from us is that it takes some of that power away.

And here’s something else we don’t like: Waiting for stuff. Really, who likes waiting? (if you do actually like waiting, go call your telco or bank and enjoy the hold music).

So nobody likes secrets, and nobody likes waiting.

App Store customers are no different. They love apps, and like to have information from developers. The trouble is that software development doesn’t always go according to plan, and plans can change at any time. In fact it’s pretty rare for software plans to stay on schedule.

So the dilemma is ‘How much is too much information?’. Customers often ask us for information about our plans for new features, updates, platform ports or entirely new apps. On the one hand we’d love to answer all of these questions. Why hold back from people if there could be helpful information to share? But all too often when developers announce plans, somehow they turn into promises and if they fall behind schedule, all hell can break loose.

So what’s the answer? Should developers announce their plans out of respect for customers and take it on the chin if things backfire? Or keep everything a secret and risk alienating customers by never giving anything away?

Apple have famously taken the secretive approach. Some say to their discredit but the fact is that keeping new products and features under wraps until the end of their development cycle has been a huge factor in Apple’s success.

To be honest, we’re not 100% sure where indie app developers like ourselves should stand, but we’ve decided to stay closer to the secretive end of the scale. We’re happy to discuss bug fixes and performance issues, but as far as new features and products, we’re going to remain tight-lipped (as the saying goes, it’s better to under-promise and over-deliver). But we want our customers to know that we don’t enjoy being secretive. It’s a very hard and quite unnatural thing to be.

What I will say is that we are really excited about the year ahead, and when the time comes I hope you’ll decide that the secrets we’re keeping now were well worth the wait.

It’s been a long time coming but our new iOS app has been approved just in time to help you out with your Christmas shopping. And after Christmas? Well it’s got you covered there too. Gift Plan presents a whole new way of remembering and managing birthdays, anniversaries and any other gift-giving occasion you can think of.

Take a look at the demo video and let us know what you think!