Can you include CSS3 animation in iBooks created using Apple’s new iBooks Author app? That’s what the people at Sencha wondered about too. So, they created a CSS3 animation using Sencha Animator and included it in a test iBook created with iBooks Author. You can see the result above.
How to Embed Interactive CSS3 Animations in an iBook
You can listen to my discussion with Sencha’s Senior Director of Product Management, Aditya Bansod. in MobileViews Podcast 54 recorded last month.
Thirty (30) of the apps for my iPad &/or iPhone were updated in the past week. Apps that do not have comments in the list below indicates that the update is simply a bug fix release.
(more…)
RunKeeper updated its Fitness Reports to provide more information. A premium account (RunKeeper Elite) is needed to view most of it. However, I found the the Total Distance information available for free accounts useful. It lets me look at my walking information in a variety of ways. You can see my totals sorted by day of week in the screenshot above.
The free RunKeeper mobile app is available for a variety of platforms. I use the version for Windows Phone to track my near-daily walking sessions.
WeatherBug beat out other weather apps to earn its spot on my Windows Phone’s start screen because it provides the most accurate information.
The app has, however, one feature that really annoys me: It issues a Tsunami Watch/Warning when there is no actual warning. The “warning” is based on an informational alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center that clearly states This Statement is For Information Only. No Action Require. WeatherBug should be able to parse this statement and either not issue any alert (which pops up on my Windows Phone) or relabel it as a simple informational alert.
Hey, WeatherBug! Please fix this issue in your otherwise useful app!
It looks like Apple launched a new podcast series named Meet the Developer. It is under the TV & Film/Events at the Apple Store category. The first podcast features a fourth generation butcher who released an app named Pat LaFrieda’s Big App for Meat ($6.99). The app has a somewhat unusual format. It combines the audio track with a slideshow of still photos from the discussion.
Apple created the desktop publishing industry in the 1980s. In the 21st century, they want to reinvent ebook publishing. Part of this reinvention process is the free iBooks Author software for Mac OS X that Apple released today (2012.01.19). Anyone using a Mac can download it from the Mac App Store at no charge, use the software to create an ebook, and publish it through Apple’s iBookstore. You can bypass the iBookstore publishing process for testing and informal distribution by simply getting the file over to an iOS device using, for example, Dropbox.
However, as most of us have learned by now, there’s always a price to pay even when something is free. In this case, the price is being locked into distributing only through Apple’s iBookstore if you create an ebook using iBooks Author that is sold for a fee. From that point on, any ebook created using iBooks Author must be distributed through the iBookstore. That’s what Dan Wineman learned by reading the software’s EULA: If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a “Workâ€), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple.