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Download a Free App, Raise Money to Help Japan
You can buy software or donate directly to help Japanese disaster relief efforts, but Japanese startup Lunascape has announced a way to help without even spending any of your own money. Just download one of the company’s iOS applications, and it’ll donate ¥50 (a little over $0.63 U.S.).

It may not seem like much, but Lunascape is prepared to donate up to ¥5 million (roughly $64,000) as a result of iLunascape app downloads. The company has already donated 1 million yen (or around $13,000) before even beginning this campaign, and intends to begin rolling out donation buttons and links in its products and webpages in the coming days. All funds raised will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross and other similar relief organizations under the name “Friends of Lunascape.”

iLunascape is an iOS web browser alternative that provides true tabbed browsing, the ability to grab website screenshots, and its own special “InReach” interface that brings many commonly used controls within easy reach of a user’s thumbs down near the bottom of the device screen. The iPhone and iPad versions are two separate apps, so presumably downloading each will trigger a separate donation, meaning you can download up to about $1.20 just by taking a few quick seconds to install a couple free apps. Even if you don’t have either iOS device, grab it from iTunes: a download’s a download.

If you’re interested in seeing how far along towards its ¥6 million goal (1 million already donated and 5 million in potential downloads resulting from app downloads) Lunascape is tracking its progress over at its official donation page. The campaign begins today and lasts a full month, so you’ve got plenty of time to spread the word to any iPhone or iPad-toting friends.
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Panic Donating Proceeds From Software Sales to Help Japan
Panic, the company behind some great Mac applications such as HTML-editor Coda, announced Thursday that all proceeds taken until tomorrow morning will be donated to the Japanese relief effort.

All sales of any of the company’s software between 10:00 a.m., March 17 and 10:00 a.m., March 18 (PDT) will be donated directly to a mix of the Japanese Red Cross Society and the Mercy Corps based in Portland, Ore. That includes both sales on Panic’s own site and sales made through the Mac App Store, and absolutely 100 percent of proceeds will be donated.

By purchasing any of Panic’s applications today, not only are you getting some great software, but you’ll also be helping out a country in need of a helping hand at the moment. In Panic founder Cabel Sasser’s own words:

You might be sick of it — being told to donate to a charity. If you're like me, donating to a charity is an abstract, disconnected affair. So, we thought we'd make it a little more tangible, allowing you to help Japan directly while getting Panic software with one swift click.

Sasser also explains that there’s a very personal reason why Panic wants to do what it can to help:

Nobuhiro, who runs Panic Japan, packed up his wife and two kids in his home town of Kashiwa, and, after finding gas, drove them to Nagoya, far from the looming threat of a legitimate nuclear disaster. Kenichi, our icon genius, was, amazingly, right here in Portland when everything hit, and he watched it unfold stunned and disconnected: just the latest Bruckheimer production in a tiny streaming video window. He's now on his way back to Nagoya. And while part of me wonders if he's headed in the wrong direction, when he e-mailed me the latest ultrasound sent from his pregnant wife (it's a boy!), I knew he was right.

If you’ve been waiting to buy any of Panic’s applications, there’s no better time than right now. Even if you only buy something small such as CandyBar, you’ll be doing your bit to help out. Why not take the opportunity to download any applications you already own, but from the Mac App Store, to make updating and installation on multiple computers easier?

Have you heard of any other generous developers helping the Japan relief effort? Let us know in the comments.
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Apple's App Store Ecosystem Grows With Mac Sales
The latest report covering app store sales from research firm Distimo is out, and it offers revealing insights into the early success to the Mac App Store, and how that most recent extension of Apple’s digital software sales compares to the iPhone, iPad and competitor app marketplaces. The report features some key takeaways for developers operating in Apple’s software ecosystem.

The news is good for Apple. Just two months into launch, an application in the top 300 on the Mac App Store already generates half as much revenue as one in the top 300 on the iPad App Store. Considering the age of the distribution channel, and the fact that the Mac App Store isn’t guaranteed to be universally present on every Mac running OS X (it only shipped with OS X 10.6.6, released officially on Jan. 6 and not all users keep their OS up to date) means that those numbers should only continue to grow as adoption increases among the general Mac user population.

It’s good news for developers, too, since according to the report, the average selling price of a Mac App Store title ($11.21) in the top 300 list is seven times greater than the average selling price of an iPhone app ($1.57), and three times that of an iPad app ($4.19). Also, free apps remain much more of a rarity on the platform. Only 12 percent of the apps on the Mac App Store are free. If revenues remain high as Mac App Store usage and reach grows, it could become a haven for developers who are wary of trying to compete among the bargain basement offerings of the iOS App Stores.

The real opportunity here as I see it is for developers to capitalize on the availability of all three platforms by offering connected solutions for each. So far, only 173 publishers distribute apps in more than one store, and the Mac App Store is one of those multiple stores in only 5 percent of cases. Offering apps across all three platforms would benefit many apps, providing a way to encourage growth for brands that are strong in the iOS space but don’t yet have a presence on the OS X platform, and a way to offset the low per-unit revenues garnered by iOS apps with higher-priced Mac-based offerings. Developers hoping to gain greater visibility in the App Store ecosystem should also note that Apple tends to highlight apps that appear across all of its platforms, and even built a special section specifically to house those titles.

The new Distimo report also shows the Apple App Store ecosystem as still out ahead of the Android store by a wide margin, especially when it comes to the availability of paid applications, even when the iPhone and iPad App Stores are viewed as separate entities. The iPhone App Store alone has 314,644 apps in total, while the Android marketplace has around 175,000.

The Mac App Store has about 2,674 apps available, which is far less than the 8,099 apps the iPad App Store had available two months following its launch, but unlike on the iPad, the Mac App Store isn’t the only (officially approved) available method of distribution for platform software. The option to continue with boxed sales, direct digital downloads and other software distribution platforms like Steam no doubt contributes to slower developer investment in Apple’s own solution.

One final key takeaway from Distimo’s report is that the Mac App Store seems to be prompting a renewed interest in Mac gaming, an area where Apple’s computing platform has traditionally been lacking. Distimo found that just under 40 percent of the most popular Mac App Store apps are games, which productivity apps and utilities coming in a distant second with just over 10 percent each. Personally, I’ve already purchased more games form the Mac App Store than any other kind of software, and the availability of marquee titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Call of Duty 4 in addition to more casual titles bodes well for the future of Mac gaming.
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Customer Feedback Drives Useful Improvements in Bento 4
The release of Bento 4 for Mac was, according to Product Manager Ryan Griggs, driven primarily by customer requests. Bento 4 is more usable and polished in a number of small ways that make it much more enjoyable to use, and a lot more productive in certain situations.

iCal Tasks On Your iPhone!

While users of Bento will want to check the list of features added in this release, I would like to address one feature right from the top that might appeal to someone who has so far avoided the program. This latest release includes the ability to sync with iCal Tasks, just like it currently syncs with iCal appointment calendars and Address Book contacts. Bento is now a much more complete project management solution which can incorporate your contacts, calendar and tasks in one place and extend it with additional information.

Even better, Bento for Mac will then sync this data with Bento for iPhone or iPad, making Bento 4 one of the few ways to bring iCal Tasks over to your mobile iOS device. Because there is no native task app for iPhone, Bento 4 represents the cleanest and simplest way that I know of to bring your iCal tasks to the iPhone and is a good solution for those that might not need the full power of something like OmniFocus or Things.

Printing

Printing has been improved significantly. Label printing is a new feature that Griggs suggested was the most requested addition from users. 250 Avery and Dymo label templates are built-in, and you can create custom label sizes and incorporate database fields and images into your designs. You can also specify print-friendly layouts to optimize your forms for both data entry on screen and for printing on paper or to PDF.

Sharing

A unique feature of Bento is the Template Exchange, where users can share the templates they design with each other. The Template Exchange now has over 800 templates that have been downloaded a collective 650,000 times. The Exchange should continue to grow even faster now that you can share your template directly from within the Bento application.

You can also export a template with data in it to share with someone else. This makes it simpler to put together a Bento database and just send that piece to someone else to use with the data already in it.

Form Enhancements

The Simple Lists feature has been enhanced with more spreadsheet-like features. You can add summary rows, and perform simple calculations in a list.

While the easy form editing has been retained, you can also choose to lock a form to keep from accidentally moving elements around.

New Features for iPhone and iPad

Bento for iPhone and iPad have been updated to sync with Bento 4 for Mac and support iCal Tasks. All three also support the new location field feature, which lets you capture your current GPS coordinates and store them in a data field. On the Mac, this feature relies exclusively on Wi-Fi positioning, while it can use GPS if present on the iPhone or iPad. Another new field type is the Voice Memo. You can record your voice directly into media field.

You can imagine new uses for these fields where you might take voice notes when scouting real estate and record the GPS location. Or you might interview subjects for a study and capture the location of the interview as well. Or take notes on a photo shoot and insert the GPS coordinates. It's a nice addition that provides some additional flexibility for certain users.

Pricing and Availability

Bento 4 is available in the Mac App Store and at retail outlets. The new version costs $49, with a family pack of five licenses available for $99. If you use an earlier version of Bento, you’re eligible for a $20 rebate when you upgrade.

The new versions of Bento for iPhone and Bento for iPad are free upgrades for existing users. The apps cost $5 and are available in the iTunes App Store.
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Why the New York Times Paywall Will Backfire
Finally, the New York Times disclosed details of its long-awaited digital subscription plan today, including changes affecting its online and smartphone readers. The new plan launches today in Canada for testing ahead of a March 28 global launch, but might it actually scare away the readers who stand to benefit the paper the most?

Non-subscribers will still have access to a limited amount of content, including 20 articles per month (which includes slideshows, videos and other forms of multimedia content), after which they will be asked to subscribe. Users who reach stories from links in blogs, social media and searches will also still be able to access stories, even if they’ve exceeded the monthly limit. Digital subscriptions start at $15 billed every four weeks, which provides access to the NYTimes.com website and use of a smartphone app (the NYT iPhone app, for example). A second plan will cost $20 every four weeks and include NYTimes.com access and use of a tablet app (like the iPad app that’s currently available for free), and a third plan will cost users $35 for a four-week period and include unlimited digital access across all platforms. E-reader subscriptions like the one available in the Amazon Kindle store will continue to be sold and priced separately, and home delivery subscribers will still get full digital access as a part of their subscription.

Tiered access based on the device used is an interesting approach, but one I predict won’t be popular. Why, for instance, does tablet access cost more than smartphone access? Because it’s more convenient and enjoyable to read an iPad app than it is to use your iPhone? After all, users aren’t paying more for better features. They’re paying for the same content, plus a sliding premium based on whether or not they themselves choose to buy a more or less expensive consumption device, or want to access content on multiple devices.

Dave Winer makes a great point in his post of initial reactions to the news: The New York Times isn’t thinking enough about the user’s perspective. In short, he argues the newspaper offers nothing in exchange for what it’s now asking of its users. In fact, as I just mentioned, the plan seems to penalize you depending on what platform you want to access content from.

According to the Times, its iPhone app has been downloaded 6.2 million times since its 2008 launch, and the iPad app has been downloaded over 1.6 million times since October. NYT officials say the iPad app has generated strong interest from advertisers, especially luxury, technology and entertainment companies. Studies have shown that iPad readers are more susceptible to advertising than those using other mobile platforms. The Times is also planning to offer users the ability to subscribe digitally from within the app, which will work with Apple’s in-app subscription system beginning June 30, so it’s clear iOS readership continues to be an audience that’s important to the company.

Yet overall, those app users will be most affected by the new subscription plan. Apps will still work for iPhone and iPad readers, but they’ll only provide access to the Top News section (remember the Editor’s Choice app? Like that.) and all other content will require a digital subscription. No monthly limit will apply in either app. This, I suspect, might be where the Times sees its biggest decline in readers. Light to moderate app users faced with the choice of becoming a digital subscriber or going back strictly to the web with its broader access, I think most will choose the latter, which could hurt the Times’ ability to attract lucrative advertising deals to the apps.

What’s your take? Will you pay for the privilege of using an app, or just go back to reading on the web?
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New iPhone Ads Play to Apple's Strengths… and iBooks?
Apple released a trio of new iPhone ads, all of which are available at its website and on YouTube. The ads all share the tagline “If you don’t have an iPhone” and focus on key platform-exclusive features that aren’t available to any other device. It’s a good idea for Apple to highlight the areas where it excels, but I’m left scratching my head at why iBooks is one of the three highlighted features.

The first of the three ads focuses on the App Store, which is an obvious choice. Apple still owns the app market, despite the rapid growth of available software on the Android platform, so when Apple makes claims that Android users don’t have access to the largest selection of apps, there’s nothing to dispute.

It’s the same with the second ad, which talks about the iPhone’s iPod app and iTunes music store access. Apple wins at digital music distribution and has ruled the media player space almost as long as there’s been one to rule, and probably won’t be ceding that market anytime soon, despite new competition.

The last ad is the one that sticks out. It argues that if you don’t have an iPhone, you’re missing out on iBooks and the iBookstore. That’s true, but it’s hardly a landslide competitive advantage for the iOS platform in the way that the App Store and iTunes are. Apple may use the same formula for all three ads (the iPhone has store X access, which provides content Y for use on your device), but while the first two seem to be selling the iPhone using platform features as incentives, I’d argue that the last is doing just the opposite.

The iBookstore has failed to gain the kind of traction of Amazon’s Kindle storefront and app, which is multiplatform and had a significant head start in the e-book market. Back in October 2010, TUAW posted a dismal overview of the state of iBooks, and the situation hasn’t changed much, though Apple now has Random House in the iBookstore stable in addition to its original five major publishing partners. Even with that addition, Apple still only boasts around 200,000 titles, while the Kindle store offered more than 800,000 at last count.

Apple is poised for a stand-off with Kindle come June 30, when the Mac-maker begins enforcing its in-app content purchasing rules, which would see Amazon have to give up a 30-percent cut of book sales made through its iOS apps, and prevent it from offering a link to its own external storefront. The inclusion of Apple’s iBooks in this latest ad campaign may be a subtle move on Apple’s part to foreground its own Kindle alternative as it prepares for the possibility of losing Amazon’s popular e-reading solution altogether, but ultimately, it only serves to remind us that iBooks is the area Apple most needs to work on improving.
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Why Apple's Stock Fell Despite iPad 2′s Success
Apple shares have been pummeled this week, marking their largest decline in nine months. It’s not something you’d expect, given the iPad 2 launch was an unmitigated success. So why are Apple shares taking the hit, dropping 2.3 percent on Tuesday, and 4.5 percent on Wednesday?

Analysts point to several causes. JMP Securities’ Alex Gauna downgraded Apple on Wednesday because of concerns over slowing growth at Apple’s main supplier, Hon Hai Precision Industry (also known as Foxconn), as Android’s huge success starts chipping away at iPhone sales.

Gauna is among the few naysayers who doubt Apple can continue to outperform the market. But Asian firm CSLA counters that the JMP analysis ignores the fact that Apple doesn’t represent a significant portion of Hon Hai’s sales (Apple accounted for about 24 percent of Hon Hai’s total 2010 revenue, according to CSLA). If so, that’s definitely not enough to infer a direct one-to-one relationship between the fortunes of the two companies.

CSLA offers a second, more convincing reason behind Apple’s recent slump. CSLA firm analysts Chitra Gopal and Steve Fox argue (and, to be fair, Gauna also mentions this) that Apple’s heavy reliance on Japanese components is causing investor jitters in light of last week’s earthquake and tsunami. Here’s an excerpt from their full note on the subject (via SAI):

A4 /A5 CPUs are made by Ibiden, and ACF films for displays are 100% sourced from Japan (Sony Chemical and Hitachi). This will affect practically all manufacturing, not just Apple plays. Apple related stocks are getting hit today — I guess one reason could be Apple historically has operated a lean supply chain (carries much lower inventory vs. other consumer electronics/PC makers) — so concerns are the Apple’s shipments could be worse hit.

The Japanese market represents about a 6 percent share of Apple’s overall sales. Obviously, Apple’s sales in the country will be affected following the disaster, and the iPad 2′s launch in that country has been delayed indefinitely. But here’s the rub: The disaster’s fallout is hardly limited to Apple, and it’s hard to see how Apple could possibly be more affected than the majority of its competitors in the consumer electronics and computing market.

So what else could be behind the stock slide? Michael Shulman of InvestorPlace offers four other reasons. Maybe his most salient point is that many simply believe that Apple’s growth will inevitably slow, so why not now? Shulman, for one, isn’t buying it. He points out that Apple owns a fraction of the worldwide cell phone and personal computer market share, giving it plenty of room to expand its business, something it could easily accomplish if it continues its trend of bringing lower-priced offerings to market.

Apple’s stock is up about 2 or 3 percent today as of Thursday morning. Overall, tech stocks are trading low (down half a percent today) as a result of concerns of market instability following the earthquake in Japan. If anything, the clear evidence of Apple’s success with iPad 2, combined with what I think is an undervaluation based on JMP’s downgrading make this a perfect time to buy Apple stock if you’ve been looking for the opportunity.
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