This free app has been hugely popular with sports fans, combining news and features that you can read along with listening to radio reports and joining fantasy play-offs.

You can read about, and tag, news and stats for your favourite team, and players.  

If you’re not in Indianapolis in person, you can use the app to pick up live radio streams of the games themselves. That’s also good news if you’re not spending the season sitting in a sports bar, or at home in front of the TV.   

And if you have this app already you might have expressed a hunch about who’s going to win the Super Bowl by taking part in Fantasy Playoff Prediction. You’ll soon know if you got it right.

The Patriots or the Giants? My eight-year-old friend in Rhode Island says – the Pats! We’ll soon find out. 

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Get Dealy. The developer describes Get Dealy as site offering sales on tech products. Deals on Mac software, web applications, and resources for creatives and developers. We’ve got over 120,000 members and are growing every day!.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

Get Dealy's site

A personalized email with deals from Get Dealy

About the App

Here are the top features you can expect to see in Get Dealy:

1. Sales between 50% and 70% off.
2. Specifically targeted toward technology.
3. Between 1 and 5 new (exclusive) sales each day.
4. Maximum of one email a day, containing only the deals you’re interested in.

Requirements: Any recent web browser
Price: Free
Developer: Get Dealy

We’re starting to see this mentality around our phones. Gone are the days of something small enough to be mistaken for a pack of gum; no, we want something with a 5.3 inch screen — anything less than 4.3 inches is for babies. Should the iPhone get a larger screen, or is it perfect the way it is? Let’s take a look.

That Rule-of-Thumb Thing

Most people operate their phones one-handed at least the majority of the time. I personally don’t even attempt to tap out a tweet or send a message using only one hand, but if I’m reading through Instapaper or Tweetbot I’ll use one hand to navigate. This is made easy by the iPhone’s screen size; I, and many others, can reach every pixel of the screen with my thumb.

Consider then, a larger iPhone screen. If it jumps to, say, 3.7 inches, I don’t foresee too much of a problem. I owned a Droid Incredible with that screen size, and everything was still easy to reach with one hand. I’d say that 3.7 is doable for most people, as it’s a slight increase over 3.5 inches.

Anywhere beyond that, though, and you’re beginning to stretch. One-handed navigation begins to require some shimmying around the phone, loosening your grip and sliding around in order to reach each object on the screen. For some – especially those with larger hands – this isn’t an issue, but I imagine that there are plenty of people with average-sized thumbs that wouldn’t be able to reach the entire screen.

Is That a Phone in Your Pocket, or Are You Happy to See Me?

If you are wearing pants that fit you properly there is no way that you can comfortably squeeze a large phone into your pocket. Now, I know that this isn’t an issue over here in the States simply because we can’t seem to find a way to educate people on how their pants should fit, but I like to think that other parts of the world have the miraculous capability to think about how they look. If there is enough room for a 5.3 inch phone to fit in your pocket, you genuinely feel comfortable and there isn’t some weird bulge in your front pocket, you’re either wearing sweat pants or you’re doing something wrong.

The 5.3 inch Galaxy Note. (Image credited to The Verge)

Contrast that with the iPhone. Right now it fits in the phone with no problems. Anyone wearing proper jeans should be able to fit their iPhone into their pocket without a large bulge (there is still a bit of a bump there, I’ll admit). My experience with the Droid Incredible has shown me that, again, it’s comparable to the iPhone. Trying to pocket my Dell Venue Pro, though, leads to some serious issues.

By increasing the size of the screen you are inevitably going to increase overall device size (within reason; Apple could probably get the iPhone to 3.7 inches without increasing device size) which affects the portability of the phone. Since your mobile phone is meant to be taken with you, this is maybe one of the most important things to consider when talking about screen (and device) size.

Okay, but Media is Awesome, Right?

Absolutely, imaginary heading. Despite the lower pixel density on my Dell Venue Pro, I can see how someone might prefer that larger screen size when they decide to watch a music video or (heaven forbid) a movie on their phone. Everything from looking at pictures to reading is more comfortable on a device with a larger screen.

Let’s think about the issues with the pixel density for a moment. Right now, Apple has gotten the Retina Display for the iPhone down to an art, with fewer and fewer malfunctioning displays and a continued emphasis on the quality of the screen. Factories and suppliers are accustomed to creating the Retina Display at a 3.5 inch size.

As screen size increases, our eyes will feel more comfortable with the size of the display, but will feel worse about the clarity of the display. In my experience using any phone (or even the iPad) after using the iPhone makes the whole experience seem blurry, as though I had forgotten that between putting one phone away and grabbing another I had turned into a seventy-year-old and left my reading glasses.

If Apple can get the Retina Display on a larger display I would be ecstatic. I’m hoping that this will happen with the iPad, but if it can be brought to a slightly-larger iPhone I’d be a happy camper. Screen size is important, but screen clarity is even more important.

Holding a Charge

Now, the bane of larger-screened phones everywhere: battery life. To be fair, this reputation might be from a mix of the larger screen size and 4G (LTE, blah blah blah), but through my own tests, even a phone with less pixels and no data connection ran through a battery faster than the iPhone.

Mmm. With a larger screen and 4G that bar could go from full to empty in no time flat.

Sure, as device size and screen size increase the battery size will also increase, but the question is whether or not that battery size can be increased proportionally with the demand from that larger screen. Since Apple is a leading force when it comes to battery life I can see this being a non-issue if they decide to release a phone with a larger screen, but I also know that they won’t release that phone until that battery is ready.

Conclusion

I don’t have the answers. I know that Apple will take its time changing the iPhone’s form factor; that’s exactly what they’ve done with the iPhone 4S. Beyond being incredibly pleased with the iPhone 4’s form – which is still unbeaten in this industry – I think that the 4S may have been a chance to make some changes to the iPhone while giving Apple some time to look into other, more drastic changes for the so-called iPhone 5.

With each change that they make, Apple is weighing in on what they believe is best for all of their customers. At this point, I’m not sure that a larger screen size is best for everyone, as most people are more than happy with the size of their iPhone.

Might Apple release a different line of iPhones with a larger screen? Maybe, but I doubt it. I think that, for right now at least, Apple is fine with having a smaller phone than those mammoths that we’re shown every day.

Continue reading Report: 600,000 Nokia N9 Devices Shipped in Q4 2011 at The Nokia Blog

Does it deliver on its promises, or does this app get too much “hype” for its own good?

The state of animation on the web

Lets be honest: unless you have been living under a rock for the past 15 years (in which case it would be surprising to find you reading this), you will know very well that Flash has been the tool of choice for most animation on the web up until relatively recently. For over a decade now it has been (and continues to be in many cases) the de-facto standard for animated content on the web. The reasons for this are many, including the wide install-base of the Flash browser plugin, and the fast that Flash as a platform has a relatively low barrier to entry, (it is possible to learn the basics very quickly for most people), and is very flexible (you can build everything from a simple button up to full, interactive, websites).

It is only within the past year or two that CSS3 has reached a stage where browser vendors have been interested in starting to support the burgeoning standard, and even now support is far from universal. The latest builds of Safari and Chrome carry the best support, with Firefox and Opera shortly behind. IE9 has added some CSS3 support, but any version prior to that will see no love for your animated creations.

CSS3 brings with it the possibility of animating elements individually using nothing but the same kind of code web developers generate daily anyway (albeit with some new syntax to learn), and these animations will work on iOS devices such as the iPad and iPhone while Flash, famously, will not.

Javascript also has a part to play in this equation, too. It is possible to leverage Javascript’s control over the page to animate elements, but for most people the code needed to do this is simply too arduous to write. jQuery makes things a great deal easier by including a framework that you can build around (basically allowing you to set end values for CSS attributes such as position or opacity and doing all the work in-between for you).

Up steps Hype

The main problem with the use of CSS3 and/or Javascript to achieve your animation goals, though, is that you have to know (and write) a lot of code if you are hoping to achieve anything but the most simple of animations. Secondly, the lack of an immediate visual representation of what you are doing will make this a difficult approach for many people. For example, you might want to move an image from point a, to point b. Point a is easy – that is probably where the image starts, but where is point b? How many pixels do you need to move it to get it in just the right place?

This is where Hype comes in. Hype is essentially a WYSIWYG front-end to all of this coding, allowing users to produce the same effects using the same techniques (and theoretically producing the same code) as described above. The main advantage with this is that it takes away the high barrier to entry that CSS/Javascript animation presents to most people. With Hype, you never have to write a line of code (if you don’t want to).

Hype's user interface should feel instantly familiar to anyone who has worked with, or seen, Flash in the past.

Hype will seem instantly familiar to anyone who has had even passing experience with Adobe’s Flash authoring environment. Sure, the pallettes and toolbars are different, but the essence is the same. You drag elements to a stage and animate various properties including their position and opacity using keyframes. Sound familiar? That’s because it is. Just about every time-based media application, including video editors, effects packages, and Flash itself, operate using this method, or a variation thereof.

Using Hype

Whether or not you have had any experience with animation or time-based media before, Hype should not be a hard application to pick up and learn. On the whole, the interface is remarkably intuitive. It feels rather like a cross between Apple’s Pages and a WYSIWYG web editor, which in actuality is quite similar to what it is.

Hype's scenes bar makes it easy to add and rearrange the scenes in your project

The main focus of Hype’s user interface is the stage, onto which you place images, text and other elements to compose your design. Above this is the scenes strip – Scenes allow the user to compose more complex animations composed of multiple separate compositions, similar to the different shots in a video project. At the bottom of the window is the timeline, which lists all the elements in which ever scene the user is currently editing. Separate to this window is the inspector pallette, which houses all the controls and settings for the elements placed on the stage, including text formatting, sizing and positioning, color and animation.

Hypes timeline gives users a quick view of their keyframes, and the attributes that are animated

To animate an element, it is a simple matter of placing it on the stage and creating a couple of “keyframes” to animate between. With the timeline scrubber on a keyframe, any settings you change for that element will be changed for that frame, and animated to from previous keyframes. It is a simple matter to set up a couple of keyframes and fade an element in or move it from point a to point b, or to rotate an item over time. Set your starting state with one keyframe, and your end state with another, and Hype does the rest.

You can even set a keyframe and hit the “record” button and move elements around, and Hype will record all the animation in the meantime and automatically set up the options for you. What Hype does not do, however, is offer any easing options (which would allow a user to have an animation “ease” in and out, meaning that the animation starts out and ends at a slower pace than in the middle, which often looks more natural than a purely linear animation such as those Hype generates).

After about 30 minutes playing with Hype, you will likely have a fairly good handle on the bulk of the WYSIWYG portion of the app, and you may be ready to try exporting your first basic animation. Before doing that, you should probably preview your animation in a browser, and here Hype has you covered.

If you have Google Chrome installed, Hype allows you to preview a temporary version of your composition in one click. If all looks ok there, then it is time to export your animation. It is worth noting the document settings tab in the inspector at this stage, which allows you to set your target browsers (which dictates what warnings Hype will show you when exporting).

Hype will display warnings about your content based upon what browsers you tell it you are looking for your animation to work in. This is particularly useful for the less experienced user, who likely will not know about the various capabilities and shortfallings of different browsers. Hype tests against a good range of common browsers, including Safari (both mobile and desktop versions), Chrome, Firefox and, importantly, Internet Explorer from the current version 9 down to the antiquated but rapidly dying version 6.

Hype's browser warnings will be useful for novices

It is my feeling that hobbyists and beginners in the web-world will benefit hugely from the ease of use and built-in compatibility checking that Hype offers, and that helps make it a compelling choice for those users. Backing this up is an ability to dive under the hood and manually edit the Javascripts that lie underneath, allowing a greater amount of control for those who want or are able to take it.

The Problem

The problem with so much Hype is that it is often extremely difficult to live up to. This, sadly, is also the case here. Hype has a number of problems that to some may be no big thing, but to others will be deal-breakers.

First, and lets make this very clear, Hype has at most a “fleeting” relationship with HTML5: Yes, it is possible to add video to your Hype projects and this will be added using the HTML5 <video> tag, and yes, Hype will use the new HTML5 shortened doctype declaration for the documents it exports, but that is about where the relationship ends.

What Hype actually exports, on the whole, is good-old HTML4, CSS3 and Javascript. This is fine, but why tout HTML5 when HTML5 actually has so little to do with the product itself? Hype makes no use of any of the new semantic elements provided by HTML5 (such as header, footer, nav, section, article etc.), nor does it make use of any of the other useful things HTML5 allows you to do. This means no web-workers, no local data storage, and perhaps most importantly, no history API.

That Hype is lacking in ability in these areas may seem like a small concern, but the fact that the History API is totally absent means that animations made with Hype “break” the browser’s back button; Imagine you wanted to create a set of slides to go with a presentation using Hype. That’s fine, but good luck if you want to be able to link anyone to a particular slide, or to allow users to page back and forth between said slides using standard browsers controls, such as the back and forward buttons, keyboard shortcuts or mouse/trackpad gestures. None of this will work with a Hype animation unless you delve in to the script yourself and add the features in. Whilst there will undoubtedly be some potential users of this app who are skilled enough to do this, does it not kind of defeat the point of having a WYSIWYG app in the first place, if it leaves you having to fill in holes after you have used it?

Hype also makes no use of Canvas elements, meaning that each element placed in your animation will be wrapped in a div. This is not only a semantic nightmare, but fails to make use of a powerful feature available in most of the browsers that the technology Hype uses targets. I can understand not supporting new, untested, poorly supported features such as WebGL, but Canvas is supported natively by each of the major browsers at their current versions, and plugins are even available for IE8 and below to enable support there.

The final significant problem with Hype is that instead of leveraging any kind of existing framework such as jQuery or Prototype, the developers have chosen to create their own animation Javascript library. This is great, in that it places no dependency on outside scripts, but the downside is that even on a very short animation with only a couple of transitions, the Javascript weighs in at over 95Kb. That’s one large script file!

I can only imagine how this might end up with a 10-scene masterpiece with 50 animated elements in each scene. The main problem here is that this file will be served to users viewing your animation regardless of whether their browser needs it all or not. Many users with up-to-date browsers will have support for CSS3 animation, and so won’t need a lot of what is contained therein, but the server won’t know that so will serve it anyway. This has the potential to be quite a drag on your server.

The Verdict

I really wanted to love Hype because it represents an alternative to Flash that was based around technology natively supported by web browsers rather than by a plugin that, let’s admit it, has never been very good on Mac. There is no doubt that Hype is easy to use, and you can create some nice looking results relatively quickly. The interface is, on the whole, intuitive and responsive and the app itself behaves very well.

However, there are just too many shortcomings for my liking when it comes to the actual content that Hype generates. For an app that markets itself on building “HTML5″ web content, the lack of any kind of support for the history API is baffling. I understand that this is not supported by older browsers, but there are workarounds. The fact is that Tumult just haven’t implemented them. This is particularly surprising when you consider that they paid enough attention to detail to implement “old-fashioned” Javascript animation for those browsers that don’t support CSS3.

With that being said though, Hype is a perfect choice for those wanting to get started with animation on the web without the expensive entry point of Flash, or the necessity for an encyclopaedic knowledge of code. It is easy enough to pick up and use with a very limited learning curve, and does produce good results visually.

Its interface is mostly very polished, and the app itself seems very reliable. At a relatively low price point of $29.99, Hype does constitute a good entry point for most people. Experienced web professionals, though, may find the many short-fallings mentioned here more of an issue, and may want to learn to do things the hard way, instead.

As a professional web developer myself, this puts me in a quandary in trying to come to an overall opinion about Hype. On one hand, Hype is an easy, relatively inexpensive entry point to the world of animation on the web for a great number of potential users. On the other hand, I personally would prefer that the code that came out the other side was of a higher quality, and that accessibility and usability of the exported product weren’t second class citizens here. I’m a huge advocate for a better quality websites, and I have felt over the past 10 years of development that Flash is a prime culprit of exactly this kind of sin: low-quality websites produced by all because an application made it too easy.

It’s a toss-up for me between whether to encourage users to give Hype a go and hope that it leads them to learn more about the platform they are developing for, or whether to discourage them from picking up a piece of software that could lead them down much the same road as Dreamweaver or similar WYSIWYG applications, leaving them with bad websites and no deeper understanding of how things work under the bonnet than before they started.

What do you think about Hype? Have you used it? Are you a hobbyist or a professional? Let us know in the comments!

Thank you to the fantastic applications we had sponsoring each week during the month, all of which we personally recommend you download and try out!

• Postbox – Postbox is an unbelievably great Mac email client that you just have to try for yourself. The newest version, Postbox 3, has been completely revamped with a new interface and lots of great new features like Dropbox support and gestures.
• Artboard – A truly impressive vector drawing application that’s simple enough for everyone to use. Artboard has all the features you need in an advanced vector editing app: over 20 tools for drawing and navigation, custom shapes, clip art, boolean operations, layers, advanced style creation and a lot more. And it’s only getting better!
• PhotoStyler – A fantastic and unbelievably easy way to edit photos on your Mac. With dozens of gorgeous presets, you’re never more than a click away from beautiful photos. You can also venture off on your own and leverage a powerful but simple toolset to customize the result.
• Chronicle Mini – The best free way to keep up on your bills from your menu bar. Chronicle Mini is an amazing little app that sits in your menu bar and helps you stay on top of your reoccurring bills. In just a few clicks you can set up a new bill (say a mortgage payment or a cell phone bill), create a reminder in iCal and set the bill to repeat on the first of every month.
• MailTab Pro for Gmail – The best way to check Gmail from your menu bar. If you’re hunting for a quick and slick way to keep an eye on your Gmail account, look no further than MailTab Pro. It’s never more than a single click away and it gives you full access to Gmail’s features. Check, search and send email all right from the menu bar.
• FaceTab Pro for Facebook – An easy and amazing way to access Facebook from your menu bar. I know what you’re thinking, you’ve seen menu bar Facebook apps before right? Well this one is the best. FaceTab Pro is simply packed with awesome functionality that gives you the full Facebook experience right from your menu bar, no compromises.
• Clarify – An awesome utility for capturing and editing screenshots. Taking screenshots is easy enough, but when it comes to compiling multiple screenshots with text annotations, you’ve got your work cut out for you. Clarify drastically simplifies this process and automatically creates a single document from multiple screen captures. It’s fast, easy and looks great.

Finally, thanks to you for reading AppStorm this month, and for checking out the software that our sponsors create. I really appreciate it – you make the site what it is!

I’m referring to the availability of free, open and affordable ecommerce platforms that gets you going from day one. Whenever there is a new software platform is launched, developers first think how best they can convert it to an online shop. SaaS providers like Shopify have made the need for custom code totally unnecessary.

Made Freshly competes with Shopify trying to help users sell online quickly and efficiently. Is the web app capable enough to go head on with a giant like Shopify? Let’s go check out!

Overview

Overview

Made freshly works hard on your behalf to simplify creating a virtual store. Simply add product details and images to your store in just a few simple steps. Boost your sales with the help of our professional store designs and functional tools. To make your store unique, select a store theme and customize the design to your taste. Without the need for any knowledge in ecommerce, you can start managing your store in no time at all.

Getting Started

Getting Started

I spent a few minutes trying to locate the pricing plans page. To my surprise, I couldn’t actually find one. So, I clicked on the sign up page thinking some choices would be displayed there atleast. But, even in the sign up page there was no mention of a subscription and by default a free account is created.

Adding PayPal Address

After email verification and logging in , you will be greeted by an overlay requesting for the PayPal address you want to integrate with your store. Usually, in an online shop running on any platform, you get started by adding a bunch of products you deal in. Likewise, Made Freshly starts there too.

Adding and Updating Products

Adding Product Information

Adding products to your online store is a no brainer. Fill up the product creation form like you do any other web form and you will have the product listed in no time. Most of the fields are self explanatory and as far as I can see, all required information about a product that the customer would like to know is collected beforehand. This should help keeping inquires to a minimum and increase the chance of conversions.

Images and Options

You can add multiple images to a product and each product can have multiple options (varieties, colors etc.). The order of images and product options can be realigned by dragging and dropping them around.

Shipping Groups and Rates

By default the free shipping option is selected. But Made Freshly has a dynamite shipping groups and rates feature. You can have multiple shipping policies for each product based on your terms. For instance, you can have a shipping charge for US and one for Europe.

Customization and Pricing

Theme Selections

Once the products are all added, they will be automatically displayed in the storefront subdomain. If you aren’t satisfied with the default design, there a few cool themes to choose from the Design section of the app. The available theme choices are very limited but they are unique nevertheless. Since more than half of the themes are available only when a plan is upgraded, there definitely should be more themes for premium users.

A Sample Store

Themes are meant to alter the layout of the store. For those looking forward to tinker every single aspect of the store, options to edit the colors, design, font and pages of the store are available in the same Design section too.

Pricing Plans

Finally, I found the subscriptions plans under the Settings page. There are only two paid plans and surprisingly none of them come with support for unlimited listings. Plans are mostly differentiated based on the number of listed products, themes, images per product and product pages. Custom domain integration and discount codes are supported in both free and paid plans as well.

Final Thoughts

I never once thought that Made Freshly would be completely free despite the dev team trying hard to create such an illusion. It’s a great idea to promote a free account left, right and center for customer acquisition. But beyond a point, if there are premium plans, it is the duty of the developers to ensure that users are aware of them before they’re too committed and feel tricked.

Made Freshly’s plans are affordable when compared to Shopify and in my opinion the web app makes for a very competent eCommerce platform. So, it’s in their best interest to disclose the pricing upfront in the homepage rather than hiding it in the Settings page. That said, Made Freshly has got everything to help even a novice run an online shop without any fuss.

Share Your Thoughts!

Do you own an eCommerce shop? Do you prefer custom code or pay as you go options like Made Freshly and Shopify?

We’re super excited to announce that we have a whopping 10 Postbox licenses to give away this week!.

Postbox

Tweet to Enter

Entering is simple, all you have to do is click the link below and send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. That’s it!

We’ll announce the winners one week from today on Wednesday, February 8th. Good luck to everyone who enters and thanks for reading Mac.AppStorm!

For those of you with a Nokia Lumia 710 or a Nokia Lumia 800, you can find Nokia Drive in your applications list on your phone. If it’s not there, you can download it from Windows Phone Marketplace by looking under the Nokia collection.

Once installed, load up the app and press the menu icon on the bottom right of your screen. Set your destination and type in Lucas Oil Stadium (it searches using addresses and also POIs), then look for the result that shows the address as 500 South Capitol Avenue. You’ll see details about that venue including how far away the venue is (it’s a mere 39994 miles from us in the UK).

Jump in your car, buckle up and press the Drive to button. Just follow the audio prompts and on-screen directions and you’ll be there in plenty of time to watch the New England Patriots and the New York Giants go head-to head in the final.

If you’ve not got a Nokia Lumia yet, you can use Nokia Maps online to find the Lucas Oil Stadium. From there you can even check the traffic to see if you’ll need to take a different route. Just look for the car symbol in the top right of the screen.

For details of the venue and where to park once you get there, check out the Indianapolis Super Bowl website.

Are you going to the Super Bowl this year? Did Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps help you get there? Let us know.

Image credit: Josh Hallett

Continue reading Nokia Killing Symbian Earlier Than Planned, Only One More Device at The Nokia Blog