A Clockwork Orange To Scare You All Over Again
Anna Baddeley, The Observer
There seems to be a significant difference in the way the two companies approach the task of returning search results, with Google doing whatever it takes to get any result out, while Apple seems to prefer accuracy above all.
So, why was Apple’s overhyped claim removed? Simple, it just isn’t the best thing out there and Apple acknowledges it.
Apple’s definitely on the right track with Maps. I’d only be concerned about the app if its features were hard to use and its maps and directions were difficult to read. As-is, the app’s problems are limited to its dataset. From the user’s perspective, that’s the easiest problem to fix. So long as Apple continues to find and correct mistakes in the data, the service will continue to improve, as though by magic.
To charge for services is reasonable; to provide an ecosystem in which a customer has no way of knowing what they are being charged for what is not.
Chinese gadget fans are scouring the Internet grey market to locate Apple Inc's new iPhone 5, giving an early indication of robust demand in Apple's second-biggest global market.
There are two main benefits to using VirtualBox as a desktop virtualization solution. First, it's free. Second, it works.
Data wants to be free, but value wants to be paid for. Let us pay. We’re the damed market. Let us help you work out the kinks in your products. Develop real relationships with us, and provide real customer support that’s worth what we pay for it.
Even more troubling for some people was the loss of saved locations without warning of any sort — one of our readers was particularly distraught to lose numerous saved locations of sentimental places in her life, built up in Maps over time since her first iPhone.
They chose to make the low light boost mode optional, as the increase in light sensitivity comes at the cost of some increased noise (not surprisingly). Making it optional was a good decision.
The solution once again was to delete corrupt Safari bookmarks, but what’s easy on a Mac is often difficult or even impossible in iOS. I’ll share my unsuccessful intermediate attempts, and if you’re experiencing similar battery life problems, I encourage you to try the less-destructive approaches before taking the eventual tack I did.
Adobe Premiere Elements 11 is squarely aimed at the upgrading iMovie user who isn’t yet ready for Final Cut Pro X.
Things 2.0 excels at managing to-do lists. It offers just enough methods to group and categorize your tasks without becoming needlessly complicated. As list managers go it isn't cheap, but its organizational prowess makes it a good investment for anyone with a lot to do.
Given the similarities in features and performance between these two programs, deciding on one or the other isn’t easy. If your needs include gaming in virtual Windows installations, Parallels is the preferred option. Similarly, Fusion is the one to get if you love experimenting with lots of different virtual OSes, thanks to VMware’s huge library of ready-to-run OS “appliances.”Beyond that, it comes down to some little things. Fusion, for instance, manages app windows better than Parallels, while Parallels offers better gaming and 3D performance.
"While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app."
If Apple had gone with the Winnie the Pooh model from iBooks, they could have pre-populated Passbook with an Apple Store card. Some have suggested including a nominal amount of credit on it, since it would be returned to the Apple Store anyway. But even absent an existing balance, it could have been used to show how Passbook works, how money could be added to the card using a great app like the Apple Store app, and a great transactional service like iTunes. It could have provided users with an excellent first Passbook experience and excellent first impression. Even if other Passbook feeder apps were abysmal, that experience would have balanced the scales.
In Mac systems prior to 2011, you can uncover the Mac's firmware password using the Calculator's ability to manipulate binary numbers.
A public park sits on that side of the street, making none of the block's odd numbers a valid address. The number will never be a valid address in Manhattan.
Version 3 of Dragon Dictate does offers improved recognition out of the box, which allows new users to start appreciating the program’s power right away. And transcription is a feature many users have wanted since Dragon Dictate’s first Mac version.
I’m not trying to hurt any feelings or disparage anyone here, but it bears correcting.
But if the old agreement between Apple and Google expired in the first half of 2013 (which, again, my own sources familiar with the matter agree to be the case), that means the deal was set to expire halfway through the expected year-long life cycle for iOS 6. If Apple had stuck with Google Maps for another year they would have been forced to renegotiate with Google in a situation where both sides at the table would know that Apple either (a) had to agree to whatever terms Google demanded to extend the deal; or (b) would be forced to swap the mapping back-end of iOS 6 midway through its development cycle.
But even the iPad, while easy to use for routine tasks, still shows its computer heritage in clunky, ugly, techie ways like software updates and restores. And while Apple Stores have a reputation for great service, there are enough counterexamples happening every day that I’m not sure how much longer that reputation will last.
“There were a number of issues inflaming negotiations, but voice navigation was the biggest,” one source familiar with Apple and Google’s negotiations told AllThingsD. “Ultimately, it was a deal-breaker.”
Once you get the ticket into Passbook it is a nice experience, but adding stuff to Passbook isn't intuitive.
Singapore's industrial production unexpectedly fell in August from a year ago, raising fears the trade-dependent economy will slip into recession this quarter, and increasing the chances of monetary easing by the central bank next month.
Boom is a handy Mac app designed to crank up the sound. It has two functions: the first is to increase the volume of your files’ audio on per-file basis—highly useful when you need louder sound for your iOS or Apple TV enjoyment. The second function is to crank your Mac’s volume to the max, far louder than the default volume settings.
Integrating the two would take time due to a number of complexities, which include integrating map search databases and coding, a person familiar with the matter said.The separated technologies Apple has built for the Chinese markets underscore the challenges it faces building its own maps technology rather than relying on Google’s offerings. Mapping experts say creating a comprehensive set of digital maps requires a lot of time and integration of data from many sources to ensure they’re all accurate, something Google has been doing since 2005.
Safari supports a number of hidden options for handling opened links and search result windows.
Few things in life are as magical as watching inanimate objects come to life--something about it brings out the kid in everyone. iStopMotion 3 for Mac is likely to rekindle that interest in a big way, particularly for those old enough to remember classics like the original King Kong in constant rotation on TV.
Apple has trained us since 2007 that a non-black or grey menu bar means something. There’s a call waiting, an ongoing recording or an active hotspot connection. Now, in the case of Apple’s Mail, Calendar, Messages, Phone and Contacts, it’s blue just to be blue. Worse, it’s confusing, and I spent the first few days erroneously thinking I had an active call or something in the background that I wasn’t aware of.It gets even more confusing when you consider the inconsistency across Apple’s own apps.
After a little more than a month using it, here are my impressions of the latest version of Apple’s browser.
Google is developing a maps application for iPhone and iPad that it is seeking to finish by the end of the year, according to people involved with the effort who declined to be named because of the nature of their work.One reason that it will take Google some time to build the iPhone app: it expected the app with Google’s maps to remain on the iPhone for some time, based on the contract between the two companies, and was caught off guard when Apple decided to build a new application to replace the old one.
The confusing state of affairs surrounding iPhone silencing.
They’re a bit better than the previous earbuds in terms of sound, and much better at staying in ears, but if you really want to listen to your music, try something else.
Animations can make a world of difference in the user experience of a mobile app. Most of the time, we don’t even notice these animations in the same way that we rarely notice the environmental sound effects (by foley artists) that are added to most motion pictures. It is important when building mobile apps to remember that animations can be a powerful tool and can often do more for a user’s experience than the interfaces they inhabit. They Inform, Enable, Welcome, and Delight us. Below are a few examples (from iOS) of great animations that fit into these four categories.
If using older apps felt okay with that big black gap at the top, some developers would likely feel considerably less motivated to update their apps; Apple would prefer that developers keep up with its hardware changes.
jThis photo and video editing duo—joined by a free helper app called the Organizer—lets users manage, edit, create, and share photos and videos in a variety of ways.
"We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know?" Schmidt told a small group of reporters in Tokyo. "What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It's their call."Schmidt said Google and Apple were in constant communication "at all kinds of levels." But he said any decision on whether Google Maps would be accepted as an application in the Apple App Store would have to be made by Apple."We have not done anything yet," he said.
The more I thought about all this technology, and how my own three and five year-old sons use apps, the more I realised that the best children's apps are successful because of a pair of more traditional qualities.Great storytelling. Strong characters.
Mapion is one of Japan’s homegrown companies that is benefiting from Apple’s maps debacle, which has left local owners of the new iPhone 5 flummoxed over erroneous place names, long-outdated landmarks and train stations that appear to hover in the middle of the sea.
The results: Simply put, the iPhone 5 did not last as long as the iPhone 4s or 4.
The problem for Microsoft is that if it does not raise prices of Office for Mac 2011, and ditch the two- and three-license packages, it will have a very tough time convincing Mac owners to swallow the subscription plans.
Dodgy WiFi connections and possible light leaks add to woes with Maps.
Apple pushed a software update to its set-top box on Monday that brings the ability to easily switch between multiple iTunes accounts, allowing you to purchase or watch TV shows from those accounts without having to re-enter a password every time you switch. The Apple TV also gained support for shared Photo Streams (introduced to iOS devices last week as part of iOS 6), subtitle support for the hard-of-hearing, and a handful of other features.
Head back into the Settings app, scroll way down to find Facebook, and then look for the switches beneath the header Allow These Apps To Use Your Account. Turn off the Contacts’ apps access.
Just launch Reminders, select an email message from within one of Mail’s mailboxes, and drag it to one of the headings within Reminders—Work or Home, for example.
Even if users choose a different smartphone, the iPod touch offers so much versatility that it could be a very attractive supplemental option and, at the very least, could replace a point-and-shoot camera. Add in its other features as well as access to Apple's apps and services and it becomes the kind of device that one can justify buying over similarly priced single-purpose devices.
Apple has began sending out emails notifying iCloud members of imminent storage downgrades to their accounts. The emails have been sent to iCloud members who were previously paid MobileMe subscribers.
A number of Apple early adopters claim that the back case of the iPhone 5 is highly susceptible to scratching and more visible signs of wear and tear, according to multiple reports from across the Web.Perhaps even more serious, numerous accounts state that users are receiving iPhone 5 devices damaged directly out of the packaging, before customers have had chance to actually lay hands the device.
Back to Apple: even without the benefit of this context, they're still clearly violating the spec; the original permission to cache in 2616 was contingent upon there being explicit freshness information (basically, Expires or Cache-Control: max-age).So, it's a bug. Unfortunately, it's one that will make people trust caches even less, which is bad for the Web. Hopefully, they'll do a quick fix before developers feel they need to work around this for the next five years.
Apple is going after people with experience working on Google Maps to develop its own product, according to a source with connections on both teams. Using recruiters, Apple is pursuing a strategy of luring away Google Maps employees who helped develop the search giant’s product on contract, and many of those individuals seem eager to accept due in part to the opportunity Apple represents to build new product, instead of just doing “tedious updates” on a largely complete platform.
Apart from the bugs I saw in Mountain Lion 8, I think Parallels Desktop 8 earns that extra cost with its solid performance, far superior Linux OpenGL support, and existing feature set. But if your needs are more big-business-oriented, VMWare Fusion 5 Pro might be more your thing.
Apple stretched out the 4S just enough to allow for a bigger screen, while making it lighter and easier to hold.
The ridicule that Apple has suffered following the introduction of the Maps application in iOS 6 is largely self-inflicted. The demo was flawless, 2D and 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, spectacular flyovers…but not a word from the stage about the app’s limitations, no self-deprecating wink, no admission that iOS Maps is an infant that needs to learn to crawl before walking, running, and ultimately lapping the frontrunner, Google Maps. Instead, we’re told that Apple’s Maps may be “the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.”
A phone's hardware performance can't be taken in isolation, but it's definitely a piece of the puzzle. Based on these benchmarks, the iPhone 5 lives up to the promise of being twice as fast as the iPhone 4S. It's also, for now, the fastest handheld computer sold in the US.
Upon looking at both faces, it looks like the back of the iPhone is flush with the side chamfers, but the front glass actually juts out slightly, but my a noticeable millimeter or so. The tingling in my spine disappeared; the more I looked at it, the more it bothered me.
Your reasons for using Do Not Disturb may differ—maybe you are a light sleeper yourself, or maybe you just need to limit work-related or other distractions. For those who rely on iOS's notifications to keep abreast of appointments, to-dos, important e-mails, or even just Ticket to Ride Pocket challenges—but still occasionally need to sleep, spend time with family, or just take a technology break—Do Not Disturb is for you. Here's how to take advantage of its features.
As Apple Inc.’s flagship Fifth Avenue store attracted its usual cult-like carnival of devotees, a group of savvy iPhone 5 seekers in midtown Manhattan found an easier time by going to the retail stores of the major U.S. wireless carriers.
Tim Cook took a calculated risk -- getting rid of Google Maps was more important than delivering a less-flawed Apple Maps app.
The war for supremacy among the nation’s most advanced technology companies is spilling over into an unexpected place: the brick-and-mortar store.
If you are in China on a domestic network (i.e. not on a VPN) and you look at the satellite or hybrid view, you only see China. That’s right, it seems the entire rest of the world is not available (Taiwan is included in the map, fyi, but the actual satellite images are scraped out).
Web developers are reporting that the Safari Web browser in iOS 6 is breaking the applications they're writing thanks to aggressive caching. Discussion of the issue on Stack Overflow explains that Safari is remembering the server responses to certain requests and then reusing those responses, even though a new response should be requested every time.
But Apple had to do maps. It had no choice, really. The reason is simple: maps are the place where mobile matters most.
“We’ve approached Apple and told them that the rights for this clock belong to us,” he said in an interview with the AP. He said that the company would like Apple to pay a licensing fee.
As iOS 6 users, developers are frustrated. But as app makers, they're excited.
So the good news is that yes, Apple has stuck a load of time and money and effort into this thing. It's committed. The bad news? Apple has stuck a load of time and money and effort into this thing, and it's still pretty bad.
Yes, yes, you’re not going to stand around appreciating the finer details of the map application if the data is wrong. I get that. Pointing out that the vast majority of the data in the maps application is very clearly correct is small comfort if you need some of the data that’s wrong. But the vast majority of the data really is correct.
Apple urged patience. “Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features including Apple Maps, our first map service,” spokeswoman Trudy Muller told AllThingsD. “We are excited to offer this service with innovative new features like Flyover and Siri integration, and free turn by turn navigation. We launched this new map service knowing that it is a major initiative and we are just getting started with it. We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a cloud-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get."Now, there’s no question that Apple will improve Maps over time. Sources tell AllThingsD that the team assigned to the app is under lockdown right now working to fix it. But it’s unfortunate that it was ever released in this condition in the first place. Mapping applications are awfully hard to do well. Apple certainly knows this. And for a while, at least, it has a rough road ahead.
The new Maps is very good—provided you live in an area well-covered by the app’s data, with accurate information. It’s great if you crave turn-by-turn directions and don’t already own a GPS unit or a pricier App Store app for that purpose.But, as the tongue-in-cheek The Amazing iOS 6 Maps blog reflects, all of the Maps app’s benefits are so much hooey if the maps you need don’t accurately reflect reality.
Apple could have restored the original behavior of Save As, plain and simple; instead, they went further, restoring that behavior while letting you switch to the new behavior instead. I can only applaud. This is exactly the sort of thing I’d like to see more of — excellent default behavior along with freedom of choice to override those defaults — in contrast to the “Big Brother knows best” quality that resulted in my reluctance to use Lion.
Target has chosen to allow customers who receive Target Mobile Coupons to easily send, store, and access coupons in Passbook.
If you've ever wished your iPad -- or iPhone or iPod touch -- or be locked down into Safari web browsing only, or that you could let someone run a presentation or try a new game without snooping through your personal business, now you can.
Developer Jeremy Tregunna adds 'That map isn't so bad; the entire city of Escazú in San José, Costa Rica, is missing, and it's misspelled "Escaza."'
iOS Maps looks like what it is: something cobbled together fast from multiple sources of variable quality. And the problem is that for a core part of a mobile operating system, that’s nowhere near good enough.
An impressive upgrade that integrates the Windows and Mac environments even more smoothly.
Impressive upgrade brings ‘near native’ performance to Windows apps running on your Mac.
It shows you one app at a time, in the order that Apple determines. It takes a lot of swipes and over 11 seconds to see the first 25 since the transition animation has to complete before you can swipe again.
The original iCloud for Windows was a pretty basic client that offered just a portion of the OS X version's functionality, and that doesn't change in version 2.0, though it is streamlined and expanded a bit in ways that should appeal particularly to iOS users with Windows PCs on their desks.
Is my iPhone displaying this improperly?Should I be holding this in landscape?Why are these apps cut off?
This URL is meant to allow captive portal network detection at venues like hotels. The problem seems to have been resolved on Apple's end, and WiFi access is, as far as we know, restored for iOS 6 users. If the problem persists, you may have to toggle Wi-Fi off/on on your iOS device.
Usually you don't think of an operating system in terms of productivity, but iOS 6 does bring a few welcome improvements to that table. If you're wondering whether or not it's worth upgrading (trust me, it is), check out these three ways iOS 6 can help you work smarter.
Apple's made a new product that actually is pretty but dumb. Worse, they've used their platform dominance to privilege their own app over a competitor's offering, even though it's a worse experience for users. This is the new Maps in iOS 6.
iPhoto for iPhone and iPad have been updated with support for iOS 6 and also includes a slew of new features including coaching tips, new ink effects, support for 36.5 megapixel photos, and more.
Save As devotees, take note: 10.8.2 adds an option to discard the changes in the original document when you use the recently-restored Save As option. That addition restores the original Save As behavior to which Mac users were long accustomed before the feature first vanished in Lion, and reappeared with different functionality in the original Mountain Lion release.
The company says that the new version of Lion adds the typical assortment of general system fixes and stability improvements, but the hallmark feature of the otherwise minor OS update is the introduction of Gatekeeper. That technology, first introduced with Mountain Lion, gives users more control over which apps can launch on their Macs.
The solution is to turn to a third-party. In my case I chose Rubicode’s free RCDefaultApp. This is a very handy preference pane that allows you to associate such things as file types, media types, and feeds with specific applications. In our case, we want to associate RSS feeds with one application or another.
iOS 6 doesn't make the iPhone 3GS any slower or more difficult to use than it was before, which should be good news to anyone who keeps theirs around as a secondary or backup phone—indeed, it's pleasantly surprising how many of the refinements and improvements make their way down to Apple's oldest-supported piece of iOS hardware. However, that hardware has been surpassed so thoroughly by other iOS and Android handsets at this point that it's difficult to recommend it as a primary handset. You don't have much to lose if you upgrade a 3GS to iOS 6, but there's a lot more to gain by investing in a newer device.
Much like OS X's move from Leopard to Snow Leopard, iOS 6 refines many of the major changes introduced in iOS 5. It's a more modest release than iOS 5, but existing iOS users will be pleased with the update. I didn't run into anything that would make me warn anyone off of updating, and I think some of the new features are so useful that most users with supported devices should feel free to update as soon as they can.
This newcomer offers a wide range of consumer and hobbyist-oriented features and special effects. The program's photo editing and management features are also designed to appeal to professional photographers. As a total workflow, it offers a spectrum of non-destructive adjustment tools and editing controls and a way to showcase photos.
Apple Inc., the world’s biggest technology company, and four publishers offered to avoid setting the retail price of e-books in Europe for five years to end a European Union antitrust probe over price-fixing for digital books.
Weird dungeon puzzler is addictive. Also brilliant.
With the DPS Single Edition, subscribers who create single-issue iPad apps can do so in volume for a deep discount.
Could you imagine, charging customers 30% to accept a payment? I thought it was a joke. I mean it seems obvious to me what my app does and that it does not apply to 11.2, but I’m biased.
That has been my takeaway from the design of the iPhone 5 — small design changes that make for big user experience improvements.
Pick your benchmark and you'll find Apple's thin new weapon sitting at or near the top.
Impossible for me to say, after just six days testing a single unit, whether this improved home button is truly an improved design. For one thing, on a few of my iPhones over the years, the home button only got janky over time, after thousands of presses over many months in varied weather conditions. For another, surely Apple gives the review units it passes out a once-over. A less-than-perfect home button would be rejected. But color me optimistic — this home button has a pleasing clickiness that, like the aluminum casing, evokes that of the original iPhone, which I think had a better home button than its successors.
ission is likely the only app you need to work with audio files, and it does the job easily and quickly.
So you’d like to save something forever. Would you throw it in the trash? Probably not. But Instapaper thinks that’s exactly where you should put it. Sometimes.
The teardown experts at iFixit have given Apple's new $29 EarPods the typical autopsy treatment, declaring that "Apple had durability in mind" when designing the new headset. While the actual quality of the speakers remains up for debate, iFixit says Apple designed the EarPods to reduce strain on the wires and make them more resistant to water or sweat damage.
Three things to think about for whether or not a gadget, app, or any other product is worth your continued investment of use and money.
We spoke to Apple, Belkin, iHome, Logitech, and a number of Kickstarter founders who rely on the dock connector. Here's what they told us.
A couple of new features of note include support for making Enhanced Podcasts using AAC, and SoundCloud support built right in.
On a trip from Seattle to Portland this weekend, I managed to consume about 150 MB of data from my AT&T cellular plan in the space of a couple of hours while driving. The only app that could possibly be consuming data was the Podcasts app, which was active and playing back podcasts that I thought were previously downloaded.
Interestingly, iMessages coming from Apple IDs and on WiFi are having less problems, but still face delayed deliveries. It’s the iMessages coming over the carrier networks that seem to be displaying the worst issues.
There’s a lot of reasons for me to like them. They sound great, they’re comfortable to wear, and they gave me a chance to spend an hour dancing around my hotel room listening to my Peppy Music playlist in the name of journalism.
Two years later, after multiple pilot programs, Ringle has this to report: He is an iPad believer.“I think it’s clear that the iPad is here to stay,” he said recently. “Students and faculty—and for that matter, administrative staff—are continually finding new ways that the iPad meets their needs better today than it did yesterday.”
Fitbit users: ever think to yourself, "I wish this thing would just sync wirelessly with my phone and be done with it?" Your wish has now been granted. Fitbit has announced that it's offering two new products targeted at a wider range of demographics, both aimed at taking the little pedometer-on-steroids to the next level. In particular, the new Fitbit One not only adds some extra lifestyle features on top of the previous Fitbit, it also gains the ability to sync with computers and (some) mobile devices over Bluetooth 4.0 without the need to use a connector.
Two charity fundraisers are camping outside Apple's flagship store for a week to become the first owners of the new iPhone 5, which they plan to sell.
Two months later my phone works perfectly. The next time an Apple Genius tells you there’s no hope, consider it an excuse to visit Havana.
WhatsApp, the extremely popular instant messaging service for smartphones that delivers more than ~1billion messages per day has some serious security problems. I will try to give a detailed analysis on some of the issues.
It's not something that disturbs your normal workflow, but once you see it, you just know your perfect machine is not perfect at all.
The A6 is the first Apple SoC to use its own ARMv7 based processor design. The CPU core(s) aren't based on a vanilla A9 or A15 design from ARM IP, but instead are something of Apple's own creation.
For most of this time, I've been using OmniFocus to manage my projects and to-do lists but I've recently started using Evernote for my entire GTD implementation and I thought I might share some ideas with you.
Nearly six months after launching Paper for iPad to much praise and fanfare, George Petschnigg still can't stop smiling. Our interview hasn't even begun and he's already spouting off the various ways his team has tightened up Paper to be easier and more intuitive for users. It's typical startup founder talk, except Petschnigg leads an unusual startup that has thus far delivered on its promises to build a great product. Ask him about money, and his tail drops between his legs as if he's ashamed, or perhaps even embarrassed, for profiting on a tool he built for himself, his friends, and his colleagues.
Leaving that third antenna out allows Apple to simplify the process of manufacturing the iPhone for multiple carriers. Plus, in the next two years, 4G LTE technology is supposed to evolve to support voice calls, which would render another antenna unnecessary.
The popular iPad sketching app Paper by fiftythree has been updated with some really great features including faster ink, edge-to-edge drawing, new gestures, an improved Rewind feature, and more. Paper focuses on being able to bring focus to their users and providing a natural creative experience. This upgrade makes that experience even better.
People keep asking why Apple didn’t opt for the micro-USB connector. The answer is simple: that connector isn’t smart enough. It has only 5 pins: +5V, Ground, 2 digital data pins, and a sense pin, so most of the dock connector functions wouldn’t work – only charging and syncing would. Also, the pins are so small that no current plug/connector manufacturer allows the 2A needed for iPad charging.
And while it used to be that Apple was the brand which uncomplicated computing, for me, anyway, that’s simply no longer true. Does anyone out there have similar experiences, or am I really an outlier?
Here’s the thing: it’s really light. As in, I-feel-almost-legally-obligated-to-not-merely-include-but-to-italicize-the-really-intensifier-in-the-preceding-sentence light. Almost weirdly light, to my oh-so-utterly-accustomed-to-the-heft-of-the-iPhone-4(S) hands. But it also feels solid, and the metal unibody just feels right.
Unless app review is somehow multiplying their throughput by an order of magnitude or two this week, I suspect there’s going to be a very big backlog for at least few weeks, and very angry iPhone 5 customers leaving 1-star reviews on our letterboxed apps in the meantime.
Apple has just activated new web apps on iCloud.com that have been, until now, only available to developers. The new feature adds the Notes and Reminders web apps along with improvements to the Mail and Find My iPhone web apps.
So how do you figure out which model and activation to buy? The calculus has everything to do with how much you travel and where, and whether you care that you’re achieving LTE speeds when you travel.
I truly don’t understand at the moment how switching DNS servers could solve this problem, but for anyone troubled by the error, Google’s DNS servers are worth a try.
Despite Apple's claims, the EarPods still don't fit everyone. But for doing what the Apple earbuds should have done all along—providing good sound quality and comfort on a budget—the EarPods are an easy recommendation.
Some people aren't even convinced that the large screen is even practical for one-handed use to begin with, despite Apple's claims. "New designs have emerged which focus less on buttons at the top of your screen... You can swipe horizontally to access the side navigation in the new Facebook app," Barnard says. "I think we might start seeing some interesting changes in how apps are laid out."
The EarPods are hard plastic, so you won't be getting any real noise-cancellation here. That's not surprising, but it's still worth noting. But that doesn't mean they're uncomfortable. Far from it, actually. They've got a much more natural fit. No longer do you feel like you're trying to wedge a plastic disc into your ear with the least amount of discomfort. Not to over-use the terms "comfortable" and "natural," but that's what they are.
What’s perhaps most interesting about the change to the new Lightning connector is that it reflects changes in the ways we’re using our iPhones and iPods.
As with so much in life, the answer is a definite maybe.
The title of Naomi Wolf's new book, which explores why the vagina is still thought of as "slightly shameful" even today, has been censored by Apple.
Schiller said it simply wasn’t possible to build products as thin as the new iPhones and iPods without changing the cord. Hence, the new “Lightning” connector.
There's likely to be some confusion around the iPhone 5 model numbering, since there are three actual hardware configurations but only two model numbers: A1428 and A1429.
The iPhone 5 keeps the Retina display moniker, but it’s taller than the screens on iPhones that preceded it.Schiller said that with LTE, the iPhone 5 can achieve a “theoretical maximum downlink of up to 100Mbps.”
On Wednesday, Apple announced a major update to its iTunes multimedia jukebox and syncing software, with a simplified user interface, the ability to play media from iCloud, a new MiniPlayer, a redesigned iTunes Store, and more.The new version, to which Apple didn’t assign a version number, will be available in late October.
For the first time, the touch’s case comes in colors (silver black, blue, yellow, and red). There’s a new iPod touch loop: Push it and it pops up, and you can then attach a wrist strap. The new touch’s screen is not only bigger—4 inches diagonally vs. 3.5 before—but it’s also a sharper Retina display; it is, in fact, the same screen as on the iPhone 5.
The update will be free and available for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S; the fourth-generation iPod touch; and the the second- and third-generation iPads.
The departure is at least the second among Siri’s founding team since Apple bought the company in April 2010 and follows the exit of Chief Executive Officer Dag Kittlaus last year.
I’m not saying Apple is without fault. Just that their design choices are not without reasons, and it’s pointless to criticize one without talking about the other.
The question isn't whether skeuomorphism is good or bad, but is Apple currently using it effectively in iOS and OS X? In some cases, I think so. In others, I think they've missed the mark. But design is a process not a end point. It's looping iterations.
By tapping on a + button in the upper right corner of the UI, you can choose to upload photos or videos from your Camera Roll.
Apple just informed one of the developers that it made a mistake during the approval process, and the company is about to pull his BitTorrent app from the App Store.
Cyriac Roeding has been working feverishly since then to adapt his Shopkick shopping rewards app for Passbook. He has good company in movie ticket service Fandango, United Airlines, Target and Starbucks, all of which are touted on Apple's website as Passbook participants.
Here's the full rundown on what's broken right now: There is no way for Apple support to reset your password or your security questions if you have forgotten them, and it also can't re-activate an account that has been disabled for any reason. Apple's automated system for password reset—enter your Apple ID email account, or answer a security question—is still in effect. But the only thing Apple's security team is authorized to do for disabled accounts right now is take down their information, add them to a list, and get back to them whenever this is resolved.
While not excellent in terms of performances, the key to this first release of YouTube for iOS is access.
Here are some tips to streamline your use of Notifications, along with ways to avoid notification overload.
The criticism and controversy, much of it revolving around a trend called skeuomorphism, reveal chinks in Apple’s armor rarely visible to those outside One Infinite Loop.Inside Apple, tension has brewed for years over the issue. Apple iOS SVP Scott Forstall is said to push for skeuomorphic design, while industrial designer Jony Ive and other Apple higher-ups are said to oppose the direction. "You could tell who did the product based on how much glitz was in the UI," says one source intimately familiar with Apple’s design process.
A report published by IHS iSuppli, the components research firm, in March found that marking up memory costs is where Apple gets a lot of its iPad profits.
PopChar now features a “font preview” that lets users see a character shown in various fonts and sizes; it also includes a customizable “sample text” feature to see how the selected glyphs will look in context, rather than going through a cumbersome choose-then-undo process before hitting on the right font for the character.
The company, BlueToad, which works with thousands of publishers to translate printed content into digital and mobile formats, said hackers had breached its systems more than a week ago and stolen the file. A few days after the file appeared online, the company realized it matched the stolen information, said Paul DeHart, BlueToad’s chief executive.
On the surface, the new Final Cut Pro looks and acts much like iMovie. Underneath, however, is a powerful, professional editing application with a deep feature set—which is why it costs $300. It can import iMovie projects, so you can take a project you started in iMovie and open it in Final Cut Pro. There, you can take advantage of a greater variety of adjustable titles, transitions, and effects; faster, easier editing with keyboard shortcuts; more-powerful color-correction and audio tools; advanced green-screen keying; multilayer compositing; multicamera editing; and a universe of third-party plug-ins.
Workers outside the Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco decorate the building in colorful decals in preparation for next week's launch of what is expected to be the next generation iPhone.
Rhino and Adian look like Twitter clients and share the same limitations and compromises made to ensure a decent experience today. This is indicative of the current state of App.net overall, but like I said: this is an exciting time to watch this platform grow.
The mom of two grew tired of dealing with design engineers and jumping through hoops to get the design process going, so she took her business expertise with her and set out to study a programming language to get an app into the iTunes App Store on her very own.
Rumors are that Apple will market an adapter, but there’s no telling whether that will work with all models and makes of existing iPhone audio docks, so companies have been preparing to reap the benefits of Apple’s planned obsolescence with new Bluetooth-enabled iPhone replacements that will keep those tunes pumping no matter what Apple does to its smartphone’s primary data I/O connection.
This was Apple's first step into Sunnyvale,'' said Connie Verceles, the city's economic development manager. "And they didn't just dip their toes in -- they went all the way.''
Yet my iPhone insists that what I really want to say is "shut" or "shot."
It’s worth pointing out that neither app allows users to download files to the iPhone or iPad, they merely serve as a remote interface for desktop clients. However, that didn’t prevent Apple from issuing a publication ban on similar apps in the past.
Java doesn’t come pre-installed for on OS X as it once did. You may have manually installed it, but it’s likely that besides a few web sites and an occasional piece of software you may want to run, you don’t really need Java on your Mac.
Gruber […] isn’t the only blogger who’s managed to make a living out of writing about Apple.
John Gruber makes an estimated $500,000 a year from his blog Daring Fireball. But his relationship with Apple is priceless.
Of course it’s dead. The difference now is that Twitter won’t let anyone else replace it, probably because they can make far more money by making people use their website.
So does Facebook's experience mean HTML5 will go down in history as another overhyped technology that failed to meet expectations, like Apple's legendary Lisa computer or virtual reality? Perhaps not. Defenders still abound, including Facebook itself.
Do you need a new music player app for your iPhone? You might think so once you've tried this one.
Not only are sales of Macs continuing to grow much faster than that of PCs (which we all knew), but a recent report out of Wall Street indicates Apple is making strong gains in business -- Microsoft's seemingly impregnable fortress -- and the iPad is cannibalizing sales of PCs and even Macs in the education market.
Now that Apple appears to be shedding its dependence on Audience, it could be an indicator that Siri is ready to make its way onto more devices without the help of earSmart.
The steps Photosynth uses to create a panorama are among the easiest, and provide some of the best results.
Apple denies giving a list of iOS unique device identifiers (UDIDs) to the FBI, according to a statement issued on Wednesday. The statement follows previous claims from an Anonymous-offshoot group named AntiSec that a list of 12 million UDIDs were found on an FBI agent's laptop, though the FBI itself has also denied collecting that information.
Apple first got its feet wet in the content business with music in iTunes. What we’re seeing here may be the company’s first effort in the video business.
If you frequently use Excel to create and edit spreadsheets on your Mac, you may want to access the same files while you’re on the go with just your iPad. Although Microsoft hasn’t released an iOS version of Excel, you can still work with Excel files on your iPad if you’re willing to accept a few compromises.
There is a design compromise in Apple’s keychain implementation that sacrifices some security for a lot of usability.As a result, the root user is able to read all keychain secrets of logged-in users, unless they take extra steps to protect themselves. I’m sure Apple is perfectly aware of the security implications, and made the bargain intentionally.
Dungeon-based puzzle app 10000000 (said "ten million") is an unlikely autobiographical game. So unlikely, in fact, the developer doesn't even realise how autobiographical it is.
The World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness ranking is the sort of thing presidents and prime ministers like to tout when they are on trade missions or selling government bonds to investors.
The new BBC iPlayer 2.0 app has just become a lot more useful. Especially for anybody going on a long-haul flight, who’ll find the pre-downloaded television shows on the iPad much more entertaining than the in-flight system.
The company says Mac users can expect to see a 15 percent accuracy boost over Dictate 2.5 right out of the box—a number that could go up once you train the software to your user profile. The company has also added Smart Format Rules, which allows users to customize their use of abbreviations, numbers, and other formatting so that the dictated text comes out the way you want it to in the future. New in Dragon 3 is the ability to correct errors using speech as well, and the company says it's offering a wider range of alternative word choices when it comes to making corrections that the software will remember for future use cases.
As brands imply meaning, the iPhone brand may imply that it’s a platform in and of itself.
By integrating with a system-wide feature users are already accustomed to, and adding neat integrations like Automator and hotkey support, Sticky Notifications greatly simplifies the process of putting information on the desktop for later. And it has a lot of clever touches that, in spite of the app’s simplicity, show a profound attention to detail and care for optimal experience.
Postbox 3 does add a few new interface touches, including a Favorites menu for frequently accessed folders, reminiscent of the similar feature in Apple Mail. But Postbox 3’s biggest draw is its close cooperation with Gmail and the Dropbox and Evernote services. Over IMAP or POP, the program recognizes Gmail labels and sorts your mail accordingly. It can use Gmail-style keyboard shortcuts, shuffle messages into your Gmail archive, and move detected dates within messages into your Google calendar(s).
It is widely expected that Apple will announce its next generation iPhone at the event.
For now, CloudOn offers the most seamless experience of the three Windows-on-your-iPad apps, although OnLive Desktop currently looks nicer on a third-generation iPad. In my testing, I found CloudOn more responsive than OnLive or nivio, as well as more intuitive; it makes Office feel more like a native iPad app than either of the other two. It also has the virtue of being free. But if you need to edit Windows Office documents and guaranteeing file compatibility is your top concern, all three services offer viable—if imperfect—solutions.
A file reportedly containing 1,000,001 iPhone and iPad identification numbers has been posted on Pastebin, with hackers claiming to have stolen the data from a laptop belonging to an FBI agent. The poster claims to be in possession of a full file containing 12 million unique device identifiers (UDIDs), as well as personal data including "full names, cell numbers, addresses, zipcodes," though this information was redacted in the released sample. The data was posted under the Operation AntiSec banner, associated with hacktivist groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec.
Designers who work predominantly in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop will find Suitcase Fusion 4's new font panels a real time saver. Web designers will appreciate this version's unique integration with Extensis' WebINK fonts and Google Web fonts. Users of Adobe InCopy will welcome its new plug-in for precise font auto-activation. Cross-platform teams will appreciate the identical feature set on Macs and Windows. And all existing Suitcase users will enjoy the new Favorites feature, colored font previews and more accessible interface.
Apple has acquired a large number of patents related to the fourth-generation LTE mobile technology in order to prepare for possible legal disputes with archrival Samsung.
Whether or not the Willis story is true, it evokes one of the main dilemmas of the digital age: ownership is disappearing.
The company that made a name for itself with smart, convention-challenging ads that cast it in the role of underdog is now on top as the most valuable U.S. company and maker of that high-selling smartphone. Its challenge is to create commercials that target a broader audience and tout specific features of its key products, the iPhone and iPad, perhaps a departure from the trademark advertising that has always been its emotional raison d'etre.
But buttons are discoverable. They can have labels that describe what they do. Everybody knows how to use them. They just work.
And yet, we can’t escape a key fact: The same chef was involved in all these creations. He didn’t write the code or design the hardware, but he was there in the kitchen — the “executive chef” in trade parlance — with a unique gift for picking ingredients and whipping up unique products.
All of the following tips have been tested on iOS 5 with PhoneGap 1.8. Also note that these tips apply just as well to web applications running on mobile Safari.
Mountain Lion's system-wide notification banners can occasionally cover up something that you need to click. Luckily, a quick flick can get rid of them instantly.
Mozilla today announced it is removing Firefox Home from the Apple App Store so that it can “focus our resources on other projects.”The company says the app, which was last updated in February 2011, “provided valuable insight and experience with the platform,” but now it’s time to move on.
The biggest new form is probably the iTunes Content Dispute tool that is now set up especially for claims related to apps.
The company built a narrow definition of file synchronization that appeals most to users who don't want to manage which file lives on what computer for a particular piece of software.
The EyeTV mobile is a tiny little dongle that plugs into your iPhone 4S, iPad 2, or the 3rd generation iPad via the dock connector, and it enables your iOS device to play back live television.
I recently stumbled over two Safari-related problems. In each case, specific features of a website did not work as expected. While my precise symptoms may be limited in scope, the overall problems are general ones and the solutions apply to a wide variety of similar situations.
Many have and will continue to fail with freemium, and I don’t think freemium makes sense for every app in every situation, but it’s time to get serious about finding ways to make it work for more than just games.