WWDC 2010: Event Horizon

In typical manner before an Apple event, there are many rumors and hypotheses swirling about what our favorite fruit company may or may not say or show off on stage. Also in typical fashion I like to throw in my two cents of punditry. On Monday, June 7, Apple will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco with a keynote address, where the company has been known to announce or release new products.

The Mac

Mac OS X

I really doubt we’ll hear much about the Mac this time around. One may think this would be the perfect opportunity to give a first glance at Mac OS X 10.7, but considering the session list for WWDC is centered around the iPhone and iPad, along with the Apple Design Awards excluding the Mac entirely, I don’t think there will be much news on this front. I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong.

Safari

However, there have been some rumors that Safari will see a proper Extension API added to it. My guess is this would be the chief cornerstone of a new Safari (Safari 5, perhaps?). I could also see Apple using Safari 5 to fully embrace HTML5, such as fullscreen video playback, since the company has been by far the most influential voice in adoption of HTML5.

Also, a while back the WebKit team announced WebKit2, which will bring split process tabs/windows to Safari, much like how Chrome (which is also WebKit-based) does things. The difference is Chrome does it at the application level, whereas WebKit2 will provide this as part of the framework for any WebKit-based app. I can see the next major version of Safari being based on WebKit2.

Needless to say, I would love to see the return of tabs-on-top, at least as an option. Tabs-on-top were introduced during the betas of Safari 4, but the feature was dropped for the release.

The iPad

I’m sure we’ll hear about how insanely great the iPad is selling and how satisfied customers are with it. I’m hoping Apple will also issue a bug fix release of the iPad’s iPhone OS 3.2, as there are a few glitches here and there, and there’s also a pesky issue of poor WiFi reception. I can attest to that personally, as my iPad drops WiFi in my bedroom, whereas my iPhone 3G, MacBook Pro, and my wife’s iPod touch have no problems in the same location. And the router is 20 feet away in the office.

Beyond the trumpeting of great sales and addressing bugs, I don’t see much happening with the iPad until the fall when it receives OS 4, presumably OS 4.1.

The iPhone

There is no question in my mind that the iPhone will be the main focus of attention. Between a new OS, presumably new hardware, and Apple’s habit of announcing new iPhones at WWDC several years running, this is a sure bet.

iPhone OS 4

We’ll definitely get a summary of the new features coming to the iPhone (multitasking, folders, etc) along with a release date. Also, a Gold Master build & SDK will likely be available to developers following the keynote. A decent chunk of the keynote will be devoted to rehashing the details from Apple’s event in April, complete with a few third-party demos. There may be a few additions to the OS, specific to the latest generation of iPhone hardware. We saw this with the introduction of Compass and a revamped Camera app in the iPhone 3GS. I’ll detail my thoughts of what is in store here in the next section.

The New iPhone

This will hardly be a surprise, as we’ve already seen the hardware itself thanks to Gizmodo. But you never know, Apple may have a trick or two up its sleeve. What to expect? Well, a brand new hardware design, the Apple A4 mobile processor, a larger 5 megapixel camera with LED flash on the back, an iSight camera on the front, and a 960x640 pixel display at the same physical dimensions. 

I’d love to see the next iPhone sport Apple’s custom A4 processor, as it performs beyond expectation on the iPad. The A4 has absolutely impressive performance whilst using extremely little battery power. 

The advancements to the screen would be an improvement of epic proportions. At the same physical 3.5” diagonal measurement, a 960x640 pixel resolution would increase the iPhone’s pixel density would increase from around 160 pixels per inch to around 320 pixels per inch. That pixel density would be nearly indistinguishable to the human eye from the output of a laser printer. The next iPhone will likely have one extremely crisp screen. Also, rumor has it that Apple will be employing the use of In-Plane Switching (IPS) which is currently used in the company’s iMac displays and the iPad. IPS provides the ability to have zero color distortion from nearly any angle. 

As far as cameras go, the improvements to the rear camera will be very welcome, and may even provide for 720p HD video capture, whereas the iPhone 3GS captures at 640x480. If this is true, my Kodak Zx1 will be finding a new owner.

The front camera, which I am sure Apple will dub as an iSight like cameras on Macs, will be primarily used for video conferencing and self portraits. And this is where device-specific enhancements to iPhone OS 4 come in. The two apps I can see appearing exclusively to the new iPhone are iChat and Photo Booth. iChat for text IM purposes and impromptu video chats to show Grandma what her silly grandson is up to at this moment, and Photo Booth for taking fun self-portraits of you with your family and friends. These two apps just seem like a natural fit to the front facing iSight.

We should also get a firm release date for the new iPhone hardware. Some purport that it will be available immediately, and that surely is possible, but I’ll err on doubtful.. The iPhone 3GS was released 11 days after the WWDC announcement, which was very fast, in my opinion. However, it was also two days after iPhone OS 3 was hitting existing devices. Apple is likely going to give developers some time to submit apps for iPhone OS 4 before release. That all could change, however, if Apple releases iPhone OS 4 beta 5 this week and invites developers to start submitting apps tested against that beta. This is a possibility since Apple essentially did the same with the iPad release. With the iPad, developers submitted apps built on a beta OS, untested on actual hardware, and didn’t receive a Gold Master until after the iPad itself was released. Apple may do the same with iPhone OS 4, and release the Gold Master and the next iPhone concurrently during WWDC.

Carrier Partners

Perhaps the biggest myth around this time of year for several years running is whether or not Apple’s US exclusivity with AT&T is over and done with. Many folks want the iPhone on Verizon and Sprint’s name has even come up a few times. The largest hurdle to the iPhone coming to either Verizon or Sprint is their CDMA based networks. AT&T, and all of the iPhone’s carriers worldwide, use GSM networks. This means Apple makes one iPhone, and just localizes the software according to its destination. If Apple introduces CDMA compatibility into the mix for the few countries that have CDMA then it has to either make an iPhone with a hybrid GSM/CDMA chip, or it has to make two iPhones, one GSM and one CDMA, which complicates manufacturing.

Another incentive for Apple to hold off on supporting Verizon/Sprint, is the upcoming 4G networks based on LTE. This would knock out Sprint from having an iPhone, though, as they are using WiMax for their 4G network. However, AT&T and Verizon both proclaim that they will have LTE networks in the next couple years, with some markets lighting up in 2011. This would fall more in line with Apple’s simplified manufacturing process.

I have been going back and forth on whether or not I think AT&T will lose exclusivity for weeks. I’m going to go with no. To me, evidence for AT&T keeping the iPhone to itself in the US far outweighs the alternative. I’m sure Apple would love to open the door to more customers, but the question is would Verizon bring in enough customers to warrant the cost of retooling the factory every now and then to make CDMA iPhones. 

I also suspect the iPad 3G’s sweetheart data plan was given by AT&T in exchange for more one-on-one time with their cash cow, the iPhone.

Steve Jobs

After a medical battle in 2009 that required the visionary of Apple to take a leave of absence, one that many thought he may not return from, Steve Jobs is taking the helm once again at WWDC, as he has been for all of Apple’s events since September 2009. I am sure we will also see appearances by Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall during the keynote, as has become custom. I expect we’ll see a great show, and be amazed in one fashion or another by one of the best showmen of our time. 

Yahoo! Search for iPhone has Inquisitor DNA

Back in the day before Snow Leopard, there was a lovely little search replacement for Safari called Inquisitor. Back in may of 2008, Yahoo! acquired the rights to Inquisitor, and ported the browser extension to Firefox and IE. Unfortunately, due to changes in the Snow Leopard version of Safari, Inquisitor no longer works in Apple’s browser.

About a year later, this handy little app was also made into an iPhone app, which was a quick and easy way to perform a search on the iPhone. Seriously, it was fast and didn’t seem to require as many taps to get things done. However, just as Inquisitor faded into obscurity on Snow Leopard equipped Macs, a change in iPhone OS 3.0 caused Inquisitor to type everything in the search bar in all caps. This didn’t appear to affect search results, but as Yahoo! never addressed the issue, it looked as if this app would be neglected. 

(I’ll admit that I am a stickler for perfection, and an annoying all caps bug was the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard for me. I quit using the app solely for this reason. Yes, I’m a snob)

It appears that Yahoo! has breathed new life into everything but the Inquisitor brand. On March 23, 2010, Yahoo! released Yahoo! Search, and you can definitely tell this app’s daddy is Inquisitor. The similarities are unmistakable. See for yourself.

Even the icon is similar, with only color changes being the obvious difference.

But differences are abundant between the two apps. The new Yahoo! Search can display maps as you search. Entering Starbucks as a search term yielded (ironically) a Google map (I assume using the built in iPhone Maps API) showing Starbucks stores nearly my current location. Enter a stock symbol such as AAPL and you’ll see the current stock price and whether it has gone up or down. Enter a movie title and see showtimes at theaters near you. 

Overall, it is refreshing to see the Inquisitor app live on in this new name. I do, however, find it odd that the original Inquisitor iPhone app is still available on the App Store. As for Inquisitor for web browsers, I haven’t kept up on the news of its support for Firefox and IE (as I don’t use those browsers) but I think it is safe to say that the Safari version has reached the end of its life. And that is truly a shame. 

 I honestly think it is too bad that Apple didn’t acquire the technology long ago. Hopefully Yahoo! can keep it alive.

Why Command-C When You Can Pastebot?

A while back I mentioned a fun little unit converter for the iPhone called Convertbot. The latest Tapbot to arrive is model 0003, a.k.a. Pastebot.

Pastebot’s purpose is to manage a clipboard of text and images that you copy from various content, whether that is the web, or twitter, or…well, anything that you can copy & paste on your iPhone. The things I love about Convertbot — the elegant, simple, yet fun interface and the mechanical sounds as you interact with the UI — are also found in Pastebot.

To use Pastebot, first, you need to copy something to your clipboard on your iPhone. Once an image or some text is copied, simply open Pastebot, and whatever is currently in the clipboard’s cache is imported. From there, you can apply filters to the content (such as black & white on an image, or convert to all lowercase on text), and/or send them in an email. Also, since Pastebot remembers the last 99 things imported, you can recopy something to the iPhone’s general clipboard to repost elsewhere at any time.

The most shining feature of Pastebot is Pastebot Sync, a Mac preference pane that acts as a wireless bridge between your Mac & iPhone. When your iPhone and Mac are on the same wifi network, and Pastebot is running on your iPhone, anything you copy on your Mac will magically be dropped into Pastebot. Likewise, tap and hold on something in Pastebot’s clipboard manager, and that image or text is pasted wherever your insertion cursor is currently on the Mac, whether that be the address bar, TextEdit, Pages, Keynote, or even an iChat window. You get the picture.

Pastebot sells for $2.99 in the App Store and Pastebot Sync is a free utility on Tapbot’s site. 

⌘ iMultitasking

Most of the people I know now have smartphones, and one thing many say to lampoon my iPhone is, “Well, it can’t multitask.” I often try to explain that it does indeed multitask, just not with third-party apps. For example: You can listen to music via the iPod app whilst playing a game or reading tweets, or you can talk on the phone while browsing the web or reading tweets. Did I mention reading tweets?

But what if multitasking isn’t quite the correct idea to seek? You see, the standard computer we know and love can multitask, but we cannot. We are unable to focus on writing an email and a blog post at the same time. Just like we can’t watch a movie and read our RSS feeds at the same time. Sure, you can have the movie playing, but when you switch your eyes from it to your feedreader, your eyes are now reading instead of watching. And yes, you can keep part of your consciousness on the movie by listening, but that is utilizing a completely different sense. 

When people say multitasking they really mean context switching. Louie Mantia has an amazing write-up of this idea.

The premise of context switching is great on modern computers. We can do this quickly and efficiently via clicking on an icon in the Dock or command-tabbing or using Exposé. (Or using the taskbar or Windows-tab, or Aero Peek, if you use Windows).

Humans don’t multitask, they context switch. Really quickly. Computers multitask, but only in the sense of running multiple processes at the same time. This is all presented to the user through context switching, though. Multitasking is something the user doesn’t necessarily see.

Now, let’s boil this down to smartphones. The iPhone multitasks processes in certain apps, allowing the user to listen to music or talk on the phone while simultaneous using a different sense to do something else (audio and visual). 

Another smartphone, such as the Palm Pre, can run any variant of multiple apps at once. This degrades performance and battery life. It’s a tradeoff. So yes, the Pre itself, as a tiny computer, is multitasking. But how is that presented to the user? One app at a time. Just like the iPhone.

Here is the big difference between so-called “multitasking” phones and the iPhone: the “multitaskers” context-switch faster. The iPhone is hindered by a middleman: the Homescreen. The hindrance is not so much by the act of closing one app and launching another, but rather getting from one app to the other. If the app I had been using is on Page 1 of the homescreen and the app I want to switch to is on Page 8, that’s a lot of swiping. 

Palm simplified this by the concept of cards. I’ve observed one of my friends with his Pre, and he doesn’t usually have too many apps running at once. Tends to be his top three or four. And he is able to context-switch quickly between those three or four apps via the card interface. The massive list of apps in the homescreen is cut out entirely when switching between a couple apps. The only time he needs to visit the home screen is to launch a new app.

I think the perfect middle-ground for Apple, which doesn’t want to impact performance and battery life by allowing any and all background processes, is to allow a gesture-based switching between certain “open” apps. What I mean by “open” is that when you use a gesture to switch apps, the app you were using is put in a suspended state and the other app you had “open” is brought out of a suspended state. This would maintain the illusion of multitasking without sacrificing resources. I think. I’m not an engineer. 

This solution, of course, doesn’t help the folks who want Pandora to supply stimulation to their audio senses while they engage their visual senses in another app. But we all know Apple isn’t willing to allow third-party background processes. But this solution would allow for faster and easier context switching of the visual sense.

(It should be noted that the only apps allowed background processing on the iPhone are a few of the pre-installed apps. Even the apps that Apple publishes via the App Store follow App Store rules and are not allowed background processing).

I think the real issues some people are having with the iPhone isn’t multitasking, but rather background-processing and more efficient context-switching. One of those Apple is unlikely to enact. The other is one I’d like to see. And I’d like to see it soon.

Google Extends Chrome for Mac

Google has had a rising star over the past year or so with its Chrome web browser. The browser was first available to Windows users, with Mac and Linux support promised. After what seemed like an eon, age, and an eternity, Google delivered those versions in Late 2009. However, they didn’t have feature parity with their older Windows brother.

Today Google closed that gap significantly with an update to Chrome for Mac (sorry, Linux) by adding support for extensions and bookmark syncing.

Extensions add extra functionality to the browser. I, for one, am anxious for 1Password to finish their Chrome extension, as I can’t truly give a browser a chance without 1Password being easily accessible. 

Bookmark syncing is a great feature for folks with multiple computers. I know my friend, Aaron, was excited to finally have his home and work versions of Chrome talking to each other.

You can get Chrome here or see what Google has to say about the enhancements to Chrome for Mac.

Safari will likely remain as my main browser, but I think Chrome has trumped Firefox as my secondary.

MWSF 2010: Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac Announced

The big announcement at the kickoff of Macworld Conference & Expo today was Microsoft’s official announcement of Office 2011 for Mac. 

Office 2011 ousting Entourage and adopting Outlook for Mac, built from the ground up. It will also herald the return of Visual Basic, which didn’t make the cut in the 2008 version.

Also, the “ribbon” user interface that introduced in Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac is getting a visual facelift and functionality overhaul. And a nice little touch will be smooth transitions in the ribbon interface via Core Animation.

Office 2011 for Mac should be available for Holiday 2010. The price has yet to announced.

Aperture 3 Released

Early this morning our favorite fruit company released Aperture 3, the iPhoto-on-steroids performance enhancing code for prosumer and professional shutterbugs alike. Aperture 3 is 64-bit, includes Faces and Places from the previous iPhoto release, and includes a few new tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets (among many other minute tweaks and updates).

I, for one, have been salivating over Aperture for a while. Since I started shooting RAW images over JPGs, iPhoto has become a slow, uncooperative mutt. Yes, I could have bought Aperture 2, but I had been convinced for the past 6 months that Aperture 3 was right around the corner. I waited, and it has paid off. 

I’ve requested a trial copy from Apple’s site, and can’t wait to download it and give it a run. That will also give me 30-days to see if I can find a decent deal on it.

I’ll post more on my thoughts on Aperture 3, the ease (or difficulty) of transitioning from iPhoto, and other gems after I’ve had a while to play and tinker.

If you’ve been feeling a little cramped by iPhoto, go visit the Aperture page and request a trial to see if that fits better for your photo processing needs. And when you want to buy, remember to feed the techēse speaking guy by using the Amazon link in the sidebar.

1Password 3 Holds All Your Keys

I’ve been using 1Password by Agile Web Solutions for about a year thanks to my friend Samantha gifting a license to me during Agile’s Thanksgiving gifting program last year. Well, for the past 9 months or so, the team at Agile has been giving 1Password the biggest overhaul in the software’s history.

Since late August I’ve been beta-testing 1Password 3, which I am glad to tell you has been released for the masses today. If you are a Mac user, 1Password is a must-have application. It generates secure passwords for your web presence, and stores them all in a secure database that can be unlocked by your, well, one password you’ll never forget.

Too often I see people that use a word that can be found in the dictionary as their password (which means easily hacked) and then they use it everywhere. Even for their financial accounts online. This is a terrible practice that I even used to use.

Well, 1Password 3 has refined the user interface greatly from previous versions. Now everything is separated into different vaults, so you can easily access your logins, accounts, identities, secure notes, software licenses, and wallet. This program tracks everything for your digital life.

What I have found to be the most helpful is the web browser plugin. Whether you use Safari, Firefox, Camino, etc. (Chrome is in the works) you can easily have the plugin fill in user and password fields for you. Or if you need to fill in your credit card and billing address info for a merchant, the plugin will do it all in a couple clicks. The credit card info is very helpful for changing your info for many merchants when you receive a new card every couple years.

1Password 3 offers many enhancements for users of version 2, and is inescapably attractive for new users. This should be the first download for any Mac.

1Password 3 is available for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard. It costs $39.95 for a new license and users of version 2 may upgrade for $19.95 (until Nov. 30, 2009, then the price raises to $29.95).

For a complete list of what’s new, check out this page.

Twitterrific 2.1 Fluffs the Blue Bird's Feathers

Yesterday Apple finally approved the first substantial feature update to my favorite Twitter application for the iPhone – Twitterrific. The app had been sitting in the approval queue for quite a few weeks. The new version brings a flock of new features. I’ll go over my favorites here. The colossal list of all the changes can be found at Twitterrific’s version history page.

First and foremost, I had started with Twitterrific since the opening day of the App Store. But version 1.x lacked many advanced features, especially when Tweetie came on the scene. I had resisted Tweetie for quite a while, but when I started managing a second Twitter account, I ended up on Tweetie out of necessity.

I switched back to the blue bird when version 2.0 came out and was instantly won back. Over time though, I did find that the new blue bird was missing a few features that Tweetie had that I really loved. Twitterrific 2.1 has taken care of all that, and is reigning supreme yet again.

Here’s what Tweetie had that Twitterrific now has:

• New “Load More…” button to retrieve older tweets in the timeline.


• Added a photo viewer for images on yfrog, Twitpic, and Twitgoo. (This is instead of just loading the web page for the photo, as Twitterrific had always done. This is MUCH faster.)


• Tap on the avatar in the author info view to view the avatar full size.


• Added following and followers buttons to author view.

Granted, these are not drastic things that I couldn’t live without, but they round out the experience of the app. Possibly my favorite is the custom image viewer, especially for Twitpic. The old method of loading the whole Twitpic web page was time consuming and cumbersome, as you’d have to zoom to see the image every time. Now you get a wonderful fullscreen image that loads quickly. Nice.

Some other new features that I am loving is the “Address Book” view (signified by a rolodex card), a YouTube videos play within the in-app browser, the built-in web browser supports landscape view, in-app email support, and the ability to translate a tweet to your native language.

The “address book” is a wonderful feature. From either the timeline view or posting view, you can bring up your followers, who you’re following, and a search area to view an account and create a mention or direct message. Very nice.

Utilizing the in-app YouTube viewer and in-app email in OS 3.0 is nice. An app’s experience is greatly improved when you don’t have to leave the app all the time.

For iPhone 3GS owners, you getting some special attention and love, too!  You can record, post, and view video from yfrog and TwitVid. The developers note that for yfrog, you need to activate the video setting on yfrog.com.

Also, apparently Twitterrific 2.1 is “optimized for the iPhone 3GS.” Whatever that means. (Not that I’m bitter that I don’t have a 3GS.) (I’m just messing with you all.)

Overall, Twitterrific 2.1 is a solid feature upgrade that really gives the blue bird some new pluck. Twitterrific 2.1 is available in an ad-supported free [App Store] version and a $3.99 ad-free Premium [App Store] version.

P.S. ~ It’s not a bad idea to follow @Twitterrific on the Twitter. App specific news is regularly pumped out there and helpful hints and tips for the app are offered as well.

Convertbot Belongs on Your iPhone (or iPod touch) [u]

There are plenty of times that I want to convert one value to another. For some reason, it usually involves recipes. My wife and I have many recipes that are scaled to feed an army. We’re a three person family. And our just-over-one-year-old son doesn’t exactly eat a large portion.

(Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll eat us out of house & home when he becomes a teenager).

Now, there are other times I’ve needed to convert various values. My go-to place for such a thing has always been Google. See, if you go to Google and type in 48.5 ounces to pounds Google will tell you 48.5 ounces = 3.03125 pounds. Handy, huh?

Great thing is, that even works on my iPhone via Safari.

But I love great design and user interfaces. Heck, I use a Mac, right? How could I not have an appreciation for those? Well, it just so happens that there is an app for that. And it belongs on your iPhone.

I’ve had my eyes on Convertbot [App Store] by Tapbots for quite some time now. It is a gorgeous little app that lives to serve your every conversion whim. It has a wonderful robotic-inspired user interface, complete with sound effects that just makes the experience gush with gadgetry.

And this little app does a lot. Currency, Data Size, Length, Mass, Speed, Temperature, Time, Volume, and Area are the main categories, with many denominations in each one. There is a nice demo video over on the aforelinked Tapbots site. The app normally sells for $1.99.

However, as of this publication, Convertbot is FREE for a “very limited time.” So skip the demo, go make sure it’s still free on the App Store, and add it to your iPhone’s utility belt!

UPDATE: I just discovered there’s is a virtual ton of extra measurement categories that can be enabled in the app’s preferences! They include Angle, Data Rate, Force, Fuel, Illuminance, Power, Pressure, Radioactivity, SI, Typography, and Work.