In my previous post I casually mentioned that I thought Reeder for Mac would be a fantastic contender for an Apple Design Award. I then remembered that this year, Apple didn’t have an ADA for Mac apps — just iPhone/iPod touch and iPad apps.
Then a notion came upon me that I wanted to share: with the Mac App Store launching soon, what if Apple reinstates the ADA for Mac, but on the condition that it has to be an App Store app?
Makes sense to me.
Find my iPhone is a feature of Apple MobileMe service. MobileMe is a $99 per year subscription service that provides syncing of your calendars, contacts, & bookmarks across your computers and iOS devices, along with an email account, iDisk server storage, photo galleries, and Find my Iphone (or iPod touch or iPad). When Find my iPhone was added as a feature of MobileMe, I thought (and still think) it is a great part of the service.
Say your iPhone slips out of your pocket while you’re sitting at a coffee shop. You leave, and a while later, you reach for your iPhone and have a near heart attack. Never fear, you can hop onto me.com or the Find my iPhone app from another device (say, your spouse’s or your friend’s) and locate your iPhone on a map. From there, you can passcode lock the screen, send a custom message with an alert sound that overrides the volume or mute switch, or, in extreme circumstances, remote wipe the device. This works for iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.
(It should be noted that if you wipe the device, you won’t be able to track it again. Wiping resets everything to factory condition).
Well, today Apple updated the Find my iPhone app and is allowing any iPhone 4, 4th-Generation iPod touch, or iPad to use that portion of MobileMe for free. Download the app to sign up for an account.
There is a little trick here if you have an older device. Just register your Apple ID on someone else’s current generation device, then delete your info from their device. Once you have registered on a supported device, you can then activate Find my iPhone on any of your older devices.
I’d really like to see Apple open this up for all of their iOS device users, but I understand their desire to encourage folks toward newer devices. Apple is a business, after all.
I recommend that everyone take advantage of the Find my iPhone program. It could save you a lot of panic and headache if you were to ever lose your device.
It appears MobileMe Gallery may also have become a free service today. Interesting.
Apple released iOS 4.2.1 today for iPhone, iPod touch, & iPad (indeed, 4.2 itself never publicly graced an iOS device).
Apple, of course, has a nice page detailing all the features of the iOS 4.2 update.
For iPhone and iPod touch owners, the two keystone features are AirPrint and AirPlay. Other than that, there are many little tweaks and polish to iOS.
The real news surrounding the 4.2 update is the ipad. Back when the iPad was released, iOS 4 hadn’t been announced yet. Instead, the iPad received its own special branch of iOS 3 — 3.2 to be exact. So iOS 4.2 is the iPad’s first encounter with the features its smaller sized siblings have been enjoying for months. To name a few: multitasking, folders, Game Center, & Mail improvements. For the first time, the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad are on the same iOS.
Multitasking has been enjoyed by iPhone and iPod touch users for a while, and any of your universal apps that have multitasking support will work automatically with multitasking after the update. Standalone iPad apps will need updates to work with the new feature, and those have been trickling into the App Store steadily over the past week or so.
Multitasking works as advertised, just like on the iPhone and iPod touch. The only hindrance I can foresee being a problem for heavy multitaskers is running up against the iPad’s limited 256 MB of memory. It really hasn’t been much of a problem for me (I’ve had 4.2.1 since the weekend, so I’ve had time to play). It would be nice if the next iPad hardware had at least 512 MB of memory (1 GB would be even better).
Folders is the feature I’ve been wanting on the iPad since I bought my iPhone 4. I’ve easily consolidated my homescreen count from five to two, which is much nicer. Once again, if you’ve used folders on iOS 4 before, you’ve seen this already. It’s just nice to have congruency across my iPhone and iPad.
Game Center is Apple’s built-in achievements, leader board, and multiplayer platform for iOS. Now it is on the iPad. Like some of the other iPad apps, Game Center has an expanded user interface to accommodate the larger screen size.
Hallelujah, Mail now has unified inbox and threaded messages! These features are things I’m amazed weren’t shipped with iOS 1.0, but it’s good to have them. I’ve loved them on the iPhone, and it’s great to have them on the iPad, especially since the iPad is a great experience for dealing with an unruly inbox.
The changes that are new to the iPhone and iPod touch are less noticeable. There are new sounds for SMS/MMS alerts to choose from. They honestly sound as if Apple hired a composer from Looney Toons. There are new parental controls, including disabling some of Game Center and one I about did a backflip over — disbaling the deletion of apps. My son just loves to delete all the toddler games from his iPod touch on a long roadtrip. Trust me, I could high five the Apple employee that added this.
Also, the birthday calendar now sports a wrapped gift icon, helping to make someone’s special day stand out a little more against your busy schedule. Voice Memos got a new icon, somehow even uglier than before.
Another nice feature is font choices in the Notes app. Marker Felt is still there, but is now joined by Chalkboard and the ever-wonderful Helvetica.
AirPrint allows your iOS device to print wirelessly. When the feature was announced, it was revealed that it would work without additional setup with select HP printers, and then with a little extra work, your existing printer that is shared with your Mac or PC. Unfortunately, only the former found its way to the release. It is unknown if the latter is delayed temporarily or indefinitely.
AirPlay, on the other hand, is something I am extremely excited for. AirPlay allows you to stream audio, video, or photo content to your TV from an iOS device via Apple TV, or audio to AirPlay-compatible third-party speakers. It works today with the new Apple TV, and third party speakers, such as the iHome iW1, will be available around the holidays. I definitely plan on putting a couple iW1’s around the house.
That’s about all that is worth mentioning. If you find any other gems in the release, drop a note in the comments.
iLounge wrote up an exhaustive overview of pretty much every change in iOS 4.2.1. As usual, their Instant Expert article is extremely well done.
The Iconfactory today released their long-awaited hyperjump back into iPhone gaming Astronut! You play Jacques the Astronut, leaping planet to planet through 24 levels across 6 sectors. Astronut is also Game Center compatible, sporting 40 achievements and leaderboards.
Needless to say, The Iconfactory has boldly gone into the super high resolution territory of the Retina Display, bringing graphics so sharp it’d make Buzz Lightyear jealous.
You get the first 4 levels for the steep price of free, and then an in-app purchase of $1.99 gets you the rest of the game. This is a great compromise for a sort of demo try-before-you-buy. If you like the first 4 levels, you’ll really love the rest.
I’ve had a hard time putting Astronut down today, and my twitter followers are probably tired of hearing about my achievements. I can’t recommend this game enough. Go get it.
P.S. Don’t forget to grab the gorgeous free wallpaper pack for Astronut.
P.P.S. Astronut’s arrival totally makes up for Apple’s yawn of an announcement regarding The Beatles earlier.
Yesterday, Marco Arment’s excellent Instapaper app for iOS was updated with some thoughtful new features. Among these are combined length/progress indicators for saved articles à la Kindle, new sharing options, and a Light/Dark theme toggle within articles on the iPhone or iPod touch (this has been present on the iPad for a while).
Naturally, there’s one more thing.
Not only can small-screened iOS devices now toggle Light/Dark mode within an article, but Marco built an amazing location-aware feature that checks the sunset times for your locale and automatically switches to Dark mode at night and Light mode during the day. Marco describes this feature as “ridiculous.” I describe it as wonderful.
Instapaper is a great free service on the web, but I have found the iOS app well worth the $5 several times over. And each free update makes it even better. Needless to say, I love how many apps, including Twitterrific, have Instapaper support for sending links to read later.
If you aren’t using Instapaper, shame on you.
In a rather odd move, Apple this evening seeded Mac OS X 10.6.6 to developers, before 10.6.5 has even been released. 10.6.5 has been in testing for a while now, with one of the main additions being support for iOS 4.2 to print wirelessly via any printer attached to your Mac or the network your Mac is connected to.
Apparently, 10.6.6 includes initial support for the installation and update mechanism for the Mac App Store.
This is pure speculation, but I believe 10.6.5 will be hitting Software Update very soon. As in Friday, 5 November soon. With iOS 4.2 going Gold Master on Monday for developers, iOS 4.2 compatible iPad apps hitting the iOS App Store on Wednesday, and a nasty Daylight Savings bug residing in iOS 4.1, with the United States ending Daylight Savings on Sunday, 7 November.
Let’s face it, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Friday, 5 November were the day we see Mac OS X 10.6.5, iTunes 10.1, and iOS 4.2.
As I noted earlier, Apple’s Mac event is just a week away, and the invite is highly suggestive of two things:
The majority of the invite itself looks like the lid of a an aluminum Mac notebook, with the Apple logo freshly cut out (I’d love to get my hands on one of those scrap Apple logos). And then there is the lion peeking out. And let’s face it, I don’t think Apple will stick with the cat theme for Mac OS 11, so my bet is definitely on Mac OS X 10.7.
Needless to say, I have my hopes and dreams…
I suspect there will be slight refreshes to the MacBook Pro. Faster processors, bigger batteries, USB 3, and maybe even higher resolution screens (maybe even 16:9). Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if the Pro line took a page from the MacBook Air and moved the optical drive to an external accessory. I rarely use my optical drive, and would love to use that space for something else.
The MacBook Air has always been an enigma to me — super light & portable but severely underpowered and overpriced. Also, with the 13-inch screen, a 13-inch MacBook Pro seems like a better investment.
For weeks there have been rumors that the Air may go to an 11.6-inch screen. I think this seems right. Shrink the screen, shed even more weight, give it the all-glass trackpad like the MacBook and MacBook Pros, and for crying out loud, figure out how to squeeze more than one USB port in the thing.
And hey, if the price can be chopped further, I think you may have something neat on your hands.
Whenever there is news of an upcoming major update to Mac OS X, I always find myself at a loss for what Apple could possibly add to make it better. And, of course, I am always blown away. Last time, for Snow Leopard, I was blown away by the cost — $29. Once installed, Snow Leopard blew my mind with the overall “super polished” responsiveness. Even though there wasn’t a great deal of new features, it was obvious there was a lot of refactoring under the hood.
For Lion, I can only fathom a couple things that seem like shoe-ins.
Apple’s giant drum to parade around this year is FaceTime. It’s in the iPhone 4 and the latest iPod touch. I also think it is going to be in the next iPad.
For years, we’ve had video calls in iChat on Mac OS X. However, right now, FaceTime isn’t getting a lot of my attention since I can’t do a video call with my relatives who don’t have an iPhone 4 or new iPod touch. Lion will likely change this. I bet iChat will gain FaceTime support for video calls to Apple’s mobile devices.
Hey, maybe Apple will give iChat a much needed facelift while they are at it.
Apple has been slowly adding Multi-Touch to the Mac over the years. Mostly, this has remained exclusive to Mac portables, but recently came to the desktop with the advent of the Magic Trackpad (which I love, by the way).
I think Apple will eventually bundle the Magic Trackpad with the iMac as the default pointing device, likely around Lion’s release, as I am sure it will utilize a fair amount of Multi-Touch interaction.
I am unsure how extensive Multi-Touch will permeate within Lion, but I’d wager it will be a foundational release to eventually move away from the traditional mouse for good.
One thing I appreciate about my Mac apps that have iOS counterparts is the ability to sync their data via WiFi. The problem is that this is cumbersome. You have to launch the Mac app and the iOS app and have both devices on the same network in order for them to sync.
Some apps, such as 1Password have taken to using services like Dropbox to sync data cross device and cross platform, without requiring the user to do anything beyond the initial setup.
That is a much more fluid and transparent way of doing things. I hope Apple provides a method for developers to easily hook into a drop dead easy way to sync information from a Mac to an iOS device. Label this as hopeful.
Apple has been building a gigantic data center on the east coast for some time. I have long wondered if that was either for a streaming iTunes service, or for a free MobileMe. Overall, MobileMe is much better than .Mac, which it replaced, with one glaring exception – iDisk. It is slow and just plain doesn’t work all that well.
I’d really like to see iDisk get overhauled to be a lot like the aforementioned Dropbox. That would actually facilitate that iOS syncing integration pretty well.
My hope would be that MobileMe would move to being free with Lion, but I do actually feel like I get my $100 per year out of it. The advantage of making it free is that more users would adopt the technology, making for a leaner, cleaner experience. Also, iOS device owners on Windows may feel more inclined to have that seamless integration between Mac OS X and iOS.
Undoubtedly, a major Mac OS X revision brings some fresh UI paint. Maybe I’m crazy, but iTunes always seems to be the forerunner for design choices that later find their way to Mac OS X. Particularly, I am think of the “traffic lights” going vertical, and the title bar possibly going by the wayside. It seems to work well in iTunes, though I am unsure how well the removal of the title bar would fare in other places, such as Safari (that is, unless, Tabs on Top finally made their reappearance).
I can definitely see the traffic lights going vertical. I’d bet a nickel on it.
Who knows, maybe we’ll see fully 64-bit updates and overhauls to Apple’s two famous software suites. I know I wouldn’t mind seeing both of these appear.
That’s my wish list and educated guesses.
Bjango makes fantastic apps for iOS and Mac OS X. I use their hugely popular iStat utility every day. They pose the question on their blog of “What if iChat was one window?”
Their mockup and explanation is top notch and a great read. My favorite line from the whole thing is:
I’m finding more and more that the best way to design desktop apps is to imagine you’re building them for iOS.
I couldn’t agree more. I hope someone at Apple is listening.
New icon, support for the iPad (finally), and also scaled up for the Retina Display. The iPad interface is very enjoyable. You can see your entire library, including videos and podcasts. Looks a lot like iTunes 10.
Another nice feature is support for Home Sharing. Log in with your Home Sharing credentials and you instantly see all the libraries on your Home Share. Much nicer than walking to every computer or Apple TV and dealing with PIN codes.
I can’t wait for AirPlay compatible speakers from third parties to arrive.
Because that is what they are going to sell like. A few hours ago, Apple held its usual fall iPod refresh event to set things up for the holiday season. And as an added bonus, Apple live streamed the event on their site, a first since 2002.
Steve Jobs handled the keynote solo style today, save for one developer demo. As many of you know, Jobs has had some major medical issues over the past couple years, culminating in a leave of absence and a life-saving liver transplant. When he returned to Apple, the fall iPod event was his first round of stage time. That was one year ago, and he appeared exhausted and frail. Today was completely different. He looked healthy, was energetic, and even cracked a number of jokes. Glad to see you’re well, Mr. Jobs.
Steve kicked off the event by recognizing Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who was in the audience. Then he talked about the success of Apple’s retail operations. Next, the overall health of the App Store. And then, with all the numbers out of the way, the really good stuff.
Steve introduced iOS 4.1, available for download next week, and ran through some of the updates. He explained there are a lot of bug fixes, primarily with the proximity sensor of iPhone 4, issues with Bluetooth, and performance with iPhone 3G (and presumably second-generation iPod touch, as the hardware is similar).
There are several new features landing as well. The camera is getting an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo setting. Basically, turn it on, and the iPhone will take three photos in rapid succession at different exposures, then meld them all together to present a perfectly exposed photo, in theory. As I am a bit of a camera nerd, I have a feeling I will love this simple implementation. Honestly, these days I take more pictures with my iPhone 4 than my Canon 40D.
iOS 4.1 will also allow HD Video uploading to YouTube and MobileMe when connected to WiFi, TV show rentals, and the introduction of Game Center.
Game Center is all about multiplayer games. You can challenge friends or be auto matched with a stranger. You can also compare scores on a leader board and discover new games. Game Center will be an app on your device, but also an API for developers to integrate Game Center into their games.
Yes, you read that right, Steve also talked about iOS 4.2. The primary mission of iOS 4.2 is to bring everything in iOS 4.1 to the iPad (finally). A couple other features will be wireless printing and AirPlay. I’ll talk about AirPlay in a bit. iOS 4.2 will be a free update to iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads in November.
Steve said the secret to the success of the iPod is that Apple has never rested on its laurels. Seems true enough to me. And these new models are very impressive.
Starting with the iPod shuffle, Steve took a walk down memory lane and discussed the first, second, and third generation of the shuffle. People loved the first one, went nuts for the second (which I have long said was the perfection of the shuffle design), and that the third wasn’t much of a hit. See, Apple had removed all of the controls from the third generation, moving them all to the headphones. What a disaster. Well, the fourth generation brings back the controls, and looks like a slightly smaller version of the second generation. The shuffle comes in silver, blue, green, orange, or pink. It has a 15 hour battery and will be available next week at $49 for 2GB.
Apple has heralded the death of the click wheel, the iconic input method of mobile music player history. The new iPod nano has a 1.5” touch screen, a clip on the back like the shuffle (runners won’t need a silly armband for it), dedicated volume buttons, and does still have enough room for the 30-pin Dock connector.
The new nano is, however, missing a few features that the last generation had. Those would be the video camera, the ability to play video, and games. In fact, the interface looks a lot like iOS, even down to putting icons in jiggly mode and rearranging them. But, I’m not sure if it is iOS or just looks like iOS. (My wager is that it is iOS, but locked down).
The new nano is quite the compelling redesign. It will also be available next week in silver, black, blue, green, orange, pink, and red. It has a 24-hour battery and comes in 8GB and 16GB, selling for $149 and $179, respectively.
Apple added a lot to the iPod touch and somehow made it even thinner. The new iPod touch gains the A4 processor found in the iPad and iPhone 4, the amazing Retina Display (by far my favorite feature of the iPhone 4), a 3-axis gyroscope, and not one, but two cameras! The is a camera on the back that can record HD video, but sadly takes fairly low resolution photos, and then a camera on the front for — wait for it — FaceTime video conferencing! I have a feeling this may be popular with some of my relatives. I know FaceTime was indispensable for my son and I when my wife went out of town for a week last month.
The new iPod touch will be available next week, running iOS 4.1 with Game Center. It will be available in capacities of 8GB, 32GB, and 64GB at $229, $299, and $399, respectively.
Sidenote: Unlike previous years, all three capacities are the new generation of iPod touch. Traditionally, Apple has relegated the previous generation to the 8GB slot. This time, all three carry cameras, Retina displays, and A4 chips. Color me impressed.
Not even a mention in the keynote. Not pictured in the iPod family lineup. I thought it may finally be dead. But no, there it sits, unchanged from last year, on Apple’s site. A relic now in more way than one, what with the spinning hard drive and the click wheel. I will be truly surprised if the classic still exists as a product after next year’s fall event.
Apple unleashed the tenth major iteration of iTunes, iTunes 10. Steve explained that since the iTunes Store is about to surpass CD sales, they decided to ditch the CD out of the icon. I very much like the look of the new icon. I’ve thought for a while that the CD sure seemed dated this day and age.
Other enhancements, according to Apple, are a new hybrid view, where you’ll get album artwork for 5 or more songs that are from the same album in list view.
Apple also set out to strengthen music discovery by creating a new social network inside iTunes called Ping. Follow artists and friends and be followed, create a circle of friends, post your thoughts and opinions, see customized song & album charts, and see concert listings.
I’m not too sure about Ping, but I have yet to try it out, as iTunes 10 went from “Available Today” to “Coming Soon.”
One last note that I noticed from the screen shots is that the close, minimize, and zoom buttons (at least on the Mac) have gone from being horizontal to vertical and in line next to the player controls, saving ¼” of space of vertical window real estate. It’s a small thing, and seems odd compared to the rest of Mac OS X, but let’s face it, screens are getting wider, not taller. I like it, and I hope the rest of Mac OS X goes this way in the next major update.
Since the introduction of the Apple TV in 2007, Apple has referred to it as a hobby. The hardware had remained unchanged except for a hard drive bump from 40GB to 160GB. But it’s the one Apple product I can think of that hasn’t had much success. Why? Well, according to Apple, customers want Hollywood movies & TV shows, everything in HD, lower prices for content, no reliance upon a computer, no worrying about managing storage, no syncing, and they want it to be silent, cool, and small.
The new Apple TV is ¼ the size of the old, fits in your hand, the content is in HD, and is on a rental model. HD movie rentals are available day and date with DVD releases for $4.99, and TV shows are available to rent for 99¢. The content is streamed straight to the device, and there is even support for Netflix Instant.
Now let’s talk about AirPlay. There’s been a technology in the AirPort Express called AirTunes for a while now, which let you stream music from iTunes to speakers connected to an Airport Express. AirPlay replaces that, and expands upon it. One feature of AirPlay is the ability for any iOS device to stream content to an Apple TV. And not just music, but videos and photos too. Let’s say you’re watching a movie on your iPad, but you decide to move to the living room. A couple taps, and the iPad pushes the movie onto your TV via the Apple TV. Same goes for an iPhone or iPod touch. This feature will come with iOS 4.2.
Another expansion of AirPlay is it won’t be limited to AirPort Express and Apple TV. Third parties will be able to embed AirPlay compatibility into their devices. According to Engadget:
That means you’ll be able to stream music from iTunes, your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to speaker docks, receivers and stereos from companies like Denon, Marantz, Bowers & Wilkins, JBL and iHome, complete with song, album, and artist info and album art.
Sounds like a winner to me.
Overall, I think it was a great event. I hope the trend will be to live stream keynotes in the future. I know my mother is already green with envy for the new green iPod nano, though I’d rather her have an iPod touch for FaceTime (are you reading this, Mom?) I’d be surprised if these new iPods aren’t on a few of my relatives’ Christmas lists.
