In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork ’09 were not available for the initial release. We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand new features on an ongoing basis.
What I don’t get is why Apple didn’t publish this article at the announcement? They must have known a good proportion of people would be annoyed at the omissions. By only publishing now, they look like they are floundering under pressure.
T-Mobile said the arrival of the iPad on its network allowed the company to sell more tablets last Friday than it sold during the entire prior quarter.
T-Mobile didn’t provide a specific sales number, but its claim jibes with those made by other carriers. AT&T said on Monday that the launch of the iPad Air saw Apple tablet sales triple those from last fall’s iPad launch weekend.
The iPad Air has been a big hit. Everyone is reporting strong sales statistics. What’s currently not known is if the Mini will be equally successful or whether it has been overshadowed by the bigger iPad in this cycle.
It is with a heavy heart we announce that Everpix will be shutting down in the coming weeks.
We started this company two years ago with the goals of solving the photo mess and designing better ways for people to enjoy their memories. We are very proud of the work we’ve done—from the cutting-edge semantic analysis and syncing technology, right down to every pixel on our website and mobile apps.
Everpix was a great product — they are shutting down because they couldn’t finance it. Apple could do worse than hire the talent here, if not buyout the company.
Ahead of Tuesday’s media event, Apple has revised its Built-in Apps page for the iPhone 5s to reveal the full set of new iOS 7-themed icons for the six iLife and iWork apps offered for iOS. The new GarageBand and iPhoto icons had appeared in the Settings app on some users’ devices last week.
Apple messed up by showing the iPhoto and GarageBand icons in iCloud settings prematurely last week. Although not a common occurrence, Apple has leaked stuff through iTunes and iCloud metadata in the past, so it wasn’t entirely without precedent.
What I wasn’t expecting was for them to screw up again and leak the entirety of the new icon set on their own site ahead of tomorrow’s announcement.
The icons themselves look promising. All of the iWork icons actually feel like they were made with iOS in mind. The lucid green Numbers is a little rough, though.
She shares our values and our focus on innovation. She places the same strong emphasis as we do on the customer experience. She cares deeply about people and embraces our view that our most important resource and our soul is our people. She believes in enriching the lives of others and she is wicked smart. Angela has shown herself to be an extraordinary leader throughout her career and has a proven track record. She led Burberry through a period of phenomenal growth with a focus on brand, culture, core values and the power of positive energy.
As a Brit, on the sole basis of each company’s retail outlets, hiring the CEO from Burberry is a much better choice than the CEO of Dixons.
As an Apple supplier, our contact offered insight into the “iWatch” and described this potential new device as much more than an extension of your iPhone but as a multi-purpose gateway in allowing consumers to control their home (i.e., heating/cooling, lights, audio, video, etc.).
White’s analyst notes should never be taken at face value; his track record indicate that he either has the worst sources in the world or he randomly makes stuff up.
I am only referring to him as a point of discussion. Home automation on the iWatch — or other smartwatches — is an area that hasn’t really been touched upon before. I suppose it is a neat addition. Controlling lights and appliances via your phone is all well and good, but there is a physical barrier to that. As intimate as a phone is, it is normally found stuffed in the depths of a pocket. A smartwatch has inherent advantages in doing small, basic things really quickly.
In terms of implementation though, the reality of Apple getting into home automation is a mess. Customers need new light fittings, new appliances, new plugs, new everything to take advantage of this stuff in addition to the iWatch itself. The system would also need to be contextually driven. With constrained screen real estate, the UI would have to prioritise showing the controllable lights and smart devices that are in close proximity (i.e. the same room) to the user. It’d be tricky to do well, but not impossible.
Due to the additional hardware requirements, though, I feel that this will be an area Apple will cede to third-party developers to solve. Right now, the chance that this is a headline 1.0 iWatch feature — in my mind — is very small.
Instead, he tells me about Stories, his team’s latest invention: a rolling compilation of snaps from the last 24 hours that your friends can see. You create your Story as you go about your day by tapping “My Story” above the friends you want to send a snap to. Or, you can tap a new shortcut button in the app’s camera screen to instantly post a snap to your Story. But unlike conventional snaps, Stories don’t disappear in a puff of ephemeral smoke after you’ve watched them. You can watch a friend’s (or your own) Story over and over.
How do you monetise a free app that creates temporary content? You don’t.
Microsoft Corp. is talking to HTC Corp. about adding its Windows operating system to HTC’s Android-based smartphones at little or no cost, people with knowledge of the matter said, evidence of the software maker’s struggle to gain ground in the mobile market.
Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft’s operating systems unit, asked HTC last month to load Windows Phone as a second option on handsets with Google Inc.’s rival software, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Myerson discussed cutting or eliminating the license fee to make the idea more attractive, the people said. The talks are preliminary and no decision has been made, two people said.
This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, but I have no doubt that it is true. Microsoft is just stupid. Dual-booting does not solve the underlying problem that Windows Phone isn’t very compelling for consumers.
If you offer somebody choice between Windows Phone and Android on boot, they are going to (perhaps foolishly) pick Android. Dual-booting doesn’t help Microsoft one bit.
Microsoft have already played their trump card, acquiring Nokia. They need to go all in on it, or they are going to lose. They need to reallocate all of the resources tied up in organising manufacturer relationships and focus on building a first-party product.
With the announcement of the new iPads approaching later this month, rumors surrounding the new full-sized iPad have centered around a thinner, lighter design, but it’s been unclear if the new tablet will sport the Touch ID fingerprint authentication system from the iPhone 5s. I’ve heard that Apple’s most recent internal next-generation iPad prototypes have lacked Touch ID sensors, so it’s unclear if it will make the cut for this year. There are a few reasons why Touch ID wouldn’t make sense on an iPad this year:
Exclusivity to iPhone 5s could help with sales for Apple’s flagship phone. Notice the iPhone 5c doesn’t have it.
Supplies for Sapphire Crystal are obviously tight.
Touch ID would be better suited for an iPad capable of multiple users; is the OS even ready for that?
My current line of thought is that Touch ID on the Retina Mini is a definite no. Supplies are constrained enough as it is, plus keeping it big-iPad exclusive offers a convenient differentiation between the products.
Whether it will come to big iPad or not? I would logically guess yes, but that’s all it is — a guess.
Cable industry vet and long-time CableLabs exec Jean-François Mulé has recently joined Apple in the role of engineering director.
Mulé shared word of his new role at the consumer electronics and media company on LinkedIn, noting in a post that he joined Apple last month and will be “challenged, inspired and part of something big” at Apple. CableLabs is looking to hire a replacement for Mulé, CableLabs VP of communications Wayne Surdam said via email.
It is interesting that Apple needed to hire a cable engineer for whatever the “something big” project is. Apple tends not to need high-profile engineering talent — they have enough of it already. For example, the purpose of hiring the Hulu executive was to further negotiations with content providers, not to aid Apple’s technological base.
Color is more than just a hue. It expresses a feeling. Makes a statement. Declares an allegiance. Color reveals your personality. iPhone 5c, in five anything-but-shy colors, does just that. It’s not just for lovers of color. It’s for the colorful.
Before the event, the entire tech press had come to the conclusion that the purpose of the 5c was to offer a more affordable version of the iPhone.
This assumption was wrong. The true role of the 5c is now clear. It was necessary because the iPhone 5 had a cost-structure that was too high to allow Apple to keep selling it with a $100 discount, as they have done with every other previous iPhone generation.
As such, they needed to engineer a tweaked iPhone 5 which could be profitably sold on as the mid-tier iPhone for 2013-2014. The 5c exists not to make the iPhone lineup move into a new price-point, but to stand in for the iPhone 5 so that Apple could continue hitting its usual price-points.
Therefore, for another cycle, Apple’s iPhone offerings are available at $450, $550, $650. Just like last year and the year before that. I’m disappointed they didn’t break the mould.
In June, I jotted down my judgement on each iOS 7 app icon. Reminders is a standout failure. Apple hasn’t fixed it, so it’s time to elaborate on why it is worse.
On an iPhone or iPad, the icon is too discreet. The thin strokes and negligible colouring encourage your eye to skip over it because it is so bland. Frankly, it is too white. The other white iOS 7 icons, despite their flaws, ensure they have enough block colour to distinguish themselves. For instance, about a third of the Notes icon is solid yellow.
Even Calendar, arguably the icon that is most dominated by blank space, makes sure the coloured elements are centred in the frame. In comparison, Reminders’ speckles of colour are shoved into the left edge and easily overlooked. At smaller sizes, the bullet point dots become so small and insignificant that the icon might as well be pure white.
I also hate how the icon feels fragile. This is hard to convey in writing, but it really bugs me. For starters, the line rules are about two pixels tall. This sizing should be reserved for unimportant UI separators, not the focal point of your icon. The design language behind iOS 6 understood this, as the icon heavily favoured thicker strokes. The brittle sensation also comes from the fact the lines aren’t evenly spaced. The third rung (the gap between the third and fourth line) is shorter than the others, albeit only slightly. Still, I think the inconsistency is perceptible.
In addition, it is frustrating that Apple crams detail into icons that are overwhelmingly basic. Camera is the biggest perpetrator in this department, but Reminders exhibits the same flaw. For some reason, the bullets are outlined. When large, the icon looks silly because their isn’t detail anywhere else. When small, the detail is too small to not be visible, appreciated or even correctly interpreted.
Only days away from Apple’s September 10th iPhone event, new photos have come out which claim to show the box for the upcoming iPhone 5S. The same site has also leaked alleged photos of iPhone 5C packaging in the past. Notable here is the tweaked home button design, which appears to ditch the iconic inset square in favor of a ring around the edge.
Well, that’s the “How will people know that I upgraded?” question resolved.
Joking aside, the fact the front of the iPhone 5S is visually distinct from the iPhone 5 is a big deal to normal people. It changes the perception normal people will have about the new phone dramatically.
In addition, it reinforces the fingerprint sensor gimmick factor. Friends will notice people with the new phone and want to see the new feature in action, in the same way onlookers demanded Siri demos when the 4S was brand new.
Apple has begun showing the teaser video for the upcoming Mac Pro in movie theaters across the nation. First shown at WWDC during the initial debut of the Mac Pro, the video shows the sleek black curves of the product from multiple angles.
Marketing the Mac Pro at cinemas is an odd choice, because it means Apple is advertising a niche superuser product to the general public. Looking at the factor of income alone, the majority of movie-goers do not have the funds to dedicate to a machine that is going to have an average price around the $5000 mark.
So why advertise it at highly-concentrated consumer locations?
I have to assume it is for the same reason they bothered revolutionising the Mac Pro in the first place. It’s a propaganda play, punctuated by Schiller’s “can’t innovate anymore my ass” joke at WWDC. With the press presenting Apple as being obsolete, the company has retaliated in the best way possible: announcing a forward-thinking product.
For whatever reason, Apple is yet to release any other ‘innovations’ this year. New products are imminent, of course. But, in the meantime, with an absence of new consumer products to show off, Apple has no choice but to use the Mac Pro as a ‘trophy’ of its supremacy, even if it isn’t as closely-tuned to Apple’s main audiences as it would like.
There are actually 504 potential versions of Moto X — the 18 available backplate covers, from concrete gray to hot pink, are just the start. You can also choose a black or white front panel, and the side-mounted buttons and the ring around the rear camera lens come in seven different colors. You have to pick between 16 and 32GB of storage. And then you can engrave the back of your phone.
A lot of hassle in the supply chain for a very little gain, I think. Motorola has gone with “simple” as their guiding message behind this phone, but 504 minor variants of the same thing doesn’t sound very simple to me.
Be bold, make choices. You aren’t going to attract 504x the audience by making 504x editions of a device, so don’t. It’s just a distraction.
This latest edition, however, allows users to search Amazon’s online library for books with ‘free samples’ available. Users can download the sample and read it to their heart’s content. When they’re finished with the sample section, they’re presented with a ‘before you go’ screen that allows them to email themselves a purchase link for the book.
Yes, it’s convoluted, but it also offers a significantly improved user experience for those ‘just looking for a book’. It lets them grab the book quickly for free and, once they’re locked in, offers them a way to purchase it from a link.
That’s a neat workaround, which enables users to at least get a sense of Amazon’s extensive library in the app. Still, it is stupid that these workarounds are necessary in the first place. Apple should backtrack on this rule to, at minimum, let Amazon link to its store on the web.
