Saturday, June 30, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (6 сообщений)

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)  RSS  The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
http://www.tuaw.com
другие подписчики этой ленты также читают >>

  • Submit Your iPhone Bugs to Apple

    Filed under: , , ,


    There are bound to be bugs in any first generation product, and unfortunately this has been especially true for new Apple devices. It's only been a day since the iPhone went on sale, but already we're hearing of some nagging issues. But fear not, for you the user have the power to change the iPhone world for the better. If you already have an ADC account, you're all ready to start submitting bugs to the iPhone team. Head on over to bugreport.apple.com and go crazy- just make sure you submit responsibly and stick to the official description format, because someone has to read through each bug you submit.
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • iPhone Experience: The keyboard

    Filed under: ,

    We've got our iPhones. Now it's time to see what these puppies can do. This is the first in a series of posts intended to explore the iPhone's features.

    This time, it's about the keyboard.

    With the iPhone, Apple eschewes the "real" keyboard of some other smart phones, and offers virtual replacement. It shows up when needed, and disappears when it's not. It's available in both landscape and portrait orientation, depending on what you're doing. Let's look at an example of each.

    First of all, the iPhone's response to your keystrokes is immediate. The "Notes" application (as well as a few others) requires you to use the keyboard in portrait mode. Create a new note and the keyboard emerges, taking over the lower half of the screen. By default, letters are displayed with a QWERTY layout, as well as a backspace button, shift, and spacebar. An additional button swaps letters for numbers and symbols (for punctuation, etc.).

    Click any key and it immediately "grows" from underneath your finger to confirm your selection. The problem for me, at least, is that I don't always see the letter I expect.

    Typing on this thing in portrait mode with 100% accuracy requires the hands of a adolescent girl. When typing a 27-letter phrase ("This little piggy went to market," if you must know), I made 5 "errors." That's not a whole lot, but it's enough to be kind of annoying.

    Apple must have predicted that people with adult-sized fingers would have trouble, so they've built in a helpful feature. As you type, the iPhone takes a guess at which word you're after, and places it on the screen just below the cursor. To accept the guess, simply hit the spacebar. While this is handy for avoiding errors in portrait mode, it's a real speed booster while in landscape.

    This is where things change. Typing in landscape mode - say, while using Safari - is much easier. Because it's got more real estate, the keyboard is wider and the keys are larger. I was able to type my test phrase with no errors and as quickly as I could find the necessary keys. Speaking of Safari, the keyboard acquires a handy ".com" button while you're on the net.

    It's also more comfortable to type in landscape. Your hands quickly learn how to position the iPhone so that it's secure in your grip while leaving your thumbs free to type away. I wish there was some why to flip all applications on their sides, just so I could make use of that nice, wide keyboard.

    If anything is at fault here, it's my massive Meat Mittens, not Apple's software. However, I would imagine that a number of users have hands like mine. For us, "slow and deliberate" is the name of the game.
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Steve shows up for iPhone launch

    Filed under: , ,

    Steve made an appearance at the Palo Alto Apple Store just moments after the West Coast release of the iPhone. This video, which shows Steve pushing his way through the surprised throng, captured the tail-end of his visit.

    Watch as the blows off the guy who tries to shake his hand on the sidewalk. We don't love Steve because he's nice.

    Thanks, Kenneth!
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Couldn't buy an iPhone? Maybe you can win one.

    Filed under: ,

    Looks like lots of readers were able to nab an iPhone or two, but what if you just can't afford the thing? Or perhaps you want one but don't really NEED one. Why not try and win one? That's right, Engadget is giving away an iPhone. Simply leave a comment and you're entered! [That is, leave a comment at that Engadget post, not to this post!]

    Online video sharing site Viddler (which hosted some of our WWDC interviews) is giving away 2 iPhones over the next month. You have to do a little more than leave a comment to enter, so check out this video post for all the details.

    Know of anyone else giving away iPhones? Leave a comment and I'll update this post.
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • iPhone orders at online Apple Store see 2-4 week delays

    Filed under: ,



    Uh oh, it looks like Apple might have dumped the majority of their iPhones into brick and mortar stores, making web shoppers wait longer than usual for a new device. The online Apple Store currently displays a 2-4 week shipping time for both 4GB and 8GB iPhones. While this could simply be an overestimation to help manage the demand, it might be motivation for more users to try their luck if they have a local Apple or AT&T store. Just remember: only one phone per customer is allowed at AT&T stores, while Apple has a cap of 2, and you can always check your local Apple Store's iPhone stock from the comforts of your pajamas before making the trek.

    Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
    Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Integrate Highrise with iPhone

    Filed under: ,

    I'm a real fan of 37 Signal's Highrise. If you're unfamiliar, it's an online contact manager that lets you track conversations, contact information, pending communications and more.

    Randy Hunt at Citizen Scholar has written a great tutorial for using Highrise with the iPhone. It's a simple process that consists of importing a vCard template into Address Book and then synchronizing Address Book to the iPhone. We love it!

    Of course, you can just navigate to the Highrise homepage via Safari on the iPhone, but as Randy points out, his solution will allow you to forward emails or add to-dos to your Highrise account without launching a browser.

    [Via 37signals Product Blog]
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments







rss2email.ru       отписаться: http://www.rss2email.ru/unsubscribe.asp?c=6894&u=24004&r=484673635
управлять всей подпиской: http://www.rss2email.ru/manage.asp
читать наш блог: http://www.olevarty.ru

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (5 сообщений)

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)  RSS  The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
http://www.tuaw.com
другие подписчики этой ленты также читают >>

  • BMW iPhone integration

    Filed under: , ,



    Rumors were swirling yesterday that BMW was ready to announce iPhone integration with some models of their fleet. BMW did, in fact, have an iPhone announcement yesterday but it wasn't exactly the one folks were expecting. BMW did announce that the iPhone works with both their existing iPod integration system, as well as the Bluetooth speaker systems found in some models.

    There you have it, iPod integrated BMW owners, you can use your iPhone in luxury.
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://www.tuaw.com/2007/06/30/bmw-iphone-integration/#comments



  • iPhone Second Impressions: On activation, UI, EDGE and answering questions


    Another quick round of first impression stuff that covers some user problems with activation, EDGE speeds, Google Maps and Mail. We're working on some more focused, in-depth posts that explore individual features in their entirety, such as Safari, the keyboard, Mail, etc. For now, let's get started with trying to solve some of these activation pains and go from there.

    Activation
    • Readers at TUAW and across the web are reporting all sorts of activation problems, and I'm truly sorry to hear about it, but I might have some tips that could help get your iPhone on its feet. As I recall, iTunes gave me an error message during the activation process, but the iPhone still kicked me back out to the home screen once it was done, and I received the standard 'your phone is activated' email a couple minutes later. I immediately was able to receive a phone call, and SMS and make an outbound call. I was also an existing AT&T customer, so all I had to do was add the $20 iPhone Data Plan during the process. I'm not trying to brag here, just provide context; by my rough calculations, existing AT&T customers seem to be having less problems than those who are first signing up or porting over service, as those operations probably entail a bit more work in the back-end on AT&T's part.
    • There are a couple tricks that might help here: First, some owners are reporting that simply soft resetting the iPhone (hold the power button at the top of the phone for a few seconds to receive the power off slider) and then booting it back up fixes the issue. Just for the heck of it, why not wait a few seconds or even up to a minute? It couldn't hurt, and it might work some network voodoo to wake AT&T up and get your iPhone rollin'.
    • I honestly don't know about this one as it is simply an idea I had, but: if you have a second Mac or PC lying around with the latest iTunes 7.3 installed, you could try plugging it in to see if the activation process begins again. However, remember: this is just an idea I had, and I have no idea whether that will illicit any results or get your activation process even more borked up on AT&T's books. I honestly don't believe it could do any damage, but I certainly am no AT&T activations engineer either.
    • This is another theory that I haven't seen tested or mentioned anywhere, so take this one with a grain of salt as well: If you're an existing AT&T customer with a SIM card in your current (or - hopefully - soon to be replaced) phone, you could try swapping out the iPhone's SIM card as outlined in the iPhone User Guide (not included with the phone itself). Simply open that in Preview and search for SIM; your first result should be a guide for removing the SIM card and inserting a new one. Then plug your iPhone back into iTunes to see if a new activation process can begin. Again: this is just a theory; I haven't tested or heard anyone try this as a solution for activation problems.
    • Update: More readers are reporting that turning off your old phone before activating the iPhone might help with activation issues. While this tip won't do you any good if you're already caught in the limbo of AT&T's activation system, it might help if my idea of re-trying activation with a different computer is worth anything.
    EDGE
    • It's surprisingly fast. The best speed test I've found so far for Safari on the iPhone is dslreports.com/mspeed, offering a really scaled down page with a few download size options and no-nonsense results. I'm getting, on average, about 150 kbit/sec downloads on my phone. In light of the drawbacks of EDGE's (traditional) speed, the only reason that makes sense as to why Apple and AT&T didn't make some massive announcement of a network upgrade is that they're getting hammered this weekend with iPhone activations and people tinkering around with surfing via EDGE. If they're going to announce this at all, waiting until maybe sometime next week makes sense as the iPhone storm might be dissipating to more manageable levels where most users will see this increased speed across the country. Of course, this is just speculation on my part, but the tests don't lie: users across the nation are reporting that EDGE has upgraded from its previous 20 kbits/sec speed to anywhere from 100k - 200 kbits/sec. This is great (unofficial) news.
    • Call me crazy, but I think YouTube is serving up different movies based on whether you are viewing via Wi-Fi or EDGE. I've watched three separate videos via both wireless methods, one of them user generated with crummy equipment to start with, and I swear I see a higher quality version over Wi-Fi than when watching with EDGE. Whether this means there are literally two separate files encoded at different qualities or if YouTube is working some streaming + compression magic I have no idea, but I would love to hear other iPhone users chime in on this one.
    • Google Maps usually impresses me with its speed when viewing satellite images over EDGE. Simply viewing the standard map and searching for a location is almost always snappy over EDGE (sometimes there seems to be a delay, but not often), and even downloading satellite imagery is usable.
    Google Maps
    • This was probably demoed and I just don't remember, but I'm talking to enough iPhone owners who didn't know this that I felt it warranted a mention: you can pinch to zoom in and out of either Google Maps views. This is fantastic.
    • Traffic reports are usually pretty snappy, again even over EDGE.
    • The Bookmarks feature of Google Maps (accessible by the blue book in the address bar) is a great way to save frequently used routes and quickly get at the addresses of contacts.
    • At first I was slightly disappointed that I can't hook the iPhone's Google Maps up to my actual Google Account, but after exploring that Bookmarks feature, I deem it a non-issue, at least for me.
    Mail, selecting and deleting items
    • Some readers are asking about doing operations like deleting more than one Mail message at a time. While you can slide your finger across any single message to invoke that red delete button for just that message, hitting the Edit button at the top of any message list will invoke red buttons to the left of every message in the list. While this isn't exactly the same as holding the Command key on a Mac, selecting a bunch of messages and hitting the delete key once to trash them all, this is the quickest way I can find to perform large deleting operations.
    • This seems to be the UI for any situation where you have a list of items that can be deleted; there's no way to select a few of them at random and hit one delete key - instead, you enable a 'delete mode' which makes it easier to delete more than one message, but still one at a time.
    • I'm slightly disappointed at the lack of the 'One Inbox to Rule Them All' like Mail in Mac OS X has; if you have more than one account synched to the iPhone, you have to drill down into each account's inbox to view any new messages, drill back out to the accounts list and then drill back into a new account and inbox to view that account's new messages. It's clunky, but it's also becoming inspiration for me to consolidate email accounts.
    That's about it for now. Like I said, stay tuned for those more in-depth posts on individual features, but in the meantime, I hope everyone's activation problems can get solved soon.
    Permalink | Email this | Comments





  • Wooden iPhone case

    Filed under: ,

    Less than 24 hours after bringing your iPhone home, it may have acquired its very first scratch. Oh, the horror.

    Check out the iWood case for iPhone. Scheduled to ship in July, the iWood is a single piece of wood that features a polycarbonate sheet to protect the iPhone's face, a cutout for the camera and very nice looks. You can even have the back engraved with your own text and logo (if you have a logo).

    Pricing starts at €60.

    [Via MacMinute]
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://www.tuaw.com/2007/06/30/wooden-iphone-case/#comments



  • Your iPhone haul

    Filed under:



    Yesterday I asked who was going to get an iPhone, so it seems only natural to ask who was lucky enough to get one (or two). Sound off in the comments. How long did you wait in line? Was it worth it? Let us know! I'm also interested to hear if you waited for hours only to find all the iPhones sold. It would seem most people were able to buy one, if they wanted one.

    Oh, and if you didn't get one yesterday don't forgot you can check if your local Apple Store has any in stock today (the PA stores all seem to have iPhones to sell at the moment).
    Permalink | Email this | Comments


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://www.tuaw.com/2007/06/30/your-iphone-haul/#comments



  • One more linewalk: 5th Avenue, all the way around

    Filed under:

    Good morning everyone... are you all enjoying your iPhone hangovers? (Kinda like a tequila hangover, but with a stiff back from sitting in line all day.) We'll be posting more first impressions and news as we all recover from the hype singularity of iFriday, but in the meantime I wanted to post my final linewalk video from yesterday at the 5th Avenue store. (If you can't wait for an HD hands-on video, may I recommend a hop over to our buddies at Engadget for a 720p walkthrough?)

    The only comparable experience I can think of to match up with the absolute insanity of yesterday at 5th Ave is attending a blockbuster movie premiere. I can remember, as a kid, standing in line at New York's legendary Ziegfeld Theater for the 1983 opening of Return Of The Jedi... that's what this was like. I'm sure our resident gaming expert can also contrast it with splashy console launches like the PS3 or Xbox 360. Like a movie premiere or a console launch, people chose to sacrifice their time and comfort for the opportunity to be among the first to have a new, specific experience.

    This was shot at about 6:15 pm yesterday, with the line at the Apple Store 5th Ave NYC still stretching back 3/4 of the way around the block.

    Click Here or on image to play video
    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments







rss2email.ru       отписаться: http://www.rss2email.ru/unsubscribe.asp?c=6894&u=24004&r=484673635
управлять всей подпиской: http://www.rss2email.ru/manage.asp
читать наш блог: http://www.olevarty.ru
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)