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- Apple tops Fortune's Most Admired Companies list again
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Surveys and Polls, Apple, iPad
For the third year in a row, Apple has topped the list of Fortune's Most Admired Companies. The list was based on a poll of 4,200 executives across the world's top companies, and by the highest margin ever, they picked the Cupertino-based "mobile device company" as the world's most admired brand. Obviously the millions of MacBooks, iPhones, and iPods played a factor, but it sounds like the iPad sealed the deal this year. BMW's CEO is quoted waxing poetic about Apple's brand power: "The whole world held its breath before the iPad was announced. That's brand management at its very best."
GE has actually had the most appearances at number one on the list, and Apple needs to stay high for two more years to take that record. But it's certainly possible -- if the iPad is as popular as expected, and Apple follows it up next year with an updated version and the kind of software revolution that the iPhone brought to handheld computing, they probably will nail down the top spot yet again.TUAWApple tops Fortune's Most Admired Companies list again originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone - Apple - IPod - Unofficial Apple Weblog - MacBook
Переслать - Nintendo not concerned about competition from Apple
Filed under: Gaming, Portables, iPod touch
While Sony appears concerned about its eroding share of the mobile gaming market since the phenomenal success of Apple's App Store, gaming giant Nintendo isn't worried about Apple at all. In an interview with VentureBeat, Nintendo of America's Cammie Dunaway said that with 11.2 million DS units sold last year, and 125 million DS sales in total thus far, Apple's mobile platform isn't really a threat to Nintendo's dominance of mobile gaming. "Consumers are still finding fun with our products, and there is a lot of room to grow," Dunaway said.
Nintendo certainly has room to feel comfortable, at least for now. In terms of units sold, the DS has been the most successful gaming system in history, and the iPhone and iPod touch aren't even primarily focused on gaming. If anything, Apple's success in gaming came almost accidentally; it's only relatively recently that Apple has been touting the iPod touch as a gaming device, and only after the success of the App Store did Apple even start to take portable gaming seriously. For many people, "Nintendo" remains synonymous with "video games" -- compared to Nintendo, Apple's only dipped its toe in the gaming waters. That said, the continued explosive growth of Apple's mobile device sales and the popularity of the App Store means Nintendo can't afford to rest on its laurels forever.
[Via slide to Play]TUAWNintendo not concerned about competition from Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Big Developer News: Mac Dev Program reduced to $99
Filed under: Apple
After a many-hours outage, the Apple developer site is back -- and the changes are profound, at least on the Mac end of things.
On the iPhone side, users are required to update their profiles, take a rather obnoxious survey and agree to new terms [Developer credentials required for link]. Unfortunately, Apple needs to improve the default survey formatting. iPhone developer John Fricker points out, "If you go to My Profile you can take the iPhone developer 'survey' with better formatting."
But it's on the Mac side where the big news is. Apple has replaced the select and premiere memberships with a single-tiered, low-priced Mac Developer program. They write: We recently introduced a new Mac Developer Program that replaces ADC Premier, Select, and Student Memberships. If you are a current ADC member, you can continue to access your resources and benefits through the end of your membership year.
Enrollment benefits include Mac OS X pre-release software, access to development videos, access to the developer forums, and code-level technical support. The new Mac Dev Program includes two tech support incidents per year, with additional tech incidents purchasable on demand -- the same as with the iPhone Dev Program.
As I'm enrolled in the Mac program myself, I can report that the updated Mac Dev Center knocks the old site out of the water. Very clean, very much like the iPhone site, and a very welcome refresh to the normal material. It's as if the site itself made a Carbon-to-Cocoa jump, if you get what I mean. It's all much better designed, much more easily navigable, and a positive change from the developer point of view. The connect.apple.com site remains active as I write, but I doubt it will be for much longer.
This newly restructured Mac Developer Program itself has been updated to match the iPhone dev program in terms of pricing and features. Formerly starting at $499/year, the new program is attractively priced at just $99 now. Missing are the high ticket items: notably Mac hardware discounts, WWDC tickets for premiere members, and the compatibility labs. It's unclear what will happen to each of these benefits, although the first two are likely dead in the water.
The Mac hardware discounts continue only to the end of the current select/premiere discontinuance. Members who join from today, forward, will not likely be able to take advantage of that former Select and Premiere benefit. The hardware purchase page itself refers to "Each ADC Premier, Select, or Student Membership lets you purchase, at a discount, a limited number of Apple systems to use for development and testing." Early anticipation of this move by Apple has hinted that the hardware discount program might be one of the first items to get axed.
It's also unclear about the future of the compatibility labs. In the past, ADC Premier and Select Members could schedule time at the ADC Compatibility Labs (located in Cupertino, Beijing, and Tokyo) with its 500+ Mac configurations. We may have seen the last of those labs or they may continued as paid features, similar to tech support incidents.
The developer forums remain down at this time. They are likely to get their own reorganization due to the Mac dev program changes and will likely switch to a structure similar to the iPhone forums. Those features include an open section for free online membership and a closed beta-only section behind an NDA firewall. Both iPhone and Mac participants need to agree to an updated forum agreement at this time.
Thanks, Joachim Bean, John Fricker, Greg HartsteinTUAWBig Developer News: Mac Dev Program reduced to $99 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Rumor: Sony developing PSP phone to challenge iPhone
Filed under: Gaming, Portables, Rumors
In terms of sales, Sony's PSP has been getting trounced by the various incarnations of Nintendo's DS since day one. Despite the PSP's better graphics and flexibility as a mobile media platform, the DS has grabbed hold of the handheld gaming market and shows no sign of letting go.
Since the introduction of the App Store in 2008, a new mobile gaming juggernaut has emerged, seemingly out of nowhere -- the iPhone/iPod touch. With the forthcoming launch of the iPad, whose larger screen and more powerful CPU could make it a gaming powerhouse, it means there are now three very big players in the mobile gaming market... and Sony is in an untenable position already.
Sony is hoping to change that. According to a leak to the Wall Street Journal, Sony is hard at work developing a range of handheld products designed to compete directly with Apple's mobile platform. One, a smartphone built in tandem with Sony Ericsson, would be a PSP phone designed to compete with the iPhone and iPod touch; the other, a hybridization of a PSP, e-reader, and netbook, would be Sony's answer to the iPad. Both devices would have a dedicated online store available to them, but the store itself isn't scheduled for deployment until later this year at the earliest.
I'm going to give Sony some free advice: if you want to have any hope of even competing with Apple's mobile platforms, to say nothing of surpassing them in sales, then gather up the marketing and engineering teams that developed the PSP Go, march them into an auditorium, and fire them all. The PSP Go has been savaged in reviews for its high price point, limited functionality compared to the older full-sized PSP, and download-only gaming catalogue. All these factors have combined to make the PSP Go a failure in the marketplace, and deservedly so.
Granted, the games catalogue for Apple's mobiles is also download-only, making traditional gaming conventions like buying and selling used games just as impossible as it is on the PSP Go. But there are three ways Apple's App Store buries Sony's online store under a pile of cat litter: the number of games available is staggeringly higher, the average price of games is far lower, and the App Store is much easier to navigate.
To its credit, Sony not only knows the PSP Go is a failure, but more importantly, the company also appears to know why. If Sony can learn from that failure and apply those lessons to the forthcoming handheld challengers, it might be in a position to regain some of the ground that's been lost in the mobile gaming marketplace.
[Via electronista]TUAWRumor: Sony developing PSP phone to challenge iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Paid app upgrades coming to App Store?
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Developer Fraser Speirs came across an unexpected iTunes dialog earlier today that could be a hint of a new, long-sought App Store feature: the ability to offer for-fee upgrades to apps, complete with discounts for those who bought older versions.
Up until now, App Store vendors have worked around the lack of a paid upgrade feature by offering different "versions" of their apps, but this has also meant there's been no ability to offer discounts to loyal purchasers of the previous version of the app, short of applying a temporary price discount to everyone and raising the price later on. Assuming this dialog box isn't a simple error (notice that it asks you to click OK, even though the button says Buy) and is an indication of the future direction of App Store purchases, it's indicative of far greater pricing flexibility for App Store vendors, and it could also mean the App Store won't be cluttered with old versions of apps that are no longer updated. Developers have been asking for an option like this since the beginning of the App Store -- it looks like Apple might finally be listening.
Editor's Note: Several commenters have noted that this dialog is also visible when you attempt to upgrade an app while logged into the 'wrong' iTunes store account, and may not actually signify the policy change that Craig Hockenberry wants to see.TUAWPaid app upgrades coming to App Store? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Daily Deals for March 4, 2010
Filed under: Deals
Welcome to a all-mobile edition of the Daily Deals, brought to you by our friends at DealNews (but curated by yours truly).
Some people actually like using a stylus on their iPhone, and in some cases it may be preferable to a frozen sausage. Try out this retractable "universal" stylus at Overstock for just a couple of bucks.
How about a "traveling kit" for the iPhone 3G? Kit includes an FM transmitter, car charger, screen protector, and skin case. Under $12 with coupon code 'EFWS030125' (it expires March 7).
Some app news too:
Eco Punk, an action game for iPhone/iPod touch featuring deadly skateboarding rabbits with guns is free today.
Several iPhone and iPod touch applications available from the App Store have recently dropped in price. Each is the best deal we've seen on that title.- Aqua Forest for 99 cents ($7 off): an accelerometer-based puzzle game
- 'stachetastic for 99 cents ($1 off): Moustache applicator
- Spending Tracer for 99 cents ($1 off): Finance management
- Hand of Greed for 99 cents ($2 off): Puzzle game
- WorldCard Contacts for $1.99 ($4 off): Contact management
Finally, if you're looking for a iPod touch knockoff, the V-Touch 16GB Touchscreen Expandable Portable Media Player, model no. VL-885-16GB-BLK, for $79.99 with free shipping. Adorably worthy of a KIRF moniker.TUAWDaily Deals for March 4, 2010 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - 100 sci-fi stories in your pocket
Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review
If you're an unabashed science fiction fan it's probably worth taking a look at 100 SciFi Stories for your iPhone or iPod touch. The app is US$0.99. All the stories are in the public domain, and many are true classics. Other selections are less well-known, but worth a read.
You can adjust the text size, and when you relaunch the app, it picks up where you left off. Books you've already started are also marked on the contents page.
The developer claims future updates will include more books at no additional cost. You can scroll the pages continuously, or page by page. The app includes authors like H.G. Wells (of course) and S.P. Meek, George Griffith, Ray Cummings, Edgar Rice Burroughs and many others.
Are there any downsides? A few. When the app first came up I thought it had frozen at the splash screen, but I had to touch on the word 'stories' to actually get to the contents. I think the app should just go directly to the contents page. I'd like to get the text size even bigger, and I'd like to see a landscape mode for reading. I couldn't find a complete list of all the titles included, which I think is a rather big omission.
If you want to give the app a try there is a free 'lite' version with 7 stories. It will give you an idea how the app behaves.
I think 100 SciFi Stories is reasonably priced and could be nice on an overnight or even a long trip. All these books can be found online and downloaded for free, but it's nice to have them grouped together in one app.
TUAW100 sci-fi stories in your pocket originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Enjoy background audio with MLB's At Bat
Filed under: Multimedia, iPhone, iPod touch
As if I weren't excited enough to buy Major League Baseball's (MLB) iPhone app At Bat (here's an example of my previous gushing), they've added a new feature that makes it easy to listen to games while using other apps.
While Apple doesn't allow 3rd party apps to run in the background on the iPhone or iPod touch,* Silicon Alley Insider notes that you can listen to audio in Mobile Safari while using other applications. It's this trick that MLB exploited with At Bat 2010. With the tap of a button, At Bat will push an audio stream to Mobile Safari.
Note that MLB didn't come up with this trick, nor is their app the first to exploit it. ESPN Radio does it, as well as Scanner911 and FlyCast. Still, it's nice that MLB's devs acknowledged that some users might want to check email or hop onto Twitter while listening to game, and made it easy to do so.
Now if only Pandora would follow suit.
*Yes, you can enjoy the benefits of background apps with a jailbroken iPhone, but that's a different post entirely.TUAWEnjoy background audio with MLB's At Bat originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPhone dev center down today
Filed under: Developer, iPhone, SDK, iPad
Developers who try to log into the iPhone dev center, the Mac dev center or iTunes Connect this afternoon are being greeted with the traditional yellow sticky note or the Sorry! note above, indicating that some sort of update effort is underway. With the on-again, off-again release of the 3.2 beta 3 version of the SDK in late February, and the unconfirmed-but-likely launch of the iPad on March 26th, no surprise that there are fixes and finish to take care of on the site.
When it comes back up, we'll let you know; if you spot anything of consequence when it does, please let us know.
Update: It's back up. The big news is on the Mac side, with the introduction of the $99 price point for ADC membership.TUAWiPhone dev center down today originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Google responds to Apple lawsuit against HTC
Filed under: OS, Software, Apple, iPhone
There's one more player in the ongoing the Apple/HTC lawsuit announced the other day. It's Google, which yesterday admitted that it wasn't a party to the lawsuit, but that it would "stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it."
Lots of analysts and pundits have pegged the lawsuit as a direct shot across the bow from Apple at the Android OS (and the breakdown of patent claims that our colleagues at Engadget did seems to confirm that, with both old-school and wide-reaching patents matched up with brand new narrow UI claims), and it looks like Google will be coming to the rescue for its OS, if it has to.
What form that rescue might take, we don't know -- it's possible that Google could provide money, advice, or even lawyers to HTC if it feels that any part of its operating system might be threatened legally. But of course, that all depends on where the case goes -- we're still a long way away from the point where these companies would have to go before a judge and make their case. It certainly seems like Apple is in this one for the long haul, but if it all comes down to a check, Google may end up signing it as well.TUAWGoogle responds to Apple lawsuit against HTC originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Should you be building universal apps for App Store?
Filed under: Apple, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
Universal apps. They're the solution for delivering your iPhone OS application to both the iPhone and the iPad and having it run natively on each without silly make-do's like pixel doubling. It's a way to ensure that your app "fits" each platform, providing art and interfaces that match the target screen. Or, as Apple puts it, "Developers can now start planning for universal applications, allowing them to take full advantage of the technologies found on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch with a single binary."
Right now, I've got a bug up my sleeve about the whole issue. I'm not convinced that it's the right solution for a lot of apps. Just because you *can* merge an iPhone app with an iPad app, and sell one product, you shouldn't -- unless the functionality is significantly the same for both platforms.
The thing is this: once you start programming iPad, it becomes clear that you can do things that don't make sense on the iPhone. And so your apps start to morph. They evolve to something significantly different. New features. New ways of interacting. Bigger possibilities and a much more computer-like experience, even in a mobile setting.
So at what point do you pull the plug? When do you say, I'm going to sell an iPhone version and an iPad version and they are different enough to justify the need for another purchase?
From a design and coding point of view, it's obvious that Universal Apps quickly become Frankencode. Separate projects (or, more realistically, separate targets with some shared code base and some platform-specific class files) greatly increase code readability and maintainability, even when the two projects share a great majority of features.
Consider the most Model-View-Controllerized app you can imagine. Even an app that offers glorious orthogonality between its visual design and its underlying code logic will suffer from universalization. It's just natural fallout from the conditional coding needed to deal with reality; the iPhone-based interaction modes that used to require multiple screens can now join together into simplified iPad interfaces.
I also think that developers may unnecessarily limit themselves by asking the fatal question: "How will this also work on the iPhone?" Should you be hamstringing your iPad application by forcing device iPhone limits onto its features? Do you really want to list products in App Store that state "Not all features available on the iPhone?" Sure, people who own both products will get to take advantage of those features but for a while, the vast majority of your customers will continue to be iPhone and iPod touch users. Will you be sending them the right message?
Let's not kid ourselves. From the consumer point of view, it's clear what they'll want. Consumers will not want to purchase the "same" application twice. Even if, for example, you're shipping a desktop-worthy full-featured iPad application versus a limited iPhone-style version, you're likely to alienate users if you provide the same product with (for iPad) and (for iPhone) suffixes.
Unfortunately, Apple hasn't even put the idea (let alone the realization) of a single-purchase multi-ipa solution on the table. "Multi-ipa" refers to a purchase that includes separate iPhone archive files (ipa) for iPad and for iPhone platforms. That kind of solution would offer the best of both worlds. Separate projects for the most stable coding experience with a single purchase for the best consumer experience. Being able to set price points for one or both ipas, with a "Complete my App" purchase could do a lot to let developers walk away from Universal solutions, where those universal apps don't really make as much sense as they should.
For now, don't hold your breath. Apple doesn't seem to be going in that direction.
If you end up going with two products, consider some sort of cross-promotion to lessen the financial impact. It's a little tricky to do that right now but you might be able to swing something using in-app purchases plus unique coupon ids plus non-consumable unlockables. You're showing the customer that you appreciate their purchases and loyalty but are committed to providing the best possible app experience on each platform.
For the moment, I'm leaning towards limiting Universal Apps to apps like games that provide substantially similar experiences on both platforms, although I'm certainly willing to be convinced otherwise. Add in a few iPad-specific changes where they apply, but if the two products have diverged enough that you have to put up a "Notice to iPhone users" about limited functionality, perhaps it's time to rethink your approach.
So what's your take on this? Are you planning to deliver any iPad-only applications? Or are you committed to the Universal Application route? What are the questions that developers should be asking themselves before picking one or the other? Do you think Apple might bow to pressure to provide multiple ipa delivery solutions if developers yelled loud enough? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks, Glen AspeslaghTUAWShould you be building universal apps for App Store? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Life of Steve Jobs to be a play
Filed under: Steve Jobs
The Berkley Repertory Theater is producing a play titled The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.
The play will be amonologuemonologuist piece that "dives into the epic story of a real-life Willy Wonka whose personal obsessions profoundly affect our everyday lives" The play isn't all roses in it's portrayal of Jobs, though. It follows the trail to China where millions toil in factories to create iPhones and iPods - something Apple has been under pressure for lately.
The play's monologue is written by and staring Mike Daisey. Daisey is best known for leaving Amazon to become an actor. In 2001 his book 21 Dog Years, an account of his time working for Amazon.com during the dotcom boom years, thrust him into the limelight
The play will run from January 14 to February 27, 2011 and is directed by Jean-Michele Gregory.
UPDATE: I have corrected the piece after speaking with Mike Daisey. He is a monologuist, so he doesn't play people - he does a monologue about them. "The monologue is about Steve Jobs, industrial design, Apple, and is woven against where our tecnology is made, and at what cost," Mike told me.TUAWLife of Steve Jobs to be a play originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - iPhone photo of "ghost" makes UK tabloids look foolish
Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, iPhone
It doesn't take much to make yourself look like a fool, but in the case of The UK's Sun and Daily Mail newspapers, they have to be feeling quite idiotic right about now. Perhaps not, as these tabloids have a history of running fabulous stories about celebrities, politicians, and the supernatural as a matter of daily business.
John Ware, a 47-year old builder, sent the newspapers a photo he had taken with his iPhone that allegedly showed a ghostly little boy dressed in turn-of-the-20th-century clothing, balefully looking at the photographer. You can see the little boy at the right side of the photo, standing in the foreground. The papers dutifully ran the story, with the Sun's example shown at the top of this post.
There's only one problem: as Macenstein pointed out, the same little boy haunts the US$0.99 iPhone app Ghost Capture. That's right -- it's apparent that Mr. Ware snapped a shot of a demolition site with the app, and then submitted the photo. Our guess is that Ware was having a little fun with the papers, and that the "Got a story? We pay £££." tag line you see at the top of the page might have provided some motivation.
Here's hoping that the developers of Ghost Capture add The King to the family of ghosts in the app, so the Sun and Daily Mail can report a rash of Elvis sightings to their readers.TUAWiPhone photo of "ghost" makes UK tabloids look foolish originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Apple pressuring music publishers over Amazon Daily Deal
Filed under: Apple Corporate, iTS, Apple Financial, iTunes
Amazon has used low-priced, exclusive "Daily Deals" to promote its MP3 store successfully, and Apple's not happy about it. In fact, the iTunes team is trying to talk publishers out of participating.
According to Billboard, participating labels entered into the program with Amazon in 2008 without paying a thing. It was simply meant to increase the store's publicity. Two years later, that's changed. An unnamed major-label head of sales told Billboard that "[the] promotion morphed into something where the labels make arrangements to provide an exclusive selling window with Amazon for a big release expected to do a lot of business on street date [the day the new release is available for general retail sales]."
Two years in, the labels are motivated to offer Amazon first dibs on major releases at a significant discount, and that's gotten Apple's attention. Billboard's sources suggest that iTunes executives are trying to persuade labels to stop offering Amazon these exclusives, and have even gone so far as to pull their own promotions for those releases.
In response, Billboard reports, certain label executives recently opted out of Daily Deal promotions for such big names as Corinne Bailey Rae, Lady Antebellum and Ke$ha (Sony Music Entertainment denies considering a Daily Deal promotion for Ke$ha's "Animal"). Additionally, Amazon is said to be altering the deal to not require exclusivity, but Apple's still unsatisfied.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to sell digital music.
[Via AppleInsider]TUAWApple pressuring music publishers over Amazon Daily Deal originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Win an HP Officejet 4500 All-in-one printer from TUAW and HP
Filed under: Peripherals
If you've been a TUAW reader for any length of time, you know that we love to give our readers a lot of swag. Sometimes it can be promo codes to some of the best apps in the App Store, other times it might be a collectible that you absolutely have to win. Today, we're happy to announce that you have a chance to win an HP Officejet 4500 All-in-one Wireless Printer. We highlighted one of these cool little printers during our Macworld coverage.
The Officejet 4500 All-in-one Wireless Printer is a slick unit that can print, copy, scan, and send color faxes. Like many HP products, it works very well with Macs and "those other computers," so if you can use it even if you haven't yet become a Mac fanatic like the bloggers at TUAW.
How do you get to win this sweet piece of multifunction love? It's easy. Just leave a comment below telling us which of the four functions -- printing, copying, scanning, or faxing -- is most important to you. We'll randomly pick a winner from all of the entries, and then HP will ship you a brand newcarOfficejet 4500 to accompany that luscious Mac you already own. Details? We got 'em:
- Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
- To enter, leave a comment stating which function -- printing, copying, scanning, or faxing -- is most important to you.
- The comment must be left before Saturday, March 6, 2010, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
- You may enter only once.
- One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
- Prize: HP Officejet 4500 All-in-one printer ($129 value)
- Click Here for complete Official Rules.
TUAWWin an HP Officejet 4500 All-in-one printer from TUAW and HP originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Dear John Makinson and Penguin, please don't "reinvent" books
Filed under: iPad
"Reading literature makes you a more well-rounded individual." That's what an author told me once. Notice he didn't say "watching literature."
paidContent:UK has an article on a presentation Penguin Books' CEO John Makinson gave here in London on Tuesday. Makinson presented ideas on how publishers might approach Apple's iPad and the iBookstore. Makinson revealed "We will be embedding audio, video and streaming in to everything we do. The .epub format, which is the standard for ebooks at the present, is designed to support traditional narrative text, but not this cool stuff that we're now talking about."
"This cool stuff" includes turning books into applications with "online communities" for fans with live chat between readers and other multimedia effects. "The definition of the book itself is up for grabs," Makinson said. A copy of Pride And Prejudice might conceivably come with videos of Keira Knightly or Colin Firth (the various movie adaptation's cast). "We don't know whether a video introduction will be valuable to a consumer. We will only find answers to these questions by trial and error."
An electronic format with live chat, community forums, audio and video is called a web site. Or maybe an interactive Blu-Ray disc. Books are words arranged on a page (whether paper or digital) that are meant to be assimilated through the eye and processed in the brain with the reader adding much to the story itself - like what a character looks or sounds like.
We've got enough mindless entertainment in the world today. When I read War and Peace, I don't want to hear an actor reciting Bezukhov's lines. I want to read them for myself and add my own thoughts and conjecture to what he is saying and why he is saying it. When I watch a movie or listen to an audio book, very little is left to the imagination. Our active involvement becomes passive acceptance.
Reading does make you a more well-rounded individual. It also makes you smarter. Literally. Reading rewires synapses in the brain through neuroplastic changes in a way that passive entertainment like sitcoms or movies can't do.The magic in reading is that the reader must take a proactive involvement in the story. He must focus his attention on the words that form sentences that form paragraphs that form ideas. When I'm watching a movie, it's very easy to snack on food or talk on the phone at the same time. When I read I must be completely involved in the page.
There's an epiphany that comes with reading when you realize that something a character said, thought, or did is something that you have harbored in yourself and, for a brief moment, that little parallel between what you've read on the page and what you've actually experienced in the real world makes you understand yourself in a clearer light. That's something that distracting chat rooms and videos can't do because they take the quiet self-introspection out.
Penguin has always been about literature to me, not interactive hodgepodge. Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin, conceived of the company when he was standing on a train station platform in front of a magazine and junk fiction vendor. He could find nothing worth reading so he decided to start publishing classic paperback editions of literature of proven quality which would be cheap enough to be sold from a vending machine.
The current vending machine is Apple's iPad. It's a vending machine that would work well for magazines and, sadly, for Penguin's new multimedia take on books. I'm not against digitizing books, mind you. Digital books are good for some things like, as my colleague wrote, making notes in-margin, highlighting text, bookmarking, and in-text dictionary lookup. But leave the whiz-bang, short-attention-span features out. There's enough mind-numbing entertainment in the world today. Stick to the printed word. Stay true to Lane's vision and keep the "quality" in the literature. More often than not, in this day and age when you supplant words with video, the words lose and that "well-rounded individual" is a little less round because of it.TUAWDear John Makinson and Penguin, please don't "reinvent" books originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Mac OS X's Automator: I learned it by watching you!
Filed under: Software, Productivity, Tips and tricks
Mac OS X's Automator has the ability to perform specific tasks from its given set of actions. For example, with a Finder-based action, you can batch move copy, move or rename files that fit a certain criteria. Similarly, image-based actions allow you to batch edit images, be it resizing, rotating or changing their file type (i.e., from JPG to PNG or vice versa).
However, there may be situations that call for more unique tasks to be performed. And this is where Automator's "Watch Me Do" feature may come in handy. It performs keyboard- and mouse-based actions based on your movements and inputs during a Watch Me Do session.
To initiate a Watch Me Do session, launch Automator and choose a template (you can incorporate it into an existing Automator workflow, service or app as well). Then, click on the "Record" button in the upper right hand corner. A small grey translucent window with an Automator icon will now appear in the upper left hand corner indicating that your inputs and movements are being recorded; to stop recording, just click on the stop button.
The whole concept is similar to how you'd record a macro in
Microsoft Excel. [Whoops, bad example, as macro recording isn't in the VBA-free Excel 2008 version. How about QuicKeys instead? -Ed.]I've found Watch Me Do actions particularly handy, especially when I'm too lazy to figure out how to do something in AppleScript.
Watch Me Do requires that you enable access for assistive devices, so you'll need to hop on over to the "Seeing" pane within the Universal Access section of Mac OS X's System Preferences.
Yes, Automator really can learn by watching you.
TUAWMac OS X's Automator: I learned it by watching you! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - The most awesome iPhone stand ever made out of cutlery
Filed under: Accessories, Humor, iPhone, iPod touch
That headline is probably a bit of an overstatement, since this is probably the only iPhone stand made out of cutlery. ForkedUpArt of North Salt Lake, Utah, is actually selling two different stands. ForkHead, who you see standing at attention at your right, and SpoonHead, ForkHead's smarter brother.
Sold through our favorite iPhone accessory store, Etsy.com, the ForkedUpArt iPhone stands can be customized if you want, and according to the artist, "I'm making these guys as fast as I can."
How much will one of these unique items put you back? About US$20, plus shipping. That's less expensive than some of the fancy-schmancy stands you can buy through more traditional sources, and let's face it -- these stands are really cool.
[via iPhone Savior]TUAWThe most awesome iPhone stand ever made out of cutlery originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Dear Aunt TUAW: Does size matter (when it comes to iPads)?
Dear Aunt TUAW,
I am planning on getting an iPad WiFi+3G when they become available, but I am still undecided on which (storage) size I should get. I currently have a 16GB iPhone 3GS which comfortably, for now, holds all my media needs. While I have a lot of music and photos and some video I don't feel the need to have it all on my phone at one time.
Looking at what I store on my iPhone I think an iPad 32GB would more than fit my needs -- but will my media files be larger on the iPad with the larger format of the device? I don't expect that my iTunes songs will take up anymore than they do on the iPhone, but will the format of pictures and video take up more storage space? With AT&T increasing the download size limit over 3G it got me wondering if 32GB on the iPad will be more like a 16GB iPhone.
At this point I would be deciding between the 32GB and 64GB. Just wondering if the $100 price difference would be better spent buying the 32GB and putting the $100 toward a year's worth of 3G connectivity?
Love, kissies & hugs,
Your nephew, RJ
Dearest RJ,
16GB data? Buy the 32GB model, unless you can easily swing the 64 GB one. Then go for that.
Auntie has a pretty firm policy on this kind of thing: always buy the most storage you can afford unless the storage on offer is insufficient, whether truly insufficient or plausibly insufficient. Here's how it works. Let's say you have about 30GB of data. There's a 32GB item for sale and a 64GB item for sale. Which should you buy? Auntie's advice is to always buy the 64GB item. There's plenty of room there for you to grow over time, and overbuying your storage ensures that your device will remain useful as your data demands grow.
Now let's say, we're in the same situation but with 16GB and 32GB units instead. Here's where Auntie goes mental.
In that scenario, my advice is to buy low, just getting the 16GB model. "OMG, Auntie," you're saying to yourself. "How can you give such poor advice? The 30 GB of data I currently use as of today will fit comfortably on that 32GB unit! What the...um...heck?"
Here's the reasoning behind that advice: Buying any iPhone/iPod/iPad unit with just 2GB to spare is asking to pay extra for not-enough-room misery. You're going to ebay-and-upgrade within six months anyway, right? So why not just save the money and wait until something decent actually comes out? That's why I stayed to 4GB and 8GB iPhones until my beloved 32GB 3GS finally debuted. The money I saved helped underwrite the equipment I actually wanted. Of course, I'm now thisclose from running out of room on my newish 64GB iPod touch. And my 3GS? Sadly, overburdened already. (Although, to be fair, it's had a really great year -- and I've loved the storage space that it added to my life.)
It's the same way with the iPad. Top of the line 64GB simply isn't going to cut it for me under any plausible near term usage scenarios. With movies and books and lots of other iPad-ready great digital resources that go way beyond normal iPhone use, my storage requirements are constantly moving upwards, not downwards. I'm buying the 16GB model until at least a 128GB (and, preferably a 256GB) model shows up.
Is this biting off my nose to spite my face? (And, by the way, that's physically harder than you might imagine unless you have a very flexible nose and jaw, but I digress.) No, it's keeping my eyes on what I really want instead of settling for not-quite-good-enough. Over time, prices drop. Storage increases. So long as I have an entry-level iPad to get started with, I'll be fine -- at least until my dreamPad finally debuts.
If you do have the spare cash on-hand and don't have to count pennies, well, buy the best unit available. With that kind of cash flow, you don't have to worry about asking Auntie T. questions about which unit offers the best value. But if you're like me, a tech addict on a tight budget and unwilling to compromise on quality, you may consider buying down instead of up until the right model comes along.
Love & hugs,
Auntie T.TUAWDear Aunt TUAW: Does size matter (when it comes to iPads)? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Interview with Zen Bound creators on iPad and iPhone games
Filed under: Gaming, Apple, Developer, iPad
AppAdvice has an interview up with Secret Exit, the folks who made one of the best iPhone games of last year, Zen Bound. They spoke not only about that game and how the iPhone turned out to be the perfect platform for them to start out on, but also about the iPad and what they're planning to do with it in the future.
Secret Exit echoes a lot of other developers in saying that it plans to make completely different apps for the iPad, not just upscaled or updated versions of iPhone apps. The hardware and the market, says Secret Exit, both call for completely separate releases.
They also say, however, that they're worried about iPad pricing. A bigger screen and more complicated layouts mean that the investment for apps will be bigger, and if only the most recognized brands can hold down a $9.99 price point, Secret Exit says that they may not be able to build out their games to the point that they'd like.
Interesting points all. Of course, much of the iPad thinking so far is speculation -- it's certainly possible that the $9.99 price point could become the default for new iPad apps, which would give developers a little more money to play with. But as with everything else iPad, we'll have to see. At least the wait's not that long.TUAWInterview with Zen Bound creators on iPad and iPhone games originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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