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- Another iPhone 4 Slips Through Apple's Fingers
One would think that keeping a tighter grip on iPhone 4 pre-launch hardware would be somewhat of a priority at Apple right now, especially given that the company has already failed to do so once before. Nonetheless, another iPhone 4 prototype, and one that appears to be much closer to a retail hardware device, has fallen into the hands of someone outside of Cupertino.
Photos of a different unit which look almost exactly like the iPhone 4 handset purchased by tech blog Gizmodo appeared on Vietnamese forum Taoviet.vn. The only differences in the case design appear to be the inclusion of the phone’s capacity (16GB) in place of the XXGB that appeared on the Gizmodo phone, and the lack of screws in the bottom of the device.
If the leaks are accurate, and it’s becoming very hard to say they aren’t what with all the confirmation in the form of legal action by Apple itself, then it means the original leak didn’t affect the device’s design plans at all. It still appears to have the same glass/plastic back and aluminum border that we saw before, and the same screen size. A teardown also reveals the internals haven’t changed, and that the iPhone 4 sports an Apple branded processor, possibly the same as or a successor to the A4 chip that powers the iPad.
This iPhone appears to be powered up, and possibly running some sort of pre-release testing firmware. According to MacRumors, it’s something that’s not uncommon with tester hardware, and at least some of the visual elements seem to resemble what we’ve seen in the past. This one appears to be codenamed “Bonfire!”
What’s interesting about the leak itself is that even though it comes from a Vietnamese source, it’s said to have originated in the U.S. The forum poster apparently claims that a Vietnamese businessman bought the iPhone in the U.S. along with an iPad on a business trip. So either Apple is very sloppy in their own backyard, or this is yet another example of an expertly managed hype-building campaign.
If Apple sticks to its standard release timeframe, then it makes perfect sense to be seeing a product this far along at this point in the game. WWDC kicks off next month on June 7, and we’ll almost definitely see the unveiling of the new iPhone hardware during the keynote on June 8. With less than a month to go, there’s little time for big changes, so expect to see something pretty much exactly like this gracing the shelves of your local Apple Store or AT&T kiosk late June or early July.
Check out the photos of the new device in the gallery below.
Picture 1 of 7
Переслать - Steam for Mac Now Live
Today is a great day for the Mac gaming crowd, as Valve has officially released the Steam client for Mac. For those of you unfamiliar with Steam (and it may be quite a few of you if you don’t look across to the PC side of the fence that often), it’s a software marketplace that deals in the digital distribution of games.But Steam is more than just a marketplace. It also provides achievements, leaderboards and matchmaking for the games it sells, so that it’s much more like an Xbox Live for your PC. And now for your Mac, too. And between both, if you happen to use both OS X and Windows machines.
All of Steam’s launch titles on the Mac feature “Steam Play,” a new ability that allows you to purchase a game once on one platform and then download it and play it on any other Steam-supported OS (which for now includes Windows and Mac). That’s great news for me, since I often will buy a game here at home and then want to play it when I’m visiting my parents, for instance, or traveling and using a friend’s computer. It’s also handy if you have a PC at work and want to sneak in some Torchlight dungeon crawling between reports.
You can go ahead and grab the client here (DMG). As expected, launch titles include the above-mentioned Torchlight, a Diablo clone that I’ve played on PC and enjoyed immensely, and Portal, Valve’s celebrated shooter. Also available are Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, and The Dig from LucasArts, and the Sam and Max episodic adventures. A full list is available at Joystiq.com.
The full Mac Games store is now live, and it looks just like its PC counterpart. Games seem to cost the same as their PC counterparts, and you should be able to play multiplayer games across platforms (meaning PC players can game with Mac ones, and vice versa). Torchlight is available for a special launch price of $9.99 by the way, so I recommend picking it up if you’re unsure of where to start.
At first launch you’ll be prompted to sign up for a Steam account, which takes all of 30 seconds and can be done entirely through the Steam Mac app. New games are set to be released on Wednesday of every week, with plenty of Mac titles already in the pipeline.
Переслать - TheAppleBlog Lauches Mac Video Tutorial Site TechUniversity
Over a year ago we started throwing around the idea of a site dedicated solely to teaching others how to use their Apple products better. Our video tutorials and how-to’s have always been a big hit, so we started exploring the idea of creating a site dedicated to just that. We shelved the idea for 2009 but at the beginning of this year decided it was the right time to get moving on the idea.
So after four months of development and production, I’m very proud to announce the launch of TechUniversity.
TechUniversity is a video tutorial and screencast site dedicated to teaching you how to use your Mac and Apple products better. We’re launching with close to two dozen screencasts and will be adding new videos every week. You can watch the videos directly on the site or download high-quality, DRM-free videos with chapter markers. And to get your feet wet, you can check out a few free episodes in the Freebies section.
To view all the videos and access the downloads, you pay a small monthly fee of $4.95 (or $49.95 for a year). Being a subscriber also lets you interact with the screencast authors and other community members.
For those new to the Mac, I suggest checking out our 101 Series.
So, check out TechUniversity and let us know what you think! We’re extremely proud of this and would love for you to be a part of it!
Переслать - iPad Keyboard Shortcuts
I was pretty excited to hear that the iPad supported a hardware keyboard. With my history in Unix, I’ve become pretty comfortable as a touch typist, enough so that there is no faster way to get words out of my head and into the text editor. My excitement was short-lived, however. Soon after receiving my Bluetooth Apple keyboard in the mail, I found that most of the keyboard shortcuts I was hoping for were not there.So, after trying every keyboard shortcut I could think of, here’s a rundown of all the shortcuts that work on the iPad.
- CMD – c (Copy selected text)
- CMD – x (Cut selected text)
- CMD – v (Paste)
- CMD – z (Undo)
- CMD – shift – z (Redo)
- CMD – Up Arrow (Jump to top of document)
- CMD – Down Arrow (Jump to bottom of document)
- CMD – Left Arrow (Jump to beginning of line)
- CMD – Right Arrow (Jump to end of line)
- CMD – Delete (Delete everything on the current line to the left of the cursor)
- Option – Delete (Delete the word to the left of the cursor, and its preceding space)
- F1 (Dim Screen)
- F2 (Brighten Screen)
- F7 (Back one song)
- F8 (Play/Pause Music)
- F9 (Skip one song ahead)
- F10 (Mute)
- F11 (Volume Down)
- F12 (Volume Up)
- Eject key (Show/hide on-screen keyboard)
Luckily, all of the standard shortcuts for special characters still seem to work, like our beloved option – shift – k.
If I’ve missed any shortcuts, please let me know in the comments!
Apple’s keyboard dock has additional keys for locking the iPad, search, and home. I’m disappointed that those keys did not find an equivalent on the Bluetooth keyboard. I’m also disappointed that not all applications have full access to the key events sent from the keyboard. Most third-party apps that I’ve tested only have access to basic text entry and ignore the escape key or control characters.
The good news is that the shortcomings of the iPad’s keyboard integration are software, and can be fixed. I’ve heard rumors of good things coming in iPhone OS 4, so I’m hoping that CMD-q, CMD-tab, CMD-i, and CMD-b make a comeback. I’m also hoping for some better integration of the keyboard with Safari. Safari will recognized the keyboard for any text entry, but little, if anything, beyond that. The biggest missing feature for Safari for me is the ability to search for text on a page, CMD-F. CMD-I would be great for sending a page via email, and CMD-1 through 9 would be nice for bookmarklets like Instapaper.
Part of the problem with keyboard integration is the melding of the old world and new world. The iPad is meant to be touched and gestured to, but many tasks still require text entry. Typing is faster, far faster for me, than handwriting, and not as awkward as voice recognition software like Dragon Dictation (App Store Link). Looking at Apple’s track record for developing its products, it introduces a new product with very, very few features, and then hones and perfect those features over time, and adds new ones as the product matures. I’m confident that the iPad will one day mature into a writers companion, and a power user’s dream.
Переслать - iPad Usability Study Opens Door to Standardized iPad Interface
Last night my two sons, age three and six, borrowed my iPad, launched Netflix, and started streaming Scooby-Doo. Earlier that day, the younger of the two was using the iPad to play his favorite game (iTunes Store Link), which he found and launched himself. So far, no one I’ve met has had a problem using the iPad, it’s just that simple. I’m not alone either. Dan Benjamin, from 5by5 Studios, has stated many times on “The Conversation” and “The Pipeline” how his son, even younger than mine, can use his iPad.The real world experiences of children using the iPad has not stopped the Nielsen Norman Group from releasing a preliminary 93-page report detailing the usability problems of the iPad. (Thanks to Mark Pilgrim for the Link). Citing problems in learning gestures, hidden controls, small buttons, and many other usability errors in 34 popular apps and sites. The researchers admit that the report is not up to their usual standards, since the iPad has not been available long enough to know how people are going to use it.
This report is less thorough than our normal research reports and does not contain as many detailed and actionable design guidelines as we usually provide. We decided to publish the report anyway (as a donation to the community), because all experience from the last 30 years of usability shows that early usability findings have disproportionately large impact on design projects.
Also interesting to note is that the research was carried out using seven people, one-on-one, for 90 minutes each.
One of the most interesting aspects of the report is the inclusion of websites into the study. Nielsen Norman Group summarizes its findings:
For a truly optimal experience that takes into account both the constraints and strengths of the device, an iPad-specific website may be the solution.
After reading through the report, I find it “must read” material for anyone developing iPad applications or marketing their website to iPad users. The usability testing is not a study of the usability of the iPad itself, but the usability of the apps that were tested, which can vary from one app to the next, and change as each app is updated. Very little attention was paid to system wide software like the keyboard, or how the device is handled physically other than saying that it was “heavy.”
Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines define certain aspects of how an app should look and feel on the iPad, but given the disparity of user interfaces between apps, it’s obvious that developers need studies like the Nielsen Norman Group’s. Time will tell what the best interfaces are for the platform, and what UI mistakes developers are making now. What we should not do is hold this report as a study of the usability of the iPad itself, which my young son will happily tell you is just fine.
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