Thursday, July 7, 2011

TheAppleBlog — Apple and iOS News, Tips and Reviews (7 сообщений)

TheAppleBlog    TheAppleBlog — Apple and iOS News, Tips and Reviews

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  • Namesake takes entrepreneurial networking mobile with iOS app

    Social networking startup Namesake launched an iOS app Tuesday. The app brings Namesake, which we billed as “Facebook for the self-employed” back in September of last year, to Apple devices in a wrapper that’s much better suited for mobile access.

    If you haven’t yet checked out Namesake, it’s essentially a kind of Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn-like service built around user updates and networks, but aimed specifically at helping users connect in regards to career opportunities, information exchanges and sharing of professional expertise. It shares similarities with Quora and Sprouter, too, in that it recommends subject matter experts. But this new iOS app might provide an edge for Namesake, since it really is quite well designed.

    I like that Namesake for iOS keeps thing simple. Once signed in (you can’t register from the app, unfortunately), you see your Happening Now stream, which includes conversations and other events. You can also view only conversations, mentions and your profile using the bottom app menu. A read post button in the middle of the bottom bar let’s you start a conversation quickly and easily. Everything looks good, and smooth transition animations and snappy performance in general show that this iOS app was no rush job.

    If you haven’t yet checked out Namesake and you think it might prove useful, the introduction of this mobile app is a good reason to take a look.

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  • Facebook Video Calling will replace Skype client for most Mac users

    Facebook launched a bunch of new features Wednesday, including group chat, a redesigned chat user list, and the biggest of all, video chat via a partnership with Skype. It’s this last one that will have the biggest implications for most average Mac users.

    I used Skype video calling approximately three minutes after it launched (with pal and web developer Wes Bos), and it worked perfectly. Installing the plugin on my iMac required a tiny Java app download that’s virtually foolproof to use, and making and receiving calls is as simple as clicking a few buttons and confirming you want to share video.

    Video chat doesn’t appeal to everyone. It works well for people who have close relationships with one another (like parents and children) and who live far enough away from each other that face-to-face interaction is rare. But when you add the complication that both parties have to install a dedicated app and have that app open and active, the pool of people who’ll actually use it are even smaller. With Facebook chat, if they’re in your network, they’re potentially available for video calling. No Skype registration, no calling people ahead of time to tell them to open the Skype client so that you can call them, since people are much more likely to be Facebook users (there’s 750 million of them, Facebook announced today) and online at any given time on that site.

    Skype’s Mac client also isn’t winning over any fans in terms of its design, mainly because that design feels unnecessarily cumbersome. Facebook’s Skype integration is the opposite of that: It’s invisible, blending in with Facebook’s web presence without drawing too much attention to itself or changing the Facebook experience that users are comfortable with.

    For both the above reasons, I think Facebook Video Calling will unseat Skype as the video chat option of choice for Mac users, at least when it comes to consumers. Pro users might need the advanced Skype features offered through the dedicated Mac app, but some of those might make it to Facebook eventually, too, it was suggested at today’s press conference. And things like calling out to landlines and cell phones might be better handled through Skype’s smartphone clients anyway.

    Facebook still has to bring video calling to groups and mobile, but the groundwork is laid for that to happen, and while some are saying Google+ is still in the lead thanks to its Hangouts group video chat, I think that’s underestimating Facebook’s advantage in terms of its huge network size lead.

    I’m seeing a lot of negative reaction to this announcement on Twitter in general, but I think it will do wonders for the adoption of video calling among less techie users. What do you think?

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  • Make full-screen web apps with Fluid 1.2 and OS X Lion

    OS X Lion ships with the ability to run apps in full-screen mode, which allows you to experience Mac software in a way similar to how iOS apps run. It’s a nice feature, but one that will likely mostly be available for Apple’s own apps when Lion launches. Thanks to an update to Fluid, however, virtually any website can become an independent full-screen app, too, as soon as Lion is ready to roar.

    Fluid is an OS X app that allows you to specify a website address, choose an icon, and create a site-specific browser application that does away with the browser window and leaves you with just the site itself. One popular use for Fluid is to create a Facebook app, and the recently launched Google+ is another prime candidate. Fluid is the creation of Todd Ditchendorf, a one-time Apple employee who helped develop the OS X Dashboard and Dashboard Widgets.

    The 1.2 update for Fluid brings Lion compatibility for the app (developers have had access to the preview version of OS X 10.7 for some time now), and also introduces full-screen mode support for users running Lion. There’s a catch: Those who want the full-screen support will have to pay the optional $4.99 licensing fee for Fluid, which also unlocks the ability to pin apps created in Fluid to the menu bar, and enables separate cookie storage for Fluid apps.

    Safari in OS X Lion boasts a full-screen mode as well, but it can’t compare to using complex web apps like Google Docs completely unencumbered by any browser chrome, since you have more usable space and less incentive to get distracted with Fluid apps. Believe me, once you get the hang of how switching between full-screen apps in Lion works (a three or four-finger swipe), you’ll really appreciate this new feature in Fluid.

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  • Report: Apple aims to sell 25M next-gen iPhones by end of year

    Reports surrounding Apple’s next iPhone are beginning to stream in, with the Wall Street Journal making a claim today that the next-generation iPhone will launch during the third quarter. That’s in keeping with a recent story from DigiTimes that pegged September as the targeted launch time frame for a new iPhone.

    But while DigiTimes claimed that an initial order for 15 million units was placed with Pegatron, the Wall Street Journal‘s sources, cited as people at Apple’s suppliers, say that the first few million units will be assembled by Hon Hai, Apple’s No. one product assembly partner and the parent company of Foxconn.

    One source that spoke to the Wall Street Journal specified that Apple hoped to ship 25 million new thinner, lighter iPhones by the end of 2011 and had instructed its suppliers to prepare to meet that goal. To put that target in perspective, the original iPhone 4 sold 3 million units in its first three weeks, and analysts are predicting that the Verizon iPhone 4, which represents just one variant of the iPhone 4 available to one carrier in one country, could sell 23.5 million units by the end of 2011. Apple should expect stronger interest in a new iPhone for the reasons I outlined Tuesday, including massive growth in China and more existing iPhone owners eligible for upgrade pricing.

    Even with sizable initial orders, supply could still be constrained, according to reports. Two of the Journal‘s sources noted that the yield rate at Hon Hai for the new iPhone design remains quite low, since it’s “complicated and difficult to assemble.”

    If past releases prove an accurate example, we can expect to see an increased frequency in these kinds of reports now that the next iPhone’s launch appears to be a couple of months out. As always, take them with a grain of salt, but also keep in mind that a September launch is the most logical choice for the introduction of Apple’s new iPhone, and the supply chain often acts as a source of prerelease leaks once it starts gearing up for full-scale production.

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  • Apple passes RIM in U.S. smartphone share

    Apple’s iOS is now the number two smartphone platform in the U.S., according to market research firm comScore. Apple rose to second place during the three-month period ending in May, up 1.4 percentage points to 26.6 percent of total U.S. market share.

    Android was the only other platform that gained share of smartphone subscribers during the quarter, growing 5.1 percentage points to 38.1 percent of the total pool and retaining its number one spot among mobile operating systems. All other major players besides Android and iOS lost share, with Research In Motion taking the hardest hit with a 4.2 percentage point drop for its BlackBerry OS, while Microsoft and Palm each shed 1.9 and 0.4 percent respectively.

    While Android gained more ground than iOS in a smartphone market that grew 11 percent during the last quarter, Apple was the single biggest riser when it came to smartphone hardware growth. Apple rose 1.2 percentage points from 7.5 percent to 8.7 percent for the period ending in May, while Samsung, the market leader, remained flat at 24.8 percent. LG was the only hardware vendor besides Apple in the top five to gain ground, rising 0.2 percent, while both Motorola and RIM slid slightly.

    The three-month period was a good one for Apple by comScore’s measures, and iOS continues to show positive growth despite Android’s expanding reach. Other recent studies and reports indicate that Apple may be beginning to claw back some of the ground given up to Android, too. But with iOS 5 and the wide release of Google+ on the way soon to shake things up, the smartphone game is becoming a very tricky one to call.

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  • Roundup: iPhone accessories to help you get a better night's sleep

    While many of us figuratively feel like we sleep with our iPhones, I’ve been literally doing just that for the past few months, testing a variety of sleep monitoring and maintenance tools. Here are some resulting recommendations for getting a better night's sleep, thanks to some third-party hardware and software.

    Zeo Personal Sleep Coach $199

    With the Zeo, you wear a headband to bed each night that communicates wirelessly with an alarm clock base. The band determines your “optimal” wake period within a certain window of time. The data is stored on an SD card, which you must then upload manually to Zeo’s website after each night.

    While it was nice to know the quality of my sleep and how often I woke, uploading the data each morning was cumbersome and I’d frequently forget to do it. The headband was very uncomfortable and would often slip off. After a few weeks, I had to return the unit since it was completely useless to me, but at least it came in handy for benchmarking other devices (yes, at one point I had no less than four devices attached to me during sleep).

    Best use: Hard to find one, unfortunately.

    BodyMedia Body Sync $249 plus $12.95 a month


    This device is primarily a weight loss monitoring tool you wear 24 hours a day, seven days a week, taking it off only to recharge and shower. You wear this device near your tricep on your upper arm, and it’s about the size of a iPod nano. It monitors how much time you were in bed, but doesn’t take into account how restful that sleep was and doesn’t have an alarm function. Unlike other devices, you don’t have to set it. It’s always watching you and syncs via Bluetooth.

    After wearing it during a work out, I was able to figure out the optimal time to exercise in the evening so that I’m not too “revved” up before bed. I’d monitor my metabolism in real-time and figure out how many hours it took for my body to go from calorie burning mode to relaxation mode. I also liked knowing how many calories I burned while sleeping.

    This device isn't cheap, and the monthly monitoring adds to the cost, but if you want to see how sleep (or lack thereof) impacts your weight loss goals, this is a great product.

    Best Use: Sleep monitoring in conjunction with weight loss.

    Lark $129/$189 w/ coaching

    The Lark is a wristband you wear while sleeping. It comes with its own charging station that also serves as an iPhone stand, although you can also charge it using any mini USB cable.

    The Lark monitors your sleep to analyze how many times you woke and how “restful” the sleep was. It gives you a rating such as fair, poor, OK and good. For an additional charge, you can pay for sleep coaching, which will use the results to suggest better sleep habits. The Lark is unique in that instead of initially waking you up with an alarm, it vibrates silently. This enables you to wake yourself without waking your sleep partner and the rest of the house. My spouse was quite pleased with this and so was the dog. If you don’t awake from the vibration, the iOS app will use a failsafe alarm sound to wake you “gently” with the sounds of birds tweeting.

    During testing, I often found the vibration rather jarring, and sometimes more disturbing than the actual alarm. I felt like someone was shaking me awake as if there were some kind of emergency. Over time I got used to it and learned that vibration meant it was time to wake up, but still was caught off guard some mornings. Sleeping with the device on was no problem. It was quite comfortable and felt like I was wearing a watch.

    The failsafe alarm sound wasn’t changeable and on occasion I didn’t always hear it. While the coaching was interesting, it was hardly worth the extra $60 in my opinion. The advice wasn't personalized, but simply took aspects of my sleep and offered suggestions (even some contradictory ones).

    The iOS app wants to be in the foreground at all times, which made it difficult to use music apps such as Ambiance. If another app presented a notification while sleeping, it was confusing to get the Lark app back to alarm mode. If you want to snooze the alarm, you can't set a specific time but are given a menu of choices in five-minute intervals.

    Best Uses: Waking up without disturbing the household, nominal sleep monitoring and suggestions.

    Wakemate $59.99


    Wakemate has had a long rocky road to market: constant delays, hardware defects in initial release and buggy iOS apps. Luckily, the device seems to have overcome its difficult beginning and is now stable and reliable.

    The Wakemate is a small Bluetooth USB device wrapped in a fuzzy terry cloth band that you wear around your wrist to sleep. It doesn’t vibrate like the Lark, but simply records your sleep movements and then uploads them to your iOS device and the Internet when it’s time to wake up. The iPhone (or iPad) stays safe on your beside table.

    Wakemate’s unique feature is that, similar to the Zeo, it claims to monitor your sleep patterns and wake you up at an optimal time in your sleep cycle. I didn’t experience any perceived benefits from this, but did notice that the Zeo and Wakemate woke me generally at the same time. Wakemate’s iOS app allows you to customize the ringer to a song or one of its selected melodies. The default alarm was quite pleasant and not the blaring klaxon of the typical alarm clock nor the too-gentle sound I experienced with the Lark. Since it wakes you at an “optimal” time, you can’t snooze the alarm. It forces you to get up plain and simple. Personally I liked that rigidity.

    Sleep result numbers were nearly identical to that of the Zeo. The “sleep score” was within 10 percent, and I felt it accurately recorded my wake and sleep times. Even though I might be in bed more than I thought, I realized a lower sleep score meant a lack of quality in my sleep. The app gives you the ability to tag your sleep in order to analyze patterns such as what you ate or drank before bed or your stress levels. You can even post your results to Facebook and Twitter.

    During my test period I was disappointed with all the device problems and the manufacturer was very slow to respond. Although there was a known defect in their product, they still required owners to pay the shipping back to manufacturer. One mistake can be safely ignored, but I did see a pattern of problems and sincerely hope they get their house in order because I really liked the product.

    Of all the devices I used, this was the most economical. A one time investment of $60 covered the device and there were no subscription fees to continue using it. Of course, that could change and the device isn’t usable without the app.

    Best Uses: Detailed analysis of sleep patterns.

    What will I be sleeping with now on? The Wakemate now has a trusted position in my bedroom. The times I forgot to charge it, I truly missed the analysis. I do like the Lark for those times I have to wake up extra early and don’t want to disturb the house. Who says I have to sleep with just one?

    Disclosure: Bodymate, Lark, and Wakemate provided samples and service for this review.

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  • 3 things the Google+ iOS app needs to become a killer app

    According to a Google employee, Google+ has an official iOS app currently undergoing review by Apple for release in the App Store. The native app should offer more functionality than the current HTML5 web app, but Google has been known to release less feature-rich versions of its own apps for platforms other than Android. Here are the features Google absolutely has to include with an iOS offering to make it an attractive proposition for iOS-using Google+ fans.

    1. Huddle

    Possibly the most attractive feature for mobile users of Google+ is its ability to quickly and easily initiate group or individual messaging sessions through Huddle. Huddle is a bit like BlackBerry Messenger, and a bit like the Facebook-acquired Beluga. Even though it has its quirks at this stage in the beta, it also boasts a lot of potential once the bugs are ironed out. The web app doesn’t provide Huddle access, so the iOS app had better. It probably won’t be available through a separate shortcut, as it is on Android devices, where I think it could potentially replace text messaging apps for some users, but as long as it’s in the Google+ app, that should be enough to keep iOS users satisfied.

    2. Instant Upload

    It can’t be baked into the iPhone’s native camera app the way it can on Android handsets, but the iOS app should still have Instant Upload capabilities. All it needs to do is offer in-app access to the camera, and the ability to instantly upload photos taken there to your Google+ gallery for later sharing. As with Huddle, it’ll already be limited enough by Apple’s own OS restrictions to make the Android version more appealing, so there’s no reason to leave it out.

    3. Push notifications

    Email notifications for Google+ can be a little overwhelming. What the service really needs are native push notifications on iOS devices. Especially combined with iOS 5, notifications for Google+ will make iOS users that much more likely to continue to engage with the service. The web app lacks in this regard, since it’s much easier to forget about checking Google+ without easy, targeted reminders about specific activity taking place.

    For iPhone owners I’ve spoken with who also have early access to Google+, the official iOS app can’t come soon enough. Here’s hoping that when it does arrive, it doesn’t come with any artificial feature restrictions that limit its appeal to Google’s growing crowd of social networkers.

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Блог о мелкой бытовой технике для кухни

Техника — дело не женское. А что если она создана для нас и призвана помогать нам, а мы в ней все равно ничего не смыслим? Выход есть! В этом блоге я буду публиковать статьи, которые помогут дамам чувствовать себя увереннее на собственной кухне.
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