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- Apple's Q2 Conference Call: Yes, We Made Lots of Money
Yesterday, Apple held its quarterly conference call to discuss Q2 financial performance. Expectations were mixed heading into the call, with many saying that this would reveal the true effect of the recession on Apple’s business, and that we would finally see that the Cupertino company is not immune to the same challenges facing other consumer electronics and computer companies. Well, maybe the other shoe has yet to drop, but Apple’s performance yesterday exceeded analyst expectations
Analysts were expecting a slight drop in earnings for the second quarter, based on the performance of other, similarly positioned companies, and the economic climate in general. Instead, Apple had a record quarter yet again, with a net income of $1.2 billion, or $1.33 per share. Total revenue came in at an astounding $8.33 billion, compared to $7.51 billion during the same quarter last year. Last year’s income was only $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per share. The strong numbers gave Apple stocks a big boost in aftermarket trading.
If you break down the revenue numbers, you start to see the effect of the recession on sales. Specifically, Mac sales fell 3 percent over the same period last year, while iPod sales went up 3 percent and iPhone sales rose 123 percent. In other words, big ticket items are not as appealing to buyers, while cheaper consumer electronics are still performing well. It might indicate that a netbook would market well to cash-strapped consumers.
But Tim Cook is having none of it. The CFO took the call yesterday as an opportunity to reiterate and expand upon Jobs’ stance regarding netbook devices:
When I’m looking at what’s sold in the Netbook market, I see cramped keyboards, junky hardware, very small screens, bad software. Not a consumer experience that we would put the Mac brand on. As it exists today, we’re not interested in it nor would it be something customers would be interested in the long term. We are looking at the space. For those who want a small computer that does browsing/email, they might want an iPhone or iPod touch. If we find a way to deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, we’ll do that.
Cook taking the hard line and shooting down the netbook concept is only to be expected when the still-absent Jobs is already on the books as having done so, regardless of whether or not rumors since about such a device have spread like wildfire. Cook also briefly discussed the Pre, though his comments didn’t really say anything beyond those already made at past calls regarding the device. You can check out a recording of the conference call at Apple’s website, if you want to listen to the whole thing yourself.
Переслать - LG Staffer Says Apple OLED Notebooks Forthcoming
If this is true, then LG takes the cake when it comes to leaking. No subtle hints, vague rumors, or supply chain speculation here. Instead, an actual LG employee has come out and baldly stated that the South Korea-based company will be responsible for producing a brand new upcoming notebook from Apple. And no, this isn’t yet another installment of “Apple Netbook Whisperings,” in case you were wondering.
Far from being a netbook, the rumored device will sport a 15-inch screen, and will appear within months, if the source is to be believed. A 15-inch OLED screen is an expensive piece of equipment, as you know if you’ve been following the emerging tech’s development. For reference, consider that Sony’s 11-inch XEL-1 OLED TV is a staggering $2,499, and it doesn’t have a computer built-in to it. No doubt manufacturing costs have come down since the XEL-1 was created in 2007, but prices still haven’t come down to the point where Apple would be able to offer a 15-inch OLED notebook for anything less than $2,000.
I understand not compromising your high standards of quality just because the economy’s not doing so hot, but introducing a premium notebook amid financial uncertainty? Probably not the best move, unless you’re counting on the few remaining wealthy souls wanting to show off even more now that their prosperity is so very conspicuous.
No other details about the notebook were forthcoming from the source, which actually makes sense if he’s just seen what’s being made on LG’s side of things and for who. Maybe Macbook Air Pro-type specs? For now though, file this as either unlikely or a misunderstanding of the ultimate destination of LG’s screens. Considering Apple’s current lineup and cost structure, I just don’t see a device like this attracting that many additional consumers without stealing from the crowd of potential Macbook Pro or Air buyers.
Переслать - Apple iPhone vs. Palm Pre: AT&T Employee Talking Points Leaked
In case you want a preview of the mud-slinging that’s about to begin between AT&T and Sprint over the imminent iPhone/Pre smackdown, PreCentral.net has the goods. They’ve gotten their hands on an internal AT&T document circulated to employees detailing talking points that emphasize the advantages of the iPhone over Palm’s new yet-to-be-released wunderkind. I have to admit, I’ve already bought into a lot of the buzz surrounding the Pre, so I welcomed some reasons my iPhone might actually be better, no matter how biased the source.
First of all, the iPhone is thinner, lighter, has a bigger screen, and is sexier than the Pre. And it comes in two colors. These are all things we know, though. AT&T. Some people will still opt for the Pre because they think it’s “different.” There must be other, more tangible, functional differences between the two phones.
Actually, pretty much every point beyond superficial concerns does seem to make a strong case in the iPhone’s favor. It is true, after all, that the App Store has already proven its value, while Pre’s offerings have yet to be tested. And apparently the Pre’s interface, while multitouch, is not nearly as intuitive as the iPhone’s. While I’m taking AT&T’s word for that, it is true that I couldn’t imagine a more intuitive interface than the one the iPhone currently boasts. Also listed on the iPhone’s side in the UI category is “fast and responsive navigation,” which would seem to infer that the Pre is slow and sluggish by comparison, though again, this is unsubstantiated.
Another very crucial difference has to do with the limits the Pre suffers from by not being a GSM phone. Obviously, this means it can’t be used anywhere in the world as easily as the iPhone can, which is a huge point of contention for business travelers and other globe-trotting individuals. Also, the lack of GSM means that the Pre can’t take advantage of location and GPS functions in most locations around the world. Apparently the iPhone’s GPS is just better thanks to aGPS, too. I will say that it’s worked flawlessly since updating to the 3.0 Beta.
Some of the other differences are more ridiculous, and clearly skewed by AT&T’s not-so-secret preference. The iPhone, for example, is touted for featuring a built-in iPod. C’mon Pre, where’s your built-in iPod? I’m sure if you just asked Apple nicely, they’d totally let you do that. Also “Limited free Wi-Fi access” for the Pre as opposed to what, unlimited free Wi-Fi access for the iPhone? Last time I checked, I couldn’t get a Wi-Fi connection wherever I wanted whenever I wanted, which, technically, means it has “limits.”
Whether or not you believe AT&T’s propaganda, we’ll find out how they really stack up soon enough, since this document all but confirms that the Pre’s release is imminent.
Переслать - Apple Finally Making the iPhone a Good Listener
Some might see it as allowing room for third-party developers to take over and implement some clever solutions of their own, but I think Apple left some features off of the iPhone either out of laziness, time constraints, or because they were saving punches for later rounds (i.e. iPhone 3.0). One of those features, which almost every other phone has, dumb and smart alike, is voice recognition and control. Without a third-party solution like Say Who? installed, my iPhone is deaf to my pleas to “Call Parents,” for instance.
According to recent findings reported by Ars Technica, upcoming iPhone software will likely support voice recognition and feedback. So not only will you be able to talk to your phone, but it will talk back to you, probably via something along the same lines as the new iPod Shuffle’s VoiceOver features. The new voice software goes by the codename “Jibbler.”
What is clear is that the Jibbler tech is tied to the springboard, and appears to involve a call-and-response set of functions that will let you issue short commands to the iPhone that produce feedback in return. I can’t imagine doing so in anything other than my terrific Patrick Stewart impression voice.
Expect voice features with the iPhone to go above and beyond the function we’ve seen from other phones, or from third-party apps so far. Hopefully we’ll at least see Maps and Address Book integration, though with the introduction of Spotlight in iPhone OS 3.0, we might also see the entire phone become voice-searchable.
I’m just hoping these features aren’t limited to the new version of the iPhone coming in June, even though I’ll probably cave and upgrade the week after its release anyway.
Переслать - How-To: Put Google Calendar and Tasks in Your Menu Bar
Don’t you wish there were an easier way to quickly view upcoming appointments and your task list? If you’re a fan of Google products, then follow these steps for an easy-to-use solution. In the end you will have two new items in your menu bar: one for Google Calendar and one for Google Tasks.
What You Need
1. Fluid – This allows you to create applications from web sites. In our case we will be creating a Google Calendar application, and a Google Tasks application.
3. Tasks icon
4. 10 minutes
The Steps
1. Download Fluid.
2. Open Fluid.app.
3. The first app we’ll create is for Google Calendar. Let’s use “Calendar” for the name.
4. The URL for Google Calendar is google.com/calendar/m.
Note: For Google Apps users it’s google.com/calendar/hosted/[your domain name]/m.
5. The dock or menu bar icon for this application can either be Google Calendar’s favicon, the tiny icon that appears in the address bar of your browser when you visit the site, or something a little fancier, like what I suggested above. To use the fancy icon select “Other” from the Icon menu, and locate the newly downloaded icon on your hard drive.
6. Click Create.
7. After a few seconds you’ll have the option to Launch. Go ahead. Don’t be afraid.
8. The window that appears is a web browser that will automatically open to Google Calendar. Log in (if necessary).
9. Go to the Calendar menu and hover over User Agent. Select “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 - iPhone”.
10. Go to the File menu and select Close Window.
11. Go to the File menu and select New Window.
12. Go to the Calendar menu and select “Convert to MenuExtra SSB…” Click OK in the warning window and you’ll have a new item in the menu bar: a tiny calendar icon. Click on it to see the mobile version of your Google Calendar. You can drag the lower-left corner to resize the window.
Repeat for Google Tasks
For Google Tasks, follow the same steps (you obviously don’t have to download Fluid again). The URL you will use is gmail.com/tasks.
Note: For Google Apps users it’s mail.google.com/tasks/a/[your domain name].
Tasks will not properly load until you perform step 9 and set the User Agent to “Other”. Enter the following text into the window:
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20You’re done! Now you can quickly and easily view upcoming appointments and manage your tasks list.
If you have any questions leave a comment. Good luck getting organized!
Переслать - Jailbreak: What iPhone OS 3.0 Means for Jailbreaking
iPhone OS, from its very first version to the current 2.2.1, lacks certain features that many users typically expect in a smartphone. Jailbreaking arose largely to address those shortcomings. With iPhone OS 3.0, Apple has made the first of what will surely be many waves to come that will rock the jailbreak boat.
Having used beta developer builds of iPhone OS 3.0 for a few weeks now, I believe that the release of iPhone OS 3.0 will eliminate a large number of reasons for which users have jailbroken their iPhones.
Of the hundreds of enhancements jailbreaking can bring, the popular ones are, arguably, unlocking the iPhone to accept SIM cards worldwide, SMS management, MMS, Internet tethering, the built-in camera, the Lock Screen, UI theming, and cut, copy and paste. So how do the new features in iPhone OS 3.0 stack up against their jailbreak counterparts? Let’s take a look.
Unlocking the iPhone
For those of you whose iPhones are locked to your respective carrier, sorry, you’ll still have to jailbreak 3.0 in order to unlock your device.
SMS
With iPhone OS 3.0, you can finally forward text messages, delete individual text messages, and read and compose text messages in landscape mode, functionality that would otherwise require third-party apps such as BiteSMS, iRealSMS or MySMS. But there is one feature, available in both BiteSMS and MySMS, that I miss in 3.0: Quick Reply.
When a text message comes in, BiteSMS pops up a floating alert dialog box that lets you send a reply to that message without quitting whichever application is currently running. It’s a huge convenience, and elegant, to boot.
MMS
Some swear by it, while others think its absence is a non-issue. Personally, I stand somewhere in the middle. If I am on a shoot somewhere out on location, and I need to get a photo across to someone quickly, MMS can be really useful. While some might argue that emailing would serve the same purpose, many recipients would much prefer receiving an MMS for the simple fact that not all cell phones have e-mail clients as capable as that of the iPhone. And you’d be surprised at how many cell phone users still do not have a data plan for push e-email and the such.
Internet Tethering
Remember the days when you would tether your cell phone to your laptop via a data cable, Bluetooth, or, horror of horrors, infrared? My old 2G Nokia cell phone did it, even if it was a measly 14.4K connection, so it was quite an inconvenience not being able to use my iPhone as a modem.
Internet tethering via USB or Bluetooth is built into 3.0. I’m happy to report that it just works (for now). I no longer require apps such as PdaNet or iPhoneModem, some of which cost quite a fair bit to purchase. But, as built-in HSPDA connectivity becomes increasingly ubiquitous in laptops, Internet tethering in the iPhone will eventually become irrelevant.
Camera
This is the one area that has not been improved upon in 3.0. The native Camera app still does not offer manual controls such as burst mode, slow shutter, or EV override, things that I, as a photographer, would like to have. On the hardware side, I would love to have auto-focus, something my other cell phone, an old Sony Ericsson, does very well. A full-featured camera app such as Snapture is, hence, still a very attractive incentive for jailbreaking.
Then, there is video recording. Cycorder is what I miss in my now-stock iPhone 3G. I do believe it is inevitable that video recording will make its way into the iPhone. Rumors floating around the Internet seem to strongly indicate that it could be as soon as the next hardware revision of the iPhone we’ll see this June. When that happens, the last of what I feel are the three key ‘jailbreak-worthy’ aspects of iPhone OS — video, Bluetooth file transfers, and cut/copy/paste — will be solved, as far as I’m concerned.
Lock Screen
All that screen real estate and nothing to show for it. Being a convert from Windows Mobile, which has a Today Screen that displays upcoming appointments and system notifications, the Lock Screen of iPhone OS is one area I really wish Apple would devote some attention to next. Of all the goodness I can get with jailbreaking, apps that enhance the Lock Screen are what I treasure most.
When I take a quick glance at the Lock Screen, I want to see information and not just album cover artwork or wallpaper. There is so much potential in what can go onto the Lock Screen. Calendar events, quick-dial for favorite contacts, detailed notifications for missed calls or incoming text messages, or even a preview of new mail — all of these are possible today on the jailbroken iPhone, courtesy of apps such as IntelliScreen and LockCalendar.
And, speaking of what I should see on the Lock Screen at a glance, I sorely miss Notifier, a Mobile Substrate hack that displays in the Date Bar notification icons for new mail, new messages, new IM messages, missed calls, and, especially useful, one for ringer mute.
UI Theming
The user interface plays such an important role in user experience that it is an area Apple will never relinquish control of. This is not a big deal for me, especially more so if it is at the expense of system responsiveness. But the sheer number of ugly themes created by users for WinterBoard, let alone those for other mobile platforms that freely allow theming, should be proof enough that it matters to some. On the iPhone, though, changing the wallpaper is still about as far as it goes…or Snow Leopard’s rumored ‘Marble’ interface at some point in 3.x. But full theming? Don’t hold your breath.
Cut, Copy and Paste
This is a big one. I still do not understand how some users can claim that the lack of cut, copy and paste is not a big deal to them. As someone who likes to write while commuting, the anemic ways in which iPhone OS 2.x lets me move bits of text around drove me to near insanity. Move a paragraph? Sorry, can’t do that. OK, how about something really simple, such as copying the name of a location from one Calendar event to another? Nope, no dice.
As I had stated in a previous post, cut, copy and paste in iPhone OS 3.0 addresses one of the biggest reasons I jailbroke my iPhone (and later, my iPod touch). Despite the best intentions behind jailbreak solutions such as hClipboard and Clippy, cut, copy and paste is really a low-level problem that only Apple can address satisfactorily, which it has in iPhone OS 3.0.
Conclusion
Going forward, I would love to see even more of what can be achieved only by jailbreaking in future versions of iPhone OS, namely enhancements to the Camera app and the Lockscreen. Even if there are no unannounced features hidden up Apple’s sleeve, and what we are seeing in the beta builds now is all there is, 3.x is clearly shaping up to be the first version of iPhone OS feature-rich enough that many users may no longer have a reason to continue jailbreaking their devices.
Will I jailbreak 3.0? I’m still on the fence. But, in using iPhone OS 3.0, the thought of sticking with a stock iPhone crossed my mind for the very first time, a thought that was simply unfathomable in the days of 2.x.
Переслать - Apple: You Can't Use Images of the iPhone on the iPhone
In a move that at this point honestly shouldn’t come as unexpected, Apple recently rejected an update to the popular app Instapaper that allows storage of web content for offline viewing at a later date. The reason for the rejection? The icon in the middle of the bottom menu bar in the screenshot posted below. Yes, it does look familiar. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who would argue that it doesn’t resemble an iPhone. But you’d think that, since the app has been developed for the iPhone, using a representation of it in the interface wouldn’t cause much of a stir.
Well, it did. Enough of one to warrant a rejection of the update by Apple. And this isn’t the first time the iPhone-likeness has gotten a developer in trouble, either. Pocket God, which owes its popularity at least in part to the weekly content updates from developer Bolt Creative, was also blocked at the beginning of April for similar reasons. Obviously, this was more than a minor inconvenience since it completely threw off Bolt Creative’s update schedule, which is the main selling point of their app.
Apple didn’t point out exactly what had caused the rejection in the case of Pocket God, but it did refer to the use of copyrighted images. Bolt eventually decided that it must’ve been an image resembling an iPhone that they’d introduced in an options screen, but Apple didn’t just identify the offending graphic right away, which would’ve been too easy.
I haven’t seen the image Pocket God used that caused their rejection, but Instapaper developer Marco Arment has posted screenshots of the icon that he used to inspire Apple’s wrath. It’s exactly the same as one used for FileMagnet, another (approved) iPhone app currently available. I’m sure the icon is identical because Arment got it from Joshua Keay, the guy who designed it for FileMagnet in the first place.
The problem then appears to be one of consistency. Depending on who’s looking at your app, and on what day, you may garner a rejection when on any other day, you’d slip through unnoticed. Whatever standards Apple has adopted in-house as the criteria for rejection, they obviously need to be looked at again to establish better, less ambiguous, and more consistent standards. As they stand, it must be like asking three different people to draw a house, and getting three completely different images back. The task for Apple is then to pre-determine the nature of the house so that they get consistent results back when they ask different people to go out and draw the same one.
At this point, Apple can’t really get by on the assumption that these are growing pains with the app review process. This kind of multiple standard really undermines the fairness of the app store, especially when the only thing at issue is the use of an image that resembles the device the app is being sold for. If you want to maintain your tyrannic control over apps, at least show us you’re a just and consistent tyrant.
Переслать - A Beautiful Machine: Two Months On the Unibody MacBook
After two months of getting configured and acquainted, I’m pretty much comfortably settled in with my first Intel Mac — a little jewel of a 13″ unibody MacBook — and thus far it’s pretty much all good.
It’s been an adjustment going down from the 17″ display on my previous workhorse system, a 1.33 GHz PowerBook, to the MacBook’s 13″ screen, but I’m used to getting along with limited display real estate as I still use an old Pismo PowerBook as a utility and road work computer.
Rock-Solid Stable
What I’m most impressed with is the MacBook’s stability, and thus far I’ve experienced zero flakiness or reliability issues. It seems rock-solid, and while with the congery of applications I keep open for production work, I found that on the 17″ PowerBook, with its 1.5 GB of RAM, I had to restart roughly once a week as swapfiles built up and performance degraded, I’m able to go twice that long with the MacBook, even though the Intel version of OS X is more RAM-hungry than the PowerPC variant. The Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics chipset annexes a fair chunk of system memory, and I still haven’t upgraded from the standard 2GB memory configuration. I deduce that Intel Macs must do a better job of memory management than PPCs.
Cool Running a Pleasant Surprise
Another pleasant surprise has been how cool the MacBook runs. Ever since the Intel shift, I’ve heard horror stories about hot-running MacIntel laptops, but this machine hasn’t demonstrated anything like that. In the more than two months since it arrived, the MacBook’s internal cooling fans have yet to cut in, even when doing heavy multitasking like running Time Machine backups in the background while dialed up to the Internet and engaging other tasks in the foreground. Temperature Monitor tells me that the 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor typically runs about 5°-7° hotter than the G4 in the 17-incher does (although it has occasionally spiked higher under heavy processor activity), but for some reason that doesn’t manifest in heat buildup at the palm rests or case bottom, or the frequent fan activity that was my main complaint with the big PowerBook, especially running later builds of OS X 10.4 Tiger and with OS 10.5 Leopard.
Actually, I had expected a more dramatic sense of increased speed with the Core 2 Duo compared with the G4. It’s definitely faster, quite significantly so, which means doing things like booting up and graphic editing (the latter presumably boosted by the efficient Nividia graphics as well as the faster processor), but not as different for Finder navigation and application startups as I had been led to expect. On the other hand, voice recognition performance with MacSpeech’s Dictate software is in a whole different dimension from that developer’s older iListen application that I use on the PowerBook, although that may be attributable to Dictate’s more efficient speech engine as well as the Core 2 Duo’s processing muscle. Whatever it is, it’s a delight.
I’m also quite happy with the glossy display, and am not sure I would opt for matte even if it were available.
Some Aggravations Experienced
There are some aggravations, but so far only ones I had anticipated. The lack of FireWire is frustrating at times, especially when doing large data transfers such as cloning the hard drive to external media. USB 2.0 is much slower than FireWire in real-world terms, and not really an adequate substitute. I also miss FireWire Target Disk Mode. Being obliged to connect to the web via dialup, I also miss the convenience of an internal modem, but that’s in common with all post-PPC Mac laptops. I’ve had to add a second four-port USB hub to my office workstation setup to compensate for the Apple USB modem clogging up one of the MacBook’s measly two USB ports. A minor niggle is that I’m not enchanted with the machine’s “helpful” attempts to adjust screen brightness to ambient light, which I find doesn’t work very well and obligates frequent manual adjustment.
I also didn’t expect to like the “chiclet” style keyboard much, and I don’t, although the multitouch trackpad, with its integrated “button” function, turned out to be more agreeable than I had anticipated and I find it quite satisfactory. However, neither of the built-in input devices are getting very heavy use anyway, because the MacBook’s production workhorse role keeps it perched on a stand and hooked up to an external keyboard and mouse and a bunch of other peripherals most of the time.
A Beautiful Piece of Work
Aspects that I like even better than I thought I would (and my expectations were high) are the look and feel of this MacBook. It really is a beautiful piece of work, and the precision machining, component and panel fits, and tactile pleasure of handling it really have to be experienced over a period of time to be fully appreciated.
It’s still early days, of course, but thus far the MacBook is on track to become one of my all-time favorite Macs I’ve owned and that bar has already been set pretty high by my experience with the 17″ PowerBook G4 and three Pismos.
Переслать - Workout Recession Tactics
My friends over at Crossfit Virtuosity recently posted a 100-day six-pack challenge. After I committed to the program, it only took me a few minutes to set up a way to track my progress and have a new workout sent to me everyday. Oh, and it only cost me 99 cents and can all be managed from my iPhone…awesome.
Tumblr
First, as suggested, I went over to Tumblr and set up a blog to monitor my progress. After I had my Tumblr rocking a theme I liked, I clicked on the “Goodies” tab to retrieve my Tumblr blog’s email address (you can email posts directly onto the blog). I took this email address and entered it into a new contact on my iPhone called “Tumblr.”
iPhone
I’m using three iPhone apps to help me make/track progress:
- The Tumblr Application — Cost: Free. Used to post pictures of the foods I eat and make general comments.
- Workout of the Day application — Cost: 99 Cents. Sends a new workout to my phone everyday and no equipment is needed for any of the workouts, so they can be done literally anywhere…again, awesome. Also, when you’re done with the workout, click the “Send to a Friend” button, and send it the Tumblr contact we created earlier. This will post the workout to your log. I change the subject of the email to “Workout (Date).”
- Lose it — Cost: Free. Used to track weight loss and look up foods.
I know that there are tons of fitness iPhone apps out there, but I like the simplicity of my setup. If you’re joining the challenge, post your setup in the comments!
Переслать - Quickoffice: Finally, Word Document Editing Comes to Your iPhone
I’ve been waiting for the ability to edit Word documents on the iPhone since the day I got one. Why? Because I’m a dreamer, and my dream is someday not having to lug around a laptop of any size while I’m traveling, or just out and about in the city.
My iPhone has become a big part of that dream, and the ability to edit any kind of document using it is another. The release of Quickoffice ($19.99, iTunes link) marks a big first for those editing capabilities, with full support for .doc files.
Now, Word support doesn’t mean as much to me as it once did, since I work primarily online these days, but it’s still great to have, and helpful for my own personal fiction writing. Thanks to Quickoffice, I can now edit stories and start new ones on the go, without having to first convert them to .txt or .rtf documents. Conversion doesn’t work well because a lot of the small print publishers still want .doc files, so I have to then convert back before sending.
Quickoffice does some big things right, but it also misses the mark with other features. First, uploading docs from your computer couldn’t be easier, and there’s no server app to install. You do it right in your browser by directing it to a private IP address on your local network, so it doesn’t matter if you’re using Windows or a Mac. Uploading a doc using the web interface worked flawlessly. Definitely a big plus.
Landscape editing is supported, and it does away with the interface bars to give you as much viewing space as possible. Well-thought out and customized for the platform. Editing in landscape makes working on the iPhone much less painful, and the menus aren’t really all that handy unless you’re setting up a brand new doc.
Copy and paste is supported, but since I’m using the new iPhone 3.0, Quickoffice’s implementation seems a little weak, since it actually sidesteps the built-in one. I’m sure this will be fixed by the time 3.0 is officially released, though, and for now their implementation is just fine, though it only works within Quickoffice itself and not between apps.
With Quickoffice you can also edit Excel files, though PowerPoint presentations are not yet supported. Microsoft’s newer .docx and .xlsx files are also not editable, though static versions can be viewed in Quickoffice. Honestly, that’s not really that big of a deal since most people have stuck with the older .doc standard anyway. Bottom line: if you want to edit Word documents on your iPhone, this is the way to do it for the time being, and things could be much, much worse.
Переслать - NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 Coming to Apple Mac Pro
Last month Apple updated its entire desktop lineup, from the Mac mini to the Mac Pro. Next month, Mac Pro users will have even more to get excited about when NVIDIA starts selling its new Quadro FX 4800 graphics card for Mac. The new card is supposed to be designed specifically for the unique requirements of the Mac Pro desktop, which might help explain why it costs about $230 more than the previously released, not-for-Mac Quadro FX 4800.
The extra cash probably also helps pay for the extra dual-link DVI port the Mac processor comes with, for a total of two. All the other stats are the same for the Mac edition as for its predecessor, including 92 CUDA parallel processor cores with 1.5GB GDDR3 that put out a whopping 76.8GB/sec of memory bandwidth. In other words, this thing kicks.
Other features of the new card include a 3 pin min-din connector for use with stereo 3D glasses, and out-of-the-box Boot Camp support that will ensure you’re using native Quadro drivers in Windows for the best possible graphics performance on both platforms.
The Quadro FX 4800 will cost you more than a lot of laptops, though, so don’t get your heart set on it unless you’re the kind of person for whom graphics are very important (which, if you own a Mac Pro to begin with, you probably are). Also, if you have an older Mac Pro, check before buying, since the card will only be compatible with Mac Pros with device identifiers of 3,1 and 4,1 or higher, which are the last two major product refreshes. No word on whether it’ll be an upgrade option when you’re setting up your custom computer for purchase, but it will retail at the official Apple online store, along with NVIDIA’s other retail partners.
Переслать - Forward Delete On Apple Notebooks
At my desktop workstation I use an external keyboard and mouse with my Mac notebooks, and one keyboard function I really miss when I use them in actual hands-on laptop mode is the freestanding keyboard’s dedicated Forward Delete key. It’s something I’m accustomed to having, use frequently, and find annoying when it’s not available.
Apple actually does build a forward delete function into its notebook keyboards, although it requires pressing a modifier key. If you have a G3 Series or newer PowerBook, iBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook or MacBook Air, you can delete the character to the right of your cursor by pressing fn-Delete (function-Delete). All Mac laptops since the PowerBook G3 Series have had an fn modifier key.
While this is not as convenient as having a real, dedicated Forward Delete key, it’s a lot better than no forward delete function at all.
One Touch Forward Delete
There is also a way to have one-touch forward delete on your laptop’s keyboard. DoubleCommand is open-source Preference Panel software for Mac OS X that lets you remap key functions. They’re often used to make PC keyboards more comfortable and convenient to use with a Mac, for instance swapping the Alt (Option) and Windows (Command or Apple) keys, since they’re in swapped positions on Mac and PC keyboards. DoubleCommand also allows you to reconfigure one of the more redundant keys on a notebook’s keyboard (say, the Backslash key) to work as a Forward Delete key.
You can configure DoubleCommand to use the right Option key as Forward Delete, Control or Enter, swap Delete and Forward Delete, and use Caps Lock as Forward Delete, to name a few examples.
Переслать - Tweetie: Now in Tasty Mac Desktop Flavor
Get your tweet on and shake your verbs, Tweetie — the much-celebrated iPhone Twitter client — has hit the Mac OS X desktop.
As regular readers will know, I adore my iPhone and I’m an avid tweeter. A few months back, I weighed the options and, despite there being an array of free alternatives, the iPhone version of Tweetie, available for $2.99, was my favorite Twitter client.
Over on Twitter there’s been some serious buzz surrounding the release of the desktop version of Tweetie. Available now, either for $14.99 or as a free ad-supported version, Tweetie for Mac blends a streamlined user interface with a host of essential features, including multiple account support, threaded conversations, URL shortening and image uploads.
From iPhone to Desktop
Every seasoned Twitter user’s stream is more akin to a flood of data: names, links, descriptions, useful posts, phatic musings and more. Opening Tweetie for the first time, the most immediately noticeable and pleasing aspect of this desktop application is the streamlined interface.
The main Tweetie window takes up but a slither of screen real estate. Along the left of the window are the main navigation icons, including avatars for shifting through multiple accounts, and shortcuts to view @replies, DMs and more.
The top of the Tweetie window displays exactly where you are in a given thread — incredibly useful as a visual aid when drilling down through conversations and replies. The main body of the Tweetie window contains your stream, filtering out different information depending on which section you’re in.
Minimal & Sleek Looks
Tweetie’s streamlined approach to presenting and navigating the Twitterverse is also applied to the application’s aesthetic styling. Where Twhirl is garishly on-brand and Tweetdeck is a visual overload, Tweetie’s visual style is, despite the vast quantity of information, minimal and sleek.
Only the most essential icons are on display (other functions are accessed via right-clicking) and clicking through icons to navigate to different sections causes tweets to swish and slide around in an incredibly satisfying way.
Individual tweets keep the visual clutter to a minimum. Alongside the message itself and @reply button, the user’s profile picture and name is presented. Setting aside the @reply button, clicking a username within the message body takes you to that user’s stream, alternatively, double-clicking the profile picture takes you directly to the user’s Twitter stream.
When new tweets arrive, Tweetie’s OS X menu bar icon glows blue, while within the app, updated streams are marked with helpful blue dots. Of course, it all seems so obvious, but that’s because navigating Tweetie is intuitive — allowing you to breeze through conversation threads with ease.
It’s worth noting that the ad-supported free download of Tweetie drops an ad into your stream every hour. The ads genuinely don’t intrude or impede your tweeting: They look good and appear rarely, for $14.99, though, you’re able to order a registration code to disable them.
Getting The Message Across
At the bottom left of the main Tweetie window is the compose button. It seems odd to place the button for such an oft-used function so out of the way from the main application interface. Although you can access the same function via the Command-N keyboard shortcut, the tiny button feels totally disjointed from the actual application.
The tweet composer opens up in a separate window, meaning that the integrity of Tweetie’s sleek ‘n’ chic design isn’t impacted. Plus, you’re able to focus on writing your 140 character musing without distraction from the main stream.
The composer window also packs in a broad range of tweet-enhancing features. For starters, users with multiple accounts can select from which account they would like to send the tweet. If your tweet is over 140 character, Tweetie offers to post via Twitlonger. Plus, via a dropdown menu, you’re able to automagically shorten URLs or add an image.
The latter function can also be accessed by simply dragging and dropping an image into the compose window. When you click the Post button, Tweetie will then upload the image to a Twitter image hosting service — you can choose from Imageshack’s YFrog, TwitPic, Twitgoo, or Posterous.
The selection of URL-shortening services to choose from is excellent. All the usual suspects are there — TinyURL, Is.gd and Tr.im — but there’s also feature-rich Bit.ly and URL-squishing newcomer Diggbar.
Bit.ly is my shortener of choice, however there’s no account integration for the service. This means there’s no simple way for me to track a specific link and gather stats such as number of visitors over a given period. Although I’m not as familiar with Diggbar, I’d imagine that users of Digg’s fledgling URL shortener may be hankering for account integration, too.
There are a few outstanding issues with tweeting, though. For starters, prolific tweeters may be dismayed to discover that there’s no drafts functionality. Furthermore — and this is a major issue for me — there doesn’t seem to be a method for deleting tweets once you’ve posted them.
Navigating the Twitterverse
Finding your way through the torrent of tweets is rendered effortless with Tweetie. Alongside the intuitive click and double-click features mentioned earlier, it’s also possible to navigate the Twitterverse via a variety of keyboard shortcuts — a real time-saving boon for power users.
Hash tags are clickable, too, instigating an immediate search for the tag. The search section also incorporates trending topics, however it’s executed in an incredibly obtuse way — clicking the magnifying glass icon on the search page brings up a list of currently trending topics. Clicking one of the topics in the list instigates a search. For such an important feature it’s all but hidden and clunky to access.
There are also a few other features missing which, although I tried, it was difficult to adapt to life without them. For starters, there’s no refresh button on the main tweet stream. As such, users hoping to refresh regularly will find it frustrating to have to use the Command-Shift-R shortcut, or simply wait for an auto-refresh.
I was also surprised to discover that Tweetie doesn’t support groups, allowing you to place users in different categories and filter through your tweets. It’s a feature that, when viewing and organizing your contacts in such depth, would have been perfect for the desktop version of Tweetie.
Moving on, the way in which Tweetie renders profile pages follows suit with the rest of the app with a clear design, integrating core features with a couple of useful twists. Stats such as updates, favorites, followers and bio are all on display, accessed in more detail via a quick click.
Clicking the cog icon on the profile page opens a menu with options to @reply, DM, or follow the user. Most useful, though, is that Tweetie clearly tells you if this user is following you. Such an unexpected feature, yet so obvious in retrospect and, especially for social networking via Twitter, inherently useful.
I’ll Get Back To You
The mentions page, represented by the @ button on the left side of the Tweetie interface, works just like Twitter’s own mention page — grabbing any instance of your @username from the Twitterverse. You can even double-click a message to view the conversation thread in full, however this feature seems a little haphazard. It’s still not entirely clear to me when Tweetie will actually display a conversation thread; sometimes a double-click just loads that single message on its own.
Although there’s a reply button on all tweets, there are no dedicated buttons for DM, repost or favorite. Instead, right-clicking the message body brings up a menu with a variety of options: reply, repost, copy link to tweet, direct message, mark as favorite and open in browser. This isn’t ideal, though, as it’s preferable that frequently used functions — such as DM and repost — have a dedicated button.
The DM section breaks with Tweetie’s overall styling. First, there’s an instant messenger-style conversation overview page, displaying links to all your active DM-exchanges in chronological order. Clicking through brings up an iChat-style page, featuring back and forth tweets in text bubbles. It looks strange and certainly feels out of place but, setting aside the aesthetic, works correctly.
Summing Up
Tweetie’s success is that it simplifies what could be a complex experience — dealing with a Titanic stream of incoming information and interacting with a multitude of other users. Just like its little brother on iPhone, the application is visually streamlined and loads quickly.
There are drawbacks though: there’s a missing refresh button, no method for deleting tweets, the compose button needs to be integrated more clearly with the overall design and, although it’s not essential, the next version of Tweetie will ideally incorporate organizing contacts in to groups.
But these few issues don’t impact on the overall experience of Tweetie, an app that incorporates a wealth of features for the seasoned tweeter and yet is inviting and easy to pick up for Twitter newcomers. Twitter users looking for a well-designed, feature-rich client should certainly download Tweetie today.
Переслать - Tweetie for Mac Due Monday
It quickly became one of the most popular Twitter clients for the iPhone, owing to its impressive feature set and fast, efficient performance, and now it’s coming natively to the Mac, too. I’m talking about Tweetie, by atebits. Tweetie impressed with the ability to follow and unfollow, integrated search, retweeting, and more when it was first released, and it now sits near the top of the App Store’s best sellers list, occupying the No. 28 top paid app at the time of this writing.
News of the Mac app’s imminent release came yesterday (fittingly) via atebits’ own Twitter account, linking to a brief video on the atebits web site previewing the app. The trailer reminds me a little of an Apple commercial, thanks to the look and the sexy soundtrack. What’s more impressive, though, is the functionality the preview shows off. Tweetie for the Mac already looks like a heavily favored contender for best native OS X Twitter app.
Screen grab from the preview
The interface looks simple, but powerful, with a main window for displaying tweets and a sidebar on the left for quickly accessing your tweet stream, @replies, private messages, and search. You can switch between multiple accounts on the fly, just by clicking the appropriate profile icon in the same left-hand menu.
Other features include threaded conversations, that you access just by clicking on a reply, iChat style DM exchanges, easy nested navigation at the top of the app’s interface, drag and drop image sharing, in-app twitpic viewing, built-in searching, and link sharing via a bookmarklet for your browser. I’m sure there’s plenty more, but we’ll have to wait till this upcoming Monday to find out. I know I’ve got my day cleared.
Переслать
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