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- Bloomberg: New iPhone with touch-sensitive casing coming
Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone
Bloomberg is the latest outlet to come up with some rumors about the possible new iPhone model coming this year (the iPhone, not the tablet, although doesn't it seem like the flood of tablet rumors has encouraged all kinds of Apple speculation lately?). They say that the new handset will include a 5 megapixel camera to match Google's Nexus One, and will also include a touch-sensitive casing, working similarly to the Magic Mouse. That one just seems strange -- what would you gesture on the back of the iPhone while you're using it?
They also say, quoting Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Chen, that there'll be plenty of new innovations in the software as well. We certainly hope so. According to this round of rumors, the new phone would go into production in April, and be released to stores in June or July, a timeline that actually matches up with what we've heard before.
Rumors are a dime a dozen, and even if a new phone does come out in July, that's too long to wait if you need to buy a phone right now. But we'll keep our ears open -- there certainly is a lot of increased speculation about Apple hardware lately, and there ought to be something in the pipeline driving it all.TUAWBloomberg: New iPhone with touch-sensitive casing coming originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone - Apple - Goldman Sachs - Google - Nexus One
Переслать - Rumor: Tablet delays iPhone updates
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Rumors, iPhone
With Apple's rumored media event only two weeks away, people are hopeful that it'll bring an announcement of the tablet. Could it be that the next iPhone OS update is also waiting for that event?
iPodNN quotes a source who suggests that the next version of the iPhone OS is laden with references to its forthcoming sibling, and therefore must wait until the tablet is made public. Last month, The Boy Genius Report pointed out alleged evidence of iPhone firmware 3.1.3 and 4.0 in private testing, which is likely, but these builds have not yet been made available to developers or the public.
Just this week, Boy Genius suggested that the tablet is a sort of "iPhone on steroids," that is to say, a larger and more tricked-out version of the little guy. At the same time, John Gruber relayed one of those "friend-of-a-friend" tales suggesting that the iPhone is actually a by-product of the device they originally intended to build. Only now has the technology caught up to allow for the tablet's existence.
Oh what a tangled web we weave...TUAWRumor: Tablet delays iPhone updates originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Dear Aunt TUAW: What's the low down on battery packs?
Filed under: iPod Family, TUAW Tips, iPhone
Dear Aunt TUAW,
Boxcar is killing my battery life (at least, that's what I'm guessing -- I love Boxcar, but since I began getting 20+ notifications a day, I'm seeing the battery drain quite a bit faster). What kind of battery pack can you recommend to help my poor iPhone stay online and available? I need to stay connected.
Thanks in advance from your favorite nephew,
Mikey
Read on for Auntie's reply
My darling Mikey,
I love all my nieces and nephews alike -- but you are all my favorites! As for battery boost solutions, there are basically two kinds of iPhone solutions currently available on the market. You can go for cheap and awkward, or for expensive and well-designed.
That's not to see that the cheap and awkward solutions are unmanageable or wrong, it's just that the cheaper solutions tend to be large battery dongles that extend off your iPhone's connector port at the bottom. If you want a battery solution that fits more like a case, just expect to pay more.
I personally own a pair of Monoprice dongles -- the same ones my colleague David Winograd praised as "such a deal." Costing just over $12 for the 2200 mAh, you can recharge your iPhone while on the go. Attach the dongle, which is about half the size of the iPhone itself, for thirty minutes or so and your iPhone will be fully recharged. You can usually get more than one recharge off the pack.
If you're looking to pay a little less, you can pick up a 1900 mAh unit for nine dollars and change. It won't provide the same boost but it will save you a few dollars.
These low end units share two big problems. First, they change the shape and weight of your iPhone when in use. If you're running low on battery and need to use the phone with the booster plugged in, you'll find that the device becomes much more awkward to use. The longer shape makes it particularly awkward for landscape interaction.
The extra weight is definitely noticable. Yes, you can use the phone with it plugged in (and I find myself doing so more often than I care to admit), but it's not as smooth for use.
The second problem lies with iPod touch units. Using a plug-in booster like the Monoprice units will cover the audio out jack. That means you can recharge or use headphones but not both. I've looked around for a male to female connection cable extension but have not yet succeeded in finding one to buy [they're out there -- both dirt cheap and relatively pricey. -Ed.]. Even if I did, it would be seriously awkward carrying around a dangling battery charger pack.
Bottom-attached packs work best when you plug in the device each time you stick it in your backpack, purse, or briefcase. It ensures that your unit recharges while you're not using it and you always pull out a fully-charged device. There are also some chargers designed to work with your regular sync/charge cable, like the well-regarded 4400 mAh Gum Pro pointed out by our commenters; there are even solar-powered chargers like this Dexim unit, which doubles as an iPhone stand.
You can cut out a bit of awkward if you're willing to spend a little more money. The mophie juice pack air provides "the world's thinnest rechargeable battery case" for $80 (with free shipping). It creates a more case-like solution for powering your iPhone, which at least from a geometric point of view, is really nice. Plus, the juice pack air is officially certified by Apple.
The downsides are the cost (obviously) and the lower boost -- mophie does not guarantee that you receive double the battery life time. With the cheaper dongle solutions, you often get well over twice the life. The 2200 mAh I own is often good for a complete second recharge (note that I do not go to full discharge before recharging), giving my iPhone quite an extended battery life.
Regardless of which kind of solution you end up going with, keep in mind: you're going to increase the weight you're carrying around, you're going to have to be responsible for more stuff, and the shape of the iPhone is going to change -- case form factor or not.
If you're the kind of person who uses the iPhone from a pocket, battery boostage may not be the solution for you. But if you're a purse/backpack/briefcase kind of guy, you may want to look into a booster pack.
Love, kisses & snuggles,
Auntie T.TUAWDear Aunt TUAW: What's the low down on battery packs? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Apple C&Ds Gawker over bounty on tablet infoYesterday, as you might have heard, the blog Valleywag offered up a total of $100,000 in prize money for information on the rumored Apple tablet. They posted on their site that they were offering bounties for pictures, information, or eventually a full $100,000 for a hands on of the currently unannounced device. As expected, Apple has brought the legal hammer down on Gawker (who runs both Valleywag and Gizmodo), ordering them to cease and desist the bounty hunt for tablet information, and even threatening under California law that it is illegal to (paraphrasing) acquire, use, or disclose Apple trade secrets while knowing that the person who gave them to you was under a confidentiality agreement. Valleywag hasn't updated their original post (and presumably, their lawyers will have confirmed with them that there was some legal course for what they were doing -- they do say to would-be leakers that they shouldn't do anything illegal to get their information), but Apple threatens legal action if any secrets are leaked or published.
Very exciting, no? Gizmodo's headline claims that this is confirmation of the tablet's existence, but we're not so sure -- while obviously there have been lots of rumors about the tablet (some of them possibly even leaked from Apple itself), soliciting trade secrets for a payoff is against the law, and we're sure Apple would pursue legal action whether or not there was a tablet device. Just the fact that they sent a C&D hardly means "confirmed."
But it will be interesting to see what happens, either if Valleywag doesn't call off the hunt, or if they do find something worth paying for. Most likely, they'll end up hearing about it when we do: at the rumored event later this month.TUAWApple C&Ds Gawker over bounty on tablet info originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Mac sales growth continues, according to IDC numbers
Filed under: Retail, Apple Financial, Apple
Apple is really defying gravity in this economic slump with impressive numbers. Market research firm IDC reports Apple sold about 5.6 million computers here in the U.S. in 2009, giving it an 8% market share. That's up just a bit from the previous year, when Apple had a 7.9% share, and it makes Apple the 4th largest domestic computer maker, behind HP, Dell and Acer. These numbers are preliminary estimates based on 2009 sales.
The report notes that low end notebooks and netbooks were really pushing the computer sales numbers, an area where Apple is not really competing. Windows 7 equipped computers also accounted for a strong 4th quarter in domestic sales.
Sales of computers were also up worldwide. IDC reports that the market gained 15.8% year over year. In the 4th quarter of 2009 there was double digit growth for the first time since the 3rd quarter of 2008.
Apple's 4th quarter growth rate was the third highest of U.S. PC vendors, with sales up 31% compared to a year ago. Toshiba had booming sales up 71.5% from 2008, and HP was up a healthy 45% from the 4th quarter of 2008.
So if Apple makes a tablet, will tablets count as PC sales? Wonder that will do to their 2010 numbers.
TUAWMac sales growth continues, according to IDC numbers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Finally! A way to easily view MobileMe galleries from your iPhone
Filed under: Multimedia, Odds and ends, MobileMe
Well, that took a while.
Ever since the iPhone appeared, it's been a pain to view your photo and video galleries on MobileMe from your iPhone or iPod touch. Sure, you could use Safari, but it was a clunky and slow process. With Apple connecting just about everything to everything else these days, not being able to easily view MobileMe galleries from an iPhone seemed like a pretty big omission.
Now, that problem has been solved. Apple has just released a free app for MobileMe users called, appropriately enough, MobileMe Gallery [iTunes link].
Among the features of MobileMe Gallery:
- View your entire gallery including password protected and hidden albums
- Flick through photos, and pinch and zoom
- Get a landscape view by rotating the phone
- View friends galleries
- View photos you've already accessed when you are offline
- Send a gallery link to friends directly from the iPhone
Apple, what took you so long? This is a nice little app. Go get it.
Thanks to Sebastiaan for the tipTUAWFinally! A way to easily view MobileMe galleries from your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Apple 'experts' coming to a store near you
Along with the "Geniuses" and "Creatives" currently available at the Apple Store, there's a new type of employee that'll be wandering the store floors. Apple "Experts" are set to debut in about two weeks at retail locations around the country. The men and women selected as Experts will move up into what seems like a more elite sales position, with their jobs being not only to educate the incoming public about everything Macs can do for them, but to "create the next generation of Apple fans" -- in other words, sell as many computers as they can.
2010 should be an interesting year for Apple retail -- not only do they have that prototype store planned in Palo Alto, but they're working on growing some of their locations as well and trying to build up more "flagship" stores like New York's Fifth Avenue store and Chicago's Michigan Avenue location. Sounds good to us; visiting the Apple Store is always interesting, and if they're planning to mix it up even more, we look forward to the surprises.
[via AppleInsider]TUAWApple 'experts' coming to a store near you originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - TotalFinder beefs up Finder
Filed under: Software, Productivity, Snow Leopard
A new "hack" for Finder is in the works, and it's pretty darn cool. TotalFinder adds tabs, Visor-like functionality and a few other goodies (with more on the way) to your plain, vanilla Finder setup. If you're skittish, though, don't jump just yet. TotalFinder is alpha, and not in that way that developers label software just to be safe. It's really, really alpha. TotalFinder runs as a SIMBL plugin, too, which can (in some cases) cause some system instability in and of itself. However, if you've got the apples for it, it's a very cool new way to soup up your Finder.In its current state, it does a few simple -- yet amazingly useful -- things, starting with adding tabs to Finder. Honestly, we got tabs in Terminal before Finder? This catches us up a little bit. The Visor feature (which is optional), assigns a hotkey that makes your tabbed Finder window slide onto the screen and disappear when you're not using it. It's take-or-leave for me at this point; it's cool, but it takes a lot of getting used to, especially for window-to-window file dragging within Finder. You can't currently drop files onto other tabs, so some problems arise in that situation. The other features include preventing .DS_Store file creation and sorting file listings with folders grouped on top.
For now, I'm sticking with Path Finder for my souped-up Finder needs, but TotalFinder has the potential to bring Finder into its own after years of relatively few improvements. You can grab a copy to try out (for free) at BinaryAge, and note that it comes with an uninstall script that will wipe it clean off your system if you don't like it.
[via Smoking Apples]
TUAWTotalFinder beefs up Finder originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Is it your imagination or is that ad following you?
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple
As any good technology innovator should, Apple files quite a few patents. But I'm finding the advertising patents curiouser and curiouser these days. Previously Apple filed a patent on ads that will move themselves around so that they become progressively harder to ignore (yes, this sounds like a usability nightmare). Now, GoRumors reports that Apple has filed a patent for proximity-based ads. So if you happen to be using your iPhone and walking by a store running an ad using this tech, you'll see that ad as you pass by. You've seen Minority Report, right?
What does all this mean? Well considering Apple recently acquired Quattro Wireless, a top company in the mobile ad space, it seems pretty clear that those crazy kids in Cupertino want to chum it up big time with the classy gents of Madison Avenue. That is, Apple is getting into the ad business somehow. My guess is this could be an option for developers. Instead of the algorithms of an AdMob, you would get the most targeted ads ever, really. Or it could simply be yet another patent for us to fuss over that'll come to nothing.TUAWIs it your imagination or is that ad following you? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Acrobat & Adobe Reader updated to patch security holes
Filed under: Software, Security
Earlier this week, Adobe updated both Acrobat and Reader to versions 8.2 and 9.3. These updates offer major security features and are recommended for all users.
In a security bulletin released on Tuesday, Adobe cites "critical vulnerabilities" that could crash your apps or "...potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system." Definitely something you'll want to avoid. They recommend that anyone using version 9.2 and earlier update to Adobe Reader 9.3 and Acrobat 9.3 right away. Likewise, those using Acrobat 8.1.7 should update to version 8.2.
You can get all of the details and downloads from Adobe here. Get patching, folks. You'll want these older versions off of your Macs. As usual, we ask that you let us know if anything goes wonky after updating.
[Via PC Magazine]TUAWAcrobat & Adobe Reader updated to patch security holes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Using Safari's Activity window to download media
Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks, TUAW Tips
Although Firefox can be dressed up with a host of extensions, many of which are great, most of the time I like my browser to be a plain Jane. That's why I prefer using Safari most of the time. Well this, and the fact that I can't stand the jerky scrolling of Firefox (when using a mouse scroll ball) compared to Safari on the Mac.
One of the neat features in Safari is its "Activity" window, which you can use to examine each element of a webpage -- be it an image, audio file, or video file. To access it within Safari, click on "Window" and select "Activity." Whatever opinion you may have of Flash, much of the content on the web -- both audio and video -- plays through a Flash-based media player. As the iPhone doesn't support Flash (except sorta kinda), the Activity Window provides a means to download otherwise unplayable content onto your computer, which you can then transfer to your iPhone. Opening an element (say an MPEG-4 video) listed in the Activity Window is as simple as double-clicking it. Alternatively, you can also copy the URL of the element and paste it somewhere to use in another app.
TUAWUsing Safari's Activity window to download media originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Join us Friday for a TUAW livechat: App promotion clinic
Filed under: Other Events, App Store
Are you an App Store developer? Looking to learn how to promote your application? Join us on Friday, January 15, 2010 at 12PM Eastern Time (9 AM Pacific Time) for an informal marketing clinic right here on TUAW. We'll be chatting about marketing and promoting apps. On hand, we'll have experts Brian Akaka of Appular and our own Steve Sande to offer advice and answer questions.
Brian Akaka's Appular focuses on providing Marketing and PR strategy and execution to iPhone App developers, helping them to gain visibility for their Apps in a quickly growing and maturing market. TUAW blogger Steve Sande has worked with iPhone developers to improve the marketing of their apps.
This will be a Q&A and participation clinic (like the Hackintosh clinic we ran a few weeks ago), so expect a lot of interaction with the greater TUAW community. We'll see you there!TUAWJoin us Friday for a TUAW livechat: App promotion clinic originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Ask TUAW: Firewall settings, Snow Leopard faxing, MacBook battery life, and more
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about firewall settings, SSDs, MacBook battery life, faxing in Snow Leopard, and much more.
As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.Benjamin asks
I've just upgraded my 2006 MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard, and I'm unimpressed. When I log in, it always asks if I want to allow incoming connections for EyeConnect, and the same again when I start Vuze. The way the new Exposé scales all windows to the same size is awful, too. How can I make the Firewall remember my decisions, and is it possible to revert to the original Exposé?
You're not the only one who likes the old Exposé behavior, but I'm afraid I'm not aware of any way to switch back. However, on your second question I can provide some help. Go to the Firewall tab of the Security Preference Pane. Assuming the Firewall is on, click on the Advanced button. This will take you to a sheet where you can manually add applications as well as select the firewall's behavior for them.
Sean asksI'm looking to get an SSD to go alongside the hard drive in my late 2008 unibody Macbook Pro (I'll be using the Optibay and replacing my optical drive). I want it to hold my operating systems (osx 10.6/win7, bootcamp is really important) and games while the existing hard drive will hold everything else. I'm looking for something under $200 (or maaaybe just a little bit above, only if it's real worth it) and have noticed that with that price point I'll probably be getting a 64gb drive. There are so many different drives and I've heard so many horror/success stories that I don't know which drive to pick. Any suggestions?
Most of the buzz I've picked up is that the Intel X25 is the gold-standard at the moment; however, it remains a pricey choice. Accordingly, you might want to have a look at the Kingston SSDNow series. You can get a 64GB Kingston in the $150 range. Check out this roundup at Laptop Magazine and this Ask Engadget for lots of discussion and suggestions.
Nikoooo asksI have bought a MacBook Pro 17 inches unibody in July last year. It's, so far, the best Mac I ever owned. Unfortunately, the battery does last as much as I would have liked. According to Apple, the battery should last 8 hours. Surely this is an exaggerated value... and I would be fine with, say, 5 hours or so. But my battery does not last more than 3 hours, with minimum screen brightness and wifi on. Is there any software that could help me monitor my battery consumption? Are there some specific settings, that I am missing, that would help me get the infamous Apple's 8 hours?
Power usage is always a tricky thing, but I do have some suggestions. For one, go into your Energy Preference Pane and choose the "Better battery life" option under Graphics. This will cause your MacBook to use integrated graphics rather than the discrete graphics chip (and thus trade 3D performance for battery life). Frankly, though, 3 hours sounds low, so you should probably be looking for any background processes or applications that may be sucking down processor cycles. Have a look at the Activity Monitor and sort by % CPU to see if there's anything suspicious.
There is an application that might be of some help: Sleep Monitor 2 (€20). It will give you some idea of when your battery is being drained the fastest (though it won't actually tell you what's doing it). Nonetheless, it might be helpful in narrowing down what might have been going on at periods of highest power usage. Finally, you might also want to have a look at coconutBattery which will report on the condition of your battery itself.
stef asksI am a student in high school and in some classes we have to draw little diagrams for our notes, mainly in chemistry, and i was wondering if there was a plugin/add-on/program that i could use to temporarily convert my trackpad into a 1:1 simple diagram drawer to insert simple line drawings into notes. i know i could use a number of simple drawing programs but i would rather not have to hold down the trackpad while trying to draw. I am using a 13" mbp running snow leopard.
We recently covered something that might do the trick for you. Inklet ($24.95) turns your trackpad into a mini graphics tablet. For maximum precision you'll also want to get the accompanying stylus.
Heimbachae asksA friend of mine recently bought a Mac mini (2.26GHz) and she is having a problem hooking it up to her HDTV. It's hooked up currently by mini dvi to hdmi and her max output is 1080i. When she clicks that it enlarges it too far so that she can't see her Menu bar when it's on 1080i, but when it's on 720p there is a black box around and it doesn't fill the entire screen. Is there any way to get this to fill her screen without distorting the image?
This should not be a problem; in fact, the Display Preferences should even have some TV specific options including an Overscan mode that you can try (look in the Options tab of the Displays Preference Pane). Frankly, though, you should not have to use Overscan on a modern HDTV. So if the HDTV is actually a 1080p panel and you're using the 1920x1080 resolution my guess is that the problem may be on the TV side. Make sure the TV is in "just scan" (or similar) mode; you should be able to toggle between different video modes on the TV itself, so try going through them to see if that helps.
DMoney asksI'm running Snow Leopard on a black MacBook. Is it possible to send faxes from Snow Leopard? Free would be nice, but I'm willing to pay for the software.
Now that Apple has discontinued the USB Modem for Mac (although you may still be able to find it online, and USR sells a similar device), your best bet may be to send faxes from Snow Leopard via a multifunction printer/scanner that includes faxing (as described in this Apple Support Doc). However, this is limited to certain devices and if you don't already have one of those it probably won't do you much good. My recommendation would probably be to use an Internet fax service that allows you to upload a PDF to a Web site and have it sent to a fax machine. There are a variety of such services out there, but I can't really offer any first-hand experience.
betaboy78 asksIs there an app for the Mac that will let me connect to my iMac over the internet and sync my iPhone while it is connected to my MacBook Pro? I know this may seem weird, but on more than one occasion, I have been traveling and my iPhone has crashed and had to be restored, or swapped out, and I had to wait to get home (sometimes a week or more later) to restore it. If I could just hook my iPhone up to my MacBook Pro, yet sync over the net to my iMac, life would be great.
I don't believe what you describe is possible. However, I do have some suggestions for the next time this happens. You could go ahead and reset your iPhone and sync it to your MacBook. Of course, this won't help that much if your MacBook doesn't contain the information that you want to sync. For contacts and calendar information you could have your MacBook and iMac sync over the Internet either with MobileMe ($99/year) or for free with Google. Unfortunately, your media and apps won't be as easy. You could keep some media and apps on your MacBook (with iTunes Home Sharing, for instance) and, by the way, apps can be re-downloaded from the App Store for free. Once you get back home you can just then restore to the iMac. This is not an ideal solution, perhaps, but it should be enough to keep you going for the duration of the trip.
TUAWAsk TUAW: Firewall settings, Snow Leopard faxing, MacBook battery life, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Two super simple DIY hacks for the iPhone
Filed under: Hacks, Tips and tricks, iPhone, Music
I've been reading the Unplggd blog from Apartment Therapy a lot lately, because I recently moved into a new place and am trying to fill it up with cool stuff. And someone over there must be an iPhone fan, because I've seen not one but two great and simple tricks for the iPhone there recently. The first is the most billiant thing I've ever seen -- if you happen to be listening to music or a conference call through the speaker on your iPhone and need it a little louder, you can just find a pint-size glass, put the iPhone in there, and voila, simple iPhone echo chamber. I'm surprised at both how easy this is and how well it works, but it does. Very impressive.
Second is a little more obvious -- if you're using an iPhone to read off a recipe in the kitchen, with your hands messy and wet, you can put it in a baggie like I do, or you can CryoVac it, if you happen to have one of those sitting around. Either way, the capacitive touchscreen still works through a thin layer of plastic, and your iPhone will live to see another day.
Ok, so the second tip is not quite as great as the first one. But a pint glass! Trying to listen to all of those boring conference calls with my iPhone's speaker will never be the same again!TUAWTwo super simple DIY hacks for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Переслать - Developers on avoiding the 99 cent App Store price
Filed under: Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store
I've become a big fan of game developer Capy (formerly Capybara) in the past few months -- their releases of Critter Crunch on iPhone [iTunes link] and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on the DS have won me over quickly. But I'm not sure I agree completely with their co-founder, Nathan Vella, about what he says in this Gamasutra interview. His opinion is that the push towards the 99 cent price on the App Store is "the single most frustrating and terrible thing about App Store pricing." He says the dollar price point is stifling, and he praises developers like Canabalt's Adam Saltsman for sticking with a higher price point even when their games are simple.
I do agree with Vella on one thing: no developer should sell an app for less than it is worth, and dropping to 99 cents to increase sales doesn't work anyway. But certainly there's a place for 99 cent apps on the store, and I know personally that a 99 cent price point will open me up to try apps I'm not sure about, especially apps that I might be interested in but that don't offer a free trial. Clive Downie of ngmoco says as much later in the article: it's about the balance between providing choice for your customer and supporting yourself as a developer.
In the end, Vella knows what he's doing: he doesn't say that 99 cents is always the wrong price, but that you should always stick to your guns and ask your customers to pay the right price. If a game is worth $4.99, or $6.99, or even $9.99, developers will find that customers who care about the quality are willing to pay for it.
[via IGN]TUAWDevelopers on avoiding the 99 cent App Store price originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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