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- Apple Delays Availability of White iPhone
Today, Apple released a press statement announcing that it is delaying shipments of the white iPhone 4 until late July.
White models of Apple's new iPhone 4 have proven more challenging to manufacture than expected, and as a result they will not be available until the second half of July. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.
I have a feeling that the manufacture may not have been precisely more challenging, but that the color of the finished product may not have been up to the standards of Steve Jobs when he held one in his hand. I don’t have any inside information on this, purely speculation, but I could imagine him saying, “Not good enough, send it back and redo it.”
While the press release says that the white iPhone will not be “available” till the second half of July, it may be that the white iPhone is not even going to be available for pre-order until then either. Currently, the black iPhone is listed as shipping by July 14, while the white iPhone is listed as “unavailable for pre-order or in-store pickup.” Depending on the demand, it may be well into August before anyone can have a white iPhone in their hands.
There is apparently no difference between the two models of iPhone other than the color. Both phones are available in either 16 or 32 GB sizes, and both will presumably have the same internal specs.
White is a more difficult color to do exactly right than black, just look at the plethora of different shades of white paint on display at the local hardware store. Unfortunately, customers who have been holding out for the white version are going to have to wait just a little while longer.
Are you waiting for white? Will this change your mind? Let us know in the comments!
Переслать - How-To: Stay Within Your Data Allowance
Now that AT&T, along with all the providers internationally, have scrapped unlimited data plans and introduced caps, you’ll need to keep an eye on how much data you’re actually using. Here are a few ways to make sure you don’t end up going over your monthly allowance.
Checking What You Have Left
First off, make sure you know how to check how much data you have left for the month. On an iPad 3G, you can go to Settings → Cellular Data, then tap View Account. After logging in, you’ll be able to see how much data you have remaining.
On an iPhone, for AT&T customers, dial DATA# (3282#) and you’ll be shown on screen your data usage for the current month. You can also go to your account on the AT&T website. For customers on O2 in the UK, you can either download the MyO2 app or visit the MyO2 website. Other customers should visit the website for their provider to find out how to check your data usage.
Reducing the Amount You Use
The first thing you’re going to want to do is try to use Wi-Fi as much as you can to save using 3G data at all. Many places such as Starbucks and McDonalds offer free Wi-Fi, and there are many apps that can help you find others. Some network providers also offer free Wi-Fi with their iPhone and iPad data plans.
If for some reason you don’t have access to any Wi-Fi, the next step is cutting down on everything that automatically checks the Internet, such as Mail. Having your emails checked every 15 minutes is going to rack up a lot of megabytes, especially if you’re the type of person who gets hundreds of emails a week. If you want to go all out with saving data, change the settings of Mail to fetch emails manually. This means that your device will only check for new emails if you open the Mail app. You can set this up by going to Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars → Fetch New Data and choosing ‘manually’. If you are unable to cope with emails not coming through automatically, then set a low frequency – 30 minutes or an hour.
If even that doesn’t suit your needs, you can use Push, which, instead of your device checking the server regularly, whenever you get an email, the server will send it to you. This means that you save on some data usage because your device isn’t checking when there are no emails. However, this requires an email service which supports Push, which most don’t. For example, Gmail doesn’t support it, and neither does Windows Live Mail.
Another thing you can do to help is stop using sites which have a lot of images. For example, Flickr will use a lot more data than, say, this site. Visiting Flickr involves loading a lot of images whereas this site is mostly text. By visiting mainly text-based sites you can reduce your data usage a fair amount. Saying that, however, a lot of websites have mobile-friendly versions, such as Facebook and Twitter. They usually have fewer images, and any images they do have are lower resolution, meaning they take less data to load.
Finally, the last resort, when you’re extremely close to going over the limit, is to turn off cellular data altogether. This means it’s impossible to use any more data because you’re not connecting to the network. To do this, load up Settings and go to Cellular Data on the iPad or General → Network on the iPhone. There, you should see a toggle switch labeled ‘Cellular Data’. Switch that to the off position and your device won’t connect to the data network again until you turn it back on. The benefit of using this over Airplane Mode is you can still receive texts and calls this way, you just can’t use any data unless you use Wi-Fi.
Переслать - Quick Tip: Sync iPhone Notes With Google Sync
Yesterday, Google announced that Gmail users who use IMAP (instead of POP) can now synchronize notes created and edited on the iPhone with Gmail. Naturally, my first question was what about Google Apps (name@domain.com) and Google Sync (Exchange) users? Turns out it is indeed possible.
Google Apps is easy. If you use IMAP on your iPhone then you just need to turn on Notes. Go to Settings, “Mail, Contacts, Calendars,” select your account, and flip the switch on Notes (see the screenshot below).
Unfortunately, Google Sync users have a couple of extra (counter-intuitive) steps. You already have an Exchange account on your iPhone where you can switch on and off Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. Notes is not an option. You must set up a new IMAP account with your Google Sync credentials and GMail’s IMAP settings:
Incoming Mail Server: imap.gmail.com
Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.gmail.com
Turn off Mail since you already have email set up with Exchange. Turn on Notes (see the screenshot below).
Now, when you use the Notes app to create a note on your iPhone it will appear in your GMail account with the label “Notes.” To access it you must search for “label:notes” or click on your Notes label in the sidebar. Unfortunately, you cannot create notes from your computer by sending yourself an email and then labeling it with “Notes” which makes this a one-way solution. I recommend using Google Tasks or Simplenote if you want the ability to create and edit notes from multiple devices.
Переслать - Organizing Apps in iOS 4
iOS 4 brings an entirely new way to organize apps on the iPod touch and iPhone. Previously, the only organization available was to separate the apps on different pages and flick between them. After a few pages of apps, it became much harder to find the one you were looking for.
Spotlight search helped somewhat, but I always found it a bit awkward, and not as fast as memorizing where the apps were. All of the default Apple apps were on the last screen, kids games on the next to last, my games on the screen before that, and the rest was filled up with whatever apps I had downloaded. The front screen was for my favorites, ordered by how much I used them in decreasing order going back to the games. Not a perfect system, but not too terrible.
Thankfully, iOS 4 introduces folders. By holding down on an app until it shakes, and then dropping one app on top of another, you can make a folder containing those two apps. Then you can drag and drop up to 12 apps into that folder. The folder is named by default after the category of app that you drop on top of the other. For example, if I drop iBooks on Plants vs Zombies, it creates a folder named Books. But if I drop Plants vs Zombies on iBooks, it creates a folder named Games.
The icons for the folders are a three by three grid of the first nine icons for the apps inside the folder. I have an 8GB iPod touch, and holding it about a foot away from my face I can see the icons fairly well, but I think that this is a feature that was clearly designed with the iPhone 4′s “Retina” display in mind. Normally, I read the title of the folder at the bottom, which means, for me, that the default titles of folders make no sense.
I have eight folders, listed below, which let me organize my apps. I separate the default apps into “Apple Apps” and “Utilities.” I drop the apps I use on a daily basis into “Faves,” then separate out the games I like from the games the kids like, and then break up the rest of the apps into “Reading,” “Education,” and since I couldn’t think of a better name, “Lifestyle.” Lifestyle is a bit of a catch-all for the miscellaneous apps that do not fit in anywhere else. Faves contains apps that could probably fit in another category, but I use them so often that they need to be together.
The organization is not perfect, and will definitely evolve over time. So far I’ve found that abandoning screens and using only folders has reduced the friction between me and finding the app I want. I have only four apps that are not in a folder: the four in the dock, Safari, Mail, Twitter, and ByLine. While it is possible to put a folder in the dock, I thought that it seemed unnecessary. The whole point of the dock is quick access to your top four.
I am also a little disappointed with spotlight search. If you know the name of your app, it is easy enough to search for just that name, but searching for a folder name brings up nothing. It would be nice if Spotlight would list the apps in that folder. I have two folders with the word “Game” in their title, if Spotlight were really useful, typing “Game” would list the contents of both folders.
I absolutely love what folders has done for the overall feel of my iPod. I now have a single screen, with easy choices for launching the app I’m looking for. The folders hold four less apps than a screen, so there is less to look at in each one, reducing the time it takes to find what I’m looking for. Where I had informal organization for my apps before, I now have a more formal, named, organization in the folders.
iOS 4 is a big update for users of newer generation iPods or iPhones. Fast task switching is the headline feature of this update, which owners of older devices miss out on. However, even for devices without as much power, the addition of folders (as well as a nice speed boost) make upgrading well worth the time.
Are you using the new Folders feature? How do you organize your apps?
Переслать - TechUniversity: Screen & File Sharing
Built right in to OS X are easy-to-use screen and file sharing tools that let you access and share data across other computers on your network.
In this TechUniversity screencast on Screen & File Sharing (subscription required) we’ll show you how to enable and use these tools.
Below is a sample of the video. The full screencast clocks in at just over five minutes.
Переслать - Curate Your Own Podcast With Huffduffer
If you've never heard of Huffduffer before, you're in for a treat. If maybe you’ve played around with it before but never quite grokked it, this may help shift your thinking a bit. Simply put, Huffduffer helps you publish an RSS feed of audio files you find online. Once published, this "podcast" can then be subscribed to via iTunes and its "episodes" synced to your iPod for later enjoyment. Its real value though, comes not from the ease with which it lets you get podcasts onto your iPod, but rather from how effectively the Huffduffer community works together to find and organize great audio content on a wide variety of topics from across the web.
When I first started playing with Huffduffer I thought of it simply as a personal bookmarking site for audio content that happened to be online. This made perfect sense to me as it's how I've been using sites like Delicious for years. Always aware of the community/network aspect of the service for surfacing content, but being more interested in the service’s ability to keep my bookmarks organized in a central place and accessible through an API.
So, I grabbed the bookmarklet, threw it in my bookmarks bar and waited to stumble across some great audio content to save for future use..and waited..and waited. The thing is, I don't really happen across interesting audio content all that often. It's not like the blog posts that get shoveled my way all day long via Twitter and Google Reader or the quirky images I get pointed to on TwitPic and Flickr or for that matter the latest LOL video on YouTube or hipster mockumentary on Vimeo. I see those types of links all day long. For some reason though, people don't seem to share long form audio content in the same way. So the bookmarklet sat in my bookmarks bar, largely unused.
It wasn't until I ran across Give Me Something To Read that I had my "aha moment" and realized that I should be using the main Huffduffer site in the same way. If you're not familiar with Give Me Something To Read, it's essentially a curated list of popular articles being bookmarked across Instapaper. If for some bizarre reason you don’t actually have anything to read, go there and you'll find great stuff.
Huffduffer provides a number of options for discovering content in this same way. You can browse through tags, look over what's popular across the service, and follow people who share your interests. Just like you can subscribe to your own Huffduffer podcast in iTunes, you can also subscribe to any of these feeds as well. Once in iTunes you can then obviously sync the podcast to your iPod and listen at your leisure. I've been able to find really great content this way. Things I would have otherwise never come across. Anything and everything from a BBC story about the role Douglas Adams played in classic Dr. Who episodes, to an Explanation of Dark Matter, to all the 2010 SXSW panels I missed, and everything in between.
I've been using this approach to fill up my iPod for a couple of months now and it makes all the difference in my daily commute; which can range from about an hour to almost two hours depending on how idiotic my fellow DC drivers decide to be. The only thing keeping me sane during this daily marathon of stop and go traffic in a stick shift is having my iPhone loaded up with great podcasts.
I have to admit though, that I do end up feeling like a bit of a drain on the community because the stuff I'm huffduffing for my own podcast is stuff that's already been hufduffed by someone else. I'd love to be able to supply fresh content to the community but other than trolling through the iTunes store I'm at a bit of a loss for where to locate it. If you've got your own secret for finding great audio online please share it in the comments.
Переслать - Sponsor post: Sponsor post: SlingPlayer Lands on Android Phones
You could be motoring in your gadget-laden yacht, riding in your car (back seat, right?), waiting for a flight or be just about anywhere when you need to satisfy your mobile television addiction. We're seeing lots of people who want to stay connected to the FIFA World Cup matches, the NBA finals or local MLB action.
To watch your home TV anywhere you are, Android-style, all it takes is a Slingbox connected to your home TV system and the slickest-ever version of SlingPlayer Mobile loaded on your phone. SlingPlayer mobile already works on a large variety of smartphones, but the bestest and fastest version just became available for Android phones.
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This is the fastest version of SlingPlayer Mobile to date and the picture quality is first-rate. Startup of the app is quick, and its new interface is sleek, easy to use and responsive. Recent channels are always at your fingertips. So go get it.
Переслать - iOS 4 On iPhone 3G: Much Ado About Nothing
Don’t panic, your update to iOS 4 most likely worked. You just may have to look a little deeper to realize that all went well.
After restoring and upgrading my iPhone 3G to iOS 4 late last night, I could not help but feel that the upgrade did not even happen. That something went wrong and I did not have iOS 4 installed at all. I knew that multitasking would not be there, but no background images? After a little digging around, I was able to convince myself that the upgrade did complete successfully.
At first it appears as if nothing happened; all looks about the same. There is a subtle update to the dock, but you would have to really know what to look for to see it. If you then go to the About information in the Settings app, it will clearly state that the version is 4.0(8A293). The next thing to look for would logically be setting the background image or wallpaper. Unfortunately you’ll soon discover that feature is clearly missing on the 3G. So multitasking and custom home screen wallpaper is out.
So what is there?
Check out the Mail app. One inbox to unite them all. And the camera, just tap the screen, you now have a digital zoom. And of course Folders. Simply drag one icon on top of another, you now have folders. iTunes playlists have also been enhanced as well as the spotlight search and the built-in photo app. Slowly you will start to discover what new features are available to the 3G, and which ones are not. And according to the popularity of the iPhone 4, and various online polls that have been taken, it appears that most of us will be living with iOS 4 on the 3G for only a little while, as all of us are eligible for the upgrade.
What features are missing that you really wanted? Any that should be there but you can’t find?
Переслать - The iPad as a Travel Companion
On June 7, I embarked on a trip to Europe. I debated whether I wanted to take my iPad or my hackintosh’d Dell Mini 9. In the end, I went with the iPad.
My biggest reason for considering the Mini 9 was the ethernet port. Some of the hotels I’ve stayed in in the past only had ethernet jacks. Fortunately I wouldn’t have to worry about that.
I had no problems getting the iPad through TSA. Our flight over was about seven hours long, from Chicago to Heathrow. The iPad worked pretty well at keeping me entertained so I didn’t notice the time go by. First, I watched a movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, which looked great on the iPad’s screen. That took up about an hour-and-a-half. Then I started reading The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace, which I got about five chapters into (I’ve read it before), and then I listened to music for the rest of the flight. I was pretty limited in what I could do without Wi-Fi. I’m always reminded how much we rely on the Internet when I’m stuck with my Wi-Fi-less iPad. 33 of the apps on my iPad require WiFi to work. I have 65 apps in total, so that’s about 50 percent.
Once we got over there, my iPad became useless. I didn’t need it to entertain myself and I couldn’t use it to communicate with my family, as most of our hotels didn’t have free Wi-Fi, and I refused to pay for it. Our first hotel did have a “free 30 minutes of Wi-Fi” thing going on, but when I connected to the router, I got a page asking me to sign in, offering no hint of this 30 minute deal. One of the hotels advertised free Wi-Fi, but I could never get it working. It wasn’t until the last hotel that I actually got free Wi-Fi that worked. That hotel was cheap, with small rooms and showers that didn’t even have hot water. Comme ci comme ça, I guess.
Another thing about traveling with the iPad: You never want to take it out, for fear of someone knowing you have it, and then stealing it. I had several roommates during this trip; people I didn’t know. It wasn’t until halfway through that I trusted them enough to reveal my iPad. One of my roommates asked me to give him a demo of it, as he was planning on buying one.
Also, I never charged the battery. I was amazed at how long it lasted. Of course, it was in standby mode most of the time, but this trip was nine days, so that’s pretty amazing. (Though some have said the iPad can last up to a month in standby, but I can’t find anywhere on Apple’s website where it says that, so correct me if I’m wrong.) The battery didn’t die on me until the flight back, and then only after I’d gotten a couple more chapters through my book.
I saw three other people using iPads on this trip; two in an airport, and one on the flight back. I was actually surprised at that.
In the end, the iPad turned out to be a great travel device. It’s thin, it’s light, it’s easy to stow, and it has a long-lasting battery. However, for those of you with the Wi-Fi-only version, or those who don’t want to pay for roaming, the iPad’s utility is limited based on the availability of Wi-Fi, so make sure your hotel has Wi-Fi that actually works.
What about you? Have you taken a long trip with the iPad in tow? Anything you found really great or really frustrating?
Переслать - Sponsor post: Sponsor post: Are You Swimsuit-ready? How About Remote Access-ready?
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Once you've set up your LogMeIn Free account, you can also get remote access on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and coming soon…Android. Look for LogMeIn Ignition to It puts all your computers at your fingertips.
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Переслать - Quick Tip: Keep Your Bookmarks in Sync
If you use multiple Macs then there’s probably been at least one time in your computing life when you've wished you could keep your Internet bookmarks synced between them. Other than MobileMe, the best way to do this is using Xmarks.
Previously named Foxmarks, this plugin has now been made available for Safari, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer as well as Firefox, which previously was the only browser it supported.
Once you’ve downloaded Xmarks for whichever browsers you use, all you have to do is set up an account and the software will do the rest, working either as a preferences pane or as a plugin directly in the browser. All your bookmarks, whether they are in the bookmarks toolbar or in the folder hierarchy, are sent to the cloud, ready for syncing with another computer. When you log in from the second computer, you can even choose whether to replace your local bookmarks or merge them with the cloud.
Now whenever you make a change to your bookmarks, even if you only change the name or the location of one of them, the changes are synced with the website and changed accordingly on your other computers.
Xmarks also allows you to access your bookmarks from the Xmarks website, which is useful if you need to access one of them from a public computer, for example. Also available on the website is the ability to search the web and have the results sorted by how many people have the site in their bookmarks, allowing you to find sites based on whether other people have decided they are good, rather than what a search engine decides.
Переслать - Facebook Adds Video Viewing to iPhone App
The newest version of Facebook’s ever-popular iPhone app includes the ability to watch friend videos directly on the mobile device. The addition comes as the social network continues to enjoy tremendous growth in both video uploading and viewing.
Facebook has become a force in online video, ranking among the top five video sites in comScore’s Video Metrix April results. That puts it in line with Vevo and Fox Interactive — and ahead of Hulu. Earlier this month, the social networking site told NewTeeVee that its users upload more than 20 million videos each month, and watch more than 2 billion.
Much of the uploading has come as a result of its users shooting clips with video-ready mobile devices like the iPhone. With the release of its iPhone app last year, Facebook added the ability to upload video directly from the device, which added to the growth of user-generated videos being added to the social networking site. And there’s talk that Facebook uploading could explode even further, as the ability to upload to the social network might become a choice when exporting a video.
In the same way that video uploads were spurred by user adoption of the iPhone app, we can now expect more video to be viewed on the phone. While it ranks highly in terms of the number of users watching video, the average number of videos each of those viewers watch per month on the site is fairly low, at just 5.6, according to comScore. Compare that to YouTube, with 96 videos per viewer/month on average, or Hulu, whose viewers watch an average of 24.7 videos.
In addition to video viewing, version 3.1.3 of the Facebook app includes the ability to upload photos that are 720 pixels wide. Users can also now view and write on their friends’ walls through the app.
Related content on GigaOM Pro: Will Metered Mobile Data Slow the App Market's Growth? (subscription required)
Переслать - iOS 4 Now Available to Download
The updated operating system, previously known as the iPhone OS, features more than 100 new features. However, in order to download the 378MB update, you will need the latest version of iTunes (version 9.2), so be sure you are all up to speed before trying to upgrade.
iOS 4 can be installed for free on the older iPhone 3G and the current iPhone 3GS, in addition to the second- and third-generation iPod touch. An iPad-friendly version of the OS is expected later in the year.
The main features that the new OS offers includes multitasking, a unified inbox, folders for better application organization, the introduction of Game Center and more. Apple’s own site has an informative run-down of what iOS 4 brings to the table.
Check out the iOS update and let us know if you have any problems.
Переслать - Has Your iPhone 4 Order Been Canceled?
Several online sites have been reporting that both AT&T as well as Apple have been canceling both online and in-store orders for both valid and non-sensical reasons. Either AT&T could not verify one’s eligibility for an upgrade (existing customers), AT&T could not verify who the customer placing the order was and therefore could not create a new wireless account (new customers), or Apple simply did not have enough devices to fulfill orders (oops, sorry). Whatever the reason may or may not be, the only thing for certain is that some orders are getting canceled.
Personally I made my purchase at a local AT&T Retail Store, and have an actual printed receipt to prove it. Unfortunately, before I got to the store, orders were being taken by hand and the information — including credit card and AT&T account information — was being recorded on paper order forms. As I waited to be summoned to a representative to help me place my order, the systems started coming back online. What started happening was all new orders were being placed electronically and the process to record information by hand stopped. What did not appear to be happening was that the huge stack of orders that were already taken manually were being processed electronically. Then by mid-afternoon, somehow the entire stock of iPhones were already accounted for.
Additionally, it appears that both Best Buy and Radio Shack were performing the same service they typically do for all advance purchases of hot electronic devices like Playstation, XBox and Wii consoles and games. They take some form of deposit and guarantee your place in line. As soon as they get an iPhone 4 at that particular location, you will get an iPhone 4 from that same location. There is no way to check to see how things are progressing, and it’s very unlikely that advance notification will be coming for these reservations. And with only a rumored handful of new iPhone 4s to be allotted at each location (most likely less than 30 per location), this low-tech way of placing a reservation may still be your best bet to get an iPhone on the 24th if you got there early enough on the 15th to get your name on the list.
It appears as if Apple is informing its customers — that is, online and retail store pre-order customers — that their orders are being processed, shipped or have been canceled. As for those of us that pre-ordered from either AT&T Online or AT&T Retail Stores, many of us are still waiting to be informed of either good or unfortunate news this coming Thursday, as our orders are still “In Process.”
What about you? What’s the status of your pre-order? Has it been canceled?
Переслать
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