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- Find Out What Flash is Like On the iPhone, Without Jailbreaking
Flash, for me, is not something that I miss or want on the iPhone platform. Sure, there are some sites, for movies and maybe the occasional awesome reinvention of a classic game that I wouldn’t mind being able to see on my mobile platform of choice, but overall it’s not something I’m losing sleep over.
If you are losing sleep over it, or if you’re just curious about what Flash on an iDevice would even look and feel like, there’s a couple ways to try it out, one of which is available right now as an app that doesn’t require jailbreaking. The other, which is actually much cooler, is only in preview release right now, but runs in your Safari browser natively without any extra steps required on a user’s part.
Cloud Browse is your first option. It’s an app that connects you to a remote computer running on servers maintained by the Cloud Browse developers, AlwaysOn. The app lets you then control the browsing on the remote computer from your iDevice, and see any type of web content, including Flash. The sites you visit are streamed to your phone, but there is some trade off as you might expect.
Video framerate is quite slow, and if you’re not a paying subscriber, you only have a limited number of spots to connect. Free users can also get bumped by paying customers, as in unceremoniously disconnected mid-session. You can get a paid account for $9.99 a month that would give you 30 FPS video and 1GB of storage for saving offline data. Plus you can only use it in the U.S. and Canada, and it only works over Wi-Fi. Finally, playing Flash games with the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard is absolutely no fun.
The other alternative is Smokescreen, which is a web-end tech that developers and designers could use to make their Flash content visible on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. That means that it’s currently far more limited (you can only see it in action in some demos released by the original developer), but that it has much more potential in terms of long-term usability.
Smokescreen operates by a workaround process that isn’t actually a plugin, so it there’s really nothing Apple can do to stop it. Here’s how the process works, as described by its creator Simon Willison:
It runs entirely in the browser, reads in SWF binaries, unzips them (in native JS), extracts images and embedded audio and turns them in to base64 encoded data:uris, then stitches the vector graphics back together as animated SVG.
The experience so far is somewhat hit or miss, with simple animations like those found in Flash banners working very well, but with more advanced things (like a Strongbad email animation) it runs rather slow. Also there was no sound when I tested it on my iPhone 3GS, which I assume is a limitation of the method used.
Smokescreen is definitely off to an impressive start, though, and things will probably improve since it will soon be open sourced. It’s compiled in JavaScript, and works perfectly in non-mobile browsers as well, which means you could be viewing Flash-based content on your computer without ever having to install the actual Flash plugin. I have a feeling that this tech will catch on far faster with advertisers looking to cut corners rather than redesign their ads from the ground up for iPhone OS consumption. You can view all the demos currently available here.
Both these workarounds are a prime example of how if people really want their device to do something, they’ll figure out a way.
Переслать - Typical Day With the iPad
My recent look at a typical day with the Sprint EVO 4G was well received and I started getting requests for a similar look at a day with the iPad. Not one to ignore good requests, this post covers a typical day with the iPad in Mobile Tech Manor. I should point out that the iPad is so different from most gadgets I write about and I’m not sure there is a “typical” day. Perhaps I should more accurately present a “recent day” with the iPad.
It is still dark outside when the merciless alarm rouses me from a deep sleep and I stumble out of bed to greet the day. The iPad is lying on the night stand where I left it last night, having read an e-book before bedtime. It has not been charging overnight, as the extended battery life you’ve heard about on the iPad is not fiction. I rarely charge the iPad at night, which is a first with me for any gadget. Instead, I will plug it in while using it at my desk in a little while, and charge it until it shows a full charge after which it will remain untethered for the rest of the day.
I grab the first cup of coffee and settle into the easy chair with the iPad in hand. It is nestled in the Apple case I bought along with the iPad, and I am glad I did. The brushed aluminum back on the iPad is extremely slippery, and I’ve almost dropped it a few times. The case adds a nice grippy cover for it without adding much bulk to the slim package. I also use the stand on the back of the case to prop up the iPad throughout the day.
The first thing I do is catch up with email that has arrived overnight. We have a lot of site visitors located all over the globe, and the stream of email doesn’t stop when I am getting my beauty rest at night. Using the Mail app on the iPad is easy to do, and sitting in the chair I typically hold it in portrait which is more comfortable for me. I spin through the night’s email in just a few minutes, responding to mail as necessary via the onscreen keyboard. I use the keyboard by typing with my right index finger in portrait, and I find it fast enough for most messages I compose. For longer entries I spin the iPad around to landscape orientation which makes the keyboard big enough for easier typing. I have three different email accounts configured, and I’ll be glad when that unified inbox appears in iPhone 4.0.
NewsRack
Once my inbox is back to zero I spin through RSS feeds that have accumulated new items overnight. I am torn between two apps to do this — NetNewsWire and NewsRack. Both apps handle RSS feeds in a similar fashion, and both sync with Google Reader which is mandatory for my needs. I am leaning more towards NewsRack as it is now faster than NetNewsWire since a recent update, and I like the interface a little better. I fire it up and start spinning through the hundreds of news items waiting for my attention.
I pop from item to item using the “next item” button in NewsRack, and when an item deserves more attention I either hit the star button to mark it for reading later or I hit the button to open the item in the internal browser to read it right then. Either method works well, but usually I just hit the star and come back to the item later in the day.
Calendar
Once I have achieved inbox zero for my feeds, I get ready for some serious work. I make my 30 second commute to Mobile Tech Manor to begin my work day. I prop the iPad up to the left of my big desktop monitor and plug it in so it can be charging while I work at the Mac. I fire up the Calendar app on the iPad to check the day’s schedule, and then I run the ToDo app to check my task list.
ToDo
ToDo is a great task manager and I sync it with my ToodleDo online account. I love the planner interface that ToDo employs, and I find it a good way to stay on top of things that need to get done. ToDo stays open much of the day on the iPad so I can refer to it as needed, and I mark things done as appropriate. That’s one of my favorite things to do — mark a task as complete.
I find having the iPad serve as my day planner in this way adds value to my work setup. Is it necessary to get my work done? Of course not; but since I have the iPad I find it is very useful to keep my planning methods separate from my work computer. I am able to concentrate on the work when I should, yet pop over to the planner to see what I need to think about next when appropriate. This is even more useful for me as I often change the work computer given all the systems that I test for work. Having the iPad function as a planner allows me to extend whatever work setup I am employing at a given time, without having to change things. It’s all about getting my work done as easily as I can.
iThoughtsHD
I use iThoughtsHD as needed to map out longer articles I write. I like mind mapping and use it as a visual outliner. It’s easy to lay out a project in a map, and refer to it while I write the article. There are several mind map apps for the iPad, but iThoughts does everything I need and I like it a lot.
B&N eReader
I work at my desk until lunch time when I shut down to grab a bite to eat. I head to the local sandwich shop after throwing the iPad and Sprint Overdrive into a little gear bag. I eat my sandwich while reading an e-book on the iPad. Today I am using the Barnes & Noble eReader app to read the book; other days I use the Kindle app. Which one I use depends on where I bought the e-book, of course. I buy most of the books from Amazon but I have been getting some from B&N as I am giving the eReader app a try. They are both functionally similar; I don’t really favor one over the other.
Twitterrific Pro
Just before finishing lunch I hit the power button on the Overdrive to tap into the Sprint 4G network. In just a minute it connects and the iPad automatically connects to it, turning it into a 4G iPad. I check up on Twitter using Twitterrific Pro, my Twitter app of choice on the iPad. I also catch up with my email sitting in the lunchroom. The iPad makes it so easy to check my email that it has helped me keep up with my desire to maintain inbox zero. Sure I could do this with a smartphone but the iPad is faster and easier to use due to the larger screen.
Once lunch is finished I head back to my office to finish up the work day. The afternoon is spent much like the morning, working at my desk with the iPad sitting alongside my big screen. I take a couple of breaks in the afternoon, as I believe it is important to maintain a work routine that mimics one in a “real” office. It is vital to take breaks from the computer screen, and I do that in my home office, too. I grab the iPad when I step away from the desk and read the e-book during these breaks. The iPad is my ereader of choice, and I haven’t touched my Kindle since getting the iPad.
When the work day is finished and I step out of the Manor, the iPad comes with me. The slim, light form of the iPad makes it easy to grab and go, and the fact is it is always within reach. It sits on the table next to my easy chair, ready to grab for jumping online quickly to check something. I jump on Twitter several times during the evening to keep up with my peeps, and I check the RSS feeds in NewsRack a couple of times. The real value provided by the iPad is how I can do any of these things by simply picking it up and jumping online in less than a minute. Hit the button, slide the toggle and I’m online.
Is the iPad the only way to do this online stuff? Absolutely not, but it is so easy and quick that it is the best way for me. Is the iPad worth the price to everyone for this functionality? Probably not, that’s a case-by-case situation. Is it the easiest and most enjoyable way to do these things? For me, yes indeed. Since getting the iPad I spend less time checking things on the web, yet I spend more time online. What the iPad lets me do is jump online to check a particular thing, and then shut it down instantly.
It’s not all work, I have been playing a number of games on the iPad. I try to limit the time spent playing, but some of the games are pretty good and that makes it easy to get lost in them sometimes. The game I am currently having fun with is BrokenSword HD. It is well executed on the iPad and is a great mystery that unfolds in front of my eyes.
The iPad is not for everyone, mobile technology is a very personal thing. I’m sure many will look at a given task I’ve described and come up with another type of gadget that will do the task as well or better. In my case, when I look at the group of tasks I do each day, the iPad is the best single gadget to use. Over the course of this day I used the iPad to jump online at least 50 times. A simple tap of the on button and a tap of the browser app and I was connected to anything I wanted to be connected to. The iPad is my companion device of choice, it is not a primary system. But the utility it provides is augmented by the fact that more often than not it can do what I need, often even better or faster than my primary system.
Related content on GigaOM Pro (sub. req'd): Can Anyone Compete With the iPad?
Переслать - TechUniversity: iMovie 101
Apple’s iMovie video editing software, part of the iLife software suite, allows users to quickly and easily create professional looking movies.
In this TechUniversity iMovie 101 screencast (subscription required) we’ll walk you through, from start to finish, how to create an edit a movie in iMovie.
Topics covered:
- The projects and events window
- Adding and editing video
- Titles, transitions, sound and maps
- Sharing your video
Below is a sample of the video. The full screencast clocks in at just over 20 minutes.
Переслать - Skype Calls Over 3G Now a Reality
The wait is over. It’s been a long time coming, but you can now finally make calls using Skype over 3G.
Version 2.0 of Skype’s free iPhone app can be downloaded from the iTunes store now. However, despite making 3G VOIP calls a reality, it’s not all good news: the feature will soon become a premium option. Skype has detailed that starting late August 2010 the company will introduce a small fee that users will be required to pay on a monthly basis in order to use the Skype-to-Skype 3G call making feature.
From now until the unspecified August date users can try the new feature free-of-charge. Our early tests have proven the service works well with voice quality being surprisingly crisp and clear. Skype has described the quality of calls as near “CD-quality sound”; of course this all depends on how good your signal is.
When in a call the typical speaker, mute, hold and number pad options are available, users can also navigate around the Skype application at leisure. Sadly, pressing the iPhone’s home button to access other applications is not available, although running the Skype app in the background is something which will hopefully be introduced once OS 4.0 arrives. Other improvements to the updated application include an improved start-up time and the ability to access Skype’s dial pad quickly from the iPhone’s home screen.
Skype’s Russ Shaw, General Manager for Mobile, said the following about the new Skype features:
Using Skype on iPhone without being restricted to the availability of a WiFi network will open up new ways for Skype customers to stay connected and make free or low-cost calls whenever they want, wherever they are in the world.
You can download the updated iPhone application from the iTunes store now. If you give the app a try, be sure to let us know your thoughts on the new 3G call capabilities in the comments.
Переслать - Apple's Maiden Voyage Into the Cloud
Apple’s billion dollar data center being constructed on a 225 acre site near Highway 321 and Startown Road in Maiden, North Carolina could play host to a number of services. So, what are the likely candidates for what Apple will be doing with this new facility? With WWDC just one week away, Apple staffing of the new facility, and given the fact that all of the hype about what everyone already knows that Steve is going to introduce before he has a chance to introduce it, there are six very likely candidates for what Apple will announce as to what their intentions are in North Carolina.
Free MobileMe for Everyone! Well, Almost Everyone
When Apple first launched iTools back in 2000, the service was free to users of Mac OS 9. Then in 2002 it became a subscription based service and was renamed as .Mac. The trend continued and the online service now known as MobileMe continued as a subscription based service. Just recently Apple opened up a Beta program to show off some of the new features of this service. In order to compete with several of the online services that come bundled with many of the Google supported Android devices, Apple my in fact return this to a free service for its customers.
MapKit replacement for Google Maps
Not much has been said about Apple’s 2009 acquisition of online mapping service PlaceBace. At the time, rumors ran rampant that Apple would be replacing Google Maps on the iPhone, iPod and now the iPad with this service. This shouldn’t be too terribly difficult to do in the iPhone’s SDK and the MapKit has abstracted such low-level services into an easy to use API.
iTunes in the Cloud
Recently Apple decided to shut down Lala, an online music service it acquired in 2009. Having a commanding lead in the iPod marketplace has not made Apple complacent in the least. Apple has continued to innovate its devices as well as its iTunes marketplace over the years. Perhaps its latest enhancement of the service was not as Genius as previously thought, and Apple is looking to continue its competitive edge by hosting its customers purchases in the cloud. Having iTunes in the cloud would make all purchases, past, present and future, all available to all devices from anywhere in the connected world.
iWork Beta
Almost two years in beta, and with the release of the now best-selling collection of iWork apps for the iPad, the future of iWork has never been brighter. The question remains, how long will this beta last? With some of the enhancements going on in the MobielMe space with the mail beta that is underway, and given the fact that successful services like DropBox are nipping at Apple’s iDisk heals, there is likely to be something announced, soon. It would not take much to best Google’s online document service, and shut Microsoft out of this market for good by enabling even a halfway decent solution for the growing number of mobile customers that Apple has earned.
iAd
Let’s not forget the purchase of Quattro Wireless. This may have helped Google out here in the short-term, but Apple needs to make a long term investment in this endeavor. With the premiums that Apple is allegedly ready to charge companies that sign up for ad space on this service, that price tag had better include complementary hosting of the ads themselves. With one-hundred million devices likely to be in the hands of consumers when this service goes live, it will need some serious cloud power to handle the storm that is brewing come launch day.
Sync
Just recently, it has been discovered that Apple is interested in investing in sync capabilities with the cloud. Breaking away from the USB sync paradigm is something that all iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users would enjoy. This could be full sync, or be limited to its investment with Lala, or iWork, or both.
For those interested in cloud computing or data centers, check out our Structure conference in June.
Переслать - Apple's Mobile Dominance and MobileMe
It's becoming abundantly clear that Apple needs to improve MobileMe. Obviously, Android is now Apple's biggest threat in the mobile space and Google's innovation wheel isn't slowing down. To fully understand just how bad Apple is at running Internet services, let's take a trip back in time.
At the Macworld keynote on January 5, 2000, Steve Jobs released iTools which was built for Mac OS 9. Features included:
- An @Mac.com email address
- 20 megabytes of iDisk web storage
- An easy to use web page builder called Homepage
- A KidSafe product that ensured a safe Internet experience for the little ones
If you're dying to know more, here's the press release. What made the offering such a breakthrough is that it was an absolutely free service, back when Google was still just a search engine. Because of the seamless integration with Mac OS and the fact it was free, millions of Mac users signed up for iTools. This was the highlight of Apple's Online Services product and, ever since, Apple has struggled to keep up.
In 2002, iTools was rebranded as .Mac and the price shot up to $99.95 a year. Apple dropped KidSafe, upped the iDisk storage too and introduced "Backup" which was an OS X app to backup files and folders to the online iDisk.
It was pretty clear that Apple didn't truly put a lot of thought into .Mac because, while Apple.com was touting, "Macs don't get viruses", .Mac touted that you get a McAfee's Virex Antivirus software for free just for joining and Apple stores across the U.S. were required to maintain a 60 percent attach rate for .Mac on all new Macs sold.
Apple still had a better service than any other web service, mostly because the cloud services that were existent saw Macintosh as too small of a market (remember this is 2002) and Apple seamlessly integrated .Mac into the system to the point where a power user may be nagged to just buy it already as Quicktime and iMovie had a "Send to .Mac" feature and Apple Mail placed .Mac as the first choice when adding a new e-mail account.
Apple lost thousands of subscribers in the shift to a paid model but many stayed until Google and other competitors began strengthening their cloud offerings. In 2008, Apple finally upgraded the aging online subscription model with real features that power users were aching for.
MobileMe, released in June of 2008 at WWDC, still included e-mail, iDisk and your own personal homepage (via iWeb '09) but the new killer feature was sync. You could now keep multiple PCs, Macs, iPhones and now iPads in sync instantly via the web with calendars, contacts and email talking to each other to ensure the latest info is always on the device you have with you.
Apple's foray into cloud syncing was a failure at first. Steve sent out this letter shortly after MobileMe's launch admitting the MobileMe launch was a failure saying, "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour." Apple gave out free months of service to people who purchased the new service and improvements were made. Since then, Apple has done little to add to the service and MobileMe is now completely overshadowed by every other competitor in the market. Even startups like Box.net started by a couple of guys with some angel financing were able to top Apple's iDisk that was introduced back with iTools in 2000.
Apple added features like "Find my iPhone" in 2009 and continued to make slight improvements, but Google offers e-mail, sync, storage, calendars, contacts and more for free. Sure, Google has advertising but no one seems to care, because $99 for an email address and some syncing between devices is completely ludicrous now that we're half-way in to 2010. We featured a post in February, "10 Ways to Make MobileMe Perfect" which detailed exactly what Apple needs to do to find relevance again among a slew of superior products from competitors.
Another great example of Apple completely missing an opportunity with MobileMe is the iPad. Why must you sync with iTunes and deal with a difficult-to-use interface to get documents on and off of the iPad? Why isn't MobileMe the key that makes iPad a true on the go device? In his review, John Gruber writes:
Apple has MobileMe, but because it's a paid service, they can't (or at least won't) assume that all iPad owners are going to use it. But then even those of us who do u se MobileMe get stuck with a first-run iPad experience that involves a tethered USB connection to a computer. The Apple Way is to assume that your primary data stores for these things are locally stored on your Mac or PC — Address Book, iCal.
I think most of the Mac community has accepted that iTools, .Mac and now MobileMe is a product for new users and not a service for power users and my personal motto became, "those who know, don't use MobileMe." It wasn't until Google's I/O conference last week in San Francisco that I realized how poorly Apple is positioned in the fight for mobile dominance.
Google released Android version 2.2 with over the air everything. You can purchase music in your web browser and it's on your Android phone instantly. The same goes for Google Maps links, which you can click "send to phone" and the maps app opens automatically. The real power of Android is entering your Google ID and all of your data comes down from the cloud and stays in sync without ever plugging into a computer. Apple has completely failed at this.
I'm not writing the death of MobileMe just yet. Apple's recent beta release of a new and improved MobileMe webmail is a step in the right direction, but it still has a long way to go.
Apple purchased Lala.com which is an incredible startup that allows you to stream music that you've purchased from anywhere and Apple has announced the closure of Lala on May 31 (only a few days ahead of WWDC). One can only imagine that Google's ultra-cool over the air music purchase technology demoed last week will soon be old news as iTunes in The Cloud becomes a reality where your entire music library travels with you anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection.
The ultimate task for Apple is to bite the bullet and make MobileMe free again. It's easy to compare Google to Apple's products when one is free and the other is $99, but when comparing two free services and accounting that MobileMe is built into every Apple device you own, it's a much easier consideration for users. Doing the math is easy when you consider that Apple might make $99 per user per year but losing an iPhone sale to Google's Android platform is a far greater loss and Apple needs to free MobileMe from a subscription model to compete head on with Google.
Of course, there's a lot more Apple can do beyond simply offering up MobileMe for free. Remember iWork.com? This collaboration tool goes head to head with Google Docs in many ways but it's still in beta over a year after being previewed at Macworld 2009 and Apple lead us to believe it would actually be charging for this when iWork left public beta.
I could go on and on comparing Apple to Google in every way, but it's clear that Google is the winner and that wouldn't change even if Apple dropped the price of their suite of tools to $0. That boat has set sail and Apple is still offering a miniscule 20GB iDisk storage and iDisk is just as reliable as it was 10 years ago. Let's hope Google's kick in the butt with Android 2.2 will encourage Apple to step it up and bring MobileMe up to speed very soon.
For those interested in cloud computing or data centers, check out our Structure conference in June.
Переслать - Apple Selling Million iPads a Month
According to GigaOM Pro, our research service, “the web tablet app market will be a significant one in just a few short years, going from $183 million in revenue in 2010 to $8.2 billion by 2015″ and the “overall momentum for this market will be driven early on by the iPad and Apple's app store.”So much for it being a niche product! Apple says it has sold two million iPads in 60 days since the launch of the tablet device. It sold the first million iPads in 28 days. It is hard to find some of the 3G enabled iPads in their retail stores. The pace of iPad sales is way ahead of the early results for iPhone, which took 74 days to sell the first million. According to some estimates, iPad is outselling the Mac itself.
Apple began shipping iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK this past weekend. iPad will be available in nine more countries in July and additional countries later this year. There are about 5,000 special apps for iPad.
Click to enlarge
Related GigaOM Pro Research Report (sub req’d): Forecast: Tablet App Sales to Hit $8B by 2015
Infographic by Column Five Media
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