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- Video: What App Developers Think of the New iPhone
After the iPhone 4 presentation at Apple’s WWDC in San Francisco on Monday, I hit the town to talk to app developers at the event center, outside in the street, and back at their offices about their perceptions of Steve Jobs’ latest and greatest device. Here’s a video to give you a flavor of the scene.
To kick off, watch a short bit of footage of me playing with the new iPhone in the press demo area. (I get a surprise when I see myself appear on the front-facing camera!)
Just about everyone I talked to mentioned how impressed they were by FaceTime, Apple’s new mobile video chat product (and future open standard). Nobody seemed to be too concerned about the fact that it’ll only work over Wi-Fi for the time being.
Though people were riding high after the keynote, some developers said they’re concerned about Apple further splintering the app development market. Others said they wished cool new features like the high-resolution retina display would come to the rest of the Apple family, like the Mac.
ngmoco CEO Neil Young said he was hoping for Apple TV integration, a Game Center demo and Facebook support, but he’ll be making use of FaceTime (which he said will ensure he buys not just one but two iPhone 4s) and the new gyroscope (which he said is a bit of a random feature, but will be good for augmented reality).
Different developers were excited about different app monetization opportunities. Truphone’s Karl Good was psyched to hear that Apple now has 150 million credit cards on file, while eBay developer Robin Schuil said he expects to make use of iAds especially given they’ll be available so soon.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Report: The Consumer Video Chat Market, 2010-2015
Переслать - Hands-On: Macally's Bookstand Case for Apple iPad
I admit it: I don’t like the Apple-designed iPad case. Oh, it’s well made and offers a nice angle for typing, but it’s a little tippy in landscape and I’m not a fan of the edge seams. So after two months of searching, I decided to purchase the Macally Bookstand case — I’m glad I did.
The Bookstand offers the same versatility of a propped viewing angle for typing and the ability to stand the iPad in landscape, but it’s a much more stable solution. And instead of notched cut-outs for access to controls, the Macally Bookstand is open on three of the iPad’s four sides. Have a look-see in this short video and leave any questions in the comments — I’ll do my best to answer them.
Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):
The Case for Removable Media on the iPad
Переслать - Analyzing Apple's Boilerplate
A boilerplate is a flexible term used to describe many different things, but Apple’s boilerplate is those lines of text that you see at the bottom of each of all its press releases. The boilerplate remained largely unchanged for years as this:
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.
As Apple evolved and released products such as the iPod and iPhone, the boilerplate evolved. Actually, we made a post about this in 2007 shortly before the first iPhone shipped analyzing how the boilerplate has changed over the years. It’s a great read and shows each iteration of the boilerplate throughout the history of Apple.
I was just browsing through Apple Press Releases, which I find myself doing every other week, and noticed the boilerplate has changed. It now reads:
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
In a recent post, I criticized Apple’s lack of commitment to MobileMe and how this affects their bottom line of iPhone sales. I also criticized iWork.com which is Apple’s online collaboration tool for documents. When you read this text that is injected on each and every press release, it’s important to recognize exactly what products and services Apple chooses to highlight.
- OS X
- iLife
- iWork
- Pro Apps
- iPod & iTunes online store
- iPhone & App Store
- iPad
Apple makes a point to highlight a few products that many analysts and Apple watchers consider a part of Apple’s back burner because any Apple special event or announcement usually has something to do with iPhone and iPad and before that, iPod was Apple’s big push. Mobile is clearly what Apple is focusing on as far as public outreach and marketing since mobile is 80 percent of the products mentioned (if you include the iWork apps for iPad). Heck, even the famous long-running “Get a Mac” ads featuring Justin Long and John Hodgman have been cancelled for good.
OS X is mentioned first as it still remains the core of Apple’s everything. Every mobile Apple device is destined or at least optimized to plug into a Mac running OS X. iLife and iWork are still phenomenal applications that help people express themselves and get work done and pro apps are Final Cut Studio, Logic and the recently discontinued, Shake software.
Check our our TechUniversity screencasts on iLife, iWork, Final Cut, Logic and more! (subscription required)
When is the last time Apple devoted more than 10 minutes to any of these non-mobile products in a keynote or special event? The last time iLife and iWork were heavily demoed was at the rather boring Phil Schiller keynote at Macworld 2009 where I can attest that he demoed every single new feature and somehow found time within the two hours to talk about a new Unibody MacBook Pro but that was the entire keynote.
Apple is frequently refreshing its Macs, updating iPods with more storage and thinner form factors and the pro apps generally see an update every 18-24 months, but it feels like iPhone and iPad are Apple’s core business right now.
Irregardless of what we think and what analysts and bloggers perpetuate as Apple’s most talked about products, the truth is, Apple has chosen to include these less featured products in its boilerplate. If you’re scratching your head trying to determine exactly what Apple is focused on, look no further than the list above.
It actually takes away from the recent news story that filled the blogosphere about Apple cleaning house and getting rid of a vast amount of its pro apps team responsible for Final Cut and other applications. Apple went on record saying this was not true and anyone paying attention to the boilerplate can see that Apple makes a mention of Pro Apps as a part of its core business.
Now, if we could only get Apple to admit that the iPad really isn’t magical.
Переслать - Sponsor post: Sponsor post: Atimi: One-Stop Shop for iPhone, iPad and Macintosh Application Development
Atimi is a cross-platform development company that specializes in Macintosh development, porting applications from Windows to the Macintosh, and mobile application development for the iPhone and iPad.
An innovator in the iPhone mobile space, Atimi has developed applications for leading global brands in media & entertainment (the New York Times and HBO); fashion (Donna Karan); health (ann-e); youth education and gaming (Etch-A-Sketch by Freeze Tag); finance (TIO Networks); sports (Vancouver Canucks) and utility (Drive Savers). More than 65% of the Atimi developed applications have been featured by Apple in TV ads, iTunes advertising, in-store or in Apple print ads, with many applications placing in the Top 10 Best/Best in Class App categories.
Atimi has several major iPad apps in the works. As an expert in app development, Atimi understands the unique approach to iPad development, what’s required to take advantage of all that this new product offers and produce an award-winning app.
Atimi's comprehensive process for developing and launching apps leaves no stone unturned. Typically, the Atimi development process includes discovering what is going to make the app stand out, analyzing competitors, mocking up key screens and defining the marketing strategy. The Atimi Orchard iPhone rapid development framework provides the most asked-for features and facilitates the creation of quality apps in the shortest possible time.
Whether for iPhone, iPad or Macintosh, Atimi truly is a one-stop app development shop.
Переслать - Safari 5 Brings Speed, Reader and Extensions
Apple quietly released a major upgrade to Safari, bringing the browser up to version 5.0 for both Mac and Windows. Safari 5 brings several welcome improvements, including a new “Reader” mode, improved HTML 5 support, support for Bing as a default search engine and a new extensions architecture.
To learn more about using Safari, check out our Safari 101 screencast on TechUniversity (subscription required).
Safari 5 also boosts JavaScript performance with Apple’s Nitro engine, (formally known as squirrelfish). Stats on Apple’s site claim JavaScript performance gains up to 30 percent faster than Safari 4, 3 percent faster than Chrome (really Apple, 3 percent?), and twice as fast as Firefox.
Safari’s Reader feature has been available for a while to users of Instapaper and Arc/40′s Readability bookmarklets. Reader takes the text of the web page and presents it in a larger font, uncluttered by other parts of the page, allowing you to concentrate on reading the article. I’ve been a big fan of Readability, so I’m happy to see such a great feature added to Safari. Finding the Reader button took some time. It shows up next to the RSS button in the address bar, and only when Safari detects a page that has an article with a lot of text in it.
Apple has taken another swing at Google by adding support for Bing in Safari. This move shows just how much the tech industry landscape has changed, and how rapidly it continues to change. While Google remains the default search engine, adding Bing as an option means that Apple could flip the switch on which search engine is selected by default at any time.
Firefox users have been able to extend their browser with add-ons for years, and several users have cited the lack of extensibility of Safari as a major reason for choosing Firefox on the Mac. However, it took Google’s Chrome browser supporting extensions to push Apple to support the same thing in Safari. In typical Apple style, it seems that the extensions will be signed, and a certificate to sign the extension will only be available by joining the Safari Developer Program. The extensions will also run sandboxed, further protecting the browser.
Safari extensions are build using HTML 5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Safari 5 packages a tool called the Extension Builder to help with packaging and distributing the extension into the Extensions Gallery. Expect a bunch of long awaited favorites to show up in the gallery soon.
As of this writing, no extensions are available yet. Safari 5 ships with extensions disabled by default, but to enable them, enable the Develop menu in Safari preferences, then select “Enable Extensions.”
Auto-complete in the address bar has also been enhanced. In the short time I’ve been testing it, the suggestions are not only faster, but more relevant. This is because Safari is now searching not only the beginning of the URL, but the entire string for matching characters. So far, this is honestly my favorite new feature, and speeds up browsing significantly. Oh, and address bar progress indicator is back.
Another huge bonus for me is hardware acceleration in Windows. Since I work in an office and use an XP laptop during the day, this means that Safari 5 should be a big performance boost over 4.
If you weren’t sold before, are the additions enough to bring you back to Safari? What other thoughts do you have about the new changes? Let us know in the comments!
Переслать - iPhone 4 Brings 2 Cameras and HD Video
Monday saw the unveiling of the fourth generation iPhone and with it came not one, but two new integrated cameras, both of which offer a whole host of sorely awaited, yet welcome features.
Ever since the original iPhone launched back in 2007, users have been calling out for improvements to the built-in camera. The first iPhone’s lack of basic digital camera features such as no flash, no zoom or no auto-focus abilities, were all major points of frustration. However over time, as new iPhone models rolled out of Cupertino, improved camera features came also. The smartphone’s camera soon went from packing 2.0 megapixels to 3.2 megapixels, and features such as geolocation, auto-focus and video recording were all eventually added — although it wasn’t enough, and the grumbles kept on coming.
Steve Jobs’ keynote this Monday finally offered up the changes to the iPhone’s camera that have long been desired. The features introduced for the new iPhone 4 include an upgraded camera, jumping from 3.2 megapixels to 5.0 megapixels, an LED flash and the addition of a 5x digital zoom. Also joining the camera improvements is the introduction of a front-facing camera (for video-chatting) and the ability to record high-definition (HD) video.
The iPhone 4′s overdue camera flash, which is LED based, is supported by an integrated backside illuminated sensor. This has been added as a way to get more light to the camera’s flash sensor when taking pictures in low-lighting conditions.
The iPhone has been capable of recording video since the introduction of the 3GS, although the footage captured was of a relatively low quality. Today’s update fixes that and offers HD video recording on the move. The iPhone 4 can record footage at a resolution of 720p, all at 30 frames per second. Focus capabilities have also been added to video — users need only to tap on the screen to change the focus of the recording. Additionally the camera’s LED flash can also act as a light, lighting up scenes when required.
To compliment the new video capabilities, Apple also revealed a mobile version of its video editing software iMovie. iMovie for iPhone will cost $4.99 and will offer a boiled-down version of the fully fledged Mac app. The mobile application will allow users to trim footage, add geolocation data, add transitions and upload footage to either Mobile Me or YouTube. Completed clips can also be exported in one of three resolutions: 360p, 540p and 720p. Apple has not specified if the app will be available on the older 3GS.
To learn more about using iMovie for Mac and other iLife apps, check out our iLife screencasts on TechUniversity (subscription required).
Are you pleased with the introductions to the iPhone 4′s camera, or are there still additions you would like to see? Do you like the device’s design? Will the addition of HD video recording make you ditch your Flip Mino HD? Let us know in the comments!
Переслать - Steve Jobs Survives Gizmodo, But Not MiFi
Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes tremendous pride in his public performances, and it pays off. His product presentations are usually seamless and even hypnotic. Even today at WWDC, when faced with a crowd that already knew much of what he was going to say before he said it thanks to Gizmodo, which got ahold of an iPhone 4 prototype that was left in a bar, Jobs was able to highlight still-secret features like a high-resolution screen in a way that left his trademark effect of a crowd desperately desiring his new product.
But one glitch almost took Jobs down. He couldn’t connect his live iPhone demo to the network using Wi-Fi because there were so many Wi-Fi networks in the room. Jobs blamed his audience, saying his tech team detected 570 separate Wi-Fi base stations. Those include MiFi cards and Sprint’s new EVO 4G phone, which can create shareable Wi-Fi hotspots based on mobile Internet. There wasn’t a Plan B, it seemed, so Jobs resorted to telling people to put their laptops down on the floor and police each other. Apple employees started circulating through the audience asking anyone who was using a computer to turn off the Wi-Fi and stop using their machines.
The real problem, it seemed, wasn’t attendees connecting to the open Wi-Fi network, but bringing their own networks as backup — something that has become a necessity, especially for bloggers and reporters, as the Wi-Fi at conferences including Apple’s is almost always slow, crappy or nonexistent. (I’ll admit I had both a MiFi and an EVO 4G on me, though the latter was being saved for backup.)
“I think bloggers have a right to blog, but if you want to see the demos, we’re not going to be able to do it,” said Jobs from the stage.
The thing is, access problems from mobile devices are a point of weakness for Apple. AT&T, the iPhone’s network of choice, has notoriously bad U.S. 3G coverage, and probably 95 percent of people in the room had iPhones. As soon as Jobs started having network problems, the crowd (that had given him a standing ovation just for coming on stage) seemed to feel the thrill of poetic justice.
When Jobs ran into error messages and slow-loading pages from his demo phone, he called out “Scott,” to Scott Forstall, the company’s senior VP of iOS Software, “you got any suggestions?” Multiple audience members shouted back in response “Verizon!” — referring to the network that often has more reliable coverage, especially here in San Francisco. Jobs took the bait, breaking the fourth wall to reply, “We’re actually on Wi-Fi here.”
Jobs didn’t let the subject go, either, even after the presentation got back on track, taking every opportunity to complain about the Wi-Fi. It wasn’t clear exactly what the actual Wi-Fi issue was, but it seemed that his demo iPhone may have had trouble staying connected to the Wi-Fi network it was supposed to be attached to given there were so many other options around. (If anyone can better diagnose the problem let me know.)
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Metered Mobile Data Is Coming and Here’s How
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