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- A Safari User's Switch to Chrome
I've used Safari as my default browser since 2008, but lately I've decided to give Google Chrome a shot at becoming my new standby. The main reason I chose to give Chrome a chance was that one of the sites I use every day loads like molasses in Safari, yet loads quickly in Chrome.
Since I know some of you are going to mention Firefox, I'll tell you right now that I've ruled it out. It just doesn't feel right to me. I'll use Firefox on Windows, but on a Mac it's just… weird. Feel free to disagree in the comments.
Interface
I suppose Chrome has an attractive interface, but I do think it looks better on Windows, partly because it feels designed for it rather than OS X (look at Chrome's bookmarks manager and you'll see what I mean). It just looks better with Aero.
Some aspects of Chrome's tabs implementation annoy me. Mostly, I'm pretty happy with them, but there are two drawbacks. One being that, because the tabs take up the title bar, there's less room to drag the window. This isn't a problem for people who maximize their browser windows, but I like to keep my windows a certain size and I move them around a lot, since I'm always dragging images onto my desktop.
Another side effect of having the tabs in the title bar means that Chrome's title bar doesn't really function like one; you never actually see the full title of a web page unless it fits within the tab, which seems like a small complaint, but it’s still annoying.
Features
There were several features I missed from Safari when I switched to Chrome. Probably the one I missed most was Safari's Reader view, which lets you reformat a long passage of text in an attractive drop-down that cuts out the clutter.
Fortunately, there's an extension for Chrome that mimics Reader, and actually surpasses it in some ways. The extension's called iReader and is available in the Chrome extensions gallery. When you hit the arrow keys to scroll through something in Reader for Safari, the cursor doesn't disappear like it does in normal web pages, but it does in the iReader extension, which is less distracting for me.
Speaking of extensions, there aren't any extensions I've come across for Chrome that aren't available for Safari, or that I absolutely can’t live without. The opposite isn’t true. In fact, one of the unofficial Safari extensions that I love, ClickToFlash, isn't available for Chrome, and it looks like that'll be the case for some time.
Performance
It's almost a crapshoot here. I can tell you that using Chrome feels faster than using Safari, but only a little. They both use the same rendering engine, WebKit, but they use different JavaScript engines, and from what I've learned about both Safari's Nitro and Chrome's V8, V8 is superior, but the difference in speed is also small.
On the interface performance side, I've noticed that when I have about six tabs open in Chrome, dragging the tabs around gets laggy. I don't experience this lag with Safari, which I think has the best implementation of tab-dragging in any browser.
Bugs
I can generally say that I've experienced more bugs in Chrome than I have in Safari. For instance, in Chrome, almost every time I go back to a Google search result from, say, a Wikipedia page, the page doesn't display and I'm left with the cute little dead tab face, then I have to re-enter the search in Google. It's almost a deal-breaker for me.
There are other bugs, of course, but none that are as annoying or pervasive as the above.
Security
Chrome wins here, bar none. Safari is notorious for being a vector of vulnerability attacks, having famously been hacked in just 10 seconds at the annual Pwn2Own contest in 2009, while Chrome was the only browser that wasn't hacked. However, security isn't enough to make me switch to Chrome, as there's very little chance I'd get a virus anyway, since there aren't many viruses developed for the Mac and I'm a pretty safe surfer.
Will I stay with Chrome?
After using Chrome for a couple of weeks and getting accustomed to all its quirks on the Mac, I've decided to switch back to Safari. There just isn't enough reason for me to stick with Chrome, and the Google search bug mentioned above is a huge annoyance, one that outweighs the poor performance of Safari on the one page that had me considering a switch to begin with.
Did I make the right choice? How’s your experience with Chrome been?
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Report: Google’s Voice PossibilitiesПереслать - Target to Sell iPads Starting October
Target will soon become the neighborhood electronics store with the addition of all six models of the Apple iPad in stores. The models will start at $499 (the same pricing as Apple’s online and brick and mortar stores) and will join the Kindle at the nation’s second-largest discount chain. The move to sell iPads is good for both Apple and Target, as the exposure to the devices will be significant given the chain’s foot traffic.
The retail giant will handle the entire iPad line, consisting of 16, 32 and 64GB versions of both the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/ 3G models. Executives have pointed out that the tablets from Apple are elegible for Target’s 5 percent discount for store credit-card holders, making them cheaper than buying elsewhere. The appearance of the iPad and the Kindle in Target is good exposure to technology products for the average Joe who might never see them otherwise. The vast majority of the population has never seen these gadgets in person, and they’re often best appreciated when tried in the hand; gadgets can intimidate some folks by their very nature, so having them in a familiar setting may be just the ticket to get registers to ring.
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Rogue Devices: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 1Переслать - Orb's Streaming Music Puck Shoots, But Will it Score?
Orb's Music Puck, a $69 device that streams digital over a home network is launching just two months before Apple's similar AirPlay functionality arrives in iOS devices. Music on Orb is controlled with a free smartphone app. Can Orb's new hardware compete against Apple's music juggernaut?Переслать - The New Apple Model: Cheap Player, Expensive Remote
What’s the real price of admission for the new Apple TV? How about $300 U.S., give or take, not the $99 it says on the box? That’s factoring in the cost of the entry-level iPod touch, which is the least Apple is hoping you’ll be buying in addition to its new living room media player. They say marijuana is a gateway drug; meet Apple’s new innocuous gateway gadget.
The key to Apple TV’s addictive potential? Another recently introduced Apple product, albeit one that’s harder to put a price tag on. It’s AirPlay, the re-imagined AirTunes successor that allows Apple’s iOS devices (as of version 4.2, due in November) to stream video or audio content to the Apple TV, and therefore, to your connected home stereo or television.
Without it, you’ll be paying Apple for the privilege of streaming all your content, since the new Apple TV doesn’t really have any onboard storage to speak of. If you choose to go that route, I’m sure Apple will be pleased, but I’m willing to bet (and I’m sure Apple is too) that the majority of customers will opt to stream their media from their own existing sources most of the time. Which means having something to stream from.
According to Apple’s own website, video won’t be streamed from computers to the Apple TV, only pictures and music. That means you’ll need at least an iPod touch just to start streaming video from your own sources. Of course, an iPod touch also makes a great remote. So Apple’s turned around the normal order of things, and made the storage device the controller and the player itself little more than a conduit.
It’s a risk. Most obviously because consumers could fail to see the link, or just refuse the price of entry that comes along with an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch and the Apple TV could fail utterly without affecting sales in the mobile silo at all. But it’s a risk Apple can take. The Apple TV wasn’t ever a star in the company’s lineup anyway, and even as a $99 Netflix box, it’s bound to have at least some success.
Apple may be waving its hands and pointing to Netflix and 99-cent rentals as the major selling points for Apple TV, but the sleeping giant is AirPlay (and maybe the iOS powering it, too). Watch the reviews when it hits living rooms; there won’t be one that doesn’t mention how simple and impressive watching your media via an AirPlay-connected iOS device is. That’s when it’ll become apparent that Apple’s living room strategy is really just another part of Apple’s mobile strategy.
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Got a Cable Subscription? There’ll Be an App for ThatПереслать - Rumor: 11.6-inch MacBook Air This Year
According to the Taipei newspaper/rumormonger DigiTimes, Quanta Computer “has reportedly landed orders for 11.6-inch MacBooks from Apple. Shipments of 11.6-inch MacBooks are expected to top 400,000-500,000 units in 2010.”
I want to believe, too, but the facts get in the way.
First, there’s the source: Digitimes has a wildly uneven track record regarding Apple rumors. Some of the worst predictions include Apple laptops running everything from the PPC G5 to AMD CPUs, though regarding the MacBook Air, the record is better.
In December 2007, DigiTimes reported on a deal for 90,000 13.3-inch backlit-LED displays for an “upcoming laptop,” which turned out to be the MacBook Air. A month later, DigiTimes was the first to report that Quanta had been contracted to build the MacBook Air. While not a big surprise, as Quanta had built other MacBook models, it was still an accurate report.
More recently, a senior analyst at DigiTimes Research first predicted an 11.6″ MacBook Air running an Intel Core CPU for the second half of this year, though it should be noted the same analyst also predicted a 3-megapixel camera in the latest iPod touch. Nonetheless, a decent track record on the MacBook Air, plus a second rumor on the 11.6-inch model Air should at least have us pondering whether it’s possible.
The biggest engineering problem would appear to be impact on the rest of the enclosure from reducing the diagonal of the display by 1.7 inches. As the image of a MacBook Air logic board next to a pencil illustrates, there’s not a lot left to reduce. One place where the Air could possibly lose some volume would be around the bezel, at least on the sides. Between the edge of the lid and the actual screen of the MacBook Air, there’s just over half-an-inch on each side.
The logic board itself would definitely benefit from Intel’s new microprocessor architecture, Sandy Bridge, which puts the CPU and GPU on the same die. Since the new integrated CPU also supports OpenCL, which Apple is a big supporter of, it’s possible the discrete GPU could be eliminated. However, Sandy Bridge isn’t entering production until early next year, and these rumors call for both current Core-series CPUs and a ship date in 2010. Of course, Apple has received special assistance from Intel on the MacBook Air before: the original Core 2 Duo being a one-off fabrication that was 60 percent the size of the standard version.
However, there’s another manufacturing issue of concern. At a paltry five hours, the MacBook Air already has the worst battery life of any Mac portable. While it’s true a smaller display would consume less power, a smaller battery has less to consume. Beyond that, there’s the minor issue of Steve Jobs’ and Apple’s design philosophy. When the original 13.3″ MacBook Air was introduced, Jobs asserted that 11-inch displays were too much of a “compromise” in design. Perhaps the overwhelming success of the 9.7″ iPad has changed his mind.
While it seems highly unlikely that a new MacBook Air would be released this year with a first-generation Core CPU, an Apple event in January seems like the last, best hope for the MacBook Air.
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Strategies for the Future of Digital Content StorageПереслать - Apple Becomes Second Largest Stock by Market Value
In case you needed a reminder that Apple isn’t the scrappy little tech company that could anymore, yesterday, its stock climbed as high as $292.76 on the Nasdaq, leading to a total market value of $267.5 billion, which made it the second-highest listed company behind Exxon Mobil. At the end of the day, Apple had slipped back to third behind PetroChina, but that doesn’t make the feat any less impressive.
It’s the latest chapter of a story that started with the introduction of the iPod, but really started heating up when the iPhone was announced in January 2007. Since then, Apple’s stock has more than tripled in value, and the company overtook Microsoft in May as the most valuable tech stock. Based on the success of its latest star, the iPad, which is already selling better than the iPod, that trajectory isn’t going to change, either.
Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray expects iPad sales to climb even higher next year, too. He issued a prediction of 21 million iPads sold next year, thanks to the company’s efforts to enter more international markets and increase distribution channels for the device. Based on the strength of that prediction, among other factors, Apple’s stock is expected to store higher still, with Munster even suggesting it could hit $390 a share at its highest.
Apple isn’t without challenges, however. Android’s rising popularity is a threat. Google’s smartphone OS recently accounted for as much as 17 percent of the U.S. market, up from 12 percent. Apple had slipped from 25 to 24 percent in the same time period. Much will depend on how the iPad fares as more competition enters the market, and on whether or not Apple can shake up its Mac division with some exciting new offerings to offset any ground lost to Android in the smartphone game.
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Got a Cable Subscription? There’ll Be an App for ThatПереслать - Verizon CEO Crushes Hopes of 1.4M AT&T Subscribers
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg
Despite supplier rumors that seemed to indicate we’d see a Verizon iPhone early on in the new year, recent comments by Verizon’s own CEO have put a damper on those hopes. CEO Ivan Seidenberg said at the Goldman Sachs Investor conference that Apple’s device won’t appear on his company’s network until it’s ready for the long-term evolution (LTE) network Verizon is so fervent about.
Seidenberg mostly emphasized the LTE network itself, and LTE-based devices, like the Android phones Verizon’s had so much success with. It seems like both a bit of a shot at Apple, and an attempt to distance the company from the rumors, out of apparent fear that when the rumors prove untrue, Verizon stock will suffer.
Verizon expects to see its 4G network cover 90 percent of the U.S. by 2012, and is staking its future on devices that work with the new technology. Apple tends to be a late adopter of new wireless tech, only updating when the infrastructure is already in place and the demand is strong. Don’t expect Cupertino to jump through any hoops to beat other manufacturers to the LTE party.
That’s not going to be welcome news for the reported 1.4 million AT&T iPhone owners who would reportedly switch to Verizon if given the chance, according to a survey by Credit Suisse (c cs). For those keeping score, that’s almost a full quarter of all of AT&T’s iPhone customers. Not exactly what you’d call an acceptable loss. Luckily, AT&T would have a chance to convince them to stay, since only 3 percent would break their current contract owing to the high cost of early cancellation.
Verizon’s playing a high-risk game by counting on that demand to stick around while it waits for Apple to produce an iPhone that’s LTE compatible. If AT&T can improve their service, they may be the big winners in this waiting game.
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Steve Jobs promised the second-generation Apple TV, announced at the last Apple event, would ship within four weeks. This being the fourth week, it’s not surprising to see reports appearing citing charges to credit cards, which suggests shipments are imminent.
Just a fifth the size of the previous model, the new Apple TV dispenses with a 160GB mechanical drive and Pentium CPU, in favor of a rumored 16GB of flash and the Apple A4. It will also be running iOS, but is not currently capable of accessing the App Store.
However, Steve Jobs did tell Businessweek that “when the time is right, Apple could open an App Store for the TV.” That careful non-confirmation has recently been buttressed by an obscure profile at LinkedIn. As reported by MacRumors, the profile describes the position of an intern as an “Apple TV Apps Engineer.”
Perhaps the inevitable jailbreaking of the new Apple TV will turn up evidence of software hooks for the App Store, but even if it doesn’t, new functionality includes Netflix streaming, at least for U.S., and now Canadian subscribers. Additionally, AirPlay will allow computer and iOS device owners to stream music, photos, and video to the new Apple TV.
Unfortunately, owners of previous versions will be getting neither apps nor Netflix, and yet now might be the best time to buy a first-generation Apple TV.
For those of us who bought the new Apple TV, the wait is almost over. My own Apple TV, ordered at 11:20 AM PDT, still lists “September” as a ship date, but I expect that will soon change. I plan to use it as a kind of “front end” to the Mac mini next to the TV, replacing the seemingly abandoned Front Row, and providing easy Netflix access to my Mac home theater.
If you’ve ordered an Apple TV, has its shipping status changed yet? If you haven’t ordered one, what would you like to see in a review?
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Got a Cable Subscription? There’ll Be an App for ThatПереслать - The iPad and the Rise of the Keyboard Case
The slow trickle that will become a flood has begun, as Keyboard cases for Apple’s iPad begin to appear here and there alongside more traditional offerings. The idea is simple: build a Bluetooth keyboard right into a case designed to protect and carry the iPad, and you’ve got yourself a total netbook replacement in a single, svelte package. It’s a watershed moment for the iPad, and for tablets in general.
The First Crop
The ClamCase was one of the first out of the gate with the concept, but they haven’t been able to make the leap to actually producing units yet. ClamCase’s creators have pegged Fall 2010 as the timeframe for actually shipping the hard-shell keyboard case, but no concrete details have emerged.
Two other more recent competitors look poised to beat them out the gate in terms of putting devices into the hands of actual consumers. The first is the Sena Keyboard Folio, a high-end leather option retailing for $149.99 ($129.99 if you pre-order), and the second is the very similar Kensington KeyFolio, which trades real leather for faux, and retails for much less at $99.99. Neither has actually come to market, but both are available for pre-order.
Why It’s Needed
I’m excited about the arrival of the keyboard case, as it means I’ll soon be able to actually use my iPad to do work on the train comfortably, without having to figure out some way to affix the iPad itself to the seat in front of me, since my stand and keyboard together won’t fit on the meal tray. That’s an incredibly specific situation, it’s true, but it’s representative of the more general problem of using the iPad on the go.
How The Keyboard Case is a Game Changer
If keyboard cases can solve this problem, it’ll have huge ramifications not only for the iPad itself, but for all tablet computing. Apple, with its staunch dedication to ever-simpler interfaces and less buttons, will never admit that a tablet with an integrated keyboard could be successful, but its competitors could take advantage if they can find a way to make such a design work. It’s a better idea than just throwing more and more 7-inch devices at the problem.
Apple would do best to go the route of scrapping the keyboard dock altogether (extremely limited, and terrible for use while in motion), and probably the official iPad case itself, too (I bought one at launch and literally haven’t touched it since I removed it after the first day). In the place of both accessories, it should offer a case that integrates a Bluetooth Mac keyboard, slightly redesigned to include the special function keys currently found on the keyboard dock.
Building the Accessory Bridge
The keyboard case may be treading softly as it comes to market, but make no mistake, this one’s got legs. At the very least, it’ll help bridge the gap between the notebook and the tablet for users who are having a hard time adjusting, which will significantly benefit the bottom line of Apple and other manufacturers getting into the market.
What do you think? Will the keyboard case actually make a big difference in the tablet game?
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Rogue Devices: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 1Переслать - NBC a Holdout for 99-Cent iTunes Rentals
So far, only ABC and Fox have signed on with Apple’s plan to rent individual TV show for 99 cents apiece. Other networks have yet to join in, and yesterday, NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker made clear that his company probably won’t be anytime soon.
According to Zucker, speaking at a Goldman Sachs Investor conference (via AppleInsider), giving in to Apple’s request would be bad for NBC’s brand. "We do not think 99 cents is the right price point for our content," he said. "We thought it would devalue our content." More than giving it away for free while shilling for Bud Light and Pepsi? Really?
Still, it’s hard to fault NBC for playing coy initially. Though ABC and Fox have signed on with Apple’s plan, as mentioned, Fox has done so only temporarily. It told investors at the conference on Wednesday that the 99-cent price point was only a “short-term test” designed to gauge feasibility in the longer term.
This isn’t Apple’s first rodeo, though. NBC has played a similar tune in the past, when it pulled all of its content from the iTunes store in 2007 with little warning. It was attempting to use its position as a top mover of content in the iTunes marketplace to bully Apple into doubling the price of its individual episodes.
NBC eventually caved, signing back on to sell episodes at the regular price of $1.99 for SD and $2.99 for HD. Apple TV’s sales success will have a major impact in determining whether history repeats itself or not in this case. I’m betting it will.
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With Ping, Apple Builds a Social Network Inside a Walled GardenПереслать - iPad iWork 1.2 Update: Better Sync for Files, Office
One of my biggest gripes about iWork for iPad has been the absolutely unwarranted pain it was to get files onto and off of the device. For a company that prides itself on the user experience, file transfers from the web into Apple’s own suite of productivity apps was downright embarrassing.
The iWork 1.2 update for iPad brings about a whole host of welcome improvements, the best one in my opinion being the ability to import and export directly from iDisk, or any WebDAV-supported virtual disk. Dropbox isn’t WebDAV, unfortunately, and I wouldn’t hold my breath for Dropbox support.
Until now, Pages was the only one of the three apps that could export to its MS Office counterpart, but now, all three can export to Office-compatible formats. I’m curious to see how well this will work with Keynote, since most Keynote files I’ve exported to PowerPoint look like they were victims of a vicious assault.
The apps now support grouped objects as well. For Keynote especially, this is a big plus for me, as you can define builds on grouped objects, and the groups remain intact when imported from the desktop version.
A small, but welcome change is support for importing .txt and .csv files for Pages and Numbers, respectively. You can’t export them, but at least you can work with them. These are all supported via the “Open As” command, so any app can inbound the files.
Pages gets another halfway-done feature with support for footnotes, endnotes, and sections on import and export. You can’t create these, but files you copy onto the iPad to work with won’t get mangled as part of the process. I’m hoping 1.3 allows users to create them.
I’ve always believed the feature set of the iWork suite was the best available for the iPad. The sticking issue for me was transfers. With the 1.2 update, I feel Apple has made some serious progress towards creating a fantastic productivity suite. So far, the only thing I can say is missing from Pages is creation of footnotes.
I also think Apple needs to address importing fonts since I use non-standard fonts for all my presentations. Now, with iDisk support I hope Apple also fixes general syncing issues, since it looks like I’ll be storing more mission-critical data up there in the cloud.
Full release notes for Numbers, Pages, and Keynote can be read via the App Store.
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Now that Apple's sixth-generation iPod nanos are actually in people’s hands, I thought I'd take a closer look at the value difference between the new and the old. Is the new iPod nano really worth it?
It’s Got The Touch
First and foremost, the new version has a "multitouch" screen. Actually, it's only capable of discerning two finger gestures (and only for rotating the screen). The introduction of a touchscreen on such a small device is certainly one way to reduce the need for physical controls (ironic that this was introduced immediately after the new iPod shuffle regained its tactile buttons).
The touchscreen also adds a "wow" factor for those who wish they owned an iPod touch or an iPhone. The icons even jiggle when you move them around! But don't let that fool you. The iPod nano isn't running iOS, simply updated software designed to resemble iOS. The result? You're not going to be using apps with it anytime soon.
Design Details
If you were to take a casual, superficial look at the iPod nano, you might think it's a bit awkward.
The form factor resembles a larger iPod shuffle and the straight edges at the top and bottom seem a little odd for Apple's standards. One would think the form factor would resemble a smaller iPhone and be curved at the corners like the plastic boxes in which they ship.
The display itself doesn't sit flat against the body of the device, likely a result of a decision to make the device as small as possible. In my opinion, the design is a bit contrived. Considering the latest iPod shuffle is just a smaller version of the second-generation model, and this new nano looks like a larger version of it with a multi-touch screen, I wonder what Jonny Ive's team is actually doing.
Technical Specs
When you think about iPod nanos, you might think about how they could play video (2007 and on) or how they had a built-in camera and record video (2009). You might even think about increasingly bigger and better displays. Sure it wasn't all that great, but you might even think back to when iPod nanos included a speaker (2009). Well, times are changing.
The introduction of a touch screen has driven the component costs of the iPod nano higher than previous models. As a result, Apple trimmed some features that were "not often used" to maintain an amicable price point for consumers, and the company’s profit margin.
Were these features infrequently used? It is true if you own an iPhone, you already have a camera at your disposal. But a nano was an inexpensive and convenient alternative for those who didn’t. And while few might have actually watched video on the tiny screen, you could still plug it into a TV.
The real point I'm trying to make is that while Apple seems intent on pushing the iTunes Store and all it offers, its latest device plays a lot less of that content than the previous generation. That doesn't seem terribly innovative to me.
Granted, the nano has a specific audience. But for me, it's not a simple matter of "well if you want those features, go buy an iPod touch or an iPhone." Instead, it’s about Apple allowing form to trump function. There’s another glaring example I can cite from recent memory.
Have you had a chance to check out the new iPod nano? What do you think? Will you upgrade or sell your previous generation for an ungodly amount on eBay? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Apple subsidiary Filemaker found a warm reception for their mobile product Filemaker Go, which reached #3 on the top grossing list for business apps and is still sitting at #6 today. Both the iPhone and the iPad versions of Filemaker Go were updated to version 1.1 today. The update adds some nice features, including barcode scanning, which business users should be very excited about.
New Features
The update includes following features:
- Insert a photo into a container field
- Save or Send Database
- Save or Send PDF
- Import from Filemaker Database
- Integration with third party iOS apps
The photo feature lets you add images from the camera roll or take a new picture and insert it into a record. Save and Send allows for saving a copy of the database, and sharing by email. Filemaker Go can generate PDF reports from any view, and the import step allows mobile databases to update their content from existing Filemaker databases residing elsewhere over a network connection.
Barcode Scanning
While these updates are certainly welcome, the integration with third party iOS apps through the URL protocol handler is much more interesting. The first product announced that will work with this feature is CNS Barcode, which lets you include barcodes in databases.
A script step calls CNS Barcode using the URL protocol for that app. Once the barcode is captured via the camera and converted into a string, CNS Barcode passes that result back to Filemaker Go. Thanks to the magic of multitasking in iOS 4, Filemaker Go then continues the script where it left off. The potential for inventory and retail applications is apparent.
Possibilities
This kind of integration is available to any iOS app. Developers can extend Filemaker Go with bespoke apps that can perform a particular task and then insert the result into a database. For example, it would be possible to write an app that connects to a web service to get current information on pricing, inventory levels, etc. from an enterprise system and add those results to the database. Or a developer could create apps to talk to specialty hardware accessories through the dock connector, but return the results to Filemaker Go where they can be stored for later analysis or used to generate PDF reports on the go.
I think this will be particularly interesting to enterprise customers that want to tap into existing data sources because they should be able to focus on building just the bridge app that connects to their system and then leverage the existing features of Filemaker Go to store the results, search records, generate PDF reports that can be emailed, and so on.
We’re used to this sort of integration on the desktop, but seeing it work on an iPhone is surprising. It feels new again and shows me that the future of iOS apps is really limitless. I’m sure I’ve only just scratched the surface of possible future uses.
What about you? What apps would you like to integrate with Filemaker Go? How would you use this feature in your organization to tap into other data sources?
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Multiple Models for Social Media BusinessesПереслать - Quick Look: Photoshop Elements 9
The latest edition of Adobe’s amateur image editing software takes a little from Photoshop and a little from iPhoto, but it may not be enough to justify the price. Features include:
- new advanced editing tools: layer mask, content-aware spot healing
- new organizer software
- improved repair tools
- copy and paste photo “styles,” texture, contrast, tone, tint, etc.
- new guided editing effects: portraits, out-of-bounds, pop art
- improved panoramic photo merging
- create calendars, greeting, cards, and photo books for printing or purchase
- more sharing options, including Facebook, Flickr, and Adobe Online albums
However, the bulk of the program really boils down the first two points: the organizer and a couple of editing tools.
Adobe Elements Organizer 9 replaces the previous Bridge software, but it’s clearly designed as an iPhoto replacement, too. Organizer can access the iPhoto library, copying photos into its own directory in the Pictures folder of your User directory.
Like iPhoto, Organizer scans photos for faces and other attributes, and automatically tags them, often with similar mixed results. Also like iPhoto, Organizer has editing features like automatic color and levels, as well as the one-button Smart Fix, which is much better than Enhance in iPhoto. As in iPhoto, you can make cards and books, as well as share photos online, though not with MobileMe. If it weren’t for the lack of integration with MobileMe and iTunes syncing (which isn’t Adobe’s fault), I’d switch to Organizer in a heartbeat.
In terms of editing, to my surprise, I found Layer Masks. Until now, that’s been an “advanced” feature found only in Photoshop. Even better, the Spot Healing tool is now content-aware. Using that tool, it took four stokes to remove the unwanted people in the waterfall photo above. The Spot Healing tool draws on surrounding content, so the bigger the “spot,” the less impressive the results. Still, it’s a nice feature.
If there’s one problem with Photoshop Elements 9, it’s probably the price: $79 after an annoying $20 mail-in rebate. While that’s over $500 less than Photoshop CS5, it’s also the price of iLife ’09, which includes the adequate iPhoto along with iMovie, iWeb and GarageBand. Luckily, there’s a 30-day free trial that lets you judge for yourself. If you’ve tried both, let us know which you prefer in the comments.
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How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer's GuideПереслать - More Evidence for a Verizon iPhone Comes From Suppliers
The lack of a Verizon iPhone was costly for Apple over the course of the last year, and it doesn’t look like the Mac maker wants to let that cost build up much longer. Sources from overseas suppliers have reported that Apple is aiming to put 3 million CDMA-only iPhones into production in December of 2010.
That kind of production time line would put the new Verizon iPhone on track for an early 2011 launch. Finally switching to Verizon could very well be your New Year’s resolution. Adding 3 million CDMA-only devices to their production queue would bring Apple’s total iPhone output for the quarter up to around 22 million units. Good numbers for a device with a crippling design flaw.
While I’m always happy to see Apple moving away from exclusivity in any market, part of me wonders if the company couldn’t just have made devices that are both CDMA and GSM-capable, like BlackBerry’s Tour. As the proud owner of a factory-unlocked iPhone 4 here in Canada, I enjoy being able to choose my service provider. Canadian cellular service providers all switched to GSM networks before the Vancouver Winter Olympics to ensure they’d see a chunk of the profits from the resulting European tourists, and also to ensure their networks could support the iPhone, since it was that much of a revenue star for Rogers, the original exclusive carrier.
Sure, a CDMA device provides choice for U.S. iPhone users, but it’s a choice that puts you on a single path until the device’s end-of-life. It means more money for Apple – as if they needed it – but less consumer freedom. Apple has been wresting control from carriers regarding contract details and pricing, and even network infrastructure in some countries.
A CDMA iPhone is a step backwards in that regard, and in a larger sense, maybe a bit of a loss for the average consumer, even though it’s a definite win in the short-term.
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Verizon Company ProfileПереслать - App Marketing 101: App Store Ladder Points
Imagine walking into a warehouse with thousands upon thousands of products with each aisle more than 10 miles long. Would you browse each aisle for the item you were looking for, or would you rely on the displays showing off the best-selling products?
Most likely, you’d rely on the masses to make your decisions for you and choose from the best sellers. The same is true for iTunes: There are simply too many apps in the App Store to accommodate effective browsing. Most people's passive discovery comes from the lists of ranked apps. For developers, this is an important place to note and where to aim for an app to land.
The design of the app store has created a number of "ladder points," where moving from one ranking to the next increases an app’s visibility — and its sales.
There are six major rank-controlled visibility points in the App Store:
- Top 10 of all Apps
- Top 10 in your category
- Top 25 of all Apps
- Top 25 in your category
- Top 200 of all apps
- Top 200 in your category
Achieving each of these rankings makes an app significantly more visible to the iTunes-perusing public. When browsing the top apps in a category, iTunes only displays the top 200 apps. If you’re ranked 201, you’re stuck with search as your main (and not very reliable) discovery method. The top 25 of each category is significant, because it’s how many apps are shown when viewing the app store on your iPhone. Top 10, of course, is the ultimate goal, with your app being displayed on the front page in your section. If you’re lucky enough to be in the overall top 10 (In which case, why are you reading this? You seem to be doing fine without the instruction.), you'll find yourself on the iTunes front page.
The added visibility of these ladder positions makes them worth vying for, even if you sometimes have to spend a little in ads to get there. The purchase of enough pay-per-click or pay-per-install ads to get you up to, say, position 25 (shoot for 23-24 to be safe) may give you a negative ROI, but the added visibility of your new position could easily make up for it by driving new sales.
This is the second post in a three-part series. To learn more about marketing iPhone apps, read part 1 and part 3, which will be posted later this week. For an in-depth analysis, download the GigaOM Pro report "How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer's Guide" (subscription required).
Переслать - For the Love of Music, Buy the Old Apple TV
The new Apple TV is bright and shiny and full of Netflix and TV rental goodness, but I still love the old Apple TV. It won’t be getting any new tricks even via software update, but here are a few good reasons you may want to think about getting the old dog instead of a brand new puppy.
You Want to Save Money
The old Apple TV with 160GB hard drive is only $149 on clearance, down from $229. That price is $100 less than the iPod Classic, also with a 160GB hard drive. If you want to connect an iPod Classic to your TV or even stereo, you have to buy the component or composite cable ($49), and if you want to pause your music to answer the phone while sitting on the couch, you’ll also need the universal dock with remote control ($49).
Buying the 160GB Apple TV will actually save you $200. Yes, yes, it’s $50 more than the new Apple TV, but even still, it’s a bargain home theatre component.
You Want Single-Device Usability
To play anything on the new Apple TV, you have to stream it (there’s zero local storage, remember?). If you want to put on some music, you have to turn on your computer, grab your iPad, etc. With the classic Apple TV, your music is already there. Just turn it on and pump the jam. 160GB holds fewer movies than music, but at 1GB or so each, you can still get plenty of movies on the device before you need to start streaming from a computer.
You Have an iPhone
Apple’s Remote app for iOS is the perfect way to control your Apple TV. Instead of scrolling through the list of artists, albums, etc. on the screen using the little plastic remote, you can jump right to the music you want, navigating visually. You can even use it to type into search fields for YouTube.
Yes, I realize this works with the new Apple TV, too, but it definitely isn’t a knock against the old one.
You Have an Older TV
If you have an older AV receiver or TV, you may not be able to even use the HDMI output from the new Apple TV. The previous Apple TV has component video output in addition to HDMI, so you won’t need to get a special converter cable.
You Like to Tinker
The previous Apple TV has a pretty active community involved in hacking around with it to add features. It’s fairly simple to use a patchstick to enable filesharing, install Boxee, add a weather channel, use an external USB drive and other such things. I have a pretty large collection of movies in iTunes, so I made my Apple TV into a 1TB monster that can hold my entire library (currently at 700GB).
You Love Music
I know everyone gets all excited about the video features of the Apple TV, but I’ve told more than one person that the real reason to get an Apple TV is to play music through your stereo. It’s an iPod for your TV. I still can’t get over having 2000+ albums at the touch of a button. Of course, I grew up buying vinyl LP’s and making mix tapes on 1/4″ magnetized tape.
I graduated to a 400 disc CD changer at some point, but the previous Apple TV is the best way to play music on your stereo that I’ve ever used. A Sonos system would be nice, but the Apple TV is a lot cheaper, and works with any iTunes DRM-protected video content that you have.
You Don’t Have a Netflix Subscription
For a lot of people, the convenience of being able to play your music library without turning on your computer will be enough to offset the loss of Netflix and TV rentals, but it’s hard to sell Netflix as a feature to people without Netflix subscriptions.
What do you think? Will you buy an old Apple TV or wait for the new one to ship in a couple of weeks?
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Got a Cable Subscription? There’ll Be An App For ThatПереслать - Adobe Releases Photoshop and Premiere Elements 9 for Mac
Adobe today announced the newest version of their consumer photo editing tool, Photoshop Elements, the kid brother of the Photoshop CS5 we all know and love. Adobe also announced Premiere Elements 9, available for the first time on the Mac. Both are available individually, or you can get them together as a discounted bundle.
The announcement of Premiere puts Adobe in direct competition with Apple's iMovie application that ships with every new Mac. This obviously begs the question, why would you choose Premiere over iMovie? Having just downloaded and installed Premiere, I don't have the answer yet.
What I can say is that iMovie and Premiere seem very much alike in function and appearance. Both applications tout ease of editing, basic special effects, and simple sharing with online services as their primary draws.
Installing and launching Premiere is a bit odd, unless you are used to the Adobe way of doing Mac apps. The download is 1.84GB, which expands to 3.3GB after installation. After launching, Premiere shows a blank screen with a row of buttons at the top. Clicking on the house button launches a separate application called the Adobe Premiere Welcome Screen.
Adobe Premiere Elements 9
Even based just on this slightly confusing experience, I think Premiere will face stiff competition from the incredibly user-friendly iMovie and iLife suite.
As mentioned, Photoshop Elements 9 is also available for download, and includes some great features from Photoshop CS5. This quote from Adobe’s press release mentions one feature alone that could be worth the $99 price tag:
Adapted from Photoshop CS5's celebrated Content Aware Fill feature, the content intelligence in the Spot Healing Brush analyzes what's in the image and quickly de-clutters or repairs photos (like removing tourists from a crowded scene) with a swipe of a brush, magically filling in the background.
Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 are available from Adobe for $99 each, or as a bundle for $149.99.
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Adobe Company ProfileПереслать - Apple Still Winning the Customer Satisfaction Game
A new survey measuring customer service among computer users was released today. To those who own a Mac, it probably won’t come as a surprise that Apple ranked highest among all companies covered in the study. It was Apple’s highest ever rating, in fact, though it wasn’t the only company to achieve its highest rating.
PC makers also had their highest-ever satisfaction ratings in the survey, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), mostly due to the introduction of Windows 7. If you’ve switched from Vista to 7, you’ll probably see why. It’s like washing dishes by hand your entire life, then switching to a dishwasher late in life: so much better, it feels like you’re getting away with something.
However, Apple’s still got quite a lead on its nearest competitors. Acer, Dell and HP are the next closest big brands, with approval ratings of 77 out of 100. That’s almost ten points less than Apple’s 86, which is two points up from 2009′s score of 84.
Apple’s score includes users’ experiences with the new iPad, which is great news for the Mac maker. It means iPad owners are satisfied with their devices, and aren’t experiencing much early adopter dissatisfaction or buyer’s remorse. It’s also good news for Mac users who fear Apple’s growing focus on iOS, since Cupertino isn’t likely to ignore a silo where they have such a strong advantage over the rest of the market in such a crucial area.
Here’s the real key to Apple’s success: I’ve never had an Apple hardware-related support issue go unresolved. If you asked me to measure my satisfaction with my PCs, I’d have a very different story to tell. Being told “Oh yeah, they’ll do that” when you complain that your computer overheats and just shuts down of its own accord after only a year of ownership is not conducive to high marks, and that’s what happened with the last Windows machine I owned.
Anyone feel like Apple’s customer service reputation isn’t quite as deserved as it seems? Sound off in the comments.
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Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2Переслать - A New Hope: VLC Is in the App Store
Apple’s iOS devices play .m4v, .mp4 and .mov files, but they have to be specifically encoded for the platform. VLC plays just about any video format you could come across. That means .mkv, .avi, and .mpeg’s among others. VLC is a great tool for notebook and desktop computers, but does the just-released iPad version provide a new hope for iOS devices?
How VLC Works
After you install the VLC App on the iPad and launch it for the first time, it will tell you to use iTunes to load video files onto your iPad via the new File Sharing feature. From the Apps tab in iTunes, you’ll see a File Sharing section on the bottom of the screen. From here, you can copy files to and from the iPad. Once you have some media loaded, you’re ready to play.
Videos in VLC are placed on shelves for you to select. Once a video is selected, it will start playback in full-screen mode. When you stop and exit full screen mode, a little timer will appear in the bottom right corner of the thumbnail indicating how much of the video you’ve already viewed. The controls are somewhat limited, even by iPad standards, and will only allow you to manually scroll forward and back, as well as advance to the next and previous chapters, in addition to play/pause and volume functions.
You can’t maximize the screen size of the playing video to hide the black bars, and there doesn’t appear to be any subtitle support at the moment. There’s also no way to see a list of chapters, and I was also unable to play video when connecting the iPad to my external video display.
How VLC Compares
For the first test, I took the exact same file, encoded from a DVD source, using Handbreak, to an .m4v/.mp4 file format. This was a full-length movie file weighing in at 1.62GB utilizing the H.264 video codec and both AAC as well as AC3 audio codecs at a total bit rate of 1,277 (details taken from the Finder’s “More info” screen). I would typically play this file on my Samsung 40″ HDTV by copying it to a USB thumb drive and plugging the thumb drive directly into the side of the HDTV, where it looks very good.
I also loaded the same file onto my iPad and played it using Apple’s own software. The iPad played the file with no noticeable jerks in the video, no jaggies, and the sound matched the actors from a timing perspective. It looked stunning as well. Then I loaded the same video file to VLC via iTunes File Sharing. There were noticeable skips, jumps, and at times, horrible jaggies that engulfed the entire screen. The audio seemed to outpace the video, resulting in the dreaded false foreign dubbing effect.
What about HD video? Upon loading HD files, a neat little red banner is tagged across the upper right corner of the thumbnail on the media self in the iPad version of VLC. However, if you play a truly HD video, VLC will warn you that “Your iPad is probably too slow to play this movie correctly”, and allow you to cancel or try anyway. This leads one to believe that it is not a poorly written port of VLC to iOS, but rather the limitations of the A4 chipset that causes playback problems. Yet the exact same video file performed much better in Apple’s stock video app.
How VLC Adapts
I have a relatively extensive video library, including encoded DVDs and DV video shot with a variety of cameras. Getting these files to play back on each new device I purchase has been a nightmare. There are DVD players the support DivX, and HDTVs that support H.264, and then there’s all the codecs that modern DVRs produce. I tried playing the video from the following sources, to see just how nimble VLC for iPad really was:
- SD video from a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS
- HD video from a Flip Mino HD
- HD video from Canon Digital Rebel T1i
- HD video exported from iMovie on the iPhone 4
- SD DivX/Xvid video
In all cases, the video did display something, VLC occasionally crashed, and I at least heard something intelligibly audible. If you don’t want to spend your time converting your existing media files, you want something that can play what you’ve got. But nothing was playing at anywhere near the quality required to view and comprehend the video. It was as if I was a member of a CSI team trying to extract evidence from a damaged hard drive.
How VLC Can Improve
VLC is on iOS, and that is a good thing. That said, praising its release and existence in the App Store is about all I will be doing. If I have to convert video to an acceptable bitrate, or downgrade HD video to standard, then I might as well do so in a format that the stock Apple app can already play. The beauty of VLC is that you shouldn’t have to do anything, and any video format you have should be supported. It’s a lofty goal for any development team to be held accountable for. The developers at Applidium have taken on a worthy challenge.
Add some basic features like video output, and, dare I hope, AirPlay support, and VLC would be a mighty contender. In its current state, the media files that I would want to feed VLC are choking on limited resources. Hopefully, there are still some performance enhancements in VLC that can be made, and we’ll see smooth playback of all media formats from iOS devices, including the iPhone, directly to the new Apple TV.
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3 Things Apple iTV Must Do to SucceedПереслать
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