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- Hey look, Exfm is like Ping, but useful!
A new iPhone app released Thursday brings a music social network to the iPhone. Not for the first time, mind you, but it does get a lot of things right that previous offerings, including Apple's own Ping, haven't been able to nail down.
Exfm is the free iPhone client for an existing service that started life off as ExtensionFM, a Chrome extension that lets you grab and build playlists out of free MP3s posted to blogs, and also lets you share both listen to those and share them to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.
The iOS app doesn't let you collect music tracks itself, but it does grab songs you mark as "Noted" using the Chrome extension, letting you play them back on your iPhone via streaming over Wi-Fi and 3G.
Exfm scratches a couple of itches that Ping doesn't; it doesn't depend entirely on users having a strong network to function, since it gathers tracks for your consideration from music blogs, and it also actually lets you play music from your built-in iPod app and "Note" those songs, which means you can share your musical tastes with your social network contacts as you listen.
One of Ping's greatest weaknesses is that it doesn't plug into a user's actual music library or let them use it easily while they're actually listening to music. If I have to go to my library, find the track I'm hearing, and mark it as "Liked" in the desktop version of iTunes, most of the time I'm not going to bother. If, on the other hand, I can just unlock my iPhone (where I do the vast majority of my music listening anyway) and, using a single tap, recommend a track, I'm much more likely to participate.
To be fair, Apple did introduce the ability to Like and post comments about songs in the iPod app in iOS 4.3, but it works with tracks purchased from the iTunes Store, which leaves a lot of uncovered ground for many users. Exfm works with anything in your library, and connects you to Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm friends in addition to those who also use Exfm.
Apple partnering with Twitter to make iOS more generally social is a good idea. If Exfm's early efforts with its iPhone app are any indication, Cupertino should think about cutting its losses with Ping and teaming up with theses guys to shore up that side of its mobile business, too.
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Переслать - Does hardware trump network speed? 1M T-Mobile iPhones say yes.
Will there be an LTE iPhone this year? Reports generally suggest that Apple won’t make the leap to true 4G mobile broadband in 2011. But we’ve argued in the past that a lack of LTE compatibility probably won’t be much of an issue in terms of the iPhone 5′s appeal, and a new report Thursday from T-Mobile (via 9t05Mac) backs that up.
A T-Mobile spokesman told 9t05Mac that there are currently more than a million active iPhones using T-Mobile’s network. T-Mobile’s network uses a different frequency for 3G connectivity, so even though it’s a GSM network, which the iPhone supports, anyone using an iPhone on T-Mobile in the U.S. will only get 2G EDGE speeds.
Most of these iPhones are pre-iPhone 4 models, the spokesman said, but the iPhone 4 was also fairly well represented, which means customers had to physically alter their SIM cards to get the phone working on the network. The iPhone 4 uses a micro-SIM, smaller than the standard SIM card, and T-Mobile doesn’t carry the micro-SIM variant. T-Mobile iPhone users would also have had to unlock their devices via jailbreak, or purchased them factory unlocked in order to get them working on the carrier’s network, which those considering an iPhone 4 can now do in the U.S.
For a technically unsupported device, 1 million is a big number. Consider that estimates for Windows Phone 7 total sales so far puts its reach at about 3.6 million globally (combining estimates from late last year and the first quarter of 2011), and that T-Mobile’s total subscriber count is somewhere around 33 million, and the number is even more impressive. If and when the T-Mobile / AT&T merger goes through, iPhone customers may be legitimized, but for now, that’s 3 percent of T-Mobile’s overall network that’s going rogue for the love of the iPhone.
Does Apple need to bring 4G to the iPhone 5? Not if customers are already bending over backwards to use legacy devices on a previous generation network. The iPhone’s popularity when it was only available on AT&T, which by almost all accounts provides dismal service in certain locations, including major urban centers like New York and San Francisco, is another indication that people are prioritizing the hardware when buying an Apple smartphone.
The increased availability of Wi-Fi hotspots, and offloading efforts by carriers also make mobile cellular network speed less of a priority, especially since mobile data plans now come with caps that can seriously restrict their usefulness anyway. So while the competition tries to dangle the carrot of 4G speeds, which may or may not be relevant to users, Apple can focus on hardware and software, which apparently draw in customers even when just getting any kind of cellular service can be a bit of a hassle.
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Переслать - The camera: Apple's silent strength in the smartphone war
With iOS 5, Apple introduced new features for its iPhone Camera app that make it much more of a one-stop-shopping experience for mobile photographers, including photo editing and correction tools, as well as a physical shutter button. A new patent application published Thursday morning also describes a method to automatically correct for “tilt and/or perspective distortion in image capture devices,” indicating that Apple has more in the pipeline for its smartphone camera. The camera hasn’t always been the iPhone’s strong suit, but over the years, it has become one of the device’s most-improved feature, and arguably one of its selling points.
The iPhone camera has come a long way. In the early days, many complained about the quality of the camera. It started off with just a 2 megapixel sensor, and with a barebones stable of features. The iPhone 3G didn’t even update the camera’s megapixel count, though it does appear to have ushered in some slight improvements in picture quality. Finally, with the 3GS, we got a spec bump to a 3.2 megapixel sensor, but the real advantage with that generation was that it brought in touch-to-focus controls. The camera also seemed to just generally take better photos, in all but low-light situations, and it gained the ability to take videos (without jailbreak).
When Apple revealed the iPhone 4, it was clear that the camera was one big area of improvement. It gained a 5 megapixel sensor (which was also larger, and its the size and megapixel count combined that create better images), and one which is backside-illuminated, allowing for better performance in low-light situations, as did the new LED flash. Reviews of the photos taken by the iPhone 4 were almost unanimously positive, with many being quite free with the superlatives. The iPhone 4 also introduced HD video, and a front-facing camera for greater flexibility with video calling and other applications, like checking your tie just prior to a job interview.
But Apple is also clearly dedicated to improving iPhone camera software, mot just the hardware. iOS 4.1 introduced high dynamic range (HDR) photos built-in to the photo app, which takes three photos in rapid succession with three different levels of exposure, and then combines them to prevent photos from looking washed out. And, as mentioned above, iOS 5 brings many new software features, including quick access to the Camera app from the home screen, which shows Apple is aware that photography is a priority for many iPhone users. The new grid feature for framing shots, white balance correction and editing and enhancement abilities bring the iPhone even closer to feature parity with consumer point-and-shoots, without even the need for any additional app downloads.
The next iPhone is rumored to be getting an 8 megapixel camera, and possibly dual LED flashes, which should make it even less necessary for people to carry around another camera, unless they’re looking for DSLR-level quality. The iPhone 4 has already replaced point-and-shoots for many, apparently, since it officially became the most popular camera on Flickr on June 21, and was probably unofficially atop that list for much longer thanks to photos shared to Flickr through apps like Instagram.
The iPhone’s success is the result of how all of its parts work together, providing an overall user experience that can’t yet be matched by competitors. But the camera, with its steady stream of value-adding improvements designed to improve the once-dismal experience of using a camera phone, may be one of its biggest, and least talked about strengths in the ongoing battle for smartphone supremacy.
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Переслать - Expert: True Retina Display doesn't make sense for iPad 3
The latest rumor about the iPad 3 is that it will get a higher resolution display, with Reuters claiming that it might even be five or six times the resolution of the current iPad, which has a 1024 x 768 screen. Not so fast, says DisplayMate, a company that specializes in display calibration, optimization and testing. Even an iPad with 2048×1536 resolution, which would boast four times the pixel density of the current model.
While it would undoubtedly represent a marketing coup for Apple to be able to say the iPad 3 has a true Retina Display, DisplayMate says it would also come with a considerable cost — such a device would require “significantly more processing power, more memory and battery power,” and the screen’s “display brightness efficiency” would be much lower.
DisplayMate says that because of the typical distance at which users typically view their iPads, which it claims is 15-18 inches away, it can actually get away with achieving the same Retina Display silky smoothness with only a 240 pixels-per-inch (ppi) count, instead of the 300ppi entry point referred to by Steve Jobs when the iPhone 4 was introduced. Even so, the resolution required would be “overkill,” says DisplayMate, but there is another way.
Apple can still improve the iPad’s screen without making unnecessary sacrifices by compromising with a 1600 x 1200 display resolution, according to DisplayMate. That would achieve a 206 ppi, which would still represent a huge improvement over the existing screen, without nearly as much of a cost in terms of resources and battery life. DisplayMate says that scaling apps designed for the existing iPads shouldn’t be a problem at that resolution.
Apple gains a marketing coup by creating an iPad with quadruple the resolution of the current model, and I have little doubt that’s what we’ll eventually see. The company is already putting resources that support such a display in its OS, after all. But it’s not something Apple has to pull out of its hat at this point, given the competition so far, and making less dramatic changes that preserve the iPad’s other key selling features (speed and battery life) is a much more likely development for the iPad 3.
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Переслать - A new iPhone in fall sets up a record-crushing holiday quarter for Apple
The iPhone 5 could arrive this fall, and specifically in September, according to a new report by Bloomberg. If accurate, the timing of the release could help Apple usher in its biggest holiday quarter yet, which is saying a lot, considering Apple’s holiday quarter is generally its best of the year, even without a new iPhone model.
Apple has long used the fall to introduce new iPod models, which to date has made much sense, since the iPod business all but turned Apple into the consumer electronics industry force that it is today. But iPod sales have either been stagnant or dropping, in sales measured year-over-year, as standalone digital audio players have been cannibalized by smartphones. During Apple’s last fiscal quarter results, iPod sales were revealed to have dropped the most since their introduction, with a 17 percent dip.
The iPod touch continues to show positive growth, and accounts for a growing piece of iPod sales overall, but neither the iPod touch or even the whole iPod category can hold a candle to Apple’s iPhone business. Last quarter, it sold 18.65 million handsets, beating the previous year by more than double. iPhone sales for the quarter also doubled the year before that.
What’s the bottom line? Increasingly, iPods are less important to Apple’s business. They still represent a considerable revenue stream, but the trend indicates that iPhones and iPads will probably occupy a more privileged place in Apple’s future business.
With the update schedule we saw last year, the iPad was introduced in April, and the iPhone 4 came out in June. That’s relatively little time between two major releases. This year, Apple held off on unveiling a new iPhone device, and the iPad could be a big part of why, since a lopsided annual revenue picture isn’t good for investors confidence, nor is having the development timelines for two core hardware products with many similarities so minimally spaced an ideal situation for Apple’s mobile device engineering team.
If Apple’s sales trends continue, in a few years time, you’d have the iPod holding on to a much smaller fraction of Apple’s mobile business, while the iPhone and the iPad make up for a much better piece of the overall picture. The iPod just wouldn’t be able to carry the September time-period nearly as well as it has in the past. Plus, Apple’s more interesting products would both have lost a lot of steam, in terms of novelty value, press coverage and buzz by the time holiday buyers are preparing their shopping lists and news outlets are looking for shiny new tech to recommend.
It’s not quite at the point where iPod releases are uninteresting to buyers, but Apple wouldn’t want to wait for that to happen, and the strong sales success of the iPhone 4, coupled with the expansion of its availability to Verizon customers, and the late addition of the white model, all meant that if there was a year where Apple could afford to miss its fairly rigorous annual refresh, 2011 was it.
Last year, Jon Gruber of Daring Fireball suggested that Apple was planning to release another new iPad incarnation in the fall, which could have been intended in part to put a marquee mobile release closer to the holidays. I think he got the idea right, but the device wrong. Apple does need a new fall star, and that star will be the iPhone.
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Переслать - How to create iOS device home screen icons for websites
As more and more people browse the web with their iOS devices, using websites and web apps designed for them is a good idea to reach the growing number of mobile users. But making sure your brand is well represented on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad involves more than just making sure it’s accessible. Encourage users to create web clips that live on the iOS home screen like apps, and make sure that the icon that leads to your online content looks good by following the instructions below.
Creating a web clip icon for each iOS resolution
There are apps in the Mac App Store, like Icons, that can help developers create web clip icons. Otherwise, you can just use your favorite graphic editor or even the basic OS X utility Preview (included free on every Mac) to create the image files required.
For the iPhone 4 and latest-generation iPod touch, a 114px x 114px image is what you’ll need. IPads optimally use 72px x 72px, and all other iOS devices prefer 57px x 57px image files. In all cases, the web-standard resolution of 72dpi is the way to go. If you like, you can manually create a custom image for each device, or you can just create an image targeting one device and let the others scale the image up or down as needed.
One thing that iOS does on your behalf is add image effects like rounded corners, a drop shadow and the iconic reflective shine to the icons you create. To take advantage of this, ensure that the image file you create is perfectly square and free of any shine or gloss. If you prefer to add your own effects, be sure to append the -precomposed keyword to the end of the image file name.
Adding the icons to your website
If you’ve decided to use just a single image or set of images for your entire site, then simply copy the files to the root directory of your domain. On the other hand, if you want to add different icons to different individual pages of your site and name them however you like, simply add the following link element to your pages, substituting your custom file name for the href value:
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/your-custom-icon.png"/>
This also works if you create specific icons for each device’s particular display characteristics. You also need to include the size attributes, as illustrated in the following code:
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="your-custom-icon-for-iphone.png" /> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="72x72" href="your-custom-icon-for-ipad.png" /> <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="114x114" href="your-custom-icon-for-iphone4.png" />
Now when someone decides to add this page to their home screen, the image file you created will be used in place of a scaled-down thumbnail of the page itself.
Users increasingly want to access content on the Internet using their mobile devices, and that means iOS devices for a large percentage. If you want to make a lasting impression, make your content accessible on iPhones and iPads first of all, but also make sure that if users do want to save your site for later viewing, they can find it among their many web clips and apps with relative ease.
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Переслать - Asia booms for mobile app downloads
Mobile developers should consider turning their attention to Asia, which is booming with mobile app downloads, according to a new report from app analytics firm Distimo. The region now boasts the second-largest global app market — in China — and it has a fast riser in South Korea, which is now outpacing Germany and France in app download volume.
Distimo, which examined downloads in the Apple App Store, said the overall download volume in Asian countries has taken off in the past six months, while some Western countries actually saw less download volume over the same period. While the U.S. remains the leader for app downloads, Asian countries like India and Thailand have grown 27 percent and 40 percent, respectively, since December 2010.
While China has now moved into second place in overall app downloads, South Korea actually outpaces China and Japan in download volume on a per capita basis. This comes despite the fact that the App Store in South Korea doesn’t include games because of local regulations. That’s pretty remarkable when you consider that gaming is the most popular category in the App Store in most other countries.
But there are still hurdles for developers looking to tap the Asian market. Monetization for apps is about two-thirds that of Western markets, in part because Asian consumers are one-third less likely to buy paid apps. That might also be a result of higher average selling prices for paid apps, which are $2.62 in Asia among the top 300 apps, compared with $1.48 in the U.S.
Asian consumers are also less interested in in-app purchase, which is a key way for developers to make money on free apps. Outside Singapore and Malaysia, all Asian countries produce less revenue via in-app purchase for developers when compared to their Western counterparts. In China, for example, only 34 percent of the revenue from the 200 top grossing applications came from from apps with in-app purchase, half that of the U.S.
Western developers must also consider the need to localize apps in Asian countries. Distimo found that 34 percent of the most popular apps in Asia are only popular within Asia, and some titles that are popular worldwide don’t catch on in the region. The need for localization is more pronounced in countries like China, where 65 percent of the 300 most-popular free applications are popular only in the region. That could present a problem for outside developers, but there are examples of success, such as Electronic Arts, whose SimCity and Monopoly are in the top ten iPad apps in Asia.
The Asian market is largely similar to the rest of the world in terms of the categories that are popular, however. Games and entertainment are the top two categories in the U.S. and Asia. And if the growth of paid apps and in-app purchase increases as it has in the West, developers should be making more money in those areas soon. It’s still a challenge for some developers to go global, but the investment may be worth it now.
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Переслать - Personal cloud options for iOS users grow with Hitachi G-Connect
Hitachi unveiled its G-Connect wireless storage drive that can also act as a router, designed for use with mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone. Users can stream media stored on the G-Connect to up to five devices over a local wireless network created by the drive, using an iOS app that will be available free on the App Store when the G-Connect launches in July for around $200.
The new Hitachi offering joins the Seagate GoFlex Satellite as yet another device that is trying to make external storage relevant to user who are increasingly using mobile devices to consume content. Like the GoFlex, the G-Connect offers 500 GB of storage, and the ability to simultaneously stream to multiple devices. The G-Connect offers some nice advantages over the GoFlex, however, like the ability to stream to up to five devices, instead of just three, and an Ethernet port that lets it plug into a wired Internet connection and act as a wireless access point. But it also carries a major drawback: it lacks an internal battery, so unlike the GoFlex, you’ll have to plug the G-Connect into a power source if you want to use it, which for some might limit its utility as a mobile support device. Still, when a power source is available, as they often are on trains, planes and coffee shops, it should greatly expand the media library available to your iOS devices.
When iOS 5 arrives, iPads and iPhones will finally be cut loose from their PC tethers. That will mean that users can depend on them as their only computing devices, if they wish. But owing to the limited local storage options on iOS devices, they might run up against space constraints when doing so. iCloud aims to help with some of that, by making music, apps and books available on-demand from Apple’s servers, so that you can delete them as needed when you’re running out of room, and grab them again when you need them. But that solution depends on relatively unfettered access to an active Internet connection. Users without mobile data plans for their devices, or those with caps like Verizon’s new tiered plans will have a harder time taking full advantage of a cloud computing future.
Devices like the G-Connect and the GoFlex could be just the start of a flood of supplemental hardware designed to provide a local alternative remote streaming for users who either don’t have the bandwidth to take advantage of the latter, or who’d rather own their content than rent access to it from content providers. External local wireless storage also offers more privacy, which is a selling point for some.
While I expect the general thrust of computing in general to continue to favor remote cloud options, I think the personal cloud stands a good chance of developing at a similar pace at the same time, albeit on a smaller scale. Physical storage is cheap and getting cheaper, while the same can’t necessarily be said for broadband access. As Apple and other device manufacturers move to make the cloud the centre of its universe, it’s only natural that a percentage of consumers will opt to find an alternative centre for their own gadgets that allows them to remain autonomous and possibly save money.
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Переслать - Apple legal briefs: Lodsys stalls and Samsung barred from peeking
Lodsys wants more time to address the request by Apple to intervene in its court proceedings against seven small app developers, FOSS Patents reported on Wednesday. Lodsys holds patents related to in-app purchasing it claims are being infringed upon by App Store developers, who aren’t covered by Apple’s own license to the technologies, according to Lodsys’ understanding of the agreement.
The original deadline for Lodsys to respond to Apple’s motion was June 27, or this upcoming Monday. Lodsys has asked for two more months, which FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller says is an unusually long extension to seek. Still, Apple is apparently fine with the request according to a statement made to the court by Lodsys counsel.
But two months is a long time for developers caught up in this mess to be waiting with bated breath. The developers named in the suit still have to formally respond to Lodsys’ complaint, and while it’s possible that the extension, if granted, will apply to them as well, that is by no means a certainty. Yet obviously, whether or not Apple is included in the proceedings will have a huge influence on how developers proceed in dealing with the allegations of infringement by Lodsys. It’s still not clear what exactly Apple is advising affected developers to do, but based on comments made by some of those involved, Apple does appear to be providing behind-the-scenes guidance. Google, on the other hand, has yet to intervene, and Android developers are starting to become increasingly apprehensive, as more and more are receiving legal threats from Lodsys.
Mueller suggests that this request for a delay by Lodsys, and Apple’s lack of opposition to it, could indicate that the companies are engaged in behind-the-scenes negotiation to resolve this matter without further involving developers or the legal system. Whatever the outcome of this latest move by Lodsys, I think this tweet from Android developer Cory Trese best sums up one of the most important lasting effects this case could have on mobile development:
Samsung doesn’t get a sneak peek
In Apple’s other major ongoing legal kerfuffle, the judge in the pitched intellectual property battle between Samsung and the Mac maker has denied Samsung’s request for early access to the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, hardware that hasn’t even been announced, much less released to the public.
While the judge admitted that Samsung has a right to parity, and had previously granted Apple access to unreleased devices like the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Tab 10.1, she thought Samsung’s request in this instance went too far. The products Apple sought to see were already circulating to reviewers and developers, after all, not just assumed to be in development like the iPhone and iPad successors.
Still, it isn’t all good news for Apple. Since Cupertino amended its original complaint to place stricter definitions on what products it thinks Samsung infringed upon in order to block the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 requests, the judge hinted that any request from Apple for an injunction of sales in the U.S. on new Samsung devices might not apply. That’s because a big part of a successful injunction request involves proving that consumers will be genuinely confused by the similarities between devices, and the judge suggested that “there is little likelihood” of confusion with new Samsung devices, since the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 may “soon be outmoded and reduced in price,” and “are not being sold (or very soon will not be sold) to the same class of purchasers who are likely to buy new Samsung products.”
Florian Mueller thinks seeking an injunction would be a risky move on Apple’s part, given what the judge has expressed. It stands a fair chance of being turned down, which might be a black eye for Apple for outside observers, Mueller says. Of course, even if an injunction is rejected, it shouldn’t affect Apple’s larger case against Samsung, which is really what Apple is more concerned with here.
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