iPad By Davis: “Apple shares detailed design drawings of iPad mini and 4th generation iPad” plus 19 more |
- Apple shares detailed design drawings of iPad mini and 4th generation iPad
- Apple releases new MacBook Pro commercial, Colors
- Languages for iPhone review
- Forums: Getting an iPad mini, How do you all feel about the pricing?
- ZEN and TECH: Q&A live at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT
- The deconstruction of Apple's October iPad and Mac event
- Apple, iBooks, and competing with Kindle
- iPad Mini: 2 Important But Less Talked About Features
- iPad mini round-table - reactions to Apple's latest and greatest product announcements
- Getting a sense for the size of the iPad mini
- How to sell your old iPad before buying an iPad 4 or iPad mini
- How to replace the front facing FaceTime camera in an iPhone 4S
- Apple's Phil Schiller defends iPad mini pricing
- Notable New iPad Apps: Letterpress – Word Game, from the Creator of Tweetie
- That Other New iPad Announced Yesterday: the iPad 4th Generation
- Letterpress by Atebits review
- Loren Brichter talks about his new game, Letterpress for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
- My Early Take on the iPad Mini, and the iPad “4″
- Deal of the Day: 46% off the Case-Mate Phantom Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4
- AT&T announces Q3 2012 results, iPhone still dominate smartphone sales
| Apple shares detailed design drawings of iPad mini and 4th generation iPad Posted: 25 Oct 2012 12:01 AM PDT
In fact, you can now view detailed design drawings for all of the iPod classic range, iPod shuffle, iPod mini, iPod nano as well as all of the iPad models and iPhone models going right back to the originals. The drawings are intended for the use of third party case and accessory manufacturers, the drawings enable them to make accessories that fit exactly and have cut outs for accessory ports and headphone jacks in the right place.
If you are not a case or accessory designer the drawings are still worth a look. Although they don't tell us a whole lot more about the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad than we already know they are still interesting to see. You can get access to the complete catalalogue of design drawings for all of the iPod, iPhone and iPad ranges from the link below. Source: Apple 
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| Apple releases new MacBook Pro commercial, Colors Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:56 PM PDT Apple has released a new commercial to show off their new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. It uses the trademark "start sideways to show how thin it is, then rotate slowly to center to show how stunning the Retina display is." The tagline is "for the pro in all of us." Aperture is shown off (three times), as well as Safari, iTunes in CoverFlow mode, and Mail. All in full screen, of course. The ad looks solid. Short, to the point, and highlighting the two biggest differentiators between the new generation of MacBooks and the competition -- thinness and Retina display. 
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| Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:33 PM PDT
There is already a plethora of language translation dictionaries in the App Store, so what makes the new Languages for iPhone app by Tapity and Sonico Mobile so special? It's fast, reliable, stored directly onto your iPhone, and straight-up gorgeous. Languages also includes a lot of user interface elements and gestures that makes using Languages very intuitive and easy to use. Having information stored locally on your iPhone is very important for apps like this. You never know when you'll need to look up a translations, so the last thing you want is to have to rely on your carrier's network connection to give you access to your dictionary. That's why Jeremy Olson, the Founder of Tapity, made offline storage a priority.
Languages includes 12 different translation dictionaries consisting of 8 different languages. Here's a list of the included dictionaries that will appear on a nicely designed bookshelf.
When you first download Languages, only the Spanish/English and German/English dictionaries will be installed as a way to limit the size of the app. You can download any of the other dictionaries at your leisure at no additional cost.
In dictionary mode, the words will be listed in alphabetical order. To jump to a section of the dictionary, tap and hold on the alphabet on the right. The letters will magnify around your finger and highlight the letter you're actually on. The visuals for this is really cool and makes it look like the alphabet wraps around your finger. When you settle on a letter, a second column will appear that alphabetizes a list of the first two letters of words included with your chosen letter. This streamlines your search and minimizes scrolling. In the toolbar at the top of the dictionary, you'll find a search bar, a button that takes you back to your bookshelf, and a flag button that switches between primary languages. And because the developers are fans of gestures, even ones that are "just for fun", you can also pinch to close your dictionary and watch in animate back onto the shelf.
Dictionary mode is a great and all, but even with the enhanced alphabet scrolling, it still isn't ideal for looking up words in rapid succession. That's where Languages search mode comes in, and a quick swipe to the right gets you there. The curser will automatically jump to the search bar and a keyboard slides up. This is great for iPhone 5 users with small hands because it eliminates the needs to reach to the top of the screen to tap the search bar, especially when one-handed. As you type the word, you'll get instant results. Words that are from your primary language will appear on the left and point to its translation on the right, and matches from the secondary language will appear on the right and point to its translation on the left. To clear the word and star over, a quick swipe to the right will delete the search field and bring the keyboard back up. The good
The bad
The bottom lineLanguages is a gorgeous translation dictionary that will be a great companion for anyone who is learning another language or even those who are fluent in multiple languages but need to look up vocabulary from time to time. From the moment you start using Languages, you know that a lot of work, heart, and soul was poured into it and this is what sets it apart from similar apps. And at just $0.99 for 12 dictionaries, Languages is quite a steal. $0.99 - Download Now
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| Forums: Getting an iPad mini, How do you all feel about the pricing? Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:59 PM PDT
Found an interesting article you want to share with iMore? Have a burning question about that feature you just can't figure out? There is ALWAYS more happening just a click away in the forums. You can always head over and join in the conversation, search for answers, or lend your expertise to other members of our community. You check out some of the threads below: If you're not already a member of the iMore Forums, register now! 
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| ZEN and TECH: Q&A live at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:57 PM PDT As previously announced, the Wednesday iMore show is on temporary hiatus as I settle into my new MacBreak Weekly gig, but it'll be back at a new time with a new format soon enough. ZEN and TECH isn't going anywhere, though, and tonight Georgia will be taking your questions on parenting and dealing with stress and anxiety in the world of tech in general. So get ready, bookmark this page, and be back here at 10:30pm ET, 7:30pm PT for the most important show on this or any network. Seriously. Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations". Want to subscribe to any or all of our shows? Head on over to our podcast page. 
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| The deconstruction of Apple's October iPad and Mac event Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:54 PM PDT
On October 23, 2012, Apple held a special event to introduce their new Mac and iPad lineups. Unlike the previous month's iPhone 5 and iPod event, it wasn't bifurcated into effectively two different keynotes, nor was almost any time at all spent on software. Instead, one after another, product after product, spec updates, redesigns, and entirely new hardware was shown off on the California Theater stage. It was an unprecedented display of force projection. It was Apple firing everything. It was Tim Cook clearing his skies. Yet at the same time, the pre-event hype seemed decidedly muted, at least compared to the iPhone 5 event in September. Was that simply because the iPhone remains the densest attentional gravity well in Apple's lineup? That the consistency and accuracy of rumors have begun to suppress the expectation of surprise, and hence, urgency of the event? That two events in such close proximity, even from Apple, simply can't maintain the intensity threshold of events more often spaced out across the year? The state of Apple
Apple's CEO traditionally comes out first to welcome the crowd and set the stage for the event that follows. That's Tim Cook's role. He gives the mission statement and the mission brief, and his status updates are filled with something all too rare in consumer electronics -- actual numbers. Not numbers of products shipped or ordered, or users of ancillary services co-opted into new services, or percentages of nebulous markets in vague regions. Cook's numbers are of actual things sold to and used by actual people. And, as usual, they were impressive. The iPhone 5 sold 5 million units its first weekend. The iPad line has sold 100,000,000 tablets to date. There are now 200,000,000 devices running iOS 6. 700,000 App Store apps, over a third of which are iPad apps or have iPad optimized interfaces. And more. Those numbers would be especially meaningful later in the event. iBooks 3
Buried among the numbers at yesterday's iPad and Mac event, Tim Cook announced a new version of iBooks with a few new features. From the beginning I'd heard the iPad mini was about removing weight and cost as barriers of entry to iPad sales, and about taking the ebook fight to Amazon and, as Ryan Block of GDGT aptly terms them, their Kindle line of consumer content appliances. Yet the event came and went without Apple matching the Kindle on pricing, or challenging Amazon on ebooks. Why? Apple could equal or eclipse the Kindle catalog through sheer force of deal-making, something they traditionally excel at. But platform diversity is something in which Apple has historically shown almost no interest. Apple did make iTunes for Windows, but they haven't made any iTunes apps for any other non-Apple devices. And because, unlike music, commercial ebooks are still bound by DRM (digital rights management), they can't be opened by generic ereaders either. Whether you buy Kindle books or iBooks, you're still locked into that format, though the Kindle cage is much, much bigger. More content, in more places, on more devices, among other reasons, simply trumps whatever technical, interactive, and visual advantages iBooks has on iOS. Ultimately, the ability login, be it on a $69 Kindle or high end smartphone or tablet, have access to your entire ebook library, synced and ready to go, even in base text, is compelling, and is something Apple simply can't and won't match . Given that, my expectation that Apple would make a direct run at Amazon in the ebook space was unrealistic. Given that, a broader focus on education at yesterday's event, which would have almost certainly required a broader focus on books and textbooks, was also unrealistic. The ongoing lack of iBooks for Mac is disappointing, but a new version of iBooks and a new version of iBooks Author, keeps Apple's foot in the door, provides an amazing experience for those for whom that matters more than anything Amazon's Kindle offers, and the focus on languages maintains Apple's dominance in international markets. Here's the longer version: The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display
The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display wasn't a huge surprise. In addition to being widely rumored, it simply made the most sense for Apple to move Retina to the 13-inch. The iMacs are too big to cost effectively deploy Retina panels, and the MacBook Airs are too small to balance out battery life (for now). Retina was given a very technical, very spec-heavy pitch. Apple had the word "nit" up on a slide. But Retina is something that needs to be explained. More pixels that are tinier pixels that ultimately make all pixels all but disappear need to be explained. Star Trek terms makes Retina sound impressive, and since it's the main selling feature, it needs to sound impressive. So, specs. The only troublesome aspect of the 13-inch was its lack of a discreet GPU (graphics processing unit). Both the 15-inch and 13-inch versions have Intel HD Graphics 4000 embedded GPUs. The 15-inch also has an NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M. Since the 15-inch can feel maxed out, even with the discreet GPU, I assumed Apple would add a discreet GPU to 13-inch MacBook Pro as well to make things as performant as possible. But not so. Maybe the slightly smaller panel size -- 2560x1600 versus 2880 by 1800 -- is enough to make the embedded graphics work, or maybe both are really working off the embedded chipset for the displays (since both support the same, dual 2560x600 external display setups), and the discreet GPU is just a bonus for the 15-inch. I'm not going to assume that, however. The 15-inch is already an edge case when you want to Expose multiple browser windows or drive large external displays. I also do a lot of Final Cut Pro X and Photoshop work, and the lack of quad-core, a 16GB option, and discreet graphics worries me in that regard. I do want to try it out, however. Otherwise the 13-inch uses the same chassis design as the 15-inch that debuted at WWDC 2012, making it the lightest, thinnest MacBook Pro ever (a recurring theme for Apple if ever there was one). The Mac mini
The Mac mini scored an update to the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processors, USB 3, and other modern internals. Despite Samsung and Google having totally ripped off the current Mac mini design for the ChromeBox, Apple didn't do anything to evolve the look. So the Mac mini remains what it was, only better -- a good choice for multi-platform developers, home theaters, and those who want a small OS X server. The iMac
The new iMac wasn't a huge surprise either, though the degree to which Apple sharpened the edges was certainly surprising. 5 mm. You could cut someone with that. To achieve it, Apple jettisoned the optical drive, just like the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook pro before it. That's an aggressive choice for a desktop machine that really doesn't benefit as much from thinness and lightness the way portables do, but Apple is also the company that killed the floppy. The iMac got all new, Ivy Bridge powered internals as well, along with Apple's Fusion Drive which intelligently manages an SSD and HDD as a single logical unit, allowing for fast boots, launches, and read/writes but also voluminous storage. But unlike the Mac mini, its design was iterated as well. Did Apple have to move the built-in optical drive to a peripheral, move the SD card slot to the rear, and otherwise sacrifice the convenience of a segment of their user-base for what looks on the surface to be simply less surface? Of course not, but this is what Apple does. Because of the way they build devices -- designing the way to design them, manufacturing the way to manufacture them -- they exist in the relative future. And now that competitors have begun copying the iMac to embarrassing degrees, the way they copied the MacBook Air and Mac mini, Apple is moving the design bar even further out. Now, when you walk into a big box retailer, if by chance Apple products aren't isolated in their own oasis-within-a-store, no clone will be mistaken for an iMac. At least not for a couple years again. (Personally I'm waiting on the updated ThunderBolt Displays with laminated screens, but those are likely several months out as all the 27-inch panels will first go to satisfying iMac demand.) iBooks Author
If Tim Cook introducing iBooks wasn't interesting enough, he also introduced an updated iBooks Author as part of the iPad overview. Apple held a special education event earlier in the year to announce textbooks for the iPad. Apple released iBooks Author so rich-media text books could be more easily generated. Tim Cook claimed at yesterday's event that 80% of the U.S. school core curriculum was now covered by iBooks textbooks, and that they're deployed at more than 2500 schools in the U.S. (Sadly, they're still not deployed to iPhone or iPod touch.) The new version of iBooks Author includes vertical templates, embedded fonts, rendered mathematical formulae, multitouch widgets, and am easier, better process for updating books. International textbook support, of course, can vary wildly. Again, it isn't overly aggressive, but it's realistic. The iPad 4
Like the new iMac, the new iPad itself wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise, at least to me, was that Apple actually came out and called the revised iPad 3 the "4th generation iPad". I figured they'd play it like the Verizon iPhone, and use the expanded LTE footprint and Lightning adapter to "fix the antenna" that was the chipset. That was the whole advantage to calling it "the new iPad", right? Dropping the version numbers smooths the way for new versions at odd time spans. But with the jump from an Apple A5X to an Apple A6X, Apple was upfront enough to not only give the new iPad a new generation, but announce it as such. (And they didn't even play the iPad 3S card...) Apple has typically stuck to 1 year cycles for iOS devices, besides the iPhone 4S and Apple TV 3 which took approximately 16 months and 18 months respectively, and the iPod touch 5 which took 24 months. Now the iPad 4 took only 7 months. In a world of with the Kindle HDs, Surfaces RT and Pro, Nexus 7 and impending Nexus 10, Apple isn't afraid to move faster either. But the reaction was more curious than the device itself. When Apple waits, they aren't innovative and they're losing. When Apple moves aggressively, they're "screwing" users. But Apple doesn't really care about either sentiment. Not really. They care about making better products, which is what the iPad 4 is. And no one who has an iPad 4 has to buy it. Those for whom the iPad 3 was a poor compromise between screen density and performance, or for those whose LTE bands it simply didn't support, it'll be something finally worth buying or upgrading to. The iPad mini
The iPad mini ended up being almost exactly what I expected. The big surprise for me here was the lack of an 8GB SKU for under $300. Either that SKU never existed or it was dumped. My guess is it was dumped. It seems like the original thinking was Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 would do better than they did, and that price pressure simply never materialized. At $250 the iPad mini would have all but killed the small tablet market. At $329 there's a $200-$300 umbrella underneath it where other at-cost or content-subsidized tablets and appliances can breathe and get a foot in the door. Granted an 8GB iPad mini would have been a poor user experience, but it would have shut that door. Hard. (And gotten a lot of people into stores who may have then gone 16GB for $350 anyway.) Instead, Phil Schiller spent some time comparing the iPad mini to the Nexus 7 (though without naming the Nexus 7). That seemed like Apple explaining why they deserved $80 more for the iPad mini than Google charges for a similar capacity tablet. In other words, bigger screen, better apps. It was an odd segment, and arguably they didn't need to make that case, but they chose to. As to the device itself, the only truly new device Apple unveiled yesterday, Jim Dalrymple of The Loop had, among other things, this to say:
John Gruber of Daring Fireball's quick take included:
It's basically got the iPod touch 5 casing and internals with a miniaturized (Apple says "concentrated") iPad-style 4:3 screen at 7.9- rather than 4-inches. The iPad mini to iPod mini analogy was as spot on as the name. It's not for those who want a cheaper iPad. It's for those who want a more portable iPad, and are willing to make some compromises to get it. But in addition to all the other iTunes content, it runs iPad apps, which neither the iPhone nor iPod touch can do. Tim Cook pointed out there's over 250,000 of those now, which makes competing tablet apps little more than a rounding error. And that's what will likely make all the difference in the world. No iOS 6.xNo new operating system talk, no iOS 6.0.1 mention, no iOS 6.1 feature discussion -- no Scott Forstall on stage at all. I guess we're waiting on spring to see what's next for iOS, at least incrementally. 
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| Apple, iBooks, and competing with Kindle Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:34 PM PDT
Buried among the numbers at yesterday's iPad and Mac event, Tim Cook announced a new version of iBooks with a few new features. From the beginning I'd heard the iPad mini was about removing weight and cost as barriers of entry to iPad sales, and about taking the ebook fight to Amazon and, as Ryan Block of GDGT aptly terms them, their Kindle line of consumer content appliances. Yet the event came and went without Apple matching the Kindle on pricing, or challenging Amazon on ebooks. Why? Macworld's Serenity Caldwell made an excellent point at the Çingleton Symposium earlier this month -- Amazon's leadership in ebooks is based on market quantity, not product quality. Apple's original iBooks format was far superior to Amazon's original Kindle format, and while Amazon's new Kindle format allows for a far more iBooks-like experience, Apple isn't slowing down in the rich ebook department by any means. Yet Amazon clearly has the market momentum and mind share. As Graham Spencer of MacStories.net recently mapped, while Apple far outpaces Amazon and other competitors in many content areas, when it comes to books, its 31 country footprint is dwarfed by Amazon's 179. According to Apple Insider, Apple is reportedly adding 18 additional (mainly South American) countries shortly as well, if they haven't already, bringing the count to a still far-behind 50. But there's a lot to unpack there. Apple announced additional language support yesterday, including Asian-languages like Chinese and Japanese (which looked gorgeous), bringing their total supported language count to 40. Amazon still seems stuck at 9, all of which require latin-based alphabets. Asia, and China in particular, are huge markets for Apple. That could make some difference going forward.
At the event, Apple announced 1.5 million items in the iBookstore. That includes picture books and "multitouch" books, and Apple claims customers have downloaded 400,000,000 iBooks since launch. Amazon claims over 1 million items in the Kindle store on their website, but Jeff Bezos said millions (plural) in his recent Kindle keynote. (Amazon's numbers seem to include magazines where Apple doesn't include magazines in iBooks, but has them in the App Store for Newsstand instead.) Among those Amazon titles, however, are 180,000 Amazon claims as exclusives, and with 100,000,000 downloads of these exclusives to date, popular ones. Add to the lending and library features, often cheaper content, and on rock-solid syncing services, and it's a solid advantage. Textbooks complicate matters slightly. Apple held a special education event earlier in the year to announce text books for the iPad. Apple released iBooks so rich-media text books could be more easily generated. Tim Cook claimed at yesterday's even that 80% of the U.S. school core curriculum was now covered by iBooks textbooks, and that they're deployed at more than 2500 schools in the U.S. (Sadly, they're still not deployed to iPhone or iPod touch.) Cook also introduced a new version of iBooks Author, which included vertical templates, embedded fonts, rendered mathematical formulae, multitouch widgets, and am easier, better process for updating books. International textbook support, of course, can vary wildly for both Apple and Amazon. Amazon released the Kindle DX in the past to offer a bigger screen better geared towards the education market. Amazon no longer sells the Kindle DX, but they still offer Kindle eTextbooks, both for sale and for rental, that run on the Kindle Fire and in all Kindle apps. And that, writ large across their catalog, is the biggest advantage Kindle books has. You can read Kindle books on Amazon's Kindle hardware, including many of them on Amazon's ultra-cheap, ultra-legible e-ink line, on Android devices, BlackBerry devices, Windows Phones, iOS devices, Mac and Windows PCs, and even the web. You can only read iBooks on iOS. There's not even a Mac client, much less a browser client. That creates a feeling of control and a sense of assurance. Even if the typography is worse, even if the app experience is worse, the lower pricing, plentiful availability, and the ability to read content on pretty much every smart device on the planet adds up to the killer feature -- ubiquity.
Apple could equal or eclipse the Kindle catalog through sheer force of deal-making, something they traditionally excel at. But platform diversity is something in which Apple has historically shown almost no interest. Apple did make iTunes for Windows, but they haven't made any iTunes apps for any other non-Apple devices. And because, unlike music, commercial ebooks are still bound by DRM (digital rights management), they can't be opened by generic ereaders either. Whether you buy Kindle books or iBooks, you're still locked into that format, though the Kindle cage is much, much bigger. (I'm tempted to make the Adobe analogy, where they'd love for you to be locked into their cross-platform development tools rather than someone else's platform-specific ecosystem, but I won't. Promise.) More content, in more places, on more devices, among other reasons, simply trumps whatever technical, interactive, and visual advantages iBooks has on iOS. Video is the same way, but books seem to evoke an even greater demand for cross-platform compatibility. Ultimately, the ability login, be it on a $69 Kindle or high end smartphone or tablet, have access to your entire ebook library, synced and ready to go, even in base text, is compelling, and is something Apple simply can't and won't match . Given that, my expectation that Apple would make a direct run at Amazon in the ebook space was unrealistic. Given that, a broader focus on education at yesterday's event, which would have almost certainly required a broader focus on books and textbooks, was also unrealistic. The ongoing lack of iBooks for Mac is disappointing, but a new version of iBooks and a new version of iBooks Author, keeps Apple's foot in the door, provides an amazing experience for those for whom that matters more than anything Amazon's Kindle offers, and the focus on languages maintains Apple's dominance in international markets. Apple, not surprisingly, was far more realistic when it came to iBooks than any predictions or expectations, and that's not likely to change, at least not until DRM goes away. 
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| iPad Mini: 2 Important But Less Talked About Features Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:41 PM PDT
The iPad Mini was unveiled yesterday by Apple, and we learned a lot about the new smaller iPad during the course of their special event. For starters, we learned that while it's substantially smaller than the standard iPad it's also quite a bit bigger than some of the currently popular small tablets on the market. It offers a nearly 8 inch display (7.9 inches) as opposed to the 7 inch screens of the Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 devices, and Apple says that gives it a 35% larger total screen size when totaling up square inches. We also learned that the iPad Mini will have a non-retina 1024X768 display, and it has an overall set of specs that matches and in several places beats those of the iPad 2, it has expanded LTE coverage for its WiFi + cellular models, the same great iPad battery life as its bigger siblings, and Apple's new Lightning cable, among other notable features. It also boast two other significant features that have been much less talked about so far – one that is already established and very effective and one brand new one which will hopefully be as good as Apple says it is. (...) © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us         Related Stories
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| iPad mini round-table - reactions to Apple's latest and greatest product announcements Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:19 PM PDT
Yesterday was a busy day for Apple fans and we're rounding up reactions from all of iMore's contributors to see how they feel about the iPad mini, the 4th.-generation iPad, and other new products announced yesterday. We've also tapped some of our buddies from Android Central to see how they feel about the new Apple stuff, especially with the Nexus 7 figuring prominently in the keynote. Chris Parsons
Chris Oldroyd |
Apple has once again decided to make public some highly detailed design drawings this time of the just announced iPad mini and 4th generation iPad. This isn't the first time that Apple has publicly released this type of information; we saw similar dimensioned drawings publicly released for the 
Overall I wasn't overly impressed with the iOS device announcements. The iPad mini didn't create any desire within to make me want to pre-order it and the iPad 4th generation kinda annoyed me. Out of all things announced, I'm more excited for the new iMac than anything. Let's not confuse my comments with how I think Apple will do with the new products though. It's still very much an iPad market vs. a tablet market and Apple will sell boat loads of them but the excitement for me personally just wasn't there this time around nor did Apple use the now famous distortion field to create it. Maybe Rene was right, I'm getting old.
As the owner of a third-generation iPad, you might think that I would be irritated by the introduction of the fourth-generation iPad a mere seven months after the third made its debut. But I'm not. If Apple had stuck to the original release cycle, this is the same iPad that we would have seen in March, just five months earlier. Double the performance is nice, but I have no pressing need for the Lightning connector, and my current iPad has LTE. It seems that Apple wanted to shift the iPad release cycle to the fall, and they chose to debut a new iPad now rather than have users wait eighteen months for it.
As an owner of the new iPad, I'm a little miffed it's already deemed obsolete with the update to the 4th generation. I'm a gadget guy. I like having the latest and greatest. But this upgrade just came so soon. But I'll have to do it, if for nothing else so I can upgrade all of my cables to have the lightning connector. It's really frustrating at the moment to have the iPhone 5 with the lightning connector, but then the iPad with the old style. 
I currently own a third generation iPad and really don't have any intention of getting a fourth generation model. Considering mine is typically used as the office point of sale, a reading device, and something to browse the web on or play games casually, it does what I need it to do and then some. While it would be nice to be able to ditch "all" my 30-pin cables, we ordered a bunch of adapters so it isn't a huge deal to disconnect an adapter when needed. After all, I only find myself having to charge my iPad about once a week anyways. 
It is meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size. 
iPad 4... Hmm, felt a little like Apple was throwing specs out there as a worthy upgrade. Didn't feel very 'Apple.' Felt more like an excuse to throw the new dock connector on there.
I was very surprised at the extent Apple went to attack the Nexus 7 during their iPad Mini announcement. I believe this is one of the first times that we've seen such a pointed comparison at an event rather than slight references. But onto the actual device, I'm not overly impressed. Less resolution than the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD and a dual-core processor vs. quad-core for the 7 for much more money ($349 vs. $199 base price). Die hard iOS folks will likely want the device, but I think Google's got a real chance next week to turn heads if they continue to drive down their price while maintaining the quality of the Nexus 7.
The only thing I really cared about from the whole announcement was the iPad mini, and two things struck me about it. For one, the 7.9-inch screen is a relatively unexplored size, but its difference from the established 7-inch norm feels completely arbitrary. The 7-inch tablet scene is getting pretty crowded, so I could see why Apple would want to stay differentiated. If they're going to go on inventing their own product subcategory though, Apple can't put the iPad mini in a side-by-side comparison with the Nexus 7, which is effectively punching at a different weight class.
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Getting a sense for the size of the iPad mini
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 12:03 PM PDT
Here's an interesting trick. If you have an iPhone 5, try holding it in one hand in landscape. The iPad mini is a little less than 1/2″ wider than that. However the ipad mini is also ever so slightly thinner, and has a curved back. So all in all it should feel roughly similar in the hand (in size, not weight obviously) as does the iPhone 5 in landscape. I like it.
Posted with Blogsy
How to sell your old iPad before buying an iPad 4 or iPad mini
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 11:06 AM PDT
So you've got an older generation iPad and you want either the newly announced iPad mini or the more powerful 4th generation iPad. What should you do with your old iPad and more importantly, how much cash can you get to put towards your shiny new one?
Getting top dollar for your old iPad
There are many things you can do to make sure you get the best price possible for your old iPad. With phones, you get more value when they're unlocked but with iPads, you don't really have that hurdle to jump over. Instead, you can increase the value of what you get for your iPad if it's in excellent condition and you're throwing in some extras. Here's a few things you should consider before listing your iPad for sale.
Include accessories and extras
Including things like cases, chargers, docks, or anything else that you have that you're willing to part with or won't be compatible with your new iPad will increase what you can get for it. If you had a growing collection of 30-pin cables that'll serve you no good with your new iPad, part with a few of them and invest that money into a few new Lightning cables.
You'll also find some people that'll pay more if you have the box and the original accessories it came with.
The more you have to go with it, the more you'll get for it.
Take high quality images
There's nothing more annoying than trying to find something for sale online and not being able to see any decent images. Make sure you're taking high quality images of not only the iPad, but of any extras that you're throwing in with it.
Get pictures of the front and the back so potential buyers know what they're getting. I've also become accustomed to getting pictures with the screen on and then close ups of the screen with the backlight off so users can see that the screen is in excellent condition and doesn't have any scuffs or scratches in it.
If you're iPad does have a little bit of cosmetic damage, be open and honest about it in your listing and with any buyer that may contact you. It doesn't mean you won't sell your iPad. Buyers prefer honest sellers. If you list it as mint condition but then come back and tell a potential buyer about little dents and dings, you'll probably lose the buyer. Be up front from the beginning and you'll have better luck and much more potential for a quick sale.
Putting your iPad up for sale
Once you've decided what you are and aren't including in the sale of your iPad and you've taken some high quality images of everything, you're ready to list it for sale. Here are some of the places we recommend starting with. Notice that some will offer you store credit while others will get you cold hard cash. So choose wisely before agreeing to sell to a buyer or a service.
Apple Reuse and Recycling Program
Apple will gladly buy back your old iPad and either reuse it as a refurbished unit or recycle it on your behalf through their Reuse and Recycling Program. You'll be asked a series of questions regarding the condition, capacity, and color of your iPad. It's important that you're honest because Apple will of course check that what you told them matches the actual condition once they receive the iPad.
After Apple certifies that the iPad is in working condition they'll issue you an Apple Store gift card that you can use towards any purchase. If you're using the proceeds of your old iPad to go towards a new iPad mini or 4th generation iPad, this is a great way to get Apple Store credit quickly and relatively painlessly.
Here is what you can expect to get for the base 16GB models for all existing generations of iPad. If your capacity is larger, you'll fetch a higher amount.
- 16GB Wi-Fi only original iPad in excellent condition - $105
- 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad 2 in excellent condition - $175
- 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad 3 in excellent condition - $250
Amazon Trade-In Store
Amazon, like Apple, will buy back your old iPad as well through the Amazon Trade-In Store. The only hitch here is that you'll be given payment in the form of an Amazon gift card. If you're looking for hard cash to put towards a new iPad purchase and you don't want to wait for Amazon to have it in stock, it may not be the best option.
If you're okay with Amazon credit though, it's a pretty painless process. You'll choose the model, capacity, and color of your current iPad and add it to your trade-in. You'll then be given a shipping label and instructions. Once Amazon receives your old iPad, they'll issue you an Amazon gift card for the trade-in value. Amazon is currently offering up to $190 for a first generation 16GB iPad, $300 for a 16GB iPad 2, and $390 for a 16GB 3rd generation iPad.
Gazelle
Gazelle offers a service that lets you easily turn most electronic devices into cash. Simply send in your iPad and Gazelle will send you money after confirming the item condition. The first thing you'll need to do is tell Gazelle what you're selling and what condition the item is in. You can choose from poor, fair, good or excellent condition, and it's important to be honest when rating the condition so there's no hiccups or snags along the way. It also helps if you have the box and original documentation and cables with your item. Also make sure you check for any water damage, as Gazelle will too once they receive the iPad.
Depending on what iPad you have, Gazelle will offer for base 16GB models anywhere between $100 to $250. Higher capacities and cellular connectivity will obviously fetch you more money. Again, always be honest about the condition. While Gazelle is a quick way to get money for your old electronics, you can probably get quite a bit more on services like Craigslist and eBay if you can be more patient with the actual selling process.
SellYourMac.com
SellYourMac.com offers a similar service to Gazelle by letting you send in your old iPad for payment with little to no hassle involved. They'll not only buy your old iPad, but any Apple gear you have laying around. This is a good option if you have other Apple products you're willing to sell besides an old iPad.
You'll be required to provide pictures along with a serial number next to your item description and condition. Once SellYourMac.com receives your iPad they clean it, inspect it and verify that it's in working condition before they turn around and sell it on eBay. Users can receive payment via Paypal if they choose as well. SellYourMac's quotes are a little higher than other competing services such as Gazelle. Base 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad models will get you anywhere between $155 and $305.
eBay
Selling your iPad on eBay is a pretty simple process. If you've ever used eBay for selling things in the past then you know the selling process isn't all that tricky, however there are still some things to keep in mind when using eBay to sell your iPad. For instance, eBay charges fees for each auction based on the item you're selling and how much it sells for, among other things, so here are five quick tips to help you get the most out of your auction:
- Only ship to the buyer's confirmed Paypal address if using Paypal.
- Price competitively, especially if you're using Buy It Now as an option.
- Make sure the pictures you use follow your description and are good quality - post pictures of any physical blemishes on the iPad and be up-front in your description.
- Use a fast shipping service and make sure you include that in your item description. People are impatient by nature so sellers that offer fast shipping tend to sell items quicker.
- Use keywords in your title and in your item description to attract more potential buyers.
- You may also want to consider insuring your item in case anything goes wrong during shipping. Watch out for low-feedback buyers and also keep in mind that Paypal charges processing fees as well.
Craigslist
Craigslist allows you to list items for sale in your area so you can perform the transaction locally and face-to-face. This is a quick way to get some cash for your iPad on the spot and also an easy way to let the buyer check out the iPad in person before committing to the purchase. As long as you were honest about the condition and specifications, you should have no issue in completing a painless transaction with a buyer.
- Don't ever put your personal or home address in an ad. Ever!
- Price your iPad competitively. A good way to do this is to find existing ads on Craigslist in your area for iPads that are the same model, capacity, and condition as yours and price accordingly. If your iPad shows up next to someone else's and yours is grossly overpriced, it won't sell.
- Some buyers prefer being able to text or call you immediately about an item and it may increase the likelihood of a quick sale. Having a phone number that they can reach you at is ideal. Only do this if you're comfortable with putting your phone number on the internet. This is a good time to use a Google Voice number or other forwarding number if you have one.
- Meet in a public place, preferably in the daytime. A coffee place like Starbucks is a good idea. It's also never a bad idea to bring a friend or relative with you. While most buyers are perfectly friendly, there are shady people out there. If the person doesn't want to meet in a public place, pass on them and wait for someone who doesn't have an issue with that.
- Watch out for email scams, something Craigslist is notorious for. Anyone offering to pay you a great deal more than the list price or who asks you to ship the item to a foreign country is a scammer. Delete their e-mails and correspondence immediately and wait for a legitimate buyer to come along.
Sell your iPad to a friend or family member
Even if you aren't willing to part with your old iPad for free, it doesn't mean friends or family members aren't interested in buying it from you. Perhaps they don't have an iPad and don't care about having the newest model available. Using this method you ensure that your old iPad finds a good home and you know the buyer isn't a scam artist.
Ask around and offer a reasonable price and you may be surprised how many of your friends or family members could be willing to snag your old iPad. Throwing in accessories such as cases can help sweeten the deal as well.
Get more help selling your old iPad
Whether you just aren't sure which method to use, need advice on what condition you should list your iPad as, or what you should price it at, we're here to help. You can leave any questions you have about selling your old iPad in the comments below or better yet, in our iMore forums where lots of our members have years of experience selling and trading gadgets of all kinds.
One of our members may even be interested in taking your old iPad off your hands so be sure to check out our Marketplace forum as well!
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How to replace the front facing FaceTime camera in an iPhone 4S
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:41 AM PDT
The front facing FaceTime camera on the iPhone 4S is a pretty important part of how we communicate with the people we care about most. If a day ever comes where you find yourself out of warranty and the front facing camera stops working or produces bad quality video or images, we can help you DIY repair it yourself. With the right tools and just a little less than an hour of your time, we can get you back up and running in no time.
Follow along and we'll show you how.
Disclaimer: As with any repair, neither iMore nor The Pod Drop can be held responsible for any damage you may do to your device. It's also worth considering that opening up your device to perform any repair or modification can and will void your Apple warranty. If you don't feel comfortable opening your device, don't. Use extreme care and caution when performing a repair on any device.
Not comfortable with DIY repair? Leave it to the pros
If you aren't comfortable performing a DIY repair on your own, don't. It is possible to cause more damage or run into issues you aren't ready for. In this case, it's probably better to either pay the money for a replacement device from Apple or use a local or mail-in service that will handle the repair and any issues that may arise for you.
The Pod Drop has many locations in the midwest and is a rapidly growing company. You can check for a Pod Drop location near you, mail it in, or use another third party repair service. For more information on mail-in repairs or possible Pod Drop locations near you, you can visit their website.
If you are comfortable with repairing your own device, put your ninja pants on and keep reading!
What you'll need to DIY replace an iPhone 4S front facing camera
We recommend using only quality and genuine parts from a reputable supplier like eTech Parts. They have quality parts, tools, and much more for all your repair needs. You will find links to the specific parts you'll need for this repair in the list below.
- iPhone 4S (any variant)
- Replacement front facing camera - Link to part
- #00 Phillips screwdriver - Link to part
- Security screwdriver - Link to part
- Spudger tool - Link to part
- SIM removal tool or paperclip
Video walkthrough
While the video walkthrough adds even more detail, it is meant to be used in correlation with the written steps below. It will show a complete breakdown of the device but smaller steps for each individual repair will be listed with high quality images in the actual guide below.
Power off your iPhone 4S
Before performing any repair you should always power off your device before opening it up.
Remove the back plate
- Using your security screwdriver, remove the 2 screws on either side of the dock connector port.
- Set them aside. They are both the exact same size and length so it does not matter if you mix them up. They are interchangeable.
- Gently slide up the back plate by applying a bit of pressure along the bottom with your thumbs and sliding upwards.
- Now lift off the back plate and set it aside.
Remove the battery and grounding clip
- Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver, remove the two screws holding the battery in place.
- These screws are different lengths so make sure you remember which one goes where. The one that is slightly larger is the bottom screw.
- There is a tiny grounding clip underneath the battery clip where the first screw is located. Use your spudger tool or finger to remove it before prying the clip up. Many times it can go flying if you don't remove it first and then you'll have difficulty locating it so it's best to remove it first.
- Now use your spudger tool and at the bottom of the battery clip, gently pry upwards so the clip pops up.
- Move to the edge of the iPhone where the volume buttons are located and use your spudger tool to carefully pry up the battery. It is stuck down with a good amount of adhesive so be careful when prying upwards that you don't bend the battery. This is why I do not use the plastic tab that is provided. It typically rips or bends the battery. If one part is resistant move your pry tool a little further down and gently start prying it up in different places taking care not to come too close to the volume button cables towards the top.
- Once you've gotten the battery pulled out of the iPhone 4S we can move on to inserting the replacement battery.
Remove the top logic board shields
- Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver, remove the four screws that hold the top silver shield in place and the one screw that holds the small black shield in place.
- Now use your spudger or pry tool to gently lift the silver shield out of the iPhone.
- Use your spudger or pry tool to lift the black shield out of the iPhone.
- Set both shields aside and make sure your screws are organized for reassembly later.
Unclip the top logic board cables & remove the rear-facing camera
Using your spudger or pry tool carefully disconnect all the cables at the top of the logic board. There are seven cables total. One of the cables lies underneath the bottom most cable so you'll need to disconnect the cable over it before folding it back and revealing the shorter cable underneath.
Once you unclip the seven cables, you can lift the rear-facing camera directly out of the iPhone. It was only connected by one cable.
Disconnect the dock connector
- Using your #00 Phillips screwdriver remove the shield that is covering the dock connector cable towards the middle left of the iPhone. Remember which screw came from where as they are different sizes. Gently lift the shield out of the iPhone and set it aside.
- Take your spudger tool and gently pry up the dock connector cable and peel it back as shown below. Perform this step with caution as there is adhesive on the underside of the cable. Take care not to rip the cable by pulling up to quickly.
- Leave the cable in this position and move on to the next section.
Pry up the Wi-Fi antenna
- Using your spudger toolcarefully pry up the round connection for the cellular antenna. It should come up easily so pry up gently.
- You'll notice that it is wrapped around a metal clip. Gently unwrap it so it's sticking upwards and leave it in this position.
Remove the SIM card and tray
Using a SIM removal tool or a bent paper clip, eject the SIM tray and set it, and the SIM card aside.
Remove the logic board
- Remove the three #00 Phillips screws at the top, middle, and bottom left of the logic board with your #00 Phillips screwdriver. The top screw has a piece of tape over it you'll need to peel back. After removing it you'll also notice a gold grounding clip underneath it. Make sure you don't lose it as you'll need it for reassembly.
- There are two more screws holding the logic board in place and you'll need to remove them with your flat head screwdriver. They are located at the top right and bottom of the logic board.
- Now you should be able to lift the logic board out of the iPhone. Use the area that the rear-facing camera was located and the bottom of the logic board to lift it straight out.
Remove the metal retainer & front facing camera
There is a metal retainer covering the front facing camera. To remove it use your pry tool to gently pull it off. Make sure you don't lose it as you'll need it for reassembly. Now that the metal retainer has been removed you can gently lift the front facing camera out of the iPhone 4S.
Replace the front facing camera & metal retainer
Now replace the front facing camera with the new replacement part. Once it is securely in place you can replace the metal retainer by snapping it back in place.
Reassemble your iPhone 4S
To reassemble your iPhone 4S, you can either follow all these directions in exact reverse order or view our reassembly video guide above which will walk you through how to reassemble it from screen to turning it back on and testing it. For an front facing camera replacement you'll need to watch the video from about 5:30 to the end.
And ...done!
Once you've finished putting your iPhone 4S completely back together you can go ahead and turn it back on. If all went well, you should see the Apple logo and your phone should boot up like normal. Now pop into your camera app and flip the camera around to test the new part. Make sure to test it in daytime and in low light conditions. Even though the front facing camera isn't great at capturing low light, it should at least get the job done decently.
Congrats! Now get to FaceTiming again!
Want to know how to perform another type of iPhone repair or modification? Send me suggestions and questions to ally@imore.com. If you had issues performing this repair, our DIY and mod forums are a great place to start. If you still can't find an answer, you can contact me at the e-mail address above.
To inquire about repair service, you can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, e-mail us directly, or request a repair straight from The Pod Drop website.
Additional resources:
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Apple's Phil Schiller defends iPad mini pricing
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:47 AM PDT
After yesterday's introduction of the iPad mini, Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Product Marketing, found himself defending its $329 price tag. While Apple's biggest competition in the category of smaller tablets, Google and Amazon, price their small tablets starting at $199, Schiller defended the iPad mini as a premium product worth the higher price, and said that customers understand this and are willing to pay. Schiller highlighted this at yesterday's press event, drawing direct comparisons to Google's Nexus 7, as Noel Randewich and Poornima Gupta for Reuters report:
Apple is under pressure to defend its dominant position in tablets, a market it created with the launch of the first iPad in 2010. The intensity in the marketplace was evident in Tuesday's unveiling of the iPad mini as Schiller took the unusual step of doing a side-by-side comparison of the smaller iPad and Google's Nexus 7 tablet.
"Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad and they've failed miserably," Schiller said during the event. "These are not great experiences."
On stage yesterday, Schiller compared the iPad mini's app experience to that of the Nexus 7, and said that while the Nexus 7 runs blown-up phone apps, the iPad mini runs full iPad apps. This is one of the main selling points for the iPad mini, that it is a full iPad and that the app experience reflects that. Schiller also tauted the decreased weight of the iPad over the competition, despite the fact that the screen area is 35% larger than the Nexus 7.
Unlike Amazon and Google, who are selling their tablets at or close to cost, Apple always looks to make a substantial profit on its devices. This is reflected in the price of the iPad mini. Apple can afford to make a $250 tablet, certainly, but to generate the profit that they want to out of the device, they sell it for a higher price. They are not selling a cheap tablet, they are selling a cheaper iPad. That might be enough. Despite the existence of cheaper rivals, the iPad has held on to a large majority of the tablet market for over two years now. With the iPad mini, Apple seeks to continue that dominance by betting that what people don't want a small, cheap tablet, but rather a smaller iPad with a lower price tag. Time will tell if they are right.
What do you think about iPad mini pricing? Is it too high, or are you getting what you pay for?
Source: Reuters
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Notable New iPad Apps: Letterpress – Word Game, from the Creator of Tweetie
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:11 AM PDT
Letterpress – Word Game is a brand new and fun looking word game for the iPad and iOS. Here's its short, sweet pitch on its App Store page:
Find words, steal tiles, color the board! Letterpress is a fresh new word game for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Play against your friends using Game Center! The perfect blend of fun and strategy.
The game is already getting some rave reviews, and it sounds like quite a good idea for those of us who enjoy word games. It's also notable because its developer is Loren Brichter, the creator of the hugely popular Tweetie Twitter client app. Tweetie was eventually bought out by Twitter themsleves and Brichter worked on the official Twitter app for iOS and Mac. Brichter is responsible for some of the most popular iOS interface elements that are now used in many apps – including the pull-down to refresh gesture that is used in Apple's own Mail app in iOS 6 and by the hugely popular Facebook app for iOS.
I haven't had a chance to give the game a try just yet – but I'm sure I will this evening. Have any of you played it yet? If so, please tell us what you think of it in the comments.
Here's an App Store link for Letterpress – Word Game; it's a free app with one In-App purchase option labeled 'Letterpress Upgrade' for $0.99.
© patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: iPad Games, iPad word games
Comments
- Ha, hope you don't have to – but you probably won't see this ... by Patrick Jordan
- I might have to stop reading your posts in future. I'm not that ... by Linda
- Hey that's 2 words. :) Good to hear, I'll definitely be giving ... by Patrick Jordan
- In a word… it's excellent. by Brandon
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That Other New iPad Announced Yesterday: the iPad 4th Generation
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:43 AM PDT
The iPad Mini was announced at Apple's special event yesterday, just as was widely expected – as were a number of new Macs. The one big surprise of the day was another new iPad – the iPad 4th generation – or the iPad 4 as it's likely to be called by most of us.
This was surprising, and frustrating to many recent iPad buyers, in large part because the new iPad, or iPad 3, was only just released 7 months ago – and it has now been displaced and apparently dropped entirely from the iPad lineup. As Alicia talked about yesterday here, the iPad lineup now consists of the iPad Mini, the iPad 2, and the new iPad 4.
As a lead-in to the introduction of the iPad 4, Tim Cook finished off a rundown of the many impressive numbers for iPad and the reasons why it is so loved by users by telling us that Apple are 'just getting started' with the iPad and "We're not taking our foot off the gas".
Phil Schiller then unveiled the iPad 4 and emphasized that the 3rd generation iPad is the best tablet in the world and the 4th generation iPad 'just extends that lead'. When describing the performance improvements in the iPad 4 he went even further – saying it puts the iPad so far ahead of the competition that:
I can't even see them in the rearview mirror.
So it's worth taking a quick look at what exactly has changed and improved in the iPad 4.
(...)
Read the rest of That Other New iPad Announced Yesterday: the iPad 4th Generation (360 words)
© patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: iPad 4, iPad 4th generation
Comments
- My impression thus far is that this is the transition to a new ... by Patrick Jordan
- For got to ask, do you think they will release the next iPad in ... by Curtis
- I have an iPad 3, purchased on release day. It doesn't bother ... by Curtis
- Right on, and as Greg pointed out now we should expect a bit ... by Patrick Jordan
- Hey Greg – I kinda feel your pain given that you're a big ... by Patrick Jordan
- Plus 4 more...
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:38 AM PDT
"Letterpress is a painfully addictive word game, earning its place on my home screen and sure to win the hearts of people in bathrooms everywhere. I give it five Magic Trackpads."
Imagine yourself drawing a bath. The water runs over the sound of light jazz as you slide your robe off, lit by the scented candles scattered around the room. You check the temperature—just a toe at first. The heat startles, then invites. Your body slides in, displacing the mountainous landscape of bubbles and finally settling with just enough room for you to watch the steam rise from your skin. You reach for your glass and take a sip of merlot. Your head tilted back, you feel it sliding down your throat. Eyes closed, you pick your iPhone up from the table next to you. The welcome vibration causes your skin to tremble, and as you open your eyes to look at the screen, you see it…
"reneritchie played PACKAGES"
"Now", you think, "I'm ready to play."
Asynchronous iOS games have long been a favorite of iPhone users in the bathroom. Words With Friends—another word game—introduced me to the idea, and Draw Something proved that it could also be done so poorly that an otherwise good idea would be abandoned by its users just slightly less quickly than the company who purchased its creators could realize their mistake. Honorable mention: Let's Sing. But where Draw Something and Let's Sing use pictures and sounds, word games in particular seem well-suited to asynchronous play.
Enter Letterpress, the new iPhone game from Atebits. You remember Atebits, right? Started by Loren Brichter in 2007, Atebits was the one-man powerhouse that gave us Tweetie. And Tweetie 2. And Tweetie for Mac. As if winning an Apple Design Award and inventing pull-to-refresh weren't enough, Loren then sold his company to Twitter in 2010, where he continued work on his apps under the banner of being the official platform Twitter clients.
At least, until Twitter decided they hated their users, ruined the iPhone app with the infamous Dickbar, threw away everything that made the iPad client great, and took a massive dump on the Mac client. Inexplicably, Loren decided to leave.
It seems weird to relaunch Atebits with a word game. Back in May, I asked Loren what he was working on next, and he said he wanted to start off small in order to "reset expectations". This turns out to be a brilliant move: more work on a social network of any kind would seem obvious and risk painting the man as a one-trick pony. However, a game helps to shift the focus back to the product. (For more, see our interview with Loren Brichter.)
So, about that product.
Letterpress is deceptively simple. A five-by-five grid of letters is laid out on the screen. You and your opponent have full visibility to the board, and must make words out of the letters provided. As you do, those letters are colored in—blue for your letters, red for theirs—and each move steals letters back, affecting the letter-count score at the top of the screen. Things get slightly trickier when the letters on the four sides of a played letter are also played in the same color, when the lock-in effect causes the center to go darker. In this case, the letter can still be played, but no points transfer. Each word must consist of at least two letters, and no word can be re-played.
It's interesting to see the word choices your opponents make, and during the beta period it became clear that different people have very different styles of play. During a recent conference, a friendly rivalry with another tester turned into a passionate conversation about strategy and how to dominate the board. Arguments were made for word-based play, and arguments were made for tile-and-location-based approaches. Where we definitely agreed was that it's totally worth risking a lead to play a really funny word.
While the game itself is asynchronous, I often find myself in prolonged sessions with other players, where we'll begin and end a game (or two) in a single sitting. This works less well for bathroom play, since those longer sessions could mean pruney skin. But the difference is that the rapid-fire approach can get heated quickly, leading to more moves based on gut feeling and less on calculated strategy. I find it interesting that this is a natural diversion in the gameplay itself, and not a "mode" designed to needlessly split the game into extra features.
Matching up to other players is straightforward enough, either by picking from your Game Center friends or letting the game find someone for you at random. But the lack of in-game chat means that trash-talking and congratulations must be done outside the game, which in turn means the less connected you are to the person you're playing, the less you'll get out of the experience. I've enjoyed many rounds of trash-talking and congratulations via iMessage, and that's a huge part of what makes the game fun.
Similarly, once a game as ended you have to go in and invite your opponent to play again. This would be fine, except that it's not clear who should be in charge of creating the new game, so you end up in a lot of situations where both sides take the initiative and you're now juggling two sessions. A simple "rematch" button would take all of the pain out of this and probably keep me in the app longer.
Both of these complaints, I'm told, are Game Center's fault. And since they're relatively minor, I won't hold it against the game. That said, I really hope they get fixed quickly.
Taking the sting out of the Game Center problems is the gorgeous visual design. A game should be immersive, and Letterpress does a wonderful job of creating a light, fun world for the letters to populate. The colors and typography are clean and clear, and the overall treatment feels bright and minimalist without coming off as sterile. A few small touches really shine, though, like the way the newly-played letters shake when you re-enter a game after your opponent has played, the welcomed clever branding of the refresh indicator, or the game-remove animation that really has to be seen to be appreciated.
You can tell that Loren has put a lot of love and care into his latest app. It's genuinely fun.
Letterpress is a universal app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and is available for free on the App Store, but by default you can only have two concurrent games running. A single $0.99 in-app purchase will remove this limitation, enable a previously played words list, and give you access to visual themes (spoiler: some of them are pink). I can't imagine anyone playing this game and not spending the $0.99.
My prediction is that this game is going to be wildly successful, and not because of the history or pedigree of its developer. Letterpress is painfully addictive, earning its place on my home screen and sure to win the hearts of people in bathrooms everywhere. I give it five Magic Trackpads.
Free - Download now
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Loren Brichter talks about his new game, Letterpress for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:39 AM PDT
You're Loren Brichter. You worked at Apple on the original iPhone. You created Tweetie for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, including the now ubiquitous "pull to refresh" gesture, and sliding panels that first showed off what tablet software could do. You're relaunching your company, Atebits, and getting back into indie iOS development. What do you do?
Release a game, of course. But not just any game. You take the word-style games you love, make them two-player, add animations that would delight Pixar, and introduce a strategy that elevates it to something close to Tower Defense for word finder, and then you unleash it with full on Game Center support as universal app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. And you call it Letterpress.
I had the chance to talk to Loren briefly about why he zagged into game development rather than sticking with the zig that is utility apps, where the idea came from, how the mechanics evolved, how he managed to hide the tinted status bar, and even some of his ideas about where Letterpress might go next. (Spoiler: In-game trash talking. You're welcome.)
It's an audio-only interview but I put it up on YouTube because a) that's what I'm used to and b) it let me add a little bit of gameplay video on top so you could see what we're talking about even though c) I assume you've downloaded the app already because d) it's free.
Enjoy. Now back to playing...
(If you haven't read our Letterpress review yet, go do that now.)
- Free - Download now
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My Early Take on the iPad Mini, and the iPad “4″
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:08 AM PDT
First, 100 million iPads sold to date. 100 MILLION! In two and a half years. That's absolutely stunning, and phenomenal, and way beyond my wildest expectations. I think it also speaks to a far greater degree of PC cannibalization than even I'd expected. I know the previously installed tablet base was essentially zero, but it certainly shows that an awful lot of people realize that an iPad can do 9x% of what they need, 9x% of the time, and often times way better than can a laptop.
Second, the price of the Mini. I'd hoped for $249, guessed $299 based on recent rumblings and the existing iPod Touch price point, and it came in at a starting price of $329. Hmm.
I think Apple missed an opportunity at the $249 level which probably could've been attained via the inclusion of an 8GB model. I know that's not much storage, but with the iCloud push they could've gotten away with it I think. And it would've been that much closer to impulse purchase price levels. I know everyone defines that differently – for me it would be more like $199, which I could see stretching to $249 based on faith in Apple. As it stands, $329 is not an impulse purchase for me and so I've not preordered one. I can imagine changing that stance once I hold one in my hands.
Weight and size. I'm extremely and pleasantly surprised by the weight. .68 pounds is definitely lighter than I expected given the overall size. I can't wait (ha) to feel one in hand. And to get a sense for the physical dimensions I cut out a cardboard mockup and you know what? I really can lay it in one hand and get my thumb and ring finger to grasp it. I have large hands however, and of course the proof will be in the pudding. But from the spec sheet, it looks like Apple got this right.
Screen. This is a 'meh' for me, which is to say I'm not not getting one because it isn't a retina screen. I think iPad 2 resolution shrunken down will work fine for most. That said, when the mini inevitably gets a retina screen it could conceivably push me over the edge to purchase one.
Am I getting one? Not straight away, no. It's a touch pricier than I'd prefer. And then there's the whole existential crisis thing for an iPad Alone guy like me. Would a mini make me an iPad + iPad Mini Alone guy? Do I excuse the Mini by being nonetheless an iPad, and so technically qualified to exist in my bag of tricks?
One of the main reasons I went all iPad in the first place was the enormous size and weight advantage the iPad held over laptops. The mini further extends that advantage, but combine it in a bag with a regular iPad and all of a sudden I'm hauling as much weight around as an 11″ Air. That doesn't sound so good. Which then means I have to decide which iPad I want to take with me on a given journey. Possible I suppose. For me it would come down to typing. I'm super fast in landscape on the iPad. Can't imagine taking the mini if I anticipated any reasonable amount of typing. Reading? Mini. Typing? iPad. Still, I'm not sure I'd like having to choose. So for the moment I sit this out (easy prediction: a future post wherein I explain why I finally got a mini).
The iPad "4″ As you've no doubt seen, Apple also replaced the new iPad with an even newer new iPad. Improved guts, lightning connector, faster charger. Certainly nice, and something to make me jealous. But not enough to make me upgrade from my now-old new iPad. An incremental change without a killer new feature (for the original new iPad that killer feature was the retina screen). So I sit this one out. But new buyers will undoubtedly be thrilled.
I do wonder if Apple has now moved and synchronized iOS device update time frames to the Fall. That would make the Spring awfully boring however, something I can't imagine Apple doing, especially as they also just updated just about every Mac model under the sun. So what's left for Spring? Mild refreshes? An iPhone 5S and a really new iPad? We shall see.
Deal of the Day: 46% off the Case-Mate Phantom Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:24 AM PDT
Today Only: Buy the Case-Mate Phantom Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 and save $23.00!
This case sports a sleek design fit for any lifestyle. The two-piece design impresses with its clean, aesthetic lines and fresh, on-trend colors. A snap-on frame supports the front and sides of the iPhone, protecting the screen while the case lays facedown. Color options include black, turquoise, raspberry, aqua and lime.
List Price: $50.00 Today's Price: $27.00
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AT&T announces Q3 2012 results, iPhone still dominate smartphone sales
Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:07 AM PDT
AT&T has released their third quarter 2012 results, and out of 6.1 million smartphones sold, 4.7 million of those were iPhones, and 18% of those were for customers new to the network. That's especially interesting given that the iPhone 5 only launched at the tail end of the quarter. Here's what AT&T CEO Randal Stephenson had to say:
"We had another impressive quarter with strong earnings growth, record cash flows and solid returns to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. In wireless, we had another excellent smartphone quarter, penetration of usage-based mobile data plans continues to climb, and our 4G LTE network build is ahead of schedule. And in wireline, our IP network continues to deliver strong gains in U-verse high speed Internet connections, which helped drive an almost 10 percent increase in broadband data ARPU.
"Our strong performance allows us to increase our free cash flow guidance to $18 billion or higher this year, exceeding our previous outlook by $2 billion."
Also interesting (emphasis mine):
AT&T posted a net increase in total wireless subscribers of 678,000 in the third quarter to reach 105.9 million in service. This included gains in every customer category. Subscriber additions for the quarter included postpaid net adds of 151,000. Postpaid results were impacted by iPhone 5 inventory constraints which resulted in the vast majority of third-quarter iPhone sales going to existing customers, where there was considerable pent-up demand. Prepaid net adds were 77,000, connected device net adds were 313,000 and reseller net adds were 137,000.
Android and Windows Phone sales were also up (I'm guessing mostly Android), and smartphone sales in general were 1.4 million hire than previous quarters. Apple will announce their results tomorrow. Hit the link below for the full results, and here's a video from Ralph de la Vega that they swear wasn't made by the folks at SNL...
Source: AT&T
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