iPad By Davis: “MacBreak Weekly 324: I Cry With Jony” plus 11 more |
- MacBreak Weekly 324: I Cry With Jony
- Apple's Eddie Cue joins the Ferrari board of directors
- AT&T set to expand availability of FaceTime over cellular
- Goodnight Moon: Classic Bedtime Story Now an iPad Storybook App
- How to text a reply instead of answering a call using Respond With Message on your iPhone
- iPad mini camera review
- Evernote iPad App Gets Big 5.0 Update
- Notable New iPad Apps: FreshBooks – Cloud Accounting
- iPod touch 5 camera review
- Should it bother investors that Apple stock is getting killed lately?
- Deal of the Day: 49% off the Belkin Grip Max Case for iPhone 5
- The Spark Digital is the first studio-grade condenser microphone available for iPad
| MacBreak Weekly 324: I Cry With Jony Posted: 08 Nov 2012 08:35 PM PST The sensational Sarah Lane guest-hosts for Leo Laporte, who's on the geek cruise down under, and talks iPad mini sales numbers, iPhone loyalty waning, Apple and Intel going to Splitsville, and more, with Andy Ihnatko, Alex Lindsay, and yours truly. My pick of the week was Bjango's iStat 2, and here's the link the Apple event wallpaper on my iPad mini. Subscribe or download: TWiT.tv 
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| Apple's Eddie Cue joins the Ferrari board of directors Posted: 07 Nov 2012 11:17 AM PST
Eddie Cue, Apple's senior vice president of internet software and services, has joined the board of directors of Italian hypercar maker, Ferrari. In the press release announcing Ferrari's financial results of the first nine months of 2012, they also announced the appointment. Cue is quoted in the release with the following statement:
The appointment comes as Cue has taken on increased responsibilities in his role as head of internet software and services at Apple, having iOS 6 Maps and Siri placed under his supervision. What if anything this means for Cue's time commitments, and Apple and Ferrari products is unknown. Who knows, maybe we'll see an F70 with built-in iTunes Match...? Source: Ferrari 
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| AT&T set to expand availability of FaceTime over cellular Posted: 08 Nov 2012 02:00 PM PST
AT&T will loosen its restrictions on FaceTime over LTE. Previously, AT&T had limited use of FaceTime over LTE to those customers with a Mobile Share plan. Now, a customer on any of the carrier's plans will be able to use FaceTime over LTE. AT&T also announced that they would be making special text and data-only packages available to deaf and hard of hearing customers to increase the utility of FaceTime over cellular. In a statment, AT&T said that these initiatives would roll out in eight to ten weeks.
This is good news for many AT&T customers who have not moved to a Mobile Share plan. Unfortunately, for many more of AT&T's customers, 3G does not seem to be included in this expansion. Customers with an iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 are out of luck, despite the fact that they are perfectly capable of using FaceTime over cellular. Even most of AT&T's customers that use the iPhone 5 are probably left in the lurch, at least for now. That's because AT&T's LTE network does not cover most of AT&T's service area, and despite the planned expansion of their LTE network, it's not there yet. So their iPhone 5 customers don't even have access to LTE to take advantage of the less restrictive FaceTime requirements. So while this is a nice step in the right direction, it's not nearly a big enough step to matter to most of AT&T's customers. Source: PR Newswire 
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| Goodnight Moon: Classic Bedtime Story Now an iPad Storybook App Posted: 08 Nov 2012 01:03 PM PST
Goodnight Moon. Margaret Wise Brown's story is a bedtime classic – maybe the classic bedtime story, at least in my household, where it's an all-time favorite. And now it's a lovely little iPad (and iOS) storybook app – just released today on the iPad App Store. Here's a bit of its App Store intro:
The app is published by Loud Crow Interactive, the makers of the superb A Charlie Brown Christmas iPad storybook app – chosen as one of the picks in our Best iPad Apps of 2011 list. My daughter is 9 now and perhaps just a bit too old to enjoy this story now, though I imagine her love for it may return some years down the road. Just hearing the story's title fills me with good feelings, so I installed the app earlier today and took a quick look. It's very nicely done and has lots of fun interactive elements (more than 200 touchable objects) that will give young kids lots of extra entertainment on each page. It also has nice little touches like the ability to personalize the book a bit, tapping on individual words to hear them spoken, and the choice to listen to the professional voiceover or read the book yourself to your child – or have your child read it to you. The app is currently priced at $2.99 as an 'introductory price' – its standard price will be $4.99. Here's an App Store link for Goodnight Moon; it's a universal app designed for both iPad and iPhone. © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us         Related Stories
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| How to text a reply instead of answering a call using Respond With Message on your iPhone Posted: 08 Nov 2012 12:42 PM PST
iOS 6 brings a couple of new options to the built-in Phone app, including the ability to Respond with Message to incoming calls. Basically, if a call comes in and you can't answering right then and there, with a swipe and a couple of taps, you can quickly send an iMessage or SMS instead of answering. It's a great feature for when you're busy or in a meeting and want to let someone know you will contact them later.
   
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| Posted: 08 Nov 2012 09:02 AM PST
The newly released iPad mini comes with two cameras: a 1.2-megapixel front-facing FaceTime HD camera and a 5-megapixel rear-facing iSight camera with a f/2.4 five-element lens, hybrid IR filter, and backside illuminations. In fact, this is the exact same camera featured in the iPod touch 5. Because the iPad mini is equipped with the same camera as the iPod touch 5, we're going to direct you to the iPod touch 5 camera review for the nitty gritty details and just include a few sample photos taken specifically with the iPad mini. But before we do, it's important to mention what's missing on the iPad mini. Although the iPad mini has the same camera as the iPod touch 5, it does not have the ability to take HDR or panorama photos (both of these are software related), and it's also lacking an LED flash. To make a long story short, the camera is actually quite good. It's not quite as good as the iPhone 5 camera, but if you disregard extreme low-light scenarios and the lower megapixel-count (5-megapixels vs 8-megapixels, the quality of the images that come out of the iPad mini are very similar to those produced with the iPhone 5. This first photo compares the iPad mini with the iPod touch 5 to demonstrate that they produce extremely similar results.
One could argue that the colors on the two photos above are slightly different, but it's almost negligible and something as simple as light reflecting differently off the pink shirt I was wearing could have caused it. These next 7 photos were taken with an iPad mini and were not altered in any way.
The bottom lineAlthough the iPad mini doesn't have as good of a camera as the iPhone 5, it still does a great job, especially considering it's an iPad. Since the iPad mini is much smaller than the retina iPad, using it to take photos is also much less awkward than with its big brother. However, because the iPad mini is still much bigger than any compact camera, I wouldn't recommend getting an iPad mini for the camera alone. I think of it more as a great bonus added to an already great device. 
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| Evernote iPad App Gets Big 5.0 Update Posted: 08 Nov 2012 09:08 AM PST
Evernote, the hugely powerful and versatile note-taking app for iPad and iOS, has had big update today – to Version 5.0. The app's interface has been completely revamped and now offers quick access to all these features on its main screen:
The app now lets you create new notes with fewer taps and shows notes in a new card style that gives a little thumbnail glimpse at note content. (...) © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us  Related Stories
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| Notable New iPad Apps: FreshBooks – Cloud Accounting Posted: 08 Nov 2012 08:37 AM PST
FreshBooks – Cloud Accounting has just been updated today to support the iPad. It's now a universal app designed for both iPad and iPhone. FreshBooks is an online service that provides invoicing, billing, and accounting services for small businesses. It seems like just the sort of service that needs a really good iPad app. Here's some background on the app, via its App Store page:
I haven't used FreshBooks myself as yet, but I have worked with several freelance consultants who use it – and it's certainly makes payments easy and looks like quite a slick service. Here's an App Store link for FreshBooks – Cloud Accounting; it's a free app. © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  Related Stories
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| Posted: 08 Nov 2012 07:46 AM PST
Even though the iPod touch 5 doesn't have as great of a camera as the iPhone 5, its camera has been severely updated from what was included with its predecessor. The iPod touch 5 is equipped with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with a f/2.4 five-element lens, hybrid IR filter, backside illuminations, and the ability to take both panorama and HDR photos. This camera may have the same megapixel count as the iPhone 4 camera, but the components and build-quality are closer to that of iPhone 5 camera with a five-element lens made from sapphire crystal . We've already taken the iPod touch 5 camera head-to-head with the iPhone 5, so now it's time take a closer look at the iPod touch 5 camera on it's own. Spoiler-alert: it's probably better than you think! Hardware design of iPod touch 5 iSight Camera
Since the body of the iPod touch 5 has been designed to be incredibly thin, the camera is too big to be able to sit flush against the casing of the device. Instead, the camera slightly protrudes out of the backside of the iPod touch. The silver ring that surrounds the lens is a tad bit thicker than the lens so at to prevent the lens from making direct content with any surfaces you may place your iPod touch on. It was very strange at first to see the lens sticking out like this, but I've gotten used to it and am wiling the sacrifice the slight awkwardness for an incredibly thin device in return. Sample photos taken with the iPod touch 5All of the photos featured in this article have been taken with an iPod touch 5 and have not been altered in any way. General photography with iPod touch 5 camera
These first few examples are of general photography like landscapes, flowers, children, and more. There's a good mixture between shaded and sunny environments, and bright and dark subjects. As you can see, the iPod touch performed very well.
Macro photos taken with the iPod touch 5
Just as with the iPhone 5 camera, I was very impressed with how easily the iPod touch 5 locked focus on close-up subjects. Marco photography is one of my favorite types of photography on iOS devices, so this made me smile.
HDR photos taken with the iPod touch 5
The iPod touch 5 handles HDR photos very well. The improvements made to shadows and bright skies are very noticeable. As you can see in the photo above, turning on HDR made the blown-out white sky look like it did in real life -- blue! Low light photos taken with the iPod touch 5
One of the biggest weaknesses of every iPhone and iPod touch camera has been the poor quality of photos taken in low light scenarios. Unfortunately, this continues to be a huge weakness with the iPod touch 5 as well. In medium-low light situations like sunset, the iPod touch does ok, but once your environment is very dark, not only are the photos very grainy, but the colors are also way off.
Notice the green, ugly tint on this extreme low-light photo.
Performance doesn't improve when you head indoors, either. This next photo was taken in poor indoor lighting, and it's grainy with terrible coloring.
When I turned on the flash, I got much better results.
Photos taken with the iPod touch 5's front-facing camera
The iPod touch 5 is equipped with a 1.2-megapixel front-facting FaceTime HD camera. This is the same FaceTime camera featured on the iPhone 5, and it does an equally decent job. The quality is clearly not as good as the rear-facing iSight camera, but it's not too bad either. Since it's easier to get a self-portrait with the front-facing camera than with the rear-facing, it will usually be worth giving up some quality to use the FaceTime camera for self-portraits. Purple flare with the iPod touch 5
With all the attention given to purple flare on the iPhone 5, I had no choice but to investigate if the iPod touch could easily cast a purple flare on its photos. As expected, it wasn't difficult to create a photograph with purple flare with the iPod touch 5. Although easy to produce, purple flare is not a regular problem. As long as you're familiar with why a lens will cast a purple flare on your image, you can avoid these situations and very rarely be haunted by the presence of purple. Panorama photos taken with the iPod touch 5
One of the exciting new features of iOS 6 is the ability to take panoramic photos directly from the built-in camera app by simply panning the scene -- and it produces beautiful results with the iPod touch 5!
The bottom lineOverall, I am very impressed with the iPod touch 5 camera and think it can easily replace a low-end point-and-shoot camera. And since the iPod touch is also an iPod, you get to do so much more with it than take photos! For many people, investing in an iPod touch will be more useful and satisfying than investing in a compact camera. To get the most out of your iPod touch 5's camera, be sure head over to our photography page for some tutorials on take spectacular images! 
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| Should it bother investors that Apple stock is getting killed lately? Posted: 08 Nov 2012 07:22 AM PST
Yes, Apple is still the biggest company in the world. But since hitting a high of over $700 in late September, the stock is off about 20%. Putting this in dollar terms, the value of Apple, as a company, has fallen by nearly $140 billion compared to the September highs. During this 20% drop, Apple's market value has fallen by 32x the total market value of RIM. Talk about a metric that puts things in perspective! Apple has also lost more value than 60% of Google's total market capitalization, and more than Verizon's entire market cap. Why? The folks at Business Insider published a solid article this morning explaining why Apple is tanking. The biggest two reasons seem to be:
Combine this with worries about executive changes and you have the perfect conditions for worry on Wall Street. When fund managers worry, they tend to sell to protect themselves. This causes the stock to tumble. As a long term investor, I have to say I couldn't care less about short term gyrations. I do care about how Tim Cook and team manage the business. I do care that they screwed up Apple Maps, and that they may run into supply constraints on iPhone 5 for the next while. But these are all things we've seen before. Apple has been unable to meet huge demand for iPhones with nearly every launch. They catch up over a couple of quarters. It seems to me this is a high quality problem to have. What about iPad mini profitability? Yeah, it costs less and has less profit for Apple. Wall Street never seems to be able to think long term enough to understand why this is actually good for business. Here is a non-Apple story that should help convey the importance of expanding with lower cost products. Back in the mid 2000s, RIM was the clear leader in smartphones. BlackBerry was expanding globally. And to hit a segment of the market they weren't previously hitting, they created more cost-effective hardware and struck service revenue agreements that were less profitable (per user). Analysts complained that ARPU (average revenue per user) was declining, and kept declining, which was an obvious problem. Analysts said this for years. Yet throughout that period RIM's profitability expanded enormously. The short term thinking of most analysts prevented them from realizing that these markets RIM was entering were new business opportunities. They may be less profitable than selling in Canada and the USA, but they are still hugely profitable. So let's turn back to the iPad mini. Sure, it costs less. A lot less. And I think that's wonderful. When I look at what Apple is doing with textbooks in the education market, I get excited about a lower cost iPad. When I think about the portability of the device relative to its full-size counterpart, I think it opens a lot of doors. Most important, it makes the gap between a Nexus or Kindle Fire tablet seem much smaller. Industry estimates suggest that tablets will outsell traditional PCs (desktops and notebooks) by 2015. I believe this. I think we're moving into a world where kids get handed a tablet at some point, at a very young age. Apple is dominating this market right now. They are executing on their opportunity to move from a single digit player in PC market share to a very significant high double digit player in mobile computing. That's why Apple is the most valuable company in the world today. I can understand why short-term investors are getting worried. But when I think about the long term changes happening in the market, I think Apple is doing exactly what they need to do. Nothing has changed. Except the stock price is suddenly a lot cheaper. According to data from S&P Capital IQ, Apple's P/E ratio is 12.4 based on the next 12 months of earnings, using analyst consensus estimates. Source: Business Insider 
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| Deal of the Day: 49% off the Belkin Grip Max Case for iPhone 5 Posted: 08 Nov 2012 05:38 AM PST |
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The Spark Digital is the first studio-grade condenser microphone available for iPad
Posted: 08 Nov 2012 05:10 AM PST
Blue Microphones has announced the Spark Digital which is the first studio-grade condenser microphone available for the iPad. The new microphone is aimed at those that wish to use their iPad to record audio at an extremely high quality. The microphone will also work with any Mac or PC too.
The digital version of Blue's analog microphone, Spark Digital is a professional recording device for the iPad. Featuring the same studio-grade components as its analogue counterpart, Spark Digital gives a consistent performance across a wide range of sources, including vocals, drums, guitar, speech and location recording.
The Spark Digital also provides two different sound options in one mic allowing more versatility and freedom to experiment with different sonic signatures. For storing and sharing, Spark Digital includes an exclusive Cloud Production Bundle with free access to production tools for easy organising, storing and streaming of audio content across the web.
If you take your audio recording seriously and want to get your hands on one of these microphones, you can get it from the Apple Store. It is currently on sale for $199 with free shipping. It works with every version of the iPad however if you want to use it with the iPad mini and iPad 4th generation, you will need a Lightning to 30-pin adaptor.
Source: Blue Microphones
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