iPad By Davis: “First clip from the jOBS movie released, Woz says it’s not even close to what actually happened” plus 17 more |
- First clip from the jOBS movie released, Woz says it’s not even close to what actually happened
- Cygnett Cases for iPad hands-on
- Drafts update takes your notes to even higher levels of ninja
- The importance of app icons
- It’s all the $%#!¥!* iPad mini’s fault!!
- Todo app Carrot keeps you on task with personality and attitude
- AT&T announces Q4 2012 results, sold 10.2 million smartphones, 8.6 million of which were iPhones
- ARCHOS Announces the Thinnest Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for the iPad
- Twitter's new Vine video sharing has a lot of potential, still needs a lot of work
- How to add CalDAV accounts and Calendar subscriptions on your iPhone and iPad
- Wordish on iPad: Simple, Fast, Addictive Word Game
- What’s really going on with Apple and its stock price in 2013?
- Twitter announces Vine video sharing service
- Price drops: Templates for Keynote Pro Free Today
- Why carriers and customers are willing to pay for the iPhone 5
- What could Apple contribute in 2013? Pulling the strings on the intensely interesting future of Apple TV and iTV
- Deal of the Day: 44% off Marware MicroShell for iPhone 5
- Tim Cook sends out congratulatory email, announces Town Hall meeting
| First clip from the jOBS movie released, Woz says it’s not even close to what actually happened Posted: 24 Jan 2013 11:51 PM PST
Of course the film was never going to be an exact replica of what actually went on back in those great days but the first available clip does appear to miss the mark by quite a bit; which is really disappointing. If you are looking for a film to closely represent what actually happened,you may have to wait a bit longer for the film being written by Aaron Sorkin and produced by Sony, which is based on the official Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs. 
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| Cygnett Cases for iPad hands-on Posted: 24 Jan 2013 06:31 PM PST Cygnett makes a wide variety of cases for the iPad, and I recently had a chance to look at and try out a bunch of them.
Any of these strike your fancy? More: Cygnett 
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| Drafts update takes your notes to even higher levels of ninja Posted: 24 Jan 2013 06:17 PM PST
Drafts, the fantastically convenient note taker from Agile Tortoise, has been updated to version 2.5 for iPhone and 1.5 for iPad. New features include Dropbox actions, URL actions, Share Actions, Action Directory, URL Callbacks, and Action Triggers. In other words, even higher level ninjary than Drafts already allowed.
Drafts is the easiest way to jot down text first, figure out what you want to do with it, and where later. The update just makes an already great app greater. Hit software update to get the new version, or if you haven't tried it yet, hit the link below to buy it.
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| Posted: 24 Jan 2013 05:15 PM PST
Renowned icon and app designer Louie Mantia -- who's been a guest on our design show, Iterate, not once but twice -- has shared his thoughts on app icons and their importance in an article on mantia.me:
Mantia shows a lot of examples, and even some brilliantly redesign suggestions for industry titans. Check it out. Site: mantia.me 
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| It’s all the $%#!¥!* iPad mini’s fault!! Posted: 24 Jan 2013 08:19 AM PST AAPL is getting crushed today after reporting revenues and earnings more or less in line with or at the generally lower end of expectations. iPad sales were specified, and were amazing (even if short of the rosier analyst calls). However, Tim Cook and Co. didn't specify the breakdown of sales between iPads and iPad minis. Margins were also squeezed however. In many quarters the iPad mini cannibalizing the iPad is being blamed for this (along with continued iPhone 4/4S sales at the expense of iPhone 5's). Apple makes somewhat less on each mini than it does on each iPad. Overall, as long as sales keep growing at a decent clip – which they are, unless you are among the most optimistic out there – that's a high class problem to have IMO. They continue to sell boatloads of iOS devices, further enhancing the iOS ecosystem. It's a virtuous cycle. And China has barely been tapped overall. I'm not saying the stock is or isn't fairly valued. But I'm not remotely worried about the company itself. And the iPad (including the mini) is an absolute mega-hit product.   | ||||||
| Todo app Carrot keeps you on task with personality and attitude Posted: 24 Jan 2013 02:15 PM PST
We've seen many todo apps for iPhone but Carrot is the first one that has a personality of its own. The idea behind Carrot is that it should motivate you to do things. As you complete things, Carrot becomes happy with you and may even give you a reward. But if you go too long without getting anything accomplished, Carrot becomes angry. If you're the type of person who has to be told more than once to get something done, you may have met your perfect mate in Carrot. It's the first todo list app that not only motivates you get things done, but makes a game out of it. If you accomplish things you're supposed to, Carrot will reward you. If you don't get things done, you may get scolded. Carrot boasts over 300 unique rewards that you can accumulate for getting things done. You'll also move up levels as you accomplish different tasks. We'd also imagine that over time the types of rewards and ways in which you can interact with Carrot will only grow larger. As it sits right now, she's already got lots of witty responses. If you're the type that needs to be reminded to do something, maybe even with some attitude, Carrot may just be for you.
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| AT&T announces Q4 2012 results, sold 10.2 million smartphones, 8.6 million of which were iPhones Posted: 24 Jan 2013 01:35 PM PST
AT&T has announced their Q4 2012 financial results, and out of a record 10.2 million smartphones sold, a record 8.6 million were iPhones. AT&T chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson said:
Looking ahead, our key growth platforms — mobile data, U-verse and strategic business services — all have good momentum with a lot of headroom. We're off to a strong start executing Project VIP, our plan to expand our high-growth platforms to millions more customers, and our 4G LTE network deployment is ahead of schedule, delivering outstanding performance. Wireless highlights include:
So 4/5, almost 9/10 smartphones activated by AT&T were iPhones. Almost 3/5 smartphones activated by Verizon were iPhones. Almost 50 million iPhones were sold by Apple. Still doomed. Source: AT&T 
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| ARCHOS Announces the Thinnest Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for the iPad Posted: 24 Jan 2013 12:39 PM PST Everybody loves a super slim iPad keyboard case right? Well, maybe not everyone – but iPad keyboard cases styled to look thoroughly 'Apple-like' or to make the iPad look a little but like a MacBook Air have certainly proved popular. Here's one from a surprising source that looks very promising. It's the ARCHOS Bluetooth Keyboard [...]         Related Stories
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| Twitter's new Vine video sharing has a lot of potential, still needs a lot of work Posted: 24 Jan 2013 12:57 PM PST
Earlier today Twitter launched a new service and app named Vine. It was a purchase rather than something homegrown, and sits mostly on its own. I'd be tempted to explain the relationship of Twitter and Vine in similar terms to Facebook and Instagram, but frankly Vine is nowhere nearly as good yet. Phil Nickinson from Android Central has already shared his thoughts on Vine. Here are mine. The idea behind Vine has a lot of potential. You get to easily make concise video clips and just as easily share them with your friends. It's the implementation where Vine falls all over itself. To go back to Instagram, Vine took the square format but didn't take any of the user experience lessons. It's almost as though Vine has gone out of its way to make the app and the service less compelling to use. It starts with sign-in. The process isn't bad, and you can sign in with Twitter, but it's just a little more cumbersome than it ought to be. The existing Vine system was bought but the integration not improved.
To take a video, tap the Camera button at the top right. Then touch the screen to start recording. To pause, you stop touching. There's no simple record/stop button like on the built-in Camera app, or on real video cameras. And... I'm not sure about it yet. If you're going to replace something so default, so well understood, so instantly discoverable, you have to do it with something far, far, better. This doesn't seem much, if any better. Sure, it's fast to touch/untouch, but it's also fiddly and more error prone than a simple switch. You can't change to the front facing camera, making self-video, one of the hallmarks of quick internet sharing services, awkward and painful to shoot. Likewise, you can't upload existing video, so you can't even use the built-in Camara app to take self-video. And you can't share moments you've captured using apps outside of Vine, which is absolutely table-stakes for a social sharing app. The square aspect ratio video gets stored in your Camera Roll, which Vine then needs permission to access. (Along with Location permission, Twitter permission, push notification permission, and various other permissions, so be sure to properly stretch out your "OK" tapping finger before you begin.) Once the video is recorded, you can share it. But if you do, it's public. No protected accounts like on Twitter. Once it's out, it's out for the whole wide world. Vine is rated 12+, and given the 500px app getting rejected for "pornography", both Twitter and Apple are likely monitoring it carefully. Still, be aware and conduct yourself accordingly. No reason to lose that big job in 10 years just because you Vine'd your nethers in ought 13.
You can view videos in the timeline, called Home. They auto-play the moment you scroll down enough for them to fit on the screen. Tap to pause. Tap to keep playing. You can like videos with a smiley face or add a comment. There also an Explore section where you can find recommended videos, sorted by Editor's Picks, Popular Now, All Posts, or by #hastags, represented by big square icons. Activity shows likes, comments, and follows. And Profile shows your info and videos. You can access Settings from here, and also Find People. You should be able to find and follow friends you have on Twitter, Facebook, and in your contacts on Vine, but it wasn't working for me, returning only a few results and forcing me to search and add people manually. Worse still, we've gotten some reports of user account mix up and cross-posts, which is a huge bug and needs to be fixed and now.
The server side stuff can be quickly and easily fixed, however. The user experience choices will likely require a major redesign, and that takes time. Twitter has some fantastic designers and coders on their team, so hopefully the acquisition not only gives them great underlying video technology, but gives the Vine team resources to make a better app. Make the Twitter integration absolutely transparent. If I use Twitter, I can use Vine just by logging in. All my Twitter follows are just there. Let me switch cameras between rear- and front-facing. Let me upload videos I've already shot. Give me a real shutter button and make the gesture a shortcut, not the main control. Use Twitter conventions, like the same tabs with the same names along the bottom. Consistency is usability. Take a look at what really works in Instagram and Twitter and use that. Make it great. For now, Vine is interesting but nowhere nearly fully cooked yet. I won't be spending any time with it until 1.x or 2.0 is released, but I will be coming back to take another look as soon as they are. Don't forget to read Phil's piece on Android Central and watch his video, below. If you've tried Vine, let me know your thoughts as well.
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| How to add CalDAV accounts and Calendar subscriptions on your iPhone and iPad Posted: 24 Jan 2013 11:51 AM PST
Lots of businesses and organizations offer calendar subscriptions to users and attendees. Many employers also set up CalDAV accounts for their employees. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can easily add your CalDAV account or calendar subscriptions. As long as you know your credentials or the subscription link for the calendar, you've got all you need. Follow along and we'll show you what to do with that info to get them set up on your iPhone or iPad.
How to add calendar subscriptions to your iPhone or iPad
How to add a CalDAV account to your iPhone or iPad
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| Wordish on iPad: Simple, Fast, Addictive Word Game Posted: 24 Jan 2013 09:44 AM PST Wordish is a new word game for the iPhone that is very simple and lots of fun. Even though this is an iPhone app the nature of the game and the very bare bones interface mean that it works great on the iPad too. I'm a big fan of word games on the iPad. My [...] Related Stories
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| What’s really going on with Apple and its stock price in 2013? Posted: 24 Jan 2013 09:40 AM PST
Here we go again. Another Apple quarter that demonstrates long term strength in its business, and another quarter where Wall Street is waving its hands in the air claiming that the business is broken. Apple shares are down over $50 (10%) as I write this. Always remember value investor Benjamin Graham's famous expression: In the short term the market acts like a voting machine. In the long term it acts like a weighing machine. Today, the voting machine dominates. But over the course of many product cycles, those daily votes amount to nothing. That's why the market is volatile, and why I focus on long term investing. Apple reported the best quarter in its history. Sales of $54.5 billion were up huge compared to $46.3 billion in the year ago holiday quarter. Earnings were $13.81 per share versus $13.87 last year. But once you adjust for the 13-week quarter in the current year versus 14 weeks last year, earnings actually grew 7% year over year. That 7% growth comes despite gross margin dropping, which is a fact of life when you introduce revolutionary products like the iPad mini. The growth also comes despite the fact that Apple built less channel inventory this year versus last year. Add another $700 million to Apple's top line this year (or subtract it from last year) to get a more fair comparison. Oh, and let's not forget the new iMacs, which were severely supply constrained. Apple sold about a million fewer Macs than last year, which equites to over a billion dollars of revenue. Let's add that to our adjustment of Apple's so-called "broken" business. Wall Street is worried about earnings growth. They see the revenue growth, but they focus on the gross margin decline of 6% year over year. Wall Street focuses on the short term "optics" of a situation. And in the short term, Apple looks weak because margin weakness seems to be offsetting the revenue growth. But look at the bigger picture. The iPad and the iPad mini are canabalizing the PC market. This includes Macs, but it also includes Windows machines. This is the quote that I found most interesting out of last night's conference call: "I see cannibalization as a huge opportunity for us...On iPad in particular, we have the mother of all opportunities here, because the Windows market is much, much larger than the Mac market is. And I think it is clear that it's already cannibalizing some and I think there is a tremendous amount more opportunity there. And as you know, I have said for two or three, actually three years now I believe that I believe the tablet market will be larger than the PC market at some point. And I still believe that. And you can see by the growth in tablets and the pressure on PCs that those lines are beginning to converge." And let's not forget China. Is it totally lost on investors that China has become such a huge market for Apple that they need to break it out as a separate reporting segment? $6.8 billion of Apple's revenue (that's 12.5%) came from Greater China. Year over year growth was only a modest 67%. Hmmm, sure seems like a broken story to me. Speaking of China - there has been a lot of attention on the possibility of a less expensive iPhone. Until last night, I was of the view that we'd see one of these lower cost phones hit sooner rather than later. But I'm not so sure anymore. Obviously Apple can sell a TON of iPhones in China at full price. So there is no need to rush out with a cheaper product. Apple's style is to absorb as much growth as they can with higher priced products before launching lower cost versions. I don't think we'll see a less expensive iPhone in 2013. The media and the investing community is fully absorbed in the bear story around Apple. That story is probably best told by the Nomura analyst. I don't mean this in a good way, because I honestly feel the guy is insane to put forth this analysis, but it is what it is. And the market believes it right now. Nomura's position is that Apple isn't growing any more. They're an "ex-growth" story with earnings potential "capped" at about $50 per share. Without growth, people shouldn't pay more than about 8x earnings (so $400) plus the company's excess cash balance, which is another $89 per share. Round it up to $490 and you have their target price. Why 8x earnings? Apparently because that's what Microsoft fetches. And Microsoft is also an "ex-growth" stock. Does anyone else notice the total insanity in this statement? We have the Mac market that has been outgrowing the PC market for a very, very long time. And now we have the iPad market cannibalizing the PC market, which allows Apple to grow at the expense of Microsoft. One company is slaughtering the other. Yet we are to believe both stocks should trade at a similar earnings multiple? As Rene said to me earlier today, "It makes you think it's humans that are doomed." Of course humans are emotional. Investors and analysts are human. Wall Street is all about the short term. Nobody wants to get caught being wrong on a stock in the short term. The pain of being short term wrong outweighs the pleasure of being long term right. That's why we're seeing so many negative reports. I thought the comments from PiperJaffray and JP Morgan were much more rational. Piper calls for investors to return to the stock once the focus shifts to new products in the next 3-6 months. Makes sense. JP Morgan uses the beautiful line, "Apples and Oranges: Fundamentals and Investor Expectations Continue to Diverge". I couldn't have said it better. Chris owns shares in, and is long on, Apple. 
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| Twitter announces Vine video sharing service Posted: 24 Jan 2013 09:30 AM PST
Twitter has announced Vine, a new service and app it has aquired that allows you to record and share videos. The videos are very short, with a limit of six seconds for each post. Twitter announced the launch on their blog:
Vine also commented briefly on the acquisition:
Videos are recorded by holding a finger on the screen until you have captured the video that you wanted. Playing videos in the app is a simple matter of scrolling to the video you want to see, then it plays on a loop until you scroll to another video. You can sign in to Vine with your Twitter account or email address. Videos can be shared with Twitter and Facebook, and Vine says that more sharing options are coming down the road. You can download Vine for free right now.
Update: We've posted a Vine review to better describe some of the issues we're all facing. 
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| Price drops: Templates for Keynote Pro Free Today Posted: 24 Jan 2013 08:24 AM PST Templates for Keynote Pro is available for free today – down from its standard price of $4.99. This app is the best source of additional templates for Keynote that I've come across. It has over 30 templates and over 650 slides. The slides and templates cover a good range of styles and many of [...] Related Stories
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| Why carriers and customers are willing to pay for the iPhone 5 Posted: 24 Jan 2013 07:44 AM PST
During Apple's Q1 2013 conference call, when asked about the mix of iPhone 5 compared to the lower priced iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 still on the market, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded that not much had changed from last year's iPhone 4S mix relative to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G, then the discount options. When all was said, done, and factored, the average selling price (ASP) was essentially the same. Why would carriers keep paying Apple their premium rates to stock the iPhone 5, and why would people keep paying more to buy it, when the iPhone 4 is now a cheaper, free-on-contract option? Horace Dediu of Asymco did the math:
Carriers want to sell data services, we want to use data services, and the iPhone is still the best way to do that for everyone. This year, add LTE to the mix, and the iPhone 5 is the best iPhone. Apple might one day find compelling business reason to explore less expensive iPhones for emerging, non-contract markets, but it looks like the top line is doing just fine. Check out Dediu's full post for all the charts, and his exploration of how the iPhone business looks now that Apple is reporting is separately from accessory and services revenue. Source: Asymco 
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| Posted: 24 Jan 2013 07:12 AM PST
During Apple's Q1 2013 conference call, the Apple Television Rumors That Will Not Die were once again raised with Tim Cook, who smacked them back down hard. However, Cook did announce that they sold 2 million of the current Apple TV, up 60% year-over-year. Cook also dropped all the talking points, including "area of intense interest", "a lot Apple can contribute", and "continue to pull the string". The Apple TV originally launched in 2007, same year as the iPhone, as a Mac OSX Tiger-based, hard drive-based buy and download box. In late 2010 Apple re-designed and relaunched it as an iOS-based, flash storage-based rent and stream box. In early 2012, Apple bumped up the processor so it could play 1080p video and do AirPlay mirroring. Given the last, roughly 18-month refresh cycle, it's possible we'll see another update in 2013. Given how long it took Apple to go 1080p, however, and the realities of content and bandwidth, Super HD (4K/2160p) support doesn't seem likely any time soon. Siri support is always a possibility, as is tighter integration with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, but that might perform well enough on existing hardware. FaceTime video would require new hardware, or at least a new iSight peripheral. Anything else, especially anything more than just another TiVo -- anything that interfaces with, records, replays, or touches cable, satellite, or broadcast signals in a new, compelling way, would require deals with media companies, which have historically been onerous, contentious, and otherwise difficult to secure. An Apple TV SDK and App Store is always technically possible, but Apple has thus far been content with a partnership strategy, where they strike deals with YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, major league sports, etc. on a channel-by-channel basis. Releasing an SDK probably wouldn't help strike additional deals with traditionally myopic media companies, but would likely kill any value in the partner strategy, so it's hard to see happening. As to an Apple iTV, or television panel proper, whether or not Apple has prototypes in the lab, the go-to-market conditions this year don't appear any different than when Steve Jobs discussed how tough it was at D8 back in 2010. The real advantage of a panel is that you get "input zero", or complete control of the boot up/turn on experience. No one has to plug you in or switch to you to get your interface. They start with you. By contrast, right now an Apple TV is typically input 2+, after the television manufacturer, cable or satellite box, and maybe an Xbox, Nintendo, or Playstation box. I'm sure people at Apple, and those of us who enjoy Apple user experience, would much rather turn on our televisions as see an Apple interface than a Samsung, Sony, LG, ViewSonic, etc. interface, but that want does not a business make. The same basic questions that face an updated Apple TV also face an iTV. It's still really early in the market for 2160p support, and potentially awkward at 1080p. ("I'm not buying a non-Retina TV from Apple just to have to buy a Retina one next year!") Plugging cable or satellite boxes into input 1, and switching to them for traditional and local programming removes all the advantages of an Apple user experience, or again requires onerous, contentious deals that have proven difficult to obtain. Putting an Apple TV in an actual iTV panel also makes hardware upgrades less realistic. At $99 a pop, a new Apple TV with a new processor (or whatever) is a no-brainer. When you're talking thousands of dollars, it's a non-starter. (Which is what makes Guy English's decoupled model still so interesting.) The original Apple television rumors were probably a misread of Apple's prep for the original 27-inch iMac by people more in love with the idea than in touch with the market. Little has changed since then. A much larger, re-purposed version of a Thunderbolt display -- a true Jony Ive crafted panel -- controlled by Siri, set up for FaceTime, connected to all our devices and apps, sounds like fantastic technology, but there doesn't seem to be anything to suggest it's any closer to a product reality. Hence Tim Cook's "area of intense interest", "a lot Apple can contribute", and "continue to pull the string". Would late 2013 or 2014 be different? Things can and do change quickly in consumer electronics. What would you like to see in an updated Apple TV or iTV proper? What could Apple do to make one or both a reality in 2013? 
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| Deal of the Day: 44% off Marware MicroShell for iPhone 5 Posted: 24 Jan 2013 06:27 AM PST | ||||||
The first clip from the upcoming 
Posted with Blogsy
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Tim Cook sends out congratulatory email, announces Town Hall meeting
Posted: 24 Jan 2013 06:12 AM PST
Just like last year, following another record-breaking -- if not Wall Street pleasing -- set of quarterly results, Apple's CEO Tim Cook sent out a congratulatory email to everyone on the team, and announced that they'd be rallying for a Town Hall meeting today at 10am PST/1pm EST. Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac scored a copy, here's the intro:
Team, We've just reported another record setting quarter, thanks to everyone's incredible hard work and focus. We sold over 75 million iOS devices in the holiday quarter alone, which is a testament to the strength of Apple's innovation.
Regardless of how you feel about the numbers, the prospects, the manipulations, or even the products and services themselves, the people at Apple really did work their collective asses off to launch everything they did before the holidays, and they pulled off one of the most profitable quarters for any company ever -- the likes of which have never been seen outside the biggest of big oil.
Cook's right to be proud. Apple is right to be proud. Congratulations and thanks for the hard work, can't wait to see what you have in store for us this year!
Read the rest of Tim Cook's email via the link below.
Source: 9to5Mac
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