iPad By Davis: “CableJive shipping Lightning to 30-pin dock adaptor cable, lets you use your speaker dock or car audio system with your iPhone 5” plus 16 more |
- CableJive shipping Lightning to 30-pin dock adaptor cable, lets you use your speaker dock or car audio system with your iPhone 5
- Flurry for Twitter for iPhone review
- Original 2007 Google-powered iPhone maps app reportedly built by 2 engineers in 3 weeks
- How to use Notification Center
- Digg for iPad now available
- Facebook Messenger for iPhone goes 2.0, includes iPhone 5 support
- Announcing the winner of iMore's iPhone 5 second chance giveaway!
- Get yourself an extra entry in iMore's Follow and Win giveaway by commenting on Youtube!
- Unprofessional #7: Bamf or Snikt
- Bad Piggies for iPhone and iPad review
- Apple adds a section to the App Store for alternative map apps
- iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Location data shootout!
- Notable New iPad Apps: Camera+ for iPad
- iMore Show 315: iPhone 5 review
- 2012 Ryder Cup iPad App: Watch the Ryder Cup Live
- Deal of the Day: 43% off Incipio Smart feather Ultralight Hard Shell Case for The New iPad
- Apple CEO Tim Cook writes open letter to customers concerning iOS 6 Maps
| Posted: 29 Sep 2012 12:32 AM PDT When Apple changed the dock connector on the latest iPhone 5, new iPod touch and new iPod nano there was a lot or controversy over the decision mainly due to incompatibility problems with with expensive speaker docks and car audio systems. Thankfully the guys at CableJive are right on the ball as usual and are already shipping a solution to the problem.
The dockBoss+ cable has a female USB port on one end which is where you connect in your own Lightning cable; this enables charging of your iPhone 5. The other end has a female dock connector which you clip into your speaker dock or dock connector cable from your car kit. If your equipment supports direct digital audio input, which a lot of high end speaker systems do then that's all you need to do. Your iPhone 5 will be charging and playing back high quality music through your dock. If your equipment doesn't support digital audio input CableJive has you covered there too. Simply plug the supplied 3.5mm audio patch cable into your iPhone 5 and plug the other end into the dockBoss+ adaptor and now you will have music playback and charging. The dockBoss+ iPhone 5 kit is already available from CableJive and costs $29.95 plus shipping. CableJive have some really interesting products to make your life easier and are certainly worth checking out. When Apple changed the charging pins on the 30-pin dock connector a few years ago, CableJive were the first with an in-line adaptor which prolonged the life of my car audio interface by a few years and saved me a lot of money. Do you like the look of CableJive's dockBoss+ iPhone 5 kit? Will you be picking one up to prolong the life of your current speaker dock or car audio interface? Source: CableJive 
  
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| Flurry for Twitter for iPhone review Posted: 29 Sep 2012 12:01 AM PDT Flurry for Twitter is a new iPhone twitter app in the App Store that is just absolutely stunning in design. It features gorgeous animations, intuitive gestures, great sounds, and more. Flurry for Twitter is by no means "fully featured", and although I'm always one to argue that less is more, Ash Apps may have left out a little too much to justify Flurry's price. Flurry for iPhone isn't your average Twitter app. Sure, it offers the basic functions of any Twitter app, but Flurry presents them in a unique and artistic way. Every swipe and tap offers a subtle sound that you actually want to hear and actions like refreshing your timeline and posting a tweet include animations that are almost addicting to watch. For example, tweets will load by flipping up your screen and your timeline with give the illusion of backing up when your create a tweet. Unfortunately, the fancy gestures, sounds, and animations, aren't quite enough to make Flurry a compelling buy. One of the features I was most surprised to find missing from Flurry is auto-refresh. If you want to see if any new tweets have come in, even when you first open the app, you are required to pull down to refresh. Flurry also doesn't include little thumbnails of photos in your timeline even though this feature has become the norm in other Twitter apps. And one of the biggest deal-breakers off all -- no push notifications. The good
The bad
The bottom lineFlurry for Twitter is a gorgeous Twitter app for the iPhone that has a lot of potential. But with highly important and valued features like auto refresh and push notifications missing, I can't recommend Flurry for anything more than eye candy -- and at $4.99, that's pretty expensive, especially when full-featured apps like Tweetbot, Twitterrific, and Twittelator Neue are available for less. However, if you have faith that developers will continue to add features to Flurry, you may want to grab it now since Twitter limits the number of tokens available to each 3rd party Twitter developer. $4.99 - Download Now
  
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| Original 2007 Google-powered iPhone maps app reportedly built by 2 engineers in 3 weeks Posted: 28 Sep 2012 09:15 PM PDT I've read more than I ever wanted to about maps this week, but this story about how the original, Google-powered Maps.app was built for the original iPhone caught my attention. Here it s from Nick Wingfield and Brian X. Chen of The New York Times:
2 engineers. 3 weeks. Apple has spent the last year or more and who knows how many engineering hours trying to roll a new maps app. It looks nice, but iOS 6 Maps currently locates my house in the middle of a park, when I try to find a place to get my car rust proofed -- because winter is coming -- I get the wrong area code and a phone number that consists only of 443-0, and if I want to take a train downtown I suddenly need to buy an app for that. Yet in 2007 Google's data was good enough for 2 Apple engineers to make a decent, if feature limited iPhone app in 3 weeks. That just goes to show you how important data quality is for something like maps, and how little a nice looking interface matters when you can't find something on it. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook has already apologized for the current status of iOS 6 Maps, but not for taking away Google's much more reliable data (even though the results seem to have been fairly predictable. I don't expect him to either, any more than I expect Apple to apologize for dumping Safari RSS or X11. People keep saying iOS 6 Maps will get better just by virtue of all of us using it. I'll correct my house, and use Google to find and correct the phone number of the anti-rust place (no idea how I can help fix the lack of train information though...) But it's going to take a lot more than me, or any of us, simply feeding Apple data to make a proper maps app. It's going to take Apple investing as heavily and determinedly as Google has over the last decade, but doing it much, much, much faster. It's going to take tons of money and a Herculean effort. Apple has tons of money. Let's hope Cook and company are serious about putting in the effort. Until Apple mapping data is at least good enough for 2 engineers to build a pretty good app out of it in just 3 weeks... Source: The New York Times 
  
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| How to use Notification Center Posted: 28 Sep 2012 06:57 PM PDT If you just got a new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad then you've also got Notification Center. It's Apple's attempt to bring order and sanity to the myriad alarms, alerts, messages, calls, announcements, and game challenges that flood our daily lives. But first you may need to bring order and sanity to Notification Center. How Notification Center worksiOS notifications are presented in one of three different ways:
All of the implementations show the icon of the app issuing the notification to the left, and a brief except of the alert content to the right. All three, however, work in different ways. How Lock screen notifications workIf your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is asleep (i.e. the screen is dark), Lock screen notifications will light it up briefly and show it to you. That way, if your device is sitting on a table nearby, you'll see the notification come in and be able to deal with it immediately if you want to. If you don't want to deal with a notification immediately, the Lock screen will keep a list of all the new ones for you, and show them to you the next time you wake up your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Depending on how many notifications come in, and what kind of notifications they are, you'll be presented with them in one of a few different ways.
You can slide notification icons to unlock your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, just as you would the normal slide to unlock control. Unlocking with the icon will send you straight to the app that issued the alert, and to the specific alert within that app. Once you unlock, you also clear all Lock screen notifications. Notification CenterWhen you're using your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad you can pull down Notification Center at any time by swiping downwards from the status bar. It can be dismissed by swiping back up from the small gripper icon at the bottom of the screen. When Notification Center is open, it can display a Weather and/or Stocks widgets on the iPhone or iPod touch, and a Sharing widget on all iOS devices. (Because the iPad has no built-in Weather or Stocks apps, it has no Weather or Stock widgets in Notification Center.) If you don't like the location shown in the Weather widget, or the stocks listed in the Stock widget, or if you just want to turn one or all of them off entirely, you can configure them in the Settings app. Tapping the Weather or Stock widget will take you to the Weather or Stocks app. Tapping the Twitter or Facebook button on the Sharing widget will open a Tweet or Facebook post sheet. On all iOS devices, Notification Center can also display a list of pending notifications. Each list is headed by the corresponding app icon and name to the left, the date if it's for the calendar, and a far-too-tiny X icon to the right. If you don't like the default organization, you can change it in Settings app. Tapping the X icon clears all notifications for that app. Tapping anywhere on the alert will take you to the app to view the information. You can control which apps and how many notifications per app are displayed in Settings. Banners and popupsWhen your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is unlocked and new notification comes in, a banner or popup notification will appear. Banner notifications are typically used for non-urgent notifications like messages, mail, game challenges -- even turn-by-turn navigation directions. They show up briefly at the top of the screen and are animated with a roll down, roll back up effect. Tapping a Notification Banner sends you to the app that issued the alert and shows you the information. While far less obtrusive than the old-style popup notifications, the Banners can still obscure information and obstruct buttons, and when they roll-down unexpectedly can cause you to accidentally tap them rather then the top bar or button you'd begun to tap. If a banner is getting in your way, you can touch them, pull slightly, and flick them away (technically you're beginning to pull down the Notification Center shade, which dismisses them, and then pushing the shade away again all in one smooth curve. Popups are usually used for urgent notifications like alarms, reminders, and appointments. They pop up in the center of the screen and won't go away until you acknowledge you received them. If you don't want popups or banners for a certain app, you can turn them off in Settings or if you just want to mute them temporarily, you can use Do Not Disturb. 
  
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| Posted: 28 Sep 2012 06:07 PM PDT The iPhone app for Digg v1 has been updated to be a universal app for both iPhone and iPad. The iPad version offers the same version as the iPhone, just offers a more pleasant reading experience on the iPad's larger screen. Speaking of larger screens, this update also includes support for the iPhone 5's bigger display. In addition to iPad support, Digg has added a "Reading Sync" feature that allows you to close the app in the middle of a store on one device and pick up where you left off on your other devices. You can also share articles via text and some of the UI elements have been simplified. Have you used Digg for iPad, yet? The first thing I noticed is that scrolling through thumbnails of stories is a bit laggy. I'm snob when it comes to polished scrolling in apps, so this was enough for me to be turned off and close the app. Free - Download Now
  
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| Facebook Messenger for iPhone goes 2.0, includes iPhone 5 support Posted: 28 Sep 2012 05:31 PM PDT Facebook Messenger for iPhone has gone 4.0 and includes some UI improvements as well as support for the iPhone 5's larger display. The conversation view has a new design and now you can swipe left anywhere in the app to quickly see a list of who's available to send message. At the top of this list you can also mark the friends you message most as favorites. The speed and reliability of Facebook Messenger has also been noticeably improved. I never thought the day would come where I started liking Facebook apps (no pun intended), but Facebook has been doing a great job with their recent updates. This update to Facebook Messenger is no exception. What are your thoughts on Facebook Messenger 2.0? Free - Download Now
  
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| Announcing the winner of iMore's iPhone 5 second chance giveaway! Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:23 PM PDT Here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for. We're announcing the winner of the FREE iPhone 5 from iMore. Find out who won... after the break! miabs1Congratulations miabs1! We'll be in touch via email to get your information for the prize! To everyone else, thanks for entering! There is always a giveaway happening on iMore and more chances to win great free stuff! Come back often and enter everything! 
  
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| Get yourself an extra entry in iMore's Follow and Win giveaway by commenting on Youtube! Posted: 28 Sep 2012 03:10 PM PDT
Here's the deal -- you follow iMore on your favorite social networks, and we give you awesome accessory prizes... EVERY MONTH!We know our loyal readers already visit iMore.com daily, subscribe to our RSS feeds and get the iMore Podcast on iTunes, but we wanted to do something a little extra to reward our loyal fans and grow our audience in some of the off-iMore social networking and content sharing sites that iPhone owners hang out and visit. It's easy! All you have to do is follow iMore on Youtube, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook and as a thank you for doing so we're going to pick a lucky winner each month from among our iMore followers / subscribers / fans on each of these sites to win some great iPhone prizes! That's four winners each month - one picked at random from each site. All you need to do is click the links below to follow us on each site, and just keep following us! We'll pick our four winners on the last day of each month and announce them around the first day of the new month along with the prizes to be won for the new month. You can subscribe to all of Youtube, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook to maximize your chances of winning. This month we want to help you stay charged so you never miss a beat! See the list below for links to the sites and the prize you could win on each one.
And don't forget to follow our sensational staff -- they often have extra accessories and apps so you never know when they'll surprise you with something special -- @imore, @reneritchie, @GeorgiaTiPb, @llofte, @iMuggle, @chrisoldroyd, @bla1ze, @_Miche11e_! Youtube Bonus Entry!The past couple of weeks have been mad with and the new iPhone 5 both coming out. Rene and the rest of the team have been hard at work bringing you everything you need to know about the new updates, and even stuff you didn't know you needed to know! Beyond that you can find accessory reviews, game and app reviews, interviews, and so much more on the iMore Youtube channel. And that brings us to this week's bonus entry. Go subscribe to the iMore Youtube channel if you haven't already, and then watch some videos. Leave some comments on the videos, letting us know what you thought of the video or discussion about the subject of the video. That's it! Leave a constructive comment (meaning not "Here's a comment for an extra entry!") and you've got a bonus entry. Good luck! 
  
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| Unprofessional #7: Bamf or Snikt Posted: 28 Sep 2012 02:46 PM PDT Dave Wiskus and Lex Friedman were kind and foolish enough to invite me to join them on their Mule Radio podcast, Unprofessional. We were bound by law not to discuss iPhones or iPads, which meant we kept trying to discuss iPhone and iPads using thinly veiled analogies to martial arts, movies, TV shows, and comic books. It's short, bitter, Bane-ish, profane, and totally unprofessional. Check it out. Listen: Unprofessional #7: Bamf or Snikt 
  
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| Bad Piggies for iPhone and iPad review Posted: 28 Sep 2012 01:47 PM PDT After what feels like an eternity since Angry Birds maker Rovio teased that they were working on a game that was from the pigs point of view, Bad Piggies is finally here. I wouldn't call it a "sequel" to Angry Birds, however, because it doesn't feature the birds at all. Instead, it's an entirely new game featuring only the pigs -- and it's awesome! The objective of Bad Piggies is to help the pigs build modes of transportation to get them to the finish line. Each level also has the option of earning up to three stars, but unlike Angry Birds, these stars are not based off points and don't need to be earned in a single attempt. In fact, you usually can't earn all the star at once. Every level will give you one star for completing the level, another one for collecting the star icon, but the objective for the third star varies from level to level. For example, one level may have a time requirement, another may require that you not use a specific object in your machine, and another level may require you to get to the finish line without blowing up TNT. I'm a huge fan of this approach to earning stars because it fosters creativity since you usually have to change your vehicle's design to earn all the stars. If you get stuck on a level and need help with designing your vehicle, you can purchase the Mechanic Pig and he'll build one for you. Although the Mechanic Pig's design won't necessarily earn all stars for you, he at least gets you started so that all you have to do is tweek the vehicle to help you get all three stars. In addition to the 60 levels included, Bad Piggies also includes 4 very difficult "sandbox levels", 30 puzzles that can be unlocked by earning three stars on levels, and an extra-special, super-secret level that will be revealed after collecting all the skulls. Bad Piggies is availalble as separate purchases for the iPhone and iPad, but unfortunately, the iPhone version doesn't support the iPhone 5's larger display, yet. Another big disappointment about Bad Piggies is that, just like Angry Birds, there is no iCloud sync available to keep your levels in sync between devices. This is such a terrible decision by Rovio because it actually discourages people from purchasing both versions. The good
The bad
The bottom lineRovio has done a great job with Bad PIggies and it was worth the wait. It's a completely different game from Angry Birds that is challenging, fun, and addicting. $0.99 for iPhone - Download Now$2.99 for iPad - Download now
  
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| Apple adds a section to the App Store for alternative map apps Posted: 28 Sep 2012 10:46 AM PDT Only hours following Apple CEO Tim Cook's open letter to customers regarding Maps on iOS 6, Apple has added a featured box in the App store for users to "find apps for your iPhone" that takes you to a section devoted to maps apps. This is a very impressive and humble move by Apple. Apple is typically a rather arrogant company, so Tim Cook's letter and this new section of the App Store show a side of Apple that is willing to admit fault and do what's needed to improve their users' experience. Apple has featured the following 13 map apps:
Source: MacRumors 
  
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| iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Location data shootout! Posted: 28 Sep 2012 09:44 AM PDT iOS 6 removed the Google-powered Maps app that launched alongside the original iPhone in 2007 and replaced it with new Maps app and location services more fully under Apple's control. That's means iOS 6 got features like turn-by-turn navigation, vector-based maps, and Flyover, but lost features like built-in transit directions and StreetView. It also means the quality of the location data changed drastically for many users. While this was hardly unexpected, reaction has varied from "beautiful and perfectly usable" to "dreadful and a deal-breaker." Recognizing that Apple's new location data, licensed from TomTom and others, seems to vary in quality considerably from place to place, with big, populous American cities tending to be much better than small, rural, international areas, iMore still wanted to put them to a test. So I got in the car and drove for nearly 6 hours and did just that. Here are the results. iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Interface & ease of useMaps under iOS 6 isn't too much different than the design and feel of what users already had under iOS 5. Upon launching the app you'll be presented with a map of your current location. Along the top you've got a directions button, a search bar, and a link to your contacts so you can get directions to any address for any contact. When it comes to viewing a map and customizing the views you'll see two buttons in the lower left hand corner. The first is to automatically find your current location. You can tap it twice to use the built in compass to see what direction you're facing. The next button labeled "3D" allows you to enable or disable a 3D rendering of the map on the screen. In the lower right hand corner you can tap on the page curl in order to customize view options even further. You've got three main map types which are standard, hybrid, and satellite. Standard will give you a drawn out view of maps with streets and other markings clearly labeled. Hybrid gives you an actual live view of what you're looking at along with street labels and other information. Satellite will leave out labels and only give you a live view. At anytime during navigation you can choose the list icon in the bottom left to view all the directions along your route. Once you start a route it'll automatically activate voice navigation via Siri. You can close out of the app, lock your iPhone, play music, or go about whatever you were doing and Maps will still keep track of directions for you. You'll see your route on the Lock screen and any directions will be announced as they happen via Siri. iOS 5 Maps is extremely similar when it comes to interface. You will however notice some features in iOS 5 Maps that are blatantly missing in iOS 6 maps such as transit and walking directions. iOS 5 Maps has two main views and you can toggle between them along the bottom of the screen. They are search and directions. You can also choose the arrow icon in the lower left corner to locate yourself at any time. Under search you can type in the name of any place or city and see it on a map. You can also choose the blue Address Book button to access your contacts and choose a destination that way. If you know the address or place you need to get to, you can type in directions manually as well. Similar to iOS 6 maps, tapping on the page curl in the bottom right will allow you to view traffic and switch between map view. iOS 5 Maps supports the same kind of maps iOS 6 maps does but adds the list option for list directions. You have this feature under iOS 6 maps as well but it's just moved to the main map view instead of being tucked inside the settings section. If you're on iOS 6 and aren't happy with the updated Maps app, you still have the option of going to maps.google.com from your Safari browser, bookmarking it on your Home screen, and using that instead. While the interface is different, you'll get all the same map data that Google offered in the iOS 5 Maps app. Along the top you've got the option to search for a destination, locate yourself, and more. The web version of Google Maps will also give you the option to choose between driving directions, transit info, walking directions, and bicycle routes. After pulling up driving directions, maps.google.com will give you the different choices in routes to choose from just like iOS 6 Maps and iOS 5 maps do. Once you choose one you can immediately start. Google will track your location just like it would in the native Maps app but you'll have to make sure Safari stays running or you don't navigate away from the page by mistake. After choosing a route you can view a list of instructions directly underneath it. Tapping the maps icon at the top will give you a map view of the route. In my experience, maps.google.com is much choppier via Safari than both iOS 5 and iOS 6 Maps. Sometimes pressing on a button via the web version wouldn't always work or didn't seem very self explanatory. When it comes to user interface and ease of use, both Maps under iOS 6 and iOS 5 are easy to use and extremely alike design wise. The web version of Google Maps is choppy and doesn't seem to display data as quickly and efficiently as either iOS 6 Maps or iOS 5 Maps. iOS Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: DirectionsWhen entering directions into iOS 6 Maps, iOS 5 Maps, and maps.google.com, most of the time, all three apps would present you with the same suggested routes. They also typically showed the same amount of travel time within minutes of each other. iOS 6 Maps works very much like iOS 5 maps. Just search for a location and get driving or walking directions from your current location or manually type in a from and to address and iOS 6 Maps will give you directions. If there are several routes to choose from it'll show you a map view of each route. You can then tap each route and view the distance and time as well as a list view of the directions. Once you've found the route you'd like to take you can tap the Route button and you'll be on your way. Voice navigation will commence and you can close out of the maps app. Siri will then notify you when you've got a turn or other direction coming up. Anytime you want to view the directions you can tap the turn arrow in the upper left hand corner of iOS 6 Maps in order to view the directions from start to end. One thing I did find interesting with iOS 6 Maps is that it doesn't always produce the same results each time. You can see above that when I searched for the same location on two separate iOS 6 Map apps on two different devices, the map data looks different on both. I wasn't able to figure out why that is and each time I searched for a location it would show different side streets than the last time I searched. iOS 5 Maps works the same way iOS 6 maps does but is more robust. You can not only find driving and walking directions but information as well. Anyone who's ever been in a big city they're unfamiliar with knows how important transit directions can be. When you don't have a car, they're a pretty big deal. Once you've chosen the type of directions you want, you can either locate yourself and choose a location from there or manually type in directions. Once you're done you can tap the Route button and just like with iOS 6 maps, you'll be given several routes to choose from. Tap one to choose it and you'll be given directions along the top of the screen. Since iOS 5 Maps doesn't support voice navigation you'll only have the option to use regular navigation. Once you've completed a step you can tap the Next button to view the next step. When it comes to driving, voice navigation is definitely a better option and before iOS 6 Maps, there were several third party GPS apps that helped fill in the gap. Even though you don't have voice navigation, iOS 5 Maps contain much more robust data when it comes to the actual maps you're viewing than that of iOS 6. If you're trying to obtain directions in a rural area, you may not see side streets or other kinds of data in the Maps app under iOS 6 that is present under iOS 5 using Google Maps. That will be a problem for many users. If you're on iOS 6, maps.google.com makes a good fallback for when iOS 6 Maps isn't giving you the data you need. Since it pulls the same data as the iOS 5 Maps app, you'll get much better mapping data to work with. Again, it would be voice navigation or turn-by-turn directions but you'll see a much clearer picture and in some cases, better directions, than what you get with Maps on iOS 6. When it comes to mapping data, Maps for iOS 5 and maps.google.com contain much more data and are a lot more reliable than Apple's own iOS 6 Maps app when it comes to rural areas. If you live in a well populated area, iOS 6 Maps will still give you the data that you need and get you from point A to point B without a hitch. iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Turn-by-Turn navigationiOS 6 Maps offers voice navigation and turn-by-turn direction. This is not a feature that is available through either iOS 5 Maps or maps.google.com. If you wanted voice navigation prior to iOS 6, you'd have to rely on a third party app to provide it. Considering some of them can get extremely high in price, it's nice to see Apple providing the feature natively. Since iOS 6 was released as a beta back in June, I've been using voice navigation rather regularly and have to say I'm quite impressed with the Siri integration and how it works so seamlessly regardless what you're doing on your iPhone. You can run it in the background or view directions and a live map on the Lock screen. Whenever you're about to come up on a new direction, Siri will re-iterate the direction to you. If you've got music playing through your Music app, the music will simply fade out and Siri will provide the direction, then the music will fade back in. When using turn-by-turn and voice navigation, you aren't typically starting at a map but rather relying on your iPhone to keep you updated and let you know where you're at. When it comes down to it, I've been impressed. I've never gotten myself into a situation where iOS 6 Maps led me in a wrong direction or didn't get me where I needed to go. When testing locally in my home area that I know well, I did notice that sometimes iOS 6 Maps didn't make the fastest route the top suggestion but it still got me where I needed to go. In rare circumstances, the fastest route I knew wasn't always available but considering they typically involved side streets and directions that may be confusing for people that were not local to the area, I can see why iOS 6 Maps might not bring up a route like this. For users that don't know an area, main streets and fewer turns probably causes less confusion than a route that would have a lot of twists and turns. For simplicity's sake, I get it. Considering iOS 5 Maps and maps.google.com don't offer turn-by-turn or voice navigation, iOS 6 Maps wins. iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: Street View vs FlyoveriOS 6 Maps comes with a new feature Apple is calling Flyover. The premise is that you can see an overhead view of an area on the map and use your fingers to pan in and out as well as rotate the map in a pretty amazing 3D view. While the feature is pretty neat to look at, it doesn't have much application when it comes to real world use. Sure it's cool to use Flyover to view Chicago or other large cities around the world but besides being a cool feature to show off to your friends, you probably won't ever find yourself using it while driving. Flyover is also only limited to certain areas right now and they're pretty limited. They currently only include large cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, London, New York City, and some other larger metropolitan areas. There are also times when Flyover shows some pretty wild inaccuracies, as you can see above. I don't remember the Eiffel Tower looking quite like that. Google has a service that is somewhat similar to Flyover called Street View. While it isn't an overhead view, it provides a street level view of areas. When it's available, you'll get an icon next to a location that shows a red circle with a person inside it. Tapping it in iOS 5 Maps will take you down to street level. From here you can move up and down streets and pan 360 degrees in any direction. While the iOS 5 Maps app offers Street View, you don't currently have access to it from the maps.google.com site in mobile Safari. Considering Google has had the better part of a decade to put together Street View, it'll be available in a lot more areas than Flyover. It's also a much more useful feature than Flyover when it comes to practical utility. iOS 6 Maps vs. iOS 5 Maps vs. maps.google.com: The bottom lineGoogle had a tremendous head start over Apple when it comes to the mapping business (here's what Google Maps looked like on the PalmOS Treo 680 back in 2007 -- a year before the first iPhone was even released). That's obvious when comparing map data between iOS 6 Maps and iOS 5 Maps. Apple probably could have avoided a lot of the negative backlash over iOS 6 Maps if they better set expectations and perhaps released the new Maps with a beta bandaid the way they did Siri. But that's neither here nor there. If you have an iPhone 5, you have no choice and iOS 6 maps will be your default location service. In my experience, when it comes to practical utility and using the voice navigation in iOS 6 Maps, I've always gotten where I need to go. The addition of turn-by-turn is a spectacular upgrade. The animations are nearly flawless and the out-of-app banners and Lock screen navigation are stellar. In my tests, if I made a wrong turn, iOS 6 Maps would automatically reroute me quickly and accurately. Outlet streets and side streets are not always clearly labeled like they are in iOS 5 Maps but I haven't found it to be something that caused me to lose my way. The iOS 6 maps themselves are beautifully rendered and the vector illustrations are a huge improvement over iOS 5's bitmap tiles. Flyover is more of a novelty and not a feature that most people will use regularly for mapping, and while StreetView can be as well, seeing was a shop or location looks like at ground level is often more helpful than what it looks like from the clouds. The loss of transit directions is incredibly inconvenient for those who use them daily. If you happen to have a great transit app in your area, it can mitigate the annoyance, but having to leave Maps for any reason can't be viewed as anything but a regression. Transit apps should be a value add, not a must have. If you're in a heavily populated U.S. city and there's a great transit app in the App Store that covers your needs, iOS 6 Maps will probably be fine for you, and given the controversy you can be sure Apple is working day and night to make it better. If you're in other parts of the country or the world where the iOS Map data is poor, maps.google.com and its more robust and reliable data set is a functional alternative and fallback. Web apps are never as good as native apps, but until Google stops enjoying themselves long enough to launch a real Google Maps app into the App Store, it's one of the few ways to complement iOS 6 maps. If you have a previous iOS device, depend on Maps, and you're on the fence about updating you can stay on iOS 5.1 and keep using iOS 5 maps, but you're probably better off upgrading for a lot of other reasons and checking out third party navigation apps that are more robust than both iOS 5 Maps and iOS 6 Maps. 
  
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| Notable New iPad Apps: Camera+ for iPad Posted: 28 Sep 2012 09:52 AM PDT Camera+ has been one of the leading camera apps on the iPhone for a long while – and now it has come to the iPad. Camera+ for iPad was released in the iPad App Store yesterday and my friend and writing colleague Thomas Wong described it as a supremely big deal. He sent me a rapid-fire series of texts yesterday afternoon outlining one of its best features, which is its iCloud sync between its iPhone and iPad apps
Here are some of the key, iPad-only, features of Camera+ for iPad:
(...) © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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| iMore Show 315: iPhone 5 review Posted: 28 Sep 2012 08:49 AM PDT Rene reviews the iPhone 5, from the 4-inch screen to the Apple A6 processor to LTE to iOS 6 on the tall screen. It's everything you need to know about the iPhone 5 in one hour! This is the iMore show!
Show notesHosts
CreditsYou can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com or just leave us a comment below. For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including the iMore show, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows Thanks to the iMore Accessory Store for sponsoring this week's show. Your one-stop-shop for everything iPhone and iPad, including cables, cases, chargers, Bluetooth and much more, check out store.imore.com. 
  
 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||
| 2012 Ryder Cup iPad App: Watch the Ryder Cup Live Posted: 28 Sep 2012 08:50 AM PDT The Ryder Cup tournament has kicked off today, with the best golfers from Europe and the USA facing off at Medinah. If you're a fan of the Ryder Cup and you use an iPad you're going to want to grab the 2012 Ryder Cup app. It's free and it offers live video of the tournament and plenty more nice features. Here are some of its notable features: - Live video and radio coverage of the event
I've been watching live for most of the morning with this app, as I love watching the Ryder Cup. It's a very simple and pleasant interface to use, with single tap links for popovers with current scores, team and player details, social sharing, and more. It has AirPlay support so you can also watch on an HDTV via Apple TV. I've got one quick tip for when you're watching the live video in the app: If you've got the Live Video on and you switch away from the app (to check email perhaps) you may find that when you go back to it, you get only audio. Tap on the blue Done button at the top left of the video window, and then tap right away to go back into Live Video. This has worked for me consistently this morning. Here's an App Store link for 2012 Ryder Cup; it's a free app and a universal app designed for both iPad and iPhone. © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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| Deal of the Day: 43% off Incipio Smart feather Ultralight Hard Shell Case for The New iPad Posted: 28 Sep 2012 07:15 AM PDT |
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Apple CEO Tim Cook writes open letter to customers concerning iOS 6 Maps
Posted: 28 Sep 2012 05:55 AM PDT
Apple CEO Tim Cook has posted an open letter to customers on Apple.com concerning iOS 6 Maps. iOS 6 Maps, which replaced the original, Google-powered iOS Maps app with one that drew data from TomTom and others, but which was more wholly owned, controlled, and realized by Apple, has been the subject of controversy since launch due to the quality of data in many areas.
In the open letter, Cook apologizes for the current state of iOS 6 maps, and even goes so far as to recommend competing products from the App Store and the web. He also assures iOS 6 users that Apple will be working "non-stop" to make iOS 6 Maps live up to Apple's standards. (If you want to help Apple improve it, you can submit corrections using the built-in tools.)
Apple began buying map-releated companies in 2009. Earlier this year, iMore learned Apple planned to remove as much of Google from the core of iOS as possible, including at the location data level. It later became known that Apple and Google had been feuding for some time over features, branding, and data usage in the original maps app.
Interestingly, in a poll of iMore readers conducted last night, more than 50 percent reported a positive outlook on maps. Back before iOS 6 Maps was even announced, iMore reported on the realities of Apple's the upcoming Maps product, trying to set realistic expectations. That report now seems to have been largely accurate.
Due to the nature and importance of the problems with iOS 6 Maps, mainstream news organizations have been reporting on it throughout the last week. When that happens, Apple typically knows they have to issue a statement and take back control of the story. Previous open letters have included the iPhone 4 "antennagate", the lack of Flash plugin support in iOS, the health of Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, and the use of DRM (digital rights management) on iTunes music. In other words, It's a BIG DEAL and a very public sign that Apple is taking a situation very seriously.
Google is expected to release a version of their popular Maps product into the iOS App Store eventually, although they're playing it coy at this point. The deeper problem Apple still has to address is -- how could Apple let this happen? How could Apple release a product that could reasonably be seen to have this consequence, without internally identifying and pre-emptively addressing it at either of their two announcement events, WWDC or the iPhone 5 event, and how could they let the story run away from them for a over a week before responding? This isn't a case of measuring a response to an unforeseeable situation twice and cutting it loose to the press and public once. This is a case of risk assessment and mitigation gone wrong, and of brand currency expended.
Apple doesn't only have to fix maps, they have to fix the process that resulted in Tim Cook having to write this letter.
Source: Apple.com
To our customers,
At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.
There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.
While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.
Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.
Tim Cook Apple's CEO
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