Category : Entertainment, Featured, Work, Life, etc.
Apple has it’s iPhone event tomorrow. It says Let’s talk iPhone, but we all expect them to announce iOS 5 and iCloud, as well as a new iPhone of some kind.
The Times to start listening and following along are:
7:00AM Hawaii
10:00AM Pacific
11:00AM Mountain
12:00PM Central
1:00PM Eastern
6:00PM London
Here are some places you can follow along.
Category : Featured, iPhone, Software, Web/Tech, Work, Life, etc.
Back in January, I wrote about five things I’d like to see in iOS 5, I thought I would update that, as the beta is out, and it’s been officially announced.
The first thing on my list was wireless syncing, this is now going to be a part of the iOS system. It works in the way that everytime you plug your phone into the wall to charge, it’ll sync with iTunes automatically. It’ll also backup to iCloud if you want it to use that instead of iTunes as a backup system.
Number two on my list was lockscreen improvements. There wasn’t really a good improvement to the lockscreen, as I would have liked to see my calendar and weather, but this also is a part of number four on my list better notifications.
The third thing was SMS enhancements. This didn’t get done, as I also would’ve like them to incorporate some Bite SMS features, like quick reply, but they did come out with a new messaging system called imessage, which is an iOS to iOS device messenger, that bypasses the carriers SMS fees. It’s built into the SMS app on the iphone, and when you add the person it automatically changes to imessage if that person has it activated.
On to number four, better notifications, this got reworked, and now notifications show up on the lockscreen, and you slide the icon to open the app, and there is now a notification center that slides down from the top and all your notification are in one place, it also doesn’t do the popup window by default, it shows the notification across the top of the window.
The last thing was the built in apps and the ability to delete them. Nope, still can’t do that.
So, as I’m looking back at this, my score was 3.5/5, so that’s pretty good for a guess at what Apple will do.
In a move that no one knew was coming, Apple released a press release stating that they themselves would stream the event. There is a catch though, you have to have a Mac running Safari on OS X version 10.6, an iOS device with 3.0 or higher, or an iPad. This is because they will be using the open HTTP live streaming protocol.
In reading the multiple blogs about why Apple is deciding to do this, according to TechCruch, they claim that streaming media will be a key part of the event, I myself think that with the new Apple TV or iTV, that will introduce some sort of iTunes in the cloud option, but there will probably be limitations, as I wish I could put my 1.72TB of iTunes media on the cloud, but it would take a year to get it uploaded somewhere.
This will also cut back on the illegal streams and hopefully Steve won’t have to tell people to shut off their wireless devices.
Anyway, it’s all rumor and speculation, so tune in at 10 AM PST and watch for yourself at Apple.com.
The folks over at the How-To Geek have written a great article on how to do this, it’s pretty long, and if you are switching, or need to get mail out of one into the other, it’s a great read.
Apple held a special press conference on Friday, and in a way they admitted that yes if you hold the iPhone 4 a certain way there is a drop in signal, but does anyone other than the press who blew it up really care? I do notice the issue, but every iPhone I have had since the first generation I’ve never once dropped a call, and even with the bars dropping I still have a great signal and people have said that I sound better on this one.
So in the end, they are giving every iPhone 4 owner a free case, either a bumper or another one until September 30th. Also what I thought was interesting was when the question was asked if Steve and folks used a case they all pulled out their naked iPhones. I myself have a Griffin case that I like because they didn’t have the bumpers available in my area on launch day, so yes I will probably get the free one or see what the other options are, but again, if this was an issue to anyone besides the tech media, why does Apple continue to sell millions of them, and why are they still sold out in a lot of places. I really don’t think people care all that much.
Let me know what you all think in the comments.
With the opening of WWDC 2010 tomorrow and the big keynote, I have been sifting through all the rumors and predictions and here is my list.
1. iPhone OS 4 along with iPhone HD
2. Safari 5 and a big Snow Leopard update
3. Cloud based iTunes / MobileMe
4. Updated Apple TV
Those are the big ones I think will be announced, since the new iPhone isn’t really a rumor anymore we can probably guarantee a new one. I don’t however think it will be available on Verizon.
Those are my thoughts on it, we’ll see for sure once the keynote starts.
I know this has been over reported and there are a lot of different opinions about what should’ve been done, and what’s being done, but I believe that the person who found it should not have sold it, and should’ve walked it into the front door at Apple headquarters. If he’d have done that he in my opinion would’ve probably gotten some great Apple Karma.
Andy Ihnatko on his Chicago Sun-Times column wrote a great article about this, and instead of me going into detail, I’ll let you read his article.
I was thinking about what to post today, and I have shared a list of all the iPhone apps I have downloaded, but I thought that today I would share the 5 apps that I use on a daily basis.
1. RSS Player – This is a jem of an app, as it fixes the podcast issue from the iTunes store, and doesn’t limit you to 10 MB downloads. It will allow you to download and sync your podcasts to your phone, or you can watch them over the air. This saves me space on my phone for other things, as I no longer have to sync my podcasts from iTunes.
2. BeejiveIM – This is a multi format IM client for the iPhone. It is very feature rich, and provides support for AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo!, Myspace IM, and Facebook IM. It is a little pricey, but so far it’s the best IM client out there, and when the iPhone 3.0 software is released, i’m sure it will integrate push to get your messages in real time when you don’t have the client running. It already allows for push via email, but true IM is going to be better.
3. G-Map U.S. – They have a West and an East version, so check the info to make sure you get the right one for your area. This is a nice turn-by-turn gps application, and it will get better in time, but I use it almost everyday for maps and directions.
G-Map West G-Map East
4. Tweetie – Tweetie is a full featured (and possibly the best) Twitter client for the iPhone. I send most of my mobile tweets from this app, and it is the easiest one to use.
5. NetNewsWire – It’s an extension of newsgator rss feeds, if you use another rss reader, that’s fine, but I like this one for the iPhone as it is very easy to use, and you can control your feeds through the website or the desktop clients.
This is my shortlist of my favorite apps for the iPhone, share yours in the comments.
Post is courtesy of Engadget
As promised, Apple just debuted its upcoming iPhone OS 3.0. Much of the news seemed developer-centric, but there are certainly plenty of consumer implications down the road, along with long-awaited functions like copy and paste, A2DP, MMS and universal Spotlight search. Improvements include:
App and developer functionality (more here)
- Peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth for gaming and other info-swapping.
- Paid apps will have the potential to be subscription fee-based, and can include optional paid content that can be bought from right inside the app.
- Developers can now build apps that call out to Google Maps, and can also finally bring Apple-blessed turn-by-turn to the phone.
- Devs can also connect with hardware accessories over in their apps now, such as a blood pressure monitor — or perhaps a keyboard? Connectivity works through the dock connector or over Bluetooth.
- Long-promised push functionality will at last be included, but apps won’t run in the background.
- Developers can add streaming video and audio to their apps, along with in-game voice use.
General functionality
- Cut, copy and paste. At last! You can shake the phone to undo and redo the action, and it works with both text and photos, allowing Mail to send multiple photos at a time. (more here)
- MMS, along with forward and delete for multiple messages. (more here)
- A2DP stereo Bluetooth.
- Unlocked Bluetooth functionality on 2G iPod touch. (more here)
- Spotlight has been added to a new home screen page to the left of existing pages, allowing for universal search on the phone. (more here)
- Tethering is built into 3.0, and Apple will work with carriers on that — who will have the last say on its implementation, most likely.
- App Store will be available in 77 countries.
Apple apps
- A new app called Voice Memos which lets you record notes and reminders.
- A revised Stocks app, with news stories and a landscape view.
- Landscape keyboard available in all major apps.
- CalDAV support has been added to Calendar, along with subscriptions support in the .ics format.
- Apple’s major apps have all been expanded with search functionality.
- Note Sync to sync your notes.
- YouTube account support.
- Form auto-fill.
- Phishing protection.
A developer beta of OS 3.0 is available today, and the 3.0 update will be coming to consumers this summer as a free update to all iPhone 3G customers. It’ll also work for 1st gen iPhone owners, though they won’t receive A2DP or MMS due to hardware limitations. iPod touch owners will be able to update for $9.95, just like last time.
