Graham Spencer

917 posts on MacStories since January 2011

Former MacStories contributor.

graham@macstories.net

Apple Informs Australian WiFi + 4G iPad Owners Of Refund Offer, Tells Resellers To Update Marketing

Apple today began emailing Australians who had purchased the new iPad WiFi + 4G model, informing them of their option to get a full refund if they had purchased it on the basis of thinking it would work with Australian 4G LTE or WiMAX networks. The offer is available to anyone who purchased the model before March 28th and they can return it for a full refund until the 25th of April.

It follows events from last week when the ACCC alleged Apple of misleading customers over the 4G capabilities of the new iPad and Apple responded by offering refunds and agreeing to clarify its marketing. Users who wish to obtain the refund must return the iPad and accessories to the original point of purchase and inform them that they had purchased the iPad on the “basis that it was compatible with current Australian 4G LTE networks or WiMAX networks”.

As noted by 9to5 Mac, Apple has also begun informing Australian iPad resellers to update their iPad signage to more accurately describe the iPad’s cellular capabilities in Australia. Notably the new signage includes the paragraph that Apple and the ACCC agreed on last week:

This product supports very fast cellular networks. It is not compatible with current Australian 4G LTE networks and WiMAX networks.

Jump the break to view the full email that Apple has sent to Australian consumers who purchased the “WiFi + 4G” model of the new iPad.

Thanks Stuart Hall, reseller information via 9to5 Mac.

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March 2012 In Review

March was the month of the new iPad, an updated Apple TV and the announcement of a dividend and share repurchase program. It was most certainly a ‘big’ month. If a new iPad wasn’t enough, we also got a lot of new apps (alongside all those being updated for the Retina Display) and big app updates - everything from Angry Birds Space (world productivity took a dive that week) to both iA Writer and Byword iPhone apps launching to Camera+ 3.0 and our eyes were in heaven after Instapaper was updated to support the Retina Display with some truly beautiful new fonts. On the story front, Federico tackled the issue of what was the best aspects of our favourite iOS text editors, talked about the ‘Apple Community’, Cody reviewed the new iPad and I expressed sadness and frustration with lies of Mike Daisey.

Jump the break to get a full recap of March 2012. You can also jump back to see what happened in January and February of this year.

The New iPad

On March 7th, Apple held its iPad keynote - announcing the third generation iPad, simply calling it the ‘new iPad’. It featured a Retina Display, improved rear camera, quad-core GPU with the new A5X processor and support for 4G networks. We posted a review roundup, featuring the highlights from various reviews on the internet, as well as our own review by Cody. Apple announced that in its opening weekend it sold 3 million of the new iPads.

The (updated) Apple TV, iOS 5.1,  iPhoto for iOS and more from Apple’s iPad event

Alongside the new iPad, Apple also released an updated Apple TV with support for 1080p content as well as new UI that was also released for the existing Apple TV. Co-inciding with the release of the new iPad was the release of iOS 5.1 which included some bugfixes and new features such as an improved activation method to use the lockscreen camera. Apple also announced the iOS version of iPhoto which was made available for $4.99 a short time later.

More minor announcements included the availability for AppleCare+ for the new iPad, iTunes 10.6 and the release of the “Apple Configurator” app after the event. Apple also bumped the over-the-air download limit from 20 MB to 50 MB to reflect larger app sizes due to Universal apps that included graphics for the Retina iPad and iPhone - as well as larger download caps that exist today. Finally, you saw Apple update a whole bunch of their own apps for the new iPad and Retina Display.

We also posted a complete round-up of the event and a bunch of minor details about the event that you may have missed. You can also watch the recording of the event here.

25 billion apps downloaded

On March 3rd, Apple announced that 25 billion apps had been downloaded from the App Store. To mark the milestone it revealed a new “All-Time Top Apps” section on the App Store. A few days later, Apple revealed that the 25 billionth app downloaded was ‘Where’s My Water? Free’ by Chunli Fu who is from  Qingdao, China - she won a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Apple announces dividend and share repurchase program

Somewhat out of the blue, Apple announced on a Sunday afternoon that it would be holding a conference call early the next day (Monday) to announce the result of discussions by Apple’s board on what it would do with Apple’s cash balance. As was widely expected, Apple announced it would begin issuing quarterly dividends of $2.65 per share. It also announced a $10 billion share repurchase program to begin in FY2013.

Fair Labor Association releases preliminary report on Foxconn conditions

The Fair Labor Association released a preliminary report on its findings from inspections at Foxconn that were conducted earlier this year. In what now seems like planned positive PR ahead of the report’s release, Tim Cook visited Foxconn a few days before the report was published and photographs were distributed to media of the visit.

Angry Birds Space

Rovio this month released Angry Birds Space, the fourth in the series (after the original, Rio and Seasons). Unsurprisingly, the game did incredibly well and managed to receive over 10 million downloads in less than 3 days. Particularly awesome was this analysis of the physics used by the game, a great follow-up to the original investigation into Angry Birds physics.

Everything Else

 

The Really Big Reviews

Everything Else

March Quick Reviews

Retina & Universal

iPhoto for iOS Review

The Essence of a Name

On Reviewing Apps

Getting Your iPad App Ready for the new iPad

Comparing My Favorite iOS Text Editors

Daisey’s Lies Take Us Two Steps Backwards

iPad (3) Review: You Won’t Believe It Until You See It

The Apple Community, Part II

Regarding Apple’s Edge and the new Apple TV Interface

A Series of Clicks

The (Semi)Skeuomorphism

MacStories Reading Lists

MacStories Reading List: February 26 – March 4

MacStories Reading List: New iPad Special Edition

Loren Brichter Talks About Pull-To-Refresh Patent and Design Process

Circling around on the internet over the last few days has been the news that there is a patent application for the “pull-to-refresh” feature that Loren Brichter pioneered in Tweetie and is now an extremely popular UI gesture used in a lot of iOS, Mac and Android apps. Twitter holds the patent application, not Brichter who recently left Twitter after they acquired him and Tweetie a few years ago. It’s also important to note that the patent has not yet been granted, it is simply a patent application at this point in time.

Featured in the latest One More Thing podcast (a tie-in to the Australian iOS conference we wrote about last week, featuring many of the speakers), Brichter briefly talks about the patent (note that this was actually recorded before the news about the patent spread wildly on the internet) and says:

… I can’t talk about the specifics but Twitter owns the patent, but I don’t think people have anything to worry about.

Brichter also describes the design process that resulted in the “pull-to-refresh” feature being implemented in the episode. He talks about how in Tweetie 1.0 the refresh button would be on top of all your tweets because there wasn’t enough room on the navbar because of a back button and compose tweets button. But for Tweetie 2, Brichter thought he could “make it a little simpler” so that you didn’t have to scroll to the top, lift your finger and tap on the refresh button, instead he asked the question:

…why not just make refreshing part of the scroll gesture itself? So it was kind of an obvious extension of a simple idea.

The whole episode is certainly worth a listen, Brichter offers some great insights on development and his experiences as both an independent developer and a developer working in a large team (like he did for Twitter and Apple).

Thanks to Stuart Hall for the heads up.

Apple Offers Refunds To Australians, Promises to Clarify 4G iPad Marketing

Today’s hearing into the ACCC’s allegation that Apple is misleading Australian consumers with its labeling of the new iPad as “4G” has recently adjourned for the day, with two promises from Apple. First, it will offer full refunds to any customer who purchased the WiFi + 4G model expecting it to work on Telstra’s 4G network (although this isn’t too significant, given Apple already offers a 14-day period to return any product). Second, it has committed to further clarifying its marketing to explicitly note it is incompatible with the Telstra 4G network. Emma O’Sullivan tweets that the phrasing will be “this product supports very fast cellular networks, it is not compatible with current Australian 4G LTE networks”. Apple promised to update all marketing to this new phrasing by April 5th.

It seems fairly clear that Apple wants to resolve the dispute with the ACCC quickly, not only committing to these two promises as an interim agreement, but also advocating the use of closed-door mediation with ACCC. In contrast, the ACCC is pushing for a full trial in early May.

Bizarrely, one point that Apple argued in the hearing today was that Australia’s mobile networks were “misnamed”. Apple argued that what are currently called 3G networks in Australia should actually be called 4G networks by “international standards” - the ACCC responded by saying that Apple is in fact using “US standards”.

Australian Consumer Watchdog Alleges Apple Of Misleading 4G Claims

The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission), Australia’s competition watchdog has just announced it will tomorrow seek orders against Apple for allegedly making misleading iPad “4G” claims in its marketing of the new iPad in Australia. It alleges that Apple’s promotion of the new “iPad with WiFi + 4G” is misleading “because it represents to Australian consumers that the product “iPad with WiFi + 4G” can, with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case.”

The ACCC is seeking urgent interlocutory relief to ensure consumers are made aware of the correct technical capabilities of this device. Additionally the ACCC is seeking final orders including injunctions, pecuniary penalties, corrective advertising and refunds to consumers affected.

It will tomorrow make an application to the Federal Court in Melbourne for orders against Apple for allegedly contravening Australian Consumer Law (ACL). It advises consumers who have purchased or are considering to purchase the new iPad to ensure “they have a proper understanding of the mobile data networks which this iPad can directly access by a SIM card”. There are 4G networks operating in Australia but none are currently compatible with the 4G bands that are supported in the new iPad. Unlike in the US, carriers in Australia have not blurred the line between 3G and 4G networks by calling HSDPA a “4G” network, so when 4G is used in marketing in Australia, it truly refers to the next generation of mobile networks such as LTE.

Australian mobile carriers  Telstra and Optus have already ceased using any 4G references in their promotion of the new iPad, whilst Apple continues to use the 4G terminology with only a small fine print below stating;

The iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G model can roam worldwide on fast GSM/UMTS networks, including HSPA, HSPA+, and DC-HSDPA. When you travel internationally, you can use a micro-SIM card from a local carrier. You can also connect to the 4G LTE networks of AT&T in the U.S. and Bell, Rogers, and Telus in Canada.

Rovio: 10 Million Downloads Of Angry Birds Space In Less Than 3 Days

Rovio announced on Twitter today that Angry Birds Space racked up 10 million downloads in less than 3 days. Unfortunately Rovio didn’t give more details as to which 3 days saw more than 10 million downloads (presumably it was the first 3 days after launch) or which platforms were proving most popular. Angry Birds Space (the latest game in the Angry Birds series) launched on March 22nd (Thursday last week) on to the iOS, Android, Mac and PC platforms.

Nevertheless, it is a very impressive feat that Rovio was able to garner so many downloads in such a short period of time - it’s clear to me that Angry Birds continues to be an incredibly powerful brand that is being managed very well by the folks at Rovio. It’s also worth pointing out that last November Rovio revealed that the Angry Birds series had been downloaded over 500 million times since launching in late 2009.

One More Thing Conference, A Unique iOS Conference In Australia Is Running Again In May

The ‘One More Thing Conference’ is running again this year in May on the 25th and 26th, and like its launch last year it’ll be located in the beautiful city of Melbourne, Australia. It isn’t a traditional programming conference, but more of a “meeting for iOS developers, designers and those who just want to come along for the ride”. In fact the aim of the conference isn’t necessarily to improve your designing or programming talent, but rather to “leave with more confidence in your abilities as an iOS developer or designer.”

The conference comprises of two parts; the main conference on the 26th of May and two “mini-confs” on the 25th. Speaking at the main conference are people such as Raphael Schaad of Flipboard, Adam Kirk of Mysterious Trousers (makers of Calvetica), Igor Pušenjak of Lima Sky (makers of Doodle Jump), Justin Williams of Second Gear (makers of Elements) and other very talented people in the iOS world. Meanwhile the “mini-confs”, are smaller (limited to 30 people) sessions where the environment is more conversational, with one focusing on design and the other on programming. Loren Brichter (formerly of Tweetie and Twitter) and Neven Mrgan are just two of the speakers that will lead these respective “mini-confs”.

Tickets to the main conference are currently selling at $249 (that’s an early bird price though, after the 12th of April it goes back to $349), whilst the “mini-conf” session tickets cost $499 but are limited to just 30 people.

Short Q&A with Organiser Anthony Aguis

To get some more information and perspective on what the One More Thing Conference is, I spoke with one of the organisers, Anthony Aguis who also ran the first conference last year.

Graham: Hi Anthony! So give us a brief overview of what the One More Thing conference is about and perhaps what you learnt from running the conference last year.

Anthony: I learned that I could actually make a conference happen and that people liked it! The feedback we got from last year’s event was fantastic. It would have been a shame not to do it again. The overall theme of the conference is still the same as 2011 - get developers confident, psyched, and ready to move from dreaming of making apps, to just doing it. The main difference for 2012 will be the lessons we will learn from the speakers. There’s some serious experience in our line up that have awesome stories to tell.

Graham: One of the new things for the conference this year are the mini-confs, one focused on design and the other on programming. This sounds like a great idea, especially considering it will promote a more conversational atmosphere between the audience and the great speakers you’ve got attending. What made you decide to have such “mini-confs” alongside the full conference?

Anthony: The mini-confs came about because some of the speakers I invited weren’t comfortable in front of a large audience, so rather than not have them come to Australia at all, Lauren (my One More Thing sidekick, who designed the website and everything else you see to do with One More Thing), suggested we just give them a smaller venue, so we did. That creates a unique opportunity to pick the brains of some super talented people. It’s like a university or college tutorial where you debate and interact, as opposed to a lecture with lots of people in it.

Graham: What are you most looking forward to yourself in the conference this year?

Anthony: I’m really hoping there’s a spate of wonderful apps released on the app store, a few months after One More Thing, inspired by what attendees have learned there. That’s why I put the effort into putting it on, to have cool apps to use myself!

Graham: The conference is being held in Melbourne, Australia, for those who aren’t from Melbourne and particularly for those overseas, can you tell us a bit about the city and perhaps why someone from the US or Europe might enjoy visiting?

Anthony: I’ve lived in Melbourne all my life, so I’m a little biased - but if you’ve never been to Australia before, Melbourne is a great place to start. It’s a very cosmopolitan and urban city, with over 5 million people of all sorts of cultural backgrounds calling it home. But not too far out from the city is some of the most beautiful countryside and scenery, you’ll ever see, with the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians National Park just day trip away. If you like sport, you’ve gotta watch an Aussie Rules football match too. I’ll even go with you!

Graham: So if our readers are interested in attending, where can they get more info and purchase tickets?

Anthony: onemorething.com.au has all the details - we have special early bird pricing if you register before April 12th, so don’t take too long deciding to attend.

Graham: Thanks for speaking with us Anthony, is there anything else you’d like to tell our lovely readers before we wrap this up?

Anthony: We’ve got a podcast up on iTunes in which Peter Wells & Marc Edwards interview all the speakers at One More Thing 2012. Plus everyone can watch the videos from the 2011 conference up on Vimeo. Great way to get a feel for what you’ll get from One More Thing in 2012.

Adobe Releases Photoshop CS6 Beta

Adobe has tonight released the beta of Photoshop CS6, giving users a “sneak preview” of the new tools and performance enhancements that Adobe has been working on for CS6. The standout new features include an even better Content-Aware Patch tool that allows you to literally move objects around an image like they were always there, a ‘modern’ UI with much improved performance and re-engineered tools.

The Verge has a detailed look at the beta and amongst the new features, they highlight a few features such as background save, easy iris blur and tilt shift tools and even a simple video editing tool that lets you use many Photoshop tools and shortcuts. Meanwhile, Marc Edwards of bjango runs through a list of improvements and changes that matter most to him as an interface designer - highlighting some of the more minute details, such as layer searching and group clipping masks, that have a big impact on how things can be accomplished.

You can download the beta of Photoshop CS6 for free. A final release will be made available sometime in the first half of this year for $699 new or $199 if you’re upgrading (those prices are $999 and $399 if you want CS6 Extended). Jump the break for a video from Adobe that highlights some of the notable improvements and new features in CS6.

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Ahead Of Angry Birds Space Launch Tomorrow, Rovio Releases Final Trailer

Rovio has released the final trailer for Angry Birds Space, the fourth game in the Angry Birds series (following the original, Seasons and Rio). The trailer introduces the space theme with an introduction scene showing the birds being flung into space. The rest of the trailer mixes quotes, shots of each of the birds (such as the one seen above) and some gameplay footage of the new levels.

Naturally the new game features some twists such as zero gravity and a “light speed destruction” feature. Angry Birds Space launches tomorrow, March 22nd on iOS, Android, Mac and PC. Jump the break for the full trailer, or watch it on YouTube.

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