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Apple Airs First iPhone 5 TV Ads: “Physics”, “Cheese”, “Thumb” - Plus “Ears”

Today, Apple aired the first official iPhone 5 commercials. Available both on YouTube and Apple’s website, the TV ads focus on some of the marquee features of the iPhone 5.

“Physics” focuses on the design of the iPhone. It asks how’s it possible that the iPhone can be bigger, but also smaller – referring to the bigger screen of the device and its thinner form factor.

There are laws to physics, right? So explain this, how can something get bigger, and smaller? There’s more of it, and less of it. Well, I guess the laws of physics are more like, general guidelines.

“Cheese” is about Panorama. The ad shows a man trying to take a picture of a group of kids in costumes, using the iPhone’s Panorama functionality (which is not exclusive to the iPhone 5) to capture the whole group.

Every picture tells a story, of course some stories are bigger than others.

OK, guys here we go, everybody say Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeee…[breathes in]…eeeeeeeessssseee.

Got it!

The last one, “Thumb” is, again, about the iPhone’s screen, but this time from a user’s perspective. It tries to convey the message that, in spite of the taller screen, the iPhone’s display is still usable with one thumb, because Apple used “common sense” to make it bigger, but not too big.

Your thumb, it goes from here, to here. This bigger screen goes from here, to here. Now that’s either a, an amazing coincidence, or b, a dazzling display of common sense. Pretty sure its the common sense thing.

The three ads are available on Apple’s website and YouTube channel. We have embedded the YouTube versions below.

Update: Apple also posted an additional “Ears” ad for the new EarPods. The ad repeats the same message Apple explained at the iPhone 5 keynote – human ears are all different, and headphones should consider these differences.

Ears are weird. I dunno what shape that is, but its not round. So why would headphones be round? They should be shaped like this. Ear shaped. You know, so they fit in your ears.

According to initial speculation on Twitter, it appears the voiceover for the ads was done by Jeff Daniels, currently starring in the HBO show “The Newsroom”.
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iPhone 5 Lines Around The World

As the iPhone 5 begins its international rollout, lines have begun forming at Apple retail stores in preparation of tomorrow’s launch.

The iPhone 5, announced at a media event on September 12, will go on sale tomorrow at 8 am in nine countries: US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The iPhone 5 is a major upgrade from the iPhone 4S: it features a taller, 4-inch screen, a faster processor, an improved camera, better audio, and a thinner, lighter design with an aluminum back and glass inlays. Apple launched online pre-orders for the device last Friday, and in the first 24 hours the iPhone 5 topped two million pre-orders.

As we’ve done for every recent Apple product launch, we’re collecting some of the best photos and videos of customers waiting in line at their Apple stores. We’ll be updating this post throughout the next 24 hours; come back later for the latest updates and photos from around the globe.

If you want to send us photos or videos from your local Apple store, send us an email at: tips at macstories.net

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iOS 6 Spotlight Concept

Last week, designer Cody Sanfilippo shared (via TUAW) an interesting concept of what Spotlight on iOS could be like. Drawing inspiration from Siri’s results, widgets, and some third-party apps that already enable similar functionalities, I find Cody’s concept worth of a deeper discussion. Particularly following the release of iOS 6 yesterday and the many refinements it brings to several areas of the OS, I think Spotlight is one of the stock functionalities that could use an overhaul in the future.

Cody’s proposed design essentially breaks down Spotlight by filters, and makes it play nicer with third-party apps and their content. It is aimed at reducing taps required to perform some actions such as calling a contact, or playing a song, and, overall, it takes some of the functionalities of Siri and translates them into a text-based input.

With this new system in place, you are capable of doing things a lot quicker. For example, tap phone numbers to call from Contact results. Tap their email addresses to email them. Tap “play” on a music result to play the song without ever entering the Music app. Check calendar events, or notes, or reminders instantly. You get all this information at a glance, without ever opening the applications. Of course, tapping the entry (the arrow in Contacts, entire clipping in Notes, etc) will bring you into that application.

In Cody’s vision, Spotlight could gain “filters” to display as buttons at the bottom. So rather than searching for a string of text across your entire operating system, you’d gain the option to refine your results by restricting them to a certain application, like Contacts. Looking for “Mike” in the current Spotlight, for instance, would bring up results from your Address Book, Music, Mail, Messages, and more. If you know you just want to view Mike’s contact card, though, you could enable a Contacts filter, and display a Siri-like card with phone number, Twitter username, and email addresses you can tap on.

Perhaps contacts aren’t the best way to illustrate how such concept could help users save time (though I’m a fan of Cody’s design idea for this). Say you want to play a song: with “Spotlight 2.0”, you could hit Play directly from a search result, saving you the time to open the Music app, view the playback screen, etc. Sanfilippo thought of various implementations for this concept for several built-in apps.

In my opinion, however, the really forward-thinking idea is the possible third-party app integration. You know how Spotlight can look at the contents of your Mail messages? Imagine if it’d be able to return songs from Rdio or Spotify, or tasks from OmniFocus without opening those apps.

That’s a very powerful concept, and one that is not too dissimilar from the Siri API many developers have been expecting since last year. Such an idea – a system that can “look into apps” for certain types of content it understands and returns as results – would probably require major changes by developers to their apps, although, as we’ve seen in the past week, developers who are truly committed to their apps will always update them with support for the latest technologies and devices.

If you’re interested in Cody Sanfilippo’s concept for a better Spotlight, I suggest you head over his website, where you can find a detailed explanation of his ideas, a UI breakdown, and some thoughts on the implications of a different Spotlight. If you’re interested in reading more on the subject, I also recommend this article by Rene Ritchie, which touched upon many similar points back in June.

You can check out the concept video below. Read more

Growl 2.0 Now Available with Notification Center Support

Previously announced by its developers, a major update to Growl – a third-party notification system for OS X – has been released today with official Notification Center integration. Among various bug fixes, improvements to the display of some built-in themes, and separation of Action displays from Visual ones, Growl 2.0 also brings Prowl and Boxcar support.

The biggest news in this update is support for Notification Center on Mountain Lion. How it works is rather straightforward, too. If users decide they want to keep using Growl while consolidating the Visual displays in Apple’s Notification Center, they can open Growl’s Preferences, and set “OS X Notifications” to “On” under General. This will add Growl to the apps listed under Notifications in System Preferences, and it’ll effectively use Growl as a bridge between third-party apps and Notification Center.

In my tests, it worked reliably: as soon as an app with Growl support triggered a notification, that was forwarded to Notification Center immediately. The obvious downside is that, because of Apple’s restrictions, Growl won’t be able to apply its custom themes to Notification Center, or use third-party app icons for banners. So every Growl notification will carry Growl’s icon, not the one from the third-party app that triggered the original notification.

Update: For apps to show their own icons, they will need to support the Growl 2.0 SDK.

Another important addition to Growl 2.0 is the separate handling of Visual and Action displays. For instance, you can set, say, Dropbox to trigger a Smoke display (or Notification Center banner) and the MailMe or Prowl action at the same time. This is a powerful new feature that should allow for deeper customization of Growl notifications, which are handled on an app-by-app basis in Growl’s Applications tab.

Developers of Growl-enabled apps can find several technical details over the the official Growl blog. Growl 2.0 is available on the Mac App Store for $3.99.

Apple Releases Several Updates To iOS Apps

After iOS 6 and an update to Mountain Lion, Apple today proceeded to release updates to some of its iOS applications. We’ve collected them all in this post, so you can have an easily digestible list of every update released today.

Apple’s Podcasts app (our original review) got a big update today. Version 1.1 brings iOS 6 support, and subscription syncing across devices with iCloud. There’s a new setting to choose to download new episodes automatically on WiFi, and pull to refresh for iOS 6. To enable sync, you’ll be asked if you want to keep subscriptions in sync through your Apple ID.

From my tests, I have noticed the app keeps the subscription list in sync, but not other podcast information, like Downcast does.

Podcasts 1.1

  • Automatically keep your podcast subscriptions up-to-date between devices using iCloud
  • A new setting to choose to automatically download new episodes only when on Wi-Fi
  • A new setting to choose whether to play episodes by oldest to newest or newest to oldest
  • Pull to refresh a subscription to check for new episodes on iOS 6
  • Additional performance and stability improvements

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Apple Releases OS X 10.8.2

Following the release of iOS 6, Apple just pushed an update to OS X Mountain Lion as well, which reaches version 10.8.2. Available for download on the Mac App Store, 10.8.2 brings Facebook integration to OS X, working similarly to Facebook in iOS 6, and various stability improvements. Like in iOS 6, Facebook is now available as a social service to log in from the System Preferences, and there are options to update contact information and pictures through Facebook as well as system-wide sharing menus.

On the feature set side, Facebook is now also integrated in Game Center (for friend recommendations and like buttons for games), Power Nap is now supported on the late 2010 MacBook Air, and iMessage introduces support for phone numbers alongside email addresses, just like on iOS 6.

You can find the full changelog after the break. We’ll update this post with direct links as soon as they’re available.+

Update — You’ll find the direct downloads below:

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Apple: Two Million iPhone 5 Pre-Orders In First 24 Hours

With a press release, Apple announced that the iPhone 5 topped two million pre-orders in the first 24 hours. The new device has doubled the record previously set by the iPhone 4S, which set 1 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours.

Apple has been doubling pre-orders for new iPhones every year: in 2010, the iPhone 4 saw 600,000 pre-orders in the first 24 hours, the iPhone 4S saw over 1 million, and, now, the iPhone 5 is seeing over 2 million in the same timeframe.

Apple today announced pre-orders of its iPhone 5 topped two million in just 24 hours, more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S. Demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21, many are scheduled to be delivered in October. iPhone 5 is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, completely redesigned to feature a stunning new 4-inch Retina display; an Apple-designed A6 chip for blazing fast performance; and ultrafast wireless technology*—all while delivering even better battery life.**

“iPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 5 is the best iPhone yet, the most beautiful product we’ve ever made, and we hope customers love it as much as we do.”

Last weekend, Apple said that it was blown away by the success of initial pre-orders, and this morning U.S. carrier AT&T confirmed the iPhone 5 has been the most successful device (in terms of pre-order numbers) to date. Pre-orders for the iPhone 5 began in the initial launch countries (US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore) on Friday, September 14th, for a release set on the 21st. On September 28th, more countries will follow (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovaki, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland) though it’s still unclear whether those countries will get online pre-orders as well.

(click for full size)

Furthermore, Apple is targeting 100 countries and 240 carriers by December 2012 for iPhone 5 availability.

The iPhone 5 is a major upgrade featuring a taller screen, new CPU, improved camera processing, faster performance, 4G LTE, and more. Check out our complete overview for all the details.

Paper 1.1 Now Available With Faster Ink, “Move”, “Duplicate” and “Easy Add” Features

2012 Apple Design Award winner Paper by FiftyThree has reached version 1.1 today, adding a number of much requested features and improvements to bring better organization of pages and smoother ink. Paper, a digital sketching app for the iPad, made headlines earlier this year as it somehow managed to make the process of drawing on screen fun and intuitive. With sharing built-in, a clever in-app purchase mechanism (you can buy single tools at $1.99 each, or the entire package at $6.99), and a simple multi-touch based interface, Paper has become for many the best way to take quick visual notes and draw sketches on iOS.

Today’s major update brings up to 3x faster virtual ink for every tool included in Paper, and users can now also draw with their fingers (or a stylus) to the edge of the screen, which wasn’t previously possible. In an interview with The Verge’s Ellis Hamburger, the Paper team shared some of the secrets behind their technology:

When you draw, you want strokes to appear at an even speed and even rate, which gives the system a reliable feel. If you hit the CPU or GPU at an even rate, the results end up being very smooth,” he says. Every brush inside FiftyThree’s “Expressive Ink Engine” has been fine tuned to be up to three times faster, and you can now draw all the way to the edge of the screen — a top request from users. The 1.1 update also saves battery, since requests are made to the iPad’s processor more consistently. The Rewind feature, which lets you undo brush strokes, also received some attention in Paper 1.1, and responds accordingly based on how quickly you move your two fingers in a circle.

The big new feature of this new version, however, is the improved organization. Relying once again on multi-touch to navigate the core elements of the app, users can now tap & hold with one finger to select a page from a notebook, then use the other hand to navigate other notebooks as they normally would; once in another notebook, the tap & hold can be released to drop the page in its new location. The “move” feature is a welcome addition that, alongside the new Duplicate function, should make for a much better experience for those who rely on Paper for wireframes, project templates, and more.

Paper 1.1 is a good update, especially thanks to the focus on better organization of pages, which was a huge downside of previous versions of the app. Check out Paper 1.1 on the App Store, and the official promo video below. (Also: pardon my poor drawing skills. But, yes, real coffee is Italian)
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iPhone 5 Now Available for Pre-order

The iPhone 5 is now available for pre-order at Apple.com. Fortunately, it does not require missiles or the Morph Ball to obtain.

Ordering the iPhone 5 tonight? Your best bet is Apple’s Online Store. Even better is the Apple Store app, which might fetch you a new iPhone faster than the guy who’s waiting for the web server to respond to his order request. Last year lots of people had good luck with the carrier’s online stores for the 4S, Sprint (after a short delay) and Verizon especially. We’ve listed the United State’s carrier’s stores below so you can hopefully order without hassle.

The iPhone 5 is an awesome power-up for anyone on the iPhone 3GS or the iPhone 4. The iPhone 5 is super thin and lightweight, has a larger 4-inch display, and has twice as much horsepower as the iPhone 4S thanks to its A6 processor. Available in white and black in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB models ($199, $299, $399 respectively) on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, the iPhone 5 is equipped to utilize the incredible speed of LTE wireless networks without sacrificing battery life. With an improved 8 MP camera that takes pictures 40% faster than the iPhone 4S, includes wideband audio for clearer calls (carrier support coming soon), an even more vibrant Retina display, and packaged with Apple’s completely redesigned EarPods, the iPhone 5 isn’t just a incremental upgrade. It’s redesigned from the ground up.

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Don’t know if you want to upgrade? The iPhone 5 is bound to be a fantastic phone, but having the latest and greatest isn’t necessary, especially if you have the iPhone 4S (and you guys bought that knowing you would be locked in for the two-year long haul… riiiight?). The iPhone 5 has no differentiating features in iOS 6 over the 4S — you’ll have Panorama and all of Siri’s latest features. Having LTE would be nice, as would be having apps launch faster and games look prettier, but I’m betting you’ll see the upgrades you care about — more battery-life and a significantly improved camera — with the iPhone 5S or whatever the heck Apple names it. (After all, they did break the space-name-time-continuum by naming their 6th phone the iPhone 5.) Plus, you’ll feel good when you leap-frog the iPhone 5 owners next year. Boom. Circle of life.

If you have an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 (most of you) that’s due for an upgrade, of course you should upgrade — the iPhone 4S was a significant update a year ago, so you guys are really gonna feel how much faster iOS is with an even newer iPhone. No questions asked, do it. I can’t help you with picking a color though.

If you happen to be someone who got a free 3GS or a $100 iPhone 4 recently (and will be locked-in to a contract for a while), you can at least have some solace: you’ll still be getting iOS 6, but not necessarily all of the features (no Siri). Depending when your contract ends or full upgrade eligibility begins, I recommend waiting for Apple’s next flagship iPhone and ordering it then. That way, you’ll get on Apple’s cycle, won’t have to worry as much about being out of date, and won’t be behind the curve on software if Apple pulls another feature-X-won’t-work-on-older-phones bit as Apple did with Siri between the iPhone 4 and 4S.