Posts in news

Fingerprints and iPads - No Two Are Alike

George Kokkinidis, from Design Language News, recently did an interesting study called “Remnants of a Disappearing UI”. He studied the fingerprint patterns on the surface of his iPad using different applications, and the results are visually interesting.

Because the primary input method of the iPad is a single piece of multitouch glass, developers have incredible flexibility to design unique user interfaces. It’s hard to appreciate the variety of UIs though, since turning the screen off removes virtually all evidence of them. To spotlight these differences, I looked at the only fragments that remain from using an app: fingerprints.

George’s method involved cleaning the iPad’s screen before use, using a specific app for a short amount of time, then turning the iPad off. Then he photographed the iPad, imported the images into Adobe Illustrator, and placed them inside a vector-based iPad mortise. His technique helped the fingerprints emphasize his “touchy” data. Read more

Shocking Study Reveals: iPad Doesn’t Make You Attractive

Dear iPad owners, according to a recent study by Retrevo Gadgetology gadgets don’t make you attractive to the opposite sex. Most specifically, the iPad doesn’t make you any sexier. “How is that even possible?”, you may ask. Well it turns out, men and women surveyed by Retrevo Gadgetology think reading books, carrying a cool phone or laptop will make you more interesting and worth consideration. We can hear you: iBooks and the Kindle app are the future and there’s no way you’re going back to paper. Still, iPad owners and geeks alike: the tablet won’t get you another date. Perhaps a new MacBook Air will. It’s so thin, after all.

But hey, we’re pretty sure it’s still better to just use the iPad than carry it around like this. Because that would make you less masculine. [via TUAW]

Turn By Turn Voice Navigation Coming To iOS Maps via Jailbreak

A new Cydia tweak being developed by InfectionFX and TheZimm will add native turn-by-turn voice navigation to the Maps application for iPhone. A few alternatives like MapQuest offer turn-by-turn with voice today in the App Store; this tweak will plug directly into the native Google Maps software for iPhone. While not as full-featured as navigation system offered by Google on Android devices, this option will provide a relatively cheap and useful way to do turn-by-turn voice navigation on iOS without using multiple apps.

[iPhoneDownloadBlog via RazorianFly] Read more

Echofon For iPad & iPhone Update to 4.0

How could Echofon’s magical sync-a-bilities get anymore improved between Echofon on the desktop and your favorite iOS devices? How about the addition of user streaming to the iPad, global push notifications for direct messages, and the ability to temporarily mute tweet happy users? User streaming is something I’ve wished for in all clients as long as it continues to retain your place on the timeline (Twitter for iPad is good at this), and not too many have successfully took a swing at Echofon’s syncing features. There’s nothing more annoying that re-reading a garbage bin full of old tweets - pick up where you left off with Echofon, and download the free updates in the iTunes App Store via the links below.

Echofon for iOS, Free

[Business Wire: UberMedia: Echofon 4 Press Release via The Next Web]

New MacBook Airs In June with Sandy Bridge CPU?

According to CNET, who cites “a source familiar with Apple’s plans”, the MacBook Air might receive an update in June with the new Intel Sandy Bridge processor:

Apple is targeting a MacBook Air update for this summer that will include a move to Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, CNET has learned.

The MacBook Air refresh is expected in June, according to a source familiar with Apple’s plans.

Intel’s Sandy Bridge chips were initially delayed due to a hardware bug, but the company confirmed earlier this week that shipments will start on February 20th. As CNET notes, the MacBook Air family is still carrying Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors which are two generations behind Sandy Bridge; the MacBook Airs were last updated in October, announced by Steve Jobs at the “Back to the Mac” event.

Recent rumors suggested the MacBook Pros, due a refresh, will soon receive an update, possibly featuring Sandy Bridge. A MacBook Air announcement in June would play well with the WWDC 2011 timeframe, where Apple is expected to unveil the next-generation iPhone.

Pulse For iPad Is Now Faster, Always In Sync with Google Reader

Pulse, the social news reader for iPad, was updated last night to include a number of optimizations and new features. With the release of the new Flipboard a few months ago, Pulse had to play catch-up to face the iPad app of the year, which was updated with better Facebook integration, Google Reader support and huge improvements to the interface and navigation. Pulse, however, was never based on the same concept of Flipboard: where Flipboard is a social magazine that aggregates content from Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader, Pulse is a wall for your news. Moving out of RSS feeds to embrace Facebook links confirms the news wall theory.

The latest update to Pulse is aimed at enhancing speed and Google Reader sync. The app will now store changes offline and sync them back as soon as an internet connection becomes available. On the engine side, Alphonso Labs improved image loading times, refresh and scrolling, which feels much smoother now. The app was never really fluid for me, and I expect things to get even better once the iPad 2 with a faster processor ships.

Images can now be saved to the iPad’s photo library, and search has been refined to direct you to proper news sources. There is no doubt Pulse is getting better over time, however I would like to see a redesign of the interface, which I believe has fallen behind the elegance and minimalism of Flipboard.

Pulse News Reader is available for free here.

Notebook Shipments To Slow Down in Q1, But Apple Is “Doubling Orders”

According to Digitimes, most notebook vendors will see lower shipments in Q1 2011, mainly due to defective Intel chipsets. Apple and Samsung, however, won’t experience this slowdown and Apple is even doubling the orders of some models.

With the exception of Samsung Electronics and Apple, first-quarter 2011 shipments of notebooks from brand-name vendors will be lower than expected, according to sources from Taiwan’s notebook upstream supply chain.

Samsung has been performing better than other brands by taking up deliveries from the suppliers, the sources noted, adding that Apple reportedly is revising upward its orders with the volume of some hot-selling models being doubled.

Do we see new MacBook Pros here, relatively soon? The line is due an update, and reports suggested Intel may be able to ship the Sandy Bridge by the end of February anyway. According to recent rumors, stock of some MacBook Pro models has been running low and a refresh is coming soon.

Fourth Beta Of 10.6.7 (10J855 ) Seeded To Developers

Earlier today Apple released a new developer beta of OS X 10.6.7. The build is the fourth since January, carrying number 10J855.

No known issues are reported in the seed notes, focus areas still include Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB and Graphics Drivers. At this point, it appears that the public release of OS X is getting closer, as Apple has been releasing new betas every week and the initial issues have been fixed and no new ones have been reported.

The third beta (10J850) was released on February 1st.

[Thanks, Bastian]

Rumor: Apple Prototyping A 2.3” iPhone At $200 Without Contract? Customers To Choose Own Network?

With the tech world still suffocating from iPad 2 rumors and John Gruber’s predictive iPad 3 lineup bomb, Bloomberg reports this afternoon that Apple may be planning to rekindle their iPhone line with new models to better compete with Android. What’s in the mix? A rumored Apple iPhone prototype is said to be a third smaller than the current iPhone 4, meaning it would be on par with HP’s Veer at approximately 2.3 inches diagonally. How do you undercut the competition? By finally offering American consumers the option to purchase a $200 smartphone without an obligatory contract.

Apple can sell it at a low price mainly because the smartphone will use a processor, display and other components similar to those used in the current model, rather than pricier, more advanced parts that will be in the next iPhone, the person said. Component prices typically drop over time.

Whether or not you care to dig into the gigahertz war in smartphone processor technology, the current hardware for the iPhone 4 would still be relevant for the next year, despite Android handsets launching with dual-core processor. iOS, being extremely efficient would fly with a 1GHz processor pushing pixels on a 2.3 inch display. With the same great camera, the baby iPhone would be an excellent edition to Apple’s lineup when paired with larger display of an iPad. (Personally, I don’t think these smaller displays are just for tweens.) The phone would be free if purchased on contract.

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