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Apple Announces Holiday Sale For This Friday, Across The World

Update: Apple has now confirmed the “One-Day Shopping Event” is also occurring in the US this Friday - but it makes no mention of the sale also taking place in its retail stores, suggesting this is an online-only affair.

Apple has begun placing banners on its online Apple Stores across the world, indicating that it will be holding a sale this Friday - on the yearly “Black Friday” as it is known in the US. The banners, found on the store page, inform us that this “special one-day Apple shopping event” is this Friday, November 25.

Mark your calendar now, and come back to the Apple Online Store for the special one-day event. You’ll discover amazing iPad, iPod and Mac gifts for everyone on your list.

The banner has gone up on the Australian, Italian, UK and a number of other international stores. No mention has yet been made on the US store, but it is expected to also receive the banner in a number of hours. In the US the Black Friday sale is expected to also take place inside Apple’s retail stores - no mention of the sale in retail stores is made on the Australian or Italian notices.


Hacker Builds Custom Siri Proxy Server

A hacker known as plamoni created a Siri proxy server that could allow anyone to use it and make Siri work with a wide range of non-Apple devices. Applidium, a development firm, hacked the Siri security protocol and has explained the process so anyone can use it.

One implementation of Siri + the proxy server is sending commands to any standard thermostat with Wi-Fi capabilities. plamoni taught Siri (no jailbreak required) to send commands over the network and if you’re interested, the source code is available for free online. Anyone with an iPhone 4S unique identifier and knowledge of networking can get it working. In order to set up Siri to control your home’s temperature involves a DNS server that uses a proxy to send requests to Siri’s servers.

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Ron Johnson: “What I Learned Building the Apple Store”

Ron Johnson: “What I Learned Building the Apple Store”

Apple’s former VP of Retail Ron Johnson, now CEO of J.C. Penney, wrote a guest blog post for Harvard Business Review analyzing the unique factors that contributed to the success of Apple’s retail stores. He says key to the experience was that employees didn’t want customers to buy more, but simply to get what they needed.

People come to the Apple Store for the experience — and they’re willing to pay a premium for that. There are lots of components to that experience, but maybe the most important — and this is something that can translate to any retailer — is that the staff isn’t focused on selling stuff, it’s focused on building relationships and trying to make people’s lives better. That may sound hokey, but it’s true. The staff is exceptionally well trained, and they’re not on commission, so it makes no difference to them if they sell you an expensive new computer or help you make your old one run better so you’re happy with it. Their job is to figure out what you need and help you get it, even if it’s a product Apple doesn’t carry. Compare that with other retailers where the emphasis is on cross-selling and upselling and, basically, encouraging customers to buy more, even if they don’t want or need it. That doesn’t enrich their lives, and it doesn’t deepen the retailer’s relationship with them. It just makes their wallets lighter.

Johnson, who joined Apple in 2000 and was head of retail operations until 2011, left Apple’s retail stores with average revenue per store at $10.7 million and overall revenue in Q4 up 1% at $3.6 billion.

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LogMeIn Ignition Adds Direct Integration with Dropbox, Google Docs, WebDAV Servers

In the past months LogMeIn, makers of the Ignition app for iOS, have released a series of updates to enhance Lion compatibility on the desktop and improve the file sharing capabilities of the iOS client, which, as we detailed in our various reviews, is a great way to remotely access computers (Macs and PCs) over the air. LogMeIn Ignition isn’t the cheapest app on the App Store, but its rich set of features and support from LogMeIn (a company that, among other things, also produces a free VPN tool for OS X) make it a worthwhile purchase for those looking for a complete solution to control a computer’s screen and access to its files.

The latest version of Ignition, released today, adds a single, yet important feature called Cloud Bank that brings direct integration with Dropbox, Google Docs and any WebDAV server to the iOS app. LogMeIn Ignition was already capable of moving files between computers and iOS’ local document manager with an intuitive drag & drop menu and copy/move functionalities; nowadays, however, users are more likely to keep their documents in the cloud, rather than physically stored on a computer’s drive, and LogMeIn’s move towards integration with cloud-connected services is certainly welcome as a way to get files from the cloud and onto a computer remotely.

My Cloud Bank allows LogMeIn Ignition users the ability to take full advantage of being remote by connecting them to their files no matter where they are. We’ve extended the functionality of our File Manager feature and given users the benefit of using cloud storage services in conjunction with remote access and local file storage on their devices.

Think of Ignition as a bridge between the cloud and a remote computer. With Cloud Bank, Dropbox and Google Docs are easily accessible through Ignition’s usual interface, with the same copy menu from computer-based remote connections. You’ll be able to move files between Dropbox and a computer you’re remotely connected to, or get a spreadsheet from your Google Docs account into a computer without, say, giving the person that’s using the remote machine access to your Google credentials. With WebDAV support, users will be able to configure services like DropDAV, which turns Dropbox into a WebDAV server and works out of the box with apps like Pages and Keynote.

I look forward to seeing whether LogMeIn will ever consider adding support for iCloud files, as that seems the most logical step to seamlessly fetch an iOS user’s cloud documents. In my tests, Cloud Bank has been extremely reliable in dealing with large Dropbox transfers from the cloud to a computer I was remotely connected to via 3G.

LogMeIn Ignition is available at $29.99 on the App Store.



Google Search for iPad Gets New Features and Redesigned UI

A few minutes ago Google released a new version of its official Google Search app for iOS that, alongside bug fixes and full-screen mode for search results and images on the iPhone, brings a completely overhauled interface, as well as new functionalities, on the iPad. Google Search, available as a universal app, has in fact introduced a redesigned UI that falls in line with Google’s recent updates to its online services like Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar and Google+. Google Search on the iPad now sports a series of gray icons in the main page to quickly jump to History, other Google apps, voice search and Goggles, a feature that Google introduced on iOS months ago to search for products just by taking a picture of them. The History page got a visual overhaul, displaying search results as stacks of pages you can swipe through to get your previous search.

Often you may be looking to find something you have seen before again or are continuing research on a topic. But on a tablet, typing can be a challenge. That is why we have created a visual way to explore your search history. Swipe right to view snapshots of pages you’ve visited, stacked and organized by search term. You can also manage your search history from this new view.

Search results are now loaded with Google Instant and Instant Previews, meaning the engine will be able to predict your queries and, at the same time, offer a visual aid to display pages as thumbnails, rather than just text results. The typical search interface is still there, visualized with Google’s recently launched tablet view. The native app has allowed the developers to embed a toolbar at the top, which contains buttons to open voice search, apps, settings, and sign in with your Google account.

Another big change on the iPad is how results are displayed side-by-side with webpages. As you tap on a link from the search results, Google Search will “slide in” a webpage with a quick animation that enables you to go back at any time with a single swipe gesture. You can adjust the size of the panel and visualize a webpage alongside other search results. Furthermore, the webpage view features another toolbar with buttons to +1 on Google+ and search for a specific word inside the page. With the iPad in landscape mode Google has effectively built a sort of split-browser with search results automatically loading in the resizable panel on the right.

Once you pick a web page to visit, you’ll see the page load on a new, slide-in pane that will layer over the search results. You can slide the pane to the right to get back to your search results, and even keep scrolling through the results as your web page is loading. This allows you to go back and forth from results to web pages quickly to get the information you are looking for.

Especially on the iPad and in landscape mode, the latest Google Search update seems like a step in the right direction to enable users to search faster, switch between results quicker, and have access to search history in a more user-friendly interface. You can get Google Search for free from the App Store.

More screenshots and promo video below.

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iPhone 4S Vs. “Real” Digital Cameras

iPhone 4S Vs. “Real” Digital Cameras

Chris Foreman at Ars Technica takes a look at the iPhone 4S’ camera compared to an iPhone 4, a Samsung Galaxy SII, an Olympus XZ-1 and a Canon 20D. Obviously, the iPhone 4S’ improved camera and optics turn out to be a recommended upgrade:

In real life use, each camera has a mix of benefits and drawbacks. The iPhone 4 was our previous favorite in smartphone cameras, and the iPhone 4S improves on that. The lens is a bit sharper and the hybrid IR filter seems to improve color rendering and possibly white balance. The new sensor also seems to have slightly less noise, better dynamic range, and three million more pixels to work with.

The combination of an updated sensor and the dual-core A5 processor also make the iPhone 4S much faster to start up and take pictures. It was nearly as fast at launching, focusing, and snapping sequential images as the Olympus XZ-1, and certainly faster than previous compact cameras we have used.

However, when compared to other cameras, it really is about convenience VS. options and full control, rather than just “quality” alone. Sure, DSLR still offers higher quality and reliability in several areas, but the iPhone 4S’ camera is more than good for still pictures both indoors and outdoors. More importantly, the iPhone 4S combines decent picture quality with the added convenience of having a great portable camera in your pocket with you all the time – a device that’s also capable of running software (apps) and being enhanced with hardware add-ons (tripods, lenses, etc.). And for many, having a camera like the one found in the iPhone 4S for a device that also happens to be a phone and a gaming machine might just be enough to capture moments of their next trip and quickly edit everything in iPhoto. The software plays an important role in the 4S’ big picture.

Check out Ars’ full report with comparative shots here.

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OmniFocus for iPhone Adds “iCloud Capture” To Import iOS Reminders

With the latest update to OmniFocus for iPhone, The Omni Group has figured out a way to let the app interact with iOS reminders and iCloud, and automatically fetch reminders created through the iPhone 4S’ Siri or Reminders app. Whilst you still can’t ask Siri to create new tasks directly into OmniFocus, the solution implemented by The Omni Group is very clever, and it gives you the illusion of native integration with the assistant, using iCloud and your Apple ID as a bridge between Siri’s reminder functionality, and OmniFocus.

The Omni Group has implemented a new feature called iCloud Capture that is capable of taking Reminders from your iCloud account, and move them into OmniFocus’ inbox. iCloud Capture, as explained in the Help section, literally takes input that would otherwise stay into Reminders, and moves “as much data as it can” away from Reminders and into OmniFocus. This is done in two ways: first, you have to create reminders that go into a “Reminders” or “OmniFocus” list. Second, you’ll have to log in with your iCloud account in OmniFocus’ settings, and enable iCloud Capture. Once enabled, OmniFocus will check for new reminders every time upon launch and move them into the inbox. The “upon launch” part is important, as OmniFocus can’t process iCloud data in the background – you won’t be able to add reminders via Siri, and expect OmniFocus to import & sync in the background. You’ll have to open OmniFocus for iCloud Capture to work, but it’s a minimal effort compared to the added convenience of being able to let OmniFocus seamlessly process and import reminders.

Please note that reminders will be deleted from Reminders.app as they’re moved to OmniFocus; title and dates will be preserved in the transition, but The Omni Group says that location reminders – which both Siri and Apple’s Reminders can use out of the box – will be “most effective” when they match Reminders’ contact locations and OmniFocus’ own implementation, which is quite different from Apple as it’s got more options. From my understanding of this limitation, it appears getting location reminders into OmniFocus from iCloud might work best if OmniFocus is using the same contact information rather than its “current location” or “exact location”, and I’ll need to investigate this further. For now, I can say that one location-based reminder did go through iCloud Capture, but another did not, and stayed inside Reminders.

The Omni Group didn’t add direct Siri integration, but they came up with one of the most clever ways I’ve seen to use Siri and iCloud to create reminders and have them automatically moved to OmniFocus every time you open the app. The system isn’t perfect, but has worked very well for me with simple reminders. Another good point of iCloud Capture is that Windows users will be able to move Outlook tasks to OmniFocus when they launch the app, as iCloud Capture checks for all reminders in your iCloud account, not just those created via Siri. Overall, I’d recommend giving iCloud Capture a try, and see if reminders might work better for you inside OmniFocus rather than Apple’s Reminders.

Update: The Omni Group has posted a series of videos showing how iCloud Capture works. Check them out after the break.

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