WSJ: iPad 3 To Feature LTE→

WSJ: iPad 3 To Feature LTE

Following a report about a possible iPad 3 announcement on March 7 posted earlier today, The Wall Street Journal is claiming the next-generation iPad will feature 4G LTE connectivity for AT&T and Verizon in the United States.

Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. will sell a version of the coming iPad that runs on their newest fourth-generation wireless networks, according to people familiar with the matter, as the battle to cash in on big investments in mobile broadband heats up.

According to The WSJ, the iPad 3 will fall back to 3G where LTE isn’t available, and “it couldn’t be learned” whether other carriers would launch LTE plans for the iPad 3 besides AT&T and Verizon, the two largest carriers by number of subscribers in the US. Back in January, Bloomberg reported that the new iPad would come with a higher-res display, a quad-core processor, and 4G LTE connectivity.

For an overview of the current LTE scenario around the globe, check out our previous story ”2012, The Next iPhone, And LTE” – it’s interesting to notice how The Wall Street Journal says the LTE iPad 3 will provide a good testing opportunity for carriers, whereas most carriers worldwide are still far behind in the LTE rollout for consumers.

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iMore: iPad 3 Keynote On March 7→

iMore: iPad 3 Keynote On March 7

Citing ”sources who have been reliable in the past”, Rene Ritchie at iMore claims that Apple will announce its next-generation iPad at a media event on Wednesday, March 7.

According to sources who have been reliable in the past, Apple currently plans to hold their iPad 3 announcement on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Along with the 2048×1536 Retina display, the iPad 3 will feature a quad-core Apple 6 system-on-a-chip, and possibly 4G LTE networking.

Whilst we have refrained from reporting every single iPad 3 rumor to date, Ritchie’s report seems to make sense for a couple of reasons. First, well-connected John Paczkowski at All Things D is claiming that Apple will be holding an iPad 3 event in the first week of March. The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple has chimed in confirming AllThingsD’s report with a “Yep”. iMore, previously known as TiPB, doesn’t cover rumors much, but when they did last year, they were only off by a week, and correctly pinpointed the nature of the iPhone 4S (which became available for pre-order on October 7th, went on sale a week later).

The iPad 3 was previously rumored to be feature a high-res Retina Display, faster “A6” processor, and LTE connectivity. Back in August, The Wall Street Journal wrote the iPad 3 would launch in “early 2012” with a high-resolution display.

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Apple To Stream Tim Cook’s Presentation at Goldman Sachs Conference Tomorrow

setteB.IT notes that Apple will provide a live stream of CEO Tim Cook’s presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference tomorrow. Apple has indeed refreshed its Investor page to include a link to the QuickTime audio webcast, which will be live at 12:30 PM PT tomorrow, February 14th.

Welcome to the audio webcast of Tim Cook’s presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. The presentation will begin at approximately 12:30pm PT/3:30pm ET on Tuesday, February 14, 2012. Please note that comments made during the presentation may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements.

As it happened in the past when Cook was COO, we should expect interesting details and comments from the presentation. This is the first time Cook is speaking as Apple CEO – make sure to check out reports from the 2010 and 2008 conferences.

iCloud File Sharing

It is often said that Apple doesn’t offer a filesystem for iOS devices. Sure enough, it is indeed not possible to manage documents and folders on an iPhone or iPad as you can on OS X. Apple does, however, offer a very basic file management system that works with iOS apps, and you’ve haven’t probably used it too many times:

Introduced with iOS 3.2 and iTunes 9.1, iTunes File Sharing allows applications to import files copied from a Mac or PC using iTunes, and export to a computer. In iTunes, all you have to do is connect an iOS device, head over the Apps tab, and choose File Sharing below the Home screen app management interface. You can copy almost any kind of file into an app’s internal directory dedicated to file sharing, and several iOS apps use this method to import or backup files and documents such as bookmarks, videos, or spreadsheets. I’ve often used this feature to import .avi files to watch on my iPad.

iTunes File Sharing doesn’t seem to get the attention other iTunes functionalities do, and I believe there are a couple of reasons behind this. First off, it’s quite cumbersome: the interface for File Sharing is buried within an iOS device’s settings in iTunes, and there are no options to, say, automate the process of importing files or setting up favorite sources for documents. Second, iTunes File Sharing only solves a partial problem, in that the majority of iOS users don’t lament the lack of a proper Mac-to-iOS file management system as much as they’re asking for an iOS-to-iOS centralized file storage solution that would also happen to sync back to a Mac.

So, I had an idea. I think the same iTunes File Sharing feature would work a lot better as a dedicated, native iCloud app for iOS devices (and maybe the Mac too). After all, if Apple is providing an iTunes-based file management utility for Mac users, why couldn’t they build an app that enabled any third-party iOS app to save and import files from iCloud? This app would be built into the system and allow users to simply collect documents, like iTunes File Sharing. Developers could easily add options to their apps to import files from “iCloud File Sharing” and export files to it. Users would have the same feature set of the existing iTunes File Sharing, only with an interface they are already familiar with, because iCloud File Sharing would resemble the existing file management workflow of iWork for iOS or iCloud.com. The only difference is that it would be integrated on a system level, work with any iOS app, and basically be an extension of the “Open In” menu that already allows apps to communicate with each other through supported file types.

I wouldn’t call such an app “Dropbox from Apple”, as Dropbox is mainly developed as a solution to sync files between computers, running in the background all the time, whereas this would be more oriented towards giving apps a better file sharing system. In fact, I imagine Apple could go as far as indicating the apps that can receive an iCloud file as they currently do with iTunes File Sharing for better organization and to maintain the app-driven model. iCloud File Sharing would play well with this strategy, and it would offer a basic way for developers to integrate iCloud in their apps.

Apps like GoodReader have already implemented a similar system of iCloud-based file management, and some third-party developers are experimenting with providing standalone apps for file management purposes over iCloud. A default utility from Apple would have the obvious advantage of not requiring any additional download: it would be integrated as a system action in any app for iPhone, iPad (and even the Mac). Apps would still have their own iCloud libraries and synced data; the file sharing part would ditch iTunes and become iCloud-powered (iTunes File Sharing would be kept around as an option for transferring large files such as videos through USB).

You might argue that Apple is trying to eliminate the concept of the filesystem altogether by embracing the app model with data silos that are self-contained and user-friendly. As iTunes File Sharing seems to be suggest, though, I think that Apple knows the app model and iOS only solve so much when it comes to file management – Apple has to deal with the fact that many people still work with files and folders, export them, move them around, and manage them. I believe the real winning scenario for Apple would be to make the management process as lightweight and intuitive as simple by relying on iCloud. Thus, iCloud File Sharing would serve as a better solution than iTunes File Sharing, ans it would strengthen Apple’s offerings requiring no or little effort from developers, ultimately providing an accessible way to manage files atop of Apple’s existing free 5 GB of storage for every iCloud account.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the upcoming iOS 5.1 will introduce such a feature, and I’m not holding my breath for a surprise announcement during the iPad 3 event. But for the next major version of iOS, if Apple doesn’t think a better way to let apps communicate with each other is needed, I believe an evolution of iTunes File Sharing towards iCloud would be a sweet stopgap solution in the PC-free era.

Alfred 1.1 Released: Address Book, Filter Actions & More Improvements→

Alfred 1.1 Released: Address Book, Filter Actions & More Improvements

This release brings some great feature improvements to Address Book, Hotkeys and Extensions:

  • In the Address Book contact viewer, take action on contacts’ details.
  • Select text in any app & open Alfred to take action on it with a hotkey
  • Set default actions on filter extensions, like uploading a file to Flickr automatically
  • Replace existing Powerpack extensions easily when updates are released
  • Many more improvements and tweaks to make your Alfred experience even better.

It is hard to have a case of the Mondays when your week starts off with a great update to Alfred. Users of the non-Mac App Store version can download version 1.1 and start enjoying many of Alfred’s enhancements to the PowerPack features: Address Book, Hotkeys, and Extensions. From my understanding, the next update to Alfred was going to be a maintenance release but with Address Book getting so much love, the developer decided to make it a more substantial release.

PowerPack users can now view Address Book contact notes, messaging information, as well as social information from within Alfred. Also added was the ability to assign a default action or pre-existing Extension to phone numbers and email addresses. A similar Action option was added to Filters as well. There is a new configurable hotkey for more advanced options when opening Alfred and you will find a whole lot more in the official change log. I am really interested to see how the Alfred scripting community is going to run with these changes. If you find a clever way to use these new default actions be sure to share it in the comments below.

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Fair Labor Association Begins Its Inspections Of Apple’s Suppliers

The first inspections by the Fair Labor Association began today at Foxconn City in Shenzhen according to an Apple Press Release issued just a short time ago. It is the beginning of special, voluntary, audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers that was announced earlier in January this year when Apple joined the Fair Labor Association.

“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports.”

A team of labor experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerdan will interview thousands of employees at Apple’s suppliers about working and living conditions, health, safety, working hours, compensation and communication with management. Inspections of the facilities and reviews of procedure documentation will also be undertaken in the FLA assessment.

An initial report with early findings and recommendations will be released by the Fair Labor Association and will be followed up by inspections of the Quanta and Pegatron facilities later this Spring. Apple’s full press release is located after the break.

Image via Wired.

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VLC 2.0 for Mac Final Design Previewed, Coming This Week

Popular media player VLC is about to reach version 2.0 final and Felix Kühne, current lead developer of VLC’s Mac OS X port, has posted a series of screenshots detailing the final user interface design that we’ll see in the 2.0 update once it goes public “later this week”. The screenshots, available over at Kühne’s blog, show a dramatic change from VLC’s current design on the Mac, with a new sidebar for your playlists, Internet sources, and media on your computer and local network. The new design was created by Damien Erambert, and the first concepts date back to 2008. The interface of VLC 2.0 for Mac will offer a series of advantages over the older version from a functionality standpoint as well:

VLC 2.0’s interface for Mac is dramatically different from its previous revision, both technically and usage-wise. Playlist and video output share the same window, service discovery modules can be easily accessed through a sidebar and various audio + video filters are available through the respective panels. Besides that, the interface is noticeably faster and easily expandable. Speaking of that, we also added support for VLC’s lua-based extensions, which allow you to get info about the current movie from Allociné, post to Twitter, fetch subtitles automatically, etc.

Previously known as VLC 1.2, VLC 2.0 is a major rewrite of the application, which now includes several bug fixes, new features, and a redesigned interface. Alongside improved performances and optimizations for Lion, VLC 2.0 comes with many new features including initial support for Blu-Ray Discs, new subtitle management and blending in video outputs, support for multiple files inside RAR archives, and an all-new 64-bit version for Windows users (VLC 2.0 for Windows won’t feature a new interface as seen on OS X). A complete list of changes from VLC 1.x to VLC 2.0 is available here; the developers didn’t mention anything specific about the “mobile port” for iOS and Android devices.

VLC 2.0 will be available later this week at VideoLAN’s website. More screenshots of the final Mac UI have been posted on Flickr.