This Week's Sponsor:

Copilot Money

The Apple Editor’s Choice Award App for Tracking Your Money. Start Your Free Trial Today

OS X Lion Concept: iMessage App

Ever since Apple unveiled iMessage for iOS 5, its new universal messaging protocol to send free text messages, videos and pictures to other iOS users, many have wondered whether the new app would be integrated with the Mac as well, perhaps in a new version of iChat. iMessage for iOS brings some new functionalities like delivery and read receipts in real-time, as well as sync and Messages.app integration, but it resembles the desktop iChat in the way it visualizes new messages, or lets you see when a person is typing. With the upcoming iCloud integration in OS X Lion, launching this Fall and available right now to developers for testing as a beta add-on, there is the possibility Apple will release a standalone iMessage app for Mac in the Mac App Store once iCloud is available for all. Just like they did with FaceTime, the app could be sold for $0.99 in the Store, and pre-installed by default on new systems.

Based on this kind of speculation, designer Jan-Michael Cart, creator of other iOS 5 concepts we posted ahead of WWDC, has come up with an interesting idea for iMessage on OS X Lion. The messaging protocol could have its own desktop app powered by real-time notifications, bounce on the Dock upon receiving new messages, and have a Mail-like toolbar for composing new messages and search among existing ones. We imagine having a desktop iMessage app could mean users would be able to rely on system-wide integration with Services to send any text to iMessage, as well as start a new FaceTime session from a contact in iMessage or the Address Book.

The concept video is interesting and we have embedded it after the break. iMessages are currently enabled in the iOS 5 betas for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, but some code strings found in the latest Lion developer preview suggest Apple might be working on a desktop counterpart to launch later this year.
Read more

Macs Now Account For 11% Of Corporate Computers, Windows PCs Still Dominate With 87%

A new report out today shows that whilst Microsoft may still completely dominate the enterprise landscape in terms of desktop computers, Apple is still making steady progress in the market. According to market research by Forrester, the share of Mac OS X in corporate USA has climbed from 9.1% in April 2010 to 11% in March this year.

Ben Gray, co-author of the report, attributed the increase in Mac OS X’s share of the market because of a shift towards “BYO [bring your own] device programs” that workers were pushing for - workers are now expecting Mac and iOS support. Such “consumerization” of the enterprise has been driven by the popularity of the iPad which has shown some significant penetration in the enterprise market - driven by workers wanting to bringing their own iPad into work.

Nonetheless, as Macworld notes, “Microsoft remains a hegemony in the enterprise – 86.7% of all corporate computers run one of its operating system”.  Windows XP, over a decade old, remains the dominate OS in the enterprise with 59.9% of the market, Windows 7 is next with roughly 21% and then Vista with just 6.2%.

[Via Macworld]

Review: #NowPlaying with NowPlayer

There are many iPhone audio player apps available, yet only a few really stand out. My Artists, which we have reviewed in the past, is one of our favorites and is very feature filled. Notes on artists, links to videos, and lyrics are just some some of the extended features. However, most of the time I don’t need these features and if I’m on AT&T’s stellar EDGE network, many of these features take too long to load on my iPhone.

I jumped on a new beta some time ago from @misecia for an app called NowPlayer. Without ever using it, but only seeing mock-ups on Dribbble, I was very interested. The interface is sexy and every pixel has been placed perfectly. Now, I know that usability is important too, and this app doesn’t fall short in that category either. NowPlayer is largely based on gestures for controlling the audio within the app: you can control your music with swiping or tapping with your finger on screen. These gesture controls are perfect for when you’re exercising or typing up a review and don’t want to look over at your iPhone’s display. The gesture system is totally customizable too:

 two-finger tap is used to play/pause, but it can be changed to a double tap if you desire; you can then perform a three finger tap to auto-send a tweet, swipe left/right to change tracks, swipe up/down to change the volume, and double tap with two fingers to change shuffle mode. There are a few Easter eggs for extra options, some still haven’t been found! Don’t worry, as there are onscreen controls, too, and they are minimal and look great as well. Read more

HP Extends AirPrint Support to 8 More Printers

As noted by TUAW, HP’s support for Apple’s AirPrint technology has been extended to eight more LaserJet printers that are now capable of wirelessly receiving documents from iOS devices, and print them. AirPrint, originally introduced with iOS 4.2 back in November 2010, is a feature that allows iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad running 4.2 or later to print any document, webpage, photo or email using the system-wide AirPrint action from the default sharing menu. AirPrint was introduced as a breakthrough driverless printing system that would allow users to send any file to officially compatible printers from HP, as well as any shared printer already configured on an OS X machine; support for shared printers through AirPrint was later removed in the public version of Mac OS X 10.6.6, leaving many users unsatisfied because of the lack of the promised universal support for any kind of printer. In an alleged email to a customer, Steve Jobs said Apple was taking a giant leap to driverless printing.

The new HP printers compatible with AirPrint are:

  • HP LaserJet P1102w Printer
  • HP LaserJet P1606dn Printer
  • HP LaserJet Pro CP1025nw Color Printer
  • HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf MFP
  • HP LaserJet Pro M1213nf MFP
  • HP LaserJet Pro M1214nfh MFP
  • HP LaserJet Pro M1216nfh MFP
  • HP LaserJet Pro M1217nfw MFP

These printers follow previously reported additions such as other LaserJet Pro and Officejet printers:

  • LaserJet Pro M1536dnf Multifunction Printer
  • LaserJet Pro CM1415fn Color Multifunction Printer
  • LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw Color Multifunction Printer
  • LaserJet Pro CP1525n Color Printer
  • LaserJet Pro CP1525nw Color Printer
  • Officejet 6500A e-AiO5
  • Officejet 6500A Plus e-AiO5
  • Officejet 7500A Wide Format e-AiO5
  • Officejet Pro 8500A e-AiO5
  • Officejet Pro 8500A Plus e-AiO5
  • Officejet Pro 8500A Premium e-AiO5

The full list of AirPrint-enabled printers can be viewed on Apple’s website. This support document last updated on June 20 also contains a list of printers, as well as frequently asked questions about AirPrint. More information about HP and AirPrint can be found here, whilst the firmware update for the new printers can be downloaded from HP’s Support website.

“Undivided” Music Video Created Entirely Using Brushes On The iPad

The Brushes app for iPhone and iPad has been covered a number of times here on MacStories for some amazing creations that it has enabled on the Apple devices. Today we bring you the music video for “Undivided” – the debut single for the group Blush featuring Snoop Dogg, and yes, it was created entirely using the Brushes iPad app.

Using the Brushes feature that records of every stroke made, animator Shawn Harris meticulously drew more than 7000 strokes to create the four-minute music video. We’ve embedded both the music video and a making of video after the break, be sure to check both out, it is very impressive.

[Via Mashable]

Read more

Legal Disclaimer In iOS 5 Further Hints At Apple Mapping Service

Tipped off by a reader, MacRumors has found that the legal disclaimers in iOS 5 contain new references to a number of third party companies that provide various mapping services. The disclaimers come under a new section called “Map Data” that is not present in previous disclaimers and is completely separate to the section which deals in the disclaimer which deals with licenses used by Google for its mapping service that is used by Apple in the Maps app.

Today’s discovery comes after a number of other revelations, together they form what seems to be the suggestion that Apple is looking (or potentially actively working on) its own mapping solution that could replace Google Maps on iOS. Some of those clues include its acquisition of mapping companies Placebase and Poly9 and its recruitment of employees with navigation software expertise. The location log debacle also revealed that Apple was “collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database”.

MacRumors had a look into all the companies newly listed in the legal disclaimer and gave a quick description of each of them (included below). Noting two companies in particular that suggest Apple may be developing its own maps service. Urban Mapping provides some extensive additional data such as a wide range of demographic information that can be layed on top of traditional data. Waze, however, is experienced in developing crowd-sourced traffic data - it also has a popular app in the App Store now which demonstrates a lot of their services.

  • CoreLogic offers Parcel data which marks boundaries for of properties to provide positional accuracy in location-based solutions.
  • Getchee provides location and market data on China, India and Southeast Asia.
  • Increment P Corp provides location and traffic data for Japan.
  • Localeze provides local business listings.
  • MapData Sciences Pty Ltd. Inc provides mapping data for Australia and New Zealand.
  • DMTI provides postal code data for Canada.
  • TomTom offers global TeleAtlas mapping data which is also licensed by Google for their map solution.
  • Urban Mapping provides in-depth neighborhood data such as crime, demographics, school performance, economic indicators and more.
  • Waze offers real-time maps and traffic information based on crowd sourced data.

Whilst this doesn’t provide concrete proof of whether Apple is working on its own mapping service, we are fairly sure it (if it exists) will not be launching with iOS 5. This is likely related to the fact that Google recently renewed its agreement with Apple to provide Google Maps to iOS.

Jump the break to see some screenshots of the new legal disclaimer which features these new companies.

[Via MacRumors]

Read more

Firefox 4 Will Not Receive Any Security Updates, Firefox 5 Is The Only Supported Version

In line with its more rapid release schedule, Firefox 5 was released just three months after Firefox 4, which had arrived earlier this year. According to the Mozilla Security Leader, Daniel Veditz, it also means that Firefox 4 will no longer be receiving any more updates, including any for potential security issues.

Several people have repeatedly said in public places (newsgroups, planning meeting, Monday meeting; could not find a blog or wiki page) that Firefox 5 will be the security update to Firefox 4, and that there will be no 4.0.2

Effectively this means that if you use Firefox, you are expected to be running the latest major version; otherwise you will face safety risks with using a browser that will no longer be receiving security patches. With this kind of a strategy, Mozilla has taken more than just the rapid release schedule from Google Chrome; it is also following the Chrome idea of only supporting the latest releases.

In some ways it does make sense, both Firefox 6 and Firefox 7 are expected to arrive this year. Supporting older versions would become very difficult whilst wasting resources that could be going into developing new features.

[Via Digitizor]

Twitter for iPhone Is A Data-Hungry App, Onavo Study Claims

According to a new report by mobile data monitoring tool Onavo, Twitter’s official client for iPhone is the most data consuming app when compared to unofficial solutions like Echofon, Tweetbot, or the recently acquired TweetDeck. By taking in consideration data from mobile devices using Onavo’s data compression and monitoring services in different countries, with different Twitter clients, the company has found out that in average situations (which they call a “simple scenario”) like loading a timeline or a trending topic, Twitter for iPhone generally ranks higher in the list of apps that consume more data, presumably over 3G. According to the study’s results, Twitter for iPhone averages on 193 KB data usage for a simple scenario, whist Echofon’s app ranks #2 with 163 KB. Tapbots’ popular Twitter client Tweetbot is seen needing 112 KB on average to load a timeline or trend, and TweetDeck’s iPhone app is considered the most lightweight of all four clients with only 86 KB consumed. In the same report, Onavo also claims their software can help users save 65% of TweetDeck’s data usage as well.

Other interesting data points from the study:

  • 34% of users in Spain have a Twitter app; 22% in the United States.
  • China’s Twitter app usage is 7% according to Onavo’s stats.
  • Of all Onavo users, 65% of them use the official Twitter app. TweetDeck, Tweetbot and Echofon are the most popular unofficial clients with share floating between 6% and 8%.

Obviously, Onavo’s study isn’t based on universal iPhone usage – rather, it only accounts for those users who have modified their device’s network settings to route data through Onavo’s proxy, which then communicates with an iPhone app to display data usage over time, and also claims to reduce data consumption by compressing requests coming through their network. It would also be interesting to know why the official Twitter app consumes more data than others – could be because it loads more tweets by default, or uses a different set of APIs. Check out the complete infographic here.

iPhone 5 To Feature Dual-LED Flash?

According to a new report from Digitimes, the iPhone 5 set for a September launch might come with a dual-LED flash system. The publication bases its speculation on “recent market rumors”, citing Taiwan-based Everlight Electronics, Edison Opto and Lite-On Technology as potential suppliers for the new Flash sensors.

Everlight and Lite-On have strengthened their deployments in the smartphone market for a while, with their products already being shipped to the supply chains of brand-name handset vendors, said industry sources.

Edison, which is specialized in the production of high-power LEDs, has begun shipping its LED flash products to branded handset vendors and therefore has a high chance of winning dual-LED flash orders from Apple, the sources noted.

A series of reports in the past months suggested the iPhone 5 could feature a relocated camera Flash because of some allegedly leaked case designs and parts that showed a different placement for the Flash unit on the back of the device. A dual-LED flash mode was rumored before among Apple bloggers and tech pundits, but was never taken in consideration as much as in today’s report from Digitimes. The iPhone 5 is also set to deliver an overall improved camera experience with an 8-megapixel sensor as opposed t the current 5-megapixel one, though recent debates failed to indicated with 100% accuracy whether OmniVision, Sony or Largan Precision would be the suppliers of camera image sensors for the iPhone 5.

Dual-LED flash systems are said to offer wider and brighter light coverage, which could be an important advantage when taking photos in completely dark areas or low-light situations. Mobility Digest posted in 2010 a series of photos shot with the HTC HD2’s dual-LED flash camera, taken in total darkness.

FYI all the photos are treated the same way. The background is blurred except for a bag of Animal Crackers which I zoomed into and set in detail so you can see the actual photo size relative to the inset.

For a little bag blown up that large from 20 feet away it’s very impressive. The light levels are pretty close to those at 10 feet. I was expecting a lot more of a dropoff. Remember, this is total darkness and you can see the amount of light that’s generated by two LEDs.