Posts tagged with "iPhone"

The New Hotel Key: Your Smartphone→

Craig Karmin, reporting for the WSJ:

Guests arriving at the Aloft Hotel in Manhattan or one in Silicon Valley will soon be able to do something hotels have dreamed about offering for years: walk past the check-in desk and enter their rooms by using a smartphone as a room key.
[…]
Guests at these properties will receive a message on a Starwood app containing a virtual key, which will unlock the door with a tap or twist of their phone through the use of Bluetooth technology. The company says the iPhone 4s or newer models and the Android phones running 4.3 or newer will be compatible.

Personally, I still enjoy the interaction with staff members when I check in, which is also the reason why I always go talk to an employee when I need to buy something at my local Apple store (I tried Apple’s EasyPay feature, and it felt odd).

This is where the future is going, though, and there are several elements worth considering. Bluetooth LE has stolen the spotlight from NFC for low-power, peer-to-peer wireless transfers, and there are obvious security concerns over solutions like this, as well as home products like the Lockitron. It’s an exciting time to watch pocket computers reshape our world.

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You Don’t Need Buttons to Game on an iPhone→

Ben Kuchera of Polygon puts into words what I’ve been trying to say all along.

From Draw Something to Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja to Cut the Rope, the biggest names in mobile gaming got that way because they used the touchscreen in novel ways. The lack of physical buttons isn’t a hindrance to game design, it’s a feature that smart developers have been using to their benefit for years. The developer of Ridiculous Fishing, a game which won an Apple Design award for 2013, didn’t worry about not being able to use buttons; they created a game that used the hardware in fun ways.

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My Must-Have iPhone Apps, 2013 Edition

Must-Have iPhone Apps 2013

Must-Have iPhone Apps 2013

For the past three years, I’ve been running a series called “My Must-Have Mac Apps” that, once a year, would list the apps that I found indispensable on my Mac. This year, considering the changes that I went through from a workflow perspective, I thought it would be appropriate to start focusing on iOS as well. The first installment was about the iPad; then, I covered the Mac; today, I’m going to conclude this year’s series with the iPhone.

Like many others, I don’t use the “phone” part of the iPhone much. The iPhone is my portable computer. And I have lots of apps on it.

My workflow has changed a lot over the years. I used to have a MacBook Pro and I later got an iMac and replaced the MacBook Pro with a MacBook Air. I thought that I’d always need the Air but then I was forced to work from an iPad and I didn’t like it. As I kept trying, I ended up liking my iPad setup so much that I turned it into a tool more versatile than my Mac and wrote a book on it. But the way I use my iPhone has never changed: the iPhone is the computer that’s always with me. If anything, the software that runs on it has evolved through the years, with apps getting more powerful, inter-connected, and, in some cases, “desktop class”. And then, earlier this year, iOS 7 happened.

As expected, iOS 7 provided a fantastic opportunity for developers to reimagine and redesign their apps to take advantage of Apple’s new OS features and design language. Three months into iOS 7, I think that the developer response has been remarkable, but the results are very much still in flux. For the apps that I use on a daily basis, I’ve seen a few major relaunches of apps rebuilt from the ground-up for iOS 7, apps that still have to be optimized for it, and a lot of “compatibility redesigns” that brought lighter color schemes and translucencies without substantially altering the way an app works or is structured for iOS 7. As Apple itself is still trying to fully understand their own new design language, I think it’s fair to assume that third-party developers will need more time to really “get” iOS 7.

As I thought about the apps I wanted to include in this year’s last installment of the Must-Have Apps series, I realized that there was a good mixture of software that was built before and after iOS 7. As usual, my goal was to mention apps that I consider must-haves for my daily workflow, and for this reason you’ll find a mix of brand new iOS 7 apps, minor iOS 7 design updates, and a few pre-iOS 7 apps too. When it comes to having the best tool for the job, I value utility over fashion, and I cherish an old app if it still is the best for me.

The list below includes my 50 top picks and is organized in four sections: Main, for apps that I use several times every day; News, for discovering links and staying on top of RSS; Entertainment, for media consumption; and Utilities, for single-purpose apps that I use often but not heavily every day. Each app is listed with its App Store link and, at the end of the article, you’ll find my iPhone app of the year.

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By The End, He Was Drunk→

There was less they could do to make sure the phone calls Jobs planned to make from the stage went through. Grignon and his team could only ensure a good signal, and then pray. They had AT&T, the iPhone’s wireless carrier, bring in a portable cell tower, so they knew reception would be strong. Then, with Jobs’s approval, they preprogrammed the phone’s display to always show five bars of signal strength regardless of its true strength. The chances of the radio’s crashing during the few minutes that Jobs would use it to make a call were small, but the chances of its crashing at some point during the 90-minute presentation were high. “If the radio crashed and restarted, as we suspected it might, we didn’t want people in the audience to see that,” Grignon says. “So we just hard-coded it to always show five bars.”

There are many good stories about the creation of the iPhone, but Fred Vogelstein’s article for The New York Times is something else. Vogelstein, who is working on a book to be released in November, talked to various former Apple engineers such as Andy Grignon and Tony Fadell and assembled a fantastic collection of anecdotes, memories, and details of Steve Jobs’ legendary iPhone keynote at Macworld 2007.

If you read one thing today, make it this one. Personally, I found it more entertaining (and possibly accurate) than several sections of Walter Isaacson’s book. Make sure to read what happened to Forstall’s chief of staff.

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September 10th iPhone Event: All the Other Stuff

Today’s iPhone event was short and to the point. Instead of introducing handfuls of new products and apps, we were presented with a quick iOS 7 overview of what was already announced at WWDC, some iWork and app updates (more on that in a second), and then the iPhones themselves alongside accompanying cases. Honestly, this made for one of the most satisfying iPhone events in ages.

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iPhone 5c: Everything You Need to Know

During today’s media event at the Apple Campus in Cupertino, California, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, took the stage to announce the iPhone 5c. The iPhone 5c is Apple’s first plastic-bodied phone with a 4-inch screen, is shaped like the iPod touch, and is also Apple’s first iPhone that’s available in an array of bright colors. The 16 GB iPhone 5c starts at $99 on contract.

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On The Possibilities of an iPhone Fingerprint Sensor→

Between rampant rumors and speculation, there’s little we don’t know about Apple’s upcoming smartphones. One of the features expected for the iPhone 5S, the expected iteration of the iPhone 5, is a fingerprint sensor built into the home button. Craig Hockenberry, on his personal blog, talks about how that fingerprint sensor might change the way we interact with our iPhones.

 From the beginning, I’ve wanted a way to protect my personal information when sharing a device with friends and family. But any secure solution to that problem would be a pain in the butt. Typing a password before launching an app? No thanks!

Craig is thinking big, beyond the possibilities of bypassing a password or swipe-to-unlock on the lock screen. Those are the obvious things, but what about some of the unobvious things we do with our iPhones, especially with other people?

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Apple’s New iPhone Trade-In Program Launches Nationwide

Apple’s new iPhone trade-in program is now being offered at Apple Retail Stores across the United States, details of which have been doled out to a number of news organizations. The trade-in program, a part of the iPhone Reuse and Recycling Program, lets customers receive a credit towards the purchase of a new iPhone by bringing in a working iPhone that’s currently under contract. Apple has provided the following statement to various news outlets:

iPhones hold great value. So, Apple Retail Stores are launching a new program to assist customers who wish to bring in their previous-generation iPhone for reuse or recycling. In addition to helping support the environment, customers will be able to receive a credit for their returned phone that they can use toward the purchase of a new iPhone.

Joanna Stern from ABC News explains.

Apple store employees will assess the condition of the phone and determine the value of the phone. According to sources, a 16GB iPhone 5 in good condition would be valued at close to $300. It is unclear if phones with more storage would be worth more …

If you are not currently on a contract or if your contract is up, customers will have to sign up for another cellular contract to take advantage of the program.

As Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch reports, the new trade-in program specifically applies to iPhones at retail stores.

Apple’s intentions for building its own in-store trade-in program were originally outed back in June, when it was revealed that it would partner with Brightstar Corp., a distributor of mobile devices, in order to offer the deal to users. Apple has previously offered up iPhone trade-ins via PowerOn thanks to its “Apple Recycling Program,” but this is in retail stores instead of only working via mail, and specific to iPhones, rather than covering a range of Apple hardware.

According to Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac, the program won’t be widely advertised to consumers.

The trade-in process can be conducted on the store floor, or at the Genius Bar. Apple will not be heavily promoting the program with marketing signage (as of now), but Apple Store employees have been instructed to recommend the program to applicable customers.

Update: Roberto Baldwin of Wired clarifies that the trade-in value you receive must be applied to a newer iPhone that the Apple Retail Store has in stock. This is correct. The iPhone trade-in program that’s launching today is different from Apple’s traditional online recycling programs. (I added this since the Wired article has everything in one place.)

It’s been reported elsewhere that Apple will issue credits or gift cards for new phones. That’s incorrect. If the iPhone you want is out of stock or unavailable, you will not be able to trade-in your old iPhone. The whole process has to happen at the same time. You go in with a phone and walk out with a phone. The employee will offer to set up the new iPhone with you at the store. Or you have the option of taking it home and setting it up there.

You can alternatively receive an Apple Store Gift Card for your iPhone or other electronic device by going through the Reuse and Recycling Program online, which works similarly to trade-in services such as Gazelle.

[via ABC News, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, and Wired]