Weekly Poll: How Many Minutes Do You Use?

My wife recently got a new job, and as part of the gig, she received a cell phone allowance to go towards her regular monthly bill. Now I thought I was OK what with our 1400 minute family plan and all that, but after I looked at our latest bill, I realized that she used 1300 minutes by herself! Thankfully, we’ve got free mobile-to-mobile calling, because otherwise that would’ve been one heck of a bill!

As usual, it got me thinking about what kind of plans that our readers are on, so I figured I’d put the question out there. Do you use tons of minutes or are you good with the minimums? Let us know in the poll.

Stamped: Social Networking With a Twist

The other day, I decided that I was lacking a bit in the social networking department, so I started investigating the various options that I had on the table to see what I could get involved in. I was covered on Facebook, Twitter, With, Path, Tumblr, Foursquare, Instagram and a few others, and then I realized that there were still a ton of other options out there if I wanted them. It was dizzying.

So the last thing I wanted was to sign up for another social network, but then out came Stamped with a lot of hype following it. Seemed like everyone was talking about it, so I decided to give it a try for a few days and see what all the buzz was all about. Is Stamped worth the hype? Let’s talk it out after the jump.

What Stamped Is

Before Facebook and Twitter came along, friends got together and talked about their likes and dislikes either in person or over the phone. It was a bit old school, but that’s how they did it back in the dinosaur days of the 1990s and prior, and there was nothing wrong with that. But in our increasingly connected world, we now spend most of our time online and seeing what other people think about various items, sometimes without ever meeting the person.

Still confused? Read this page to find out what Stamped is.

Still confused? Read this page to find out what Stamped is.

The concept behind Stamped is that we all have opinions about things, and so do our circle of friends. If we like something, we want to have a way to share it with our circle, that way everyone knows what the cool new spot is in town or where to get the best pizza in Fresno. Stamped is an app that gives each item our virtual stamp of approval, and then other people can join in and agree, disagree or whatever.

But here’s the twist: You don’t just have unlimited stamps to start off. No, you’ve just got 100 under your belt, so you have to spend them wisely or else you risk running out and not having anymore fun. But if any of your friends agree with your pick and add their stamp to the mix, you get two back. Got it?

What Stamped Isn’t

Stamped is not your average social network, because to me, those sites require you to get online daily to see how things are going. Think about it: You check out your friends on Facebook, read everyone’s tweets on Twitter and check in daily on Foursquare to make sure you’re keeping up with the competition. Sometimes you visit these sites multiple times a day — I know I do. Stamped doesn’t really have that feel.

There's not a lot of content yet, but it's still in the early stages.

There's not a lot of content yet, but it's still in the early stages.

With Stamped, you can go on once, stamp all of the things you like and then look at the app maybe once a week. There’s really no driving force to keep you going here, because there’s no news filtering in. Sure, it’s great to know that my buddy loves the same book that I do, but do I need a daily update? Not really, and I think that could be the downfall of the service.

So Why Should I Check It Out Then?

That is a legitimate question. With so many networks vying for our attention, I questioned that from the very start. But once I started playing around with it a bit, I realized that not only was it fun, but it does seem to buck the trend a bit. No, I might not check it out daily, but I enjoy checking it out when I do.

Things that people I follow like, and the specifics of what I like.

Things that people I follow like, and the specifics of what I like.

As an opinionated guy, I like being able to broadcast things that are positive in my life, because maybe they’ll help to affect some kind of change in someone else. For example, I’ve talked excessively on the AppStorm sites about my love for all things OmniFocus, but I’m also a fan of Chuck Palahniuk, specifically his novel, Diary. I can count on one hand how many times that’s come up in conversation, but I’d love to spread the word and get more people reading his work. Stamped is one of those options.

But it also can be funny, too. Follow the right people, and you’ll get find more obscure stamps out there, from the obscene to the hilarious and everything in between. I’ve seen “Your Mom” posted for example, and a few others in there as well that aren’t quite suitable for publication here. That’s just part of the fun found on Stamped.

The Logistics

But I’ve rambled on for over 700 words here and I haven’t yet gotten to how the app actually functions, so let’s get onto it.

Setting up an account is pretty easy, and it’s all done via the app itself. You can tie your Twitter and Facebook accounts to the app also, so if you want to broadcast your stamps to the world, you can do that as well. The app also pulls your Facebook and Twitter friends out so that you can follow people you already know, and you can add people manually if you choose too also. Once you’ve got the app settled in, it’s time to start stamping.

You get updates and news, all in one convenient place.

You get updates and news, all in one convenient place.

You get 100 stamps to start, so keep that in mind when you begin the process. By pressing the plus sign in the middle, you can start stamping. Enter in what you want using the keyboard, and then see if it pops up. Chances are pretty good right now that unless it’s something popular, you’re not going to find it in the app, but fortunately, you can add items if necessary.

The focus of the stamps seems to be in a few basic categories right now: restaurants, books, films, music and then the grab bag, which can be pretty much anything. After entering what you like, you can then select a category if it wasn’t already done, and then describe why you like the item. There are two grayed out icons for Twitter and Facebook, so if you want to share your post, just tap on them until they change colors and you’ll be good.

Getting Stamped

Again, you’ve only got 100 stamps, so there’s got to be some kind of reward system here, right?

There is. Let’s say that my buddy Chad is on Stamped, and he likes the movie Tommy Boy (honestly, who doesn’t, right?). If I agree with him, I can either hit the Like button to show Chad that I appreciate it, stamp it myself or add it as a To-Do for later. If I stamp his listing, he then gets awarded two more stamps, and he gets an email that looks something like this one:

Note: This website is on Stamped. You know, just in case you want to stamp us.

Note: This website is on Stamped. You know, just in case you want to stamp us.

And that’s how you get more stamps. Some people are reporting that they have tons of stamps as a result, but I must not be that popular or something. Turns out I only have a few stamps from friends, and I’m at 90 stamps or so left. If the service catches on, then I can definitely see that number coming up, but I’ll have to get some more followers in the process I guess.

The real genius here though is in the To-Do section. There are plenty of neat things on Stamped that I’d love to remember to check out, and by adding a To-Do to the listing, I’ll be reminded of it again. Think about all of those options: Lunch at a great restaurant in San Francisco, a pub in Manchester that serves great beer, they’re all cool recommendations that I probably never would have found without the app. That’s nice.

Is It Worth Jumping on the Bandwagon?

I remember signing up for With, and although it was pretty neat for a bit, my interested faded pretty quickly. Path was a good concept, but I didn’t have enough friends and family who wanted to sign up to make it worth it. Stamped though, could be different. It’s still too soon to tell, but it could be the one to stand out from the crowd.

Admittedly, it is a bit buggy. It’s crashed on me a few times, and I’ve had to restart it from the multitasking bar a few times too, just because it couldn’t find the Wi-Fi signal. It’s a 1.0 app, so I expected that to be sure, but just be aware yourself that this isn’t a flawless app.

It is beautiful though, and the design alone makes me want to play with it more, which is always an added bonus. Plus, like many of these apps, the more people that sign up, the better the overall experience.

I don’t think it’s perfect, but I do think that Stamped is worth a try. Look me up when you get there —@kwhipps.

Samsung vs. Apple: The Illogical Argument

Apple and Samsung have been working together for years, and many of the components in the iPhone are built by the huge electronics manufacturer. But as it turns out, even though they both work together, they’re also suing the pants off of each other, and now the battle has gone to the airwaves.

You’ve probably already seen the commercial, but just in case, here it is. It’s called TheNextBigThing, and you should probably go watch it real quick. Once you have, go ahead and meet back here after the jump and we’ll talk it out.

The Basis of the Argument

I could ramble on for hours about the situation between Apple and Samsung, but instead of getting into the minutiae of the whole thing, let me sum it up as easily as possible.

Apple released the iPhone in 2007, introducing a full touchscreen interface that up until that point had only been done with a stylus and a physical keyboard. The Samsung line of phones were really made up of flip phones and similar offerings back then, but once the iPhone came out, well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say.

But really, all I need to do to make Apple’s point here is to show off one of Samsung’s phones. This is the Samsung Vibrant sold by T-Mobile:

Looks like a refreshing design to me.

Looks like a refreshing design to me.

So … yeah.

Anyways, now Samsung is suing Apple, Apple is suing Samsung, there are patents and other stuff involved … it’s just complicated. But the basis of it is that Apple feels that Samsung is outright copying the design of their physical hardware, and when you look at stuff like the picture above, it’s hard not to see that argument.

Going On Attack

Samsung has, admittedly, a pretty cool lineup of cell phones on the market today, and the big one is the Galaxy S II. It’s got a bigger screen than the iPhone, and a lot of other features that certainly fit into a consumer modelled phone. Look, love it or hate it, the iPhone isn’t for everyone, and I can certainly accept that. Some people want the bigger screen and all that comes with the S II, whereas I figure that I’d rather have a phone that fits in my pocket instead of carrying around a chalkboard on my hip — that’s just my preference.

But let’s get back to that video, because that’s really what set off the firestorm among Apple fans this past week, mostly because it points out all of the stereotypes that people have about those of us who choose to buy an iPhone. We’re pretentious, we buy things blindly, we wait in lines for hours for what is (in Samsung’s opinion) an inferior phone to what the competition is offering. Oh, and we’re all hipsters — although I’d make the argument that it depends on if you consider my 66-year-old father to be hip, because he’s currently on iPhone No. 3. I don’t know if I could make that leap (sorry, Dad).

Not Quite So Different

In my house, I currently have three Samsung products that set me back probably around $4,000 or so. I’ve got a refrigerator, an LED TV for the living room and an older LCD TV in the bedroom. Oh, and there’s the older DLP, but that one needs a new bulb so until I get around to selling it, it sits in the corner.

I love my Samsung products. Why? I buy them because they’re well put together, are aesthetically pleasing, functional and last a long time (no knock on the DLP either, I could buy a new bulb and have that TV up and running tomorrow). I genuinely love their stuff, and I recommend them to all of my friends. In fact, my not-sure-if-he’s-a-hipster Dad just bought a new LED TV and he loves watching his AppleTV on it.

But the reasons that I buy Samsung products are the same reasons I buy Apple products. It does seem a bit like comparing oranges to … umm … apples here, but I buy my Apple stuff because they’re well put together, aesthetically pleasing, functional and last a long time. There may be other reasons as well, but basically, they’re the same. I buy Apple stuff and Samsung stuff for the same reasons.

Meaning, I’m both Apple and Samsung’s customer — and more importantly, their fan base.

The Problem With Pointing The Finger

As a fan of both company’s products, when I see a commercial that says that my decision to purchase an Apple product is flawed, well I start to question whether it’s really that I’m wrong in my decision, or if the other company is just a bunch of jerks.

I’ve waited in line for three different Apple products (iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and the original iPad), and I don’t regret losing any of the hours that I did to do so. I enjoyed it — it was a little adventure for me really, and something I was really happy to do. I made that decision on my own, so I don’t like it when someone tells me that I’m a sheep or fool for doing so.

I also don’t like being told that because I’m a line waiter, that I’m pretentious or a douche in any way. Or that I can’t accept the fact that there’s something “better” out there. And frankly, I don’t like being made fun of.

So what does this do for me, the guy who is loyal to both companies?

Well, here’s the thing. Apple generally doesn’t go on the offensive against the competition, and even when they do (see the Mac vs. PC commercials), they’re more in a kind hearted way that’s more fun than anything. I like that.

Samsung has decided to pull out the canons and blast Apple, even though they haven’t had anywhere near the success in this market that Apple has. Does that mean I’m going to stop buying Samsung products? Well no, not necessarily. But what it does is plant this little seed of doubt in the back of my head that just nags away. It shows me a flaw that I didn’t previously see, which makes me start to question my decision making process. They don’t want me to start doubting that, it’s the entire reason I buy their stuff.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

There’s another whole part of this thing that just irks me. The iPhone 4, the most successful iPhone to date I believe, runs the A4 processor. Know who makes it? Samsung. They also make the flash memory.

Whoops.

Whoops.

Now, if I’m in the marketing department at Samsung, and I decide to target the hardcore Apple followers who buy their products on launch day, aren’t I just cutting off my nose to spite my face? I mean, if Apple sells a metric ton of iPhones, and they use my (as in Samsung’s) products to make that happen, aren’t I profiting too?

I don’t know man, that just seems dumb to me.

Final Thoughts

Apple versus Samsung will never be Coke versus Pepsi or Chevy versus Ford, but not for lack of trying on Samsung’s part. They’re going to push the Galaxy S II as much as possible, and then six months from now they’ll have something else new and exciting that will be “so much better” than anything Apple ever produced. But I’m still going to get the next iPhone on launch day, and that’s just not going to change.

But one change could come, though. There’s been a lot of talk recently about Steve Jobs and how he finally cracked the TV, and how to make it better. The rumor is that Apple is prepping a full TV for next year, and if that happens, it could mean a big hit to people who manufacture televisions. You know, people like Samsung.

Still, Samsung makes one hell of a fridge, I’ll say that for sure.

Piper Jaffray reports on Apple’s impressive Black Friday sales

As reported by Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune’s Apple 2.0 column, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene crunched his Black Friday sales numbers and found that Macs and iPads were popular gifts. Munster said Apple sold about 10.1 Macs per hour and 14.8 iPad per hour. This is a 23% increase in Mac sales and a 68% increase in iPad sales year over year.

Munster also counted the foot traffic and found that retail stores in this survey averaged about 544 people per hour. The Piper Jaffray analyst and his team collected these numbers by standing in a retail store and counting people and products as they left.

Another report suggests the iPhone 4S sold equally well overseas. Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore polled local Apple stores and found that 75% had sold their entire inventory of the 4S on Black Friday. These stores were quickly replenished and, 30% of stores were sold out again the next day. Quarterly numbers won’t be available until January, but these early reports suggest Apple is starting strong this holiday quarter.

Piper Jaffray reports on Apple’s impressive Black Friday sales originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Insanely Great launches made-in-USA iPhone accessories with Cyber Monday deal

Whether your iPhone has been with you for years or you just picked one up this weekend during the holiday shopping rush, you’re facing the same problem either way: getting it to stay where you put it, in the car or on your desk. Scores of companies offer lots of different “stick it and forget it” solutions to this challenge, but one newcomer is putting together some innovative and attractive products for iPhone car/counter mounting — and doing it entirely in the USA, from design to hands-on manufacturing.

Insanely Great Products’ launch line includes six different mounting/stand solutions, all but one involving a powerful suction cup to attach the iPhone (or other flat-back device) to the mount. The Jack (image, right) and the Scooter are designed for desktop use, while the Willy (top image) and the Traveler can serve either in the car or in stationary settings.

The light and flexible Clip-n-Go combines the suction cup with a customized binder clip for easy air vent attachment of a cased or naked phone, while the anodized aluminum Norm uses the same binder clip with side arms to hold a case-free phone to the dashboard vent.

While the products are affordable (most of the line costs between US$10 and $20, with the aluminium Norm coming in at $35) they’re set apart from most of the accessory market by their made-in-the-USA pedigree. IGP was founded with the intention of doing all manufacturing domestically; currently, all the products are assembled by hand (from US-sourced materials) in the company’s Menlo Park facility.

In fact, every IGP employee spends at least part of every day filling customer orders by making products themselves. This agile/all-hands manufacturing process is intended to help keep the entire team connected to the products; IG is also able to create customized or branded versions of all the items in the line, on request.

It might seem a bit presumptuous for any new enterprise to call itself Insanely Great, but in this case the company at least comes by it honestly. IGP’s marketing lead/co-founder Richard Ford spent several years at Apple in leadership roles on the product teams that built most of the Internet underpinnings in Mac OS 9. The other co-founder, company president Jeff Osborn, was formerly a VP at mega-ISP UUnet.

For today, Cyber Monday, the company is offering 50% off three of its products — the Jack, the Scooter and the Willy — as long as you buy them in blue (the Monday blues, so clever) rather than the full line of colors shown above.

Insanely Great launches made-in-USA iPhone accessories with Cyber Monday deal originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily iPhone App: Sea Stars

Sea Stars is Hothead’s latest game on the App Store, and it’s really good. You play as a little fish who can swim and jump through water with a touch of the screen. Your goal is to swim as far as possible while avoiding obstacles. It’s quite fun and well done.

There’s just one big issue: The game is basically Jetpack Joyride. Now, it’s not exactly Jetpack Joyride, since you’re not riding a backpack, and in practice, the controls are more or less upside down from JJ’s float-up-when-touched controls. But the other similarities are undeniable. First, you collect coins which can be spent on upgrades (coins can also be bought via in-app purchase). You’ll also find “friends” which work like JJ’s vehicles, making you survive an extra hit and switching up the control scheme. Finally, the obstacles move and turn like the electric spheres in Jetpack Joyride. It’s possible Hothead was working on this before Halfbrick’s big title, but not likely. This game is essentially Jetpack Joyride re-skinned.

That’s not necessarily bad. Jetpack Joyride is a great game, and if you’ve already prestiged in that one a few times, Sea Stars will definitely float your fish (though I do have to say that I don’t understand the “hurt your tail” reference when the game ends, whatever that means). But this is a blatant ripoff. I would rather have seen Sea Stars try to improve on Halfbrick’s great formula rather than borrow it.

Perhaps I’m complaining too much, especially considering the app’s current price. Sea Stars is a great title that just happens to be free thanks to a promotion in the App Store right now.

Daily iPhone App: Sea Stars originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Talking Points Memo sees Windows visitors decline, Mac and iOS users soar

The progressive left-leaning political news site Talking Points Memo issued an interesting set of (non-partisan) statistics that shows just how much the share of total devices running Microsoft Windows has declined in the last five years. As you can see from the chart above, in 2006 78% of visitors to TPM were using devices running some flavor of Windows (blue line). Total share of Windows devices started a rapid decline in the years that followed, thanks mostly in part to the increasing popularity of Macs (red line). By 2009, Windows devices had fallen 13% while Mac devices rose by 10%.

But what’s really interesting is what started to happen in 2009. With the rise of mobile devices like the iPhone 3G, mobile visits (green line) to the site skyrocketed from 3% in 2009 to 14% in 2011. More interesting is that mobile devices continued to take a huge chunk away from Windows devices. While Mac usage on the site only declined 2% between 2009-2011, Windows usage took a big dip, going from 65% to 57%.

TPM does note that the sites visitors tend to slant towards the Mac-favoring side anyway, but still founder Josh Marshall rightly points out that that the decline of visitors running a Microsoft OS from 78% in 2006 to only 57% is huge.

TPM further notes that the breakdown of mobile OS traffic is about 77% iOS and 23% all other mobile OSs. When you combine the 28% OS X traffic with the iOS traffic, devices that use an Apple OS account for a whopping 40% of the site’s traffic. Not bad for a company that only had a 20% share of the traffic just five years ago.

[via Daring Fireball]

Talking Points Memo sees Windows visitors decline, Mac and iOS users soar originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Complete iOS App Development Course – only $79

We always think of app development as taking weeks or months to learn. But it doesn’t have to be that way! With this course from Udemy, you can learn iPhone and iPad app development in just an hour! That’s no mistake, the total course length is around 2.5 hours but after the first hour, you’ll already be able to develop a simple app! We think that’s super cool, who wouldn’t want that!!

The short and succinct video tutorials included in this course are perfect for getting you up to speed on the concepts necessary to build successful iOS apps. You don’t even need any programming knowledge to get started! Why hire someone else to build your apps for you when you can learn yourself on your lunch break?

With this limited-time offer, you can get the entire course for only $79! That’s more than 60% off the regular price of $199!

Check out this short intro video from the course:

What you’ll learn:

  • 22 videos that walk you through iPhone and iPad development and the theory behind each. Videos cover topics like views and view controllers, memory management, and navigation controllers, among many others.
  • 13 example apps with complete source code.
  • Discussion boards to ask the instructor for help and discuss with other students.
Who should take this course:

  • Everyone who’ve been dreaming of creating their own app
  • Aspiring developers
  • Designers
  • Startup Founders / Business Owners
  • Students
  • and many more!

About the instructor:

The class is taught by Sidwyn Koh, founder of Dive Into iOS. He’s an experienced trainer who teaches iOS development to individuals, professionals, and companies. His iOS apps have been featured on the App Store, and his portfolio includes Definition, Seesmic, FreshLook, and iTooch. Don’t you want to learn from an expert who’s created numerous successful apps? Of course you do!

Deal terms:

  • You can view and review the lecture materials indefinitely, whenever you wish.
  • This course comes with a 30 day satisfaction money back guarantee.
  • Membership is per person and is not transferrable.

PS: If you get it today, use the MIGHTYMONDAY coupon code to get an extra 10% OFF!

Best Resources In iOS Development – November 28th, 2011

Welcome to another edition to the best resources in iOS development featuring the most popular resources on this site in the last two weeks.

This edition is dominated by open source components allowing you to easily use iCloud, create an interactive gridview component, and easily create UITableView’s.

iOS 5 also continues to be a popular topic on this site.

Here are the resources:

Open Source: Library To Automatically Sync NSUserDefaults With iCloud – A very easy to use library that allows you to save a user’s app configuration setup by saving NSUserDefaults to iCloud with just a single line of code.

Open Source: Gridview Component With Movable Cells That Respond To Gestures And More – A gridview component that responds to gestures enabling you to move cells around, zoom in and out on a cell, and perform rotations.

Open Source: Easy UITableView Replacement Library For Quick Table View Creation – A library allowing you to create different types of tableviews and fill them with data with just a few lines of code.

Open Source: View Container For Easily Adding Animated Push, Rotate, And Drag Manipulation – An open source library that allows you to take any view, place it within the container created with this library, and automatically be able to zoom in and out, push, rotate and drag the view.

Tutorial: How To Make Your App Work With The Newsstand – Tutorial illustrating how to add your magazine to the iOS 5 newsstand and set up in app purchases for subscriptions.

Easily Add Real-Time Tournament Multiplayer And More Into Single Player iOS Games – A new service that allows you to take any single player game and turn it into a real time tournament style multiplayer game.

Tutorial: Easily Create A Custom Photo Album And Add Images In iOS 5 – Demonstrates how to use the ALAssetsLibrary added with iOS 5 to create a custom photo album for your apps.

Open Source: Library For Easily Turning HTML Pages Into Interactive iPad and iPhone Books – A popular library that allows you take a set of HTML pages, and automatically turn them into a book app ready for the app store.

Thanks for reading, please bookmark and share this post!

©2011 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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Talkcast tonight, 4pm HI/7pm PT/10pm ET: Holiday kickoff edition!

Here we are again, another Sunday. Provided you survived Black Friday and the turkey-based festivities, we’d love to have you join the TUAW family for a post-shopping, post-tryptophan-coma Talkcast.

Most likely we will have a few of the regulars, providing what we’ll call “color commentary” in the chat room. Also, if you show up for the recording, you are automatically invited to stay for the aftershow. Learn why TUAWTF is never recorded!

Your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be, otherwise I’m just talking to myself! To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cellphone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.

If you’ve got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo, X-Lite, or Blink SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!

Talkcast tonight, 4pm HI/7pm PT/10pm ET: Holiday kickoff edition! originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holiday Gift Guide: Buying a printer (Updated)

Welcome to TUAW’s 2011 Holiday Gift Guide! We’re here to help you choose the best gifts this holiday season, and once you’ve received your gifts we’ll tell you what apps and accessories we think are best for your new Apple gear. Stay tuned every weekday from now until the end of the year for our picks and helpful guides and check our Gift Guide hub to see our guides as they become available. For even more holiday fun, check out sister site Engadget’s gift guide.

Updated to correct AirPrint availability for Lexmark and Epson.

As much as we’d all love to get away from the piles of paper that dominate our lives, it’s still hard to live without a way to commit digital content to paper. Whether you’re printing labels and envelopes, need to print a report for school, or you like to print photos from your iPhone or iPod touch, a printer may be a necessity for most computer users. Printers have come a long way from the days of the slow and noisy ImageWriter II shown above, and now even cheap printers can astound you with their high quality output.

In this edition of our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide, I’ll provide some hints on what you should consider when purchasing a printer to work with your Mac or iOS device. We’ll start with the basic questions you need to ask yourself about the way you print and the features you can’t live without.

All-in-one or print-only?

Most printers these days come in two styles — all-in-one printer/scanner combos (often referred to as multi-function devices or multi-function printers) and just plain printers. All-in-one printers are very useful if you often need to scan documents that have been signed, or if you want to be able to scan printed photos.

Those who are thinking about doing high-quality photo or slide scanning should opt for a separate printer and a specialized photo scanner. While the scanners in the all-in-one models have improved dramatically over the years, they usually can’t match the high resolution, scanning speed, and retouching software that comes with a dedicated photo scanner.

There are some differences in the all-in-one printers as well. Some are designed just for printing and scanning, while others provide the ability to send and receive faxes. If you’re still using the ancient technology of faxing to send documents, you’ll want to look for a model that has the built-in fax modem and RJ-11 telephone port.

Photos, printouts, or both?

The next thing to think about is what you’ll be printing. Photo printing is done on special coated paper that provides either a matte or gloss finish to your images, and even a low-cost photo printer can turn out fairly good printed pictures these days. On the other hand, if you do a lot of photo printing, it’s going to be much less expensive in terms of consumables (ink cartridges and photo paper) to just take your images to a local drugstore or photo shop on an SD card or flash drive for printing.

A 2005 New York Times article noted that printing a 4″ x 6″ photo from a home printer could cost anywhere from 28¢ to 50¢ per image. Consumers in the US can go to a number of retailers and get prints in the range of 10¢ to 16¢ a piece, or easily use one of a score of online photo printing services (including Apple’s built-in print service in iPhoto). Prices of consumables — the print paper and ink — haven’t dropped much, so these numbers are probably still accurate.

What are you paying for? Convenience. You can do one-off prints of favorite pictures in a minute or less. I’ve often been able to upload photo files to a local Walgreen’s store and pick them up in about an hour, which is still pretty convenient.

Most inkjet printers will do both photo and regular printing, so if you still think that you need a printer that does a decent job of making photo hard copies, go with inkjet. Which brings us to our next topic:

Laser or inkjet?

Laser printers have dropped considerably in price over the years while capabilities have soared. In fact, a quick look at the HP website showed two black and white laser printers with a price tag of less than $100. The least expensive color laser printer is now running $149 on sale.

What’s the big attraction of laser printers? Speed. Many laser printers can pop out a first page in less than ten seconds, then churn out pages at anywhere from 12 to 42 pages per minute. For the impatient folks in the crowd, that’s a plus. However, inkjet printers are no longer as poky as they used to be, with print speeds up to 35 pages per minute. Once again, it’s the consumables that will bite you every time.

Toner cartridges are expensive, especially for color laser printers that generally require four cartridges — black, cyan, magenta, and yellow — to print a full range of colors. It’s not uncommon to spend well over $200 for toner cartridges for a color printer, and $75 – $100 for black toner cartridges.

Inkjet printers are also quite inexpensive. HP has a low-end color inkjet printer that is available for $30. How can printer manufacturers sell printers cheaply? It’s easy — they’re using the pricing model that was pioneered by razor manufacturers years ago. You basically give away the razor and then make money on the consumables — the razor blades. In this case, the manufacturer makes a ton of money on ink (or toner) cartridges.

With that $30 printer I was referring to, you get a single black ink cartridge and a single color cartridge, good for about 165 pages of printing. When it’s time to buy a new set of cartridges, you’re looking at $58 — almost twice the cost of the printer! The page yield on those replacement cartridges is about 330 (color) to 480 (black) pages, which adds up quickly.

If you do a lot of printing, I’d recommend a laser printer. The toner cartridges are more expensive, but they also last a lot longer — usually in the range of 1,300 (color) to 2,000 (black) pages. The extra speed is also going to make you happy if you’re printing big reports all of the time.

For photos or casual color printing, it’s inkjet all the way.

USB or wireless?

Back in the day, every printer had a cable. Whether it was AppleTalk, Ethernet or (more recently) USB, you were constrained to printing from a computer that was tethered to a printer. Now many printers come with built-in Wi-Fi (or Bluetooth, rarely) connectivity so that you can print from anywhere on the network.

For those who just want to print from a desktop Mac or PC and don’t mind being anchored to a printer, then USB is just fine. For those who want to print from a laptop, Wi-Fi is the way to go. And for those who want to print wirelessly from an iOS device without an intervening personal computer running something like Printopia, you want to look for an AirPrint-compatible printer.

There’s a full list of AirPrint-savvy devices in this recently updated Apple knowledge base article. Lexmark is represented with the fewest devices (3) and Canon’s list is deceptively long, since most of those model numbers are variations on the three announced printers. Epson & HP, on the other hand, have a relatively complete suite of options there.

HP has the most AirPrint printers, with more than 20 models listed on the company’s US site as supporting direct printing from iOS (Apple’s list of HP devices is longer, including some not sold in the US). Canon recently added three AirPrint-compatible printers to its line and promises that future Pixma photo printers and all-in-ones will also support AirPrint. Epson supports AirPrint on most of the devices that fall under its Epson Connect feature branding; the three printers that don’t support AirPrint do work for photo printing using Epson’s iPrint app.

Conclusion

There are a lot of good printers on the market. Remember when you’re looking for one to use with your Mac that you should make absolutely sure that it supports Mac OS X printing. Printers from most manufacturers, including HP, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark, work very well with Mac OS X, but be sure to check older models for compatibility. If you’re trying to ditch the PC or Mac and just go straight from iOS, then be sure to look for AirPrint compatible printers from HP, Canon, Epson or Lexmark.

Be sure to check manufacturer online stores for deals that you can’t usually find in stores, and also keep an eye out on the Apple Online Store (or ask at Apple retail locations) for free or low-cost printers added to a Mac package.

Whatever printer you decided on, remember that consumables are the biggest part of the lifecycle cost of your printer. Look at the replacement toner or ink cartridge costs before you buy, and try to get a feel for the cost per page that you print.

Printers are becoming less of a necessity for computer users, so think about your needs before you choose. Don’t buy one with all the bells and whistles unless you have money to burn or really need all those capabilities.

Holiday Gift Guide: Buying a printer (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Siri / Wolfram Alpha trick lets you know what is flying overhead

I’m a bit of an airliner freak, so I love looking up at the contrails of jets flying overhead and wondering where a plane might be going. I recently found out that Wolfram Alpha has the ability to tell you what airplanes are cruising around above you based on your position and its knowledge of where various airline and charter flights are located at any point in time. Since Siri has the built-in ability to work with Wolfram Alpha, I thought I’d see if I could just ask Siri to tell me about those flights overhead.

It took a few tries and some thought about what to ask Siri, but I finally got it to work. Telling Siri to “Ask Wolfram what flights are overhead” produces the correct results. That query displays a Wolfram Alpha printout showing the flight or aircraft registration number of flights that are currently visible from where you’re standing, their altitude, and the angle above the horizon. You also get information on what type of aircraft each is, how far away it is, and what direction to look, as well as a sky map showing where the planes are.

I then made an attempt to coax details out of Siri about individual flights. I thought I’d need to use the brains of Wolfram Alpha again, but found that by simply saying “Tell me about [name of airline] Flight [flight number]” prompted Siri to display a web page showing the departure airport and time of the flight along with the expected arrival airport, time and gate.

The search isn’t perfect. I often had flights between the West coast and Asia showing up on the search despite the fact that there was no way that the flights were going to be flying over Colorado. But as with many of the tricks we’ve demonstrated here at TUAW, this shows the surprising depth of knowledge that you have access to by asking Siri.

TUAW editor Steve Sande is the co-author and publisher of “Talking to Siri: Learning the Language of Apple’s Intelligent Assistant,” found on the iBookstore and Amazon Kindle Bookstore.

Siri / Wolfram Alpha trick lets you know what is flying overhead originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Marshall Bergman Corbin bag for iPad and 11" MacBook Air: Review

Most of the bag and case manufacturers that we receive review samples from are in the US, and their products are usually sold in Apple Stores in the US as well. An established UK bag maker, Marshall Bergman, is making a splash in the UK with the Corbin canvas bag (£79.95) for iPad and/or the 11″ MacBook Air. The bag will be sold at Apple Stores in the UK and a number of other European countries, so here’s a close look at a top quality way to carrying your favorite Apple toys.

Design

Back in the early to mid 1990’s, I carried my Newton MessagePads in a bag from Eagle Creek. The Corbin bag reminds me of a larger version of that beloved bag in both looks and functionality. It’s a cross-body bag that is designed up to fit the iPad or 11″ MacBook Air. The exterior of the bag is made of a water resistant canvas material, so if you’re in a rainy climate you’ll love the protection you get from the Corbin.

Around the sides and on the bottom of the bag is a rubberized material that provides even more protection so that the bag can be placed on wet surfaces with no worries. There’s a long and adjustable canvas strap for using the bag over one shoulder or cross-body, with nice brass hardware that really adds a touch of class. All of the zippers have long leather pulls attached for easy access to the main bag and pockets.

There’s a large snap-closure pocket on the front of the bag with a smaller pocket inside to hold an iPhone. On the back is a zipped pocket for those items you want to keep safe. The inside compartment is padded, and has a zipped pocket, a removable key holder, a couple of pen holders, and some slip-in pockets for organization.

The Corbin canvas bag comes in two colors, black and khaki. There are also leather editions of the Corbin in brown and black at £124.95.

Functionality

Marshall Bergman says that the Corbin bag is designed for the iPad or 11″ MacBook Air. Of course, that meant that I had to push the envelope and try placing both an iPad 2 and an 11″ MacBook Air in the bag. Sure enough, it worked just fine with both devices — and the iPad 2 is in a folio case.

Now you know that the Corbin bag has room to spare, but how about those other features I described earlier? There are two things that I think would improve the bag slightly. First, it would be nice to have a pad on the shoulder strap to make for more comfortable carrying, and second, there should be a Velcro flap to close over the iPhone pocket. That pocket is in a large snap-closure pocket, and it would be easy for an iPhone to slide out of both pockets.

The construction of the bag is flawless. The ‘gear bag’ space is chock-full of great US manufacturers such as Tom Bihn or Waterfield Designs, but for non-US shoppers I don’t think you can go wrong with the well-designed, spacious, and protective Corbin bag.

Conclusion

For our European readers who are near Apple Stores, you owe it to yourself to take a look at the Marshall Bergman Corbin bag for your iPad, 11″ MacBook Air, or both. The canvas bag is affordable and is well-suited for years of protective service, and you can go with the extremely classy all-leather version if you so desire.

The Corbin bag also makes a perfect holiday gift for the gadget geek on your list, so keep it in mind if you’re stumped about what to buy your favorite person.

Marshall Bergman Corbin bag for iPad and 11″ MacBook Air: Review originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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