Today’s Zen moment brought to you by AT&T’s iPhone 4S activation (Updated)

A few days ago, we reflected on how a calm and patient attitude could help you weather the crises of iOS 5 and OS X 10.7.2 updates.

The same advice holds true today.

With AT&T and Apple struggling to handle the overwhelming demands, you may experience some delays while trying to activate your iPhone 4S.

We have reached out to both AT&T and Apple for comment, but in the meantime let us suggest that you try again late tonight or tomorrow.

Life is too short to waste on struggling with overloaded servers.

Have some fun instead.

We’ll be thinking of you.

Update: TUAW reader Jim P. writes in telling us about a disturbing reaction from his local AT&T Store.

I’ve owned all the iPhones and this is the first time I’ve had trouble activating. I’ve had the 4s for about four hours now. Everybody in the office has gone back to work, all deeply disappointed that the iPhone 4s couldn’t be demonstrated. So much for being an early adopter.

Surely AT&T has know for days how many phones it would need to activate today. My AT&T store refused to help me with the activation saying they had word from on high that they couldn’t help people who bought their phones through Apple.

AppleCare apologized profusely but was unable to help.

An AT&T spokesman confirmed that this store’s response is not AT&T’s policy, stating “We provide support to customers who have an AT&T iPhone no matter where they purchased their device.”

In regard to activation issues, the spokesman added, “As of 4:30 pm ET today, AT&T had already activated a record number of iPhones on our network – and is on-track to double our previous record for activations on a single day. These record volumes may produce slower activations for some customers, though our systems continue to run at record levels.”

Not exactly good news for everyone waiting for activation, but not unexpected either.

Apple has not replied to our request for a statement.

Today’s Zen moment brought to you by AT&T’s iPhone 4S activation (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily Mac App: Social Weather

Social Weather for Mac

The weather might not be your first priority of the day, but if you ever get caught out of the house in the pouring rain, a good forecast could have helped. Social Weather is great free weather app that gives you detailed up-to-the-minute forecasts with hour-by-hour weather for most major cities around the world.

Social Weather allows you to save your favorite locations and flick between forecasts. It offers both at-a-glance weather information including the temperature, wind speed and direction, and the humidity.

Selecting a city gives you a 10-day forecast with icons displaying the weather type. The background also changes to reflect the current conditions, so if it’s sunny you’ll get a glorious blue background with the sun shining. If it’s cloudy and raining, the background changes to grey with clouds moving across the sky. It’s well done, not too distracting and gets the information across quickly while still looking pretty.

Social Weather has optional Facebook integration, which allows you to see what the weather is like for your friends around the world. It’s a nice feature that lets you gloat about the good weather you’re having while your friends are sitting in the rain, and you can post directly to your friends’ walls from the app.

Social Weather is free from the Mac App Store.

Daily Mac App: Social Weather originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Siri limited outside the US; international improvements coming in 2012

Siri, the intelligent voice recognition software in iOS 5, is the biggest feature of the new iPhone 4s, which launched today. However, it’s slowly becoming apparent that users outside the US are finding limitations on what Siri will do. MacStories has done a good job of rounding up some of the limitations of Siri’s advertised features outside of the US:

  • Business lookup (with Yelp integration) is not available outside the US.
  • Map directions and traffic data is not available outside the US.
  • Besides US, UK, and Australian accents, Siri may have some trouble with “very specific” English accents.
  • Wolfram Alpha integration is only available to English-speaking countries at the moment.

This is nowhere an exhaustive list as I’m sure we will see more reports of Siri’s limitations flow in from other countries the 4s launched in today (the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, UK, France, and Germany). To be fair though, Apple has labeled Siri as “beta” software from the beginning and is sure to add features for other countries as time goes on. Matter of fact, Apple has already noted on Siri’s FAQ that “Maps and local search support will be available in additional countries in 2012” and “In 2012, Siri will support additional languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish.”

[Image credit to MacStories]

Siri limited outside the US; international improvements coming in 2012 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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To a one year-old, a magazine is an iPad that doesn’t work

While we’re waiting for our iPhone 4S’s to get delivered (or activated), I thought this would be a good time filler. It’s a one-year-old baby who seemingly understands the touch user interface of the iPad (even when it is upside-down), but becomes confused with a magazine that doesn’t respond to her taps and swipes.

It’s a cute video, but also shows just how intuitive Apple’s touch interface is when a baby can understand it immediately. The video was posted by Jean-Louis Constanza, head of Orange Vallée, the skunk works for telecom company Orange.

To a one year-old, a magazine is an iPad that doesn’t work originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Box offers 50 GB storage to iOS users


Box.net is taking advantage of the hype surrounding the iPhone 4S and iCloud by offering 50 GB of free storage to iPhone and iPad owners. The promotion is live now and will last for 50 days so you have plenty of time to sign up.

To claim your 50 GB account, you have to download the Box.net app to your iOS device and login with your account credentials. If you don’t have an account, you can sign up for one on your device. Once you login, your account will be upgraded to 50 GB. These extra 50 GBs are yours to keep for as long as you have your Box.net account.

[Via Engadget]

Box offers 50 GB storage to iOS users originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple schedules Q4 conference call for Oct. 18

Use Siri to set a reminder for October 18. That afternoon, Apple will announce its fourth quarter 2011 earnings via a live earnings conference call to discuss the results. The call will start at 5:00 p.m. EDT (2:00 pm PDT) will be streamed live over the Internet so you can listen in.

Most of the call is filled with financial information only an accountant will appreciate, but there are always tidbits of information about Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod sales that’ll interest Apple fans. And we usually live-blog it which makes it a barrel of fun. Plan to come join us, won’t you please?

[Via MacObserver]

Apple schedules Q4 conference call for Oct. 18 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Customers line up for iPhone 4S on launch day

It’s iPhone 4S day and people are lining up around the world to be the first to buy the iPhone 4S. Lines range from really short to really long, depending on where you live. Here in the US, the iPhone 4S is available from several retailers and three wireless carriers which will reduce the number of people waiting at one location.

There was also over one million pre-orders according to one analyst’s estimate. Apple reported over one million pre-orders before the phone actually went on sale. iPhone 4S purchases are expected to be brisk so you should hustle out the door if you want an iPhone 4S today. Some analysts predict Apple could sell 4 million iPhone 4 handsets this weekend alone.

[Via CNN Money]

Customers line up for iPhone 4S on launch day originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kickin’ Momma becomes Gem King, Hothead tells us why

I am a fan of Hothead Games’ Kickin’ Momma, a colorful, Peggle-style title that appeared on the App Store a couple months back. Just recently, that game disappeared from the store, and in its place now is a new title called Gem King. It’s free to download and employes a freemium, in-app purchase system. A few of the comments on that game accuse Hothead of some questionable business practices in making the apparent switch to the new title, so TUAW spoke with Hothead’s Oliver Birch and Joel DeYoung to figure out exactly what happened.

In short, Kickin’ Momma, while a good game (“Our highest rated game yet,” they told me), didn’t do as well as expected. “To be honest with you, it just didn’t achieve nearly the downloads that we were hoping it would. We had a plan to add new content, new levels,” said DeYoung, “but it wasn’t enough downloads to really justify making that new content.”

Hothead liked the game a lot, however, so they came up with a solution to get more people playing it. “We figured the best way to do it is to just take it free.” The team already had an update planned out for iOS 5, and there were some bugs and inconsistencies in the gameplay they wanted to fix, so they decided to “reboot and reimagine” Kickin’ Momma, and then release it as a free title.

Perhaps the biggest and most obvious change in the game is that Momma is now a dude, a King nonetheless. Hothead said that they originally just went nuts with Momma’s collectible accessories, which got them into trouble. “When we were coming up with ideas of the little dress up things,” DeYoung said, “it was like well, she kicks her babies so she’s going to need boots, and then it kind of went on from there.” The first unlockable in Kickin Momma was a moustache, which led to confusion about just what Momma was.

So in Gem King, the character is obviously male, and obviously a king, which opens him up to even more personalization. Did Hothead purposely choose a male character because they thought that would get more downloads? “I don’t think we thought of that as a factor, necessarily,” said DeYoung. The decision was more based on what’s clear and fun than actual gender preferences. “There were suggestions about a backstory, maybe she got a sex change or something, but we didn’t take it that far. Of course it’s not meant to be taken so seriously.”

In the iTunes reviews for Gem King, some players are complaining about Hothead putting Gem King up at a higher price, and then dropping it to free to try and get on price charts. DeYoung confirmed that yes it did launch at a price higher than free, but he said that the company wasn’t doing anything but standard price testing on the App Store. “It gives us a lot of interesting data about price sensitivity and that sort of thing, and that’s something you see fairly typically on the store.” From the beginning, however, Gem King was set up to be free. “The intention was let’s reboot or reimagine Kickin’ Momma as a free game. And that’s what we did. It was free within 12 hours or something very quickly after that. A few people, I think, jumped on, and jumped to some conclusions.”

At any rate, Gem King is now free on the App Store, and it offers the gameplay and levels of Kickin’ Momma, along with a freemium design and the new features of iOS 5. If you already have Kickin’ Momma installed, you can keep it and it will still work, but of course any updates will go out to (the free to download, of course) new version.

Kickin’ Momma becomes Gem King, Hothead tells us why originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 4S launch: Apple Store 5th Avenue, linewalk

As per standard operating procedure for iOS product launches, this morning’s iPhone 4S introduction found the line at the Apple flagship store in New York City around the block — or in this case, around the corner. It was a much smaller crowd than for the iPad 2 launch, but that product didn’t have a pre-order option so there was more cause to queue up.

You can see a 2 minute linewalk video below, or check out our gallery of snapshots here.

Above: the makeshift Steve Jobs memorial on the stairs outside the store entrance.

iPhone 4S launch: Apple Store 5th Avenue, linewalk originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Woz praises the iPhone 4S on TCTV

Steve Wozniak is first in line for the iPhone 4S at the Apple store in Los Gatos, California and TechCrunch caught up with the Apple co-founder to conduct a quick interview. TechCrunch asked him the one question everyone wants to know – why does he wait in line when he could get one shipped to his house? Not surprisingly, Woz says he joins everyone in an overnight wait because he enjoys both the experience of the wait and the excitement surrounding a new piece of technology.

He also talks about Siri, a new feature he considers to be the future of technology. He explains how he is tired of tapping on everything and looks forward to seeing how Apple has advanced this technology. Head over to TechCrunch for the full interview.

Woz praises the iPhone 4S on TCTV originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple drops the ball on Aussie iPhone 4S pre-orders

By now, iPhone 4S sales are in full swing in Australia’s retail stores — in fact, the safe bet is on the device already being sold out nationwide by the time this post goes live. Some US-based customers who pre-ordered the iPhone 4S have already received their phones. By this time tomorrow, it’s likely that a million or more iPhone 4S handsets will be in customers’ hands.

One group of customers definitely won’t be receiving the iPhone 4S in a timely fashion: customers who pre-ordered through Apple’s Australian online store (including me). Once it became mid-afternoon in Australia on the launch day of the iPhone 4S with my pre-order still stuck in “Preparing for Shipment” rather than having a definite delivery date, I called Apple to find out what was going on. The service rep I spoke to confirmed that Australian pre-orders have been delayed by one to two weeks compared to other territories; according to the information he gave me, Aussies who pre-ordered an iPhone 4S on October 7 should expect to wait until approximately October 21 through 28 before receiving it.

Unsurprisingly, it seems Apple has prioritized US and European-based pre-orders while leaving folks in the Southern Hemisphere in the lurch. Pre-ordered handsets destined for delivery in the States and Western Europe were built at Foxconn and sent out for shipment with an intended delivery date of October 14, but Australian pre-orders were put on the back burner with a shipping date of October 14. None of this was made clear at the time of pre-orders, of course, which is where my frustration and that of my fellow pre-orderers comes from.

It seems rather daft that Australians who went to the trouble of pre-ordering the iPhone 4S will apparently receive it one to two weeks after those who pre-ordered from the US or other overseas destinations, particularly since Australia is geographically closer to China than the rest of Apple’s major markets. At least Aussies have it better than Kiwis, who won’t see the iPhone 4S in New Zealand until December or later, but considering that Australians are already paying much higher prices for Apple gear than customers in the US, the fact that Apple considers customers loyal enough to pre-order to be low priority if they’re in Australia stings that much more.

Apple has been lauded for the efficiency and speed of its distribution chain many times, but the company dropped the ball this time. At the very least Apple needs to be more up-front about its delivery dates for online orders, because I suspect many Aussies who pre-ordered would have sought other means of acquiring an iPhone 4S if they knew their shipments would be arriving so much later than for everyone else. If you pre-ordered from the Australian store and have been affected by this delay, be sure to register your dissatisfaction with Apple; hopefully, the company will wise up next year when it comes to its most loyal customers Down Under.

Apple drops the ball on Aussie iPhone 4S pre-orders originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily iPhone App: Starbase Orion

iOS doesn’t really have much in the way of original 4X (so called due to the second letter in the “explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate” gameplay) games. Yes, Civ Revolution is on the platform, but that’s not original (and to be honest, it’s not the best port). Ascendancy is a quality game, but it’s decidedly old-school in how it looks and runs. So when I heard that someone was working on bringing a spiritual successor to Master of Orion to our platform, I was super excited.

Now Starbase Orion is here, and it’s glorious. It is streamed down a bit from the original space strategy series, but all of the slimming down has been done very smartly, leaving out the tedious parts of the genre, and leaving the meaty goodness. You’re still managing an interstellar empire, but it’s all done with a few touches at a time, turn by turn, rather than having to micromanage everything with a mouse and keyboard.

Master of Orion fans will especially like the game, because it also borrows that series’ extensive ship designer and real-time combat portrayals. And Starbase Orion has somehow done all of this while including turn-based multiplayer gameplay with Game Center.

Those of you who know what 4X and Master of Orion are all about have probably already headed off to download this one — it’s a dream come true for turn-based strategy fans. The rest of you will probably find a somewhat steep learning curve (and a few bugs, unfortunately, though more updates are on the way), but Starbase Orion is pretty incredible. If you want a custom-made, very deep empire simulation game made specifically for the iOS platform, it’s well worth the $4.99.

Daily iPhone App: Starbase Orion originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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