Category: I-phone

Earlier today, I had a brainstorm. Maybe I was just overthinking the whole custom Siri thing for third party apps. I didn’t want to install a proxy server or jailbreak my iPhone. I just wanted to use Siri dictation to issue commands to my apps, and I wanted to do that without having to display a keyboard that took up 50% of my iPhone screen.

So I chatted with Steven Troughton Smith about overriding the keyboard by setting its inputView to a custom toolbar, and then using a button to start and stop Siri dictation. This last bit, the custom UI (sorry, but I wanted pretty) is the only “hacking” per se involved here. Instead of overwhelming the screen, he suggested I link directly to UIDictationController and tell it to start and stop dictation.

Originally, I was really aiming for doing a custom view without text at all and implementing UITextInput but apparently there’s some other protocol I’m missing, so I ended up reverting to the standard text field with the blinking cursor you see at the top of the video. I’ll figure that bit out later.

So what I do is this: I start dictation on the button press, stop it on the button release, and then catch the interpreted text and compare it against four words: up, down, left, and right. If these are found, the app runs the matching animation.

The big idea is this: instead of having Siri interpret commands and return ACE objects that match tasks I want to accomplish (my original approach), I do the text matching and interpretation myself.

In the end, the solution is both low rent and really easy to apply. You could even get this in App Store if you were willing to show the entire keyboard, and not just the start/stop button.

Check it out in action here:

In which, I use Siri to create in-app third party commands while taking a break from cooking for Thanksgiving originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, why not? Sony Pictures apparently grabbed the movie rights to Walter Isaacson’s recent Steve Jobs biography, and the studio has asked Aaron Sorkin to write the film. Sorkin said this past week in Los Angeles, that sure, he’s considering it. “Sony has asked me to write the movie and it’s something I’m strongly considering,” he said. But that doesn’t mean he’s agreed just yet: “Right now I’m just in the thinking-about-it stages. … It’s a really big movie and it’s going to be a great movie no matter who writes it.”

Sorkin, who of course worked on Sports Night, West Wing, and last year’s The Social Network, actually seems like a fine fit for a movie about Jobs’ life — not only is he a really smart writer with a great gift for dialogue and a really world-savvy perspective, but he actually knew and was friends with Jobs himself. Sorkin’s no stranger to controversy, but it does seem like he would do Jobs’ story justice in an entertaining and powerful way. Sony is obviously still very early in the moviemaking process, so no other information about the film has been released yet, but we’ll keep an eye out.

Aaron Sorkin ‘strongly considering’ writing the Steve Jobs biopic originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve mentioned Susan Kare and her work on the site before, but it’s a story that’s always worth repeating: She’s the woman behind some of Apple’s most iconic, well, icon designs. Kare was working as a curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco when her friend Andy Hertzfeld asked her to think about some graphical icons to be used in a computer interface, and as you can see on this great PLoS blog post, she jumped right into the project. In these great images from her sketchbooks, you can see her working on the first proportionally spaced digital fonts used, and then progress up into bitmaps of both famous Mac icons like the Trash Can, the Cmd key, and the smiling Mac.

There are even some really great but not used icons like a symbol for “Auto Indent” that actually shows an automobile leaving an indentation in a tree. What amazing work. She has published a book of her work, and you can even get it signed if you buy it directly from her website.

Don’t forget, too, that not only was Kare designing these icons for the Mac, but this was for the first major computer graphic interface, which means many of the standard icons we know today (the little speaker for audio controls, or the hand on screen for moving things around or even clicking through Internet links, were first originated by Kare and her peers. Really amazing stuff.

[via The Mary Sue]

Inside Susan Kare’s ‘iconic’ sketchbooks originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

Let’s be honest — while you might plunk down the cash for a MacBook Air or iPad for your loved ones, you’re probably not going to go all out on a brand new device for your co-workers and acquaintances. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still support the various Macheads in your life — no matter how many Apple devices someone might have, there are many more accessories for those various devices lining the shelves at Best Buy.

Cases, plug-ins, covers, and stick-ons, oh my! Let us take you on a quick tour through the Mac accessory landscape, and help you find some really great recommendations of all different prices for all of the Apple devices in your life. Even if there isn’t a Mac fanatic around you who needs some of this stuff, no worries. Just bookmark this page, and come back after the holidays, whenever you yourself have unwrapped that big package “designed in California” that’s sitting underneath your tree this year.

The PlugBug

Perhaps the hottest Mac-cessory this year, the PlugBug turned all kinds of heads when TwelveSouth finally released it earlier this month. Yes, it’s just a charger, but no, it’s not just a charger — it’s a super useful and well-designed accessory that already works with those cords you got in the Apple box. You can charge both a MacBook (or Air or Pro) and a USB device like an iPhone or iPad from just one outlet, and all you need to pack in your bag is the usual cords and this little red adapter. It’s a great, smart device that adds just a little bit of color to an already very Apple way of thinking. ($34.99 from TwelveSouth)

The iCade

There were a few arcade cabinets for the iPad out this year, but the original iCade by ThinkGeek and Ion Audio. It originally started up as an April Fool’s joke, and then was made real: An actual miniature arcade cabinet, complete with buttons and a joystick, that you can plug your iPad in to play arcade games on. The list of compatible titles is long and growing, so anyone in the house who loves playing old-school games on the iPad will really enjoy this one.($79.99 by ThinkGeek)

TenOne’s Fling and Fling mini for iPad and iPhone

Again, there have been some very similar competitors pop up in this space, but when it comes to attaching a physical joystick to Apple’s touch screens, the Fling is the original and the best. It’s suprisingly simple, but feels and works great, especially on games where you’d normally use a virtual joystick, but it provides the tactile feedback that Apple’s no buttons policy just can’t match. Go ahead and buy a two-pack — you’ll need them both. (Two-pack is $29.95 for the iPad, $24.95 for the iPhone at TenOne Design)

Keyboard covers by KB Covers

Whether you’re typing on a MacBook or a wireless Apple keyboard, a good keyboard cover can keep things clean and make your keyboard last longer and work better, no matter what your fingers have been touching lately. And KB Covers are the best we’ve seen — not only are they made of a nice tough, stretchy plastic, but they’re extremely useful, providing easy visual access to custom shortcuts for almost any app or International keyboard layout you’d ever want. No matter what Mac or keyboard model you have, or what you’re doing with it (from editing in Avid to playing World of Warcraft), there’s a KB Cover for you or your gift-getter. (Various prices, at KB Covers)

The Peel

The Peel system can be complicated, so it’s not necessarily for everybody. But for just the right person on your gift list, it might be perfect. The Peel consists of both a “fruit” unit that sits on your home entertainment system and plugs into your television, and then an app that runs on your iOS device, and can be used to not only control your A/V setup, but also find various shows and things to watch according to your tastes. We didn’t think the Peel would work as your usual remote, unfortunately, but for the right gadgethead interested in using an iOS device to make their TV watching experience a little better, it would be a great gift. ($99 at Peel)

A case!

Yes, there will undoubtedly be a lot of iPhones and iPads sold this year, and odds are that everyone who gets a new one under their tree will also need to find an excellent case for it. Many times, this tends to be a very personal choice, so you might want to think twice about getting a case for some one, or at least remember to be gracious when you find out it’s not exactly what they wanted. But still, there are plenty of great cases out there, from cases that make your device look like a book, to something you can use with a little more functionality as an actual wallet. Cases can be as individual as the people who buy them, so be a little careful as to which one you pick out, but the right choice for the right person can be a terrific and memorable gift. (Various)

Remote-controlled fun

Sure, functionality can be important, but sometimes you just want to have a little bit of remote fun with your Mac. How about a remote-controlled USB missle launcher that can even be activated over the Internet? One of those Ar.Drone quadricopters that can be controlled with your iOS device? Or you can even be the first to nab a Sphero, a little remote-controlled ball that’s arriving just in time for Christmas later on this year. There’s lots of kooky fun to be had with your Apple devices — sure, it may not be too practical, but if you’ve already got all of the power Apple has put into these machines, why not put a little bit of it to work in real life? (Various)

A hard drive

Finally, we’ll leave you with a choice that’s a little more practical than those toys: Even with the advent of iCloud, the one thing any Mac user will always love getting is more hard drive space. With all of the apps coming out all of the time, and lots and lots of content being made and edited, anyone with a Mac or even an iPhone or iPad could probably use a few more gigabytes (or even terabytes) in their lives. Western Digital has released a few excellent standalone hard drives meant for Mac this year, but especially during Black Friday and the holiday season afterwards, Best Buy or any of the other big box electronics stores are usually running some great deals on external hard drives, so you can easily pick one up for around $50 or even under that some times. If you want to go a little more fancy, you can check out the Iomega Mac Companion, meant specifically to work with a Mac as a high-capacity backup drive. But whatever kind of storage you choose, there’s no question that the Mac fan in your life will appreciate the extra digital storage space.

Happy holidays! Here’s hoping you find just the right gift for the Mac lover in your life this year!

Holiday Gift Guide: Accessories for all originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wow, TUAW TV Live is going to be hot enough to cook a 22-lb. turkey today. I have a pile (and I mean that literally) of new goodies to show you. I have a taped interview with Dan de Granpre of DealNews.com talking about the great deals you can expect on all sorts of techie toys on Black Friday. And I’ll do a side-by-side comparison of the $199 Kindle Fire tablet with the $499 and up iPad 2. Spoiler alert — you get what you pay for.

Below, you’ll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It’s a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat.

We’ll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you’re seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you’ll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.

TUAW TV Live: Hot Black Friday deals, tablets on Fire originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If there’s any real comparison to be made between Apples and orange, it’s the iPad and Kindle Fire use cases. After having spent a couple of weeks with Kindle, there’s much to be said for the device. I’m quite fond of mine, frankly. But to paraphrase the late Sen. Bentsen, I know iPad, I served with iPad, and the Kindle Fire is not the iPad.

As we enter into the holiday shopping season, a lot of people are asking me: should I buy a Kindle Fire or an iPad? Here’s a run-down to help explain how you can make that choice, and you can also watch TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET today (or later when the video is embedded) to see Steve Sande and me talk about this very topic.

At just under $200, the Kindle Fire offers many of the same surface features the iPad does: a small mobile device powered by a touch screen interface. However, the Kindle Fire functions primarily as an Amazon multimedia consumption device.

An accessory to the Amazon Prime service, the Fire offers a huge library of streaming movies and TV shows, tight integration with your Amazon Cloud music account and your Kindle ebook library. If you are a big Amazon customer and you subscribe to Prime, you’ll love the way you can seamlessly access this media.

The Fire’s wins include its size, portability, low cost factor, and streaming media integration. I can easily put my Fire in my purse (not my backpack, my purse) and pull it out to read books using a significantly bigger screen than my iPhone.

The drawbacks are these. First, there’s no 3G on offer for the Fire. You can only consume streaming TV and movies when you’re located at a Wi-Fi hotspot. Although you can purchase and download video, music, apps, and books the Fire goes “network dark” (so to speak), away from those hotspots you can only enjoy the material stored locally on the device.

Second, the apps and book reader are acceptable but they are not compelling reasons to purchase the device. The apps aren’t as good as those you find on the iPhone or iPad, and the book reader isn’t as good as the eInk rendering you get on traditional Kindles. The screen is shiny, no getting around that.

That eInk and size factor is the big win for traditional Kindles. If you want to read books outside with a screen that remains readable despite sun glare, you’re not going to do better than a standard Kindle. What you don’t get includes apps, video, full web browsing and so forth, items brought to the table by the Kindle Fire.

Then there’s the iPad. The most expensive of this bunch, it does everything well but it does it with a shiny screen and a larger form factor. My knee jerk response when it comes to the iPad is this: if you don’t have one and you don’t know why you need one, just go and buy one. In a couple of weeks, you’ll know why this is the best mobile device in your life ever. (You’ll want to pick up an iPhone a few weeks after that. The iPad is a gateway drug.)

The iPad excels at many things: movie watching, game playing, book reading, checking in at work, editing documents, downloading apps, etc. If the current iPad 2 entry price is too high for you, go ahead and buy a second-hand original iPad for about the same cost as a Kindle Fire.

That doesn’t mean I don’t recommend the original or Fire Kindles. I do. Their price points are insanely good, and the hardware fits well into your life for either book reading (eInk) or Prime customer enhancement (Fire). If you’re parenting a bookworm, consider a traditional Kindle. If you want to watch streaming videos at the gym (with local Wi-Fi), pick up a Fire.

What I’m saying though, is neither one replaces the iPad — and neither should. Life with both iPad and Kindle is great if you can swing the costs.

Kindle Fire vs iPad: How to decide originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for November 23, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s time to get your plastic out, and your game face on as Black Friday is almost here. The busiest shopping day in the year is two days away, and we have singled out five apps that’ll help you find the best deals.

Black Friday from DealNews (Free)

When it’s not Black Friday, DealNews is one of the best websites for finding deals on everything from clothes to cameras. On Black Friday, though, DealNews has one of the best apps to track individual deals as they are announced. Besides deals, the app also lets you add deals to a shopping list, search for specific products and even pull up online deals from a retailer’s website. The best non-deal feature is the app’s ability to find local stores so you’ll know where to go when that HDTV hits a rock bottom price at Best Buy. Be sure to watch TUAW’s Steve Sande interview Dan de Granpre from DealNews on today’s episode of TUAW TV Live.

TGI Black Friday (Free)

TGI Black Friday is an app that focuses more on the ad scans from Black Friday promotions than individual deals like its DealNews rival. Each retailer’s ad is scanned and available as a downloadable PDF. You can view sale items on a store-by-store basis or by browsing through categories. You can also search for items and save them to a shopping list. When you are done, you can email your shopping list to you or a loved one. You can also share the deals on Facebook or Twitter.

Road Tripper (Free; US$1.99 ad-free)

Road Tripper is a basic route planning app. It lets you add multiple points onto a map and save the route between them. It’ll let you add all your shopping destinations, so you can plan the best way to travel from the mall to Target and then to L.L. Bean. Once your route is planned, you can print your map or send it via email. You can also share it on Facebook. The app is available for free, but includes advertisements. A US$1.99 in-app purchase will remove these ads.

Google Shopper (Free)

An essential part of shopping on Black Friday is making sure you get the best deal. Even if you have planned every last detail of your shopping trip, you will inevitably stumble upon an item that you want, but did not know was on sale. To make sure you get the best deal, you should use Google shopper to check prices at competing retailers. The app lets you scan or photograph your sales item and pulls down pricing information from Google’s online shopping search engine.

Your Favorite Retailer’s App (Free)

Most major retailers have an iOS app that’ll let you find sales information, store locations and inventory. Most apps will let you make purchases that can either be shipped to your doorstep or held at your local store. Before you start shopping on Friday, you should fill your phone with the app from your favorite retailers. Stores like Best Buy, Target and Walmart are some of the top choices for Black Friday shoppers. Apple also has an app that’ll let you browse its Black Friday sales, place online orders and arrange for in-store pick up. It will even let you checkout on your own when you are in a busy retail store.

5 apps for Black Friday originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most parents want to keep a close eye on their baby, especially when he or she is sleeping in their room down the hall. Rather than check obsessively, which is what I did when I had my first baby, products like the WiFi Baby 3G let you easily watch your child from afar. Best of all, you can see and hear them without stumbling into their room and accidentally waking them up.

The WiFi Baby 3G is a small color and infrared camera housed in an attractive white or black shell. The camera comes with a mounting bracket that lets you attach it to a wall or a stand. The camera has a solid square body with an antenna that is enclosed in thick plastic. It definitely can sustain a fall without breaking. The front of the camera has a color camera, a cluster of IR sensors, a microphone, a power indicator and a light sensor that’ll switch the camera from color view to infrared view. It’s made by Y-cam and is a quality camera.

Unlike most baby monitors which send audio over the same 900MHz bandwidth used by cordless phones, the WiFi Baby works over your home WiFi network. To set it up wirelessly, you must first connect it to your router using a network cable and use the included software to setup the IP address, camera login credentials and other initial features. The setup is extremely easy, and there’s an excellent customer support option that’ll walk you through the process one step at a time. If you still have problems, a customer service rep can even connect to your computer using a screen sharing tool and set it up while you watch.

If you have a plug-n-play UPnP router, the WiFi Baby 3G will be configured for outside access, which lets you view the camera stream using your cell phone’s 3G connection. If you don’t have UPnP, you will have to configure port routing manually on your router. I tested the WiFi baby remotely, and the video streamed nicely. There was some lag, but it’s not really noticeable until someone starts moving the monitor at home. One nice feature is the time and date stamp on the video. This is fed from the baby monitor and is included to let you know the monitor is still working.

The WiFi Baby 3G has lots of viewing options for parents that stay at home and for those on the go. There’s a viewer for the Mac, the PC, iOS and Android devices. I tested both the iOS app and the Mac app; both worked extremely well. On first launch, both apps will scan the network for the camera and pull down the IP address. You will have to enter your username and password to connect to the camera and receive the audio and video stream. These settings are then saved for future use.

The iOS app works on the iPhone and the iPad and lets you watch video and listen to audio on your device. In normal view, the video stream appears in a box at the top of the screen, and the audio levels are below. You can tap the video feed or the audio to mute it and then tap it again to turn it back on. The app has lots of settings to change what you see. You can customize the audio to display either a 5, 10 or 20 minute history or set up alerts for when the baby starts to cry. You can also change the appearance of the app by selecting a pink, blue or night theme.

The Mac app is very different from the iOS app. It’s from Y-Cam and is general surveillance app. It’s not as pretty as the iOS version, but it has several features the iOS version lacks. Because it’s a desktop app, the video window is much larger, and the audio is much louder. The video clarity is a bit grainy when you are viewing it at this larger resolution. It’s still viewable, just not as nice as the iOS app. With one click, you can record a video stream or take a snapshot which is saved to the hard drive. The app even supports more than one camera feed. We tested it with only one WiFi Baby 3G, but you could use it with several more if you wanted.

The WiFi Baby produces a clear video stream and loud audio. It’s great as a color camera and even better in night mode. The video at night is nice and bright, and lets you see your little one while he or she sleeps. If you position it correctly, you can even see your baby breathe. It’s a real pleasure to use a camera that doesn’t cut costs by making it pretty on the outside and then slapping in a low-quality lens and sensor. You can tell from the moment you turn it on; the WiFi Baby is built from the ground up to be an exceptional surveillance camera.

Speaking of the position, that’s my only complaint about this monitoring solution. Unlike the rival iBaby monitor which moves, the WiFi baby is stationary. You can use the mount to get the right angle, but once it’s set, the WiFi baby can’t be changed remotely. You can’t pan it left or right or scan up or down using your iPhone or computer.

This isn’t a big deal if you are watching a baby that’s sleeping, but it could be a problem if you are trying to follow a toddler playing in his room. The camera partially makes up for its fixed position with a lens that captures a wide part of the room. I set it up in the boy’s room, and I was able to see about 75% of the space. It was only the extreme left and the extreme right that I could not see. If you don’t mind this limitation, then the WiFi Baby is an excellent choice for a video-enabled baby monitor. The audio and video are excellent, and, best of all, it’s easy to configure and use.

You can read about the WiFi Baby 3G and watch some demo videos on WiFi Baby’s website. There’s also an unboxing and setup video from WiFi baby embedded below. The wireless monitor costs US$279 and is available from WiFi Baby’s online store.

WiFi Baby 3G baby monitor: Watching your baby from afar originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Many TUAW readers may be exercising their credit cards in preparation for Black Friday, and on today’s edition of TUAW TV Live, I’ll be talking to Dan de Grandpre of Dealnews.com about many of the deals that Apple fans can find during the annual holiday shopping frenzy.

Since last week, I’ve also done enough hands-on time with a Kindle Fire tablet to do a really good side-by-side comparison of the two devices. I’ll be taking your online questions and responding to your comments in the chat as I demonstrate the good and bad points of this $199 tablet.

As usual, I’ll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we’ll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you’re unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.

The chat is now available as well on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.

TUAW TV Live at 5 PM: Hot deals from Dealnews and a Fire smackdown originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cruise lines are always trying to outdo each other on the amenities that they offer to guests. For example, on a cruise I took in September, our large suite not only had a walk-in closet, but came with a laptop and a butler for our use. Of course, I didn’t use the crappy HP laptop because I had my Apple devices with me, but it’s the thought that counts. Now a major cruise line is equipping every stateroom on a ship with an iPad.

Royal Caribbean’s 2,074-passenger Splendour of the Seas is currently in dry dock being refurbished, and one of the new additions to the ship will be an iPad for every stateroom. The idea is to give guests a new way to get information. The daily Cruise Compass newsletter will be accessible from the iPad, providing a list of events and activities, personal daily itineraries, and shore excursions. Guests can also watch movies or surf the Internet. Want to look at a restaurant menu or check your ever-growing bar tab? There’s an iPad for that.

Guests will be able to take the iPads around the ship, accessing information from staterooms and any location with a good connection to the ship-wide Wi-Fi network. How Royal Caribbean plans on keeping the iPads from going home with the passengers is a question that needs to be answered. I’m guessing that each device will be outfitted with an RFID tag to keep it from going ashore with guests.

Splendour’s sister ships in the Vision class — Vision, Grandeur, Rhapsody, Enchantment, and Legend of the Seas — are expected to take on iPads as regular travelers as they also go through renovations over the next two years.

Cruise line to offer an iPad in every stateroom originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW,

I currently provide remote support for my mother-in-law’s 15 year old PC, frequently using TeamViewer to watch what she is doing rather than try to decipher garbled descriptions of what the screen is showing.

This Xmas we are planning to buy her an iPad and so I wonder if there is an equivalent program that will allow me to continue supporting her and retain my sanity.

Your loving nephew,

Dave A

Dear Dave,

There are similar apps, but they aren’t remote and only offered on jailbroken systems — not a good match to your MIL’s needs.

On the other hand, most cats can operate an iPad. I’m pretty sure your MIL is smarter than a cat.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Auntie,

My MIL is smarter than a cat but most cats do not insist that she is incapable of learning something new ;-). We shall see.

Love,

Dave

Dear Dave,

You cannot solve relationship problems with technology.

Your devoted,

Auntie

Auntie,

Indeed, although the iPad has broken through my wife’s resistance on the subject, I now have to ask permission to use it. Just hoping it does the same with MIL.

Hugs,

Dave

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me support my mother-in-law’s iPad originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re an iPad fan and a foodie, chances are that you have more than a few of the great iPad cooking apps. With the holidays coming up, it’s also likely you’re going to be spending more time in the kitchen than usual. If you like combining your iPad with your culinary skills, I highly recommend taking a look at the Belkin Chef Stand + Stylus for iPad.

The Chef Stand is a simple device that lets you use your iPad without fear of getting the ingredients from that latest batch of cookies all over it. The stand props up your iPad at an 80 degree or 45 degree angle — whichever is more comfortable to you. Using the included capacitive stylus you can safely interact with the iPad’s touchscreen even if your hands are covered in flour. What’s especially nice is the stylus comes with its own holder, so you can put it down and not get ingredients all over it. Another great thing about the stylus is that it has a magnetic tip. This means you can use it to wake your iPad from sleep without using your fingers.

The Chef Stand also features a tough rubber, non-slip base so your iPad won’t go sliding across your counter when you prod it with the stylus. But the thing chefs might like the most is that all three accessories – the stand, the stylus, and the stylus holder – are hand washable with warm, soapy water. Of course, that does mean you have one more thing to clean in the kitchen, but if it keeps your iPad from getting covered in egg yolk and sugar, it’ something I’m sure most people won’t mind doing.

The Belkin Chef Stand + Stylus for iPad costs US$29.99 through Belkin.com and on Amazon. It’s also available through retailers like Target and Apple stores.

Get (holiday) cooking with the Belkin Chef Stand + Stylus for iPad originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Garmin has an innovative way to help you beat the holiday traffic. It’s the StreetPilot USA Onboard app update, released today, and it includes an option for an in-app purchase of traffic camera images from any of 10,000 cameras across the US and Canada. The option will cost US $9.95 per year.

Garmin is also reducing the cost of the app 50% this Friday only, making it a $24.99 purchase. The updated app also adds some nice freebies, like additional weather information, and a 5 day forecast for your current location and destination. The points of interest search function now auto-completes,which makes finding a destination faster. The app also allows you to see user contributed photos taken at points of interest, and to submit your own to share with other StreetPilot users.

StreetPilot Onboard keeps all its maps on your device (hence the ‘Onboard’ in the name) which is the preferred way to navigate if you’re in an area with weak or no cellular data service.

The Garmin app also includes 3D buildings, a trip planner and a ‘Where Am I?’ safety feature to let a towing service or ambulance know exactly where you are.

The Garmin app requires iOS 4.0 or greater.

Check the gallery for some screenshots of these new features.

Garmin offers real-time traffic cam photos and a bargain price for StreetPilot Onboard app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This one kind of came out of left field — there isn’t really any reason for Chillingo to release a Superman game, especially one created by Flash developer Tiger Games. Superman games in general don’t usually work well anyway: How exactly do you put a challenge on pretending to be the Man of Steel himself? But this one works because it stays simple — you control the big blue boy scout running around Metropolis, and perform various tasks, like stopping robbers, killing big robots, or smashing asteroids or missles as they threaten the city.

Most of the gameplay simply consists of flying around, and this is where Tiger Games gets it right — Metropolis is a nice big 2D world to explore, and arrows on the screen will quickly directly you where Superman needs to go. There’s a not-bad storyline propping the whole thing up, but let’s be honest, this is superhero fantasy. You really just want to jump in as Superman and blast some robots with your eye lasers. The game’s not bad at all, and for a Superman game, given the IP’s history, that’s enough.

The iPhone version is available for just 99 cents, or you can pick up an HD version for iPad for $2.99.

Daily iPhone App: Superman originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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