Category: I-phone

If the latest survey data from Nielsen is anything to go by, Santa Claus is going to be loaded down with Apple products this year. Nearly half of kids aged 6-12 said they want an iPad this year, while nearly a quarter of kids aged 13 or over said the same thing.

Nielsen surveyed a “general population sample” of 3000 to obtain these results, and particularly for kids aged 6-12, the survey makes Apple’s predictions of record sales this holiday quarter look more likely than ever. The iPad, iPod touch, and iPhone are the top three products kids 6-12 are interested in buying in the next six months. (While the survey says “interested in buying,” considering the age groups involved and the time of year, it probably means something closer to “interested in receiving.”)

Interestingly, the numbers skew far differently for the 13+ age group. The iPad is still the most in-demand product by a comfortable margin, but the iPhone is in seventh place while the iPod touch is 12th out of 18. One possible explanation could be that quite a few people in this age group already have an iPhone or iPod; that probably also explains why all of the Big Three video game consoles, traditionally very highly-sought items during the holiday season, placed quite far down on the list of in-demand items for both age groups.

“Computer” was also a device both age groups were highly interested in buying; though Nielsen’s data doesn’t differentiate between Windows PCs and Macs, it’s hard to imagine that even the most jaded of kids would turn up their nose at a MacBook Air.

Based on this survey data, if you’re stumped for ideas on what gifts to give your kids this holiday season, it looks like you can’t go wrong with an iPad. Over the next several days we’ll have holiday gift guides for the iPad, iPod, and iPhone (our gift guide for the Mac is already posted) to help you decide which of these products might be the right gift.

[via CNET]

iPad tops holiday wish list for kids originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An AT&T concept store opening this weekend in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights aims to “differentiate the AT&T experience,” according to AT&T retail president Paul Roth. Roth told AllThingsD that AT&T needs to do more to lure the shopper into its stores now that most mobile phones essentially look the same (blocks of glass with software underneath). To that end, AT&T is borrowing heavily from the Apple Store model.

The Arlington Heights concept store has eliminated traditional cash registers in favor of a payment system using iPads and iPhones, just like Apple does in its stores. The store will also feature wide glass windows, so passersby can easily see what’s on display inside and feel more “invited” to come in — another Apple Store trait. Finally, the store will offer “bar stool-style seats and tables to try out the latest devices and services as well as a spot to get in-store support for devices and software,” according to AllThingsD. Throw a logo of an atom with swirling electrons on it and you’d have a Genius Bar.

Some non-Apple Store features will also be included in the store, including two large touchscreen walls and an entire section of the store dedicated to “emerging devices,” such as new Bluetooth and wireless accessories. Expect whatever features of the concept store that are a hit to make it into other AT&T stores in the future.

AT&T concept store uses iPads, iPhones for checkout originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has released Apple TV Software Update 4.4.3. The minor update, labeled Build 9A4051, adds support for Netflix in Mexico and also addresses an audio issue where audio wouldn’t play through the optical port when a user’s TV was turned off. You can apply the update by going to Settings>General>Update Software on your Apple TV.

Apple releases Apple TV Software Update 4.4.3 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some iPhone 4S owners have been experiencing a peculiar situation where the device stops recognizing their SIM cards. Users have been reporting that they receive error messages on the iPhone 4S stating that they either have no SIM card installed or their SIM is invalid. Rebooting the handset works as a temporary solution, but most users experiencing this problem have reported that eventually the iPhone 4S will refuse to recognize the SIM at all.

This issue doesn’t appear to be isolated to any one carrier or model of iPhone 4S, and it’s been happening to quite a few users since the handset launched. So far, the only sure-fire solution to the issue seems to be getting a replacement SIM from your carrier and swapping out the old one.

It’s not clear if this is a hardware issue specific to the iPhone 4S, a software bug in iOS, a bad batch of SIMs across multiple carriers, or some unlikely combination of the three. Users have reported success in getting their iPhone 4S units to recognize new SIMs, so if you experience this issue, a visit to your carrier’s closest store is probably in order.

Some iPhone 4S users report SIM card issues originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Believe it or not, we are getting into the start of the holiday season, and that means tons of action on the App Store as people head over to buy apps for their new devices. There are a bunch of exciting new apps to check out today, so here’s a quick list:

• Hothead Games (makers of Kard Combat and Gem King) has released a new 99 cent game called Sea Stars, featuring some Ecco the Dolphin-style jumping.
• As expected, Minecraft Pocket Edition is now out and available for $6.99 on iOS.
• EA Mobile has a new freemium title called Road Trippin’, in which you tour around the United States.
• Adult Swim’s latest is an on-rails shooter called Major Mayhem, available for just a buck.
• Days of Wonder has released an iPhone-specific version of its popular Ticket to Ride board game, yours for only 99 cents.
• Anthill: Tactical Trail Defense isn’t new, but it’s gotten a big new content update and it’s on sale for just 99 cents as well.
• SpellTower is a really excellent new spelling game for iPad from the creator of the great Bit Pilot and Halcyon.
• The creator of Galcon has turned his real-time strategy game about planetary domination into a game about chickens called (of course) Chickon. It’s available for free.
• To celebrate the year anniversary of its dual-stick shooter Age of Zombies, Halfbrick Studios has re-released the title in an anniversary edition, making it universal and adding new content, still at 99 cents.
• Chillingo has two excellent new titles out, Superman (which features the DC superhero saving a 2D Metropolis from various threats) for 99 cents, and Extraction: Project Outbreak (a well-done top-down action RPG shooter), in a universal build for also 99 cents. Superman will probably sell better, but Extraction shouldn’t be missed.
• Com2Us has released Homerun Battle 2, a sequel to the excellent arcade baseball game Homerun Battle 3D, for $4.99.
• Firemint has given its rodent stealth game Spy Mouse an HD version, for $2.99.
• Street Fighter IV Volt has new characters and new content, and is on sale for just 99 cents.

Man, that’s a whole lot of great games! This isn’t even all of the app releases out this week, and my guess is that we haven’t even seen the biggest flood of new apps — that usually comes around Thanksgiving, and then ramps up again right as Apple freezes the store before Christmas. It’s going to be a busy holiday season in iOS gaming for sure.

SpellTower, Chickon, Superman and lots of other iOS releases today originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest Flipboard update introduces Flipboard Accounts, teasing to imminent and anticipated release of Flipboard for the iPhone. Creating an account will allow you to access your personal version of Flipboard on a shared iPad or link it to the iPhone version. MacStores walks users through the steps on creating an account, noting that the feature already is enabled on the iPad. One feature I like is the ability to capture an avatar from Twitter or Facebook for you.

The update also adds support for Tumblr and 500px.

Flipboard Accounts syncs data across devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:00:00 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 17, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems every writer, coder or GTD aficionado has a favorite plain text editor on the Mac these days. For everyone who starts each day with a screenful of untitled TextEdit windows full of different short notes (that would describe my dear spouse, for the record) there’s a TextMate guru, an Elements fan, a Scrivener loyalist. It’s a golden age for the .txt file.

One of the strongest contenders in the “distraction free writing” category is Hog Bay Software’s WriteRoom, which comes in both Mac and iOS flavors. The Mac version saw an update to version 3.0 on Halloween, adding a NaNoWriMo-essential feature: dynamic word counts. Each file now shows a running count, and with a new session tracking engine you can easily track your output to a .csv spreadsheet file.

The new build also adds themed display options, better handling of long documents and Lion-friendly Versions and full screen mode support, in addition to the “classic” blackout approach that hides other active apps. You might not need the full anti-ADHD power of a single-window UI for your writing, so WriteRoom works just fine with traditional document windows.

WriteRoom for Mac is $9.99 whether you pick it up in the Mac App Store or directly from the Hog Bay site. Those who bought it within the last year are entitled to a free upgrade; older licenses (including those received in a previous MacHeist software bundle) are entitled to a half-off discount; you can upgrade for $4.99.

The iOS version of WriteRoom, which of course coöperates nicely with its Mac cousin via Dropbox sync, is available on the iOS App Store for $4.99; it’s a superset of Hog Bay’s ad-supported PlainText app, with more visual control and other advanced features (disabling autocorrect, extended keyboards, etc.). One compatibility note: the iOS version does not edit .rtf rich text files, but the Mac version can. If you intend to work on your magnum opus from your iPad, stick with basic plain text files.

For myself, I haven’t quite found the perfect iPad writing app yet. I love Elements’ scratchpad for side notes, while I crave the research power, inboard browser and speedy Markdown formatting of Writing Kit — but the unchangeable paper background gives me itchy eyes. WriteRoom iOS is among the most comfortable and aesthetically pleasant editors I’ve tried, though, and for narrative work without a lot of links or Markdown syntax, it’s a winner.

Daily Mac App: WriteRoom originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With the holidays coming up, it’s a time to get together — physically or virtually — with friends and relatives. On those situations where you can’t travel to be with your loved ones, wouldn’t it be nice if you can send them a quick, free video message? That’s the thought behind Vimessa, a free video messaging app from Serious Fox Corp.

If you send a video message to someone who doesn’t currently have the app, they’ll get a text message with a link to your video. The messages are secure, and the only people who can send Vimessages are people who have your phone number.

The developers say that they think of this as “video voicemail” for the iOS platform, and they plan on launching versions for other platforms soon. The app is free, although the company plans to also roll out special services with in-app purchases.

As the developer notes, Vimessa gives you the immediacy of text messages with the emotion of face-to-face discussions. The messages can be viewed on your timeline, so you don’t need to “answer” a video call. It’s an interesting concept, and one that would be a wonderful addition to Apple’s FaceTime.

Vimessa: Video voice mail for iPhone and iPad originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the first big games for iOS — and the only title of its genre to come from Apple — has been quietly pulled from the App Store. MacRumors is reporting that the classic Texas Hold’em game is no longer available for purchase.

The game was first introduced in late 2006 for iPods. After the iPhone debuted in mid-2007, Apple was rumored to be starting in-house game development based on the successful release of Texas Hold’em. When the App Store launched in 2008, one of the first titles available was — you got it — Texas Hold’em. It was thought that the game was developed more as a proof of concept to demonstrate the capabilities of the iPhone platform for gaming to potential game developers. Once the big development houses like EA and Gameloft started creating titles, Apple realized they didn’t need to roll their own.

The app sold for US$4.99 and hadn’t seen many updates, the last being in September of 2008. There’s still a page on the Apple site about the title, although it may not last for long. As a person who spent many an hour playing Texas Hold’em in the garage with the old Macs and Apple posters on the wall, I’m going to miss this classic.

Apple pulls Texas Hold’em from App Store originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BMW Group understands that people don’t want to fumble with their iPhone just to listen to music in their car. They want it to be easy, which is why the auto manufacturer has partnered with MOG to let iPhone owners stream on-demand music directly to their dashboard.

BMW Group has embraced mobile technology and included an in-car infotainment system in select 2011 BMW and Mini cars. This infotainment system will connect to an iPhone and let you listen to Pandora, navigate to local businesses and even update your Twitter or Facebook status.

Now BMW and Mini owners can use this infotainment system to access MOG. MOG is an on-demand streaming music service that lets you listen to the music you want, when you want. You can select your favorite tracks from a catalog of over 12 million songs. There’s also artist-only stations and a decent recommendation engine to help you find new songs.

To get MOG in their car, BMW and Mini owners have to sign up for the MOG primo service, download the MOG app and connect their iPhone to their car.

[Via ipodnn]

BMW, Mini offer MOG streaming for iPhone originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Signal Snowboards hosts a regular series about snowboards called Every Third Thursday on Mpora sports website. In a recent episode, the crew at Signal Snowboards built the iShred, a snowboard tribute to Steve Jobs. The Apple-inspired board has all the right touches – an LED-lit Signal Snowboard logo, an aluminum base, an integrated iPad and a creative industrial design that would make Jobs proud.

After overcoming some difficulties with the lighting, the team took the assembled board to a local ski area for some test runs. Even though it was clad in aluminum which is an unusual material for a snowboard base, the board performed beyond expectations. It was supposedly difficult to turn, but the ability to listen to music and FaceTime from the slopes made up for it. Check out the board from concept to creation in the video below.

More Snowboarding Videos

iShred, a snowboard inspired by Apple and Steve Jobs originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re already a Navigon GPS app owner you’ll find a significant free update at the app store today. If you haven’t chosen a GPS navigation solution yet, Navigon has given you good reason to check the product out.

Navigon 2.0 is a complete rethink of the app, with new GUI elements, and the ability to selectively download just the states you want maps for. Never get to the west coast? Don’t have those maps on your iPhone at all. Users of the North America and USA versions in particular will benefit, so map storage can be measured in megabytes rather than gigabytes. Even owners of the regional versions can save a lot of storage space. The result is a lot of extra room on your iPhone or iPad for music, movies, or apps.

Even better for fence sitters, Navigon has reduced the cost of the North America version to US$39.00 until November 30, which is $20.00 off. Navigon USA drops $20.00 to $29.99. Navigon Canada gets a a $20.00 discount too, so it’s also $29.99. The regional US apps drop by ten dollars to $19.99.

The new user interface is much easier to use, allowing you to switch between different pages with animated menus and new multi-touch gestures. It is now possible to access the start screen during navigation to enter a new address without having to first stop the current route. In addition, NAVIGON separated the app options into two menus, differentiating between settings and actions. The new settings menu allows users to easily customize functions and change preferences, for example when to receive speed warnings, while the new Actions menu lets you use functions that are needed while navigating such as points of interest search and social network postings.

NAVIGON 2.0 for iPhone also has a new look that displays the map in the background even when accessing menu pages. Furthermore, it is very easy to rotate and zoom maps in any direction when in 3D mode and tap points of interest on the map to instantly add them to a route.

When you update the app you’ll get a first time user page that asks what states you want to download. You can download them all, or be selective. I downloaded Arizona and a couple of surrounding states I travel to, and that totaled about 100 MB, a far cry from the almost 2 GB the whole country would need. When I tried to restore some of my previously purchased extras, however, the app wouldn’t do it. It may be because I switched phones recently from the iPhone 4 to the 4S, but it’s an issue that needs to be sorted and I’ll offer this warning for people in the same boat. Also note that recents, favorites, and your home address will be wiped by the upgrade. You’ll have to enter that data again.

Navigon continues with a policy of in-app purchases for extra features, and adds FreshMaps, which is a subscription service that keeps maps updated for a year. A subscription for North America is on sale for $14.99, which is $5 off during the sale. Frankly, I’d like to see map updates as part of the package, not as an add-on. Navigon also continues to offer extra cost packages for live traffic, Zagat reviews, and Panorama 3D views, which show hills and mountains areas you might drive through.

On a brief test I conducted this morning, I found the typical Navigon quality, and I liked the overall reorganization of the menus. They are simpler and faster to use, and grouped in a logical way.

The Navigon family of apps will satisfy just about anyone’s navigation needs. This latest update is a compelling addition and a must to consider if you are looking for one of the best high-end navigation solutions around. The Navigon apps are universal and run on the iPhone and the iPad. You can see some of the new features in this Navigon video on YouTube and you can check some of the new screens in the gallery below.

Navigon 2.0 for iPhone offers new name, download options originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Cut Pro owners, there’s an update waiting for you today. It’s a small bug fix for those having problems with title fonts and start times on compound clips. The latest version is now 10.0.2 and includes these changes:

• Fixes an issue where a title may revert to the default font after restarting Final Cut Pro X
• Resolves an issue that could cause files recorded with certain third-party mobile devices to play back incorrectly
• Addresses a stability issue caused by changing the start time on a Compound Clip

Final Cut Pro X is available for US$299 in the Mac App Store and current owners can use the update utility to download and apply the fix.

Apple releases Final Cut Pro X 10.0.2 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EasyFind is a free application that helps you find files and folders on your Mac. And yes, it’s better than Spotlight.

EasyFind is made by the folks at DEVONtechnologies who are well-known for developing powerful search software DEVONthink, DEVONagent Pro, and DEVONagent Express, which is to say that EasyFind is made by people who know a lot about search. Compare that to Spotlight, which was a marquee feature of OS X six years ago but never grew into something great.

When you launch EasyFind, you will see several options and choices. Don’t let years of Spotlight’s simplistic UI overwhelm you; options and choices are a good thing. Take a minute to see what’s available, and just start searching.

Down the left-hand side of the window are criteria for searching: Files and Folders, Only Files, Only Folders, or File Contents. Next choose to search for All Words, Any Word, a Phrase, or Unix-Wildcards. You can also specify whether or not the search should be case sensitive, whether it should look in package contents, or include invisible files and folders.

You can also set the scope of the search to be a specific volume/disk, or a specific folder such as your Home folder. 99% of my searches are for things I know are “somewhere” in my Home, or “somewhere” in my Dropbox. Spotlight only lets you choose “current folder” or “everything” which is almost never what I want.

That’s far more control and options than what Spotlight gives you (or at least what Spotlight gives you without resorting to byzantine keywords), but what I really love is what you get in the results of your search. Of course you get the filename (and you can expand that column to make it wider, I just made it narrow in the screenshot above), but you also get the creation date, the modification date, the size, the kind and location. If you don’t want any of those columns, you can turn them off. If you want to change the order of those columns, or if you want to sort your results by any of those columns, you can do that too.

EasyFind can search for the content of files, but it is not using Spotlight’s database, it is actually running the search when you enter it. That means that it won’t be as fast as Spotlight, but on my MacBook Air it is still very quick (the speed will be determined by the number of files you are searching plus the speed of the disk). I keep Spotlight around for those times when I need it, but in actual practice I rarely even do. In fact, I’ve reassigned my Spotlight Keyboard Shortcut to launch EasyFind instead.

(Aside: I had even disabled Spotlight for awhile on my Mac, but there are many things which just don’t work properly if Spotlight is completely disabled, so I ended up turning it back on and just ignoring it. YMMV.)

You can download EasyFind from the Mac App Store or directly from DEVONtechnologies. If you download it directly, you can get a version which will work on Mac OS X 10.5 or higher (PowerPC or Intel), which is good news for folks running older versions of Mac OS X.

Thanks to the folks at DEVONtechnologies for this cool app. Take a look at their other freeware apps too!

EasyFind is a free alternative to Spotlight originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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