Category: I-phone

Seasonality Core 2.0 is a Mac app any weather aficionado should have. That’s because it’s probably the most complete and detailed weather software I’ve ever seen on the Mac. The interface is simple enough. A list on the left allows you to enter any number of cities around the world you want to track. It’s got 34,000 built-in cities in more than 200 countries. Additionally it allows you to add custom locations using ICAO stations, latitude and longitude and more.

A selected city’s forecast is displayed at the top of the app along with its current temperature, wind speed, cloud cover, dewpoint and more. To the left of the forecast you’ll also see information about the length of daylight, sunrise and sunset times and the local time. But those metrics are something you can find in most weather apps.

What sets Seasonality Core apart from the rest are its interactive graphs and amazingly detailed maps. The graphs, which chart a location’s temperature, wind speed, wind direction, cylindrical wind direction, pressure, participation, snowfall, cloud cover, humidity, and wave height, not only show you the next seven days for all those metrics, it allows you to see a history of those metrics going back day, weeks, month, or even years. But my favorite part of Seasonality Core are the maps. They’re beautiful. The terrain maps aren’t actually Google Maps (for once). And they’re available in over 2 gigapixels of resolution. More so, they’re dynamic, meaning the terrain images change every month so you can see the turning colors of the leaves or the snow line move across the earth.

Like any good Mac app, Seasonality Core has been designed for optimized OS X Lion use. The app offers fullscreen view and also multitouch gesture support for the graphs and radar/satellite imagery.

With all the data sets and features Seasonality Core offers, it probably not even appropriate to just call it an “app.” It’s like having a full weather center built into your Mac. Seasonality Core 2.0 is available in the Mac App Store for US$24.99.

Daily Mac App: Seasonality Core 2.0 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking for a slim, light charger for your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? XtremeMac may have just the product for you in the new InCharge Home USB Wall Charger (US$29.99).

Almost as skinny as an iPhone 4S and packing a full 10W power output, the InCharge can be used with almost any device that uses a standard USB, USB to mini-USB, USB to micro-USB, or USB to Dock Connector charging cable. The InCharge comes with a 4-foot USB to Dock Connector cable that can also be used to connect your device to a Mac or PC for syncing.

To make the InCharge so slender, its prongs fold back into the device for travel. Plugged into the bottom of a standard 2-plug outlet, you’ll still have enough room to plug another device into the outlet.

The InCharge is now available for purchase from the XtremeMac website, and we’ll have a full review here on TUAW in the near future.

XtremeMac announces InCharge Home USB Wall Charger originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the Milk is an online task management system that lets you create and sync tasks with your mobile devices. If you have the iPhone 4 or earlier, Remember The Milk users can install an iOS app that’ll sync their tasks for them. But if you have an iPhone 4S, you can use Siri to add tasks your RTM account.

Apple has not released an official API so the developers at Remember The Milk have created a clever work around. They use CalDav to push your reminders to RTM. If you have the latest iPhone, you can point your browser to RTM’s website and follow a few simple steps to setup this feature on your iPhone 4S. Once you have CalDav in place, iPhone 4S users can use Siri to create a reminder and it will be sent automatically to your RTM account. Check out the video below to see this work around in action.

Remember The Milk adds Siri support originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung introduced the Galaxy Nexus, a 4.65-inch handset with Android 4.0, at a press event in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Other smartphones and tablets in Samsung’s Galaxy lineup are the subject of several patent infringement lawsuits filed by Apple in the US, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany and the Netherlands. Samsung hopes the Galaxy Nexus, though, will be free of this legal wrangling.

Samsung’s mobile president, Shin Jong-kyun, told reporters that the Korean company will “avoid everything we can and take patents seriously.” Shin stated Samsung took steps to ensure the Galaxy Nexus does not include any known Apple patents, but didn’t elaborate on how the handset manages to avoid this infringement. He believes the patent battle with Apple will last for a “considerable time” and, though the Galaxy Nexus was designed carefully, he’s not 100% certain the handset will be free from future Apple lawsuits.

Galaxy Nexus built to avoid Apple patents originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During yesterday’s Q4 2011 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook spent a lot of time talking about just how important China is to Apple’s future. Cook called the company’s progress in China “amazing,” and a look at the numbers shows exactly what he’s talking about.

The greater China region, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, accounted for 12 percent of Apple’s 2011 full-year revenue. The figure for fiscal year 2009 was only 2 percent, which indicates a huge growth rate for a single region. Cook referred to greater China as Apple’s “fastest-growing region by far.”

In the fourth quarter, China was responsible for US$4.5 billion in revenue — that’s a full 16 percent of the $28.7 billion in total revenue reported by Apple. By comparison, the European region contributed $7.4 billion to Apple’s total revenue, so the China region is essentially providing 60 percent of what Europe is.

Apple is helping to fuel the growth, with six Apple Stores now in greater China that are all at the top of the company’s list of most-visited and highest-grossing locations. Cook expressed Apple’s interest in the region when he stated that “In my lifetime I’ve never seen a country with as many people rising into the middle class aspiring to buy products that Apple makes. It’s an area of enormous opportunity. It has quickly become No. 2 on our lists of top revenue countries very, very quickly.”

China has become Apple’s second-most important market originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Wednesday, Apple posted a tribute page to Steve Jobs that contains the memories and sentiments that fans sent to Apple using the [email protected] email account. Apple says over a million people sent in messages describing how Steve Jobs and Apple influenced their lives. The page displays a continuous stream of these messages and Apple is asking fans to continue to send in more.

Besides this tribute page, Apple is also holding a memorial service for employees on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Apple stores will be temporarily closed from 10 a.m to 11:30 am PDT to allow retail employees to watch the memorial event.

These events closely follow an invitation-only memorial service for Jobs held at Stanford University. That same day was also declared Steve Jobs Day by California Governor Jerry Brown.

[Via The Loop]

Apple posts fans’ memories of Steve Jobs originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Infographic by Android Developers at [x]cubelabs

Last week I added the iOS 5 programming tutorials page, and I can see from the searches on this site that there is a great interest in tutorials about the storyboard feature introduced in Xcode 4.2.

For those unfamiliar with storyboards, essentially storyboarding is an enhancement to the interface builder tool allowing you to see the whole story, and visually handle the flow between UIViews making interface builder so much more powerful.

Many other enhancements were also introduced, and Apple’s own documentation on storyboards is rather large so the need for straightforward tutorials is huge.

I’ve set up a new  iOS 5 Storyboard tutorial page, and to begin with the listing includes 6 different straightforward step-by-step tutorials to help get started with storyboards.

If you’ve created a tutorial on using the storyboarding feature please submit it here.

Also added to the Xcode 4 tutorial page.

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

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Some iPhone 4S users are reporting their screen has a yellowish tint. The tinting problem supposedly affects the whole display and gives everything a washed out appearance when compared to the iPhone 4. This is apparently different from the yellow tinting problem of the iPhone 4 which appeared as yellow blotches on the screen. The iPhone 4’s problem was caused by glue used in the manufacturing process and went away once the glue dried.

Customers on Apple support forums are actively discussing the current issue, which appears to affect the black models more than the white; though some white models still have it. Many suggest this is the result of using more than one screen manufacturer. One of the manufacturers may be producing a lower quality display.

This is not the first time an Apple product has been plagued with display issues. Late 2009 iMac models reportedly suffered from yellow screen tint and flickering issues. Earlier this year, iPad 2 supply was supposedly constrained due to a light bleed issue caused by their LG-manufactured displays.

iPhone 4S users complain of yellowish display tint originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, the iPhone 4S is pretty darned good for a smartphone camera, but people are getting a bit too misty-eyed over the quality.

We’ve been flooded with well-meaning comparison images, some pitting the iPhone against some high-end still and video cameras from companies like Nikon and Canon.

Today, the makers of the great little Camera+ app sent us some shots comparing the original iPhone, the 3G, the 3GS the 4, and even the lust-worthy Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which sells for a paltry US$3000+.

The tests show two of the old iPhone cameras out of focus, which isn’t exactly fair. No, those cameras didn’t have tap-to-focus, but it was possible to get some pretty fair macro images. I’ve done it. Also, at the small size the images have been presented, it’s not a surprise that the iPhone 4S looks pretty good against the big Canon. The differences start to show up and full resolution, and when the more expensive camera images are not heavily compressed.

Same with some of the video comparisons I’ve seen. The iPhone 4S is shown against a semi-pro camera, but in a very small video window. Try viewing the output of both cameras on a 50″ monitor and then we’ll talk about it.

If you really want to compare still cameras, try low light imaging, and blow the frames up so we can see the resolution and the noise.

I don’t expect the iPhone 4S camera to surpass, or even closely approach the results of a high quality DSLR, and neither should you. I do think the 4S camera is the best one Apple has offered, and likely the equal of the best of the Android cameras. Earlier this year I got some very nice photos in Monument Valley with the iPhone 4, so I know that Apple is crafting some nice cameras. I also think the 4S can give a really good account of itself against some of the low cost point and shoot cameras, and that’s a pretty compelling argument for the iPhone 4S. It’s also the view of the Camera+ folks.

If your expectations are not inflated, you’ll love the camera Apple has lovingly produced. The images are sharp and the color fidelity looks excellent. On an already great phone, this camera is something of a bonus. Just don’t expect miracles.

Just how good is the iPhone 4S camera? originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s an app that lets you browse through the popular link board Reddit. You probably don’t want to see everything there is on Reddit — just like Digg in its day and other message boards like 4chan, some of the discussion over there can get pretty wacky. But Reddit is definitely a great community of people, and if you ever want to take the temperature on what the ‘net is thinking about the news of the day, browsing through Reddit’s links can be very informative.

There is an official Reddit app called iReddit, and it works pretty well. But Alien Blue is really the better option. I like the layout better, and it has excellent features like inline comments, Instapaper and Read It Later support, and the ability to actually post and edit your own comments on the service. The app itself is free to check out, but you can spend US$1.99 for an excellent pro upgrade that opens up a “Canvas” view for pictures and a host of other streamlined options for reading, sharing, and browsing Reddit.

There’s also an iPad version available for a straight $3.99 price. You may balk at that, especially if you’re happy with the free official app (or willing to read the site through an RSS reader). But for regular readers and commenters on Reddit, odds are that Alien Blue is worth the extra few bucks.

Daily iPhone App: Alien Blue originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When last we checked in with the BuddyTV Guide app (in July), the capable recommendations and program search in the app were plenty useful. The main drawback, unfortunately, was that you could not use it to control your TV and set-top box unless you had a Google TV-powered setup or a TiVo Series 3. Other cable or satellite providers’ tuners didn’t have an API that BuddyTV could use to change channels or set DVR timers.

Good news, then, for subscribers on AT&T’s U-verse television services; you can now control your receiver with BuddyTV. Anything you could do with your physical remote should be possible with the virtual remote living in your iPhone, and since there’s no IR blaster involved you can theoretically change the channels from anywhere you happen to be (much to the delight, no doubt, of your roommate/spouse/kids/pets).

I’d expect to see more BuddyTV integrations with other IP-enabled TV service providers soon, since you can already control Dish Network and DirecTV receivers with their own apps, and likewise for major cable providers. BuddyTV is free on the App Store.

There’s a little video demo below; enjoy.

BuddyTV app gains control over AT&T U-verse TV boxes originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I love this idea. The DrawTop is a sticker that goes on top of your laptop and basically turns it into a whiteboard surface. The one, ahem, drawback that I can see is you might pretty easily wipe off any designs you happen to have on it just by sliding your laptop into the usual protective case or holder, so the company’s suggestion to use it as a makeshift notebook or reminder board probably won’t work all that well.

Nevertheless, I can still see some good uses for this, like putting information on the back of your laptop at a conference or convention, or using it as a quick and portable collaborative sketch surface. The DrawTop itself is $10 for one or $14 for two, and it even comes with markers and stick-on accessories. Sure, you’ll be covering up that Apple logo, but that’s a small price to pay for a more useful laptop surface, no?

[via Make]

Put a whiteboard on your laptop with DrawTop originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The store is down. It’s Tuesday night, and no one really expects anything more than, say, maintenance. Right? Think it’s something else? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks, everyone who tipped us

Update: The store is back up, with no obvious changes. If you see something we missed, let us know in the comments.

The Apple Store is Down (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, that was quick: Analytics firm Localytics says that iOS 5 is already installed on one of every three eligible devices, meaning that just a week or so after release, it’s already set up and running on a big chunk of the ecosystem. Even taking the iPhone 4S out of the equation (which of course comes with iOS 5 installed), the number’s still up to 31%, which is a pretty solid install base put together so quickly.

As you can see from the chart above, the iPad 2 actually has the highest rate of install, according to the data Localytics is looking at. Makes sense that both the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4 would be up there, as those are likely Apple’s most devoted users, dedicated to keeping the latest and greatest Apple products running.

But I think in general this information shows that Apple has done a great job of letting its customers know just how important and useful the upgrade to iOS 5 can be. Most devs will still want to support older versions of the operating system, obviously, but widespread support like this make it easy for most devs to support options like iCloud and iOS 5’s other new features.

[via TechCrunch]

Report: iOS 5 installed on 1 in 3 compatible devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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