Category: I-phone

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, which is perfect 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 listening through iTunes, click here.

Daily Update for Sept. 7, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve covered PDF Expert a bit before, but this week they rolled out a 3.0 update that greatly enhances the functionality in the app. When the iPad debuted, one of the first apps to rocket to the top of the charts was GoodReader, and with good reason: it was a better PDF reader than Apple’s built-in iBooks app. GoodReader wasn’t perfect, and hasn’t evolved that much. I bought GoodReader and used it for a long time until I had a chance to use PDF Expert. Now I’m sold: PDF Expert is likely the ultimate iOS PDF app out there right now.

Even if you’re just reading PDFs, PDF Expert has an edge. I found it caches large PDF files effectively, so swiping through pages isn’t an exercise in futility. The responsiveness of the app has to be experienced, it’s just that good. New to 3.0 is a Recents button, so recently-used PDFs appear in a shortened list, handy when you’re flipping around in different documents.

PDF Expert has had support for some bookmarking in the past, but 3.0 has a full range of tools for highlights and marking within your documents. Plus, if you want to delete all the marks, it’s a one-button process. Add to that a full range of document editing tools, allowing you to move pages, insert blanks, copy and paste, rotate and more and you’ll see why I don’t even think about Adobe Acrobat Pro any more.

PDF Expert already supported forms, hyperlinks and added signatures (a really, really awesome feature which allows you to sign with your finger or stylus and save that signature for later use) so the 3.0 additions are like icing on this robust PDF 3-layer cake. If you frequently deal with PDF documents, be they read-only or forms or anything in-between, take a serious look at PDF Expert.

There’s a Pro version of PDF Expert available for iPad and iPhone, plus a “free” enterprise version designed for use with a backend solution from Readdle. If you’re in the market for a full business solution, the Enterprise version offers additional features like group sharing options.

Daily iPad App: PDF Expert originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen many stories of iOS owners using Find My iPhone to retrieve a lost or stolen device. But this may be the first time, the technology was used to help find a missing airplane.

Last week, a military airplane disappeared off Chile’s Pacific coast and all 21 people aboard were killed instantly in the crash. Four bodies were recovered soon after the accident, but the exact location of the crash site remains unknown. As part of its recovery effort, the government has turned to technology to help locate the wreckage and remaining victims.

Besides sonar equipment, Chilean officials are also using GPS co-ordinates provided to them by a relative of one of the victims. The victim had an iPhone that reported its GPS location to Apple’s Find My iPhone service. The phone presumably remained on up until it hit the water.

This last location may help the government retrieve the missing fuselage. Once found, Chilean officials could determine the cause of the crash and hopefully bring closure to the relatives of the victims. Our thoughts go out to all who were affected by this tragic accident.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Find My iPhone helps find Chilean plane crash site originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An image that appeared on Flickr could be the first shared image that was taken by the iPhone 5. As discovered by PocketNow, this photo of a plate of sushi was supposedly shot by an Apple engineer on his lunch break. What’s interesting is that the EXIF data for the photo makes it look like it was taken by an iPhone 4. Closer inspection, however, contradicts that assumption.

Though the photo posted to Flickr has pixel dimensions of 2235×2291, which clocks it in as a 5.12 megapixel image, the image has been cropped from its original dimension of 3264×2448, or nearly 8 megapixels. Also, the lens aperture of the camera used to take the photo is 4.3mm f/2.4 — that’s almost point-and-shoot quality — instead of the iPhone 4’s 3.85mm f/2.8.

What’s even more telling is that the image has now been pulled from the Apple engineer’s Flickr page. Does the photo’s specs reveal that it was shot with a next-generation iPhone? My vote is “yes,” but we must wait to know for sure.

Is this the first iPhone 5 test photo? originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The MacBook Air is thin, especially at the end of the taper. One might even say “razor thin.” One user took the notion to a ridiculous extreme by using the laptop to prepare a meal, slicing shrimp, mushrooms, lettuce and other things with the Air’s case.

It’s not the first time an Air has been used as a blade, either. Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo PC and CTO of HP’s global gaming business used an Air in 2008 to decadently cut his birthday cake.

It was a gag for sure, but still…we offer No Comment.

[Via Gizmodo]

MacBook Air as kitchen utensil originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intuit has announced QuickBooks for Mac 2012, which offers a slew of new features. Aside from being more Mac-like than ever (invoices look especially good), this update allows for partial invoice billing, greatly improved search functions, Lion-specific enhancements and a whole lot more. We’ll have a full, hands-on review up soon. Until then, here’s a peek at what you can expect from QuickBooks for Mac 2012.

More Mac-like

Forms have been re-designed, and for the better. Below you see an invoice. There’s a lot of information along the right and left, including that client’s history (color-coded to show overdue invoices), a summary, room for notes and more. Best of all, both the left and right column can be hidden, leaving you with the invoice itself. Add multi-touch swiping and it feels like you’re simply looking at a stack of paper invoices.

Improved search

Many business owners have (hopefully) huge numbers of invoices, clients, etc. to sort through. QuickBooks for Mac 2012 has revamped the search function to resemble an advanced search in Mac OS X. You can create the criteria you want and even save searches for future reference.

Progress invoicing

The feature that impressed me the most is progress invoicing. Now you can bill clients for a project in phases, either by percentage or by line item. Plus, the app keeps track of how much has been billed and how much remains.

There’s a lot more, which we’ll cover when we go hands-on. QuickBooks for Mac 2012 will be available from Intuit on Sept. 26, and is expected to hit Apple retail stores, Apple.com, Amazon, Best Buy, and other locations on Oct 9.

QuickBooks for Mac 2012 features redesigns, improved search, partial billing originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple is accusing a Chinese food company of trademark infringement over its fruit-themed logo. The Sichuan Fangguo Food Co., Ltd. uses a round red logo with a stem and leaf. Apple claims this logo borrows conceptual elements, specifically the leaf, from its logo.

Fangguo’s CEO Zhao Yi disagrees. Zhao does admit the logo is supposed to represent an Apple (it is a food services company that makes noodles and flour), but his logo has a distinct stem, Chinese characters and is a different shape than Apple’s logo. Zhao also notes that the logo was originally designed in the 1980s and transferred to Zhao in 1997.

Apple wants the company to remove the leaf from its logo, but CEO Zhao refuses to cave in to Apple’s demand saying “I’m Fangguo, it’s a fruit, if the leaf is removed, it’ll just look like a bomb.” Thus far, Apple’s Chinese legal team has not followed up on this request.

[Via MacObserver]

Apple not happy with food company’s logo originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacUpdate is doing it again. That is, they’re offering a bunch of great Mac software in one single bundle that costs just $49.99. So what’s in the bundle? Here we go: Toast 11 Titanium, Data Rescue 3, FX Photo Studio Pro 2.0, Fantastical, iStat Menus, PhoneView, Concealer, EarthDesk, Mellel and Bookends. And if you’re one of the first 10,000 to purchase the bundle, you’ll get Printopia thrown in with it, too. Now that’s some great software.

All the apps are Mac OS Lion compatible, and you’ll get the very latest release of each version.

Not to throw you a sales pitch, but if you were to buy all of these apps separately you’d spend $487. Which means if you purchase the MacUpdate bundle, you’ll be getting yourself a 90% discount. In these austere times, that’s not something to sneeze at — especially if you’ve recently purchased a new Mac and you’re looking to load it up with some nifty apps.

The MacUpdate offer expires in just over 14 days, which gives you more than enough time to count your pennies.

Click here for details on all the apps over at MacUpdate

MacUpdate bundle offers 11 apps for $49 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe has confirmed that it will support iOS 5’s Newsstand publishing “soon after” the iOS update is released this fall. The company’s Digital Publishing Suite works with Creative Suite 5.5 to create publications for the iPad, Android and RIM’s PlayBook.

Users can expect files created with Adobe’s tools to be recognized and downloaded by Newsstand. Plus, apps built with the Digital Publishing Suite can feature push notifications and covers as icons.

Again, there’s no hard date set for release, but it sounds like Adobe wants everything ready to go soon after iOS 5 is available. Look for it then.

Adobe to support iOS 5 Newsstand originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Has it really been six years? The iPod nano was first made available for purchase on September 7, 2005. At the time it debuted, the iPod mini was (according to Steve Jobs) the most popular MP3 player in the world. Carrying on the tradition of “1,000 songs in your pocket” the nano was an iPod with a clickwheel shrunk down into a case that was thinner than a number 2 pencil. More importantly to the future of Apple, the nano used flash memory instead of a tiny hard drive — a move that would eventually work its way through almost all of Apple’s product line (and will likely continue). Available in black and white, the nano was available in 2 GB and 4 GB models but Apple added a 1 GB version later.

Unfortunately, the first generation nanos were prone to scratches, and Apple had to reach a settlement in a class action lawsuit involving the scratches and a slip case for the device. Later models proved to be more robust, however, made of aluminum. Personally I think the nano taught Apple quite a bit about durability in their products, and it’s possible the short time it took for the nano to come to market may have been a part of the problem. Nevertheless, the nano has evolved greatly over the years.

I know people who still use their first-generation nanos to work out (using the case I designed in the image above). Do you still have one or use one? Check out the video of Steve Jobs introducing the iPod nano below.

On this day in 2005 you could buy the first iPod nano originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone remembers the iDon’t ads Verizon Wireless aired for its DROID handsets. In a refreshing change, the carrier has released an iPad 2 ad that is airing on national TV. The ad focuses on 3G connectivity and all that you can do with an iPad 2 on the “Nation’s Largest and Most Reliable Network”. If you haven’t seen it on TV, you can check out the ad below.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Verizon ad features iPad 2 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CardSwitcher is a new jailbreak tweak available in Cydia that brings the Novel idea of card switching from the HP’s WebOS to your iPhone and iPod Touch. Let’s be honest, the iOS task switcher…

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Verizon has aired its own iPad 2 commercial, emphasizing the Verizon’s 3G connectivity. The commercial shows the use of the iPad 2 in different environments, from downloading a best-seller at…

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Facebook has an excellent iPhone app, unfortunately the same cannot be said for the iPad. Does it have something to do with the fact that Mark Zuckerberg said “iPad’s not mobile…it’s a computer,”? I can confirm with a great deal of confidence that the iPad is indeed, mobile. So just release an iPad Facebook app already!

Any way, in the Facebook update you will now be able to tag your friends and share external links from a web view, as well as take advantage of some improved privacy settings.

I would be way more excited if I were discussing the features of the new Facebook iPad app…

Creating a grid view is a very common task for iOS developers, and I have mentioned components designed for creating gridviews in the past, most recently AQGridView which is meant to emulate Mac OS X’s NSCollectionView.

I came across and tested another grid view component, this one designed to follow the same structure as a UITableView so it is very easy to adapt your UITableView code to make an interactive grid view using this library.  Also, this library was designed for speed and any lag that you may have seen with some other grid view components appears to be non-existent.

Here’s a quick video showing the demo that comes with this control in action (the actual demo runs completely smooth – if you notice any lag it’s due to the recording):

They have done a great job in creating a very efficient, and easy to use component.

The component is KKGridView from Kolin Krewinkel and you can find the Github here:
https://github.com/kolinkrewinkel/KKGridView

Keep in mind if you can’t get things running – the component requires an ARC (automatic reference count) compiler – it doesn’t require your project to use ARC, but the compiler you choose should.

Definitely looks like this component sets a new standard for grid view components – especially if you want one that operates like a UITableView.

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