Category: I-phone

Mac OS X’s Preview app has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a PDF viewer. AppleInsider reports that in the latest build of Lion, Preview has received a UI overhaul and added some pretty cool new features.

For example, Preview will act as a Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint viewer. This is one of the smartest things Apple could have done. How many times have you sent a PowerPoint file to someone only to get an email back saying they didn’t know how to open it (happens all the time with my friend’s grandparents)?

Now when anyone running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion receives an Excel or PowerPoint file, the file will automatically open in Preview if they don’t have Office or iWork installed. Of course, they won’t be able to edit the Microsoft docs in Preview, but they will be able to view them just like they can view PDFs. Word docs can open in Preview as a viewable file too, but by default they will still open in TextEdit as an editable document.

Other additions to Preview include Full Screen mode; monochromatic, square toolbar buttons; a magnifier loupe tool (like the kind you find in Aperture); expanded PDF annotation tools (including filled text and speech and thought bubbles); and the ability to scan your signature in the Preview app so you can use it to digitally sign documents. I don’t know about you, but I always look forward to OS X upgrades not so much for the big features, but for the continued refinements to the OS and its apps as a whole. Judging by the way Lion is shaping up, it won’t disappoint.

Preview app in Lion will act as Word, Excel, PowerPoint viewer originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to the results of a massive survey by Hunch.com, Mac people are frequently young, vegetarian city-dwellers who like modern art, liberal politics, and independent films. Meanwhile, Windows supporters tend to be older, more conservative, and more likely to compare talking about computers to “struggling with a foreign language.”

Whether you’re collecting evidence for the Mac vs. Windows debate you have planned for the weekend or preparing for an appearance on Family Feud, Hunch’s results offer some fun and fascinating insights into the tastes and habits of Mac and PC users, from what TV shows they watch to what snacks will best satisfy their afternoon munchies.

Started by Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, Hunch provides visitors with personalized recommendations for just about everything from books and movies to cars, vacation spots, and colleges. Between March 2009 and April 2011, Hunch asked 388,315 of its visitors about their preferred computing platforms. Among the respondents (typically tech-savvy early adopters who may not represent a true cross section of the general public), 52% identified themselves as PC people while 25% said they were Mac aficionados. The rest declined to answer the question or didn’t consider themselves loyal to any computing platform.

By combining this data with the results of over 80 million other responses to “Teach Hunch About You” questionnaires, Hunch found some interesting correlations between choice of operating system and a variety of other personal preferences. According to the overall results, Mac users tend to be hummus-gobbling vegetarian city-dwellers who enjoy fancy foods and art-house movies. Or perhaps hummus-gobbling vegetarian city-dwellers prefer Macs — correlational data is tricky like that. What do think? Do these results accurately reflect reality? Or do they falsely endorse long-standing stereotypes for Mac and PC fans? Discuss in the comments.

Survey reveals Mac and PC people think differently originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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White iPhone 4 has already made its appearance in UK at a Vodafone retail store, releasing April 27th, and now 9to5mac reports that their sources are pointing to a launch on that same day in the United States. White iPhone 4 will land at BestBuy on April 27th, 9to5mac reports.

Their source at Best Buy sent them the following inventory screenshot which details the April 27th launch date for the White iPhone 4. The screenshot shows AT&T’s GSM model of the White iPhone 4. They also expect the CDMA version from Verizon on the same day, in USA.

Additionally, both 16 GB and 32 GB white are on their way to Best Buy locations across the United States, so those models should arrive by Monday or Tuesday ahead of the Wednesday launch. The screenshot below clearly shows that all retail stores have about ten 16 GB units on order for launch day.

We’ll update you as we know more. Stay Tuned!

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Today we presents a collection of Illustrator tutorials.

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If you’ve ever used a Macbook Pro, you know that nothing beats the gesture recognition feature on the Macbook Pro trackpad. Swipe three fingers left on the trackpad to go back in the browser, swipe four fingers up to reveal the desktop, and swipe four fingers down to see thumbnails of all your open windows (the Mac OS X Exposé feature).

Well, rumor has it that the next iPhone home button may feature a gesture area with similar functionality. If the rumors are to be trusted, this home button gesture feature could signal the next revolution in smartphone technology.

With all the competition in the smartphone market, a gesture area on the iPhone home button would help the next iPhone stand apart from Android smartphones and other competitors. The iPhone screen already has decent gesture recognition — pinch to zoom, swipe left and right to move from one home screen to the other, etc. — but expanded gesture recognition would open up a new world of possibilities for the iPhone 5, or whatever the next iPhone is called.

Imagine swiping left on the iPhone home button to go back to the last app you had open, or swiping down to bring up a list of your recent notifications. The possibilities are endless.

What do you think? Would you consider home button gesture recognition a good capability to add to the list of potential iPhone 5 features?

Will the Next iPhone Home Button Feature Gesture Recognition? is a post from Apple iPhone Review.

With all the talk of “iPhone 5,” you have to wonder what the next iPhone will be called in reality. Keep in mind “iPhone 5″ is just a popular nickname for the next iPhone, which could very well be named something else.

Here are some predictions as to what the next iPhone could be called:

1. iPhone 5. iPhone 5 seems like the natural successor to the iPhone 4, no?
2. iPhone 4G. Perhaps the next iPhone will be 4G-enabled (as in upgraded from the 3G network), and thus be called iPhone 4G. Afterall, when the second-generation iPhone was upgraded from EDGE to 3G, they named it iPhone 3G.
3. iPhone 4GS. If the next iPhone arrives 4G-enabled and with an increase in speed, perhaps it will be called iPhone 4GS. When the third-generation iPhone arrived, it was called iPhone 3GS — where “S” stood for speed.
4. iPhone HD. There have been rumors that the next iPhone video camera will record in 1080p HD video, which is an improvement on the current 720p HD video. If Apple wants to highlight this feature on the next iPhone, perhaps they will call it iPhone HD.
5. iPhone Mini. There have long been rumors that Apple will unveil a mini iPhone. These rumors persist, however I am not sure how likely an iPhone Mini actually is.

What do YOU think the next iPhone will be called?

What Will the Next iPhone Be Called? is a post from Apple iPhone Review.

Today representatives from Conde Nast told AdAge that they are slowing the addition of any new Conde Nast magazines to the iPad. Why? According to AdAge, Conde Nast feels “conditions aren’t quite right yet to deliver the ideal app editions at the kind of scale that advertisers want.” In other words, sales aren’t stellar.

Sales won’t get stellar until magazine publishers wake up and reduce the per-issue prices of their magazines by 60-80%. An issue of GQ on the iPad costs $4.99, but the same issue of GQ through a subscription is priced at little more than a buck. Everyone knows magazines don’t make most of their money from selling issues to consumers; they make it from ad revenue, and that ad revenue is going to lack big time until more people start buying magazines on the iPad. That won’t happen until magazine publishers lower their subscription prices.

Continue reading Conde Nast decision exemplifies why publishers need to rethink iPad magazines

Conde Nast decision exemplifies why publishers need to rethink iPad magazines originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In this year’s NYC Big Apps 2.0 competition, there was a lot at stake for the developers behind the 57 app submissions. Not only were they up for cash prizes, but the recognition of their efforts to leverage the city’s data mine for the public good was certain to boost their profile in Silicon Alley, and possibly attract bigger investors (or customers!) to their offerings.

For the grand prize winner, Roadify, the increased awareness of their commuter-support platform means big improvements: more people participating and more/better data. The service, which depends on crowdsourced reporting of available parking spaces, bus positioning and subway arrivals along with public data on transit schedules and privately-sourced data on gas or garage pricing, becomes more useful as more users are sending in their information.

Roadify supports ‘giving’ and ‘getting’ parking spaces (or updating transit details) via SMS, but it’s with the iPhone app that the service really shines. Users can share and check transit information, traffic conditions, gas pricing and more — plus they can quickly find a parking spot in congested areas. Considering that New York City drivers sometimes find themselves circling and circling in the hopeless search for an open parking spot, any approach to cutting that time will save on gas, reduce pollution and make the Big Apple a happier place.

If you’re a frequent or occasional NYC commuter, check out the free Roadify app; you can also watch the Roadify demo video in the continuation of this post.

Continue reading Earth Day: Lower your carbon output (and blood pressure) with Roadify

Earth Day: Lower your carbon output (and blood pressure) with Roadify originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T has submitted a document to the FCC in the process of trying to get that T-Mobile merger approved, and it reveals that AT&T was overwhelmed by the amount of smartphone data traffic it had to push through with the arrival of the iPhone. 2010 saw an 8000% jump in data rates over 2007, according to the document, which adds that “a smartphone generates 24 times the mobile data traffic of a conventional wireless phone, and the explosively popular iPad and similar tablet devices can generate traffic comparable to or even greater than a smartphone.” The total apparently went up to 10 petabytes of data per month in 2010. Because of all that data, AT&T is trying to suggest that it “faces network capacity constraints more severe than those of any other wireless provider.”

And while AT&T says that connecting with T-Mobile will help both companies be better able to handle their data issues, things aren’t going to get easier. The company expects to deliver the same amount of data it served in 2010 in just the first five weeks of 2015.

Lest the FCC start feeling bad for AT&T and its predicament, don’t forget that by connecting with Apple for the iPhone in the first place, AT&T gladly took the bullet for all of that data. But yes, AT&T and other data providers have quite a goal in front of them, considering how fast consumer data consumption is growing thanks to Apple’s devices.

AT&T filing shows that smartphone data is facing huge growth originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s Earth Day. For 41 years, April 22nd has been a day to raise the awareness of people worldwide about the impact that they have on our planet. Our very own Megan Lavey-Heaton just provided a look at an eco-friendly laptop bag from Plaid Doctrine, and we review a surprising number of products that are made with thoughtful consideration for environmental consequences.

Here at TUAW, we’ve partnered with a group of Apple accessory manufacturers to give away products that are either made of recycled or natural materials, or that can be used to enhance your enjoyment of the great outdoors.

Continue reading this post on the next page to see these great products and for more details on how to enter the giveaway.

Continue reading Earth Day 2011 giveaway from TUAW

Earth Day 2011 giveaway from TUAW originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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About two weeks ago we told you about several websites that seemed to spring up overnight offering genuine iPhone unlocking. By “genuine” we mean the unlocks didn’t require any hacks or jailbreaks as the websites appeared to directly access Apple’s database and add IMEI device identifiers to it, which then told iTunes to unlock the iPhone the next time it was plugged in.

We also warned readers that they should be extremely careful if they take advantage of these services as there was no telling if Apple would relock the phone if it noticed unauthorized IMEIs being unlocked. Well, as of today, all those websites offering iPhone unlocks have mysteriously shut down.

Yes, mysteriously. Even the websites themselves don’t know what happened — or where the unlocks were coming from. “To tell you the truth, first our supplier told us there were server issues, then after that they just told us that they will not be offering the service anymore,” CutYourSim.com told Cult of Mac. “We are not sure where the service comes from, or whether it’s a contact through AT&T or Apple. We do know that the service is performed in the UK, but that’s about it.”

The fact that so many sites sprung up overnight offering these unlocks and have now shut down just as quickly leads one to believe that there was just one individual or small group with access to Apple’s databases. It’s possible that Apple quickly found out who this group or individual was and stopped their “services” cold.

Once they were cut off, since the websites that sold the service were acting as nothing more than a middleman, they had no choice but to cease the sale of all unlocking services. There’s no word yet on whether people who unlocked their iPhones through the service have found them locked again, but CutYourSim.com is offering refunds for those who paid and have not had their iPhones unlocked yet. The same site also notes that, in little more than a week, 400 people paid them for access to the unlocking service.

iPhone unlocking service providers shut down originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just in time for Easter, it’s finally here — our friends at Engadget have obtained actual pictures of the official white iPhone 4, which was purportedly sold by a Vodafone UK retailer to a tipster. It’s just what you’d expect it to be (like the iPhone 4, but, y’know, white), save for being one digit off on the model number. Vodafone has alerted its stores to not sell the phone until next week, but it looks like this one sneaked out.

9to5Mac also got hold of a memo from Netherlands smartphone retailer BelCompany, and though it’s since been pulled from the site (which perhaps lends even more credence to the authenticity), the memo purportedly said that the long-awaited White iPhone would finally be in stores as of next week, April 27. We’ve heard that the differently-colored handset would finally be available next week in the US, and since Apple has said before that the phone would arrive this spring, it looks like this is all finally going to happen.

If you’ve been waiting for a white iPhone 4 ever since it was announced back in June of last year, the wait is almost over.

UK has white iPhone now, Netherlands company memo suggests next week originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The WSJ’s Andrew Grossman reports (subscription required) that New York City’s subway riders may be a bit too openhanded with their digital devices. According to NYPD statistics, grand larceny* incidents on the subway were up 18 percent year-over-year from January to March of 2011 (311 reports in total). Transit police brass attribute the spike in pilferage to increased theft of smartphones, and of course, the most popular choice for thieves is the iPhone 4.

The article quotes NYPD transit chief Raymond Diaz on the increase: “We’ve been seeing an incredible trend of young people snatching these cellphones.” Diaz also noted that thefts are likelier during the evening rush hour, and that several train lines (Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue lines, Brooklyn’s J and L trains, and Queens’ M, R and 7 lines) seem to be ‘hot spots’ for thefts. The city’s commuter rail lines have also seen a mild spike in thefts.

While subway crime in New York remains at an extremely low level compared to historical norms, there are a few tips that Chief Diaz suggests to keep that ride trouble-free. Don’t stand near the train doors while using your phone since that would streamline a thief’s getaway; be sure to record your iPhone and iPad serial number in your personal records; and, of course, if you have Find My iPhone turned on, you might even get your device back.

Police efforts to track down phone-grabbing perps meet with some success; they make arrests in 30 percent of incidents of phones being swiped from owners’ hands, and in 56 percent of incidents where force was used in a phone robbery.

* While the New York State legal definition of ‘grand larceny’ is generally perceived to cover property worth $1,000 or more (which is pricier than an iPhone or iPad, unless it’s in a very nice case), the definition also applies to about 12 other conditions (i.e., if the theft involves secret scientific formulas, credit cards, cars, guns, religious items, phone phreaking gear or ammonia for making meth), including when the property in question is taken directly from the person who owns it, rather than stolen from an apartment or office when the owner is not present. These subway thefts match that part of the grand larceny law, making them a class E felony. Thanks to our friend in the NYC district attorney’s office for clarifying the rules.

Subway riders subject to iPhone thefts originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A report from AllThingsD suggests Apple has already inked deals with two of the four major record labels for its upcoming streaming music service. Apple’s VP of Internet Services, Eddy Cue, is supposedly traveling to New York to complete negotiations with the remaining two music labels as early as Friday (today). This report contradicts an earlier report from Reuters which claims Apple has not yet signed any licensing agreements.

Unlike Amazon’s cloud music service, which launched without signing a single licensing agreement, Apple may have the blessing of the top recording companies, such as Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI. Industry insiders claim these agreements will let Apple stream higher quality music tracks, offer an improved user interface and incorporate other features that would not be available to Amazon’s Cloud Player service.

Industry executives that spoke to AllThingsD confirmed the music service would let iTunes users store their library in the cloud and access it from a variety of devices. Tracks purchased from iTunes as well as tracks stored on the user’s hard drive could be added to this online digital locker. No word on when the streaming service will launch, but Apple is reportedly working quickly to tie up all the loose ends.

Update: CNET is reporting that Apple has signed a deal with Warner Music Group to offer its music catalog on Apple’s rumored streaming music service.

Apple’s cloud music service ready to rock and roll (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re eager for a featherweight Mac laptop with enhanced I/O and the latest Intel CPUs, you may not have to wait that much longer. Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has told AppleInsider that Apple is set to begin mass production on new models of the MacBook Air in May. The new Air will sport a Thunderbolt port as well as Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge microprocessors and integrated Intel graphics. Kuo’s assertions are based on checks with system builders and other suppliers in the region.

A May production date would make sense for several reasons: it corroborates earlier reports for a June launch of an updated MacBook Air, but more importantly, it means that Apple’s hottest laptop would be refreshed in time for the back-to-school buying season, which typically begins in late June/early July. Kou’s assertion about the new MacBook Air gains some additional weight based on his track record; he accurately predicted the 11.6-inch MacBook Air three months before Apple unveiled it.

Rumor: MacBook Air refresh including Thunderbolt, Core i5/i7 coming soon originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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