Category: I-phone

One of the brains behind Apple’s ad campaigns, Allison Johnson, is leaving the company to start a new marketing firm with a former Facebook PR executive.

According to John Paczkowski at AllThingsD, Johnson reported directly to Steve Jobs and managed Apple’s ad campaigns, which were of course created by TBWA\Chiat\Day. Johnson was at Apple for 6 years and was at HP before that.

We wish her the best of luck in her new venture.

[via BusinessInsider]

Apple marketing VP Allison Johnson leaving the company originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trust the Reddit community to come up with cool, constructive ideas amidst the links to silly images. Today, March 31, is World Backup Day, mostly because some Redditors thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone that hard drives are not, in fact, made from wonderflonium; they fail, and when they do they take your data with them.

We think backing up is crucial, and we love to remind you as often as we can about the tools, gear and strategies you can use to make sure you don’t suffer unrecoverable data loss when the inevitable happens (or if your machine goes missing).

In honor of WBD 2011, we’re going to go one step beyond: giveaways courtesy of our friends at Other World Computing and Crashplan. Check in all day today for the goodies!

First up: from OWC, two two-pack sets of NewerTech StoraDrive antistatic cases to hold your bare backup drives — perfect for stashing an offsite backup on the shelf at your cousin’s house. Just comment on this post (telling us your backup app of choice, if you like) for a chance to win, and don’t miss the bigger goodies later on!

Official Rules:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment on this post about your backup app of choice.
• The comment must be left before Saturday April 2nd at 11:59pm EDT.
• You may enter only once.
• 2 winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: One NewerTech StoraDrive two-pack of drive cases (ARV US$14.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

World Backup Day: giveways, tips and more originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Japan’s people and industries respond to the recent horrible disasters, routine electrical brownouts are being rolled out to conserve available resources. Manufacturing is being affected as a result, and the tech industry is not immune.

DigiTimes reports that Apple will absorb the extra cost of timely production, ensuring both smooth shipments and profitability for upstream suppliers, at least in the short term.

Sources tell DigiTimes that suppliers like Anisotropic Conductive Films (ACF) and ITO materials will be able to meet targets through May at this point.

Last week Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster noted that the tragedy in Japan hadn’t “meaningfully impacted iPad 2 supply,” suggesting that effects of the earthquake and tsunami would only add one or two weeks to shipping times.

Apple has made it possible for customers to donate to the Red Cross relief efforts in iTunes.

[Via AppleInsider]

Apple reportedly to absorb costs from Japan tragedies originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest updates to Callwave’s distributed conferencing platform, Fuze Meeting, have added a rather dramatic new feature that’s perfect for iPad 2 owners (not to mention Android ‘Honeycomb’ tablets like the Motorola Xoom and older ‘Froyo’ devices): multi-party video conferencing.

Meeting hosts who subscribe to the company’s Pro plan (US$69 per month for unlimited meetings with up to 100 attendees) get the new face-to-screen capability. Video conferences support up to 10 simultaneous participants on the browser-based client (fewer simultaneous streams on mobile devices), and the quality tops out at 720p HD while adjusting down as needed for bandwidth limitations.

We’ve covered Fuze before, and the core iPad app has kept its full feature set moving forward into the video conferencing realm. You can still share content directly from the iPad app (in fact, it’s gotten easier, now that iOS 4.x multitasking means you don’t have to relaunch the app if you switch into Dropbox to grab files). If you want to launch your camera, it’s one tap to start the video conference, then a second tap to turn your direct view on. Image quality is comparable to FaceTime, although the default video window is much smaller.

You can also use VoIP directly on the iPad to join Fuze conference calls, saving you from juggling phone and pad as you participate in the meeting. You can use the Fuze app’s laser pointer tool to highlight elements within PPT, image/PDF, or video content as the meeting rolls along. Of course, the desktop/browser Fuze client has evolved along with the new features, and it also supports the 10-party video chat feature.

Continue reading Fuze Meeting delivers multiparty video conferencing to iPad 2

Fuze Meeting delivers multiparty video conferencing to iPad 2 originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boxee confirmed on its blog that its next update will add support for the Apple iPad. The streaming content provider will release the Boxee for iPad app that will let you stream content from your Boxee Box to your Apple iPad over a wireless connection. This feature would be ideal for some late night Boxee watching from your bed or some entertainment while you log miles on your treadmill.

Besides iPad support, the browser will be faster and offer new on-screen controls. New languages such as French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish and several bug fixes will also be included in this update. In keeping with its three-month update schedule, the new Boxee Box firmware will arrive in May.

[Via Engadget]

Boxee to add iPad support, more in May originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s view of computing in the post-pc era is quite different than Apple’s. Apple anticipates the tablet will temporarily fill the void between the smartphone and the computer. Eventually, it will replace the computer for many users.

Microsoft, on the other hand, questions the longevity of the tablet market and is slow to embrace this emerging market after its earlier, failed UMPC Origami project. Speaking at a luncheon in Sydney, Australia, Craig Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft, said

“Today you can see tablets and pads and other things that are starting to live in the space in between (a PC and a smartphone). Personally, I don’t know whether that space will be a persistent one or not.”

The future for Microsoft lies in connectivity of devices that does not tie to you a computer sitting on a desk. The computer will be “in the room” and controlled by a wireless controller similar to the Kinect.

This wait-and-see attitude towards the tablet is further evident in Microsoft’s current tablet strategy. The Redmond company pushed HP’s Windows 7-powered slate in 2010, but the device failed to attract customers. Future tablets will be based on Windows 8 and will not debut until 2012 at the earliest.

While Microsoft waits until 2012 to release a tablet competitor, Apple will have sold over 30 million iPads in 2011 alone.

MS exec says tablet computing may not be ‘persistent’ originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Apple introduced its new subscription terms earlier this year, Popular Science embraced this change and introduced subscription-based billing into its iPad-based magazine. Now that six weeks have elapsed, publisher Bonnier Technology Group is happy to report that Pop Sci now has 10,000 iPad subscribers. Each subscriber pays US$14.99 for one-year of access to the magazine’s digital content.

Gregg Hano, VP-group publisher at the Bonnier Technology Group, says the publisher had no idea what to expect when it launched its magazine subscription and is “very excited” by these early results. Though this 10K figure is small compared to the 1.3 million paid print subscribers, it is a step in the right direction for the publisher.

The biggest drawback to Apple’s subscription model is the lack of subscriber information provided to the publisher. Subscriber information stays within Apple’s iTunes system, and Hano admits the publisher currently has no demographic information on the individuals purchasing its digital magazine. Continued growth may require the publisher to develop an alternative method to find out who is buying and reading its iPad magazine.

Popular Science has sold 10,000 iPad magazine subscriptions originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPhone’s camera has only gotten better over the years, with higher resolutions, better ways to deal with low lighting and brighter colors than ever. But here’s an app that passes on all of that technology for a much more retro feel. The 8-bit Pocket Camera app is designed to take pictures the old-fashioned way: as low-res black-and-white 200×200 pixel .tiff files, just like the old Game Boy Camera and other early digital cameras did. Why would you want to take pictures that way? Well, you might not. But it’s more of a nostalgia thing; just as apps like Hipstamatic are great at making iPhone pictures look like old film or old instant cameras, these pictures might take you right back, if you happen to have taken some shots in the right time period.

There’s a real raw quality to these, and I don’t mean .RAW files. These are straight up black-and-white shots, full of digital noise and pixelated lines. They may not look great, but they certainly have a feel to them, and with 8-bit Pocket Camera, you can take these pictures, put any number of old-school effects on them and send them out via Facebook or Twitter. The app’s currently on sale for a launch price of just US$0.99.

TUAW’s Daily App: 8-bit Pocket Camera originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With queues still forming at 4 AM at some Apple stores, and whole countries selling out completely, demand for the iPad 2 is so high that Apple suppliers are ramping up production of its various components.

AppleInsider reports that Samsung is hiring 300 new engineers for a semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas, and AU Optronics has an order to make flat panel screens (although this has not yet been confirmed). With earlier stories about other suppliers being taken on to make Apple’s A5 processor and touch sensors, it does seem as if Apple is indeed ramping up production. Analyst Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company predicts Apple will make 30 million iPads this year and 40 million in 2012.

Samsung alone will make something like US$7.8 billion worth of components for Apple next year, and others are looking for a share of Apple’s business. With a new iPhone model expected later this year, this doesn’t look like a process that’s going to slow down any time soon.

Suppliers ramp up to support iPad 2 demand originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There was a time when if you saw an Apple product in a corporate environment, you were either hanging out with the company’s designers or actually at Apple HQ itself. So it’s great to see companies not only using Apple gear but using it to incentivize and reward its staff like SmithBucklin, the world’s largest association management and professional services company, is doing.

It’s giving its 600+ employees 32 GB Wi-Fi iPad 2s, plus $50 toward accessories “as a way to reward excellent staff performance, improve productivity and enhance the company’s social media capabilities,” according to the company. “Now that our company is entering a new growth phase, we wanted to do something special for our employees to thank them for staying the course as well as help them continue to embrace social networking,” said SmithBucklin President and CEO Henry S. Givray.

You can apply for a job with SmithBucklin here — note that you’ll be able to upgrade your iPad 2 to 64 GB and Verizon or AT&T 3G service “for a nominal fee.”

[Via BusinessWire]

SmithBucklin distributes iPad 2s to employees originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iFund has been pretty influential ever since it was announced a couple of years ago — it’s a pool of money set up by Apple and a few other companies to support and grow companies that are contributing to the iOS ecosystem.

It’s been growing along with Apple’s platform, and now the fund has made its first contribution to an enterprise developer. Apperian is a company that helps enterprises create and deploy their own mobile apps, and it’s picked up $9.5 million in a round of funding that includes money from the iFund.

We’ve covered the use of iPhone and iPad in business quite a bit, and Apperian sits squarely in that wheelhouse, consulting with various companies on how to create and securely distribute their own mobile apps. iFund’s Matt Murphy says that Apperian is riding the wave of mobile devices that are showing up in the corporate workplace, and that “Apperian’s solution is perfectly timed to help enterprises rollout and manage all their applications across their employee base and its wide variety of smart devices.”

Sounds like a solid plan. It’s excellent to see Apple’s platform growing in all kinds of different directions.

Apperian picks up first enterprise iFund payout originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wow, this is incredible! iOS developer Gameloft is releasing a new app called Pet Pal, which uses sound wave technology to actually control your pets via the iPhone! The sound frequencies emitted from the iPhone activate certain centers of a cat or dog’s brain, harmlessly commanding it to bend to your will. We’ve seen some pretty amazing things from the iPhone before, but this truly is magical and revolutionary. Think of the medical applications! This is the future we’re seeing here, people, live in action!

What’s that? Friday is April 1st, you say? Oh right. Never mind then. If you want, you can watch the video, which features some cute pets and a monkey, after the break.

Continue reading Apple Fools: Gameloft’s Pet Pal will let you control your pet via iPhone

Apple Fools: Gameloft’s Pet Pal will let you control your pet via iPhone originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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@BenHarvell is a freelance writer and former editor of iCreate magazine. He writes for a wide range of international technology magazines and websites including Macworld, MacFormat and MacUser and  just wrote his first song with GarageBand for iPad. Ben once came within touching distance of Steve Jobs at an iPhone press event but resisted the urge to do so. He’s on Twitter and blogs at www.benharvell.com.

When the Apple TV 2 was introduced with iOS at its base we were all looking for Apple to introduce a developer program for its living room box – It never did.

Then some bright spark pulled apart the streaming media hockey puck and discovered some on-board storage. Now it was abundantly clear that apps were destined for the Apple TV – That day never came.

Now Apple has made the iPad 2 available to the nocturnal and those who enjoy standing in lines and with it offers apps on your TV, just not in the way you might have expected.

The billions in the bank prove just how savvy Apple is when it comes to launching new products and the addition of HDMI-Out in the iPad 2 and AirPlay improvements in iOS 4.3 feel to me like market research.

The Apple TV was just a “hobby” for Jobs and co until the Apple TV 2 launched and the company announced it was ready to play hardball. The price point couldn’t be argued but the updated Apple TV still had its detractors; the lack of live television, no customisation, no apps, no storage, only compatible with iTunes content etc etc. It seems those looking for an Apple-made alternative to GoogleTV or a Roku box were let down, as were those looking for it to become a television-oriented iOS platform. Apple, however, never gives everyone the features they want in 1.0 releases, opting instead to dip its toe into the market (usually with astounding success) and then revamp the device later with the features people wanted first time round (notable examples include iPods with video, iPhones with video, iPads with cameras and, of course, the App Store itself!)

Apple isn’t likely to launch an App Store on the Apple TV but it has given developers just enough tools to build demand for a whole new way of thinking about the device without a dollar heading to Apple’s marketing team. You see, a combination of AirPlay and the iPad 2′s HDMI-out makes it irrelevant whether there are apps on the Apple TV itself or not. As Firemint has shown with its HDMI-Out-enabled Real Racing HD 2, the apps can remain on your iOS device where they belong with the TV acting merely as a display. The same applies to AirPlay, the web content you view doesn’t have to be loaded or stored on your Apple TV when it can quite easily stream straight to it.

That’s media streaming and HD-quality apps running straight to your HDTV via AirPlay and HDMI-out. Put your hands together, Apple and somehow find a way to merge these two features! You’ll have the daddy of all entertainment systems that works like a console, works like Roku, works like a DVR and works like an App Store. The Apple TV doesn’t even need an interface anymore, just make it a dumb brick controlled by iOS devices – let them do the work.

So what happens next? We make the apps that make this worthwhile. Make your app look good on a TV screen, sell it this way, scream that it’s updated for iPad 2, call it “compatible with Apple TV” (if you can get away with it). Come up with apps that provide innovative ways for consumers to use their iPad and TV together and not just for games. For now, early adopters will be happy just to work with a long HDMI cable until Apple introduces lag-free, wireless, HD streaming (and that’s a big ask!), it just needs to feel like there’s a sub-category on the App Store for Apple TV-worthy applications.

Only then will Steve Jobs smile wryly, slowly rub his hands together and say “they get it” before pushing a red button and launching the marketing campaign that touts this as Apple’s idea all along.

Last week I attended NSConference 2011, in Reading, England. NSConf (Twitter tag: #nsconf) has been a yearly event for me since it began in 2009, and this year’s was not only the best so far, but probably the best conference I’ve ever attended, on any topic.

It would be difficult not to enjoy the conference given the stellar line-up of speakers (disclosure: including yours truly), but this year there was really a sense of an event that had found its pace and natural rhythm; NSConf has clearly matured. I’ve been thinking about it for a few days to try and pin down what worked so well.

It was a combination of several factors:

• The universally high quality of the main presentations. Many of the speakers are old hands at conference/public speaking, but a few were relatively new to it, and held their own admirably. There wasn’t a single dud session, and I learned a huge amount.

• Ideal session length. Keynotes (each day) were 45 minutes, and all other sessions were 30 minutes, followed by 30-minute breaks (with post-session questions pushed into the breaks). You can say a considerable amount on a topic in 30 minutes, but it’s short enough to require effort and preparation to keep the presentation tight and coherent.

  Equally, having a full half hour between sessions not only allowed time to recharge, but also gave an opportunity to really discuss what we’d just heard. This 30-30 format felt like the perfect rhythm for a technical conference.

• Single-track. NSConference has one track, with sessions on diverse topics that are nevertheless short enough that no-one gets bored or feels they’re not spending their time optimally. Everyone has the same experience, and everyone can talk about what’s been presented that day. No compromises are necessary.

• Blitz talks were also excellent, and well-pitched. These were 15 minutes long, and took place during the 30-minute breaks between primary sessions. The topics were even more eclectic here, and gave an excellent chance for those who speak less often to address a smaller audience on a subject of interest to them. The personality of the conference really came across in these talks, and I loved every one I attended.

  On a personal note, I was especially pleased that my long-time friend Neil Inglis presented one of the blitz talks himself (an excellent session on incorporating advertising and affiliate links into your apps, which he absolutely nailed), and I hope he’ll consider doing so again in future.

• A balance between technical and UX material. This year’s conference really illustrated how UX and design matters have become first-class topics in our industry (particularly on the platforms we work with). We had design/concept/UX-focused talks from Mike Lee, Dave Wiskus, Cathy Shive, Aral Balkan (talk about a blockbuster line-up) and myself, and the audience were every bit as engaged as in the more technical sessions.

• A full-spectrum, end-to-end approach to software development – not just the technical (or UX) side – with best-in-class presenters. DeVoe on marketing. Hoctor on business. Jalkut on customer support. No-one needs to ask these guys for any credentials.

  Then throw in Dann waxing philosophical on method naming, Addey on VoiceOver (with audience participation), Kusterer on parsing, Lee on cryptographic storage, McCormack on Core Animation, Wheeler on Instruments, Zarra on asset caching and more… these are the all-stars you would wish for on each of these topics, and that’s the calibre of speakers that NSConf attracts.

  It was the fucking developer version of Live Aid.

• The social aspect of the conference was extremely effective. I’ve already mentioned the session-to-break ratio, but the venue itself (and its comparative isolation) made sure that everyone was together for meals, and critically during the evenings. It’s difficult to overstate how conducive the setup was to meeting colleagues and making friends.

• The labs. Whilst people were initially unsure what these would entail, the labs worked out extremely well. I ran the Design lab with Mike Lee and Dave Wiskus, and the format was that attendees would book a 20-minute slot, and arrive with something they wanted to talk about – often an design or idea, or even a running app – and some questions or problems. We’d sit down, one on one, and find solutions to those problems.

  People seemed to go away from the labs energised and excited, and often with a new perspective not just on the problems they’d brought but also on the focus of their app itself. It was a very rewarding experience for me, and I’m considering expanding my professional services in that direction too, on the strength of my NSConf experience.

Two of my esteemed colleagues from Tap! magazine, Chris Phin (editor) and Craig Grannell (contributing editor for games) also showed up on the Tuesday night to socialise and share some copies of the magazine, which was a very pleasant surprise. They’re fantastic chaps, and they care every bit as much about the Mac/iOS developer community as I do.

The main value of a technical conference for me isn’t the factual content or even the opportunity to socialise with my peers and learn about their interesting work, but rather the feeling you take away when you leave. NSConference for me has always been an opportunity to recharge my inspiration and excitement for doing what I do, and I’ve never left an event with such a buzz as I felt this year.

NSConference has unarguably hit its stride, and stands as the conference to beat in our industry. Huge congratulations should go to Scotty, Dave, Claire, Matt and everyone else for pulling it off.

I’m certain that next year’s event will sell out even more rapidly than it did this year, and I’ll be doing everything possible to make sure one of the tickets is mine.

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Drop!. The developer describes Drop! as follows: You are trying to set the record for longest fall by a skydiver. Steer clear of obstacles to avoid damaging your parachute, and collect powerups to fall as far as possible. The farther you fall, the larger your score grows!

Read on for more information and screenshots.

Screenshots

Drop!

About the App

Here are the top five features you can expect to see in the latest version:

• 4 unique worlds, each with a day and night variation
• Unique obstacles in each world
• Game Center Support: compete with your friends!
• Local High-Scores
• Control the skydiver smoothly and accurately using the accelerometer

Requirements: iOS 3.0 or Later
Price: $0.99
Developer: Applause Code

Vote for a Review

Would you like to see us write a full review of Drop!? Have your say in our poll:

Would you like to see Drop! reviewed in-depth on AppStorm?online survey

Quick Look posts are paid submissions offering only a brief overview of an app. Vote in the poll if you think this app is worth an in-depth AppStorm review! If you’re a developer and would like to have your app profiled, you can submit it here.