Category: I-phone

TUAW dives into Microsoft Office 2011 with reviews of the apps that make up the suite. First up: the pans and praises of Word 2011.

It’s been a stalwart on the Mac platform since before we said things like “the Mac platform.” Turning 25 this year, Microsoft Word is the anchor app for the Office 2011 suite and the one most home, student and many business users will spend the most time in. There’s no upgrade pricing for the suite, and the licensing is now locked to an individual machine — so is it worth it to the average Word user to make the leap? Let’s discuss.

“Holy toolbars, Batman!” was the first thing I said after launching Word 2011 for the first time. This is the fabled “ribbon” that Microsoft added to the Windows version of Office. I’m told that I’ll get used to it. Some even claim to like it after a while. I’m not sure how long that is supposed to take, but it’s apparently more than a few days.

These are the facts: the ribbon does show a number of different functions, including just about everything a normal person would want to do. Although it is crowded with a bunch of icons (including six different icons that prominently display the letter “A” in one close cluster), the options and settings you might want are all “right there” and easy to discover. Microsoft did a great job making it so that it dynamically resizes as you resize the window. If I made my window the full width of my 24″ iMac, the toolbar expanded, reflowed, and the Styles section expanded. If I shrunk it down, it reflowed again; it did this all very naturally while showing a lot of attention to detail.

Don’t like the ribbon? You can change it, collapse it, tell it not to open automatically with new documents, or disable it entirely. Those settings are easy to find, too, as there’s a shortcut to the Preferences window right from the ribbon itself. That’s an important point: these are separate preferences. If you are familiar enough with the Mac to go into the regular Word menu to open the preferences, you’ll find the Ribbon preferences right there. If you aren’t, there’s a gear icon on the ribbon itself that will offer to open it for you. Rather than divide up the preferences into two different places, there are two different ways to get to the same place. It’s a slight (but important) difference.

Continue reading Word 2011 brings ribbons, clouds, and full-screen mode

Word 2011 brings ribbons, clouds, and full-screen mode originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In its continuing effort to present customers with the best of the App Store, Apple has published an “App Store Essentials Hall of Fame” page. It features many titles you’ve undoubtedly heard of, including Angry Birds, Evernote, Facebook and Epicurious. Fifty apps are featured in total.

Apple calls this crop “the best of the best.” Certainly some TUAW favorites are included. At the same time, some goodies that we depend on are excluded. Is your favorite on the list?

Apple features “Hall of Fame” apps originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With nothing better to do (plus a few pending reviews that require a jailbreak), I decided to give the redsn0w 4.2 jailbreak a try. A 4.2 GM 2nd generation iPod touch was my test device. The jailbreak is not very hard to do: download a copy of the current 4.1 firmware (it’s on Apple’s servers), point redsn0w to that firmware, and then follow directions to place the device into DFU mode.

Unfortunately, the results were not positive. This is not the fault of redsn0w; it is set for 4.1 jailbreaks, not for 4.2. Rather, the jailbreak succeeded, but the patches (at least for my 2g iPod) caused too many operational issues under 4.2 for me to recommend this approach to others. In addition to a noticeable and unsightly screen flicker, Cydia fails to run properly. That prevents me from installing any further software as OpenSSH and the command-line apt-get utility are unavailable.

On the positive side, it was easy enough to restore my firmware using a simple upgrade procedure — allowing me to return to a functional unit already loaded with music, apps, and videos in just a few minutes, rather than perform a complete system restore. I ended up jailbreaking and restoring twice. In both cases, I found the same issues and in both cases I returned to a standard 4.2 installation a few minutes later.

While I cannot recommend using a 4.2 jailbreak at this time (at least on 2nd generation iPod touches, your mileage may vary on other devices), I still appreciate the flexibility and strength of the jailbreaking tools that at least gave me an opportunity to try.

Update: 3rd gen iPod touch jb is going far, far better… Cydia is up and running. Just did the “complete upgrade” and my unit is rebooting. Will be installing OpenSSH & apt 0.6 transitional once the reboot finishes. Well, correct that. 3rd gen was running 4.1 and I forgot to upgrade first. Under 4.2 Cydia does not run.

TUAW Hands On: 4.2 jailbreak originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s come to light that the upcoming release of iOS 4.2 (due in November) will support all-out MIDI. According to Mike Keller, writing for PC World, Core MIDI on iOS 4.2 should work just as Core MIDI does on Mac OS X, meaning that your iDevice running iOS 4.2 will communicate with other MIDI compatible devices and hardware via USB (using the iPad’s camera connection kit USB adapter) or WiFi, using Apple’s own MIDI APIs.

What can we expect to see from MIDI in iOS? Well, until the official release of iOS 4.2, we won’t have all the details. But the guys over at Create Digital Music have put an interesting guide together to demonstrate some of the capabilities of what a MIDI-equipped iDevice could look like, using a developers release of iOS 4.2.

Up until now, music creation on the iPhone and iPad has been more of a novelty affair rather than a serious contender and choice for pro musicians. Could MIDI support in iOS be the catalyst that changes that?

For me, one of the big attractions of MIDI support in iOS would be the ability to use an iPad / iPhone, loaded with high quality samples, as a replacement for the more traditional laptop + MIDI controller (keyboard) setup commonly used in live musical contexts. All we’d need is for some high quality sample manufacturers (Native Instruments, you interested?) to port a version of their software to the App Store.

For all the details, and a video preview of the iConnectMID as well as a look at the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer, click here.

[via Engadget]

iOS 4.2 to support MIDI originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just in case you haven’t heard, the iPad is having a rather large impact on the computing world around us. And if you don’t believe the numerous analysts, business adopters and retailers, then perhaps Microsoft’s own Gavriella Schuster, general manager for Windows product management, will sway you.

In response to Nick Eaton from the Seattle PI, speaking to Schuster about the success of the iPad and other pending tablet devices threatening Windows’ hold on the netbook market, Schuster said (referring to her pink netbook in front of her), “These [netbooks] are definitely getting cannibalized. These are really a second device. But they are getting cannibalized.”

We know that Windows dominates on the netbook scene. It’s a huge market for Microsoft (according to Nick Eaton, over 90% of netbooks ship with Windows installed). So, for Schuster to openly admit that the netbook market is being cannibalized by the iPad further illustrates how it is changing the way we use computers today.

[via ComputerWorld]

Microsoft acknowledges iPad’s effect on netbook market originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shortly after announcing the end of the Xserve, Apple has added Mac Pro server configuration in its place. The new machine features a single 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Xeon ‘Nehalem’ processor, 8GB (4 x 2GB) of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, a pair of 1TB (7200RPM) hard drives, one 18x SuperDrive and ATI’s Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 video memory. The whole kit-and-kaboodle is served up with an unlimited-client license of Mac OS X Server. Pricing starts at US$2,999 and ships in a few weeks.

Despite EOL’ing the Xserve, Apple still has two server machines available; the new Mac Pro and the mini server. Check your wallet and make your choice. Just remember, changing hard drives in the Mac Pro is a heck of a lot easier, if you’ve got the room to stash it.

[via Engadget]

Mac Pro server config added to product lineup originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ABCi, the interactive media arm of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, has issued a new report showing that American and Canadian publishers feel that mobile technology is very important to their futures. As a result, many of these publishers are working on making content available on mobile phones, tablets, and e-reader devices. The report, covered in Poynter Online, shows that a full 60% of respondents feel that making a mixture of ad-supported free content and premium paid content available to consumers is the best way to succeed in the mobile market.

With publishers finally waking up to the fact that the world has gone electronic, ABCi reports that Apple is expected to be the mobile device manufacturer with the most impact on the publishing industry in the next year. But the picture isn’t all that rosy.

Most of ABCi’s respondents felt that Apple’s iTunes business model and the lack of solid analytics available from Apple were a bad way to do business. Only 19% of those surveyed said that they were satisfied with the iTunes app business model, and a paltry 11% were satisfied with the analytics and customer data that Apple shares with publishers.

The report points out that the big prize is Apple’s to win, but that the company also needs to consider drastically changing its publishing business model before publishers will be happy. What do you think? Should Apple cater to the whims of traditional publishers in order to snap up the mobile publishing market, or is it the stodgy publishers that should change to fit the Apple model? Leave a comment below.

[Thanks to @steverubel for the Twitter tip]

Publishers leery of doing business with Apple originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Among the four national mobile phone carriers in the United States, T-Mobile is clearly the laggard in terms of subscriber numbers. This comes despite low prices and highly-regarded customer service. Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile USA’s parent company, lays the blame squarely on the lack of an iPhone to sell.

The U.S. remains one of the few major markets with a single iPhone carrier, and T-Mobile isn’t it. In the third quarter of this year, T-Mobile USA gained just 137,000 new customers. Most of those went for prepaid service rather than the smartphones.

T-Mobile has no shortage of good smartphones with a wide array Android devices available. Despite this, growth for the carrier has been slow to non-existent while Verizon has had tremendous success with Android phones. Of course, AT&T has the iPhone.

It’s probable that T-Mobile would see an influx of new business if it had the Apple superphone to sell, but the real problem with T-Mobile isn’t selection, it’s the network. T-Mobile has made strides with its HSPA+ rollout, but it still has too many voice dead zones, making it an even worse choice than AT&T for many users. Perhaps Mr. Oberman should invest more in solidifying his company’s voice coverage and less time complaining about what it doesn’t have.

T-Mobile blames lack of iPhone for poor US sales originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are few things more annoying than opening up your shiny new electronic toy only to find one or more misbehaving pixels. While dead or stuck pixels are less of a problem than they were a few years ago, it does still happen. Manufacturers and retailers rarely go public with what their warranty policies are on these display anomalies, preferring instead to deal with issues on a case-by-case basis.

Our friends at Boy Genius Report gave the lowdown Wednesday on an internal Apple document that specifies exactly how many bad pixels must appear on a device before it is considered to be ‘out of spec.’ There are a number of thresholds that depend on the display size and the density of the anomalies. For displays up to 3.5 inches, which includes all iPods and iPhones, no bad pixels will be tolerated; even a single instance gets you an automatic replacement. On the other hand, your iPad needs three or more dark or bright spots before a replacement will be offered. Likewise, that gorgeous 27- or 30-inch Cinema display would have to show at least nine bright, 11 dark or a total of 16 bad spots.

Anyone that has dealt with the Geniuses at the Apple store knows that they have some discretion with repairs, and you can ask them to replace a component that’s still within the ‘acceptable’ range if it’s driving you batty. Update: The word from inside Apple’s retail team is that if you ask for a first replacement product due to bad pixels, you should always get it, with no arguments and no restock charges (if this isn’t your experience, ask to discuss it with a supervisor). However, if the replacement unit is still within spec — which, for anything other than an iPhone or iPod touch, may mean more pixels depending on how bad the first unit was — a second replacement is ruled out. You might want to open the product box in the store and check it before you leave (at least for the midsize gear; opening your Cinema Display or iMac in the store may be an issue without further conversation).

Apple dead pixel policy: one for iPhone, three for iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Farewell, Xserve. While the G5 version was once the server behind one of the world’s fastest parallel supercomputers, Apple’s powerful but slow-selling line of rack-mount servers has now reached the end of its life cycle and will no longer be offered after January 31, 2011. As an enterprise-oriented config, the Xserve has never received much attention during Apple’s splashy product introductions, instead quietly getting speed bumps and bigger drives.

The server chassis will not be available for sale after January, but the 160 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB drive modules will still be available for sale until the end of next year. Apple has posted a transition document on its website that recommends either the Mac Mini server or Mac Pro with Snow Leopard Server as alternatives.

While rackmount adapters are available for the Mini, it doesn’t come close to the performance of the Xserve. The Pro on the other hand has no issues with performance, but requiring 12U of rack space for 2 machines is a huge concern; also the Pro lacks the XServe’s redundant power supplies, and cannot support the Lights-Out Management features of the rackmount server.

[Apple’s transition guide covers the feature comparisons between the two alternatives and the Xserve, but it doesn’t say anything to soothe the ire of Xsan customers, who depend on the rackmount server to operate their storage-area networks for high performance video editing or scientific computing. We’ll be talking to system integrators and customers later today. -Ed.]

If you decide that you need that “just right” option before it goes away, the quad-core Xserve starts at $2,999 while the eight-core variant will run $600 more. Reader Chris Clarke also notes that the maximum memory config on the Mac Pro server models has gone to 32GB for the quad/six core units, and 64GB for the 8/12 core machines.

Thanks to Colin for the tip.

[Hat tips to Engadget, MacRumors & MacGeneration]

Apple’s Xserve hits end of life, order yours before Jan, 31 originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 08:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Voice Fantasy is a weird little app from Square Enix, creators of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series of role-playing games. You may remember Song Summoner, the original RPG created for the iPod a while back (that later came to the iPhone as well). That game had you creating soldiers with songs. Voice Fantasy has you creating heroes with a different audio source: your voice. Just pull up the create-a-hero screen, speak or sing into the iPhone’s mic, and the game will create a custom-made hero just for you from whatever auditory groans or screams you can come up with.

Unfortunately, unlike Song Summoner, there’s no RPG element to this one. Instead, the game is just a short series of arenas, with your heroes fighting their way up to and defeating the Demon King. You don’t actually control the heroes — they just fight for you, and you can pit them against friends’ heroes as well to see whose voice is stronger. If it sounds like a gimmick, it kind of is, but the graphics look great, and the game is just interesting enough to play around with for a while.

There is supposedly more coming, including some characters from a favorite series (perhaps the final part of a fantasy series?). There’s also another game mode on the way, and hopefully it’s a story mode of some kind, because what’s currently there isn’t very deep. But it is the latest in a series of interesting experiments by Square Enix on the iPhone, and for US$2.99, it’s almost worth supporting just to give the classic game makers a vote of confidence in providing original games for the platform. Voice Fantasy is a strange one, but especially if you’re a Square Enix fan, it’s worth checking out. And if you’re not enticed by this, go get Chaos Rings. That’s the full-featured Square Enix RPG for the iPhone that you’re looking for.

TUAW’s Daily App: Voice Fantasy originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 4.2 hasn’t even been publicly released yet, but the gold master candidate has already been jailbroken using Redsn0w. In fact, using instructions posted on Covering Web, it’s been possible to jailbreak iOS 4.2’s gold master since the moment it was released. The jailbreaking steps are relatively straightforward, although they do require you to have retained a copy of the iOS 4.1 firmware in order for the procedure to work.

Of interest to those who don’t want to jailbreak but are interested in getting hold of the iOS 4.2 gold master before its official release, Covering Web also has instructions and download links available for updating to iOS 4.2 early. Updating in this fashion requires you to completely restore your iOS device, so make sure you back it up using iTunes before you do so. After the restore is complete, you can use iTunes to sync over your apps, media, and data.

Update: Restoring isn’t necessary. Instead of holding down Option and clicking “Restore” in iTunes, hold Option and click “Update,” then find the iOS 4.2 file and select it. Now your device will be updated without having to erase it first, which should save a couple hours of syncing files afterward.

I can’t vouch for the results you’ll get from Covering Web’s jailbreaking procedure — I’m too chicken to jailbreak — but I’ve been running iOS 4.2 GM on my iPhone 4 since a few hours after its release and have suffered no issues. If you’re too impatient to wait for the official iOS 4.2 release and have a couple hours of time to kill while your device syncs over all of its data following the restoration procedure, then you really don’t have much to fear from an early update — the last several iOS gold master releases have all been identical to the later public release, and gold master releases don’t require a developer ID for installation.

Please note that TUAW cannot help you if you munge your device by upgrading early or by jailbreaking; in either case, you are on your own.

Updating to iOS 4.2 early, with optional jailbreak originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software (creator developer of MarsEdit, a TUAW favorite app for blogging) gave a talk at MacTech 2010 this morning about unit testing Mac apps, and while his developer talk was mostly over our heads, he did kindly allow us to corner him afterwards to chat about the state of Mac development and what he expects out of Apple’s upcoming Mac App Store.

Like most of the developers we’ve met up with at the conference this week, Jalkut is hesitant but optimistic about the way the Mac App Store will work. His most recent issue is with so-called “land grabbers” on the App Store — some developers are already grabbing up names (since submissions just started recently), and Jalkut is worried that Apple regulations means he won’t be able to call his upcoming iPhone app by the same name as his widely used Mac app. “Which, as you can imagine,” he told me, “is kind of a challenge and a problem.”

Continue reading MacTech 2010: Daniel Jalkut on the Mac App Store and more

MacTech 2010: Daniel Jalkut on the Mac App Store and more originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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