Category: Tutorials

If you’ve been looking around for a solid VoIP/SIP client for the iPad or iPhone, consider CounterPath’s Bria.

For all the excitement around VoIP on the iPhone and iPod touch (including high profile apps like Skype, Vonage TalkFree for Facebook and Line2), relatively few developers have gone after the corporate side of the voice mix. With so many large enterprises using Asterisk-based PBX replacements for VoIP telephony, a solid SIP client for iPhone and iPad seems like a natural winner.

Bringing the advantage of its long pedigree in desktop VoIP clients, CounterPath now delivers some of that savvy to iOS with Bria. On the Mac, Bria is the successor to the capable EyeBeam and free X-lite softphones; now shipping on both the iPhone (US$7.99) and launched this week for the iPad ($14.99), it provides some of the key features needed in a mobile voice solution. Bria works out of the box with major IP-telephony service providers (ITSPs), but keep in mind it does not include service with the app; you need to be using a hosted service or your company’s IP telephony infrastructure for Bria to work.

The three most important considerations for any softphone app are call quality; call quality; and, of course, call quality. I was able to make and receive calls on several WiFi networks using Bria and a Fonality PBXtra server (built off the Trixbox Asterisk platform). While I heard a bit of near-side echo and low-bandwidth choppiness during some calls, most of the time the audio was as good or better than it would be on a conventional iPhone call, and less likely to drop. The people I called reported my voice quality as ‘awesome’ and ‘really spectacular,’ so it seems the artifacts I heard from time to time were on my side only.

It’s easy to set up Bria; the app takes the same credentials and server info you use for your desktop VoIP/SIP softphone. Once you enter your server name and authorization, you can begin making and receiving calls. Bria is optimized for WiFi use, but it will work over 3G if you enable that option in preferences; however, you’re at risk of chewing up your wireless data allocation if you make a lot of calls that way, and quality will suffer a bit. On the flip side, you are not using any voice minutes, and for calls to colleagues on your internal phone system you will appear to be calling from your office extension — a great trick when you’re actually enjoying a piña colada by the pool.

The iPad edition of Bria works perfectly with multitasking, allowing you to switch apps and continue a call in the background. Both standard wired headphone/mic combos and Bluetooth headsets work great, but what’s really surprising is that the iPad works quite well as a speakerphone — plop it onto your conference table and away you go.

You can optimize your voice quality by selecting a preferred codec in the advanced app preferences; this is also where you turn on 3G calling, set backgrounding options, and adjust other items. For the best quality on 3G calls, Counterpath offers the G.729 premium codec as an in-app purchase — unfortunately, it’s $8.99, so it’s unlikely to appeal to most users unless you really need the improved low-bandwidth mojo.

Backgrounding may affect your battery life, since most SIP servers will require a UDP connection that isn’t directly supported by Apple’s notification scheme; some newer servers may work with TCP, which does save power and improve background rings. You can also set incoming calls to forward to your cell number for when Bria’s not running.

CounterPath’s market position provides a good perspective on the impact of iOS and the Mac in the enterprise market, since its products address business needs almost exclusively. When I spoke to senior VP of marketing and products Todd Carothers earlier this week, he acknowledged the accelerating interest from businesses big and small in Apple platforms: “We have seen a significant enough growth in Mac Bria sales since the launch of 3.0 to SME/Enterprise customers. What’s happening is Enterprises want multiple OS support with common UI elements.” Being able to offer a consistent user experience across PC and mobile platforms would seem to be particularly important for telephony applications, since business users are going to spend a lot of time making and taking calls.

Bria is definitely a business product at a business price, and it’s a bit frustrating that CounterPath didn’t choose to deliver it as a universal app instead of the split-SKU arrangement in place now. Nevertheless, if your company is rocking an IP PBX and you want a premium VoIP experience, there’s no better choice right now.

Bria extends VoIP phone client to iPad originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Conde Nast has told Pocket-lint that UK subscribers to its print edition of GQ will get the iPad version of the magazine for free. Currently the UK GQ Magazine iPad app is a free download, but users have to pay £2.40 per issue. However, Conde Nast is working with Apple to bring annual subscriptions and more a la carte options to the UK edition of GQ on the iPad. When it does, subscribers to the print edition will get the iPad edition for free.

Conde Nast’s decision to give the iPad edition of its magazine away for free to subscribers mirrors the decision by Time, Inc to give away its iPad editions to annual print subscribers. While iPad editions of magazines are starting to catch on, it looks like the magazine publishers have realized that current print subscribers wouldn’t be happy if they had to pay for the digital editions of the same magazine they already get in the mail.

UK GQ subscribers will get iPad version for free originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC may top Apple as the #1 smartphone vendor in the US for the next few months, according to a report in DigiTimes. The Taiwanese handset maker is selling two new and popular Android models, the Thunderbolt for Verizon and the Inspire 4G for AT&T. At the same time, Apple is still offering the iPhone 4, a model that is now more than one year old on AT&T. Sales are expected to slow for the iPhone 4 and rise for the HTC handsets.

Apple did see a small boost in sales when it launched the iPhone 4 for Verizon and the white iPhone 4 earlier this year, but these additions may not be enough to fend off the growing sales of the HTC devices. HTC should enjoy its time at the top, as this may all change when the iPhone 5 is introduced — hopefully this fall.

HTC leveraging window before next iPhone release originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we wait for iOS 5 to deliver cool new features, here’s a look at Voice Control, a feature introduced with the iPhone 3GS model. There are three types of Voice Control commands: phone, music and other. Here’s how to use each.

Launching Voice Control

Of course, you can’t use Voice Control until you get it running. You can either hold the Home Button down for about two seconds, or do the same with the middle button on your supplied Apple earbuds. You’ll hear a beep and the iPhone’s screen will display “Voice Control” with a blue background. Now, let’s issue some commands.

Phone commands

Your iPhone understands “call” and “dial.” To tell your iPhone to call a contact, say “call” (or “dial”) plus the contact’s name. For example, saying “Call Janie Smith” will launch the phone app and call Janie’s number. If a contact has several numbers (work and home, for example), you can specify which one you want. “Call Janie Smith home” will call Janie’s home number.

Calling a number that’s not in your contacts list is just as easy. Simply say, “call” plus the number.

Music commands

Voice Control supports a nice list of music commands, from starting and stopping a song to asking about the artist. Here’s how to get started.

You can say “play” or “play music” to get the music going. If you’ve got a song paused when you issue the play command, it will resume. If the iPod app isn’t running, it will start at the very first song in your library.

Of course, you can get specific. Voice Control also understands “play playlist [name of playlist],” “play album [name of album]” and “play artist [name of artist].” For example, saying “Play album Dark Side of the Moon” will start the first track of that album, while “Play artist Pink Floyd” will start at the first track of the first album in your Pink Floyd collection (you have one, right?).

While you’re at it, create a Genius playlist. While a song you dig is playing, tell Voice Control “Genius play more like this” or “Genius play more songs like this” or simply “play more like this” and it’ll create a Genius playlist for you on the spot.

Simple navigation is also possible. Your iPhone understands “pause,” “pause music,” “next song,” “previous song” and “shuffle.”

Finally, you can ask your iPhone four questions about the track being played. Specifically, “what’s playing,” “what song is this,” “who sings this song” or “who is this song by.”

Miscellaneous commands

Here are a few other commands that don’t fit into the previous categories.

“What is the time” or “what time is it.” For most people it’s quicker to tap the Home Button once and look at the time, but this command will benefit visually impaired users.

“Cancel” and “stop” exit Voice Control.

You can correct a mistake (and there will be plenty. More on that in a minute) by saying, “no,” “not that,” “nope,” “not that one” or “wrong.” Write those down now.

Finally, saying “FaceTime” supposedly initiates a FaceTime call. Which brings me to the bad news.

Voice Control works in the way that temporary tattoos look like real tattoos. At first it’s passable but upon closer inspection, you see that it’s not the real thing (my attempts at initiating a FaceTime call launched a Genesis album). Placing calls was the most reliable function, while the phone had trouble understanding some musical artist’s names and was downright befuddled at other times.

That being said, I have friends who swear by it, so perhaps I’ve got poor diction. Give it a try yourself using the commands listed above, and dream of the day that Siri purchase actually pays off.

Thanks to reader Walt whose email inspired this post!

iPhone 101: Using Voice Control originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even with the upcoming overhaul to Mail in Lion, there are still plenty of alternatives for accessing your Gmail in OS X without going through the default Mail.app. Several TUAW bloggers are ardent fans of Mailplane, a US$24.99 app that turns Gmail’s web interface into a dedicated email client.

Then there’s MailTab, which comes in two flavors: Free and a $1.99 pro version. MailTab sits in the menu bar and allows you to access Gmail’s mobile interface without needing to access a web browser. It works fairly well and brought in my Gmail information automatically from where I had been signed in with Safari. If you’re familiar with Gmail’s mobile interface, it’s easy to use. The only difference between the free and the pro version is that Gmail chat is added to the pro version. It also lacks switching between linked accounts. You have to completely sign out of MailTab to sign into another account.

If you don’t care to constantly fiddle with a web browser or have a single Gmail account, check out MailTab. But, if you have more than one Gmail account and want a more robust features that integrate with OS X, Mailplane is the better choice.

TUAW’s Daily Mac App: MailTab originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One app that has grown from an iPhone hit to a worldwide phenomenon is Rovio Mobile’s Angry Birds. Whether you’re a fan of knocking over pigs and structures by flinging birds, or go berserk when you hear the Angry Birds theme music, you have to admit that the popularity of what was originally a simple iOS game it pretty amazing. Now T-Mobile is capitalizing on Angry Birds fever with a clever YouTube video titled Angry Birds Live.

A human-scaled mockup of the Angry Birds world was created in a square in Barcelona, with lucky participants using the game on a smartphone to launch birds on their castle-smashing journey. It includes authentic sounds effects and exploding pigs, and was obviously popular judging from the size of the crowd that appears.

The ad isn’t iPhone-specific, noting that T-Mobile has the “widest range of smartphones,” but the carrier does sell the iPhone outside of the U.S. and the game got its start on iOS. With that, we present to you Angry Birds Live in all of its glory:

T-Mobile ad illustrates Angry Birds’ immense popularity originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacBook Air fans who are anxious to have the latest Intel Sandy Bridge chips in their thin and lovely laptops don’t have much longer to wait. Wall Street analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, in a conversation with Apple Insider, noted that Apple has placed orders for nearly 400,000 MacBook Airs containing the Core i5 and Core i7 chips.

Slightly over half of the new MacBook Airs being produced this month are expected to be the 11.6-inch model, which has proven to be a bit more popular than its 13.3-inch sibling due to the $999 price for the entry-level device.

The new ultra-low-voltage Core i5 and Core i7 chips contain between 3 and 4 MB of Smart Cache and can support a theoretical 8 GB of RAM. The present MacBook Air models use two-year-old Core 2 Duo chips that can only support a maximum of 4 GB of DDR3 SDRAM. It’s unknown, but likely, that the new MacBook Airs will also support the new Thunderbolt I/O technology.

New MacBook Air production rumored to begin this month originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the more interesting iOS 5 features revealed this week during the Monday keynote was seamless integration with Twitter. Now a report published by All Things D shows that fields for other social networking sites also appear in the iOS 5 contacts app, including Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, and Myspace.

While the operating system’s integration with Twitter is fairly widespread — single sign-on for multiple apps, ability to send photos directly from the Camera, YouTube, Safari, and Maps apps, and auto-fill from Contacts — it appears that at this time the other social sites aren’t as tightly bound to iOS 5. Users can begin by populating handles for each of the sites on an address book page for a contact, although developers speaking to All Things D reported that even that capability was a bit buggy at this time.

As blogger Liz Gannes notes, “The inclusion of the feature shows Apple’s acknowledgement of the importance of Web presences and contact information.” At this point, manually entering friends’ handles could be onerous for those who have hundreds or thousands of “friends” on each social networking site. Apple could offer Twitter-like authentication for the other services, which would make matching contacts and social network handles somewhat more automatic.

With at least three or four months remaining before iOS 5 becomes available to users, we’re sure to hear much more about social network integration in the new mobile OS.

iOS 5 contacts app has fields for Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Myspace info originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung may be forced to fatten its tablet devices due to a display shortage. The Korean company gleefully proclaimed its revised Galaxy Tab line was thinner than the iPad 2 and repeatedly showcased the tablet’s anorexic design.

An unfortunate display shortage has forced the company to drop its thinner GFI display and replace it with a thicker GFF display. This Glass Fiber Filter display is almost 40 percent thicker and has lower light transmittance than its thinner counterpart. Samsung maybe forced to make two variants of the Galaxy Tab, one with the original spec and one with a slightly heftier profile.

Display shortages are an unfortunate part of electronics manufacturing. AMOLED display shortages delayed the full rollout of the several Android handsets inducing the DROID Incredible. More recently, Apple is thought to have cornered the market in tablet displays, forcing manufacturers like RIM and Motorola to scramble for the leftovers.

[Via Electronista]

Display shortage forces Samsung to lose its competitve edge over the iPad 2 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several posts on Apple’s support forums suggest Apple is withholding shipments of a select number of Verizon iPad 2s. Details are sparse but shipments en route from China are apparently being called back to their destination.

9to5Mac was also reportedly told by a store employee that Apple has provided a list of serial numbers for Verizon iPad 2 models. All shipments from June 6 to June 11 are supposed to be scanned for these blacklisted devices. If any are found, they are sent back to Apple. This one store has already sent back 100 tablets.

From the description, this unknown problem apparently affects a handful of Verizon iPad 2 units. Neither Apple nor Verizon has publicly commented on this unexpected and unofficial recall.

Current stock of Verizon iPad 2s being pulled by Apple? originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at WWDC about the keynote and how Apple’s new technologies will help them and their customers. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll bring you those videos here, at MacTech.com and at MacNews.com. Also, check out the free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here.

In this video I have a chat with Oliver Breidenbach from Boinx Software, makers of FotoMagico, iStopMotion, PhotoPresenter, Mouseposé and one of the tools we use for our Macworld streaming setup: BoinxTV. This week at WWDC Boinx introduced Orientator for BoinxTV and LibOrientator for iOS devs. Most of the Boinx products are available in the Mac App Store as well, often in a “pro” and “home” version with pricing according to your needs.

Oliver’s team delivers a great suite of tools for animators, filmmakers, videographers and presenters. We spoke about their business and what the WWDC announcements mean to them.

WWDC Interview: Boinx Software originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPhone dev released a new version of redsn0w that jailbreaks iOS 5 beta. The release is meant for developers to test their jailbroken apps with Apple’s latest mobile operating system. The dev team warns people that this jailbreak will not bypass iOS 5 beta activation. You still need a developers account and a registered UDID to activate iOS 5 on your handset. The jailbreak is tethered only and compatible with the iPod touch 3G/4G, iPad 1, iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4 (GSM/CDMA).

redsn0w tethered jailbreak available for iOS 5 Beta 1 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has filed a motion to intervene for developers being sued by Lodsys. The motion was filed in the Eastern District of Texas and notes that the developers are:

“are individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and […] lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple’s rights under its license agreement.”

Precedence suggests Apple will be allowed to intervene in this case. The company will likely argue that Lodsys’ claims are covered by an existing licensing agreement Apple has with the firm. If Apple is successful, Lodsys would not be allowed to collect twice on the same licensed patent.

It is not known whether Apple will pay for the legal costs of these developers, but it is good news that Apple is stepping in legally in this case.

Apple files motion to intervene in Lodsys suit originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Supplies of Apple’s Mac Pro and Mac mini server lines are reportedly constrained, indicating a refresh is likely in the near future. According to 9to5 Mac, a source indicates these two product lines should see updates within the next month or so. 9to5 Mac doesn’t give any info on the current supply status of the non-server versions of these two Mac models, but it’s a safe bet that the standard and server lines will see updates at around the same time.

We already expect to see a refresh of the MacBook Air line relatively soon, and the Mac Pro and Mac mini are due as well, having last been refreshed nearly a year ago. It’s a given that all of the forthcoming Mac model refreshes will include Apple’s new Thunderbolt I/O port, and the Mac Pro and Mac mini are also likely to have their CPUs updated to Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture.

9to5 Mac also notes that Apple’s AirPort equipment supplies are still constrained, which may indicate that those products are still due for the refresh that many (including us at TUAW) expected to see at WWDC. With Mac OS X Lion due for release next month and a bevy of product refreshes expected soon, it’s shaping up to be a busy couple of months for the Mac.

Low Mac Pro, Mac mini server supplies suggest pending refresh originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A little while back, we spotlighted the great game Casey’s Contraptions in this space, and the credit was well-deserved at the time (and still is). But that game was inspired in large part by an older game called The Incredible Machine, worked on by programmer Jeff Tunnell. Tunnell recently went to work for Playdom, and that company is now owned by Disney’s interactive arm. So when Tunnell also decided recently that he wanted to bring The Incredible Machine to iOS, Disney gladly helped out with publishing.

If I had to choose one, I’d say Casey’s Contraptions is the more full-featured title, and my recommendation for that one is as strong as ever. But I also spent some time with Incredible Machine in Disney’s booth at E3 this week, and it’s a pretty solid title as well. The game comes with 60 levels, with more available in extra packs, and if you’re a fan of the old game, most of your favorite items are back in play here. If you shot through Casey’s and want another Rube Goldberg game to play, you can give this one a look as well.

Incredible Machine is currently available on the App Store as a universal version for iPad, and costs US$2.99.

TUAW’s Daily iOS App: The Incredible Machine originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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