It was all wrapped in a new user interface, which Apple said would provide “fast, visual access to all content choices.”
According to former Apple TV engineer Michael Margolis, the new Apple TV update (version 5.0) actually uses designs that were “tossed out 5 years ago because Steve Jobs didn’t like them,” suggesting that since the Apple co-founder lost his battle with pancreatic cancer, “there is nobody to say ‘no’ to bad design”:
@aral Fun fact – those new designs were tossed out 5 years ago because SJ didn’t like them. Now there is nobody to say “no” to bad design.The comments were made on Twitter, where Margolis was engaging with designer and entrepreneur Aral Balkan over the design choices for the new Apple TV.
— Michael Margolis ? (@yipe) March 24, 2012
Having initially responded to Balkan’s statement that questioned Apple’s choice of UI for the new Apple TV homescreen, Margolis stated that whilst many elements within the user interface were still in place from when he was employed at the company. He also noted that it was possible there was “just one visual designer in the consumer apps team,” as the “whole team [had] left or been replaced”.
The new Apple TV user interface has seen contrasting responses from device owners, with many liking the new design and others (like Balkan and Margolis) believing that the design has taken a step backward from where it once was.
Margolis provides an insight into the design choices made by Apple for the new update, one that simplifies navigation and draws close comparisons to how apps are displayed on Apple’s smartphones and tablets.
Are Apple’s design standards slipping? Maybe not. The company charts a new course with Tim Cook at the helm, one that has seen the company continue to go from strength to strength.
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Apple is having a special one-day holiday gift sale this coming Black Friday, November 25th, with deals and discounts available at Apple Retail Stores or Apple online. Apple is offering free shipping for orders over $50, including accessories for iPad, iPod, iPhone, and Mac from Apple's Holiday Gift Guide. You can also buy online and pick up your product at an Apple store.
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BEIJING, Dec. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- ZENS, the First European brand supporting the global Qi wireless charging standard, today announced its launch of the first Qi Apple iPhone products in China.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111215/CN23326 )
"ZENS has always been committed to changing our lives with innovative thinking and technologies. China is the largest mobile terminal market in the world. ZENS will provide the top-quality Qi wireless charging experience to Chinese customers," said Global Sales Director Johan Plasmans.
ZENS -- Pioneer of the Qi Standard
Qi, the global standard for wireless charging, allows devices to be charged just by placing them on any Qi charging surface without connecting cords or wires. Qi offers simplicity, convenience, and flexibility by ensuring wireless charging interoperability between any Qi-enabled device and any Qi charger, regardless of manufacturer or brand.
Just like Bluetooth® set the standard for exchanging data over short distances or Wi-Fi™ set the standard for wireless networking, Qi sets the standard for wireless charging. Compatibility between all Qi products is assured when you see the Qi logo.
As one of the pioneers of the Qi global standard, ZENS is not only the first company that supports universal wireless charging in Europe, Zens is also the first international brand that launched Qi certified products in China.
At the ZENS Qi product launch in Beijing, Camille Tang, Chair of Wireless Power Consortium's Promotion Work Group and President, ConvenientPower Group said, "China and ZENS both take a significant step towards the 'intelligent' wireless lifestyle in China with this Qi launch.
First came wireless communications with the mobile phone. Then came wireless data with WiFi. Qi wireless power charging completes this wireless circle for battery'ing up, anywhere, everywhere in the Qi ecosystem.
Qi wireless charging is in 60 locations in Japan with NTT Docomo recently announcing plans to expand this to 126 locations by end of December 2011. Qi wireless charging is expected to be in most mobile phones in Japan within three years. In Europe and America, Qi wireless charging products are already available in the market. In 3 years, the next generation will look back in wonder at this quaint ritual of ours where we connect up wires and carry around all different chargers for different devices and ask, "Did you really do that?"
The first international manufacturer of Qi-certified wireless charging products in China, ZENS has built a professional sales team and channel partners, targeting consumers through the B2C online shopping mall 360buy.com and hundreds of Apple authorized retailers. Product experience centers have been established at well-known coffee shops in Beijing and other locations.
ZENS -- Dedicated to the China Market
Data released by International Telecommunication Union shows a total of 895 million mobile phones in China, the world's largest mobile phone market and a huge potential market for wireless charging technology.
Johan Plasmans said, "China, one of the world's largest mobile terminal markets, is a huge market opportunity for us. ZENS actually planned to enter China sometime ago so our team and channels is scaling rapidly here. ZENS' entry as the first in Qi Apple iPhone products in China enables Chinese consumers to experience the magical simplicity and convenience of the most advanced Qi wireless charging technology."
ZENS introduced 1-device Qi wireless chargers, which charge one mobile phone, and 2-device Qi wireless chargers which charge two mobile phones at the same time. It also launched an ultra-thin Qi Apple iPhone4 sleeve offering users a cool design for a protective sleeve with simple, convenient "drop-and-charge" wireless power charging.
About Qi and the Wireless Power Consortium
Established 17 December 2008, the Wireless Power Consortium's mission is to establish Qi as the global standard for powering rechargeable electronic products. The 106 members of WPC include industry leaders in mobile phones, consumer electronics, batteries, semiconductors, components, wireless power technology and infrastructure such as wireless operators, furniture and automotive parts companies. Qi products are available in the United States, Asia, and Europe.
Qi is pronounced "chee" and means "vital energy".
About ZENS
ZENS is a young and innovative enterprise located in Eindhoven which is the technology center of Europe where a number of revolutionary products and technologies have been developed such as CD and Blu-ray. Products that ZENS develops, produces and sells not only are functionally complete, but also create a more convenient life for consumers. As the first European company to sell wireless charging products certified by Qi, ZENS has seen the prospects of inductive charging and become a great supporter of this standard. Innovation and design are the cores of all ZENS products. www.makezens.com, www.makezens.com.cn
iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
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First introduced with iOS 4.2 last November, Apple’s AirPlay technology lets we wirelessly stream sound as well as video from a computer or iOS device to an Apple TV, an AirPort Express, to a compatible third-party hardware device.
Any kind of iOS device running iOS 5 can send audio or perhaps video via AirPlay. To enable AirPlay, you first should select the media you wish to play back, as well as begin it playing. Then tap on the AirPlay icon and select an AirPlay-compatible device. (Devices capable of only streaming sound are signified with a speaker icon; those that can do video, with the picture of a TV set.)
iOS 5 expands on those capabilities with wireless AirPlay Mirroring for the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2. Thanks to this brand new feature, we can stream whatever is on your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 to the HDTV through the second-generation Apple TV-ideal for presentations to simply sharing with others in the room.
If we have an iPhone 4S to iPad 2, we can mirror your screen to a television to play back both audio and video via your own Apple TV.
To stimulate AirPlay, double-press the Home button on the iPhone 4S or iPad 2 to mention the multitasking bar, as well as then swipe to the right to find the AirPlay icon. Tap it, and we ll see your device on top, with any kind of Apple TVs in range listed under. Choose an Apple TV, and a Mirroring toggle should appear under it. Enable mirroring, and you ll be able to broadcast anything on your iOS device to the TV. (Note that AirPlay mirrors the exact aspect ratio as your iPhone and iPad, so it won’t fill the TV screen. We can rotate your device to change orientation, however, which is reflected in just what we see on the TV screen also.)
While in mirroring mode, an AirPlay icon will appear to the left of the electric battery percentage icon in the menu bar, which turns solid blue.
In the past, websites required unique code to be AirPlay-compatible, but now, any kind of HTML5 video that plays in mobile Safari is streamed via AirPlay to your own TV. If you are mirroring the iPhone 4S or iPad 2’s display, but want a local to embedded video to play full screen on your TV, you can go to the Movies app and tap the AirPlay icon, or perhaps tap the AirPlay icon that appears next to a Internet video, to enable traditional AirPlay streaming.
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Possibly no brand new Calendar feature is more greeting than the overdue ability to swipe between days. To move from day to day in the old version of Calendar, iOS device users had to depend on the tiny left as well as right navigation arrows. With iOS 5, just swiping across the screen in either direction takes we to a new day.
Turn the telephone sideways, and Calendar will switch to the brand new landscape-only horizontal view.
Similarly greeting is a brand new landscape mode on the iPhone. Rotate your own iPhone to the wider mode from almost any kind of screen in the Calendar app, as well as we ll see an endless scrolling horizontal calendar see. (If you enter landscape whilst adding a new event, you just get the widescreen keyboard but stay on the Brand new Event screen.)
Talking of creating events, iOS 5 ushers in a host of improvements to that process. You can tap and hold on your calendar to create a brand new event set for the time that we tapped. If we re in Month see, tap and hold on a specific day to do the same thing. Additionally brand new is the ability to tap and drag events to move them to brand new times. As well as whenever we tap on events, you can use the tiny dots that appear to change their begin as well as end times, too.
We can now drag events around to move them to new times.
Whenever you re typing in the details of a brand new event, the changed Calendar app makes things easier than before. The Title field is pre-selected, meaning that the virtual keyboard is already present, instead of waiting for you to make your own first tap. The Notes field used to make we navigate to a separate screen; in iOS 5, it’s now fully embedded in the main event-creation screen instead.
At long last, we can finally save customized default alert times in Calendar. Head over to the Settings app, and under Mail, Contacts, Calendars, you can set separate default alert times for birthdays, events, as well as all-day events. (The certain options are limited-you can’t set a default alert regarding an all-day event for 9pm the night before, for example-and there’s no method to schedule multiple alert for the same event.)
Other Calendar improvements help Apple’s stated goal of detethering your own iOS device from your Mac. You can now add, edit, as well as delete calendars straight from your own iPad or iPhone-no computer needed. Another new way allows you to change the pastel colors of the calendar(s); you can’t choose colors willy-nilly, but we can choose among seven lovely hues.
Calendar largely feels the same as it did in past incarnations-but as if it’s simply received an affectionate tune-up. The app is easier to use, especially for adding brand new tasks, and it gains simply enough to make utilizing it easier and more efficient.
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Realizing the importance of games to the iOS platform, Apple introduced Game Center with the iOS 4.1 update last fall. The service, that allows we to match up with friends for iOS gaming, has been a success by the numbers-Apple said at least week’s iPhone press event that 67 million users have signed up for Game Center.
Still, Apple’s ambivalent attitude toward gaming can be found in the first iteration of Game Center-linking up with friends hasn’t been as easy as it could be, as well as even if you have a bevy of Game Center buddies, there aren’t a lot of how to interact with them.
iOS 5’s version of Game Center looks to change that, by making it easier to find both friends and games whilst also adding many of the social elements that other online gaming services have implemented to great effect.
iOS 5 gives you a chance to personalize the Game Center presence by adding a pic to the previously spartan profile. The first time we release Game Center in iOS 5, you're prompted to choose a photo-you can choose you from your own library or shoot an image with the front-facing camera from in Game Center. Don’t feel such as the image has to be perfect; we can usually change it later by tapping Change Photograph from the Me tab in Game Center.
Talking of that Me tab, it displays brand new information in iOS 5. Previously, the tab showed how many friends you had on Game Center (in red), how many Game Center-supported games we have (in yellow), and how many achievements we unlocked (in blue). The Friends and Games flags stay, though they’re now blue and red, respectively. Achievements has been replaced by a Points flag-that is the number of points you ve racked up by unlocking achievements.
Game Center now tallies the points you ve racked up whenever you unlock achievements in games. It additionally compares your points to exactly what the friends have scored in games you both own.
Those points additionally make an appearance in the Friends tab, as Game Center looks to encourage a small friendly competition in iOS 5. Tap on an individual friend, as well as the Points see on the ensuing page shows a side-by-side comparison of how many achievement points the two of we have racked up in commonly played games. Game Center additionally lists points the friend has accrued in games we don’t own-a not-so-subtle prod to possibly download those apps as well as take your own competition to the next level.
In addition to showing point comparisons and the games the Game Center friend plays, the Friends tab additionally now lets you view your friend’s friends. It’s you of the ways Apple is hoping to help we connect with more people on Game Center in iOS 5.
It’s easier to find friends with Game Center’s brand new recommendations feature.
Finding friends, after all, had been a shortcoming of Game Center in past versions of iOS. Before iOS 5, adding a friend in Game Center meant tapping an Add Friends button in the Friends tab and then sending a request to either an email address or perhaps to somebody s Game Center nickname. Both techniques had their limitations-the individual we had been emailing will not even use Game Center, and if you didn’t understand yet another user’s Game Center nickname, that was your hard luck.
The Friends see in the Friends tab first lists shared friends-that is, other people we ve befriended on Game Center. But below that, you can see an entire list of the friend’s friends-using their full names and certainly not their Game Center IDs-with details on how many friends as well as games we have in common with this would-be companion. Tapping on the name of a person in the Friends list brings you to a screen showing common friends in more detail; there’s also a button for sending a friend request.
There’s an even easier method to add friends in Game Center, however. Whenever you tap on the Friends tab, the first thing we see, above even the list of your current friends, is a Recommendations button. Tap it, and we re taken to a list of potential Game Center buddies, which is pulled together based on friends as well as games you have in common. Sending a friend request on the Recommendations list is as simple as tapping on the people name and then tapping the Send Friend Request button.
Tap this button at the top of the Games tab, as well as you ll get a list of recommended games.
Game Center in iOS 5 doesn’t simply would like to help you find brand new friends; it also wants to make it easier to add games to your iPhone, iPod touch, as well as iPad. The Games tab adds a Game Recommendations button over your list of Game Center-supported Games. The ensuing list of recommendations includes a blend of apps your Game Center friends play as well as popular App Store downloads.
Tap on a game in the Recommendations list, and we ll get more details on which of the friends play the game. Separate tabs additionally show leaderboards and achievements for the game.
If we like what we see, we don’t have to leave Game Center to buy the app. Just tap the price of the game, listed underneath its title. Doing and so takes you to an App Store-like view that Apple has built directly into Game Center. From there, we can buy the app just as you'd if we had been in the mobile App Store app.
Game Center bases its recommendations on games the friends such as too as popular App Store downloads.
You can also find and purchase apps directly from your Game Center friends’ list of games. In prior versions of Game Center, tapping on a game in that list would definitely take we to the App Store. Now, we get the leaderboard as well as achievement views, along with a list of which friends are playing that particular game. As in the Recommendations list, tapping on the price of the game takes we to an App Store-like page inside Game Center, exactly where we can download the app. It’s a great method to add Super Stickman Golf, which your own friends are always babbling regarding.
Note that Game Center doesn’t clearly distinguish between iPhone and iPad apps when it lists friends’ games. But iPhone owners shouldn’t worry about inadvertently buying an iPad-only game that won’t work on their device. If we try to buy an app that just runs on the iPad from your iPhone, we ll be taken to a page that tells you the game just works on the iPad, along with options for understanding more about the game itself to the iPad.
iOS 5’s version of Game Center retains the Find Game Center Games button at the bottom of your list of games. Tapping it takes we from Game Center to the App Store app, as it did in previous versions of iOS.
iOS 5 introduces other changes to gaming, a few of which include developer tools that many end users will not see-at least until they’re put to work building a brand new generation of iOS games.
One of those developer-side tools will add OS-level support for turn-based games. (Think Words With Friends, where we get a notice that it’s the turn to play in a game with a remote opponent that goes at a pace we and your opponent determine.) Tools for turn-based games will mean support for asynchronous gaming, better notifications, as well as improved methods to find opponents. We’ll have to wait till games built using these APIs hit the App Store to gauge the full impact of these changes.
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Gestures in iOS 5 should come as less of a shock to the program as the ones Apple introduced to Mac OS X Lion this summer. All of the single- and two-finger gestures previously supported in iOS carry over to the latest update, and so you won’t have to unlearn any kind of of the favorite moves.
Tapping is still the most common move for navigating the device. The tap, hold, and drag for highlighting text, copying as well as pasting, or deleting as well as moving apps remains, as well as users will continue to swipe as well as flick to move through app pages as well as scroll through text. A two-finger pinch gesture zooms in as well as out of the screen (a double tap works to zoom in as well). Moving 2 or more fingers in a circular gesture continues to be the tried-and-true method of rotating a screen and other elements.
Four- or five-finger vertical swipe
With iOS 5, your own iPad 2 will gain many brand new multitouch gestures for working with apps and the multitasking bar. These gestures need more fingers-and therefore, more space-than the typical iOS pinching, swiping, and tapping gestures; as a result, these gestures are available only on the iPad. The good news, however, is the fact that anyone already familiar with the iOS gesture-based user interface should have no problem understanding and making use of the latest additions to the growing list of available taps, swipes, flicks, as well as pinches.
If we re tired of pressing the Home button repeatedly to pull up the multitasking bar, you can like these three brand new gestures, all of which require four to five fingers to execute. With them, you can switch between apps as well as return to the home screen a great deal faster.
Four- or perhaps Five-Finger Vertical Swipe Like a double-press on the Home button, a four- to five-finger up swipe will pull up the multitasking bar along the bottom of the screen. To return it, swipe downward to hide the bar (to single-tap anywhere above it).
Four- or five-finger horizontal swipe
Four- or Five-Finger Horizontal Swipe With a four- or perhaps five-finger horizontal swipe, we can quickly move between your many recently utilized apps. For example, if we re in Safari as well as want to switch to yet another open app, you can perform a four- or perhaps five-finger horizontal swipe left to right to move from one app to another; it’s similar to the one-finger swipe you use to move between home screens. You can swipe just between apps that have recently been used; to see those (and which order they’ve been used in), pull up the multitasking bar by double-pressing the Home button or perhaps by performing the four- or five-finger vertical swipe mentioned earlier.
As you swipe, the app we re in will follow your own fingers as well as move off the screen in the direction you're swiping. As it slides off, the next app will begin to crawl in from the other side of the screen until you swipe far enough for it to snap to center. We can swipe quickly to jump through apps almost immediately, or perhaps drag slower to fully appreciate the animation.
Four- to five-finger pinch
Four- or perhaps Five-Finger Pinch When you re in an app as well as would like to fast return to the home screen, we can use a four- or perhaps five-finger pinch gesture. (This accomplishes the same thing as clicking the Home button.) Begin with four or perhaps five fingers outward, and then pinch them together. Depending on the speed of your pinch, you can either slowly shrink the app till it disappears into the home screen, to do a quick pinch and so that the app disappears at the same speed as it would if you clicked the Home button normally. This gesture has no reversal option; to reopen a recently closed app, we ll have to pull up the multitasking bar.
Gestures in AssistiveTouch If you have trouble with (to aren’t capable of performing) these to other gestures, you can use the brand new AssistiveTouch feature in iOS 5. With AssistiveTouch, we ll be able to access a menu overlay to trigger any kind of of iOS’s multi-finger gestures by performing a one-finger tap. We can also create, save, as well as play back custom gestures.
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Constantly connecting your iOS device to your own computer to keep it in sync and backed up is a real pain. Lucky for you, we don’t have to do it anymore, thanks to iOS 5’s brand new Wi-Fi Sync feature.
Wi-Fi Sync (as its name might suggest) allows the device to sync with the computer over a Wi-Fi network rather than through a USB connection. It’s slightly slower, but we can do it any kind of time the device is on the same Wi-Fi network as the desktop. Better still, your own device stays perpetually connected: You can adjust settings as well as re-sync without to disconnect and reconnect any wires. (We can always continue to sync the old-fashioned method, of course.) Yet another benefit to this perpetual connection is the fact that whenever syncing, you re no longer stuck with the Do Definitely not Disconnect screen every time we re updating your own song list or perhaps changing a setting; instead, it all happens in the background, allowing we to multitask as well as use your own device during a sync session.
Set up Wi-Fi Sync: To enable Wi-Fi sync for your own device, you should connect the device to your computer-one last time!-and open up iTunes. Click on your device in the Source list as well as then scroll down to the bottom of the summary pane.
Check both the Sync With This Device Over Wi-Fi as well as the Open iTunes When This Telephone Is Connected box as well as press the Sync button to enable Wi-Fi syncing for your iPhone, iPod touch, or perhaps iPad.
The device will just sync with your computer whenever iTunes is running; as a result, you need to check the first two boxes in the Options section: Open iTunes Whenever This Phone Is Connected, and Sync With This Device Over Wi-Fi. Press the Sync button to save your own changes, and you re all set. By default, your device will sync with iTunes any time it’s plugged in as well as both are on the same Wi-Fi network; we can additionally force a sync by going to the Settings app on your device and tapping General -> iTunes Wi-Fi Sync as well as then tapping Sync Now.
With Wi-Fi Sync, we can keep your own daily activities running smoothly. But just what regarding whenever the next iOS update inevitably comes out? You don’t would like to have to connect your device back to the computer. And good news: With iOS 5, we don’t have to.
Install updates on your own iOS device: If you ve ever utilized an iOS device before, you re probably fairly familiar with the process of downloading app updates from the App Store app: When a little red badge appears in the upper right corner of the App Store icon, you open the App Store, navigate to the Updates tab, and download the app updates all at as soon as, to one by you. The Software Update process for iOS 5 is remarkably similar; but instead of going to the App Store, we go to the Settings app for any kind of program updates.
Such as the App Store, your own device perpetually checks for new software updates in the background. Whenever one is available, you see a red badge appear on the Settings app; to download it, open the app and navigate to General -> Software Update. There, we see a few short information about the update and a button to install it. You can also force the system to check for an update by navigating to the Software Update pane.
Due to the fact these iOS updates are “delta updates” (they contain only the parts of the system that have changed, and so we don’t have to download the entire program each time there is an update), they’re smaller; therefore, we can download them just about anywhere we have a decent 3G or perhaps Wi-Fi connection-on the bus, at home, walking down the street, you name it. To install these updates, however, you should have at least 50 percent battery lifetime on your device, or have it plugged into a power source.
Simply as a friendly reminder: Even though we can install these updates anywhere, you should always (usually, always) back up your own device before we do. You can use Wi-Fi Sync to back up to the computer, or perhaps, if you have iCloud Backup enabled, we can use that.
Install updates from your own computer: Maybe you re not that adventurous, as well as you d choose to install the software update the old-fashioned method. No problem: Just connect your own device to your own computer as well as check for updates in iTunes. (If we re making use of Wi-Fi Sync, we can additionally do this by plugging your own device into a power source and connecting it and your own computer to the same Wi-Fi network, and then opening iTunes.)
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Now, Flexibits has taken the app further with the addition of two of the most highly requested features by its users. It now allows you to edit your calendar events as well as delete them, all from in its intuitive and streamlined interface. You also gain the ability to add notes to events, bringing the app closer to full feature-parity with iCal.
Fantastical already had support for Google, MobileMe as well as Yahoo! calendars, as well as has now added iCloud integration into the mix too, claiming the distinction of being 1 of the first Mac apps to do so in the process. If you're an iCloud user, you should grab the v1.1 update as soon as your Internet connection will allow.
If you're a brand new user, Fantastical will cost you $19.99 on both the Mac App Store as well as the Flexibits Store. It is compatible with all Macs running Mac OS X 10.6 to later.
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Apple can be planning to add customizable avatars to its iOS Game Center. It’s anything we’ve extended seen with Microsoft’s Xbox Live Avatars as well as Nintendo Miis, but Apple will soon be hopping on the bandwagon. The business has filed for 2 patents entitled “Avatar Editing Environment” and “Personalizing Colors of User Interfaces,” revealing the avatar customization user interface that is in the works for iOS.
Dug up by AppleInsider, the patent applications reveal that the iOS Game Center avatar user interface would begin with a blank canvas and then allow users to choose basic features like type of eyes, nose, mouth, and hair, etc. Other accessories like glasses to hats can also be added. All of the selections, including rotating as well as resizing, would definitely be easily made on the multi-touch screens of the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Both manual and automatic avatar creation is offered to simplify the process and similar to how avatars work in Wii games and Xbox Kinect games, the iOS Game Center avatars would also appear inside games. They will additionally be displayed on users’ profiles along with users’ game scores and achievements. The patent applications were originally filed earlier this year in April.
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Back in July Jawbone announced that it would be bring a new interactive bracelet sensor to iPhone users called the UP. The bracelet was supposed to be able to track all types of things as well as be worn constantly by the user. It can track exactly what the user eats, their sleep, as well as how they exercise and then shoot that content to the iPhone via an app. When the UP bracelet was announced, we didn’t know when it was coming or perhaps how a great deal it would definitely cost as well as details were missing.
AT&T has now listed the UP on its website as well as the device is going on sale soon. This bracelet is interesting, but it doesn’t resemble something many people would wear all of the time. It does allow you to track your caloric intake making use of a photograph of what you are eating taken with the iPhone. That will certainly make it easy for dieters.
The app can additionally track your sleep phases so you can be sure you are resting well as well as it can send we wake up alarms that others won’t hear. The app additionally has more than a little bit of social interactivity with it. We and friends can issue each other challenges for the most steps taken and other things for days, weeks, or perhaps even an entire month. Pricing isn’t announced just but, but it should be coming soon.
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Unfortunately, the business is but to amend the UK version along with other international versions of the page, at time of writing. According to those pages, first-gen iPad owners running iOS 5 should be able to “using four to five fingers, swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar, pinch to return to the Home screen and swipe left or perhaps right to switch between apps.”
As many have complained regarding in Apple’s help forums, however, that’s certainly not the case. Apple is but to comment publicly, but instead has reportedly been pruning a few of the more frustrated posts from its user forum and making the amendments to the US website.
Limitations between different hardware versions are common, of course, but owners of the original iPad are particularly frustrated mainly because, with an Xcode hack, they had the exact same multitasking gestures working on iOS 4.3. This appears more such as a decision based on positioning than you on capabilities.
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The exact list of nations exactly where international support will be enabled isn’t known, though today Siri - which Apple describes as being in beta - is just available for US English, UK English, Australian English, French and German anyway. 2012 will bring support for additional languages, Apple additionally confirms, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian as well as Spanish.
Without having the local functionality, many of Siri’s headline-grabbing features don’t currently work outside of the US. Asking your iPhone 4S to find nearby restaurants isn’t supported, as well as neither can the smartphone bring up business addresses as well as phone numbers.
Is this partial feature-set enough to make you reconsider your own iPhone 4S purchase intentions? Allow us know whether or not you re still planning on choosing up the phone in the comments.
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Trimble is a name that many outdoors enthusiasts will understand. Trimble makes a bunch of different handheld GPS devices to help you navigate in the woods or perhaps on the trials. The company has a brand new app for the iPad that is called the Backpacker Map Maker app as well as is specifically for the iPad. The touch user interface of the app allows the hiker or perhaps backpacker to find just where they would like to go using seamless topographical maps.
The app has maps for the US and Canada as well as allows them to see, create, as well as annotate maps right on the tablet screen. It also offers aerial, hybrid, street, as well as terrain maps. Access to over 68,000 USGS topo maps that are stacked together as well as enhanced in MyTopo mode is included. A wealth of other features makes this a very useful app.
It has place search to find campgrounds and peaks. Dual maps let the user turn on dual map mode for precise trip planning with street maps as well as topo maps on screen at once. The trip plans is saved to the cloud, waypoints is marked, and has a ruler tool, as well as a digital compass. The app also has GPS coordinates. The app is free for the next seven days and then it will be a paid app.
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The Slider Bluetooth Keyboard from Concord Keystone is designed to give the iPhone 4S a phone case that comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for those who wish and yearn for the more traditional way of typing on their device. It can be paired with the iPhone 4S wirelessly via Bluetooth. The keyboard also comes with its own rechargeable battery so that it won’t be sharing power use with the smart phone. The Slider Bluetooth Keyboard is available at Concord Keystone for US$50.
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Playing games in Facebook, however, has its down turns. Most game apps on Facebook cannot be played on mobile devices, so there is no way to harvest your virtual strawberries using your smartphone. Thankfully, a new iPad app called GameBox lets you play some of Facebook’s popular games wherever you may be.
So far, the GameBox app has only two Facebook games that can be played with the iPad: Digital Chocolate’s Army Attack and Zynga’s CityVille. The app’s developer has promised that more games are on their way though. The user interface remains just like how it looks like on Facebook, so players will not waste time relearning. GameBox works by “place-shifting technology,” which uses actual flash renderings being relayed back and forth from the cloud to the device. It’s sort of a legal gray area, but we’ll let GameBox take care of that.
The GameBox for Facebook is now available in the Apple App Store for $2.99.
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Kids these days are smartphone savvy. Parents across the world often hand children as young as the age of four an iPhone, Android phone, or Blackberry to play with.
These smartphones are fun centers packed into tiny squares, and fun apps manage to keep kids who travel quiet for hours on end. Give all the appeal that a smartphone has for children, it’s no wonder that big movie studios are starting to cash in on the “apps for kids” trend.
In the past, movies such as "Kung Fu Panda 2" and "Shrek Forever After" gained their own apps. Now, the latest cartoon blockbuster “The Smurfs Movie” is already attached to a new iOS game app called “The Smurf Storybook.” This app comes before the release of the movie as a sort of teaser for kids.
Who Needs Previews?
Previews are effective marketing tools if kids manage to catch a preview. For those kids who don’t watch a lot of television or head to the movie theater frequently, previews are a lost cause. Movie studios don’t want to lose this potential audience. So, instead of spending all advertising dollars on creating previews that some kids may miss, these studios are sinking large amounts of money into creating smartphone apps.
Parents are far more likely to purchase a movie preview disguised as a smartphone game app than they are to allow kids to watch hours of television per day. Thus far, pre-movie apps for kids are working like magic. When it comes time for quiet time, it’s far easier to hand a child a smartphone filled with fun games than it is to find other activities to occupy a child’s mind.
What This App Does
The Storybook app contains read-alongs and games for kids to enjoy. One game includes allowing children to find certain mistakes within a storyline. While this all seems like harmless fun, there’s one reason why you may want to think twice before downloading the Smurfs app. This app will get your child hooked on the new Smurfs movie before the movie even debuts.
In addition to games, the Smurfs app includes celebrity voiceovers, characters from the movie, and the whole thing is based upon the storyline from the movie. So, when your kids finally do head to the theater, they will know all about the movie. Needless to say, they’ll also be familiar with the celebrities who are taking part in the film. One has to wonder if movie studios will soon be slipping advertisements into these apps as well (will Smurfette get a hankering for a Coke?).
Cost and Availability
The Smurfs Movie Storybook is currently available on the iPhone and iPad. No Android app release has been created at the time of this writing. If your kids want the new Smurf app, you’ll have to fork over $2.99 for the iStorybook application.
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The 'WinTV for iPad' app is available at no cost from the Apple App Store. To find it, search for 'WinTV.'
The 'WinTV Extend for iPad' application delivers enhanced TV watching features such as a better iPad screen format, easier navigation of TV channel lists, landscape and portrait TV watching modes, and better network utilization on Wi-Fi networks. In addition to watching live TV, a user who has recorded TV programs using a PC-based Hauppauge TV tuner can watch those recordings on their iPad. Like live TV, these pre-recorded TV programs can be watched in the house or anywhere the user has an Wi-Fi Internet connection.
The Hauppauge live TV system has two pieces: a TV transmitter which runs on a home or office PC, and the 'WinTV Extend for iPad' TV receiving application which runs on the iPad. The live TV transmitter can be any one of the popular Hauppauge WinTV TV tuners. These PC-based TV tuners plug into a Windows based PC and connect to a users TV source, such as a cable or satellite TV or an over-the-air TV antenna. The WinTV TV tuner uses Hauppauge's 'WinTV v7.2' application, which formats the live TV program into a form which can be watched on an iPad, and then transmits the formatted TV signal to the new Hauppauge 'WinTV Extend for iPad' application.
An overview and screen shots of the 'WinTV for iPad' app are available here:
http://www.hauppauge.com/wintv_for_ipad
Any user of a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR TV tuner, or who uses the Hauppauge HD PVR or Colossus HD receivers, can upgrade to' WinTV v7.2' at a one-time cost of $9.95 here:
http://store.hauppauge.com/SoftwareProducts.asp#cd_wintv7
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Sillero's newest iPhone/iPad App, called "LocoPing", will blow the doors open this coming July by allowing users to remember other users around them for 24 hours... If you want to talk to that charming guy you saw at the coffee shop... say hi to the blonde you've been eyeing in the chemistry class... or exchange phone numbers with someone you met at the convention, now you can, using LocoPing!
"What makes LocoPing different from other location based dating or friendship apps is the fact that we're giving users the ability to record the history of locations they've been at for the past 24 hours," says Ray Panah, Sillero Technologies. "We don't want the App user to miss out on any chance of meeting new people. If you saw someone in the past 24 hours or have been around them, then you have the ability to look them up and text them, ask for their number or email address. We don't want to limit ourselves to be another dating App. You can use LocoPing for finding new friends in school, work, neighborhood, or just down the street at the diner."
Sillero Tech is banking on the fact that people want to connect to new people who go to the same places and not limit themselves to the usual social networking members... It's not about checking what your friend in Memphis posted on their wall 1/2 hour ago... Or where your sister went last night for dinner... People want to connect and socialize with people around them. People who go to the same places, work at the same building, other students who they never get to talk to. Business people don't have to exchange business cards, phone #s and email addresses at the next convention. Ray Panah said: "People can now use LocoPing to "ping" each other and exchange info without even knowing each other."
Sillero Technologies is an App Development company and the brewer of new innovative App ideas located in Orange County, CA.
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'Scout’s ABC Garden' app is fully loaded with features that have made LeapFrog a leader in the learning space. Features encourage children to explore letter names and sounds step by step, and each child's experience is customized based on his or her name, favorite food, favorite color and favorite animal. This personalization is carried throughout the game, delivering game content tailored to a child's individual interests.
“LeapFrog is bringing everything we know about learning and fun to the app marketplace with our adorable and very successful puppies, Scout and Violet,” said Craig Hendrickson, senior vice president and chief product officer for LeapFrog. “We are taking personalization to a higher level by alerting parents when their child is learning, and giving parents the ability to share these important learning milestones with friends and family through email and social channels.”
Swipe. Tap. Fun!
With the 'Scout's ABC Garden' app kids can explore Scout’s garden by touching and triggering fun and delightful sounds and animations like interactive clouds, bubbles, ticklish gophers, and Scout and Violet’s virtual radio that plays traditional kid-favorite songs. Kids can even rub Scout’s or Violet’s belly to hear a song with their name, or grow their own letter garden.
Other key aspects of the app include:
A is for Achievement. The app is customized to each child's level of learning, helping every child learn about letters and sounds at his or her own pace.
B is for Bragging. Alerted when learning happens, proud parents can also share in their child’s learning achievements. With each accomplished goal, not only does the child receive a badge or trophy, but parents are alerted to their child’s achievement which they can then celebrate and share via social channels, including Facebook.
C is for Customization. A main ingredient of the app’s appeal is its deep level of personalization. With the capacity to hold up to three profiles, a parent can customize the app for different children, including their favorite foods, colors and animals, so each can experience unique gameplay.
The 'Scout's ABC Garden' app is available for $3.99 from the App Store on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, or at www.itunes.com/appstore.
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