It’s a bittersweet irony that while The Lady looks as stunning in photographs as she does in real life, in fully 80% of those photographs she has her eyes closed, or half closed. That’s right – she’s a blinker.
Usually I get around this by snapping way more photos that I actually need, but inevitably the one picture that has her opened-eyed and not making some weird expression is the same photo that has captured somebody else mid-blink. And that’s whre Perfect Shot comes in.
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Perfect Shot is a new iOS 7-only app (universal) which has smile and blink detection. You toggle either one or both of these and then point the camera at your group. The app looks for their eyes (using face-recognition) and watches everyone. The moment they are all bright-eyed and (optionally) smiling, the shutter fires.
It’s a little disconcerting as the app just takes the picture without you even tapping the shutter button to activate it. There’s also no shutter sound, so you have to rely on animations to let you know the picture has been taken – a real problem if you’re also in the shot and the iPhone/iPas is sitting unmanned.
The app is somewhat obviated by the burst mode in the new iPhone 5S, but as almost nobody actually has a 5S yet then this is still pretty useful. Available now.
Just like the filters in the iOS 7 camera app, the super slo-mo mode in the iPhone 5S is somewhat confusing when it comes to exporting your work. In fact, it’s almost impossible to get your slowed down masterpieces out of the iPhone and onto sharing services without some rather janky workarounds. But thanks to Macworld’s Serenity Caldwell, we now at least know about these tricks.
Presumably thanks to hangovers caused by excessive in-flight drinking on the flight formthe U.S to the antipodes, the iFixit folks managed to not find the M7 chip inside the new iPhone 5S during their teardown before the weekend, leading to speculation that the chip didn’t even exist. Conspiracy! And as with any drunken adventure, lost things start to reappear when the dawn finally rises. The M7 chip is there alright; it just doesn’t have a big "M7" label on the front. According to the Chipworks’ blog, the M7 still carries its factory label: NXP LPC18A1. <!–more–>
> Luckily, we’ve been able to locate the M7 in the form of the NXP LPC18A1. The LPC1800 series are high-performing Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers.
The M7 is a separate chip then, but (as Apple already made clear on the iPhone 5S product page) it processes the data from the MEMS sensors on the main A7 chip, letting the iPhone 5S’s big brain stay asleep while the low-power M7 works tirelessly in the background. These sensors – compass, accelerometer, gyroscope – are mostly the same as in previous iPhones, with the exception of the new Bosch Sensortech BMA220 3-axis accelerometer. According to Chipworks, this is the first time a Bosch component has been found in an iDevice.
The A7 is made by Samsung, just like previous iPhone brains, despite Samsung’s continued and shameless ripping off of Apple’s designs in all other areas. I guess there’s no decent alternative yet.
With the release of iOS 7, we’ve prepped a guide to what you need to know about Apple’s new operating system — along with some things you might not already know.
In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine we catch up with uber-designer Khoi Vinh who has been using it since the beta, why experts think the new activation lock (aka “kill switch”) won’t stop iCrime and take a light-hearted look at the real-world objects that inspired the new icons.
Once again, we’ve tapped an Apple Store Genius to answer your questions on how to get an iPhone 5 replaced for free and what to do when your MacBook Pro gets all wet.
There are a bunch of video games out on iOS for kids, from educational games to adventure games and more. Sure, you can get reviews of these games by adults, sometimes even from parents of kids who use them.
We thought it’d be fun, though, to ask the kids themselves.
Welcome to Kid APProved, a series of videos in which we ask our own children what they think of video games on the App Store that they’re playing.
This week, it’s creature-creating, monster-battling Pet Peaves Monsters, from RED Interactive Agency. Here’s what our Kid APProved reporter thinks.
There’s no question that the iPhone 5S and iOS 7 together make for the best phone ever made.
The din of offhand, dismissive criticism from the Android fan base that Apple never innovates should be silenced, at least for awhile, given that Apple now sells the only dual-tone LED flash; the only 64-bit mobile CPU; the only 64-bit OS; the fastest touch-screen performance phones by far; the only wide-scale deployment of Multipath TCP; and the only useful, usable and widely used fingerprint scanner ever placed on any consumer electronics device.
Yes, there’s plenty of petty grousing. And who knows what competitors will ship tomorrow?
But today, it’s clear that Apple rules the smartphone market.
The Android fan critics now also have to contend with a razor sharp, concise rebuttal to the cacophony of general criticism of Apple by Apple VP Craig Federighi: “New is easy. Right is hard.” He said that after referring to Samsung by saying that Apple “didn’t start opportunistically with 10 bits of technology that we could try to find a use for to add to our features list.” Ouch!
Unfortunately, iOS 7 is going to cause some huge problems that nobody is talking about yet, but will do when the unwanted bricking epidemic starts.
This week: iOS 7, available on an iDevice near you! And on our all-new CultCast, joined by special guest Mac OS Ken, we offer our thoughts on the controversial new OS plus a few of our favorite tips. Then, the NDAs are up and the reviews are in, we’ll tell you what critics think of the 5S and why we all agree—the 5C feels great in the pants.
Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on each week’s finest Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the unadulterated audio enjoyment begin. Show notes up next.
BBM for Android and iOS is now officially available to download from the App Store and Google Play. It’s the first time in its history that the popular messaging service has been brought to a third-party platform — but with services like WhatsApp and Viber already dominating cross-platform chat, is it too late?
Talk show host Conan O’Brien asked comedian Louis C.K. why his his kids won’t be getting “phones with the apps.” Louis C.K explains — pretty convincingly — why smartphones are “toxic” and bad for your soul. It’s pretty funny.
The hottest part of this year’s flagship iPhone isn’t a piece of hardware, but a color. Everyone has gold fever. The gold iPhone 5s sold out quicker than any other model in stores, and shipping from the online Apple Store has already been pushed back to October.
Based on the economic model of supply and demand, it is only logical that those who were fortunate enough to snag a gold 5s will then turn around and sell for a ridiculous price. That’s exactly what’s happened.
The gold iPhone 5s is in very short supply. Apple has already sold out, and is unlikely to get them in volume for weeks to come. They are hard to come by. Many of Apple’s flagship stores received only a few units while many stores had none.
The rarity is reflected on eBay. there are a handful of gold iPhones for sale, ranging from $1,6 One gold iPhone 5s on sale is priced at a whopping $1,800 on eBay. Another is a tad cheaper at $1,699.
Gaming on the Mac got a whole lot better once Steam (by the fine folks at Valve) entered the equation. With the addition of this gaming portal, game development for the Mac rose to new heights, with games like Portal and others that were previously not as easy to port over to OS X becoming available.
U.S. Senator Al Franken has been very vocal about his Apple opinions for years, and this time he’s sent a letter to Tim Cook regarding Touch ID in the iPhone 5s.
Franken has “substantial privacy questions” when it comes to Touch ID’s security, and given the recent NSA findings, his concerns come at a time when the American public’s questioning of online security has heightened.
A guy literally bows before the Apple Store during today's iPhone launch.
Samsung, the Korean company that makes TV ads mocking Apple fans for waiting in lines, sent its own employees to the Apple Store for today’s iPhone 5s/5c launch. A Samsung video crew was spotted at the iconic Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City by CNET.
The reason for the espionage? Understanding why Apple generates so much hype for product launches.
Every time a new iOS device is released, there’s going to be new adopters. With new adopters come new opportunities to create apps that appeal to them. iOS 7 is an all new look for the devices, and there’s a lot of new things to learn about it. This offer from Cult of Mac Deals and iOS Centric is going to help you learn everything you need to know about iOS 7 so that you can make the best use of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.
I’ve been playing with the 5s for about the last two hours, and I can’t remember the last time I was so stubbornly wrong about, gee, anything really — as much as I was wrong about the iPhone 5s. And not just the 5s, but also iOS 7, which I hated when I first launched it on my iPad last night; but man, is it ever beyond perfect on the 5s.
I know, my iPhone 5s and I have just begun our honeymoon phase, but here’s the first-impression verdict in a nutshell: The iOS 7 / iPhone 5s pairing is phenomenal. I’m so in love.
Tim Cook made a public appearance at the Palo Alto Apple Store this morning for the launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c, and it looks like he may have finally taken to a Twitter account he created back in July to share about the experience in his first tweet ever.
Today Apple released a major update to the Apple TV that was originally predicted to arrive alongside iOS 7 on Wednesday. Version 6.0 of the set-top box’s software includes some big additions, including iTunes Radio, shared Photo Streams support, and AirPlay from iCloud, which is essentially Apple’s answer to the Chromecast from Google.
At the end of last night’s iPhone 5s teardown, the iFixit team still wasn’t sure who made the chips inside the latest iOS device, or where the brand-new M7 was, even. There was a lot of speculation as to who made the A7, Apple’s new, faster powerhouse of a main processing unit, as well.
That’s ancient history, now, as reverse-engineering and security firm, Chipworks, de-capped the various chips on the iPhone 5s logic board to find out precisely what’s what.
One of the few golden tickets for a gold iPhone 5s.
SAN FRANCISCO — The gold iPhone 5s is rarer than, well, gold. If you wanted to snag a gold-colored iPhone 5s this morning, you had to start lining up outside the Apple Store at 7:30 p.m. the night before. Apple had only 20 or so at the flagship Apple Store, which was a lot compared to most outlets.
At about 5 a.m. this morning, Apple staffers handed out tickets to everyone in line reserving them an iPhone. But there were only 20 tickets for gold iPhones, people in line estimated, and they were snapped up instantly by those at the front.
By the time I arrived to the Apple Flagship store on Stockton Street at 6:30 a.m. this morning, all the gold iPhones were gone. The line was already two blocks long though but I wasn’t worried because Cult of Mac.com had someone from Task Rabbit holding a spot.
It’s almost a given that the iPhone 6 will feature a new, more-advanced camera — although there's been far less of a consensus on what form that camera is likely to take. Some things are known for sure: Apple recently snapped up Nokia’s PureView camera engineer Ari Partinen, although his impact is more likely to be felt on the iPhone 6s or iPhone 7.
Apple also recently received an electronic image-stabilization system instead of an optical one, essentially faking the stabilization technique using software instead of moving parts.
It’s likely that the iPhone 6 camera will have pixels that are 1.75 um instead of the iPhone 5s’ 1.5 um, too.
One of the big new features of the iPhone 5s is the updated camera. Oh, but it’s still only has a 8MP sensor you say? True, but Apple has managed to make the sensor larger and increase the size of each individual pixel so more light hits your sensor, meaning your really crappy night shots are going to be slightly less crappy.
Out of the box, the new iPhone 5s camera doesn’t look that special – other than new dual LED flash – but one of the first places you’re going to notice the improvements are on your low-light indoor shots. The wide aperture and larger pixel size allow for better low-light shots around your house, which means your Snapchats are about to be immaculate. Well maybe not immaculate, but there is definitely be a notable improvement.
You’ll be blown away by the new Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s the first time you use it. You’ll be prompted to set it up when you first start up your iPhone, and you’ll have to scan your fingerprint numerous times at different angles before your iPhone is happy with it. Once it’s recorded, you can use the tip of your finger to unlock your device and authorize purchases from iTunes and the App Store.
I just wrote a piece about how difficult it is to obtain the iPhone 5s — particularly if you want the gold model — and Apple has now confirmed that it has completely sold out of certain iPhone 5s models in some stores. Demand for that and the iPhone 5c has been “incredible,” the Cupertino company said, but it’s yet to reveal just how many handsets have been sold so far.
Apple never seems to be able to make enough iPhones to meet launch day demand, but it seems the Cupertino company has found that task particularly difficult this year. The iPhone 5s has proven incredibly difficult to get hold of all over the globe, while that fancy new gold model is near impossible to get hold of.
At Apple’s flagship store in San Francisco, there were just 20 gold iPhone 5s units waiting to go on sale this morning, and they were all claimed before the store even opened its doors.
Jony Ive and the rest of the design team at Apple really pushed the boat out when it came to refreshing the look of its next-generation mobile operating system. Everything from the icons to the menus is dramatically different in iOS 7, and largely unlike anything Apple has ever developed before.
While reactions to the new design have been mixed, you have to commend the Cupertino company for making such significant changes in such a short space of time. Scott Forstall, who was previously in charge of all things iOS, left Apple just eight months ago, and it wasn’t until then that Ive was given the opportunity to make his mark on the platform.
Ive has made it very clear that his idea of software design is very different from Scott Forstall.
One thing’s for sure: Ive has certainly made it very clear that his idea of software design is vastly different than Forstall’s. If Forstall was still at Apple, there’s a good chance iOS 7 would look largely identical to iOS 6… and iOS 5, iOS 4, iOS 3… you get the picture.
iOS 7 doesn’t just boast a new look, either; it also delivers a number of key new features, some of which we’ve been asking for a long time. Those include Control Center, which gives us the ability to control music and toggle certain settings from anywhere; and improved multitasking, with scheduled updates and the ability to preview what’s happening inside your apps before you jump into them.
The Mask
The iOS 7 home screen.
It’s true. A number of the things we were calling for ahead of iOS 7 — the new look, the ability to change settings from anywhere, automatic app updates — have now been delivered, and we have to appreciate that Apple can only change so much in 12 months.
But there are a number of other important features — maybe more important than the annihilation of skeuomorphism — that are still missing from iOS. These things aren’t being talked about right now, because the novelty of iOS 7 is yet to wear off, but these features are still conspicuous for their absence.
iOS 7’s new design is currently acting as a mask. It’s so significant that for the majority of users, there isn’t a second thought about anything else. The question isn’t “Can I do anything new?” but “How new does it look?” But when the dust settles, it’ll be easier to spot the features that are still missing.
And things are missing, because underneath all the new frost and parallax, iOS 7 is essentially the same operating system as iOS 6. While there are some terrific improvements, it’s not the grand departure from its predecessors that it seems.
Let’s go over some of the things that are still missing.
Communication Between Apps
We’ll start with the big one. iOS apps still don’t talk to each other like they should.
Let’s use an easy example to illustrate what we’re talking about. Let’s say you want to share a photo from inside the Photos app. If you tap the ‘Share’ button, your options will include messaging, email, iCloud, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.
Fair enough. But what if you want to share via WhatsApp? Or Google+? Or Skype? Or send your photo to a service like Dropbox or Evernote? Your only recourse is to open each of these apps separately and upload the image to them, one at a time.
Sharing options on iOS vs. Android.
This isn’t the way it has to be. OS X, for example, allows apps to communicate with each other. You can fairly easily shoot a file from one app to the next. The ability for apps to talk to one another without each app having been specifically programmed to know some arcane secret handshake with every other app is part of what gives an operating system its sense of cohesion.
Yet this rudimentary ability is missing from iOS. In fact, it’s all over the place, whether sharing links in Safari, videos in YouTube, and files in Dropbox. Unless an app has been pre-programmed to “know” it can share with one specific app, they simply can’t communicate. It’s a messy and inconvenient system: not at all what you’d expect from Apple software.
But this isn’t a mobile limitation. Apps talk to each other just fine on Android without any fancy tricks. When I take a picture on my HTC One, I can go into my Gallery app and then send then image just about anywhere — and I’ve only had to open one app manually.
iOS apps need a deeply integrated service to talk to one another. That’s more important than iOS getting a fresh new look: it would result in a fresh new feel, and untold new possibilities for app developers. Why isn’t Apple concentrating on that?
Default Apps
While we’re on the subject of apps, let’s quickly address the issue of Default Apps.
In iOS 7, Apple still won’t let you choose a third-party app as a default app. Hate Safari? You can’t set Chrome as your default web browser. Don’t like Mail? You have no option to make Mailbox your default mail client. And even after Mapsgate, iOS users have no way to make Google Maps the default maps app, short of a jailbreak. Apple still forces you to use its own apps, and there’s no good reason why.
It’s almost as if Apple doesn’t trust us to choose our own default apps.
It’s almost as if Apple thinks we can’t be trusted to choose our own defaults — like Apple’s worried that it’s going to have a Genius Bar full of people who accidentally set Chrome as their default browser and can’t work out why Safari won’t open when they click on links.
Maybe this is a genuine concern. But we’ve all learned to deal with this kind of thing on our desktops, and other mobile devices powered by other platforms. We should be able to deal with it on our iPhones and iPads, too. And as iPhones and iPads replace our PCs and laptops, it’s only natural that they inherit some of their tweakability
Customization
What SwiftKey might look like on your iPhone.
The ability to tweak our iPhones and iPads doesn’t have to end at setting default apps, though. We should also be able to install third-party tweaks on our iOS devices, and we shouldn’t have to jailbreak to do it. These don’t have to be big changes that will completely change the way our devices operate: even simple tweaks, like third-party keyboards and icon packs, would greatly enhance the way in which we connect with our iDevices.
After all, not everyone likes the keyboard Apple provides in iOS, and it would be nice if we could install something like SwiftKey, which has become so popular on Android. Tweaks like these could be sold through the App Store just like iOS apps, and Apple can demand the same 30% cut it does on everything else — it’s a win-win situation.
Admittedly, this is a big ask, especially from Apple, who is famous for locking down its software and not allowing us to tinker with it. But there is some hope. During his interview at D11 back in June, Tim Cook said, “I think you will see us open up more in the future.” Let’s hope this means the ability to customize our devices.
Live Icons
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could see today’s weather forecast, or the latest sports scores, or how many page views you’re getting on your blog, without having to open up an app? Simple information like this should be accessible from the home screen, but that’s still not possible in iOS 7.
The Clock app has a live icon in iOS 7.
Apple has given us one live icon with the Clock app, which now shows the time, but that’s as far as live icons go on iOS. Hopefully, it’s the start of something, and future iOS releases bring us more.
I have a great idea how live icons should work on iOS. Imagine you could tap and hold an icon and then change the size of it, so that instead of taking up just one space on your home screen, it could take up two or three, or even more. The more space it has, the more information it can display.
I’ve created a (poor) mockup below that explains what I mean. I’ve used Twitterrific as an example. As you can see, when it’s taking up just one space, the icon is static — just like normal. But as it gets bigger, it can display things like the number of mentions, direct messages, and retweets that are waiting for you inside the app.
This is a simple example, of course, but the same concept could apply to all kinds of different apps.
These aren’t simple changes, and Apple cannot implement them all in one year so we shouldn’t have expected that. Apple’s priority with iOS 7 was clearly to remove all of the design niggles we had been complaining about and introduce a fresh new look that would immediately signal its change of direction under new leadership.
iOS 8 should be something special.
But let’s not forget that rival platforms have had some of these features for a number of years. Apple has had lots of opportunities to match them, or even take the basic concepts and create even better experiences. But it hasn’t.
As a result, iOS has gone from a cutting-edge mobile operating system that’s way ahead of everything else to a platform that’s now trying to catch up to its rivals in many key areas.
But iOS 8 should be something special. Now that the new design is here, Apple can finally concentrate on the core features beneath it and address the things that iOS is currently lacking.
I’ll bet that a lot of the features I’ve mentioned in this piece or others like them are here next fall, alongside many more that could give iOS the edge over its rivals once again.
