Exposé is a system built into Mac OS X, designed to help you find your way around windows and applications more easily.
When you have a lot of different windows cluttering up your screen, it can be hard to locate the exact one you want. Exposé makes it easier by momentarily displaying all of them, shrunk down a little so that they will all fit into view.
Hands up if AT&T drives you insane. The iPhone can do a lot of great things, but some people find that actually making calls is not one of its standout features.
Here’s a video of quick iPhone gags, some of them at AT&T’s expense. Stick with it, the final use for the iPhone is one that I think a few people might even have seriously considered, if not actually done.
Wait a second, the Dog Trainer app is a real thing isn’t it? Why yes. Yes it is.
It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.
This time, we review Action Hero, AutoStitch Panorama, Battleship, BDD • Büro Destruct Designer, Blackjack 21, Dropbox, Moodagent, Polyhedra, Run!, and Type Drawing.
We wrap up another week of deals with a couple hardware bargains and some price cuts on apps for the new iPad. First up is a quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro Tower with 8GB of RAM and a 24-inch LCD monitor for $3,499. Next is a number of iPad apps sporting lower prices, including UNO HD, a version of the addictive game for Apple’s new tablet. We wrap up our top trio with a deal on an 8GB iPod nano for $129.
Along the way, we’ll also check out some cases for your iPod touch, some email software and some speakers. As always, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page which starts right after the jump.
Yesterday’s announcement of the Apple Game Center was exciting news for serious iPhone OS gamers: it’s a defragmentation move by Apple to consolidate all of the many social gaming services like OpenFeint, Plus+ and others. Gamers can expect a uniform social gaming experience across all their iPhone games with features like universal friends lists, matchmaking and achievements.
There’s a lot to like here, but you’d expect the people behind the existing systems to be upset. Not so: OpenFeint and Plus+ are thrilled by Apple’s move. Why? They anticipated it, and have been moving their networks in the direction of supporting the freemium model of selling virtual goods in ostensibly free games as a way to profit.
Although the iPad doesn’t contain a camera, references in the iPhone OS 3.2 software to the functionality strongly implied the addition of video chat to future Apple devices. We probably won’t see video come to the iPad until the next generation of devices to debut next year, but video conferencing on the next iPhone isn’t just a long wished for feature… if the iPhone OS 4.0 beta is anything to go by, it may well be a lock.
A TUAW reader sent in a screenshot that shows the iChatAgent process running in iStat under iPhone OS 4.0. That’s a strong indication that Apple plans to introduce iChat to the iPhone OS, and while that doesn’t confirm video chat, it doesn’t make sense for Apple to hold off on an IM client for the iPhone OS for so long if they don’t intend on also going the video troute.
Remember the heady days when digital music sales were a runaway train; a bull in a china shop eating the lunch of traditional music – and many other mixed metaphors? The salad days may be nearing an end – or at least the all-you-can-eat period. Apple could be to blame, say critics.
For the first time since 2003, sales of digital music declined nearly 1 percent for the first quarter, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Well, that didn’t take very long. Less than a day after the iPhone OS 4.0 beta was released to developers, iPhone hacker Musclenerd has already jailbroken it.
So as not to jeopardize a working jailbreak technique before the final iPhone 4.0 update hits handhelds, no one’s talking about the exact jailbreaking method being employed here. I suppose it could be the same Spirit technique that’s being pursued to finally bring untethered 3.1.3 jailbreak to the third generation iPod Touch.
It’s unlikely that any solution this early in the game will last to the final beta, but if the jailbreaking community’s recent efforts both here and in with the iPad suggest that 4.0 won’t stymie hackers for long.
[via 9to5Mac]
Although Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers are increasingly competitive, they soon will have one technical issue in common: one out-of-control Web page won’t force you to shut your entire application. The feature is known as the “split process model,” but mortals have a more-easily grasped image: the sandbox.
As part of updating the open source WebKit to “WebKit2,” Apple’s Safari (along with Google Chrome, the Android Web browser and Palm’s WebOS) will essentially provide a separate process for each tab.
Along with the introduction of multi-tasking for iPhone apps, performance upgrades and mobile advertising, the iPhone OS 4.0 event Thursday also offered some insight for Wall Street. CEO Steve Jobs said iPhone sales had passed the 50 million unit mark, which translates to around 7.5 million Apple handsets shipped in the March quarter.
The figure had the Street rushing to compare Jobs’ statement with other Apple projections. High on that list was Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who had expected Apple to sell 7.5 million iPhones during the period. Munster’s right-on call for iPhone sales came on the heels of a wide miss on first-day iPad sales. The analyst, you’ll recall, told investors up to 700,000 iPads may have sold April 3. A day later, Apple announced 300,000 of the tablet devices were sold the first day.
iPhone OS 4.0 has been out for less than a day, but let’s dig a little deeper into the beta preview.
The home screen shot above captures what happened when I was trying to rearrange apps. The UI is still quite buggy and all hell can break loose when you least expect it. Moving apps around is even trickier now that folders are an option. Great way to organize apps, still the same horrible system for moving them around!
You’ve probably got your own preferred method of propping your iPad up on your work desk, whether that’s a cheap Staples’ laptop stand or a could of clip binders stuck in an ancient block of verdantly fecund cheddar (my preferred method). These solutions are for the plebs. Meet the Joule.
The Joule is simple: it’s a CNC-machined cylinder of polished aluminum with a velvet lined slot in which your iPad’s bottom lip can be ensconced, as well as a cut-out for your iPad’s home button and speaker. The Joule stays upright thanks to a metal rod on the back which can be repositioned magnetically for extremely fluid control of angle adjustment.
It’s a gorgeous stand that wouldn’t look out of place on the desk of Ive himself, but the price, alas, is horrible: $130.
[via Gadget Lab
A tipster has been playing around with the iPhone 4.0 OS beta, and sent us the following report and screenshots.
It seems there’s a glitch with Apple’s new iPhone 4.0 OS beta.
Several developers are having trouble installing the iPhone 4.0 beta on the 3G iPod touch, according to a tip from an iPhone developer.
The developer says there are several posts on Apple’s Developer Forums complaining that the new operating system will not run on third-generation iPod touches. It appears the problem is limited to 32GB models, the developer says.
After loading the OS, programmers are getting the following error message: “The iPod could not be restored. This device isn’t eligible for the requested build.”
The error message is displayed after developers restore the device to firmware bundle 4.0 and try to verify it with Apple.
“It is very odd,” said the developer.
OPINION: The scuttlebutt was pervasive and we all hoped it was coming, so when Steve Jobs announced iPhone OS 4.0 multitasking at today’s event, it was more a pleasant confirmation than a surprise. It may have more than surprised Apple’s mobile partners, though: the addition of background VoIP functionality will, at the very least, finally force wireless carriers like AT&T to compete with companies like Skype on their own networks.
With typical modesty and restraint, Steve Jobs today downplayed the iPad hype. Pouring cold water on some of the hyperbole pundits have lavished on the device, he said:
“We think this is a profound gamechanger. We think when people look back some number of years from now, they’ll see this as a major event in personal computation devices.”
He was responding to a question about being surprised by the initial reaction. Here’s what he said in full:
Boy, Steve Jobs doesn’t mess around, does he. Not content with his Google throwdown, he’s challenging the entire telecommunications industry with the iPhone’s new Background VoIP.
We start the day with a deal on a leather case for your iPad. There are also some bargains on iMacs, starting with a 3.06GHz 21.5-inch model with LED-backlit screen for $999. To mark Apple’s introduction of 4.0 of the iPhone OS, we have some deals on iPhones, including an 8GB iPhone 3G for $49.
Along the way, we’ll check out the latest crop of App Store price drops, including a 99-cent deal for “PANDORUM,” the survival-horror game for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Details on these and many other items are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page, which starts right after the jump.
Courtesy of John Gruber, here’s a tasty little morsel from the new iPhone OS 4.0 SDK App Store Dev Agreement:
Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited.
Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone program? It just bit the big one.
OPINION: Steve Jobs saved the most important part of his iPhone 4.0 announcement today till last — the new in-app advertising system, called iAds.
The iAds system is important because it allows the App Store to create a completely self-sustaining app economy that is sealed off from the wider Web.
Tech guru Tim O’Reilly says the App Store is already becoming a rival to the web itself. The App Store, he says, is “the first real rival to the Web as today’s dominant consumer application platform.” Consumers will have no need to visit the web on their iPhones and iPads if they get everything they need from apps, which is bad news for companies like Google.
“This is a new phenomenon,” Jobs said about apps at today’s presentation. This is the first time this kind of thing has ever existed. We never had that on the desktop, so search was the only way to find a lot of things.”
The App Store economy is already pretty well developed. There is the app purchase mechanism itself through iTunes, and in-app purchases, which allow consumers to buy stuff from inside apps themselves. But there was a big hole: advertising. Ads are already a big part of the app economy, but clicking on them typically takes consumers out of the app and into the browser, an experience Steve Jobs describes as jolting.
But now Apple has built a sophisticated ad-serving mechaninsm right into the iPhone (and iPad, natch), which will make the App ecosystem like AOL in the early days — a walled garden. And one that has it’s own economy: in-app purchases, and now in-app advertising. There will be no need to go to the wider web anymore — and that cuts out Google.
“What’s happening is that people are spending a lot of time in apps,” Jobs said today. “They’re using apps to get to data on the internet, rather than a generalized search.”
No wonder Apple and Google are at war. Google swooped in a bought AdMob just to keep it out of Apple’s hands (so Apple snapped up Quattro instead). Of course, Google isn’t on the ropes yet. Android is Google’s attempt to keep it relevant in mobile, and so far it’s holding its own against the iPhone.
But if early numbers are any indication, the iPad is going to be an iPhone-sized hit. Combine the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and that’s a lot of mobile devices in Apple’s walled garden.
Carrier T-Mobile has announced a bounty of sorts for iPhone switchers. The carrier will pay up to $350 when you trade in your iPhone for a HD2 from HTC. If your turn in a working iPhone, you could get $100 credit toward the Windows Mobile handset, according to a report Thursday.
To obtain the bounty, iPhones must be in working condition and the screen intact. T-Mobile retail locations are participating through May 19.
Right after the announcement of the many new and exciting features going into iPhone OS 4.0, Steve Jobs walked into a Q&A and, asked about widgets on the iPad, casually made this Old Testament reference:
Q: Why have you veered away from widgets on the iPad?
A: We just shipped it on Saturday. And then we rested on Sunday.
Q: So widgets are possible?
A: Everything is possible.
Interesting. You know who else rested on the Sabbath, right? Say what you will about Steve, but he always leaves his ego check in at the door.
[image via Gizmodo]
I think I speak for everyone at Cult of Mac when I say that the last hour has been incredibly exciting. I didn’t expect much from a small, post-iPad event about iPhone OS 4.0: multitasking and iAds, sure, but I still expected it to be something of a snoozer.
Instead, Apple blew my socks off. iPhone OS 4.0 is a huge game changer… and it’s a massive challenge not just to Google’s Android operating system, but their whole mobile advertising business.
When Jobs took the stage, he promised the presentation would touch upon seven “tentpoles” of iPhone OS 4.0. Here’s a short breakdown of each.
Well, looks like that purchase of Quattro really paid off. Steve Jobs just announced iAd, Apple’s own mobile advertising network for app developers.
According to Jobs, an average person spends 30 minutes in an app each day. If an ad is served every 3 minutes, it’s ten ads a day. Multiply that by 100 million devices, and it’s a billion ads a day.
iAds will function in-app. You click on them, but you never get pulled to a browser: they work like innate features of the app. You can even make them games.
It’s a great idea: ads can be freely explored without stopping what you’re doing or psychologically breaking up the experience of an app with getting information.
This is such a simple innovation, but it’s huge. Apple’s done something truly unique here: they’ve figured out a compelling way to compete with Google in the mobile advertising space. I didn’t think it can be done.
And what do developers get out of this? 60% of the revenues, after Apple has sold the ads.
Holy cow. I think iAds just made “Free” the new “$0.99” on the App Store.
[image via Gizmodo]
