In 2007 the Paleofuture blog posted the video below, where Roger Fidler and his team at Knight-Ridder describe an electronic newspaper running on what might as well be an iPad. But the video was shot in 1994.
"We may still use computers to create information, but we will use the tablet to interact with print, video and other information," the video explains. It also goes on to describe personal "profile pages," "interactive maps" and sharing links with friends. It even seems like Fidler is channeling Steve Jobs at some points, saying "Nobody needs a manual for their daily newspaper". Amazingly, he even seems to describe iAds.
Alongside release of iOS 4.3.2, Apple also released Safari 5.0.5 and Security Update 2011-002 for Mac OS X. Safari 5.0.5 seems to simply include the latest security updates. The updates are available through Apple's download pages and through Software Update. Security Update 2011-002 is a small download for Snow Leopard users, but the Leopard versions are far and away larger files including even more changes than their Snow Leopard counterparts.
This Wednesday HP announced its three new webOS-based devices - the TouchPad tablet and two smartphones named Pre 3 and Veer. Before they were unveiled general manager and senior vice president for the Palm Global Business Unit at HP Jon Rubistein told that the company is at the beginning of new epoch.
"Today we're embarking on a new era of webOS with the goal of linking a wide family of HP products through the best mobile experience available. The flexibility of the webOS platform makes it ideal for creating a range of innovative devices that work together to keep you better connected to your world."
iLounge has discovered that despite having a brand new antenna, the Verizon iPhone 4 also has antenna issues when held in a “Death Hug”. The “Death Hug” is when the phone is cupped by both hands and held in landscape orientation. A position is common when playing games or using the widescreen keyboard. The CDMA iPhone 4 still lose substantial cellular signal strength, as well as Wi-Fi signal when loading web pages.
Apple yesterday added a new feature in the iPad App Store. The new search filters appear as a toolbar at the top of search results pages. The filters allow users to search by category, release date, customer rating, price, and device compatibility. These filters also aren't yet available on the desktop version of the App Store, so right now the iPad seems like the best way to search for apps. The second change shows the previously-purchased applications. Typically, results have been displayed with a button showing the price of the app. Now the results for apps already installed on the device are displayed with an inactive button simply saying "installed".
A hacker named Chpwn has recently posted a video where he uses his new jailbreak-only app called VoiceActivator. It allows you to fully configure what voice commands you may give to your iPhone/iPod touch and what the device should do after it'll hear it. For example, it can open webpages, make screenshots, and, as it seen from the video above, many other actions from the long list.
Chpwn didn't mention what will be the price for the app, but we may assume it will be cheap enough (and thus not free). We can expect it to be released next week.
The built-in iOS voice control application (which can be activated if you press and hold Home button for some time) allows to dial phone numbers, ask for the time, initiate FaceTime calls and control music playback. It is also known that Apple is going to incorporate the idea of VoiceActivator in future versions of iOS. Maybe, it will be the one of the ways to refuse from using Home button.
A new patent from Apple shows a display embedded in the Magic Mouse touch surface. Such display will be able to present some information or allow contextual input options. The display on the mouse would change according to what the user may be doing on their Mac. The display will be working in conjunction with actual Mac apps. For example, it will be showing a calculator when using the Numbers app on Mac, or a magnification of text when using Pages. The application notes that the dynamic touch-display input method could be employed on other devices like a keyboard, or even a mobile device like an iPhone or iPod touch.
Three new iPad offerings appeared on Best Buy's site. All three models described as "APPLE COMPUTER INC. - APPLE IPAD SKU WIFI" and availability listed as "coming soon". Two of the models carry price tags of $599.99, while the third comes in at $699.99. No other information beyond the scant details included on the product pages is available, and thus it is unclear if these listings are intended to reflect second-generation iPad models, some sort of internal SKU shift on existing models, or perhaps simply an error on Best Buy's part.
Recently Apple updated the iWork that adds public sharing and private upload options for iWork.com and brought some improvements to Keynote and Pages.
All iWork 9.0.5 Applications
Adds public sharing and private upload options for iWork.com public beta.
Apple has recently released six books of Apple Developer Publications series for free. They can be easily found in the iBookstore by typing "apple developer publications" in the search field. The books have been available for free download for a while on Apple's site for developers as PDF-files, but now they have been converted to epub format for even more comfortable reading.
This week Google has released a new version of its client app for Android Market, which will work on any smartphone running Android OS 1.6 or higher.
The company aims to facilitate the process of discovering new software and its purchase. That's why new Android Market will have a Cover Flow-like style of app listings and include new categories like Widgets and Live Wallpapers, as currently the catalog is filled pretty much with these kinds of software. Besides that, app pages will now have more info and links to related content. Read the rest of this entry »
Today Apple has announced its year-end top lists for iTunes called "iTunes Rewind", which span music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. The most interesting list in our sight is a list of apps.