|  |  |  | | | | | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  If you like Infinity Blade on your iPhone or iPad, then you'll probably love Infinity Blade FX. That's the arcade version, which is apparently being introduced to arcades across the country very soon. You can see video of the game in action, and it looks -- well, like Infinity Blade. Though it's obviously on a bigger screen, the gameplay is essentially the same, even extending into multiplayer across two different machines. The whole concept of bringing an iOS game (designed for a platform that's very private and portable), and turning it into an installed arcade game (a platform that's very public and not portable at all) is a weird one, but in this case it might work. That touchscreen is 46 inches, by the way, so it's not a cheap endeavor, even if we haven't yet heard how many tokens it'll take to play this thing. If you want to give it a shot, apparently it'll start appearing at Dave and Buster's round about the end of this month. That, or you could just go buy it on iOS right now. Infinity Blade coming to an arcade near you originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  If you think the new iPhone 4S is just the same old iPhone a report in DigiTimes may have you thinking again. The publication quotes an IHS analysis which looks at some key under-the-hood changes in the new iPhone beyond the obvious faster processor, antenna redesign and addition of the Siri software. Wayne Lam, a senior IHS analyst says the iPhone camera is a 5 lens system, a first for any smartphone. The new camera is getting raves from users, and comparisons show it's a very high quality implementation for both still photos and high definition video. The report also praises the fact that the iPhone 4S can operate on multiple carriers using different cellular systems and frequencies. Here in the US, the same phone can work on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. "No other handset OEM produces a single device for multiple operators and for multiple geographies on this scale." IHS also highlights other changes to processors and architecture in the iPhone 4S. It adds up to a significantly different user experience that is not obvious when just looking at the new iPhone but pays some big dividends for iPhone 4S owners. Report highlights iPhone 4S design changes originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  The portrait of Steve Jobs that has been a fixture on Apple's homepage since his passing is iconic. It tells you just about everything you need to know about the man -- his intensity, determination, intelligence, the fact that this is a great man from whom great ideas spring, and the fact that he's a man you challenge at your own peril. It's the photo that will be on the cover of his biography, and it's likely to be one of the main images that represents him throughout history. According to PDN Pulse, Albert Watson took the photo back in 2006 during a shoot for Fortune. Having heard of Jobs's reputation as a demanding man, even when it came to photo shoots, Watson did a great deal of preparation and research for his session with Jobs. Steve was bemused that Watson was shooting with film instead of digital, but he agreed when Watson said he didn't feel digital was "quite here yet." "We'll get there," was Steve's reply. The photo session with Watson was relatively low-key compared to other Jobsian sessions; Jobs gained notoriety as a "nightmare subject" among photographers, mostly because of how much control he demanded over shoots. As for the portrait itself, Watson told Steve to give the camera almost 100 percent eye contact and "Think about the next project you have on the table." Watson also told Steve to think about times when people had challenged him. Much of 2006 was filled with rumors of the supposedly forthcoming iPhone; virtually every pundit in the universe expected it to be a huge flop, and that was assuming Apple even had the "guts" to challenge the mobile handset industry in the first place. It's easy to imagine that Steve was thinking about the original iPhone when the shutter snapped, in which case the "visionary" quality of the portrait seems even more appropriate. Steve Jobs knew he was about to change the world -- again -- and it comes through in this photograph. Watson says Steve told him it was his favorite photograph of him. It's easy to see why. On photographing Steve Jobs originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Algoriddim has updated djay for iPad ($19.99), djay for iPhone ($.99) and djay - David Guetta Edition ($7.99) to take advantage of iOS 5 and iCloud, and it's great to see these apps already taking advantage of iCloud integration. Some of the new features for this update include: - iCloud integration. All of a user's per-song settings created on one version of djay are synced to other devices running iOS 5.
- Professional audio FX. A number of realtime audio effects were introduced including bit crusher, echo, high-pass and low-pass filters, flanger, gate and phaser. There's several control panes that allow for instant sound effects and customization.
- Audio copy/paste. Allows sounds created in other music apps to be utilized by djay
- Enhanced AirPlay, sorting and other features.
If you haven't tried djay yet, check out TUAW's in-depth look at the iPad version. There's also djay for Mac, which has a demo version available through Algoriddim's site. djay updated to take advantage of iCloud integration originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Like to read? Got an iPhone or iPad? You really ought to have Marco Arment's US$4.99 Instapaper, which just got an upgrade to version 4.0. Instapaper's free web service allows you to flag stories to 'Read Later' with a single click, and you can always get your complete reading list via the site. For reading on the go, however, the cached stories in the app are ideal. The Instapaper app now features an iPad-specific article list interface; it swaps out the simple headline-by-headline scroll for a more spacious grid arrangement, complete with the first few lines of the story. The iPhone version has been streamlined too, with story excerpts, bylines and site information clearly visible. iOS 5 users get true hardware brightness control, making it easier to read under varying lighting conditions. Instapaper wants to let you know what your friends are reading, so now in addition to the stories flagged by your Instapaper-specific social connections, you can also browse all the linked stories posted by your Twitter and Facebook friends or by the Tumblr microblogs you follow (Arment is a founder and former CTO of Tumblr). For Instapaper subscribers who choose to fork over $1 a month to support the service, the app now includes full-text search of all the articles you've ever saved to Instapaper -- downright handy. You can see the full list of new features at Arment's blog. If you're only using Instapaper via the website, you're not getting the full-on experience. There are very few apps that have made themselves a home on the front screens of both my iPhone and iPad, and even fewer that rate a spot in the app Dock for both devices. Instapaper has been firmly lodged there since version 1, and I don't anticipate pulling it out anytime soon. Daily iPad App: Instapaper 4 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  France telecom operator Orange has teamed up with France's Ministry for Higher Education to offer subsidized iPads to French university students for €1 a day. The deal comes at a time when iPads are becoming recognized as a boon to students in the classroom partly due to the educational apps and textbooks available for the devices. The Orange France offer allows students to sign up for a 2-year deal in which they pay €30 a month for a 16GB iPad 2 Wi-Fi+3G. Students can also opt for a 12-month plan with the same device for €34 a month. In addition to the iPad, students also get 1 GB of free data a month as well as unlimited data for emails (and attachments) and also unlimited data on Orange's Wi-Fi hot spots. French students can take advantage of the offer by going to www.proximamobile.fr or www.orange.fr and verifying their student credentials. iPad subsidy offers lure student customers in France originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Wired does a little speculating over on the Cloudline blog about whether or not Apple's redesigned Siri service actually counts as an AI. Technically, no, Siri's not a real artificial intelligence. When you ask "her" something and she comes back with a witty answer, your iPhone doesn't actually "understand" what you said in any meaningful way -- it's just identifying a set of words that you put together, and then outputting some data based on those words. Sometimes that's movie times or nearby store locations, and sometimes that's just a witty phrase that Apple engineers have programmed into the system. But of course, while programmers have been creating these "chatbots" for years, Siri has an advantage in that it runs on the cloud; Apple is constantly updating Siri's phrases and responses, which means that "her" answers will only get more appropriate over time. And while the system works as is, you have to imagine that Apple is collecting lots of information from it, including both what people are asking of Siri, and how they're asking for it. The more Apple learns about how to deal with that information, the better Siri will get at providing the right answer at the right time. That will make Siri "smarter" than ever. Until Apple hooks it up to an as-yet-uninvented thinking engine, it still won't "understand" your queries in the same way that a real human would -- or even in the way that a hyper-parallel quiz show competitor does. But for a lot of people, that doesn't much matter. As long as Siri responds correctly and helpfully, that's as good as many people need in terms of the payoff from artificial intelligence. Siri and the possibility of artificial intelligence originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  A while ago I wrote about four websites that need iPad apps: Facebook, Mint, LinkedIn, and Google Docs. Facebook stepped up to the plate, and now an official Mint.com rep has confirmed publicly what two Mint employees had told me in private a while ago: the Mint.com iPad app is coming soon. In a tweet posted October 11th, Mint mobile designer Jaanus Kase said "the @mint iPad app is nearly done and will be out very shortly." He followed that up three days later with a posting on Mint's satisfaction forums which states that the next Mint app will be universal (both for iPhone and iPad) and that it will require iOS 5, which is one of the reasons the company could not release it before now. Also, for those of you with iPhone 3G units, the new Mint app will not work since the maximum iOS on that device is 4.2.1. However, Kase states that Mint will continue to support its current iOS app for those running iOS 4. LinkedIn and Google Docs? The spotlight's on you now. Hat tip to reader Tim B. Mint.com iPad app "will be out very shortly" originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  It seems as though Apple is designing a lot of new Mac and iOS features from the perspective of people whose internet access is the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet. Photo Stream is a perfect example. The feature, built into Apple's new iCloud service, automatically uploads photos taken on any of your devices to iCloud, which gives you near-instant access to them on all of your devices. It's a great feature, and it's already streamlined the process of getting photos from my iPhone onto my iPad and Mac. But it was only this morning that I realized with grim horror what might happen if I imported 8 GB of RAW files from my DSLR into Aperture. With Photo Stream's default settings, those multiple gigabytes of data would be uploaded to iCloud automatically -- and since I live in an area with strictly metered data and very expensive internet access, a single import session in Aperture could cost me dearly. Fortunately, both Aperture and iPhoto allow you to disable automatic uploading very easily. Go into the preferences for whichever application you're using and select the Photo Stream pane. Once there, uncheck the box next to "Automatic Upload." As easily as that, your photo manager of choice will no longer send hundreds of photos into the cloud the next time you connect your digital camera. The followup question you must be asking now is, "That's great, but what if I want some of my imported photos to go to Photo Stream?" Fortunately, Apple made it easy to manually upload photos to Photo Stream. Just select the photos you want, then drag them to the Photo Stream item in the sidebar. You should see a green plus sign when you hover over Photo Stream. Release the photos, and they'll be uploaded into the cloud. Whether you're trying to avoid massive data charges or simply don't want hundreds of photos clogging up your Photo Stream all at once, it's quite fortunate that Apple has made it so simple to disable automatic uploading and manage your Photo Stream uploads manually instead. Mac 101: Disable automatic uploads to Photo Stream originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Apple updated its "How to Buy" iPhone 4S page earlier today with instructions detailing how US and Canadian customers can go about getting an iPhone 4S. The company is now insisting that prospective buyers first reserve the new phone online before heading into an Apple Store to buy it. From the page: iPhone 4S is available in store by reservation only. Reserve yours after 9:00 p.m. tonight for pickup tomorrow. When you come in, you'll choose a carrier and plan, and we'll get your iPhone up and running before you leave the store. This shouldn't be too much of a shock after Apple announced an astounding 4 million iPhone 4S sales in the first weekend. Apple obviously wants to control the flood of people heading for retail stores; reservations are a way to avoid sending people away disappointed should they show up expecting to get an iPhone 4S only to be told the store is sold out. However, MacRumors notes that it seems unlikely that Apple would refuse to sell unreserved phones to walk-in customers and theorizes that Apple will take reservations online, but will then sell any extra daily stock to customers on a walk-in basis. North American iPhone 4S sales now reservation-only at Apple stores originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  A 65-page document recently filed in Australia by Apple in the Samsung patent case says that not only does Apple own "a thicket of patents" (which I'll guess just means "a whole lot"), but that Apple is willing to license some of its patents, while still keeping others for itself. According to FOSS Patents' Florian Müller, Apple does have an extensive set of patents for its mobile devices. But rather than companies like Microsoft, who will often nail down patents only to make as much money as possible licensing them out to other hardware companies, Apple prefers to hold patents in order to differentiate its devices. It would rather benefit from having original features on its devices rather than just charging something like a per-unit fee. This of course matters in the Samsung case, because Apple is alleging that Samsung knew that patents on certain features were held by Apple, and Samsung went ahead and released phones with those features anyway. If Apple really did plan to license the patents out, then Samsung could just pay the damages, and the agreement would go down as if it were a simple licensing deal. But if Apple really didn't want to ever share the patented technology, then the damages to the company would be more extensive. Indeed, the document does state that Apple was willing to license some "lower-level" patents. But all in all, it's fairly clear that Apple was planning on keeping most of the patented technology for itself. And that means that the outlook for Samsung in this case is getting worse and worse as time goes on. [via AppleInsider] Apple lawyer says it owns a "thicket of patents" originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  AllThingsD's Ina Fried was in Taipei over the weekend, and she took along both an iPhone 4S and an Android device with Google Translate onboard. What she found is that both of the devices and their accompanying software were very good travel companions. Google Translate (free) is also available for iOS devices, and it's an amazing piece of software. As Fried notes, she was able to ask an electronics dealer what the difference was between two models of Fuji cameras by speaking to the HTC Salsa running Google Translate. The response from the salesperson was a bit confusing -- "Outside" -- but Fried quickly noticed that he was referring to the fact that the cameras were identical except for the external case. Fried ran into one of the unfortunate issues of Siri right now, however, which is the inability to do local searches outside of the U.S. She was able to use the iPhone 4S as her primary camera on the trip and ask Siri to set an alarm for the next morning. After Siri set the alarm, Fried thanked Siri, "feeling like it was the right thing to do." Siri's response? "I live to serve." Siri, Google Translate act as travel companions for AllThingsD blogger originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  If you're having trouble getting Lion to let you enable Find My Mac, you're not the only one. It seems at least a few people are running into a problem where they see the above message in the iCloud preference pane, but clicking the update button (or running System Update manually) yields no updates to install. If this describes your situation, the good news is that there is a solution -- the bad news is that it might require a little bit of patience. Before getting too worked up over the problem, though, it's a good idea to try the simplest methods first. Go to System Preferences, go to the Security and Privacy preference pane, and click on the Privacy tab. Check to make sure that Location Services are enabled:  If that didn't do the trick, head on over to Apple's support site and download the Lion Recovery Update package manually, and install it. It's approximately 832 MB, so it may take a while to download if you're on a slower Internet connection. Once installed, reboot your Mac and go back in to the iCloud preferences (under the Internet category in System Preferences) to see if you can enable Find My Mac now. If you can check the box, you're all set! If Find My Mac is still greyed out, however, then the problem is likely that your Mac is in need of a couple of housekeeping tasks to get things in order. This next step works best if you close any apps you have open. Open your Applications folder, then open the Utilities folder and select Disk Utility. You should be presented with a screen similar to the following:  From here, select the volume that Lion is installed on from the list on the left side of the menu as shown above. Then click the Verify Disk button on the bottom right of the window, and Disk Utility will scan the volume for any problems. The process usually takes about five minutes, but might take longer depending on the size of your hard drive. If you're still with me at this point, I'm betting that you will probably receive a message similar to the following:  What this means is that somewhere along the line, the part of the system that keeps track of where files are stored on the hard drive recorded some information incorrectly. My guess is that this probably happened during the upgrade to Lion, and affects a specific part of the disk that is used by the recovery system. Luckily, it's not necessarily anything bad, and it's relatively easy to fix, though the process might be a bit complicated if you're unfamiliar with it, so I've outlined it below. - Power off your Mac completely. Use the Shut Down command from the Apple menu.
- Power on your Mac, and immediately press and hold the Option key on your keyboard.
- Once you see the boot menu appear, you can release the key.
- In the boot menu, select the Recovery HD item with your mouse, or the arrow keys on your keyboard. You may need to press the Enter key to confirm the option if clicking with your mouse does not seem to work.
After a few moments, you will be presented with a screen labeled Mac OS X Utilities. This menu allows you to perform tasks like restoring a Time Machine backup or reinstalling Lion on your Mac. The option we want, however, should be the last item in the list -- Disk Utility. This will open the same screen we saw before, but this time you might notice that the Repair Disk button (in the bottom right, under the Verify Disk button we clicked last time) is now enabled. Go ahead and click the repair button, and Disk Utility will automatically find and fix any problems that are found. Once the repair has finished, close Disk Utility, then restart your Mac by selecting Quit from the OS X Utilities menu. When your Mac is finished restarting, you'll need to head back over to the Apple support site to download the 10.7.2 Update (or download 10.7.2 Server Update if you're running Lion Server). When the download finishes, go ahead and install the update, which will require a restart when the installation has finished. Finally, you'll want to go to your Downloads folder and install the Lion Recovery HD update that we downloaded earlier. If all went well, you should be able to go into your iCloud preferences now and enable the Find My Mac option:  Find My Mac not working for you? You're not alone originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Modern Macs have pretty good battery life, but there are times when you can't get enough juice to keep working without a power adapter. BatterySqueezer promises to help you extend your battery by throttling process that are running in the background. The idea is that by reducing the amount of processing power demanded by applications that are not actively being used, it reduces overall CPU load. Reduced CPU load results in lower power usage, which in theory, should extend your battery life. BatterySqueezer sits in the background ready to throttle programs when they're not being used. Currently it supports four browsers, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari, as well as Reeder, Microsoft Office and iWork. The throttled apps aren't killed off entirely, but plugins such as Flash, animated adverts and any processes that are demanding are reduced to practically no load. This has another benefit other than extended battery life and that's more free resources, which can be particularly useful on a low-powered Mac. In anecdotal testing BatterySqueezer throttled Flash from some 30% of CPU load to about 3% with Chrome backgrounded. The result was very jerky Flash animations, but who cares when its in the background. As soon as Chrome was brought to the foreground, it was unthrottled and everything was normal. It also had the benefit of keeping my hot-running Mac cooler with noticeably reduced fan speed when multi-tasking. BatterySqueezer is one of those apps that will have different mileage for different people and setups. If you're trying to eek out as much out of your battery life as possible or trying to stretch out the resources of a low-power Mac, BatterySqueezer might just be the ticket and is available for US$3.99 from the Mac App Store. Daily Mac App: BatterySqueezer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  The gray market in China is amazing. No sooner does a new Apple product appear on the scene in the US and Europe than buyers snap up a lot of the devices, and they magically appear on the gray market in China. Sure enough, the iPhone 4S is already selling in China -- unofficially. Computerworld is reporting that the iPhone 4S is now selling in Beijing at prices around US$2,000. One vendor, who was selling the devices in Beijing's Zhongguancun electronics markets, was selling the 32 GB model for 13,000 yuan (about $2,043 as of this writing) and the 16 GB edition for about $1,729. The vendor noted that the phones came from Australia and the US -- the former could explain why TUAW blogger Chris Rawson still doesn't have his iPhone 4S in hand. The phones are sold without a contract and are unlocked. Another vendor apparently had the 16 GB version available for "only" $1,391, and expected that the prices would fall by about $100 in the next week. Why the tendency to pay through the nose for gray market Apple products in China? Apple usually doesn't deliver the newest products in China for months, so consumers jump at any chance to get the latest and greatest. As we reported before, almost half of the iPad 2 sales in China have come from the gray market. iPhone 4S selling for big bucks on Chinese gray market originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Those with a new iPhone 4S who want to install Google's Voice app are out of luck for a while. Google was forced to pull the app after complaints about its stability arose. According to Google Voice Product Manager Vincent Paquet, there is a bug in the sign-in code that causes the app to crash immediately on opening. The bug only affects this most recent release and earlier versions of the app reportedly still work without error.
Google is fixing the error and will have a new version of the app available as soon as possible. As of the writing of this post, a Google search will pull up the information for the old version of the app. If you try to download this broken version via iTunes, you will receive an "The item you've requested is not currently available in the US store." error. Google has not provided a time frame for when its revised app will reappear. Hopefully, it can get a fast track through the approval process and return to the App Store very soon. Google pulls Voice app from App Store to address stability originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  For budding moviemakers who want to shoot cinema-quality 1080p video, the Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera is a favorite. It's a lot less expensive (starting at around US$2,400 for the body alone) than a Red Epic-M (rock-bottom price of about $43,000). Now Robino Films is showing that the 1080p, 30-frame-per-second video capabilities of the iPhone 4S might be a new and really inexpensive low-end video camera for the next Stanley Kubrick. The filmmakers took a Canon 5D Mark II and an iPhone 4S, mounted them on a rig for simultaneous shooting and then put the resulting video side by side for your viewing pleasure. They made sure that they were matching the exposure, shutter speed, frame rate (30 fps) and picture style as much as possible. The results are spectacular, at least for the iPhone 4S. The image is a bit warmer than what you see with the Canon footage, and of course you have no way to change lenses on the iPhone 4S (well, you do have those fun lenses from Photojojo...), but it's a remarkable example of just how good the video capabilities of the 4S really are. Bumping the video up to full-screen on a 27" iMac, I could see the difference between the 21.1 Megapixel sensor on the Canon versus the 8 Megapixel sensor on the iPhone 4S -- some details seemed a bit fuzzy on the iPhone footage. Also, the rolling shutter of the iPhone 4S causes the digital billboards in the Los Angeles footage to have scrolling black lines on it. For those of us who just want to shoot some amazing vacation footage without carrying around a bag full of equipment, the iPhone 4S can't be beat. iPhone 4S / Canon 5d MKII Side by Side Comparison from Robino Films on Vimeo. iPhone 4S video compared to Canon 5D MK II originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 
After facing setbacks in Germany and Australia, Samsung is striking back at Apple by filing an injunction request for the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4 and the iPad in Japan. Samsung filed the injunction based on one patent the company holds for HSPA connectivity and three it holds for UI design. The three UI patents cover the airplane icon for airplane mode, aspects of home screen customization and an on-phone method for browsing apps on sale. Samsung also filed an injunction request in Australia claiming Apple's iOS devices violate three patents it holds for WCDMA and HSPA connectivity. Australia is a hotbed of legal action between the technology giants. After several legal volleys and an attempt by Samsung to reach a compromise, Apple was recently granted an interim injunction against Samsung that bans the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country. This legal victory is a major setback for Samsung and could cause problems for other Android handset makers as the patents are broad and can extend to other devices. Samsung seeks iPhone 4S sales ban in Japan, Australia originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Apple's launch of the iPhone 4S, iCloud and iOS 5 has been wildly successful. The Cupertino company announced today that it has sold over four million iPhone 4S handsets in the first three days of sales. Says executive Phil Schiller, "[The] iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend -- the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days." That's not too shabby for a device that launched in only seven countries and was considered a "missed opportunity" by many. Apple also confirmed there are more than 25 million customers running iOS 5 on their handset and over 20 million who have signed up for iCloud. Show full PR text iPhone 4S First Weekend Sales Top Four Million
CUPERTINO, California-October 17, 2011- Apple(R) today announced it has sold over four million of its new iPhone(R) 4S, just three days after its launch on October 14. In addition, more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, the world's most advanced mobile operating system, in the first five days of its release, and more than 20 million customers have signed up for iCloud(R), a breakthrough set of free cloud services that automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices. iPhone 4S is available today in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on October 28 and more than 70 countries by the end of the year.
"iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend-the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever."
iPhone 4S is the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including Apple's dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri[TM], an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.
Pricing & Availability
iPhone 4S comes in either black or white and is available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model, $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the new 64GB model.* iPhone 4S is available from the Apple Online Store, Apple's retail stores and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and select Best Buy, Target and Walmart stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 4 is available for just $99 (US) and iPhone 3GS is available for free with a two year contract.
iPhone 4S will be available on October 28 in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
*Qualified customers only. Requires a new two year rate plan, sold separately.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices. Apple sells four million iPhone 4S handsets in three days originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Games are popular on the App Store right now (check out the lists of top paid and free aps), but several readers have asked us to extend beyond games with the Daily iPhone App series. So, here you go. Wolfram Alpha for iPhone is a mobile version of the very useful "computational knowledge engine" service. Just like the online version, Wolfram Alpha for iPhone provides answers to your questions about math, almanac-style timetables, or just about anything else you need to know. Answers are provided in the form of text, images, tables, charts, graphs, grids, and so on. The app does require an Internet connection, unfortunately, but it's recently been tuned up and streamlined, so it should be faster than ever. The app has also gotten support of Facebook sharing, so if you find something interesting, you can make sure your friends see it as well. WolframAlpha can be super helpful whenever you're out and about. The universal app is available on the App Store for US$1.99. Daily iPhone App: Wolfram Alpha originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Now that I've had my iPhone 4S for a couple of days, I'm amazed with what Siri can do. I've asked a number of questions -- real ones, not questions like "What is the meaning of life?" -- and have been totally impressed with how my interaction with the iPhone has changed. But there are more things I'd love to be able to do with Siri, which is the reason for this post. Everyone should understand that Siri is currently a beta product from Apple. A lot of the things I'm talking about here should happen once the product is out of beta and developers are given access to a Siri API. This is my way of letting some iOS developers know that I'd love to see Siri integration in their apps. Here we go: - I'd love to be able to check into FourSquare using Siri: "Check me in here"
- I want to be able to send tweets through Siri without having to use text messaging as an intermediary: "Tweet @NikFinn that I'm sorry to hear that you dislocated your finger"
- I want to be able to have Siri check for reservation availability at OpenTable restaurants (I understand that the "original" Siri app did have OpenTable integration): "Make a reservation for two at Tamayo for 5:30 Friday evening"
- Likewise, for a fun evening you might want to buy tickets at a local movie theater. Adding the ability to pick a movie time by asking "What time is 'Moneyball' playing near here?" and getting a choice of times, then saying "7:30 at the AMC 24 would be fine, and I need two tickets" to have Siri purchase those tickets would be a time saver.
- How about being able to shop with Siri? Integration with Amazon.com would be wonderful: "Find the lowest price for a 3 TB FireWire 800 disk drive." Once you see the specs, Siri asks "Would you like to buy this item?" Answer yes, and you've purchased it, answer no and Siri asks if you'd like to look at other similar items.
- Healthcare could benefit from this. Imagine having Siri integration with apps such as WebMD, and being able to hold a conversation about symptoms before getting a list of possible conditions. Or asking what the side effects of a certain drug are, and having Siri read back a list of those effects. Cool.
- Healthcare providers could also make life easier for their patients. My provider, Kaiser Permanente, has a wonderful online system for making appointments, contacting my doctor, and getting refills on prescriptions. Doing that by just saying "Order a 90-day refill of my Zantac" or "See if Dr. Healey has an appointment time available tomorrow," and then being able to pick from a couple of open appointment slots would be a time saver.
- My wife uses an app called Grocery iQ to create a grocery shopping list each week. I'd love to be able to have Siri read me the list one or two items at a time without having to stop, look at the screen, and physically scroll the list. How about being able to say "Read me the first two items on my grocery list" and have Siri respond with those? Follow that up as you walk around the store with "OK, what are the next two items?" and so on.
- For business travelers, the ability to make reservations on the run would be priceless. How about adding Siri integration to apps like TripAssist by Expedia or Kayak? While you're running through an airport trying to catch a flight, being able to say "Get me a hotel room near the airport in Frankfurt, Germany" and have it respond with "Would you like me to book a room at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport at €163 per night?" could make the difference between having a room when you arrive or not.
- Finally, what about being able to do something like ask Siri to get a bunch of articles about a particular subject and put them into your Instapaper account? You say "Get me ten articles about terraforming Mars" and Siri grabs ten of the most popular web pages about the subject for you.
I think that Siri has the ability to become the intelligent agent that the mid-90s MagicCap mobile operating system always wanted to be. While MagicCap's TeleScript agents suffered from the lack of cheap and ubiquitous Internet service as well as public acceptance of electronic commerce, those barriers are no longer a problem. Add Siri as a super-friendly interface, and the future is going to be very nice indeed. What are some of your ideas for "serious" integration of Siri into your daily life? Leave your comments below. Ten things I want Siri to be able to do for me originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  I can't imagine what we'll talk about tonight. Like that other Sunday night tradition, we will try to have a rilly big shew for you. Oh wait, there IS something newsworthy to discuss after all: Happy Steve Jobs Day everyone! (Thank goodness! Clearly we have nothing else of note to discuss...) Not ONLY do we have at least one thing to talk about, we also have at least one person to talk with about it! My favorite Macworld dining companion, Mister Rod Roddenberry will be joining us! (I checked with him, and dress uniforms are not required.) Since it's really all about you, the community, join me won't you? To participate, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (Viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Blink or X-Lite SIP clients, basic instructions are here. (If you like Blink, the pro version is available in the Mac App Store.) Talk to you tonight! Talkcast tonight, 4pm HI/7pm PT/10pm ET: Steve Jobs Day Edition! originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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