Dear Aunt TUAW,

I find myself in an interesting position. I am going to be traveling for several weeks within the US. I have my iPhone on a grandfathered unlimited data plan and a wifi iPad 2.

I would like to be able to use my iPad while away not only for FaceTime but also general use and even using my slingbox. I would rather keep my unlimited data plan, have thought about using an airport express but that might be cost prohibitive given hotel charges.

Is there anything I have missed? If you post this to the blog I would prefer to remain anonymous. Thanks for the help and the great website!

Your loving nephew,

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

It's pretty easy to share a connection between a non-jailbroken iPhone and a Mac using any of the iProxy-style SOCKS proxy solutions. You can Google up web pages galore about these solutions -- and a new proxy client seems to appear weekly on App Store before it gets pulled a few hours later.

At the same time, it's rather hard to share between an iPhone and an iPad without jaibreaking. That's because you need some sort of shared Wi-Fi network and the iPhone cannot create an ad hoc connection without being jailbroken.

There are various solutions around but most of them rely on you having a laptop along as well as the two devices, to create that ad hoc network. That makes things even clumsier and harder to set up.

In general, you'll do best either by jailbreaking and using MyWi or by buying or renting a third party Wi-Fi hotspot (like Clear or MiFi). Unfortunately, if you do enable iPhone tethering through AT&T, you will give up your unlimited plan. Some TUAW folk have done exactly that -- freeing themselves from feeling they must hold onto the unlimited plan for dear life.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me share my iPhone data to my iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Slidevana is a curious thing. This US$69 bundle offers a set of professionally designed slides. These templates map out the kinds of data most speakers want to communicate, providing specific elements you can customize. Called "Dark," this first release includes a clean presentation style that would feel at home at any boardroom or conference.

From tables to bullet lists to key point images, Slidevana offers a unified design that easily translates into high quality presentations. It's like a Keynote version of those graphic design and color harmony cookbooks you can purchase at art school bookstores. But instead of general graphic layout, Slidevana focuses on the most common presentation challenges.

Slides are self documenting. They tell you what they do and how you use them in the presentation. It's then up to you to add your content and match it to the various tasks in your talk. There are slides for describing the talk's takeaway, slides for providing the current section context within a whole talk overview, slides for presenting related points in a single overview, and slides for factoring before and after comparisons.

From tables to pyramids to Venn diagrams to phased cycles, Slidevana has many of the most common discussion flows covered. There's a real wealth of coherent elements, all of which fit together by design.

Slidevana includes over 130 slides in its template. A fair number of those introduce sections, and there's a bit of redundancy such as 4 charts worth of duplicate shapes, all presented with distinct key colors. Even so, there's enough useful content here to satisfy anyone looking to create a slick presentation.

Slidevana's templates work on both the Mac and iOS versions of Keynote, although I think they are more easily used on the Mac side of things. The purchase price includes both, so you do not have to choose when buying. A PowerPoint version is promised for the near future.

At $69, Slidevana is clearly targeted towards business purchasers. What you get for that price is a smart collection of slide design that goes way beyond any of Keynote's built-in templates.

Slidevana provides pro design templates for Keynote originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When it comes to forecasting the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is Education and the iPad.

Last month, Apple introduced iBooks Author and expanded iTunes U. It was a big presentation and a big commitment to the textbook market.

The problem is, of course, whether the desire to embrace digital textbooks can live up to the costs and grim realities. Granted, Apple's probably going to start pushing the iPad to schools much more enthusiastically now that it's ceased educational sales of the MacBook, but putting an iPad in every student's backpack is still going to be a hard sell for districts that have to hold bake sales just to buy normal textbooks.

Just like everything else in the education sector, we're thinking the better-off schools in Silicon Valley and Connecticut will get iPads for Everyone[TM] first, and inner-city schools in Cleveland will have them by, maybe, 2032.

Plus, as far as the federal government goes, we estimate their five-year initiative might take at least 35 years.

So what might Apple do to speed up iPad and ebook adoption? What about that hypothetical 7" iPad? Could Apple (or better yet, would Apple) introduce such a critter this spring? Would a bargain priced "ePad" help spread tablets to the classroom, or will a discounted iPad 2 work better as a lower-cost distribution system?

You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your predictions.

View Poll

You're the Pundit: Does a 7" iPad make sense for the education market? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iOS developer David Stanfill of Napkin Studio has been looking for a better way to demo his iOS apps during online meetings, as well as to record live videos of the UI as the apps run. (We've rigged up various hardware approaches to do this, although none of them reach the highest quality standards.)

Well versed in video compression, protocols, and so forth, Stanfill decided to roll his own AirPlay mirroring client for the Mac. This would allow mirroring-capable iOS devices to push their screen display over to a Mac window (just as they can now to an Apple TV).

It wasn't an easy journey. He had to put in a huge effort getting the technology working, to build his first mirroring prototype.

I got a chance to play with this prototype, and the video that follows demonstrates it in action. It's still early days but the mirroring quality is phenomenal.

So what comes next?

Stanfill has to try to convince Apple to approve his Mac app based on its value to the iOS community in general and the developer community in particular. If that turns out to be a no-go, he'll be looking at distributing it outside the Mac App Store.

If you're interested in following the development of this app, keep watching the Napkin Studio website, or drop him a note at his email.

FAQs:

What platforms are supported in the prototype? iPhone 4S and iPad at the current time.

How far away is this app from public release? That's up to Apple.

Do you have to jailbreak your device to use this utility? Nope. All you need is a Mac and an iOS unit.

Will Apple approve this app? Possibly not.

Is audio transmitted as well as video like on Apple TV? Yes, but you don't hear it yet. David writes, "Audio is transmitted using the regular Airtunes protocol. I'm actually listening for it, but I'm not doing anything with the FairPlay negotiation or stream processing on that end because I didn't want to mess with the PTS/DTS (presentation time/decoding time) synchronization with the video."

Hacksugar: Live AirPlay mirroring to Mac from iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a Monday afternoon briefing, Stephen Wolfram spoke about the direction of Siri and Wolfram Alpha integration. He explained that over time, the range of queries that users can ask Siri that are served by Wolfram Alpha continues to get broader. This is apparently a natural byproduct of using a cloud-based system with the Siri API.

Wolfram stated that Siri queries are generally easy for the service to process. "Spoken queries [have] a different character from typed queries," he explained. "People are a lot less lazy in what they say than what they type." When users type, they put things into a natural shorthand. In spoken requests, they naturally fill in those missing pieces.

The verbal noise likes "ums" and "ahs" are apparently easy to remove, while the extra spoken context words allow better translation to Alpha queries.

Wolfram said he looks forward to deeper and broader developments with Siri.

Stephen Wolfram on Siri originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When it comes to forecasting the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is the iPad 3.

It's been a long, cold winter for TUAW. As days lengthen and Spring becomes less of a dream and more imminent, our thoughts turn to new technology. What do we expect to see in the next generation iPad and when do we expect to see it? Preorders in March, pickup in April?

You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your predictions.

View Poll

You're the Pundit: iPad 3 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I love Siri. I'm surprised at how much I actually use it beyond the gimmicky stuff. Texting while driving (through my car's Uconnect system) is so handy.

One thing I've noticed is that when I dictate a message, add a smiley face and have her read it back to me, she says, "Have a nice day colon comma." The odd part is that she has written :-), which is colon hyphen right bracket. Is this a glitch or does a hyphen and right bracket together equal a comma? I was never good at grammatical math.

Your doting nephew,

Damien

Dear Damien,

Ah, bless Siri. She's such a changeable creature. Auntie used to love when Siri would read out "Brr, it's cold" as "Bee. Arr. Arr. It's Cold". Thanks to Apple's live data center updates, Siri now responds "Burr" instead of "Bee. Arr. Arr."

The smiley-face being read back as a colon is similar. It's simply a text-to-speech glitch that Apple may eventually improve. You can report any bugs to Apple directly using their Bug Reporter online website.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Why does Siri read smilies as colons? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Haven't heard of AnyPlay? That's not surprising. It's a small initiative slowly being introduced by Comcast into select cable markets. With it, you can watch live television over your home network on your iPad. So if your spouse is hogging the HDTV during your CW night, you can watch Supernatural using your local Wi-Fi. (Cablevision and Time Warner have similar apps on the App Store now.)

AnyPlay consists of two parts: there's the standalone box ($10 one-time charge) and the iPad software, which is built into Comcast's existing XFINITY TV app. To get them to work together, you must sign into the app with your Comcast credentials and enable AnyPlay using the app's settings.

On the hardware side of things, Comcast provides a media streamer box -- a Motorola unit in my case. Its job is to manage devices and convert cable signals into viewable video streams. Those streams currently must be on the same Wi-Fi network, although I think with a little hacking and AirVideo Server, it might be possible to eventually get those streams to travel out to mobile devices away from the home. With the standard package, AnyPlay is in-home only.

Setting up the box was simple. You hook it to power, to cable, and to your network using an Ethernet cable. You then visit the activation page http://comcast.com/activate and enter your account information and phone number. Theoretically this information ships with your starter kit. It was missing for me, so I ended up having to track down a cable bill to find my account number.

You can actually connect to the box using its built-in web interface. Just do a DHCP scan of your network, figure out which unit it is, and connect on port 8080. Built-in features include general alerts, device management, and tuner diagnostics.

It took several hours and long support phone calls to get everything working. In the end, it turns out that I needed to power-cycle the standalone box after activation because it wasn't broadcasting properly to the iPad app.

The Comcast support personnel were friendly, courteous, and professional, but the material they used to guide their support calls were flawed. At one point, the tech asked me to uninstall and reinstall the XFINITY TV app on my iPad, for example.

Once it got going, the app and the service worked great. Video quality has been excellent, and best of all, you can use AirPlay to stream the show out to Apple TV. That means you can use AnyPlay to watch live Comcast video on any Apple TV-augmented HDTV, and you can do this without renting an extra tuner box. You can watch this video to see the AnyPlay/AirPlay connection in action on my home network.

For ten bucks, and no recurring fees, AnyPlay is a great add-on for any Comcast TriplePlay customer who has a good home network and an iPad. It's currently deployed only in Denver and Nashville, with national roll-out expected over the next year.

Thanks, Paul Donaldson.

Hands on with AnyPlay: Live Comcast video on your iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I would like to run Mac OS X 10.6.7 off a RAM disk, for better performance/security while browsing the World Wide Web (I don't want to save the image with all those gnarly cookie crumbs to disk).

I understand that a family living down the street from me is able to run Linux from a RAM disk -- can you help me out?

Your loving niece,

Emily

Dear Emily,

Auntie immediately consulted with Unkie Mike after receiving your letter. He responded as follows:

Running OS X off a RAM disk isn't supported (and hasn't been on the Mac for a long, long time -- since Mac OS 9, in fact). Linux is a different beast.

You can run a browser in private or 'incognito' mode if you're concerned about security, or use a virtualization tool like Parallels or VMware to run a virtual Mac on your Mac. However, to run 10.6.7 virtualized you'd need the server version (expensive).

You can get most of the performance benefits of a RAM disk with an SSD boot drive, which we've covered on the site.

Further, Unkie uncovered the following information from a post on the MacRumors forum. Attributed to a "former Apple Employee," this seems to describe why RAM disks are a poor match to OS X.

That thing is snake oil, as are the vast majority of ramdisk products on OS X. Designing a ramdisk that works well on OS X is remarkably difficult because backing a block device into wired memory causes the contents to be double buffered above it in the Unified Buffer Cache.

For transient data on systems with no VM pressure, what will happen is the file is created, the object backing it sits in the UBC, it might get synched to disk, but unless you are running low on ram it stays in ram as well. That is why you see no speed increases, all you are doing is eliminating the background asynch writeout, and you are wasting a lot of ram to do it. More importantly, if you are actually creating a wired ram disk you are eating a ton of kernel address space which can be an issue if you have a lot of memory (large page tables) or several video cards.

Getting back to your actual issue, it sounds to Auntie as if you're looking for a secure browsing solution rather than a RAM disk boot solution. For that, take a look at this Macworld hints post that shows you how to store your Safari cache on a RAM drive.

Hope this helps.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Can I boot from a RAM disk? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dave Caolo and I were chatting this morning about iBooks and spelling. "It's not my daughter's favorite subject," he said, "and I'm looking for a way to make it more appealing to her." He asked if there could there be any way to incorporate spelling quizzes into iBooks via Author.

The answer is, unfortunately, not clearly yes. That's because iBooks Author assumes that all interaction will be by multiple choice. That means you can create interactions to choose from common misspellings and from homonyms, but can't solicit freeform text entry.

That gives rise to the kind of interaction you see below. The shortcomings are apparent. For example, you cannot define any item that isn't tied to a specific location (so you can't create a pool of misspellings without destinations). If the reader switches the order of the two misspelled words (here Tale and Flour) those are marked wrong as well.

So I hopped into Dashcode and built a widget that would solicit a correctly spelled word and embedded it into an Author project as follows. This turned out to be a failure. Although the embedded audio prompt worked fine (albeit in a separate interactive element), widgets do not run in-line and iBook's interpretation of the widget hid my embedded checker button.

This might be due to my subpar Widget construction, or I may simply be running into iBooks 2 limitations.

So how can you expand iBooks for spelling? This post tells you where I am to date. If you have a better solution, drop a note into the comments. And if you are an expert Dashboard widget engineer, please ping me offline. I'd really love to test out the possibilities and limitations of this tech.

iBooks Author Challenge: Adding spelling quizzes to iBooks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I'm a Mac IT professional, and often find myself configuring, troubleshooting, and optimizing wireless networks.

In the past I used AP Grapher to graph wireless strength and find competing Wi-Fi networks as I walk around my clients' offices. This allows me to pick the best channel to use with the least competition, troubleshoot wireless strength, and find the optimal location for my hardware.

In Lion, AP Grapher has gone from unstable to unusable. I've found that it hasn't been updated since 2007.

I have tested other Mac stumbler applications, but have yet to find one that works with Lion. Most crash on launch and others don't reliably detect wireless networks.

Can you recommend a Mac application for graphing my wireless strength and recording info about competing wireless networks?

Thanks!

Your loving nephew,

Aaron

Dear Aaron,

Auntie asked around and it looks like iStumbler will be your best bet. Note that it's currently at its 100 GM Candidate 3 beta stage of development. Another suggestion is the open source KisMAC.

You might also want to try out the Wi-Fi diagnostics app that's bundled with Lion's Core Services.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Special thanks to Fraser Hess, Adrian Burgess, Alex Patsay, Harris Kleyman, Alex Sebenski and Julian Kussman.

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me find a WiFi stumbler app for Lion originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone owners who live in cold climates have many solutions for staying warm while using their devices. I've seen gloves with metal dots on their fingers, cutoff gloves with caps that transform into mittens, and gloves with conductive fabric tips designed for use with capacitive screens.

The NuTouch Glove line falls into the latter category. Unlike some of their brothers on the market, all five tips are so enabled, not just the forefinger and thumb. Retailing for about US$12, these gloves are unisex, suitable for use with most business and casual wear.

In the pair I tested, the tips did not pop out visually as much as the product shot at the top of the screen. So it didn't look as if the gloves were anything other than normal outerwear.

The gloves were warm, keeping my hands toasty in sub-freezing weather, but I'd recommend against using them for any sustained, physical hand-centered activity. Like, say, shoveling snow.

My first tests involved biking and I found my hands were pretty much rubbed raw by the end of a half hour. Normally, I have to strip off one of my winter gloves to take calls and to interact with RunMeter -- the app I use to track my rides. The NuTouch gloves let me add ride log data on the go, but were just stiff enough to irritate my skin due to the constant pressure.

This roughness was not a problem during walking, where I wasn't constantly leaning on my hands, moving their positions over handlebars, and sweating through the gloves. They worked especially well for short dashes downtown and walks between buildings where you sometimes need to pull up a map or send a quick text, especially in the cold Colorado winter.

These gloves are a good choice for cold weather touchscreen use -- just remember they're business wear and not meant to be sportswear.

Hands on with NuTouch Gloves originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I just finished Adam Lashinsky's "Inside Apple", now available for sale at most major vendors. It's a quick, easy read and clocks in at just over 200 pages with large, readable type. If you're looking for an exhaustive Tracy Kidder take on how Apple works and operates, this book isn't it. Instead, it offers a refreshing overview of Apple history and corporate culture from NeXT to iPhone.

There's little here that's new or shocking, but it's all put together in a readable style. It's a perfect airplane book -- it will keep you entertained without requiring too much commitment.

You'll find plenty of anecdotes, from how Apple developed its retail strategy to how it acquired Cisco's "iOS" moniker for its own use. You'll also learn about Apple's social structure (designers rule the world while the Mac teams have seen their status plummet) and its penny-pinching policies. There's a lot about Jobs and his quirks, both personal and business as well.

What you don't get is a lot of deep analysis. I suspect that's because Apple's closed system didn't allow Lashinsky access to the people who could have provided those insights. There's a lot of back story and very little about the current state of affairs. Clearly, all his research had to be done from the outside, with ex-employees and those who have done business with the company.

As the book points out, this secrecy has served Apple well. One section that really popped for me early in the book involved a discussion of Korean phone maker LG. Unlike Apple, they pre-announced a product and under-delivered it. It's a mistake that Apple, with its tight limits on information, would never have made.

In the end, Lashinsky describes Apple's corporate culture and business successes, allowing each reader to draw the line from the cause to the effect. I found it an enjoyable read. If you are someone interested in Apple and its culture, you'll probably want to pick up a copy.

Adam Lashinsky's Inside Apple book is available in the iTunes iBookstore for US$12.99 and from Amazon.

Inside Apple offers a quick read, corporate insights originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today, TUAW liveblogs Apple's first quarter conference call. If you'd like to listen live, point your browser to Apple's dedicated page. I'll be doing live updates as they're discussed, including coverage of the Q&A followup.

The liveblog appears in reverse chronological order, with newer updates higher on the page. This post will not auto-update, so keep refreshing your browser.

Also note that I do not usually cover the Financials. Our usual suspects are all on planes on their way out to Macworld/iWorld today. So please bear with me, as Apple spokespersons have a tendency to talk very, very fast on these calls.

Apple Q1 2012 results liveblog originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple has just posted its first quarter fiscal 2012 results. (There is a live conference call to follow). One of the biggest items to pop from the press release is the status of the iPod.

Unlike iPhones, iPads, and Macs, all of which experienced terrific gains, the 11-year-old iPod line experienced a 21% unit decline year-over-year, from last winter's quarter.

Apple did not introduce a new iPod touch this Autumn, breaking a tradition of Fall iPod launches and refreshes.

Of course, the function of an iPod or iPod touch has been filled for many customers by the iPhone, which sold like gangbusters this quarter.

iPod line experiences major decline year-over-year originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There's been a lot of heat and fury surrounding the iBooks Author terms and conditions ever since the service was introduced last week. To boil the controversy down to basics, Apple has introduced a private protocol extension that takes EPUB to the next generation. And then they created a business model that uses this proprietary technology to monetize commercial transactions. This runs right in line with my predictions from earlier this month.

This decision, to build a proprietary format on an open standard, has led to a lively debate about whether a member of an open standards organization should be creating private standards like the .ibooks format or AirPlay. And, to be fair to Apple, to even realize that this proprietary format is based on an open standard, you actually have to crack open the files and expose the EPUB underpinnings. Apple wasn't exactly announcing how they did things last week at the educational media event.

From a tech point of view, the .ibooks format itself is exciting stuff. It takes a major step forward, blending HTML 5 tech directly into ebooks and unifying books with the complete iWorks suite.

A few weeks ago, I wrote that "I believe that Apple should be leading a revolution in embedded live book elements with video, programmable app and web integration, and more (Think "Khan Academy" as books, for example). Why aren't we seeing both the specs and the tools with Apple trailblazing forward?"

Today, that reality is here, with iBooks Author. I know several people who are already using the Khan Academy material. And because Apple moves the format forward so much from the open standard it was based upon, developers should have no issues with Apple making the updated version private.

If you thought Dashcode was an optional Xcode extra not worthy of notice, now's a great time to reassess. At the risk of being hit with rotten vegetables, the "sweet solution" of 2007 has now come into its own: 1960's? Plastic. 2010's? HTML 5. With smart coding, you can embed entire applications into iBooks.

Scarily accomplished developer Steven Troughton-Smith recently managed to embed a playable version of his classic iOS app Lights Off inside an iBooks book using a Dashcode widget written with HTML 5. "This is the first time Dashboard widgets have worked on iOS," he points out.

What's more, he tells me that some developers have gotten the WebOS app framework (Enyo) and Cappucino to run inside their books. In terms of creative expression, this is a huge development with nearly limitless possibilities. Troughton-Smith said, "It will be absolutely epic for designers and developers making portfolios, or perhaps a book that reviews apps and contains mini versions, or whatever."

So yes, Apple intends to control the sole paid delivery portal for this technology, freely offering the tool to create new .ibooks files, taking a 30% cut of all commercial material developed using this specification. At the same time, they're the ones who are developing both the authoring tools and the distribution apps on their own nickel.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that I believe that Apple is moving forward in a smart and well-calculated fashion. While Amazon's KDP Select program created exclusivity due to legal agreements and shared profits, Apple is building its own kind of proprietary author cadre based on new and forward-looking technology.

Absolutely no one will be forced to use the new .ibooks format or the tools that create those files. If you wish to publish a non-exclusive EPUB on the iBooks store as well as on Amazon, Nook, etc, you are welcome to do so. Nor do I personally think that Apple will come after anyone who shares material between .ibooks editions and EPUB ones. I am, obviously not a lawyer, but I believe Apple is protecting and charging for use of its format, not aggressively seizing content.

On the whole, I have been deeply pleased with nearly everything I have discovered in iBooks -- from its media support to its strong accessibility extensions.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting ready to brush up on my Javascript skills. If you're an app dev, you probably will want to as well.

[Update February 3rd 2012: Apple's terms and conditions now clarify "If you want to charge a fee for a work that includes files in the .ibooks format generated using iBooks Author, you may only sell or distribute such work through Apple, and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple. This restriction does not apply to the content of such works when distributed in a form that does not include files in the .ibooks format."]

iBooks Author owns your format, not your content originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you're a commuter with a taste for the spoken word, you'll be pleased to hear that Audiobooks.com is introducing an all-you-can-eat service, including thousands of best-sellers. It's like Spotify or Rdio for audio books.

Launching today, the new Audiobooks.com plan runs $24.95 per month, and can stream to nearly any internet-enabled mobile device.

A very nice thing about the service is that you don't have to take out a book at a time. If a book grows boring, or you just want to listen to something different for a while, you can mark your place, and resume listening at the same spot at another time.

They write, "With Audiobooks.com, there are no storage constraints, no need to return audio books, no long-term contracts and no time constraints on audio book use. Audiobooks.com users can even mark their place in an audio book and resume listening at the same spot without using a browser plug-in or special application."

TUAW asked Ian Small, the general manager, about their pricing strategy, running as it does somewhat higher than music-only services. He replied through a spokesperson that Audiobooks is trying to price their service close to popular market standard, with Audible.com setting that standard.

In the end, are you willing to add another monthly $25 bill to your costs? For some, it will be an invaluable service, for others a skippable luxury. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

AudioBooks introduces all-you-can-eat book streaming originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Avatron is a company well known for their iOS and Mac utilities. We are particularly fond of their Air Sharing apps and Air Display, among others. They have a reputation for building solid, reliable products. I could sense the dismay in CEO Dave Howell's message when he pinged me today to let me know that Avatron would be pulling their Air Dictate app.

In order to comply with App Store rules, Air Dictate used a little trick to hide the standard keyboard while offering one-button access to Siri dictation functions. This is distinct from the non-App Store-safe approach I wrote about on Thanksgiving.

Howell explained, "What we did was to hide the keyboard and text field entirely. We did that by putting another view in front of the keyboard window. When you press our big Start Dictation button, we map that to a tap on the little microphone button. But how? There's no public method to change the location of a tap event to some other location. The solution to that was the clever part of Air Dictate. We actually changed the position of the keyboard window so that its mic button is directly under whatever point you tapped. Then we move it back again after the event has passed through. Same thing for the Done button."

The app relied on interface assumptions that could possibly change without warning in future Apple updates, or could vary with international keyboard layouts. This caused a point of conflict with Apple review. "The cold hard fact is that every update of iOS is likely to break all of our apps for one reason or another," Howell said. "Sometimes new Apple bugs, sometimes intentional changes to their frameworks. You don't have to break any rules for your apps to be broken by an iOS update!"

Apple further proposed that Avatron discard their custom interface, which was both eye-catching and streamlined, and ask users to locate and tap the microphone button directly. "Apple's suggestion was that we should throw away our custom interface (sacrificing its convenience for the blind and disabled, who would have trouble tapping the tiny mic button), and just throw up a standard keyboard. We don't want to do that so we're not planning to release any more updates to Air Dictate."

RIP Air Dictate.

Avatron retires Air Dictate tool for remote Siri dictation originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I spent a good bit of time this morning taking a peek under the hood at iBooks Author and the files it builds. By request, here is a quick summary of some of the information I gathered on the topic. I warn you that this is going to be a non-generalist post, so do feel free to skip ahead on the site if this kind of info isn't really your thing.

The iBooks format appears to be an EPUB-like variant specific to Apple. Like EPUB, it's a zipped up file that contains an archive of the materials that make up the book. Inside, you find an Open Packaging folder and a META-INF Open Container Format folder, with its container.xml file. Unlike EPUB with its application/xhtml+xml mimetype, .ibooks uses application/x-ibooks+zip.

There are numerous other small differences. For those I defer to Jim Dovey, who tweeted expertly on the subject this morning.

If you re-name .ibooks files to .epub, they are just close enough to EPUB that you can read them into Adobe Digital Editions and Calibre. From Calibre, you can then export to EPUB although my tests show that you lose many of the fine details specific to Apple's extensions. It's so easy, however, to export directly to an iPad running iBooks 2, that you may not need to use this approach to recover EPUB files.

You cannot directly export from Author to EPUB, nor can you import EPUB files back in. Projects are saved in .iba files. These are zipped archives, containing an XML index file and the resources used in the project. It seems very iWork-like from a save-file point of view.

Publishing creates an .itmsp bundle and launches iTunes Producer as usual. You'll find the same kinds of files inside as you would if you use the app to upload directly: a manifest, a product image, and the ibooks file rather than the standard EPUB.

Under the hood, iBooks Author seems to contain many of the same frameworks as Pages. If you're looking for Pages 2012 or iWork 2012, well, this may be it. As tools go, I was impressed at how well integrated the accessibility authoring features were, but more about those in a separate post.

As for the advanced authoring tools, I found them easy to use and simple to add. A video of a couple of these, created in just seconds, follows.

iBooks Author: Under the hood originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Welcome to TUAW's coverage of the January 2012 NYC Education event. Apple has invited select media to the Guggenheim to announce new educational directions. TUAW is metaliveblogging the event, bringing you updates, analysis, and insight with our trademark TUAW flair. Please keep refreshing the page. Newer updates will appear first, using reverse chronological order.

Continue reading Metaliveblogging Apple's Education event in NYC

Metaliveblogging Apple's Education event in NYC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here's a basic Apple geek test. Spudger. If the word means nothing to you, move on to the next post.

Okay, just us now?

If the term spudger means something to you -- and you know in your inner geek heart that it does because you're still here reading -- just wait 'til you hear what we have for you.

TidBITS reports that the folks at Newer Technologies have re-invented the spudger! The soft, thin, pliable manipulation tool has been reimagined as an ultra thin, stainless steel weapon of Mac destruction. It's handmade in Italy of the finest rare Tuscan steel, so you can be assured of years of quality spudging (OK, I made up the "rare Tuscan steel" bit. So sue me.)

Retailing for US$9.99 (slighly less street price), the iSesamo (great name, yes?) is reportedly "ideal for pros and DIYers." I haven't had an opportunity to try one out, but the TidBITs write-up suggests that it easily surpasses the standard nylon units I have in my toolbox.

As a final note, a TUAW investigative team has discovered that CultOfSpudger.com, TUSpudgerW.com, 9to5Spudger.com, and SpudgerRumors.com are all available for anyone who wishes to create a dedicated spudger blog.

Reinventing the Spudger originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I first looked at BubCap by Paperclip Robot last summer, finding it handy for parents, during demonstrations and preventing inadvertent access to the iPhone or iPad Home button. At that time, there were three BupCaps models available: the Regular, the Ultra and the Max models (in order of resiliency).

They made it especially difficult to hit that Home Key. "That's exactly what you want -- a significant challenge for smart-alecks who would get cute with your demos, or someone whose physical development may outpace their wisdom," I wrote then.

One problem remained, however. It was pretty easy to peel them off. A sharp fingernail and the will to act up could quickly remove the sticker. Paperclip Robot's Rob Mitchell explained, "[A]side from BubCap used with children, we sold thousands of custom-branded Max to business customers. Clients started coming to us looking for greater deterrence." Paperclip Robot responded by introducing the BupCap Pro.

Industrial-strength and compatible with all mobile iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch), the BupCap Pro uses an aggressive adhesive and a strong aluminum base. Its adhesive, combined with the rigidity of the aluminum, makes the Pro particularly difficult to remove.

Paperclip Robot sent me a sample to test and I can assure you that it is essentially unbendable. Unlike older models which resist presses rather than prevent them (perfect for families with small children), the Pro blocks the Home key completely. The only access that remains is through a small paperclip-ready hole in the center of the cover.

This hole allows administrators to use the Home key to set up any software, while preparing for public deployment -- whether in classrooms, offices, kiosks, or intake centers. The Home Key cannot be pressed without that paperclip (obviously, the devices must be set up to disable multitouch overrides, which offer Home key alternatives).

Mitchell told TUAW, "I have several developer clients who have ordered BubCap Pro for use in bars and restaurants. I also have a developer who wants to keep users in a custom iPad shoot-em-up game used to market their brand at events."

BubCap Pro is an excellent follow-up product for Paperclip Robot, helping to expand its line to a larger group of users. You can order units from the company website for US$9.99 for a 2-pack, and $225 for 50-packs. It is currently available only in black, although a white version will be released soon.

Be aware that the BubCap Pro uses an extremely strong adhesive, and removal isn't easy. You'll need an X-Acto knife or razor blade and may damage the device's finish if you are not skilled. The non-pro models -- Regular, Ultra and Max -- can be easily removed with a fingernail.

BubCap Pro updates tamper protection to the big league originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New from Dragon Forged Software, Slender (US$9.99, currently on sale for $4.99) is a narrowly-focused utility that will either be exactly the tool you're looking for or one you can safely skip. It helps you non-destructively optimize Xcode projects by allowing you to view, evaluate, and adjust development assets.

For example, you can scan multi-resolution image collections. Slender detects when you might be missing a @2x asset or have used an incorrect dimension. That's particularly handy when you're working on large projects and may find it hard to otherwise audit your images by hand.

Slender also matches assets to source code, so you can automatically remove unused asset items to help save space in your shipping bundle.

You can use Slender to add its extra checking and validation to your normal workflow as a final project cleanup stage. Developer Kyle Richter adds, "This is the perfect app for anyone who is working on large projects with frequent asset changes and anyone trying to keep an active eye on their final bundle size."

Slender originated as an internal project. Richter explains, "When working on client projects, we frequently ran into issues with asset control. Slender was designed as an in-house tool to help us optimize our work flow and cut down on our development time. We found it extremely useful internally, as did the colleagues we shared it with, so we decided to release it on the App Store so we could share the tech with others."

Slender is now available from the Mac App Store. For more details about its features, you can check out this information page.

Daily Mac App: Slender originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Nestled within the bosom of your Mac's system folder lie many powerful and curious applications. Not intended for direct access, the denizens of the CoreServices directory work as clients for other OS apps such as System Preferences or Safari. There are several CoreServices apps we use often at TUAW. Here are some of our favorites.

When Safari cannot connect to the Internet, you may be prompted to run Network Diagnostics.app to find the problem. The app lets you choose a network port you wish to work with (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or an external modem), and test it. It is one of many apps found inside your /System/Library/CoreServices folder. It's also one that you may want to stick into your dock for a bit when you're messing around with a new router or have upgraded your cable modem.

Screen Sharing.app gives you remote access to any enabled computer on your local network using the VNC protocol. Some of us prefer using Chicken of the VNC, but Screen Sharing.app is a simple alternative already built into your system.

You enable this feature in System Preferences > Sharing > Screen Sharing (hint, click Computer Settings and add a password). When launched, just enter the host name or address of a sharable computer (e.g. Banana.local or 192.168.0.15) and start controlling that system remotely.

Use the Wi-Fi Diagnostics.app to capture network events and enable debugging logs. It provides a way to collect traffic for analysis.

Anyone who regularly works with Apple development may be pleased to realize they can access the Certificate Assistant.app directly instead of always having to launch the Keychain utility. The assistant allows you to create certificate signing requests, which are used in the dev process to request authenticated items like certificates for development provisions.

The VoiceOver.app utility enables spoken descriptions of your OS X screen. It provides an audio interface for your computer. Once enabled, you can quickly switch out of VoiceOver mode with Command-F5. (You can turn on VoiceOver via System Preferences/Accessibility, as well.

You're probably used to using the Archive Utility.app through the Finder's contextual pop-up, but if you drag it into your dock, you can use it as a drag and drop compression utility. Very handy!

Got other favorite secret apps? Tell us about them in the comments!

Hidden secret apps of CoreServices originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW,

There is an article in the WSJ about how an iPhone disrupted a performance of the New York Philharmonic. I have experienced the same problem where it is impossible to turn the alarm off once it goes on.

If you set up a calendar alert and change your reminder sounds with the Alarm sound, when the alarm goes off there is no way to silence it. If you turn the phone to silence mode, it still makes noise. If you close the event, it still makes noise. I believe the only way to shut off the sound is to completely turn off the device.

This has been so annoying that I stopped using iPhone's calendar reminder alerts. This article reminded me of the problem. Can you explain how this all works?

Your loving nephew,

Brian

Dear Brian,

iPhone alarms aren't affected by any of the normal system volume settings. This ensures that you'll still be woken up in the morning, a major design touch point for iPhone users who'd prefer to get to work on time. In fact, the iPhone supports numerous independent volume controls.

For example, the mute toggle on the side of the phone controls the ringer without affecting audio playback. The iPod functions built into the unit have independent speaker and headphone levels. Siri audio has its own volume levels as well -- plus lowering Siri speaker audio doesn't change the volume for when you pick up the phone to your ear.

Apple designed these multiple controls to work in the most flexible yet reliable ways possible, ensuring that the phone responds as the user expects it to. A single system-wide volume setting wouldn't be able to handle these day-to-day nuances.

If you mute your phone for the movie theater at night, you should still be able to wake up the next morning. If you lower the speaker volume for your music, it shouldn't keep you from using Siri to call hands-free. Please note that adding headphones does not re-route alarm audio.

That means if you take your phone into a quiet event -- a meeting, concert, or other -- you should probably power off the device completely for the duration. Press the sleep/wake button for about 5 seconds, and then slide to power down.

If this is not possible, you'll want to set the ringer to mute, set the system audio to zero, launch Siri and lower the volume to zero, disable all alarms, and review the Settings > Notifications items in the Notification Center to switch off audio. There's probably some items Auntie is missing here, but she trusts her nieces and nephews will refine this list in the comments.

In the end, Auntie thinks Apple did a great job in designing the various iPhone audio systems. For those rare occasions where you really need to bypass these design choices, powering the iPhone down will keep it from embarrassing faux pas.

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I silence my iPhone? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today, we celebrated the Mac mini's 7th anniversary. As workhorse machines go, the mini cannot be beat. It provides a great deal of computing power along with a small footprint and plenty of ports for devices. Add any monitor, keyboard, mouse, or trackpad and you're ready to rock and roll.

Here are some of our favorite ways to use minis in real life.

• Media Center. The Mac mini gives you the media power of an Apple TV, a small footprint, and adds computing on top. Connect your Mini to an EyeTV or similar capture system, and you've created a workable DVR solution. Yes, Apple dropped FrontRow support with Lion, but we're very fond of Plex and XBMC.
• First Development Mac. Intel minis make perfect "first" development Macs, offering a stepping stone into the Apple world for anyone reared on Windows or Linux. You can purchase a Mac, a dev membership, and all the accessories you need to get started with iOS development for under $1000. These minis also act as a gateway drug for many developers. From there, it's onto iMacs and MacBooks.
• Kid Computers. Nothing says education like mini. Get your students started with a great Mac experience, at an affordable price. Most kid software, browsing, and email will run on older minis, so you can buy refurbished while knowing your kid can still get the job done.
• Embedded Systems. Minis are easy to deploy to embedded systems, from kiosks to interactive museum exhibits. Their Apple lineage also means that servicing and warranties are taken care of through low-cost AppleCare.
• Windows Platforms. One word: BootCamp. Your Mac mini may be one of the best Windows systems you ever owned.

Got other ways you love to use Mac minis? Join in the comments as we celebrate 7 years of the little Mac that could.

Great things to do with your Mac mini originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There's been much debate over the idea of a 7-inch iPad from Apple. Today, our pals at MacObserver jumped into the mix with their take on things. The Kindle Fire, Ted Landau points out, offers "an e-reader with added iPad-like features for half the price of an iPad."

Speaking as a happy Kindle Fire owner, I rather like the medium form factor. This is not an opinion universally shared in the TUAW trenches, but I appreciate the way I can carry it around in a purse -- something not possible with the iPad. That means, when I head out, I now often take the iPhone and the Fire along, where as before I'd have only had the iPhone with me. My iPad remains reserved for backpack or briefcase excursions.

A 7" screen offers a very good reading size. It's more portable than the iPad screen and offers more area than the iPhone. It also excels at gaming and video watching, providing that same middle balance.

As far as form alone goes, I think Apple could find a ready audience of customers who'd be happy to pick up a smaller unit at a bargain price, especially if it was 3G-ready like the iPad, and equipped with a Retina display for better reading.

The challenges come from two places: market fragmentation and software reach. When Apple introduced the iPad, it had a clear niche to fill: tablet computing held in the crook of your arm. A much larger screen yet small enough for easy portability. A smaller version of that tablet would be nice, and it would sell, but it wouldn't support a unique raison d'etre.

Apple does not want to return to the mid '90's with dozens of Performa and Quadra models littering its product line. When someone walks into an Apple Store, they need to want to buy a particular thing, not make choices between nuanced variations of the same idea. A 7" model, no matter how nice it would serve as a reader, doesn't add to the strength of Apple's bottom line. It doesn't create demand, it confuses it, even if the 7" is offered at a bargain price.

The second issue is the App Store. Although better developers do design with strong resolution-independence, you cannot assume that apps will simply work on new geometries. Launch screens differ, icons differ, proportions differ, and so forth. To create a polished app that fits properly into a new resolution is a big job. Apple would have to once again fragment their App Store to serve that, a step that's somewhat bigger than you might first expect.

As a developer, I lived through the iPad introduction and know that that kind of major OS and display fragmentation is not to be undertaken lightly. A lot of technology, infrastructure, terminology, and so forth has to follow on to the simple introduction of new hardware.

There's a lot of buzz about the pressure on Apple these days to follow up in the reader world with better markets, platforms, and tools -- I've been writing quite a bit about that topic this month, and there's rumors flying about what we might see announced soon. But I can't exactly see how a 7" tablet would help Apple respond to those issues, although I know I'd certainly buy one for myself.

For me this comes down to a split between yes, I'd love one personally, and no, I don't think it would be in Apple's best interest to go there. Did Apple get "caught with its pants down at Christmas" as it lacked a 7-inch model? I don't think so. Are they working on a 7-inch tablet now? I'm slightly on the "probably not" side, for the reasons I stated above.

On the idea of a 7-inch Apple iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With all the holidays, many of us TUAWians spent more time on the road over the past few weeks than we normally do. And when it comes to tech-savvy bloggers, more time on the road means more time with navigation apps. And more time with navigation apps made us ever more aware of our lingering frustrations with the most popular apps.

Sure Navigon and TomTom will get us from here to there, but they represent not just the lower end of design possibility, but the most Windows NT-like user experience. (We say that as an insult. We're Apple bloggers.) We're talking Soviet-era usability.

On a platform that sports such shining examples of beauty and design, including Omni's suite of tools, Apple's brilliant in-house offerings, and so forth, why does utilitarian nonsense dominate the navigation market?

So we huddled around the 8-bit fire in the center of the TUAW backchannel chat room (we're retro like that) and brainstormed about what we wanted to see nav apps evolve to, and what better apps are out there already.

Steve Sande highly recommended the new Waze GPS & Traffic app. Powered by live community-sourced traffic data, it provides turn-by-turn guidance as you drive as well as social integration for carpooling and checking in.

The app passively allows you to contribute traffic and road data, just by leaving it open as you drive. You can also share road reports about accidents and speed traps, although we recommend that you only do so as a passenger or when stopped at traffic lights.

Some of us focused more on data. I personally felt that we needed more features like those currently available in popular running apps. Take Runmeter, which is my sports-tracking app of choice these days. It logs all your stats for walks, runs, bike rides, and more. You can monitor your efficiency, discover how long you were stopped, how far you went, how much you improved. In other words, it provides a full suite of analysis for after you've arrived at your destination.

That's the kind of data I'd want to see integrated into turn-by-turn navigation apps. For each trip, I'd love to know how many miles I went, how efficient my gas usage was, what my high speed was, compare stretches to past runs of the same route, and so forth.

I contacted Abvio, makers of Runmeter, to see whether this was an area they might eventually explore. A company spokesperson politely responded that "Turn by turn isn't something on [our] immediate road map, but [we] do get requests for it on occasion."

And what about weather? Why don't current navigation apps offer real-time weather updates displayed on the route? With some apps, like Navigon, you can get a destination forecast, but as you're driving it's far more important that you know about the weather where you are, or when you're just about to be there. Road Trip Weather, which offers on-route weather updates, was our recent daily iPhone app. It is not, however a navigation app itself.

On a side note, it would also be great if we could automatically pause navigation. Nothing more embarrassing than having your pocket announce that you should turn right in 1.5 miles -- as you're sitting at a table at Burger King.

The final item on our wishlist was more game-like challenges for real-life chores. We'd love to see navigation apps integrate more tightly with GTD apps, schedules, and calendars, but do so in a way that's fun and light. Why not unlock achievements or earn points when stopping by the market, or remembering the dentist appointment? After all, a lot of our day in the modern world centers around travel. Shouldn't navigation apps better integrate with that?

Sure, we'd probably skip @baobab68's suggestion of achievements like "15 Stop Lights Missed" or "Avoided Slow School Bus", or @andyflisher's hint that users should be able to finish the game despite no mirrors, bumpers, or windscreen. But why shouldn't navigation apps be more like games, with charts, records, scores, check-ins, and achievements?

How would you like to see navigation apps evolve? Did we miss your favorite app? Drop a note into the comments and let us know where you see nav apps going in the future.

Why can't navigation apps be fun? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amazon has trailblazed; Apple has followed. Apple's iBooks program currently allows authors to self-publish ebooks. Authors create their own business built around iTunes Connect, just as they do for self-published apps.

So where does Apple have room to improve? What follows is one of several posts about how iBooks can improve to better compete with Amazon. In this post, I discuss Apple's lack of iBook platforms, and what they can do to improve outreach.

Imagine you've just bought a book. If it's a print book, you can stick it into your backpack, your purse, or even your cargo pocket -- take it anywhere, read it anywhere. When you're done, you can pass it to a friend.

If it's an ebook from Amazon, chances are likely you can read it on nearly any platform you can think of. You can read it on a web browser, on your Windows PC, on your Mac, on your Kindle, your Android Phone, iOS device, and so forth. There is nothing standing between you and your book. And, when you're done, you can loan it to a friend.

Now imagine you bought it from iBooks. You've got all the beauty and pleasure of the iOS deployment, but little beyond that. Apple hasn't released an iBooks reader for the web, let alone for its home Mac OS X platform. And there's no loan ability at all.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, "We love our iPhones and iPads, but we have lots of books we'd like to read on our personal computers as well. That whole iBooks DRM thing means we can't use any of the (admittedly subpar) readers currently on the market like Adobe Digital Editions. So Santa, won't you please ship us iBooks so we can read in as much style at home as on the road?"

That iBooks are limited to iOS doesn't just affect where we read books, it also greatly influences buying decisions. Many iPhone owners have Amazon accounts as well as Apple IDs. To think they'll buy iBooks exclusively out of brand loyalty is to ignore the reality of families with multiple devices as well as the use of books for business and pleasure.

From a consumer's point of view, Amazon also offers both catalog and financial incentives. Amazon's book listing is far more substantial than Apple's. Leaving aside any issues about exclusive homegrown independent books, Amazon lists more niche titles as a general rule. For example, if you're looking for TV tie-in novels to BBC franchises, you'll find them on Amazon but not on iBooks. The newest Doctor Who novels, for example, aren't available in the iBooks store.

Financially, Amazon automatically matches the lowest price available for a product, regardless of where that price is offered: iBooks, B&N Nook, Smashwords, etc. When you shop at Amazon, customers know they won't experience sticker regret when they later find a better deal at a major outlet.

A lot of this is tied up in the ongoing war between agency and wholesale pricing. Under agency pricing, publishers set a price and then receive a fixed percentage of sales. The MSRP they specify is the sale price. Under wholesale pricing, items are sold to the reseller at a fixed discount (something like 55% of MSRP), and then the reseller sets whatever price they desire.

iBooks does no real-time price negotiation, and books are listed at full retail price set by the publisher. For publishers to update that price, they must log in and change the settings for each and every market. They can do this through Apple's abysmally slow web interface or through their slightly more effective offline iTunes Producer tool.

I can't suggest any remedies on the agency-wholesale battle -- it's out of my area of expertise -- but I know as an independent author, I'd deeply love to see the pricing tools through iTunes Connect updated to be responsive and territory-savvy. Setting prices a few dozen times is brain-numbingly dreary. Let me emphasize that tip about using iTunes Producer. It lets you perform a lot of these tasks more effectively, without having to deal with iTunes Connect lags.

Apple should take careful note of Amazon's device reach and consumer-friendly price points. iBooks needs to carefully address these matters in its future planning.

Posts in this series:

• KDP Select
• Better Author Tools
• Cross Platform Support

How Apple iBooks needs to compete with Amazon: Cross-platform support originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Smile-recognition technology is nothing new. Dozens of camera brands support this feature but it isn't yet part of iOS's built-in camera system.

Now for US$0.99, you can purchase HappyShutter. It's built using new iOS Core Image technology to detect both that faces are within-frame, i.e. not cut off, and when subjects are smiling. What makes this app interesting is that the detection is done in software, not hardware.

Dr. Roberto Valenti, ThirdSight CTO, explained that his team built detection tests using OpenCV, an open-source library that supports real time computer vision and ThirdSight's face analysis algorithms. The road to the app store, however, was a rocky one.

Realtime detection in software rather than hardware is limited by processor capabilities. Valenti writes, "ThirdSight owns technology which recognizes any facial expression in a video, and although we succeeded porting them on the iPad 2, the iPhone 4 was not able to run our technologies close enough to real time. Therefore we chose to implement a new frame-by-frame detection based system, which would decide whether the subject was smiling as soon as a face was detected."

So what they did was to train the system in advance. They downloaded thousands of face images from the Internet, manually labeling them as either smiles or not. "The prototype of the software was already working before last summer," he wrote. "However, we still encountered some technical difficulties while porting the software to the iPhone."

One big issue was a bottleneck of the standard OpenCV face detector. It was too slow to be usable in their app. "We started optimizing the OpenCV code with ARM NEON SIMD instructions, achieving quite a good performance improvement."

The introduction of iOS 5 brought the project into the realm of reality. "As soon as the new functions were documented, we replaced our OpenCV face detector with the one provided with the SDK. The speed improvement was not massive, but it was definitely a cleaner solution."

With face detection moved into Core Image, smile detection itself remained in OpenCV. "The improvements on the OpenCV library were still used in the smile detection part of the code, which allowed us to achieve fast smile detection on the device. However, we still had to go through a choice of image features representation and classification frameworks, and we had to choose to slightly cut down in accuracy in order to reduce the loading time and to keep the application size under 20 MB."

In the end, the merging of Core Image and OpenCV allowed HappyShutter to hit the app store in a form that was usable, with a software-only approach. If you'd like to give it a try, it's only a buck -- and it may help capture happier-looking memories.

HappyShutter brings smile recognition to iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amazon has trailblazed; Apple has followed. Apple's iBooks program currently allows authors to self-publish ebooks. Authors create their own business built around iTunes Connect, just as they do for self-published apps.

So where does Apple have room to improve? What follows is one of several posts about how iBooks can improve to better compete with Amazon. In this post, I discuss how Apple needs to create a better authoring platform to help support their independent authors.

iBooks tools are frustrating. You can publish on Amazon with little more than an account, a doc file and a smile. For iBooks, you need validated ePub files, ISBN identifiers from the Library of Congress and a willingness to run the gauntlet of contracts, paperwork, and the hell that is iTunes Connect.

iTunes Connect

It's not that iTunes Connect is so unusuable from a web page perspective, it's that its servers are often so loaded that each request (such as select a country and set a price level, repeat 30-odd times) may take several minutes to complete for each region. You can lose an entire day of work just moving through paperwork details.

There is a workaround: you can use a hacky, poorly-documented tool called iTunes Producer to update your product metadata and it will save you lots of time. But if iTunes Producer, with its amateur-level support, is all that Apple means to bring to the table, then it must re-address how it works with with the iBooks content-creator base.

Amazon makes it so simple and intuitive to list books that when you have to move over to iTunes, the difference hits you right in the face. Keep in mind that I personally use iTunes to sell both books and apps. It's not that iTunes is so horrible, especially when you set aside any issues of server responsiveness, it's just that it could be so much better.

Getting Started

Recently, Steve Sande and I went through the iBooks process for our "Talking to Siri: Learning the Language of Apple's Intelligent Assistant" ebook. It was quite the learning process, taking several weeks until we could get the book clear for sale.

With Amazon, the book went live within a couple of days after we first posted it. We had to fill out two quick pages of information and hit the Publish button. On iBooks, we had to set up our contracts, taxes, and banking details, produce a properly formatted end-product (Amazon automated that entire process for us and provided a beautiful preview tool), and wait for it to work through review.

Admittedly, you can use a certified aggregator like Smashwords or Lulu to relist your books to most major vending sites including iBooks. They provide the ISBN and take another cut of your profits above Apple's, typically leaving you with about 50-60% of the list price, versus Apple's basic 70% of list price.

They handle all the little details that you normally encounter at iTunes using their own custom interface to help you manage your content metadata, pricing, and marketing materials.

Apple-approved aggregators for North America include: Ingram, INscribe Digital, LibreDigital, Lulu, and Smashwords. European aggregators are Bookwire and Immatériel. Of these, only Smashwords will convert MS Word documents to ePub.

Keep in mind that the strength of these services should focus on providing full book deployment to every available market, not just because you want to sidestep iBooks.

ISBNs

If all you want to do is publish to iBooks, you'd be better off setting yourself up to create an iTunes account and buying your own ISBNs rather than go the aggregator route. If you plan to distribute in iBooks, you'll need those ISBNs to register each book.

Bowker is the exclusive ISBN provider for the Library of Congress. A single ISBN costs $125. You can pick up a ten-pack for $250, a 100-pack for $575 and 1000 for $1000 -- just a dollar per ISBN. It's all economy of scale. If you want to buy more, prices for even higher volumes are negotiable. Contact Bowker directly.

Most new authors will choose the ten-pack option, which provides a way to test the waters for more than one book with a minimal commitment. Bowker's free title registration service allows you to ensure that your book title is unique and won't be duplicated. You can create free barcodes for your books at Bowkers as well.

Because Amazon doesn't require ISBNs to list and sell books, independent authors find it much cheaper and more straight forward to market in the Kindle store, leaving all other issues of simplicity aside. If Apple wants to gain some of that market, they may consider stepping away from traditional publishing ideas to introduce a way to streamline product listings that aren't tied to ISBNs.

Authoring Tools

If you have a copy of MS Word or Open Office, you have all the tools you need to write for the Amazon ebook market. Just create a simple style sheet (Steve and I used just seven styles for our books, including headers, paragraphs, notes, lists, and figures) or use the default, write the book itself (I know, I know, the hard part) and include any images in-line that you want to appear in the book.

Speaking of which, here's an easy pro-tip: Don't resize the images. Include them in full scale in the document and let Amazon's conversion tools handle all resizing for you. Life lesson learned, life lesson shared. Moving on.

For iBooks, we investigated several (for that you can read "OMG, I can't belive how many we actually tried, it was insane") ePub preparation and conversion solutions. In the end, we ended up using Pages as the most reliable way to create ePubs that passed validation.

Although Word can export HTML and Calibre can convert to ePub, it failed our validation tests. We reserved Calibre for editing metadata once the ePub was already created.

We looked seriously at Storyist, which is a terrific authoring tool but one that didn't live as comfortably in the must-convert-between-formats realm with our primary authoring done in Word. The fault lay in our workflow, not in that app in particular. Give it a look see, it's well worth investigating, especially if you're looking for a tool that helps you plan your book as well as write it.

Pages is a fine content creation tool but it's not serious enough or appropriate for what we wanted and needed to do in our ebooks. It feels deeply out of date and in no way lends itself to the content creation, reviewing, and editing tasks we needed for our production. We ended up writing in Word, importing into Pages, and then converting into ePub from there. For a 150+ page ebook, that took much longer than you might think. Add to the import and conversion times, overhead for ePub inspection.

Another pro tip: Make sure you use Pages' section break tools, not Word's. Otherwise, Pages will throw out all pictures past the initial ten images. Another lovely life lesson learned the hard way.

In fact, there's a gaping hole in Apple's product line when it comes to ebook authoring and production. iWork has not been updated for OS X since '09. It's crying out for a smart, current refresh that reflects the modern world of AirPlay, iBooks, Apple TV 2, and other state-of-the-art changes. Too much has happened in three years.

What's more, the ePub specification and Apple's inherent multimedia focus mean that iBooks should be able to move leaps and bounds beyond where ebooks currently are. Do current specs with their end-user-picks-the-font presentations really provide the best reading and presentation experience possible? Shouldn't Apple be looking at smart typesetting that's a little more sophisticated? And where else could they be pushing the envelope?

I believe that Apple should be leading a revolution in embedded live book elements with video, programmable app and web integration, and more (Think "Khan Academy" as books, for example). Why aren't we seeing both the specs and the tools with Apple trailblazing forward? As it is, Apple is taking a back seat to...Word docs. That's just sad.

WWDR for Authors and Publishers

What Apple really needs is an internal initiative that matches (and exceeds, honestly) its World Wide Developer Relations for app development, but on the book publishing side of things. Apple needs a WWDC for publishing, evangelists and road shows, and internal Mac-driven tools that allow authors to expand beyond the current iBooks offerings. As Apple's product line moves more and more towards consumers, its support for independent authors (and developers) needs to evolve as well.

Apple needs to integrate author-to-author resources, like its devforums theoretically should for app programmers (Admittedly those forums have somewhat devolved into Apple personnel ordering people to file "radars", aka bug reports rather than providing the kind of warm human support many developers might hope for, but they're far better than no support at all).

I could easily imagine signing up for a yearly independent authoring program (complete with 2 tech support incidents if the program is paid), access to high-level Apple-supplied creation tools and bypassing the current ISBN-based publishing paradigm.

In the end, if Apple is to make its mark in iBooks, it has to both simplify publishing for independents and set its products apart in terms of expressive possibilty.

Posts in this series:

• KDP Select
• Better Author Tools
• Cross Platform Support

How Apple iBooks needs to compete with Amazon: Better author tools originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Amazon has trailblazed; Apple has followed. Apple's iBooks program currently allows authors to self-publish ebooks. Authors create their own business built around iTunes Connect, just as they do for self-published apps.

So where does Apple have room to improve? What follows is the first of several posts about how iBooks can improve to better compete with Amazon. In this post, I discuss Amazon's exclusive KDP Select program and what Apple can do in response.

KDP Select

When Amazon launched its recent KDP Select program, the independent publish world reacted strongly and negatively. KDP Select is built around exclusive Amazon listings, requiring authors to withdraw their titles from competing vendors like Apple's iBooks, Smashwords, and Lulu. If you want to participate in Select, you cannot sell your book in any form with any other vendor.

You must enroll books for a minimum of 90 days. During this time, Select allows authors to loan their books for, well, free -- and promote their books by giving them away, again, for free.

Sounds bad, right?

As a lure, Amazon has promised a shared pot of $500K per month for December 2011 and monthly through 2012, with a total commitment of six million dollars. (The first month is over and Amazon has not yet announced per-borrow reward amounts; most involved are guessing in the range of cents-per-borrow.)

What's more, it's a zero sum game: the more authors who play in the arena, the fewer dollars there are for each. Sounds bad, but is it a losing proposition for authors?

Personal experience shows that for niche and underperforming titles, KDP Select is actually a great way to gain market traction.

Target Market

KDP Select with its unlimited free loans and exclusivity requirements is clearly not a game that any well-established book wants to play in. "Talking to Siri: Learning the Language of Apple's Intelligent Assistant" is an ebook by TUAW editor Steve Sande and myself that has been selling quite well on both Amazon and iBooks. It will soon debut as a print book with Addison Wesley/Que.

We declined to enroll it in KDP Select. We could not see any advantage from withdrawing it from iBooks or offering it as a free loan book.

Instead, we focused on a couple of our highly geeky Kindle Fire-specific titles. These titles cover Email and Third Party Content. In response to Amazon, we withdrew these from iBooks, added them to the KDP Select program and have seen surprisingly good results.

That's because KDP Select trades off promotion for free copies. I personally used one of my five KDP promotion free days on Christmas for my Kindle Fire Third Party Content ebook. Mind you, this is a small very narrowly-focused ebook that shows readers how to incorporate content outside of the Amazon system on your tablet. In other words, it's never going to be a general best seller.

That day, my sales numbers jumped from modest into the high triple digits. I made no money of course, as each copy was given away for free, but the book's momentum carried it forward to very gratifying sales for the week that followed. In exchange for cultivating a cadre of exclusive-to-Amazon titles, their program is helping authors promote for very low fixed costs on Amazon's part.

Amazon's Outlay

Amazon has commited to $500,000 per month to share among KDP Select authors. This money is apportioned by loan popularity. A hot fiction title climbing the Amazon charts will do a lot better than a niche geek nonfiction title. One loan is one vote. Authors must compete against each other to gain a portion of the half-million pot of dollars.

In addition to this basic fixed-outlay scheme, Amazon has some basic infrastructure costs with regard to loan management and title promotion.

Apple's Response

To date, Apple has not focused highly on independent authors. This is a shame as more and more self-published works are emerging outside the bounds of traditional publishing.

As I'll explain in my next post, to publish on iBooks, you'll need a properly formatted and validated ePub file and a costly registered ISBN (International Standard Book Number). On Amazon, all you need is passion and a Microsoft Word doc file. Add KDP Select to the mix and many potential iBooks titles will never make it to the Apple bookshelf. They'll be limited exclusively to Amazon.

Amazon's pre-emptive raid into the independent publisher's world is cutting off titles, both present and future, from iBooks, and other platforms. If Apple hopes to lure these authors to its store, it's going to have to react, and react strongly. Something has to draw them away from Amazon and from KDP Select.

Apple needs to provide these authors with a reason to stay away from exclusive Amazon listings, and potentially to list exclusively with Apple.

Right now, it does so by offering better terms than Amazon. With Apple, authors receive a full 70% of list price with no delivery fees, the bane of Amazon sales. On Amazon, delivery fees that are linked to file size can cut a chunk of profit out of any book listed for $2.99 or higher. (Items listed at 30% royalty rates, or sold for under $2.99 are exempted from delivery fees.)

The problem is that, at least in our experience, Amazon sells better than iBooks, particularly for smaller titles. Items are more discoverable on Amazon and Apple does little to promote independents. If Apple were to provide some way for smaller authors to market more discoverably on the iBooks store, they could grow that indie community.

Apple also needs to provide more and better author peer support. Authors, who regularly congregate on Amazon's forums, find little equivalent on Apple's sites.

Apple could also hire iBooks evangelists, in parallel to their World Wide Developer Relations, to teach potential authors about iBook authoring tools, how to use iTunes Connect, and provide book publishing road shows -- but more about that in my next post.

Will Apple offer its own exclusive agreements in response to KDP Select, as recent unsourced rumors seem to suggest? TUAW doesn't find these rumors credible, but if Apple does, it better make sure to provide the marketing push that's the true draw of the Select program.

Posts in this series:

• KDP Select
• Better Author Tools
• Cross Platform Support

How Apple iBooks needs to compete with Amazon: KDP Select originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Earlier today, Kelly posted about GameStore, a new Apple app that appeared on the App Store right before the New Year and was pulled several minutes ago. I forked over my dollar and downloaded a copy to see what the app was all about.

It turns out, that there wasn't a lot of there there, and what there was looked an awful lot like...sample code. Specifically, sample code that demonstrates how to perform in-app purchases.

The application's identifier was com.apple.iphonesdk.GameStore. Compare this with com.apple.Cards, the identifier for Apple's Cards app. "iphonesdk" hints that the application was meant for developer audiences, i.e. users of the iOS Software Development Kit.

Next, I looked at the contents of the application bundle. Therein I found numerous listings for consumable and non-consumable items. These included things like "Awesome Sword" and "Consumable Bullets" as well as the less descriptive "sku.gamestore.nonconsumable.item1."

All the classes in the app consisted of such generic elements as "MyProduct," "StoreEngine" and "ProductInfoViewController." Basically, it looked like sample code. Adding to this hypothesis is the tab called "PaymentQ." The queue is of deep interest to developers and absolutely of no interest to end-users.

So how did this app end up on the App Store? I have an hypothesis. As I point out in my developer cookbook, although you can easily add IAP features to applications that are already for sale on App Store, you cannot fully develop and test your in-application purchasing for new apps without submitting your application to iTunes.

What developers do is upload a working skeleton application to iTunes Connect. You do this with the full understanding that you'll be replacing or, for tutorials, rejecting your binary at some point in the future. Once uploaded, you can test your IAPs, and make sure all your purchasing processes work. Looks like the app was submitted in order to provide a live testbed and may have gotten approved inadvertently.

After consulting with the TUAW team, our take on this is "likely sample code accidentally deployed to App Store" by Apple and then quickly pulled once people took notice. TUAW reached out directly to the developer we suspect was behind the app upload before it got pulled.

What was GameStore? Looks like sample code originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Advertising itself as a cheaper Dropbox alternative with a better feature set, Insync has been in closed beta for the last 15 months. Now, they're finally ready to launch with a service that tightly integrates into Google Docs. It's "8x cheaper" than Dropbox, according to their marketing; in fact, the core service is now free, and customers who paid for the service during the beta period will be offered a refund or premium service credit. The only cost for basic membership is the cost of Google storage.

Insync brings a number of novel features to the table, differentiating it from Dropbox's current service. For example, you can share individual files with more granularity -- not just as public links, but specifying read-write or read-only permissions. You can also revoke a sharing link, which isn't possible on Dropbox unless you move or delete the shared file.

All your files live inside your Google Docs account, but that doesn't mean you're limited to the supported Google file types; any file can be synced over, as long as it's less than 10GB in size (assuming you have that much room in your storage allocation).

You can nest sharing privileges so people have access to just part of a folder structure. You can also set re-sharing permissions, specifying whether those you share with can re-share that material or not. Share recipients are not charged against their storage quota.

Insync supports multiple Google accounts and uses Google's storage system. Google starts with 1GB free storage, and then moves to 20GB for $5/year up to 16 TB for $4096/year. Dropbox's pricing rates includes 2GB free storage, and then jump to 50 GB paid storage at $10/month. Dropbox's 50 GB will cost you $120/year compared to Google's $20/year for 80 GB. That's $0.25 per GB per year for Google Docs versus $2 per GB per year for Dropbox.

To use Insync, you sign in with your Google credentials and permit it to gain access to Google Docs. You then download and install the client software on your computer. From there, you launch, link the Google account to your machine, and you're ready to go. On OS X, all your Google Docs appear in a Finder window.

In its current incarnation, Insync feels a lot like Dropbox, including its menu bar widget and small status indicators next to files (both Egnyte and Box.com use similar UI conventions for their respective cloud sync tools). If you're used to Dropbox, then you already know how to use Insync.

Dropbox-for-Google Insync leaves beta, goes free and opens doors for business originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Starting around $300, Cinetics' CineSkates are not cheap but this new device may provide exactly the kit you're looking for in terms of mobile dolly shots. Attach your iPhone, start it recording, and use the rig to smoothly move the camera as you shoot, creating perfect rotation and tracking shots.

TUAW got its hands on an early review unit to see how it worked. We can report it felt extremely solid. The wheels plus the arms provided a stable yet maneuverable platform. You could adjust the camera to nearly any height within the limits of the physical components. Whether the camera was oriented up above the wheels or down as in this shot, it was steady and maneuverable.

That strength derives from those flexible arms attached to the skate wheels. They were surprisingly rugged, offering a great balance between adjustability and strength. Once the camera was positioned, it stayed in that position -- exactly what you're looking for in a system like this.

The wheels felt exactly like skate wheels, with all the smoothness you'd expect. There were a few times in our tests, where we had to re-adjust their position as they did have a slight tendency to squeak if they weren't placed in the proper orientation.

As far as end-users go, CineSkates are going to be exactly what you need as a video hobbyist or they are not something that fits into your life. For those who can use them, and who can benefit from the kind of high-end dolly system it provides, we think you're going to love it. Yes, it's not cheap, but from what we can see in our tests, it's well made and a solid buy.

Want to see CineSkates in action? Check out the videos here and here.

CineSkates bring highly adaptable dollying to mobile photography originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Some apps deliver exactly what they say on the package. Fireworks HD provides a display of artistic explosions to the desktop. Retailing for just $0.99, Fireworks HD works both as an app and a screen saver.

Unlike most fireworks apps, HD uses actual video footage rather than simulated emitter effects. That means the app download is 1.5 GB, and the full app takes up 3.55 GB in its basic release.

If you work with a primary SSD with limited storage space like I do, this might not be the best app for you. Or you might want to move it to a secondary drive and run it from there.

Are its sound effects "shockingly great" as the marketing text suggests? Actually, yes. They are far better than those you normally get in these kinds of apps. And the fireworks are quite lovely to look at. For several minutes at a time.

There's no "story" per se, the way there is in a real show and unless you really, really, really like fireworks, you might not feel that the huge disk requirements and the limited functionality make the app worth a purchase.

New Year's is coming up. If you're looking for a fireworks app, have lots of room on your disk, and are ready to supply your own music, it's a good one to have.

Daily Mac App: Fireworks HD originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW,

I recently added a second external monitor to my 13" MacBook Pro. My problem comes with the OS X Lion features that give windows a 3D depth-look, specifically, the shadow effect.

As a window on the external monitor approaches the virtual border of the built-in LCD of the MBP, the shadow extends between monitors, creating a shadow/shade over the windows on the LCD (that is to say, if you park a window to close to the edge, the shadow extends the other display).

Anyway to turn off the shadowed window effect?

Your loving nephew,

Seth

Dear Seth,

Auntie turned to TUAW's braintrust, who quickly pointed her to Unsanity's Shadowkiller haxie. Released in 2006 and "Not compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Leopard," Auntie can confirm that the haxie works just fine with Lion.

Download the dmg, copy the app to your Applications folder and then launch to kill the window shadows. Launch again to bring them back.

Hugs and a big thanks to everyone who helped find Seth the answer,

Auntie T.

Particular thanks to @shabooty, @basraayman, @oboewan, @jtregunna, and @capii

Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me nix the window shadows in Lion originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

When it comes to forecasting the next big thing, we turn to our secret weapon: the TUAW braintrust. We put the question to you and let you have your go at it. Today's topic is Santa. What OS does he use?

According to Apple, he uses an iPhone 4S but we're not necessarily swayed by Apple PR. We're pretty sure that Rudolph is an avowed Red Nose Linux user, and Donner and Blitzen swear by any hardware that supports Thunderbolt.

So how does Santa compute? You tell us. Place your vote in this poll and then join in the comments with all your reasons.

View Poll

(Photo by DGrinbergs, Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons)

You're the Pundit: What OS does Santa use? originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You're in an important meeting. The voices are droning on about procedural nonsense and forward looking outlooks. No one is paying attention. You're dying for any kind of mental stimulation. You reach for your iPhone. You launch Twitter.

Then, Dwight the worker bee sitting next to you decides to gain some status points by outing your mental absence to the entire division.

You are SO BUSTED.

So how do you look invested in the strategic outlays for the next two quarters while secretly checking your feed? CovertChirp. For just $0.99, you will appear to be a highly dedicated and meticulous employee, using the built-in Notes app to log the highlights of your briefing.

In actuality, you'll be surfing your Twitter feed, tweeting snarky comments about your colleagues (Dwight in particular), checking your mentions, and sending DMs.

Achievement unlocked.

Covert Chirp provides a camouflaged Twitter interface with a built in boss key that instantly hides your Tweets on demand. The GUI (complete with authentic Marker Felt and yellow lined background) feels so Note-like that casual glances won't uncover your actual activity.

Okay, sure. As Twitter clients go, it's a bit clunky. The Help screen interface, for example, really could use a few tweaks -- allowing back and forth page-by-page scrolling instead of the More... and Done... buttons it now provides. But seriously, you're going to worry about GUI perfection on a stealth Twitter app?

While I really can't recommend it for normal Tweetage outside of the office, for providing in-work cover it's brilliant. Covert Chirp adds the "hey look I'm really serious about my job" gloss to your daily activities.

It does exactly what the label says -- provides covert access to Twitter. I can't wait for developer Garrett Heath to build a version for RSS feeds and Web Surfing, stripping pages and converting them to office-friendly presentations.

Gallery: Covert Chirp

Covert Chirp offers camouflaged Twitter for the workplace originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Santa,

We've been very good reasonably well-behaved bloggers this year. We've brushed our teeth, been polite to our parents, and made sure to walk our dog.

So for this year, would you please please please consider our requests? Here's what we're wishing for under the TUAW tree this year.

iBooks for Mac and Windows. We love our iPhones and iPads, but we have lots of books we'd like to read on our personal computers as well. That whole iBooks DRM thing means we can't use any of the (admittedly subpar) readers currently on the market like Adobe Digital Editions. So Santa, won't you please ship us iBooks so we can read in as much style at home as on the road?

iAuthor. Speaking of iBooks, it's been a bad year for ebook authoring tools. We're never going to see what Push Pop Press was building and apparently Monster Costume's interactive media creation tools are no longer being planned for market release. So we'd love to see some lickably delicious authoring tools fill out this ebook space. Kindle Direct Publishing has shown there's a huge demand for independent book production, especially ones that create simple but well formed output. Please give us some awesome tools, Santa.

iMessages. Santa, we TUAWians have become big iMessage addicts. So where's our OS X client? We don't mean to be a pest, Santa, but we'd like this on our computers like, you know, yesterday. It's gotten to the point where we've started to judge people by the color of their talk bubbles, and blue iMessage bubbles rule the day.

OS X Siri. We're not talking about a proof of concept here. The concept has, as far as we're concerned, been proved. We want product now. Can we please have Siri dictation at least, right away please, with full Siri OS integration to follow? Thank you, Santa. Yes, we know that Apple's licensing arrangement with Nuance for the dictation savvy in Siri may be limited to things running iOS. To that, we say it's time to shell out some more of that cash hoard and make a deal for the desktop, please.

HyperCard for iOS. We know that Apple wants to make sure that malicious things don't happen on mobile devices (or on any systems) but we'd really really really love to be able to create and share HyperTalk-style stacks for iOS. It was a great idea in the 1980's and it's still a great idea now. HyperCard for iPad and iPhone would rock. Heck, while you're at it, bring it back for Mac OS X.

Updated iWork. Santa, we don't mean to be rude, but we've been waiting for an updated version of iWork for an awfully long time. Not that the whole iCloud thing isn't nice and all, but where are our updated iCloud-integrated desktop versions? The current iWork release feels creaky and dated. We'd really like to see fresh desktop hotness debut soon.

Apple Camera. OK, Santa, this one might be a little farther out on the Christmas tree limb than the others, but we'd like a dedicated high-end DSLR camera made by Apple. Yes, there's a very nice point-and-shoot in the iPhone 4S, and the cameras in our other devices are only going to get better. But the quality still isn't there compared to a DSLR for stills or video, and given how ugly the interfaces and UIs of even the most expensive cameras are, this market seems primed for Apple to sweep in with a beautiful and brilliantly designed device (which, by the way, would also finish off the vertical integration that iPhoto, iMovie, Aperture, and Final Cut Pro have already started).

Apple's at the crossroads of the creative arts and technology, and Santa, while these cameras on the phones are nice, how sweet would it be if Apple did for digital cameras what it's already done for MP3 players and cell phones? It's not like you haven't tried it before.

An iOS Amazon Media Viewer. Santa, We've got Amazon Prime. Along with fast, free shipping, Amazon gives us a bunch of free media like movies and TV shows that we can stream to our Mac or PC. Unfortunately, the bozos (or the Bezos) at Amazon won't let us watch it on our iPad or iPhone. They want us to buy an Amazon Kindle Fire. Can you bring me a native Amazon app so we can watch our free movies and shows on our iPads? Please don't make it a Kindle Fire -- even the guy writing the Missing Manual isn't planning to keep his. Oh, and a rainbow-colored unicorn pony would be nice, too.

Apple TV HD. We're not talking about some mythical Apple HDTV, but rather an update to the existing Apple TV box. Keep the current form factor, but slap an A5 chip in there so Apple's little hockey puck hobby can deliver full 1080p HD video content to our HDTVs. And hey, while we're at it, how about offering some 1080p content in the iTunes Store, hmm?

We've left out a plate of Safari Browser cookies for you and a nice warm cup of milk.

Love and hugs,

The TUAW kids

Photo from flickr by dennis (cc)

Dear Santa: TUAW's we-have-been-nice wish list originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.