Richard Gaywood

Richard Gaywood's Latest Posts

In pictures: AirPort Utility 6.0's missing features

by Richard Gaywood (Jan 31st 2012 4:00PM)

Apple's new AirPort Utility 6.0 for OS X was released yesterday, bringing over the slick UI from its pre-existing iOS version -- but as my colleague Chris reported, it also removes access to a number of features in the process. At the same time, Apple are still hosting downloads for the older ...

Will the iPhone 4S overtake the Kinect as the fastest selling consumer product device?

by Richard Gaywood (Jan 29th 2012 11:00PM)

In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, managing director of Guinness Breweries, was involved in a drunken argument about which of Europe's many game birds could fly the fastest. Unable to settle the argument even after consulting a well-stocked library, he commissioned a new reference book that would be filled ...

AT&T's iPhone "sales" versus "activations": Doing the Math

by Richard Gaywood (Jan 27th 2012 1:00PM)

Love Apple gear? Like math? TUAW's Doing the Math series examines the numbers and the science behind the hardware and software. Several sites -- including TUAW -- reported yesterday that 80% of all smartphones AT&T sold in Q411 were iPhones, based on AT&T's quarterly earnings report. On ...

Apple's plans for your living room: On Apple TV, "iTV", Siri, and all the rest

by Richard Gaywood (Jan 15th 2012 10:00AM)

The "iTV" rumourmill -- speculation that Apple will be releasing a full-size television, screen and all -- is back to full speed again. I've long been skeptical about this possibility, but even I have to concede that we reached the "no smoke without fire" level some time ago. The rumours are ...

Thunderbolt devices are still irritatingly thin on the ground

by Richard Gaywood (Dec 11th 2011 9:00AM)

Apple's announcement of Thunderbolt on Feb 24th was greeted by excitement, as Mac users became aware of the tantalising possibilities of this new high-speed port. There's lots of things Thunderbolt can do that were simply not possible before -- driving multiple external displays from a single ...

Why Siri is like skeuomorphic UIs: the magic is just skin deep

by Richard Gaywood (Dec 1st 2011 8:00PM)

By now you've probably heard of the widely reported case of Siri's alleged pro-life stance. Walking the dogs this morning, I thought through what I hoped would be an interesting blog post about what I feel this means about Apple and our relationship to technology. I see an interesting link here ...

Deep dive: Aperture and Photo Stream, how do they work?

by Richard Gaywood (Nov 6th 2011 8:00AM)

I'm a bit of a shutterbug, so Photo Stream is something I was really interested in when it was announced as part of iOS 5's feature set way back in June. Frictionless, automated sending of photos from my phone to my computer? Sign me up! Of course, as is too often the case with Apple, the nitty ...

Smartphone wars: Android "has half of the UK smartphone market"

by Richard Gaywood (Nov 1st 2011 5:45PM)

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech -- a prominent market research firm and a powerful figure on the Scrabble board -- today released its latest "smartphone OS barometer" report, and it has some noteworthy conclusions in it about the British market. Specifically, the report claims that in the 12 weeks ...

Notes on the iPhone 4S announcement

by Richard Gaywood (Oct 7th 2011 3:00PM)

Similarly to my previous notes on the iPad 2 launch, here are a few things I noticed about Tuesday's event that were too small to deserve a post of their own. On it being the iPhone 4S and not the iPhone 5 The iPhone 4 is the best selling smartphone in the US. The iPhone 4S presents a solid ...

Why the iPod touch 3G makes no sense

by Richard Gaywood (Oct 3rd 2011 6:00PM)

Amongst the frenzied speculation that tomorrow's media event will see new iPhones and the end of the iPods both Shuffle and Classic, there's also been some lower-key talk of a possible "iPod touch 3G", designed to sit halfway between the iPad 3G and the iPhone. I must confess, this makes very ...