If you're a developer with an app and a dream, you would do well to pick up Pitch Perfect by TUAW's Erica Sadun and Steve Sande. Their book lifts the veil on how app reviewers, bloggers specifically, operate. Most of the advice I give to people looking to pitch an app is in this book. Added to the valuable knowledge within are some great illustrations by Nitrozac and Snaggy (of Joy of Tech).

Pitch Perfect starts with why you should care about reviews, and dives quickly into some essential advice on crafting your app. It's hard to be objective when you've slaved over code and graphics for months, but if you take Erica and Steve's advice to heart, it will snap you awake and hopefully give you a discerning eye before you send us your hard work.

The book has several chapters on crafting your pitch, from what to include and what to avoid, all the way to how to reach out to harried, underpaid bloggers. Managing expectations, dealing with bloggers in general -- these are things I wish I could tell everyone before they send us a single PR email. Then there are a bunch of case studies, which they pick apart for good and bad examples.

Finally, there are tips and techniques for making a product video, press release and more. A few quick tips on social media, and the all-important care and handling of bloggers rounds out the book. These last few chapters are marketing classes distilled into action items. How do you know which PR outlets to use, for example? How do you shoot a video of your app? I think the social media tips are the most sane I've read in a while, honestly.

While this book is a great first step, it won't tell you how to measure ROI on your social media campaigns, or provide a list of secret emails that guarantee you great reviews across the galaxy. Pitch Perfect is tuned especially for indie devs who lack a marketing team, who likely can't afford one, and who have a ton of other responsibilities besides promoting their app (like, bug reports, making enhancements, eating food, playing outside, etc.). Once you've launched your app, however, this book is your best chance for a fair look from any number of review sites.

Obviously I wouldn't keep Erica and Steve around if they couldn't write and knew nothing. I think any developer who is looking to understand how to pitch blogs for reviews would do well to read this book not just because it's a sneak peek into blogs or reviews, but because Erica and Steve know their stuff and (most importantly) know how to explain what to do in a wonderful way.

You won't feel lost, either. Pitch Perfect is one of those delightful books that guides you through a process and points out all the right moves. Well-written, with great examples pulled from the stuff we do every day? It's a bargain at US$8.99 and available on Kindle and the iBookstore.

Pitch Perfect is the perfect marketing primer for the indie developer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 25 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This is super good news for the jailbreak crowd. GreenPois0n Absinthe 2.0 is out for iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreaking enjoyment. Absinthe is an easy solution for jailbreaking, and going untethered is pretty awesome. Excellent work by Chronic Dev Team and pod2g.

Absinthe works on A4-powered devices and A5 ones, like the iPhone 4S and new iPad. It won't work on the newer iPad 2, however (thanks for pointing out the distinction -- the newer iPad 2 uses a different chipset). JailbreakUntethered has explanations on how to get this going on your device, so if you've ever wanted to try jailbreaking, it's never been easier.

[Via BGR]

Untethered iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch now available originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 25 May 2012 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While TUAW will be at IndieDevLab hoping to get a look at upcoming (awesome) apps, we just got some great news for developers who wish to attend. Thanks to sponsorships, the price of the event just went free (just like Appsterdam, which will also be hosting a weeklong coworking space where yours truly will give a lunch chat).

The full press release is below. Congrats to IndieDevLab -- it's great there are plenty of alternative venues around WWDC for those who couldn't get tickets.

IndieDevLab goes free originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 24 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Turns out there are awesome conferences all over the world, and the hotness of mobile has only increased the number of quality get-togethers out there. Case in point: Hack in the Box, currently underway in Amsterdam. Learn more about the conference here or check out the agenda here.

Friday May 25 is a presentation by the Dream Team, but today was a presentation by MuscleNerd about the evolution of the iPhone baseband and unlocks. Cool stuff if you're into security or the mechanisms behind unlocking an iPhone.

Hack in the Box conference features iPhone Dev Team originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 24 May 2012 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Remember when the iPhone debuted and tuaw.com crashed mobile Safari? Good times. We quickly rolled out i.tuaw.com as an interim solution, but it was very stripped down and not ideal. We eventually added the ability to visit the full site, and the full site no longer crashes Safari (and looks great on the iPad, by the way). Today, I'm very happy to announce another iteration of our mobile site, located at m.tuaw.com.

You may notice some similarities to the Engadget mobile site, as it is based on that site's mobile implementation. We're especially excited about a few things:

• Optimized for your iPhone - and your other phones, too
• Touch driven navigation (swipe through featured articles, etc)
• Commenting integration w/ Livefyre
• Video support
• Share articles to FB, Twitter or Email

Our thanks to everyone at AOL who made this happen!

Introducing a better mobile web experience for TUAW originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 24 May 2012 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you're looking for an app-based TechCrunch experience on your iPad, here it is. The iPad app is a streamlined experience over the site in Safari, presenting a simple list of categories to choose from, and 3 basic feeds: the main river (which can be narrowed using those categories), trending stories and curated tweets. There's a lot more under the hood, however.

Commuters will be pleased to know there's a "Save for later" option when clicking the "Share" icon. You can, of course, also share stories via email or social media, and the app allows you to tie your Facebook account in (TechCrunch uses Facebook comments, primarily). My favorite feature is the easy access to Crunchbase data alongside each article.

While it's easy to click into more info, the app never goes too deep to get you lost. I can't stand when apps just layer interfaces on top, over and over, and you have to "flip" the pages just to get back to the main screen. The TechCrunch app uses a familiar "back" and "next" system, although it is often labelled in context (Saved Articles takes you back to your list but Explore may take you further down the rabbit hole of data). This makes reading articles a breeze, and makes it easy to find out more information without being overhwhelmed.

About the only problem I encountered was with the curated tweets. When jumping to a story on The Next Web, the smallish webview that takes up the lower half of the screen was overwhelmed by a slow cover-up from TNW urging you to register, or something, and it happened to cover the article I was trying to read!

Aside from things beyond the app's control, such as annoying web design habits, it's a great way to read TechCrunch on your iPad. TUAW's imaginary friend, our own iPad app, is very jealous! The app is free, so give it a try yourself.

The TechCrunch iPad app is slick and simple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 24 May 2012 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For some reason I hadn't quite relegated the Google Search app on my iPhone to a folder, where most apps go to die. But it should have. The old Google Search app was atrocious -- a seemingly willful expenditure of effort on something so terrible it would serve to dissuade people from using it (or iOS) altogether. The new Google app is 100% better.

On the iPhone, I'm noticing more UI niceties, and the "app" gets out of your way as much as possible. The previous version was full of irritating usability quirks. Once Siri came along, I all but forgot it existed.

Google Goggles, however, and the picture searches possible, are great (though not new). The iPad app is really quite pleasing to use, and having all the Google apps in one handy interface is also very welcome.

It's free, so try it out and see if Google's updated Search app is your cup of tea.

Google search app for iPhone, iPad re-designed originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 23 May 2012 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Couldn't get tickets to WWDC or can't afford it? Be sure to check out IndieDevLab, which we wrote about here. Here's a quick recap:

indiedevlab will pay host to many developers as a place to come during before and after WWDC to work/play and meet like minded people. Throughout the 4 days there will be a Games remix contest in which developers attending will be given the source code to a bare bones game and their task will be to remix said game to be the next Angry Birds (We hope), at the end of the 4 day event the games will be put up to an esteemed panel of judges to decide on the best game, winners will be chosen on creativity, gameplay and the use of the iOS touchscreen set.

Also, they just announced speakers, and it's a great lineup:

First up we have the jailbreak king himself Mr Jay Freeman (aka saurik), as you may or may not know saurik is the founder of saurikIT and he runs the only jailbreak AppStore "cydia", we felt he would be an incredible asset to this event and you really can't go more indie then jailbreaking itself.

Second is Nate True.....What more do I need to say then Nate created one of the most hotly anticipated games EVER to be on the iOS platform: Tap Tap Revenge.

Third is Ben Zadik. Ben Zadik heads Babble-on, an app localization company in San Francisco. He has led the translation efforts of some of your favorite apps, including Shazam and Skyfire. He'll talk about what translators expect to get from devs and why you should localize, as well as a few funny (but awful) localization snafus.

Fourth is Dan Grover. Dan is an extremely well ventured iOS/OSX developer and has recently sold his piano learning iOS iPad app "Etude" to Steinway & Sons.

We are yet to confirm more speakers and we would suggest anyone to keep up to date with this to follow @indiedevlab

TUAW will be in attendance as well, and we'll try to talk to as many developers as we can. See you in San Francisco!

IndieDevLab announces speakers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 21 May 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

My son is home sick today, but instead of staring at the TV he's poking at some strategy games on the iPad. As luck would have it, iMore published an extensive list of free iPad games, broken down by category.

There are some easy hits, like Angry Birds Free, but also some little gems like Wind-up Knight, Forever Drive and Spice Bandits. If you or a friend is wondering what games to try out first on an iPad, you can't go wrong here.

iMore lists the best free iPad games originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 16 May 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Fire up Software Update if you're using Lion, and be prepared to have your passwords protected by encryption, as they should be. After a nasty error in 10.7.3, fixed in the just-out 10.7.4 update, I'm hoping Apple learned a lesson.

The update also includes a few welcome fixes for other issues. From Apple:

The 10.7.4 update is recommended for all OS X Lion users and includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac including fixes that:

• Resolve an issue where the "Reopen windows when logging back in" setting is always enabled
• Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards
• Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to a server
• Improve the reliability of copying files to an SMB server

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5167.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

As you update (back up first!) let us know how it goes.

OS X Lion updated: 10.7.4 fixes FileVault vulnerability originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 09 May 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's not often you see Steve Jobs impersonating a former president, but leave it to the creatives who made Apple sales videos to make it happen. Yes, in this never-before-seen footage (well, never seen outside the sales meetings at Apple back in the 1980s), Steve Jobs plays a certain commander-in-chief, and gives his generals (sales guys) a rousing speech. It's a great watch for Jobs, but check out the full video as well, over at Network World. Sales videos are a source of endless entertainment, from Apple or elsewhere, but it's kinda cool to see Jobs have fun with a role like this.

Steve Jobs plays FDR in this old Mac sales video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We had the original story on this waiting in our queue for a couple of days while we hoped EA would answer the question, "Why is an app people paid for being 'shut off' remotely?" Unfortunately we never got an answer. To sum up: EA released Rock Band for iOS way back in 2009, but within the past week users saw a notification (above), alerting them that the app would cease to function after May 31. As often happens when people are getting robbed by a major corporation, folks took to the Internet to express their displeasure.

Today, we see reports that a new alert has appeared -- one stating the app will continue to be playable after May 31. Well, that's good, because bait-and-switch tactics don't win many fans.

I don't know about you, but I think this whole thing is ridiculous and really not what Apple promised should happen with apps. Further, EA should have immediately sent out a release indicating this was an error. Unless it wasn't. Joystiq reports EA will tell us "soon" what was really going on here. I can't wait to hear the explanation.

Rock Band for iOS to remain playable after all originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 May 2012 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

The iPhone is sometimes compared to a Star Trek communicator, so it's pretty cool that an actor from Sherlock himself, Benedict Cumberbatch, used it to get a part on the upcoming J.J. Abrams Trek sequel. When Cumberbatch couldn't make it to the audition, he used his iPhone to record a reading and sent it along, according to the New York Times (subscription required).

Macworld Australia speculates he'll play Khan, but so far all we know is Abrams was blown away by the iPhone-recorded audition, calling it "...one of the most compelling audition readings I'd ever seen."

iPhone video lands actor on Star Trek originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 03 May 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A few days ago in the Dropbox forums, a developer said Apple had rejected his app due to a little quirk, so to speak, in using Dropbox. Specifically, if a user doesn't have the Dropbox app installed, a link to a web page would be issued, causing the user to go to Dropbox's website or a mobile version which would allow them to log in. That's not the problem. The problem was that this web page contained a link that could eventually lead to a user establishing an account with Dropbox or even (gasp!) paying them for storage.

Problem is, you can't do that without Apple getting a cut. Apple has rules about subscriptions, you see, and by allowing a (supposedly new) user to create an account that could be paid monthly, the developer in question was in violation of the App Store guidelines. Naturally, other developers have come forward either with similarly rejected apps or suggestions to Dropbox with changes that might help.

The Verge reports that Dropbox has confirmed Apple IS rejecting apps which allow users to buy a Dropbox subscription. Except Dropbox has taken the step to remove any and all links to the "desktop version" of their site, which effectively blocks anyone using an app that would behave in such a way from actually purchasing the Dropbox account. It would appear they've made it impossible to create an account entirely once you are in an app using the latest version of the Dropbox SDK, which developers should be doing.

Recently Apple made a big deal about a "PC-free" era, touting the power and simplicity of the iPad as a reasonable PC substitute. My kids use iPod touches as their own mini-computers. It makes sense, doesn't it? Until you run into something like this Dropbox issue, which I have little doubt will be resolved soon. The problem is that the solution, as it looks now, isn't very user-friendly. That is, if you value choice.

But there's this notion that Apple doesn't like choice, remember? Conspiracy theorists have already said this is Apple trying to push iCloud over Dropbox. I can't argue that Apple will always prefer a native solution to any problem (that's their way), but I would never argue that they arbitrarily make life difficult for users in a rush for profits. Besides, iCloud isn't making them money yet, it's just a value-add to their hardware business.

The fact is we have a sweet solution that Apple intended all along: the open Web. As long as web browsers are still allowed on iOS, developers have that as a fallback. I was enthralled today to read about Blackline, and other magazines who are retreating from "apps" and moving back to the web, where standards and cross-platform compatibility were always the cornerstones of development. Frankly, we could use more web apps and fewer native apps.

Nevertheless, I think this stinks for users. I can see confusion over setting up an account, as an app will dump them into a web page within their app, but if they don't have a Dropbox account, they'll have to go to Safari itself and establish one. Rules are rules, but this isn't elegant. Dropbox, for its part, has said it will try to work with Apple for a better solution. Here's hoping.

Apple, Dropbox, our PC-free future and our sweet solution past originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 02 May 2012 01:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Universal Music Group is embroiled in a few lawsuits involving money owed to producers and artists, and in the course of events depositions by Eddy Cue and Steve Jobs were recorded at some point. Now, as these cases near trial, Apple is seeking a modification to a protective order to keep those depositions from being seen by anyone outside the courtroom -- primarily, musicians.

While this may sound nefarious, the fact is that previously the court was willing to clear the courtroom (of UMG employees, too) when reviewing these depositions. Apple claims the release of documents that may include discussions between it and record labels would prove materially damaging to its business (iTunes) -- and I'm inclined to agree. While it would no doubt clue musicians in to some interesting tidbits, the fact is that those negotiations were private for a reason. The Jobs and Cue depositions, likely having discussed those negotiations, are similarly in need of protection, lest Apple's competitors know exactly where Apple stands with its groundbreaking iTunes Music Store and record labels.

Apple wants courtroom cleared while Steve Jobs deposition is played originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 01 May 2012 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Nothing beats WWDC's access to Apple engineers, and the confluence of global (well, provided you were awake in time in certain parts of the globe) attendees. If you didn't get a ticket to WWDC, however, there are still plenty of other great developer conferences for Mac and iOS developers. Here are just a few, but feel free to share more in the comments.

MacTech Conference - There's a developer track here, although MacTech's forte has always been IT. They put on a fantastic event, however, with great sessions, after-hours events that are not to be missed, and camaraderie in spades. Plus, there's a series of IT-focused events around the country now. (Full disclosure: TUAW is a media partner with MacTech.)

360MacDev and 360iDev - Held in Denver, both 360 conferences are developer-specific and crammed with useful sessions led by renowned developers from around the world. I've been to a 360 conference, and I can tell you that what you'll learn after hours is almost as good as what you learn in the sessions. Sometimes a conference benefits from being smaller and more focused. (TUAW is also a media partner with the 360 folks.)

Voices That Matter - Pearson Education has put on the VTM conferences, covering web development, iOS and Android among other topics. There's nothing on the 2012 schedule at the moment, but keep an eye on their site.

SXSW Interactive - OK, this is the least focused of all, but there are usually good lessons to be learned here from seasoned developers, not to mention business people and other industry wonks. Of course, the after hours meetups and interactions are priceless. This is one you can unconference with great results.

Game Developer Conference - This is a game-focused conference for developers and publishers, and has become a great place to meet and learn if you're in the game business. It's not Apple-specific, but is a great place to meet developers and others who can help you build amazing games.

Unite - The explosive growth of the game platform Unity has made their conference a must-attend if you use Unity to make games on iOS. Of course, Unity is a cross-platform tool as well, so expect to rub elbows with web and "other" OS devs as well.

Appsterdam - Not a conference itself, but the European developer collective is a rallying point for a number of meetups and other events in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the EU.

There's also the option of going to San Francisco during WWDC without tickets -- but I'd only recommend that if you have friends who are going.

Other conferences:

CocoaConf - "CocoaConf is a focused two day, three track conference for iOS and OS X developers, with an optional pre-conference iOS tutorial."

One More Thing Conference - "One More Thing isn't a traditional programming conference. It's a meeting for iOS developers, designers and those who just want to come along for the ride."

SwipeConference, in Australia. (Thanks to Mark Aufflick)

Objective-Cologne - An international Cocoa/Objective-C conference in Cologne, Germany. (Thanks to @StuFFmc)

mdevcon - A mobile developer's conference in Amsterdam. (Thanks to Mike Lee & Appsterdam)

Didn't get in to WWDC? Try some other awesome developer conferences originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As we've been hearing, Apple is rolling out some "additional security" for App Store customers. When you go to purchase an app, as I just did (it was the free Pocket app, incidentally), you may be prompted to answer three security questions and provide a second email address in case your primary account is compromised. Unfortunately, this 20th century form-based method of enhanced security is just poorly done. Apple, an innovator in so many ways, can do better.

I knew it was coming but I wasn't quite prepared for the stupidity of the questions. "What was your first car?" is a good example. This weekend I was getting an app for my 8 year-old son and had to answer this. I guess I should have said "Hot Wheels"? "Who was your first teacher?" is a question I simply couldn't remember for me or for my son (are we talking preschool or what?). "Where was your first kiss?" -- really? You mean we might have to be able to accurately type in "In the back seat of a smelly 1990's muscle car"? Possibly on an iOS device? You're kidding us, right Apple?

Again, while I appreciate the effort, this seems like a stopgap measure and it has been confusing quite a few customers -- we have received a few confused emails asking if it was some attempt at phishing. Sigh. Apple has our emails, our account info, access to iOS in ways no other developer can access... Surely this could have been done better.

Instead, we pick three fake answers and had to write them down so we'll remember them. Great security, not. Plus, now we have to remember whether we capitalized our answers, and we have to deal with natural typos, and of course our recovery email is already being used for our alternative Apple ID. Did I mention that all humans must now have two email addresses? Yep, that's a thing now. Tell your kids.

I inadvertently used my @me address when I answered these questions for my son, who, at the time, only had one email account. Where do I change this? You'll have to go to your Apple ID account page here. It baffles me that Apple would manage security this way, however. The business lately hasn't been so much "Think Different" but "target people who are not tech-savvy at all." Guess what? People who don't like technology tend to have ONE email address. Probably one they set up over a decade ago! Now you're asking them to hunt around for another service, or magically suss out that they can create one using iCloud potentially weeks or months after purchasing their iOS device.

We've got another layer of fail slathered over iTunes now, and the chances of our accounts being compromised haven't necessarily been lessened. Instead, our chances of recovering our accounts after they're compromised just got worse.

Here's some free ideas for you, Apple. How about three or four images (like the stock images for accounts on a Mac), asking someone their favorite? Or, by using the technology of touchscreens, have someone draw a simple geometric shape like a parallelogram. There's a microphone and camera on most iOS devices, perhaps something utilizing these technological marvels?

Are Apple's additional security steps frustrating to you, or are you enjoying the feeling of enhanced security?

Apple's additional security steps could be better originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Clear made a big splash when it was first introduced because the interface was a bold experiment in user interaction. Instead of icons and buttons for functions, most of Clear's interface relies on gestures, or sliding and pinching items to make things happen. It wasn't for everyone, although it was a delight to tinker with. Clear 1.1 maintains that approach, while adding some new features. Clear won't fit the bill for avid "to do" users, as there is still no sync, iPad version, etc. But I use Clear for simple "punch lists," and for that it works great.

Here's what's new in Clear 1.1

o. Shake to Undo now allows you to quickly retrieve list items you may have accidentally removed.
o. No more character limit! Type as much as you want.
o. New themes to discover and further customize your lists with.
o. All-new UI for alerts that match Clear's unique design.
o. Even more inspirational quotes to show when you've cleared everything from your lists.
o. Minor tweaks and bugfixes

TouchArcade has info on unlocking some other stuff, and a note about a few gamification aspects in the app you might not know about.

Clear app updated, new themes and helpful tweaks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Configurator 1.0.1 is now available in the Mac App Store. Here's what's new other than stability and performance improvements:

o. Enterprise apps packaged as .ipa files are imported and installed correctly.
o. Redemption codes for apps that contain a comma in their title can now be imported.
o. A redemption code may be reused to install an app on another device if the original device is unsupervised and erased by Apple Configurator, or if the app's installation did not complete on the original device.
o. The redemption code used to purchase an app in iTunes may also be used to install the app on one device with Apple Configurator.
o. The number of redemption codes remaining for an app is now displayed correctly.
o. Notes and bookmarks entered into iBooks and iTunes U are deleted when a backup is restored to a supervised device.
o. The WPA2 password is saved when editing a Wi-Fi profile payload.
o. The name of a stored backup is saved when edited.
o. The storage capacity of an 8GB iPod touch is now displayed correctly.

Apple has released Apple Configurator 1.0.1 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledge has a good rundown of how Greenpeace's math is a bit wonky in a report called "How Clean is Your Cloud?" For one, Greenpeace estimates Apple will use 100 megawatts of power at the Maiden, NC plant, but Apple states it will be 20 megawatts at full capacity.

Miller later responds in the comments to another mystery that Greenpeace's Gary Cook (no relation to Tim, we're certain) has yet to answer:

"If Apple's energy use in Maiden is adjusted from 100 megawatts to 20 megawatts, what would Apple's score be on the Clean Energy Index? I have posed this question to Gary Cook, but have not yet received a response."

It would appear the fundamental suppositions presented in Greenpeace's report may be flawed, and have skewed their index. I would also ask the question: What would Greenpeace have Apple do? Close the plant? The fact that they are making an investment in clean energy but must face the realities of economics and science seems like good corporate citizenship to me.

Greenpeace's math is wrong, according to Apple originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As reported by FOSS Patents:

"Within 90 days, they will make another effort to settle their dispute. They will meet in a San Francisco courthouse for settlement talks that will be overseen by U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero."

This is still semi-voluntary and doesn't mean anything will be resolved. Keep in mind there are legal clashes between these two in over half a dozen countries. Here's hoping having Tim Cook and Samsung's CEO, Gee-Sung Choi, sitting at the table will help speed things along.

Apple and Samsung to meet in San Francisco for settlement talks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Harry McCracken has a nice write up on the debut, evolution and legacy of the Apple II (or, ][ as I like to call it). The Apple II was unveiled 35 years ago, and it ushered in the home computing revolution.

I am a product of that revolution, as my dad bought an Apple ][ in 1978 and it sits by my desk now, shown in the picture above. There were no computer stores back then so he bought one in the back of a bike shop, where a little hobbyist section had Altairs and other user-unfriendly computers.

From then my own path was set, as I wouldn't own a "PC" running anything other than an Apple OS until the 90s. For millions of other Apple customers, the same thing would be true. The Apple II proved to be a great computer for schools, small businesses and homes.

Here's to the machine that started it all! Share your memories of the Apple II in the comments.

Happy 35th birthday, Apple II originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Update: Apple tells some tech blog "no."

I wouldn't have believed this except that Starck said it himself in an interview, discovered by HardMac. I'm not surprised at all that Starck, an excellent industrial designer (I used a number of his products when he designed some stuff for Target), was a confidant of Steve Jobs.

I am, however, surprised that he provided a timeline for the release of this Apple product. According to Starck, this "quite revolutionary" product he helped create will be unveiled in eight months.

[via AppleInsider]

Phillippe Starck says he's working with Apple on a revolutionary product (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Anyone remember HyperCard? I sure do. I miss HyperCard, an "authoring tool for the rest of us" that allowed mere mortals to make simplistic programs by ordering and linking "cards" and packing them up for users to try out on the Macs -- back in the 1980s, anyway. A patent unearthed by Patently Apple reminds me of HyperCard, and it looks similar to the toolset used to make iAds.

Apparently designed to make authoring content easier across a variety of platforms, Apple's authoring tools appear to use web technologies and some clever JavaScript effects. The multi-image displays sure remind me of QuickTime VR.

I think all of this just looks like what iWeb was meant to be: a standards-compliant, innovative, create-once-publish-anywhere tool that just works. Here's hoping we see it on the App Store soon!

Patent for advanced authoring tool from Apple looks like what iWeb should have been originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While added security is nice, Apple appears to be rolling out additional security questions on iOS devices without warning. This has caught some users unaware, I think rightfully so. Then again, how do you message users of this kind of change?

The Next Web has more details, but if you try to download an app and are asked to provide a few additional security details (security question/answer pairs and a backup email address), it's all in the name of protecting your account.

Apple asking for more security info for iOS devices originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Those of you who remember iTunes when it was new, when it was merely a revamped version of SoundJam MP, will sympathize the most here. iTunes used to be a great tool for playing music and ripping CD's. Then the iTunes music store came along and it was good. Then apps came along and iTunes went bananas. Jason Snell, Macworld's editorial director, argues iTunes needs an overhaul, and I couldn't agree more. In fact, I had a post on this subject (likening iTunes to Vista, in fact) waiting in the wings for two years now, but I think Snell has hit upon the salient points in his article.

Namely: Sync is terrible (and slowly being outdated by pure cloud goodness) and iTunes has become a bloated monster of an application. On a Mac, anyway -- it was always a pretty lousy experience on Windows.

Anyone who has tried to manage more than 50 or so apps will tell you what a pain that experience is, let alone the myriad other eccentricities and failures of interface iTunes provides. One of my personal bugaboos are modal dialog boxes. These are pop up windows that usually feature a choice like OK and Cancel and report something went wrong, but the main thing is they require you to click on them before you can do something else.

iTunes is chock full of these! From errors galore (I don't know that any Apple software I've used in the 30 years I've been using Apple products has ever thrown as many error messages as iTunes) to just stupid things like warning that some apps couldn't be installed (ad nauseam), iTunes is Apple's most modal window-crazy software maybe EVER. It's a huge impediment to progress, in my opinion, and makes for a horrible user experience.

I'd dare say iTunes is the one app consumers simply "put up with" because the rest of the Apple experience is quite good. Also, if you never have errors in iTunes or manage a tiny library, you may never experience too much pain with it. What do you think? Do you wake up each day happy to click in iTunes, or do you dread it like a tooth pulling?

Macworld's Jason Snell says what we're all thinking about iTunes originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Image by Shutterstock

A couple of days ago we got a tip from a reader who said he'd sent a letter to Tim Cook asking "for help to unlock my wife's iPhone, because she is active duty military deploying to Afghanistan this week. I wanted her to have an unlocked phone in Afghanistan, so that she can get a local SIM and use it. I had tried both AT&T and Apple customer care for it, but no use. The made me go round robin between two support centers."

Worse, our friend Yash was called by someone at Apple to explain that his unlock request was denied because the 4S was still under contract. Apparently he read later that day about unlocks happening for out-of-contract phones, and called again to unlock a 3GS. As luck would have it, the rep "also unlocked my wife's 4S because they now have a new policy to do so for active duty military getting deployed."

So after reading the rumors yesterday I decided to dive back into our reader email and dig up what appears to be proof that AT&T is indeed unlocking iPhones that would ordinarily be denied IF that phone belongs to an active duty military person who is being deployed. Of course, once you are deployed you'll still need service, but that's another story.

Thanks to Yashvind for sending this in!

AT&T appears to be unlocking iPhones for deployed active duty military personnel originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Another oldie but goodie is getting the iOS treatment, and if you loved the original Max Payne you'll be buying this one. I've never found the controls on these games where I want, but word is the Payne update will offer some customization for touchscreens. Look for more of that here, with HD graphics and the requisite Social Club connectivity and that good old bullet time action.

Rumor says Max Payne for iOS will be available April 12. There will be an Android version on the 26th.

Rockstar to bring original Max Payne to iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 07 Apr 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Updated with comment from Dropbox, note regarding LinkedIn and clarifications throughout.

Let's clear this up quickly: Yes, there's a security hole in the Facebook app. The Next Web also confirmed the same issue in the Dropbox app, and a commenter below suggests that Vimeo and Tumblr official apps have the same core vulnerability. LinkedIn's app also apparently works the same way.

The good news is this: It's very unlikely anyone would get access to your Facebook account this way. To do so, the hypothetical hacker would have to have physical access to your iPhone, and once someone has physical control of your device you've got plenty of bigger problems.

Even if someone tried to trick you into falling for this exploit without stealing your phone, you'd have to allow them to plug your device into their computer or a rigged dock/charging station, then allow them to do a bunch of business on your phone to grab a plain text file stored by these, then they'd have to take that file to a different iOS device in order to go and do something malicious on your Facebook or Dropbox accounts.

[In theory, if you plugged your non-passcode-locked phone into an untrusted computer or peripheral to charge it, a piece of software on that computer could surreptitiously grab the key files without your knowledge. No such malicious app is currently known to exist in the wild, but it's not outside the realm of possibility researcher Gareth Wright was able to "knock together" several proofs of concept, including a modified speaker dock and a credit-card sized hardware capture tool. -Ed.]

Although other sites have reported that a jailbroken device is required to access this exploit, that is simply not true. A desktop app like iExplorer or PhoneView, which allow you to access application-stored files on an iOS device, will allow you to exploit the security hole.

It works like this: some iOS apps use little text files (.plist aka property list files) to store all sorts of little things about an app. In this case, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Facebook and others are using an unencrypted property list to apparently store both the OAuth key and its secret counterpart.

That's...astonishingly naive. (I wonder how many other apps don't do the same thing.) Apple provides a secure mechanism (the system keychain) which is meant for exactly this purpose: providing a non-visible storage system for sensitive data.

Once a malicious person has used iExplorer to find the right plist, that file can be copied and dropped onto another device. That second device would then be able to access your account as though you had already logged in. Using a property list in this way leaves us scratching our heads.

Facebook has issued a comment saying it will patch this soon. I haven't seen any statement from Dropbox yet. That being said, this was a dumb mistake on Facebook's and Dropbox's parts -- they should have known better.

Update: Dropbox issued a statement as well, noting the Android version doesn't suffer from this vulnerability. Also, the company is working on a fix now. The statement is pasted below.

The Next Web did a little more testing and points out that the exploit can't be leveraged if you have set a passcode on your device -- an unfamiliar computer can't pull files from your phone if it's passcode-locked.

From Dropbox:

We are currently updating our iOS app to do the same. We note that the attack in question requires a malicious actor to have physical access to a user's device. In a situation like that, a user is susceptible to all sorts of threats, so we strongly advise safeguarding devices.

Facebook, Dropbox iOS apps contain security hole that could allow identity theft (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

From the "it's about time" department, LaCie is finally shipping its Thunderbolt-equipped eSATA Hub, which will make those older drives hook up nicely to your new Thunderbolt display or Mac and maintain blazing transfer speeds. Full press release below.

LaCie eSATA Hub Thunderbolt now shipping originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I've been separated for about two years now; as any part-time custodial parent will tell you, it can be tricky to communicate with the kids when you're not around as much. This past Christmas I decided to get an iPod touch for each of my kids. At the time, they were living about 30 minutes away from me, and for whatever reason we didn't always have nightly phone calls to stay connected.

"If only there was some easier way to stay in contact," I thought, "then they won't have to miss me as bad." Well, the experiment has been a success. In the process it yielded a few interesting tips for divorced parents, and also anyone considering an iPod touch for a kid under 11 (as both of mine are).

I do recommend that parents think hard about getting their kids iOS devices before making the leap. Most kids I have met under 10 are not responsible enough to "own" an iPod touch without a lot of supervision.

User Accounts

In order to keep iMessages from losing its mind, and to get the next generation started on the path to full digital humanhood, I set up individual iCloud accounts using a Gmail address. The main thing to remember here: Go into Google's settings and lock everything down first. Google+ sharing is turned to full discovery mode by default, and I'm not keen on people adding my daughter to their circles! You may optionally want to go back in and change their Apple IDs to something other than soandso@gmail.com, but I didn't.

For some reason I don't recall seeing the option to get a free @me account when setting up their iPods, as this how-to for the iPad indicates. As a result, I have no idea if my kids have iCloud email accounts, no do we know what the addresses are. Further, this has set us on a path of using more Google services since (as far as I knew) we needed that Gmail account to set up the iPod touch to begin with. There's really not an intuitive way to fix this, so my kids will probably never use an @me account, nor use iCloud for calendars.

If I had it to do over again I would much prefer they simply use @me addresses, but when I set these up (late November 2011), I could not see an option that allowed this.

Access Controls

Of course, after locking down the Google account I went into the iPods and locked down the in-app purchases and 17+ apps. Something that's a real bummer is the inability to have granular control here. The best example is the YouTube app, which disappears when apps are set to one age threshold. My 10-year old daughter hates this, and so do I.

I would much prefer the age gate be set IN the YouTube app, but the way Apple does it, the app just disappears entirely unless you remove the restrictions. There's actually a lot of useful stuff on YouTube that I wouldn't mind my kids seeing -- if only Apple would let me enable it without making those decisions for me. Same with Netflix, which will also disappear around the 13+ age gate.

The good news is that 90% of the time the iOS parental controls work great.

FaceTime, Skype, IM+

Oh you didn't think you'd just need an iCloud account did you? As I said earlier, for whatever reason I can't just set up "an Apple ID," as I had to have an existing email account. Well, that email account will get some extra use as FaceTime and iMessages will fail you. A lot.

FaceTime still can't work on cellular networks and WiFi is required. Guess what? I'm not always in a place with WiFi, but my magical iPhone can use products from competitors (Microsoft and Google, in fact) to place a video call. So I set up my kids with Skype accounts for those times when I'm not sitting at home waiting for their calls.

Also, their mom is an Android user, so the Google accounts plus IM+ from Shape Services come in handy when they are with me and want to message her.

Get a good case and insist it stay on

The iPod touch is really cool to look at, but a shattered screen is not. My daughter got a cheap "fashion" case from someone and then dropped her touch on a hard floor. Since there's no AppleCare+ for the touch, that cost me an extra $99 to repair.

We started with some clear cases from Griffin, but ultimately I found the FlexGrip Action (also from Griffin) provides a good grip, adequate protection and a wrist strap. A good case is worth the cost, no matter what.

Capacity

The biggest mistake I made was buying the 8 GB iPod touch. I have no idea who uses an 8 GB iPod touch. Someone with no desire to download apps, that's for sure. Now my kids get to juggle software updates (because you have to have a lot of empty space to "Update All" or do a system update), pictures or video and apps. Memory management in the age of the cloud -- I find it quite hilarious.

To mitigate the issues I subscribe to music streaming services, but still it's a chore. The good thing is my kids are smart and have learned that deleting an app means you can download it again later. They "test" a lot of apps that way. I'm surprised how unsentimental they are about it, but that's how it goes in a deleting-isn't-permanent ecosystem.

My advice? Buy more capacity then you want to. The 8 GB iPod touch is just far too constrained to be used by anyone who visits the App Store each month.

Gifting Apps

Boy I wish Apple would make gifting somewhat easier on the recipient's end. It took a few times to explain to my kids (who are not big email users, hello 21st century generation) that they have to go into email, look for the iTunes email, scroll to the very bottom of the email, click the Redeem button, which will then launch the App Store, then allow them to download the app. Not the definition of ease-of-use, but not a tragedy either.

Wouldn't it be better if you got a system message that said "So-and-so has sent you a gift app! Would you like to download it now?" Apple could do this easily. Instead, if you buy something yourself and download it on your Mac and you have iCloud enabled and WiFi downloading enabled it'll just start downloading on your iOS device. I can see why this would be problematic with a gift app (Grandma sends kid a huge app that jams up their device -- another issue which Apple should fix is that "jamming" that happens when memory is low, but that's another article).

Just know that if you "gift" apps you'll have to train the kids on how to redeem the things. It is not intuitive, at least not for those who don't automatically read email every day.

Backing up data

Since I set up Gmail I started recommending to my kids that they email themselves pictures before deleting them if they want to save them. Because after a month of Photo Stream, they begged me to turn it off. Not even my kids like how Photo Stream works!

But iCloud backup is great. When I took my daughter's touch in to fix the screen, of course they just swapped it out with a new one. Within minutes all of her data, apps and customization were back on the device thanks to the iCloud backup. If you use iCloud for nothing else, use it for this.

The experiment continues...

After the initial excitement wore off, I found my kids using the iPods in different ways. My daughter loves music, so she listens to her Rdio account all the time. My son isn't much into just listening to music, so he and I share a Spotify account. Instead, he likes stuff like Frames or Eden, where he can actually create things.

My daughter likes to snap pics of the cats and her friends and add flair to the pics. My son tends to try and FaceTime me every night, whereas my daughter is often busy reading herself to sleep (she doesn't use iBooks, however) or writing little stories using Pages.

I recommend the iPod touch as a great communicator for separated, divorced or non-custodial parents. If both sides can agree to the rules, regular communications are good for kids, and the iPod touch makes it easier than ever before to see and hear your kids on a regular basis. Plus, with a little parenting, the touch can open a world of creation and discovery that is beneficial to children. I can't wait until they get their own iPads someday!

An iPod touch for kids and parents: one dad's guide originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Earlier this year, TeleNav launched a free Scout app and promised an online, HTML5 navigation service. Perhaps those weren't gaining enough momentum, because TeleNav is now offering the service to developers, who can embed TeleNav's turn-by-turn Scout.me services into their apps. Read more about Scout for Apps using HTML5 on the TeleNav blog.

Apparently the first to do this will be the Yellow Pages app. TeleNav's developer blog has a few more details, although no mention of cost to developers. Instead, there's a mention that "you'll also be able to participate in future revenue sharing opportunities with no additional effort" -- which sounds like advertising may appear at some point to monetize this whole thing.

Still, if you're looking for a quick mapping solution in your app with voice turn-by-turn directions, Scout for Apps is definitely one solution.

Update: A note from their PR and the press release is below. Turns out you can turn off ads for a fee.

"Scout for Apps is free to developers (ad-supported). For developers who prefer not to support ads, we can provide other licensing options. This info is on the press release (pasted below)."

Telenav offers "Scout for Apps" service to developers (Updated) originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's been a long time coming, but the Harry Potter books are finally available from the Pottermore store in eBook form. This means you can finally put Potter on your iPad! There are also audiobooks available, but the CD's were out long ago and these are just digital downloads. Still, it's very nice to have these in a digital format at last.

Harry Potter books now available for iPad, other eReaders originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The folks behind one of my personal favorite apps, BillMinder (plus a few others), return7, are teaming up with TUAW to give away a shiny new iPad. A 16 GB WiFi third-generation iPad, specifically.

To enter, fill out the form below. On Wednesday we'll pick a winner. For complete rules check below. Good luck!

The rules are as follows:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
• To enter, click fill out the form below completely and click the submit button.
• Your entry must be made before Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: A new 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad (early 2012) valued at US$499
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Win an iPad from return7 and TUAW originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are lots of reviews of the new iPad. Lots and lots. My review? In deeply abbreviated form, here it is:

The screen is amazing. You must see it before you make up your mind. It's pretty much every superlative people have thrown at it, aside from the glare and brightness all of these suffer from in direct sunlight. Everything else is nearly the same as the iPad 2, save slightly more weight and thickness, but if you're going from an iPad 1 to the new one (as I did), you won't be bothered a bit -- you're still saving weight and thickness over the first-gen.

Charging takes forever; it's a big mother of a battery in there, capacity-wise. 4G is flipping awesome, I watch my bandwidth like I used to count my minutes on AOL. The graphics are insane in terms of fluidity; Infinity Blade 2 wasn't as detailed as a PS3, but the polygons and texturing in such a small device are getting close fast. Battery life is great in my limited usage so far. Fingerprint magnet, as always.

I don't care for the more recessed power button versus the topmost button on the iPad 1. The camera is just like my 4S: gorgeous stills and video, and that makes photo and video apps fun to use, unlike my 4S. FaceTime on this screen is really some Jetsons-age business (but that's not new). Everything is zippy, and I feel like using gestures more often. I'm guessing the additional RAM is why apps aren't crashing left and right.

If you have a first generation iPad, update. If you have an iPad 2, you're probably fine unless you feel you need the better screen or 4G. I chose the Verizon 32 GB model because I wanted plenty of room for apps and I wanted to use it as a hotspot. Still the best tablet available at any price. Five stars.

Rather than add another thousand words to the review pile, let's spend some time looking at why the iPad matters and where Apple may be going with it. I suggest Apple is working towards the invisible computer, towards a seamless integration of technology and humanity, and the iPad is one of the last abstractions of technology between man and computer. Think of it as a battery-powered window to the future...

The Magic of Faking Reality

The haptic screen rumor that hit the wires just before the new iPad was unveiled was just the sort of crazy tidbit that kicks things up to the next level in the preamble to any major Apple announcement. But it made sense because it's an evolutionary step towards the goal of "invisible" computers -- or, computers which aren't called computers at all.

Why did we want to believe the haptic rumor? When I look back, it seems ridiculously gimmicky -- for now. But a lot of crazy things are bandied about before an iPad announcement. The one we all knew had to be true was the Retina display screen, and it not only makes a big difference, it does an incredible job (as Apple nearly always does) of transitioning us from the less-than-real to the I-can't-believe-it's-not-real. That's why the first iPad was called "magical" and that's why this iPad is just called iPad, while Tim Cook said Apple is revolutionizing the category it created. It's also why the transition to Retina on the iPad works so well. And again, the iPad is just one slab of metal and glass between us and pervasive technology.

Something that has surprised me is how good even very old apps look on the new iPad. Apple has made some stunning technology transitions. From classic Mac OS to OS X, from PowerPC to Intel chips, from beige boxes to leading the way in design -- so it's no real surprise that the transition from one resolution to another would be handled well. iOS developers also have the example of the iPhone 4's Retina transition to work from. But I was struck by the display, and I think it speaks to the future where Apple will continue to work towards duplicating reality as much as possible.

Speaking of reality, as I said before, sometimes Apple uses familiar design cues, and sometimes it reinvents them. Take the "no home button" weirdness that swirled around Apple's invitation. Add to this the Apple TV iteration and people wound up declaring a voice-enabled iPad HDTV Apple Docking Coffee Table was on the way.

Here's my point: Apple called the new iPad just "iPad" for a reason: it is everything, and it is nothing. If you were nonplussed by the design, or even "let down" that it was slightly heavier or thicker, you were missing the point. You really missed the point if you think the Retina display was a disappointment. Apple will sell a ton of these for the same reason samurai warriors went to a very few guys for their swords -- because they did it exactly right. The iPad continues a relentless pursuit towards the creation of the perfect tablet, the tabula rasa, or even the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Either way, in the end the technology disappears. The iPad is the invisible computer, or at least a step on the way.

Apple likes to use skeuomorphic, "realistically rendered" design for apps like GarageBand and your contacts, notes and calendar. Not everyone enjoys this look (some really hate it) because the apps are, like Siri, merely an abstracted simulation of reality -- and a leaky abstraction at that. Where the apps abandon real world models (iMovie or iPhoto as examples) they help make complex tasks simple by making interfaces work for the user.

Haptics will happen on Apple devices, but only when the technology creates a seamless experience, from buttons to sliders to knobs or feathers. I wrote this entire analysis/slash review on the new iPad, but I'm reminded of the old 40-column text word processor I used on my Apple II. You knew that was a computer. Despite using a Bluetooth keyboard, this new iPad feels so much less like a "computer" and more like a "word machine" or even just a quiet, brilliant typewriter.

Does the Retina Display help? Yes it does, quite a bit. On the iPad 1, I could still see pixels, which reminded me of that old phosphorescent monitor. The new iPad merely presents the letters. I'm using Byword to write, so all I see are words and a word count. It's lovely. It no longer feels appropriate to compare this to a "computer," it's more like an appliance -- which was the point all along.

A Computer for the Rest of Us

There's a spot in Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs where, just before the Macintosh launched, Steve pulls out a prototype of a laptop using a folio, and shows it to the Mac team. "This is the computer we'll be making some day," he tells them. Of course the MacBook Air is basically what that turned out to be, but if you look at someone using a small folio case with keyboard and an iPad... That sure seems aligned with Steve's vision.

More than that, the iPad's interface, "pictures under glass" that it may be, is such a powerful illusion that the original was called "magical" but I would say the new iPad is truly magical. Interfaces look real. We wanted to believe in haptics because it makes sense to take the illusion further. As an aspiring magician myself, the struggle is to perfect an illusion in a way that what you are saying you are doing is exactly what you appear to be doing (even if it isn't).

In the case of an iPad, turning a knob in GarageBand is a somewhat less than satisfactory experience versus doing the same thing in real life. There's no click, no force feedback in your fingers, etc. Simulating this on as elegant a machine as an iPad, as of today, would be clunky. So I'm glad they didn't go gimmicky. But the tech will advance, and we'll keep seeing ever more magical things.

These advances will be iterations, logical and relentless and wonderful. That's the type of company and culture that exists at Apple, despite the issues people write about (us included). If people talk about the spark being gone from Apple, I would suggest that while it may have lost its greatest showman, his genius lives on in the form of the ethos and passion behind every Apple product. The climbing stock price and sales numbers are good evidence of this.

You Say You Want a Resolution

I sort of chuckle when Tim Cook says that the iPhone and iPad's success has startled them. That's true, of course, because the transformation of consumer electronics has been sweeping. Going to CES for just a couple of years has shown me how rapidly the uptake in "pictures under glass" has become. I mean, before the iPhone, look at what Engadget was excited about at CES back in 2005! So yes, the adoption rate of touchscreen devices by consumers has been shocking. How fortuitous that Apple dropped "computer" from the company name before the iPad!

Let's revisit the Pepper Pad from that dark CES many years ago. Can you imagine normal people using that as we use iPads? Of course not. It reeks of computer. It declares, "I am for people who may be inclined to read manuals, and I require a learning curve and many settings."

Now, there's something to be said for not catering to the lowest common denominator if you want to make beautiful things. I have been guilty of thinking some people are just too dumb to be allowed to use an iPhone, for example. But when Apple dropped "computer" from its title, it was prescient for so many reasons. The company has allowed itself to become transformed by a revolution we all knew was coming; the integration of technology into our society, not as a compartmentalized, specialized job track or skill set, but a pervasive use of technology to augment our minds and bodies to do amazing things. The iPad, remember, is made to disappear.

Some might say that our better and better machines are like the wings of Icarus, but I like Steve's description of "bicycles for the mind." And once you step out of the "computer" paradigm, anything is possible. We're starting the post-PC era not just because we have new ways of synchronizing, hosting or sharing our data. We're starting the post-PC era because "personal computers" no longer necessarily need to be traditional "computers" -- they merely need to be personal.

Cloud aside: On my new iPad I'm experimenting with a hybrid cloud approach. I don't yet use iTunes Match (hundreds of mashups won't match anything), so I'm only using my 13" MacBook Air for iTunes music sync. Everything else is via iCloud or WiFi sync (apps, mostly). The biggest pain point thus far has just been waiting to download apps on my miserable Internet connection at home (my ISP is AT&T). I am careful not to download dozens of large apps on Verizon's 4G because it'll blow through that data cap in a hurry. So far it's worked well, however, as I avoid many of the weird and annoying iTunes sync issues I have had with numerous other iDevices going all the way back to my monochrome iPods.

Resolutionary

The iPad, especially the new iPad, with a screen that will make you believe anything is real within its borders, is Apple's next step towards the future, where devices merely work to assist us, and specialized knowledge is only needed in the field where one works. In other words, the tools get out of the way.

We've seen patents for haptics, 3D, advanced image and motion sensing and lots of other great ideas. I think what we can expect going forward is a refining of the tools we use, and a natural evolution of the product lines. The Apple TV of the future, for example, will be revolutionary, perhaps, but not so much in raw technology as in implementation. The new iPad is not revolutionary so much in raw technology (the screen, made by Apple's phone rival Samsung, will soon be incorporated by others) as it is in implementation. From old apps holding up well to new apps looking incredible, Apple has moved the game further down the road without being beholden to the past or leaving its customers too far behind. Eventually the screen won't be the point because the screen will be everywhere.

Apple doesn't have to build a car or a refrigerator. Manufacturers already have incentives to make their devices compatible, and they have. What I look forward to is a deepening of the ecosystem, perhaps even widening it a bit, and a continuing investment in materials science, software and hardware engineering, and more. Apple's influence goes beyond its own ecosystem, clearly impacting the consumer electronics industry, education, research, design, manufacturing and more. Look for more of that in the future as well.

The iPad represents the future direction of technology, I believe, more so than any other Apple product available. It is the high-tech made simple, potent and distilled into a simple slab of metal and glass, designed to become the tool you need when you need it. If you're wondering what Apple will do next, just look at what it continues to do each year and add a little magic once in a while when it knocks our socks off with a real revolution.

The iPad may someday give way to wrist-based holographic "eyePads" or add scratch-and-sniff capabilities, but the philosophy behind it will remain. It's that philosophy that will continue to shape our lives by integrating so seamlessly with them.

This is not our review of the new iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Image: Shutterstock.com

I keep squinting at my new iPad, trying to see the pixels, but no dice. Luckily, Ignore the Code rounded up some microscope imagery of the new iPad's screen and compared them to other devices. Something that surprised me was the quality of the PlayBook's screen. But the density of the Retina Display is truly something you have to see for yourself in action -- it is magical.

Check out the images at Ignore the Code if you're interested in how those displays look so good.

The new iPad's display compared to others under the microscope originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We've gone through a few permutations in our commenting systems over the years, but I'm rather pleased to announce our latest partnership with Livefyre, which I consider to be one of the best commenting platforms out there.

Livefyre's features include the ability to sign in using a variety of social logins, and to easily comment on other's comments and share them across social networks. The idea is to enhance and promote our discussions on articles and allow you to share those discussions wherever you like.

There are also enhanced moderation tools for the TUAW staff, which means better, more relevant conversations. And yes, we will be moderating comments, but not by default. In fact, Livefyre has a spiffy realtime commenting platform that is really quite nice to interact with on hot news items. As usual: be nice, stay relevant and don't say anything you wouldn't say to someone in person.

One note: If you see an authorization window mention Engadget, don't fret that our systems have co-mingled and your comment is lost. That's just what it reads until we change it.

A big thanks to Rick, Brett, Paul and Joe at AOL Tech, and everyone at Livefyre for making this happen. If you're having issues, let us know in the comments or via our feedback form.

Introducing comments by Livefyre on TUAW originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shocking, of course. iTunes has been updated to support 1080p content, plus a few tweaks which appear to help iCloud customers. Check Software Update on your Mac to apply this.

Here's the list:

iTunes 10.6 adds the ability to play 1080p HD movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store.

This release also includes many improvements for iTunes Match, including:

o. Improved album artwork handling, downloading, and display

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

iTunes 10.6 available, supports 1080p playback originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yep, iOS 5.1 is rolling out so check your iOS device's Software Update or sync with iTunes to apply. What's new? Support for Siri in Japanese, photos can now be deleted from your Photo Stream (yay!), plus a host of bug fixes (including lingering battery issues). Oh, and the iPad gets a new camera app.

Here's the full list:

• Japanese language support for Siri (availability may be limited during initial rollout)
• Photos can now be deleted from Photo Stream
• Camera shortcut now always visible on Lock Screen for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
• Camera face detection now highlights all detected faces
• Redesigned Camera app for iPad
• Genius Mixes and Genius playlists for iTunes Match subscribers
• Audio for TV shows and movies on iPad optimized to sound louder and clearer
• Podcast controls for playback speed and a 30 second rewind for iPad
• Updated AT&T network indicator
• Addresses bugs affecting battery life
• Fixes an issue that occasionally caused audio to drop for outgoing calls

Note: iTunes appears to be choking, but OTA updates appear to be working fine at the moment.

iOS 5.1 available, you can finally delete photos in Photo Stream originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's no secret I'm fond of webcams from around the world, and I'd forgotten about a little gem I downloaded long ago: WorldView+. As far as these apps go, WorldView+ has possibly the best design of all of them. Also, like many other webcam apps, it has some missing cameras (although it touts 10,000). But I have yet to find one app with the most comprehensive camera lists -- all are a compromise. That said, WorldView+ is one of the more functional and attractive "compromises" out there. Plus, it looks great on the iPad or iPhone.

The buttons at the bottom allow easy access to your bookmarks, perform a search, look near your current location for cameras, and discover random or featured cams. These are the basics, really. What distinguishes WorldView+ are little touches like providing a wealth of info around each camera -- Wikipedia articles, weather at that location and even an image taken during daytime (local to that camera), which is nice when you happen upon a camera that shows nothing but darkness. There are a number of streaming cameras set up, and a few that will provide a time-lapse view.

For some reason WorldView+ missed a few cameras I found otherwise, and it seems to focus primarily on landscape cameras. World Live Cams had a few cameras I didn't find in WorldView+, but overall WorldView+ is a better app as it is more complete and packed with useful features.

As with any properly-designed app, bookmarking cameras, finding info and basic searches are all done with a minimum of fuss. Map view is a joy to use, and it looks great. Zooming around the map, then into an image, then zooming into that image makes you feel a bit like transporting around -- or at least like you have access to a vast array of surveillance cameras. While there's always more that could be done with any interface (Tapbots apps do this well), the core functionality of most cam viewers is encapsulated within WorldView+ and all for a reasonable $2.99. If you like webcams, you'll really enjoy WorldView's features and design.

Daily iPhone App: WorldView+ originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.