The Three iPhone Applications That Are Keeping Me From Buying a Palm Pre

June 28, 2009 · Posted in Apple · Comment 

The Palm Pre debuted to a series of mixed reviews, but I have to admit I still want one.  The full keyboard, the multitasking functionality, and Linux-based OS are just too much for a gadget nerd like me to resist.

But I still didn’t stand in line for one when it was released, and I have to admit it’s because the iPhone has its hooks in me good and proper.  Or, specifically the App Store.  I know it’s not fair to compare a software library that’s been around a year to one that’s been around a few weeks.  But it’s close to time for me to re-up my phone contract and between the Pre and the new iPhone 3GS, I’ll probably end up going with the iPhone.  Here are three applications that are swinging my decision–note that I’m not saying that these are the “best” iPhone apps, just the ones that don’t yet have an equivalent on the Pre and I would be sore to have to go without.



1) Stanza–This eBook reader that supports both eBook purchases through Fictionwise and a huge library of free books through sites like Project Gutenburg is pretty much essential for me.  It’s rich in features including page resume, Coverflow for book covers, full settings for changing orientation, font size and more, and even the ability to download eBooks from your PC and share them with friends (using a matching desktop app).  While there’s been talk about porting Lexcycle’s Stanza to the Pre, there’s no definitive timeline (as far as I know).


2) imeem Mobile–Both the iPhone and the Pre have Pandora, which is a great application, but the recently-released imeem app takes it a step further with the ability to upload your entire music collection to imeem and stream it to the app, so you don’t have to take up storage space on your iPhone.  It also has other features from the imeem.com site, such as Spotlight artists, recommended music, and featured stations.  And if you find new music you can’t live without, you can click in the app to go straight to that artist’s iTunes page.  Pandora’s fantastic, but the ability to jump within one app between new music and my own uploaded favorite tunes makes this one a winner for me. 3) The Quest–There are a lot (a lot) of casual games for the iPhone, but The Quest is one of my favorites.  I’m a huge fan of old-school RPGs, and this is a classic dungeon-crawler with surprising depth.  I may be dating myself by saying it’s the closest you’ll ever get to a portable version of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, but needless to say The Quest has chewed up time on many a plane and bus ride.  The game is actually a port of the original game for Pocket PCs so the sprite-based graphics aren’t cutting-edge but serve well enough and evoke serious nostalgia for old-school gamers.  You can choose from a wide array of custom race/class combinations and there’s plenty of gear and magic to pick up along the way in order to overcome the baddies.  The huge game world has day/night and weather cycles, you can enchant your own gear and brew your own potions, and the main story plot is well-written along with plenty of side quests, with multiple ways to solve most quests.  Plus, there’s even a miniature card game you can play in the inns that’s simple but fun.  Highly recommended if you’re looking for a portable game that’s a little deeper than Sudoku.

–Aric A.

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Apple Puts the Kibosh on the Palm Pre’s iTunes Synch

June 28, 2009 · Posted in Apple · Comment 

The Palm Pre has been riding fairly high on a wave of publicity since its launch just a few weeks ago, so much so that Apple seems to have decided that it might be prudent to take a little wind out of the smartphone’s sails by announcing that, although the new device’s claim to be able to seamlessly synch with Apple’s iTunes store may be true at the moment, that may not be the case for very much longer. Sound a little draconian? Sure enough, but business is business and anyway, this move is built into Apple’s existing company line, which says that,

“Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with,
non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over
time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide
syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.”

So, be forewarned new and potential Palm Pre owners. Apple is a jealous guardian of its markets. If you were hoping to be able to download music and movies to your heart’s content via iTunes, think again, or at least do it quickly. No doubt Palm will be ratcheting up its plans for its own apps store for the Pre, the App Catalog, but that’s a good way off and there’s pretty much no chance that it will feature anything to match the entertainment media of iTunes. So, although it is definitely premature to write off the Palm Pre, it is probably not too early to remove its equally premature mantle of iPhone killer.

–Tom Milnes

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Bites from the Apple, Part 2: Snow Leopard, MacBooks and More

June 28, 2009 · Posted in Apple · Comment 

In the second part to this week’s Bites from the Apple news wrap-up, we’ll take a look at the many (believe it or not) non-iPhone bits from the WWDC conference, including new details and release plans for the new Snow Leopard Mac OS X operating system and new MacBook family releases as well as some stray items of note (here’s the first iPhone-y part).

On the Snow Leopard front, the OS successor to the current 10.5 Leopard will get released in September for an upgrade price of just $29 (current users of Mac OS X Tiger will need to purchase a Snow Leopard Box Set that also includes the iLife software, which is estimated to cost $169). While Apple is playing down how big an upgrade this is–going so far as to use the term “refinements” instead of new features–there’s a lot that is being refined. Rob Griffiths over at Macworld took a look at the main Snow Leopard refinements page as well as its companion list of additional tweaks and comes away thinking that $29 is quite a bargain. Highlights range big to small–from 64-bit versions of main system applications (like Finder, Mail, Safari, and iCal) and enhanced utilization of multiple-core processors (called Grand Central Dispatch) to Expose built into the Dock and signal strength icons added to the Wi-Fi dropdown menu (seen below from one of many Snow Leopard screenshots posted by Michael Flux; via TUAW).

On the more tangible hardware front, Apple also revised its MacBook family lineup with new MacBook Pro models that take advantage of the built-in, long-life battery that was first introduced by the 17-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year. And the Pro lineup now includes the 13-inch aluminum unibody model, leaving the white polycarbonate MacBook as the entry level model. As noted in our keynote wrap-up from earlier this week, the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros have dumped the ExpressCard slot (Phil Schiller noted that the user base for this feature was in the single digits) and replaced it with a vastly more usable Secure Digital memory card slot (though the 17-inch Pro keeps the ExpressCard slot). In addition to easier access to SD cards with pictures from your digital camera as well as MicroSD cards from your phone (using an adapter), the SD slot also enables you to boot your system from an SD card formatted as Mac OS Extended and loaded with a bootable version of Mac OS X.

Additionally, as previously noted, the MacBook Air got a bump in processor specs (for both the hard disk drive and solid-state drive versions), and both the Airs and Pros received price cuts in an effort to answer Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters ads (which have been putting a dent in consumers’ perception of value for Apple products).

  • Reviews of the new MacBook Pros are already coming in, with CNet chiming in separately on the 13-inch and 15-inch models, PCMag also doing separate reviews of the 13-inch and 15-inch, and Gizmodo wrapping the two together and providing some handy benchmark graphs for eyecandy consumption (photo below via Gizmodo).

  • If you didn’t see this on End User’s Twitter feed, here are 10 Snow Leopard features that weren’t mentioned during the WWDC keynote, including lower iChat bandwidth as well as higher resolution video chats in iChat and multi-touch gestures for older MacBooks.
  • With the assimilation of the 13-inch unibody MacBook into the MacBook Pro line, Gizmodo also speculates on the future of the MacBook name and wonder whether the much-speculated, long-rumored iTablet might take over that naming convention.
  • According to Wired’s Gadget Lab, the long-life batteries found in the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros (which provide up to 7 hours of life) are user replaceable, based on discoveries made during iFixit’s tear-down of the laptops.
  • The Safari 4 web browser went from beta version to public as of the WWDC keynote, and the browser tabs have been returned to their more expected placed below the bookmarks bar rather than placed in the title bar. Apple claims that over 11 million copies of Safari 4 have been downloaded since Monday, but Robert Strohmeyer of PC World (via Macworld) notes that it was pushed out as an automatic update to previous downloaders, so the numbers don’t necessarily tell the story of a wild success.
  • Head on over to The Apple Blog for some really good in-depth looks at the new QuickTime X and Exchange support in Snow Leopard.
  • There’s likely to be one more update to the current Mac OS X Leopard operating system before Snow Leopard pounces in September, bringing it to version 10.5.8 (via AppleInsider).
  • Now that Safari 4 is for reals, your favorite plug-ins will start to filter out with support for the official version and 1Password is one of the first out of the gate (via Macworld).
  • At some point this summer, I’ll be unboxing a shload of CDs that have been in storage while my home has been under the hammer and I’ll get back to digitizing the 300-odd remaining discs to my iTunes library. Macworld has two articles this week with tips on quickly ripping CDs as well as the basics on using iTunes to rip and burn discs.
  • My pal/colleague Jeff Carlson takes a look at the new hidden features (including Ken Burns Effect for video) in the recently updated iMovie ‘09 update.
  • Gizmodo has put together a 3-minute highlight reel of the WWDC keynote, but if you want the full experience you can either stream it in QuickTime from Apple or download it in podcast form from the iTunes store (while the WWDC keynote isn’t appearing in the list of podcasts as of Friday afternoon, it will start downloading if you subscribe to the Apple Keynotes podcast).

  • And finally… this Mac moment story over at Cult of Mac where the writer gets to introduce a PC user to the wonders of a MacBook Pro has a great punchline.

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

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Bites from the Apple, Part 1: iPhone 3GS (or 3G S) Aftermath

June 28, 2009 · Posted in Apple · Comment 

There’s really so much to cover in the aftermath of this week’s WWDC announcements that I’m going to split this week’s blog post into two parts so that the post doesn’t feel too overwhelming. This first part will be devoted to the new iPhone, while the second part will cover developments in Snow Leopard, the new MacBook family, and other odds and ends.

Much to no one’s surprise (save for maybe Apple commentator Rob Enderle and stock analyst Gene Munster), new iPhone hardware was announced at the WWDC keynote with few eye-openers after the many leaks of the last few weeks. The iPhone 3GS (or is it 3G S?) delivered the goods with a higher megapixel camera (featuring auto and selective focus, as seen at right), video recording capabilities, a digital compass (which can help re-orient maps according to your heading), and a one-two combo of faster processor and more RAM for a snappier feel. They also threw in a few extra goodies, including voice controls and a voice recorder. And with the new iPhone 3.0 software, it’s also got copy and paste, MMS picture messaging, and tethering for acting as a modem for your laptop (more on those last two a little later). I’m sure that all Apple fanboys/fangirls are pleased as punch, even though it didn’t include a matte black backing, right?

Wrong. But hey, it wouldn’t be a major Apple release party without a kerfuffle, complete with online petitions and threats of class action lawsuits.

The focus of all the angst this time around is AT&T’s upgrade policy for current owners of the iPhone 3G, who won’t get the subsidized price for the iPhone 3G S (or is it 3GS?) that’s being offered to new customers ($199 for the 16 GB, $299 for the 32 GB) right off the bat. Current customers can get an early upgrade price break only after they’ve owned their first handset for about 18 months. (As an EDGEy OG iPhone owner, I’m on my way to subsidized iPhone 3GS bliss.) Now there’s something to be said for going the extra mile to make the rabid hordes of tweeting/blogging Apple fans happy, as that helps avoid the flurry of online fury. But there’s also some understandable business math that AT&T has to do, which is summed up neatly by The Macalope in his weekly column:

Both sides are getting it wrong. And the reason they’re getting it wrong is they’re both calling it the wrong thing. In a standard telecommunications industry shell game, AT&T fronts part of the hardware cost to Apple to make the phone look cheaper to get you in the door

That isn’t a “subsidy” by the traditional definition. It’s a loan. AT&T is loaning you the money to buy an iPhone and you’re signing a contract to pay it off over the next 18 months. If you decide you want out of your loan, you have to pay a buyout.

If you don’t want to sign a contract, you can buy a no-commitment phone, but they start at $599 for an iPhone 3G S. See, AT&T gets its money one way or the other. Nobody’s “subsidizing” anything.

Dr. Macenstein makes the case that it’s Apple that’s really at fault with its inflated pricing, but AT&T sure isn’t winning many friends with its delay in offering MMS and tethering (said to be ready later in the summer)–both of which are being offered by most of Apple’s other global cell carrier partners. Should be interesting when Apple and AT&T get together to renegotiate their contract. As always, leave your thoughts in the comments–will you be upgrading? are you mad as heck about the upgrade policy? etc.–but there’s a lot more to cover so let’s move along…

  • Get ready for an early wake-up call on June 19, the first day that iPhone hit the stores: many Apple Stores will open at 8am while AT&T will open at 7am for customers who pre-order the 3GS. For a sneak preview, check out some of the unboxing photos of the 3GS over at MacRumors (originally posted to Engadget’s Chinese site).
  • If you’re feeling bitter about the upgrade kerfuffle, Farhad Manjoo should help talk you down by arguing in Slate that you can live without the new iPhone 3GS since it’s the App Store that’s really the key element of the handset.
  • If you’re at all worried about AT&T, Advertising Age offers some suggestions on how it can weather the backlash
  • If you’ve got an existing iPhone or iPhone 3G, mark June 17 on your calendar, as that’s the date that the iPhone OS 3.0 gets released as a free upgrade to iPhone users.
  • However, what’s free for iPhone users isn’t free for iPod touch users–who will have to pay $10 for the upgrade. Not all of the features built into iPhone 3.0 will transfer over to the iPod touch, but it will be able to access such new features as copy/paste, upgrades to the iTunes Store, and the landscape keyboard.
  • While Apple has been rather mum about the specifics of its iPhone 3GS (I’m going with this nomenclature) specs, T-Mobile Netherlands has quantified what the “S for speed” really means–a 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM (compared to a 400 MHz processor and 128 MB of RAM for the old iPhone 3G).
  • Michael Jones over at TUAW has a good rundown of the new features of both the hardware (3GS) and the software (3.0 OS) that shows what functionality is found across the iPhone family and what’s exclusive to the iPhone 3GS.
  • This would have been something to see down at WWDC–a hyperwall of the App Store (made up of twenty 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays) showing live (well, slightly delayed) sales of 20,000 of the most popular iPhone apps (they ripple and pulse when a purchase is made).

  • With turn-by-turn directions now available in the iPhone 3.0 software, Consumer Reports that major GPS companies like Tom Tom and Navigon (though no Garmin) will be jumping into the App Store with their navigation wares.
  • O’Reilly’s Radar blog also notes some of the location features that application developers can take advantage of, including taking advantage of Google Maps (instead of building out a mapping system), the ability better read barcodes, and geocontent sharing.
  • The iPhone 3GS has an oleophobic screen coating that should help prevent smudgy fingerprints (via MacRumors).
  • My pal/colleague Glenn Fleishman writes in Macworld that the iPhone 3GS includes compatibility with the next step in 3G connectivity–HSPA with 7.2 Mbps of download speed. However, AT&T won’t be supporting the 7.2 speeds until later this year in select markets (it currently provides 3.6 Mbps 3G speeds).

  • CNet’s Webware blog contemplates whether Apple’s MobileMe service is now worth the $99 annual subscription thanks to the iPhone 3.0’s new Find My iPhone feature coupled with the upcoming iDisk app (for accessing content stored
  • For more on the iPhone 3GS features, check out the guided tour video posted at Apple.

  • And finally… I love this T-shirt design of the iPhone’s Settings app exploded into individual components (seen at right; via Cult of Mac). Artist Sebastiaan de With only printed a few for special giveaway at WWDC, but I’m hoping he uploads the design to a online T-shirt repository like Cafe Press or Zazzle.

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

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Apple WWDC Keynote: New iPhone and MacBook Pros plus Snow Leopard Release Date

June 28, 2009 · Posted in Apple · Comment 

As seems to happen with big Apple events, I found myself cut off from the digital world on a familial excursion (exploring the Portand, OR zoo with my toddler and his Grandmother) while the WWDC keynote played out. (At least I wasn’t on a secluded island as I was when the original iPhone launched.) I’m playing catch-up after getting my over-exhausted child off to a nap, and it’s looking like the goods delivered by Phil Schiller and company at the keynote were hardly humdrum. True, there was no Steve Jobs emerging from frozen carbonite as a “one more thing…” (in fact, no sighting of the man at all, as was pretty much promised) and no front-facing camera on the new iPhone hardware as had been making the rounds in supposed “leaks” over the weekend. But this was far from the underwhelming keynote that some stock analysts had been predicting.

iPhone 3GS
As highlighted in its introductory ad for the iPhone 3GS, the case hasn’t changed, and thusly it’s all about what’s under the hood. First off, John Gruber’s prognostication over the weekend that the new iPhone would be dubbed the iPhone 3GS was spot on, and now we know what the S is for: speed. Apple is being coy about exactly what processor is powering the new model, but Apple claims its performance is up to twice as fast as the iPhone 3G and it’s compatible with AT&T’s faster 3G network (7.2 Mbps HSDPA), which will start rolling out at the end of the year.

The iPhone 3G lives on, however, and it will sell for $99 with 8 GB of storage for bargain hunters. While that model is still pretty sweet, you’ll miss out on the increased speeds as well as some new features found in the iPhone 3GS (Gizmodo and Engadget provide some a handy comparison tables), including:

  • 3-megapixel autofocus camera (up from 2 MP) with video recording (up to 640 x 480 pixels at 30 fps)
  • Digital compass that automatically orients any map to the direction you are facing
  • Voice commands for dialing as well as controlling music playback
  • Built-in hardware encryption
  • 3D graphics support for improved gaming
  • Improved battery life (though the rating for talk time on 3G networks hasn’t changed, there’s a slight boost for using on 2G networks as well as audio playback and data usage via Wi-Fi)

The iPhone 3GS comes in either black or white in two storage sizes–16 GB ($199) and 32 GB ($299)–and they’ll be released starting on June 19. I’ve been using a 4 GB original (OG) iPhone and I’m ready for an upgrade–the dial-up speed of EDGE has become more and more frustrating and I’m finally coming around to wanting real GPS. I think I’ll be going with the new 16 GB model.

iPhone 3.0 Software
The next version of the iPhone/iPod touch operating system gets released two days earlier on June 17, and it will incorporate MMS (i.e., picture messaging) and tethering (i.e., using your phone as a 3G modem for your laptop)… although they won’t be supported initially by AT&T. The Boy Genius Report believes that the former is due to some opt-out codes for MMS that were built in during iPhone 3.0 beta testing while the latter is due to AT&T not having their tethering plan ready (a $70 per month unlimited data plan is thought to be in the works). The other big reveal of iPhone 3.0 is the new Find My iPhone feature, which works in conjunction with a MobileMe subscription to map out where your iPhone is as well as play an alert sound (perfect for those with an iPhone-crazed toddler who likes to hide said iPhone under pillows). And if your iPhone is stolen, you can wipe its contents remotely.

Other features of the iPhone 3.0 update include copy and paste, Bluetooth stereo music streaming, better JavaScript performance in the Safari browser, download video (movies, TV shows) from the iTunes store, shake to shuffle music playback, and synchronization of notes (still missing is the ability to sync to-dos… sigh). It’s a free upgrade for current iPhone owners, but of course iPod touch owners get the shaft and have to pay $10 for the update.

MacBooks
Slightly surprising, but very welcome, was an update to the MacBook Pro family of laptops, which now brings the 13-inch unibody MacBook into the Pro family to join its new 15- and 17-inch siblings. And both the 13- and 15-inch models feature a new non-removable battery (like that of the unibody 17-inch model that was released in January), which is rated up to 7 hours of battery life and should last up to 5 years. The 15-inch model sheds the ExpressCard slot, while the 13-inch model gains a FireWire 800 port. Additionally, both the 17-inch MacBook Pro and the MacBook Airs dropped a bit in price with some performance enhancements.

The new lineup is as follows:

  • 13-inch MacBook Pro (MB990LL/A): 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 160 GB hard drive, 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M shared graphics, 8x SuperDrive
  • 13-inch MacBook Pro (MB991LL/A): 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 250 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M shared graphics, 8x SuperDrive

  • 15-inch MacBook Pro (MC118LL/A): 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (3 MB L2 cache), 250 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M shared graphics, 8x SuperDrive
  • 15-inch MacBook Pro (MB985LL/A): 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (3 MB L2 cache), 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, dual graphics processing with 9600M GT (256 MB GDDR3 discrete) and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 8x SuperDrive
  • 15-inch MacBook Pro (MB986LL/A): 2.80 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (6 MB L2 cache), 500 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, dual graphics processing with 9600M GT (512 MB GDDR3 discrete) and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 8x SuperDrive
  • 17-inch MacBook Pro (MC226LL/A): 2.80 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (6 MB L2 cache), 500 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, dual graphics processing with 9600M GT (512 MB GDDR3 discrete) and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, 8x SuperDrive

  • MacBook Air (MC233LL/A): 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120 GB hard disk drive, 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M shared graphics
  • MacBook Air (MC234LL/A): 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 128 GB solid-state drive, 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M shared graphics

My only question is, do I buy the middle 15-inch MacBook Pro or spend an extra $500 for more screen and better processing with the 17-inch? (Looks like I’m offering my own stimulus package to Apple with this and a new iPhone… and potentially a new iPhone for my wife, if I can convince her to ditch her 6-year-old Motorola clamshell phone.) If you’ve got any thoughts to help sway me to either side, leave them in the comments.

Snow Leopard
And finally, the release of the Mac OS X 10.6 operating system (aka, Snow Leopard) was firmed up with a release date of September 29 with a price tag of just $29 if upgrading from 10.5 Leopard (if upgrading from 10.4 Tiger, it’ll cost you $169 for a single license, but you also get the updated iLife ‘09 suite of applications). If you do happen to purchase one of the new MacBooks (which include the 10.5 Leopard operating system) before Snow Leopard is released, you’ll be able to request an upgrade package for just $10.

We’ll have more coverage of the new iPhone and Snow Leopard releases later this week in Friday’s Bites from the Apple posting.

–Agen G.N. Schmitz

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