A digital ‘News Stand’ application, with an automatic push service when you subscribe to a news source, is something I thought the iPad would’ve had from the start. Hopefully it get’s introduced soon as it would be a catalyst for publications to enter the digital market and (hopefully) innovate.
We’ve waited a while, but finally iOS 4.2 has hit the iPad, along with the iPhone and iPod touch. For iPad owners especially, this is a juicy update finally bringing key iOS 4 features such as multitasking, folders and an integrated email inbox. The update also brings Airplay and Airprint to iDevices - sure to be killer features that further differentiate the iOS platform from others such as Android and Windows Phone 7.
Multitasking lets you quickly switch back and forth between apps, while Folders gets rid of flipping through page after page of apps. Mail gets a unified inbox, finally. Oh, and it forever changes the orientation lock to a mute switch—you now lock the orientation by double-tapping the home button and swiping to the left to reach a soft switch.
The other big feature is AirPlay. New to the iPhone too, it lets you wirelessly stream videos and music from an iPad or iPhone to an Apple TV, hassle-free. AirPrint does the same wireless magic thing, but for docs and webpages—lets you wirelessly print stuff easily.
The free Find My iPhone service is slightly limited: Only iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th-gen) and iPad get it. Once you activate Find My iPhone using one of those, though, you can use the service for free on your older iOS devices too. Find My iPhone, if you didn’t know, shows where your lost iOS device is located on a map—as long as it has service—allows you to ping it with alarms and messages, or remotely detonate the information on it once all hope is lost. Just grab the updated app right here after you’ve updated to 4.2.
Other things in iOS 4.2: new text ringtones for iPhone 4 (and only iPhone 4, weirdly), text searching inside of web pages in Safari, and the ability to use different fonts in the Notes app.
Source - Gizmodo
Last year one of the hot Christmas gift purchases was the digital photo frame, you couldn’t go into a big retailer without seeing these displayed at the entrance ready for eager shoppers to snap up. This year is a different story however, with a British survey results indicating they top the list of least wanted gifts this Christmas.
So why haven’t they taken off?
No matter how good of a concept they are, there are a number of problems with the current generation of these photo frames that severely limit their functionality.
1. Poor quality display - both low resolution and bad viewing angles
2. Price - way too expensive
3. Power - they all require to be plugged in and don’t run on batteries, limiting where you can place them (no wall hangings)
4. Usability - the interface on these things is horrible. Not to mention no wifi for easily transfering photos.
I’ll go out on a limb and say these will continue to languish and possibly pick up in about 5 years time when the screen cost drops and quality improves, when they have built in solar power and all have an easy to use menu with wifi connectivity. Until you can buy a 15” OLED frame and hang it on your wall without a power cord, for $50, these things will not take off.
But hey, they could be the hot Christmas item of 2015.
Source - Telegraph UK
Facebook today announced their new messaging service, integrating chat, private messages, SMS and email into a ‘social inbox’. They want to create a more personal messaging experience, it does not have any of the usual email features such as CC, Forward - however you do get an @Facebook.com email address.
The new messaging system is composed of three parts: seamless messaging, cross-platform conversation history and the social inbox. The latter is an inbox for filtering the messages you want, organized by the people you care about. It’s designed to highlight conversations with your real friends and be spam free.
Could this replace traditional email (such as Gmail) as your preferred personal email service?
Over the last few months there has been a lot of buzz over ‘Path’ - a social networking service founded by ex Facebook guy David Morin and Napster cofounder Shawn Fanning. Today they’ve made their first product launch, an iPhone app.
The application is similar to Twitter or Facebook, you share status updates, pictures and messages with your friends. How it’s different is that you are limited to just 50 friends. This goes against the trends of the other mega networks which encourage getting as big a friend list as possible.
The idea is that with just 50 of your close friends in your network, it allows for a more personal experience and sharing of private moments.
It’s a nice idea, but the problem with this is that not all your closest 50 friends are going to use this app. It will mainly be the same people who are early adopters with most technology things, ie the same people you already have on Twitter, the same pictures and comments they post on Twitter they will post on Path.
I’m ready to give Path a chance, it has funding from some influential sources such as Digg founder Kevin Rose. It could find a solid niche such as the Instagram photo-sharing community, but it will be difficult for Path which other than the friend limit doesn’t offer a lot that is new.
Very interesting read on where the Mac App Store could be headed. A new category of apps will start rolling in, more akin to iOS casual apps than the traditional applications we see today. This will be a market in addition to the one that currently exists, so Mac developers shouldn’t feel like the App Store is going to come in and take their business away.
The prohibition on private API usage will keep a lot of popular Mac apps out of the Store. Are they serious about that? (My guess: Yes.)
