News Archive
Apple Gazette Daily 347 - The iPhone SDK/App Store Rant Show!
podcast sponsor link:
Click Here to check out Blogflux Groups!
Today’s Show: The iPhone SDK/App Store Rant Show!
You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or…
you can listen to the episode right here:
In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.
Video: The Greatest “Star Wars” Movie ever filmed!
When the Star Wars prequels were in production, my circle of friends and I were fascinated, not only by the movies themselves, but by the fan film community that was building around the Star Wars universe. We wrote our own fan films like “Urban Jedi” where two Jedi were lost on planet Earth, and another called “Being George Lucas” that was a send up of “Being John Malkovich” with a Star Wars twist. That wasn’t all - in facr, I think we wrote a dozen or so. (My personal favorite was one that appeared to be two Jedi Knights dueling, only to find out at the end that they were, in fact, Starfleet Officers on a Holodeck from “Star Trek”).
My point with that little trip down my own personal memory lane - is that I’ve watched a lot of Star Wars fan films. I’ve been amazed by what people can do in their houses and backyards these days with special effects. Many of the fan films I’ve seen were better than the prequel films themselves. The one embedded above, however, may be better than all 6 of George’s films.
It is a short Star Wars fan film starring a brother and sister, where their Dad is playing the evil Emperor. The special effects are great - and there is a special appearance by an iPhone as well. It looks like the thing was created on a Mac, because there are some very familiar Garageband sounds in a few places.
Regardless of what platform is was created on, the video is a great example of how awesome spending time with your kids can be. Some of the most fun I’ve had in my life has been running around the back yard with my daughter playing Power Rangers and having lightsaber duels of our own. If you’re not finding time to do that kind of stuff…you’re missing out on some really great memories.
The creator of the video is named Mark Lucier. He did an awesome job.
via Laughing Squid.
iPhone Software Spotlight - Tripper
All this week we’re going to be taking a look at cool applications on the iPhone/iPod Touch that you might have missed. First up is Tripper, a Mileage Log application that includes GPS support. I recently met the creator of this application and I was really impressed with him and the apps that he’s building at Stutsman Software.
As an independent contractor I have tried for years to keep an accurate log of the miles I travel for work related issues. I keep a notebook in my glove box and I remember to use it MOST of the time - but not always. I always kick myself when I forget, and when third party Apps made their way onto the iPhone a mileage log application was one of the first things I wanted to get.
Tripper does everything that I wanted a Mileage Application to do. It has an easy to use interface, and it does a good job of making the data easy to input. Where it really stands out, though, is with the GPS mileage tracking option. Every time I have used this feature it has been accurate within 10 miles or less of the actual miles traveled. That’s very cool considering that the Application was closed through the duration of the trip, and was estimating the mileage based on the point where I turned it off, and the point where I turned it back on.
What this allows me to do is input the mileage when I think about it. So, if I forget and I’ve already gone inside, or started doing something else, I can get a good estimate of the miles from the App itself.
Even without the GPS feature (if that’s not your thing) the Application does a great job of making mileage tracking less of a pain. If you travel for work regularly - you should have this application on your iPhone.
It costs $4.99, and you can get it right here.
Backdating trouble not yet over for Jobs and Apple
It looks like Apple’s backdating problems may not be over, even after last week’s announcement that they were reaching a settlement in 19 cases. Bloomberg is reporting that an ongoing case is still presently under seal at the Santa Clara County Court. The plaintiff’s lawyer says he is acting on the behalf of shareholders and is using a “similar but not identical” approach to the case as the other lawsuits.
He states that he has details about the transactions that “no one else has”, and even claims to know “who did what to whom and when.”
The case targets many people who current work for Apple and a few ex-employees as well - but the case specifically targets Steve Jobs as the “center of the backdating scheme”.
It’s hard to verify these claims since they lawsuit is under seal, but in time, I’m sure we’ll learn more about the validity of this case.
Thoughts on the App Store and the “Podcaster” rejection
The subject of what Apple should and should not allow in the App Store has become a very “hot button” topic. The closest thing I can compare it to are politics. Politics is one of the areas where very smart people often have very dumb arguments. What I mean by that is that many of the smartest people in the world seem to lose all perspective when it comes to political discussion. Their view point is the only one that is right, and how dare anyone question it.
When, rationally, we all know that there are two sides to every debate, and that none of us are correct 100% of the time. Discussing the App store, and Apple’s current policies for accepting applications seems to generate these types of responses.
On Friday the Internet lit up because the application Podcaster was rejected by Apple. The reason they said was that “since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”
That reasoning is extremely hard to understand. Now people that are supportive of Apple’s decision immediately jump on the “If I had a store that sold widgets, and someone else wanted to come into my store and sell similar widgets - why should I have to let them?” While those that are against Apple will immediately jump up and down screaming “Apple is anti-competitive! This is blatantly suppressing competition!”.
I will let you decide for yourselves which of those two categories you happen to fall under.
Taking a broader look at it, though, this reasoning doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Here’s why.
First - Apple has allowed numerous applications on the phone that duplicate features of their products. There are hundreds of calculators available for the iPhone. Some are vastly different than the iPhone calculator, but many are very similar. There are several photo editors and viewers much like the Photos application on the iPhone, and there are even services like AOL Radio and FlyCast that stream internet radio just like iTunes. There are chat applications that feature similar functions as iChat. There is even a VOIP app called truphone that allows you to make calls over wi-fi.
Is it really possible that Apple has allowed all of these applications in, and just decided, arbitrarily to draw the line at downloading Podcasts?
I think its far more likely that there is another reason for this - and the rejection letter was worded poorly. Perhaps Podcaster has inadvertently violated one of Apple’s patents related to iTunes. If that was the case, it would make more sense for the App to have been rejected - but it doesn’t excuse the idiocy of the rejection letter.
Whatever the reason, Apple doesn’t own podcasting - they’ve never claimed to to my knowledge. They have been very aggressive in shutting down websites with “pod” in the title though, another possible reason for rejection.
Having this application on the iPhone could in no way harm Apple that I can see. If people use it for their podcasts instead of iTunes - it wouldn’t stop people from using iTunes. They have to have iTunes to sync their iPhones. So that argument doesn’t really hold much water. So why would Apple NOT want this application in the store?
If you go to Podcaster.fm and look at the web version of the Application it looks almost identical to the App or iTunes Stores on the iPhone. Again, this makes me think that there could be something related to the look and feel of the application, rather than Apple simply not wanting a competing podcast application for the iPhone.
Regardless of the true reasoning behind this, it is clear that Apple has a big problem on its hands. The company is spending millions of dollars right now advertising to the world that the App Store is going to “change everything”. If Apple isn’t going to allow competing applications - or work with developers to get Applications approved (from the conceptual stage) then high quality developers are going to develop for other platforms. It will be very difficult to seek financial backing for application development if you don’t know that the application will be approved until after it is completed. At that stage it is far too late, and if Apple rejects it - you don’t have any way to recoup your costs or profit from your endeavor.
The App Store is going through some serious growing pains. Hopefully, Apple is going to devote the time and energy necessary to help this Store reach its full potential - because it would be a shame to see it fail because of arbitrary rejections like this one.
Apple Gazette Daily 346 - A look at the iPhone 2.1 Software Update
podcast sponsor link:
Click Here to check out Blogflux Groups!
Today’s Show: A look at the iPhone 2.1 Software Update
You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or…
you can listen to the episode right here:
In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.
iPhone 2.1 now available
As promised on Tuesday, iPhone update 2.1 is now available in iTunes. Its features include:
- Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
- Significantly better battery life for most users
- Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
- Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
- Faster installation of 3rd party applications
- Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
- Improved performance in text messaging
- Faster loading and searching of contacts
- Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
- Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
- Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
- Genius playlist creation
I’m pretty excited for the “significantly” longer battery life (assuming it is, in fact, significant), as well as the faster installation of apps and the repeat alert for incoming texts (though I wish they’d add the same feature for missed calls). And after playing the the Genius feature in iTunes, I think it’s something that’ll I’ll get some use out of natively on the iPhone.
As always, simply connect your iPhone to iTunes and hit “Check for Updates”.
Oh NBC, why must you keep stirring things up?
So NBC is back in iTunes. That must mean all is well with the two companies, correct?
Well…maybe…but it doesn’t stop them from trying to convince the press that the other actually caved to make the deal possible. NBC is saying that Apple made concessions to get them back in the store.
The problem with that is that their argument is that NBC had wanted to LOWER prices, and Apple wouldn’t let them. That makes no sense, because Apple has always let networks charge LESS for their content if they want to. For example, The History Channel has had shows for $0.99 an episode at certain times for several years.
NBC also claims that Apple conceded to let them package certain shows together. Apple has always allowed shows with appropriate themes (for example, the Disney Channel Holiday pack on my iPod) to be bundled together. What Apple wouldn’t allow is for NBC to package hit shows only with less successful shows that didn’t match…and they’re still not allowing that.
So, honestly, it would be wonderful if NBC would just stop talking about this and move on. They came back. We all know why. iTunes is the #1 music store, and the #1 video store for digital content. Hulu isn’t going to change that, and neither is Amazon’s current offerings. If NBC wants to make money with Apple, they’re going to have to work with Apple by Apple’s rules.
YouTube Find: Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates Take 2 - “Why are we doing this, again?”
The second Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates commercial from Microsoft has been released - and…um…it’s a lot like the first one. So far, comments on other sites and on YouTube seem to indicate that people are liking this one a little more than the first one, and I think I would agree that it is slightly better…but still very weird, slightly off-putting, and not at all what I would have expected from Microsoft…and I don’t mean that in a good way.
This one clocks in at 4:30 - which is kinda long for a commercial. Take a look at it - and feel free to tell us what you think in the comments below.
Macworld 2009 registration is now open
Apple fans - it’s time to register for Macworld 2009. Registration has officially opened for next January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, California. Events this year include graphic design, digital photography, digital music, IT, and others.
Steve Jobs hasn’t officially been announced as the Keyonte speaker - but - you know, it’s highly likely.
You can register now at MacworldExpo.com.
