Tara Hornor:
So, what makes a design feminine? Can you really design something that is naturally attractive to the female eye? With the right fundamentals applied, anyone — even those of the more macho persuasion — can successfully design for a female audience.
I posted my first look of Mountain Lion this morning, but there are a few other stories worth reading too.
Ina Fried:
Although they are doing it in different ways, Apple and Microsoft are aiming for a similar goal with their next desktop operating systems: To make the computer more like the phone.
This just isn’t what’s happening. Microsoft is trying to shoehorn one operating system into the desktop and mobile spaces, but that will ultimately fail. They are different platforms and should be treated differently.
What Apple is doing with Mountain Lion is taking some of the more common features on iOS and bringing them to the desktop. However, Apple is not just plunking down features that don’t make sense, they are doing thinking about how users will interact with the apps and features on a mobile OS and a desktop OS.
The common tie is iCloud, which syncs the data.
There is a big difference between what Microsoft and Apple are doing.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt at CNN Money:
By the time Christmas sales were over, Apple had shipped more than 15.4 million iPads and Amazon nearly 3.9 million Kindle Fires, passing the Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Barnes & Noble’s (BKS) Nook to take the No. 2 spot in global sales.
It’s a pretty stark contrast. The source for this info is iSuppli, which I sometimes take with a grain of salt, but it’s an interesting comparison regardless.
I mentioned in my first look of OS X Mountain Lion today that Apple was doing away with its messaging app iChat and replacing it with a new app called Messages.
With Messages you can chat with someone using their Apple ID or phone number, just like you can using iMessage on iOS. You can also use traditional chat services like AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, and Jabber, so anyone that has your old iChat handle will still be able to contact you using that information.
Here’s the great thing about Messages. It keeps the conversations synced between devices.
Messages beta is available from Apple’s Web site.
Apple on Thursday unveiled OS X Mountain Lion, the next generation desktop operating system. I’ve been using Mountain Lion for about a week now and it’s packed with new features that existing Mac users and iOS users will enjoy.
Mountain Lion will be released this summer. Pricing isn’t currently available, but it should come as no surprise that Mountain Lion will only be available via the Mac App Store when it’s released.
If there was a theme in Mountain Lion, I’d have to say it’s familiarity. Apple brought many new features into the new operating system from iOS, so millions of users will recognize the names of the apps and features.
However, Apple didn’t just take a mobile feature and throw it on Mac. Rather, they adapted the features from iOS to make them work in Mountain Lion.
In other words, the new features work as well on the desktop as they work on an iPhone or iPad.
Let’s go over a few of the big changes in OS X Mountain Lion.
iChat is gone, welcome Messages
Apple ditched its longstanding chat application, iChat, in favor of a more robust messaging application called Messages. Basically, this new app brings iMessage to the Mac.
With Messages you can chat with someone using their Apple ID or phone number, just like you can using iMessage on iOS. You can also use traditional chat services like AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, and Jabber, so anyone that has your old iChat handle will still be able to contact you using that information.
Here’s the great thing about Messages. It keeps the conversations synced between devices.
No longer do you have to stay on your iPhone when you arrive home and could comfortably chat on your larger Mac screen. Or, if you start a conversation on your Mac and want to walk around, you just pick up your iPhone and carry on — the conversation will be there as well.
Messages has been redesigned with a new integrated look too. If you want to start a new chat with someone, you just start typing their name in the “To:” bar and all of their information comes up. You can then choose to send a message to their phone, AIM, or Apple ID account.
Messages conversations show the typing indicator just like on iOS and there is an option to switch the text conversation to FaceTime. You can also have delivery and read receipts on your messages if you want, and you can send group messages.
Apple is providing Messages as a public beta beginning today. It’s available for download from Apple’s Web site.
iCloud
It should come as no surprise to anyone that iCloud has been tightly integrated into Mountain Lion. From the time you first install the operating system, iCloud is there to help you get setup and running.
The iCloud integration is superb. It’s not just registering your computer, Apple made it so iCloud sets up many of the applications and services on your system for you.
For example, iCloud in Mountain Lion works with Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Messages, FaceTime, Notes, Reminders, Game Center, Mac App Store, Documents and Data, and Bookmarks.
That’s a lot of information that will already be set up for you just by entering your iCloud ID.
Documents in the Cloud will be a big piece of iCloud on Mountain Lion when it’s released. Although it’s not fully implemented in the version of Mountain Lion that I’m using, Documents in the Cloud shows a lot of promise and is something I’m really looking forward to.
When you first open an app like TextEdit or Pages, you are shown a sheet with all of your cloud documents. You can choose to open one of those or create a new document in the cloud. You can also switch to a local view of your hard drive and choose to open a document from there.
If you drag one document onto another, it will create a folder, much like iOS does if you drag an app onto another. It’s very cool and when you think about it, an obvious way to work.
Notification Center comes to the Mac
One of my most used new features in Mountain Lion is Notification Center. Apple first introduced this feature in iOS 5 as a way to let users quickly view things that are happening on their device. The same holds true for Notification Center on the Mac.
You access Notification Center by choosing the circle button on the top right of your computer screen — where the spotlight magnifying glass is on your current Mac OS. Apple developed a gesture of sliding two fingers from the right edge of the trackpad to access Notification Center.
When accessed, the entire desktop slides to the left revealing the Notification Center and all of the things that have happened since you last checked.
Apps currently supported in Notification Center include Game Center, Calendar, Reminders, App Store, Safari, Messages and Mail. You can also choose which type of alerts you want — None, Banners or Alerts.
Banners show for a short time and then disappear automatically, while Alerts show until they are dismissed.
iOS apps come to the Mac
In addition to the system-level features, OS X Mountain Lion will also feature a few new applications that first appeared in iOS.
Among the new apps is Reminders, Apple’s to-do list. Because it’s also available on iOS, any changes made to Reminders will be synced across all of your devices, whether on iOS or the Mac.
Notes is also coming to the Mac. Notes supports photos, attachments, bullets and links too. You can just drag a link into a note whenever you find something you want to save.
You can pin a note to your desktop, sort of like the old Stickies application in previous versions of OS X. Just double-click a note and it opens in its own window and will remain open even if the app is closed.
Of course, Notes are synced between all of your devices using iCloud.
Share from anywhere
Mountain Lion introduces another new feature called Share Sheets that will satisfy the way many of us use our computer these days.
Share Sheets are available throughout Mountain Lion and allow the user to instantly share information through a number of services like Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, AirDrop, Messages and Mail.
The sharing button is built right into the apps and are different depending on the app being used. For instance, in Preview I have the option to share via Messages, AirDrop and Mail, while in Safari I can share via Twitter, Messages and Mail.
Social networking built-in
With Mountain Lion you can add your social networking accounts at a system level. There are options to add Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo and AOL. It’s a little surprising that there is no YouTube account, but it’s still early in development, so that could still show up.
Game Center
Apple is bringing Game Center to the Mac. The app features the ability to discover friends, discover new games your friends play, make recommendations, look at the leaderboard and see what achievements you’ve earned.
Here is the coolest part of Game Center for me. You can play games against people on any device. That means you can be on a Mac and play a friend that’s using an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.
Apple built in-game voice chat, so you can talk — or taunt — your friends while you play a game.
AirPlay Mirroring
Perhaps one of the coolest features of all in Mountain Lion is AirPlay Mirroring. This feature wirelessly sends what’s on your Mac to an HDTV using the company’s Apple TV device. Mirroring sends a 720p video stream with audio.
Typical of the way Apple does things, they took all of the technical mumbo jumbo out of the picture, so it just works. AirPlay Mirroring features resolution matching, so it scales the content of your Mac to fit your TV. You can set it manually if you like, but if not, it’s done for you.
Of course, detecting a supported Apple TV is automatic and AirPlay Mirroring will display an extra menu item automatically, making mirroring even easier.
All information sent using AirPlay Mirroring uses encryption, so everything is secure.
Meet GateKeeper
Mountain Lion is going to make it safer for users to install software and be free from the threat of malicious downloads. As part of the GateKeeper program all developers will be given a unique Developer ID, allowing them to sign their applications.
GateKeeper has three basic options. Allow only Mac App Store apps to be installed; Mac App Store apps and apps signed with a Developer ID; and Anywhere, which allows any app to be installed.
For me, using the Mac App Store apps and apps signed with a Developer ID seems like the best choice. I would imagine all of the developers that make the apps I use will sign them with their ID.
Using this setting I can download apps from a developer’s Web site and install it without any issues, but still be safe.
If GateKeeper is triggered by an app, you can still manually install or open it. All you have to do is Control-click the app and chose Open to reveal a dialog box that will allow you to install the application.
A few other things
Mountain Lion is a massive update to OS X. What I’ve gone over today are just the major new features, but even at this early stage, there are changes to many of the applications in the operating system.
For instance, Safari no longer has a search box — you just type your search into the address bar and you will be taken to your favorite search engine results page. I’ve been finding little things like that throughout Mountain Lion for the last week.
I’ve only used Mountain Lion this week and I have not had a single crash from an app or the OS. While Apple is clearly still working on it and will be for some time, Mountain Lion is very stable for me.
With its iOS and iCloud integration, Mountain Lion has the potential to be the most significant OS X release that Apple has ever put out.
Apple on Wednesday confirmed for The Loop that new pricing for developers and advertisers have been implemented on its iAd platform. The changes, according to one media agency executive, could help boost the platform into even more advertising budgets this year.
“There was a premium, but the changes in pricing make it much more attainable,” Adam Shlachter, Managing Director, Digital at MEC, told The Loop.
The changes Apple made were to lower the minimum buy-in for advertisers from $500,000 to $100,000. That’s down from $1 million when the iAd platform was first introduced by Steve Jobs in 2010.
With the higher price some advertisers felt they needed to choose between iAd or another ad buy that covers more platforms. However, with the lower buy-in, iAd could find more companies willing to split their budgets with Apple.
“When price was an issue, it might have been more attractive to go with a simpler, broader solution,” said Shlachter. “However, with the new price and reach of the platform , it becomes more attractive.”
While noting iAd’s limitation of only being available on iOS apps and not for the mobile Web or mobile video, Shlachter did say that iAds has been successful for his clients.
“Engagement with the creatives have been high and better than expected in some cases,” said Shlachter.
Data released by research company eMarketer in January shows that Apple is in second place in mobile display revenue, behind Google. According to its estimates, Apple’s share of display revenues reached 18 percent in 2011.
In terms of total revenue created through iAd, eMarketer estimates that Apple generated about $92.4 million in 2011, again trailing Google.
“While Google remains a leader in mobile display, it’s too early to call the race,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst.
It’s clear that Apple is not giving up on the iAd platform, and with a lower buy-in the company could attract even more business in 2012.
Dornbracht:
At Swissbau 2012, kitchen and bathroom fittings manufacturer Dornbracht presented an expansion of the groundbreaking shower technology Ambiance Tuning Technique with the addition of a new application: the Horizontal Shower.With the Horizontal Shower, showering with the Ambiance Tuning Technique can be enjoyed lying down.
Wait, what? How lazy do you need to be that you have to shower lying down? It does look kind of cool though.
Another fun podcast with Myke Hurley and Terry Lucy on The Bro Show.
Eric Caoili for Gamasutra:
Organizers for PAX East have inked a deal with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority to keep the annual game convention in Boston through 2023, and to donate $325,000 to the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute.
The show’s organizers had already committed to keep PAX East in Boston through at least next year, but this news extends the deal to 2023. The event drew about 70,000 attendees when it moved to the mammoth Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston in 2011.
PAX East is put on by Reed Exhibitions and is owned by the makers of the popular Penny Arcade Web comic.
Wired’s Raw File:
With some well-placed wire, creative lighting and a provocative sense of visual puns, sculptor and photographer Terry Border has given life to everything from peanuts to pill bottles. His cleverly cartoonish scenes are often viral hits on the internet and they’ve brought his blog, Bent Objects, a global audience.“I don’t mean for everything to be funny,” says Border, who lives in Indianapolis. “We all have different perspectives and my perspective happens to be kind of strange and twisted.”
“Strange and twisted” in a hilarious way. Be sure to read the article to get the link to his more NSFW stuff, “Really Bent”.
Photoshop Content Aware Sneak Peak:
Adobe is previewing CS6 features prior to release. In a video posted to its YouTube channel, Adobe demonstrated an update to the CS5 content-aware fill tool but the cool comes with “content-aware move”. It adds the ability to move any piece of a photo with little disturbance to the pixels around it and replaces the background in a very natural way.
Zach Epstein:
In an effort to justify its policies surrounding data service throttling for subscribers with unlimited smartphone data plans, AT&T on Tuesday issued a brief report regarding data usage on its nationwide wireless network. Senior EVP of AT&T technology and network operations John Donovan wrote on a company blog that data traffic on AT&T’s network has grown a staggering 20,000% over the past five years. Usage has doubled between 2010 and 2011 according to the executive, due in large part to the proliferation of smartphones.
Oh, so it’s our fault.
Cracked:
As e-book sales overtake paper-book sales, it seems like everybody is crying and wringing their hands about what it means — serious, society-changing ramifications like the end of ownership, or ease of piracy, or environmental impact, or whether it makes things easier or harder for publishers or aspiring authors.Like most important issues, those are boring. What are some effects of going to an all e-book world that haven’t been talked to death? I dug around and tried to find some e-book ramifications that would appeal to the type of people who spend more time preparing for a zombie apocalypse than like, unemployment, or retirement, or something. You know, realists.
“Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told AllThingsD. “We’re working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release.”
Funny post by Abdel Ibrahim and Jon Dick evaluating the Galaxy Note. Check out the second pick for the timezone joke.
Terril Yue Jones for Reuters:
Working conditions at Chinese manufacturing plants where Apple Inc’s iPads and iPhones are made are far better than those at garment factories or other facilities elsewhere in the country, according to the head of a non-profit agency investigating the plants.
It’ll be weeks before the Fair Labor Association’s reports are done and ready for public consumption, but Auret van Heerden, president of the FLA, suggested that the Foxconn facilities where Apple products are made are “first-class,” at least compared to the garment factories that have been FLA’s stock and trade in the past.
Joel Rosenblatt for Bloomberg Business:
Apple Inc. asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to sue Eastman Kodak Co. over allegations it’s infringing patents that Apple says cover technologies used in printers, digital cameras and digital picture frames.
Kodak is looking to sell that part of its business, according to a statement Kodak issued last week. It’s likely that Apple’s looking to square that issue away before Kodak (and its creditors) make any money from the sale of its consumer products.
Realmac Software of Wednesday announced the official release of Clear, a new list management app made for the iPhone and iPod touch. It costs 99 cents and is available for download now.
Clear incorporates a color-coded “heat map” that shows you the most pressing tasks up front. If you want to add more items to your to do list, pinch apart the rows and insert a new item. Clear supports Multi-Touch gestures and a sleek, simplified interface that’s already gotten rave reviews from sites that have had an advanced look at the app.
Ben Sisario, for the New York Times:
Sony stayed quiet about the price change, even as criticism spread online. But on Tuesday the company said that the changes — which were in effect only on the British version of iTunes, and were reversed Sunday evening — were made by mistake.“Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the U.K. iTunes store on Sunday,” the company said in a statement. “When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologize for any offense caused.”
Some “mistake.” There has to be more to the story here than Sony is willing to admit. Unfortunately, many knee-jerk reactions to this “mistake” have blamed Apple for being greedy, rather than laying the blame at Sony’s feet where it belongs.
Jesse Hamilton, for Bloomberg Businessweek:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has told AT&T Inc. and other telecommunications companies they must include a resolution supporting wireless net-neutrality in annual shareholder votes.
The move has been pushed by Trillium Asset Management, an investment management firm, which represents in this case three AT&T investors, including Michael Diamond (Mike D of the Beastie Boys), and his wife, movie director Tamra Davis.
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The Loop is a media sponsor for the MacTech events, so they have put together a deal for our readers if you’re interested in attending.
Mac Rumors has a text version of Cook’s speech today.
The Verge:
Over the course of the past week, a firestorm has erupted in the world of iOS apps, thanks to the discovery that Path was uploading data from your iPhone’s address book without asking for explicit permission.Stated simply: any iOS app has complete access to a large amount of data stored on your iPhone, including your address book and calendar.Over the course of the past day, we have been using the method explained by Arun Thampi (who discovered Path’s privacy violation) to investigate several dozen popular iOS apps. Our findings should bring both comfort and concern to any iPhone user.
Apple:
Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, where he was interviewed on stage by Bill Shope, Goldman Sachs’s IT hardware analyst.
This is the audio of that interview.
42 Lasquite Saint Bernards
Video of us out for a walk with our 42 Saint Bernards.
That’s a lot of drool…
Tim Cook talking about the Apple TV:
So, with Apple TV however, despite the barriers in that market, for those of us who use it, we’ve always thought there was something there. If we kept following our intuition and kept pulling the string, we might find something that was larger. For those people that have it right now, the customer satisfaction is off the chart. We need something that could go more main-market for it to be a serious category.
Hmmm, what could that be?
Bloomberg:
As of October, 3 million to 5 million people subscribed to Prime, a program begun in 2005 that provides two-day shipping for $79 a year, said the people, who asked not to be named because the figures are private. Amazon is working to reach 7 million to 10 million in the next 12 to 18 months, the people said. Analysts have pegged the current number at 10 million or more, with expectations for it to climb higher this year.
Prime is a good value for people who order a lot from Amazon because it nets you free shipping; you can easily make money on the cost over the year if you buy enough stuff. It has its limits, however (affiliates who sell through Amazon.com aren’t covered). But with the country still recovering from a devastating recession, are analysts actually that surprised at the low uptick?
Redmond Pie:
Unlike the many clones and pretenders looking to essentially copy the format, Spire simply installs the necessary files of Apple’s voice-recognition utility, requiring a server host and a legit iPhone 4S certificate to leave users with an all-singing, all-dancing port of Siri. In order to prevent such treachery, Apple seems to have added a “SetActivationToken” which stops Spire right in its tracks.
Pocket-lint:
“TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are…great, but let’s face it that’s a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.“So, from that perspective, it’s not a great concern but it remains to be seen what they’re going to come out with, if anything.”
Seems a lot like what RIM said about the iPhone in 2007.