Apple Worm

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The secret to the new iPad: its cover?

As Apple looks for ways to revamp and refresh their current product line, the iPad stands out.

Outside of an upgraded screen and typical size/speed/space differences, the iPad has not changed much, hardware-wise, since its 2010 debut.

Surprisingly, Apple has not released many accessories or peripherals for the iPad except the iPad Smart Cover, which turns into a stand and has a soft lining that can wipe off the fingerprint-magnet screen.

According to recent patent filings, the lowly iPad cover may be getting a huge upgrade, becoming a peripheral entirely of its own:

these cover devices contain a variety of embedded LEDs and electroluminescent (EL) panels to display various notifications. In some versions of the invention, the cover also contains a transparent window to allow the use of the portion of a tablet device to display notifications as well.

iOS 8 is all about notifications and integrating them between iOS devices and OSX devices, so this fits in line with Apple’s current strategy.

However, this cover would have its own LEDs imbedded within the cover to alert you to calls and messages, and has a pattern in the center similar to the current iPhone 5c case.

Most interestingly of all, it would be powered by a small MagSafe adapted located in the side of the iPad where the cover attaches. With the iPad’s notoriously slow charging speeds, this MagSafe adapter could also potentially be used to rapid-charge the device.

Prior patent filings show that traditional charging may not even be necessary, with embedded solar panels in the cover.

Would a notification cover compel you to purchase a new iPad?

The national park about to change your world

June 4, 2014 / newton / 0 Comments

If you were unable to watch the WWDC rundown, you missed the surprise announcement of the new OS X Mavericks successor: Yosemite.

Yosemite is all about one thing: integrating iOS with OS X.

The crossover between MacBook, iPhone, and iPad owners is a large Venn diagram with only slivers on the edges. In fact, one of the most often stated reasons why people purchase Apple products is because “they talk to each other”.

Instead of being a mostly-useless sidebar, the Notification Center is the star of the latest update:

“A “Today” view has been added to the new Notification Center, letting you see your upcoming calendar events, reminders, and the weather forecast. Finally, you can now customize the Notification Center by adding third-party widgets and apps from the Mac App Store.”

Other sideshow features have taken center stage. The Mail feature will undergo a complete overhaul, with “reliable syncing” (FINALLY) and Markup, which allows you to draw on your mail. For anyone who has been caught on endless attachments doing school or team work projects, this sounds like a blessing.

iCloud Drive is a new feature that increases your ability to share files between devices. It is “a Dropbox-esque file system for storing your documents in the cloud. iCloud Drive will make everything you have stored in iCloud accessible through Finder, including your files from iOS apps.” Along with AirDrop and Handoff, you can share files wirelessly and start and continue projects between devices. No more trying to save and find drafts and waiting for slow syncing. And your phone calls on your iPhone will show on your MacBook–so no excuses for not noticing a call because your ringer was off

As the beta comes out in the next few weeks, we will hear more about how these features work. OS X Yosemite will be available this fall.

Apple abandons their design philosophy?

July 12, 2013 / newton / 0 Comments

Skeuomorphism is making things look like real life things.

You know how Apple’s Game Center has that weird green felt background so that it looks like a card table in a seedy one-story Vegas casino?

That’s skeuomorphism.

Or the tan leather with stitching used for the Find My Friends app.

Scott Forstall was responsible for that at Apple. He created apps and a look that looked as close as possible to the real life things.

Everyone objected, he lost his job, and Apple did a 180 away from that look.

At the recent conference where iOS7 debuted, Craig Federighi, senior vice president of iOS software riffed on the since-departed Forstall’s design:

Look! Even without all that stitching, everything just stays in place.

It’s easy to make things want to look like things we already have. But why are we using technology to replicate instead of innovate? Forstall’s designs were clever, but they were too clever by half. Instead of being subtle homages to real-life textures, they looked like chintzy fake-wood paneling on a station wagon. It will be interesting to see how this new design direction thrusts Apple forward into the future.

Flat apps? There’s an app for that

July 12, 2013 / newton / 0 Comments

The release of iOS7 surprised many for its sea change in design.

Most notably, the three-dimensional effect of icons that we’ve grown to know and love across Apple products have been flattened into 2D primary color icons.

In other words, the gloss is gone.

But instead of having app developers redesign their icons for iOS7, “iOS 7 seems to have a hammer built-in that is flattening existing apps.”

What this means is that the software cannot translate the old style of apps and logos, and instead translates them to the new look—which is pretty cool.

It’s a subtle form of software evolution that is able to take 3rd-party apps that haven’t made the design change and bring them up to speed.

flat is the new black

Your MacBook like you’ve never seen it before

July 11, 2013 / newton / 0 Comments

There’s a part of your MacBook that even you, as the most skilled Apple technician, has never seen before.

It involves something common to not just your MacBook, but a PC too. And an iPhone. And a radio.

It’s an electromagnetic field.

And instead of being a terrible textbook diagram or drawing, it has actually been mapped out—and it’s beautiful.

Two students, Luke Sturgeon and Shamik Ray, of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, came up with an unusual project:

To get their images, Sturgeon and Ray holed themselves up in a pitch-black, totally silent room for three days to experiment with different visualizations and processes. They ended up creating their own Android app in Processing that would allow them draw and map EMFs. The phone, with its built-in magnetic sensors, acted as a sort of “light brush” that reacted based on the strength of the EMF being read. To capture the streak of light coming from the radio, they would slowly drag the phone over the device and wait for the long exposure image to process.

The result? Gentle, spindly, hallucinatory waves in rainbow colors emanating from your MacBook’s surface.

Hopefully, this artistic display can translate to better understanding and monitoring of electromagnetic fields from these devices—and how that can create more powerful and efficient future technologies.

How Siri learns your name

July 1, 2013 / newton / 0 Comments

One of the features about Siri that’s frustrating is the wooden pronunciation of proper nouns, especially names.

In iOS7, Apple decided to use Siri’s “learning” ability to better use, creating an option for Siri to memorize the proper pronunciation of your name:

Siri will ask for help pronouncing a name if it has trouble understanding you the first time you pronounce a name. In addition, we have found that you can simply say, “That’s not how you pronounce [any name]” and Siri will go through the learning process.

This is a cool feature, and with an oft-mispronounced name like mine, a much appreciated one too.

Why Apple killed this guy’s app idea

June 30, 2013 / newton / 0 Comments

I never quite realized how difficult it is to develop an app for the iPhone.

Sure, there’s the design, and the coding, and the marketing, but what seems most difficult is the submission process to iTunes Connect.

In the early days of Apple app development (a few years ago), “you were just rejected, with no rhyme nor reason. You actually had to write in just to request you be given an explanation.”

The process have improved, but the mindset behind it seemingly hasn’t.

Recently, an app developer created a totally-new Weather app:

I created OpenGL animations for various weather conditions, including a thunderstorm. Not a video, mind you, but computer generated conditions that looked and moved realistically—weather CGI, essentially. Apple rejected it on the grounds that it was too simple: “We encourage you to review your app concept and evaluate whether you can incorporate additional content and features.”

Ok, too simple. So he upped his game:

Originally I wanted to test the waters for such an interface, to see if people would like it before I added additional features—but I was willing to play ball. So I added some things I’d planned to hold off until later. The app integrated with your calendar. It showed hourly forecasts with minute-by-minute precision, and beyond. It showed sunrise and sunset with its animations and a nice moon at the correct phase. It would even notify you of inclement weather without you having to lift a finger.

And this was Apple’s response:

It is less about a specific quantity of features…Rather, it is about the experience the app provides.

Apps should be engaging and exciting, enabling users to do something they couldn’t do before; or to do something in a way they couldn’t do before or better than they could do it before.

So imagine the guy’s surprise when he saw Apple’s latest product:

You might understand my shock when they unveiled a revamped weather app today. And its most defining new feature? Animated weather. Rain fell, snow drifted, hail dropped, and thunderstorms stormed—just as my app had so confidently done months before. And the audience loved it. When the lightning flashed, there was thunderous applause.

Essentially, they neutralized his idea for an app because what they were developing was too similar—and then criticized the merits of his app.

The problem is that, with so many minds working on a single platform, they’re bound to come up with some ideas that are similar.

But this policy of disencouraging and rejecting apps from developers who are making things unknowingly similar to what Apple has yet to come out with is killing creativity and driving away talented multiple-app developers.

Instead of this policy, they should find a way to co-opt these developers into the company structure, so that they can continue to create great apps for them and not butt heads with Apple’s own iOS team.

How a 25-yr-old entrepreneur solved the cracked iPhone dilemma

June 27, 2013 / newton / 0 Comments

Let’s face it—you’ve probably dropped your iPhone.

DAMN

Even in the majority of cases, the screen is still vulnerable to cracking.

It’s a problem that’s not easily fixed, expensive, and leaves you subject to shady dealers who will charge you more than the cost of the phone to get it fixed.

Besides, you’re still out a phone for a few days.

A.J. Forsythe, a 25-year-old entrepreneur, had enough.

He started iCracked, a specialized team of screen repair techs who can get your phone fixed quickly and inexpensively.

According to Forsythe, “[w]e’re an on-demand group of individuals that no matter where you are, you can press a button and we’ll dispatch a group of iTechs to you in real-time”.

For areas where they don’t have real-time techs that can be dispatched, you can mail your phone in where it’s fixed and returned, same-day.

And as for the cost?

The company says 80% of iTech repairs are done for $70-$99 dollars, but iPhone 5 repairs run a bit higher averaging between $180-$220.

Still, that’s far better than the $500 for a new phone.

It’s an ingenious idea—and it only took one young man to solve it.

Apple Maps decimates New York

June 27, 2013 / newton / 0 Comments

Breaking news out of Cupertino: it seems that Apple has flattened New York to the ground.

By now, you’ve probably noticed the strange effect that the 3D feature on Apple Maps has on cities. Every building looks like it’s being fumigated with weird bulges, creases, and edges.

But in New York City, a combination of light and poor graphics combine to make the street look like a post-apocalyptic scene, with flattened, dark taxicabs and shadows cast on empty sidewalks.

it’s like the day after tomorrow

It’s like Apple is giving us a preview of a zombie attack in New York.

WHAT DO THEY KNOW THAT WE DON’T?!

iPhone 5s prototype spotted?

June 25, 2013 / newton / 0 Comments

The iPhone 5S is still a few months away, and rumors are abound.

But photos have recently emerged of the inner workings of the new iPhone 5S, showing a new A7 chip as well as a dual-flash on the back of the phone.

Additional markings on this new iPhone 5S chip indicate that it carries Elpida DRAM, apparently in the same 1 GB amount seen on the A6.

So what does this all mean? A faster chip, quicker processing speeds, and a flash that can make photos look more natural.

Definitely looks like a step in the right direction.

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