A woman who repeatedly texted her boyfriend, while she knew he was driving, and who ultimately crossed traffic and crashed into motorcyclists, cannot be added to a civil lawsuit according to a Superior Court judge in Morristown, New Jersey.

The plaintiffs' lawyer argued that the girlfriend's conduct contributed to the accident that cost his clients their legs. The woman's lawyer argued that while she sent the messages, it was ultimately her boyfriend's responsibility to control when he looked at them and when he responded to them.

The boyfriend plead guilty to three violations of the motor vehicle code, including driving while using a mobile device. He's now being sued in civil court.

Skippy Weinstein, the Kuberts' lawyer, argues Colonna was "electronically present" in the crash. He says she should have known Best was driving home as they exchanged text messages leading up to the crash. She says she "may have known" he was driving.

"What I find interesting was her testimony at depositions was that she answered by saying, 'This is what teenagers do,'" Weinstein said.

The judge disagreed. This time. But the term "electronically present" is going to be something interesting to watch in the coming years.

Can you be "electronically present" at an accident? At a robbery? At a homicide? During civil disobedience? As a witness?

We've often discussed how our devices know who we are, where we are, and often what we're doing. They allow us to communicate almost instantly from across the room or halfway around the world. You can text significant others, FaceTime grandparents, Skype colleagues.

How soon will it be before that technology becomes par for the course in civil and criminal matters?

This week, in New Jersey, a judged ruled a woman couldn't be sued for texting her boyfriend while she new he was driving, and when he ultimately drove his truck into two motorcyclists, What about in the months and years ahead? How long until the law and technology becomes such that "electronically present" is held as the equivalent to "physically present"?

Source: KKTV via @philnickinson

Apple has released an updated version iOS 5.1.1, build 9B208, for the iPhone 4 GSM/AT&T model. There doesn't appear to be any information from Apple on what triggered the new build, though it's possible some very specific bug or glitch was identified and fixed. If it was incredibly minor, Apple would likely just have filed it away for next time. If it was incredibly major, Apple would likely have pushed it out as new update to ensure every user got it.

As it is, if you've already updated to iOS 5.1.1 you won't see the new version popup as an over-the-air (OTA) update, or as available in iTunes. If you haven't already updated, you'll be offered this new version when you do. To force an update from the previous iOS 5.1.1 build to this one, you'll have to restore to it in iTunes. (And really, there's almost certainly no reason to do that.)

iOS 5.1.1 was originally released on Monday, May 7. As of May 15, almost 74% of iMore readers had already updated to iOS 5.1.1. Today, one of the major reasons many had waited, an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1, was released.

• How to manually update to iOS 5.1.1 over-the-air (OTA)
• how to set up, back up, restore, and update using iCloud
• iOS 5 Forum

Absinthe 2.0 has launched and it provides support for a fully unthethered jailbreak under iOS 5.1.1 (and only iOS 5.1.1) for the following devices:

• iPad, iPad 2, new iPad (except the 2012 iPad 2, which will come later)
• iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S
• iPod touch 3, iPod touch 4

Developed by a collaborative "Dream Team" between Chronic-Dev Team and iPhone Dev Team, Absinthe 2.0 and promises to be so easy, your "grandma could do it." Here are the steps:

1. Make a backup of your device in iTunes by right clicking on your device name under the ‘Devices’ menu and click ‘Back Up’.

2. Once your backup is complete return to your device and go to Settings – General – Reset – Erase all Content and Settings. This will make the jailbreak process much faster.

3. Open Absinthe and be sure you are still connected via USB cable to your computer.

4. Click ‘Jailbreak’ and wait…. just be patient and do not disconnect your device.

5. Once jailbroken return to iTunes and restore your backup from earlier. Right click on your device name under the ‘Devices’ menu in the left panel of iTunes and click ‘Restore from Back Up…’ then select the latest backup you created before. (restoring this backup will return all the content previously on your device ie, apps, photos, etc.)

You can grab the download via the source link below, and if you need any help, jump right into our Jailbreak Forum.

Source: greenpois0n.com

IOS JAILBREAK DREAM TEAM RELEASES ABSINTHE 2.0 – IOS 5.1.1 JAILBREAK AT #HITB2012AMS

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS – 25th May 2012 – Today @pod2g and the @ChronicDevTeam announced the highly anticipated release of Absinthe 2.0 at #HITB2012AMS held at the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam.

Known as the “iOS Jailbreak Dream Team”, @p0sixninja, @pod2g, @planetbeing, @pimskeks released the untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 on the final day of the week-long conference. Echoing Steve Jobs’ trademark WWDC encore of ‘… and one more thing’, the team announced the release of Absinthe 2.0 during the closing minutes of their 2 hours talk at the conference.

Absinthe 2.0 will affect the majority of Apple devices running iOS 5.1.1 including iPad 1,1 – 2,1 – 2,2 – 2,3 – 3,1 – 3,2 – 3,3, the iPhone 2,1 – 3,1 – 3,3 – 4,1 and iPod 3,1 – 4,1. The jailbreak does not support the third generation Apple TV and support for iPad 2,4 will be added at a later date.

The team announced that the new Absinthe 2.0 will be available immediately for download from the official ChronicDevTeam website: http://greenpois0n.com The release announcement came after recent rife speculation spreading through online social networks on the actual release date and scope of Absinthe 2.0. The jailbreak community’s interest was first piqued when the team announced they were scheduled to appear at HITBSecConf2012 – Amsterdam to deliver not one but two talks covering both the Corona (A4) and Absinthe (A5) jailbreaks for Apple devices. On the 20th of May, a tweet from team member @pod2g stating the release of Absinthe 2.0 was ‘in a matter of days’ led to further speculation that the final release would be made at HITBSecConf which ran from 21 – 25 May.

“We want to take this opportunity to thank Hack in the Box for giving us the chance to all get together for the first time, especially in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, it has been a great delight for us to announce our next release at this event. Thank you to all our supporters and keep jailbreaking!! ”

“This was certainly one of the most highly anticipated talks we’ve EVER had at one of our HITB conferences, and we’ve done quite a few of these. The excitement from the Dream Team followers and overall Twitter and online buzz has been terrific!”, said Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, Founder and CEO of Hack In The Box.

“It was truly an honor to host the Dream Team in their first ever ‘real world’ meet up and we would like to thank them for taking the time and effort to make the trip over to not only join us at our third European outing, but to help kick-start our celebration of ’10 years of HITB awesomeness’ with the release of Absinthe 2.0!”, he added.

HITBSecConf2012 – Malaysia (#HITB2012KUL) marks our 10th annual event in Asia and runs from October 8th till 11th at the Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur featuring 42 of HITB’s best speakers of the decade in one massive event. Registration is already open: http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2012kul/

About iOS Jailbreak Dream Team: The group is made up of members from the Chronic-Dev Team and the iPhone Dev Team and consists of @MuscleNerd @pod2g @planetbeing @p0sixninja @pimskeks.

About iOS jailbreaking: iOS jailbreaking, or simply jailbreaking, is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple on devices running the iOS operating system through use of custom security exploits. Jailbreaking allows users to gain elevated access to the operating system. Consequently it also allows users to download additional applications, extensions and themes that are unavailable through the official Apple App Store.

Georgia and Rene are joined by Marc Edwards of Bjango and Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac to discuss the idea of a 16:9 aspect ratio iPhone 5. Would Apple do it? How could Apple do it? And what's next for Apple after the iPad? This is iPhone and iPad Live!

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The 9:16 iPhone

• The 4 inch iPhone
• If Apple goes to a 4-inch iPhone, which way would you prefer they get there?
• Likely next-generation iPhone with 3.999-inch display, 1136 x 640 resolution in testing (updated: more decimals)
• Steve Jobs rumored to have worked closely on iPhone 5 redesign
• When is the iPhone 5 coming out?

News

• Steve Jobs given huge star studded tribute at the Webbys
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• Jonathan Ive says Apple's designs are inevitable, and his best and most important is yet to come

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• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com, or leave a comment on the website when the show goes live.

We're live every Wednesday night at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 2am GMT at www.imore.com/live

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If you haven't already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

Thanks to the iMore Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

A few days ago rumors began to focus on the idea that Apple was moving to a 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple ends up calling iPhone 5,1). I went through the mental exercise of mocking up, and breaking down, the various 4-inch iPhone options to try and figure out how Apple would get there.

Now, however, the rumors are coalesced around one specific option -- one I initially thought had fewer advantages, and was hence less likely -- a 16:9 aspect ratio, 1136 x 640 display.

So what would could Apple, a company that prides itself in saying "no" even more than saying "yes", consider switching their best selling product, the iPhone, to a 16:9 screen?

The road to widescreen

Last iMore heard Apple hadn't settled on a new iPhone screen size. One of the versions they were testing had the same 3.5-inch screen, but they were considering going as large as 4 inches. There seems to be one or more prototypes with that screen size, including a 16:9 aspect ratio version. Since we also heard the next iPhone isn't shipping until October, there's still lots of time for them to decide. (Apple is the company that changed from plastic to glass screen in just a few weeks before the original iPhone launch, after all.)

Both The Wall Street Journal and Reuters have now reported a 4-inch iPhone. Previously a The Verge reader, who caught John Gruber of Daring Fireball attention, and later, iLounge heard something around 16:9 was a target aspect ratio. Yesterday Seth Weintraub of 9to5Mac ran the math and, with some other information behind him, and posted the screen resolution on at least one of the 4-inch iPhone prototypes as 1136 x 640. John Gruber once again paid attention to that ratio. Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web took the idea out for a spin, and asked the impertinent question I find myself asking all the time as well -- How would a 16:9 display help Apple sell more iPhones? [Update: John Gruber has weighed in on this as well now.)

The three laws of Apple products

There are three laws by which Apple iOS products seem to be governed.

1. Apple will only do things that grow profits now, or better position them to grow profits in the future.
2. Apple will delight users with magical experiences, except where doing so would conflict with the first law.
3. Apple will empower developers to make insanely great apps, as long as doing so doesn't conflict with the first and second laws.

Hobbies aside, Apple sells iOS devices by the tens or hundreds of millions. So far every iPhone has sold more than every iPhone before it, and that's a pattern Apple is going to want to continue. So far, the App Store has grown faster and larger than any software market before it, and that's also a pattern Apple is going to want to continue.

But there's a second factor to consider.

Design matters

Apple's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Jony Ive, has espoused a very specific philosophy when it comes to product development. Back in March, Ive told The Evening Standard:

Most of our competitors are interested in doing something different, or want to appear new — I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better. This requires real discipline, and that’s what drives us — a sincere, genuine appetite to do something that is better.

Under that mandate, Apple wouldn't switch from the current iPhone's 3:2 aspect ratio to a 16:9 aspect ratio just to have a different iPhone. They wouldn't change for change's sake, or for fashion's. They would only change to a 16:9 ratio if made for a better iPhone.

Ive also, just today, told The Telegraph:

We try to develop products that seem somehow inevitable. That leave you with the sense that that’s the only possible solution that makes sense. Our products are tools and we don’t want design to get in the way. We’re trying to bring simplicity and clarity, we’re trying to order the products.

So the change from 3:2 to 16:9 should be a natural progression of the iPhone itself. Likewise, it shouldn't make anything more complex, cluttered, or confusing.

It should make it even clearer.

Adding a dedicated OS space

With all that in mind, the least likely option -- though the easiest for developers -- is for Apple to keep the app space the same on a 16:9 iPhone as it is on the current iPhone, and use the extra pixels exclusively for new and updated iOS features.

In other words, the main iPhone user space could still be 960 x 640, and an extra 176 pixels would be put on top of it, on the bottom, or split between top and bottom.

There are several things such a system space could be used for.

Static dock/fast app switcher

Right now the dock disappears when you go into apps, and the fast app switcher only comes up when you double-click the Home button. An even faster app switcher would always be there, recent apps only a tap away, controls and older apps only a swipe or two more.

A static dock would make switching apps quick and easy, both intentionally and otherwise.

Of course, it risks accidental, app-switching hits, and it's utility in landscape mode is questionable.

It's harder to accept the premise of a static dock when we consider landscape orientation.

Static widget space

Right now, widgets are hidden away in the fast app switcher, Notification Center, and Siri. While many people have expressed a desire for widgets on the Home screen, there's also an argument to be made that making app data available in other apps is even more valuable. (The current version of iOS is an app launcher, not a Home screen hangout for a reason.)

Widgets that are currently hidden away in Notification Center and Siri could be always available.

Again, however, landscape orientation wouldn't be as natural a fit, and would either require new UI, or the awkward sideways treatment fast app switching currently enjoys.

Landscape UI would require all new widget UI, something Apple hasn't done for the fast app switcher.

Static notification space

Right now, Notification Center banners fold down over and obstruct controls like back buttons, and provide no in-app functionality. With a dedicated notification space, not only could notifications keep clear of back buttons, they could have enough room for in-app actions like iMessage quick replies.

The temporarily nature of notifications make them less suitable for a static implementation, however. If there are no notifications, it's wasted space.

Extra space to prevent notifications from obstructing buttons, and provide space for actions like quick reply, but would often also be wasted space.

And I'm not even going to bother mocking up how awkward that would look in landscape. (But see above.)

Static gesture control space

Right now, system-wide gestures are completely absent from the iPhone, even though webOS has had them for years, the iPad has them, and BlackBerry 10 is intent on using them as a major differentiator for pro users.

A larger capacitive area may mean there's room enough to explore more complex, if less discoverable gestures. That said, it's almost impossible to imagine Apple keeping a permanent dead pixel area around just for swipes up and down, backward and forward, etc.

On screen gestures and gesture areas have both been proven effective enough there's no reason to waste perfectly good pixels on them.

Static iAd space

Right now a new iPhone costs $199 to $399 even on contract, and companies like Amazon have already experimented with ad-subsidized price reductions on devices like the Kindle.

Tweetbot developer and all around instigator, Paul Haddad jokingly tweeted this idea, and I'm including it here just to make him regret it slightly.

Apple made fun of ads in Gmail, no way they violate iOS with an ad space, no matter what any patents might suggest.

Ad sponsored devices are already a reality thanks to Amazon, but they seem far, far, far less likely from Apple.

Static system space that can switch between some or all of the above

A combination of the above, but where widgets and notifications and gestures and all the rest co-exist in perfect harmony, in one Apple-only screen section.

And none of that is likely

Static system space on a small, mobile screen flies in the face of Apple's design philosophy. It would clutter the iPhone screen and ensure, likely much to Jony Ive's consternation, that no user could ever lose themselves in the content. The interface would always be there, staring at them, even when they didn't need it.

While more flexible than the hardware keyboards Steve Jobs mocked during the original iPhone launch, there are times when it won't be useful, and Apple is all about eliminating absolutely everything that's not essential all of time.

That brings us to...

Creating a bigger screen

If we apply Occam's Razor, the simplest and most obvious way Apple could implement a 16:9 aspect ratio on close to a 4-inch display, is simply add the extra pixels, optimize the system software, and let developers have at it.

In my previous post, I saw some problems with this approach:

Since pixel size remains the same, text size would remain the same, control/button size would remain the same, and touch target size would remain the same. Apps that use the built-in interface elements would simply add an extra row of information -- an extra row of icons, an extra row to the table or item to the list. The display would be vertically larger, and more information could be displayed on it. But what about apps that don't use built-in UI elements?

Safari would show more of a page's length, Mail would show an extra message, but games and anything with a highly customized, non-table based interface would have to be pillar-boxed. If developers made new versions that fill the extra space, those versions would be cut off on older iPhones. And if developers made 2 versions of the apps, it would mean more work for them and "fatter" binaries for users to download. (A universal app would go from having iPhone and iPad interface elements, to having old iPhone and new iPhone and iPad interfaces.)

While many things are possible, this doesn't seem like a very Apple-esque solution. It would fragment the iPhone platform for developers in a way Apple has resisted so far, and offer incomplete user benefits (increasing pixel count in only one direction).

More importantly, it would mean either significantly redesigning (or eliminating) the Home button, or lengthening the iPhone casing, or a bit of both. iMore has heard the Home button isn't going anywhere, and parts leaks have suggested it looks pretty much the same, so that leaves a longer iPhone and that... would be awkward. (Even if you remove part of the bezel to make room for it.)

Let's re-examine some of that.

Default apps

Apps that use Apple's built-in interface elements, especially table views, should enjoy some level of automagic compatibility on a longer screen. iOS simply shows more information -- another row, or partial row. These have been mocked up to death already, notably on The Verge and Overdrive. Here's an example of my own, if only to set context.

In a vertical table view, the additional screen real estate can simply show additional information.

So far so good, right? Even if text and touch targets aren't bigger, more information is more. It's no accident, however, that most of the mockups have been in portrait orientation. Depending on text flow, landscape doesn't enjoy the same benefit, at least as iOS currently implements it.

Due to the nature of text wraps, landscape won't often get the same benefit.

In general, anything in iOS that already wastes space in landscape orientation would only waste more space at 16:9

The keyboard

The keyboard could be identical in portrait orientation due to the identical screen width, or Apple could take some of the extra vertical pixels and add another row of keys, either numbers on the default keyboard, or special purpose keys on custom keyboards (the way internet apps add @ or .com, for example).

The portrait keyboard could either look the same or take advantage of the extra height by adding another row of keys.

It would be more of a challenge in landscape orientation, however. Would Apple pillar box the Keyboard? Scale it to fit? Stretch it to fit? Split it, iPad-like, to fit?

A wide screen landscape keyboard is harder to predict, and doesn't seem to enjoy as big an advantage from the extra pixels.

Custom interface apps

Apps that don't use the built-in interface elements would be letter-boxed or pillar-boxed in the short term (or if abandoned, for as long as they remain in the App Store), and updated to fit the new screen ratio as soon as developers get around to it.

Custom interfaces, like games, would simply be letter-boxed or pillar-boxed until they're updated.

Web and web apps

The web and HTML5 web apps are largely seen as size and aspect ratio resilient. They'll flow content into and around the space they have, and simply show more or less of it, depending on the height or width of the display. In mobile, they'll typically size or re-size to fit as well. Some websites and web apps will need very little or no changes to fit the new ratio perfectly. Others, especially more static sites that made fixed-asset assumptions, may need more work.

In portrait orientation, this means we'll typically see the same size content but more of it. That's because the width hasn't changed but the height has increased, and the content will fill the extra space.

In landscape, on fixed-width sites, we'll see slightly larger content but less of it. That's because the width has increased but the height hasn't changed, and the content will scale up to fit the new width. Fluid-width sites will likely simply fill the new space, keeping the content the same but showing more of it. (Though the nature of line breaks mean less additional text content would fit in than it would in portrait mode.)

Because of the extra width, web content will typically scale to fit it. That means bigger content, but less of it.

Videos and movies

The current iPhone screen is 3:2. Most web video (i.e. YouTube) and most modern TV shows are 16:9. That means, where the current iPhone has to letterbox these types of videos, a 16:9 iPhone could show them full screen with no distracting black bars.

Movies are typically shot at close to 16:9 or wider. 16:9 is 1.77:1. Most modern movies are between 1.85:1 and 2.40:1. The Avengers is 1.85:1. Star Wars is 2.20:1. Wider movies would still require letterboxing, albeit with thinner lines.

That means most videos will be bigger, and look better, on a 16:9 iPhone.

A 16:9 iPhone would require no letterboxing for typical web video or TV shows, and thinner black lines for typical movies.

Backwards compatibility

Supporting both legacy 3:2 iPhone screens -- everything from the original iPhone to the iPhone 4S -- and the new 16:9 ratio would be trickier. It seems unlikely that anyone would be happy with new, widescreen apps getting chopped off at the sides or top and bottom on old, standard screen devices.

Due to the way the App Store works, separate apps for old and new iPhones isn't a great solution either. Developers wouldn't be able to give new versions away for free to existing owners, and existing owners wouldn't want to pay full price again for what's essentially the same app at a different ratio.

That leaves the ugly but not unworkable option of multiple binaries or at least multiple assets to support older devices and the the new iPhone all at the same time. Depending on the app, there could be some efficiency achieved by sliding elements around to fill or conserve space, but worst case it's another big bump in file size. More apps hit the 50MB cellular download limit, and the lower-end iPhones can hold fewer apps.

And if an app is universal and already has an iPad interface, that would make for three versions (or at least two with more complexity) in one binary.

So why would Apple go to 16:9?

Given the need to sell more iPhones and make a better product, and given all the challenges listed above, why would Apple go ahead with 16:9? Why would they say "yes" to this screen ratio and not proudly "no"?

Content really is king

iOS devices have always been a screen surrounded by the least amount of other stuff necessary to make it work. The screen, more specifically the content it displays, is everything to Apple. There needs to be a bezel, there needs to be mics and speakers and the barest possible amount of buttons and ports. There needs to be a battery and electronics. But as much as that can be minimized, as much as the screen and the content it's showing can be thrust forward, the better.

Design is constant compromise

If Apple doesn't want to make the actual physical phone much bigger, if they can't make the side bezel any thinner, and if they want to make the screen bigger and the content it displays even more immersive, there's only one direction left for the display to grow.

Both the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 designs took away visual cruft from the sides. Rounded bands were flattened, think frames were removed and buttons and ports hidden behind.

Now, maybe, Apple is ready to chip away at the front.

It's not an edge-to-edge screen, it's not a transparent display, but given the limits of current technology and the premise that Apple wants a bigger screen without having to make a bigger phone, it's the best compromise they can make.

And with less faceplate and more screen, it could be a more immersive, and a better product.

Predation over competition

There's a school of thought that, since Apple's iPhone outsells all larger screened Android phones combined on major U.S. carrier networks, Apple doesn't "need" to go to a larger screen for competitive reasons. However, that doesn't mean they won't go there for predatory reasons.

Just because people are buying more 3.5 inch iPhones than larger Android phones doesn't mean people prefer 3.5 inch screens. It means, as a total package, they prefer the iPhone. Some users no doubt compromise on a larger screen size just to get an iPhone. Others no doubt compromise on getting an iPhone because they really want or need a bigger screen.

Apple may just have run some numbers and determined that a 4-inch iPhone could outsell large screen Android devices by even more. With a similar casing size, no current users are likely to jump ship. With a larger screen, however, some who chose size over iOS might just make a different choice. Introducing a bigger screen could increase the iPhone's addressable market, and sell more phones.

Conclusion

While rumors continue to grow about the 4 inch, 16:9 iPhone, October is a long way off and Apple may yet decide a more conservative, less ambitious iPhone screen is the way to go.

If Apple does go with a 4 inch, 16:9 iPhone, they already know how they're going to do it and how they're going to handle any problems, pain, and other turbulence during the transition. Apple has rarely shown an aversion to those things. They'll relentlessly pursue the future and expect users, developers, and even their own team to keep up.

And it'll be for two reasons and two reasons alone.

To make a better product and sell more iPhones.

Additional resources

• The 4 inch iPhone
• How Apple could provide direct document access in iOS 6
• iOS 6 and the opposite of widgets
• Is it time for Apple to revamp the Home screen?
• The challenge of bringing Siri to the iPad
• iOS 6 and privacy: How Apple should draw inspiration from Android for better app

Apple has released their third and fourth celebrity iPhone 4S ads, both starring John Malkovich and Siri. The first is called Joke and the second, Life.

While helping John Malkovich plan a night out, Siri shows him her funny side.

After John Malkovich gets philosophical, Siri is ready with an answer.

With classical music playing in the background, Joke sees Malkovich ask Siri for the weather, for his evening calendar, restaurants featuring linguica, and then for a joke.

Life sees John Malkovich ask Siri that very word. Siri responds with a list of idealistic, philosophical suggestions for how to better exist in the world. It impresses Malkovich immensely, and he thanks Siri.

Previous iPhone 4S commercials with Samuel L. Jackson and Zooey Deschanel featured Siri as well, as have commercials with santa, and with actors portraying regular people.

Highlighting Siri in commercials remains somewhat controversial, given Siri's beta status and user complaints that, in real life, results are never as fast or as problem free as they're portrayed in the videos. Polls, including an informal one run by iMore reveal Siri usage remains low among iPhone 4S owners.

Due to the relative newness and novelty of natural language interfaces in mainstream products, however, Siri remains one of the most demonstrable features of the iPhone 4S, which is no doubt why it gets so much of the marketing attention.

John John Malkovich

The best goram iOS podcast in the 'verse returns tonight to talk all the latest iPhone and iPad news, how-tos, and app and accessory reviews. Come join us!

Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations"!

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Head over to swiftkey.com/survey to begin, complete the survey. If you're one of the lucky three (yes, three) winners, you could get your hands on your dream phone or tablet, even if it doesn't run Android. In fact, even if you don't currently own a device that supports their kick-ass keyboard, SwiftKey still wants to hear from you, and you could still be a winner.

The survey is open internationally for smartphone and tablet owners aged 18 and over, and it runs until midnight on Wednesday, June 6. Be sure to check SwiftKey's site for the full terms and conditions.

Head over to SwiftKey's survey page to get started!

Jonathan Ive, known as Jony, is Apple's Senior Vice President of Design and the man responsible for turning Steve Jobs' iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad into real, physical objects with just exactly the right feel, in perfectly the right color. And when asked in a two-part interview with The Telegraph which Apple design he'd most liked to be remembered for, he says we haven't seen it yet.

“It’s a really tough one. A lot does seem to come back to the fact that what we’re working on now feels like the most important and the best work we’ve done, and so it would be what we’re working on right now, which of course I can’t tell you about.”

Apple is famous for its secrecy about future products. I ask what will happen if the Queen asks about the new iPhone today. Will he have to say, “I’m sorry Your Majesty, we don’t comment on forthcoming products”?

“That would be funny,” he laughs.

But I notice he doesn’t say no.

Ive is in England to receive his knighthood for services to design and enterprise.

Born in Chingford, Essex in 1967 to a furniture and silverware maker who helped inspire Ive's attention to detail, after studying at Newcastle Polytechnic he ended up at Apple just prior to Steve Jobs' return, and became head of design at Apple shortly after Jobs' return. The rest, very literally, is history.

When asked about "focus" Ive re-interates a sentiment we've heard from him before, but should always be kept in mind in the months and weeks before Apple device launches.

“We try to develop products that seem somehow inevitable. That leave you with the sense that that’s the only possible solution that makes sense,” he explains. “Our products are tools and we don’t want design to get in the way. We’re trying to bring simplicity and clarity, we’re trying to order the products.

“I think subconsciously people are remarkably discerning. I think that they can sense care.”

Ive also repeats his belief that design shouldn't be obvious, that a designer should sweat and fret the details, figure out the complex problems, and present the end user only with the simplicity and elegance of the solution.

Interestingly, when asked about the visual complexity of skeuomorphism in software -- the stitched leather in Calendar specifically -- Ive claims his areas of responsibility are not connected to to those elements.

Both parts of the interview are worth a read.

Source: The Telegraph, x2

The Photos app has provided a centralized iOS image repository for years. A Files app would bring the same functionality to iOS documents.

For a couple of years now, before every major release of iOS, I've begged and pleaded for a native iOS documents repository. Not a file system like OS X, but something that would do for documents what Photos.app and the photo picker do for images.

Right now, even absent a file system and hierarchy, it's still too complex, confusing, and unwieldy for users to remember, find, and attach documents in iOS. iOS 6 is a chance for Apple to change that, and a Files app and documents picker are simple, consistent, convenient ways to do it.

The problem. Times iCloud.

If I have a text document in iOS, I have no way to directly access that text document. I have to go to an app and hope that I can access the document from that app. If I created a text document in Simple Note, I have to remember I created it in Simple Note because chances are I can't easily open it in Drafts, much less in Apple's Notes app. If I have a Document in the Cloud, it's the same problem only worse. I can't just see Documents in the Cloud. I have to keep a mental list of what I've created over time and their associations, which is a lot of overhead for something that's supposed to be simple.

Conversely, if I have a text document in Dropbox, I can open the Dropbox app, see a list, pick the document I want, and send it to any iOS app capable of handling it. It's not elegant, but it works, and it fills a void left by Apple.

Frankly, I'd rather Apple fill it. They already do it with Photos. They already do it with Music. They already do it with videos. Files deserve equal status under the OS. Since Apple has has already done a lot of interface work for Documents in the Cloud, the material is all their. They just have to give it a face.

Right now iOS forces me to remember and hunt down the right app to find my file, and cloud stores present old fashioned file systems as a work around. Neither "just works right".

Mapping Photos to Files

As I've argued before, the template for a useful Files.app and documents picker is already present in iOS with Photos.app and the image picker. On the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you can launch the Photos app and see a list of Albums, one of which is your local album, Camera Roll, another of which is your iCloud album, Photo Stream, and the rest of which are any albums you've manually created and moved images into.

Tap an album and you see a scrollable grid of the photos contained inside it. Tap a photo, you see the photo. With the Action, Edit, and Trash buttons, you can perform various image management, modification, and sharing tasks.

Now imagine you could launch the Files app a see a list of Folders, one of which is your local folder, Documents, another of which is your iCloud folder, Documents in the Cloud, and the rest of which are any folders you've manually created and moved documents into.

Tap a folder and you see a scrollable grid of the documents contained inside it. Tap a document, you open it in QuickView. With the Action, Edit, and Trash buttons, you can perform various file management, modification, and sharing tasks.

In a Files.app, document folders could be presented the same way Photos.app presents image albums.

Just like tapping into an Album shows you the photos in it, tapping into a Folder would show you the files.

And just like tapping a photo shows it to you, along with options, tapping a document would QuickView it, along with options.

Mapping image picker to document picker

Photos.app isn't the only way to access your pictures in iOS. There's also the image picture. It's an iOS controller that allows other apps, built-in and App Store apps, to access your photos. You can use it to both open images in apps, and save images from apps. It functions as a central image repository for iOS.

Launch Messages, tap the camera button, and the image picker lets you attach pictures to an iMessage or MMS. Launch Instagram, tap the pictures button, and the image picker lets you choose a photo to apply filters to and share. Launch AutoStitch, build a panorama, tap the Action button, tap Save to Camera Roll, and your composite becomes available in the image picker for any other app.

(Vexingly, while Mail.app can save images from an email, there's still no Messages-style camera button so you can add images to an email on-the-fly.)

Now imagine there was a documents picker controller that allowed other apps, built in and App Store, to access your documents. You could use it to both open documents in apps, and save documents from apps. It would function as a central document repository for iOS.

Launch Mail, tap the Files button, and the documents picker would let you attach a document to an email. (I can dream, can't I?) Launch Elements, tap the Files button, and the documents picker would let you open and edit any plaintext file on your device or in Documents in the Cloud. Launch Notes, create a document, tap Save to Files, and your document becomes available in the documents picker for any other app.

iOS already knows which files can be opened in which apps -- it shows you a list of compatible apps in the "Open In" Action (see the Dropbox cloud store example at the top). To keep things simple for users, it could only show compatible documents when the documents picker is called.

Also, it wouldn't replace the auto-save feature of apps like Notes. Those could still be saved within the and even synced the way they are now, utterly transparently. Document picker would just add the option to move a document to the central repository, the way photo editing apps can move a local image to the Camera Roll for universal access.

With the image picker, you're able to open or save a picture in an app. With the documents picker, you would be able to open or save a document in an app.

Both image and documents pickers would be especially useful if Apple applied them more consistently in built-in apps, like Mail.

Mapping Photo Stream to Documents in the Cloud

With Photo Stream, if you've chosen to enable it, any photo you take or image you save to Camera Roll gets automatically copied to the Photo Stream album, stored up on iCloud, and pushed to every other iOS device on your Apple ID (for one month or until 1000 other photos have pushed it off, whichever comes first), as well as iPhoto and/or Aperture (until and unless you deleted) on OS X, and the iCloud directory on Windows.

That's incredible from a backup and accessibility standpoint.

Take a photo of your child playing soccer at the game, your family can see it near instantly at home on the Apple TV. Take a screenshot on your iPhone and almost immediately drag it from iPhoto to Photoshop on your Mac.

Documents in the Cloud already ties into iCloud, but it lacks a user accessible interface on iOS like Photo Stream has with Photos.app.

It lacks Files.app.

Conclusion

iOS has become a mature operating system with text editing, multitasking, better notifications, and more. When it comes to file access, however, it's still in its infancy. Basic, needful things like attachments are still inconsistent between built-in apps like Message and Mail. Worse, Apple desire to abstract file systems to make things simpler for users has resulted in different, rather than less, mental overhead.

A unified document repository, modeled after the existing unified image repository, rounded out with more consistent attachment options, could be the best of all worlds. Users wouldn't have to remember which folder a document was in, nor which app. They wouldn't have to jump around to edit or share. Users could simply open any app capable of editing or sharing a certain type of app and go to work.

Having everything handled by a central Files repository and document picker would also keep Apple's sandboxed security model intact, at least as intact as letting email attachments or cloud store files open in compatible apps, or having a Photos app and image picker. It isn't as open or as useful, but is more secure, that full inter-app communication. It's not even Windows Phone contracts. But is far more useful than the model we have today.

I've wanted a Files app for two years running. Hopefully third time will be the charm.

Additional resources

• The 4 inch iPhone
• iOS 6 wants: The opposite of widgets
• iOS 6: Is it time for Apple to revamp the Home screen?
• The challenge of bringing Siri to the iPad
• iOS 6 and privacy: How Apple should draw inspiration from Android for better app

Josh Clark of Global Moxie, Seth Clifford of Nickelfish, Marc Edwards of Bjango, Phill Ryu of Impending, and Rene Ritchie of iMore talk gesture-based user interface: buttonless UI, discoverability, digital authenticity, and the future of gestures. This is Iterate!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

Hosts

• Josh Clark (@globalmoxie) of Global Moxie
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Phill Ryu (@phillryu) of Impending
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of iMore.com

Feedback

• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
• Facebook: Iterate page

If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

I spend a large part of each day in Panic's Coda app for Mac. It's an FTP client, code editor, CSS editor, and previewer -- and more -- all rolled into one. And it's coming to iPad this Thursday as... Diet Coda.

Diet Coda takes everything we've ever learned about world-class web code editing, and wraps it up to-go. It's packed with features, bathed in fun, ready to work.

So go on, take a vacation and only pack your iPad — you'll get your job done, quickly and delightfully. It's so good, you might never touch your desktop again.

The only concerns I have are those imposed by iOS. First, the continued lack of a persistent internet connection background API (only VoIP, streaming audio, and location can persist in the background). Second, iOS still doesn't support all forms of VPN, for example, OpenVPN, which means Apple have to build it in, leading back to the first problem...

Diet Coda is going to be $9.99, or half off for the first 24 hours. If it lives up to the demo, and the expectations set by the Mac app, it'll be more than worth it.

Speaking of the Mac app, the long anticipated Coda 2 for Mac is arriving the very same day.

Coda 2 represents a incredible overhaul of every facet of our venerable all-in-one web code editor. It’s a release packed with tons of improvements that will make you more efficient and faster at your job. And on top of that, it’s got brand new features that will make it an even more indispensable part of your process.

Coda 2 will also be half off for the first 24 hours, and available directly from Panic or via the Mac App Store.

That's an interesting way to work within the confines of the MAS. Users often don't like "paying again" for what they consider "the same app" even if it's a substantial update. Of course, the Mac App Store, like the iOS App Store, doesn't allow for upgrade pricing, and developers can't afford to undertake substantial development "for free".

If you saw Batman Begins, you don't get to see Dark Knight for free, so there should be absolutely no more expectation for free future versions of apps than there are free future versions of movies. By offering a one day sale, and publicizing it, Panic gives owners of the first version, and interested first time buyers alike, a chance to get in at a steeply discounted price.

Source: Panic

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO ENTER! iMore has teamed up with the amazing folks at Scout to give away FOUR new iPads (with 16GB & WiFi) featuring Retina Display, iSight camera, & more! You can enter for your chance to win over one our iMore Facebook Page, and you can get more chances to win by sharing with your friends.

The contest ends TONIGHT, May 21, 2012 at 11:59pm PDT so don't waste any time -- ENTER NOW!

• iMore Facebook page

A Superior Court judge in Morristown, New Jersey is considering whether or not a woman who knowingly texted her boyfriend, while he was driving, and who ultimately crashed into a couple on a motorcycle, can be held responsible in civil court.

According to the report, the 18 year old driver was "glancing" at texts from his girlfriend when he crossed traffic and hit two motorcyclists. The driver plead guilty to using his cellphone while driving, was fined $775, and has to make speeches about the dangers of texting and driving, which is illegal in the state of New Jersey.

The motorcyclists are suing the driver, but are also seeking to have his girlfriend added to the suit as well. Their attorney told The New York Post:

“If you know somebody is operating a motor vehicle, if you know it is illegal to text and drive because it violates the law, if you know it’s dangerous, if you know all this and knowingly send a text, then a jury should decide.”

The girlfriend's attorney told The Daily Record that it's not fair or reasonable, and that the girlfriend has no way to control when her boyfriend is going to read her messages.

A decision is expected May 25.

Now, I'm not an attorney, I do not play one on this blog, and I know next to nothing about contributory negligence, but there does not appear to be any precedence to this case the way there is to drinking and driving cases, for example.

The laws surrounded distracted driving are also patchwork. They often target specific items, like phones, instead of general principles. Putting on makeup. Reading newspapers. Drinking and eating. Changing radio stations. Focusing on GPS. Looking at expensive cars. Staring at scantily clad humans.

Conversely, new technologies are emerging that allow for different ways to interact with mobile devices. Chief among them, Siri. With Siri, instead of staring and typing, you can do more listening and talking. You can hear SMS and dictate responses. When it works.

All of this raises a lot of questions. Should there be specific laws against texting, or should there be more general laws against distracted driving? If there are always against texting, should new interfaces like Siri be exempt? Is having a conversation on the phone, or with Siri, different than having a conversation with a passenger who could, theoretically serve as a second set of eyes on the road?

And if something like texting while driving is illegal, and someone knows you're driving and keeps texting you, should they bear some of the responsibility if an accident occurs?

Source: The New York Post

It's a holiday weekend here in Canada. Victoria day if you must know. Except in Quebec where it's Patriot's day. Yeah, I don't care beyond the "holiday" part either. Actually, I don't care about the "holiday" part either -- I've heard of such things but rarely if ever experienced one myself. Still, I have family and friends congregating, and they're pressuring me to "get off that damn machine", so I'll keep this brief. Ish.

Grappling with Google+

I'm trying to use Google+ again. It's not easy but I'm trying. I go to Twitter and the last post is seconds or minutes old. I go to Google+ and the last post is hours if not almost a day old. I go to Twitter and I can interact with most of the people I know online. I go to Google+ and mostly I only see my friends from Android Central. And Scoble.

Maybe iOS and Google+ don't mix the way iOS and Twitter do, but Google put some effort into the new iPhone app. And Phil Nickinson swears it's a great platform for discussion.

So if you're there too, give me a shout and let me know what you love about it. Or hit me up on Twitter and tell me what you don't.

You can find me at +Rene Ritchie (or @reneritchie) -- and you we have a fantastic forum thread going where you can swap user names with other iMore members.

Do I believe

A 720p, 16:9 display at 4-inches would both shrink existing app UI elements and touch targets, and require an even larger letter and pillar box.

One of the most frequent questions I get asked online is "do you believe Apple will do XYZ." Right now it's "do you believe Apple will do a 4-inch iPhone."

Here's the thing -- my personal belief doesn't matter, and often doesn't exist. I'm not all Mulder or Scully about this stuff.

If Apple announces something, I'll report it. If we get a story from a solid source, or we can corroborate a story with a solid source, I'll report it in that context.

If you think I have secret information I'm not sharing, then either I don't or I can't. Either way, it won't inform any answer I give before it does a story I'll write.

So if you ask that question, the answer I'll give you is "I don't know".

Now if you ask me what I'd like or what I'd want...

Meet Gary, he's here to help

One of the biggest challenges we face at iMore is the incredible range of our audience -- from hard core geeks who want nothing more than the latest tweaks, to the soccer parents who just want to know how to iMessage a photo. It's an incredible challenge to balance our content and coverage to serve both extremes, and the many, many people somewhere in the middle.

Our current strategy is to do lots of really good stuff for both, and hope readers will congregate around what interests them, and either pass over, or pass along what doesn't.

And helping us do that is Gary Mazo, Mobile Nations' newest Senior Editor and all around how-to guru. Some of you might be familiar with Gary from the Made Simple Learning series that covered everything from BlackBerry to iPhones and iPads and back again.

Gary's done a few reviews and ninja-level how-tos for us so far, but this month he's going to be kicking it up another several notches.

If you want to know everything you can possibly know about iOS, or want handy links to pass on to friends and family so they can learn to do without you, he'll have you covered.

And he's starting a new series tomorrow.

3D movies are terrible

I've had 4 family birthdays in the last couple of weeks and all of them wanted to go see the Avengers. Yes, my family has good taste in movies. The first 3 times I saw it in blessed 2D. The last time I saw it in 3D. The 3D was, as expected, horrible.

Human eyes didn't evolve to focus and converge on different planes. That's why 3D makes overly sensitive people nauseous. The technology also isn't there yet. It's dark, and in the case of post-produced 3D, it looks more like layered paper bring dragged across the screen than actual depth.

It makes fight scenes look jumbled, special effects look cheap, and interferes with the narrative far more than it accentuates any experience.

The industry likes to tell us it's the next evolution and as natural a progression as silent to sound, black and white to color. It's not. It's a gimmick. And that they use it as a way to hike up ticket prices is a joke.

Hopefully Apple never announces anything 3D. Not a 3D display, not 3D content in iTunes. Not anything unless and until a technology comes along that works.

Like a holodeck.

Picks of the week, now more picky

One of the editorial goals of iMore is to more carefully curate what we present to our readers. We want everything we post to be deserving of your attention. With that in mind we're changing the way we do picks of the week.

Instead of editors and moderators choosing apps that interest them, we're reducing the quantity and upping the exclusivity considerably. Georgia, Leanna, Simon, and yours truly, with input from everyone, will make the calls.

Starting this week, we're picking one app, one game, and one accessory each week. And that's it. It might be brand new, or it might be a classic. It might be über popular or it might be a hidden gem. But it will absolutely be the best thing we could find.

Check it out, and let me know what you think. (We might even do them as three separate posts next week, if that works better?)

Features

Once again, an embarrassment of riches.

• The 4 inch iPhone by yours truly. If Apple does make the iPhone screen bigger, how could they do it, what would the benefits be, and what problems would it cause?
• Best free iPad games by Simon Sage. The definitive list of the best fun to be had on your iPad.
• Instacast vs. Downcast vs. Pocket Casts: iPhone podcast app shootout! by Ally Kazmuch. Which podcast app for iPhone reigns supreme?
• What Samsung's rise and Nokia's fall means for Apple and the iPhone by Chris Umiastowski. The smartphone market has almost literally turned upside down. Can the iPhone keep on capitalizing on the disruption?
• Facebook Pages Manager for iPhone review by Leanna Lofte. She had to review the Canadian App Store version, because Facebook hasn't seen fit to release it in the U.S. yet. Seriously.
• How to integrate all your social networks into your iPhone and iPad Contacts by Gary Mazo. He misses web OS and Windows Phone style social network integration. A lot.
• How to stop Twitter from tracking you across the Web by yours truly. Because knowing is half the battle.
• Pogo Sketch Pro vs. Kuel H12 vs. Jot Pro vs. Bamboo: iPad stylus shootout by Georgia. The results of our week long look at pro-level stylus pens. Which one is best, and which one is best for you?

Reading List

• Multiple Nexus devices could be a game-changer for Google and Android by Alex Dobie. If Google does press ahead with several hero devices from several manufacturers, what if anything does it mean?
• Four years of App Store by Federico Viticci. MacStories interviews developers about the state of Apple's mobile marketplace, and how it's changed -- and hasn't changed -- since 2008.
• Are apps bought or rented? by Ricard Gaywood. TUAW's resident number cruncher takes a look at the push-back on Instacast's new paid + in-app-upgrade pricing model.
• iCloud is the Difference Between Great and Excellent by Benjamin Brooks. iCloud is Apple's next generation digital hub. Competitors should be very afraid. (But probably aren't.)
• Web design manifesto by Jeffrey Zeldman. Finally, someone who proudly types even larger than Kevin Michaluk.
• Creating the Windows 8 user experience by Jensen Harris. An interesting look at the design decisions behind Microsoft's "no compromises" desktop to tablet to phone interface.
• How Yahoo! killed Flickr and lost the Internet by Mat Honan. A no-holds barred takedown of one of the worst corporate mismanagements in recent history. Something HP likely followed to the letter when running Palm.
• Hey did I miss anything? by Dan Harmon. Sony pictures drops the creator and show runner of the up-until-now-fabulous TV show Community, and apparently all the writers along with it, yet someone expects us to think the show will still be returning next season.

And now...

I'm getting off this damn computer.

With court-madated settlement talks between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-Sung scheduled to begin tomorrow, Samsung Mobile's JK Shin took a moment to discuss the potential for resolution. According to Reuters:

"There is still a big gap in the patent war with Apple but we still have several negotiation options including cross-licensing," Shin told reporters at Seoul airport shortly before his departure for the United States.

Asked about the prospects for Samsung's memory chip business, Shin said the 4G chip shortage was expected to continue until early in the fourth quarter of this year.

While Apple and Samsung are suing each other over patents, trade dress, and other infringements real and imagined -- Apple accusing Samsung of being mobile's biggest copy cat and Samsung fighting back on technology, and standards, grounds -- they remain massive manufacturing partners. Many of the components in Apple's mobile devices, and some in their computers as well, are made by Samsung.

Apple recently claimed Samsung was destroying evidence, while also trying to bar Samsung from entering Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography as evidence.

Although analysts had hoped Tim Cook might be a less fiery and litigious CEO than his predecessor, Cook turns out to be every bit as serious about patent disputes, and cold as ice.

For their part, Samsung has denied allegations that they're a copy cat, despite the uncanny similarities to Apple products that keep popping up.

Apple reportedly gave their manufacturing partner, Samsung, fair warning before going "thermonuclear" on their competitor, Samsung, in the courts.

Unlike Microsoft, which is seeking -- and in large part has obtained -- licensing fees from manufacturers in a bid to make Android as "expensive" as Windows Phone, Apple's goal doesn't seem to be financial -- they don't want Android looking or working like iPhone. They want to out litigate and out innovate the competition.

That might make it unlikely a settlement will be reached, unless Tim Cook does do things differently and shows a willingness to take money in lieu of design concessions -- or Samsung's patents force the matter.

Source: Reuters

This week Twitter announced a new version of its "Who to Follow" feature, making it a far more personal recommendation engine. The way it works, however, is that if you're logged into Twitter in the web browser, any site that calls Twitter code -- like a Tweet or Follow button -- can report your presence on that site back to Twitter. Gadget sites. Car sites. Movie sites. Porn sites. Gaming sites. Any. Site.

We determine the people you might enjoy following based on your recent visits to websites in the Twitter ecosystem (sites that have integrated Twitter buttons or widgets). Specifically, our feature works by suggesting people who are frequently followed by other Twitter users that visit the same websites.

The cause for concern here is that it looks like it's opt-out, and not opt-in for existing Twitter users. New Twitter users will be asked on signup, but existing users have to a) know about it, and b) find it and shut it off if they don't like it.

Giving existing users a popup or overlay advising them of it would even that out. (Twitter is sending emails that include some of this and other information, but that's not as effective as a specific modal request, with the default state being off and not on.)

If you trust Twitter and would value more personalized "Who to Follow" recommendations, then you may not care. If you don't trust any big internet company, aren't interested in social recommendations, and basically think your personal information is too high a price to pay for any free internet service, then you have some options.

Log out of Twitter.com

If you rarely if ever use Twitter via the website, one way to prevent Twitter from collecting your data is to simply make sure you're logged out of Twitter.com.

1. Go to Twitter.com in your browser.
2. Tap on the Me tab.
3. Scroll down to the bottom and tap on Log Out.

(As pointed out by @marcedwards, using a good password manager like 1Password, DataVault, RoboForm, etc. makes frequent logins and logouts for privacy reasons far less onerous.)

Opt out of Twitter's personalized recommendations

Sadly, this method can't seem to be done via the iPhone-optimized mobile Twitter webapp,so you'll have to break out the full, desktop browser version of Twitter.com.

1. Go to Twitter.com in your desktop browser.
2. Click on the Account button to open the drop-down menu
3. Click on Settings
4. Scroll down and uncheck the Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits
5. Re-Enter your password to confirm

Tell your browser not to let web services track you

Twitter supports "Do Not Track", a system that users can opt into that prevents web services from following their browsing habits. Again, it would be better to have users opt into "Allow Track" than making them figure out how to opt out via "Do Not Track" but this is currently the hand privacy is dealt.

Unfortunately, not all browsers support "Do Not Track" directly yet, including Mobile Safari on iOS. For desktop Safari 5.1 or later:

1. Click on the **Safari* menu
2. Choose Preferences...
3. Check Show Develop menu in menu bar
4. Click on the Develop menu
5. Choose Send Do Not Track HTTP Header

For information on how to enable "Do Not Track" in other browsers, when and if possible, check out Twitter's knowledge base article.

• Twitter Supports "Do Not Track"

Here's the gist:

The United States Federal Trade Commission has endorsed DNT as a simple way for users to inform integrated web services which offer content across the Internet (such as buttons, widgets, and other embedded features) that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected across websites when they have not interacted with that service's content on the page.

The DNT browser setting is now supported by recent versions of major browsers, including Firefox 5+, Internet Explorer 9+, and Safari 5.1+. If you are using Chrome 17.0 or higher, there is a third-party extension that enables DNT.

Conclusion

iPhone users are massive Twitter users and vice versa. If any social network was made for mobile, it was and is Twitter. Because Twitter is so mobile, and because it defaults to making most things public (unless you deliberately make your account private or send a DM), Twitter has managed to avoid a lot of the privacy blunders Facebook and Google had experienced. Until this week.

Security and privacy are always going to be at odds with convenience. It's faster and easier for social networks to simply turn things on, and it's more powerful and feature-fancy for users to let them.

The price is our personal information.

There are arguments on more than two sides about the importance of this, but at the end of he day there are millions if not billions of dollars at stake for the networks and the details of personal and private lives at stake for users. So it's worth arguing about. A lot.

In this specific case, if you're okay with Twitter offering you recommendations based on your browsing habits, leave it on and enjoy. If not, turn it off and rest easy.

Additional resources

• How to delete your Google search Web History
• iOS 6 and privacy: How Apple should draw inspiration from Android for better app permissions
• How to opt-out of (and back in to) personalized iAds
• How to review your social network privacy settings
• Social networking forum

The unofficial, independent Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher, has gotten an official name -- jOBS -- a website, and has released some new details about the production.

The film chronicling the life of Steve Jobs, the Apple Inc. co-founder and charismatic master of innovation, begins principal photography in June and in keeping with the project's commitment to accuracy and authenticity, will film early scenes in the actual Los Altos home where Jobs grew up and in the historic garage where he and Steve Wozniak founded Apple.

jOBS is produced by Mark Hulme and Five Star Pictures and directed by Joshua Michael Stern of Swing Vote and Neverwas.

jOBS chronicles the 30 most defining years of Steve Jobs' life, as seen through his, colleagues', and friends' eyes. Dark, honest, and uncompromising, jOBS plunges into the depths of his character, creating an intense dialogue-driven story that is as much a sweeping epic as it is an immensely personal portrait of Steve Jobs' life.

On the film's website, thejobsmovie.com, Hulme elaborates on his motivations for making jOBS.

One of the great innovators and futurist patriarchs of our time, Steve Jobs was somehow simultaneously a prophet and a pariah for millions of consumers. His is a truly fascinating story that cannot properly be told in such a short space, and that is why we are determined to bring his tale –both the good and the bad, the regrettable and unforgettable, the villainous and heroic– to the big screen.

Just recently Ashton Kutcher was seen out and about in his Steve Jobs wardrobe.

jOBS current has the tagline "Get inspired" and is scheduled for a late fall, 2012 release. That should be well ahead of the official biopic produced by Sony and based on the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, which just hired Aaron Sorkin of The Social Network and The West Wing to pen their script.

Source: thejobsmovie.com

Apple has reportedly sent out a shiny brochure to their new neighbors, detailing aspects of the futuristic campus they're planning to build on the old HP lot. 9to5Mac got their hands on a copy, and shared some of the details, the most interesting of which is:

Campus 2, as it is currently called, won’t replace the 1 Infinite Loop campus. Instead, it will just provide ‘research facility’ office space for an additional 13,000 employees, more than 3,000 more than 1 Infinite Loop. There is 300,000 feet of expansion space for future growth.

And yes, that seems to mean no museum, no new Company Store, and potentially no next-generation offices for Apple's executives.

Steve Jobs originally introduced Apple's new "mothership" the day after WWDC 2011 with a visit to Cupertino City Council captured in the YouTube video below.

The images Apple introduced, and were posted by Cupertino and later updated, were stunning -- an enormous circle of curved glass amid an orchard.

Steve Jobs said at the time of the introduction:

There is not a straight piece of glass in this building, it’s all curved. We used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building… It’s pretty cool.

Some Cupertino residents have been concerned about what the influx of tens of thousands of new workers will do to traffic. Others simply see more tax dollars.

Apple is scheduled to begin work on the impressive new structure this year with a projected end date of 2015. Still no word on whether or not, due to its spaceship design, it will literally be able to abandon Earth and take to the stars, Wall-E style, should Google ever win the technology wars...

Check out the rest of the flyer pics and salient points via the link below.

Source: 9to5Mac

I've been using Tom Bihn Ristretto messenger bags for a few years now. When my original was stolen, I promptly bought another. I've used them for everything from going to the local coffee shop to going to Macworld and WWDC. 99% of the time, my Tom Bihn Ristretto goes where I go, because it carries most of the stuff I need to do my job.

The only problem I've had with the Tom Bihn Ristretto is the front organizer. The models I owned all left it open, barely covered by the flap that secured the two main and single zippered top pockets. That meant, while the pen holders and iPhone compartments were convenient, I couldn't store anything in them for fear it would fall out.

Now, based on similar feedback, Tom Bihn has redesigned the Ristretto and attempted to make a great messenger bag even better. Did they succeed?

The Ristretto is a vertical messenger bag, available for iPad, 11-inch MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Air or Pro

The Tom Bihn Ristretto comes in 3 sizes, one optimized for the 9.75-inch iPad, one for the 11-inch MacBook Air, and one for the 13-inch MacBook air or 13-inch MacBook Pro. If you only ever want to carry around your iPad, or similar sized tablet device, the smallest of the Ristrettos is a slick, sophisticated option. I need both my iPad and my MacBook with me, so I've always gone with the 13-inch Ristretto. That they have options is the important part. You get only exactly the amount of messenger bag you need. (I've even used the 13-inch Ristretto to cart around my 15-inch MacBook Pro in a pinch, though it's not ideal and I wouldn't recommend anyone trying to get regular use out of that scenario.)

The Ristretto is a vertical messenger, which I far prefer. The outside is made of U.S. 1050 denier ballistic nylon, which Tom Bihn claims has "twice the abrasion resistance of 1680 denier fabric". After two years of heavy use, my original Tom Bihn looked as good as when I'd bought it.

There's a pocket on the back of the Ristretto, suitable for some papers or analog reading material -- they type you're forced to endure doing takeoff and landing. It's open, so don't put any valuables in there.

A flap folds over the top and buckles to keep the Ristretto closed. It's a good, strong plastic buckle that holds securely. I did once have one break but after contacting Tom Bihn they sent me an immediate replacement.

The main, laptop pocket is padded, according to their website, with 6mm of open-cell foam laminated with 4 Ply Taslan on the outside, with super-soft brushed tricot inside, and 6mm of closed cell foam on the back. An extra, internal flap folds over to hold everything snug as a bug in a rug. If you buy the proper Ristretto size for your iPad or MacBook Air, the fit is excellent.

The secondary pocket, the one I use for the iPad, doesn't have the same padding and soft interior, and it's far roomier than an iPad requires, but it's the most secure, most convenient place to put it. I've occasionally snuck a friend's Air in their when we travelled together, but I wouldn't recommend doubling up regularly.

The new Ristretto puts the organizer safely inside the zippered pocket.

The third, zippered pocket on the Tom Bihn used to have the organizer open in front of it, leading to the problems I mentioned above. Now the organizer is back inside the zipper where it belongs, and instead of being a single linear zipper, it's now a bigger, rounded compartment with a pair of zippers. That's right -- it's all grown up. It even uses a #8 YKK Uretek splash-proof zipper.

This is where I keep all my secure-ables: MagSafe power adapter, iPad charger (which I use for both iPad and iPhone), USB ethernet adapter, headphones, etc. While my main iPhone 4S is always in my pants or jacket pocket, I do sometimes have my old iPhone 4 in the Ristretto iPhone pocket, if I need it with me for some tests or reviews I'm working on. I also keep extra business cards and Mobile Nations and iMore stickers for serendipitous giveaways. A regular pen (to fill out analog forms like customs declarations) and a stylus (currently the Jot Pro) fill out the compartments.

There's an O-Ring in the zipper pocket as well, for which Tom Bihn offers a couple of optional extras, including a variety of wallets, pouches, and key holders. I've gotten one of the pouches and tried it, but stopped. It didn't fit my use case.

There's a strong handle on top of the Ristretto and a waist strap to keep it secure for walking or riding.

Regardless of the pocket, the new Tom Bihn Ristretto holds everything securely yet still keeps it readily available. The included waist strap can be used to keep the Ristretto secured for long term walking or riding, and can be positioned high or low on either side. There's also a strong handle at the top to make it easy to pick up or hold when you have to.

For the shoulder strap, you can choose between the standard and the absolute. The standard is 1.5" wide and nylon. The absolute is a bigger, thicker, better padded version. I prefer the absolute, especially when I'm spending 12 hours walking during a trade show. It's an additional charge ($20) but well, well worth it. (Just make sure you change shoulders regularly so you stay Superfunctional.)

For colors, you get your choice of black/steel, forest/steel, olive/cayenne, steel/iberian (gray). Green and blue options are also shown on the website but don't seem to be available to order (yet?). This review unit is black/steel. The ones I've bought myself were olive/cayenne. They all look great,

The good

• Excellent design and craftsmanship
• Organizer secured inside zippered pocket
• Extremely comfortable, even for prolonged use

The bad

• Nothing left for me to complain about

The conclusion

The Ristretto doesn't fit everything I need -- it's way too small to hold my DSLR and lenses, for example. But that's the point. Hiking packs are hiking packs for a reason. The Ristretto is what you use when you want something light and essential -- something to carry only what you need, that doesn't make you regret buying an Air or an iPad because of the bulk and weight the bag adds right back to it. It's zen.

If you're looking for something in old worn leather, or something with loud patterns, look somewhere that is else. If you want a comfortable, stylish, svelte way to carry around your iPad, iPhone, and optionally, your MacBook Air, get the Tom Bihn Ristretto.

$125 - Ristretto for iPad - Buy now

$125 - Ristretto for 11-inch MacBook - Buy now

$135 - Ristretto for 13-inch MacBook - Buy now

Georgia, Seth, and Rene discuss all the latest Apple rumors, including the 7-inch iPad, 4-inch iPhone, iOS 6 Maps, and Apple wanting to hurt Google in the wallet. Also, free iPad games, Sparrow push, Chrome for iOS, and the pro stylus shootout!

Brought to you by Audible. Please visit http://www.audiblepodcast.com/imore for your free audiobook download! And thank you for supporting our sponsors!

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Rumorpalooza

• 7-inch iPad on track for October 2012 release, $200 to $250 price
• iPhone 5 to be another Google killer -- but with a twist
• iPhone 5 design still not finalized, still no big screen, still no metal back, still on track for October release
• Apple rumored to increase iPhone screen size to 4-inches
• The 4 inch iPhone
• iOS 6 reportedly code named Sundance, more rumors about Siri API, Siri for iPad, iTunes 11
• Apple rumored to be adding photo and video sharing, commenting features to iCloud

News

• Have you updated to iOS 5.1.1? [Poll]
• Aaron Sorkin to write Steve Jobs biopic for Sony

Apps

• Best free iPad games
• Did you hear the one about Chrome for iOS?
• Sparrow for iPhone updated: push coming soon as yearly subscription

Accessories

• Pogo Sketch Pro vs. Kuel H12 vs. Jot Pro vs. Bamboo: iPad stylus shootout

How to

• How to integrate all your social networks into your iPhone and iPad Contacts

Hosts

• Georgia (GeorgiaTiPb
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com, or leave a comment on the website when the show goes live.

We're live every Wednesday night at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, 2am GMT at www.imore.com/live

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including iPhone and iPad Live, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven't already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

Thanks to the iMore Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

According to the latest rumor, Apple's co-founder, Steve Jobs, worked one the next generation iPhone 5 design prior to his passing last October. Bloomberg claims 3 sources familiar with the matter say there will be a redesign, 1 claims the redesign will involve a bigger screen, and 1 claims the redesign involved Steve Jobs.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has placed orders from suppliers in Asia for screens that are bigger than the 3.5- inch size now on the smartphone, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had worked closely on the redesigned phone before his death in October, one person said.

iMore previously heard that Apple had implemented a smaller micro-dock for the next generation iPhone but hadn't yet decided on a new screen size or aspect ratio. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal and Reuters claimed Apple had settled on a 4 inch screen size.

We went through a wide range of possible 4-inch iPhone variations, how Apple could implement each of them, what advantages each would bring, and what problems each would bring with them.

Given Steve Jobs' passion for Apple and involvement with the product roadmap, it's not hard to believe he would have kept himself involved in future projects even years out. Depending on the manufacturing and performance realities at the time of production, we could be seeing bits and pieces of Jobs ideas for a good long while still.

Whether or not it's ultimately true, it's reassuring to people who place stock in the "Steve Jobs was Apple" story. Regardless, Jobs created the best team in the business and with Scott Forstall running software, Bob Mansfield running hardware, and Jony Ive running design, it's more than likely we have nothing to worry about.

Given the spate of iPhone 5 rumors recently, however, one thing is clear -- Apple is starting to get things in place for the product ramp up. As we get closer to the expected fall release, more and more decisions will get made, parts will be ordered, factories will be set up, and units will begin to be produced.

Until then, all we can do is enjoy the pre-game show.

If Apple changes to a 4-inch screen in the next iPhone (iPhone 5,1), how could they do it while minimizing impact on users and developers? Assuming everyone wants a bigger screen, how does Apple implement it without breaking existing applications, causing backwards compatibility problems, and otherwise fragmenting the platform and frustrating stakeholders? Let's try to figure that out.

For a while now we've been hearing that Apple hadn't yet decided on the next iPhone design, and that while they were then working off the same 3.5-inch size are previous generations, they were still considering increasing the screen size up to 4-inches (but no more than that).

Earlier today both The Wall Street Journal and Reuters published stories saying Apple was going ahead with a 4-inch iPhone screen, but didn't provide any details as to how a 4 inch screen would be implemented. And those details are arguably even more important than the screen size itself.

That's because change has ramifications. Every choice has a cost. When you're dealing with millimeters and milliamps and megabits-per-second, everything is a compromise.

If Apple has indeed chosen to go with a 4 inch screen, there are only so many choices they can make, compromises they can reach, and ramifications that can be handled, developers, and Apple itself.

Scaling the current iPhone screen up to 4-inches

Apple can simply take the current 960x640, 326ppi, 2:3, 3.5-inch display and physically scale it up to 4 inches. The pixel density would drop to 288ppi, which would be substantially less, but would still be more than the new iPad's 264ppi display. (And would still be higher than the new iPad display -- so hold that as close as you hold your iPhone and see how it holds up.)

The result of this type of screen would be bigger text, bigger controls and buttons, bigger touch targets -- in other words, bigger apps. There would be no extra pixels gained, so the amount of information that could be displayed wouldn't change, but the same amount of information would be displayed at a larger, presumably easier to consumer, easier to interact with size. Only at a lower density.

If the iPhone screen is simply stretched to 4-inches but the resolution stays the same, the physical size of icons, text, and everything else just gets bigger.

Does that matter?

Apple has invested heavily in the "Retina display" marketing concept. Retina, however, is a function of density over distance -- the further away you hold the screen, the lower the density needed for pixels to effectively disappear. Apple could, even tenuously, argue a bigger screen would be held slightly further away, resulting in little net loss of "Retina-ness". (They did that at the new iPad event, after all).

Put it all together and users get the advantages of a bigger screen, developers get the advantage of keeping a consistent screen resolution target, and Apple gets the advantage of not substantially disturbing or disrupting either of those groups. For these reasons, if Apple does go with the a 4-inch screen, this seems to me to be the most likely path they'll take to get there.

Scaling the current iPhone screen to 4-inches, pixel doubling it (again)

Apple could take the current 960x640, 326ppi, 2:3, 3.5-inch display and scale it up to 4 inches, and once again double the pixel count to 1920x1280. That pixel density would explode to 579ppi, which... is frankly insane.

Never mind how expensive that kind of panel would be, or how hard it would be to achieve usable yield rates, it's overkill. It would enjoy the same benefits as a physically larger display, but maintain Retina display -- even for a falcon.

But as Georgia pointed out on the podcast earlier, that panel would also cost battery power to light it up and graphics power to push that many pixels around.

Unless Apple wants to increase screen size substantially beyond 4-inches, and screen, battery, and mobile GPU technology advances while prices fall and yield rates shoot through the roof, this seems extremely unlikely.

Scaling the current iPhone screen to 4-inches, changing the aspect ratio

Apple could take the current 960x640, 326ppi, 2:3, 3.5-inch display but change the aspect ratio to something closer to 9:5 and increase the height to 4 inches by adding pixels. The resolution would increase to 1152x640, and the pixel density would remain the same. (It's just adding extra pixels to the top and bottom.)

Timothy Collins brought this up on The Verge and John Gruber of Daring Fireball pointed a giant spotlight on it. iLounge later added to this particular rumor pile.

Since pixel size remains the same, text size would remain the same, control/button size would remain the same, and touch target size would remain the same. Apps that use the built-in interface elements would simply add an extra row of information -- an extra row of icons, an extra row to the table or item to the list. The display would be vertically larger, and more information could be displayed on it. But what about apps that don't use built-in UI elements?

Safari would show more of a page's length, Mail would show an extra message, but games and anything with a highly customized, non-table based interface would have to be pillar-boxed. If developers made new versions that fill the extra space, those versions would be cut off on older iPhones. And if developers made 2 versions of the apps, it would mean more work for them and "fatter" binaries for users to download. (A universal app would go from having iPhone and iPad interface elements, to having old iPhone and new iPhone and iPad interfaces.)

While many things are possible, this doesn't seem like a very Apple-esque solution. It would fragment the iPhone platform for developers in a way Apple has resisted so far, and offer incomplete user benefits (increasing pixel count in only one direction).

More importantly, it would mean either significantly redesigning (or eliminating) the Home button, or lengthening the iPhone casing, or a bit of both. iMore has heard the Home button isn't going anywhere, and parts leaks have suggested it looks pretty much the same, so that leaves a longer iPhone and that... would be awkward. (Even if you remove part of the bezel to make room for it.)

Scaling the current iPhone to 4-inches, increasing the number of pixels

Apple could take the current 960x640, 326ppi, 2:3, 3.5-inch display and increase both the width and height to 4 inches by adding pixels. The resolution would increase to 1092x728 (or thereabouts), and the pixel density would remain the same. (It's just adding extra pixels all sides.)

As above, text, control/button, and touch target size would all remain the same, because the pixel density would remain the same. Apps that use the built-in interfaces could also add an extra vertical row of icons or list or row information, and could add extra "white" space in many cases, or vertical columns in some cases, to fill in those extra pixels.

While the user gets more information, unlike the vertical-only extension, splitting the extra pixels both ways means neither have enough room for an extra row or column of icons at the same pixel size. Safari would show a more of a page in both length and width, but Mail might not squeeze in an entire extra message, or that much more message contents. And now games and anything with a highly customized, non-table based interface would have to be completely boxed, the way iPhone apps are on the higher pixel count iPad display, or stretched to fit, which would look horrible.

If the screen gets more pixels, older apps would have to be boxed on the new iPhone the same way iPhone apps are boxed on the iPad. (Letter and pillar.)

If developers make new versions that fill the extra space, those versions would be cut off on older iPhones, or scaled down to fit that would likewise look horrible. (As I've discussed previously.)

So even more work for developers, maybe an @1.14x physical size, and still "fatter" binaries for users to download.

Automagic scaling, like some platforms promise with sliding components, is as mythical in design as "write-once-deploy-everywhere" is in programming. Lazy developers or incredibly programmatic app implementations might default to it, but pixel perfect designers are going to want pixel level control over every screen size and density.

That makes this solution just as unlikely as the last. Even if Apple takes the (now) unusual step of canceling previous generation iPhones when the new one launches, and abandoning their current lower price point strategy, there would still be hundreds of millions of 480x320/960x640 iPhones and iPod touches on the market, and developers would want their apps to run on that massive install base.

increase both the width and height to 4 inches by adding pixels. The resolution would increase to 1092x728 (or thereabouts), and the pixel density would remain the same. (It's just adding extra pixels all sides.)

Switching to 720p resolution

Apple could take the current 960x640, 326ppi, 2:3, 3.5-inch display and simply swap it out for a standard resolution screen like 1280x720, at 16:9.

There are Android Devices that use this screen, but so far they can't be made any smaller/denser than 4.3 inches (see the HTC Rezound). Does Apple might have the tech muscle to drive that resolution down to 4 inches any time soon?

The pixel count would be able to show more information horizontally and vertically, and it would be a Retina display and then some at 367 ppi. If icons and text stay the same pixel count, then the presentation would be smaller. If the physical size stays the same, pixel count has to increase.

That's what happens when you changing so many parameters at once -- physical size, pixel count, aspect ratio -- it has both the benefits and the problems of everything else already listed above.

A 720p, 16:9 display at 4-inches would both shrink existing app UI elements and touch targets, and require an even larger letter and pillar box.

Apple would need a third new interface size, existing apps would be boxed, and new apps would need to be cropped or scaled on older devices, resulting in a horrible experience and appearance. That makes this option seem the least likely of the bunch.

Switching to original iPad screen

Apple could take the current 960x640, 326ppi, 2:3, 3.5-inch display and simply swap it out for a much smaller version of the 1024x768, 4:3 iPad display. This would peg the density at 320 ppi.

Other than it being the same resolution as the original iPad and iPad 2, there's not much different about this option than the 2:3 1092x728 or the 16:9 1280x720. It has the same benefits and drawbacks as both the previous options.

The argument that it would let iPad apps run on the iPhone is problematic, however, as iPad apps have controls/buttons and touch targets designed for a much larger physical size and if you think shaving fingers down for a 7-inch version of the iPad is a challenge, reducing them to the needlepoints necessary for what would essentially be a 4-inch version of the iPad is even more so.

Under the "let iPhones be iPhones" motto, this doesn't seem likely either.

Something else

Apple could have some other way to handle a 4-inch screen, or combination of ways. Point of fact, Apple already knows what they're planning to do (if they're planning to do it), or at least which methods they're testing. That doesn't diminish the mental exercise of trying to divine it before Apple announces it, but it does put it in context.

If Apple goes with a 4-inch screen -- and until Tim Cook or Phil Schiller holds it up on stage, or it somehow leaks conclusively, a 4-inch screen remains an if -- these are just some possibilities.

And all of them have ramifications, opportunity costs, and compromises. Some simply more than others.

Additional resources

• iOS 6 wants: Files app and documents picker with iCloud
• iOS 6 wants: The opposite of widgets
• iOS 6: Is it time for Apple to revamp the Home screen?
• The challenge of bringing Siri to the iPad
• iOS 6 and privacy: How Apple should draw inspiration from Android for better app

The best iOS podcast in the 'verse returns tonight to talk all the latest iPhone and iPad news, how-tos, and app and accessory reviews. Join us!

Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations"!

This is me putting my hands in my pockets, turning my head, and smiling. And it's because Sony Pictures has announced that Aaron Sorkin will be writing the script for Steve Jobs, adapted from Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography.

Aaron Sorkin is legitimately brilliant, and the writer behind TV's Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60, and the upcoming The Newsroom, as well as the movies Malice, A Few Good Men, The American President, and the recent The Social Network about Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook.

"Steve Jobs' story is unique: He was one of the most revolutionary and influential men not just of our time, but of all time," said Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. "There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we're confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining, and polarizing."

Sorkin's crackling dialog, smart comedic moments, and skill in building dramatic tension should serve the movie extremely well. Yes, this is basically the biopic equivalent of getting Joss Whedon on The Avengers.

It's hard to believe Hollywood is getting so much right for a change.

I haven't seen anything firm about a release date yet, and it will probably be a while still before we hear anything about casting. (This is a completely different project than the one Ashton Kutcher is attached to.)

Portraying Steve Jobs from Apple's inception to his final days, if that's what they choose to cover, will be a momentous undertaking for any actor. Having Sorkin on the script, however, should provide an excellent foundation.

If you want to indulge in a little fantasy casting, head on over to our iMore Movie Forum and let us know who you think should play Steve Jobs.

HTC's new Android flagships, the HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE, have reportedly been stalled at U.S. customs, and may not hit American stores as early as hoped, perhaps due to an International Trade Council (ITC) exclusion order... granted to Apple last December.

Apple sued HTC for patent infringement over their Android implementation, and HTC has countersued Apple. This particular legal delay could be over HTC's use of hyperlinks in the messaging app and browser. HTC has reportedly worked around these "trivial" issues, but in keeping with the ITC order, customs is going to check and make double-dog sure. If everything works out, and provided customs doesn't take their sweet time over it, our friends over at Android Central shouldn't have too long to wait before they get their droidy little hands on them.

Here's HTC's statement:

>The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.

Apple's lawsuits against HTC -- and Samsung and Motorola -- stem from Apple's feeling that Android was "grand theft" of iPhone intellectual property. Basically, they believe Google partnered with Apple, had their then-CEO Eric Schmidt on Apple's board, and then not only stole Apple's ideas about smartphone technology, but gave them away "promiscuously".

The late Steve Jobs reportedly vowed to go "thermonuclear" over Android, and spend every dime in Apple's tens of billions of dollars in the bank to reap horrible vengeance upon them.

Current Apple CEO Tim Cook has thus far been much calmer, but every bit as deadly about patent litigation, saying Apple shouldn't be the developers for the whole world.

Results to date have varied for Apple -- literally they've won some and lost some -- but few if any decisive rulings have been made.

As Jerry Hildenbrand often says, this will all likely be resolved in the future by one rich company trading money with another rich company.

In the meantime, HTC's next generation of Android phones are on hold, drinking border coffee. Yikes.

Source: The Verge, Android Central

Walt Disney might possibly potentially think about considering putting their sports network's WatchESPN app on the Apple TV and letting us poor dumb users watch it, provided we authenticate all right-and-proper... with a Pay TV account. Seriously. Bloomberg has the quote:

“We’re a platform-agnostic content company,” Bratches, the network’s executive vice president of affiliate and advertising sales, said today in an interview. “To the extent that in the future there’s an opportunity with Apple to authenticate through the pay-TV food chain as we’re doing with Microsoft, that’s something that we will participate in.”

Authenticate through the pay-TV food what-now?

Here's an idea. Just a crazy thought. You know, I'm totally spitballing here. HOW ABOUT JUST RELEASING THE APP AND LETTING CUSTOMERS SUBSCRIBE TO IT DIRECTLY.

Why make it be any more complicated than it has to be? Why make your users jump through hoops and keep them tied to legacy media delivery systems? The cable and other providers might be their customers now, but that won't be forever and the smarter, more future-thinking content providers, the ones who embrace the digital and mobile transition, are the ones that are going to benefit most.

Having to pay for cable to watch ESPN on your TV so you can authenticate to watch ESPN on your Apple TV is "food chain" that makes sense to precisely no one who's not entirely buried beneath what food becomes when it exists that chain.

Launching an app, subscribing, and watching where you want, when you want, on what you want is a simpler, cleaner, better experience.

That Disney of all companies doesn't understand that, and isn't embracing it, is sad. Though at least it does serve as a reminder that old media companies need to be replaced with new media companies that do understand it. And sooner rather than later.

Source: Bloomberg

Earlier today one "analyst" published an assumption that Google would be making Chrome for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and would market it extensively, and basically bring the desktop browser wars to mobile. He didn't claim any sources, anonymous or otherwise, or any leaked information, or any good faith basis at all for the assumption. It was purely a flight of fancy, and a poorly reasoned one.

Google hasn't announced Chrome for iPhone or iPad, of course. Chrome for iOS would be very difficult to pull off as anything other than a novelty app under iOS 5.

Now Google does make Gmail and Google+, and other apps for iOS, and they work okay. But their primary function isn't web browsing. And here's the thing: Apple doesn't allow alternate HTML or JavaScript rendering engines. If you want to show a web page in a iOS app, you use UIWebView and that's it. And UIWebView, as far as I understand, doesn't have access to the significantly faster Nitro JavaScript engine that the Safari app or that Web.app (Home screen web apps) enjoy.

If you've ever noticed how much slower web pages seem to render inside an iOS app, that's the reason.

Google prides itself on the speed of Chrome. That's part of its raison d'être. From their own implementation of WebKit to their own V8 JavaScript engine, Chrome is all about speed.

Why on earth would Google want to put the Chrome brand on a much slower thin web client on iOS? Even if they skin it to look more like Chrome (and UI has always been one of the worst aspects of Chrome), it would always be worse than Safari, and that would damage the Chrome brand.

Sure, there are "alternative" web browsers in the App Store, and some people love the extra features they provide, but none of those extra features are better local performance. (And I'd argue proxy performance is minimal at best, and always a trade off.)

Apple takes control and security extremely seriously in iOS. I doubt they'll let third party browser or rendering engines onto the iPhone or iPad in iOS 6 or any time in the near or distant future. Google takes Chrome's reputation for speed just as seriously. I doubt they'll put a frustratingly slow web browser on iOS any time in the near or distant future.

Google could very well be playing around with Chrome on iOS in the labs, but there's nothing to indicate it's coming, at least not based on the information presented to date.

Right now, the only story here is the unfortunate one about how it become a story.

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The contest starts now and ends May 21, 2012 at 11:59pm PDT so don't waste any time -- Enter now!

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Apple might just be ready to add photo and video sharing and commenting to iCloud, most likely at WWDC 2012 this June. According to The Wall Street Journal:

The new features, expected to be announced at Apple's world-wide developer conference beginning June 11, will allow iCloud users to share sets of photos with other iCloud users and to comment on them, these people said. Currently, users can only store one set of photos in iCloud through a feature called Photo Stream, which is designed to sync those photos to other Apple devices, not share them.

Apple is also working on a new feature that will allow iCloud users to sync their personal videos via iCloud, these people said, as well as allow users to access "Notes" and "Reminders"—two of its apps for jotting down quick thoughts—through iCloud.com. Currently, those items have to be accessed via apps for those features.

iCloud's predecessor, MobileMe, included a gallery feature that provided sharing functionality, but it was not migrated to iCloud. When Apple introduced iCloud, they included Photo Stream, which handles backup but not sharing.

The recent, apparently inadvertent publication of an iCloud beta site also showed Notes and Reminders web apps that seem likely additions to iCloud.

WWDC 2012 is less than a month away. What else should Apple be adding to iCloud?

It's been almost a week since Apple released iOS 5.1.1 but not everyone seems to have heard about it right away. Some may not have received or noticed the popup notification or badge on the Settings app to advise them it was available. Others may have been waiting to see what, if anything, iOS 5.1.1. did to battery life and performance before updating. Still others aren't updating until a nicely packaged, unthethered jailbreak is available for iOS 5.1.1.

If you're in the first two groups, however, our latest reader survey shows that iOS 5.1.1. is about the same, if not a little better, when it comes to battery life and performance, so you can go ahead and update without any worries. If you still haven't received your update alert, or you missed it, or simply haven't gotten around to it yet, it's really easy, and really fast, to manually start the updating process right on your device, and over-the-air (OTA).

How to manually update to iOS 5.1.1

1. Launch the Settings app
2. Tap General
3. Tap Software Update
4. If there's nothing new, you'll be told just so. Otherwise, you'll be presented with all the details about the update.
5. Tap Download and Install
6. Agree to the Terms and Conditions
7. Watch the progress bar (This part depends on the speed and quality of connection. Don't be alarmed if it takes a long time, speeds up or slows down, or appears to jump around -- be patient.)
8. Once it's finished downloading, you'll be prompted to instal (and restart) your device. If you don't explicitly hit Later or Install within a few seconds, it will install on your behalf.
9. Agree to the Terms and Conditions yet again.
10. Apple will verify the install.

See our complete how to set up, back up, restore, and update using iCloud guide for more, and if you need any extra help, or need to trouble shoot, jump into our iOS 5 Forum.

MGTitleMenu is an open source iOS interface component that lets developers conveniently add pop-up, tile-based contextual menus to iOS apps. It makes the most sense on big screen iPad apps, but can also be used on iPhone or iPad touch. MGTileMenu, as the name hints, is from well known iOS developer Matt Gemmell under a free, attribution license (it can also be licensed without attribution for a small fee).

The idea is, if you're holding an iPad, you can invoke the context menu via a gesture (for example, a double tap). You can the quickly tap one of five action icons, or tap a "more" icon and get additional sets of action icons to choose from. MGTileMenu can also be configured for left handed or right handed use.

Gemmell was also kind enough to include his design and development process in his blog post about the component.

MGTileMenu was created as a way to show options or tools contextually, wherever your hand might be on the iPad’s screen. It’s for use in an app that I’m working on, and I thought it was worth releasing as a useful component.

The tiles are exactly the same size as app icons on the iPad’s Home screen, which provides a sensible consistency and presumably capitalises on Apple’s own research and testing. Believe it or not, the identical size was actually a happy coincidence: the first rounded-rectangle I drew by eye in Photoshop turned out to match iPad app icons to the pixel.

Having made the mockup, I felt there was something visually missing; the tiles needed something to unify them. A bezel seemed like a reasonable choice, so I started experimenting with the concept.

Check out the video below and then go read the whole post via the source link below. The parts about the bezel and the animation flocking are particularly interesting.

Source: mattgemmell.com

From iPhone to iPod touch to iPad, Apple has slowly but surely rolled Retina displays across their iOS device lineup, and according to the latest rumors, they may be ready to start bringing it to the Mac. 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman has the scoop:

Apple will also introduce the Mac Retina Display in this new MacBook Pro, according to these sources in the far-east. The display is quoted as “jaw-dropping” and “definitely the most important Mac innovation in years,” by sources familiar with the quality of the screens in test-production.

Sources familiar with software strings left behind in OS X Lion 10.7.4 and Mountain Lion betas say that this Retina Display MacBook Pro features multiple Retina resolution modes, so users are able to adjust the sharpness and image sizes to their liking.

Reportedly also in the pipeline is a new, thinner design that may ditch the chunky ethernet port, but add a fast USB 3 port to the mix, as well as the MacBook Air-style keyboard.

Retina Display on iOS uses a "point" that contains four pixels for each single pixel on old, non-Retina displays, resulting in text and images that are four times sharper. At that size, the individual pixels are typically too small for the human eye to see, and the results are more like digital paper than traditional dot displays.

Since Apple only had two screen sizes to handle in iOS -- iPhone/iPod touch and iPad -- it was a fairly straightforward transition for developers and designers, and transparent to end users. How they'll handle it with OS X, which goes from the 11 inch MacBook Air to the 27-inch iMac will be interesting.

Talk of Retina display Macs (or HiDPI or resolution independent) has been around for a while, as have signs that Apple has been preparing for it. After the new iPad in March, after using it for long periods of time, going back to the Mac made the text look pixelated.

Hopefully we'll learn -- and maybe even see -- more of these next generation Macs at WWDC 2012 this June.

If you're waiting on new MacBook Pros, jump into our Apple Forum and tell us just exactly what features you'll need to hit the buy button. And for more on Retina display in general, check out our Iterate podcast Retina round table.

Source: 9to5Mac

With both Mothers Day and a birthday in the family this weekend, I didn't have time to compile my usual weekly column. But there are a few things I'd like to comment on and draw your attention to. So let's dive right in.

Podcasts

We've changed up the format of iPhone & iPad Live so that we're talking about less, but talking about it more in-depth. We'd gotten a bunch of feedback about this over the last few months, with many viewers and listeners saying there was just too much news and not enough analysis, too many app mentions and not enough opinion or discussion about how we use them, too many accessories and not enough comparisons. Well, we listened. Now we have one, more in-depth spotlight topic each week and a couple of discussion points. We're still tweaking things, so please keep the feedback coming. (Due to popular demand, we're going to start featuring your feedback on the show as well -- so if you haven't left a comment on last week's episode yet, get to it!)

Speaking of podcasts, the feedback on ZEN and TECH lately has been off the charts (special thanks to the blogging community who've told us how much they like it). The world we live in is more stressful than ever, and Georgia is by far the best in the business at helping people center their inner geek and deal with their connected lives. If you haven't watched or listened lately, do yourself a favor and watch or listen now. It can literally change your life for the better.

Last but certainly not least, we had Loren Brichter on Iterate this week. He created Tweetie which became the original Twitter for iPhone, and is still Twitter for iPad and Twitter for Mac. He also invented pull-to-refresh. Yeah. Genius. Give him a listen.

Rumors

iMore is really careful about rumors because we really value your attention. We're not a rumor site -- we're an enthusiast site. 9 out of 10 times we'll just link to rumors posted on rumor sites. A few times a year, however, we're fortunate to get some really good information about upcoming Apple products, and we're able to check into it and determine it's really good information. Like the iPhone 4S and the new iPad. It's never all the details, so sometimes we misunderstand pieces (i.e. we heard quad-core for the new iPad, and it turned out to be specifically quad-core graphics, not CPU), but overall the info we've gotten has been rock solid. Here's hoping last week was no different.

• 7-inch iPad on track for October 2012 release, $200 to $250 price: Apple doesn't want to leave any room for Amazon in the lower-end tablet space.
• iPhone 5 to be another Google killer -- but with a twist: A new Apple-powered Maps app in iOS 6 might just be the tip of the iceberg.
• iPhone 5 design still not finalized, still no big screen, still no metal back, still on track for October release: Despite some recent rumors to the contrary, we've heard Apple hasn't settled on a widescreen display or metal back yet.

Features

Some great stuff this week:

• Jailbreak concepts Apple should implement in iOS 6 by Ally Kazmucha. Last year Apple took Notification Center, Wi-Fi sync, and more from jailbreak. What should they take this year?
• Is there a future for jailbreak? by Ally Kazmucha. On the flip side, if Apple keeps Sherlocking jailbreak, is there a future left for it?
• Weekly Photo Contest: Black and White! by Leanna Lofte. She's been showing you how to build your iPhone photography skills, and here's your chance to wins some prizes.
• iOS 6: The opposite of widgets by yours truly. Rather than having widgets that take information from apps and splay it on the Home screen, we want that info inside other apps.
• SkyDrive vs. Dropbox vs. Google Drive: best cloud storage option for iPhone and iPad users by Ally Kazmucha. Whether you're new to cloud storage or simply want to check out other options, here's your breakdown.

And the stylus showdown begins:

• SGP Kuel H12 stylus for iPad review by Georgia. Your best bet for long-form note-taking.
• Adonit Jot Pro stylus for iPad review by Georgia. What you want if you're a technical artist.
• Wacom Bamboo Stylus review by Georgia. An okay stylus but not as good or as cheap as the pro-level competition.

Keep an eye out for a pro-stylus battle royal on iMore TV this week!

Marc, Seth, and Rene iterate through Google's Project Glass, upgrade pricing, and Instagram's sale to Facebook, and interrogate Tweetie creator Loren Brichter of Atebits. This is Iterate!

• Our podcast feed
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• Quasar jailbreak concept for iPad windowing
• BlackBerry 10
• Dev Rocket
• Sketch 2
  • Daniel Cooper tested Sketch 2 and found some fairly significant rendering issues Illustrator rendering issues when working on screen art (web and apps)?
• Keith Lang tested Fireworks and found an issue with inner shadow. Marc added Photoshop to the test
• What can you do in one layer in Photoshop?
  
  • 1 Layer Chainsaw by Marc
  • 1 Layer Portal Gun by Jared Sinclair
  • 1 Layer iMac by Daniel Cooper
  • 1 Layer Mona Lisa by Marc
  • 1 Layer Burger by Matt Kelsh
• Adobe CS6

• Loren Brichter of Atebits

Hosts

• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of iMore.com

Feedback

• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
• Facebook: Iterate page

If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

RIM has only just begun previewing BlackBerry 10 and already features like the on-key, gesture-based word prediction are being quickly copied for the iPhone -- at least for jailbreak. Octopus Keyboard is the name of the tweak, and Jeff Benjamin from iDownloadBlog took a look at its current state of development.

As of now the Octopus keyboard can do the following:

• Automatically learns new words as you type them
• Custom completion engine
• Should work for any input language with key input (English, French, Czech, Russian, etc.)

Here are some of the remaining items that he wishes to accomplish before go-live:

• Avoid learning mistakes
• Autocapitalize words in sentences
• Handle , . ! etc at the end of a sentence
• Better handling and display of longer words
• Compatibility with popular tweaks like SwipeSelection

Octopus Keyboard is currently slated for a May 20 release on Cydia. There's no information on pricing yet.

The current iOS keyboard does and forcing you to stop typing and hit a tiny X target to refuse them if they're incorrect. Here's how Kevin Michaluk describes the BlackBerry 10 typing process:

Instead of placing suggested words above the keyboard, which diverts your attention from the keyboard keys while typing, the BlackBerry 10 keyboard layers its suggestions on the frets between the rows, above the key you're about to tap for your next word. From there you can easily swipe a word up or ignore it. Watching the demonstration at BlackBerry World, it really is brilliant. We're excited for it.

The Octopus Keyboard doesn't look like the Blackberry 10 keyboard, but it does implement the words-on-keys concept. It looks a bit odd seeing it on iOS, where the keyboard hasn't changed much in almost 5 years. Kevin also wonders if RIM -- or anyone RIM may be licensing any part of the technology from -- might take action to prevent jailbreak from stealing BlackBerry 10's thunder, given it's still months away from launching.

You can see it all in action in the BlackBerry 10 keyboard hands-on video below, and compare it to the Octopus Keyboard preview immediately thereafter. Check them both out and let us know what you think.

Source: iDownloadBlog

Apple.com no longer shows a product called iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, and has instead renamed it the less internationally controversial iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular.

The problem with the term 4G is that U.S. carriers have utterly abused it and robbed it of any relevant meaning. Originally intended to refer to the upcoming LTE-Advanced standard, carriers quickly discovered it was easier to write 4G on boxes than to actually build 4G networks and no one, no industry association or regulatory authority stood up to them. Verizon marketed current LTE as 4G. Sprint marketed WiMax as 4G. T-Mobile marketed HSPA+ as 4G. And now AT&T markets phones that barely qualify as anything faster than HSPA as 4G.

Of course that's confusing to consumers. Current LTE can hit a theoretical speed of 72mbps. HSPA+ can hit 42mbps. However, some HSPA+ networks are only 21mbps. Some are only 14.4mbps. Real life results are lucky to even reach half that.

Yet they're all currently plastered with 4G marketing.

At the iPhone 4S launch in October 2012, Apple refused to take part in the 4G name games, but at the iPad 3 launch, they went with 4G on the box for both current LTE and HSPA+ (and added 4G to the previously 3G iPhone status bar for AT&T...). And while Apple kept the term 4G in the marketing, they chose not to support LTE outside the U.S. and Canada.

Needless to say, customers outside the U.S. were non-plussed and regulators were not amused.

Renaming iPad Wi-Fi + 4G to iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular is longer and not quite as neat looking, but it sidesteps all the 4G BS rather neatly.

The next generation iPhone is also expected to have LTE capabilities, though it's not known if it will be U.S. and Canada-only, or more expansive. Since Apple hasn't used any radio speed descriptors in the name of the iPhone since the 2008 iPhone 3G and 2009 3GS (3G + Speed), this is hopefully the last we'll hear of the issue.

Source: 9to5Mac

Ashton Kutcher was caught walking around in full on Steve Jobs movie garb. Either that or Kelso just Punk'd TMZ in his turtleneck.

FINE!

Source: TMZ, Pacific Coast News, via TNW

iOS 6 is rumored to be code named Sundance, continuing Apple's tradition of naming iOS releases after ski resorts. This according to MG Siegler at TechCrunch. Siegler also triple confirms the newly updated Maps app is coming in iOS 6, though he thinks the hype surrounding how good it is might be hyperbole.

Specifically, while the 3D functionality is cool, it’s also not something people are going to use regularly. Think of it like Google Street View — cool, but how often do you actually use it when compared to the regular Google Maps product? (Having said that, I still expect Apple’s 3D maps to be cooler than Google Street View.)

He's also heard whispers that Siri might be getting API access, meaning App Store apps could interface with it at some level. As to Siri on the iPad, just like iMore conjectured back in March, he's led to believe Apple is still working out the user interface.

After all, Apple is using the technology for the Dictation functionality found on the new iPad. They’ve just been working on what Siri for iPad will look like, I’ve been led to believe.

Lastly, he speculates iTunes 11, which he says Apple has been trying unsuccessfully to rewrite for a while now, may be getting close to a revamp and may bring some type of Spotify-like functionality. (Yes please.)

Siegler generally has good sources at Apple and has reported correct information in the past. None of the above sounds really farfetched either, and some of it matches what iMore and other sites have also been hearing.

And to think, WWDC 2012 is just exactly a month away...

Source: TechCrunch

Despite some rumors to the contrary, according to our sources Apple still hasn't finalized the design of the next generation iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple ends up calling iPhone 5,1). No giant screen. No 16:9 aspect ratio. No metal back.

Apple typically makes extensive use of the prototyping process, which could well be the source of inconsistent rumors (perhaps best seen in the conflicting iPhone rumors last year). Sometimes there are more audacious and more conservative prototypes, with the final choice coming down to component costs and device tests.

Currently, the new, smaller dock connector is being implemented, but no changes to screen size or aspect ratio have been decided on. And yes, it still has a Home button.

Once again we're hearing that if the screen size does change, it won't be by a lot (no larger than 4-inches). We've heard nothing to indicate a planned change in the aspect ratio either way (and such a change still doesn't make much sense to us).

Keeping the Home button also necessitates certain design trade offs (everything has an opportunity cost) when it comes to overall device size and screen layout.

October is still the planned launch period, alongside the 7-inch iPad we reported on yesterday, and Apple is indeed planning to hurt Google with this release by removing their data pipe into (and out of) the Maps app. (Which we, like others, have heard is terrific looking.)

iMore previously heard the iPhone 5 was going to ship with an LTE radio as well.

A couple of years ago Steve Jobs called a Town Hall meeting at Apple and rallied the troops by saying the next iPhone, which was to be the iPhone 4, would be an A+ update and take it to the turncoat Google and their Android operating system. According to our sources, a similar sentiment is being expressed by Apple in Cupertino again this year, but with a decidedly different twist. Instead of just hitting Google and Android in the market place with better hardware and software, and in the courts with patent litigation, they're going to hit them where it really hurts.

While the exact numbers are hotly debated, it's long been said Google makes more money off iOS than they do off their own Android operating system. The reason for this is simple -- mainstream iOS users tend to use the web and apps more than mainstream Android users, and iOS is filled with Google services. The built-in Maps app is powered by Google and provides sponsored search results. The built-in Safari web browser defaults to Google Search and serves Google Search ads. When iOS users use those services, Google makes money. Regardless of whether or not iOS or Android is winning in the market place, Google is winning in the wallet.

And Apple wants to end that.

Removing Google from Maps is an easy step in that direction. As reported by 9to5Mac earlier today, and as we've confirmed from our own sources as well, iOS 6 will come with an updated Maps app that removes the Google backend and replaces it with an Apple backend.

This isn't without precedent. Both Apple and Google used to use Skyhook for Wi-Fi router location mapping, and both have now switched to in-house databases. Google used to license map tiles and has since re-drawn them themselves. Apple has bought 3 mapping data related companies, and could have either re-licensed or redrawn tiles by now as well.

For the end-user, the interface is the app, and switching out backend pipes is far more transparent than altering front ends. Mail is Mail regardless if it's being fed by iCloud or Gmail. The same holds true, in large part, for Maps.

So in this case, the goal is more interesting than the process -- to remove Google as much as possible from iOS.

Realistically, Google Search will be tougher to replace since Google enjoys an almost monopoly sized share of the search space. But it may not be impossible to displace. Apple is already intermediating Google Search with Siri and that will likely continue.

Google isn't in the search business, it's in the data collection/advertising business. It doesn't make money when you search its index, it makes money recording your information, aggregating it, and brokering deals for it. Search isn't the product it sells. We are. If Apple steps in and makes the queries on our behalf, and returns them on Google's behalf, Google is cut out of the important parts -- the money.

All of this is in stark contrast to January 2007, when then Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the Macworld stage with then Apple CEO Steve Jobs to celebrate the Apple/Google iPhone partnership. That was before Google pulled a 180 and turned Android from a low-end Windows Mobile and BlackBerry competitor to an iPhone competitor. That was before Apple started suing Android manufacturers and Steve Jobs threatened to go "thermonuclear".

And that's before Apple decided to stop helping Google's revenue stream, data stream, and perhaps bolstering their stock profile, by giving them built-in access to iOS users, and Apple branded data deals.

Now, Apple isn't just fighting back by making the best iOS software and iPhone hardware they can, and by trying to legally force Android manufacturers to stop copying Apple. With iOS 6 on the upcoming iPhone 5 and rumored 7-inch iPad, they're fighting back by removing as much of Google as they can as well. By denying Google access to iOS eyeballs and data.

If history is any indicator, both new devices will sell incredibly well, and tens of thousands of new customers, and hundreds of thousands of newly updated customers, will be funding and feeding Google less than ever before.

This time Apple's fighting back by hitting Google where it really hurts -- in the wallet.

Georgia, Rene, and Seth talk iOS 5.1.1, the future of jailbreak, gesture keyboard shortcuts, multi-user support for iPad, Instacast, cloud storage apps, and Jot Pro vs. Wacom Bamboo stylus. This is iPhone & iPad Live!

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Meta

• Want a chance to win 1 of 4 new iPads?
• Editor's desk: BlackBerry and Samsung events, rumor repeats, the Avengers, and more
• Does the Home screen need updating in iOS 6? [Poll]

iOS 5.1.1

• Apple releases iOS 5.1.1 for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
• How is your iOS 5.1.1 battery life? [Poll]

Jailbreak

• Is there a future for jailbreak?
• On iOS text editing concepts and the keys to consistency

News

• Apple rumored to be investigating multi-user iPad support

Apps

• Best free iPad apps
• Instacast 2.0 and the concept of "added value"
• SkyDrive vs. Dropbox vs. Google Drive: best cloud storage option for iPhone and iPad users
• Draw Something is trying to get you to draw their ads for them

Accessories

• Adonit Jot Pro stylus for iPad review
• Wacom Bamboo Stylus review

Hosts

• Georgia (GeorgiaTiPb
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including iPhone and iPad Live, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven't already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

iMore's authoritative guide to the very best, absolutely free ebook, comic book, and article reading apps for iPad

Looking for great free reading apps for your iPad? The App Store is home to over half a million apps and games, and a surprising number of them are available for free. Some of the most popular free apps are free reading apps. We're talking ebooks, comic books, web articles, and more. So start reading, and then start downloading!

iBooks

iBooks is Apple's free ebook and PDF reading app for iPad. It's a stylish way to read not only books purchased from the iBookstore, but all the free books from the massive Project Gutenberg library as well as any of your own ePub or PDF files.

• Download Now

Readability

Readability offers a gorgeous way to read articles from your favorite website without the distraction of ads and other fluff -- for free! You simply set up your free account and add articles with a bookmarklet . A lot of other apps, like Twitter, offer Readability support so that you can add articles directly from those apps.

• Download Now

Kindle

The free Kindle App for iPad is Amazon's ebook reader. Unlike Apple's iBooks, Kindle is cross-platform. If you already have a large Kindle book collection, free or otherwise, or you just want to keep your options open for the future, Kindle is a great choice.

Comics

Comics isn't only the best way to buy new Marvel, DC, Image, and other comic books, but it also includes 500 free comics and one of the best reading interfaces in the App Store!

• Download now

Pocket

Pocket -- the new name for Read it Later -- is a free iPad app that lets you save optimized version of articles and photos and just about anything you encounter on the web and social networks for offline viewing at your leisure and convenience. (You can save videos too, but still need to be online to watch them later.)

• Download Now

More free iPad apps

For dozens of additional free iPad apps, including free instant messenger and communications apps, education apps, entertainment apps, finance apps, fun and games apps, health and fitness apps, kids apps, music apps, navigation and location apps, news apps, photography apps, productivity apps, reading apps, shopping apps, sports apps, travel apps, and general utility apps, see here:

• Best free iPad apps

Leanna Lofte contributed significant sections and photographs to this article.

Apple has pushed out Apple TV software version 5.0.1 (4224), aka iOS 5.1.1 (9B206f). The update applies to both the 2010 Apple TV (720p) and 2012 Apple TV (1080p). No new features are shown following the update, and no new services seem to have been added, so this could well be a bug fix and performance enhancement release.

(And once again I'll add -- how it helps anyone, inside Apple or outside, to refer to the same software by different versions numbers, is beyond me. Could we please just unify behind the same numbering scheme as the rest of iOS and call it a day?)

To update your Apple TV:

1. Click on Settings at the top right
2. Click on General
3. Scroll down and click on Update Software

If you have any trouble or need any help, head on over to our Apple TV forum!

Apple will be going forward with the 7-inch iPad, currently targeting an October 2012 release alongside the new iPhone, and -- here's the killer -- at a $200 to $250 price point. According to our sources, the reason for such aggressive pricing is to do to the tablet market what Apple did to the MP3 market in 2004 with the expansion of the iPod product line -- leave absolutely no space for competitors.

We haven't gotten a firm read on the exact screen dimensions, so we're using 7-inches generically here. Our sources have indicated, however, that the 7-inch iPad will be identical to the current 9.7-inch iPad, just scaled down. That seems to include a 2048x1536 resolution display, just like the new iPad. If accurate, that would put the pixel density at around 326 ppi, the same as the iPhone 4S (and higher than the 264 ppi new iPad) retina display.

It's hard to imagine a device with a panel that large and dense that having a price tag of just $200 to $250, especially when the baseline new iPad comes in at $500, but one way Apple will be keeping costs lower is by providing less storage capacity. $200 to $250 will get you 8GB. By way of comparison, the current entry-level iPod touch also starts at $200 for 8GB. (And no, Apple won't be replacing the iPod touch with the 7-inch iPad, both devices will remain in the product lineup -- though it'll be interesting to see what happens with iPod touch pricing and storage capacity.)

Recently AppAdvice reported on the logic of 7.85-inch iPad, which makes a lot of sense. And both iMore and Daring Fireball heard Apple had that device in the labs. Only the go to market decision remained.

While Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, was famously dismissive of 7-inch tablets, calling them terrible and dead-on-arrival, he also said no one wanted to watch video on an iPod and that Apple wasn't interested in making a phone. One of Jobs' chief criticism of the 7-inch form factor was its impact on software -- that competitors stretched out smartphone apps instead of making iPad-class apps. Obviously, Apple's 7-inch iPad would run the same apps as the current 9.7 inch app, though scaled down. While that will affect design elements like touch targets, and may cause some developers to approach iPad apps in different ways, it's better than introducing a 3rd interface size to the mix (in addition to iPhone/iPod touch and 9.7-inch iPad).

Apple previously addressed the lower price point by keeping the 2011 iPad 2 around at $399 following the launch of the new iPad.

Rumors of a 7-inch iPad mini have been around since just after the launch of the original iPad in 2010, and picked up speed when competitors like Samsung, RIM, and Amazon began offering 7-inch tablets. Some, like the Kindle Fire, are already at the $200 price point, using cheap to compete with good. While Amazon won't talk sales numbers, and none of these devices can really be called successful at this point, to a certain segment of the market, cheap is what matters. Apple hasn't chosen to address that segment in desktop or laptop computers, or in phones, but they have in MP3 players and it sounds like they will again in tablets. And they'll do it in the same way -- by being cheap and good. For large scale markets like education, a 7-inch, $200 to $250 iPad would be compelling.

Steve Jobs' tag line for the original iPad was "...our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price".

Sound like Apple is getting ready to be even more unbelievable.

Same gorgeous gravitational Astronut action of the iPhone version, now in impressive iPad size.

Astronut for iPad is an interstellar treasure of a game. Created by the amazing Iconfactory, the talented team behind Twitterrific and Ramp Champ, the premise is as simple as it is fun. You ricochet through deep space, using the gravity of planets and other celestial bodies to slingshot you in just the right direction to avoid hostile aliens and inhospitable singularities, and collect shards and other rewards.

Initially released for the iPhone and iPod touch, the iPad version takes all of the fun of the original and kicks it up to warp speed on the bigger, vaster iPad screen in full on Retina glory. What's more, if you already have the iPhone version, you can use it as a controller for the iPad version.

Play mechanics remain the same as the iPhone version. As your Astronut hurtles through the void, you can jump from one celestial body to another, and turbo charge your jump when your boost is available. Because the iPad is physically bigger than the iPhone, the controls have been repositioned. You hold the iPad in portrait mode and tap the virtual buttons on the side. Bonus levels can be controlled by tilting the iPad. (Or, as previously mentioned, you can also use the iPhone to control the action.) They're clear and consistent enough that, after a few tastefully inserted tips fly by in the early levels, you'll be all set.

Astronut boasts 6 sectors and 24 levels. Unlike the iPhone version where you can upgrade to the full version of Astronut via in-app purchase, the iPad version charges you up front and gives you all the levels right away. There are 40 challenging achievements to unlock, and full Game Center support so you can not only beat your friends, but let everyone know you beat them.

The design is gorgeous, as you might expect from an Iconfactory app. But Astronut is not just pixel pretty -- the sound design is fantastic as well.

If you liked Astronut on the iPhone, you'll love it on the big iPad screen. If you haven't tried Astronut yet, the iPad version is a great way to start.

The good

• Looks great, sounds great, plays great
• Casual but captivating
• iPhone controllable

The bad

• Settings are buried (I'm scrounging here.)

The conclusion

There are few things better in this world than native iOS games made by native iOS developers. From pixel to bit, Astronut for iPad captures every spark of awesome ignited by the iPhone original and translates it perfectly the iPad. I still can't tell you who'd win in a fight, a caveman or an astronaut, but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that Astronut is all win.

$1.99 - Buy now

Last week I ruminated out loud about whether or not Apple needs to redesign the iOS Home screen. We've continued to discuss it on the podcast and in the forums and I realized something: as much as it'd be nice to information from apps and make it glanceable on the Home Screen, it'd be even better to take functionality of apps and make it accessibly from within other apps.

Sure, it's nice to be able to see today's date on the Calendar icon, and it would be nice to see today's weather on the Weather icon and so forth, and information density could absolutely stand to be improved on the Home screen. And yes, there's an argument to be made that familiarity is a feature and Apple won't mess with the app launcher, the familiar mechanic by which hundreds of millions of users feel comfortable using iOS. But either way, that's a fleeting concern -- I don't spend much time hanging out on the Home screen.

Apple has said all along that the goal of the iPhone and iPad was to get out of the way. They're essentially giant screens so that, when you launch an app, the device becomes the app. When you're in Calendar, it becomes a calendar. When you're in Phone, it becomes a phone. When you're in a game, it becomes that game. Arguably, the Home screen is just a simple app launcher because all Apple wants you to do is unlock your iPhone or iPad and launch apps as quickly as possible. They want you in apps. And that's exactly where I am. I'm in Twitter. I'm in Campfire. I'm in Safari.

The problem is, when I'm in an app, if anything else happens, I'm forced out of that app and into another app. If a notification pops up alerting me to an iMessage or an email, and I want to either read all of it or respond, I have to stop what I'm doing, leave the app I'm in, go to the source app, and then respond.

Notifications are actionable but not immediately functional. I can't "quick view" a Tweet or a Facebook message, I have to go to the Twitter or Facebook app. I can't "quick reply" to them in-app, I have to go back to the associated apps to respond. That either causes me to ignore messages I may not really wish to ignore, or to wrench myself out of what I'm doing to go handle them immediately.

There's more to this equation as well -- Windows Phone-style contracts so apps can better communicate with each other, and an iCloud aware Files.app so documents can be picked in-app as easily as photos and videos.

We may no longer have model alerts in iOS that you can only ignore or act on immediately, but in some ways, notifications today remain as binary as they ever were.

By contrast, jailbreak apps like BiteSMS let you quickly respond to a text no matter which app you're in. Your app (or game) pauses, a text entry box is overlayed, you enter your message, you hit send, and you're current app resumes. With apps like LockInfo, you see an email notification, and you can tap a button, and read it without even unlocking your device.

Those may seem like subtle differences -- a pause of state rather than change of state and back -- but in practice it's far more efficient. It reduces a lot of friction, and makes the experience far, far better.

It could be implemented as a popup or added to an existing layer like Notification Center (tapping the icon goes to the app, tapping the snippet flips Notification Center around and shows a preview/reply bow, for example). Apple has all the tools to make it happen.

So rather than widgets, which take app data and put it on the Home screen, I'd far prefer functional notifications that take app interactions and put them wherever I happen to be.

And I'd like it in iOS 6.

Additional resources

• iOS 6 wants: Files app and documents picker with iCloud
• The 4 inch iPhone
• iOS 6: Is it time for Apple to revamp the Home screen?
• The challenge of bringing Siri to the iPad
• iOS 6 and privacy: How Apple should draw inspiration from Android for better app

The new iPhone hitting in September, a "10-inch" new new iPad hitting in Q4, and, of course, a 7-inch iPad mini coming in August got recycled and reposted on the interwebs today. Time was we could count on a red iPhone or iPhone nano rumor getting trotted out every holiday season. Clearly the iPad is the new thing, so fall iPad release rumors are the new retread. Or the new new retread. The source, not surprisingly, is randomly accurate rumor site, Digitimes.

Pegatron Technology reportedly has landed orders for a new-generation iPhone to be launched in September and a 10-inch iPad to be launched in the fourth quarter, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.

A 7-inch iPad, which reportedly will be released in August, will be manufactured by Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry).

So let's break these down. In 2011 Apple shifted their previous summer iPhone release schedule to the fall, with the iPhone 4S (iPhone 4,1) launching in early October. It's not hard to imagine they'll keep to that schedule this year for the next iPhone (iPhone 5,1). Late September is close to early October, so that's not an impossible launch window.

It's harder to reconcile what they mean by a "10-inch" iPad when all iPads to date have been 9.7 inches. There are competing tablets at 10.1 inches, but not 10 inches. If they're suggesting Apple will introduce a new iPad line at 10-inches alongside the existing 9.7-inch line (much as many hope a new 4-inch iPhone joins the current 3.5-inch iPhone line), that's difficult to imagine. Benefits would be negligible. There's just not as much relative difference between 9.7 and 10 as there is between 3.5 and 4. And screen density (what puts the "Retina" in the "Retina display" marketing) would fall from 264 to 256 ppi.

As to a Q4 2012 timeline, last year several people (iMore included) heard that Apple was considering launching the iPad 3 in fall, 2011. Ultimately, due to costs and constraints on 2048x1536 Retina displays, iPad 3 retained the tradition spring position, and we got it in March, 2012. The advantage to a fall 2011 iPad 3 release was significant -- competitors were theoretically ramping up to challenge Apple with a new generation of tablets. An iPad 3 in fall of 2011 would have kicked the legs out from under these competing devices before they gained any traction. Turns out they didn't need any help from Apple, and in their race to get to market, they shipped unfinished operating systems with little to no app support.

This time around, there haven't been any credible rumors of an additional 2012 iPad launch. Since Apple now has a Retina display, LTE equipped iPad on the market, it's also hard to see any pressure on them to get an iPad 4 out early. (Windows 8 probably won't gain significant tablet traction until several months after launch anyway, if that.)

As to the 7-inch iPad mini, that's something Apple has in the lab, along with a lot of other products, and they'll release it when they feel they can go to market with it and sell 10s of millions, if not 100s of millions of units. Apple is, even more than a design company or software company, a go-to-market company. If Apple sees a huge opening for a 7-inch iPad this summer, they'll no doubt go for it. If not, it'll stay in the lab, maybe forever. Apple, as they've often said, are even more proud of the products they've chosen not to release.

It's always interesting to think about Apple's upcoming product roadmap, but in this case the rumors seem more than just a little recycled.

Source: Digitimes

iMore's authoritative guide to the very best, absolutely free social networking apps for iPhone and iPod touch

Looking for great free social networking apps for your iPhone or iPod touch? The App Store is home to over half a million apps and games, and a surprising number of them are available for free. Some of the most popular free apps are -- surprise, surprise -- free social networking apps. We're talking Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Path, and more. So start reading, and then start downloading!

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social network on the planet, and it's always been one of the most popular free apps on the iPhone. Inside the free Facebook app, you can update your status, view photos, and check into your location. You can also keep up with your news feed, messages, events, pages, chat, as well as upload your photos and videos, and much, much more. (And if you're looking for more friends, check out our Facebook name swap thread!)

• Download Now

Twitter

Twitter and the iPhone go together like chocolate and peanut butter, and the free, official Twitter app for iPhone is the best way to get started finding cool celebrities and interesting internet personalities to follow, and trending topics to get involved with. (And be sure to check out our Twitter name swap thread to find other iMore members to tweet with!)

• Download Now

Twitterrific

Twitterrific was the very first Twitter app for iPhone and it remains one of the best to this day. With a combined view for the ultimate in Twitter reading experiences, Tweetmarker support, and and iPad and Mac version, If you're not brand new to Twitter and want at free Twitter app with a less mainstream, more traditional focus, then you want Twitterrific.

• Download Now

Google+

The free Google+ app for iPhone gives you instant access to your Google account, and instant uploads for your photos. Share to your circles, read updates from your stream, and join mobile hangouts.

• Download Now

LinkedIn

With the LinkedIn app for iPad, you will have on-the-go access to your professional network. You can keep up with the latest news and keep up with your groups and share content.

• Download now

Path

Path is a free Smart Journal app that helps you share life with the ones you love — your thoughts, the music you’re listening to, where you are, who you’re with, when you wake and when you sleep, and beautiful high quality photos and videos

• Download now

Pinterest

Pinterest is the new, rapidly growing, free social network that let's you pin photos, articles, recipes, or anything you think is cool, to your virtual pinboard. With the free Pinterest for iPhone app, you can view the pins of your friends, repin, like, and comment on your favorite pins, and pin directly from your camera.

• Download Now

Soundcloud

Almost every social networking app lets you share photos. The free Soundcloud app for iPhone lets you share music, voice memos, noises, and more. Record them where ever you are and share them to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more.

• Download now

Find my Friends

Find My Friends lets you easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Whether you're on a family trip to a theme park or just want to meet up with some acquaintances for a drink, Find my Friends can make sure everyone knows where everyone else is.

• Download now

More free iPhone apps

For dozens of additional free iPhone apps, including free instant messenger and communications apps, education apps, entertainment apps, finance apps, fun and games apps, health and fitness apps, kids apps, music apps, navigation and location apps, news apps, photography apps, productivity apps, reading apps, shopping apps, sports apps, travel apps, and general utility apps, see here:

• Best free iPhone apps

Leanna Lofte contributed significant sections and photographs to this article.

Instacast 2.0 is a significant update to one of the most popular iPhone podcast clients. It changes the user interface and user experience while lowering the entry price and adding an in-app purchase for additional functionality. Both of those things have caused some controversy. Our own Seth Clifford, co-host of iPhone & iPad Live and Iterate is clearly on the "ticked off" side of this particular equation. And he's clearly got his Hulk pants on for this one.

Instacast released its 2.0 update yesterday to some Twitter fanfare. As a regular user of the app, I updated immediately. Now, to be clear, I don't love Instacast. In fact, I have lots of personal issues with it. But as a regular listener of podcasts, it sucked the least of all the apps I've tried, and I've tried many. I wish so much that Apple would add even the most basic subscription support for podcasts to iOS within the native music app, but they haven't, and it doesn't look like they will any time soon.

What I found after updating was an interface that remained just as abstruse as the initial one, with the "added value" of reduced functionality. Most notably, the default behavior for podcasts downloaded within the app was altered. The original behavior of the app was that when podcasts were downloaded, they would stack up in a list, from oldest at the top to newest at the bottom. Now that order is reversed, to list the newest at the top. Which fundamentally changes the only way I listen to shows.

Read the rest of it via the link below. To be fair, there are some people who seem to really like the Instacast update. I haven't spent any real time with it yet, but plan to. The previous version, as Seth states in his article, had significant usability problems (as do all the iOS podcast clients I've tried).

Source: Seth Clifford

Apple appears to be in the early -- yet strangely public -- stages of testing Notification Center-style banner alerts on iCloud.com, the web portal they provide for remote email, calendar, and contact access.

Apple introduced both Notification Center (as part of iOS 5) and iCloud at WWDC 2011 and have since added Notification Center to the OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion developer preview. Given Apple's recent push towards providing a more consistent user experience across their platforms, it makes sense for the web to be included in the mix.

However, being only a month away from WWDC 2012, do iOS 5-style banners for iCloud.com mean there's less of a chance we'll see better banners in iOS 6 this June? While less obtrusive than the pre-iOS 5 modal alerts, iOS 5 banners still aren't as functional or elegant as webOS' were years ago.

Sometimes a web test is just a web test, so I won't read anything more into this for now. Parity between OS X and iOS and the web will be great.

Apple's new iPad will be launching in 30 additional regions on May 11 and 12, according to an update to localized versions of Apple's website. MacRumors hunted down the complete list:

May 11: Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Morocco, Peru, Taiwan, Tunisia, Vietnam

May 12: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

Turkey also launched without announcement last week. This will bring availability of Apple's new iPad to almost 60 regions since launching in the U.S. last month.

It continues to be an incredibly fast rollout for Apple. Previous year's iPad launches were far more limited in regions and took longer to reach additional regions. Constraints on the large 9.7-inch 1024x768 display was often blamed as the cause. Yet this year, with a double dense 2048x1536 Retina display, the new iPad seems to be flying out of the factories. Apple credited the speed of the rollout to to the supply they'd managed to build up. As of their Q2 2012 conference call a couple of weeks ago, Apple was still selling the new iPad literally as fast as they could make them.

Since Apple sells iPads factory unlocked, it's likely everyone who really wanted one managed to travel or ship a new iPad to their location already. For those who have been waiting to get the new iPad on their home turf, however, the wait is almost over.

If you're picking up a new iPad when it hits your local store, let us know where and what you're getting!

Source: Apple.com via MacRumors

iMore has teamed up with the amazing folks at Scout to give away FOUR new iPads (with 16GB & WiFi) featuring Retina Display, iSight camera, & more! You can enter for your chance to win over one our iMore Facebook Page, and you can get more chances to win by sharing with your friends.

The contest starts now and ends May 21, 2012 at 11:59pm PDT so don't waste any time -- Enter now!

• iMore Facebook page

Find the perfect iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, accessory, or app gift for the mother in your life!

Looking for just the right tech gift for mother's day? Trying to decide between an iPhone and an iPad? An Apple TV and an iPod touch? A gorgeous case or a fantastic speaker? An app she'll love or a game she can't get enough of? Or perhaps you're simply looking for a great way to send a card, some flowers, or a gift certificate? Not a problem. iMore's got you covered. Whether you're buying for your mother, or helping the kids buy for theirs, here are some of our favorite device, peripheral, and product picks for mom!

iOS device gifts for Mother's day

It's a big ticket item to be sure, but whether you're footing the bill alone or chipping in with the rest of the family, there's no gift quite like an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Apple TV.

The Apple TV starts at only $100, the iPod touch and iPhone at $200 (on contract for the iPhone), and the iPad 2 at only $400. If the mother in your life doesn't yet have an iOS device, it's the perfect time to get her one. And if she does, but she's looking for more, it's a great time to help out. With an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Apple TV, a whole world of content opens up. Watch, listen, learn, laugh, love. It really is the gift that keeps on giving.

Not sure which one you should get? Not a problem! Start here:

• iOS device gift guide

iPhone and iPad accessory gifts for Mother's Day

If the mother in your life already has all the iOS devices she needs, and you still want something substantial you can wrap up and give her, accessories are a great gift idea. They can change the way her iPhone or iPad looks and works, and make mom's life easier or simply more fun. Here are some of the very best accessories for Mother's Day, picked by our exceptionally accessory-savvy senior editor -- and mom -- Georgia.

SGP Linear Blitz Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 review

Every iPhone looks pretty much the same. Luckily, there are tons of awesome cases that can add some personality and style, and change the look on a daily basis if we so choose. The SGP Linear Blitz is simply one of the hottest iPhone cases I've ever seen. It's bulkier than ultra-light or feather cases, but offers more protection. The Apple logo cutout is simply amazing. If you don't think the mother in your life would mind trading a little extra size for incredible good looks, the SGP Linear Blitz Case could be for her.

$31.95 - Buy now

Overboard waterproof case for iPhone and iPad

Time was, if you wanted to get away from it all, you secreted yourself in the bathroom and took a long, relaxing, sudsy soak in the tub with something indulgent to drink and marvelous to read. Getting a trashy magazine or paperback a little wet was no big deal, but for our previous iPhones and iPads, it's a deal breaker. That's why the Overboard waterproof cases are so great. They completely protect your device while still keeping it responsive to the touch. And while, with an iPad or iPhone you can certainly read your fill of iBooks, Kindle, or Newsstand, you can do more -- watch TV and movies, and play video games. Now that's relaxing!

Various - Buy now

SGP GLAS.t Screen Protector

The problem with screens is that they scratch. The problem with most screen protectors is that they feel like plastic. Not so with the SGP GLAS.t. As the name implies, this screen protector looks and feels like glass. If the mother in your life is a little less careful and a little more rough and tumble with her iPhone, this is a great way to keep it safe.

$29.95 - Buy now

BodyGuardz ScreenGuardz HD for The new iPad and iPad 2

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The iPad has an even bigger screen than the iPhone and, especially if we have little ones around the house, can require even more screen protection. It won't stop damage due to drops or impact (you'll need a protective case for that) but it will stop scratches and scrapes that happen in the blink of an eye but annoy you ever after.

$17.95 - Buy now

SGP kuel H12 Stylus Pen

Steve Jobs might have thought a stylus was yucky, but for many a mom, it can be miraculous. For ladies with long nails or in freezing winter climates, properly using an iPhone or iPad touch screen can be difficult or uncomfortable. Not so with a stylus. Any app that involves handwriting, drawing or painting can also be much easier, and much more fun with a stylus. As can gaming.

The SGP kuel H12 Stylus Pen is Mobile Nation's favorite stylus. If you think your mom might want something smaller and more compact to carry around, try the Kuel H10.

$19.95 - Buy now

Jawbone JAMBOX

The one downside to the iPhone and iPad is their small, mono speakers. If mom wants to blast some music and get her groove on, Apple isn't going to get the job done. But the Jawbone JAMBOX will. It works over Bluetooth so once it's charged and ready to go, there are no wires to get in your way. It's small and easy to carry, yet packs a powerful audio punch. It can also be used as a speakerphone which is especially great for group calls or FaceTime with families on special occasions.

$199.95 - Buy now

iPhone and iPad app gifts for Mother's Day

Apps are great tech gifts. They're not expensive but they can provide ours of use, or just plain fun. Best of all, you can gift them up until the last possible moment, and they'll still arrive at nearly the speed of email. Here are some of our favorite apps for mom, picked by our very own app editor extraordinaire -- and mom -- Leanna Lofte.

Sincerely Ink

Don't be lame and rush to the grocery store to pick up some last minute left-over Mother's Day card on the morning of -- make a custom card with Sincerely Ink! It features 32 different Mother's Day templates that can be customized to featured your photos. The convenience of making the card and mailing it directly with your iPhone and iPad is easier than going to the store and the personalization makes it more special for Mom -- it's a win-win!

Free - Download Now

The Photo Cookbook - Baking

Does your mom love to bake? Then she's going to love The Photo Cookbook - Baking for iPhone and iPad and its 60 yummy recipes and 500+ gorgeous photos! Each recipe is beautifully laid out and easy to follow and tapping on an ingredient will tell you more about it.

The Photo Cookbook - Baking is also available as an in-app purchase for $3.99 in The Photo Cookbook - Quick & Easy. So if you want to go all out, get Mom the Quick & Easy app and pick up the Italian, Asian, and Baking cookbooks available as in-app purchases.

Pro-tip: Make Mom one of the items from the The Photo Cookbook - Baking and present them both to her as gift on Mother's Day.

Baking, $4.99 - Download Now

Quick & Easy - $4.99 - Download Now

Gilt City

What Mom doesn't love to shop and get a great deal? Gilt City will be her go to app then next time she hits up the big city closest to her because it's loaded with great deals from local shops and restaurants. I actually recommend picking something up for her from Gilt City, and when she complains that you spent too much money on her with that package of four Salsa dance classes, you can exclaim "No worries, Mom! It was only $30 with the Gilt City app! Here, let me download it to your iPhone for you!" Your mom will be so proud!

Free - Download Now

Sitter Sorter

For mom's of little ones, finding a baby sitter and keeping track of her regular sitters is a chore in and of itself. With Sitter Sorter for iPhone, this chore becomes a breeze -- and maybe even a little fun. Sitter Sorter allows Mom to store the days and times that sitters are available and all their contact info, so when she's looking for a sitter, she can just type in the time and date that she needs a sitter for, and Sitter Sorter will list which sitters are available during that time. Then she can send the sitter a text, or if the sitter is also using Sitter Sorter, a request is sent to the sitter and s/he can send a confirmation right back.

$0.99 - Download Now

Cut the Rope

Every mom needs a good game for those times she just wants to relax and have some time to herself, and what a better game than Cut the Rope! It's fun, cute, and can be played for short bursts of time or for hours at time. Perfect!

$0.99 - Download Now

Last minute gift ideas for Mother's Day

If you've waited until the last minute and you forgot a gift for that special mother in your life, here are your choices: a) crash through the upstairs window, dive roll through the flowerbed, hotfoot it to the car, screech out the driveway, and hit up the QuickyMart of air fresheners and chocoblocks; or b) check out the list below, tap a few links, type a few words, sit back and wait for the smiles.

Netflix, Hulu Plus, Slacker and other subscription

Subscription are nice because you give them once but they last the entire year. For iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad using mom's, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Slacker are great options.

• Netflix
• Hulu Plus
• Slacker Personal Radio

iTunes, App Store, iBooks gifts and gift certificates

Content is king of the last minute gifts. Your mom can never have too many apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, or books to enjoy. With a gift certificate, they can find the ones that are just perfect for them!

Variable - Buy now

Amazon gift certificates

Amazon has a ton of digital content all there own, but they also have old school media -- paper books, plastic CDs and Blu-Rays, games that come on cartridges... Gift certificates let them pick just exactly the goods -- real or virtual -- they want, and Amazon will deliver it straight to their door or their device.

Variable - Buy now

Your picks?

There you have it, iMore Nation, our top tech gifts for Mother's Day. Did we miss any of your favorites? If so, tell us all about them in the comments below!

Apple has pushed out iOS 5.1.1, a free software update for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users. The minor point release focuses, as usual, on bug fixes and performance enhancements.

This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
• Fixes an issue where 'Unable to purchase' alert could be displayed after successful purchase

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

You can update now quickly and efficiently, on-device and over-the-air (OTA) by going to Settings, General, Software Update on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Or you can break out the USB dock cable, tether up, and launch iTunes on your Mac or Windows desktop. If you need help updating, here's where to go:

• How to update your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad over-the-air using iCloud
• How to update your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad using iTunes on Mac or Windows
• iOS 5 help and discussion forum

Jailbreakers, as always, will want to stay clear. If you notice any other changes, drop us a line.

The note Instagrammed above and quoted below greets new Apple employees on their first day of work. That's not a new revelation, but seeing it turn up again online is a great reminder. Apple sweats a lot of little details. From day one.

There is work and there is your life's work.

The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind of work that you never compromise on. Thought you'd sacrifice a weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People don't come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the deep end.

They want their work to add up to something.

Something big. Something that couldn't happen anywhere else.

 Welcome to Apple.

That sense -- that Apple is working on things that are insanely great, that will dent universes -- was deliberately made part of Apple's corporate culture during the Steve Jobs era, and is something the current executive team no doubt wants to maintain.

Ultimately, whether you find it inspirational or cultish, it's proven effective, over and over again, every time Apple ships a new device or announces record results.

Often in modern companies employees aren't instilled with a sense of value. Their individual contributions are recognized and they aren't made to feel as if they matter. Sometimes they're deliberately made to feel like they don't matter, like they're an insignificant cog in a giant wheel, expendable and always replaceable. That products are part of an assembly line, a unending conveyer belt of beige boxes. A machine.

There's no shortage of stories about Steve Jobs and Apple utterly annihilating employees, or about the stresses and pressures endured by those who work at Apple.

But on the first day, when employees are new and expectations are set, they're told they can change the world at Apple. And that's a tremendously powerful message.

Source: M via @nickbilton,

The Next Web

Evernote, makers of the widely popular note-taking and idea management apps for iPhone, iPad, and pretty much every platform you can think of, have bought Penultimate, one of the premiere hand-written note-taking apps on the iPad. Evernote will be keeping Penultimate as a separate app, however, and will be moving to push it out to other platforms as well. Ben Zotto, Penultimate's developer, has written a blog post about the acquisition:

Penultimate has come a long way since its launch as the original dedicated handwriting app for Apple’s first iPad two years ago. It now offers scores of powerful features within that same accessible and attractive design. It’s remained a top-selling app, and millions of people have showed us that they’re doing things with Penultimate we never imagined. I’ve been amazed and humbled by all of the passionate users I’ve encountered— you have offered your valuable feedback, support, and candid (!) critiques. Penultimate would not be what it is without you. I believe that this partnership makes a lot of sense, and Penultimate is only going to get better from here. Not just incrementally better, but WAY better, and quickly. I’m excited about the future of the app, and I sincerely hope that you will be too.

Zotto also notes, interestingly enough, that core members of the Evernote team have been involved in mobile handwriting recognition technology going back to the days of the Apple Newton.

The main Evernote app is currently iMore's favorite way to enter text, record voice, and take photos (and be able to search text in photos) for every day productivity. Evernote has branched out into other, more specific apps as well, including Evernote Food and Evernote Hello. Penultimate added basic Evernote support earlier this year, but that will no doubt increase now that they're a member of the Evernote family.

Here's the full press release.

Mountain View, CA – May 7, 2012 – Evernote, the company that's helping the world remember everything, today announced the acquisition of Penultimate, the most popular digital handwriting application for iPad, and the fourth best-selling iPad app of all time. The acquisition will allow Evernote to expand its handwriting capabilities, while also making Penultimate available on more platforms and devices.

"Digital handwriting has been around for decades, but it has never gone mainstream because the hardware and software simply weren't aligned. Thanks to Penultimate and the iPad, that's all changing," said Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote. "For the first time ever, writing on a tablet is really great, which is why we chose this moment to make the acquisition. We have big plans for Penultimate that will both enhance the app and bring more capabilities into Evernote. It's already the best handwriting app out there, and it's only just getting started."

The Penultimate app is designed to resemble a physical notebook. Individuals can use a finger or stylus to take notes wherever they like. The application allows users to choose from a variety of paper types, ink colors and line thicknesses. Notes taken in Penultimate can be saved directly to Evernote with a single tap.

"Technology often distances us from things that feel natural and human. With Penultimate, our goal was to use the most advanced tools to enable something that was at once powerful and familiar," said Ben Zotto, creator of Penultimate. "I’m thrilled to join the Evernote family. Their vision and expertise will help bring exciting improvements to Penultimate, and together we’ll elevate the importance of handwriting within Evernote."

And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest mobile sites found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Mobile Nations was born -- to provide the coverage no generic tech blog could provide! Through the years, their roster has prospered, changing several times, but their glory has never been denied! Heed the call, then—for now, the Mobile Nations ASSEMBLE!

BlackBerry World 2012

Our sibling site, Crackberry.com did a fantastic job covering BlackBerry World 2012. Head on over there to read all about it, or check out reading list below for Kevin Michaluk's round up. tl;dr version: They loved it. I watched the Keynote stream and... it was more of a mixed bag for me. When RIM should have rushed to adapt to a post-iPhone world, they took so much time they nearly destroyed their brand. When they should have taken their time to release a proper tablet, they rushed and let the PlayBook drop like stone. Now, when they're bleeding market share and user base each and every day, they're taking their time to get BlackBerry 10 as perfect as possibl. It's absolutely the right thing to do, but they simply may no longer have the time or technology left to do it.

They weren't expected to show anything at the keynote but they ended up showing just a little bit. It was interesting -- very much the PlayBook made phone. It's heavily gesture-based, which means discoverability will be a problem and it'll skew towards a more savvy, less mainstream audience. But that's exactly who RIM is targeting.

The new CEO, Thorsten Heins, apparently came off far, far better than his predecessors during the event. During the keynote, however, he tragically maintained the Regis Philben schtick of Mike Lazaridis -- constantly staying on stage and consistently interrupting during tech demos. Hopefully when RIM watches the replay, they'll stop that from happening again. They also have to stop RIM Australia from doing dumb, distracting stunts just says before their big events.

RIM has a lot of challenges ahead -- they're incredibly late to market, their developer platform is still remarkably unfocused, and what they showed on stage did not appear to be as far along as what Steve Jobs showed off in January 2007, some six months before the original iPhone launch. Steve Jobs, however, didn't send developers at Macworld home with prototype hardware. He also didn't pledge $10k paydays for certified apps. Hopefully both those things will help make up the difference for RIM.

Bottom line, though, the only thing that really matters now is shipping. They have to nail the BlackBerry 10 landing. And they have to nail it hard.

Samsung Unpacked

Android Central likewise killed it at Samsung Unpacked. Unfortunately, Samsung did everything they could to kill the event first. Sure, I'm used to the polish and precision of an Apple event, but there's just no excuse for a lot of what happened at Unpacked. It was as if no one bothered to rehearse the presentation before hand.

Samsung announced the hugely anticipated Galaxy S III to thunderous applause and the director immediately cut to the crowd -- where no one was clapping. Samsung announced their new, rain drop inspired audio tone, it sounded like someone peeing, and the Samsung rep herself looked aghast -- and called it "bizarre". On mic. Not only did they invoke Palm's river stone design philosophy, claim technically if not morally correct invention of Palm-like wireless charging, they managed to match the creepy lady motif of Palm's early, ill-fated advertising with truly strange videos all their own.

They also announced Samsung versions of Siri and iTunes Match, after earlier announcing a Samsung version of iCloud.

Given the build-up -- a build-up Samsung orchestrated -- it's understandable that there were a lot of heads shaking after the event. Last year Samsung blew HTC out of the water with the best Android phones on the market. This year, when compared to HTC's new One kit, they came up decidedly short.

Rumor repeats

Hey, did you hear? The iPhone 5,1 might have a newly redesigned micro dock connector and a widescreen display. It's been "confirmed".

And it sure sounds familiar. It's almost as if it had been reported months and weeks ago.

If you hear a rumor, and it's been reported before, telling your readers that lets them better assess the likelihood of the rumor. That's the job of a writer -- to serve the reader.

Features

Now for some original content.

• Best free iPad apps: Leanna leads team iMore in the presentation of 50+ awesomely free apps for Apple's tablet.
• Post iPhone ergo propter iPhone: Yours truly begins to explore the strategy Apple has used to try and continuously off-balance their competition and force them into a constant cycle of reaction.
• Pandora vs. Slacker vs. Spotify: iPhone music streaming app shootout!: Ally takes a look at the three most popular U.S. streaming music solutions, and helps you pick the very best one for you.
• iOS 6: Is it time for Apple to revamp the Home screen?: Yours truly again, this time taking a look at the iOS Home screen, how it compares in terms of usability and information density to competing platforms, and whether Apple needs to address any discrepancies.
• Siri six months later: Community report card: the iMore nation tells us they're just not using Siri and we try to figure out why.
• Apple’s next big thing: You know who, looking at Apple's accelerating device profits, and what product could possibly keep them up.
• How to use iCloud like a Dropbox or Google Drive-style cloud store: Gary goes all ninja on iCloud to try to make it work in as close to a Dropbox style manner as possible.

Reading list

• Five Important Observations From BlackBerry World 2012 by Kevin Michaluk. A list of what RIM got right at BlackBerry World.
• Why You Can't Trust Tech Press to Teach you About the Tech Industry by Anil Dash. A case study in how it can be frustrating when someone else misses something you wouldn't (though you'll likely sometimes miss something someone else wouldn't either).
• Apple Is Doomed: The Phony Sony Parallel by Jean-Louis Gassée. Why Apple wasn't like Sony before, so can't be modeled on Sony now. By one of the guys at Apple between Steve Jobs' two acts.
• What retail is hired to do: Apple vs. IKEA by Horace Dediu. An interesting look at why IKEA, like Apple, isn't getting their retail implementation copied.
• I'm leaving the internet for a year by Paul Miller. As stunts go, there doesn't seem to be a clear win here. In some ways, the longer it lasts the less interesting it becomes. Like groups who live without electricity, the line drawn always comes off as arbitrary -- i.e. why are you allowed fire but not lightning?! (I do know I wouldn't last a day. Maybe a week if I was locked in a harem. But that's it.)

The Avengers

Joss Whedon's Avengers was fantastic. Pretty much the super-hero epic I've dreamed about since I was a child. We're talking about it, with lots of spoilers, and the type of nit-picks only those deeply in love with a film can pick. Jump on over to our Movie & TV Forum to get in on the action.

If you haven't seen it yet, go now.

When Apple announced their free iCloud service at WWDC 2011, users of the previous, paid, MobileMe service were given a temporary boost in storage. The extra storage was previously set to expire in June of 2012. According to a recent change in Apple's MobileMe to iCloud transition FAQ, however, that's now been extended until September.

MobileMe members with 20GB of purchased storage receive a complimentary iCloud storage upgrade of 20GB, and accounts with additional purchased storage (40GB to 60GB) receive a complimentary upgrade of 50GB after moving to iCloud. These free upgrades are good through September 30th, 2012. After that date, you can continue the upgrade at the regular price or let it expire and use the free 5GB plan.

The extra storage is meant as a way to encourage MobileMe users to transition to iCloud faster -- as is the recent offer of a free OS X Snow Leopard upgrade for OS X Leopard users.

While Photo Stream and iTunes in the Cloud don't count towards the iCloud storage limits, mail, Documents in the Cloud, and backups do. If you're currently enjoying the extra storage Apple provides MobileMe users, you have several extra months to enjoy it. After that, you'll have to decide if you want to keep paying for it or not.

There are several ways to cut down on the amount of storage you're using -- especially turning off Camera Roll backup. Check out the iCloud links below for more.

• How to manually manage what gets backed up to iCloud
• How to buy more iCloud storage
• How to downgrade your iCloud storage

Source: Apple via Macotakara

Pad & Quill are purveyors of fine, Minnesotan, handcrafted iPhone and iPad cases, namely the Little Black Book, Contega, and Octavo. Last summer we took look at them for the iPhone 4, iPad 2, and MacBook Air, and last month we looked at the updated Contega for the new iPad. But that wasn't all P&Q had up their sleeves for 2012. Not content with their existing Baltic Birch and Spanish leather concoctions, they went back to the bindery and returned with something richer and even higher end -- the Little Luxury Book for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S and the Octavo Luxury for the new iPad.

The same great Pad & Quill designs in new, luxury leather models

The Little Luxury Book comes with all the usual, fantastic Little Black Book fit, finish, and features, only wrapped in thick, buttery mahogany brown or onyx black leather. If the original Little Black Book didn't look enough like a premium wallet to you, the Little Luxury Book certainly will (especially when you slip some money and/or credit and debit cards into the pocket).

The Octavo Luxury case likewise brings with it everything you know and love about the original Octovo, only now swathed in genuine leather the color of French roast. If the regular Octavo harkened back to an academic's moleskin, this one presents as an executive's journal or ledger.

As always, the hand-craftsmanship is spectacular from stitch to emboss.

The good

• Everything that was good about the Little Black Book and original Octavo cases
• High end, hand crafted, genuine leather

The bad

• Book-style design won't be for everyone
• Premium line will be for fewer still

Conclusion

The Pad & Quill Octavo Luxury case for iPad and Little Luxury Book for iPhone take high end, high quality accessories to the next level. If you're a fan of traditional, book-binding style iPad and iPhone cases, and you want the best, most premium finish possible, then you want these cases. But if that's what you want, you probably knew it already, right?

$119.99 - Octavo Luxury Case for iPad - Buy now

59.99 - Little Luxury Book for iPhone - Buy now

According to P.T. Barnum, no one ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of the American public. Sprint CEO, Dan Hesse, however, is going to lose $3.5 million for underestimating the stupidity of his shareholders. This, after Sprint was rumored to have broken their piggy bank wide open by agreeing to buy 30.5 million iPhones from Apple for a whopping $15 billion over the next four years.

Shareholders are upset because the iPhone is expensive -- upwards of $200 more than competing smartphones from other vendors. The problem Sprint faced, however, is that not as many people wanted those cheaper competing phones. They wanted the iPhone. No other single phone in the industry sells as well or increases customer retention as much as the iPhone. Sprint waited as long as they could, almost a year longer than Verizon, and threw all sorts of webOS and Android devices at their customers, and they just couldn't fill the iPhone void. So they made the deal with Apple.

Since then, Sprint sold 1.8 million iPhones and added 5 million net new customers in Q4 2011, and sold 1.5 million iPhones, 44% of which went to new customers, in Q1 2012. Yes, the upfront cost of subsidizing the handsets have hurt short term profits, but it could be worse. They could be T-Mobile, who places the blame for their slump squarely on not having the iPhone.

Given how much of AT&T and Verizon's sales last quarter consisted of the iPhone, it be interesting to see what the brain trust behind Sprint's shareholder discontent thinks Dan Hesse should have done instead. Invested the money in a time machine so he could take them back to a pre-2007 smartphone world?

Still, executive compensation being tied to actual performance is never a bad thing and if Dan Hesse is reducing his incentives in the face of Sprint losses, that's a great gesture to the company in general, never mind the iPhone complainers.

"These voluntary actions regarding my personal compensation, which total $3,250,830, will eliminate any benefit for me to the discretionary adjustment the compensation committee made earlier this year," Hesse said in a letter to the company's human resources department.

So basically, Hesse's 2012 incentives are now back down to 2010 levels. He'll still be making more money than most of our towns, Apple will still be making more money than many of our nations, and Sprint's investors will still be making more complaints than a 3 year when the toy store closes.

No word on who's getting their pay docked or hand slapped for wasting years on WiMax before finally turning towards LTE a year late and billions short. Obviously that's no where near as bad as getting the best selling phone in the U.S. on your network...

Source: Reuters

Once again proving the velocity of jailbreak, no sooner did Daniel Hooper's concept video for an overhauled, gesture-based, keyboard-board iPad text editing update get reported, but it's now been coded up by Kyle Howells as SwipeSelection.

Hooper's concept involved a combination of single and double finger gestures and a Shift key modifier to make text selection faster when doing heavy duty editing. SwipeSelection implements that functionality for both iPad and iPhone. iDownloadBlog's Jeff Benjamin gave it a test drive and liked the way it handled.

It works extremely well, so much so, that I was totally used to it within minutes. SwipeSelection feels incredibly native, and perfectly natural. [..] I’ve tried SwipeSelection on my iPhone, and it works there as well! The only issue is that there isn’t a shift key on the right side of the keyboard like there is on the iPad, so selecting text works better from left to right instead of from right to left. The single finger, and two finger drags work exactly like they do on the iPad, which makes text editing so much more intuitive.

Given Apple's history of adopting ideas that were first implemented by the jailbreak community, and hiring jailbreak developers, there has been some speculation that Hooper and/or his text editing concept could be next.

I'm still not convinced Apple would do anything to divide the text editing experience into distinct keyboard and keyboard-less mode, though a higher level gesture "keyboard shortcut" mode for expert users could be interesting. (Bluetooth keyboard implementation is not a precedent since your hands are physically removed from the multitouch display when using a keyboard and base functionality has to be remapped to match the different input mode.)

The most important thing here is that text editing on iOS has gotten some much-needed attention. Apple took 3 years to introduce text editing into iOS, and while they've been adding options to their popup ever since, they have improved the basic mechanics at all. Coming up with a better, finer grained text selection system across iOS, regardless of keyboard state, would be yet another excellent improvement for iOS 6.

Source: iDownloadBlog

The video below shows an interesting concept, excellently rendered, for improving the speed and usability of text editing on iOS. Currently, to edit text in iOS, you have to poke at the screen until the right word is highlighted or the correct popup menu appears, and the drag handles to properly refine your selection. Like democracy, it sucks, but it sucks less than every other mobile implementation.

The maker of this concept video, Daniel Hooper, shows how a combination of on-keyboard gestures and shift-tapping could be used to greatly improve the speed and accuracy of text selection on iOS.

Unfortunately, text selection on iOS doesn't always enjoy the presence of a keyboard. And that's where this concept sadly breaks down for me. You can't have two different methods for selecting text, depending on whether or not the keyboard is available. Consistency is king. If you're selecting text in Safari with no keyboard, or selecting text in Notes with a keyboard, the method has to be as identical as possible or the user experience suffers.

Don't get me wrong -- improving gesture shortcuts to improve text selection would be great. It just can't be dependent on the state of the keyboard. Adding an additional layer of "expert" gesture shortcuts for when the keyboard is available is another possibility (much as the multitasking fast app switching gestures serve as "expert" shortcuts around the iPad Home screen). However, text selection already uses gestures so the current gestures would have to remain active, and it's very easy for gestures to start to collide.

All that said, I LOVE this stuff. Seeing and discussing fantastic UI and UX concepts is absolute candy. It doesn't matter if any one concept or another is perfect right out of the box, it matters that it brings attention to issues of usability, and creates discussion.

So discuss away. Would you be interested in Apple introducing text selection like this? If so, hit the via link for instructions on how you can ask Apple to do just that. Then jump into our Mobile Design Forum and let us know how you'd improve iOS text editing.

Source: @danielchooper via iDownloadBlog

If the name Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't mean anything to you yet, just wait. He plays the title roll in Sherlock, the BBC's brilliant, modern re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes. He'll also be the voice of the dragon, Smaug, in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings prequels, The Hobbit. And if that's not enough, rumor has it he's landed one of the most iconic roles in science fiction in J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek sequel. You got it. "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

On Sherlock, Cumberbatch's character is a heavy iPhone user. Indeed the first episode of the first series revolves almost entirely around a pink iPhone. And according to The New York Times, Cumberbatch is almost as ingenious with his iPhone in real life.

Last December, on vacation in Gloucestershire, England, [Benedict Cumberbatch] got the call that [J.J. Abrams] wanted him to submit a videotaped audition for “the not-so-good guy” (in Mr. Cumberbatch’s words) in the “Star Trek” sequel — and could not find anyone to film it for him.

“We observe this little Judeo-Christian cult holiday called Christmas,” Mr. Cumberbatch said sarcastically. “Whereas, you know, some kids in this part of town” — he circled his hands in the Los Angeles air — “with their Crackberrys, don’t.”

In a friend’s kitchen late at night, an agitated and weary Mr. Cumberbatch recorded his audition on an iPhone — “I was pretty strung out,” he said, “so that went into the performance” — and sent it to Mr. Abrams, only to be told the director was also on vacation.

Mr. Abrams, who saw the recording a few days later and hired Mr. Cumberbatch, wrote in an e-mail that it was “one of the most compelling audition readings I’d ever seen.”

Cumberbatch chased the role round the recordings of an iPhone, and round the challenges of CrackBerry, and round Christmas vacation before he auditioned it up! Abrams tasked him! He tasked Cumberbatch, and Cumberbatch had at him!

We won't be seeing any iPhones in The Hobbit or Star Trek any time soon, but we'll almost certainly see more in Sherlock when it returns for a third series sometime in 2013. If you haven't watched it yet, go find it on iTunes or Netflix. It's indubitably good.

Source: The New York Times

"Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is Latin for "after it, therefore because of it". That it comes from Latin should indicate how far back that particular fallacy can be traced. Yet ever since Apple launched the original iPhone in 2007, it has been the point of comparison for every flagship phone, from every manufacturer, on every carrier. Just like "post hoc ergo propter hoc" isn't always -- or even often -- true, "post iPhone ergo propter iPhone" isn't always true. Yet time after time, phone after phone, everything from hardware design to software features are taken as derived from, or as being a response to, the iPhone.

There's a theory in combat that dates back to Sun Tsu, if not earlier, called "strike first to gain the initiative". If, in a fight, all you do is defend, you'll eventually make a mistake and get tagged. Even if you're a natural counter-puncher, if you don't take an opportunity when it opens up, at best you'll stall your way to stalemate (and get booed for your efforts), and at worst you'll mess up at some point and get clobbered. That's why a good fighter knows everything is an attack. Everything is an attempt to turn an opponent's mind away from acting and towards reacting.

It can be obvious -- a strike or shoot or something else an opponent has to deal with. Or it can be subtle -- a change of angle or distance that rocks them back on their heels or shoulders and messes with their balance and timing.

Those same essential strategic truths apply to the ancient battlefield, the modern Octagon, and business -- including the smartphone business.

In 2007 Apple didn't introduce a better Treo or BlackBerry, they introduced a better device. They didn't take a tiny little step that entrenched competitors could quickly match. They took a diagonal leap that entrenched competitors either couldn't quickly match, or didn't even understand. They changed the rules of the game. They attacked.

It didn't matter that the 2007 iPhone lacked apps or copy/paste or unobtrusive notifications or MMS or any of a dozen features existing smartphone has on their neat little checklists. It mattered only that multitouch, and the way the iPhone interface leveraged it to make a new experience, was so compelling no one cared what it was missing.

That was an attack.

The shift was so radical that for years after, every other flagship, or would be flagship phone was pitched by desperate competitors and attention-seeking media alike as an "iPhone killer". (Early among them, the Samsung Instinct -- a coincidence, I'm certain.) That the iPhone made every headline, that every device was cast not as something unique unto itself but as something wholly dependent on the gravity well of the iPhone, was the punchline. (No true iPhone killer would ever be called that -- everyone would be too busy talking about it to bother mentioning the iPhone.)

And since then, no one else has done much attacking. Hell, most of Apple's competitors ignored or derided the iPhone at launch. Smartly, Google didn't. They spun on a dime and turned their new Android acquisition from a BlackBerry or Windows Phone Standard (or Nokia Communicator, if you lived in Europe) competitor to an iPhone competitor almost over night.

Yet Apple didn't react. They didn't rush to match any Android features that the iPhone was missing or toss in a hardware keyboard to win over legacy smartphone users. They changed the rules again. They acted again. They attacked again. They announced the App Store.

Palm got back into the game sooner than the other traditional smartphone vendors. But when they made the leap from Palm OS to webOS it was far more audacious than Android. (That tiny, cash-starved Palm literally coded circles around mighty Google, and made a more Google-esque product than Google itself, should be scrawled in permanent marker atop the dessert-laden garden in Mountain View so as to never be forgotten.) While elements of the Palm Pre were inarguably iPhone inspired -- having the former head of Apple hardware, Jon Rubenstein, as their CEO and a lot of Apple engineers on their team will do that -- they played a smart strategy. Rather than matching iPhone features, they tried to hit Apple where Apple was weak -- multitasking, notifications, unified messaging. And unlike the early days of Android, they did it in an elegant, tasteful way.

RIM floundered with the Storm. And the Storm 2. And the Torch. Microsoft stumbled with Windows Mobile 6. And Windows Mobile 6.5. Still, other platforms started adding their own centralized software stores. Android Market (now Google Play), Nokia Ovi Store (no, really), webOS App Catalog BlackBerry App World. By and large, like Palm with the Pre, they tried to differentiate themselves by going where they thought Apple was weak -- openness. It turned out, however, that openness didn't translate into a better user experience. Having great apps and being able to take credit cards in large amount of global markets were far more important. (The "iTunes advantage" was the platform equivalent of having seized the high ground before the battle ever begun.)

Sadly, Palm never made webOS work well enough, fast enough, to catch on before they were brutally bought and betrayed by HP corporate intrigue and ineptitude. Android, however, got some body shots in. The Nexus One was smartly timed to the hit the market right in the middle of Apple's typical year-long product cycle. With great hardware, an improved OS, and features like voice control, it caught influencers at the perfect moment and got a lot of attention. The Droid, meanwhile, seized on the huge, Verizon-sized hole Apple left in its flank by being locked to AT&T in the U.S. for 4 long years. (The Evo did similar on Sprint, and I'm sure something did on T-Mobile as well...)

Apple's limited carrier footprint couldn't stop Android from gaining incredible non-AT&T marketshare, but the iPhone remained a strong enough device that it not only held its own ground with but one flagship a year, on one carrier in the U.S., but kept on growing it.

And then Apple changed the rules again. They acted again. They attacked again. They released the iPad.

It was a tablet launched in 2010 that didn't (and still doesn't) have a desktop or windowing system, that didn't (but now does) have multitasking for 3rd party apps. Like the iPhone in 2007, it didn't matter that the iPad didn't have nearly as much as the decade of Tablet PCs before it. It utterly obliterated and obsoleted its predecessors before it even shipped.

Again, Google reacted. They spun on a dime and rushed out (a still closed-source version of Android), Honeycomb, to compete in the tablet space. Absent the carrier opening it had with the iPhone, however, and left to their own devices, Android tablets haven't caught on. Nor did the incredibly iPad-like Palm TouchPad hardware, even with it's arguably still more elegant multitasking, notification, and messaging software. Nor did the BlackBerry PlayBook, similarly rushed to market without even a chance to put its email on.

Microsoft, meanwhile, finally got Windows Phone off the ground. Unlike Palm, however, they didn't target the iPhone where it was weak. They copied the weaknesses the iPhone had at launch. Weaknesses Apple, for the most part, had long since addressed -- no multitasking, no copy and paste, and an app store that needed to be filled from scratch. The design was new, much to Microsoft's credit. It wasn't the same old app launcher and swapping panels. That part Microsoft absolutely nailed. But taken as a whole, great new design with fundamental flaws in functionality (not to mention branding), it wasn't enough to slow the iPhone's momentum. The same interface gambit that gave Apple its smartphone mindshare in 2007 just wasn't repeatable in 2011. At least not by Windows Phone. (Maybe one of those transparent aluminum jobbies from Avatar or Iron Man, branded as XPhone, could have made that shot...)

BlackBerry is now trying to get back into the game, some 5 years later, with BlackBerry 10. Based on QNX it will offer realtime capabilities and the most promiscuous development story in the smartphone space. The PlayBook, like Honeycomb, shipped before it was fully baked. RIM seems prepared to take their time with BlackBerry 10. We'll have to wait see how that works out for them.

Until then, one essential truth remains indisputable -- Apple, who wasn't even in the smartphone or tablet business before 2006 -- has controlled the pacing of both industries since the moment ever since. While they've given up a step or two, while they've been cut and bloodied a little at times, for the most part they've stood at the center of the ring, cut off the angles, and forced everyone else to circle and fight Apple's fight going on 5 rounds now.

And if the Galaxy S III event is any indication, where Samsung introduced a bigger black slab with music matching and interactive voice control, no one is even challenging them for control of round 6.

Whether you like Apple and their products or would love nothing more than to kill them just to watch them die, everything that matters that's happened in mobile since 2007 is because of Apple and iPhone, or has been in response to Apple and the iPhone.

Post iPhone ergo propter iPhone.

And as someone who loves technology even more than I love the iPhone, I'm well past tired of it.

Apple's iPhone 4S has been on the market for 6 months already and the Samsung Galaxy S III doesn't even hit store shelves until the end of May. Yet the iPhone 4S remains the best selling handset in the world and the Galaxy S III claims to be the best handset on the planet, period, so let's put them head-to-head, Mobile Nations style.

The Galaxy S III is curved and plastic, the iPhone square, glass, and steel

(Technically Phil is using a Verizon iPhone 4 in the video, but lack of a SIM-card tray aside, it's physically identical to an iPhone 4S, and that's the phone we'll be talking about here in the text).

It's immediately obvious just how much bigger the Samsung Galaxy S III is, with a whopping 4.8-inch, SAMOLED PenTile screen. The Galaxy S III is so big, it looks like you could hollow it out and use it as an iPhone case. For people who don't have a tablet, this is as close as you can get without become a... Galaxy Note. On the downside, some (yours truly included), far prefer the color and pixel perfection of a non-PenTile iPhone- or HTC One X-style LCD LED display.

4.8-inches of Samsung SAMOLED PenTile display vs. 3.5-inches of Apple Retina LCD

Unfortunately, Samsung still seems to be clinging to their Hasbro-style plastic casings, which are frankly terrible compared to the glass and stainless steel feeling of the iPhone, not to mention the unearthly good plastics Nokia and HTC have been using these days.

The software side is a bit of a mixed bag for the Galaxy S III as well, with the latest version of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich all loaded up, but hidden beneath Samsung's TouchWiz. While intended to give a more consumer-friendly (i.e. Apple-like) look and feel, it also gives a slightly out-dated, Gingerbread-esque vibe to overall experience. Pro users will no doubt prefer stock (and will no doubt flash to that, or something close to it, at their earliest opportunity). The rest includes some interesting, innovative features like talk to wake, accelerometer switch from texting to talking, as well as versions of Siri and iTunes Match once again cloned directly from Apple's 2011 keynote.

The iPhone 4S is still running iOS 5.1, which is either familiar and comfortable, or stale and boring depending on your take.

Samsung likens their Galaxy to a river stone in the rain; the iPhone is an homage to classic Braun and Leica

The bottom line, however, remains the same -- Samsung makes fantastic, futuristic, totally uninspiring devices. They can spin out specs so impressive they literally make your nose bleed, but they don't really know how to innovate. Every atom and pixel just sort of reminds you of something you've seen before from Apple or Nokia or someone else. They're mechanics more than artists. Of course, that matters more to gadget divas than to mainstream consumers. That's why Samsung sells tens of millions of these big boys, and why -- like Apple -- they're actually profitable.

Still, this time around I think HTC stole a step on Samsung. The One X just looks and feels like a better next generation Android phone. (I've argued the Nexus One was far better for it's time than either the Nexus S or Galaxy Nexus as well -- Nexus one was a look ahead to what Android could be, Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus were both summations of what Android currently was.)

Speaking of which, neither the Galaxy S III nor the One X are Nexus devices, however, so if/when Google announces Android Jellybean, it might well be a race to see who gets it first... or last... or never.)

Either way, we're going to have to wait until June to see iOS 6, and likely October to see the iPhone 5,1. Right now the new Androids are hitting the market against the old iPhone, which is a good bit of counter-programming. The more interesting war will be fought this fall, and Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 might just make it a 4 way race this time.

As always, watch the video, check out the pictures, and let us know what you think.

Samsung's newness might give it an edge for now, but Apple's 2012 iPhone is still 6 months away...

Georgia, Seth, and Rene discuss low Siri usage levels, whether iOS 6 needs a new Home screen, Notification Center do not disturb, Pandora vs Slacker vs Spotify shootout, Quasar, BIG JAMBOX, and the iPhone bra. This is iPhone & iPad Live!

• Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video
• Subscribe via RSS: Audio | Video
• Download directly: Audio | Video

Meta

• Editor’s desk: WWDC 2012 and iOS 6, Google Drive, Google and Facebook apps, iCloud guide, and more
• What would you do with $110 (not billion) dollars?
• iMore community spotlight for April 2012
• Siri co-founder talks to iMore about the future of technology, mobile interfaces, and implementing Siri
• Which celebrity would you most like to see talking with Siri in an iPhone commercial?

iOS 6

• Siri six months later: Community report card
• iOS 6: Is it time for Apple to revamp the Home screen?
• OS X Mountain Lion gets Notification Center do not disturb — Can we have that for iOS 6?

News

• RIM Australia admits it was responsible for Wake Up flashmob at Sydney Apple Store
• Nintendo posts first annual financial loss as casual gaming continues to shift to Apple and iPhone

Apps

• Pandora vs. Slacker vs. Spotify: iPhone music streaming app shootout!
• Now you can stream music from Spotify directly to your iPad
• View multiple windows on your iPad with Quasar jailbreak tweak [Updated]
• Now you can block retweets from individual users with Tweetbot 2.3 for iPhone and iPad

Accessories

• Take your Bluetooth speaker power to the extreme with Jawbone’s BIG JAMBOX
• Make your iPad look like a MacBook Pro with Brydge, a new Bluetooth keyboard on Kickstarter
• JoeyBra lets ladies carry their iPhones safely and discreetly while dancing the night away

Hosts

• Georgia (GeorgiaTiPb
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including iPhone and iPad Live, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven't already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

Marvel's mightiest heroes, the Avengers, are assembling in movie theaters tonight, but you can Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Hawkeye, and the Black Widow on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPhone right now!

Avengers wallpapers for iPhone and iPad

Want to put the Avengers front and center on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? Show off your favorite Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Hawkeye, or the Black Widow pose? We've got them Retina-ready and waiting in the iMore forums

• Avengers wallpapers for iPhone and iPad

Avengers apps and games for iPhone and iPad

While there's been some great Avengers content on the App Store before, thanks to game tie-ins based on previous Iron Man movies and such, Marvel and Disney have put out three specific tie-in apps for the iPad.

• Marvel's Avengers: Iron Man - Free - Download Now
• Avengers Origins: Hulk - $1.99 - Download Now
• Avengers Origins: Assemble - $1.99 - Download Now

If that's not enough:

• All Avengers related iPhone & iPod touch apps
• All Avengers related iPad apps

Avengers movies, TV shows, books, and comics for iPhone and iPad

iTunes has a ton of Avengers content ready and waiting for you to load up on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. There are the prequel movies: Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America. There are cartoon shows. There are sound tracks. And, of course, there are comic books (I particularly recommend Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's seminal "The Ultimates" series for a great, modern take at "humans of mass destruction")

• Avengers on iTunes and iBooks

Avengers DVDs, Blurays, toys, t-shirts and more

If physical goods are more your thing, Amazon has a ton of Avengers merchandise for you to choose from, including collected editions of many of the classic comic books, as well as action figures, and much, much more.

• Avengers on Amazon

Avengers discussion

If you've seen the Avengers and want to share your review or discuss your thoughts and feelings, jump into a Movie Forum and do just that!

Samsung has announced their next generation flagship Android phone, and as expected it's the Galaxy S III (no, they didn't go with "the new Galaxy"). Android Central is covering everything live from London and they've already gone over all the big stuff. On the hardware, Alex Dobie says:

The Samsung Galaxy S III is perhaps best summarized with three S’s -- sleek, sexy and shiny. It’s available in two colors -- pebble blue and pearl white, and both versions feature the same glossy plastic finish with a metallic trim around the side. It’s a fingerprint magnet to be sure, but the Galaxy S III certainly isn’t lacking star quality -- it looks and feels like a high-end device, and Samsung’s made a clean break with some of its older design language in this new flagship product.

Sadly, it doesn't look like they upgraded the plastic of their casing to match the Nokia Lumia 900 or HTC One X, which means I'm still calling Hasbro on the feel. However, everything else looks significantly great. As for the software:

The new design language is most evident in the new TouchWiz lockscreen, which ripples like a pool of water when activated. Audio cues, too, take on a more naturalistic approach, with droplet sounds punctuating UI interactions like menu selections and button presses.

Also, the TouchWiz launcher has been re-vamped, but the changes are largely cosmetic -- different icons, different chrome, but functionally very similar to the way TouchWiz’d ICS operates on the Galaxy S II. You’ve got seven home screens by default, customizable with the usual plethora of bright, vivid widgets (yep, TouchWiz is colorful as always). There’s a neat 3D transition effect when jumping from panel to panel, and thanks to the bleeding edge hardware inside the phone, all this visual finery flows off the screen at a buttery-smooth frame rate.

Android Central has literally a ton more coverage, including a monstrous gallery and a bunch of video.

• Samsung Galaxy S III gallery
• Samsung Galaxy S III software hands-on
• Samsung Galaxy S III hardware hands-on
• Live in London: Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012!
• Samsung Galaxy S III specs

Head on over there now, drink it all in, and then come back here and let us know what you think. Will the Galaxy S III slow down iPhone 4S sales in the short term? Will it force Apple to raise the bar even higher for the iPhone 5?

The next generation iPhone 5,1 is once again being rumored to include a lengthened, 16:9 ratio, 4-inch screen as well as a smaller dock connector port, and a (partially) metallic back plate. According to iLounge:

What we’ve learned: the new iPhone will indeed be longer and thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S. Approximate measurements are 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm—a 10mm jump in height, nearly 2mm reduction in thickness, and virtually identical width. According to our source, Apple will make one major change to the rear casing, adding a metal panel to the central back of the new iPhone. This panel will be flat, not curved, and metal, not ceramic.

A The Verge reader, Tom Collins, first posited the 16:9, 4-inch screen possibility almost a month ago and Daring Fireball's John Gruber lent his support to the notion. If Apple goes with it, they could simply lengthen the iPhone, or they could also make changes to the bezel and Home button to better optimize it.

iMore first broke the news about a new, smaller dock connector a couple of months ago so it's good to see some additional support for the idea. It makes sense since space will be at a premium, especially with an LTE radio.

Rumors of a return to the metal backplate have been around for years, probably since the day after Apple dumped the original iPhone's casing for the plastic of the iPhone 3G. Having metal-on-glass, the inverse of Apple's current glass-on-metal aesthetic, looks a bit odd. But so did the iPhone 4 design when it first leaked. Likely radio transparency will dictate the final composition.

Gorilla Glass 2 has been speculated since Corning showed off their next generation material at CES 2012 earlier this year.

So, overall, iLounge backs up a lot of what we've already heard. But here's the caveat: Apple has had several different iPhone prototypes in the works at the same time in the past. Sometimes there are more ambitious and more conservative prototypes. It's the way Apple works. (There's an old cliche about 10 designs, 3 prototypes, 1 product.)

Last year, prior to the iPhone 4S launch, a lot of information leaked about a radical redesign for 2011 as well. So while we're starting to hear similar information from multiple sources, it's always important to remember that nothing about the new iPhone, or any new device, is certain until Apple holds it up on stage, likely this fall.

Source: iLounge

Siri, the iPhone 4S' flagship feature has been on the market now for 6 months. On one hand, Siri is absolutely amazing -- the first real virtual personal assistant with a personality right out of Pixar. On the other hand, Siri is obviously still in beta and often fails or works just enough to frustrate more than any outright failure. That makes it an odd choice for a flagship feature, but given the lack of a physical redesign and the obvious potential for awesome demos, rightly or wrongly, Siri was what Apple had to work with.

But does it work for us?

Survey says: Siri usage is low

iMore is an iPhone enthusiast site, so our community is predisposed to adopt new features quickly and use them extensively. Yet Siri usage among the iMore nation remains curiously low. As of today, with over 4000 votes cast, nearly 50% of our readers seldom, if ever, use Siri.

That's... astonishing. Here's the full break down:

• Almost 5% use Siri often, many times a day.
• Over 15% use Siri frequently, on a daily basis.
• Roughly 23% use Siri infrequently, at least several times a week
• Nearly 50% almost never use Siri, monthly or less.
• Just over 7% might use Siri, but it's not yet available in their native language.

Taken together, only 20% of our iPhone 4S users are using Siri on anything approaching a regular basis. That leaves 80% using it irregularly at best, and 50% barely using it at all.

This in spite of Apple showcasing Siri during the iPhone 4S introduction, putting it front and center on Apple.com, and making Siri the focus of most of the iPhone 4S advertising. They gave it the iPhone event keynote. They gave it Santa. They gave it Samuel L. Jackson.

And still few of our readers are using it.

That's not unprecedented, of course. The 2010 iPhone 4 launch saw a lot of attention placed on Apple's video calling service, FaceTime. But it's still interesting.

Siri community commentary: six months later

So why are -- or mostly aren't -- you using Siri six months after it was introduced? Here's what you've told us:

I prefer dictation to Siri most of the time. Use Siri not quite everyday, but I think several times a week is still pretty often. Now my 5 year old thinks Siri is great, talks to her several times a minute when i let her.

• Cody Hahn

Some of you in the US who think its bad should try Siri in the UK. It’s virtually useless. I’d love to ask Siri to locate the nearest pub or something, but we can’t even do that. Yes I know it’s in BETA, but I really had hopes they’d be releasing updates more frequently when I purchased my 4S to be perfectly honest.

• Chris Flowers

It’s always down, or something else is wrong. Or it just hangs when I tell her to call someone. Kind of giving up on it. Needs a few more years of seasoning.

• Dave D

I’ve stopped differentiating between Siri and voice dictation, as I believe it is largely the same animal. Siri interaction is a bit more problematic, so I often leave Siri alone and then dictate directly within a given app. For appointments and reminders, I ONLY want to use Siri. I almost won’t set the calendar/reminder item until Siri is no longer “sorry.” So, I use it a good once a day, at least, if you consider the above under the same umbrella.

• West

I use Siri daily.. with 90% success rate. I use it for meetings, reminders, appointments, looking stuff up, texting and calling. So easy to say call Wife at work and it is done.

• Craig

Siri NEVER works for me. I'm always in full signal 3G or Wifi at work and home and it takes her at least 30 - 60 seconds and I get to frustrated and turn it off. I am not a fan.

• Tytanious

I use Siri all the time. Reading, writing texts. Setting up reminders, making and editing notes, getting directions (navacon), toggling Bluetooth, wifi, flashlight etc... I'd be lost if I couldn't talk to my phone.

• Sherlock

I use Siri for reminders. The few times I've tried using it to send a text while driving I've gotten so frustrated I could have just as easily been texting. The whole idea is to to not take your mind off the road.

• Alli

I still use Siri and it is very helpful. As I stated in another thread, I use if primarily to text & respond to text messages while driving, set reminders, look up information and to dial contacts for me. I have never asked it frivolous questions and it did not factor in to my reason for buying my iPhone 4S. Could it be better? Heck yeah. Do I depend on it? Absolutely not. I've had a smartphone or a PDA phone for so long and I'm so used to doing things manually that I forget about Siri sometimes.

• JustMe'd

I use Siri everyday and every time Siri comes up I can't help thinking 3 things: 1. Why didn't we have this 10 years ago? 2. Why isn't this better? (Can't launch apps or modify settings) 3. How do people still "type" messages, it feels so archaic to type in 2012. It's great for reminders and meetings. Sending texts, timers for cooking or whatever it is you are doing. Why type???? I just don't get it besides being in an environment where you it wouldn't be appropriate to speak.

• jb 1007

Deciphering the disuse and discontent

For a few readers Siri has become important or even quasi indispensable. (Some of our editors have even joked Siri has made them so lazy that, if it's unavailable, they'll wait rather than actually type out a text message...) However, for many more readers, Siri simply wasn't part of their iPhone usage pattern. Based on the feedback we've gotten, it seems the disuse or discontent with Siri can be broken down into a few categories.

1. Some people just forget Siri is there. Siri is something new and new things don't always enter into, or find a place in, established workflows.
2. Siri not working -- either because it doesn't understand certain accents, because the required network connection fails, or because it simply takes too long to respond -- causes enough frustration that some users simply abandon it and don't go back. How many people would use Google if searches routinely took 30 seconds or more to return?
3. The inconsistent implementation -- ability to read texts but not emails, ability to launch some apps for specific functions but not simply launch an app, etc. -- creates an unpredictable or incomplete enough usability model that many simply exclude it entirely.
4. The lack of timely and consistent updates from Apple -- only one new language in 6 months and no new features or integration -- creates a wait and see attitude that, so far, is still waiting but not seeing.
5. The amount and type of Siri advertising creates expectations that the actual service (point #2) and support to date (point #4) don't live up to, leading to dissatisfaction.

There's also another alternative -- Siri is a new kind of interface meant for a new kind of user. iPhone sales numbers indicate it's the first smartphone to capture a predominantly mainstream audience. That audience isn't familiar with how smartphones historically worked, and something like Siri might ultimately prove more accessibly and less intimidating than a traditional app-launcher style interface. All of the factors listed above absolutely hurt Siri's chances of achieving that right now, but Siri could still achieve that in a future where it's both more reliable and more functional.

If that's the case, our iPhone enthusiast audience may never be the target for Siri, but the mainstream audience that is its target isn't using it, or isn't enjoying the use of Siri just yet.

Siri next steps

So six months later and Siri usage among iMore readers is low. What can be done to change that? The opposite of what we conjecture is causing it.

1. There's not much more Apple can do to boost Siri awareness, given that it's already the centerpiece of their iPhone 4S advertising, and making Siri popup like Microsoft Assistant would cause most of us to throw our phones at a wall. They can't just make people more aware of Siri, they have to make Siri more usable.
2. Improve Siri's ability to understand accents in the U.K. Since Siri claims to support U.K. English, supporting U.K. English is something important to do. No doubt the beta period, where Siri is fed more and more voice data, will help with that. Network connection issues are tougher. There's absolutely no excuse for Siri's servers on Apple's data centers to go down or even be slow to respond. Apple is rich enough to support the best technology and ensure among the best up times and availability in the business. Carrier connection problems. especially notorious in the U.S., are beyond Apple's ability to address unless/until they can put some base level of Siri functionality locally, on-device, as a fallback.
3. Adding more well-rounded features may be non-trivial but is necessary to create consistency in the Siri experience. If text entry or basic navigation was different, or non-existent, from app to app, it would make the iPhone unusable (see early versions of Android). Siri working differently, or not working at all, with some core apps makes it likewise difficult to count on. Adding the basics like Settings toggles, app launching, email reading, etc. would increase consistency and also solve general iOS pain points. ("Siri, turn Bluetooth off!" alone would likely bolster usage considerably.)
4. Roll out incremental updates. The power of online services is that they can be updated on the server-side, which means they're less disruptive and can be more frequent than larger software patches. Updates create confidence. Japanese was a great addition in iOS 5.1, but it was the only addition in 6 months and that's a long time.
5. Obviously Apple isn't going to stop advertising Siri unless and until they have something just as compelling to replace it with, and they're not going to make it tell Zooey Deschenel it can't connect to the network when she wants to get her dance on. That's the cost of marketing based on a beta feature that sets expectations the product can't meet. Apple doesn't often do it, but they've done it in this case and they're stuck with it now.

Conclusion

Six months later and a lot of you simply aren't using Siri. If you're one of them, let us know what Apple could do to get you on board. If you are using Siri, why do you think so many others aren't? The first developer betas for iOS 6 may be just around the corner, and the next generation iPhone 5,1 may just be on track for a fall release. What does Apple have to do to turn the corner on Siri and make it as mainstream and popular a feature as the iPhone itself?

Georgia contributed portions of this article

Image credit: iDoodle by Jason Harrison

If you've been around the iPhone scene for a while, you've no doubt already heard the story of how George "Geohot" Hotz unlocked the original iPhone for the first time, back in the summer of 2007. If not, The New Yorker, in a far broader profile, tells it again:

In the summer of 2007, Apple released the iPhone, in an exclusive partnership with A.T. & T. George Hotz, a seventeen-year-old from Glen Rock, New Jersey, was a T-Mobile subscriber. He wanted an iPhone, but he also wanted to make calls using his existing network, so he decided to hack the phone.

Every hack poses the same basic challenge: how to make something function in a way for which it wasn’t designed. In one respect, hacking is an act of hypnosis. As Hotz describes it, the secret is to figure out how to speak to the device, then persuade it to obey your wishes. After weeks of research with other hackers online, Hotz realized that, if he could make a chip inside the phone think it had been erased, it was “like talking to a baby, and it’s really easy to persuade a baby.”

He used a Phillips-head eyeglass screwdriver to undo the two screws in the back of the phone. Then he slid a guitar pick around the tiny groove, and twisted free the shell with a snap. Eventually, he found his target: a square sliver of black plastic called a baseband processor, the chip that limited the carriers with which it could work. To get the baseband to listen to him, he had to override the commands it was getting from another part of the phone. He soldered a wire to the chip, held some voltage on it, and scrambled its code. The iPhone was now at his command. On his PC, he wrote a program that enabled the iPhone to work on any wireless carrier.

The next morning, Hotz stood in his parents’ kitchen and hit “Record” on a video camera set up to face him. He had unruly curls and wispy chin stubble, and spoke with a Jersey accent. “Hi, everyone, I’m geohot,” he said, referring to his online handle, then whisked an iPhone from his pocket. “This is the world’s first unlocked iPhone.”

Hotz went on to sell that first unlocked iPhone to the CEO of Certicell for a 2007 Nissan 350Z and 3 new iPhones, and the rest, as they say, is history.

From later iOS Jailbreaks to cracking the PS3, from the Sony lawsuit to the Anonymous attacks, from working at Google and Facebook to going back to talk with Sony, The New York roughs out an interesting, entertaining sketch of one of the most famous characters in the iPhone community.

Give it a read, and then give us your take.

Source: The New Yorker

Apple updated their OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion developer preview 8 distribution yesterday and with it came a new feature for Notification center -- do not disturb. It looks like a great feature and something that would be very much welcome not only in OS X, but in iOS 6 as well. 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman describes it thusly:

The feature is a toggle accessible at the top of Notification Center that allows users to block incoming alerts and banners. The feature is very important for those who look to focus entirely on the content they are currently working on and do not want to be bothered by new emails, iMessages, calendar alerts, or other types of alerts.

I'd love this for shooting app and accessory videos alone, as nothing ruins a good shot like a spam email or silly tweet showing up right in the middle of a hero shot. For general use, the ability to kill notifications when going into important meetings, when you really need a good night's sleep, or even if you just want to game or watch video without interuption would be fantastic.

Of course, the real solution would be to have location and time based profiles, where "home" could be set up differently from "work", for example, or "day" could have different settings than "night". Third party apps like Tweetbot have allowed time-based notification suppression on their own for a while, but globally that's something only the platform owner, Apple, can address.

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple is currently rejecting apps that use the Dropbox SDK to provide integration with the popular cloud storage solution. The reason for the rejections is apparently that, under a specific but not inevitable set of circumstances, someone using an app with Dropbox integration could end up on Dropbox's web site and find a way to pay Dropbox for additional storage. That would violate Apple's prohibition against using external websites to circumvent Apple's 30% cut of subscriptions. Dropbox attempted to patch the problem by removing links that would make getting to the full version of the website and finding and buying additional storage possible, but the rejections seem to have continued. Dropbox is now working to try and find a more satisfactory solution and says they'll have more information on that next week.

On the surface, Dropbox broke a rule, caused a problem for developers using their SDK, and is now correcting the mistake. It doesn't appear to have been an intentional or obvious violation, but it was eventually discovered and now Dropbox and their developers have to deal with it.

It's that latter part that highlights some of the continued frustration with Apple's App Store policies, frustrations that persist some 5 years after the introduction of the App Store. The review and rejection process is still, as often as not, impenetrable and capricious. Plenty of apps with Dropbox integration are already on the App Store, presumably using the same SDK as the apps rejected today. That they weren't rejected as well doesn't excuse Dropbox or the apps that were rejected today, but it shows that what one (or many) reviewers let in, another (or many others) may reject.

One of the rejections listed account creation for both Dropbox and Google. (You can pay Google for Google Apps or Google Drive, among other things.) It makes you wonder what would happen if an app linked to store.apple.com...

That's part of what causes frustration with Apple's system. Another part is things like the recent scam app plague. Apps that should have been obvious candidates for immediate rejection to any reviewer who laid eyes on them, were let onto the store to violate intellectual property rights and cheat users out of money.

One absolutely doesn't excuse the other, but people have innate senses of fairness, and for rules to be respected they need to be perceived as being far. (As the old saying goes, people don't mind paying taxes only because it's generally believe everyone pays taxes.)

We want and need real humans reviewing App Store apps, but developers need to believe those reviewers are being fair, and applying broadly consistent standards with generally predictable results.

To their credit, Apple is continually improving the App Store review process. Because the process is human, they recognize they can't always predict all of the edge cases, all of the time. They've made changes over the years, sometimes major ones like un-banning the use of cross-compilers, sometimes small ones like un-banning satirical political cartoons.

So far, however, they haven't changed the policy that affects Dropbox -- the requirement that Apple get 30% of all subscriptions, and that apps can't link to external websites where the same subscriptions can be purchased without Apple getting that cut.

Again, Dropbox knew about it, accidentally broke it, and is now working to fix it. In the meantime, Apple will catch some criticism, both for the policy, and for the way the App Store handles policies. And given the power Apple wields, that kind of ongoing discussion isn't a bad thing.

Source: Dropbox via @sethclifford

At Macworld 2007 Steve Jobs pulled the original iPhone from his pocket, held it up high above the stage, and showed off the app launcher-based Home screen... that's pretty much remained the same ever since.

That's not entirely true, of course. Apple quickly added the ability to create WebClip icons for websites, and to re-arrange and delete them. With iOS 2 (iPhone OS 2) they added native apps to that mix. They increased the number of Home pages. They added Spotlight. They added wallpaper. With iOS 4 they layered in the multitasking fast app switcher. They layered in folders. The iPad, and the iPad alone, got landscape Home screen support. With iOS 5 they layered in Notification Center and Siri.

Is it time for something more?

Familiarity is a feature

To a casual user -- someone who only makes calls, plays music, takes photographs, and runs the occasional app -- the iPhone today works almost exactly as it did back in 2007. Just like a casual Mac OS X user can ignore the Terminal, iOS users can happily ignore Spotlight, the fast app switcher, folders, Notification Center, and Siri, and still fully use and enjoy their iPhone. They can wait years between hardware upgrades (and sometimes, because of that, software upgrades) and still pick up the latest iPhone and use it exactly as they used the first iPhone.

That may not matter to gadget geeks who change their platform as often as they change their jackets, but to mainstream users, to those for whom technology has traditionally been intimidating and inaccessible, that familiarity is a huge feature.

It's why Apple made the iPad work almost identically to the iPhone and said as much -- hundreds of millions of people already know how to use it.

It's why Home screen interface and experience isn't fashion. If you're bored by the iOS UI or UX, consider how little computer UI and UX has changed much over the last few decades. For all its other advances, for all it's design tweaks, OS X still has icons and folders on a desktop, the same as the classic Mac OS had generations ago. For all of Windows 8's Metro skins and finger-friendliness, it will still ship on beige boxes with full mouse and pointer support at its core.

That being said, mobile is moving at a blisteringly fast pace. While the iPhone and iOS were the startling new in 2007, they're now one of the oldest mobile experiences in the space. Interface and experience aren't fashion, but users are fashion conscious, and phones are subject to fashion trends.

Android has a huge marketshare. Windows Phone is getting a lot of attention, not just from AT&T but from designers. BlackBerry 10 may bring a new level of gesture-based interface to the table (if they can solve the discoverability issues).

These Home screen experiences not only look different to iOS and the traditional app launcher, but they function differently as well.

App launchers and information density

iPhone wasn't the first app launcher style Home screen. Not by a long shot. Long before smartphones, Palm Pilots were based entirely on the icon grid. When smartphones came along, the Treo retained the app launcher. Windows Mobile adopted it as well. Even today, you can find app launcher Home screens on webOS, BlackBerry OS, and Android. Some of them also add other layers, like Cards or widgets, but for the most part app launchers are never far away.

That's because they're familiar, as mentioned above. You see an iconic representation of something you want to do, you tap it, and it opens up. Because they're iconic (or supposed to be), and because human brains are great at pattern recognition, they scale well and can (usually) be picked out even among a large quantities of other icons.

What they lack is information density.

With very few exceptions, all an icon on an app launcher tells you is which app will launch when and if you tap it. They're static images and there's typically no information about the current state of the app, or any relevant data beyond the static image.

In the case of Apple's iOS, Calendar will show you the current date on its icon, and Apple created a badging system to overlay the number of outstanding alerts an app has pending. But that's it. With Notification Center, with a little extra effort, you can pull down snippets of those alerts, and see widgets for Weather and Stocks. However, the level of immediately available, glanceable data remains low.

Even if we consider the status bar, which shows carrier and Wi-Fi, time and battery, location and Bluetooth, none of it is actionable. It can't provide additional information or take you to it. (Although it has added persistent color bands for tethering, voice recording, VoIP or telephone calls, etc. and tapping those will take you to the associated app or Setting.)

Widgets and cards and tiles, oh my

There's no consistent Android interface, but stock Google, Sense, TouchWiz, "Blur", and other manufacturer implementations typically offer some variety of widgeting system. With them, you can have social statues, search boxes, clocks, news feeds, and a huge amount of glanceable data available right on the Home screen. They typically take up more space, however, might use slightly more battery and bandwidth as they keep up-to-date, and add an element of chaos to the layout. However, the amount of time they can save makes for an excellent tradeoff. (If that type of data is important to you -- some users simply don't find a use for widgets on computers or smartphones.)

webOS takes a different approach, shrinking entire apps down into "Cards" that stay live-ish on the Home screen, and thanks to more recent updates, can be stacked together. Flipping through Cards doesn't give you an iconic view or a widget-ized extract, but a look at the entire app, in its current state, with its current data. BlackBerry's Tablet OS essentially aped this approach as well. The only drawback is that sometimes some apps aren't as identifiable by their actual screen as they are by their icon (long white list views just look like long white list views). So, it might take a moment to find the exact Card you want, but probably not longer than finding and launching an app.

Both Android and webOS have easily accessible app launchers as well. Both also typically provide more information in the status bar, including the ability to tap into icons to activate drop down menus or initiate other functions.

Windows Phone 7 took an even more radical approach. They threw away the Windows Mobile app launcher and replaced it with a tile-based Home screen. Squares or rectangles represent categories of functionality, and can show a small amount of live content -- a picture, an avatar, a number, an icon, etc. It's not always great, however, since at times they take up the space of a widget while not showing much more data than an icon. (They're not as informationally dense as they could be, at least not yet.) And because they update, they're not as visually persistent, which means they lose the advantage of pattern recognition.

BlackBerry 10, which will only be released later this year, seems to be taking a hybrid approach. In the little they've demonstrated so far, they've shown something akin to a set of four cards, one per corner. Sliding panels also allow access to notifications, messages, and more. (Somewhat like Twitter for iPad. There's likely a lot more to it as well, and we'll hopefully see it as time goes on.

Siri

Siri is and isn't a Home screen. It isn't the traditional implementation of a Home screen -- something you can sit in and navigate around. It demands immediate interaction. But Siri can be used to access data and apps without having to move through the traditional Home screen. Rather than unlock, look for an icon, and launch, with Siri hold down a Home button, wait for a double tone, and speak.

Siri can by no means replace the traditional iOS Home Screen, but it can and does sit in parallel to the traditional iOS Home screen, and can replace its use in a few very specific ways. Yet it's clear Apple put significant work into Siri, not just into the server-side voice and context parsing engine, but the interface as well. Siri got a lot of the widgets that the traditional iOS Home screen hasn't. Depending on what you ask, all manner of clock and alarm and to-do and information snippets pop up. All incredibly well thought out and incredibly well rendered.

Getting a Reminder into iOS using the traditional Home screen, icons, buttons, and gestures is a chore. Getting a Reminder into iOS with Siri is remarkably fast. (Granted, when Siri works.)

Siri is still in beta, it's still not fully baked, Apple hasn't implemented it on the iPod touch or iPad. So, while Siri is no doubt part of the future, how much of the future is still to be determined.

iOS 6 and the Home screen

There's not a lot of low-hanging fruit left in iOS. Over the years, Apple has slowly but steadily added in most of the features that most of the people thought were missing in the original iOS (iPhone OS) -- apps, copy and paste, multitasking, notifications. There's a lot of ways to improve the existing functionality, but not a lot of functionality that's still missing. So on what tent poles will Apple hang its iOS 6 keynote this year?

Sure, Apple's bought 3 map visualization companies (but no map tiles), so a new Maps App could be one. I'd still sincerely love a Files.app repository, now iCloud enabled. Georgia still wants her Theme Store, where users can choose between a small amount of Apple designed iOS skins. But over the years, as iOS has matured, the amount of features truly "missing" has reduced considerably.

That leaves improving existing functionality. And that brings us neatly back to the question asked in this article's title.

Is it time for Apple to revamp the iOS Home screen?

Do you want them too? Do you need them too? If so, how so? Is it as simple as adding a widget layer to the existing multitasking and notification layers? Is it increasing Siri to the point where the app launcher becomes secondary? Or does it require something completely new, something that makes Windows Phone Metro and webOS and the upcoming BlackBerry 10 look old and outdated?

If Apple does make a substantive change to the Home screen, what does that mean for the hundreds of millions of mainstream users who are used to, perhaps dependent upon, the way things work now?

Apple has always been fearless when it comes to driving the future. They obsolete hardware and software often faster than the market itself. Is it time for Apple to apply that fearlessness to the iOS Home screen?

Additional resources

• iOS 6 wants: Files app and documents picker with iCloud
• The 4 inch iPhone
• iOS 6 wants: The opposite of widgets
• The challenge of bringing Siri to the iPad
• iOS 6 and privacy: How Apple should draw inspiration from Android for better app

Apple has sent out a new email to developers to promote their still struggling iAd platform, and advise about revenue generation possibilities and new rich media ads for iPad.

iAd provides a significant source of additional revenue for iOS developers. Many developers with apps just like yours are already making thousands of dollars per week serving iAd rich media ads. And users have been delighted by the range of ads from major brands that offer an interactive experience while keeping them in your app.

iAd Rich Media Ads. Now Being Served to iPad.

iAd rich media ads are now being served to iPad apps on the U.S. App Store, redefining mobile advertising with rich, immersive ads that take advantage of the 9.7 inch LED-backlit display. Make the most of this growing opportunity now. Learn how you can join the iAd mobile advertising network and generate more revenue with iAd.

Apple bought iAd (formerly Quattro Wireless) in 2010 after Google sniped AdMob from them. Since then they've slashed rates down from a million dollar, ultra-premium buy-in first to $500,000 and now $100,000, and increased developer pay outs from 60% to 70%.

Originally explained as a way for developers to monetize free apps, iAd still faces tough competition from Google's AdMob and other players. Fremium models backed by in-app-purchase could also be a more popular way for developers to monetize apps.

Apple has been fairly quiet it about it lately as well, so it will be interesting to see if iAd gets any time, or significant attention, at WWDC 2012.

If you're a developer using iAd, let us know how it's working for you in our iOS Developer Forum.

At BlackBerry World 2012, RIM has finally given us a sneak preview of their next generation BlackBerry 10 operating system. It won't be released until later in 2012, likely pitting it head-to-head against iOS 6 and iPhone 5,1, and a lot can change, but here's some of what we've seen so far:

• Highly gesture based. That'll be quick for power-users who become familiar with the system, but RIM will have to work hard to make it discoverable enough to get new users on board.
• Sliding layers of information. Something that looks like an extension of Twitter for iPad, you can slide the screen aside to see notifications behind, slide layers over to get more information, etc.
• Virtual keyboard. Looks very BlackBerry, works to "learn" how each individual types so it can personalize the experience. Presents words you can "flick up" to enter. (See CrackBerry's coverage of the BlackBerry 10 keyboard.)
• Time travel camera. When you take a picture, it records frames before and after and you can pick the perfect shot from that period of time. Be interesting to see what resolution they can get out of that and for how long.
• They also showed off what looked like the BlackBerry 10 versions of FaceTime and AirPlay, on both phones and the PlayBook, stressing their ecosystem play.

Right now there's only the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha to actually get hands-on with, and again a lot can change between now and "later this year" when they release, especially in so competitive a market. A lot of their initial keynote sounded like something straight out of CrackBerry Kevin's smartphone hierarchy of needs. Whether they can focus, target, and most importantly, ship, remains to be seen.

Check out the video below and let us know what you think. Will BlackBerry 10 make RIM competitive again? Anything you see in BlackBerry 10 that you'd like to see in iOS 6?

Source: CrackBerry.com

From Apple II to Mac to iPad to... what exactly?

Last week, during their Q2 2012 financial results conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that, in terms of sales, the iPad achieved in just 2 years what took the iPhone 3 years, the iPod 5 years, and the Mac 20+ years.

I'll let that the idea of that jump-to-warp-speed acceleration curve sink in for a moment while I digress into nostalgia.

Apple made mainstream the personal computer with the Apple II, the graphical interface with the Mac, and the multitouch interface with the iPhone and iPad. Decade after decade they made computing ever more personal, from clunky command line to intermediated mouse, to intimate touch. That is the single, relentless theme of Apple's existence.

They wove branches around the trunk of that theme as well, of course. Cameras and printers that didn't set the world on fire. Set top boxes that faded away or remain just a hobby. Social networks that have been anything but. Yet a few of those branches have been every bit as compelling as the main theme. The iPod popularized digital audio players and iTunes, digital audio. Apple Stores redefined the retail experience and the brick-and-mortar consumer electronic profit potential. The App Store revolutionized software delivery and the idea of mobile devices as platform ecosystems.

By any measure, Apple has had an unprecedented string of successes that not only dented the gadget universe, but knocked it sharply on its ass.

Now back to that acceleration curve. As mind-boggling as Apple's past successes have been, they also sharply bring this question into focus -- what's next?

Steve Jobs' biography raised television, textbooks, and photography as areas of interest. Apple has already dabbled in television with their aforementioned hobby, the Apple TV. They've stuck their toe into the textbook space with their recent Education Event and iBooks Author initiative. And, hey... they make iPhoto and Aperture.

There have been persistent rumors of an Apple television set proper, something that Steve Jobs may have said he'd cracked the interface for, and something Apple might have already prototyped to some degree in their labs. It remains to be seen if Apple will ever decide to release their own television set, however. And if Apple does release it, it's doubtful it could match or exceed the sales of the iPad, that it could it do in one year what the iPad did in 2. It could absolutely change the rules, the way the Apple II did, the Mac did, and the iPhone/iPad did, and disrupt the current television industry to the degree that it soon begins to redefine it, but it wouldn't redefine computing itself again.

An Apple television wouldn't be part of Apple's relentless theme to further democratize and popularize computing. It could further socialize it, since television is more familial than personal, but it would simply be another branch, perhaps lucrative as the iPod, or perhaps just a hobby like the Apple TV. It wouldn't be a leap beyond the iPhone or iPad.

Same with photography. Apple has already played the iPhone card, and that's a great play in the point-and-shoot, mobile photography space. High end (DSLR) isn't mainstream and supporting services is another sub-plot, not a theme.

Same with textbooks. Again, Apple has played that card with the iPad and everything else will just enhance that existing disruption.

So what does that leave? iCars, iWatches, iRobots? Unlike many of their competitors, Apple doesn't just drop nukes on the future and hope to hit something, some day. They fire cruise missiles and carefully adjust the course until they hit just exactly what they want to hit, just exactly when they want to hit it. That's why, despite their tendency towards patterns and cycles, they remain hard to predict.

The Apple II was released in 1977. The Mac some 7 years later in 1984. The iPhone and iPad some 20+ years later in 2007 and 2010. As much as the sales curve is accelerating, the big leaps in product category for the devices that serve Apple's main theme have slowed considerably.

That's why the branches are so important, and that's why there will continue to be iPods and iTunes, Apple Retail and Apple TVs. There will be products besides a personal computer and a mobile device, that mainstream consumers will still buy by the hundreds of millions, and are ripe for an Apple style revolution.

Apple will still pursue their main theme, and will follow the iPhone and iPad the same way they followed the Mac, but there will be a lot more iPods and iTunes along the way.

Perhaps Apple will get into mobile payments and further expand the reach of the iTunes checkout system (sure, Apple could buy Square and Foursquare -- and why not Squarespace -- while they're at it?). They could finally overcome the cataclysmic myopia of Hollywood by either funding creators directly and serving up more Dr. Horrible style made-for-digital content, or simply buy a studio like Sony did and force Hollywood, kicking and screaming, into the future (is Pixar for re-sale?). There are many, many opportunities ancillary to Apple's existing businesses over-ripe-to-the-point-of-rotting for innovation.

So, while every pundit and their analyst seems eager to rumor up Apple's next big thing while simultaneously dismissing all current things as "iterative", I'm eager to see all of it. From Mountain Lion and iOS 6 at WWDC 2012 to the 2012 iPhone this fall and the next new iPad beyond it.

Nothing Apple does exists in a vacuum. Sure, at some point in the future, when technology makes it possible, Apple might just re-revolutize personal computing again. Maybe they'll make it wearable or implantable. Maybe they'll make it more human, with a natural language and thought interface disruption that does to multitouch what multitouch did to mouse and mouse did to command line and command line did to punchcard.

Or maybe, just like the computer became the network, the device may become the ecosystem, and each element from hardware to software to service will drag each other inexorably forward. Maybe Siri and iCloud are the first indicators of that.

What better way to serve Apple's theme but for the next big thing to be a relentless stream of small things?

Image credit: iDoodle by Jason Harrison

June 11. That's the date we've long suspected but just this week had confirmed. Apple's 2012 World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) is now official hurtling towards us (or us towards it). But it's not the only things going on this week, so let's get to it.

WWDC 2012 and iOS 6

Apple announced WWDC 2012 at 5:30am Cupertino, California (PDT) time, less than 50 days before the June 11 start date, with a $1600 ticket price, and it still sold out in 2 hours. Many developers and interested parties had created scripts that would look for any change in Apple's WWDC website and alert them immediately. Others signed up for text message notification services. Still others networked with friends, family, peers, and others to keep constant vigil and light the web on fire the moment tickets went live.

Some got them, some didn't. No one seemed thrilled with the process. Probably not even at Apple. The list of problems are easy to identify -- too much demand, not enough availability, and a high stress, no-notice acquisition process. Solutions are harder to come by.

For gadget enthusiasts, however, the only real problem is anticipation. With WWDC comes Apple's annual keynote. In years past it's introduced the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. Last year it introduced iOS 5 and iCloud, but no new hardware.

And this year?

iMore has heard that, once again, there won't be any new iOS devices this summer, but like last year there's a lot of software for Apple to spotlight. No doubt we'll see OS X Mountain Lion get it's first public demonstration. We should also see iOS 6, or whatever Apple calls the next version of its mobile operating system. There was no iOS SDK event like there was in 2008, 2009, and 2010, so just like 2011 we're expecting WWDC to see the launch of the first iOS 6 beta.

And that should be interesting to say the least.

I'll be there all week, along with our apps editor, Leanna Lofte, and my co-host on the iPhone Live and Iterate podcasts, Seth Clifford.

Google Drive

Google Drive is finally here. Unlike Nokia Drive, which is a turn-by-turn navigation service, Google Drive is a cloud storage service. (English is funny, but not as funny as branding in English.) Based on how it's currently set up, it could also be called Google Docs+, but at this point I'm just happy it's not Google Play Drive.

And it's not bad. Prices are more than competitive and if there's anything Google knows, it's how to store data at scale. Some might have philosophical problems with the way Google monetizes all that stored data, but nothing's really free. If you don't want to pay with money, you're going to pay with access to your demographic and other data. Everyone has to decide from themselves what's a fair price and how they're willing to pay it.

Personally, I'm not switching away from Dropbox any time soon. While Google Drive is cheaper, Dropbox has momentum. All my stuff is already in there, most of the apps I use are already integrated with it, and Google Drive isn't better enough to make switching everything over anywhere near worth it.

I will add it to the mix, however, much as I did iCloud. Right now I'll use it as a big online scratch disk and see if anything further evolves from there.

A lot of that will depend on how long it takes the iPhone and iPad apps to ship, and how good they are. Sadly, I've come not to expect much...

Why can't great companies make great mobile apps?

Let's be perfectly blunt -- most of Google's iOS apps have been terrible at launch and haven't improved much since. About the nicest thing you could say about them is they make sure Facebook isn't alone in buggy apps from major corporations that should know better and be better. And I don't get it. These are two of the biggest, smartest, most talented, and certainly wealthiest technology companies in the world and they can't make a killer iOS app between them?

Indie developers, unimaginably more limited in resources, literally code circles around Facebook and Google when it comes to mobile. Look at Tweetbot. Look at Twitterrific. Look at Tweetie (before Twitter bought it). Look at webOS, which cash-strapped Palm put together on a shoe-string and a dream. Facebook for iPhone was mortally wounded when the original developer, Joe Hewitt, left the project and while it's improved slowly over time, it's not where it needs to be or should be. Not by a long shot.

Google has bought iOS apps (and canned them), Facebook bought Instagram, but neither has shown they have what it takes to transition from web companies to mobile companies. They're mobile immigrants, not mobile natives, and they're not enculturating well.

But mobile isn't just their future, it's the future. They need to do whatever it takes to nail mobile apps, and now.

Google has a chance with Google Drive for iOS to show us they're more than a wafer thin UIWebView wrapper and a terrible web-based authentication system. I sincerely hope they do.

Features

Lots of great stuff to shine the spotlight on this week.

• Siri co-founder talks to iMore about the future of technology, mobile interfaces, and implementing Siri: Ally got a chance to hear Dag Kittlaus speak and ask him some questions. If you haven't read it already, read it now!
• Best free iPhone games: Simon entered the wilds of the iPhone App Store, and hunted down and captured the very best free games available.
• Stellar Q2 2012 highlights why Apple is a must-own tech stock: Chris U. goes over Apple's killer second quarter to help us make better sense of the crazy high numbers.
• Ultimate guide to iCloud: If you've got questions about iCloud, the whole iMore team came together to bring you answers.

Ultimate guide to iCloud

Speaking of the Ultimate Guide to iCloud -- we got a lot of feedback on it. It was one of the longest articles we've ever posted and for a lot of you it was simply too long to be manageable. So we listened and we made some changes. Instead of stuffing everything into one post, we've now broken it up into several parts. The main article is now an index and each section has its own dedicated article (many of which we'll be expanding on in the near future). Check them out:

• How to set up, back up, restore, and update using iCloud
• How to set up and use iCloud mail, contacts, and calendars
• How to set up and use iTunes in the Cloud
• How to set up and use iTunes Match
• How to set up and use Photo Stream
• How to set up and use Documents in the Cloud
• How to set up and use Find my iPhone
• How to set up and use Find my Friends
• iCloud help and discussion forum

Reading list

• Unravelling Samsung's Galaxy S3 riddle: Alex Dobie of Android Central spends his time waiting for the Samsung event -- and Phil Nickinson's arrival in the Old World -- by going over what we can expect from the next great iPhone rival.
• Former RIM employee takes to reddit for some no holds barred Q&A: For those with morbid curiosity, CrackBerry reformatted a gobsmacking Reddit Q&A into much more legible form. (Or you can read the original on Reddit to get all the responses in a threaded view).
• My Dropbox Writing Workflow: Federico Viticci lays his text editing strategy bare. It's real, and it's spectacular.
• CinemaCon 2012: THE HOBBIT Underwhelms At 48 Frames Per Second and the rebuttal, Peter Jackson responds to complaints about 'The Hobbit' footage: I dislike 3D -- the human eye does not handle converging and focusing well on a fake, flat 3D plane, but I'm undecided on 48 fps. I'd like to try it out, I'm just not sure I'd like to risk trying it out on the Hobbit.

They've cut the hardline

Long week and they won't be getting shorter any time soon. Time to find another exit.

A date has been set for Apple and Samsung's court-ordered settlement talks -- May 21 and 22, 2012. While the talks were ordered by Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, they will be overseen by Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero at the San Francisco courthouse.

one of the things Magistrate Judge Spero wants the parties to do is to provide a settlement statement until May 9 including, among other things, "a candid evaluation of the parties' likelihood of prevailing on the claims and defenses" [emphasis NOT mine]. I think this is wishful thinking because the parties won't really say that any of their claims are legally weak, no matter in front of whom these talks take place, but there's no way they would ever express even the slightest skepticism over any of their claims in front of a judge involved with the actual litigation.

Apple and Samsung are currently engaged in 50 lawsuits in 10 countries. They also remain manufacturing partners, with Samsung providing key components for Apple devices like the iPhone and the iPad.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will represent Apple in the talks. Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, reportedly met with Samsung in previous years but was unable to reach a resolution. According to his official biography, his terms were rather absolute:

I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this. [...] I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.

Cook was recently asked if he might be more open to a resolution than Jobs was.

Cooks answer was pretty much the same now as it was before he became CEO — he doesn’t like litigation, but he also doesn’t like other companies using what he feels are Apple innovations to sell competing products. Cook also took it a step further, saying Apple cannot become the developer for the world. Although he didn’t elaborate, it seemed to be along the same theme as previous statements — he believes Apple competitors should invent their own stuff rather than copying Apple.

In other words, we'll hope for the best, but we're not expecting it.

Source: FOSS Patents

Tony Fadell, affectionately referred to as the godfather of the iPod for his part in helping Apple bring their landmark MP3 player to market, says that Apple originally tested three different kinds of iPhone prototypes before ultimately deciding on the multitouch marvel we now all know and love. Fadell, speaking on On the Verge, said a hardware keyboard was a serious considerations. Fadell claims he favored the virtual keyboard approach.

Based on other stories and snippets of stories that have floated around for years, it sounds like Apple was working on a multitouch "Safari-Pad" project while also experimenting with iPod/phone options like the Motorola ROKR. Eventually the tablet got put on hold and, after seeing a demonstration of the "rubber-banding" inertial scrolling on a multitouch screen, Steve Jobs pivoted Apple into what became the iPhone.

Jon Rubentein, who was also pivotal in Apple's iPod success, really wanted a hardware keyboard on the iPhone.

Rubinstein and Jobs could not agree on the iPhone’s strategy wrt the Keyboard. This tells me that Rubinstein has a separate but perhaps also compelling vision on how the keyboard needs to be incorporated into smartphones. I can’t wait to see what that vision entails!

Rubenstein ultimately left Apple and joined Palm, where he brought the multitouch and hardware keyboard packing Palm Pre to market.

Once Apple had the iPhone -- and iPod touch -- on track, they went back to the Safari Pad project and brought out the iPad. (Which, as far as we know, no ever prototyped with a full laptop keyboard...)

Source: The Verge

Apple's eccentric co-founder and longtime gadgetphile, Steve Wozniak, decided to get himself a shiny new Nokia Lumia 900 so he could have a bit of a play with Windows Phone and... he likes it. And this should surprise precisely no one. It's a great new phone and Woz tries every great new phone that comes off the assembly line (he has a chair reserved at the end of the conveyer belt, we're told). He's also giddy-passionate about technology (and recently said Android was more functional than iPhone...). However, since he co-founded Apple, Woz liking anything without an lowercase i in front of it makes headlines. So let's have at it.

"iPhone is my favorite phone. I did give my opinion that the Windows 7 phone had superior visual appearance and operation cues that were also more attractive. In my opinion, it sets the mark for user interface. I would recommend it over my Android phones given that it doesn’t yet have the breadth of apps. I surmise that Microsoft hired someone from Apple and put money into having a role in the UI and appearance of some key apps. I also surmised that Steve Jobs might have been reincarnated at MS due to a lot of what I see and feel with this phone making me think of a lot of great Apple things."

Yeahbutokay... that last part is more than a little around the bend and down the garden path, since Jobs was still alive when Windows Phone and Nokia were put together, never mind anyone reincarnated in the last year WOULD STILL BE A BABY and not in a position to turn around the battleship that is Microsoft. It also doesn't give the credit where it's due -- to the Windows Phone team and Microsoft team for putting together a damn fine product.

Windows Phone is arguably still more of an app than a platform, but that's changing faster and faster every day. While their specs lag Android by a considerable amount, they've got the polish and experience down and should easily be able to start matching speeds and feeds when Windows Phone 8 starts hitting shelves.

Of course that will be around when iPhone 5,1 and iOS 6 launch, so it'll make for an interesting fall to say the least.

Meanwhile, we leave you with Woz, bless him. (It's audio-only. Now if they'd had an iPhone with them...)

Source: SoundCloud file, A New Domain, WPCentral

Carriers have a love/hate relationship with the iPhone. They hate Apple's control (because they want that control for themselves) but love the money and customer-retention having the iPhone on their network brings them. Sprint's willingness to pay damn near all the money in their pockets, and delve into whatever passes for a corporate second mortgage, proves that that point.

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint sell Android because they want to. They sell iPhone because they have to.

Apple isn't exactly easy to deal with. Android gives carriers far more control, generally requires far less up front investment (in terms of subsidies), and promises a thus far inexhaustible cornucopia of new devices to thrust at consumers on a seemingly weekly basis. It just doesn't generate the revenue or reduce customer churn the way the iPhone does.

They tried. They really did. Verizon pushed the Droid and Sprint pushed the Palm Pre and the EVO. They had successes to be sure, especially in sheer volume of units sold. But they never came anywhere near iPhone levels of profit or customer loyalty. And at the end of the day, even for carriers, that's what matters.

Not that you'd know it by looking at their websites. Go to Verizon.com or AT&T.com or Sprint.com and iPhones have little to no home page presence and remarkably little wireless site presence.

Verizon's home page features the eye of Sauron the Droid. Their wireless page does have the iPhone in the first of three small blocks at the bottom, but the massive feature boxes are filled almost entirely by Android. There's even a token BlackBerry thrown into the mix. But no iPhone.

This despite Verizon selling 3.2 million iPhones last quarter, accounting for more than half the smartphones they sold (i.e. the iPhone outsold all Android and other smartphones combined.)

AT&T's home page is all about Windows Phone and Android, with Nokia grabbing one of the hero slides and HTC and Samsung getting the other two. On their wireless page Nokia repeats in the spotlight, with Android and cheapy phones playing backup. There's no iPhone in sight.

Yet AT&T sold 4.3 million iPhones last quarter, which was 75% of all the smartphones they sold, and 60% of all the on-contract phones AT&T sold period (including feature phones).

Sprint's home page has the iPhone in the third of four feature spots, and the fourth of four bottom blocks. They don't have a separate wireless page, so their home page does double duty.

Still, Sprint managed to sell 1.5 million iPhones last quarter. They don't break out how many smartphones in general they sold, however, so there's no way to calculate the iPhone's percentage of total sales.

And that's just in the U.S. Internationally, Apple sold over 20 million iPhones. Rogers in Canada reported 35% more iPhone activations, year-over-year, compared to just 20% more smartphone activations overall. (And their home page features Android and Windows Phone, and iPad, and their wireless page shows an iPhone only in a block advertising their Find my iPhone-like Phone Finder service.)

So with little attention, ad spend, and product placement, Apple's iPhone still accounts for most of the carriers smartphone -- if not all phone -- sales, and reduces their customer churn. And that probably drives them up-the-wall crazy.

Apple, who doesn't let them festoon the iPhone with their revolting logos, clog it up with their dodgy crapware, allow them to delay or refuse software updates, or arbitrarily alter casing designs, and charges them among the highest up-front prices of any manufacturer in the industry, is increasingly responsible for their financial and customer success.

And it doesn't even have LTE (yet) or a ginormous screen (likely ever).

If carriers had their druthers, manufacturers -- including Apple -- would be little more than dumb assemblers (much as, if customers had their druthers, carriers would be little more than dumb pipes). Yet as much as Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint would far, far prefer to sell the always amenable Android, customers, increasingly, want iPhone. So carriers increasingly have to deal with Apple. Even if they continue to try to find viable alternatives.

That's why carriers will never go all-in on iPhone promotion. They don't want to become entirely dependent on Apple (or any one platform). It's in their best interest to have several, highly competitive platforms on the market that they can hedge with, and against.

Still, it's interesting to imagine a market where carrier manipulation didn't influences the market. Free to compete strictly on customers and merits, would smartphones be more like tablets, and would the iPhone have the same relative positions as iPad does to Android tablets, BlackBerry PlayBook, and the like? The same position the iPod had in the carrier-free MP3 space?

Rene and Seth talk WWDC 2012 and iOS 6, Apple's Q2 2012 financial results, free iPhone games, Instapaper vs Pocket vs Readability, and Google Drive. This is iPhone & iPad Live!

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Meta

• Ultimate guide to iCloud
• How to fix cellular antenna reception problems on a Verizon or Sprint iPhone 4

WWDC 2012

• Apple announces WWDC 2012, June 11 – 15
• WWDC 2012 sells out in 2 hours. At $1600 a ticket. At 5:30am Pacific time.

Apple Financial Results

• Apple reports Q2 2012 results, 35.1 million iPhones, 11.8 million iPads, 7.7 million iPods, $11.6 billion in profit
• Highlights from Apple Q2 2012 financial results conference call
• Stellar Q2 2012 highlights why Apple is a must-own tech stock
• Verizon sells 3.2 million iPhones, earns $3.91 billion in Q1, 2012
• AT&T activates 4.3 million iPhones in Q1 2012, accounts for 78% of smartphone sales
• Sprint scrapes by in Q1 2012 with 1.5 million iPhone sales, sees $863 million net loss
• Tim Cook tells competitors to invent their own stuff — Apple is not the world’s developer
• Tim Cook thinks Apple’s iPad + MacBook Air strategy is better than Microsoft’s Windows 8 everywhere plan

Apps

• Best free iPhone games
• Instapaper vs Pocket vs Readability: Read later app for iPhone shootout!
• Google announces Google Drive, gives 5GB of free cloud storage to all users
• Eddy Cue says Apple can’t treat magazines differently than FarmVille when it comes to iBooks
• Yes, sometimes you do need to kill all the apps in your multitasking dock

Hosts

• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including iPhone and iPad Live, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven't already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

Twitter for iPhone isn't your early adopter, power user app. It's not designed for the gadget nerd with tons of followers who engages in non-stop repartees with like-minded friends, peers, and colleagues all day. It for the new mainstream Twitter user who has very few followers, follows tons of celebrities, and is looking for more and better ways to find something... anything... to do on Twitter. Like it or not, since the last redesign, that's the the official Twitter app's target user now. And that's who they're improving things for with this update.

Discover promises "more interesting and timely content that matters to you". Basically that means you see a paid placement on top (mine's a Yahoo! add I could not possibly care less about out), a hashtag (mine's #NewFront, which is impenetrable to me), a trending tweet (mine is something about an Ex-Liberian president that it says is trending but I've never expressed any interest in), a trio of recent friend activities, including their retweets, follows, and favorites, a trio of additional trending hashtags and terms, and a trio of people Twitter recommends you follow.

Activity appears below the redesigned stories in Discover. Now you can tap any story once to see Tweets about a particular trend or news article. You can then read the entire story or join the conversation by replying, retweeting or favoriting related Tweets.

Again, I'm not the Lady Gaga following nouveau Twitter type, I'm not their target user, but all of this is completely lost on me. This tab could disappear tomorrow and my enjoyment of the app would only increase.

Search has also been improved, and claims to be simpler and more error-proof with different spellings and related terms. The search box is present in both the Connect and Discover tabs, the former of which prioritizes @names and full names, the latter of which prioritizes #hashtags or keywords. You can also get a search history in the Discover tab.

We’ve also made a few improvements specifically for iPhone: when you tap the search box in Discover, you’ll see your most recent queries. You can also go directly to someone’s profile when searching for a username in Connect.

I usually prefer one search box to rule them all, Twitter optimizing different search boxes for different types of content works well, even if it adds extra cognitive load by making users choose the "proper" tab before they can query the system.

Notifications have also been made more robust, and you can now be alerted to tweets, retweets, and follows, in addition to the usual @mentions and direct messages (DMs). It brings Twitter for iPhone up to parity with some other clients, but is also a power user feature in what's clearly a mainstream targeted app. Unless Lady Gaga is retweeting and favoriting me left and right, this feature would have felt far more at home in the older version of Twitter.

Overall, the user interface remains gorgeous, the functionality solid, the implementation silky smooth, and the focus on Twitter's new mainstream audience commendable. It's just not the good old Twitter many of us knew and loved, and it's a little sad there's no official Twitter Pro app that could have somehow melded the new experience with the old, more power-user centric functionality and layout.

Free - Download now

Source: Twitter blog

During a visit to Boulder, Colorado and Colorado University, U.S. President Barack Obama was caught on video test driving a Sphero -- an iPhone controlled rolling robot. Obama first watches the Sphero roll around, remarking "how cool is that, you can make the ball do all kinds of stuff", before taking the iPhone and taking control of the robot himself. Surrounded by Secret Service -- and co-eds -- the President of the United States gave it a whirl, seemed to enjoy himself, and complimented the inventor, a Boulder native.

We've had the opportunity to try out Sphero a couple of times at CES, and if you like iPhones and robots, it's definitely something to check out. Video below.

Thanks Obi!

The best iOS podcast in the 'verse returns tonight to talk all the latest iPhone and iPad news, how-tos, and app and accessory reviews. We'll be talking Apple Q1 2010 results, and WWDC 2012. Come join us!

Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations"!

Apple Retail Stores have replaced the iMacs that traditional served as their "kid's table" with iPads. The tables, which had previously been decked out with a quartet of iMacs, now sport 4 iPads instead.

Like the previous iMacs, which were set up with educational and game programs, the iPads had a variety of child-friendly apps. I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but I noticed it for the first time today when I visited my local store to pick up a repaired Mac. My 3 years godson, who was with me, took only a couple of moments to adjust. He launched a book app and began playing, just as he does at home. It was much easier for him to find an app and use the iPad than it had ever been to handle the iMac and mouse, so that was a huge win.

I'll miss seeing those big screens around the kids table, but iPads are clearly Apple's future, and nothing makes that clearer than how they're deploying them for future generations of Apple customers.

Apple previously replaced in-store display cards with interactive iPads, and replaced the MacBook Pro computers at the Genius Bar with iPads. Apple Store concierges also use iPads to handle appointments.

There's no sign that they'll start replacing the actual Geniuses (or other staff) with iPads. Yet.

Kevin, Phil, Derek, Simon, Jay, and Rene talk BlackBerry 10, HTC One, Nokia Lumia 900, the new iPad, something something webOS, and Google Drive. This is Mobile Nations!

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Agenda

• BlackBerry World 2012
• BlackBerry 10
• HTC One X
• Google Drive cloud storage service launches, 5GB free space for all
• Nokia Lumia 900
• The new iPad

Hosts

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don't just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
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Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

Apple's annual World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) was announced earlier this morning, at 5:30am PDT, with a ticket price of $1600... and it sold out in less than 2 hours.

It took Apple 10 hours to sell out last year, so this is five times faster. Though it's an apples-to-oranges comparison, it took only 28 minutes to sell out Google IO 2012.

For paid developers, a ticket gives entry to the keynote, the non-disclosure covered lectures, and most importantly, the labs where Apple engineers can help with problems and get and give feedback on issues.

However, there's so much going on at WWDC that many, many people go without a ticket just to meet up with other developers and members of the Apple community.

WWDC 2012 takes place from June 11 to 15. Jump into our Developer and Designer Forum and let us know if you'll be there, ticket or not!

Apple's annual developer conference is once again set for June -- we probably won't see an iPhone 5 but could iOS 6 could make an appearance?

Apple has announced that it's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) will take place this year from June 11 - 15, 2012. As usual, WWDC will be held at Moscone West in San Francisco, CA. Tickets are $1599 and will likely go FAST. (They sold out in 10 hours last year.)

“We have a great WWDC planned this year and can’t wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world.”

In order to attend, you have to be a paid member of the iOS Developer Program, iOS Developer Enterprise Program, or Mac Developer Program, and you have to be 13 years of age or older.

WWDC is highlighted by a keynote presentation that in years past included the introduction of the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. Last year's WWDC 2011 keynote didn't include any hardware announcements, but did include the unveiling of iOS 5 and iCloud, and the release of the iOS 5 beta. It was also Steve Jobs' last Apple keynote appearance.

We don't expect a new iPhone at this year's WWDC either, but we'll hopefully see a developer preview of iOS 6, and perhaps more on iCloud and associated services as well.

Jump into our Developer and Designer Forum and let us know if you'll be there!

Full press release below.

CUPERTINO, California—April 25, 2012—Apple® today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 11 through June 15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At this year’s five-day conference, developers will learn about the future of iOS and OS X®, allowing them to build incredible new apps. WWDC will also feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers as well as the popular Apple Design Awards, a showcase of the most outstanding apps from the past year.

“We have a great WWDC planned this year and can’t wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world.”

Developers will be able to explore the latest innovations, features and capabilities of iOS and OS X Mountain Lion and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance, quality and design of their apps. Developers can even bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers, applying development techniques and best-practices to enhance their apps.

Activities at Apple’s WWDC 2012 include:

• more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of technology-specific topics for developing, deploying and integrating the latest iOS and OS X technologies;
• 100 hands-on labs staffed by more than 1,000 Apple engineers providing developers with code-level assistance, insight into optimal development techniques and guidance on how they can make the most of iOS and OS X technologies in their apps;
• the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iOS and OS X developers from around the world—last year more than 60 countries were represented;
• engaging and inspirational lunchtime sessions with leading minds and influencers from the worlds of technology, science and entertainment; and
• Apple Design Awards which recognize iPhone®, iPad® and Mac® apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.

Please go to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2012 website (developer.apple.com/wwdc) to purchase tickets, as well as for updates and more information.

Developers who are unable to attend this year’s conference can access and watch all technical sessions from the Apple Developer website (developer.apple.com/videos) as soon as they are posted for free.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked during Apple's Q2 2012 conference call how he felt about ongoing patent litigation, and whether he might be more open to a settlement or resolution than his predecessor, Steve Jobs might have been. Cooks answer was pretty much the same now as it was before he became CEO -- he doesn't like litigation, but he also doesn't like other companies using what he feels are Apple innovations to sell competing products. Cook also took it a step further, saying Apple cannot become the developer for the world. Although he didn't elaborate, it seemed to be along the same theme as previous statements -- he believes Apple competitors should invent their own stuff rather than copying Apple.

Apple is currently engaged in lawsuits with Android manufacturers including Samsung, Motorola, and HTC. The late Steve Jobs seems to have taken particular, personal offense at Android using what he felt were Apple innovations and giving them away "promiscuously". According to Jobs' biographer, Walter Isaacson:

[The Microsoft Windows situation was] almost copied verbatim by Android. And then they licence it around promiscuously. And then Android starts surpassing Apple in market share, and this totally infuriated him. It wasn’t a matter of money. He said: ‘You can’t pay me off, I’m here to destroy you’.

This followed Jobs' famous scorched-earth vow:

I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this. [...] I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.

Some have hoped that Tim Cook might bring a different temperament to the situation, and indeed he will be meeting with the head(s) of Samsung to discuss points of resolution in their case.

However, based on his statements today, it doesn't sound like he's making any drastic policy changes at this point.

(Nor is he addressing examples of Apple using Google and Palm-style elements, like Notifications, in iOS.)

During the Q2 2012 Apple conference call, CEO Tim Cook was asked if, like Microsoft is doing with Windows 8, the iPad and the MacBook Air would inevitable converge into a single product line. Cook thinks not.

Forcing a tablet and an PC together, in Cook's view, is a forced convergence and something that creates a compromised experience for users. He likened it to making a combined toaster and refrigerator, and said it results in tradeoffs that don't please anyone.

Cook's use of the word "compromise" is interesting because Microsoft has been using that word extensively in their pre-Windows 8 hype. Microsoft has been claiming that Windows 8, because it can run desktop apps on a tablet, and run across tablets and desktop environments, is a "no-compromises" solution. To their thinking, an iPad can't do what a PC can do, so it's a compromised device.

It's the classic contention. Apple compromises on what each platform can do so that each device is best at what it does. Microsoft is compromising on what the platform can do so each device can do more.

There really is no such thing as "no-compromises". One of the first lessons you learn in life is that can't have everything. There's opportunity cost to every decision. Microsoft's "no compromises" is and will always be utter BS, they've simply chosen different compromises and hoped it's a better choice.

Microsoft is doing a lot of interesting things with Windows 8 and you can never discount them from any market, even tablets, regardless of how far behind they may seem to be.

Some users will prefer a refrigerator that also makes toast, be it a Windows 8 device that can run full-on Office, or a MacBook Air with a detachable screen that can run iOS as a tablet.

But if Tim Cook is to be believed, Apple isn't going to be making that product now, or for the foreseeable future.

• New iPad vs MacBook Air: Which should you buy?

Apple is holding their Q2 2012 financial results call, and we're here to break down anything interesting they might say. Apple made a ridiculous amount of money again, with 35.1 million iPhones, 11.8 million iPads, 7.7 million iPods, $11.6 billion in profit.

Live updates, after the break!

Source: www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq212

• Peter Oppenheimer (PO): Record quarter again. Strong growth in iPhone and iPad. 15.4 billion in operating margin. 11.6 billion in net revenue.
• New record for desktop and portable Macs. 4 million. 3 or 4 weeks of inventory. Below target range.
• Mountain Lion, 9th major release of OS X. Brings popular iOS features to OS X.
• Mountain Lion will be in Mac App Store later this summer.
• 7.7 iPods sold. Down. iPod touch still over half. iPod share still over 70%. Still top selling in most countries.
• 4-6 weeks of iPod inventory.
• iTunes all time record. 1.9 billion in revenue. 35% up. Music, video, apps strong.
• 35.1 million iPhones sold. 88% year over year growth. More than twice smartphone market. Very strong growth in all segments. AsiaPac, Japan doubled year over year. China was 5x level year ago quarter. iPhone 4S launch, China telecom. Over 100 countries. 8.6 million in inventory. In target range of 4-6 weeks inventory. $22 billion in revenue. 85% increase.
• iPhone in enterprise. Opportunity to leverage devices to improve efficiencies through in-house iOS apps. Actively deploying in-house apps to their base.
• iPad 11.8 billion. 151% increase.
• New iPad now available in 40 countries. Strong growth. More than doubling in each segment. $6.6 billion in revenue. Up 132%. Below target range for inventory.
• Education interest in Education grows. 2x sold compared to Macs. San Diego school purchased 2K, will purchase 15k more. Hopeful iPad will be popular in school buying quarter.
• Air Force deploying thousands of iPads. Thousands deployed as mobile sales tools
• 365 million cumulative iOS device sales. App Store in 120 countries. 200,000 apps just for iPad. 25 billion apps downloaded in less than 4 years.
• 125 million iCloud customers.
• (Apple Stores still doing well)
• 47.4% gross margin. Lower than expected commodity cost, stronger revenue and product mix including iPhone.
• Cash 110.2 billion at end of March quarter. 12.6 billion up. 74 billion off shore.
• 2.65 per share dividend in Q3. Will provide info at that time.
• Q3 projection of 34 billion in revenue, gross margin 41.5%.
• Extremely pleased with March results, revenue almost doubling. Fastest iPad rollout ever. iPhone 4S now in over 100 countries including China.

Q&A

• Q: Explain Q3 predictions?
• PO: iPad and iPhone ramp up was extremely successful. Able to fulfill demand in March rather than June. Unlike last year, they expect decline in revenue. 1) iPhone channel inventory changes, increase by 2.6 million units. Exited in target range. Last year was still increasing channels. That will impact sequential comparison. 2) Fabulous iPhone 4S execution. December backlog led to huge January. China launched in January. 3) New iPad exection was also fabulous. Launched with significant supply. Fastest country rollout ever. Able to satisfy demand faster. Shift of volume into March. Will effect sequential comparison. 4) Decreased entry price of iPad to $399. 5) U.S. dollar strength.
• PO: Most amazing March quarter ever, feel good about business and pipeline.
• Q: Decline in iPad price. What is the right way to read it? Tell you about price point over time?
• PO: Learning about elasticity of demand. Doing well. New iPad is on fire. Selling as fast as they can make them. Education buying season looks terrific.
• Q: Outgrew market in Macs again. Slow down in year over year growth, what factors? Product transition?
• Tim Cook (TC): We did outgrow the market. Mac 7% where market grew 2%. 24th straight quarter of growth. Compare to last year effected by change to bulk of portable line in Q2 2011. Portables up 53% last year. Look at it sequentially, had 14 weeks in December quarter. Was some cannibalization from iPad, market is slow, but much large factor is compare to a year ago.
• Q: What are you learning about lower price points on iPhone and iPad?
• TC: With iPad 2 change in entry price, thrilled with results but it's only been a few weeks. Too early to come to clear conclusion. Unlocked some education demand, more price sensitive customer. Several other countries, marked change in demand at that price point. Early going, feel great about it. New iPad is what's constrained. Still constrained. Mix of new iPad to iPad 2, not certain of what that is yet. Absolute sales of iPad 2 is very exciting.
• TC: On iPhone still very happy with pricing moves. iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4. Both contribute to ability to archive 35 million in sales. Second highest of all time.
• Q: Tablet and PC market in the future? Windows 8? Why won't the ultrabook/MacBook Air and tablet markets converge?
• TC: Anything can be forced to converge, problem is products are about tradeoffs. You make tradeoffs to the point where what you have left doesn't please anyone. Toaster and a refrigerator won't be please to a consumer. tablet market is huge. Said that since day one. Using at Apple, already clear there was so much you could do, reasons so broad. Precisely what they've seen. Consumer, education, enterprise. Application meaningful and abundant. As ecosystem gets better, Apple doubles down on making great products, limit is nowhere in sight.
• TC: Just 2 years after launching iPad, sold 64 million. Took 3 years for iPhone, 5 years for iPod, 20+ years for Mac. Profound product. breadth is incredible. Appeal universal.
• TC: IDC, Gartner, Forrester have numbers. Gartner says 325 by 2015, 375. More than PC today. More formal predictors see lines cross. Also believes there's a good market for MacBook Air. Continue to innovate in that product. Appeals to someone with different requirements. But together, compromise most. Some people will prefer to own both. That's great too. Compromise of convergence, not going to that market. Others might from a defensive point. Apple won't. Q: Carrier subsidies? Any concerns? Think about risks?
• TC: Focus is on making very best smartphone in the world. Phone that delivers an off-the-charts user experience customers want to use every day of their lives. All carriers want to provide what their customers want to buy. That's motivation. Apple needs to continue making great products customers want. Innovating at rate and pace that's unbelievable.
• TC: Carrier subsidy isn't large relative to sum of payments over 24 month contract period. Delta between iPhone and other phone is smaller difference. iPhone has distinct advantages over other phones. Churn from iPhone customers is lowest of any phone they carry. Significant, direct financial benefit.
• TC: Engineers work very hard to be efficient with data. Different than others. Better than other app phones. iPhone is best smartphone on the plant to entice a customer from traditional mobile phone to upgrade to smartphone. Largest opportunity for Apple, carrier partners, customers. Win. Win. Win.
• Q: How are consumers using iCloud? iTunes Match? Paid storage?
• PO: Customers are using all iCloud features. Respond terrific. Feedback terrific. Storage pickup is growing. 125 million users. Building up. Storage growth will come more over time. Real desire wasn't about selling more storage. Recommend Match but paid for service. Just wanted to increase customer delight. Why they did it.
• Q: China?
• TC: Incredible quarter in China. Revenue was record. 7.9 billion in greater China. Up 3x. Mind-boggling. Part of this was pent-up demand for iPhone 4S. Launched in Mainland China in January, 2012. Also have strong demand for iPad 2. Haven't shipped new iPad yet but have in HK. Halo for Mac is also incredible. 60% up year-over-year. Expanded point-of-sales. Lot more opportunity.
• Q: Was iPhone mix in China different?
• TC: Wasn't material different.
• Q: Better content on iTunes?
• PO: Thrilled with rate they're adding content. Have to do it country by country, takes time. Largest catalog of songs and movies. 28 million songs. 1.2 billion in revenue in Q2. Up 35% year over year.
• Q: Shortages? Qualcomm? Constraints? Bottlenecks?
• TC: Tough question to answer. Aware of 28nm issue. Currently don't use them. Don't comment on future products. Generally, work closely with supplier partners, do everything they can do to get supply. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. Trying to push every button to work on it.
• Q: Walmart? Arkansas moving to 25 stores. Very pleased. When in 10,000.
• TC: No plan to be in 10,000. Trying some things. Doesn't include Mac. Seeing how it goes. Walmart very good partner on iPod. Increasingly substantial in iPad, evolving in iPhone. Enjoy working with them. Hope to continue expanding.
• Q: iPhone inventory? China balance?
• TC: Desire was to increase channel inventory across the quarter. Extremely back logged. Addition of 2.6 million allowed them to get into supply/demand balance. Op team execution so good, vast majority of supply/demand was reached in January. Mother of all Januaries.
• TC: World wide still constrained on new iPad. Demand incredibly robust. Selling as fast as they can make them. In China, on macro basis, has enormous number of people moving into middle class. Creating demand for goods, not just Apple's. Tremendous opportunity for companies who understand China. Apple doing everything to understand China.
• Q: Changes in Spain, Vodaphone changes. Seen any changes in Spainish market?
• TC: Spain has been weak for Apple, probably many countries. Revenue grew in Spain but materially less than EU or ROTW. Wasn't cause and effect, however. Is in terrible economic situation. Unusual case.
• TC: To be clear, what carriers did was, they still have subsidies for existing customers, pulled subsidies on new customers. All carriers didn't do that, only a couple. Wouldn't use that as proxy for the world.
• Q: Patents?
• TC: Hates litigation. Just wants people to invent their own stuff. If they can get a fair settlement, he'd highly prefer to settle. Key thing is, it's very important that Apple not become the developer for the world. Need people to invent their own stuff.
• Q: iCloud data? Multiple devices?
• PO: Have it but don't want to help competitors.
• Q: R&D up, why?
• PO: View this as a good thing. Investing in engineering. Investing in hardware and software teams. Fabulous new products in the pipeline. Don't have percentages in front of him.
• Q: China Telecom, when did that launch?
• TC: Early March, supply/demand balance prior to end of quarter.
• Q: OpEx leverage? Components?
• PO: Investing in R&D, spending on marketing, advertising, retail channels, infrastructure, stock based comp. Confident. Thinking long term.
• TC: Component costs were better than planned. Displays and NAND Flash drove benefits. June quarter NAND, mobile DRAM exceed demand. LCDs to stabilize, HD market has moved to balance. Most other components should fall in line.
• Q: Margins?
• TC: 2/3rds driven by higher mix of iPads and Macs. Full quarter of selling current iPad market. Loss of leverage on sequential higher revenue.
• Q: Enterprise, what resources are Apple dedicating to it?
• TC: Initial focus was on working with Fortune, Global 500 to get iPad certified. 94% of Furtune 500, 75% of Glbal 500 testing or deploying iPad. Off the charts for 24 month old product. Now focusing on penetration in those accounts. Incredible things about wins is that they span across many verticals, across government, education. Most broad-based product he's ever seen.
• Q: iPhone down next quarter, conservative or seen change?
• PO: Incredibly confident in business, strategy. Give guidance they have confidence in achieving. Do expect decline. Now in target range. March quarter had backlog. Able to fulfill that and launch 20 countries. Immense confidence.
• Q: iPad constraints a component issue?
• TC: Confident they can supply significant number this quarter, tough to know if it will balance.

And that's it!

Apple has once again reported record profits for Q2 2012, earning $39.2 billion for a quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion. iPhone sales held strong with 35.1 million iPhones sold and 11.8 million iPads, and iPod limping along with 7.7 million iPods. 4 million Macs rounded out the major product lines.

“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.”

“Our record March quarter results drove $14 billion in cash flow from operations,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68.”

In other words, Apple continues to rake in almost all the money. Here's the full release.

Apple Reports Second Quarter Results

Record March Quarter Sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs

Net Profit Increases 94% Year-over-Year

CUPERTINO, California—April 24, 2012—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 second quarter ended March 31, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $24.7 billion and net profit of $6.0 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 47.4 percent compared to 41.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The Company sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, a 151 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4 million Macs during the quarter, a 7 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.”

“Our record March quarter results drove $14 billion in cash flow from operations,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q2 2012 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on April 24, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq212. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

The Mobile Nations podcast is a GO! Come chat with the editors from Android Central, CrackBerry.com, iMore, webOS Nation, and WPCentral. It's a cross-platform podcastapalooza, and we want to hear from you! Chat now!

To celebrate the introduction of Google's new cloud storage service, Google Drive, they're simultaneously bumping free Gmail storage to 10GB. That's right, Gmail already had one-and-a-half as much free storage as Google Drive, and now it has twice as much!

However, if you also pay for Google Drive, that gets bumped again to 25GB.

Today, we're happy to announce that we're increasing everyone's free storage in Gmail from 7.5 GB to 10 GB (and counting) to celebrate today's launch of Google Drive. The increase will take effect over the next 24 hours. We hope you all enjoy the little bump!

The disparity between free Gmail and free Google Drive is a bit perplexing. Is Google encouraging us to inefficiently store most of our content in harder to access, impossible to collaborate in Gmail rather than Google Drive, which was purpose-built for sharing and searching? Have they simply not thought this through? Or is there some plan at work that will one day make one giant pool for all our Googlestuffs?

Who knows. It's free. It's embiggened. And that's all there is to it.

Now excuse me while I go mail bomb Phil Nickinson a couple million more 10MB blobs...

Source: Gmail blog

Google Drive is big, cheap, and aims to compete with the likes of Dropbox, SkyDrive, and maybe even iCloud

Rumor it and it shall become real -- Google Drive, the long awaited, long anticipated cloud storage service from Google is finally here and it's as big and as cheap as we hoped for. Every Google user gets 5GB for free, and you can buy literally tons more -- up to 16TB (?!) if you have the cash.

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

The focus is on sharing, storing, and searching. Everything. Google Docs is built in so you can start creating stuff. You can install the desktop client on Windows or Mac to get a folder going.

You can get started with 5GB of storage for free—that’s enough to store the high-res photos of your trip to the Mt. Everest, scanned copies of your grandparents’ love letters or a career’s worth of business proposals, and still have space for the novel you’re working on. You can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.

Google has updated their Android Google Docs app, turning it into an official Google Drive app. They're also "working hard" on an iPhone or iPad version but for now, if you want to access Google Drive, the web is your friend. You can find things by keyword and filter, and Drive will even OCR scanned docs to make your life easier. There's even beta image recognition baked in.

Check out more via the links below, and the watch the video for the overview.

Source: drive.google.com, Google Blog, via Android Central

After years of anticipation, Google could finally be set to launch their Dropbox competitor as early as this week

Google Drive is one of those mythical monsters of geekdom, something that's been speculated about and anticipated for years -- a full, Dropbox-style online storage solution from Google. And Reuters says it might just be announced as soon as today.

Consumers will get 5 Gigabytes of storage for free with Google Drive, while various versions with incrementally more storage capacity, topping out at about 100 Gibabytes, will be available for monthly fees, the source said.

No word on pricing yet, but Google Drive sounds like it will be typically Google -- massive and search-centric.

Google Drive will also be entering an increasingly competitive field, squaring off not only against the aforementioned Dropbox, but against established players like Box and Evernote, and major platform rivals like Microsoft's SkyDrive as well. While Apple's iCloud no longer offers iDisk functionality, it does offer a baseline level of service and convenience that's enough that mainstream users don't go looking for true online storage solutions.

Google has one huge advantage, however -- it's massive, services-centric user base. Demand for a Google-powered online repository has been so high all sorts of McGyver-like solutions have been shoehorned into Gmail and Google Docs just to make it sort-of-work.

If every Gmail and Google accounts users simply "gets" Google Drive, that's one heck of a jumpstart for Google, and something casual users might just turn to.

For power users, displacing Dropbox or Box might be out of the question unless it does the same things so much better it creates a compelling reason to switch. Given how much 3rd party support Dropbox already enjoys, especially in iOS, that could be tough.

Getting used in addition to Dropbox or Box, the way iCloud has, however, would probably be enough for Google Drive at this point.

We should find out shortly.

Source: Reuters via Android Central

Marc, Seth, and Rene iterate through Google's Project Glass, upgrade pricing, and Instagram's sale to Facebook, and interrogate Justin Marcucci and Tammy Coron of Nickelfish. This is Iterate!

• Our podcast feed
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• Google's Project Glass
• Microsoft Design case study: iPad to Windows 8 Metro style app
• The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades
• Why Facebook bought Instagram

• Justin Marcucci of Nickelfish
• Tammy Coron of Nickelfish

Hosts

• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of iMore.com

Feedback

• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
• Facebook: Iterate page

If you're one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we'd love to get you on the show, or if you've found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.