iMore » round up

Apple education event: Everything you need to know about iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U

Rene Ritchie — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:15:38 +0000

The (now digital) ink has dried on Apple’s education event, we’ve met the new apps, we’ve seen the new services, and we’ve gotten an idea of where Apple is heading when it comes to schools, textbooks, and learning. But just an idea. Like any 1.0 product, this stuff is the broad strokes and there are tons of details left for Apple hammer out over the next year — heck, over the next decade.

If you missed any of iMore’s extensive coverage, we can’t blame you — there was a ton of it! — but we will give you a chance to catch up. Below you’ll find links to Apple’s video of the education event itself, along with our live commentary podcast, and all of our hands-on videos, reader feedback, and quick takes on iBooks 2, Textbooks, iBooks Author, iTunes U, and everything else that went down today. We’ll have a bit more follow up tomorrow, but this is it for now. Put your feet up, grab a tasty beverage, and have at it!

Event & commentary

iBooks 2

iBooks Author

iTunes U

iPad 2 event roundup

Rene Ritchie — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:28:10 +0000

Steve Jobs once again put sneaker to stage and introduced us to the all new Apple iPad 2 today… and that’s not all. From iBooks to iTunes, iOS 4.3 AirPlay to Home Sharing, HDMI out to Smart Cover ups, iMovie to GarageBand Apple tried hard to tell us why 2011 would again be the year of the iPad. Did they succeed? Frankly we’re too exhausted to even think about it — so you tell us!

iPad 2

Original iPad

iPad 2 accessories

iPad 2 competition

iOS 4.3

Apps

iPad 2 event

Phew! Over to you. Chat is open, have at it!

iPod touch 4 early review round-up

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:13:29 +0000

The new iPod touch packing iOS 4.1 should be hitting US stores tomorrow and that means some early reviews are hitting the web tonight. What’s the bottom line? Follow on after the break for the first batch and we’ll add more as they go live.

Donald Bell of CNET says: “The Apple iPod Touch is arguably the last shot fired in the war of portable media players. There’s simply no catching up to it in terms of quality and capabilities. In fact, we sometimes joke around at CNET about how many product categories have been unintentionally maimed by the Touch, including Internet radios, PDAs, portable gaming devices, and GPS receivers.”
Joshua Topolsky of Engadget says “The new touch isn’t magical or revolutionary, or even unfamiliar. What it is, however, is a product without a peer; a media player that does far more than media playing. Besides the smaller screen real estate, the touch might be better compared to a tablet or netbook — it has many of the same functions (more, in some cases).”
Chris Breen of Macworld says: “Despite the cameras’ weaknesses, this is a very good iPod touch. If you have a third-generation iPod touch and lack an iPhone 4, this iPod’s FaceTime capabilities may tempt you to upgrade. If you’re unhappy with the performance or capacity of an even earlier iPod touch, this iPod is more compelling still. And if you’re without iPhone or iPod touch and have been holding out for a device thiiiis close to the iPhone—without the incumbent data plan and two-year commitment (and, of course, the phone features)—that realization has never been closer. It’s hard to imagine what more Apple could do to tempt you.”
Tim Gideon of PCMag says: “The only real problem with the touch is its high price—especially if you want a decent amount of storage. But with an entry point of $229, you do get a camera, HD video recorder, music and video player, portable gaming console, Web browser, e-mail, and app device in one slick, pocket-size package. There’s just no other portable media player that can do what the iPod touch can do.”
Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear says: “Finally, the iPod touch, and if ever there was a device to overshadow the iPhone 4, this is it. It’s tough to imagine Apple being able to shave anything more from the touch, and a brief hands-on with the PMP is enough to convince most that the Apple premium is worth it.”
MG Siegler of TechCrunch says “For some people, [720p video] alone will be reason enough to part with at least $229 for the 8 gigabyte version. But when you add in the fact that it has the same “Retina” display that Apple made for the iPhone 4, and the A4 chip which Apple included in both the iPhone 4 and the iPad, and of course, FaceTime support, there’s no question that this thing is going to be a massive hit for Apple.”
Ed Baig of USA Today says: “Steve Jobs noted during last week’s unveiling of freshly designed iPods that the iPod Touch has been called “an iPhone without the phone,” and an “iPhone without a contract.” Now that it’s even more like the iPhone 4, it’s sure to remain the most popular iPod.”

If you didn’t order yours already, do any of these make you want to stop by the Apple Store tomorrow and pick one up?

Apple Special Music Event 2010 round-up

Rene Ritchie — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:12:55 +0000

Once again Steve Jobs put sneaker to stage and at the Apple Special Music Event 2010 wowed the crowed with new gorgeous new hardware, stunning new software, and… services of a sort. The big stories were iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2, the new iPod touch, iPod nano, and Apple TV, and iTunes 10 with its Ping music social network, and of course, what we didn’t get.

The full story… well, here it is in handy bullet-point form.

Event coverage

iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2

New iPod touch, iPod nano, Apple TV

Epic gaming

iTunes 10 and Ping social music network

Apple iPhone 4 special press conference round up

Rene Ritchie — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:38:36 +0000

Rounding up the news and views on Apple’s iPhone 4 press conference

Well, Apple’s special iPhone 4 press conference is over and it’s all said and done, the facts and figures, the apologies and deflections, the updates and announcements, and quite a bit of downright confusion. TiPb’s iPhone 4 review covered a lot of that — a wondrous handset with a few killer flaws. Taken as a whole, many users will be extremely happy. Others… not so much. It really is the ecstasy with one crucial spot of antenna band agony.

If you missed any of the press conference coverage or you — like us — just want a chance to digest and mull it over, to see if it holds up or falls apart, here’s your chance:

So now the only question that remains is whether Apple’s managed to turn the the bad publicity around, if they’ve done enough to end “antennagate” and get iPhone 4 back on track…

TiPb at WWDC 2010 – day two round up

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:42:17 +0000

WWDC 2010 day two saw sessions jump into high gear as developers learned more about Game Center (which is comforting considering it was strangely MIA from the Keynote) and what’s going on with that monster 960×640 retina display on the new iPhone 4. Apple also handed out some polished aluminum cubes by way of app awards, and I got to sit down with some terrific app developers. (And yes, we’re giving away an iPhone 4).

Today is TiPb’s last day at WWDC [sniffle] so if you’re a developer email us at news(at)tipb(dot)com and drop on by, say hi, and amaze us with your apps. We’re trying to fit in as many as possible.

iPhone 4/iOS 4

Apps

No stocks, weather, voice memos, clock, calculator, or compass on iPad? App Store to the rescue!

Rene Ritchie — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:07:15 +0000

Unlike the iPhone 3GS, the iPad doesn’t have built-in stocks, weather, voice memo, clock, calculator, or compass apps. It does, however, have the brand new iPad App Store, and yeah… there are apps for all that!

Check out our picks after the break!

Bloomberg for iPad [Free - iTunes link] offers not just stocks but news, company info, price charts, trends, analysis and… you get the idea. It could just be information overload on a 9.7″ screen, but that’s likely just what you stockies want!

Weather Channel Max [Free - iTunes link] costs nothing (thanks to Toyota) but packs in the weathery-goodness. Full screen, customizable maps, in-motion radar, local, regional, and national video, and more make it not so much of a replacement as a escalation.

Voice memos for iPad [Free - iTunes link] is the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” of replacement apps. It looks similar to Apple’s iPhone Voice Memo app, but it’s scaled up to iPad size. Unlimited recording, tagging, pause, levels, timer, and email options make it a great fill in option.

Clock… We haven’t found a good replacement for Clock yet. If you know of one that matches the functionality and the grace of the iPhone Clock app, let us know in the comments. And developers — make a good one, with a great icon. Seriously.

PCalc Lite [Free - iTunes] or PCalc [$9.99 - iTunes link] make the iPhone calculator look anemic by comparison. It includes an optional RPN mode, multiple undo and redo, unit conversions and constants, a couple of themes, and much more in the paid version.

Compass HD + Vector Magnetometer / Gravitometer [Free for now - iTunes link] is an app that, frankly, we may not be smart enough to properly describe. It has absolute mode, north mode, declination mode, and relative modes, and a bunch of different display modes for acceleration visualization. Get it while it’s free!

So there you have it, App Store to the rescue! Did we miss any (other than clocks!)? Are there alternatives your like better? Let us know in the comments!

First iPad reviews are in!

Rene Ritchie — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:22:10 +0000

TiPb has done the full iPad review, of course, but while we’re iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad-centric, there are a lot of more general technology columnists and gadget bloggers out there who’ve gone touch-to-screen with Apple latest mobile device, and different perspectives are decidedly a good thing. So here’s a roundup of what they think:

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal says it’s “pretty close” to a laptop killer. He also got 11:28 of battery time on it!

After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.

David Pogue of the New York Times actually writes two reviews, one for the more tech-centric critics and one for the more positively inclined mainstream.

The techie review is decidedly negative:

The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive, U.S.B. jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works. Besides: If you’ve already got a laptop and a smartphone, who’s going to carry around a third machine?

The mainstream review is more positive:

The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget. Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young; they’re absolutely right.

Ed Baig of USA Today says it’s a winner.

The iPad is not so much about what you can do — browse, do e-mail, play games, read e-books and more — but how you can do it. That’s where Apple is rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing. There is no mouse or physical keyboard. Everything is based on touch. All programs arrive directly through Apple’s App Store. Apple’s tablet is fun, simple, stunning to look at and blazingly fast.

Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times says the iPad is pure innovation and one of the best computers ever.

The most compelling sign that Apple got this right is the fact that despite the novelty of the iPad, the excitement slips away after about ten seconds and you’re completely focused on the task at hand … whether it’s reading a book, writing a report, or working on clearing your Inbox. Second most compelling: in situation after situation, I find that the iPad is the best computer in my household and office menagerie. It’s not a replacement for my notebook, mind you. It feels more as if the iPad is filling a gap that’s existed for quite some time.

Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus of the Houston Chronicle says the iPad is better than expected.

It turns out the iPad isn’t as much a laptop replacement as I thought (though it could easily be used as one). Instead, it’s an entirely new category of mobile device. For example, now when I want to surf the Web from the couch or back deck, the iPad is the device I choose. Starbucks? Same thing. Think of the iPad as a new arrow in your technology quiver, an arrow that will often be the best tool for a given task.

Tim Gideon of PCMag says the iPad just makes sense.

When you combine basic-but-essential work tools with iWork, an improved browser, e-mail, iPod, and photo applications, a well-executed e-Book platform with iBooks, and throw in thousands of downloadable apps and games, and package it all in a gorgeous, slim slate with a beautiful 9.7-inch touch screen, you have yourself a winner.

Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing says the iPad is a touch of genius.

Flick the switch and the novelty hits. Just as the iPhone, Palm Pré and Android phones scratched an itch we didn’t know we had, somewhere between cellphone and notebook, the iPad hits a completely new pleasure spot. The display is large enough to make the experience of apps and games on smaller screens stale. Typography is crisp, images gem-like, and the speed brisk thanks to Apple’s A4 chip and solid state storage. As I browse early release iPad apps, web pages, and flip through the iBook store and books, the thought hits that this is a greater leap into a new user experience than the sum of its parts suggests.

Joshua Topolsky of Engadget says, like Mau’dib of Dune, the iPad’s name is a killing word:

more than a product — it’s a statement, an idea, and potentially a prime mover in the world of consumer electronics. [...] The buyer of an iPad is one of two people, the first is someone who sees not just the present, but the potential of a product like the iPad… and believes in and is excited about that potential. This is also a person who can afford what amounts to a luxury item. The second is an individual who simply doesn’t need to get that much work done, and would prefer their computing experience to be easier, faster, and simpler.

Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear thinks it has the same mix of wonder and frustration as past Apple 1.0 devices:

Yes, there is a sense that in the process they’ve simply left out anything they couldn’t polish to the same standard – whether it is Flash, multitasking or a webcam. This is a first generation device, though; look how long it’s taken Apple to deliver on some of the more common phone functionality in their three-generation-old mobile platform. You might not like the way they do it – holding off until the user experience, the market, or the combination of both is right – but millions of happy iPhone owners are evidence that there’s certainly an audience for it.

Matt Miller of ZDNET (and sibling-site Nokia Experts) thinks the hardware is rock-solid but hopes it gets a multitasking software update soon (us too, Matt!)

After several hours of usage, I have to say I am very pleased that I made the purchase. The hardware is better than I thought it would be, developers didn’t just make apps bigger to fit the screen, the battery life reported by everyone has been at least 10 hours, there is more media content than I thought we would see right at launch (Netflix, ABC Player, MLB At Bat), and apps are rolling out fast. With my Palm Pre Plus and free WiFi Hotspot service I think the iPad will actually fill a role in my life as a daily train commuter and heavy web surfer.

So, did any of these reviews change your mind? Did any of them convince you to get an iPad… or convince you not to?

2009 Next Generation iPhone 2,1 Rumor Consensus Reached?

Rene Ritchie — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:39:25 +0000

With WWDC 2009 only two weeks away, the many rumors and leaks and informed guesses seem to have coalesced into a somewhat unified view of what we probably will — and probably won’t — see if/when the next generation iPhone 2,1 is announced. Given the full version upgrade number (the original iPhone 2G is 1,1, the iPhone 3G is 1,2) we’d expect there to be more in the way of hardware changes than we saw last year with the addition of “just” 3G and GPS. Will those expectations be met? We have a pretty good handle on the iPhone 3.0 software, but what about the hardware?

More Than Likely

More storage. Thanks to all the telco leaks over the weekend, either Apple has acquired the double-density NAND flash memory chips needed to move the iPhone to 32GB (and iPod touch to 64GB), or they’re all just as convinced as we are that the high end iPhone will be twice as roomy this year.
Faster processor(s). Not yet the miracle system-on-a-chip Apple will eventually produce based on PA Semi, ARM and PowerVR licenses, OpenCL, and all their recent expert hires, but a healthy 50% bump up from the current CPU. We might not see the multi-core GPU yet either, but more graphics firepower would make sense here as well.
More RAM. Right now the iPhone is a lot like the genie in Aladdin. Unbelievable mobile potential… trapped in an itty-bitty RAM bottleneck. Dieter tells us that in the larger smartphone world, the iPhone’s current 128MB of RAM gets looked at askance. It also causes Mobile Safari to crash and Apple to prevent background multitasking for anything but their own core apps. 256MB is increasingly the norm, and something we fully expect will make it into the next iPhone.
Faster networking. TiPb called 802.11n Wi-Fi way back in October ’08 and we’d now be surprised not to get it. Hopefully an improved cell radio will hook into faster 3.5/3.9G HSPA+ cell networks as well, and for the love of all things American, please let the new chip work better with AT&T’s rabbit ear antennas. The rest of the world enjoys solid iPhone 3G connectivity, the USA should as well.
Longer battery life. If one things remains constant, it’s the entitled internet denizens demand twice as much of everything for half the price of anything before. So, in addition to all the new features packed into the next gen iPhone, Apple will no doubt have to figure out a way to make the battery last longer as well. Part of this will be smoke-and-mirrors, no doubt, the rest could be the result of leveraging the same new battery technology found in the 17″ MacBook Pro allowing them to put more and smarter cells into the iPhone. If updated components help too (especially the outside chance of an OLED screen — see below), so much the better.
Better camera. Because it couldn’t get any worse, right? There have been rumors of 3.2 and 5.0 megapixel cameras. We’re betting 3.2 is what we see at WWDC, with 5.0 coming to an iPhone (or iPod) further down the line. Auto-focus will be included, if only to take better pictures and to provide a mechanical feature that’s easier to break than the screen when we inevitably drop it trying to take that one great photo… (or video, but that’s a software feature so we won’t get into it here).
Digital compass. Hey, it will make Google Street View demos infinitely cooler. Okay, and a magnetometer will also allow for faster, more precise positioning for things like Turn by Turn GPS when we finally get them in the App Store. And we’re certain game developers will find spectacular ways of hooking into it as well.
Price point. Same $199/$299 we currently enjoy. In the increasingly competitive smartphone space, it would be hard for even Apple to push the premium — and with carriers subsidizing anyway, what would be the point? Lower prices are unlikely as well, though there’s always hope AT&T and others might give users a break on data rates…

Less Than Likely

Higher definition screen. Yeah, we called for an iPhone HD back in October ’08 as well. Given the rise of up to 800×480 screens on other platforms, we (meaning me) figured Apple would move to match it giving us more pixels for everything from web browsing to gaming to watching 480p video. Since only a very few nebulous rumors have come out since then, and there’s no sign of support for that resolution in the iPhone 3.0 SDK, we’re just going to have to wait and recycle this prediction next year… (Though maybe HD-out will still happen.)
OLED screen. Only a few rumors to back up OLED (organic light emitting diode) screens as well, which would look better and use less battery power and component space. They’d also be more expensive, which might explain why there have only been those few rumors. It could still happen, but odds make it look increasingly likely for next time rather than this time.
Updated casing. While the next iPhone might change shape just enough to force everyone to once again buy new accessories (and get out the pitch-forks and torches), it doesn’t look like a radical redesign is in the cards for the next iPhone casing either. No aluminum unibody. Not yet. And likely no glowing Apple logo either. Bummer. Outside chance of a soft-touch back plate, however.

Things could change as more and better rumors break — and there’s always a chance the iPhone will skip WWDC and show up at some special event later in the summer — but that’s what the landscape looks like right now.

Did we miss anything? And either way, if you were placing your bets, what do you think we’ll see?

Apple iPhone 3.0 Massive News Roundup Day 2!

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:39:16 +0000

Rather than split todays updates into a separate post, we’ve gone back and added them to yesterday’s Massive iPhone 3.0 New Roundup so you still have a single stop for all your iPhone 3.0 updates. New stuff will tend towards the bottom, though we put today’s iPhone 3.0 Beta 1 gallery closer to the top.

Enjoy!

Apple iPhone 3.0 Massive News Roundup!

Rene Ritchie — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:12:18 +0000

So Apple previewed iPhone OS 3.0 today, and made the first beta available for developers, but it won’t be released for us users until “summer” 2009 (we’re guessing June or July). No new hardware was announced (we’re guessing WWDC in June for that too!), but boy-oh-boy were there a lot of software announcements. Here’s a roundup of posts we have up thus far. Yes, it’s been quite a day for the iPhone, for TiPb, and for our awesome community — thanks everyone!

Make sure you hit up TiPb’s iPhone Forums as well, we have tons of great threads, and even more amazing community members to talk iPhone 3.0 with… while we all wait breathlessly for “summer”

iPhone 3.0 Rumor Round Up!

Rene Ritchie — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:25:38 +0000

We’re just under 24 hours away from when — we presume — Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall (and maybe Tim Cook?) will take the stage at Apple HQ and preview iPhone OS 3.0 and the new SDK. We’ll be meta-live blogging it, of course, tomorrow at 1pm EDT/10am PDT, so be sure to join us for the TiPb take on things as they unfold. In the meantime, here are the current rumors, broken down by functionality… after the break!

Cut/Copy and Paste

This appears to be the big one. Daring Fireball wished for it back before Macworld (and reminded us they did) and MacRumors backing up the notion. Kevin Rose told us that it will work with pinch-able quotation marks, and Daring Fireball just weighed in again with:

I have no idea whether this description of how it’s going to work is accurate, but from what I’m hearing Copy-and-Paste is a big part of tomorrow’s announcement.

Push Notifications/Background Multi-Tasking

Another from Daring Fireball‘s wish-list that MacRumors backed up, but Kevin Rose said he hadn’t heard anything about.

Apple, of course, promised Push Notification back at WWDC 2008, and targeted it for September, though that deadline came and went. Did they fear a MobileMe-style launch failure? Did they realize true background tasking was necessary? Were they just delayed? Or will this still be missing in action come Tuesday?

MMS

No sooner had Apple announced their March 17 event than Boy Genius Report claimed they’d heard MMS was coming in the update, but again Kevin Rose said it wasn’t anything on his rumor list.

New App Launcher

Back on Daring Fireball‘s site, and yet again given weight by MacRumors, another new addition was wish-listed as an improved, rebuilt SpringBoard, aka the Home Screen that houses all the application icons. Rumors say it could include categories, like the old style PalmOS did.

Tethering

Apple and AT&T said they were working on Tethering, and Boy Genius Report claims we’ll finally see it with iPhone OS 3.0. Will it be free? $20 more a month? Not even show up? Guess we’ll see…

Compass

In addition to backing up Daring Fireball’s wish-list, MacRumors added a feature of their own: compass. The Android G1 already has this functionality — when you turns, it knows and can turn the view with you (for example, in incredibly cool looking Google Street View demos).

Does the iPhone need this? It would make sense if turn-by-turn GPS apps were about to appear in…

Premium App Store Plus

Rumors of a “premium” App Store Plus have been around for a while, and Wired just brought them back into the spotlight. It would be a place where $20 apps could enjoy attention exclusively away from the free fart apps that glut the regular old App Store. Office suites, high end games, and Turn-by-Turn GPS are all fantasies for this type of deployment. (Though reader antonoj did point out G-Maps has mysteriously disappeared from the App Store, and will “return soon”…)

One More Thing…

Apple being Apple, the only thing we can really expect is the unexpected. Usually we get some of what we want, and some stuff we never even dreamed of. This time last year we ActiveSync, 802.1x, remote wipe, Cisco VPN, the first SDK, the App Store, and a host of small improvements in 2.0 (which grew over 2.1 and 2.2).

Could we even get an interim iPhone OS 2.2.1 or 2.3 to tide us over? This time tomorrow, we’ll know for sure!

iMore » round up

Apple education event: Everything you need to know about iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U

Event & commentary

iBooks 2

iBooks Author

iTunes U

Related news

iPad 2 event roundup

iPad 2

Original iPad

iPad 2 accessories

iPad 2 competition

iOS 4.3

Apps

iPad 2 event

iPod touch 4 early review round-up

Apple Special Music Event 2010 round-up

Event coverage

iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2

New iPod touch, iPod nano, Apple TV

Epic gaming

iTunes 10 and Ping social music network

Apple iPhone 4 special press conference round up

Rounding up the news and views on Apple’s iPhone 4 press conference

TiPb at WWDC 2010 – day two round up

iPhone 4/iOS 4

Apps

No stocks, weather, voice memos, clock, calculator, or compass on iPad? App Store to the rescue!

First iPad reviews are in!

2009 Next Generation iPhone 2,1 Rumor Consensus Reached?

More Than Likely

Less Than Likely

Apple iPhone 3.0 Massive News Roundup Day 2!

Apple iPhone 3.0 Massive News Roundup!

iPhone 3.0 Rumor Round Up!

Cut/Copy and Paste

Push Notifications/Background Multi-Tasking

MMS

New App Launcher

Tethering

Compass

Premium App Store Plus

One More Thing…