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Posts Tagged ‘Spotlight’

Apple posts two new iPhone ads

Filed under: iPhone, App Store

Apple has posted two new iPhone ads tonight. Both ads seem to target Joe Average and spotlight situations we find ourselves in every day.

The first, called “First Steps,” targets moms and grandparents who want to show/never miss a single moment of the new tyke’s life. The mom uses the iPhone 3GS to record her son’s first steps, sends the video file as a MMS, and then starts a conference call with the grandparents to talk about the video. The ad ends with the mom saying “We would never have shared all that without the iPhone.”

The second ad is titled “On Hold” and presents a situation we’re all too familiar with. A man calls 1-800-204-7450 and is put on hold (before you try, I already called the number. A voicemail answers that says “At the tone, please record your message.” I didn’t leave one). The man then checks his email, pays a credit card bill, buys Monopoly from the App Store, and plays the game — all while on hold.

As always, the apps spotlighted in the ads can be found here.

TUAWApple posts two new iPhone ads originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dick Durbin presses Apple on human rights in China

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple

Technology relations with China and their human rights situation is turning into a hot-button issue lately, especially given Google’s recent troubles with that country. Now, my old senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, has decided to raise the level of scrutiny, calling for a list of 30 companies, including Apple, to share information about their relationships in China with the companies there.

Durbin won’t have to look far to find issues with Apple: there have been issues in the past with Foxconn and Wintek, two contractors that Apple uses for the majority of its products, and even a recent report commissioned by Apple found that factory conditions and pay scales weren’t quite up to snuff. Still, Apple has always spoken out strongly in favor human rights, so hopefully a little bit of spotlight from queries like Durbin’s will ensure that their actions match up.

(Apple globe art by Kevin Van Aelst.)

TUAWDick Durbin presses Apple on human rights in China originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our Favorite Apps: Stuff that stayed on our phones in 2009

Filed under: Features, iPhone, App Review

As the year draws to a close, we thought we’d shine a spotlight on some of the favorite apps we used this year. These are the “sticky” apps, the ones that lingered on our iPhones after we gave them a preliminary spin. There’s so much on the App Store, good, bad and indifferent; here are a few suggestions for items that deserve your attention.

• iAssociate [$1.99] Hugely challenging and long-term fun, this Funny-Farm-style game makes you brainstorm out associations from a core word or phrase. (Original TUAW review) — Erica Sadun
• TrailGuru [Free] Not a perfect app but a very handy one to keep track of your neighborhood walks. I love the way that TrailGuru lets me post my maps after each walk, keeps track of my average and max speed, and how I can break the walk down into laps. That really helps since I tend to walk in mile-long circles. — ES
  
• Twittelator Pro [$4.99] I use Twitter a lot when I’m away from home, and Twittelator Pro from Stone Design just keeps getting better. When Twitter changes, Twittelator Pro is usually the first app to support the new features. — Steve Sande
• Dropbox [Free] In case you haven’t already figured it out, I’m a Dropbox fanatic. The iPhone client is fast, free, and makes it easy for me to view, share, or delete files on all of my machines. (Original TUAW post) — SS
• Doodle Jump [$0.99] All work and no play makes Steve a dull boy, so I have my share of games on my iPhone. As the App Store ad warns, Doodle Jump is addictive. My top score isn’t that great, but Doodle Jump keeps me coming back for more. — SS
• BeejiveIM [$5.99] When we’re out on the go, we always want to stay connected to each other. Beejive offers many IM features that allow us to do this, including its recently-added group chat support. — Joachim Bean
• MoodAgent [Free for now] A great little app for creating playlists based on a variety of criteria like tempo, sensuality, mood, etc. Similar to Genius, but I find its playlists to be more apropos in most situations. (Original TUAW review) — Brett Terpstra
• Instapaper Pro [$4.99] My ultimate read-later collection. Save pages to it from any browser (including Mobile Safari), then read text-only or full versions of them when you’re good and ready. It can also output .epub files for Stanza, but the built-in reader has some excellent functionality. (TUAW Friday Favorite) — BT
• Stanza [Free] My favorite e-book reader. It’s free. ‘Nuff said. — BT
• Bookmark [$2.99] An audiobook sub-system for iTunes. It lets you place bookmarks, always saves your place, stays on when the app is closed and lots more. I use it every day. (Original TUAW Review) — David Winograd
• Boxcar [Free] Given the choice between burning SMS messages to get updates from Twitter and other networks, or using Boxcar to control notifications and give me just what I need… well, it’s a keeper, even with the additional costs to support more web services. — Mike Rose
• Evernote [Free] We talk about it all the time, but it’s because we use it. Evernote gives you a PDF viewer, document management, notes with geolocation, and all without hassles or aggravation. (Recent TUAW coverage) –MR
• Radio Paradise [Free] There are plenty of streaming audio apps on the store, many with more flexibility and more music discovery power (much love, Pandora), but none with the homemade goodness of the Radio Paradise app. You can instantly mark or buy tracks you like, and the sleep timer feature + the AirCurve acoustic base = bedside music nirvana. –MR
• Roambi [Free] This data visualization app isn’t going to entertain you on long trips or sing you to sleep, but give it your business spreadsheets or sales projections and watch the fireworks. Roambi’s ability to drill down into large data sets should wow your colleagues at the next quarterly status meeting. With a $99 Roambi Pro account, you can pull data directly from a Google Spreadsheet for the ultimate in cloud charting. –MR
• Fast Contacts [$1.99] earned a spot on my home screen with a couple of key features Apple forgot in the vanilla contact app. Two useful features: contact sorting in numerous ways (even location) and an event list that will alert you to birthdays (provided you input them). — Victor Agreda, Jr.
• Sally’s Spa [$2.99] is one of a multitude of time management games, but it’s been a keeper on my iPhone. I picked it up back when it was on sale for 99 cents, and it was worth the money. The graphics are very nice, and updates further tweak the game’s responsiveness. The only downside is the battery drain. — Megan Lavey
• Currencies [$1.99] was indispensable when I visited my fiancé in the UK in October. The application has a nice interface and is easy to use to switch back among multiple currencies. There are many converters out there, but this one proved to be the most responsive. — ML
• Lose It! [Free] is the best food and exercise journal you can find for the iPhone, especially for the price. The latest version only adds to it by allowing you to share your progress online. It’s easy to update and, since you’re likely to have your iPhone with you whenever you’re eating or exercising, it’s hard not to forget to update your food or exercise log throughout the day. — ML
• Sportacular [Free, Pro available for $1.99] There are a bevy of apps on the App Store designed to give you the scores for your favorite teams when you need them, but this one’s the best — it’s quick and easy to use, has a full playing field of features, and hits a home run with free, customizable push alerts whenever you want them. The Facebook integration and social features (discuss games with others online, or chart your predictions over a season) are just extra points on the board. — Mike Schramm
• I am T-Pain [$1.99] Ok, yes, it’s a joke. But the iPhone has been a breeding ground for innovative music applications, and this, the little app that automatically autotunes your voice to line up with a surprising amount of background music choices, actually appeals to all musicians, from the corporate desk jockey who just wants to yell out “shawwty!” after a hard day at work to the indie musician who wants a cheap autotune sound for their LP. It’s a professional piece of software hidden in a very casual product — an app that’s perfect for the iPhone platform. — MS

Of course, we want to hear your top picks and can’t-live-without-em apps as well… let us know!

TUAWOur Favorite Apps: Stuff that stayed on our phones in 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES preview: three e-readers to watch in 2010

All signs indicate that the e-reader is to CES 2010 what the razor-thin LED-backlit TV was to CES 2009—a technology whose time in the commercial spotlight is now at hand, and which will make a huge, multi-vendor push into the market in the coming year. A whole raft of e-reader devices and technologies will be on display at next week’s CES—were I to cover all of them, this article would run for many pages. This being the case, in this short preview I’ll offer a quick look at three of the most promising e-reader efforts that we’ll be watching closely for this year’s CES coverage.

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How would you change Garmin-Asus’ nuvifone G60?

The nüvifone G60 took nearly two years to go from introduction to on sale at AT&T, and just weeks after its introduction, it has been nearly completely forgotten. Smartphones like Motorola’s Droid and HTC’s Droid Eris have already snagged the spotlight, and of course, that $300 (on contract) price tag that it debuted with didn’t help attract any eyes, either. That said, we’re sure at least a few (couple?) of you bit the bullet post-price drop, and now we’re overly anxious to hear how you feel about it. After two years, does this thing really live up to the expectations? Are you satisfied with the navigation capabilities? Is the lackluster battery life worrying you yet? Should Garmin-Asus even bother with a second-gen device? Sound off in comments below!

Filed under: Cellphones

How would you change Garmin-Asus’ nuvifone G60? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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YouTube Videos Get Huger, High Def-er

TodayYouTube has announced its plan to support 1080p videos.

This means that those amazing, high-definition videos you uploaded last year will now finally be converted to their original resolutions and will finally look as good as they do on your desktop. The new resolution represents a significant improvement over the current 720p maximum resolution, which leaves all those glorious, pirated segments of old movies tragically blurred and pixelated.

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The fine folks at YouTube cited increased resolutions on consumer video recording devices as the impetus for the improvement.

Here’s YouTube’s example of a 360p image:

If you’re not uploading videos from your phone, however, you’re probably looking at something like YouTube’s current HD setting, 720p:

And, by way of comparison, this is the new maximum resolution YouTube HD videos will have:

Those images are from YouTube. Why they chose a dog’s muzzle, we may never know. But we’re awfully grateful for the resolution improvements.

Also, users are specifically encouraged to upload videos that will showcase t he capabilities of the new hotness that is 1080p resolution. YouTube engineer Billy Biggs tells users in the related blog post, “Be creative and choose subjects that really show off the beauty of your camera. We will run the best examples on our homepage in a future spotlight.”

While it’ll be nice to see our own classic jams restored to their original awesomeness, it will also be interesting to see professionally produced videos now appearing in better HD. Well done, YouTube, and thanks for allocating the resources.

Discuss

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T-Mobile Tap coming November 11, Samsung Behold II on November 18?

The CLIQ might be getting the lion’s share of the Android spotlight on T-Mobile at the moment, but it’s not the only Google-equipped gear in the carrier’s pipeline — the other big news there would be the Behold II from Samsung, a logical successor to the myTouch 3G with an AMOLED display and 5 megapixel cam. Seems like there’s a little bit of a wait left, because TmoNews has scored some launch documentation suggesting that they’re planning on a November 18 to get it pushed out to the public (and let’s be honest, we’d all rather have that positively sick nasty myTouch Fender Limited Edition anyhow). Moving our attention downmarket, there’s apparently a self-branded (read: a manufacturer you’ve never heard of) full touch device called the “Tap” that’ll be hitting on the 11th of next month, likely slotting in below the Highlight in the carrier’s range. No offense, there, Tap, but we’re going to have to take a Behold II over ya.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

T-Mobile Tap coming November 11, Samsung Behold II on November 18? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday Favorite: HistoryHound, bookmark with abandon

Filed under: Features, Reviews, Friday Favorite

Today’s Friday Favorite is a new one to me, but it’s been around for a while. I just picked up the latest version of HistoryHound from St. Clair Software — more famous, probably, for Default Folder X — and have been using it constantly for days. Its hotkey already has its own spot in my muscle memory. Here’s what it does:

HistoryHound indexes bookmarks, history and cache from all of your browsers, with presets for Camino, Firefox 2 & 3, Flock, iCab, OmniWeb, Opera, Safari, Shiira and URL Manager Pro. It means being able to bookmark willy-nilly in any browser and know that you’ll be able to quickly locate noteworthy sites again, in any application.

Not just the bookmarks, though; in the background — with a very low footprint — HistoryHound starts indexing the full text of each page. Then you can search for exact or fuzzy matches, or with Spotlight-style boolean keywords for any text on the landing page. Search comes in two flavors: a tiny popup panel which can be assigned to a hotkey and provides a list of matches as you type, and a full, Webkit-enabled search window with page previews and a multi-column result list.

Continue reading Friday Favorite: HistoryHound, bookmark with abandon

TUAWFriday Favorite: HistoryHound, bookmark with abandon originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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