17 October, 2011

According to Apple, Siri “finds answers for you from the web through sources like Yelp and WolframAlpha.”
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4 July, 2011

My biggest problem with accumulating hours of video content on my mac is the inability to watch those shows on the TV.

The obvious solution is the AppleTV but it has its own set of imperfections – everything has to be played via iTunes, which is problematic because it means having to encode hours of video content to the right format just so iTunes can manage it. Also, the newer AppleTV isn’t available in Singapore yet.

So I’m stuck watching videos on my 15-inch laptop screen which isn’t the most ideal way to consume media especially when I have a 50-inch TV sitting in my living room.

Enter McTiVia. This device’s main selling point is the ability to wirelessly bring everything on your Mac to your TV. (That’s what it says on the box).

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24 March, 2011

Sparrow is a elegantly designed app that shows great potential to replace the built-in Mail app in Mac OS X.

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2 September, 2010

Firstly, we’d like to thank all of you who stayed up with us last night. For those who missed the keynote, here’s a quick roundup of all the new products announced by Apple.

Summary in numbers

• 120,000,000 iOS devices.
• 230,000 new iOS activations every day, excluding updates.
• 6.5 billion downloads from App Store.
• 250,000 apps available on the App Store.

About iOS

iOS 4.1 will be released next week and available as a free update via iTunes. Some of the fixes include issues with the proximity sensor, better Bluetooth support and issues for iPhone 3G users. Some of the new features include support for HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos, ability to upload HD videos over WiFi and GameCenter. This is Apple’s solution to unify the gaming networks such as OpenFeint and Crystal. Also, GameCenter manages game invites between your friends and global leaderboards, similar to Xbox LIVE.

We think this is a great feature but will need to see the final implementation and how many games that will be linked with GameCenter before we decide its usefulness.

iOS 4.2 will be released in November, primarily to update the iPad to be in line with the rest of the iOS devices. Currently, still on iOS3.x, iPad will gain multi-tasking and support for folders, which iOS users have gotten used to. In addition to that, this update adds printing support via Print Center so if you have a wireless printer at home, you’re can print your documents directly from your iPad. This feature is definitely a useful addition to the iPad. We think this is the beginning of more iPad-specific features to come, to differentiate with what iPhone and iPod touch can do.

iPod shuffle

The buttons are back, after being removed from the previous generation. This new shuffle now gets 15 hours of battery life per charge and is available in 5 colors – pink, silver, blue, green and gold. They retail for S$78.00, and is available in 5 to 7 business days from the Apple Store.

iPod nano

The nano is now smaller and they removed the built-in camera in the previous generation but added a multi-touch screen. It’s now about 1.48 inches tall and 1.61 inches wide. The new nano gets 24 hours of playback time per charge and has a built-in FM tuner. It’s available in 7 colors – pink, silver, blue, green, gold, black and red. They retail at $228 for the 8GB version and $278 for the 16GB, and is available in 7 to 10 business days from the Apple Store.

For the fashion conscious, the new iPod nano will become a hit as we are sure 3rd party vendors will come out with wrist straps, belt holders for you to slide/snap the iPod nano and you can wear it like a fashion accessory, while still listening to your music. With Nike+ support, we think this is also the perfect companion for users who wants to go jogging and not have to strap their iPhones to their biceps.

iPod touch

As the rumor mills had predicted, the iPod touch also received updates. The new iPod touch will gain the Retina Display similar to the iPhone 4 with 960×640 resolution at 326 pixels per inch. It will be powered by the A4 chip, has the 3-axis gyro and, no surprise – front and back facing cameras for FaceTime. Yes, you can now use the iPod touch to FaceTime with your friends who have the iPhone 4. However, the back camera doesn’t have the same resolution as the iPhone, though it can take HD videos but only 960 × 720 photos.

The iPod touch now boasts a battery life of 40 hours and it will be available in three storage sizes – $328 for 8GB, $428 for 32GB and $588 for 64GB. All three will ship within 5 to 7 business days from the Apple Store.

According to Apple, the iPod touch has became the #1 portable game player, outselling Sony and Nintendo. With the upgrade to the A4 processor and Retina Display, the new iPod touch will really appeal to game developers to develop more graphics intensive games. For example, check out this demo by Epic Games Inc – Epic Citadel that shows you the environment created powered by the Unreal Engine 3. This will become a yet-to-be-released game coming out soon. Together with GameCenter, the iPod touch and iPhone 4 might be gamers’ favorite mobile device in the near future.

iTunes 10

This new version of iTunes will sport a new logo and a new social networking system called Ping. Ping provides social music discovery where you and your friends can share what you’re listening to. You can also follow artists and look at their photos, comments and tour dates. We will test this new version when we install it but from what it reads on paper, it certainly makes a lot of sense to provide support a social media dimension to iTunes.

However, as Ping works together with the iTunes Music store, which is not available in Singapore, users with the Singapore iTunes account will not be able to use Ping.

The new iTunes will also sport subtle changes to the user interface. Apple has also extended the previously named AirTunes, to become AirPlay. Besides the name change, AirPlay allows you to stream music, videos from your iTunes 10 to any AirPlay-supported devices which will be available soon.

Apple TV

This new version saw a major overhaul. It’s now smaller (about 1/4 the size of the previous generation) and powered by the A4 chip with HDMI output, micro-USB, digital audio and ethernet port. It will no longer have an internal hard disk, which means it has moved away from being a storage device to a streaming device. If you live in the US or have a US iTunes Store account, you can access First Run HD movies at US$4.99 or TV series at US$0.99 per episode.

This new Apple TV is not listed in the Singapore Apple Store since none of the contents are available for us here, except Podcasts and iTunes U, not things you’d want to spend money buying the Apple TV for.

In conclusion:

Given that they’ve sold 275 million iPods to date, we think this line of new iPods will continue to drive Apple’s year-end sales. If you’re looking to upgrade your old iPod, this is probably a good time to. The iOS updates are pretty solid, I especially liked how the roadmap for iOS converges in November when iPad gets 4.2. Traditionally, Apple doesn’t roll out a massively long list of new features with every update but the few changes are almost always meaningful, namely GameCenter and wireless printing for the iPad.

Apple TV is our biggest gripe about last night’s announcement. The price point and form factor is attractive, but without an iTunes Store that serves video content, you’re essentially buying an overpriced paperweight. Without an internal hard disk, we’re not sure it’s possible to install 3rd party software. So, as Apple claims this is a hobby product for them, we’ll keep an eye out for but won’t take it too seriously until we have access to the content.

What are your thoughts about last night’s announcements? If you want to watch the whole keynote address, start iTunes and download the video Will you be buying new iPods? If so, which one?

In the mean time, here’s the latest iPod touch ad from Apple.

27 July, 2010

On Sunday night, I walked out of an Apple reseller empty handed, even though they had stock for the 16Gb 3G + Wifi model.

You see, my biggest gripe about the iPad is that I really don’t need one.

(We can discuss all we can about the differences between needs and wants but that’s for another blog altogether)

I have my iPhone so when I’m mobile, I have the ability to check my tweets, reply emails and do most of what the iPad can.

I seldom carry a bag so my iPad would stay indoors most of the time.

I have my Macbook Pro at home so if I need to surf the web or stalk people on facebook, I have a tool to do that anywhere in the house.

I read but right now, physical books offer a much greater selection of titles compared to what you can find on iTunes SG store.

So yes, I’ll be waiting for the next generation iPad because as it is, the hardware specs are already slightly behind the new iPhone 4, which has double the memory of the iPad at 512MB. The iPad has a 1024×768 pixels resolution across a 9.7 inch screen while an iPhone 4 sports a 960×640 pixels resolution screen across a 3.5 inch screen. That’s about 132 pixels per inch for iPad vs 326 pixels per inch for iPhone 4.

The specs is one thing but pricing is another. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t really justify it’s price tag for something I don’t need. which ranges from S$728 to $1,228 depending on which model you pick up. And as with all Apple products, every generation tends to get slightly cheaper. So if my crystal ball (recently renamed as Paul) is accurate, we should see the next generation iPad to be slightly cheaper and with better hardware specs. While I’m wishing, I might as well wish that it’ll have a thinner bezel around the screen and perhaps, a camera + Facetime app and a reduction in weight.

But having said that, I know there’s many of you who have bought an iPad. Did it live up to your expectations? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

7 May, 2010

Here’s a quick tip on how you can save space on your iPhone with iTunes version 9.1 or later.

When you perform a sync of your iPhone to your Mac or PC, look at the first tab of iTunes and you should see this on the lower half of the screen.

Select the 3rd checkbox that says “Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC“. When you next hit sync, iTunes will convert songs of a higher bit rate to 128 kbps AAC format on-the fly and dumps it into your iPhone. Your mileage may vary depending on how many higher bit rate songs you have in your iPhone. It worked very well for me, giving me back about 7.58 GB worth of space for more songs.

Caveat Emptor:

• If you have a lot of songs, you might want to leave the conversion and sync it overnight, like I did.
• Plus if you have a Genius playlist or Smart playlist that constantly changes the songs in there, remember the time it will take for these new songs to be converted as well!
• For the audiophiles, the loss of bitrate will cause loss of quality – but probably 80% of the iPhone users ain’t audiophiles and won’t notice the difference, like me.

Update: For those whom like me had updated iTunes to 9.1.1 once it was released, and had tried this setting, you might find that your iPhone constantly re-save some songs during sync, lengthening your sync time. It is possibly due to a bug in an earlier release. To fix it, just go to Apple’s iTune page to download manually and install over the existing iTunes – it should be fixed.