Leander Kahney's Blog, page 1449

Santa Meets Siri – Happy Holidays from Apple!

Apple's advertising runs the gamut from motivational to touching, pragmatic to inspiring. They don't play the humor card very often, but this latest ad showing Santa using Siri on an iPhone to help him through his rounds is actually pretty funny and appropriate for the season.

Thanks Siri! Thanks Santa! And Happy Holidaze to all…

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Apple Released The Second iOS 5.0.1 Update To Fix iPhone 4S SIM Card Errors

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Apple recently seeded a second revision of its iOS 5.0.1 firmware, and besides decrypting key files that aid in the legality of a Siri port, the update seemed to bring nothing new to the table. Some speculated that the second update had something to do with Apple's continued international rollout of the iPhone 4S.

It turns out that the new iOS 5.0.1 (Build 9A406) is meant to fix SIM-related errors that a limited number of iPhone 4S customers have been experiencing.

According to an Apple support document, revision 2 of iOS 5.0.1 seems to have been intended to fix 'No SIM Card Installed' errors that have been affecting a small number of 4S owners.

In certain situations, iPhone 4S may have difficulty recognizing a micro-SIM card, resulting in the following behaviors:

- "Invalid SIM" or "No SIM Card installed" alert appears intermittently.
- Status bar displays "No Service" or "Searching" in a location with good network coverage.

To fix these issues, Apple recommends backing up your 4S and re-installing the latest version of iOS 5, which is the recently-updated 5.0.1 build. MacRumors notes that there's been mixed feedback on whether the update actually fixes SIM-related errors or not, with some still getting 'Invalid SIM' errors.

Instead of pushing out a 5.0.2 update for everyone, this type of issue would explain why Apple chose to simple substitute a new build of 5.0.1 for the users that needed it. Existing 5.0.1 users don't need to update, but any user that does try to download the newest version of iOS 5 from iTunes will receive the new 9A406 build. Apple has iOS 5.1 in developer testing.

Have you experienced a similar SIM error on your iPhone 4S? Did installing the new iOS 5.0.1 build help?

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Scosche IEM856m Earphones: This is a Different Beast, And it Roars Like a Lion [Review]

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Let's get two big facts out the way right now: Yes, these Scosche IEM856m canalphones ($250) look a little like several of the canalphones in Monster's lineup (eg. the Beats Tour), mostly because of the flat, ribbon-like cable; no, they're not anything like any of the Monster earphones they somewhat resemble. In fact, one big detail makes them very different from almost any other IEM on the market.

Let's get two big facts out the way right now: Yes, these Scosche IEM856m ($250) canalphones look a little like several of the canalphones in Monster's lineup (like the Beats Tour), mostly because of the flat, ribbon-like cable; no, they're not anything like any of the Monster earphones they somewhat resemble. In fact, one big detail makes them very different from almost any other IEM on the market.

The Good:

Here's what sets these earphones apart. Most earphones use dynamic moving-coil drivers to move air. Some companies, like Etymotic and Ultimate Ears, instead tend to favor balanced armatures (especially on their more expensive models), which generally provide a cleaner, more accurate sound — though they also often tend to have less bass oomph. It's not that they lack bass, it's just that the bass is usually mellowed out.

The IEM856 on the other hand, is a hybrid — it has one of each type of speaker in each ear: a (very large) moving coil for bass, and a balanced armature for clear mids and highs.

And it works. The sound from these guys is really very good. Bass is much more oomphy — though not quite as smooth — compared to almost any armature-equipped IEM I've ever tried (save for the $1000-plus JH Audio JH 16 Pros), but retaining the clear, smooth mids and highs one would expect from a balanced armature. All of the good, none of the bad. It's really a significantly different sound experience.

The ribbon cables are great. They resist tangling, and I get the impression they're pretty solid — though this may or may not be the case, they at least feel like they'll last.

We were pretty impressed with the amount of consideration and smarts that went into designing the ergonomics and aesthetics of this set.

The control center is nicely finished and provides track, call and volume controls — though the big rubber buttons are too flush, and as a result a little difficult to operate.

The microphone is separate from the control center, and located some way up the right ribbon, at the perfect location for speaking into.

What's up with all those accessories? We're familiar with the concept of getting the most for your money, but sheesh, Scosche. The earphones come with no less than: a great, protective zippered hardcase; a stylish leather pouch; an attachment clip designed to mesh perfectly with the control center; a cable adapter so you can use the mic with older Macs that have separate input/output jacks; and a carabiner for attaching to the hardcase.
The Bad:

The nozzles (the bits that enter your ears) are huge compared with most other IEMs; though I didn't experience any discomfort due to this, the size might make it a little uncomfortable for some.

The eartips also aren't really on par with a set this price; Theyr're not horrible, but they should have been better. I sometimes had to fight a little to find a good seal when inserting them. And because the nozzles are so large, they won't work with Comply foam tips — which means you're pretty much stuck with these.

Seriously, what's up with all those accessories? This facet of the IEM856m package also gets slotted in The Bad section because we'd really rather the price were lowered on the set than be saddled with a whole bunch of value-added stuff we may or may not use — nice though it may be.

Verdict:

A different approach to earphones with surprisingly good results; we wish more thought was placed on the eartips and less on puffing up the price.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

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Fun Game: Perilous Poultry From Outer Space

Every week Mac Games and More features a fun, casual game you can play over the weekend. This week's selection gets you into the holiday spirit with gooey, broken raw eggs, an invasion you've got to stop at all costs and yuletide chickens run amok. Download it now

Chicken Invaders: Ultimate Omelette Christmas Edition (arcade) – Mixing up holiday cheer with arcade shooter game goodness with a dash of dialogue hilarity thrown in, Chicken Invaders: Ultimate Omelette Christmas Edition will prove to be one of the most strange and wacky Mac games you've played in a while. The alien invader chickens created an enormous egg shooting cannon. It fires eggs at planets, envelopping them in gooey egg yolks and egg whites that eventually cook from the heat of the sun. Your mission is to locate and disable this egg spewing machine as you avoid egg bombs and the waves of dangerous chickens coming your way.

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Why the iPad Is the Most Hated Gadget Ever

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As the Apple iPad succeeds beyond expectations, it leaves in its wake an enormous body count of dead and dying products. While consumers love it, several major industries have grown to hate it. And for very good reason.

Why Tablet Competitors Hate the iPad

It wasn't supposed to be like this. The iPad was supposed to usher in a new era of tablet computing, creating a thriving new market that looked a lot like the world of smart phones.

After gaining an early lead, the iPad was supposed to settle in as a big seller, dominating the high end of the market. Android tablets were supposed to grab most of the unit sales, offering a variety of successful sizes, options and price points. And tablets running proprietary platforms like HP's WebOS and RIM's BlackBerry Tablet OS were supposed to bring healthy new sources of revenue to those companies.

But that's not what happened.

What happened is that Apple has asserted an unshakable lead, and no other company other than Amazon has taken significant share.

What's worse, the vast distance between expectations for non-iPad touch tablets and the ugly reality is causing havoc and possibly even wrecking companies and even transforming entire industries.

The first major casualty was the HP TouchPad, which shipped July 1. Although HP had enormously high hopes for the tablet, its reception in the market was so bad that seven weeks later HP announced the termination of all WebOS hardware products.

Retail stores had literally hundreds of thousands of units that they knew would never sell at the initial price that started at $500. So they had a fire sale to dump the products starting at $99 each, a price far below cost. In the end, HP had to take a $1 billion cash charge on the fiasco.

The bloodbath was just beginning. Next up: RIM. The company's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has sold better than the TouchPad, but sales were disappointing and have declined since the launch on April 19. RIM's estimates for unit sales were 2.4 million for second fiscal quarter, but they ended up selling only 200 thousand of them.

In order to dump inventory, RIM temporarily cut $300 off the price of each tablet, selling far below cost.

The company had to take a $485 million charge on losses from the PlayBook miscalculation.

Another factor is the Amazon Kindle, which is sold by Amazon at a loss to be recouped later with content purchased on Amazon.com.

Here's the under-appreciated reality of all this: HP, RIM and Amazon have all moved millions of touch tablets into the market at below cost. This has caused two problems for the market. First, it's created a domino effect. HP's fire sale on the TouchPad cut demand for the BlackBerry PlayBook, reducing unit sales. That contributed to RIM's need for a fire sale of its own. (Plus, Amazon has probably long intended to sell below cost.)

All this crazy, unexpected discounting has both artificially taken market share away from the various Android tablets, and re-set consumer expectations about how much a touch tablet is supposed to cost.

Now, the only way to sell a non-iPad tablet in any significant quantity is to sell it below cost.

Android tablet makers are faced with the choice between making a little money on each tablet but selling few, or losing money on each tablet and selling many.

It's a horrible state of affairs for the tablet industry, unless you're Apple or Amazon. And it's almost entirely the fault of the iPad.

The iPad's reception convinced the industry that they could succeed, too. The success of the iPad made HP and RIM vastly over-estimate demand. And the success of the iPad made it impossible to compete against the iPad in the market, forcing companies to ultimately dump inventory at below cost and, in doing so, nearly destroy the Android tablet market.

That's why the consumer tablet industry hates the iPad. But they're not the only ones.

Why Vertical Tablet Makers Hate the iPad

Tablets have been around for many years in various vertical industries.

The aviation industry offers something called the "electronic flight bag." Several companies have sold expensive, dedicated tablets that give both professional and private pilots a variety of tools and charts necessary for aviation, as electronic replacements for the paper resources that used to be standard.

But the iPad is destroying that industry. The iPad hardware is much better. The interface is much better. iPads are far less expensive. And they can be used for other things. Pilot tools are provided as simple apps.

The electronic flight bag industry hates the iPad.

The same thing goes for a large number of industries, such as medicine, retail and many others. Everything was going fine. And now the iPad comes out of nowhere to destroy their expectations — and their revenue.

Why The Toy Industry Hates the iPad

The number one most requested toy for Christmas this year is the iPad.

And it's also popular among parents as a gift for their children.

And boy does the toy industry hate that. The reason is that the iPad replaces not a single toy type, but thousands of them.

Apps make the iPad a replacement for all kinds of toys that parents now don't have to buy. So the hardware takes away money that would have been spent on toys, then the apps take away money that parents would later spend on games, content, coloring books and so on.

Why the PC Industry Hates the iPad

The iPad has really thrown a monkey wrench into the PC industry.

One of the hottest segments three years ago was the tiny netbook. Many PC companies are still relying on netbook revenue. But, increasingly, they can't.

Dell announced yesterday, for example, that it plans to discontinue consumer netbooks. Apparently iPads are too compelling an alternative. Instead, Dell plans to aggressively pursue ultra-portables that compete with the MacBook Air. Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, the Dells of the world have a bigger problem, which is that some people are using their iPad as an alternative to a full-size laptop or desktop.

Former PC World Editor-in-Chief and current Technologizer writer Harry McCracken said last week that the iPad 2 has become his favorite computer. McCracken wrote: "I think it's possible to use an iPad as one's primary device for professional-level content creation. Actually, scratch that. I'm positive it's possible — because I've been doing it for the past three months, and I've been having a really good time."

The number of people who favor an iPad as their main computing environment is small but growing.

And the PC industry hates that.

Why Amazon Will Soon Hate the iPad

The Amazon Kindle Fire is the only non-iPad touch tablet currently succeeding in the market.

The main reason is price. At $200, it's far less than half the price of the iPad.

The other reason is that people like Amazon-specific goodies like free cloud service and easy access to Amazon content and shopping.

But mostly it's the price.

It has also become clear in recent weeks that the Kindle Fire is a piece of crap.

The tablet has no physical volume buttons; no privacy, security or parental controls to speak of; a clunky user interface; not enough storage; an old version of Android; and a host of other problems.

The Amazon Kindle Fire fits the description Steve Jobs once gave for the netbook. The problem with the Kindle Fire is that it's not better than anything. It's just cheap.

The Kindle Fire is far less expensive than the iPad for two reasons. First, Amazon is selling it at a loss, while Apple makes a huge profit on every iPad. But second, the Kindle Fire is a 7-inch screen device and the iPad is a nearly 10-inch one. The screen, the battery, some electronics and some materials are far cheaper on a smaller device.

Now there's a rumor that Apple plans to replace the iPod Touch with a 7.85-inch iPad. The rumor looks as solid as such rumors get. Plus it makes perfect sense for Apple to do this.

Given Apple's economies of scale, it's likely that Apple could sell the iPad at the same price as the current iPod Touch — $199 — which is also, of course, the same price as the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Merely announcing such a product would immediately hammer Kindle Fire sales. And actually shipping it would be devastating. Why would you buy a Smart ForTwo car if you could buy an Infinity M37 for the same price?

Consumers love the iPad. But the unprecedented success of the iPad is laying waste to products, product categories, companies and even entire industries, and nobody can stop it. Never before in the history of consumer electronics has a single product earned so much love – and so much hate.

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Here Are Your Top Mac Apps Of 2011, Now Choose Your Number One [Best of 2011]

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As we reminisced in our previous poll, 2011 has been a monumental year for the Mac App Store. There have been countless new releases and updates that we've covered on the site, and the Mac app ecosystem has reached a whole new level of excellence.

We told you to choose the 10 most innovative Mac apps of this year, and your votes garnered some interesting results. Here are the 10 most innovative Mac apps of 2011. And now we need you to choose your number one.

Evernote

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If you aren't already using Evernote, you're missing out on a robust, streamlined productivity tool for managing your digital life. The note-taking/to-do app is available on every platform imaginable, and the Mac app acts as the hub for collecting information and entering large amounts of data.

1Password

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As the ultimate password manager, 1Password on the Mac acts as your personal vault for storing sensitive information like passwords and credit card numbers. Not only can you store your logins and have them automatically filled in when browsing online, but 1Password will encrypt your database to keep it protected like Fort Knox.

Pixelmator

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Think of Pixelmator as Photoshop for the rest of us. The gorgeous photo editor looks like it was made by Apple, and there's plenty of power inside to make it a viable Photoshop substitute for most purposes. It's also incredibly cheap comparatively, so you can't go wrong.

Alfred

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We've covered the 1.0 release of Alfred extensively on the site, and it's clear that Alfred deserves to sit amongst the top ranks of innovative Mac apps for 2011. The lightweight launcher utility makes operating a Mac delightful, and there's plenty of available plugins for fine tuning your experience. Don't let the cute hat fool you, Alfred doesn't mess around — it gets stuff done.

Spotify

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Spotify has helped revolutionize the way we listen to music, and the service finally went live with a Mac app this year. With an elegant interface and vast catalog of content, Spotify for Mac is a must-have for those that are inclined to the subscription-based model of music consumption.

Sparrow

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Disgruntled users of Apple's Mail app have found happiness in Sparrow during 2011. The innovative app rocketed to the top of the Mac App Store and made huge splashes in the blogosphere this year. Sparrow's incredible UI and Apple-like attention to detail make it an essential app for those that want a new take on Mac email clients.

Reeder

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RSS fanatics know Reeder very well. The app originally launched in the iOS App Store, and its users rejoiced when it finally came to the Mac. For most, Reeder is the de facto Google RSS client on all Apple devices. With gestures and a minimalist interface, Reeder for Mac is the crown jewel of RSS readers for the desktop.

djay

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Aspiring DJs can spin like the pros now thanks to djay for Mac. The app offers an intuitive interface for mixing music on the go or with a turntable setup. With iOS apps to match, djay for Mac makes it easy to play at a party or enjoy mixing tunes on your own.

Fantastical

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Fantastical makes adding calendar events on the Mac a dream come true. The menubar app acts as your personal assistant that parses natural text input ("Schedule my doctor's appointment for tomorrow at 3″) and interprets it into an iCal event. Regular iCal users will immediately see the value of such an app, as it isn't exactly easy to add events in Apple's calendar application natively.

Cloud

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Cloud makes it super easy to send and share links, text, video, images, and the like with short links. The lightweight app sits in your Mac's menubar and lets you upload stuff to your account quickly with a keyboard shortcut. Cloud then takes whatever you've copied in your clipboard, uploads it, and spits out a shortened URL for sharing online. Simple and efficient.

Get Voting!

Those are your 10 most innovative Mac apps of 2011. Now it's time to select the ultimate winner. Vote for your favorite below and we'll announce the winner, as selected by Cult of Mac readers, next week!

What is the most innovative Mac app of 2011?

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Snapheal Mac App: Super-Impressive, Dead-Easy & Ridiculously Cheap Photo Manipulation [Review]

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Do you really need to spend a lot of money to get grade-A photo-editing tricks? Apparently not. With Snapheal ($20), developer MacPhun has taken arguably the coolest Photoshop feature in recent years, made it dead-easy to use and packaged it with all the basic photo-editing tools you'll need — and more. And all for a fraction of what it should cost.

In the medieval days of the digital darkroom, erasing an unwanted element in a photograph was painful and time-consuming; you had to either painstakingly select the annoying element, then fill the selection, or use the clone and stamp tools to methodically erase it. Photoshop CS5 changed all that with its content-aware healing tools, and that tech filtered down into Photoshop Elements, beginning with Photoshop Elemets 9.

Snapheal, which arrived this Wednesday at the Mac App Store and is really built around this one feature, works very similarly to the spot heal tool in PSE9; the user simply highlights the unwanted element with the dedicated healing brush, picks one of three options and clicks the "Erase" button to set things in motion. Questions is, do the results stack up favorably against Adobe's powerful editors? Yes — and surprisingly well.

The Good:

In fact, most of our tests showed results on-par or even better than with what we could achieve using the Adobe apps (though note that we're not using the most recent version of Photoshop Elements, PSE10). Snapheal seemed especially adept at removing large elements from a uniformly smooth or mottled background, producing results that made it extremely difficult to tell there was anything there in the first place. Take a look at the examples below to get an idea of the results we were able to get.

Snapheal puts the spot-healing function front and center. It's the first menu tab option, and the massive buttons are hard to miss. Actually, the whole interface, across all the tools, is about as clean and uncluttered as it gets. As our Alex Heath says, it's not pretty — but it's simple and remarkably easy to work with.

The spot-healing tool (under the Erase tab) is a good example of this. Just four buttons (Select, Deselect and Pan and Clear Selection) allow control of the selection process; four more buttons — three choices of algorithm type, one for launching the process — and a brush diameter slider round out the palette. That's it.

The three spot-heal algorithm options were all fairly well suited to their tasks: removing large objects, Shapeshift removing small imperfections (like skin blemishes) and Twister for repeating elements; although having said that, Wormhole generally seemed to produce the best results in the widest variety of situations.

Aside from the main feature Snapheal comes with all the digital darkroom staples like cropping, contrast, color-shift and sharpening. But there're also some welcome surprises:There's an effective de-noise slider; a clone-and-stamp palette for more precise erasing; and a Retouch palette that's really a simplified set of masking features.

Super-easy opening and sharing of completed images through email or social media platforms rounds out a phenomenally simple-to-use photo-editing package.

If the app looks good to you, pick it up now — it's on sale for $10 during its launch sale.

The Bad:

Of course, going the simple route means that many options for fine tuning stuff will be absent — there's no way to select brush shapes or adjust curves. And there are no filters. The biggest hole is a missing tool for editing levels, an odd omission, even for a pared-down editing app (heck, even Apple's Preview, standard on every Mac, lets you edit levels).

Getting around the screen can be a little bit clunky at times, because using a trackpad to move around, like in Photoshop, isn't possible — instead, trackpad actions simply result in zooming in or out of the image.

Verdict:

The perfect app for anyone who wants to make good-looking edits simply, cheaply, and in the least amount of time; the app grandpa should use for quickly editing images to send to the rest of the family.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

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Original image, taken with iPhone 3GS. Let's erase that pesky lamp, shall we...

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Lamp erased using Snapheal with the Wormhole setting.

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Lamp erased using Photoshop Elements 9 Spot Healing Brush Tool.

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Lamp erased using Photoshop CS5's Content-Aware Spot Healng Tool.

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Win a Free CSS & HTML Course From Cult of Mac [Giveaway]

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It's been a great week for giveaways on Cult of Mac, but we're not done quite yet. As our last giveaway of the week, we'll be selecting 3 winners who will receive a free copy of the HTML and CSS for Beginners Course that we're currently peddling over at deals.cultofmac.com. If you've been wanting to build a website but don't know how then this is the giveaway you want to win.

This course is a stellar opportunity to learn the fundamentals of HTML and CSS you need in order to whip up that creative, high-quality website you've been mulling over for years! Three lucky winners will get the $29 course for free and will receive Mark's HTML and CSS expertise jam-packed into nearly 4 hours of video instruction that includes highlighted lab exercises, so you can apply the very skills taught from the course. For this giveaway we're going to do things a little differently and give you a few options for entry.

Here's how to enter the giveaway:

Option 1: Follow Cult of Mac on Twitter and then ReTweet any news story from this week and include the tag  "#iLoveCultofMac"

Option 2: Like Cult of Mac on Facebook and "like" any story on our wall.

 

Super easy, and you get to choose which social network you want to enter from.

The contest ends on Sunday, December 18th at 8PM PST, after which we will select be 3 winners.

Best of luck. 

 

 

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Vroom! iOS's Best Racing Game Asphalt 6 Is Free!

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Yesterday, we announced the results of our reader poll to pick the best games of 2011, but one title was mentioned by name again and again as one we had overlooked: Asphalt 6: Adrenaline by Gameloft, one of the best Forza-style racing games on the App Store.

It's true, Asphalt 6 is an amazing game, and one of the best racing experiences on iOS, bar none. Sadly, though, it was first released in December 2010, missing our list of best 2011 games by just a month. But that's not to say everyone shouldn't play it, and now's the best time yet to download Asphalt 6 and try it for yourself, because it's now free on the App Store. Get downloading, you won't regret it.

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Never Type Your Email Address Again On Your iOS Device [iOS Tip]

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None of us enjoy typing out our email address, especially if we have to do it a number of times a day on an iOS device. But thanks to the new Shortcuts feature in iOS 5, we don't have to. Here's how to setup a shortcut that will save you from typing out your email address forever!

You may have already used the Shortcuts feature in iOS 5, but you may not have known that it also works for email addresses. First, open up the Settings app on your device and tap the 'General' tab, then choose 'Keyboard'.

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Now scroll to the bottom of the page and tap the 'Add New Shortcut…' button. Under the 'Phrase' field, enter your email address. Now choose your shortcut. Keep this as short as possible, using letters you wouldn't normally type together.

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Once you're finished, hit the 'Save' button. Now when you're typing in any app on your device, you can simply use the shortcut you just created to type out your email address.

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