Leander Kahney's Blog, page 1462

December 7, 2011

Apple's New Grand Central Store Looks Awesome Inside — Here's More Pictures! [Gallery]

Image courtesy of jennydeluxe on Instagram

We published a couple images of the inside of Apple's new Grand Central store in New York yesterday, which is due to open on Friday, December 9. Plenty more images are set to surface later on today, with media entering the store for the first time at 10 AM local time.

However, someone with a camera seems to have already gained entry, because we now have even more photos of this terrific store.

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Image courtesy of jennydeluxe on Instagram

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Courtesy of Marc Beja

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Courtesy of @rossrubin on Twitter

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Courtesy of Business Insider

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Courtesy of TechFootnote

[via 9to5Mac]

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Published on December 07, 2011 08:10

December 6, 2011

Flipboard Launches Beautiful New iPhone App

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Flipboard has launched its official iPhone app with a gorgeous design and the new "Cover Stories" layout, or "the feed to check when you're in line at the coffee shop, commuting on the train or just hanging out at home."

Riding the coattails of a phenomenal iPad app, Flipboard is looking to be the best place for reading the internet on your iPhone.

Cover Stories come from all your Flipboard tiles, including social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. As you add more sources to your Flipboard, their posts will begin to appear in your Cover Stories.

If you want to mute a specific source from Cover Stories, tap a source's avatar, then tap the head icon to access the mute button. You can always unmute any source from Flipboard's settings.

The more you use Cover Stories, the smarter it gets. Wherever you may be when reading Cover Stories, we hope it will become an indispensable part of your day, multiple times a day. (Cover Stories will be coming to your iPad in the near future.)

An interview with the CEO of Flipboard:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=11pQ5sb5wME

Flipboard for iPhone is now available for free in the App Store.

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Published on December 06, 2011 21:14

Next-Generation MacBook Air Will Allow You To Use Three Displays At Once [Rumor]

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Your next MacBook Air should support a total of three displays at once via one Thunderbolt connection, according to a leaked roadmap of Intel's plans for its Ivy Bridge processors in 2012.

With Apple's next-generation laptops primed to sport Intel's Ivy Bridge silicon, it's very likely that future MacBook Airs and Pros will be able to support two external displays plus the MacBook's built-in screen.

According to MacRumors, Intel's roadmap reveals that the Ivy Bridge processor will be able to handle three displays simultaneously.

While we're talking about graphics, as with the desktop Ivy Bridge processors, the mobile processors also support up to three independent displays, although one of these will be the built in display in the notebook, but hopefully we'll see notebooks with a DisplayPort connector as standard come next year.

Currently, the Sandy Bridge processor will allow the MacBook Air to power one external display via a Thunderbolt connection. The 13-inch MacBook Pro can handle two external displays, but that's only when the built-in screen is turned off. Ivy Bridge will introduce the ability to use three screens at once across Apple's entire MacBook line.

Rumors have suggested that Apple is set to introduce a 15-inch MacBook Pro/Air hybrid in 2012, and it's unclear as to how the Ivy Bridge processor would play into such a release.

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Published on December 06, 2011 20:23

Apple Updates iBooks With Nighttime Reading Theme, Full-Screen Mode, And More

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Apple has issued an update to its iBooks app on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Version 1.5 of iBooks brings two major additions: a nighttime reading theme and full-screen mode.

The update also brings several new fonts, more covers for public domain books, pop-up footnotes, and a redesigned annotation palette.

What's New in Version 1.5
iBooks 1.5 adds the following new features as well as some stability and performance improvements:

• Nighttime reading theme makes reading books in the dark easier on the eyes.
• Full-screen layout lets you focus on the words without distraction.
• iBooks now features an improved selection of fonts, including Athelas, Charter, Iowan, and Seravek.
• Beautiful new classic covers for public domain books.
• A redesigned annotation palette makes it easier to choose a color for your highlighted text.

The new full-screen mode is great because you don't have to turn it on or off. The app automatically hides your reading options and iOS status bar once you start reading. Simply tap anywhere on the screen to see your options in either landscape or portrait orientation.

iBooks 1.5 can be downloaded for free in the App Store.

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Published on December 06, 2011 19:49

Photo Toaster Offers A Whole Lot Of Image Editor For One Dollar [Review]

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Photo Toaster is a photo editor for iPad, packed with features and on sale now at a bargain price.

The name might suggest an app that just does one thing, but don't be fooled. You don't just throw images in and wait for them to cook. Photo Toaster gives you plenty of options for editing your images and exporting them to a good variety of services and other apps.

One very nice feature is a choice of editing modes. If you just want to select from some presets, visible as thumbnails of the image you're currently editing, you can do that.

But tap an icon and instead of the presets you'll see sliders, giving you access to precise controls. Nicer still, once you've changed to this "advanced" mode (for want of a better name), you'll stay inside it even if you switch to a different set of controls. A small detail, but it adds to the overall effect.

The app works fast (especially on an iPad 2), and handles your images with care using non-destructive processing. You can experiment all you like, without worrying about damaging the original image.

Some of the in-app icons seem a little odd. The vignette tool has a little stars on it, which suggests an auto-enhance mode or magic touch-up tool to me. And the button used to switch to super-simple "toaster" mode (again, for want of a better word) is a globe, rather than, well, a toaster.

These are just small quibbles, though. Overall, Photo Toaster is a pretty damn good image editor for your iPad, at a price that even peanuts would find insultingly cheap. Worth grabbing.

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Published on December 06, 2011 18:45

This Chinese MacBook Air Ripoff Would Probably Fool Jony Ive

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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then this Chinese imitation of the MacBook Air is the biggest compliment that Apple has received in a long time. Cleverly called the "AirBook," this feat of design plagiarism looks exactly like Apple's MacBook Air.

Costing only $499, the AirBook possesses many similarities to Apple's notebook, but there some crucial differences. Did we mention that it runs Windows?

M.I.C Gadget has posted a review of the AirBook. Here's an excerpt:

The AirBook is an incredibly thin and light notebook computer. It measures just 13.1 inches by 8.82 inches (with a thickness of 0.75 inches tapering to 0.2 inches at its smallest point), and weighs a meager 3.1 pounds. We spent a lot of our time with it, and we can tell you that it's even thicker and heavier than Apple's Air, but it is as portable as the real thing. We think the knockoff makers have tried their best to perfect the AirBook down to the millimeter.

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In the land of knockoffs, it doesn't surprise us to see products like this coming out of China. (If you'll remember, the Chinese have already replicated entire Apple Stores.) But the AirBook's insane level of detail puts it in a category all its own. The ripoff boasts a 1.8GHz Atom dual core processor, 32GB SSD, and 2GB of RAM. Not too shabby for the price of an iPad.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb1eDOesRpI

Here's how the AirBook stacks up against the competition performance-wise:

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M.I.C Gadget calls it the "best-looking Windows laptop on the market," and we would attribute that to the fact that it looks absolutely nothing like a Windows laptop. There are, however, small differences in the AirBook's design (such as its unibody enclosure) that reveal how even the best knockoffs can't match Apple's design prowess.

We'll see how long this thing stays on the market before Apple's legal team pounces.

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Published on December 06, 2011 15:33

Check Out This Gorgeous Radial Infographic "10 Years Of iPod", Then Hang It On Your Office Wall

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Did you love that gorgeous "Here's To The Crazy Ones" letter press poster we showed you earlier today, only to balk at the $200 asking price?

Here's a poster that might float your boat, especially if you're an App Developer: this beautiful radial infographic shows off the last ten years of the iPod and iTunes. And if you're willing to print it yourself, it could cost you as little as $99!

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Here's the official description:

Experience the amazing story of how Apple created the iPod, iTunes, and other related products. Ten years of iPod and iTunes history in a magnificent looking radial chart, down to the last detail: Take a closer look at the major turning points in history and product releases. The iPod plus iTunes Timeline« is plotting all important events, sales records, and press announcements, and is the most comprehensive mapping of of the world's most popular music player ever.

If you don't feel like printing it out yourself, you can preorder one of a 100 print limited edition which will be signed, numbered and shipped at the end of January.

Lovely.

[via iClarified]

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Published on December 06, 2011 14:47

Can't Wait Until Friday? Here's The Inside Of The New Grand Central Apple Store [Photos]

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Apple's latest flagship store in New York City's Grand Central Terminal is set to finally open Friday at 9 AM. While we've seen multiple shots of the store's covered exterior, and even a concept of what the interior will look like, we have yet to see Apple's finished product on the inside.

Some photos taken inside Apple's new retail store reveal the Genius Bar and more.

Passed on by MacRumors, an interior shot of the Grand Central store reveals a beautiful Genius Bar with a woodgrain table.

One MacRumors reader has passed along a few recent photos of the interior of the store, showing that Apple is still putting the finishing touches on the store's buildout including the typical wood tables that will allow customers to test out Apple's products. One photo in particular shows a close-up view of the store's Genius Bar, revealing the clear glass wall behind the bar that will provide customers will a relatively unobstructed view of the terminal's stone walls behind.

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Apple has put up a dedicated webpage for its Grand Central store. When it opens, it will be Apple's largest retail location in the world.

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Published on December 06, 2011 14:39

Amazon's Kindle Fire May Also Ignite Kiddie Buying Sprees

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Remember those sneaky Smurfs? The in-app iPad purchases from the free game Smurf's Village – and dozens of games like it – had parents seeing red as their toddlers accidentally ran up credit card bills.

The Kindle Fire also has a similar problem. Kids who play about with the 7-inch tablet are just a few swipes away from Amazon's famous 1-Click Ordering, a feature that cannot be disabled on the device. (If you haven't disabled in-app purchases on your iPad, here's how.)

Reuters reports that Jason Rosenfeld's 3-year-old daughter basically bought her own Christmas presents after seeing Dad's shopping history on the tablet.

Although the email confirmation sent to her father from Amazon ended her secret Santa mishap, at least one parent returned the tablets because the one-click buys can't be disabled.

Lance Durham, a software engineer, sent the tablets packing after following Amazon's suggestion to "de-register" the devices – because Amazon told him he couldn't disable the 1-Click shopping function. He followed the instructions, but de-registering the device caused the apps he downloaded not to work on the Fire anymore. That's when he decided his kids would be getting something else for Christmas.

Parent Subrata Majumder says he also tried to turn off "1-Click" to no avail.

"Kids can tap the '1-Click' button out of curiosity and contents are purchased immediately. My son tapped the '1-Click button' a few times," he says.

So far, Amazon is taking a leaf from Apple's tree and simply refunding the accidental buys.
But at least one security experts says that any device where purchasing can't be disabled is definitely not one for the kids.

"My advice is if you can't trust someone with a device that can place orders in a click and may have access to age-inappropriate content – don't hand it to them," said Kurt Roemer, chief security strategist for Citrix Systems.
Via Reuters

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Published on December 06, 2011 14:37

Apple Is Looking For Engineers To Help Make Siri More Conversational

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Apple has posted two new job listings for Siri UI engineers. The positions mainly focus on improving Siri's on-screen conversation view, but there also some hints in the job description that suggest Apple is looking to do more with its voice assistant's API.

As highlighted by The Next Web, Apple is looking for talent to help develop Siri's conversation view UI. One of the two generalist application developer positions also includes talk of working on Siri's API:

We are looking for an engineer to join the team that implements the UI for Siri. You will primarily be responsible for implementing the conversation view and its many different actions. This includes defining a system that enables a dialog to appear intuitive, a task that involves many subtle UI behaviors in a dynamic, complex system. You will have several clients of your code, so the ability to formulate and support a clear API is needed.

The other job description:

We are looking for an engineer to join the team that implements the UI for Siri. You will primarily be responsible for implementing the content that appears within the conversational view. This is a broad-ranging task – we take every application that Siri interacts with, distill it down to fundamentals, and implement that application's UI in a theme fitting with Siri. Consider it an entire miniature OS within the OS, and you get a good idea of the scope!

As we mentioned in our roundup of third-party apps that Apple should integrate with Siri, developers do not have access to Siri's API. Apple could be suggesting that this new job position would entail working with third-party "clients" to help distribute the Siri API, or it could be referring to internal work between Apple's own teams.

Currently, the only third-party services that Siri integrates with are Wolfram Alpha, Yelp, and Wikipedia. Apple has yet to say when (or if) it will open up the Siri API to other developers.