Leander Kahney's Blog, page 1497

November 9, 2011

Amazon Purchases iOS App Developer To Give Future Kindles Siri-Like Abilities

Although the iPhone 4S might be dismissed as nothing but a spec bump phone, it does have one distinctive advantage over every other smartphone out there: Siri. Anyone who wants to compete with the iPhone 4S (and, presumably, the future iPad 3) will have to come up with their own answer to Siri, or be lost.

Well, what do you know. The hunt by Apple's competition to find small voice recognition startups and absorb them has already begun with the revelation that Amazon has already picked up a company in the hopes of launching their own would-be Siri-like speech recognition service.

Using a shell company known as Dion Acquisitions Sub, Amazon has picked up a company called Yap according to newly revealed SEC filings.

Yap was a voicemail-to-text service that was focusing heavily on natural-language speech recognition with an emphasis on mobile technology… the perfect background to bring a Siri-like interface to future Kindles, including the Kindle Fire tablet line. In fact, you may already know Yap from their iOS app, which was removed from the App Store back in September.

Of course, Amazon has long been interested in voice. For years, Kindles have shipped with text-to-speech support, an accessibility feature which has gotten Amazon in trouble with publishers who felt that it stomped all over audio book sales. In addition, Amazon has increasingly moved away from text entry as a feature on their Kindle line-up, going as far as to drop the physical keyboard from the latest generation of e-readers.

Amazon's purchase of Yap falls in line with many of Amazon's plans for its Lab126 skunkworks group, which has been picking up smaller companies to integrate technology into the Kindle line-up that can't be challenged by competitors' patents. For example, Amazon bought Touchco in early 2010, thus picking up a form of multi-touch for the Kindle Fire that isn't vulnerable to Apple patent attacks.

In addition, a Siri-like service makes perfect sense for Amazon given the Seattle online retailing giant's massive cloud backend. Amazon has the server power to crunch voice and spit out smart results, all they need is the talent to incorporate it (which they now have) and a deal with a company like WolframAlpha to power it.

With their purchase of Yap, there's no question that a future Kindle Fire will get Siri-like abilities. It's just a question of 'when' and whether Amazon will be able to beat Google to market with the service.

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Published on November 09, 2011 10:45

Show Downloads In Safari With This Quick Keyboard Tip [OS X Tips]

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I'm beginning to like using the keyboard a lot more these days and the tip today shows how useful a keyboard can be. I use Safari a great deal and I download a lot of content from the internet using it. Every so often I need to see the current download list, which is easily accessible from the keyboard.

If you are using Safari and you need quick access to the list of recently downloaded files simply press Command+Option+L. Safari will immediately display the files you downloaded unless the download list is empty in that case nothing will happen.

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Published on November 09, 2011 10:21

A Picture Of Every Apple Store, Ever

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Over the course of the last ten years, Apple has built over 350 Apple Stores, so Thomas Park decided to put up a huge gallery of every single one of their store fronts.

The results are here, and it's actually fascinating to be able to scroll past of all the storefronts in a go. Early on, Apple seemed to favor flanking each entry way to the Apple Store with a piano black monolith emblazoned with the Apple logo, but that quickly fell out of favor in lieu of brushed aluminum and glass whenever possible. As always, though, it's the exception Apple Stores that are the most interesting in their design: places like the 5th Avenue location, or Convent Garden.

You can find the whole gallery here.

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Published on November 09, 2011 08:49

China Mobile: We Want A Cut Of App Store Revenue Or No iPhone

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Photo by existentialism - http://flic.kr/p/bjKTv

Apple would love to sell the iPhone to China Mobile's 628 million subscribers, but there is a hitch to any agreement: the carrier wants a piece of the App Store pie. But a pact isn't needed, argues one Wall Street watcher, especially since there are already 10 million Apple smartphones on the China network.

In what has become a slow-motion negotiation session, talks may have reached the molasses stage upon hearing China Mobile wants a cut of App Store revenue, a bargaining point the tech giant has never given any of its global carriers. We now see why there is little real reason for Apple to ink any deals: Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu tells investors China Mobile has been signing up million of iPhone owners, anyway.

"What many customers are doing is buying unlocked, unsubsidized iPhones in the black and gray markets, as well as directly from Apple," writes the analyst. Although Apple doesn't support the home-brewed TD-SCDMA 3G network, China Mobile is enticing iPhone users, offering gift cards for free Wi-Fi service. No 3G? No worries. Seems the current 2G network is just fine.

Turns out, the iPhone is also a big hit in Taiwan and Hong Kong, even further slowing Apple's roll toward any sudden China Mobile pact.

So, if Apple isn't steaming toward an actual agreement with China Mobile and there is no slated TD-SCDMA-compatible iPhone in the works, what's the Cupertino, Calif. company up to? "Effort is being focused on developing 4G TD-LTE models," Wu writes. Apparently, a China Mobile agreement could coincide with a 4G LTE network.

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Published on November 09, 2011 08:31

AT&T Is Still the Most Dominant iPhone Carrier in U.S.

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Despite losing its exclusivity to the iPhone back in February when Apple introduced the CDMA iPhone 4 for Verizon, AT&T is still the most dominant iPhone carrier in the United States, enjoying 60% of iPhone 4 subscribers.

According to figures from Localytics, it's also the most popular carrier for Apple's latest iPhone, with 56% of the market versus Verizon, which holds 32%; and Sprint, which holds 12%. Even with Sprint's offering unlimited data plans, AT&T's market share hasn't quite nosedived as was previously anticipated.

In fact, it appears Sprint is taking customers away from Verizon more than it is from AT&T:

Looking at iPhone 4 distribution as a comparison, Sprint seems to have eroded more of Verizon's market share than AT&T's – of the previous-generation handset, 60% are on AT&T versus 40% on Verizon.

A likely driver for these differences is the fact that AT&T can mine its existing base of iPhone users. Because all Verizon iPhone users are in the first year of their wireless contract, the cost of upgrading will be high. However, many longer-term AT&T users, especially those holding iPhone 3GS and earlier devices, are off-contract or nearing the end of their contract. AT&T has been aggressively leveraging the iPhone 4S to sign these customers to new two-year contracts, and the data in this study suggests that tactic may be working.

AT&T's share is still diminishing, however, just not as quickly as predicted. Its 3G data speeds, which are faster than those offered by Sprint and Verizon, is thought to be one of the reasons why many customers are staying put.

[via 9to5Mac]

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Published on November 09, 2011 08:25

How Can I Remove the MobileMe System Preference Pane? [Ask MacRx]

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So iCloud is finally here, and MobileMe is going away. This is generally a good thing, but remnants of the old remain with the new. One reader is wondering how he can make a clean break:

I've successfully upgraded to Lion, to iOS 5 on my iPhone 4, and migrated from MobileMe to iCloud. BUT, I still see the MobileMe icon in my system preferences, how do I remove it?

Mark

Hi Mark,

I have the same situation on my Macs running Lion, the MobileMe Preference Pane remains after the iCloud upgrade. It does still control your iDisk usage settings, if you are making use of that feature, though this too will stop working next year. Its continuing presence is probably more of a visual nuisance than anything else.

However if you truly want to remove this, quit System Preferences, then on your startup drive go to /System/Library/PreferencePanes. This is where the Apple pref panes live. Be careful working in this folder (or anything inside /System), as you can disable parts of your Mac by removing the wrong items. Copy the MobileMe.prefPane file to your desktop as a backup, then delete the original. You will be asked for an admin password to make this change. Once removed when you relaunch System Preferences it will be gone.

I cannot vouch for whether this is still needed for anything, though, so this procedure and suggestion is caveat emptor – proceed at your own risk.

Thanks for replying. I was close to doing exactly as you instructed on my own. Anyway, your instructions worked. I have a copy of the MobileMe prefpane, just in case of an issue. It did remove it from the system preferences.

• • •

Got a question about your Mac or iOS device? Email (sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)

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Published on November 09, 2011 06:00

Apple to Set Up Express Lanes in Retail Stores Tonight for Busy Christmas Period

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Apple retail employees are reportedly holding an overnight tonight which will be used to construct express lanes that will make shopping easier during the busy holiday period. The lanes provide customers with quick and easy access to popular products and accessories, and are staffed by several Apple Specialists.

Apple has used express lanes to cope with a surge in demand during busy periods before, so their introduction in the run up to Christmas is nothing new. What's interesting is that Apple launched its new Apple Store app for iOS earlier this week, which allows customers to checkout their own purchases in its retail stores. The new feature is designed to make Apple retail shopping quicker and easier, and could eliminate the need for express lanes.

However, as we noted in our hands-on yesterday, customers cannot checkout purchases that require a serial number to be registered, such as iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macs — which the express lanes are likely to serve.

The company is also planning a number of overnights in the coming weeks, according to sources for 9to5Mac, which are likely to see Apple store staff erect holiday marketing materials like banners, easel posters, device screen-savers, and more.

Apple uses an express lane permanently in its new Hong Kong store because it is so busy — as shown in the image above from ifoAppleStore.

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Published on November 09, 2011 04:50

Apple: We Currently Have No Plans to Bring Siri to Older iOS Devices

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Siri is undoubtedly one of the biggest selling points for Apple's new iPhone 4S, so it's understandable that every iOS user wants to see it on their older devices. But despite a report that claimed the Cupertino company is working on Siri for the iPhone 4, it has confirmed that it currently has no plans to bring Siri to older devices.

In an email to Cult of Mac's Michael Steeber, who contacted Apple to question Siri's expansion, the company crushed dreams of the digital assistant's introduction to anything other than the iPhone 4S:

Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue:
Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices.

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However, even after speculation surrounding Siri on the iPhone 4, this is the kind of response from Apple that we were expecting. I mean, Siri, along with Apple's dual-core A5 processor and a new 8-megapixel camera, is one of just three reasons to buy an iPhone 4S right now; Apple wouldn't take one of those away with promises of Siri on older devices and damage sales of its fifth-generation iPhone.

Despite having no plans "currently," then, let's not rule out Siri on older devices altogether. We already know — thanks to hacks — that devices as old as the iPhone 3GS can handle the feature, so there's no reason not to believe that other iOS devices, in particular the iPad, won't get it at some point in the future.

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Published on November 09, 2011 04:01

November 8, 2011

Hands On: Apple's New EasyPay Makes Shopping Way Too Easy

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I went down to the local Apple store this evening with my son Lyle. The store is usually packed, and paying for something isn't always easy.

That's what Apple has developed EasyPay, a new system for scanning and paying for goods yourself using your own iPhone. You just scan the barcode and hit "Pay." It's so easy, Apple staffers joke it should be called "EasyTheft." But it's a pretty radical new way to go shopping.

Here's a short video of us buying some goods, showing how quick and easy it is to use:

My son selected a case for the iPod touch. I got out my iPhone and we paid in six easy steps:

Join the store's Wi-Fi network. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi. Choose the "Apple Store" network Go back to your Home screen and launch the Apple Store app The EasyPay button pops up. Hit it Scan the barcode Hit Purchase Type in your iTunes password

That's it! You're done. The only hiccup we encountered was verifying the credit card Apple has on file. But this is a one-off process. The app didn't ask for it again.

It's pretty strange to go to a store and scan items yourself, as though you are an employee. No one paid us much attention. I tucked the case under my arm and we left the store. No one blinked an eye. Satisfied the system works, we went back in and did it again.

EasyPay works for most of the stuff on the store shelves — cases, cables, software, even higher-priced items like speakers. For major purchases like iPhones, iPods and computers, you still have to interact with a store employee.

It also won't scan items that require Apple to record a serial number. We tried to buy a $99 Apple TV, but it wouldn't process the purchase. Instead, the app paged a store employee to assist us. After a minute, the employee came over and scanned the box using his handheld scanner. He said he to scan the serial number for some reason.

I tried to get my son to pretend to scan some stuff and leave the store. I was curious to see how it deals with shoplifters. He refused.

So I asked a couple of employees what happens if you just pretend. They didn't know. The system just went live on Tuesday, and no one has tried to leave without paying — yet.

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Published on November 08, 2011 23:10

'iMac Believer' Video Tribute To Steve Jobs Is Weirdly Catchy

[image error]I've seen a lot of weird videos on the internet over the years, but 'iMac Believer', a video tribute to Steve Jobs takes the cake. It's probably the most bizarre video tribute I've ever seen.

The video was posted to YouTube by GangBabyGaga. It might be influenced by Ms. Lady Gaga due to the showmanship and effects in the video. It has a catchy tune, "I'm a Believer" written by Neil Diamond, that we've probably all heard played by The Monkees and Smash Mouth to name a few. However, it is freaky enough to make you want to sleep with a gun after watching it.

Check it out and decide for yourself about whether it will be the next big internet hit or not.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfb-7nTBNxg

I'll record my vote here — two thumbs up, but I'll still be sleeping with one eye open tonight. LOL.

[via Wired]