Leander Kahney's Blog, page 1520

Creating Keyboard Shortcuts In iOS 5 [Video How-To]

One of iOS 5′s hidden gems is the ability to create custom keyboard shortcuts, a feature that works like TextExpander on the Mac. In this video, I'll show you how to create and manage keyboard shortcuts from any iOS 5 device.

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Published on October 25, 2011 17:15

At Steve Jobs Bio Launch in Taiwan, Apples and Steve Bags for Everyone [Video]

To commemorate the launch of the official Steve Jobs biography in Taiwan, a bookseller handed out apples and bags printed with a two portraits of the Apple co-founder.

You were supposed to be dressed in a Steve-esque black turtleneck to get the snack and commemorative bag at bookchain Eslite, but as the guy holding his wearing a Steve McQueen t-shirt shows, the rules for the giveaway weren't strictly observed. (Or maybe all Steve's look alike?)

The news comes to us from tireless Steve Jobs spotter Dan Bloom, who notes that Eslite's sales of the bio are expected to outstrip Harry Potter.
Now that's truly magical.

Via Dan Bloom

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Published on October 25, 2011 16:04

iPad App Tracks Airline Maintenance

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Here's a question for the nervous flyers: would you be reassured to know that an iPad was scheduling your plane's upkeep?

Flightdocs, a Florida-based company that helps airlines keep track of the moving parts that keep the friendly skies safe, has just launched an iPad app.

The Mobile Information Center is offered free on iTunes to companies who already subscribe to the maintenance software.

After seeing how iPads have replaced training manuals and flight charts in the cockpit, it's easy to see how having a small tablet with access to the entire fleet and its maintenance records would come in handy – and we hope for more pressing things than the "torn carpet" noted in the screenshot above.

Via the app, eagle-eyed staff can submit discrepancies, retrieve maintenance due lists, update aircraft times, review airworthiness directives and service bulletins as well as contact Flightdocs customer service.

"By integrating the use of the iPad into Flightdocs, our operators will see an immediate reduction in their workload, improved operational efficiency and lower operating costs," said Flightdocs president Rick Heine in a presser. "The in-flight squawk capabilities could save our operators thousands of dollars per incident in troubleshooting alone."

The only thing worrying me? Flightdocs currently services 2,500 aircraft and 125 models worldwide, making me wonder how everyone else is keeping track of these things.

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Published on October 25, 2011 15:50

Fortune Journalist Shares Stories About Steve Jobs: Fixing AOL, Toy Story, and Health Issues

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Brent Schlender has worked for a number of publications over the years, and has served in positions like lead technology reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Now serving as a contributor for Fortune, Schlender has covered Steve Jobs for the past 25 years on numerous occasions.

In a recent article on Fortune, Schlender tells of "chapters in his [Jobs'] story I was never able to tell, either because they would violate a personal confidence or because what I had learned didn't really fit into a typical analytical business story."

Some particularly fond memories of Jobs are included in Schlender's anecdotes, including Jobs' plan to 'fix' AOL in 2003, the time he previewed the original Toy Story to a group of kids, and when he decided to take extended medical leave from Apple in 2008.

Jobs had an idea to 'fix' AOL in 2003:

In one instance, John Huey, who is now Time Inc.'s editor-in-chief, joined me at Apple headquarters in Cupertino in 2003, not for a story interview but instead to get Jobs' advice on how he would clean up our struggling parent company, then known as AOL Time Warner. Steve looked at us incredulously and muttered something about what a waste of time it was to look in the rearview mirror. He then proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes methodically explaining in excruciating detail why AOL's business model of being a dial-up Internet service was a complete mismatch and had served only to slow down Time Warner's build-out of its much more promising broadband business. Then he waxed acerbic about why AOL's "postcard production values" for its online content were so "hopelessly last-century."

"Well, I guess that means you don't think it could be fixed," Huey said. To which Jobs replied, "I didn't say that. I know how you could fix it. I'm just not interested." Then, inexplicably, he went to the whiteboard and spent 15 more minutes mapping out a strategy right off the top of his head to turn AOL into something more like a media company.

"That's how I'd do it," he concluded, snapping the cap back on the dry marker with a flourish. "But like I said, I'm not interested."

Jobs gave the first preview showing of the original Toy Story movie to a group of kids:

The most enlightening meetings often were ones that Steve himself initiated, usually with a telephone call to my home out of the blue and always with a very specific purpose in mind. One Saturday morning in May 1995, he rang up and asked me to grab my two grade-school-age daughters and bring them over to his house in Palo Alto right away. "I'm watching Reed this morning, and I've got something cool to show them" was all he would say.

When we arrived, 3-year-old Reed Jobs greeted us at the kitchen door, wrapped in blue and red silk scarves and screeching, "I'm a witch!!!"

After making some popcorn and getting the kids some juice, Steve led us into the den and slapped a VHS cassette into the player. The music swelled and a stream of illegible, pencil-drawn storyboards simulating the opening credits of a movie flashed on the screen. And then, suddenly, an entirely new kind of animation burst forth in full color. All three kids were spellbound, even though the full animation had been completed for only half the movie. The soundtrack was finished, but entire scenes were only partially animated or in storyboard form.

It turned out that this was an early cut of Toy Story, the movie that would put Pixar on the map after its premiere six months later. The board of directors hadn't even seen this much of it. But this was market research, Steve Jobs-style. When it was over, he asked my kids (not me), "Whaddya think? Is it as good as Pocahontas?" Greta and Fernanda nodded vigorously. "Well, then, is it as good as The Lion King?" Fernanda replied, "I won't be able to make up my mind until I see Toy Story five or six more times."

Jobs finally realized that he had to "get to the bottom" of his health problems in 2008:

I started planning a book project I wanted to call Founders Keepers that would attempt to explain why certain entrepreneurs seem to be able to grow as business leaders even faster than the companies they create. Steve consented to be one of the primary subjects of the book, along with Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Andy Grove. All of them had agreed to meet with me for a roundtable discussion in Silicon Valley in late November 2008.

One week before the meeting, Steve called me at home. "I really hate to do this, Brent, but I have to back out of our meeting." Maybe it was just my new hearing aid, but he sounded uncharacteristically subdued. "I trust you not to say anything to anyone about why I'm canceling on you, but I'll tell you the truth. I really have to get to the bottom of my health problems once and for all. I'm in no condition to meet with anyone and am going to go on an extended medical leave after Thanksgiving." Three weeks later he received a liver transplant. We spoke only a few times after that. And three years later he was gone.

Read Brent Schlender's full article on Fortune for more on Steve Jobs.

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Published on October 25, 2011 14:31

Apple Granted Patent for the iOS 'Slide to Unlock' Gesture

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Slide to Unlock Doormat • http://bit.ly/14U5IV

"BOOM!" That's what Steve Jobs said when he demoed the Slide to Unlock gesture on the iPhone in January of 2007. Whether you're on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you always have to slide your finger across that slider to get past the Lock screen. It's become a staple aspect of iOS and Apple's mobile products.

The United States Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple the patent for Slide to Unlock today. This means that no other company can use the gesture without infringing on Apple's new patent. Boom.

The patent document explains:

A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture. In addition, there is a need for sensory feedback to the user regarding progress towards satisfaction of a user input condition that is required for the transition to occur.

There have been murmurs that Apple will eventually implement Android's customizable gesture unlock method for customers. Jailbreakers have been able to change and remove the Slide to Unlock aspect of the Lock screen for years. But it seems fairly unlikely: Apple favors simple, single solutions instead of complexity born from user adjustability, and Slide to Unlock just works so well.

Would you like to see more options for unlocking your iOS device? Customizable gestures? Fingerprint scans? Tell us your crazy ideas below!

(via 9to5Mac)

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Published on October 25, 2011 13:54

This Posthuman Brit Turned His Prosthetic Arm Into A Smartphone Dock

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Friends sometimes tell me I have a hollow leg, but they don't really mean it: they just mean that my rampant alcoholism is frequently imperceptible. If it were literally true that I had a hollow leg, I'd probably be tempted to do something crazy with it… like, say, run an Apple Dock Connector up through it and turn my upper calf into an easily accessible iPhone dock.

That's why I'm so green with envy reading this Telegraph story about Trevor Prideaux, a British man born without a left arm who modified his prosthetic to be a smartphone dock. The only problem? He crammed a Nokia in there, not an iPhone!

Prideaux decided to modify his prosthetic after finding it was just too difficult to use his Nokia C7 one-handed, so he worked with a team of British prosthetic experts and Nokia to scoop out his prosthetic forearm and install a nice little hollow in which to nuzzle his Nokia.

It's an awesome little body mod, no question, but why Nokia, Trev? Don't you know that thanks to Siri, the iPhone 4S is easily the most accessible device yet to people with physical disabilities? Now when you inevitably switch handsets, you'll have to replace your whole arm!

[via Mactrast]

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Published on October 25, 2011 13:54

Get Your Bass Kickin' With Twelve South's New USB Subwoofer for Mac

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Popular accessory maker Twelve South has announced the "BassJump 2″ USB subwoofer for Mac. Packing 8 more decibels of crystal clear sound and a sleek, aluminum build that Apple would be proud of, the BassJump 2 is an excellent Mac accessory for music lovers.

The BassJump 2 works with the Mac's built-in audio to enhance the user's listening experience with deeper and richer sounds.

"Designed exclusively for MacBook Pro and Air, BassJump 2 is a sweet, one-of-a-kind, go anywhere, USB-powered subwoofer that turns your MacBook into a mini-sound system. One single USB cable delivers power and sound. Custom software blends the music coming from your built-in MacBook speakers with extra bass. The result is dramatically improved MacBook sound performance."

Mid and low frequencies from the Mac's built-in audio are enhanced through the BassJump. The 77mm subwoofer speaker can be paired with Apple Cinema and Thunderbolt displays as well as all Mac computers via USB.

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Twelve South is pushing out an update to its System Preferences app for BassJump. The update will bring several interface tweaks and compatibility with the BassJump 2.

The original BassJump has been well received by the Mac community, and the product comes at a reasonable price. You can pick up the BassJump 2 for $69.99 at the Twelve South website.

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Published on October 25, 2011 13:24

Macworld Expo Changes Name, Opens 2012 Registration

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Although for many years Macworld was the place where Apple showed off their new products, the company decided to orphan the expo in January 2009, claiming trade shows were now superfluous with the dawning of the Internet.

Of course, Macworld's recreated itself since then as a place for third-party companies to show off their wares, but as Apple has increasingly emphasized its iOS side of the business, the Macworld name has started seeming anachronistic.

You probably won't be surprised what Macworld's organizer's are renaming the conference. You may be surprised at what a charmless mouthful it all is, though.

Yep,

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Published on October 25, 2011 13:04

iPhone 4S and Macs Are Low-Energy "Bluetooth Smart" Products

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During the initial iPhone 4S buzz we told you that Apple's newest smartphone is among a class of new devices with Bluetooth 4.0. Apple's most recent MacBook Airs and Mac minis also sport the technology.

Bluetooth 4.0 has been rebranded as "Bluetooth Smart" and "Bluetooth Smart Ready." The technology focuses on low-energy consumption and will be present in all kinds of consumer products moving forward.

"Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready devices will revolutionize the way we collect, share and use information," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. "In order to ensure consumers know what these extraordinary devices have to offer, we created the Bluetooth Smart and Bluetooth Smart Ready marks. These new logos will help consumers manage compatibility, and encourage manufacturers to build their best Bluetooth devices yet."

The iPhone 4S is the first smartphone that's Bluetooth Smart compatible. The latest Mac minis and MacBook Airs from this past Summer also sport the tech. This enhanced Bluetooth compatibility means better battery life and stronger connectivity between devices across the board.

Other Bluetooth Smart devices will start hitting the market in the coming months.

(via AppleInsider)

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Published on October 25, 2011 12:51

Apple Settles iTunes Gift Card Class Action Lawsuit, But Don't Expect A Bonanza

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Did you buy a song off of iTunes for $1.29 before May 2010 with an iTunes Gift Card that said each song cost only $0.99? Thanks to the efforts of lawyers at Kurtzman Carson Consultants, you may be eligible for a class-action payout!

Make room in your piggy bank: you could be up to three dollars and twenty-five cents richer today than you were yesterday!

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Published on October 25, 2011 12:07