I'm Mike (or mcdavis).I make websites and love movies. I get all touchy feely with tumblr here. Be careful.
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Mashing up GLaDOS and Siri to make GLaDOSiri is a brilliant idea.
… Or a terrible one.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
(via jonaha)
Apple accidentally confirmed iPhone 4S today on their Japanese store website.
For further proof see the iPhone 4S images hosted on Apple now in black and white.
Apple’s vision for the future of computing versus Microsoft’s vision for the future of computing.
Any questions?
My mom asked for an iPad to replace her Windows computer the other day. Fitting time for the move if you ask me.
Interesting.
But what’s to prevent Apple, I wonder, from letting the record companies know about the content you’ve uploaded to the “cloud” that wasn’t legally obtained in the first place? Or, for that matter, what’s to prevent the record companies from forcing Apple to share that information?
While none of us will know until the ToS is released for the feature, there’s not much benefit to Apple to do that and hurt their products and sales to help an industry that they’ve just (and will continue to) loaded with money. If that were to be the case, I can see Apple being more likely to just not include the feature than to release that information.
Considering both Microsoft and Apple could be doing the same with your computers now if they wanted and yet aren’t, I can’t see them doing it now.
Also, a small thing, but you’re not uploading anything to the service unless they’re not able to tag the song (in which case they’d likely not know it’s pirated).
A braindump from WWDC announcements
Apple had its WWDC keynote address today in which it dove into the new features coming up in iOS 5, Mac OS X Lion and iCloud.
Lion
Resume, Versions and Auto Save
Apple today announced that they’ll be bringing resume (the ability to resume the state the computer or app was in when it shut down or closed last), versions (automatic difference control for every change in a document or file) and auto save (literally automatic saving of files) to Lion.
These are ultimately game changing features for the desktop and laptop world. If developers are quick to adopt these features, expect to see other operating systems making similar moves to get everyone away from the CTRL+S/CMD+S world we live in now. (* Those are the save command keyboard shortcuts if you’re not as nerdy — or talented — as the rest of us).
Full-screen Apps
Not only will Apple release the ability to have apps full-screen in Lion, but they spent a large amount of time talking about this today. While I don’t find this personally useful (at least without having tried it out at this point), it’s as if they really wanted to give Windows fans another reason to mock Mac.
Airdrop
While instant discussion after the announcement of this feature was that this would be something to take on Dropbox, Apple’s site now presents it as something that’s limited to only people within 30 feet of you. So it’s essentially local network sharing.
iCloud
Bye bye MobileMe
With iCloud taking over most of MobileMe’s duties (and being free), we’ll be seeing the last of MobileMe. Currently, Apple’s support docs list MobileMe’s subscriptions as ending on June 30, 2012 (after a free extension given to all current MobileMe customers).
Email, contacts and calendar
Nothing new here really considering these are things currently available with MobileMe, Gmail or other services.
Photo Stream
Apple is positioning this as a feature for families. Take a photo of the kids and it automatically syncs to your iPad or Apple TV for easy sharing. I jokingly mentioned that this may totally revolutionize the sexting industry.
iTunes in the Cloud
Finally, after all the endless speculation we see what Apple’s cloud offering is and it’s definitely worth the wait. Instead of going the route of uploading all your songs to their cloud storage (similar to what Amazon and Google are doing with their cloud music products), Apple is automatically making all your iTunes purchased music available via the cloud.
Better yet, they’re not limited this to just iTunes purchases. Knowing they wanted something that “just works” (their famous tagline which they were happy to use often today), they’re offering the ability to access your entire library in the cloud (including non-iTunes purchased music — or even pirated music) for $24.99 a year.
iOS 5
Newsstand
Books, games and magazines to me always seemed like the ideal use cases for the iPad. Bringing magazine and newspaper subscriptions to the iPad (with automatic background updating) seems like the obvious next logical step for Apple with the iPad and I’m glad to see they made it. And, this fits well with Apple’s position that the iPad is the family room device (that is, it’s something to be left in a family room for all to access as a form of entertainment).
Notifications
Go ahead and say it Android fans. Apple just flat out replaced it’s terrible notification system with a system that is a twin (yet a bit better looking) version of Android’s current notification system. Not only in appearance does this new notification system mimic Android, but also in the fact it pulls down from the status bar upon being opened.
That out of the way, the new notification system (which includes a lock screen update) is exactly what iOS users have been dying to have. The ability to have animated widgets will be sure to keep the “ooh look something shiny” crowd happy as well.
Apple vs Developers
While Apple will be integrating (“stealing” for some) features that many existing apps (both iOS and non-iOS-specific) have, a few are hit harder than others.
Apple announced today features that will sync files (including documents and photos) across multiple devices (iOS devices, Macs, and even Windows PCs) automatically. This could potentially be a blow to Dropbox, but the focus during WWDC seemed to be on how to move things from mobile into the desktop/laptop world wirelessly more than how to sync files between actual computers. Dropbox, with an already existing and rather larger userbase may feel some sting but will probably not be dealt a death blow as it’s already currently entrenched into people’s workflows. If anything, maybe this will be good for them in bringing the idea of syncing files between devices to a wider audience.
On a bit more of a direct hit, Apple released “read it later” functionality that bears resemblance to Marco’s Instapaper. And while Marco’s app is $4.99 in the App Store and this will be free, it won’t contain as many device options as Marco’s app currently does. This seems to be focused on how to avoid taking the time to reading something now and instead read it later on your iPhone or iPad. As with Dropbox, because Instapaper can be a bit more agile and is already very heavily used, this may actually turn out to be a good thing for Instapaper in that it’s turning more people onto the idea of saving longer articles or stories to read at a later time (cue: reading blogs on the toilet jokes).
Not all apps were as lightly scathed as Dropbox and Instapaper though, with popular iPhone app Whatsapp receiving a huge blow thanks to Apple’s new iMessage feature that’ll be rolling out with iOS 5. Previously, those with limited texting plans or those speaking across international lines used Whatsapp as a free method of texting and sharing photos and videos. With Apple’s iMessage releasing by default with iOS 5, expect Whatsapp (and other apps like it) to see high uninstall numbers. In fact, unless there’s a major pivot or new device inclusion on their part, it’s not likely they’ll be able to stick it out.
EDIT: It appears I was incorrect in thinking Whatsapp isn’t already on multiple mobile OSes. While that’s true, I’d still guess iOS to be their biggest installed base.
Lessons
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Apple is not afraid to duplicate functionality in competing mobile OSes or even that exist in their own App Store
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The future sure will be cloudy
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Bushed metal is in right now. Today, with Apple using it to highlight many of the icons for their apps and features throughout the WWDC keynote, it’s hard to think anything but that. While it appears so far that may just be a keynote thing, Apple’s iCloud app will apparently keep the brushed metal look for its icon when it releases:
In a one word tweet, Marco explains what a bunch of developers are thinking after WWDC (including Dropbox, Whatsapp, Instapaper and more).
iOS 4.3 will be released on March 11th for free download. 4.3 will feature updates to FaceTime (allowing iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches and Macbooks to all FaceTime with each other) and adding Photo Booth to iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches.
Another important thing to notice about this screenshot is that only GSM iPhones will get the new update. This means Verizon iPhones will not get the update at the same cycle.
(via)
Apple will be selling leather and polyurethane cases for the iPad 2 that magnetize to the iPad to cover it. The covers also feature a micro-fiber liner that will clean the screen while attached. The leathers cases will cost $69 while the polyurethane will cost $39.
(via)
