Wednesday 17 June 2009

iPhone OS 3.0

Well that's the new OS downloaded and installed on my iPod Touch and I can't help wondering what all the fuss has been about. This update feels even more anticlimactic once it's actually living on your iPod. There's just nothing to it. Nothing really changes. There's no little red circles on Twitter apps suddenly appearing to tell you that someone more has left 140 characters of wisdom, there's no oomph when the device boots in again for the first time after update...there's nothing.

TUAW have posted a little reading material for all those people who are downloading their updates for the iPhone and iPod Touch. A link to it can be found here and it takes you through everything you can look forward to when your little shiny piece of Steve restarts. Seeing it laid out there there's not really that much to cheer about.

I am glad to see the landscape keyboard get introduced to the rest of the apps at last because that was getting very annoying trying to type a note in portrait mode, it doesn't seem to work in the App Store App which is a little weird. However, lets face it this should've been there from day 1.

There's notifications but looking through my Settings screen is telling me that this isn't even available on my iPod Touch so that's a non-starter.

Now Spotlight searching is good and I'm really glad to see it implemented across the device. It maybe should've been there from the start too but I am will to give credit where it's due and this is a nice addition to have.

Improvements to YouTube and App Store are grand for what they are, just updates. Nothing interesting to see here move along please. Same for the MobileMe based services because I'm def not paying more money to Apple per year just to do something Google does for free and The wiping won't work for Touch anyway.

I'm not out to just slate Apple I'm more just disappointed that this update didn't have more kick to it.

Image from Apple.com

Sunday 14 June 2009

Windows XP on an iPod Touch

I was browsing the App store the other day looking for a new game to play and I came across Paper Toss. The App itself is great fun and being free it's well worth a look. While playing it however I noticed something in the background that made me laugh. The developers had included a computer running Windows XP. In fact it's in all of the levels of the game.

I've posted a screenshot of the game.

The game was developed by Backflip Studios and is available now from the App Store. Review coming here soon.

Monday 8 June 2009

WWDC 2009 Approaches

At 10 am tomorrow, 5pm UK time, Phil Schiller is due to take the stage in San Francisco. The Apple rumour mill has been in overdrive around this particular keynote for very good reason. There is a lot of hope that Dear Leader, otherwise known to you and me as Steve Jobs, will make a surprise appearance and bring with him some amazing piece of technology that will mark his return to Apple. I don't think it's going to happen, it might but I really doubt it. I'm going to make a couple of predictions in this post covering WWDC tomorrow and what I think will happen in the rest of June.

I honestly feel that tomorrow is going to mirror the Macworld keynote. During that event Phil did an excellent job of introducing products that were, lets face it, boring. If Steve had been in full health I don't think he would've been able to make those announcements anymore exciting than Phil made them. Tomorrow's likely to be the same. Phil can introduce us to Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0 without ever introducing a new piece of hardware. We've seen the iPhone OS and we've heard what's in Snow Leopard. I'm suspecting that this is what poor Phil is going to be stuck with tomorrow.

If I was in his position though I would ensure that I had one surprise, but what surprise could the Vice-President of Worldwide Marketing pull out of the bag that would get people talking? There are really two. The first would be a rehashed version of the iPhone hardware. Maybe it will have Video editing, larger memory and faster processor. It's Phil level exciting, I don't mean that as an offense to him of course I simply mean that due to the timing he's not going to get THE BIG announcement. He can announce that it will go on sale at the end of June.

His second announcement, and the real surprise, should involve Mr Jobs. Not his actual return at WWDC because it's not the right setting or timing. He needs to announce the next event. A "One More Thing." that is simply a date and a location on a black screen with the Apple logo above it. That will be Steve's return. That will be the new major hardware announcement, probably a totally new iPhone for Verizon and maybe just maybe the Tablet.

So don't expect too much tomorrow in the way of new products. Maybe a new iPhone but it'll be no more than a rehash of the current one. The big announcement is going to be the return of Steve at the end of the month. In that keynote we will expect something major. I must say though that personally it will be great to see Steve return and I'm really happy that if this is a sign that his health issues have been sorted out. The Tech industry is a much better place when Steve's around than when he isn't.