In brief: Yes. But not without a few important caveats. The first caveat is that “majority of users” does not equal “all users.” Clearly, there are professional photographers and dedicated amateurs for whom nothing but a digital SLR, or something close to it, will do. These users may be content with a smartphone camera on…
Search: smart home
Google Hopes Co-Branded Tablets Will Compete Against iPad
Google Tablets – Now With More Unicorn! The move would edge Google a tad closer to Apple’s whole widget business model, and it would also signal that the company is dissatisfied with its Android licensees when it comes to the tablet market. For instance, Google briefly sold its own Android smartphone, the Google Nexus One,…
Research In Motion Hiring an iPhone App Developer [Update]
According to AllThingsD, which found the ad, RIM is working on bringing BlackBerry Mobile Fusion to Apple’s mobile platform. Such a move would mark a departure for RIM, which built its empire with a proprietary model similar to that employed by Apple for iPhones and iPads. It should be noted that a departure is precisely…
3 Free iOS Apps For The House Hunter
I guess if your pockets are deep enough you can hire someone to do much of that stuff for you, but if you’re sa simple man (or woman) of even simpler means then the rake, shovel, and broom are your weekend companions. I love the outdoors, but I hate yard work. I can think of…
How Steve Jobs May Have Snookered the TV Industry
Mr. Jobs’s comment (Isaacson, p 830) is taking on the stature of Fermat’s Last Theorem. That is, everyone believes Mr. Jobs (and Fermat) had the solution, but no one could figure out what it was. The TV industry, without vision, research or a demonstrated understanding of first principles seems to be jumping to the conclusion…
iOS 5: Adding Folders to the Dock
If you’re not familiar with the process of putting icons in folders that started with iOS 4, here’s what you’ve been missing. First, you touch and hold on any of your application icons, and they’ll start to wiggle furiously. While they’re in that mode, you can pick ’em up, drag ’em to different screens, or…
Don’t Pre-judge the Kindle Touch
Poor performance? Not in my bookWhile waiting for my Kindle Touch, I began reading reviews of the new Kindle models. Most of them complained of the Kindle Touch’s poor performance relative to its cheaper Kindle 4 sibling. In the end, they recommended going with the Kindle 4.Jim Tanous, writing here at TMO, lamented: “Due to the…
Apple Clarifies CarrierIQ in iOS, Promises Removal
CarrierIQ became a hot button issue this week as a demonstration of what the software was logging on HTC Android devices was published to YouTube. That demonstration found that CarrierIQ hid itself from the list of running apps, logged every keystroke (including text messages) and button push the user made, logged phone numbers dialed, and…
iPhone 4S: OtterBox Defender Case is Ultimate Protection
If you’re looking for an iPhone 4/4S case that can handle fairly extreme conditions, the OtterBox Defender may just fit the bill. It encapsulates the iPhone with a dual layer system and even includes a built-in, clear plastic display protector. Many of the less often used ports have flaps or silicone buttons to protect them.…
Music CDs Near Dead; iPods Fade
“The major labels plan to abandon the CD-format by the end of 2012 (or even earlier) and replace it with download/stream only releases via iTunes and related music services.” Before you jump out of your seat to jeer or cheer, bear in mind that this remains unconfirmed: “EMI, Universal and Sony…all declined to comment.” Still,…
Snow Leopard Didn’t Die - How About Some Tips?
Substitutions (TextEdit and Other Software) Auto-dashes. If you write in TextEdit a lot, there’s an easy way to automatically turn a double hyphen (—) into a nice, neat long em dash (—), choose Edit from the Menu Bar, then Substitutions, and then just click on Smart Dashes so that a check mark appears next to it.…
The iPhone 5 Frenzy & Galaxy Tab Detention
Apple’s Big Ol’ iPhone Money Bags It looks like we’re going to have to retrain ourselves in thinking about how much Apple makes in the phone business. While I was stunned when Apple was shown to be taking in half of the profits of the entire cellphone business, I now find myself forced to be…
Judge Considers Stay in Oracle vs. Google Patent Suit
Oracle has been seeking licensing royalties for every Android device sold, something that would turn Android from a “free” open source OS to a “not-free” open source OS, which would benefit Apple, Microsoft, RIM, and any other competitor in the smartphone business. Any form of stay in the case would put Oracle’s case in serious…
Apple - Outwitting Competitors Through Deep Analysis
Sometimes I think that Apple has a supercomputer in some secret complex that completely models the consumer electronics market. Imagine for a minute a digital simulation that has all the elements of the market place: customer usage patterns, the price elasticity of products, component part prices and extrapolation for the future, the average broadband speeds…
Marco Arment & Instapaper’s Reading List
Dave Hamilton: We’re here at WWDC with Marco Arment. As I recall, you’ve had a very interesting history of developing for Apple. Is Instapaper your first real project? Marco Arment: Yeah, it really is. After playing with it one night at a time for a few years, it’s my first Apple environment product. DH: Of…
Macally SNAP2-MR iPad 2 Case: Beauty and Minimalism
This is the third in a series of reviews of iPad 2 cases that wrap around the back and sides. Some also come with a screen protector, but the Macally SNAP2-MR does not. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Differences when compared to the previously reviewed Scosche glosSEE and snapSHIELD are immediately obvious. The SNAP2-MR…
Z-Boost METRO YX-540 Boosts Cell Phone Reception
Cell phones aren’t perfect. No matter how smart their features, their ability to make and receive reliable calls often suffers. Sometimes it seems that just moving your head or a change in wind direction is all it takes for a call to drop. The Z-Boost METRO YX-540 offers a solution for apartment or condo dwellers…
Time Warner Pulls 12 Cable Channels from iPad App
In addition to the glint of direct revenue opportunities sparkling in the eyes of cable network execs, Dow Jones reported that the networks were also fearful of a hit to ad revenue as there are no established means of measuring viewership on an iPad. Time Warner had reported that its app was seeing high demand…
Mint.com Launches “Quest for Money” Game
Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint.com and now general manager and vice president of Intuit Personal Finance, said the game was developed to make learning about money feel less like a chore than it has in the past. “In combining online gaming with relatable real-life money scenarios – such as buying a new computer or going…
iMovie for iPad’s Missing Audience
So what’s the problem? The problem is that — after the smoke clears and every iPad 2 owner has a copy of iMovie installed and its novelty has worn off — I expect very few people will actually use it. Home gamesIf you have a Mac, you almost certainly own some version of iMovie for…
The iPad (2) Scores Again
Getting past the baseball metaphors, here’s what I’m saying: The iPad 2 is superior to the iPad 1 in all the most critical statistics. It’s thinner and lighter and promises to be much faster. Plus, it adds front and rear-facing cameras — and a gyroscope. It even comes in white. And it does all this without…
WSJ: iPhone mini in the Works
The smaller iPhone model, according to unnamed sources, is “N97,” which could be an insider jab at Nokia and its N97 smartphone. The entire front surface of the phone will make up the display, it will be thinner and lighter than current iPhone models, and it will sport voice-based navigation controls.Apple may put the iPhone on…
iOS 4.2 for iPad: What You Need to Know
You’ll know version 4.2 is ready when you connect your iPad to your Mac (or PC) and look at iTunes under the Summary tab. (Of course, we’ll also alert you here at TMO news. But sometimes there’s a lag from the time the earliest customers see their update in iTunes until others see it —…
HP Exec: We’re Not Trying to Emulate Apple
“Emulating Apple is not part of our strategy,” Mr. Bradley said, according to a CNet report from the event. He said that HP needs to be able to offer custom solutions to Enterprise customers. To this end, his company intends to use WebOS in its own smartphones, tablets, and even printers. Kind of like Apple…