Mobile Apple Me

Section: Apple News, Apple Online and Retail Store, iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPhone

Apple’s launch of the iPhone 4 is now a few days behind us, so hopefully everyone has had time to recuperate and start putting the new device to work. If you missed (or purposely avoided) the crowds on Thursday morning, Thomas Reiten has put together a quick video of what the scene was like at the Apple Store in Pasadena, CA. Certainly seems like a pleasant enough place to spend the night in line for a phone.

Good job, Thomas. How much did it cost you to get the rights from Macy Gray?

And I notice we still have no video evidence of the ever-elusive Bumpers for iPhone 4...

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: Apple News, Steve Jobs, Conferences, Press Events, WWDC, iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPhone, iDevice Accessories

Today’s iPhone 4 announcement was nothing short of amazing, and chances are good that you want one. iPhone 4 is full of firsts, the least of which is probably Apple’s first set of iPhone cases. That’s right, Apple hasn’t made a case for an iPhone before, but it’s time, and they seem to have really knocked it out of the park with the iPhone 4 Bumpers.

iPhone Bumpers are exactly what they sound like, a bumper for your iPhone 4. They don’t cover the front, nor the back, but they do cover the sides of the device. Brilliant. Instead of covering the front and back, it extends a small ways forwards and backwards, which should be enough to keep your iPhone 4 from touching any flat surface.  If you remember past generation iPhones, then you know the corners are the weakest points of the design, so protection here just makes sense.  Plus, is doesn’t hurt that they come in six different colors: white, black, green, pink, blue and orange.

The Bumpers are a bit expensive at $29.99, but that’s not surprising. If you like the Bumpers, but not the prices, hold on for a bit, because I think other companies will likely make very similar cases at more appropriate prices.

If you want to check out the Bumpers on Apple’s site, you sadly won’t find much. There’s only a brief mention of the accessory on the iPhone 4 specs page. You’ll be able to pick up the case in store or online when the iPhone 4 launches on June 24th.

So, which color will you get?

Be sure to check out our full coverage of the WWDC 2010 Keynote announcements.

Update (6/27/10): I think the white iPhone 4 really responds well to the extra color from the Bumper case, but I’ve yet to see any of them on a black iPhone 4. You can’t even buy a white iPhone 4 yet, so it would be quite a bit more useful to see these Bumper cases on the black model. So, I figured I’d do my best to “Photoshop” the image that Apple should have available on their site.

This is by no means official, but it should give you a pretty good feel for how the Bumpers will look on your black iPhone 4. Personally, I like the white one, but I worry about it discoloring. I know the iPhone headphones tend to get a blue tint from jeans, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Bumper do the same.

Stay tuned, I’m going to try to get a hands-on with the Bumpers soon to give another update.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPhone, iDevice Apps, Reviews, Originals

Seller: Apple Inc.
Category: Photography
Requirements: iOS 4
Compatibility: iPhone 4
File Size: 30.6MB
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Price: $4.99
Available: Now

When Apple announced iMovie for the iPhone 4 at this year’s WWDC Keynote, I was delightfully surprised. However, I still remained skeptical at how well editing video could work on such a small device that doesn’t have nearly as much power as my MacBook Pro. After purchasing and using the application, though, I was once again delightfully surprised.

iMovie for iPhone is certainly a stripped down version of the iMovie you’ve grown used to on Mac OS X. In terms of editing, you can change the length of clips, reorder them, add transitions between them, change the theme, and add titles to video. That’s about it. To start using iMovie on the iPhone, you first create a new project. Themes consist of choosing one—Modern, Bright, Travel, Playful, or News—and then whether you want that theme’s music on.

After this step, you are greeted with the main project window, which looks somewhat like the image above. Tapping on the gear before the timeline of videos and pictures allows you to change the theme. The button in the top left simply takes you to the app’s main screen where you can switch between projects, while the one in the top right will play the movie from wherever you happen to be in it. The bottom right opens the camera inside of the iMovie application so you can add video and pictures straight from within the app itself. Finally, the button in the bottom left allows you to add video, pictures, and audio that might be stored on your phone.

To edit a video clip or picture, you simply double tap it. The only editing you can do to images really involves repositioning/zooming the image as well as how long the image is displayed. In doing this, you can choose where the Ken Burns effect begins and ends using the Start and End buttons. If you want anything special, though, you can download a different editing app and then import it once you used that application to edit the image.

If you want to edit video clips, you have a couple more options, as seen below. Other than changing the length, you can also add titles and locations, and choose whether the audio of the clip is included. That said, the titles are fairly limited in that they go along with the theme you selected and can’t be changed to the large variety of ones you’ll remember from iMovie on the Mac. The title simply displays the text you choose as well as the location, if you want to include that. Another disappointment is in the transitions. You can choose none, a dissolve, or whichever one the theme uses, and you do have the ability to change the length. However, like with the titles, you are limited in the amount available when compared to iMovie for the Mac.

To delete clips or pictures, you can simply hold them and then drag them out of the timeline to watch them disappear with a poof of smoke. As you’d expect, reordering clips simply involves holding and dragging them around. Changing the length of clips is as easy as selecting the clip and then dragging the orange bars on either end of it.

When you are done with the project and decide you want to export it, you have three options. You can choose medium in 260p, large in 540p, or HD in 720p. Once you do this, you will see the screen below. Exporting the video doesn’t take long at all, but will obviously vary with the length of your project. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in the background, as switching apps during this process will cause it to start over when you return. When it’s done, it will show up in your camera roll in Photos.app.

From there, you can MMS, email, or upload your project to YouTube. To see what a project looks like after being exported in HD and uploaded to YouTube, check out my short project below. As you can see, it loses a fairly large amount of quality during these processes, which is unfortunate. However, the process works flawlessly, which is one upside.

Overall, you can tell the application was made by Apple. It works fast and flawlessly, and the interface is very intuitive. My only complaint is how stripped down it is compared to iMovie on the Mac. I certainly don’t expect it to have all the features the Mac version does, but it could use some extra features such as more transitions and title abilities. It may complicate the interface a little, but I think it would be a decent tradeoff. Hopefully Apple will add more of these with future updates of the application or as in-app purchases of some sort.

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iDevice Apps, Features, Opinions and Editorials, Originals

A respected colleague presented me the following hypothesis: If the iPad is intended as a media consumption device, then it should offer Flash, since so much online media is available in Flash. The recent announcement by NBC Universal and Time Warner that they will not be converting their media libraries to HTML5, preferring instead to remain in Flash format, increases the intensity of the Adobe & Flash vs. Apple & HTML5 debate, thereby prolonging the fight and ultimately hurting consumers. With a full mobile version of Flash beginning to see the light of day, can Jobs’ argument sway big media companies (or, more importantly, will consumers voting with their wallets sway them)? This article will explore, in three parts, this case for Flash on the iPad, as well as other iOS devices.

Update (6/26/10): Links between articles are fixed.

Part One: Should the iPad have Flash?

The iPad, as a media consumption device, needs to have access to the broadest set of media possible. This includes content currently encoded in Flash, so my colleague’s reasoning goes, and the iPad therefore needs to have Flash.  Given the longer battery life of the iPad and its beefier processor, Flash could be successfully implemented with only a moderate drain on resources.  In a “my way or the highway” move, NBC Universal and Time Warner have both announced publicly that they do not intend to undertake the cost and effort of converting their libraries from Flash to an iPhone-friendly HTML5 format.

• Verdict: Yes

Rumors swirl of an iOS-based settop box to be announced under the moniker of AppleTV, though it failed to materialize at the recent WWDC.  This new device, much like the iPad, would lose many of the constraints of a mobile handset, chief among them limited battery power.  With no power/time constraint, this new AppleTV could put more processing power into decoding and playing Flash video.  Without multitouch interactivity, other Flash interaction issues also become moot—Flash would be limited to playing back video, since the box would likely be controlled via a multitouch remote interface on an iDevice. Support for Flash on an iPhone-OS settop box makes a great deal of sense, as it would be used exclusively for media consumption.

• Verdict: Yes

Does making this distinction among iOS devices make any sense?  This would effectively create a have and have-not class distinction between Flash-enabled and Flashless devices running the same iOS.  And that is bad, at least from Apple’s point of view, because it breaks the user experience. What remains to be seen is if users really do value Apple’s simplicity.  Given past performance, the answer seems to be yes, meaning the overall impact of a two-tier iPhone platform would be negative.

• Verdict: No

Revisiting the article that got my colleague started in the first place brings up an interesting point: NBC has had online tantrums before, only to quickly change their tune later.  NBC made quite a show of pulling out of the iTunes store in 2007, only to come back shortly thereafter.  Time Warner, for its part, seems to have very little grasp of how to manage new technology.  For further reference, see AOL, merger and later spinoff of!  ABC offers nearly all their content in an iPhone native app, with CBS and Fox hedging their bets offering at least some content in iPhone format.  Even Google is fielding an HTML5 version of YouTube (which rarely stutters or freezes, unlike its Flash counterpart).  The sad irony is that media companies have few qualms asking consumers to fork out extra cash to change formats (VHS-to-DVD, DVD-to-BluRay), but balk when the tables are turned.

NBC is hinging its Flash hopes on its star pupil Hulu. The only problem: Hulu is a failed experiment.  Online full-length TV shows do not generate sufficient revenue, so media companies want to lock up services like Hulu and Fancast with cable subscriptions in a concept called TV Everywhere.  Users buy cable and get the added “benefit” of viewing online.  Unfortunately, many users are reaching the conclusion that paying for the stand-up-comic-staple 900 channels is not worth it for the 10 or so they watch regularly.  Services like Netflix and Hulu offer much cheaper alternatives, and users seem to be heading in that direction.  Steve Jobs is usually at the forefront of destructive technology, which leads to questions about the iAd platform.  With its more engaging ads, will it be able to offer up a replacement to current underperforming models for streaming TV?  If that is the case, HTML5 makes more financial sense than Flash for all involved.

• Verdict: No

See The Case for Flash on the iPad, part 2: Does Android with Flash change the equation?

Full Story » | Written by Aaron Kraus for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »