MacTalk News

Thursday Morning News

Anthony Agius — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:08:22 +0000

Apple have stopped selling protective screen covers for the iPhone in all Apple stores – online as well. I never saw the point of those anyways. The screen is pretty damn scratch proof as-is.

The Wall Street Journal and NPR are making iPad-specific versions of their websites, which remove the requirement for Flash. The Flash versions will still remain, but if you hit up either of those sites on an iPad, it will use HTML5 elements instead of Flash. Nice.

How are problems with the 27″ iMacs these days? Has Apple fixed them yet? According to a reply from Steve Jobs to an irate customer: “This problem is behind us.”

A bust of Steve Jobs, made out of cheese. There’s even a recipe to cook one yourself. Delicious?

AppStorm have a review of one of my most handy apps – Burn. It’s a great free alternative to Toast.

Bill Clinton likes his iPhone. Not a lot to this article, but he was asked what his favourite gadget is and he said he likes his iPhone best, “because I can get so much stuff on it.” God speed Sax Man.

Poolga has a nice collection of iPhone wallpapers. There’s some classy stuff on that site.

Some say the Magic Mouse is not very ergonomic. Will decided to do something about it. He got a piece of foam, slapped it on the Magic Mouse and said “fixed”. Now he is selling his Magic Mouse, Fixed add-on so you too can enjoy a fixed Magic Mouse.

Yet another entrant to the iPhone turn-by-turn GPS navigation market is Mocal – who have released their product recently, which uses the arguably inferior NAVTEQ maps. Its payment structure is a bit weird, which uses the in-app subscription feature to make you pay per month for access to this app. It’s free for the first 30 days though – good if you need a one-off shot of turn by turn navigation.

German website, Touch This, has some screenshots of the popular IM+ application running on an iPad. Nothing that mindblowing, but it does give a good view of how an IM client would look on an iPad.

Review: Mobile Foxtel for iPhone

Anthony Agius — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:35:18 +0000

I really like Foxtel. At home I have the Platinum HD package with an IQ2 box. I get to watch the A+ quality programming on the Bio, W and Lifestyle channels. There’s sport live (AFL!), lots of docos and news. It’s not cheap, but I love plonking my arse on the couch and watching TV, so for me, it’s worth it. Being the Foxtel fan I am, I was interested to hear that they’ve released an iPhone version of their Mobile Foxtel service, which has been on virtually every other non-iPhone NextG phone for a while now.

The Mobile Foxtel service is a cut-down version of the full Foxtel selection of channels, streamed live to your phone, via a native iPhone app, which you can grab for free from the App Store. It’s only available to Telstra customers. If your iPhone isn’t on the NextG network, you can’t use it. Infact, if your iPhone is on wi-fi, the Mobile Foxtel app actually tells you to turn wi-fi off before you can use it. This makes sense, as Telstra want to make sure all the data passing to your phone, stays on their network – if it had to go over the general Internet, I presume it would cost a fair bit more, plus, they can’t guarantee a reliable level of service. The data the Mobile Foxtel app uses is unmetered, so there’s no need to worry.

Mobile Foxtel costs money, it aint free. There’s free previews, but if you want to use it regularly and have access to all the channels, you have to pay. I couldn’t find any Telstra website which lists the costs and channel selection, but it’s all listed on the App Store description for the Mobile Foxtel app. All charges for Mobile Foxtel are added on to your Telstra bill, or deducted from your credit if you’re on pre-paid.

Pricing is $4 for a 24hr pass, which gives you access to some of the more popular channels for 24 hours. There are also subscription packs (Kids, Entertainment, etc. etc.) for $12/month (for 2 packs – you can’t select just one pack). If you want all the channels, that’s $18/month, or $49 for 3 months, or $89 for 6 months. For this review, Telstra gave me a SIM to trial it with, so I hit up the $18/month package which included all the channels. The channel range is not bad, but I would like to see all the channels Foxtel offer rebroadcast in the Mobile Foxtel app. For a list of the available channels, view the App Store description. There’s 3 channels that are on Mobile Foxtel that aren’t on regular Foxtel: TMF (a music channel), Animax Mobile (anime) and Union (snowboarding/extreme sports). They’re crap, even by my low standards.

The thing to note with Mobile Foxtel is that it’s not on-demand video, it’s live TV. For most of the selected channels it’s the same as what’s on regular Foxtel. Some channels however, show the same programs, just at different times. And unfortunately, for the sport, there’s no live channels, just the news. No watching live AFL on your iPhone. There is a guide for what’s showing on Mobile Foxtel, so you can plan your viewing – there is no ability to record or save a show to watch later. There’s also a guide built in to view what’s on regular Foxtel, but it’s junk compared to the dedicated Foxtel Guide iPhone app, which I quite enjoy and is superior to Foxtel’s massive Flash-based TV guide on the web.

I was quite surprised with the quality and reliability of the streaming video. Not once on my travels did it crap out. Sometimes the quality of the video adapted for the conditions, but it was always watchable and never stuttered or paused to buffer. This is pretty amazing, considering this is all happening over a 3G network, out and about.

The app is well done for the purpose it serves. I quite liked the fact it ignores the orientation of the iPhone and doesn’t automatically rotate. To make it rotate, you need to tap the screen. There’s nothing I hate more than leaning over and having the orientation of the screen change, particularly for video. One big bug that I hope is fixed soon, is showing the password when you log in to the TV guide. It should be shown as dots when you enter in the character, not in full text! Naughty developer, naughty.

So what do I think of the app and service? It’s great – if you need it. Personally, I’m not hankering for TV out on the road enough to pay for it, but I can see the uses for it. So if you want to watch a selection of Foxtel channels on your iPhone, the Foxtel Mobile app is fantastic. Works as advertised! I’d really love to see an iPad version of this – maybe if the streaming quality can be improved (I doubt they can stream 720p HD, because the iPad/iPhone only supports 7.2mbit 3G, despite their network supporting up to 42mbit speeds), or allows it over wi-fi for those on Telstra ADSL/cable connections, that would be a really cool use of the iPad around the house. If you have any questions about Mobile Foxtel, just drop a comment on our forums and while I still have the SIM with me, I’ll try answer any questions that come in.

Wednesday Morning News

Anthony Agius — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:51:06 +0000

Plasq, the developers of the wonderful app Skitch, have let Skitch fly out of the nest and let it grow on it’s own. Yep, Skitch is now not a Plasq app, but rather it’s own entity – hopefully it gets some updates soon, as its been a while since we saw some bits being shifted on the Skitch front.

Apple finally enabled hyperlinks in App Store descriptions! This is small potatoes in the scheme of things, but it annoyed and frustrated me all the same.

The guy behind Fake Steve Jobs, and a writer who worked on Seinfeld have come up with a TV show called “iCon”, that will maybe, be on TV. It will be all about the people and egos in the Silicon Valley. So imagine Valleywag, but with a plot and actors – that’s what this TV show will be like. I wonder if they’ll get Noah Wyle to play El Jobso?

MacTech have taken VMware Fusion and Parallels – two virtualisation suites for the Mac – and put them head to head in great detail. Unfortunately it’s split up over 8 freakin’ pages!! It frustrates me, but the content is good, so I’ll link to it anyways.

You know your product has hit a cultural peak, when cosmetics manufacturers are emulating it. EyePhone anyone?

iCalShare has been around for a while, but it was recently revamped, so I suggest checking it out. It’s great to find public calendars of things like public holidays, sports fixtures, movie releases and so on. You can also share your own calendar with it.

The NSW government has followed the Victorian governments (who followed the New York government) lead and made their own app competition called “apps4nsw” – basically, the government wants you, a nerd, to make cool Web 2.0, desktop or mobile applications that use government data. If you are a nerd capable of such activities, be sure to take a look at the competition.

Intel has announced the Xeon 5600 family of CPUs – bringing a 6 core chip to the line up. If Apple wants to, they could release a 12-core Mac Pro. Twelve cores gentlemen!

Need to show off an iPhone app in a Powerpoint presentation? TUAW found a Powerpoint template for an iPhone, so you can pop in screenshots of your iPhone app to demo it. There’s no Keynote template, but hopefully someone makes one soon, because Powerpoint sucks.

MacLife interviews Cultured Code, the creators of the Mac and iPhone organising app, Things, about bringing their application to the iPad.

iPhone App Reviews – Solve, Symbolic Calculator

Rémy Numa — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:35:13 +0000

This week we look at two new ways to calculate on your iPhone. Solve is a handwriting recognition app while Symbolic Calculator brings more complex calculations at a small price.

Solve

When it comes to calculators on the iPhone, most users are happy with Apple’s built-in solution, titled Calculator, for adding, multiplying and so on. It performs the same functions that would otherwise be carried out on a pocket calculator, and that suits most people just fine. Some users require a little bit more though, and the advent of the App Store has created a powerhouse of calculator apps. In these reviews I’d like to take a look at just two different ways to calculate on the iPhone. We start with Solve, which brings handwriting recognition for numbers to a simple interface designed for maximum usability.

Solve isn’t any more advanced than the built-in iPhone calculator, which is possibly the app’s biggest downfall because everything else works like a charm. The only reason I could see anyone wanting to download the app is for the handwriting recognition features, so it’s a relief that they work perfectly. Dragging your finger along the screen is as natural as it should be on an iPhone, and the app doesn’t struggle at all in tracking your movements quickly and accurately. The developers have even squeezed in some extra functionality – flicking from right to left deletes a digit, and there are a couple of other tricks that I imagine would become second nature for regular users. Apple’s ethos for hardware and software products has long been summarised by “it just works” - Solve follows that ethos flawlessly.

The technology behind handwriting recognition is hidden well in Solve. The interface is clean and simple with a focus on the primary task, which is obviously number input and calculation. Even the number keyboard that can be used instead of the pad is nicely presented without clutter. With that ability, I can see using Solve as a complete replacement for Apple’s built-in Calculator. I recently read this piece by Marco Arment about overdoing the interface metaphor. In the article, he mentions that the idea of presenting a calculator on a screen just like the physical alternative is tired and ineffective. I feel Solve is the next logical step forward, at least on the iPhone.

As I said above, Solve’s only problem is that many of the more complex functions of other, more “scientific” calculators can’t be carried out with this app. Honestly, I don’t mind giving up some functionality for improved ease-of-use and a good looking interface. The learning curve for Solve is miniscule, and all gestures supported by the app are detailed by an in-app help screen. Even if some users can’t give up certain features that can only be found in apps such as the one I’ve reviewed below, Solve is, at the very least, a good replacement for the built-in Calculator. At the very low price of free, there’s no reason to hesitate in downloading this rather brilliant app.

Version reviewed: 1.2.1
Price: Free
Developer: xNeat Inc.
Compatibility: iPhone & iPod touch running 3.0 or later
Size: 0.8MB
Category: Productivity
App Store

Symbolic Calculator

Solve has a fantastically straightforward way to calculate, but it’s limited to simple arithmetic. What about finding x, graphing inequalities, solving for the angle of elevation and all those other formulas and methods you may or may not remember learning during your high school/college years? Engineers and students need a better way to calculate more complex equations without sacrificing too much in the way of usability. Symbolic Calculator, a $1 app from independent developer Janos Barkai aims to find a solution (no pun intended) for those people.

Symbolic Calculator has the ability to handle far more difficult and multi-step equations than Apple’s built-in Calculator (or for that matter, the above reviewed Solve). It can process factorisation, displaying irrational numbers as fractions, graph plotting, formulas in a more natural form, matrices, differential equations and a whole bunch of other functions and formulas that would otherwise only be found on a scientific calculator or a more expensive app. Being able to solve all of these with ease is pretty impressive, and I can imagine that for those who need to take a calculator around with them regularly, Symbolic Calculator would make their life much easier.

The unfortunate reality for apps of this nature is that more complexity means severe and unforgivable ugliness in the user interface too. I’ve discussed this quite a few times in my app reviews over the months, and it’s something that applies to a large majority of apps that sell functionality more than anything else. Symbolic Calculator doesn’t have the nicest interface I’ve ever seen, but it’s not a letdown either. The history of the last twenty five calculations (that can be found just by scrolling through the top half of the screen) is logically presented and even graphs aren’t difficult to interpret. In fact, all equations and solutions are displayed quite nicely, albeit a little bit too ’spaced out’ in some instances. There’s certainly a fair bit of flexibility inside the app, such as the option to use the normal numeric keypad, shown in the first screenshot above. I can’t see why I’d prefer to use that instead of the customised numeric keyboard, but I appreciate that the developer has actually bothered to place that ability in there.

Overall, I’m fond of Symbolic Calculator purely based on the fact that it’s so cheap. Other apps that perform the same sort of operations with such ease cost at least ten dollars, so it’s nice to have a lightweight alternative on the App Store at a mere fraction of the price. Some users might find it still to be a little too limited in functionality and require a more expensive app to take care of their needs, but I think most people will be happy with Symbolic Calculator as an easy way to get an answer to that slightly more difficult equation.

Version reviewed: 1.3
Price: $1.19
Developer: Janos Barkai
Compatibility: iPhone & iPod touch running 2.2.1 or later
Size: 5.4MB
Category: Education
App Store

Can Touch This #45 – Earth Shattering Kaboom!

Anthony Agius — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:31:59 +0000

Cheers to Ram City for sponsoring the MacTalk Podcast & Can Touch This – check them out if you need RAM!

Talking about apps this episode is Rob (robc), Dan (zillatron), Shawn (the gaffer guy), Anthony (decryption). These are the apps we talked about:

Sorry, we totally forgot to talk about an app for this week’s episode! Because of this lazy error on our part, we are awarding an honorary $20 iTunes voucher to The Monkey Boy for his recommendation of the Melbourne Historical app.

$20 iTunes gift cards giveaways are back! Recommend us an app in this thread and each episode, we will pick one of those apps and PM you a $20 code for the iTunes store. If we mention an app you have also mentioned, but don’t give you a code, well, too bad. Only one app per week can win an iTunes voucher. Only posts submitted by 6PM 22/03/2010 will be eligible.

Download Episode 45
Subscribe in iTunes
Subscribe to RSS feed

Tuesday Morning News

Raffe Gold — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:18:29 +0000

Good morning ladies and gentlemen…well…gentlemen. We start off today’s news with a question that I have asked myself many’a drunk nights…would my MacBook make a good hat? Luckily i’ve never been drunk enough to try it. However it seems that Apple have poached an expert in ‘wearable clothing’. I only hope that these new computer clothes are machine washable.

Well the gentleman’s agreement between Apple and Google is officially dead in the freakin water. Apple has poached a senior Google Director of Project Management. I wonder what colour shirt Apple will make him wear?

With the release date of the iPad coming very soon (sooner if you’re getting through a certain Melbournite who’s going to NY) Worldofapple decided to release an article. Five arguments for…and against the iPad

Apple opened up pre-orders for the iPad this weekend and they are suspected to have sold….wait for it…152,000. Congrats to Apple…your marketing team has done it again.

Though lets face it…anyone can simply buy an iPad. But if you really want to prove your douchy qualities then you have to own a diamond iPad. It’s only $20,000 but I wonder if that includes postage and handling?

Given the technology of the iPad can we determine a future path for other Apple products? Will the iPad influence, say, the Apple TV. Whilst always relegated by Steve as a ‘hobby’ theappleblog.com looks at what the next Apple TV could look like.

With the release of the iPhone a number of websites went out of their way to create mobile friendly sites that were sans flash. It seems that the upcoming release of the iPad is leading to that same scramble.

It’s impressive to see the new Mac sales increase 43% in February. So to all those who bought new Macs last months…welcome to the family.

How are your iPhone typing skills? Well this guy made a video of how fast he can type. I’m pretty sure he’s faster than me. Is he faster than YOU?

Storing And Syncing Your Private Data With 1Password

Matt Blake — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:23:55 +0000

Most great products start with a question in the mind of the consumer being heard by some opportunistic, clever designer or inventor. 1Password is a perfect example of a great development team answering a call; the call in this case being, “Why can’t I just have one password for everything?”

The end result of their hard work is a beautiful, practical and elegant application on both Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch that does all the leg work for you when it comes to storing and simplifying all your web logins, banking information, software registrations and user account information (and more), and making access to these details available via a single master password. They’re not the first to store your private information in a password-protected database, but they’re certainly the first to come up with such an elegant and powerful UI for it, and such brilliant browser integration that puts all that data into action, which makes filling login boxes and forms a breeze to an extent that surprised even me (having used similar tools before).

I love and recommend 1Password highly. Now that I’ve taken the time to set it up on Mac and iPhone, I don’t know how I managed my personal data without it. It’s one of those apps that just makes sense and is beautifully executed from every angle. Hopefully Agile Web Solutions will be quick to add the promised MobileMe/WebDAV sync feature in the Pro application on iPhone, which will promote this to killer app in my view, by making it even easier to sync between multiple macs and iPhones (avoiding the wifi sync issues experienced by some).

Setting Up

If you’re starting with 1Password from scratch, the place to start is on the Mac. There’s some considerable data entry involved in getting all your logins and software keys into the application (depending on how many web logins and software keys etc you have, of course). The keyboard is a much better place to do all this data entry, and once you’re done on the Mac, a single sync to the iPhone application will push it all through to the iPhone app, saving you at half a trillion thumb-clicks. Let’s get started.

Mac Setup

After purchasing 1Password from the Agile Web Solutions web site (no cheapie at USD $40, but worth every penny) and installing it to the Applications folder, launch the app and you’ll be greeted with the welcome screen below:

Click New Data File to get started. Here you’ll have to choose and enter your Master Password. Make this a strong one, and make sure you can remember it. This is the password that unlocks your whole database and you’ll be prompted for it not only on launch of the app, but every time time you first use 1Password in a browser session to access logins (note that if you have the app open and unlocked in the background, you’re considered authenticated and don’t have to re-enter master password in your browser). Because of this, you don’t want it to be too long, just make sure you mix it up with capitals and throw some numbers in there for extra strengthening.

An old trick I use is to recall a favourite piece of gear’s model number (nothing as simple as iMac… more like DSP-A780), something you use quite regularly in the real world and can refer to if you ever forget, and throw in a single variant just to be sure. For this example, I might choose DspA7800. This method works very well for me, but I guess not everyone cares to remember the model numbers of their electronics…

After entering your master password, you’ll need to use it for the first time, to allow access to your now-empty database from the reassuringly safe-looking unlock screen below:

After login, you’ll see the beautiful blank canvas below, just begging you to throw everything but the kitchen sink into its bottomless piggy banks:

As hinted by the help bubbles, click the ‘+’ button to add a new record for each sidebar category. For this guide, I’ve focussed on Logins, Software and Wallet entries, as they are generally most useful. As you fill each category, you’ll be filled with warm fuzzies and joy as you watch your collection grow. If the feeling takes you (as it did me), you can even dump your own images into Logins entries to give them more attractive preview icons if the auto-populating ones don’t take your fancy, by dragging a new image over the preview at the top right.

A handy feature from the Logins screen is the ability to click the arrow icon next to the site’s hyperlink (in the blue header bar) to not only take you to the link, but pre-fill the login info and log you in automatically. Nice!

Keep entering data until your Software, Wallets and other sidebar categories are filled to taste. More warmth ensues.

The 'Software' screen

Secure storage of your banking info in the 'Wallet' screen

Browser Integration

During installation, 1Password automatically installs the 1Password Plugin into your browsers. Safari is my weapon of choice, so let’s take a peek at how 1Password integration works in said sexy app.

Restarting Safari will bring a new change to your toolbar – the 1Password button:

This button controls the retrieval and submission of all your 1Password logins. When pressed, the 1Password info for the domain you’re currently visiting will automatically be available. The example below is me visiting the MacTalk forums:

Clicking the relevant login from the drop-down autofills (and auto-submits) the login credentials for that site. That’s all there is to it.

If you’ve just started your browsing session and 1Password.app is closed/locked, you’ll be prompted to enter your master password the first time you use 1Password in the browser. Subsequent logins can be called without the need for password entry in a single session. If you’ve finished browsing and you want to lock 1Password, click ‘Lock 1Password’ from the button menu.

Now that you’re using a more secure autofill solution, make sure to turn off Safari’s built in username and password autofill if you’ve been using it. Leaving this on basically negates the extra security layer you gain from using 1Password, so click into Safari > Preferences > Autofill and remove the check next to ‘User names and passwords’:

iPhone Setup

There’s very little to speak of on the iPhone side if you’ve already entered all your data into 1Password on Mac. Once installed, you’ll be syncing your data from desktop to iPhone, then you’re ready to go.

First, download 1Password or 1Password Pro form the App Store (AUD $5.99 and $9.99 respectively). The differences between these versions are detailed in the description, but basically you get more copy/paste functionality for Mobile Safari and the promise of a WebDAV/MobileMe sync service in the near future. Hanging for that!

Syncing Data

For some, this part of the 1Password experience is a bit like watching Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin host an awards ceremony; every now and then you get a glimmer of hope that things might work out, then it all falls over again. When things work the way they should, the sync setup is pretty much a zero-config operation, and it’s beautiful. You open the iPhone app, allow external connections, then go to your Mac app and your iPhone will magically appear in the sidebar under the Sharing menu (read on for a proper walkthrough). Unless it doesn’t.

The issue for some is that under the hood, 1Password uses Apple’s Bonjour service to find the iPhone, and depending on your network setup, Bonjour may not be very good at it. Agile Web Solutions haven’t put much info on their web site about what those network setups/configs actually are which cause issues, they seem to prefer dealing with user issues on a case-by-case basis. I, for one, had a staggeringly easy time getting sync up and running on 2 macs and iPhones across 2 different WiFi networks. If you do have problems with syncing, the best place to start is with these ASW links:

Basic Sync Setup Steps
Intermediate Sync Setup Steps
Advanced Troubleshooting Steps

But let’s not jump ahead. If you don’t experience any malfunkery, it’s a very straightforward process to pull these 2 platforms into sync nirvana. First, close 1Password on your mac and open 1Password onto your iPhone/iPod Touch. You’ll be welcomed with the following screen:

From this screen, set the unlock code to a memorable 4 digit code (this is used for login and lower security items that don’t require Master Password entry) and enter the same Master Password you set in the Mac app.

Once you’re in, click into Settings and tap Allow External Connections if prompted. You’ll be given pass codes (‘Secret 1’, ‘Secret 2’) to enter on your Mac, which will allow a permanent pairing between the 2 apps:

Open the Mac app and you’ll see a new sidebar item called Sync, which will list your iPhone as an available device:

Enter the Secrets codes into the fields provided and click Sync Now to kick off your first sync. If you select the option for Sync With iPhone to ‘Automatically’, the sync will occur any time both applications are open at the same time on a common WiFi network. Note that the iPhone app will NOT sync to the Mac app when the iPhone app is closed. It requires both applications to be open, and any time this is the case, your data will sync automatically. You’re up and running!

Just Buy It!

Let me finish by saying that for the purposes of writing this article, I’ve migrated freshly to 1Password from a *cough* competing platform (sounds a lot like eWallet on iPhone), the developers of which have left their users waiting for a Mac version to sync their personal data to for just over two years now. Yes, people years. With occasional blog update throughout this time, assuring mac users that their app is ‘coming soon’, the developers tried hard to convince me that my countless hours of punching in literally hundreds of logins and accounts with my dextrous thumbs wouldn’t go to waste. But they have. The Mac version of their software has simply been too long in coming, and I’m done. Best of british luck to them.

Agile Web Solutions, on the other hand, have their eyes set on the future. A couple of weeks back they posted a preview for 1Password on iPad, and boy does it look nice. The more I see of this developer, the more impressed I become. So now, with this guide to hold your hand through the setup, you’ve got no excuse not to whip out your credit card and grab one of the handiest apps for Mac and iPhone!

QUT Online Experience Survey

Anthony Agius — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:56:42 +0000

MacTalker Tom Chen is conducting a survey for his PhD work at QUT and has asked for some help, particularly since his work related to online communities.

I am a PhD candidate at Queensland University of Technology. I would like to invite you to participate in a survey that is crucial to my research. I am conducting research into how and why consumers share their experiences of using mobile online services, particularly with friends or acquaintances in real life and in online communities e.g. iPhone and Android online forums, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Your responses are expected to contribute to understanding this emerging behaviour, ultimately encouraging service providers to place more value on customers’ experiences.

If you would like to participate in this survey, please click, or copy and paste the link below.

http://survey.qut.edu.au/survey/169084/2fef/

Monday Morning News

Benny Ling — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:43:46 +0000

Gentlemen, it looks like Apple’s Patent War on Everything has only just begun – new patent filings released by the US Patent Office reveal some really hi-tech multi-touch related patents I can’t make heads or tails of. However, the patents do mention they they can also be applied to devices like the iPod, and even future computers. Surprised? I’m not.

One for your Instapaper lists this morning is that the New York Times says that “Mr. Jobs, Mr. Schmidt and their companies are now engaged in a gritty battle royale over the future and shape of mobile computing and cellphones, with implications that are reverberating across the digital landscape.” They are, of course, referring to the battle between Google and Apple that has seemingly broken out of nowhere – but there’s no denying we couldn’t see it coming, right?

The writers among us will appreciate Mac.AppStorm’s review of Scrivener, the most comprehensive and full-featured writing and management application for Mac. Whether you want to use it for sorting out your digital workspace for writing, or just focusing on the actual words, Scrivener might just be exactly what you’re looking for.

Those of you who have been enjoying a casual game of Charadium every now and again might appreciate On-5’s newest release, Quizarium. Like Charadium, Quizarium also uses the Plus+ network for social gaming, but the similarities end there – whereas Charadaium was a pictionary-based game, Quizarium is more a trivia-based one. It’s free, so I’d definitely check it out.

The Games Developer Conference is a pretty huge event that happens for the benefit of all gaming communities. A lot of companies use it as a launching pad for E3, arguably the biggest electronics/games conference in the world. At this year’s GDC, Gameloft revealed a slew of new iPhone games.

Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, received a cash-and-stock bonus worth about $22 million for filling in for Steve when he was sick, the Wall Street Journal reports. When you think about it, 22 million is a pretty decent amount – but filling in for his Steveness? Priceless.

Also from the Wall Street Journal comes news that almost 10% of Microsoft employees worldwide are using iPhones. This startling conclusion was gleaned from the company’s employee email system, says the article. Maybe their Windows Phone Series 7 phones just aren’t cutting the mustard.

iPad preorders started not that long ago, but eagle-eyed spotters noticed that while all the other iPad accessories (the dock, keyboard dock, VGA adapter and case) were available for preorder, the iPad Camera Connection Kit was mysteriously missing. What gives, Apple?

Also related to iPad preorder-related news, Apple seemingly updated their iPad webpage which now contains little tidbits like support for DRM-free ebooks in the ePub format, Voice Over for iBooks, data plan management, as well as a special section in the iTunes App Store specifically for iPad apps. And that’s not all – looks like the iPad battery replacement service will replace your whole device. Here be exciting times ahead, mateys!

Gizmodo review the HTC Legend, another one of those Android-based handsets. It might not be as fully-featured as it’s bigger brother the HTC Desire, but it would certainly give any Apple product a run for it’s money in the looks department – for an HTC device, it’s actually gorgeous, and my iPhone 3G is growing more and more obsolete every day…

Finally, something to kick off what will be a spectacular week for anyone who reads this, is the fact these iPhone app magnets will show everyone just how much of a nerd you really are – but like they didn’t already know that, right?

I Love the iTunes Store – But…

Anthony Agius — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:35:46 +0000

I’m a filthy stinking pirate. I download gigabytes upon gigabytes of TV shows, movies and music. I have a 30TB file server (yes, I really do) that holds it all and lets me share it with my friends. I am a media whore. I want to watch everything, listen to everything. BitTorrent, Usenet and file sharing forums all let me dive right in to the flowing river of delicious content and rub my body all over it’s digital goodness. Mmmm.

Without this sort of access to the stuff I crave, being limited by what is portioned out to me on commercial TV, or what is sold in a store, I would be a very different person. All those songs I listen to, all those things I watch, make up part of who I am. That’s how important this stuff is to me – it makes up part of my core being.

It probably sounds like I’m just a cheapskate who likes to infringe on intellectual property, but that’s not true. I really do want to support, as much as I financially can, the creators of the media I so lovingly enjoy. Unfortunately, backwards and old-fashioned media companies, won’t let me do it on my terms and because of that, are literally missing out on money.

The iTunes store is as close as it gets for what I want right now. It’s easy to use, has the least intrusive DRM and of course, works on all my Macs and iPods and iPhones. But it’s far from perfect. There are five things, that I think the media companies should do that will end 90% of the piracy of their content and in turn, stop them all from dying out, and for us to rely on dickheads on YouTube being our main source of entertainment.

Step 1 – I’m Australian, Speak English and Have Money!
I live in Australia and because of this, media companies think I’m a retarded gimp with a finger up my arse who doesn’t notice it when there’s only season 1 and 5 of The Wire up on the iTunes store, or that an album is available on the US store, but not on the AU store. I might be able to understand if I was in a non-English speaking company and content had to be regionalised – but Australians don’t need US content translated or modified.

For music, there should really be a single iTunes store. All the content from all over the world is available to purchase in your local currency. Sure, keep on promoting what you’re promoting, but if I want to give you money for some unheard Japanese act, why won’t you let me?! Instead, I turn to BitTorrent, where it exists and with no region restrictions.

For movies, there is this wonderful technology called subtitles. I am not afraid of them. In fact, I prefer them versus overdubbing with shitty voice acting. If there’s a movie from overseas, that’s hasn’t got English audio – slap on some subtitles and sell it to me.

For TV shows, just because it hasn’t aired here who cares? I want to give you money, directly, to watch the shows the networks don’t pick up. If it’s yet to air here, I don’t care again, I want to give you money to watch it ASAP. If it’s a show in the UK, that might only make sense to those in the UK, I don’t care! If I want to watch it, I want to watch it and I want to give you my money to do so.

The Internet doesn’t have country boundaries. What is known in the US, or UK doesn’t just stay there, it’s spread instantly around the world. The media you’re serving up locally, is available globally, you just have to click the button to let me watch or listen to it. Do that and I bet there will be large amounts of money from people overseas that you didn’t’ even have to market to, or tailor it for. Instead of an audience of 400 million, it’s 6 billion! (or however many people use the Internet these days).

Step 2 – Keep Your Margins, But Reduce the Pricing
When I say reducing pricing, I don’t mean slash it to be virtually free. I’m saying, don’t charge me $16.99 for an album, when I can go to a retail store, pick up the same album for less. You don’t have to physically make the CD, or the cover, or print the liner notes. You don’t have the store them in a warehouse, or deliver them to the store either. Sure, bandwidth ain’t free, but damn, it’s gotta be cents vs. dollars for the creation of a physical album.

Same goes for a DVD/Blu-Ray. The DVD contains a 2nd disc of extras, is higher quality, still has to be manufactured and shipped, yet is still the same price, or less, than a digital download which is of inferior quality and has no special features at all.

So when you go to decide the pricing on the latest digital downloads, don’t go “ok, the RRP of the CD is this much, that’s what we will charge” – instead it should be “ok, the bandwidth & support is this much and the usual margin we make on an album or movie is this much – let’s charge that”.

I also really, really want a subscription based service. Sure, buying everything is fine and it works for a lot of people, but not me. I want to keep paying for the rest of my life. I’m never going to ease up on listening to music or watching TV or movies. If I could have on-demand access to a large library of media, I’d happy pay $200+ for it. I pay Foxtel is close to $150/month for all the channels and a PVR in HD. $200 would be a bargain for every TV shows, movie or album ever made, on demand. Offer it in packages, just like Foxtel, so people can choose what they want to spend. Or don’t even make people subscribe. Have out-right purchases *and* subscriptions. That way everyone gets what they want. Even chuck in (optional) ads if it means the price can be lowered to rope more people in. People are cheapskates remember.

Step 3 – Bump Up The Quality
With audio, this isn’t really an issue. Me and some other nerds would like Apple Lossless as an option, but 256K AAC is fine. It’d be nice to have surround sound albums though. You haven’t lived until you’ve hear Brothers in Arms in 5.1!

Video however, leaves a lot to be desired. I can get *awesome* quality rips of movies and TV shows, which have been encoded by dudes in their bedrooms. The trailers Apple puts up on the QuickTime site look amazing. Yet I go to download a movie off iTunes and well, it looks shit compared to a BluRay or sometimes, even a DVD.

With such high ownership of 720p+ TV’s – it’s time to concentrate on the output quality of the content being produced. Sure, the file size will be bigger, but that leads me to the next step.

Step 4 – Bandwidth & Storage
All this media puts a drain on our crappy download quotas here in Australia. iiNet are doing well by being able to claim that all purchases via the iTunes store don’t count towards your quota. I’d like to see more ISPs do this. When you’re streaming 4-8GB movies every now and then, plus your regular TV, that 20GB limit disappears quickly. That said, I’m also in favour of a “user-pays” ISP, that charges a base service provider fee with no included data, then charges you for bandwidth in the range of cents per gigabyte. Like how you pay for water, gas or electricity. That’s a whole other debate though..

You know that 30TB server I have? I don’t really like it. I’d much prefer it if all my content was hosted in a proper datacenter, by someone that knows what they’re doing. I can then just access it whenever I want over the Internet, knowing whatever I have purchased is there for me, on demand.

Right now, if I delete a song from my iTunes library, that I purchased off iTunes and didn’t back up. It’s gone. Why don’t they let me re-download it? It hasn’t even got DRM on it. Let me re-download it whenever I want! The file is already sitting there on a server, just let me download it. That is the biggest benefit of digital – unlimited copies with no quality loss.

Step 5 – Depth of Content
I want to see everything. Dump your archives on the Internet. Someone out there wants to pay for it. Give it to them! Imagine all the TV shows the ABC has that are not online. All this original Australian output that no-one is seeing because it’s not (and rightfully so) on free to air TV, could have a revival by being placed online and able to purchase at a reasonable price. Right now, it’s all rotting away in some store room, earning sweet fuck all. Put it on the Internet, sell it and bam – cash flow. Even if not for the cash, at least for the purposes of history!

All the record companies have the same issue. Artist back catalogs that are sitting in warehouses, not available for record stores to order. Digitise it, put it online, sell it and you’ll earn money. But movies are probably the worst of the lot. So many films literally rotting away that should be digitised and put online so that people can watch them and studios be paid.

This is ultimately, my biggest issue with legit downloading – the stuff I wanna see or hear just isn’t available online (I even find this issue with illegal sources).

Imagine this:

You fire up your Apple TV. Go to the iTunes store. Select a TV show you want to watch. Every TV show, ever made, anywhere in the world, is available. There’s recommendations for you based on what you’ve enjoyed before. There’s stupidly fine grained tagging, categories, synopsises, cover art, trailers & samples, favourites and lists and bookmarks and friends recommendations. You pick the show you want to see and it starts playing, in glorious 1080p HD with 5.1 sound, as good as Blu-Ray streamed over the Internet, without worrying about bandwidth as your ISP doesn’t meter iTunes store content and you have QoS on your router so other internet activities aren’t impacted.

On your Mac, you load iTunes and want to put some more music on your iPhone. Go into the iTunes store and there’s every album, ever made. Available in Apple Lossless, 256k AAC or 128k HE-AAC. Just select what music you want, copy it on your iPod and away you go.

That is what I want. I want to be able to stop this crazy hunting and searching and downloading. I want to be 100% sure that the content I’m watching is what the creators intended us to see and that it’s correctly meta-tagged and in the best quality available. I want to be able to access it anywhere, at any time – without needing to invest in massive hard drives to back it all up myself. I want stuff that is made in Sweden, or Germany, or Japan, or Hong Kong.

There’s boatloads of money in this for everyone – content creators and the companies in the middle who organise the selling and do the selling of that content . People don’t mind paying for entertainment. Some don’t and never will, that’s always been the case (floppy disc, VHS and cassette tape bootlegs anyone?), but if you build something so impressive people will use it. You just have to give them a reason to.