Articles for August 2011

 The iPhone 4 makes a great flashlight since it is always there. While the front screen works ok to illuminate a dark area, the camera's flash does a much better job. In order to use it though, one needs to have a flashlight app.

After testing numerous flashlight applications, I finally found this week's App of the Week. While there are many flashlight applications out there, most have ads that get annoying and are slow to launch. This flashlight app is free and does not include any ads.

Is Apple going all-out in an effort to acquire the type of contracts that will set their Apple TV and forthcoming HDTV sales on fire? Likely so.

In the wake of Steve Jobs announcing his resignation as CEO of Apple. Inc. this past Wednesday, Apple stock took a $19 plunge in after hours trading, costing AAPL nearly 5.6% of its value. The news of Jobs resignation could hardly be considered unexpected, but would this be a sign that investors viewed Apple as a one-man show or was the after-hours trading a mere knee-jerk reaction?

This week's podcast focuses on HP's big move to exist the desktop and mobile computing spaces, while Google snatches up Motorola Mobility for a cool $12.5 billion. Was it worth the price? Intel creates a $300 million fund in an effort to offset their own Ultrabook reference platform costs. Will this fund deliver the ability for PC manufacturers to compete with the MacBook Air? And of course, and our ever-present Werner Reschke (Guy #3) opening with This Day In History: Episode 57

This week's podcast includes discussion of iCloud, iTunes pay-to-play service, why no one can compete with the MacBook Air, iPhone 5 (purchase unlocked or via a subsidized plan?), and our ever-present Werner Reschke (Guy #3) opening with This Day In History: Episode 56

This week's app is a folder synchronization tool called arRsync. This is a great tool that can backup or synchronize folders and files. Any folder that the finder sees, whether local or network based, can be synchronized.

arRsync does a nice job of backing up folders from one's local hard drive to an external or networked hard drive. The best part about this tool is that it is free.

Ruko, a former property of Netflix, recently released a second version of their streaming media player. The new player now allows users to play some games on the TV.

While the new set-top box features looks interesting, the shape of the case looks very familiar. Why did Roku redesign their case to make it look like one of their competitor's cases?

It appears that MobileMe (formerly known as “Dot Mac”), has been showing some signs of attachment disorder. The above errror message is consistent from more than one MobileMe account when sending an e-mail to the domain frontier.net The same e-mail can be sent to a different domain with no problem — message sent, message received.

If recent reports are to be believed, a new Apple TV will arrive this fall. Information coming from many of these reports cites TV Execs, which have proven to be anything but reliable in the past. The fall timeframe makes little sense for Apple to deliver an all-new Apple TV and Apple HDTV lineup when considering iOS 5, iCloud, iPhones and perhaps new iPads will arrive during a jam-packed season of fall releases. But where there is smoke there is often fire, and while fall makes little sense, our information points to a January Special Event from Apple.

 The new MacBook Airs are fast and light, but they currently come with a few software bugs. We have already talked about one of them here at T-GAAP, but there are more.

Many of these bugs are minor annoyances that should be solved in the next update to Apple's operating system, Lion, but there is one bug that needs more than just an operating system update.

A recent video posted by 9to5mac.com reveals Apple's Grand Central store in mid-construction mode. The footage is a wee bit shaky, so we question whether the person shooting the video uses a Mac and iMovie (or FCP for that matter), but he appears to have held the camera steady enough to incriminate himself during the filming of the facility. At 2:11 into the video a mirror is caught on the tape, revealing the man holding the camera. From the looks of it, he's a security guard of some sort.

 If you are tired of using iTunes or email to transfer photos to iPhone or Aperture, there is a better way. With a push of a button, you can have all your new photos transferred from an iPhone to iPhoto, Aperture or a folder on the Mac.

This week's application is a utility to make transferring files from the iOS to the Mac easy. Photosync is $2.99 for a universal iOS application, but it is free for the Mac and in the Mac App Store.

The New Macbook Airs have been out for a couple of weeks, so it is time to check their performance scores and see how they compare with previous models and other MacBooks.

On January 9, 2007 when Steve Jobs strolled onto the MacWorld stage and unveiled the first iPhone, he wrapped up the presentation by stating the iPhone had over 200 patents, and that Apple planned to vigorously defend their Intellectual Property (IP).

No kidding.

As an owner of a 13" MacBook Air, one of the surprising benefits of upgrading to OS X Lion was the speed difference. Snow Leopard was nice, but wow, Lion took opening windows, using spotlight, launching apps, to entirely new level. This was not something that Apple touted (a faster OS), but from my experience, it's one of the best things about Lion, especially for those with the older Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

That said, there is a price I seem to be paying for that speed improvement — fan noise.

This week's "App of the Week" is a game for the Mac: Land Air Sea Warfare. This real-time strategy game pits two to four similar armies of different colors against each other on different types of battles fields. While there are many types of victory options, the main one is to just wipe the opposing enemy off the map by building the biggest army. LASW does have some team options (player + computer vs computer + computer), but no multiplier (player vs player) options at this time.

Each army has a multitude of different types of units to attack the enemy like submarines, tanks, helicopters, destroyers, bombers, fighter planes, and hovercrafts. There are also plenty of defensive units like walls, anti-aircraft jeeps, surface to air missile launchers, 155mm caliber canons, anti-air SAM launchers, long range artillery, torpedo launchers, and heavy defense installations.

Outside of the “i” nomenclature which Apple tags virtually every product, Apple is not a company that subscribes to any form of dogma. Adopting smaller 3.5" floppy drives, pushing USB ports over serial, or flipping an entire video industry on its head with a new software philsopy — it makes no difference. There are simply no sacred cows at Apple, and that's what keeps Apple relevant, inventive, and leaves the rest of the industry playing constant catch up.

Will Apple continue its path to reveal an iPhone 5 that delivers monumental hardware changes over previous versions? iOS and iCloud are so closely integrated, virtually all functionally will run wirelessly once the latest software rollout arrives in September. iTunes, photos, backup, syncing, apps, iOS updates, it's all wireless. The only item remaining requiring phycial connectivity is power. But even connection for power appears on its way out.

The latest cell phone market share figures should have tablet makers quaking in fear of what Apple may do to them once iPad 3 arrives. Currently, Apple is sucking all the profits out of the market. Moreover, many of Apple's competitors have taken their best stab at iPad by flooding the channel, but with weak sell-though results (just ask Samsung, HP or RIM how tablets are working out).

The latest figures peg Apple's global tablet market share at 61.3%. Like with iPhone vs Android phones, we saw Android quickly race out ahead in deployment numbers, which are flattening out or starting to work back in Apple's favor. New numbers for the iPhone comes from BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk, predicting up to 30 million iPhones could be sold in the September quarter. If iPhone sales are poised for this absolute explosion, what will halo effect be for iPads vs the rest of the pack?

Unlike the Mac, Windows lets applications install files all over the system and program folders. The result of Windows allowing apps to install files or DLLS in many locations is it can wreck havoc with operating system stability. Apple has a better approach.

OS X confines application files to the application, system's library, and user's library folders. Some application preferences are system wide and others are specific to a certain user (which is why there are two library folders), but hints in OS X Lion suggest things are about to change.

This week's "App of the Week" is Catan By USM. Catan is available as separate downloads for both the iPhone and iPad. Both versions are $4.99 with an expansion pack costing $3.99. The game was updated recently with better graphic options and faster game play.

The Settlers of Catan is a fun and relaxing strategy game to play against the computer or with the family. I have played this game more than any other on the iOS this summer. Both of my elementary age kids love to play and watch me play it as well. If you never heard of this game, you have to give it a try.

Apple doesn't have partners, they have suppliers. But when Apple entered the cell industry it had no choice but to enter into partnership agreements with AT&T and others across the globe. Don't confuse necessity with anything Jobs and company are happy with, as Apple is setting course to go nuclear with its pernicious carriers.

Until now, the iPhone has been built with the philosophy of design elegance and overall quality. Apple has been able to work this way due to the business model being focused on subsidized products, hidding the true costs of iPhones into two-year contracts. But Apple's forthcoming iPhone 5 launch promises to change this model and the way we purchase iPhones.