Archive for category Apple iPhone

Microsoft Revs Up the Apple Copying Machine, Publishes “UI Design and Interaction Guide”

Mar 16

Posted by John Hawkes in Apple iPhone, Microsoft, News | No Comments

To help developers maintain an Apple-ish feel and look to their apps, Apple publishes a “Human Interface Guidelines” for the Mac and iPhone platforms. Now it appears Microsoft plans to take another page from Apple’s design book for their Windows Mobile 7 platform and pump out a similar document. Via The Next Web:

Windows Mobile Apps have always been ugly and navigational nightmares. Microsoft’s native apps sucked and 3rd party apps sucked even more. With the launch of the Windows Phone 7 Series SDK Microsoft has obviously been studying Apple’s tactics as they just unveiled a 69 page document alongside the SDK launch entitled “UI Design and Interaction Guide”. The document is strikingly similar to Apple’s “Human Interface Guidelines” it publishes for the Mac and iPhone OS designers and developers. These documents outline how to design intuitive apps for the platform. They outline the design goals for the platform and user expectations to be aware of, but they also dive into the nitty gritty details for good UI design like the correct margin and padding around buttons and which font colors are to be used in particular situations.

Your iPhone as a Paperless Movie Ticket: Fandango Testing New Service

Mar 15

Posted by John Hawkes in Apple iPhone, News | No Comments

Fandango is testing a new system that removes the need to print out movie tickets. Instead, a barcode displayed on your mobile phone’s screen will serve as a scannable ticket. TechCrunch reports:

Today, Fandango is launching a mobile ticket program in eight cities which lets moviegoers finally go paperless. Your ticket is delivered to your mobile phone via an SMS or MMS message linked to a 2D barcode, which the ticket-takers can scan. Movie theaters need to equip their attendees with special scanners, which is why it is only available in a few markets. (MovieTickets.com is testing a similar program).

The testing is occurring only in the following markets:

New York: City Cinemas 1, 2 & 3, Angelika Film Center, East 86th Street Cinemas, Village East Cinema, Beekman Theatre, The Paris Theatre.
New Jersey: Manville 12 Plex.
Houston: Angelika Film Center.
Dallas/Plano: Angelika Dallas; Angelika Plano.
San Diego: La Mesa Grossmont Center, Clairemont Town Square Stadium.
Bakersfield: Valley Plaza 16.
Sonoma County: Rohnert Park 16.
Hawaii: Ward Stadium, Kahala Theater, Kapolei 16, Mililani Stadium.

iPhone Popularity Drives Increased Capital Expenditure for AT&T

Mar 15

Posted by John Hawkes in AT&T Wireless, Apple iPhone, News | No Comments

The iPhone’s success has not been without its drawbacks for AT&T. Most notable have been complaints about AT&T’s wireless network from a vocal iPhone community that have done serious harm to the company’s reputation. But recent signs suggest the source behind the network complaints are being ironed out, mostly due to recent network upgrades by AT&T. As analyst firm Trefis points out, the effort has not been without significant cost to AT&T. To the tune of about $2 billion more per year, in fact.

AT&T’s mobile capital expenditures have increased from $4 billion in 2007 (15% of mobile gross profits) to $5.9 billion in 2009 (18% of mobile gross profits). Mobile capital expenditures constituted 34% of all of AT&T’s capital expenditures in 2009, up from about 23% in 2007. We expect that AT&T’s mobile capital expenditures will continue to rise to 22% of mobile gross profits (45% of total capital expenditures) by the end of our forecast period.

But AT&T can’t be complaining too much. The company saw a 25% jump in profit last quarter.

Game Review: Pocket Chef

Mar 2

Posted by Tim Barribeau in Apple iPhone, Gameloft | No Comments

Pocket Chef ($4.99, link) is Gameloft’s riff on Nintendo’s rather popular Cooking Mama games. And much like Cooking Mama, Pocket Chef has you playing a series of cooking minigames in order to complete an entire recipe in the best time, with the best results possible.

Pocket Chef is based around a series of recipes, grouped into kitchens of five recipes each. You start with “American”—cheeseburgers, pizzas, french toast, etc; and after completing all five recipes a new set of five are unlocked—as well as a new kitchen. The recipes themselves are broken down into minigames, like chopping vegetables, rolling dough, spreading sauce, grilling burgers and the like. While the ingredients may change from recipe to recipe, the fundamental of the minigames do not. There are 19 of them, and once you get a handle on how they work, you shouldn’t have much trouble.


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Dr. Seuss Apps On Sale for 99 Cents

Mar 2

Posted by Alan in Apple iPhone | No Comments

Today (March 2) is the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, and in celebration, all 6 Dr. Seuss apps in the iTunes App Store (interactive books, camera apps, and a game) are on sale for $0.99. The books in particular come highly recommended, as they all average 4.5 star star ratings in the App Store. If you’ve got kids and are buying an iPad, the books would be something great to share with them.

The available 99-cent Dr. Seuss apps are:

Does the iPhone Have a Maximum MMS File Size Limit?

Feb 27

Posted by Alan in Apple iPhone, iPhone Tips, iPhone Troubleshooting | No Comments

The maximum file size for a MMS message has nothing to do with the iPhone but rather is dependent on the wireless carrier. For AT&T Wireless in the US, the largest MMS size you can send is 600KB. This is equal to about 60 seconds of video recorded on the iPhone.

Will the iPad Keyboard Work With the iPhone?

Jan 27

Posted by Alan in Apple iPhone, iPad, iPhone Keyboard | 1 Comment

Along with the introduction of the iPad, Apple announced a special hardware keyboard and dock accessory that essentially turns the iPad into a netbook. The iPad keyboard comes with a 30-pin connector, the same as on the iPhone. So in theory, it could work with the iPhone. But the real question is, will Apple allow it? We’ll find out for sure in 60 days, but we’ll be watching Apple’s site for official specs on the keyboard.

Regardless of whether you’re buying an iPad, the keyboard could come in handy for iPhone users for, say, manually entering a lot of contacts into the iPhone or typing up a shopping list before heading to the grocery. The iPhone is still a much more mobile device than the iPad. For me, the iPhone is the only device that goes everywhere I do, and it’d be nice to hook it up to a keyboard now and again.

Would You Buy and Use the iPad Keyboard With the iPhone?

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Apple Releases iPad (Images and Technical Specifications)

Jan 27

Posted by Alan in Apple iPhone, News, iPad | 3 Comments

Pricing

WiFi Only Version

  • $499 16GB
  • $599 32GB
  • $699 64GB

Wi-Fi + 3G

  • $629 16GB
  • $729 32GB
  • $829 64GB

Size and Weight

  • Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
  • Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
  • Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
  • Weight: 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model; 1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

Battery and Power

  • Built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
  • Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
  • Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

Display

  • 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
  • 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
  • Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
  • Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Memory

  • 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive

Processor

  • 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

Buttons

Sensors

  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light sensor

Wireless and Cellular

Wi-Fi model

  • Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
  • Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Wi-Fi + 3G model

  • UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
  • GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz)
  • Data only
  • Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
  • Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Input and Output

  • Dock connector
  • 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
  • Built-in speakers
  • Microphone
  • SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)

Audio Playback

  • Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
  • Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
  • User-configurable maximum volume limit

TV and Video

  • Support for 1024 x 768 with Dock Connector to VGA adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Composite A/V Cable, 576i and 480i with Apple Composite A/V Cable
  • H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file form

Comes With (In the Box)

  • Pad
  • Dock connector to USB cable
  • 10W Power Adapter
  • Documentation

Languages

  • Language support for English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian
  • Keyboard support for English (US) English (UK), French (France, Canada), German, Japanese (QWERTY), Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian
  • Dictionary support for English (US), English (UK), French, French (Canadian), French (Swiss), German, Japanese, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin), Russian

Accessibility

  • Support for playback of closed-captioned content
  • VoiceOver screen reader
  • Full-screen zoom magnification
  • White on black
  • Mono audio

AT&T Drops Unlimited Voice Plan Prices, iPhone Users Can Save $30

Jan 15

Posted by Alan in AT&T Wireless, Apple iPhone, Data Plans, News, Voice Plans | No Comments

iPhone owners who pay $99 a month for an AT&T Wireless unlimited voice plan will soon be able to reduce the cost by $30.

AT&T Wireless announced today that, starting next week, their unlimited voice plan for all smartphones will be lowered by $30 to $69 a month. On Monday, all iPhone users can switch to the lower monthly cost regardless of how much time is left on their 2-year contract.

Even bigger savings are in store for iPhone users on Family plans. According to AT&T, a 2-iPhone Family plan with unlimited voice and unlimited data will now cost $179.99 per month. Previously, an unlimited voice Family Plan cost $199.99 with $30 unlimited data for each iPhone. With that pricing, a 2-iPhone Family plan was $259.97 a month with data. Now, $179.99, a savings of $80.

The price move was made in concert with a similar announcement by Verizon Wireless, who is also offering a $69.99 unlimited voice plan.

From AT&T’s Press Release:

All smartphone customers, including iPhone customers, may now buy unlimited voice and data for $99.99. For smartphone customers with Family Talk plans (prices assume 2 smartphones), unlimited voice and data is now available for $179.99. Texting plans remain unchanged at $20 for unlimited plans for individuals, $30 for Family Talk Plans.

The new pricing could be seen as a strategic move by the carriers to gain more smartphone customers through lowering the overall price barrier. Even with the new lower prices, the monthly cost of owning a smartphone is still much higher than that of “dumb phones.” More smartphones could mean higher revenue stream. The new pricing should entice some smartphone owners to upgrade to the now only slightly more expensive unlimited voice plans.

Art of the iPhone Is Hiring. Looking for Freelance Writers & a Podcast Host

Dec 31

Posted by Alan in Apple iPhone | No Comments

iPhone Hiring

Want to get paid to write or talk about the iPhone? Have a good idea for an article? We are looking for freelance writers and a host for a podcast about the iPhone.

If interested in the writing position, send a brief resume and two writing samples to artoftheiphone@gmail.com.

For the podcast position, please send a brief resume and explain why you are qualified to host a podcast. An mp3 of your best radio voice is a plus.

Requirements for writing position:

  • Must own iPhone.
  • Must be familiar with the basics of blogging (hyperlinking, images, etc).
  • Familiarity with Wordpress a plus.
  • Willing to write regularly on a range of iPhone topics (How To’s, app reviews, news, opinion, etc).