Category Archives: Apple

The Big Recap — What Apple Announced, and What They Hinted At

Posted on by

The Big Recap — What Apple Announced, and What They Hinted At is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

The event of the day started out with Steve Jobs introducing his “partner in crime,” Steve Wozniak, who was in the audience. After a quick welcome, Steve Jobs started with a recap of new Apple Store retail locations including Paris, China, and London. The London store marked the 300th Apple Store and they are now in 10 countries. The foot traffic volume is amazing. Apple now sees on some days over a million total visitors combined coming through their stores. Another interesting stat — over 50% of Macs sold in Apple Stores are still to new Mac users, aka Switchers. A stat that has amazingly held for years.

120 million potential Angry Birds players.
Next up for the day is a recap on how iOS is doing. Steve took pride in noting that there are over 230,000 new iOS activations per day. This does not include upgrades. This goes well over and above the Google quoted 160,000 Android devices activated every day. That brings us up to a total of over 120,000,000 active iOS devices. That’s a staggering number for a new platform that is not even 4 years old.

How about some stats on apps? There have been over 6.5 billion apps downloaded so far. That’s over 200 downloaded each and every second. Also quoted was that the App Store recently surpassed 250,000 applications available, which is a number we’ve been tracking over at 148Apps.biz App Store Metrics page.

Continue reading for the rest of the info on the days events — and way too many pictures.

iOS 4.1 is coming next week. Prepare Yourself!
Chris Hall posted a great write up on iOS 4.1 features earlier today. In there you’ll find most of the things that we know about the new iOS incremental update. Steve was clear that OS 4.1 fixes a couple nagging bugs under iOS 4, including the nagging proximity sensor bug that plagues some iPhone 4 users. In addition, the performance issues for iPhone 3G users using iOS 4 are apparently fixed.

One new feature that we didn’t know about was revealed — HDR photos. HDR stands for high dynamic range and it’s a method for combining multiple photos to add details back to one image that may be over or under exposed on another. This is done by rapidly taking multiple photos and intelligently mashing them together into one photo to make the best possible photo. iOS 4.1 does this by taking 3 pictures, one over exposed, one under exposed, and a properly exposed image. It then mashes the three together to form the HDR image.

In iOS 4.1, there will be an extra switch on the camera screen that allows you to toggle this feature on and off. When active, the best exposure is saved along with the combined HDR photo (though this can be turned off in settings). In testing, this happens fairly quickly, though it’s not as fast as just rapidly taking photos with the setting set to “off.”

Game Center – one social gaming network to rule (some of) them all
Game Center is Apple’s answer to the social gaming network glut on iOS. While not as feature rich as some of the others, it’s a great start and will be built in to iOS 4.1. It’s a basis for supporting multiplayer games and we really do need more of those on the iOS platform. Expect additional features to be added over time to Game Center.

For this release though, there are a couple downsides to Game Center. For one, you can only add friends by entering their email addresses manually. Why a contacts scan can’t be done, I don’t know. A simple Facebook and Twitter check would be nice, too. For another, it will take a while for most games to support Game Center. Hopefully just a few months, but don’t log on the first day and expect to see all of your games there, ready to go.

Demo Time
Usually at these events, Apple brings in a few third party developers to demo their games or other apps on iOS. This time we got just 1 demo from Epic Games, showing off a demo of a game in development called Project Sword. This amazing 3D Game utilizes the Unreal Engine to produce some pretty sweet looking realtime 3D worlds. This will be released for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch this holiday season. You can try out a universal demo right now called Citadel. Be sure to look for it in the App Store.

What? 4.2 Already? We don’t even have 4.1 yet!
4.2 will be the release that catches the iPad up to the iPhone version of the iOS. The two main new features beyond the 4.1 stuff like multitasking and folders we will see are printing from apps with Print Center and AirPlay, the new AirTunes iteration. iOS 4.2 will release for all iOS devices (iPad, iPhones, and iPod Touch) in November. A beta for developers is expected soon.

iPods get their yearly refresh – where is the iPod Classic?
The shuffle gets updated and gets its buttons back. The Nano loses it’s buttons and camera, but sheds 50% of it’s size and gets a touch screen. And the iPod touch was updated as expected.

Steve made a point of noting that there are new models for every iPod line. And then failed to mention the iPod Classic. To me, this means that the classic is dead. If you really like the Classic, you might want to grab a backup now.

The update to the Nano was most dramatic. It is now a tiny little touch screen device. The Nano with the new touch screen looks as though its using iOS – Apple hasn’t admited to that – at least not yet. The small square screen would make an interesting place for apps. The 192×192 screen, no accelerometer, no GPS, and no networking would limit the usability, but some interesting things could be done.

When demoing the Nano, it was connected to a video system, much as all iOS devices are during the demo, via the dock connector. To me, that says it must be running iOS. If so, can a jailbreak be far behind? My head is spinning with the possibilities. It will make a fun toy at just $149.

The iPod Touch gets serious
The iPod Touch has become the most popular iPod by sales. As expected, the iPod Touch also got an update, this time with some of the best features from the iPhone 4. In addition, it’s even thinner than the previous version, shedding some of it’s modest thickness.

In addition to being the biggest selling iPod, the Touch has become the number 1 portable gaming device. Outselling Nintendo and Sony combined with just over 50% of the market share. Apple announced that over 1.5 billion games and entertainment apps have been downloaded to iPod Touch devices. This update brings it up to date with the iPhone 4 in the areas that matter.

The 4th generation iPod Touch now has the amazing Retina Display, the Apple A4 chip, the gyroscope, and front and back cameras. In addition, Facetime is available and it will work with iPhones. It should be noted that the rear-facing, HD-recording camera doesn’t seem to have the same fantastic specs as the one in the iPhone. As a matter of fact, it’s less than a 1 megapixel camera. Yeah, I don’t understand that one. Looks like the iPod Touch got the rejected camera from the Nano.

The updated iPod Touch will be available next week for $229 for an 8GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB.

iTunes gets social – did you hear a Ping?
Originally I was very pessimistic about this one. Apple, releasing a social network? Do we really need another social network? Then I started to think about it a little more. I have gotten to the point that I don’t want to check Facebook — I don’t want another Frontierville update. Another invite to join some odd group. And I really don’t care about 95% of the stuff I see on Facebook. Could Ping be the answer?

Work with me for a moment. Right now, Ping only supports music. But what if they expanded that? It would be easy to do. What if in addition to following musicians, you could follow movie directors, app developers, TV actors? It then becomes a full entertainment hub. Expand it beyond just music, and you might have something — without all of the annoying group invites.

It could, once fully built out, become a great music, book, app, movie, tv, entertainment discovery engine. It could rock. But it has to be built out. That will, hopefully come with time.

One more thing hobby.
Apple TV lives, and it’s 1/4th the size it was. That’s mainly because it has transformed into a streaming device. In what must be the precursor to a full iTunes streaming service, you don’t purchase content for the device, you rent it.

The actual functions of this model of Apple TV haven’t changed much from the previous model. The one big new content edition is the ability to stream Netflix — which is a pretty good feature. The downside is that no app functionality was included, but maybe it’s still there; we are yet to hear full details. There are a couple of possibilities, however.

One of the new features for iTunes introduced was AirPlay. This is more than what Steve highlighted, but it kind of works like AirTunes, only expanded out to more devices. You’ll be able to stream music from iTunes to speaker docs, stereo systems, etc. Just like you can do today with AirPort Express. In addition to iTunes to devices, you’ll be able to stream from your iOS device to your Apple TV. It works like this: start watching a video on you iPad, press the AirPlay button and that movie starts streaming on your Apple TV. Boom, indeed.

So what if this function were opened to other apps in iOS 4.2? What if, for example, you could be watching a video in Hulu+ and click the AirPlay button to view that movie on your TV. That gets us a lot closer to the idea I had in my head for Apple TV with the iPhone used as a remote. It’s just a little more iPhone focused. We won’t really know the full capabilities until the device is released and the hackers have a chance to get in there and see what the device is capable of.

Want to see the full keynote yourself and over analyze every word like I have? You can grab the Apple keynote right here. Overall, we think there were a lot of interesting devices and concepts introduced to us today at the keynote, many of which are only the beginning of a whole lot of potential.

[ The Big Recap — What Apple Announced, and What They Hinted At is a post from 148Apps ]


Interview: Epic’s Capps On Bringing Hardcore Flavor To iOS

Posted on by

Interview: Epic’s Capps On Bringing Hardcore Flavor To iOS is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Epic Games is best known as the hardcore developer behind games like Unreal Tournament and Gears of War, but in formally moving its popular Unreal Engine 3 to Apple’s iOS devices, the studio hopes to bring hardcore flavor to iPhones, iPads and iPods.

The developer on Wednesday was front and center at Apple’s latest media event, showing off a sharp-looking UE3 demo dubbed Epic Citadel (available free) on an iPhone. Also on hand was Epic subsidiary and Shadow Complex developer Chair Entertainment, which revealed Project Sword, an iOS action adventure RPG that uses UE3.

The projects could be the beginning of a significant change at Epic. Here, studio president Mike Capps talks about how porting large games to an Apple iOS device can be done, gives details on licensing plans, and why “It would not be smart for us to try to get in and compete with the Bejeweleds and Angry Birds of the world on the iPhone.”

You put the Citadel Demo out now, and it represents a full game that’s coming down the road for you guys?

Yeah, and this is basically the environment, the castle space and everything which you saw there, it’s basically a “no, this isn’t fake, this really is real, it really does look this good” kind of thing, because the game won’t be out until later this season.

So Chair is developing the game?

Exactly. They’re the primary developers on the game side, and then Epic of course we’re working a lot on the tech with the Unreal Engine team.

Does Unreal Engine 3 now, for external developers, have iOS tools in it?

Well, we’ve got them internally, and we’re just starting to work with a few guys now, but yeah, absolutely, we’ll be putting them out to all of our Unreal Engine developers.

Do you use all of the exact same back-end tools, like Kismet and everything?

Yes. Everything’s supported. The difference of course is that it’s not quite as powerful a graphics processor as on the Xbox 360, so you’ll probably do some custom content work, but you’re using the same tool chain of UnrealEd and Kismet and the same physics tools and everything.

The Citadel demo is for 3GS and up. Is that also the specs for the engine, or is that up to developers?

That’s the current plan, because of the various shaders and things we have support for, that’s what we need a 3GS for.

Is there anything in the tool chain about scaling down products that are developed on console platforms, or is that something that people are going to have to do manually?

I think it’s going to depend on the title. I mean, if you’re really pushing the PS3 to the limits, then you’re going to need to do some rework.

But we’ve got some automated tools to help customize how draw calls are met for iPhone, but I think it’s probably going to be a mix of the two. Some people’s games are going to work just fine, and other games you’re going to need to do some custom work.

Obviously, art, particularly seems like it would be an issue. I mean, the character models for Gears of War, specifically, seem like they’d be very hard to translate.

It actually turns out that we get really high-resolution textures, which is the first thing you’d think about how “we’re going to have to dumb that down.” But you don’t, because you’ve got so much memory on an iPhone.

You’ve got 16 gigs of flash memory, which is way better, faster memory than what most people have generally on a home PC. So that stuff works really well. It’s the big environments that get really complicated on the rendering tools for iPhone. But yeah, we’ve got some tricks for it.

Do you see this as becoming a big area for the use of your engine? Do you see it becoming a big new space?

I do. I mean, with the expansion of the Unreal Development Kit, we’ve got hundreds of thousands of folks who are messing around with the tools doing smaller projects. So we’re not really just about giant triple-A console games anymore. Those are the ones — Mass Effect gets press, but there are lots of small hobby groups or casual gamers using Unreal Engine.

I think it’s perfect for them. It’s what they’ve been missing. It doesn’t take a whole lot of leaps of faith to say, “Right now, I can display from my iPad to my Apple TV on a big screen TV.” How far away are we from “that’s my game console, and it’s displaying wirelessly to my television set? It’s not far away.”

Yeah, I think that’s an obvious question for our space, when I was watching the Apple TV demo [on stage]. Is there going to be any game application? So far not, but like you say, it’s easy to imagine.

I wish I could say we knew, but this one was a surprise to us, too. It’s what we wanted to see happen, so I can’t wait to throw our engineers at it and see if we can get the latency we need to be able to play a game interactively over that wireless link to the Apple TV. I sure hope so.

Have you guys done a lot of messing around with Game Center so far?

Oh, yes. Absolutely. That was a big part of our demo today.

What do you think about it?

Well it’s enabling tech, right? I don’t have to worry about friends lists, I don’t have to worry about “How do I make achievements work, and how do I share them between titles?” I don’t have to worry about the interface. Which, as a developer, is huge, right? That’s something Xbox Live gave us. You don’t need to skin it. It’s good, it’s there, and it’s done, and you don’t have to do that part of the job.

And for us, that’s what Game Center does. It solves all of those problems. Basically, they got the benefit of seeing what everyone else did with the social networking space on game consoles, and they took all the best ideas and re-implemented them better, so I’m very happy with it.

How closely have you been working with Apple on getting Unreal Engine into the device?

We’ve been working with Apple for years, back-and-forth, on “How can we do something together?” But the hardware just wasn’t there for what we were doing with DirectX9-based graphics, that sort of thing. So, it’s only recently, since the 3GS, that we really started to take it seriously. It kind of surprised us how fast the iPhone tech moved, really, so when we saw what it could do, we’ve been moving ever since.

Obviously [Project Sword] is a very “Epic looking” game. It’s got a characteristic Epic feel.

It’s a role playing game, right?

I don’t know what it is.

It’s a “role playing action adventure,” I think is the phrase we used, so it’s a little different than our normal shooter-chainsaw game.

That’s true, but it’s definitely a high-power, high-3D kind of experience.

Yeah. It’s a game for guys. Or folks who enjoy it.

People who like Xbox.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it’s a core gamer game, right?

Do you see that as a new direction of this market?

I hope so. It would not be smart for us to try to get in and compete with the Bejeweleds and Angry Birds of the world on the iPhone. They’re doing a great job. For me it’s about, can we take the gaming experiences — not just Gears, but like Shadow Complex that we’ve done on other platforms, and bring that kind of quality to the mobile devices, and right now I feel like we can.

And you feel like, right now, the mobile devices have caught up with what you need to do that.

Absolutely. We can make a really solid, fun experience. The one thing we’re still working out is that your fingers are in the way of our beautiful game all the time. So if we can figure out a way to do mental interfaces, then we’ll be happy.

Have you guys thought of bringing Unreal Engine to 3DS or other competing platforms?

Well, I guess the right way to say it is that I’m at an Apple press event, so right now, all I’m thinking about is Apple.

Yeah, I know. And I guess the same would go for Android, and stuff like that as well, right?

Yeah, I mean, of course we pay attention to where the other tech is going and we have support for Tegra-based devices, and a lot of Androids are Tegra-based. But I just shook hands with Steve Jobs, so right now, I’m pretty high on Apple! (laughs)

Are you going to soft roll out the iOS tools into Unreal Engine?

That’s the plan. We’ve got a few of our licensees using it now, who’ve been testing it with us. So we’ll roll it out to existing licensees and then start opening up. I think [Epic VP] Mark Rein has a big plan for how they’re going to roll it out and make sure everybody’s using it.

Have you gotten a lot of demand and stuff from people you’ve talked to? Some of the publishers that have worked with it?

Oh, really, really, absolutely, yeah. It kind of surprised us honestly, that we’d be talking to one of the big-tier publishers, I don’t need to say who, and they’re porting games and they’re making tens of millions of dollars making fantastic games on iPhone. We had no idea that business was growing so fast, and they were so excited to be taking existing IPs built on our engine over to the mobile space, so we were like, “Gosh, we really need to get on this right away.” That’s really how we’re looking at it.

This is really a Mark [Rein] question, but I’ll ask you since he’s not here at the moment. For people who are interested in doing something smaller, more phone-oriented games launching at a 99 cent price, are you going to have licensing plans?

I think generally we’re going to be in the same range as the UDK, for folks who are just doing mobile — where, we don’t even want to know about until you start making money, because I don’t need 2,000 business relationships where I make 38 cents. It’s not worth it. But once folks get successful, we take a percentage off of that.

Because the UDK is targeted to a certain audience. I had a feeling this would be like that.

Yeah, free up front. If I could convince the Mortal Kombat guys to give me no money up front and 20 percent on the back-end, I’d do it, right? So that’s an absolutely fine deal. I think it’ll probably be royalty-based, so that it makes it easier for folks to get in and start using the tools and not worry about some big sticker price.


Apple Details Fourth-Generation iPod Touch

Posted on by

Apple Details Fourth-Generation iPod Touch is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Apple has announced the release of an improved generation of its gaming-focused iPod Touch hardware, now available for pre-order and shipping next week in the United States.

The fourth-generation iPod Touch hardware includes many features previously introduced with this year’s iPhone 4. New iPod Touch devices will include a pixel density-boosting Retina Display, an A4 processor that improves performance for graphics-intensive games, and a rotation-sensing three-axis gyroscope supported by titles like Gameloft’s N.O.V.A. and ngmoco’s Eliminate GunRange.

Other hardware additions include a built-in-microphone, a front-facing camera for Apple’s FaceTime phone application, and a rear camera capable of capturing high-definition 720p video.

Revamped iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle hardware will launch alongside the new iPod Touch next week. New iPod Nano devices will feature a multi-touch screen, while iPod Shuffle hardware now includes navigation buttons and support for playlists and VoiceOver.


Keynote Review

Posted on by

Keynote Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: Apple Inc.
Price: $9.99
Version: 1.1

Design Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Features Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Integration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Usability Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

The iWork suite, host to Pages and Numbers, includes Keynote – Apple’s premium presentation software built to offer an alternative to Microsoft’s PowerPoint. And now that it’s available for iPad, presentations can be created and viewed straight from your latest device.

In Keynote, Apple followed the same design ethic found in their other iWork for iPad suite of applications, with a familiar library of presentations visible when opening the application. Tapping the plus icon at the bottom centre is where you get started (and can duplicate a presentation just in case you’re prone to, like me, break things irreversibly). Twelve templates are there to choose from when starting a presentation, with a myriad of customization options available – more on this shortly. Interestingly, unlike Pages and Numbers, Keynote only works in landscape mode.

Keynote has a smart design to it. A fixed slides column along the left hand side gives you a (very) small preview of what each slide looks like, along with the ability to create new slides. There are eight templates: picture and title, title and subtitle, title and bullet points, title, bullet points and picture, title and blank space, picture, bullet points and, finally, a blank option. Everything can be moved and resized and rejigged, meaning it’s not a case of “which slide do I settle with?” but “which one looks the most like the one I’m after?” With a touch of customization, things will look just the way you want them to.

The editing process is seamless. Apple offers a Getting Started presentation with 20 slides in it, explaining how to get the most out of Keynote as well as showing off the transition effects available. There are four customization buttons along the top that, once mastered, will make presentations appear seamless and professional. The first is the all-familiar information “i,” which iWork and iLife users will know changes depending on what you’ve selected. If it’s text, options to choose the font, alignment and color exist; whereas if it’s a chart you get a myriad of charting settings. Speaking of charts, Apple includes a built in mini-Numbers application into Keynote, with a basic spreadsheet to allow you to create charts on-the-go. The interface is very simple: one spreadsheet and one keypad only.

The picture icon to the right of the informational “i” is where the iPad talks to the Photos application to retrieve saved photo albums and pictures as well as the ability to insert tables, charts and a variety of shapes. Again, each of these contain a large number of different color schemes and fully customizable layouts. To the right of that is the ever-popular effects button, allowing you to jazz up your presentation. The process is relatively simple: tap a slide, choose the effect, done. Apple has kindly included a transition time (up to 5 seconds) and delay time (up to 10 seconds) setting, as well as the ability to specify where the transition effect enters the screen from. In addition, transitions aren’t just limited to tapping on the screen, with Apple having included an “After Previous Transition” option to satisfy those who wish to leave the iPad to do all the work. For reference, there are 20 different transition types and also a “Magic Move” feature, enabling objects from one slide to move onto the next slide in line. Another neat touch.

The Tools section reveals a search function, which also includes a find and replace feature. Guide options are at your fingertips to ensure that objects are aligned properly, and slide numbers can be added to each slide too. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way for viewers to see how many slides there are actually are; the slide counter is merely a number “x” rather than “x/y,” y being the total number of slides. Lastly, a spell check is there which, thankfully, can be turned off. There’s nothing more annoying than a squiggly line underneath every proper name, right?

That’s all there is to the actual presentation side of Keynote. I am impressed with how easy it is to use, especially given the depth of some of the settings and options. Like other Apple applications, you seem to just know automatically where everything is. Even if you manage to screw things up, undo and redo facilities exist. What makes Keynote so special is that it’s just so usable.

Of course, sharing is a critical feature that deserves attention also. Apple has provided a variety of ways in which presentations can be imported, exported and published. You can send a document via Mail, share it via Apple’s premier iWork.com service, and also export presentations ready for iTunes File Sharing whenever you plug your iPad in to your computer. This final method provides the ability to save the document in Keynote format (.keynote) and PDF (.pdf) Presentations can also be imported through iTunes File Sharing and through the iPad’s Mail application.

Apple has struck the right chords with Keynote, just as with the other iWork applications for the iPad. Its presentation is chic yet functional, and the application remains snappy to use even while creating more image-intensive slides and transitions. It’s hard to tell where it falls short, because it offers so much. The only thing that I can think of is the presentation’s resolution – unlike the Mac version of Keynote, you can’t specify what resolution the presentation will be built in. Nonetheless, Keynote is absolutely worth the money if you make use out of it. It might not have all the themes and options that the Mac version has, which can make importing some presentations a not-very-nice experience, but for quick creation and a decent amount of editing, Keynote for iPad does exactly what it should do. And it does it seamlessly.

[ Keynote Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Numbers Review

Posted on by

Numbers Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: Apple Inc.
Price: $9.99
Version: 1.1

Design Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Features Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Integration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Usability Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

The spreadsheet application of the iWork Suite, known as Numbers, is Apple’s take on Microsoft’s Excel. Spreadsheet users will be relieved to hear that Apple’s take on the application is identical in terms of function to Excel, it only differs in form. For instance, the cell formulae like =SUM and =AVG are still the same in Numbers, as are all other formulae, and the spreadsheet even looks the same (but let’s be honest – how could it look much different), but Apple’s design leaves Microsoft Excel looking like a tool from the past. And now that Numbers is on the iPad, well, things just changed entirely. Again.

As with Pages, Apple offers fifteen preset templates (including a blank sheet, of course) in Numbers for iPad. Although the list is not as expansive as Numbers for Mac, the ability to customize each sheet in detail means that if you’re ever stuck for choice and know what you want, you can choose the sheet that looks the least dissimilar to your wants and edit it accordingly. Getting started with Numbers is an easy process, even if you’re new to spreadsheets. Apple includes a ten-point spreadsheet example to get you started.

Users of Apple’s iLife and iWork suite for Mac will be familiar with the “i” information tool that Numbers makes so much use out of. The “i” button is dynamic, meanings its function changes depending on what you’ve selected. If its a chart, the “i” provides a number of different colour schemes and options like the ability to include a title, whether or not valued labels should be inside or outside of the chart and an ability to turn the legend on and off. If you click in a cell, the “i” provides a number of options regarding cells (text and fill colour, alignment etc), formatting in the form of cell type (currency, percentage, number, checkbox and so on), and headers and tables settings. The list continues with every new type of object you tap. Numbers will recognize what is selected and offer a specific set of settings accordingly. The other buttons are identical to that of Apple’s Pages:

The picture icon to the right of information offers the ability to insert all of these features: pictures in the iPad’s Photo Albums; tables and charts (of which there are six different styled versions to choose from, all of which are customizable) and a number of shapes. Thankfully, the much-needed option to insert a text-box can be found in the ‘Shapes’ section also.

Finally, a ‘Tools’ icon is also to be found, providing the ability to … search the document and turn on/off edge guides and spelling check. Noting edge guides in particular, this feature automatically aligns text and images against other parts of the document, to create a seamless and professional-looking piece of work. It works well. Saving the most important feature to last comes in the form of undo and redo facilities, which are again essential tools that Apple have integrated well. One tap to undo, tap and hold to redo.

Numbers is beautifully easy to use for both beginner and professional, with no loss of customization along the way. The application automatically detects what type of cell format your data is related to. For example, by entering £20 Numbers will automatically format the cell to currency, providing only two decimals after, to create £20.00.

The list of functions is generous and – as any good spreadsheet user knows – almost limitless once you begin to customize functions to your own preference. Apple includes a preset of ten function categories to get you started, with the most popular (and some less well known) functions already there. The categories are: Date and Time, Duration, Engineering, Financial, Logical and Information, Numeric, Reference, Statistical, Text and Trigonometric.

For those not familiar with functions, think of a spreadsheet as one large, unconventional calculator. If you enter in a list of numbers, and in a new cell type =SUM(x), with x being all of the cells you selected, it calculates the sum total of those cells. =AVG finds the average and so on. In part, this is why I find the preset templates so alluring, as these spreadsheets are already formatted accordingly, and linked to graphs already designed and ready to go. Apple’s templates are easy to understand and even easier to customize.

Noteworthy is the new keyboard that Apple has designed exclusively for Numbers. A number of calculator functions like addition, subtraction, brackets and division are found on the left hand side; a numpad in the middle; and a number of “hot buttons” on the right hand side. These buttons include: the list of aforementioned function categories, entering text, adding the date, and dictating whether a cell is marked “true” or “false” if necessary. In addition, when entering a stream of data, Apple provides two return keys: one to go across to the next cell and one to go down to the next. Given the iPad’s touch screen interface this is a welcome addition, providing a quick and easy way to navigate exactly to the cell you wish to edit.

Apple provides a number of options in which to share spreadsheets to and from the iPad. iTunes File Sharing allows spreadsheets to be locally transferred back and forth between the iPad and your computer (in .numbers and .pdf format). In addition, Apple’s new iWork.com service allows spreadsheets to be published online, although strangely there is no apparent way to retrieve spreadsheets from the web onto your iPad, even via iWork. Spreadsheets can be both sent by and opened through the iPad’s Mail application.

The only real flaw that I found throughout using Numbers is not a fault of Numbers itself, but rather the iPad’s screen. Although it is easier to move and re-organize documents with the iPad’s touch display, I did find it more difficult for creation and inputting. Of course, with the ability to pair a wireless keyboard the iPad, this problem can be overcome.

In conclusion, Numbers is everything that it should be, and Apple has designed it in a way that somehow keeps all of the features there, but makes it so much easier to use than its rivals. It feels like a real Apple application, and that is very refreshing indeed.

[ Numbers Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Pages Review

Posted on by

Pages Review is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Developer: Apple Inc.
Price: $9.99
Version: 1.1

Design Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Features Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Integration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Usability Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 4.88 out of 5 stars

Contrary to popular belief, the iPad is not just an output device. Yes, it provides games and entertainment and music and browsing. Yes, it is a book reader. But with the right applications, the iPad is transformed into an input device: one that allows for creation. Pages for iPad is one of these applications. My expectations were high, especially seeing as I am long time user of the iWork suite for Mac. My expectations were exceeded.

When opening Pages, you are greeted with a personal directory of documents. To get started, tap the plus icon at the bottom centre of the screen, where a list of built-for-iPad templates are provided. There are sixteen all-in-all, less than the Mac equivalent but more than enough for even the most customizable of users. If you use Pages for Mac, you’ll be able to add all your documents onto the iPad through iTunes’ File Sharing feature.

Once you’re in a document, the power of Pages is revealed. Up top you’ll find a woodgrain-themed menu bar offering a significant number of features to advance your work. The first icon – information – is denoted by the familiar “i” symbol featured across the iWork suite. And, like its Mac counterpart, the “i” changes depending on what you have selected. If it is text, the “i” provides the ability to style it in a number of pre-defined ways: you can transform text into a list and adjust the layout in the form of alignment, number of columns and size of line-spacing. If selected on a table, the “i” the provides options to choose the style of the table in a number of intricate ways including which lines to show and whether colour should be applied to alternate rows, as well as more basic features like what the text font and size should be. Equally, the list goes on for charting, shapes and images.

The picture icon to the right of information offers the ability to insert all of these features: pictures in the iPad’s Photo Albums, tables and charts (of which there are six different styled versions to choose from, all of which are customizable), and a number of shapes. Thankfully, the much-used option to insert a text-box can be found in the ‘Shapes’ section also.

Finally, a ‘Tools’ icon is also to be found, providing the ability to edit the document’s setup (header, footer etc), search the document, and turn on/off edge guides and spelling check. Noting edge guides in particular, this feature automatically aligns text and images against other parts of the document, to create a seamless and professional-looking piece of work. It works well. Saving the most important feature to last comes in the form of undo and redo facilities, which are again essential tools that Apple have integrated well. One tap to undo, tap and hold to redo.

Now to talk about actually using Pages for creating documents. The impressive array of features is only as good as Apple’s integration and ease of use is! As a personal test, I began using Pages without reading the Getting Started tutorial, and yet I knew where everything was within just a few taps. Apple has an uncanny way of thinking, a method that isn’t outside of the box but rather what the box should be in the first place. Not once was I left thinking “why is that there?” or “this would be better over there.” Instead, my thoughts were “well this feature must be here” and almost always it was. The pre-written templates are a big advantage, even for basic document creation, as only a little bit of rework and customizing is needed to suit a wide variety of document styles and personal tastes.

Even when it came to less common features like integrating pictures and charts and tables to my documents, it was always just a few taps away from what I wanted it to look like. Finger gestures, like two-fingers to rotate, tap and hold to move and one finger to bring up a list of options, became second nature instantly, and the provided edge guides coupled with x and y-axis positioning ensure that everything is accurately placed.

Of course, sharing is a critical feature that deserves attention also. Apple have provided a generous variety of ways in which documents can be imported, exported and published. You can send a document via Mail, share it via Apple’s premier iWork.com service, and also export the document ready for iTunes File Sharing whenever you plug your iPad in to your computer. This final method provides the ability to save the document in Pages format (.pages), PDF (.pdf) and Microsoft Word (.doc). Documents also be imported through iTunes File Sharing and through the iPad’s Mail application.

Pages does fall short in some areas. Paper size can only be A4 or US Letter size, meaning larger documents like A3 cannot be created natively. In addition, the lack of an ability to add new words to the Dictionary directly through Pages becomes frustrating when inserting names of people or places: a squiggly red line constantly reminds you that the word you’ve entered does not actually exist. Furthermore, despite the iPad’s powerful A4 processor, Pages remained concerningly slow on image-heavy documents. Whenever I began to enter text on a document with eight images on a single page (see screenshots) the text input was surprisingly sluggish. Text styles can’t be edited either.

Unfortunately, importing documents brought about the most concerning problem of Pages. Even in Apple .pages format imports, frequent errors came up with regards to margin sizes and formatting, sometimes skewing documents up to the point of unreadability. Hopefully future fixes will address these issues in general and this issue in specific. Finally, documents can’t be saved as a template for future documents.

Despite these flaws, Pages has transformed the iPad to the point of redefining it. No longer is it only an output device for pleasure, but an input device for creation as well. Even with its problems, Pages is impressive, succinct and very easy to use – even though it houses a number of intricate features and options. For document creators, to say it is worth $9.99 is an understatement.

[ Pages Review is a post from 148Apps ]


Apple Oddsmaker: What Does Apple Have Planned For Us Next Week?

Posted on by

Apple Oddsmaker: What Does Apple Have Planned For Us Next Week? is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

Apple regularly schedules a September event to unveil new iPods and other odds and ends in time for the holiday buying season. I think we can assume this year will be more of the same. What will we see and what won’t we see? I’m going to try to put some odds to the various rumors and possible announcements. Note that these are all just my opinion as a guy that watches what Apple does with a rather critical and overly obsessive eye.

New iPod Touch – odds: even money
It’s almost guaranteed we’ll see a new iPod Touch introduced. This, like the iPhone announcement in June, has become a regular event. The question is what are the features we’ll see? I’m hoping we will, as in past years, see feature plurality with the current generation iPhone. So we’ll hopefully see the Retina Display (odds: 2-1), front facing camera with Facetime capability (odds: 3-1), rear camera (odds: 5-1). I’m also wondering if we’ll see the storage capacity increased to 64GB (odds: 4-1). And will we see other iPod lines retired like the iPod Classic, perhaps (odds: 8-1)?

iOS 4.1 Officially Announced – odds: even
This is also a given. iOS 4.1 has been in beta for 9+ weeks now and it’s been over 3 weeks since the last beta release. Betas usually come out every 2 weeks. So I think we can guess that it’s done and ready to release. We can expect the release either next week on 9/1 or very shortly after. What features will it have? A fix for the proximity sensor (odds: even) and a Game Center release (odds: 3-1) are the best bets. There’s the possibility that the length of time since the last beta was due to Apple adding in a mystery feature or two (odds: 5-1), or maybe it has to do with….

iOS 4.1 on the iPad – odds: 8-1
While I can’t wait to get iOS 4 on the iPad, it won’t be for a couple more months. I’m hoping that we’ll at least get some details on iOS 4 for the iPad (odds: 4-1), but I won’t hold my breath for that. Features I’m hoping for include support for running iPhone 4 resolution apps (odds: 4-1) and dashboard / icon layout update that takes better advantage of the screen size (odds: 30-1).

Updated Apple TV / iTV – odds: 5-1
This is the big new announcement most are expecting and an update to the Apple TV has been a long time coming. But I think Apple still sees it as too small of a market. I could be way off base here, but I think it’s too early for this rumored update. Apple has had so many leak problems that we tend to know just about every detail of a new device before it’s launched. We haven’t seen anything about a new Apple TV other than a few persistent rumors. While this would be the perfect time to launch it, just before the holidays, I just think it’s too early. But, in case it will be announced, the rumored features are a $99 price tag (odds: 10-1), and iOS based system (odds: 3-2), and App Store support of some kind (odds: 3-2).

I really hope I’m wrong about the Apple TV update and it does launch with all of the above. I’m certainly looking forward to this when it does launch and my head is spinning with the possibilities for apps for the device.

TV Show Rentals – odds: 3-2
This is almost a given. Goes along with the movie rentals and just makes sense. Once we have this, and on a new Apple TV, who will need their cable / satellite anymore? Along with this we’ll likely see iTunes 10 released (odds: 3-2) as seems to happen with every major new iTunes-based service.

New 7″ iPad – odds: 10-1
I think it’s too early for new iPads. The current one is still nearly impossible to get. And I just don’t see how a 7″ version fits into the future plans for Apple. This only really makes sense in combination with an updated Apple TV. A 7″, slightly cheaper (~$350) iPad model would make a great interactive, touch controlled remote control for an Apple TV though.

Updated iPads – odds: 20-1
In my mind, Apple made just one mistake with the current iPads — too little memory. Running multitasking on the iPad will not be a pleasant experience. But, I’ll put the odds at 20-1 that we’ll see new ones right now. But if they are announced, will they have more memory, yes, of course (odds: even). Retina display on the 10″ model — not likely as the overall resolution would be too large (odds: 30-1). Front facing camera to join in on the FaceTime fun (odds: 3-1). But again, not at this event — probably January.

iTunes Cloud Streaming – odds: 8-1
We know that iTunes cloud streaming is coming. And it should be coming soon as Apple’s huge east coast data center is ready or almost so. But is it ready to announce? I don’t think so. I believe we’ll see a full announcement of lots of integrated cloud based services all at once and we’ll find that the updated Apple TV might be integral to that.

Oh yeah, and the non-iOS related stuff still exists too…

Updated iLife – odds: 2-1 it’s been 18 months, an update is due. Only thing that could be holding it back is previously mentioned large-scale cloud services announcement.

Macbook Air Update – odds: 8-1
Macbook Air Retirement – odds: 4-1
It’s time to update or retire it.

We’ll be covering the major points of the event live on our @148Apps Twitter account next Wednesday starting at 10AM Pacific. And we’ll undoubtedly have a recap for you afterward.

What do you think? Let’s say this is a race track and you have $100 to bet however you wanted on the above possible winners. Who would you pick and how would you put your money down? LEt us know in the comments below.

[ Apple Oddsmaker: What Does Apple Have Planned For Us Next Week? is a post from 148Apps ]


App Store Director Sells His Own Apps While Controlling Access for Others

Posted on by

App Store Director Sells His Own Apps While Controlling Access for Others is a post from: Best Iphone Apps Review Website

If you have been around the App Store lately, you’re likely to have heard that Apple enforces a strict, albeit inconsistent and subjective, no-offensive-material policy that includes what Apple deems to be pornographic or offensive. We’re not here to debate whether Apple has that right, but rather to talk about Apple’s main App Store Director, Phillip Shoemaker.

Now, imagine you’re a businessperson, trying to eke out a living providing a product or service to your customers. Now imagine if your product or service is regulated in some way, forcing you to do things the way the regulatory body insists you do them. Then imagine that your competitor is in charge of this regulatory body, and has a say over whether you may or may not sell a particular product. Are you upset, yet?

This is apparently what is happening over at the App Store, with Mr. Shoemaker. According to a Wired Gadget Lab post by Brian X. Chen yesterday, Mr. Shoemaker is the lead decision maker on the approval or rejection of apps in the app store. Mr. Shoemaker is also an app developer, having three apps published to the App Store after Mr. Shoemaker was hired at Apple. Huh? Does this seem like a conflict of interest to you?

App Store quality indeed:
‘Even has a Fart Threshold slider to simulate the accidentals!’

It only gets better, however. One of the three apps is iWiz, where you can “simulate the experience of urinating for a long time.” While apps that deal with bodily excretions not prohibited by Apple (Fart apps continue to abound), it hardly seems consistent with Mr. Shoemaker’s role as the gatekeeper on what is and what isn’t appropriate in the App Store.

Interestingly, though perhaps less relevant to any ethical or conflict of interest concerns as an Apple employee, Mr. Shoemaker’s recently purged Twitter account “showed him following lots of escorts and porn stars on the microblogging service, a public indulgence in precisely the sort of content his boss Apple CEO Steve Jobs has deemed too harmful and corrosive even to touch the app store,” according to website ValleyWag.

Seems as if Apple has a serious PR debacle on its hands, at a time when they’ve barely and not altogether successfully cleaned up the previous big-news-that-even-has-its-own-name, AntennaGate. Oh, and the mid-level manager arrested for money laundering and fraud? Who does your hiring, Apple?

Now, I’m no moralizing preacher from the bible belt who needs to equate business with personal life, but it strikes me as the kind of scandal that Apple should be avoiding right now. It may not be as bad as if Larry Flynt was hired on as the director of the National Gallery, or Howard Stern as the director of NPR, but tell that to the developers who have had their apps disapproved, banned, or stuck in approval limbo for weeks and even months on end as they try to make a living in, ironically, the same way Mr. Shoemaker does: by selling apps on the App Store.

Having this guy as the final arbiter of what does and does not make it to the App Store is unacceptable, and calls for immediate action. Apple, where are you in all this? What are you going to do to fix the problem? My hope is that you find a more objective way to police the App Store, setting clear, written editorial guidelines on what can and cannot be published on the App Store, and make sure all the developers and publishers are held to the same standard. Also? Make sure that those very same developers and publishers aren’t the ones deciding the fate of their competition’s apps.

[ App Store Director Sells His Own Apps While Controlling Access for Others is a post from 148Apps ]