It’s a given that Apple is going to announce a new iPhone tomorrow (October 4). Nobody doubts that. But for the last couple of months, I’ve been following this insane barrage of conflicting rumors that we’ll have an iPhone 5 with a four-inch screen, LTE, and even the kitchen sink; or that we’ll have an iPhone 4S with an A5 and a better camera. Or, we’ll have both. Or, we’ll have both, as well as a continuation of the iPhone 4. Or, as MacRumors has posted today, we’ll have all of this, in addition to the continuation of the iPhone 3GS. Most ridiculous of all, there are now rumors that the iPhone 5 will be exclusive to Sprint. It seems that these rumors have reached a fever pitch today, with all the sane rumors fading out in favor of the most absurd. So I thought I’d try to bring back the sanity by clarifying what will most likely happen tomorrow, going through some of the major rumors one by one, and providing my reasoning behind why a given outcome is to be expected.
Steve Jobs will not do tomorrow’s keynote.
We all want to see Steve Jobs perform tomorrow’s keynote. Let’s face it – he’s the best presenter in the world, and there will never be another like him. Furthermore, Steve Jobs was Apple. Without Steve, there will be no Apple. At least, that’s what most people, myself included, tend to believe. And that’s exactly why Steve will not do tomorrow’s keynote. Apple has to show us that we’re wrong on this, and that Apple can continue to exist without Steve. Tim Cook will be the major figure at tomorrow’s keynote, to better position him in the public view as a capable leader.
Sprint will not gain iPhone 5 exclusivity.
I shouldn’t even have to explain this one. One of today’s rumors says that the iPhone 5 will initially be exclusive to Sprint, and that AT&T and Verizon will meanwhile be stuck with the 4S. Sprint, as compared to the likes of AT&T and Verizon, is a relatively minor carrier. Why would Apple commit suicide by placing the fate of the iPhone in Sprint’s hands and turning their back on their already enormous consumer base? They won’t. This is just Sprint coming out in the open about their wet dream, and nothing more. Apple would never ditch the two largest carriers in the US in favor of a smaller one.
The iPhone 4S will be the only iPhone announced tomorrow.
Perhaps the most pesky next-gen iPhone rumor is that the redesigned iPhone 5 will have a bigger screen. Two things:
A. The iPhone always has had, and always will have, a 3.5-inch screen. While up until 2010, there was nothing to ensure this, there is now the iPad. The primary difference between the iPad and the iPhone is screen size. Apple wants owners of iPhones to also purchase iPads. How do you make sure this happens? Keep the devices radically different. And since screen size is the only real difference, it will remain so. If Apple gave the “iPhone 5″ a 4 or 4.5-inch screen, it would then become satisfactory for many of the iPad’s purposes (books, full-time web browsing, productivity, HD video). The iPhone 5 would then begin to cannibalize iPad sales. While I would still purchase a hypothetical upcoming iPad 3 after owning this hypothetical big-screen iPhone 5, I am not the average consumer. I’m an Apple geek. I blog about Apple, and code for Apple’s platforms. I need a large range of Apple devices to do these things well. If Apple makes it, I have to have it. The average consumer… not so much. They buy a device that meets their needs, and most likely won’t buy an overlapping device.
B. Screen size aside, there will not be a redesigned iPhone 5. It will be the iPhone 4S. Notice that there have been no leaks of parts for a redesigned iPhone 5. All the parts indicate an iPhone 4S. Furthermore, the name has even appeared in recent iTunes betas. As much as I’d like an iPad 2-like design for an iPhone 5, what motivation would Apple have to do this? Once again, Apple still wants to sell iPads, and wants the iPhone and the iPad to remain differentiated.
The iPhone 4S will basically be as the more sane rumors have described it.
It’s more or less a given now that the iPhone 4S will have a dual-core A5 processor, as seen in the iPad 2, and an eight-megapixel camera. It will keep the design of the iPhone 4. I’d also say that Assistant is more or less a sure thing. However, Assistant won’t be this huge revolution everyone’s making it out to be. Remember how much Apple hyped up FaceTime, saying it’s the future of calling? Now, how many people actually use FaceTime, apart from trying it out when they first get a device that supports it? Assistant will be the same thing. It’ll be cool. It might even work well. But nobody’s really going to use it much because the way we interact with our phones today works and works well, and speech recognition just really isn’t as great as people make it out to be.
Perhaps more debatable is network support for the iPhone 4S. I can see the world phone thing from two different sides. From one viewpoint, you have the fact that Apple would just have to manufacture one model. From the other, you have the fact that most iPhones sold are still carrier-locked (and the carriers will never have it any other way), so it still doesn’t carry any other real benefits. LTE’s not gonna happen though. I believe only five US cities have it on AT&T. The technology simply isn’t widespread enough to be of any real value. Furthermore, it’s still too much of a battery whore. Until new, more efficient, LTE chipsets are out (supposedly next year), Apple won’t put it in an iPhone. Plus, about that time, LTE may be widespread enough to be of some actual use.
Then we have HSPA+. I’m expecting it. Why? I guess it’s because why shouldn’t I? HSPA+ is far more widespread than LTE (in fact, the town I live in, which is by no means significant in any respect, has it). 3G is getting a bit slow to do a few things, and with iCloud about to be released, more speed certainly helps Apple provide a better experience with their devices and services. Plus, as far as I know, HSPA+ is far less of a battery whore than its LTE cousin.
The lineup will be as follows: 8GB iPhone 4, 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4S.
I’ve already explained why Apple will not be releasing an iPhone 5. The next thing to answer is why the 3GS will be no more. I myself am a 3GS owner, and trust me when I say it’s beginning to grow long in the tooth. It’s running iOS 4.3.3, and it’s starting to get pretty slow. No doubt iOS 5 will make this even worse. Not only will Apple not want to sell a device that feels slow (seriously, that’s Android’s thing), but it’s inevitable that the 3GS will not support iOS 6 next year. And Apple won’t want to be selling a device that won’t be able to run the OS announced the day after it’s finally discontinued for good. Anyone remember Windows XP, that really old OS that just won’t go away? If Apple kept the 3GS around any longer, it would be Apple’s XP. It would be something supported far past its useful life.
I hope this helps sort out the endless stream of iPhone rumors that have been going around. I know I didn’t touch on things like NFC (but really, read the bit on LTE and apply the same reasoning), and I know it’s possible that I could be wrong, but I’m reasonably sure of everything I’ve written here. Go ahead and bet on it. As for me, if Apple allows pre-orders tomorrow, I will be pre-ordering my iPhone 4S promptly.
I apologize in advance for a post that may turn out significantly shorter than usual, but I haven’t posted anything here in awhile, and my thoughts on this topic are too long to express effectively on Twitter, so I guess that mandates a writeup here.
Edit: Apparently I had more to say on this topic than I thought I did.
A few minutes before I began writing this, a person I follow on Twitter (@arkon) suggested that OSX will soon become iOS. And this is by no means an original thought; it’s a fairly widespread rumor, which is why I now feel the need to debunk it.
I’m not saying these rumors have no basis; the incorporation of many iOS-like features into Lion would indeed seem to suggest such a merger of OSX and iOS. I’m simply going to provide the other side of the story, reasoning why such a thing won’t happen.
The conversation went something like this:
@justindaigle: Leopard -> Snow Leopard. Who wants to bet we’ll go from Lion to Mac OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion?
@justindaigle: @arkon Your reasoning behind that is…?
@arkon: @justindaigle I’m kidding, since it doesn’t seem like it’ll be very powerful, but instead move more towards the simple iOS-like stuff.
@justindaigle: @arkon OSX will never “become iOS.” My explanation’s too long for Twitter, but too short for a blog post, unfortunately.
Ultimately, I’m not satisfied with any solutions between a tweet and a blog post, so I’ll go ahead and explain it here.
Why will OSX never become iOS?
Simple. If OSX became iOS, we wouldn’t have a development environment for either.
Consider how iOS development is done. One obtains a developer subscription from Apple, then develops the application in Xcode on a Mac, then installs the application on his developer device(s).
But what if one doesn’t have a developer subscription, and wants to test the waters of iOS development (using an Apple-provided solution; obviously, the better solution is to bypass the need for a developer subscription by jailbreaking)?
The developer (assuming for the purposes of this post that the developer in question does not jailbreak) would then use the iOS Simulator.
Okay, so where are you going with this?
As it stands, the Apple-endorsed solution for testing iOS code without a developer subscription is the iOS Simulator. What would happen if OSX were indeed to merge with iOS, as the rumors in question suggest? There goes the ability to practice Mac development. If you had to purchase a developer subscription to develop Mac apps, how would you try out Mac development first? Using a Mac Simulator? But what would be the point of simulating a device on that very device? My point is that unless Apple radically changes their policies on iOS development (which they probably never will), it would be completely unreasonable to merge OSX and iOS. As long as the iOS development system remains as it is, iOS (along with its development processes) and OSX, while built on the same Darwin core, will remain radically different operating systems.
Developer tools are a requirement for any mainstream operating system. An operating system is only useful if it can run third-party software. If Apple did indeed plan for Macs to run iOS, this would mean that they would have to allow Xcode for iPad, along with the ability to build and run apps created with it on-device. As Macs would be “just another iOS device,” Apple would have no reason not to at that point. As much as I dream of Xcode for iPad (and Apple’s current “PC-free” ethos being promoted with iOS 5 would seem to support this, as they stated that many people are choosing to buy iOS devices without owning any other computer), I just can’t see Apple ever doing this. I don’t think Apple is going to give up the $99/year fee, or the App Store as the sole iOS application distribution platform. Ultimately, merging OSX and iOS would require Apple to allow the execution of unsigned code on both platforms. While this is the way it’s always been on the Mac side, doing so on the iOS side would require that Apple allow what happens on the Mac side (applications distributed by means other than the App Store) to happen on the iOS side. And believe me, if it were allowed to happen, it would happen. At first, I was somewhat perplexed at the lackluster adoption of the Mac App Store. But developers simply don’t want to fork over 30% of their profits to Apple, and if given another option, they generally will take it. I suppose Apple always has the option of requiring a developer subscription to develop and test Mac apps at all, but I highly doubt this will ever happen. First of all, the enterprise would be extremely unhappy. Many firms have thousands of computers, and if a larger one were suddenly required to have provisioning profiles for every Mac in their organization, just to run apps that for any reason must remain in-house (whether because they contain sensitive internal information; or because the application, while absolutely necessary to the organization, would not be approved for the App Store), an incredibly over-complex situation would result. Furthermore, some developers (like Adobe) will never hand over 30% of each sale to Apple, because it would simply be too much of a loss. And no Photoshop on OSX… err, Macs running iOS, would cause a lot of Mac users, myself included, to seek an alternative platform. So ultimately, if Apple would ever merge OSX and iOS, making Macs just another iOS device, they would be faced with two extremely undesirable options: making OSX more closed, or making iOS more open. And while it seems this is where things are headed, Apple has ultimately come as close to this goal as they possibly can without having to make this incredibly difficult choice.
In summary, Macs will always be Macs, and iDevices will always be iDevices.
The most prominent rumor that currently exists is that the Apple TV won’t get a hardware refresh this year. This goes against previous rumors that it would be getting an A5.
Why does it matter that the Apple TV won’t be getting an A5?
Big-screen gaming takes a lot of horsepower. This more or less confirms that the Apple TV won’t be getting an App Store any time soon.
This is an example of the classic fable of the tortoise and the hare. You know, the one where the tortoise challenges the hare to a race, the hare quickly advances past the tortoise in the race, then grows over-confident and proceeds to take a nap, only to wake up and find that the tortoise has won.
While it may not seem like much, this children’s story paints a perfect picture of the TV set-top box market.
Apple is accepting the fact that it’s “winning” the set-top box market, so they’ve simply decided that they’re not even going to try to accomplish anything further. They’re doing better than everyone else, for now, so they’re happy that their product is the best, even though it isn’t really even good.
As an example of by how much Apple is currently ahead in this market, returns of one of its competitors, the Logitech Revue, have actually exceeded its sales this quarter.
However, while the hare sleeps, I expect the tortoise to make its comeback.
Here’s why.
The Logitech Revue is a flop for two reasons:
A. Its exorbitant price tag ($249).
B. It does the exact same stuff the Apple TV does. Just like everyone else in this situation, when two products do the exact same thing, I’ll go with the Apple option, especially when it’s quite a bit less than half the price of the alternative.
However, Google TV/the Revue is stepping up its game. They’re slashing the price of the device to $99 (the same as that of the Apple TV), and bringing an app platform to it. And an app platform (primarily for gaming) is exactly what people want. The current consoles suck (see my last post), and the market’s ripe for the picking, by a new kind of “console,” one that isn’t designed explicitly for gaming, but does it as an auxiliary function. The era of FPS after FPS after FPS is over. People are ready for the rise of casual gaming on the TV, as has already been seen on the smartphone and tablet platforms. Ultimately, this is the finish line in the metaphorical race of the tortoise and the hare.
So hasn’t the Roku won the race? It brings Angry Birds to the big screen.
Don’t kid yourself. Yes, the Roku brings Angry Birds to the big screen, and as much as I’ve used that as the example of what people (myself included) want to do, that really made me rethink what I want. Yes, I want Angry Birds on the big screen, but if that’s the only thing I can do, I’ll finish it pretty quickly, and then have nothing to do with the device for the two months until the next update. What we really need is a proven application platform (therefore the only real potential competitors are Apple and Google) on the big screen (hopefully including Angry Birds). Unfortunately, Apple seems to be resting on their laurels here and not acknowledging what they could unleash on the Apple TV platform. Then again, Steve Jobs did call it a “hobby,” and maybe he doesn’t want it to become anything more than that.
What of AirPlay mirroring?
It’s a glorified VNC client. No really, it is. Okay, so it’s not technically using the VNC platform, but why wait for iOS 5? Just install Veency on your iPad and port a VNC viewer to the Apple TV, and you have AirPlay mirroring. It’s not the same thing, but it does the same thing. Yet AirPlay does sound kinda stupid when its significance is compared to such a simple hacked-together solution, doesn’t it? Plus, this raises the price of the Apple TV from $100 to $600, considering you need an iPad 2 to use it. Yes, I have an iPad 2, but I want to run its apps on the device they were designed for, not on my TV. The only solution here is native apps.
So who wins the race?
The tortoise, of course. The Apple TV might be a vast expanse of space ahead of Google TV products such as the Revue now, but with the Revue’s new-found lower price tag, along with the promise of the Android Market within a couple of months, all while Apple puts no real effort into improving the Apple TV, the status quo isn’t going to last.
Android Market? Yuck.
Yes, I know. But Java apps are better than no apps, and Angry Birds is Angry Birds, regardless of the language it’s been ported to.
Still, it’s quite unlike you to be critical of Apple. Why the change of heart?
It isn’t a change, it’s a one-off thing. I still have a general dislike of Android, but I still have to respect its occasional merits.
You should really be asking, “It’s quite unlike Apple to rest on their laurels. Why the one-off change of principles?”
Look at the iPad. It dominated, and still dominates, the tablet market. Yet Apple didn’t stop with the original. They brought out the iPad 2, with a dual-core A5 processor, significantly thinner and lighter form, and dual cameras, while still managing to deliver the same excellent battery life. I bought both the original iPad and the iPad 2, yet I’m still not sold on the Apple TV, and at this rate, never will be.
I guess the difference is that not only was the iPad the best product in its class, relatively speaking, it was also an awesome product, absolutely speaking (as is the iPad 2). The Apple TV, on the other hand, while currently the best in its class, relatively speaking, is a lackluster product, absolutely speaking. Apple said it’s only a “hobby,” and they’ve made that not only their goal, but their limit, for the product.
Okay, for starters, if rumors hold any truth, this leaked version only works on the iPad 2 Wi-fi running iOS 4.3.
Also, thanks to comex for creating the jailbreak, and thanks to the leakers for putting it in our hands.
Followed by a “screw you” to comex for disabling the jailbreak, forcing me to spend hours coming up with these hacks.
A quick edit, so the comments don’t get flooded with the crap I’ve seen on other sites that discuss the leaks: No, I’m not removing the links. Hate on me all you want, the links aren’t going anywhere. If you proceed to ask, I will ridicule your inability to read, and troll you incessantly.
Edit, again: I actually removed the links. Why? The official JailbreakMe 3.0 is out now, and there’s no reason to use these beta files anymore.
Okay, now for a few assumptions. First, I assume you have access to an Ubuntu install (or any other Linux you can stick Apache on). Second, I assume you can obtain (by any means) Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 (or know how to set up a DNS server on Linux; I don’t). However, these directions will assume you’re using Ubuntu for the web server portion, and Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 for the DNS portion.
1. Go into Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu and install the apache2 package.
2. Assign a static IP to your Ubuntu box.
You can do this by clicking the network management icon at the top of the screen, selecting Edit Connections, and double-clicking the interface you want to configure.
If you’re like me and don’t have an Ubuntu box lying around, you can also do all of this in VMWare. Just make sure the VM has access to a bridged network connection, so that it has direct access to the network along with its own IP.
3. Download these files: [files removed, see above]
Assuming you’re on Ubuntu, with Apache 2′s default documents path at /var/www, do the following after extracting the files, since you have to be root to deal with that folder. This assumes you extracted the archive to the default folder of /[pathtoarchive]/www.
sudo su
Enter password when prompted.
cd /[pathtoarchive]
Where [pathtoarchive] is the path where the folder you just extracted (probably named “www”) is located.
cd www
It is very important that only the contents of this folder are moved to the document root (/var/www), NOT the folder itself. At the end of this section of the tutorial, /var/www should contain two folders, along with PDF’s and other files.
cp -r * /var/www
4. Test your setup. In a web browser, go to http://localhost and make sure you see the files, and two folders, “d” and “saffron,” in the file listing for the site (Actually, I think the “d” directory is completely unnecessary, as are a lot of the duplicate files. But if you want to be absolutely sure it’ll work, leave them.) If you don’t see the contents I described, ask somebody competent to help you.
What you should be seeing
5. On a Windows server (or Linux if you know what you’re doing; not covered here), install the DNS Server role. If the Windows server install is running in a VM, make sure it’s on a bridged connection as well. Regardless of whether it’s in a VM, make sure it has a static IP.
6. On the DNS server, create a new zone called qoid.us
7. In this zone, create an A record pointing to the IP of the Linux server hosting the files. Then create CNAME records for the www.qoid.us and a.qoid.us subdomains, pointing them to the A record for qoid.us.
Please note that the IP for your A record probably won’t be 192.168.2.162. That’s only an example.
8. Go into the Wi-fi settings for your iPad 2. Access the settings for your network, and set the DNS server to the IP address of the DNS server you just set up.
9. Browse to qoid.us. You should now see the folder listing you saw earlier when testing your web server setup.
10. Open the PDF for your device and firmware combination. Safari will close, and Cydia will begin to install.
At the beginning of WWDC 2011 yesterday, Apple announced iOS 5 and iCloud, along with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion (again).
Apple claims iOS 5 includes over 200 new features, previewing ten of them yesterday.
Let’s look at a few of these features, as well as a few of the bugs that I hope will be fixed by the next beta release.
Warning: iOS 5 betas supposedly cannot be downgraded to iOS 4.x, particularly on devices that have a baseband (iPhone, and iPad 3G). While I have not tested this, and I have written an article about how to downgrade betas in the past, there is no guarantee that my method will work this time. Download and run the iOS 5 beta at your own risk.
With that in mind, I’ve only upgraded my iPad 2 to the iOS 5 beta. My iPhone remains on iOS 4.3, and as such, this post will only cover iOS 5 as seen on the iPad.
The iOS 5 home screen, as seen on my iPad 2
There are a few things to notice here. First, a new app called Reminders (no, it’s not an App Store app, it’s built-in; I have no need for a to-do list app and would never install one =/). There is also a new app/folder called Newsstand. I’m not entirely sure which one it is, as it appears in the multitasking tray (probably a bug), but it opens like a folder.
My Social folder, containing the new Messages app
In iOS 5, Apple is introducing the new iMessage service. Apple is also adding the Messages app to the iPad and iPod touch in order to allow usage of this service (however, iPads and iPod touches still cannot send regular SMS messages). iMessage is an instant messaging service provided exclusively to users of iOS devices, that gives SMS-like messaging, with the ability to send media, receive read receipts, and see notifications that indicate when the other user is typing. It feels a lot like the old iOS Messages app, while adding a lot of features similar to those found in Windows Live Messenger.
Game Center in iOS 5
In iOS 5, Apple has enhanced Game Center, adding the ability to have an avatar for your profile. Furthermore, they are also adding official support for turn-based games, which will probably bring many promising offerings once iOS 5 is released this fall. Until then, games that leverage this functionality most likely will not appear in the App Store, as Apple does not accept apps written using a beta version of the iOS SDK (much like how Game Center was utterly useless in the iOS 4 betas since no games supported it).
Newsstand
Much like the new functionality in Game Center, there isn’t much to see here either. No apps support the functionality offered by Newsstand yet, and the Store button is disabled. Newsstand is supposed to be a collection of newspaper/magazine apps. It is also supposed to be capable of pushing updated content to these apps. Most likely, there won’t be much to do with this until after the official release either.
A couple of screenshots of the Reminders app
In what I consider to be a questionably stupid move on Apple’s part, iOS 5 now includes a built-in to-do list app called Reminders. Considering something of the sort could exist perfectly fine on the App Store (and, in fact, many things of this sort already do), I’m really wondering why Apple bothered with this one. Nonetheless, you can see a couple of screenshots of it in action above. You set up tasks that the app can remind you about either by time, or, in what may be the one interesting thing about this app, by place. Supposedly, when you’re at a certain location, it can deliver a reminder. Anyway, the first screenshot above shows my list of reminders, and the second shows those tasks which I have completed (even though I just threw that up on the spot, it’s pretty accurate about what I do and don’t get done).
The emoji keyboard on iPad… finally!
As seen above, Apple has finally enabled the emoji keyboard for iPad (well, they’ve enabled the ability for you to enable it). Just go into your keyboard settings, and add the Emoji keyboard like any other. Then annoy your fellow iOS users to death with emoticons.
The split keyboard
While on the topic of the keyboard, Apple has added the ability to split the keyboard in iOS 5. Hold the keyboard dismiss button to access the option to do so. Some people I’ve spoken to love this feature. I, however, find it dismally annoying. It makes me really prone to typos, by both making the buttons smaller, and by putting them in unusual locations. I hate it, and will still be using the regular keyboard, but your mileage may vary. Also of note, you can undock the keyboard to move it up or down the screen as you wish, while keeping both halves attached and the buttons their usual size. This feature may be useful for some, but I will be leaving the keyboard in the tried and true location of the bottom of my screen.
The About menu in General Settings
Okay, there’s a few important things to notice here. First off, the build number of this beta is 9A5220p. Second of all, there’s an option to change the device name… on the device itself. In addition, there is a Diagnostics and Usage menu, which gives you the ability to turn the option to send such data to Apple on or off (something normally done in iTunes).
These next two observations are quite significant. Why would Apple give you the option to do these things on the device itself?
Apple has finally dropped the requirement of having a PC or iTunes. iOS devices are now completely independent. When you open the box of an iOS 5 device, it will no longer greet you with the familiar “Connect to iTunes” screen. It will instead prompt you to set up the device… on the device itself. As pointed out in the keynote, this is the logical conclusion to their theory that we are living in a “post-PC era.” To enhance the independence of the device from iTunes, you may also delete music directly from the device in the Music app. There is also a Usage menu in General Settings that provides an overview of the amount of storage used by a given app, along with the ability to delete a given app outright, or to dump its data (I greatly appreciate this feature; I commonly download videos using Terra Web Browser then have it open them in VLC. VLC can play the videos just fine, but it gives no way of deleting the copy of the video that Terra dumped in its documents folder. And considering some giant douche forced Apple to pull the VLC app, that’ll never be fixed either).
Over-the-air updates
As seen above, Apple has also introduced over-the-air updates in iOS 5. Supposedly it will also be more efficient than the previous update mechanism, as it will only download that which has changed, as opposed to an entire firmware image. It does, however, seem to be somewhat buggy at this point. While I don’t know if it’s even really enabled in this beta, or if it’ll allow you to update between betas, it claims I’m not connected to Wi-fi, even though I am.
As a side note, as much effort as Apple has put into removing the dependency on iTunes, I wonder why they’ve also added Wi-fi syncing with iTunes now.
While I think it’s broken in this build as well (either that or the iTunes 10.5 beta is broken), there is an iTunes Sync option in General Settings that allows you to sync over Wi-fi, although it claims that iTunes is never available to sync to.
iCloud
Furthering the theory that we are living in a “post-PC world,” Apple has introduced iCloud, their cloud storage service. As seen in the Mail option above, Apple is now giving away @me.com e-mail addresses for free. It also includes the former MobileMe service of Find My iPad. It also introduces the ability to sync your bookmarks, notes,contacts, calendars, and reminders, as well as Photo Stream, a way to store your photos in the cloud (why it gives Photo Stream a separate menu, I don’t know; the only option that menu gives is yet another on/off slider). By the way, did anyone notice that Apple changed the slider images? Personally, I liked the old ones better. As seen immediately above the big red Delete Account button, you can also back up your devices straight to iCloud. However, this disables automatic backup with iTunes, so I left it disabled.
Twitter integration in iOS 5
iOS 5 now features direct integration with Twitter, allowing single sign-on for all Twitter apps, a most welcome addition after Twitter’s basically made developers of Twitter clients bend over and take their crappy web-based authentication. Apparently iOS will be spared the awful experience, as you can add accounts directly in the Settings app.
Posting to Twitter from Safari
You can also post to Twitter directly from certain apps, including Safari (pictured above) and Photos. However, photos tweeted from Photos seem to be in highly reduced quality.
While I find this functionality both well-implemented and convenient, I’m slightly worried about the precedent that it’s setting. If Apple is this accepting of third-party software out-of-box, this may eventually introduce Facebook support in iOS. Considering I do not use Facebook, I would find this to be unnecessary bloat. And for those that do, if I really need to scare you with what may happen, this could lead to crapware in Macs down the line. What I’ve always enjoyed about Mac OS X is that Apple makes both the hardware and the software, therefore wants to make both work well together, not loading a ton of crapware onto Macs out of box. While this is somewhat different, it is setting a precedent that I’m concerned may lead to such things.
A notification in iOS 5
As was probably the most (over-?)hyped feature of iOS 5, Apple has included a revamped notifications system. While I’ve never used MobileNotifier, I’ve seen screenshots/videos, and the fact that Apple has hired its developer, Peter Hajas, is apparent (while talking about Apple hiring a jailbreak developer, let me add a bit to my rant on Sony by saying Apple is setting an excellent example of how Sony should’ve handled their argument with Geohot).
Notification Center
Apple has also provided Notification Center, a summary of recent notifications. It allows you to open the app that created them, or to clear the notifications created by a given app.
Lock screen notifications
Notifications on the lock screen have also been improved. You can swipe across one to go to the app that created it, and it now handles multiple notifications better.
Notification options
Notifications in iOS 5 are also incredibly customizable. You may select whether they appear in Notification Center, whether they appear on the lock screen, and even how many messages appear in Notification Center. Furthermore, it is also of note that Apple has not completely removed the old notification system. You can configure an application to use the old notification style by setting it to use “Alerts” instead of “Banners.”
Thank you for reading my review of some of the many changes in iOS 5. While not pictured, a couple of other things are of note, such as the music app having been split into two on all devices. The music app on iPad has also been redesigned. The one thing that really, really peeves me about iOS 5 thus far, and I really hope is a bug that Apple plans to address, is the “lock out of device upon X incorrect passcode attempts” functionality. For one thing, syncing with iTunes no longer resets this lockout. Furthermore, even if it did, if Apple really plans to cut the cord and sell to users who don’t own a PC or a Mac, they’ve gotta at least make that functionality an option. My password would take millions of years to bruteforce, and I’d rather some stupid kid playing with my devices not prevent the person intended to access the device (me) take millions of years to get into the device owned by the person who actually knows the password. I don’t need a software-enforced lockout to keep my stuff safe. Besides this (hopefully once again a bug that will soon be addressed), my only real disappointment with iOS 5 is that it hasn’t provided a unified way to access files across apps (as opposed to the Open in… functionality that gives me a mild measure of trouble in VLC). Storage space is finite, and having to make a copy of a large movie just to watch it, as opposed to being able to just watch the copy that I downloaded from its present location, is quite annoying.
In summary, while iOS 5 has a couple of critical bugs, and lacks one feature I really wanted to see, it’s certainly moving even further in the right direction. The best mobile OS on the market today, and most likely for the entire foreseeable future, has gotten better with messaging across devices, sexy new unobtrusive notifications, finally gaining complete independence from the PC, and built-in free cloud backup and syncing.
If you just want to enjoy the player and don’t know why I’m doing this, I put the link towards the beginning for just that reason.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might want to read the instructions that follow though.
1. Make sure your iDevice(s) is/are jailbroken.
2. Install the AppSync patch. You can find it on the cydia.hackulo.us repo.
3. Download the IPA I linked to above.
4. Making sure iTunes is closed first, open the IPA by double-clicking it. It will be added to iTunes.
5. Sync your iDevices.
6. Enjoy!
So if all you wanted was the app, stop reading here. If you wanna enjoy some humor that I attempted to model after that of the famous responses to TPB legal threats, keep reading (I highly recommend you read those too, to show your appreciation for the awesome TPB staff, who are among the few who actually have the balls to take a stand against all the lawyers trying to shove copyright law down all our throats).
Anyway, I had a bit of a conversation with the guy who demanded that VLC be pulled. So in his response to my original comment (I’m posting neither), he just goes on and on about his copyrights, his intellectual property, and is basically boring me to death with all this crap.
So I offered this in response:
Your copyright, your intellectual property, blah, blah, blah…
Don’t you ever talk about anything else?
The copyright claims of people who actually lose money due to stuff like this are ridiculous enough, but seriously?
You make absolutely no money off VLC. Therefore you have nothing to lose by allowing it onto the App Store.
All you’re doing is pissing a bunch of people off, and effectively keeping an entire platform from appreciating your work.
But you know what, since I care so much about making sure your work gets the appreciation it deserves, I’ll crack your app and host it on my own servers.
Plus, I’ll ignore any copyright claims you send me and pay all the damages, because for a free app, that comes to an astounding $0.00!
So here’s to continuing decent media file support on iOS!
But I will have to monitor my bandwidth now. If I start getting too much traffic, I’ll, unfortunately, have to go back on my word and use a third-party host.
Oh, and a little off the topic of this post, but I lost the contest I designed AutoClickr to help me win.
It wasn’t AutoClickr’s fault though. Apparently some people are just better cheaters than I am.
For once, pictures weren’t enough. After all, a picture may be worth a thousand words, but it’d take tens of millions of words to get the idea of how to play a game across.
So how do you express a million words? With a video of course (I actually don’t say a word in the video; I happen to have a rather bad cold right now).
As the title suggests, this review is of the iPad game Tilt to Live HD.
Here’s the video. If you just want to watch that, I won’t stop you.
Still here? Great!
Anyway, you could probably barely see what’s going on. That’s okay. I’ll provide screenshots too.
As I said in the video description:
Sorry you can barely see what’s going on, but to me the name is a dead giveaway that a lot of tilting is involved.
Now for the text and pictures you’re all accustomed to.
Tilt to Live HD by One Man Left Studios (fitting name, as you only have one life in the game) is probably the best game for iOS out there.
The name is more or less self-explanatory (if you watched my video, you’d know this ). You tilt the screen to move your character, a little arrow thing.
The game’s instructions for classic mode
The game’s instructions for Gauntlet mode
And finally, the game’s instructions for Frostbite mode
While there are actually four gameplay modes, for some reason the instructions don’t cover Code Red.
In this review, I’m only going to cover Classic and Gauntlet modes anyway.
A screen displayed while the game is loading
The screens like the one above can get quite interesting. There are 10+ different ones.
Right at the beginning of a game in Classic mode
In Classic mode, you go for the highest score possible, attempting to accomplish ever-increasing combos.
You use the nine different weapons provided to kill the red dots.
Later in a game
Tilt to Live HD can get quite thrilling. Shortly after when I took that screenshot, the screen was almost completely filled with an onslaught of red dots.
Then finally, this happened
I think I did quite well for myself.
Gauntlet mode
In Gauntlet mode, you try to collect green and (preferably) blue dots, whilst avoiding various red dots and obstacles (knives and axes).
I can do better… but I’m under pressure
Fun fact: I shot the Classic mode video about twelve times before I was happy with my score.
Tilt to Live HD combines exciting gameplay with a great soundtrack and some hilariously screwy humor (Earn the achievements yourself to find out, I intentionally didn’t take screenshots of the list because that would spoil the fun ).
But I really do like the soundtrack. I actually have the Classic mode theme as my ringtone on my iPhone (fortunately, there’s an iPhone version as well for when you can’t take your iPad with you; gameplay is basically the same).
The original version had a couple of bugs, notably crashing on launch quite often and bugging you to rate it after every game.
Both have been fixed.
Editor’s rating (current version): 10/10
Thanks, One Man Left Studios, for wasting hours upon hours of my time by keeping me captivated with this epic game. You’ve earned the first perfect ten rating I’ve ever given.
Geohot’s been taking a lot of crap lately with the release of his new limera1n jailbreak tool.
Quite a few people out there are saying it doesn’t work, and it will in fact break your device.
I’ve personally tested it on my brother’s iPod Touch 4G and I can say it’s worked great.
Will it break my device?
There have been rumors that it’s been breaking certain older devices.
I can neither confirm nor deny them, as I’ve only tried it on my brother’s iPod Touch 4G.
But, you’d still may as well try it, but be sure to backup in iTunes first.
A “bricked” device, or one that can’t be fixed by DFU + Restore is a myth.
It’s impossible. It can’t happen.
Anyone who tells you otherwise intends to deceive you.
Okay, well there’s a lot of deception going on around controversial jailbreaks then, why?
Imaginary ethical issues.
limera1n works. People say it didn’t because certain jailbreak developers are unhappy that he used their work in his jailbreak.
And they understand that if people realized that’s really going on, nobody will care.
All that matters, and all that should matter to the end user, is that the jailbreak works.
I don’t care if it was manufactured by child slave labor (after all, that’s more or less what happens at Apple’s factories anyway).
So instead of telling you the truth (“The source of some of these exploits is questionable and we don’t think geohot had a right to release it,”) they lie to you and tell you something to stop you from using it (“It’ll brick your device.”)
This happens all the time with unofficial 3GS jailbreaks, once again because of imaginary ethical issues.
Since beta jailbreaks allow you to hacktivate iPhones and bypass Apple’s developer check, they say it enables piracy.
And being the closed-minded piracy haters they are, they try to deceive people into not using it.
And they don’t stop there.
Since normally, in the case of the 3GS, the unofficial jailbreaks are a modified version of PwnageTool, the Dev Team goes all emo because their software was modified without permission.
Uh… that’s what PwnageTool itself does. It modifies Apple’s software without Apple’s permission. The Dev Team can dish it out, but they can’t take it.
Anyway, the ungratefulness of so many people out there shocks me.
Geohot gave you a jailbreak two days before he said he would.
Normally people complain about jailbreaks NOT getting released.
Those with an iPod Touch 4G are getting their first taste of jailbreaking, and various people on 4.1 are getting another opportunity.
Anyway, geohot is receiving too much undeserved hate as it is.
As many people didn’t know I was responsible for, when he left the iPhone scene, I created a rather hateful parody account on Twitter.
However, now that he’s returned, I’ve deactivated the account.
Seriously people, you can jailbreak now if you have an ipt4g or an iPhone 4 on 4.1. Quit complaining.
If you don’t have a device affected by this, just move on. It’s none of your concern.
If you do, try to show some gratitude.
Maybe stuff like this is why he left the scene to begin with.
Today, Apple held their annual music “September Event.” Among the announcements were iOS 4.2, new iPods (Shuffle, Nano, and Touch), iTunes 10, and a new Apple TV. To begin, let’s get one thing clear. I don’t care about the iPod Shuffle or Nano. They’re basically nothing but generic MP3 players given Apple branding. As for the new iPod Touch, it’s what everyone expected it to be, more or less exactly. That said, I’m still shocked Apple finally gave in and gave it a camera. As for iTunes 10, I’ve sorta lost a bet here. I said it’d be called iTunes X, like Mac OS X and QuickTime X. It seems I was wrong. Once again, I’m shocked. Especially considering the new icon. At first, I thought “The new icon really isn’t all that great and doesn’t really go with OSX.” Then I realized, it’d look great next to the QuickTime X icon. So why not make the names match?
Next up is the new Apple TV. I almost lost another bet here. I said it would be called iTV, however with the assumption that it would be based on iOS, simply because of the current naming of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. And with all the correct rumors about the iPod Touch, and with all the rumors that the new Apple TV would be iOS-based, we can come to the conclusion that Apple would have made the new Apple TV iOS-based, if they could be bothered with the massive (some people I’ve spoken with said it would amount to billions of dollars) cost of licensing the iTV name from some British TV station. Needless to say, spending that much on licensing a name is ridiculous, especially considering the already taken names iPhone and iPad have been shared with Apple for far less. And since Apple must retain its i[Device] naming convention for all iOS devices for the sake of consistency, they instead decided to make an inferior product out of the new Apple TV. For starters, this whole “lack of storage” thing. It means I have to boot up my computer every time I want to watch TV on it. And in my case, this is a massive inconvenience. I have to enter three different passwords on my PC before I even see my desktop. Or, I could install iTunes on my home server and leave it running all the time. But iTunes is seriously bloated, and I’d really rather not. Not to mention, most people don’t have home servers. Then there’s the decision to have it not run iOS. This means no apps. Apple just said that the iPod Touch outsells both the DS and the PSP. Clearly, iOS is a great gaming platform (strangely enough, in opposition to the desktop version of OSX, which has always been considered crappy for gaming, but to be honest, slowly seems to be changing thanks to things like Steam for Mac). If only Apple decided to compete with Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for the living room gaming market. They’d do great, for numerous reasons. First off, no massive, bloated console. Second of all, no discs. Why do people prefer iOS to an actual portable console? Because they don’t have to constantly swap discs around. They just go to their SpringBoard and select what they want to play. So the new Apple TV does nothing to make the TV anything other than the “idiot box.” It’s still just as dumb as it always was.
Next, and finally (I saved the one that affects me personally for last), we have iOS 4.2. What’s with Apple, the iPad, and “x.2” releases? My theory is they’re actually trying to convince people to jailbreak. Since its release, the iPad has had only two lousy updates that do absolutely nothing. I’m still on the 3.2 it shipped with. The iPad was made to multitask. And if you don’t believe me, you’re only lying to yourself. I like having Wyse PocketCloud (see my last post) run in the background while I’m doing stuff like IRC or Twitter. So what do I do? I use ProSwitcher. When Apple fails to deliver, someone else steps in, but usually with a rather crappy implementation. ProSwitcher tends to be inefficient, and backgrounded apps crashing is inevitable. The developer isn’t at fault here though. He did the best he can without having the iOS source code. However, not all jailbreak apps are “crappy implementations.” If Apple were ever to release a file manager for iOS, it should be almost exactly like iFile. Back to the original topic, the iPad is also by far the most costly iOS device. Mine cost me $500, and some cost close to $1000. So their “world-class service” for this top of the line device involves waiting half a year for an update cheaper devices have already had? Cheaper devices that can live much more easily without multitasking. I said that if Apple includes some truly amazing iPad-exclusive feature in 4.2, maybe it’ll justify their delays. They’ve proven this isn’t the case. They’re adding printing support. Would it be nice? Yeah. Is it worth a six-month wait? Absolutely not. At the most, what they should’ve done was released iOS4 for iPad along with its iPhone/iPod Touch counterpart, then released printing support in a later update. iOS 3.2 is utter crap, and that’s putting it lightly. Everything crashes, no native multitasking, requirement of a configuration profile to use strong passwords, and so on (fortunately, Apple’s finally learned something about security and included it by default in iOS4). The iPad is a great device, and with enough hacks, it’s almost perfect. 9/10. Native folders and multitasking would bring it to 10/10, so why a six-month delay for printing Apple?
Anyway, assuming comex’s usual release timeframe, and assuming iOS 4.2 is released early on in November, one could guess that it’ll be jailbroken sometime in December. If this is the case, I may finally write my Colloquy review and publish it for Christmas. Isn’t it ridiculous that due to Apple’s screwing around, I’ll have waited about half a year just to write one review?
Now that we’ve established what RDP is, let’s look at the app itself. While I have it on both my iPad and my iPhone, I’ll review it exclusively on my iPad. The interface is nearly identical on both.
Wyse PocketCloud’s list of computers
Wyse PocketCloud provides a simple list of connections. Just tap one to connect.
Tap the plus sign to add a new connection.
Or, if you want to edit an existing connection, tap Edit on the side.
The connection editor
The Nickname field is the name that will show up on the connections list and should be set to something that will help you identify the server.
For those who have only one server (A good 80% of people who have any use for this app), this’ll be the case. For people like me who have more than one server, it’s more important to come up with useful names.
The Host field needs to point to either the IP or the DNS name of the server.
The Username and Password fields are your Windows username and password on the server.
You can choose between various resolutions. I prefer iPad Landscape, but use whatever is best for you.
If you need it, there’s also an option to use the console or admin mode.
PocketCloud’s global settings
The Settings tab at the bottom displays a list of global settings, including performance options and various other settings.
As seen here, one of Wyse PocketCloud’s most useful options is remote sound support, which I’ll show a good use for in a bit.
For the rest of this review, I’ll be connected to my home server. In case you’re wondering what “ZNC” is, it’s an IRC bouncer.
Bad things would happen if I were to close it, so just ignore it.
PocketCloud’s advanced mouse controller
Now let’s look at PocketCloud while it’s actually connected to a server.
Click the arrow icon two from the left at the bottom to toggle the advanced mouse controller I show in the screenshot.
Among other things, it can left-click (center button), right-click (top right button; shown below), and bring up a keyboard (immediately below the left-click button).
Using the advanced mouse controller to right-click
However, these aren’t the only (or, in my opinion, the best) ways to left- or right- click something.
You can left-click simply by tapping on something. You can double-click by doing this twice in quick succession.
You may zoom in and out on the screen by “pinching” in or out.
PocketCloud, using Spotify
Seen above is perhaps my favorite use for this app.
Thanks to its sound support, it makes a great alternative to Spotify’s app, which requires an expensive premium subscription with their service.
But… it can’t play in the background, right?
Unfortunately not. But (and I won’t cover this in my review, but go ahead and do it anyway ), if you jailbreak your iPhone or iPad, you can use ProSwitcher to background PocketCloud and enjoy Spotify in the background. It’s hacked together, and it has its occasional issues, but it’s better than paying $20/month for a crappy premium service you really don’t need.
A better way to right-click
Here, I right-click using an easier method. Just select the right mouse button icon, fourth from the left, at the bottom (by the way, you can toggle the bottom bar with the arrow icon at the far right), then tap whatever you want to right-click.
PocketCloud, with keyboard
Second from the left in that bottom menu bar I was talking about earlier, is a keyboard icon. Tap it to bring up the keyboard (shown above). Tap Done to dismiss it. The usual “dismiss keyboard” button won’t do it right. Go ahead and try it if you’re stubborn though.
With the keyboard open, just tap where you want to type, and type. It also provides a few essential function keys.
The horror. The word “Facebook” has appeared in a screenshot in one of my reviews. I’m scarred for life. Oh yeah, the screenshot is of PocketCloud’s action menu.
Most likely, you’re wondering “What does the icon all the way to the left do?” It brings up the menu shown above. I don’t know what the top two options do to be perfectly honest. I’ve never had a use for them. One could assume “Desktop Snapshot” takes a screenshot, but I normally just press Power + Home to take a screenshot.
Anyway, that just about wraps it up. I’m not supposed to provide a detailed description of all the app’s features. I don’t write instruction manuals. I write reviews.
Editor’s Rating: 9.5/10
I’ve yet to write a negative review of anything, and I never plan on it.
Why?
I only review apps that don’t suck.
Wyse PocketCloud is no exception.
I personally use Wyse PocketCloud for all my remote administration (and remote Spotify listening ) needs.
It provides all the features one would expect from an RDP client, and in some cases works even better than Microsoft’s official client (which isn’t available for iOS anyway, and probably never will be, considering they’re going to try to push Windblows tablets soon enough =/). Seriously though, MS should look at this app to see how things should be done. Sometimes, I can’t connect to my home server using the official client, but PocketCloud does it just fine. That said, the one thing I’d like to see added to this app is VNC support. If it had this, implemented as well as its RDP functionality, it’d get a perfect ten.
End review
A note to MS, entirely irrelevant to my review (and yes, I like to overuse italics; deal with it). Just drop Terminal Services licensing already. If someone has Windows Server, they shouldn’t have to get additional licenses to unlock basic functionality. That’s just REALLY gay. You noticed I’m using console mode in those screenshots? Yeah. Terminal Services expired on me once, and after I got a hack working, I was too lazy to switch back.
Ending with that last line, this review was 1105 words, and I wrote it in about an hour and a half (counting the time it took to take screenshots). Why can’t school papers be that easy?
As for my next review, I’ll finally do Colloquy, if Apple gets on the ball and releases iOS4 for iPad at its media event on Wednesday, and comex will hurry up and jailbreak it. I promise I’ll explain why when I write the review.
"Tandem, is that kind of like spooning? Mommy doesn't allow me to watch porn, especially not gay porn starring people in fake police uniforms." - anakata
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). You tilt the screen to move your character, a little arrow thing.
