Tag Archives: iphone

apple, gadgets, mobile, smartphones

More germs on an iPhone than on a toilet seat? Proporta’s screen protectors kill the other kind of bugs.

Today’s inbox brings the disturbing news that:

In independent laboratory tests, the E. coli population on an untreated screen protector soared from 200,000 to 13 million in 24 hours.

Note the inclusion of the word “untreated” in this sentence, preparing us for the good news that:

The unique SteriTouch® coating on Proporta Antimicrobial Screen Protectors not only prevent this unbridled growth, but eradicates the E. coli completely.

The idea is that touch screens get, well, touched a lot; possibly even by more than one person. Touching spreads germs, so if you want to be safe maybe Proporta’s new “anti-bacterial germ resistant advanced screen protector with steritouch for iPad2” is just the thing for you. Bug-zapping screen protectors are also available for iPhone4, iPod touch, HTC Desire HD, Blackberry Torch, and Samsung Galaxy S2.

If this sounds like your thing, head over to Proporta’s site where you can also learn that

the average mobile has 25,127 germs per square inch, whilst the average toilet seat has just 49.

While quoting this sounds like a great way of annoying an Apple fanperson, the scientist in me would like a bit more information please. What about other things in our life that are touched frequently, door handles for example? How does the risk from using an “untreated” mobile device compare with that from, say, shaking hands with someone? Or travelling on the London Underground in the rush hour?

I am all in favour of a cleaner, healthier world; though I also recall theories that too much hygiene can be counter-productive since the body’s built-in defences need some enemies to munch on in order to operate at full efficiency. It makes some kind of intuitive sense.

Still, if you would like your shiny new Apple iPad2 to be more germ-free than a toilet seat, it looks like an Antimicrobial Screen Protector is the answer.

apple, gadgets

Amazon Kindle goes social with Public Notes, Twitter and Facebook integration

A free firmware update for Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader adds several new features, including an element of social networking.

The features are as follows:

  • Page numbers for easier referencing, for example in essays, reviews and discussions. Page numbers must be included in the digital book for this to work. It is not clear how many titles include them; Amazon just says “Many titles in the Kindle Store now include real page numbers”.
  • New newspaper and magazine layout with a “Sections & Articles” view. Each section has its own article list for easier browsing.

image

  • Public notes with Facebook and Twitter integration. This is the feature that makes Kindle reading social. You can attach notes to a passage and make them publicly viewable by other readers who choose to follow you, either on a note-by-note basis, or by making an entire book public through the Amazon website. You can also register a Facebook and Twitter account and have specific notes and ratings posted to those who follow you on those networks.

image

The advantage for Amazon is that these features should promote books through viral marketing.

It comes at an interesting time, since Apple’s new subscription rules may make it difficult for Amazon to continue supporting iPhone and iPad with free readers. Apple is insisting on a 30% cut of the revenue for all titles purchased through apps, forming a financial barrier for competitors to its own iBooks service.

If Amazon can cement loyalty to Kindle though social network integration, that could help it maintain market share.

 

.net, microsoft, mono, professional, software development

Trying out MonoTouch – C# for Apple’s iPhone and iPad

I’ve posted an article on trying out MonoTouch, which builds on the open source Mono project to provide a means of developing apps for Apple’s iOS using C# and the .NET Framework.

It is easy to assume that since the .NET Framework is Microsoft’s technology, using a non-Microsoft implementation is risky. Then again, Mono is open source; and the more usage it gets, the better it becomes. MonoTouch is an important development for the project, since it is a commercial project which might actually be making some money for Novell/Attachmate. While it would be nice to get it for free, it is important that Mono makes business sense as well. MonoTouch has given the Mono project a significant boost.

mobile, video

Dear BBC: please give us mobile apps for offline viewing

The BBC has announced apps for Android and iPad, sparking a bad-tempered discussion (see the comments) in which users complain about two things:

1. The requirement for Flash 10.1 or higher on Android, which limits it to Android 2.2

2. The fact that catch-up viewing is only available on-demand, as on the Web, and not for offline viewing.

image

Both are interesting points, but to my mind the first is the biggest deal. As one of the commenters observes:

As people have pointed out you can use the web interface to watch so using up valuable memory on a phone for an app that does the same thing essentially is not very useful!

By contrast, the ability to download two or three programmes for viewing on the train or plane would be a huge feature. Downloaded video is also more robust even when you are online, thanks to the variability of typical wifi or 3G connections.

Storage is an issue, but not such a bad one now that cards with 16GB or more are commonplace. My HTC Desire currently has 14GB free on the storage card – plenty for a few videos in quality suitable for a tiny screen.

Apple’s devices do not support add-on storage cards, but even the cheapest iPhone 4 has 16GB of storage, as does the iPad.

Failing that, I would rather see the BBC invest in optimising its web site for mobile, rather than creating apps that add little value. See my earlier post, Why I don’t want to view bbc.co.uk through an app.

Too much to ask? The BBC’s Nick Reynolds promises a follow-up post next week, so perhaps we will discover then.

apple, development, mobile, professional, software development, web authoring

Using HTML 5 to mitigate locked-down platforms like Apple iOS

2 Comments

Apple has created a beautiful mobile platform; but it has some drawbacks. One was highlighted yesterday, when Apple rejected an app from Sony for reading and purchasing digital books on the device.

According to Apple’s Trudy Miller, as quoted in the New York Times:

We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app.

What Miller does not spell out is the further implication, which is that the purchase must go though the Apple App Store, and is therefore subject both to approval and to a 30% fee to Apple.

There is a suggestion that Apple is only applying the rule to books at the moment, but that could change. Other readers such as Amazon’s Kindle app will be affected though, after a grace period ending June 30 2011 for existing applications.

Currently these apps have a link which opens the browser, so that users can purchase on the web, and then download to the device, and this is what is annoying Apple. It is not clear to me whether Apple will be satisfied if that link is removed, but with users still to bypass the App Store by purchasing on the web.

It matters little. It is Apple’s platform, and tight control is one of its facets that makes it what it is. Apple can argue that it is enforcing the quality of the user experience. It seems to me that there are competition concerns if Apple comes to dominate a particular market; but don’t hold your breath for change driven by regulators.

What interests me about the issue is the extent to which HTML 5 apps provide a solution. Safari/WebKit on iPhone is a capable platform, and apps can even work offline and have local shortcuts installed. You can use local storage up to at least 5MB, with the user prompted to increase the limit if it is a SQL database – SQLite is built in to the platform.

Local storage is a problem for eReaders, though you can cache a fair amount of text even in 5MB. For many apps though, it is more than enough.

The more Apple locks down and taxes its platform, the more attractive the HTML5 alternative becomes.

blogging

Gadget Writing – iPhone docks, 5.1 headphones, mobile, gaming and more

I have started a new blog over at gadgets.itwriting.com which is for reporting on mobile, audio, gaming and other such enthusiasms. The main reason is to have somewhere to cover these subjects without diluting the focus of itwriting.com itself.

Currently on Gadget Writing:

AVI preparing a successor to the ADM 9.1 – the floorstanding ADM 40

Surround sound 5.1 headphones–why and why not. Roccat Kave reviewed

How to get better sound: higher resolution, or something else?

Review: Audyssey iPhone Audio Dock South of Market Edition

and a few more bits and pieces.

apple, google, mobile, professional, software development, web authoring

Back to BASIC with NS App Studio for mobile

8 Comments

I was intrigued to discover NS Basic/App Studio, which offers a simple Windows IDE targeting iPhone and Android mobile devices.

image

It is all a bit retro, especially when you discover that the company (NS Basic Corporation) has the leading Basic on the … Apple Newton.

Still, something like Visual Basic for iPhone and Android sounds interesting. Does this thing deliver?

I tried the demo. What NS App Studio actually does is to translate Basic code to JavaScript, so the end result is a web application targeting mobile browsers, rather than a mobile app. There is a bit more to it though. Apps have access to local storage including SQLite databases, since this is available to the WebKit-based browsers on iPhone and Android. You can create a shortcut to a web app and even run it offline, making it behave somewhat like a locally installed app. Further, the FAQ notes that you can wrap your web app with PhoneGap to create an app that you can distribute through the App Store or Android Market; and this or similar capability may eventually be included in the IDE.

The question though: why would you choose to use Basic rather than just learning JavaScript? I can make sense of the Google Web Toolkit, which compiles Java to JavaScript, but Google’s effort is more sophisticated. You are not expected to puzzle out the generated JavaScript, but just work in Java. By contrast, with NS App Studio you code in Basic but debug in JavaScript, with all sorts of potential for confusion.

I got the impression that the product is not yet mature. I changed the name of the form in my Hello World project, for example, but found generated code that still referred to the old name, causing a JavaScript error. I found it confusing that the property listed as “text” in the visual grid was “textContent” in code. The IDE is very simple, but also very lacking in features. Most developers would find a modern JavaScript IDE more productive.

Nevertheless it is interesting as a proof of concept, and shows the capability of these mobile browsers as a pre-installed application runtime.

asus, flash, google, hardware, microsoft, mobile, professional, silverlight, software development, windows

Hardware vendors chase Apple’s iPad at CES with Android, not Windows

1 Comment

There is a chorus of disapproval on the web today as Asus announced a full-fat Windows tablet  (Eee Slate EP121)  at CES in Las Vegas, along with three other devices running Google Android – the Eee Pad MeMo, the Eee Pad Transformer, and the Eee Pad Slider.

The most detailed “review” I’ve seen for the EP121 is on the Windows Experience Blog. Core i5, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD, capacitive screen with touch and stylus input.

Nice in its way; but no kind of game-changer since this is an echo of early Windows slates which never achieved more than niche success. Four big disadvantages:

  • Short battery life
  • High price
  • The stylus
  • and another thing: in the rush to embrace touch computing, vendors appear to have forgotten one of the best features of those early tablets: you could rest your hand on the screen while writing with the pen. If you have a combined touch/stylus device that will not work.

Microsoft fans will be hoping CEO Steve Ballmer does not make too much of the EP121 and devices like this in tonight’s keynote. If he does, it will seem the company has learned little from failures of the past.

Asus deserves respect for introducing the netbook to the world in 2007, with the original Eee PC. It ran Linux, had an SSD in place of a hard drive, battery life was good, and above all it was light and cheap. Back then the story was how Microsoft missed the mark with its 2006 Origami project – small portable PCs running Windows – only to be shown how to do it by OEMs with simple netbooks at the right price.

Asus itself is not betting on Windows for tablet success; after all, three of the four products unveiled yesterday run Android. Despite what was apparently a poor CES press conference these may work out OK, though the prices look on the high side.

There will be many more tablets announced at CES, most of them running Android. Android “Honeycomb”, which is also Android 3.0 if Asus CEO Johnny Shih had his terminology right, is the first version created with tablet support in mind.

But why the tablet rush? The answer is obvious: it is because Apple has re-invented the category with the iPad. Since the iPad has succeeded where the Tablet PC failed, as a mass-market device, intuitively you would expect vendors to study what is right about it and to copy that, rather than repeating past mistakes. I think that includes long battery life and a touch-centric user interface; keyboard or stylus is OK as an optional extra but no more than that.

Equalling Apple’s design excellence and closed-but-seamless ecosystem is not possible for most manufacturers, but thanks to Android they can come up with devices that are better in other aspects: cheaper, more powerful, or with added features such as USB ports and Adobe Flash support.

It is reasonable to expect that at least a few of the CES tablets will succeed as not-quite iPads that hit the mark, just as Smartphones like the HTC Desire and Motorola Droid series have done with respect to the iPhone.

Microsoft? Ballmer’s main advantage is that expectations are low. Even if he exceeds those expectations, the abundance of Android tablets at CES shows how badly the company misjudged and mishandled the mobile market.

The implication for developers is that if you want app ubiquity, you have to develop for Android and iOS.

Microsoft could help itself and its developers by delivering a cross-platform runtime for the .NET Framework that would run on Android. I doubt Silverlight for Android would be technically difficult for Microsoft; but sadly after PDC it looks unlikely.

.net, adobe, amazon, apple, cloud computing, flash, intel, iphone, java, microsoft, mobile, nokia, open source, oracle, professional, silverlight, software development, Sun, visual studio, Web, web authoring, windows, windows 7

Ten big tech trends from 2010

8 Comments

This was an amazing year for tech. Here are some of the things that struck me as significant.

Sun Java became Oracle Java

Oracle acquired Sun and set about imposing its authority on Java. Java is still Java, but Oracle lacks Sun’s commitment to open source and community – though even in Sun days there was tension in this area. That was nothing to the fireworks we saw in 2010, with Java Community Process members resigning, IBM switching from its commitment to the Apache Harmony project to the official OpenJDK, and the Apache foundation waging a war of words against Oracle that was impassioned but, it seems, futile.

Microsoft got cloud religion

Only up to a point, of course. This is the Windows and Office company, after all. However – and this is a little subjective – this was the year when Microsoft convinced me it is serious about Windows Azure for hosting our applications and data. In addition, it seems to me that the company is willing to upset its partners if necessary for the sake of its hosted Exchange and SharePoint – BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite), soon to become Office 365.

This is a profound change for Microsoft, bearing in mind its business model. I spoke to a few partners when researching this article for the Register and was interested by the level of unease that was expressed.

Microsoft also announced some impressive customer wins for BPOS, especially in government, though the price the customers pay for these is never mentioned in the press releases.

Microsoft Silverlight shrank towards Windows-only

Silverlight is Microsoft’s browser plug-in which delivers multimedia and the .NET Framework to Windows and Mac; it is also the development platform for Windows Phone 7. It still works on a Mac, but in 2010 Microsoft made it clear that cross-platform Silverlight is no longer its strategy (if it ever was), and undermined the Mac version by adding Windows-specific features that interoperate with the local operating system. Silverlight is still an excellent runtime, powerful, relatively lightweight, easy to deploy, and supported by strong tools in Visual Studio 2010. If you have users who do not run Windows though, it now looks a brave choice.

The Apple iPad was a hit

I still have to pinch myself when thinking about how Microsoft now needs to catch up with Apple in tablet computing. I got my first tablet in 2003, yes seven years ago, and it ran Windows. Now despite seven years of product refinement it is obvious that Windows tablets miss the mark that Apple has hit with its first attempt – though drawing heavily on what it learnt with the equally successful iPhone. I see iPads all over the place, in business as well as elsewhere, and it seems to me that the success of a touch interface on this larger screen signifies a transition in personal computing that will have a big impact.

Google Android was a hit

Just when Apple seemed to have the future of mobile computing in its hands, Google’s Android alternative took off, benefiting from mass adoption by everyone-but-Apple among hardware manufacturers. Android is not as elegantly designed or as usable as Apple’s iOS, but it is close enough; and it is a relatively open platform that runs Adobe Flash and other apps that do not meet Apple’s approval. There are other contenders: Microsoft Windows Phone 7; RIM’s QNX-based OS in the PlayBook; HP’s Palm WebOS; Nokia Symbian and Intel/Nokia MeeGo – but how many mobile operating systems can succeed? Right now, all we can safely say is that Apple has real competition from Android.

HP fell out with Microsoft

Here is an interesting one. The year kicked off with a press release announcing that HP and Microsoft love each other to the extent of $250 million over three years – but if you looked closely, that turned out to be less than a similar deal in 2006. After that, the signs were even less friendly. HP acquired Palm in April, signalling its intent to compete with Windows Mobile rather than adopting it; and later this year HP announced that it was discontinuing its Windows Home Server range. Of course HP remains a strong partner for Windows servers, desktops and laptops; but these are obvious signs of strain.

The truth though is that these two companies need one another. I think they should kiss and make up.

eBook readers were a hit

I guess this is less developer-oriented; but 2010 was the year when electronic book publishing seemed to hit the mainstream. Like any book lover I have mixed feelings about this and its implications for bookshops. I doubt we will see books disappear to the same extent as records and CDs; but I do think that book downloads will grow rapidly over the next few years and that paper-and-ink sales will diminish. It is a fascinating tech battle too: Amazon Kindle vs Apple iPad vs the rest (Sony Reader, Barnes and Noble Nook, and others which share their EPUB format). I have a suspicion that converged devices like the iPad may win this one, but displays that are readable in sunlight have special requirements so I am not sure.

HTML 5 got real

2010 was a huge year for HTML 5 – partly because Microsoft announced its support in Internet Explorer 9, currently in beta; and partly because the continued growth of browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, and the WebKit-based Google Chrome, Apple Safari and numerous mobile browsers showed that HTML 5 would be an important platform with or without Microsoft. Yes, it is fragmented and unfinished; but more and more of HTML 5 is usable now or in the near future.

Adobe Flash survived Apple and HTML 5

2010 was the year of Steve Jobs’ notorious Thoughts on Flash as well as a big year for HTML 5, which encroaches on territory that used to require the services of a browser plug-in. Many people declared Adobe Flash dead, but the reality was different and the company had a great year. Apple’s focus on design and usability helps Adobe’s design-centric approach even while Apple’s refusal to allow Flash on its mobile computers opposes it.

Windows 7 was a hit

Huge relief in Redmond as Windows 7 sold and sold. The future belongs to mobile and cloud; but Windows is not going away soon, and version 7 is driving lots of upgrades as even XP diehards move over. I’m guessing that we will get first sight of Windows 8 in 2011. Another triumph, or another Vista?

apple, audio, mobile, reviews

Review: Audyssey iPhone Audio Dock South of Market Edition

How good can a dock for an Apple iPod or iPhone sound? Pretty good, as this high-end South of Market Audio Dock from Audyssey demonstrates. If you think all iPod docks have thin, tinny bass, think again. It also turns out to be a neat speakerphone.

The dock has a distinctive bulbous shape, measuring around 24cm (9.5”) square on its largest side, with the dock mounted on the front edge. The unit is designed to sit on a desk or table and is surprisingly heavy for its size – probably an encouraging sign. Viewed from the front it looks tall and compact.

image

The side view though shows that the speakers do have some room to breathe.

image

As you can see, the speakers are firing more or less sideways. This is not ideal for stereo imaging, but in practice the dock delivers a wider image than you might expect.

Here is what you get out of the box: the dock, a remote with a battery, a USB cable, and two 3.5mm audio cables.

image

Getting started is just a matter of putting the battery in the remote (slightly fiddly), plugging in the power cable, docking your iPod or iPhone, and playing some music. There is also an app you can download that provides some additional settings.

Before going into more detail about what this dock is capable of, let me say immediately that the sound quality is excellent. Words that come to mind are crisp, deep, rich, smooth and powerful. Vocals have real presence. The dock successfully conveyed the drama of a Mahler symphony, the growl of Tom Waits, the complex rhythms and pace of Santana, and the tender emotion of English folk singer Sandy Denny. Once I started playing music, I did not want to stop.

The secret of this high quality is twofold. First, the electronics follows high-end principles. There are four speakers – two 4-inch woofers, two .75 inch tweeters – which are powered by four separate amplifiers controlled by an active crossover. By contrast, a typical home hi-fi would have two amplifiers driving speakers with passive crossovers. Active crossovers mean that the musical signal is divided into the optimum frequencies for each speaker driver at a low level, introducing less distortion and improving control.

Audyssey takes further advantage of this, by using software processing to mitigate the limitations of the speaker drivers. That’s no surprise, since Audyssey specialises in audio processing technology for other manufacturers, which gets incorporated into home theatre and in-car equipment.

According to the specification, there are several techniques implemented in this dock. BassXT extends the bass response by boosting the signal dynamically to flatten the frequency response at a point when it would normally be dropping off. Audyssey EQ corrects “time and frequency response” imperfections introduced by the loudspeakers and cabinets. Dynamic EQ performs frequency response correction to preserve a flat response as volume changes. Dynamic Volume evens out the volume level to compensate for differences in the volume of the source.

Some of these features can be controlled or disabled by a companion iOS app, free to install. Specifically, you can disable Dynamic Volume or set it to optimize for Background Listening; you can apply tone controls including a single tone control called Tilt or traditional bass and treble; or you can set your own custom EQ.

image image

I admit that seems a lot of processing; and it would not have surprised me if the results were worse than pure straight-through audio reproduction. That is not the case though; the unit sounds very good indeed. Given the challenge of getting high quality sound from a relatively small enclosure, taking advantage of digital processing makes sense to me, provided it is carefully implemented at it is here.

Controlling playback

Once you have docked an iPhone and set it playing, you can control it either from the iPhone itself, or from the supplied remote, or pause and play by tapping an illuminated icon on top of the unit (It is not obvious that this is a button, but once you discover it, it is a handy feature; it also has some other functions including answering phone calls and showing Bluetooth status).

The remote has buttons for volume up/down, pause/play, and skip forward or back.

image

The Audyssey dock supports Bluetooth and for full features you should pair your iPhone with it and keep Bluetooth on. Now you can stream music from an iPhone even when it is not docked. This can be handy, since the iPhone is easier to use in your hand then when docked. Using Bluetooth, you can undock it with only brief interruption in playback, for example for selecting music. Range seems good, and I was able to detach the iPhone, walk through the door of my study and into the corridor, and the music kept playing – though note that the audio quality will not be as good. I found the quality acceptable though noticeably inferior.

When docked, the iPhone will charge provided the dock is not in standby mode.

There are also buttons on the remote intended for the dock’s speakerphone feature, which deserves its own paragraph.

Audyssey as conferencing speakerphone

The most intriguing feature of the Audyssey South of Market dock is its speakerphone feature. For this to work, you must have Bluetooth enabled.

Scenario: you are enjoying music, when a call comes in. At this point the music pauses, the iPhone invites you to decline or answer the call, and a ring sounds through the dock’s loudspeakers. Tap the phone icon on the remote and you can answer the call while using the dock as a speakerphone.

It turns out the Audyssey dock makes a rather good speakerphone. It performs microphone array processing and echo cancellation to improve voice quality, using front and rear microphones, and in my testing this worked well.

You can also wire up the dock to a computer, using its line in and mic out connections. This lets you use it as a speakerphone with Skype or other Voice over IP providers. Nice idea, though my guess it that this is too inconvenient for most users. Working with the iPhone is more compelling.

Connections

image

This is the back panel, showing the microphone output, line in, and USB port. Above the panel is a button for pairing a Bluetooth device. If you connect the USB port to a computer, the docked iPhone will sync with iTunes, though auto-sync can be a nuisance if you frequently dock and undock the device.

Annoyances

Not that many. However, I would like some way to select music from my seat when the iPhone is docked, beyond the simple track skip on the remote. Of course you can do this using Bluetooth streaming, though sound quality may be compromised.

Even with Bluetooth set up, I find that removing the iPhone from the dock pauses the music. I have to tap play to resume it. Re-docking the iPhone interrupts the music briefly but it resumes automatically.

Considering the cost of the device though, it’s a shame that Audyssey does not supply a proper manual; there is an excellent one online [pdf], but the one in the box is just safety warnings and limited warranty, pleasing for the lawyers but not for users.

The stereo separation is good considering it is a single box, but poor compared to two speakers set apart in the normal way.

Summary

The Audyssey South of Market Dock costs more than most iPod/iPhone docks, but in return it delivers superb sound quality along with some well thought-out speakerphone features.

The B&W Zeppelin makes an interesting comparison. The Zeppelin is a little more expensive but has better stereo separation thanks to its 640mm (25.2 in) width, and has a sub-woofer for extended bass. On the other hand, the Audyssey is more compact and could be considered less intrusive depending on what you think of the Zeppelin’s distinctive styling, and the Zeppelin has no Bluetooth streaming.

In the USA it is an easy decision. The Audyssey dock at around $400 is better value than a Zeppelin at around $600. In the UK the fact that B&W is a UK company whereas Audyssey is based in Los Angeles seems to bring the prices closer together: £400 for a Zeppelin versus £350 for the Audyssey dock. Try to hear them both; but the Audyssey dock is not shamed and is still well worth considering.

Compatibility

The South of Market Audio Dock fits:

  • iPhone 4
  • iPhone 3 and 3GS
  • iPod Touch
  • iPod Nano (4th and 5th generation)
  • iPod classic

Price and availability

The Audyssey South of Market Dock costs around $399.00. You should find it at Apple stores among other retailers.

Amazon.co.uk is advertising this dock for availability from 15th January 2011, at £349.99