Apple’s upcoming event is officially the 27th of January, and they’ve decided to play right to our weakness by announcing that they want everyone to come see their “latest creation.”
Latest creation could mean a new iPhone, or new iWork. Heck, it could mean anything but a new Tablet. Apple’s marketing team is at their best with this ad, knowing full well what everyone is going to deduce from their announcement.
Who knows what’s coming, but it’s officially going to be on the 27th, not the 26th or the 28th, but the 27th. So mark your calendars, book your appointments, start thinking up your excuses to call in sick, because the 27th is going to be an interesting day.
Twitter isn’t exactly Apple, but since we’ve spent so much time chatting with people on Twitter I thought it would be appropriate to let you guys in on an awesome book I’ve spent some time reading lately.
140 Characters by Dom Sagolla (@dom) is easily the best book or article I’ve read on Twitter. I’ve been recommending this book to everyone who’s looking to get into twitter. There’s more insights in this book then you’ll find from most of the “expert” social media activists. The insights are probably expected, considering he helped create Twitter with Jack Dorsey, and has worked in the field for quite a while.
Is there a better way to get advice on how to use twitter than from someone who helped the web service become what it is today? Probably not. Remember those terrible style guides we were all held to in high school and college throughout our academic career, well this is a style guide for the short form, and frankly, it’s needed. The book walks you through the ins and outs of Twitter, and the reality that a tweet exists without context, standing alone in a stream of thoughts. Failing to understand this means that you could be taken out of context, and your ideals misrepresented.
Personally, I have a difficult time with manuals and books that read like a how-to guide, but I was pleasantly surprised at Dom’s approach to the book and how it reads: less like an instruction manual, and more like a novel. I know it sounds strange but the book is a delightful read, and it certainly illustrates the passion the Twitter team has for concise, well thought out, whimsical grammar.
If you’re not really into paper back books anymore then you can also pick up the copy of the guide in Apple’s AppStore for 4.99
fonehome.co.uk have put together this short video showing the speed differences on the 3 main carriers in the UK by loading up Google Earth, one of the most data demanding apps on the iPhone 3G [S] all at the same time.
Vodafone (the new kids on the block here, having only had the iPhone for a matter of weeks now) come up trumps in the test, managing to locate them right down to street level and providing a nice clear image before Orange have really started up. O2, the elder in the game were not far behind Vodafone, but they only managed to get a rough area with lots of points of interest.
What does this go to show?
Maybe because Vodafone are new around these parts they did better than the others? Then surely there is no reason for O2 to have beaten Orange to the chase. O2 have been in the press recently about slow data on their network, and customers even losing connection completely, something they say they are working to make better in the future with more devices relying on heavy data use. Orange even boast that they cover more thanany other network, 93% in fact..
I don’t think this will be tempting me to move to Vodafone though. I’m out of my 18 month tie in with O2 now, and I phoned them up and managed to drop my contract by £15 and add another 700 SMS messages to my original plan. I still have unlimited data and the same amount of minutes. Told them I was just holding out for the next generation in June/July to which, of course, they said ‘we know nothing’ :)
If you’re in the UK, your contract is nearing it’s end, and you want to hold out for the ‘maybe’ next gen iPhone while saving some money each month, change to the simplicity 20 plan. Then thank me later.
In November I went on Weight Watchers to loose weight. They offer a service called eTools, an additional service that I didn’t want to have to pay a monthly fee for. It basically allows you to track your points online or on your iPhone. There are additional features as well. This is when I turned to the iTunes App Store for some free and paid apps. I found few apps that were just as good as eTools for tracking. For the uninitiated tracking is how you know how many points you have every day to put towards your food. Think of it like a monetary budget, you only have so much money to spend a day. There’s my little plug for Weight Watchers.
iLog It
The first app I found was iLog It. Out of the apps that I looked at this was the only one that used a points system that I could track my points with. This app is free in the iTunes Store. I find this app in-disposable in my goal to loosing weight. iLog has a favourite feature, where you store the food with the associated points. This saves you from having to constantly re-enter foods you commonly eat. This app also allows you to look back at logs from previous days and weeks. For example, sometimes I forget to enter what I had for dinner or a snack I had the previous day. I simply go back to that day and enter in my missed items.
Eat This Not That
The second app I found was Eat This Not That. This app is $4.99 in the Apps store, and there is a book of the same name. Eat this Not That is great to have on your iPhone when you’re out and about. You can search a large majority of restaurants, as well as supermarkets. It gives you detailed nutrition information from the restaurants menu or food from the supermarket. I like carrying this around instead of the book. Plus they also offer substitutes for many unhealthy foods, which is great when you’re craving unhealthy foods.
Lose It!
The final app I tried out was Lose It!. I found this app to be very similar to Eat This Not That; however, this app is free. The difference I found with this app was its Social Networking feature. It allows you to connect to Twitter or Facebook to share your progress. If you’re not signed up with either of these Social Networking services, you can also email your progress to others. This is under Motivators in the more section of the App.
If you’re like me, and your on your way to shedding the pounds, I hope you find these iPhone apps helpful. There are plenty more apps to choose from in this category. So, if these are not your cup of tea check out others in the Apps Store.
Here’s a fun advert from Ford Germany, featuring Apple’s distinctive (although terrible) white earbuds, advertising the fact that Bluetooth® is now built into a whole bunch of their new models as they roll out of the factories.
The Bluetooth® with Voice Control system allows you to operate your mobile, satellite navigation system, climate control and audio system using voice-activated commands – all wirelessly. It’s not only safer, leaving you free to keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel, but it also means you’re keeping within the law while still staying in touch.
The iPhone and iPod are amongst the devices which can use this feature, and they have the most recognizable headphones I guess, this could be why Apple’s were chosen. Either way, I think it’s a fun and clever advert.
Do knot forget: Bluetooth® comes with every new Ford model.
I find it funny when Woz is being interviewed by the media they will generally make it sound like he is being negative towards Apple or one of its products. They also tend to mis-represent his statements. Woz being the cool guy that he is takes it in stride, and generally has to come back out and tell everyone what he really said.
This is evident in the Electronista article, “Woz admits to preferring Nexus One over iPhone”. In the article it says that he prefers the Nexus One, but he also prefers the iPhone, and he carries both. With only seeing the nine second video from the article, when asked what his favorite gadget is, Woz answers by saying it’s not an Apple product. Now again I didn’t see the entire video, but he never said that he preferred the Nexus One over the iPhone.
Woz is a gadget guy. He’s going to want the latest gadgets be it an Apple product or not. It just bothers me when the media misinterprets what he says for shock value. Or simply to make it look like he doesn’t like Apple or its products. To those people I say shame on you. Woz is a great guy, and maybe the media should read his book “iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way”. Then maybe they’ll have a better understanding of Woz, and how he loves technology, Apple or not.
Stanford has updated the iPhone OS iTunes U to show the Winter 2010 class. The class is taught by Alan Cannistraro and Josh Shaffer. This class has been updated in a few ways. The first is that it includes iPhone OS 3.1 development.
The iPhone OS update is a definite plus. While iPhone OS 2.X is great, the updates that were included with the 3.0 iPhone SDK allows for more engaging applications.
The update to the iPhone OS is not the only update, though. This go around, there is a bit more of an update. The slides are now included in the iTunes U RSS feed instead of being in a separate feed. Therefore, unlike the Spring 2009 class, you do not have to go and download the slides from the website.
Finally, the most useful update is the addition of Closed Captioning. This is extremely useful for everybody. Sometimes, during the Spring 2009 CS193P class, it was hard to hear exactly what was said. While there are still some inaudible parts, it is still much easier to understand what is being said.
If you’re interested in iPhone programming this would definitely be worth the subscription. It is a free download and available from iTunes U. There are still files that may be useful on the class website, so definitely head over there to see those as well.
The Spring 2009 class is still available as well as the PDF feed.
If this class will be anything like the last class, there will be an update to the iPhone SDK during the class; but it will not be covered except to acknowledge the update to the SDK.
I really don’t care what your politics are, and frankly, I could really care less what anyone says about the Red Cross. What I do care about is helping out people in need. Outside of hopping on a plane to Haiti myself, there’s little I can do to help the poor people suffering over there, except donate some cash.
Sure, the Red Cross as well as any other charity has some sketchy practices, but if only half my donated dollar makes it to Haiti, that’s 50 cents the wouldn’t have seen if I didn’t. Everyone’s trying to do their part, and Apple’s the latest company to offer a hand.
Apple’s set up a payment system through their iTunes portal. You can donate from $5.00 to $200.00 to the cause. If you have a couple of dollars help out some less fortunate people. Store up some good Karma, because there’s probably a good chance that you’ll need some of it returned at some point.
Apple’s upcoming event is officially the 27th of January, and they’ve decided to play right to our weakness by announcing that they want everyone to come see their “latest creation.”
January 18, 2010
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