Macgasm

As reported by Mashable, Chinese website Apple.pro has leaked photos of what is obviously an iPhone 4G with a white face plate. The black version is what we first saw about a month ago on Engadget, and aside from the aluminum back, it looks like a natural evolution of the iPhone. At the time of the original leak, the discussions regarding the cosmetics of the phone revolved largely around the back and the aluminum bezel of the phone and how form might impact function.

With this latest leak, however, the internet has been agog about the possibility of the phone actually launching with two different face plates, a first for the iPhone. While the notion of the whole internet fawning over an Apple product leak is nothing new, it does seem kind of silly that this one little leak should do the same. Except it should get our attention as it may provide some insight into Apple’s marketing mechanisms.

In all likelihood this is just a one-off mockup that Apple’s product marketing folks requested for consideration, despite what the designers may have intended. It is very common in the cell phone industry for such mock-ups to be created for nothing more than due diligence; Apple should be no different. Somewhere in Cupertino someone did the research that indicates that people like to have a color choice when buying an iPhone; white is certainly a color that has worked before for Apple and the iPhone.

But from an overall design perspective I am not sure this works. Even acknowledging that the finished product would look much better than what is seen in these pictures, the white face plate seems to go against Apple’s ever-evolving design principles. White polycarbonate products are white all over and are made that way to be recognizably different from the rest of the product line, which is defined by brushed aluminum and black reflective plastic. Brushed aluminum and white plastic simply do not combine to create the sleek, deep, highly evolved design that Apple has achieved with the latest MacBook Pro and iPad.

In my opinion this is just the hype machine at play to drive traffic to a website. I have been wrong before, though.

Article Via: Apple Pro
Photo Credit: Apple Pro

Last Friday Apple made the completely redesigned Mashable app available for download (free). What, you don’t know what Mashable is? If you honestly don’t know, it is a professionally-staffed site dedicated to reporting on everything social media, self-proclaimed as “The Social Media Guide”. The app is yet another app that takes website content and optimizes it for the iPhone, incorporating and taking advantage of many of the UI elements in the iPhone SDK, making it far easier to quickly read, search, and share Mashable articles.

Per Mashable’s announcement, the app’s features include:

1. Browse by channel, category, tag or author

2. Share stories via email, Twitter and Facebook

3. Read later: save stories to read offline

4. Drag to refresh: tap and pull down to refresh story listings

5. In-App Browser : Visit external links without leaving the app

6. Price: FREE!

For me, an app like this has to do certain things well in order for me to continue to use it: load quickly, be very intuitive to use, easy to refresh, contain all of the articles and features available on the actual website, and be fun to use. Let’s run through the checklist, then:

Load quickly. The app is lightning fast, loading the current main Mashable page quickly after a brief splash screen. Navigation to other sections is done by scrubbing across a top menu and clicking the section title; the app responds instantly to all of these gestures. Article lists and selected articles also load quickly. All video links are to YouTube clips, so the experience is consistent with other apps that open YouTube and return after the video has been viewed.

Intuitive to use. The app is highly intuitive to use. Navigation is a breeze with browsing by categories, tags, and authors all supported. Search is simple and reliable. Articles can easily be shared on Facebook via Facebook Connect pop-up functionality. The one feature that was a little frustrating to use, and only because I ignored the pop-up when it first appeared, is sharing via Twitter. Unfortunately, to set up Twitter sharing, a quick trip to the application settings within the iPhone settings applet must be made; once there the specific Twitter client the user prefers has to be selected. Alas, the list of supported clients is very short, with only web, Tweetie, Twitteriffic, Echofon, and Twittelator supported. This settings applet also allows Instapaper Credentials to be entered–though Instapaper is supported I can’t comment on it because I do not use it.

Easy to Refresh. It’s pretty cool to see Loren Brichter’s innovative, fun and easy-to-use innovation, as introduced in Tweetie2, being used in other apps. I first saw it in the latest version of Gowalla, now Mashable. If you’re unfamiliar with how it works, it’s a simple click-pull-and-release gesture. It is very slick and contributes to the overall fun factor of using the app.

Contain articles and features of website. There is nothing missing here; in fact, I’d suggest it is a bit easier to use and navigate the actual website.

Fun to use. I realize some people may scoff at this, but isn’t this part of what the iPhone is all about? Apps should not only be easy to use and extremely functional, but should bring some whimsy to the table, too. This is often the key to making a great app–people will want to use it and you will have yourself a captive audience that will grow by word of mouth and will be loyal to your site as a result. It is a win-win proposition for the app developer/owner and the end user. The Mashable app is more fun to use than any other news app I have seen, and the emphasis on a cool interface and the ability to share information quickly contributes to this.

As an avid Mashable reader this app indispensable; it has resulted in me reading more Mashable posts than ever before. I highly rate the app, but really hope they add to the Twitter client support list. Overall, if you have even a passing interest in social media news I cannot recommend this app enough.

News of Apple increasing the 3G download limit to 20MB is streaking across the internet like wildfire. The rumors about why are even more rampant. The rumors and my thoughts on each:

• Related to impending release of the iPad–if so, this would indicate that Apple can not limit download size by device, which seems rather unlikely or indicates that Apple cannot differentiate between the iPhone and iPad because of the common OS.
• More access to larger applications–Well, okay. This is a no-brainer inasmuch as Apple wants to generate more revenue and the larger applications tend to be more expensive.
• Improvements in bandwidth–this seems more likely, as any significant increase in download capacity would require the bandwidth to support it. AT&T has been aggressively rolling out HSDPA 7.2 and 3G speeds and coverage has noticeably improved with the rollout of 850 MHz in several areas previously serviced only by 1900 MHz.

In summary, if AT&T can support the additional strain on their network, it only makes sense for both AT&T and Apple to increase the download cap because it increases revenue (the bandwidth cap applies to both the App and iTunes Music Stores), decreases customer dissatisfaction, and increases customer stickiness and loyalty for both AT&T and Apple. As long as the AT&T network can truly support the increased cap, this is a win-win for iPhone customers, AT&T, and Apple.

via iLounge

Long-rumored to be set for the $1000 price point, the iPad was either going to be an evolutionary device built upon the framework of the iPhone and iPod Touch, or a regressive, stripped-down tablet version of a MacBook. Once the rumors began that the device would run a version of the iPhone OS, it became apparent that the hardware would certainly be the former. Thankfully, those rumors were confirmed at today’s Apple event held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

The simple description of the iPad hardware is that it resembles an oversized iPod Touch with more width to it while only slightly thicker (.17”), an incredible feat of design in itself. The iPad is 9.56” h x 7.47” w x .5” d and weighs in at a light 1.5 pounds (1.6 pounds with 3G modem). The black border around the screen is perfectly designed for holding it without unnecessarily invading the viewable screen. The brushed aluminum back is standard, familiar Apple design.

When powered on it is a stunning piece of technology. Driving iPhone OS 3.2 is Apple’s own 1 GHz A4 chip, “a custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip”, per Apple’s tech sheet. This chip enables the iPad to display 1024×768 HD video resolution at 132 pixels per inch. The device also supports video out, though it does not support any HD output. As should be expected with any device from Apple, a wide array of audio and video codecs are supported. To store all the content Apple wants to sell to you for use on the iPad, there are three different flash drives available for the device: 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB.

All models of the iPad come with built-in WiFi, with support for 802.11 a/b/g/n. Additionally, for a premium of $130 the iPad is available with a 3G modem supporting UMTS/HSDPA and GSM/EDGE for areas where 3G is unavailable. As with the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad also sports Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology. Rounding out the tech specs are the now-ubiquitous accelerometer, a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack, ambient light sensor and a lithium-polymer battery that supposedly provides up to 10 hours of usage and up to 30 days of stand-by time.

The iPad is priced well below the $1000 price point that had long been predicted. Here is the complete pricing breakdown:

After all of those features and the great pricing it is a bit easy to forget that there are some significant hardware features missing. There is no SD card slot and no USB or Firewire port, but perhaps the most significant missing piece that seems like a no-brainer is an iSight camera. How it did not make it into the final hardware spec is beyond imagining; it would be a cheap, small, and light piece of hardware to add and would instantly increase the iPad’s usability three-fold. Perhaps this is just typical Apple iterative hardware release scheduling at work, i.e. we will see a next generation iPad with iSight, but it certainly is puzzling.

Of course the final analysis of the iPad product cannot be made until it has been released to the public and has had time to germinate in the real world. The hardware specs certainly support the possibility that this is a revolutionary product, but whether the iPad becomes the next “it” gadget for Apple or not will rely more importantly on the next OS release and, most importantly, application development.

[via engadget]

On Thursday Amazon announced the February launch of a limited beta Kindle Development Kit (KDK), opening the popular e-reader to third-party developers. Many analysts and industry observers view this as a play by Amazon to fend off what is expected to be a a new entry into the e-reader market by Apple’s highly-anticipated tablet product rumored to be announced at Apple’s January 27 event.

Although the e-ink display of the Kindle will prevent the kind of game development seen for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, it is anticipated that applications to be offered will include word games, travel guides, and other information-based services (no word yet on whether the Kindle’s audio system will be available to applications, so hold out hope for fart apps). Due to the nature of Amazon’s agreement with AT&T, however, intense data usage will result in charges being passed on to Kindle users at a rate of $0.15/MB.

It is anticipated that Amazon will employ the same revenue share model Apple offers to developers, with 70% of revenue going to the developer and the remaining 30% being retained by Amazon. For Amazon, this percentage could result in a net profit for a product where they are currently losing money or just breaking even with e-book sales. Given that the Kindle 2 has now been available for one year it is quite possible that the next-generation Kindle could be released to coincide with an operating system upgrade that supports the new application environment.

[via cnet]
[image courtesy Amazon.com]