User Interface Watch: Apple’s march towards hands free, thought controlled computing continued this past week with the widely misunderstood iPhone 4 “Death Grip” episode. Perceived and quickly lambasted as a design flaw, Apple is stategically taking high levels of flak as they quietly persue their true longterm goal.
[Update - tags: ANALYSIS, HUMOR, SATIRE]
Steve Jobs has always been a minimalist, be it product design, the breadth of his wardrobe, or succinct email replies. This minimalism also applies to the ways in which we interact with our computers.
CUPERTINO, California—June 22, 2010—Apple® today announced that it sold its three millionth iPad™ yesterday, just 80 days after its introduction in the US. iPad is a revolutionary and magical product that allows users to connect with their apps, content and the Internet in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.
“People are loving iPad as it becomes a part of their daily lives,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more people around the world, including those in nine more countries next month.”
With yesterday’s major update to iOS comes a major new source of revenue for both Cupertino and app developers: iAd, Apple’s new mobile advertising service.
In a best case scenario, iAd will result in cheaper apps that deliver interesting, interactive advertisements finely targeted enough that you’ll actually want to play around in them. The worst case? Invasive, privacy-invading ads spreading across all ads that are just as annoying and irrelevant as the braying flash banners splashed across a Yugoslavian torrent site… just with no way to install AdBlock.
Apple Inc. is now collecting the “precise,” “real-time geographic location” of its users’ iPhones, iPads and computers.
In an updated version of its privacy policy, the company added a paragraph noting that once users agree, Apple and unspecified “partners and licensees” may collect and store user location data.
When users attempt to download apps or media from the iTunes store, they are prompted to agree to the new terms and conditions. Until they agree, they cannot download anything through the store.
The recent AT&T data leak underscores the need for iPad security precautions. A few simple steps can help protect confidential data.
AT&T apologized Sunday for a hack that exposed thousands of customers’ e-mail addresses last week, and said it will work with law enforcement to prosecute those responsible.
A hacker group called Goatse Security got about 114,000 e-mail addresses of people including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg by exploiting an authentication page on AT&T’s Web site. The group found that the page would return an e-mail address associated with a particular iPad if they entered the correct serial number for that iPad’s SIM card. The group wrote code that would randomly generate serial numbers and query the Web site until it got e-mail addresses back.
Macworld – Apple announced a major update to the Mac mini line Tuesday morning, and we were lucky enough to get our hands on one. Here are our first impressions after a few hours of use. (You can also check out our slideshow on the new mini.)
The Cult of Mac team had a rollicking good time at BoxTone’s iNSpired party, checking out the machines and chatting to devs.
There were about 20 Apple machines on show, from the Apple I to the iMac. The best part, they were working machines — something the organizers probably regretted with a room full of people intent on playing with them while downing beer and inhaling scrumptious mini-sandwiches.
We start with Wendell Sander, Apple employee no. 16, who fires up his Apple I for a memory dump using an iPod.
One item Steve Jobs didn’t mention during his presentation at WWDC on Monday is Apple Safari 5’s prominent ad-blocking feature, which strips advertisements and other design elements from any web page that appears to be “an article,” with apparently grim implications for online publications.
“Safari Reader removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles,” reads Apple’s description, striking fear into the hearts of online ad sales departments. “So you get the whole story and nothing but the story.”
Apple released an update to its Safari web browser Monday afternoon. We’ve been testing it for close to a full day, and we’ve found that Safari 5 performs as advertised: It’s faster, more capable and well worth the upgrade.
Safari 5 was launched rather quietly at the end of the first day of the 2010 Worldwide Developer Conference, an event that was dominated by Steve Jobs’ debut of the next iPhone and the new iOS. Safari wasn’t discussed during the morning keynote, but an announcement was made later that afternoon at a web-developer session.
Look out for the iPhone 4 announcement at around 30 min (“Stop me if you’ve already seen this…”), about the retina display (“Once you’ve used a retina, you’ll never go back”) at around 38 minutes and enjoy Jobs coping with a wi-fi glitch at around 40 minutes. We also enjoyed the Guitar Hero demo and the video chat with Jonathan Ive.
What was your favorite moment of the hour-long state of the Apple nation?
