Maccast 10.13.2012 - Show #414
Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
* Mandaandthemarbles.com
V Sponsor: Citrix
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V News
V New iPods hit the streets
* The 7th generation iPod Nanos, 5th generation iPod Touch, and new iPod Shuffles started arriving in consumers hands this week.
V New iPod Touch is getting great reviews for being taller, thinner, lighter.
* Performance is also improved over last years model since the new on supports the same A5 processor found in the iPhone 4S
* There's also improved cameras front and back. Better resolution, better color, and better low-light performance.
V A teardown showed 512MB of RAM, versus the 1GB of RAM in the iPhone.
* Has a 4" Retina display like the iPhone 5, but iFixit described the iPod display as a "much simpler, cheaper design."
* 1000 more mAh on the battery. 1030mAh
* The power button, microphone, LED flash, and volume buttons on the player are all connected through the same ribbon cable.
* Cheaper home button with rubber membrane. Not the same more solid redesigned one found in the iPhone 5
* Of course there are the new colors and Apple "Loop" wrist strap and the Lightning connector
* One odd thing is that the EarPods that ship with the iPod Touch don;t have the inline mic or remote controls. Very disappointing and feels cheap on Apple's part in my opinion.
V The new iPod Touch also has Siri, but only when connected to Wi-fi and Siri overrides the old voice controls
* If you want those back you can disable Siri.
* Go to Settings > General > Siri, and switch Siri off.
* Only bummer here is disabling Siri removes personalized data from Apple's servers, so that will have to be re-uploaded and re-built next time you activate Siri
V iPod Nano
V Already has an update. Software version 1.0.1
* The only feature listed is "Support for iPod nano (7th generation)"
V Samsung might get Appled
* According to a report by iMore there is some speculation by Citigroup Global Markets Inc. that Apple may move all of it's quad-core chip manufacturing to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) cutting out Samsung
V The main reason for the switch is believed to be TSMC's more efficient 20-nanometer manufacturing process which Apple reportedly began verifying back in August.
* Apple's current chips from Samsung use a 32-nanometer process
* Apple tried a stronger partnership with TSMC in the past, but they were reluctant due to Apple's typically low margins offer to suppliers. It's believed that cost efficiencies in the new manufacturing process and Apple's large order volumes may have finally brought TSMC around.
V To date Apple has yet to produce a true quad core CPU design, but they acquired the fabless chip company Intrincity back in 2010 and have supposedly been developing quad-core processors.
* Apple has produced a quad-core GPU design, in the iPad's A5X
* It's believed quad-core chips designs destined for future iPads, Apple TVs and even possibly Notebooks.
* TSMC may begin quad-core chip production for Apple as early as next month.
V Apple also recently hired Jim Mergard, a lead chip designer who worked for AMD and most recently Samsung
* At AMD Mergard is know for working on a high-profile chip designed for low-end portable computers codenamed Brazos
* There is some speculation that Mergard's talents may be used by Apple to help move their chip designs from mobile devices to Macs
V iOS Maps not impacting iPhone 5 Sales
* ChangeWave surveyed 4270 North American consumers about the iPhone 5 and got some interesting numbers
V 32 percent said they were somewhat or very likely to buy an iPhone 5
* That's up almost 10% from the same survey they did a year ago with the iPhone 4S, where 22.5% of consumers said they were likely buying an iPhone
* Those who were not likely to buy an iPhone 5 were asked if the recent maps problem factored into their decision not to buy and 0% said it was a factor. The most common reason being they were happy with their current device.
V ChangeWave also asked iPhone 5 and iOS 6 users about their experience with Maps
* 3% said they experienced "serious" problems with Maps
* 6% said they had "somewhat of a problem"
* 1% said "not much" of a problem
* But a whopping 90% said they had not experienced a problem at all
* Note these are US consumers and I believe the map troubles are more of an issue outside the US.
V Actually in ChangeWave's research the new Lightning connector seemed to be more of a concern for buyers
* 31 percent of likely iPhone 5 buyers called the new charging and data connection port somewhat of a problem and 6 percent called it a very big problem
V And as I've hoped I have a couple first hand accounts that maybe things are improving quickly
* Play comment from David
V Quote from email from Andy
* "Just some info re maps from an area you maybe don't hear from. On launch and up until a week or so ago--if you asked for directions from Townsville to anywhere in Cairns (the two largest tropical cities in Queensland) Apple maps could not compute any route at all--absolutely ''diddly squat'. Townsville and Cairns are about 350kms apart, populations of round 200k and one road connecting them--so not too impressive I have to say. Just checked this now and is much improved. Routes are mapped and look reasonable and as you search addresses maps is much more responsive at suggesting addresses. So the discussion that improvements are occurring appears to hold water and importantly in regional areas not just big cities."
V All that said, CNET has a report from developers who filed bug reports with Apple notifying them of numerous issues with Maps
* The reports says they were told that Apple engineers were aware of the problems and that the issues were "well understood".
* If true it would seem Apple was aware of the issues and chose to ship the product anyway.
V iPhone 5 continues to be a success
V The Ad network Chitika did a traffic analysis from October 3rd through the 9th
* They found that iPhone 5 accounted for 56% of ad impressions vs. 46% for the Galaxy S III
V And not to be left out of the marketshare success. IDC says that Macs gained in US PC marketshare in the 3rd quarter
* The news is bittersweet however because it just means Mac sales or declining slower than their PC cohorts
* Apple saw a 6.1% slide in US PC sales year over year vs. a 13.8% decline for PCs
* The net result is that Macs saw a net increase in their marketshare year over year moving up percentage wise from 12.5% to 13.6% while maintaining their 3rd place position
* Globally Apple still has yet to crack the number 5 spot in PC sales though.
V No iPad Mini invites yet
* No one really knows why the predicted October 10th date for invites didn't happen
* There has been rampant reports of production delays due to screen yields and black back case scratching concerns
V Either way it looks like predictions are now pointing to an October 23rd event.
* Reported by AllThingsD, who has proven very reliable, and confirmed by The Loop's Jim Dalyrimple
* Assumption is it will be a media invite only event and will take place on Apple's campus in the Town Hall
V The NextWeb has reported that the spin on the announcement will be focused on iBooks and Education
* It makes sense since with the lower price point the Pad Mini would likely complete with other media focused tablets like the Kindle, Nexus 7, and Nook
* The lower priced device would also possibly appeal more to schools and education since they are often working with tight budgets
* Apple may also be hoping that the lower priced device will give a boost to iBook textbook sales. Apple announced iBook textbooks back in January, but arguably so far iBook textbooks have yet to revolutionize the textbook industry the way Apple had hoped.
V What we think know about the iPad Mini
* 7.85" screen at 1,024 by 768 resolution. Same as iPad 2
* Lightning connector
* Possibly Wi-Fi only at launch
* Apple has reportedly ordered 10 million, but suppliers are struggling to meet that quota
* The iPad Mini name is not certain. Some think Apple may go with iPad Air?
V A bonus announcement may happen around the same time.
* A Display Research analyst Richard Shim estimates the release will happen around the same time as the iPad Mini announcement. Or at least shortly after.
* With a resolution 2560-by-1600, just slightly less than the 15"'s 2880-by-1800 resolution
V Sponsor: Circus Ponies
* Notebook
* Use clippings to help you do research
* Great for clipping from web pages, but also work in mail and other apps
* That's because it runs as a Service
* Clipping sticker has additional features, like snapback to the original site or email. Also picks up the senders contact information if they are in your Address Book
* Plus, the Multidex indexes it all. See all your clipping in one place. View links and trackback, etc.
* Also checkout iTrash
V Feedback, Comments and Commentary
V Follow up on audio play-through issue
* Last show we had a listener with an issue where if he was playing audio and paused it by pulling the cable from the headphone jack the next time a notification came in the audio would fire back up and start playing through the iPhone speakers even if it was on mute.
* Darrin wrote in to say he's seen this happen on my iPhone 4S (prior to iOS 6). So this seems to be a bug that has been around for a while.
* Darrin notes he works around it by pausing the playback first prior to just pulling the headphone cable.
* Darrin also explains something that I forgot. The listener was surprised that the audio played even with the device on mute, but it's actually a fact that audio through the Podcasts app and Music app do play even with device is on mute.
V Move at iCloud.com address back to at Me.com
* Play question from Gary
* Back in September as part of the iCloud transition all customers got new @icloud.com email addresses in addition to @me.com address
* I think by default in iOS 6 when you set up iCloud account the sending address defaults to @iCloud
V To change the setting on your iOS device:
* Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, and Calendars.
* Tap the iCloud Account
* Tap on the Account name
V Tap on the email address under the Advanced section (this should show the default address you're sending from)
* When you get to the next screen notice at the bottom you have on/off toggles to allow sending from the different @icloud and @me.com email addresses and aliases set up for your account
V Tap on the email name under Email and then you can choose which address @me or @iCloud is the default address you want to use.
* The current one will have a checkbox next to it.
* Tap Done twice to exit out back to the email account page and save the settings
V To set the address on the Mac
* In Mail, Mail > Preferences > Accounts
* Click on the iCloud Account
* In the 'Account Information' section set the 'Email Address' option to the address you prefer. @me or @icloud.
V Not that when composing emails that you can change the from filed (tap on iOS or use the drop down in Mac mail) to set the sending address for a specific message.
* On iOS this will on show the iCloud addresses and aliases you had set on to allow sending from
V Tweet from Contacts
* Here's a cool tip I found on Cult of Mac
* For it to work you need to be running Mountain Lion, have enabled Twitter integration, and allowed it to update your contacts (or at least have manually entered Twitter contacts)
V To enable Twitter
* System Preferences > Mail, Contacts & Calendars
* Click the "+" icon to add Twitter.
* Enter your Twitter account info.
* Click 'Update Contacts' and confirm you want to allow it to update the contacts.
V Now open the Contacts app
* Locate a contact that has a Twitter name
* Click the Twitter label and you'll see a 'Tweet' and 'View Tweets' option
* Choosing Tweet brings up a Tweet Sheet with an @reply to that contact.
* Choosing View Tweets will launch your default Twitter application and show you the Twitter stream for that person.
V Mountain Lion tips with MacSparky
* Play tips segment with David Sparks
* 60 Mountain Lion Tips, by Brett Terpstra and Davis Sparks
V Mail Merge with Pages
* James wanted a replacement for Appleworks now that it is no longer supported on any current Macs
* The one big app that Appleworks had that is missing from the iWork suite is a database
* A good alternative for most people is Bento
* In James's case he wanted to take a group of addresses and to produce a printed Address Book.
* Bento can do this, but it doesn't have the ability to control the "label" font size
V The Print dialog of Contacts (Address Book) has the ability to print out a list of contacts
* Select 'All Contacts' to print the entire contacts database, or choose a group or individual contacts
* Go to File > Print from the menu
* If you don't see the options click the 'Show Details' button at the bottom of the Print Sheet
* Change the 'Style:' option to List
* Under 'Attributes' you can choose the fields you want to include
* Font Size: Regular or Large
* Preview will show what the pages will look like.
V One option might be to use the Mail Merge feature of Pages.
* Open a new Pages document and set up your layout
* Format the labels in the font and size you want
* When you are ready to place your Mail Merge fields, open the Inspector, go to the Link tab and then click the 'Merge' tab
* Insert the cursor where you want your merge field and then click the "+" in the inspector and choose 'Add Merge Field'
* Click the 'Target Name' dropdown in the Inspector for the field you just added and add the appropriate field, say 'First Name'
* Repeat these steps until you have all the fields in place
V When your page looks how you want it, then save it and choose Edit > Mail Merge…
* A sheet will appear
* Select your merge source, in this case Contact but you may also use a Numbers Document
* You can also choose an Contact Group or set it to ALL
* You can expand the "Merge Fields" section to check the mapping based on the first record and adjust the mappings if needed.
* Under 'Merge To:' set it to a new document or you can merge directly to print.
* Assuming you merged to a new document result should be a multipage Pages document with one contact per page formatted properly
V If you prefer a more compact document with multiple entries per page, here's a trick:
* In the resulting multipage document go to Edit > Find > Find… (Command + F)
* This brings up the Find and Replace dialog
* Click on the 'Advanced' tab
* Place the cursor in the Find field, click the 'Insert' dropdown and select 'Section Break'
* Place the cursor in the Replace field, click the 'Insert' dropdown and select 'Paragraph Break'. Do it again so you have two paragraph breaks
* Click the 'Replace All' button.
* This should compact the layout with 2 paragraph breaks between each address block
* You may need to go through and add page breaks at more appropriate points
V Listener Hybrid Hard Drive Review
* Brad recently updated his Mac with a 500GB Hybrid Drive and sent in this review
* For those not familiar a hybrid drive is designed to try and offer the best of both worlds between the increased performance of an SSD drive and the storage and cost per GB savings of a traditional spindle drive.
* Seagate pioneered the technology a few years ago. It can in no way match the performance of a pure SSD, but as you'll hear from Brad it might be a good option of your storage needs are high and your tight on budget
* Play review from Brad
V Seagate also offers a 750GB 7200 RPM 2.5" model with 8GB of SSD and a 6Gb/s interface. A 500GB drive is just under $100 USD and the 750GB models are in the $130 USD range.
* For perspective a 480GB 3Gb/s SSD currently runs just under $500 USD
* The speed gains in a hybrid drive are primarily focused on read operations rather than writes.
* Boot processes, application loads, and general read operations should feel snappier, but will not reach the level of a pure SSD.
V QuickTip: Right to Left iOS Panos
* If you have the Panorama feature on iOS 6's camera app here's a neat trick
* After pressing the Options > Panorama button it typically sets yo the shot so you will pan the shot from left to right.
* If you tap on the starting box on the left side it will flip the set-up so you can now pan right to left.
* You can tap the box again to flip it back.
* Unfortunately it reset the setting the next time you access the panorama feature
V Closing
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