Maccast 03.12.2012 - Show #387
Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
* Mandaandthemarbles.com
V Sponsor
V Gazelle
* Great way to help fund your new iPad upgrade
* They make it incredibly simple and right now as they've streamlined the process for Apple products and them most common brands of smartphones
* Select what kind of Apple product, answer some simple questions about condition and accessories, and get an offer.
* If you accept the offer they send you an email with a pre-paid shipping label and instructions.
* Gazelle is a reCommerce service, so they will receive the items, assess the condition, wipe the data, and put the item back into use.
* If your item doesn't have reCommerce value then they offer a local recycler network to help you find a place to properly dispose of your old items.
* Get an offer and more details on their service by going to gazelle.com
V News
V The new iPad
V Retina display
* 2048 x 1536 panel reportedly being made by Samsung, Sharp and LG
* Is an "a-Si TFT" panel at 9.7" with a pixel density of 264ppi which reportedly pushes the limits of the technology
* Use double the LEDs for backlighting
* Uses a Super High Aperture pixel design. Separates the pixels from signal lines which can cause noise at that high density
* All of this is said to make the panels particularly hard to make.
* I assume this means Apple's competitors won;t be able to match these pixel densities anytime soon.
V Dual-core A5X processor with quad-core graphics
* Apple claimed it outperforms the Nvidia Tegra 3, but didn't provide benchmark details to back it up
V 5MP iSight (rear-facing) camera. Facetime camera remains VGA. Same camera specs as the iPhone 4
* backside illumination sensor
* face detection that automatically balances focus and exposure across up to 10 faces
* hybrid infrared filter
* ƒ/2.4 aperture and a five-element lens. Same lens system from the iPhone 4S
V 1080p HD video support for recording and playback
* automatic video stabilization
* Voice dictation, but not Siri
* 0.03 in. thicker and weighs 0.13 lbs more
V No word on RAM
* Likely at least the same 512MB as the iPad 2, but the Verge reports it will have 1GB
V Battery life remains the same at 10 hours. 9 hours on 4G
* ZDNet notes that the battery went from 25Wh in the iPad 2 to 42Wh in the new iPad. they point out that measured in milliamps the battery goes from 6944 mAh to a monstrous 11,666 mAh
* Amazing considering they barely increased the device size.
* That's some serious battery engineering as I expect the battery itself won't look too different after the iFixit teardown on Friday.
V Bluetooth 4.0
* Lower energy
* Better range
V 4G LTE
V Apple announced support in the US and Canada on AT&T, Verizon; Bell, Rogers and Telus.
* Engdget reports Best Buys internal systems show a Sprint version
* Rumors that Virgin Mobile in Canada will also have the new iPad
* Verizon will include Hotspot in all iPad data plans, AT&T won't offer it at launch even for a fee. Thanks again AT&T.
V Also note that the iOS 5.1 update added a "4G" icon to the menu bar on existing 3G devices
* The reason is there is no legal definition of what 2G, 3G, or 4G is
* AT&T considers it's HSDPA+ network to be "4G", but it's not LTE.
* LTE is heavily fragmented with more than 32 different recognized bands.
* In the US AT&T and Verizon are both in the 700MHz band, but too far apart to allow for a single iPad model to serve both networks.
V The issues get trickier outside the US where it appears Apple is selling the AT&T variant of the LTE iPad
* In the UK the 700MHz band is already in use by the Freeview TV service
* UK new iPads can still use the 2.1GHz band for 3G, but LTE may be out?
* UK and Germany will reportedly run their LTE networks in the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands
* In the fine print on Apple's iPad site they note: "4G LTE supported on AT&T and Verizon networks in the US; Bell, Rogers and Telus networks in Canada."
V Pricing remains the same
* WiFi: 16GB - $499, 32GB $599, 64GB $699
* WiFi+4G: $629 16GB, $729 32GB, $829 64GB
* Also selling 16GB WiFi iPad 2 for $399.00 and 16GB+3G for $529.00
V Starts shipping in the Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, U.K. and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Friday, March 16th
* On the 26th, 26 more countries. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
V Sales, "off the charts"
V Apple confirmed Sunday with USA Today that launch day supplies were sold out for pre-orders
* They aren't saying how many pre-orders were taken
* The store was slammed when pre-ordersd opened up. Errors for the fire few hours.
* Apple had to "offline" the Store while they reportedly added more servers to handle the demand
V There should still be iPad supply at retail locations on launch day
* Gene Munster predicts Apple will sell 1 Million devices opening day
* Apple didn't release opening day iPad 2 sales numbers, but estimates were between 500,000 and 1 million
* US and Canadian pre-orders are now shipping the 19th with other countries reporting a 2-3 week shipping delay
V Some UK customers who pre-ordered are reportedly getting emails from Apple reporting delayed shipments
* "Despite our best efforts and those of our shipping partners to get your order to you on time, we want to inform you that it will not arrive on its originally scheduled delivery date."
* Date are pushed back to the 20th or 21st from the 16th
* On word yet on retail store sales time, usually morning or 5:00 PM local time based on past events
V Apple's margins might be slightly lower
* UBM TechInsights estimates the build cost of a 16Gb LTE iPad at around $310, giving Apple roughly a 50% margin
* Down from the 56% margin they reportedly enjoyed on the 16GB iPad 2 on release in 2011
V Who's buying
* Ars Technica has a poll and it seems to reflect other reports I've seen
* About 45% of respondents saying they are buying and 55% not.
V Storage considerations
V Macworld looked at the sizes of Apple's apps optimized for Retina and notes app size went up by a factor of 2 to 3 times
* Keynote 115MB to 327MB;
* Numbers increased from 109MB to 283MB
* Pages went from 95MB to 269MB
* iMovie went from 70MB to 404MB, but they added all the trailer assets
V Developers have a few options when "optimizing" apps for Retina
* Include retina assets and let them scale down for older devices
* Include multiple optimized versions of the same assets (I assume best for quality and experience, but not for app size).
* Do nothing and let iOS scale up for retina
V iPad magazines might also be at risk of huge bloat since many publishers use images or PDFs.
* Pushing the resolution to support retina will make already large publications larger
* Using technology like HTML 5 to produce the publications would be better, but that would require big changes to their production workflows.
V Interestingly Apple has obviously considered these issues when implementing support for 1080p
* Movies and TV shows at 1080p are only slightly larger than their 720p counterparts
* The reason is that Apple is using and supporting a new High profile for compression scheme in H.264
* The A5 and A5X chips in the new iPad, new Apple TV, iPad 2, and iPhone 4S all support an improved decoder level 4.1
* This makes it possible to achieve and support higher maximum bit-rates on those devices
V New Apple TV
* Adds 1080p support and the new UI
* has a single core A5 processor
* Digital copies of movies added to iTunes are reportedly showing up now for iTunes streaming.
V iOS 5.1
V Fast Camera access from lock screen
* Always next to the slide to unlock , grab the icon and slide up. Flick also works
* Swipe down to get back to lock screen
V Delete photos from Photostream
* Select the photo, tap the Action button, tap delete, and confirm.
* Note that deleting the items on the device only deletes older items only from that devices photostream, newer items are deleted on all devices?
* Deleting them from the photostream in iPhoto 9.2.2 should delete them from all devices
* I had several issues with deleting from Photostream
* Siri in Japanese
* "4G" network indicator in menu bar on AT&T
V URL screen shortcuts no longer work.
* There was a simple URL homepage button shortcut that gave quick access to screens in the iPhone settings
V Podcast controls in Music player on iPad
* 30 second skip back and speed controls
* iTunes Match now supports Genius Mixes and Genius Playlists
* Camera app UI is updated on the iPad.
* Face detection on the iPhone will now highlight up to 10 faces, not just the most prominent one.
V Audio enhancements to TV and Movies on iPad
* Apple claims the audio will be louder and clearer
V Bug-fixes for battery life
* Mine seems to be improved, but may be too early to tell
* If you've enable geofencing in iRemonders you'll see an outlined location status icon in the menubar
V New security restrictions in Parental controls
* Settings > General > Restrictions
* Profanity filter for Siri
* Disable Siri and block location Services or the ability to change location services settings
V Cellular data download limit raised from 20MB to 50MB
* In Settings > Store you may want to toggle 'Use Cellular Data' option to avoid larger app and content downloads over cellular
V Apple TV update
* Version 5.0 brings new UI to Apple TV 2
* To get it go to Settings > General > Check For Updates
V Instead of the old menu system under the artwork on the main screen you get "tiles" with access to all the services
* Movies, TV Shows, Music, Computers, Settings
* Netflix, NBA, NHL, Trailers, MLB.TV, WSJ Live, YouTube, Vimeo, Podcasts, Radio, Photo Stream, MobileMe, and Flickr
* Inside items you get navigation across the top and artwork below. As you navigate inside a section the menu disappears at the top, but pressing the menu button on the remote or scrolling to the top brings it back
* National Geographic photo screen saver
* On device Netflix sign-up
* iTunes Store menu now shows a choice of “Standard Definition” or “720p HD” for preferred video resolution when purchasing or renting movies and TV shows on the Apple TV.
V iTunes 10.6
* Enabling you to play 1080p movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes Store
* Improves iTunes Match, including matching songs, downloading and displaying album artwork.
* Addressing an issue that caused some songs to skip when playing from iCloud
V Preferences > Store can now choose 720p or 1080p HD downloads
* Remember that only the new iPad and new Apple TV have 1080p playback support. They will also playback on an iPhone 4S
* looks like 1080p only adds around 800MB to 1GB to the file size for most
V New options for down converting music on sync
* iTunes > Preferences > General
* The "Convert higher bit rate songs" checkbox now includes a drop-down menu offering 128, 192, or 256kbps AAC options. Prior to the update 128kbps was the only choice.
* New terms of service indicate publishers “may offer a free trial period” via in-app subscriptions in an iOS app.
* iBooks Author was also updated to add support for the new iPad's retina display
V Had one listener who reported iTunes crashing at launch after upgrading
* Was on Lion, but using iPhoo '09 still
* Upgrading to iPhoto '11 resolved the issue
V iOS iLife Apps updated
* All are updated for the new iPad's retina display
V GarageBand
V Individual note editing
* double tap a note in the instrument track to bring up the editor
* Change, pitch, duration, and velocity
* Can even change in groups and the changes are applied proportionally and relationships between notes are maintained
* New Smart Strings instrument
V Track merging
* Allowing you now to have in essence more than 8-tracks
V More sharing options
* Facebook, YouTube, SoundCloud, and iMovie
* In addition to iTunes and Mail
* iCloud song sync
V Jam Session, that lets up to four people record a song together.
* Uses WiFi or Bluetooth
* Leader starts the session and other join
V By default the Auto-Collect Recordings option is on and collects recording into tracks on the leaders iPad
* Turn that off and individuals can edit their tracks locally before the leader click the "Collect Recordings" button
* You can also overdub, so do two 4 track sessions for example.
V GarageBand '11 for the Mac updated to version 6.0.5
* Updates compatibility with GarageBand for iOS projects
* Fixes a playback issue with the GarageBand Lesson preview videos
* Corrects issues with some software instruments triggering incorrect or stuck notes
V iMovie
* Adds Movie trailers
* a new icon
* a few graphics changes, including a revised undo button making it more consistent with GarageBand and iPhoto
* a button to preview audio within the audio browser
* exporting and playing 1080p video
* A swipe up gesture within the timeline to create a freeze frame.
V iPhoto (new)
V When editing:
* Get basic tools: auto-enhance, orientation, flag, favorite, and hide
* Toolbox: with Crop & Straighten, Exposure, Color, Brushes, and Effects
* Tap + Hold with two fingers in a "pinch" position to bring up a loupe magnifier, twist inside it adjust the magnification level
V View metadata and EXIF data and comments (includes Flickr and Facebook)
* Mapping data reportedly using Open Street Maps, not Google.
* Also interesting that it's not Apple's own data
V double tapping a photo will select similar photos in a group
* useful because you can make adjustments to one image
* Copy the adjustments from that one image and then apply it to a batch of similar images
* The UI is again "swishy" and makes heavy use of skeuomorphism (glass shelves, brushes, push pins, etc)
V Has albums, photos, events, and Journals
* Journals allow you to publish and share to iCloud
* They feel like a mix between iPhoto Galleries and iWeb
V You can combine photos and 'widget' like elements
* Header, Text, Notes, Memory, Space, Page, Map, Day (calendar), Quote, Food, Weather
* Gives the Journals more of a digital scrapbook feel.
* Send email with link. Seems like simple an obfuscated URl, no real security to public URL
V Sharing
* Journal, Email, Print, Slideshow (local only), Camera Roll, iTunes, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook
* New feature 'Beam' which lets to send directly to iPhoto on another device up to 100 images at a time.
* I've been using it and it's great about my only complaint is the annoying "Updating iPhoto Library" dialog that seems to come up every time you add a photo.
V Installing on Original iPad
* iMovie and iPhoto can't be bought on an original iPad
* Can use Apple's Enterprise iPhone configuration utility to install on an older iPad
* After doing this if you try and sync in iTunes it will warn you to authorize the apps or they will be removed. If you authorize in iTunes then the warning should go away, but it didn't work in my case.
* So back-up apps and be careful if you try this hack.
V iPhoto '11 9.2.2
* Adds support for deleting items from Photostream
V Configurator App
* Apple Configurator makes it easy for anyone to mass configure and deploy iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in a school, business, or institution.
V Update up to 30 devices at a time to the latest version of iOS, configures settings to maintain a standard configuration, and installs apps and data onto the devices
* Can create multiple sets of 30 devices, but can only work on one set of 30 at a time
* Allows for remote management by IT and support staff
V Can checkout and assign devices to specific users in an Open Directory or Active Directory.
* This lets IT staff set standard configuration settings, approved policies, parental controls, and device personalization (including setting a user’s picture on their Lock screen.)
* The app is designed as a replacement for the older iPhone Configuration Utility.
V Apple discontinues iWork.com
* Friday Apple announced that its iWork.com service will be discontinued on July 31, 2012.
* As a replacement Apple is recommending sharing through iCloud which is fine for your own devices, but doesn't address any of the collaborative and public sharing features currently offered by iWork.com
V Safari 5.1.4 Update
* Available for Lion and Snow Leopard
* Improve JavaScript performance
* Improve responsiveness when typing into the search field after changing network configurations or with an intermittent network connection
* Address an issue that could cause webpages to flash white when switching between Safari windows
* Address issues that prevented printing U.S. Postal Service shipping labels and embedded PDFs
* Preserve links in PDFs saved from webpages
* Fix an issue that could make Flash content appear incomplete after using gesture zooming
* Fix an issue that could cause the screen to dim while watching HTML5 video
* Improve stability, compatibility and startup time when using extensions
* Allow cookies set during regular browsing to be available after using Private Browsing
* Fix an issue that could cause some data to be left behind after pressing the “Remove All Website Data” button
V Sponsor
V Faronics
* Deep Freeze
* Free trials available
V Feedback, Comments and Commentary
V IMAP Drafts hanging around
V In Mail.app with IMAP accounts if you've set the folder mappings to save Drafts on the server you'll notice on occasion that there is a message in drafts that has already been sent.
* In case you don't know how to map an IMAP folder to Mail.app
V Find the folder under the account in the accounts list that you want to map
* Common folders will be things like, 'Sent', 'Sent Messages', 'Trash', 'Spam', 'Junk', 'Draft', etc.
* Select the item you want to map and then choose 'Mailbox' > 'Use this mailbox for…'
* You can then map it to the Mail.app Inbox, Sent, Trash, or Junk folder for an Account
* The issue with Drafts that mapped and set to sync to the server is that sometimes you'll get a message stuck in the Drafts folder even after you've sent it
* I'm not sure why, but one theory is that Mail is auto-saving versions to the drafts folder in the background.
* The only "fix" I know of is to disable saving of drafts on the server. The downside being that you can't start a message in one place and then finish it up in another.
V In Mail.app
* Preferences > Accounts
* Select the account and click on the Mailbox Behaviors tab
* In the 'Drafts' section uncheck the 'Store draft messages on the server' option.
V In iOS
* Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars
* Click on the Account
* Click Account > Advanced
* Under 'Mailbox Behaviors', click the Drafts Mailbox
* Change from the 'On the server' Drafts mailbox to the 'On My iPhone" box
V iPad Bluetooth Keyboard Shortcuts
* Play question from David
V He already mentioned the several of the special keys
* Brightness keys up and down (F1 and F2)
* Media Playback keys. Skip Back, Play/Pause, Skip Forward (F7,F8, F9)
* Volume. Mute, Down, Up (F10, F11, F12)
* Eject, bring up on screen keyboard (F13?)
V Text Editing and Selection commands work
* Command-C, X, and V for Copy, Cut, and Paste. Command-Z (undo) and Command+Shift+Z (redo)
* Use Shift+arrow keys to highlight text
V Keyboard navigation
* CMD – Up Arrow (Jump to top of document)
* CMD – Down Arrow (Jump to bottom of document)
* CMD – Left Arrow (Jump to beginning of line)
* CMD – Right Arrow (Jump to end of line)
* CMD – Delete (Delete everything on the current line to the left of the cursor)
* Option – Delete (Delete the word to the left of the cursor, and its preceding space)
V Emacs cursor controls
* Control-e: end of the line
* Control-a: beginning of the line
* Control-k: delete to end of the line
* Control-f: cursor forward
* Control-b: cursor back
V Option-key shortcuts for typing diacritical (accented) characters
* Option+; for ellipsis
* Option+e and the "e" for an accented é
V Using VoiceOver
* I found a great article on how to use VoiceOver to control almost everything from the iPad keyboard
V Apple has info on the controls in their User Guides
* Page 240 of the iPhone user guide
* Page 146 of the iPad user guide
* Page 191 of the iPod touch user guide
V Turn on Voice Over
* Settings > General > Accessibility and select VoiceOver. Turn it on.
* Note you now need to select (tap once) and then double tap to "tap" on something
V How to control:
* Control-option-S : mute or unmute VoiceOver. Can also adjust the speaking rate up (goes faster) and turn on 'Use compact Voice'
* Control-option-H to activate Home button, Control-option-H+H to "double-tap" home.
V Use 'Quick Nav'
* All of these can also be accessed from command-option equivalents, but using 'Quick Nav' is faster
* Press the right and left arrow keys simultaneously to toggle QuickNav mode
* Press up and down arrows simultaneously : "tap" the highlighted item
* right arrow : select the next item
* left arrow : select the previous arrow
* control-up arrow : select the first item
* control-down arrow : select the last item
* option-arrow key : scroll in the direction pressed
* up arrow + left arrow : move the rotor left
* up arrow + right arrow : move the rotor right
* VoiceOver will outline the items you have selected to you can visually tell where you are in the UI.
* Combine quicknav with the other keyboard commands for navigating text and you can do almost everything from the keyboard.
V May want to make 'Triple-click Home' turn on and off Voiceover
* Settings > General > Accessibility and then select 'Triple-click Home'
V Apple response to customer on Supplier Responsibility
* Apple has taken a lot of criticism recently over their factories in China and whatever side of the debate we fall on I think it is important for each of us to do the research and take action for ourselves.
* If something upsets you then you should take action and that's just what one of you did
V A listener, who asked to remain anonymous, wort this letter to Tim Cook at Apple expressing concern and asking Apple to continue to address this issue
* "As a longtime and loyal Apple customer I'd like to encourage you to continue Apple's quest to improve working conditions in its overseas factories. I'm sure it's a very complex issue, but I'd be willing to pay more, or wait longer for new products, if it meant that factory workers are guaranteed a safe, healthy, and dignified workplace.
I think that Apple is in a very unique position to take an industry-wide lead in this...and indeed you are. I've read the materials on Apple.com regarding your supplier policies and think that's really encouraging.
However, I know from recent reports in the media that there's more to be done and I don't want my ownership of a great product to come at the expense of someone else's health & safety.

So in conclusion, please make this a top priority at Apple. It's without question the right thing to do."
V And he got this response from Apple:
* Thank you for writing to Apple about working conditions in our worldwide supply chain.

At Apple, we believe that every worker has the right to a fair and safe work environment, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely. We work closely with our suppliers to make sure they meet our high standards wherever Apple products are made.

Our Supplier Responsibility program has audited hundreds of factories for compliance with Apple's code of conduct. We encourage you to read about our progress at apple.com/supplierresponsibility.

Right now, labor rights experts are conducting a series of in-depth, independent inspections of Apple's largest suppliers, including Foxconn. This project was launched at Apple's request and is being coordinated by the Fair Labor Association, a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting workers rights. The FLA will post the results of the investigation on its website, www.fairlabor.org.

If you'd like to learn more about what Apple is doing to protect workers, please click this link to hear Tim Cook talk about our approach to supplier responsibility at a recent tech conference.

We share your concern for the wellbeing of workers everywhere. Thanks again for writing.

Sincerely,
Bill Frederick
Apple
* Bill Frederick is Vice President – Worldwide Fulfillment & AppleCare at Apple Inc.
* The point I think is that the media attention on stuff these days is sensation, instantaneous, and fleeting. So while it may bring issues and concerns to the forefront briefly, those things go away just s quickly.
* I you care about this stuff then you have to continue to take actions and I thought this was a simple and great example of doing that which is why I wanted to share it.
V Closing
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