Maccast 10.05.2012 - Show #413
Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
* Mandaandthemarbles.com
V Sponsor: Gazelle
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* What’s your iPhone worth? Take a minute, and go to gazelle.com to find out.
V News
V Apple to use Geniuses to help Map problems
* Well Geniuses and other employees at Apple retail stores
* Stores participating in the initiative will give 40 hours of staff time per week, which will be distributed across several employees.
* It's not clear how the employees will do the work. If they will actually use their own local knowledge of an area around the Store or if they will do side by side checks against other systems like Google Maps.
V I've also had a number of great comments and feedback from my commentary
* A lot of you feel that this is very serious. Serious enough to even dup your iPhones and move to Android.
* The loss of Street View has been a feature often cited in your frustration
* Surprisingly not too many people have called out the loss of transit directions as a source of frustration.
* Even in seeing and hearing the number of reports I feel many of the errors I see are minor and can be corrected.
* The question is how much will Apple step up to fix the issues?
* Sounds like they are actually already working hard.
V MacRumors says that imagery improvements have been reported in Honolulu, Hawaii; San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles; New York City and London.
* The Brooklyn Bridge for example is no longer melted.
* I betting this is just the beginning and we'll see them act in a huge way, but if I'm wrong you can feel free to call me out in it.
V iPad Mini details take shape
* Wallstreet Journal reports that iPad Mini production has begun
* 7.85” screen with 1024 x 768 resolution
* Lighting connector
* 2 colors. White with aluminum back and black with a black anodized aluminum back.
* Nano SIM
* iPad Mini event rumored to be October 17th with invites going out a week earlier on the 10th.
V There are already some rumors of component supply issues, but reportedly supplies will reach acceptable levels by the end of October.
* AU Optronics supposedly only has shipped 400,000 of the 2 million needed to reach goals in the third quarter.
* LG is also making panels and reportedly coming up short
* In addition there are rumors that makers of the iPad Minis shells are also not meeting expectations.
* The estimates on iPad Mini sales for the quarter are between 5 - 10 million.
V But wait, there's more?
* AppleInsider has a report of a developer seeing an new iPad designation showing up in his app logs.
* The site claims the device seem to be running the ARMv7 architecture which is the same kind of processor as the new A6 found in the iPhone 5
* Supposedly the iPad has a 3,6 designation.
* The current iPads 1 through 3 have 3,1, 3,2, and 3,3 designations.
* What happened to 4 & 5? Those surfaced back in August and believed to be designation for the iPad minis because those seemed to be based on the A5 chip
V Apple tablet market dominance dwindles
* A new study from Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that Apple's US tablet market share has dropped from 81% in 2011 to 52% in 2012
* The influx of lower priced competitors like the Nook, Kindle Fire, and Google Nexus are likely part of the reason
* Should Apple be worried and is this why we're getting and iPad Mini now?
* Maybe, but across the board tablet sales are up and Apple is still selling more iPads than ever.
* Also each iPad sold adds a lot more to Apple's bottom line then their competitors sales of their tablets do to theirs.
V Meanwhile iOS has been rapidly adopted by iOS device users
* Data from Onswipe shows iOS is now on approximately 60% of iPhones and 41% of iPads
* The 60% iOS 6 number was also reported by Pocket.
V Lightning not striking quickly
* Reports that delays in seeing third party accessories featuring Apples new connector are likely
* The issue is reportedly due to Apple tightening manufacturing guidelines
* iLounge reports that Apple has made changes to is “Made for iPad/iPhone/iPod” (MFi) policies that require manufacturers to be certified by Apple prior to being able to produce Lightning accessories
* So far Apple has not approved any facilities
* Reasons for the crack down are unknown, but a good guess may be the sophisticated technology, like dynamically assigned pins and authentication chips, required to make the new connector work properly
* Apple is reportedly holding a seminar in China in November where it will layout the manufacturing process and rules for Lightning accessories.
* So don't expect to see any 3rd party lightning accessories this Holiday season
* Apple has be focusing on wireless connectivity like wifi syncing, direct app downloads and updates, iCloud, Bluetooth audio, and AirPlay.
* Really beyond charging I almost never dock my devices.
V OS X 10.8.2 Supplemental Update 1.0
* Apple relaxed what it's calling a supplemental update for Mountain Lion
* Fixes some Japanese characters displaying incorrectly in mail
* Let's Safari access secure sites when parental controls are enabled
* Fixes an issuer where systems with more than 64GB of RAM failed to startup
V There was also a 10.7.5 supplemental update for Lion owners
* Resolves an issue that may cause Time Machine backups to take a very long time to complete
* Addresses an issue that prevents certain applications signed with a Developer ID from launching
V LTE coming to the UK in October
* The EE network, a joint venture of Orange and T-Mobile, announced they will enable LTE in 10 cities in the UK on October 30th
* They say they will have total of 16 cites by the end of the year which should cover 1/3 of the UK population
* The goal is to get 98% of the country covered by 2014
V Next Gen Macs running custom Apple chips?
* Bloomberg is reporting that Apple's management has at least considered the idea
* TechCrunch noticed a Apple job posting looking for a “SoC Modeling Architect / Lead”, although that position could be for working on the next gen A7 mobile designs.
* Either way it could be interesting and we did have rumors back in 2010 that Apple was maybe looking to move away from Intel for it's Mac processors
* Apple certainly has been successful with the A4-A6, so maybe they are felling like they can take it to the next level.
V Feedback, Comments and Commentary
V Why I stuck with AT&T
* I thought I had mentioned this, but a few people have asked.
* I was very convinced I was going to buy an unlocked iPhone and go with Straightalk as my carrier, so what changed my mind?
V It mainly came down to 3 things:
* 1) Since I buy a new device every year paying the full amount $849 yearly for the hardware erodes the savings for me.
* 2) StraightTalk won't have LTE support, or at least it hasn't been announced.
* 3) I can't get a second phone discount or tiered data. My wife has an iPhone and uses less than 250MB of data. To get her on Straightatlk would require another full $45/mo account.
* So in my particular case when all the math was done I didn't end up saving all that much and I wouldn't have access to LTE
* Everyone's particular needs and situation will be different, so you have to take the time to explore and weigh all the options.
V Troubleshooting iOS 6 Connections
* Phil was using iTunes Match to download a large number of playlists, about 7GB, over his home Wi-Fi.
* He let the process run overnight only to find a message on his phone that he exceed his cellular data limit
* He had the 'Use Cellular Data' option turned off for the Music App. Contacted Apple Support and they told him to turn off cellular data completely to be sure he doesn't use cellular data on Wi-Fi
* I wish I could say reports of people running over their cellular data limits while connected to Wi-Fi under iOS 6 were rare, but seemingly they aren't.
* iOS 6 is supposed to do a better job of picking the "best" network connection, and that may be where the bug lies?
V Part of the trouble might more be related to Wi-Fi issues on the iPhone 5, and possibly with iOS 6 in general.
* I noticed after getting my iPhone 5 that my home Wi-Fi would show only a 1 bar signal. Other devices were fine.
* The fix turned out to be just resetting the Network Settings on my device.
* Go to Settings > General > Reset and choose the 'Reset Network Settings' option.
* You may need to reconnect and re-enter any credentials for your Wi-Fi networks.
* This will not fix the cellular data bug, but for me improved the reliability of staying connected to my home Wi-Fi which has the effect of avoiding dropping the connection and switching to cellular.
V Podcast app woes continue
* Dustin is one of many folks telling about another annoying bug in Apple's Podcast app.
* This is a bug where if you are playing a podcast and the pause it and then an alert comes in, say from a email notice, reminder, whatever. The audio from the Podcast will start playing even if the volume mute switch is set.
* I tried replicating the bug on my iPhone 5 and couldn't, but have had enough emails that i think it's legit.
* One possible workaround I could think of would be to double tap the home button and make sure to fully close the Podcast app. It should still maintain the play position.
* That said, I'm still really recommending that you try a 3rd party Podcast app. Apple's app just seems to have too many issues and is just a bit too buggy for my tastes.
* I think the'll eventually get it sorted out, but for now that's what I'm doing.
V If you don't mind continuing to do things the "old skool" way. You can delete the Podcast app altogether and get them back in the Music app
* Use Smart Playlists
* Access to the chapter title list for ACC podcasts
V Also, just a quick tip if you do use Apple's Podcast App
* Slide up on the album art for additional controls
* Share button, playback speed, and sleep timer
* Also can toggle between All Chapters/Chapter mode in AAC podcasts
V iMessages to a phone number
* Brad contacted me about an issue where he would get a text message on his phone, but that message would also show up on his iPad
* Now they contacted Verizon and were told it was a bug with iOS 6, but I'm thinking they just don't get iMessage
* Now Brad's specific situation might be different, he said it was a large company with a large deployment of iPhones, but my guess this what it is.
* iMessage will now fully integrate your iPhone number with iCloud and all your devices and Messages on the Mac if you are running the latest version of Mountain Lion
* On iOS if you go into Settings > Messages > Send & Receive you can see the "You can be reached by iMessage at:' area which lists the phone number and email addresses that iMessages will be delivered to.
* You can tap any entry to enable or disable it. Enabled item's have a check mark.
V This also works for Messages on Mountain Lion 10.8.2
* Go into Messages >Preferences > Accounts
* Select the iMessages account and you should you phone that's on that iCloud account.
* Again you can check our uncheck to receive messages sent to that phone number on your Mac.
V De-scuffing your iPhone 5
* Those chamfered edges on the new iPhone seem prone to scuff and scratches
* Now I haven;t personally tired or tested these tips, but they seem viable.
* As always though take great care in using any substance on your device and know that any chemical or substance applied to your device could just damage it further.
* Shirli said she had scuff on her White iPhone 5s chamfered edge and was able to remove them with Weiman Products Stainless Steel wipe, which I think you can get at Target.
* Someone recommended to me Gun Metal paint for the edge of the Black iPhone.
V Mobile Me iCloud Storage extended
* Apple sent out emails to former paid Mobile Me customers letting them know that they will have an additional 20GB of iCloud Storage for another yet
* Originally the free extension was supposed to expire September 30th, 2012.
* It's a nice surprise as that extra storage will eventually cost you $40/yr.
* Apple offers 5GB of iCloud storge for free. 10GB for $20/yr, 20GB for $40/yr, and 50GB for $100/yr.
V Closing
V Podcast Marketplace
V Thanks to my sponsors
* Circus Ponies
* Smile
* Gazelle
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V MCE 2012
* I'll be speaking again at the Mac Computer Expo in Petaluma on the 6th of October
* Awesome event and at $10 buck tickets are a steal.
V Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
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