shownotes_20130507

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News
  More Flash storage options for iMacs
    Apple this past week gave new iMac buyers a few more options for Flash storage if they want to build to order.
    You can now get your 21.5" or 27" iMac outfitted with 256GB of Flash storage for an upgrade cost of USD $300 or 512GB of Flash for USD $600 more
    Prior to the update Apple only offered a full 1TB of Flash and only on the 27-inch model.
    Plus, as Bryan Chaffin at TMO points out, it was pricey. Adding a whopping USD$1,300 bucks (you could get a whole 13" Macbook Air for less than that).
    Apple did lower the price of the 1TB option later to USD $900, but until this week it was still only the 17" model that had the Flash storage options.
    It's nice to see Apple offer more solid state storage options to iMac buyers
  Debate over Apple OS delays
    It's been said recently that Apple is running behind in getting iOS 7 completed and they may have pulled engineers from OS X 10.9 to help out. This is something we've heard Apple doing for other OS releases in the past
    There is also some debate going on that if Apple is pulling OS X 10.9 engineers for iOS then they may not be able to complete all the OS X features they want for the next release.
    But people say lots of things. 😉
    Smart guy, Peter Cohen, now writing for iMore points out the major error in these reports. Apple hasn't announced a ship date for iOS 7 or OS X 10.9. So how can they be delayed?
    Shuffling engineers around isn't all that unusual either.
    One of the OS X features that is up for debate is Siri for OS X
      At least on analyst thinks that OS X might not get Siri because it only has one mic.
      The theory is that Siri enabled iOS devices have multiple mics so that they can better filter background noise, so the Mac would need a similar hardware upgrade before Apple could deliver Siri in OS X
      I think it's crazy.
      I've tested OS X dictation in some pretty noisy environments and it's both quick and fairly accurate
      Jeff Gamet agrees with me. He also points out that most of the Siri magic happens on the server side. (some is also the audio processing chips, but Macs have those too.)
      Also, Macs tend to be in quieter places than iPhones, unless you work at your local coffee shop, so background noise most of the time would be less of an issue.
      If we don't see Siri in OS X this time around it's more likely due to some other factor, like engineers just simply not having enough time to fine tune the OS X experience and integration.
  Small iOS update for iPhone 5
    Apple pushed out an iOS update just for iPhone 5 owners
    iOS 6.1.4 and according to the release docs it simply has an , "Updated audio profile for speakerphone"
    You can get the update for your iPhone 5 over the air via software update or via the software update option in iTunes.
  App Store nears 50 Billon downloads
    Apple's app store is nearing another major milestone. It's about to get it's 50 billionth download.
    Apple is having a contest and has set up a couple of special pages on it's site so we can follow along.
    As they have done in the past they are having a content and the person who downloads the fifty billionth app will get a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card.
    This time they are also give the next 500 app downloaders US$500 App Store Gift Cards
    There is a 50-Billionth App Download counter page on Apple's site where a live counter is ticking down the downloads.
    If you don't want to download there is also an Alternate entry for you can fill out. Although I'm not sure how that works? Do they just have an algorithm that randomly injects "simulated" downloads for alternate entries?
    On the App Store Apple has a page that lists the top 25 paid and free iPhone and iPad apps of all time. Care to guess what they are?
      Paid iPhone: Angry Birds, runner-up: Fruit Ninja
      Free iPhone: Facebook, runner-up: Pandora
      Paid iPad: Pages, runner-up: Angry Birds HD
      Free iPad: Skype for iPad, runner-up: The Weather Channel for iPad
      The free iPad apps are surprising to me. Maybe it's that the #1 app is a Microsoft product. Also, number 5 was the Amazon Kindle App, another Apple competitor. Interesting.
  Low-cost iPhone, not so low?
    Digitimes is also now reporting that Apple my be losing faith in the outlook for low-cost iPhone sales
      They expect the device to offer a 4-inch screen and an A6 processor.
      But also say that supply chain sources claim Apple is setting quarterly shipments at 2.5-3 million units?
      Couldn't Apple put the iPad brand and logo on a turd and sell more than that?
      The claim is that Apple is just planning to test response to such a device in emerging markets, but really?
      Just offering payment plans significantly boosted sales in India recently. Does Apple really need to "test" what an awesome, "low-cost", iPhone would do in the market?
    If Apple doesn't have faith J.P. Morgan analysts do.
      Plus, they think the price doesn't even need to be that low. More "mid-end". Say around $350 bucks.
      They point to other Apple "low-cost" devices as examples. The $329.00 iPad mini being the most recent.
      But look at the iPod nano and iPod Shuffle if you want too. All of these products were lower cost alternatives to existing mature Apple products. They all were introduced at prices slightly higher the lower cost competing alternatives, and they all out sold their competitors.
      CFO Peter Oppenheimer even opined on this during Apple’s last earning where he basically said Apple priced the iPad mini at lower margins than was typical for Apple a short term loss that has longer term gains.
      They lock in more customers. At the moment Apple's brand in Smartphones and tablets have the "desire" advantage. Apple has maximized their core buyers, but their are billions of potential buyers for who price is a swaying factor.
      They key is the "want" an iPad or iPhone but could settle for a lower priced alternative.
      They key now for Apple is to leverage their desire for an iOS product with the willingness to pay slight price premium for the experience. Something historically Apple has been good at.
      For the iPhone the J.P. Morgan guys say that's US $350 bucks.
        "Currently Samsung dominates this segment ($200-500 price range) with 35+ percent market share. … We believe Apple could take 20-25 percent of this market in the next 12 months (from almost no market share currently), if it prices a lower-priced product at $350-400 levels."
      And once a consumer is "in" we know Apple tends to benefit greatly from the "stickiness" of their products and the "halo" effect. iOS buyers become iTunes purchasers, App buyers, and Mac owners. Those are the long term gains I'm sure Oppenheimer was referring to.
  Google Glass SMS and Map support coming for iOS owners
    Great according to TechCrunch you'll soon be able to invade my privacy, endanger my life while driving, and look generally like a dork in public regardless of your smartphone platform of choice.
    The site says that while picking up a set of the developer model glasses in NYC that Google reps said soon you will be able to use the SMS and Maps functionality of the device with iPhone's too.
    So far the feature has been Android exclusive requiring a connection to an app running on an Android device.
    Currently Glass will work with the Bluetooth or wi-fi on an iPhone for audio, calls, and getting online. But the SMS and Maps features remain Android exclusive.
    The restriction according to TechCrunch is odd thought because Glass just needs the phone for GPS data and WiFi connectivity. The glasses themselves don't have connectivity built in. But the apps are, so it shouldn't require an external app.
    Because it's wi-fi or bluetooth it does need a tethering plan on the phone if you want to be completely mobile, and with a product like Glass it would be fairly useless without it.
    Will be interesting to see how much data these things eat up. Cellular providers may be loving these things.
  Will iPad mini see a Retina display this year
    Well depends on whom you ask and who you want to believe. Personally I'd say Apple is the source to trust, but since they are talking the analysts are.
    In one corner we have the oft reliable Ming-Chi Kuo. He says Apple won't even start manufacturing an iPad mini with a retina display until October because of yield issues. If you believe that then the idea that Apple would be shipping this year is pretty much out of the question.
    Then we have Richard Shim of NPD DisplaySearch. He said to CNET that he sees not one, but two Retina iPad mini updates. One later this year and one in the first part of 2014.
      In his report is sounds like the first update would simply bring the Retina Display to the iPad mini. Then in Q1 Apple would add an updated processor.
      Shim also claims that Apple will drop Samsung and use a 2048 X 1536 panel from LG for the updated device.
    Personally my money at this point is on Ming-Chi
    Apple's iPad mini is still selling incredibly well, they have a new amazing A7 processor cooking, but are shopping new suppliers.
    If they are having yield issues and potential manufacturing delays they would be smart to take their time and wait.
    It would be nice to have a new iPad mini in the line up for the holidays, but the could use a price drop and promotions to keep sales healthy and get buy. Plus they'd reduce existing inventory and parts winding down to an update in the first quarter of 2014.
    Quo also this Apple could do a low-cost iPad mini, in the $199 - $249 range, by removing the rear-facing camera, reducing its internal storage to 8GB, and by lowering production costs on the A5 processor. (I don't think this would happen, but it's an interesting idea and would help Apple compete with the low cost tablets out there. Just sounds like a crippled iPad mini to me though).
    Also it's expected we'll see an updated iPad with Retina Display using iPad mini design cues, so that could also help Apple muddle through the holiday tablet buying season. Plus don;t forget new MacBooks, iPods, and iPhones, and maybe a Pro Mac? Apple could have plenty of stuff to sell come Christmas even without an iPad mini.
    The second benefit is a new iPad mini early next year would avoid the fist quarter sales slump we say this year.
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Feedback, Comments and Commentary
  Clarification on tablet shipment numbers
    Play comment from Kevin
    I'm not sure I "fell for the bait" as I understood that the numbers were "shipment" numbers and that's what I stated when I reported the story.
    What I could have done better is explain to the audience exactly what the means, which you have done now so well, so I really appreciate you sending the comment.
    You also make the point that I should have made that Apple's shipment numbers ARE their sales numbers which puts things in a better perspective for sure.
    That said, I also said in my report that these numbers don;t mean much beyond indicating a trend and that I still stand by.
    Even if you adjust the Apple shipment numbers up a million or two million units the pace Apple's tablet shipment change quarter to quarter is slowing down while their competitors are rising.
    This is natural though because Apple has a mature product and many who want iPads have them and while they will upgrade Apple needs to launch new products before they see the bump.
    The only thing I read into this report is that their are more competing products hitting the marketplace. The ultimate test of that is the sales and usage data and on that front Apple still appears to be maintaining a commanding lead.
  More accurate Apple Maps
    Our friend George Starcher sent this quick tip a while ago, but I forgot to mention it.
    If you notice Apple Maps having trouble pin pointing an address or location try spelling out the street type vs. using an abbreviation.
    So instead of St. try "street" or instead of Ave. type out "avenue".
    You may also want to update the names in your Contacts app, so when you ask Siri for directions to places, like "George Starcher's House" it has the spelled out data to work from.
    I have also found that sometimes if you can provide just a bit more info, like a city name it also helps.
    We probably shouldn't need to add this extra detail, Siri should be smarter, using location or knowing the St. is street. But hey, it's beta right?
    Incidentally I've been playing with Google Now, and like it except for the battery drain.
      It's able to predict stuff based on time, location, your calendar events, etc. and will try to offer up information.
      For example if you have a meeting coming up it will have a map ready with directions.
      If you are close to lunch time it might offer suggestions for nearby restaurants.
      It even helped me get my Mom to the airport on time, since I entered her itinerary into TripIt and I use my Goggle login for that.
      Very helpful, but also little creepy though too, since TripIt isn't owned by Google.
      Google denies any battery life impact, "Google Now is built very differently: it uses cell towers and wifi hot spots for much lower battery impact".
  Be careful upgrading Transporter Drives
    There is a new kind of storage product available from some of the folks who created the Drobo and like the Drobo it's meant to be a simple plug and play device.
    In case you missed my Macworld Interview:
      The Transporter is a device from Connected Data
      And it's a kind of network attached storage that is meant to work like a private cloud service.
      Once you have the device you attach it to your network and then use a web interface to set up shared folders (they call them "connected" folders) and you invite people to your shared content.
      In that way it seems like many other cloud services. The big difference is that all the web service does is manage the names of the folders you share and who you are sharing them with. It's just acting as a directory service.
      Your data once shared is all shared peer to peer. Either from your Transporter to another Transporter or to another computer, if the person you are sharing with doesn't own a Transporter.
      Changes to a connected folder are sync'd between each other, just like with other cloud services
      It's actually really cool because it offers the convenience of a cloud storage service, but removes the security concerns. You data is only store on your device and will the people you choose to share it with. There is no 3rd party with copies of your data.
    You can get a Transporter with a 1TB drive, a 2TB drive, or empty and add your own 2.5" drive.
    If you add your own or you want to upgrade a drive there are some important things apparently that you need to know as pointed out by Jim who emailed me to share his experience.
      Jim was testing his Transporter with a 320GB drive and loved it so much he decided to get serious and upgrade to a 2TB drive
      Now the connected Data support site has a good article on how to upgrade and I recommend reading it through, but I'm going to share some of the gottchas Jim ran into.
      First, the Transporter is designed to be a simple plug and play "appliance" kind of device. To that end there is not any complex software to manage or configure it. Just a simple web interface.
        If you get a new drive it needs to be formatted first to be compatible with the Transporter which uses it's own system
        This happens automatically when you connect a new drive to the unit.
        That means you can't, and should never, just take a drive out and then put it back in. It will erase the drive when you connect it.
        There are several warnings about this on the Transporter support site.
      So you want to backup your Transporter before you swap drives
        Do this to your internal hard drive or an external volume.
        If you have two Transporters then your data should be sync'd between the two devices, so if you swap the drive in one it should sync back from the other. I personally would still back up first, but you know me. 😉
        When you back up, be aware that when you first set up your Transporter it creates a Connected Data folder in the sidebar and when you click that it shows your transporter and data, but the root folder is an alias.
        If you drag and copy that you will end up with just an alias and not your data.
        You need to copy off the data itself. Once moved verify you can access that data before proceeding with swapping the drives.
      After you backed up the data you can remove the old drive from the Transporter and put in the new one. Then copy back your data from your backups.
        Again DO NOT reinsert the old drive, it will be erased.
      What if you want to access the data on the old drive?
        You'll need to use a tool like Paragon ExtFS ($39.95) for MacOS X. Let's you access the Linux file system on the Transporter formatted drive.
        If it's an emergency there is a 10-day free trial.
        When the Transporter drive mounts you see four volumes and your data should be in the drive that has the "storagePools" directory according to Jim.
        Then in there you will see a series of folders with long numbers as titles. Your data will be in these folders.
        Tricky to find and extract, but now you know how to get at it.
      If you heed these warnings though and follow the procedures outlined by Connected Data you should be OK.
      Huge thanks to Jim for sharing his experience so that we can avoid any trouble.
    Quick thoughts on Transporter
      I love the device, they sent me one.
      The hardware is beautifully designed, quiet, and so simple to set up and configure.
      I'm currently sharing some files with a few people and it works as advertised.
      There is an iOS app so you can access files remotely via that, again with a direct connection back you your Transporter.
        There isn't any way to add files from an iOS device at the moment.
      About my only complaint is that it's not yet as well known or as ubiquitous as other cloud solutions yet, but that should change
        As more people get Transporters and sign up for Connected Data accounts it will be easier to use with more people.
        People do need to sign up for an account and download the desktop app for you to be able to add them to your connected folder. This is really no different than other services though the process could be a bit easier for novices.
        Also there is no web interface, so you need a Mac or iOS device you get at your data. This also means there's not one-off public links that you can just share files with, again at least not yet.
  Troubleshooting iOS Wi-Fi issues
    Nick has an iPad and an iPhone that he syncs over wi-fi.
    The iPad seems to do fine, but he has continued issues with the iPhone. About 1/3rd of the time when he goes into settings and hits 'Sync' Now on the iPhone it doesn't sync. It just tries and then goes back to Sync Now.
    Nick, you're not alone. I've had random issues like this as well. Unrelated, but similar, I also on occasion will have odd cellular data issues
      Recently for example, my phone kept dropping back into a 4G connection even when there was a strong LTE connection. I would connect to LTE with 3-4 bars, but 15 minutes later when I would check my phone it would be back on 4G
      Once reason is simply that wireless signals are just finicky. They are susceptible to interference and sometimes just freak out.
      That said, if you notice consistent issues, like your's, there are some troubleshooting steps you can take.
    Apple has two troubleshooting articles on their support site that can help
      iOS: Troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks and connections
      iPhone: Troubleshooting a cellular data connection
    Troubleshooting your Wi-Fi
      Toggle Wi-Fi
        Tap Settings > Wi-Fi and turn Wi-Fi off and then on again.
      Check your wi-fi and router
        Make sure your wi-fi is powered on and verify other devices can connect. (sounds silly, but you know…)
        Update your Wi-Fi router to the latest firmware.
        Reset the router, unplugging it and plugging back in
        If you have an Airport you can use the Airport Utility software on your Mac or iOS device to reset the router.
      Power your device off and back on
        Hold the On/Off button until "slide to power off" appears. Slide to power off your device. When it is off, press the On/Off button to turn it back on.
      Reboot your device
        Press and hold the home and On/Off button together until the device reboots and you see the Apple logo
    If you are still having issues you might try resetting the network settings on your device
      Go to General > Settings > Reset
      Then tap the 'Reset Network Settings'
      If you use a passcode lock you may be asked to enter it.
      Then tap the "Reset Network Settings" button to confirm and do the reset.
      Be aware that this will delete ALL of your network settings.
        Saved Wi-Fi Networks and passwords, client IDs, custom DNS settings, VPN, and APN settings will be deleted.
    Troubleshooting cellular data
      I have had the situation where I have bad or slow cellular data connectivity
      Toggle cellular data off and then on again on the iPhone: Tap Settings > General > Cellular.
        Sometimes turning of cellular data and then reconnecting can result in a better connection
        Your device will sometimes lock onto a tower and not want to give it up even when there may be a better one near by. Disconnecting will force it to re-scan the area.
        Settings > General > Cellular
          Turn Off Cellular Data, wait 30 seconds, turn it back on.
        If that doesn't work try powering off your device and powering it back on.
          Hold the sleep/wake button until you see the 'Slide to Power Off' option
          Wait a minute or two and then power the device back on.
          If you're having big issues then leave it off for 10 minutes or so and try again.
      Check for a carrier settings update.
        Setting > General > About
        If there are new carrier settings the device should alert you and give the option to update
      Verify your iPhone is up to date.
        In iTunes: Connect your device via a cable. Select it in the Devices List. In the Summary tab click the 'Check for Update' button.
        On the Device: Settings > General > Software Update
      Remove the SIM Card and reinsert it. Allow the iPhone to re-aquire the network.
      If your SIM card has SIM PIN enabled, try toggling it off: Tap Settings > Phone > SIM PIN.
      Try another location. If a different location works, but the original location still does not, contact your carrier to report the issue.
      Reset network settings: Tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
    In some ways the 'Reset Network Settings' procedure has become my new "cure all" for connectivity and battery issues on my devices
      Sort of like 'repair permissions' on my Mac.
      It can help with battery because if your device is constantly trying to connect to wireless or jumping from point to point it tends to suck up a lot of battery.
      Doing this was what fixed the 4G/LTE issue I mentioned before.
    If none of this works then your last step is to backup and restore the device via iTunes.
      Connect the device via cable to iTunes
      It should backup automatically. If not, Select the device in iTunes and click 'Back Up Now' in the Summary tab.
      When the Backup is complete. Click the 'Restore Device…' button in the Summary tab in iTunes.
      When the restore completes you can restore your data from backup. All apps and data will need to resync to the device so the procedure could take a while.
    If that doesn't work, then contact Applecare or visit the Genius bar. If it's a cellular issue you might try contacting your carrier.
  Quickly dismiss banner notifications
    Banner notifications in OS X Mountain Lion can be cool and keep you up to date on things, but sometimes they do get in the way.
    Occasionally, but not often, you'll need to access something and that the banner pops-up over. It should move off after 5 seconds, but if you need to click something under it right at the moment it pops up you may not want to wait.
    If you use a trackpad, use two fingers and swipe to the right to "flick it" out of the way. On the Magic Mouse, use the same gesture with one finger.
    It's tricker to do on an iOS device, but you can do it there also. Just swipe to the right across the banner notification.
    Another way to quickly dismiss on iOS is to briefly swipe down and flick back up the Notification Center. This can sometimes be easier or more reliable than the right swipe "flick" gesture.
Closing
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