iFixit’s tear down of the new Apple TV reveals 8GB of internal storage. This means that the device, running iOS, is fully prepared to run normal iOS apps.
The only questions that remain are will Apple let us and how will the input work?
Jesper Bylund .com
Interaction Design and Gamification, for an increasingly mobile world
Posted in September 2010 …
The New Twitter interface reeks of WebOS
Twitter.com has released a new interface based on two panes; one for the real time stream for tweets and one for the selected tweet, it’s options and dialogue.
[youtube rIpD7hfffQo]
This design is really closely related to the official Twitter iPad app:
But what gets me most is that both these designs are so very closely related to the Palm HP WebOS:
[youtube XgwUs6h57PE]
Jump into the video and really check out the WebOS cards interface model. How different is it from Twitter panes model?
Apple launches international video service
At the launch of the Apple TV Steve Jobs claimed that video rentals would launch in 9 countries outside the US “soon”.
We’ve heard Apple state again and again that iTunes video is being released in the rest of the world and so far have yet to see it. But I doubt that this has anything to do with Apple, video rentals cross nations and even more so across regions seem to be the unholy grail of the movie industry. For some reason they just don’t want to open the flood gates to international video services.
Let’s hope this latest move by Apple can finally open a crack in that wall. Hulu EU? Yes please.
Apple eases up on iOS developers
Apple has just released a statement that they are easing up restrictions for developers of the iOS platform. More specifically in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9. Exact information is scarce so far but Gizmodo is digging hard right now and Engadget has found out that this means Apple will allow “any and all” third party development apps including Flash CS5!
Apple also says they’ll the App Store Review Guidelines to “help developers understand how we review submitted apps”.
Great day for iOS developers!
The future of Apple TV – sans apps
The were a lot of rumors around before the launch of the new Apple TV, the most interesting ones from Engadget that claimed the Apple TV would be fully compatible with iOS apps. But Steve Jobs claimed it had no local storage, how would that work?
Looking at the tech specs page of the Apple TV site I can’t find any information about storage though. There must be some storage to fascilitate buffering of video but it could work just fine with only RAM.
What the future of the Apple TV will be no one knows. But if it doesn’t have local storage it won’t ever handle apps. We’ll have to wait for the next generation.
Now begins to long wait for the post launch tear down that will tell us if it has local storage or not.
iTunes 10 review
iTunes 10 is out, the first major release for years. After playing around with it for a week this is what I’ve noticed:
- Still does not use the standard front end API for OS X making it laggy and ugly.
- The slight UI overhaul makes it less of a mess. But it still is a mess to use.
- It has Ping, a social network exclusively about Music. Not very engaging though.
Please Mr Jobs and Mr Ive, please do a remake of iTunes soon. It really is a terrible user experience and it does not stand up to the quality of other Apple products. I love the store(s) but the app is crap.
Update: the Icon has caused quite a stir and is being widely critized. Steve Jobs has commented on it sucking saying: “we don’t think so”.
Samsung Galaxy Tab preview
Before I start, I haven’t touched the Galaxy tab myself yet.
But from the video’s available from IFA and other preview hands ons I have a question that might break the product:
It looks great. It sounds great. The specs are great. It runs the speedy Android 2.2 Froyo.
So why does it lag? Why isn’t scrolling silky smooth? Why does the interface have load times without transitions?
Boiled down to one question: Since the device seems to be more than a match for Apple’s iPad, why does it lag up the user experience?
[youtube m447vlifXDY]
iPhone 4 bumper case review
The iPhone 4 is an amazing looking product. And it feels even better. I can best describe it as sleek, it’s thinness and glossy glass body makes it smooth to touch and to get out of a pocket.
The bumper takes all that away. With a thick rubber edge that sticks to your hand, your pocket, the table, everything really. With plastic sides making the bumper pretty useless for protecting the phone from dropping it on the sides.
I don’t know. I can’t figure out what it’s for.
Basically, don’t go near this thing. It really sucks.
Apple Airplay
With the upcoming release of iOS 4.2 Apple has revealed a new feature, or an upgrade to the old Airtunes feature, called Airplay. Airplay will let us stream media content between our iOS devices.
Just think about it, coming home from a shopping spree just aching to tell your spouse about the hideous dress/jacket/guy you saw. Whipping out your iPhone and displaying the picture on your Apple TV or iPad. Sounds like the future to me!
There are only two questions that come to mind I’m really interested in:
- Will Airplay allow us to send content to a Mac as well as from one?
- We know third party devices will be able to receive media but can third party apps also send media through Airplay? Since it’s a part of iOS it should be an open API… right?
Check out the CNET write up for more thoughts on Airplay.