July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sorry, jailbreakers: The latest iPhone update, iOS 6.1.3, could kill your lovely little hack.

Apple is testing a potential fix for the Evasi0n jailbreak in the most recent beta for iOS 6.1.3, Forbes reports. Davig Wang, a developer testing the new update, tells the site that it fixes at least one of the five bugs Evasi0n relies on (specifically, a flaw in the iOS time zone settings).

“If one of the vulnerabilities doesn’t work, Evasi0n doesn’t work,” Wang told Forbes. “We could replace that part with a different vulnerability, but [Apple] will probably fix most if not all of the bugs we’ve used when 6.1.3 comes out.”

Released in early February for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, Evasi0n was the first fully untethered jailbreak for iOS 6 (meaning the hack sticks even if you reboot your phone). Jailbreaks allow iPhone owners to install unapproved software (including pirated software) as well as interface tweaks that Apple would never allow (like the tweaks in the notification area above).  Not surprisingly, Evasi0n also benefited from pent-up demand for a full iOS 6 jailbreak, helping to unshackle over seven million iOS devices in its first four days.

Jailbreakers are generally aware that any Apple update could spoil their fun, but Apple’s response to Evasi0n seems surprisingly quick. Given how long it took to release this jailbreak, it’s clear that iOS 6 was the hardest to hack so far. Apple likely wants to keep a secure image of iOS 6 alive by crushing Evasi0n (and of course, fixing the recent lock screen hacks).

Photo: Joshua Bermudez/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Siri is starting to become what it was always meant to be thanks to Apple’s iOS 6.1 update that it released today.

In the latest update, Apple is enabling the purchase of movie tickets via Fandango. In other words, your “Siri, what movies are playing tonight” question can finish with “Siri, buy me two tickets to Anna Karenina.”

Additionally, the 6.1 update includes LTE support for new carriers — 36 for iPhone and 23 for iPad — and a small update to iTunes match.

“With nearly 300 million iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices on iOS 6 in just five months, it may be the most popular new version of an OS in history,” Apple VP of marketing Philip Schiller said in a statement.

The new consummation of the movie-ticket buying process is exactly what has been the promise of Siri all along: a personal assistant who doesn’t just find information for you but actually does things for you. Buying tickets through Siri, which is a feature only available in the U.S., could be a huge time-saver: Rather than going to a website, checking local listings, selecting a movie and showtime, and then purchasing tickets by entering your credit card information, Siri could complete the entire action in just seconds, once you’re set up with Fandango.

(More on that later, when I’ve tried it: I have not yet completed the update. Hopefully, the experience is better than Apple’s OpenTable integration for automatically getting restaurant reservations, which has some serious shortcomings.)

Other countries will presumably come later, as Apple signs agreements with appropriate services.

One other update that didn’t hit the press release but is visible in the release notes: Apple has included a new button to reset the Advertising Identifier.

Apple has taken some heat about the current user privacy settings vis-a-vis advertisers, as the on-off switch for advertising tracking was previously buried near the bottom of Settings -> General -> About on an iPhone, just below Modem Firmware and above Diagnostics & Usage. In other words, where people are least likely to find it accidentally — or even if they’re trying. To add insult to injury, even then is not a true on-off switch, as it only “limits” ad tracking.

A reset button will at least enable you to severely limit tracking by giving you the ability to constantly change their device’s advertiser ID. I’m asking Apple for more information this change, however.

Apple also noted that so far, iOS users have uploaded over nine billion photos to photo stream, sent over 450 billion iMessages, and received over four trillion notifications.

The update is free and is compatible with iPhone 3GS and up, iPad 2 and up, and fourth and fifth generation iPods.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Donut, Eclair, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean: It’s enough to make Kate Moss hungry.

Google has released five major Android updates since 2010, most named for some kind of food. Today, Android’s developer site revealed that for the first time, more than 10 percent of Android smartphones in the market are running Jelly Bean, the latest version.

Source: Google

Android system distribution

A major developer complaint about Android has always been its version fragmentation. While iPhone users typically update their devices to new software versiosn from Apple very quickly, Google’s position as the provider of a free and open-source mobile operating system has led to much less power with carriers, who can in many cases block Android system updates.

That’s led to a situation in which the majority of Android smartphone owners are still using older versions of Android. In fact, 47.4 percent are still using Gingerbread, which Google released in December of 2010.

Google announced Jelly Bean in late June last year — a few days before the previous version, Ice Cream Sandwich, reached 10 percent penetration. That took almost nine months, which means that Jelly Bean’s achievement of the same level has happened significantly faster.

That’s at least some good news for developers, who have to keep multiple operating systems in mind while building apps.

Google still has a ways to go, however: In one day, Apple had higher uptake of iOS 6 than Google has achieved in six months.

The developer site for Android also revealed the latest data on screen sizes and resolutions. By far the majority of Android smartphones are now using high-density and “extra-high” density screens, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S III’s 306 pixels per inch, if not quite at the iPhone 5′s 326.

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via photopin cc

Hat tip: The Verge

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

A bug that’s affecting iOS users who flicked on the “Do Not Disturb” setting in 2013 will have to wait until next week before getting a fix, according to Apple.

The Do Not Disturb setting, available to devices running iOS 6 or later, enables iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch owners to block all incoming communications for a predetermined amount of time. That means all phone calls, text messages, and in-app notifications won’t pop up on your device until the setting is scheduled to turn off. But when the calendar changed to 2013, several people reported that the Do Not Disturb setting never actually stopped working, regardless of what time you programmed the device to resume sending you notifications.

I can see how this would be very frustrating for anyone that relies on their device to stay looped into to social circles for both their personal lives and work duties. (So, if you’re just getting back to work for the first time in 2013, today might not be so quiet after all.)

While Apple has largely stayed silent about the Do Not Disturb bug, it’s pointing people to a support forum post that indicates a fix is coming Jan. 7. Until then, Apple’s instructing people to manually turn off the setting.

Via ArsTechnica

Apple’s Maps debacle may be old news by this point, but that isn’t preventing faux-news site The Onion from making fun of it. The parody site’s latest video offers Apple a pretty thoughtful suggestion: Rearrange the planet so that it matches the software’s glitchy output.

“Apple is committed to providing the best user experience possible, which is why we are working to dismantle the Brooklyn Bridge and put London in Canada,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told The Onion.

“Public transit directions won’t be necessary in the new world as there will be no public transit,” Cook added, referring to Maps’s lack of public transit information for cities like New York.

The fictional Tim Cook’s response is very different from that of the real one. Cook apologized for the software’s bugs in a September letter. “We fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better,” he wrote.

While The Onion pokes fun at Apples’s Map troubles, the situation has been so serious that it led to the sacking of Richard Williamson, the former senior director of iOS platform services. Former iOS VP Scott Forstall also left the company after he reportedly declined to sign Apple’s letter publicly apologizing for its Maps flaws.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Almost half of Yelp’s searches are now coming from mobile devices, the company announced today in its third-quarter 2012 earnings report.

More than 8 million people are using Yelp’s mobile apps on their phones and tablets, with 45 percent of searches coming from mobile. In the company’s last quarterly report, the company said 7.2 million people were accessing the service via mobile devices — so it has increased its mobile user base by about a million in a quarter.

Yelp’s integration with iOS 6 via Siri and Apple Maps surely has bumped usage of its service. But with more than 200 million people using iOS 6, we’d almost expect more people to be learning about and using Yelp.

On its conference call today, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said the company didn’t have any numbers to share that could specify how iOS 6 had increased Yelp engagement. (We wonder if that means the numbers simply didn’t look very good, so it’s waiting another quarter to share.)

“Those are certainly numbers we will take a look at,” Stoppelman said on the call. “iPhone users certainly are engaged, but I haven’t personally pulled the data and looked at it.”

Still, the company generally seems optimistic about the impact of mobile usage on its business.

“Mobile remains a top priority, and we expect it to be a key driver of engagement and success in the future,” Stoppelman said in the earnings report. “As we continue to build Yelp communities around the world and connect consumers with great local businesses, we further fulfill our mission to be the de facto local search engine.”

Here’s the company’s highlights section, including its mobile info:

New market expansion: Yelp continued to expand globally with the launches of Helsinki and Singapore. Singapore marks Yelp’s first entry point into Asia. As of the third quarter, there are 96 Yelp markets worldwide.

Yelp Mobile: Yelp mobile apps were used on approximately 8 million unique mobile devices on a monthly average basis for the third quarter and approximately 45% of all searches are now from our apps. We also redesigned business pages on the app to emphasize user engagement such as photos, tips and check-ins, putting mobile contribution opportunities front and center for the user.

Early momentum in Apple iOS 6: In September, Yelp branded content was integrated into Siri and the new Apple “Maps” application on iOS 6, with links that take users directly to the Yelp app.

Redesigned Homepage: Yelp launched its redesigned homepage, placing a greater emphasis on mobile activity from the user and his or her friends, including individual app activity and the user’s social graph.

Launch of gift certificates: Businesses can now sell gift certificates directly to consumers through their Yelp business profile, helping to turn existing customers into some of the best promoters.

Yelp shirt photo via sylvar/Flickr

Today Apple announced its 7.9-inch iPad mini tablet. Right on stage, the company compared it to the Nexus 7 (Google’s flagship Android tablet) to show the wealth of differences between the two. But Apple skipped a few key comparisons that you might want to be aware of.

Here’s a closer look at those differences, as well as how Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD tablet compares to both:

The iPad mini is without a doubt the thinnest tablet ever produced. It’s thinner than most smartphones today at just 7.2 millimeters thick. It’s slightly taller and wider than most competing 7-inch tablets, though not the Kindle Fire HD.

From my time with the Fire HD, I’ve found that holding it from edge to edge with one hand is possible, though not comfortable — so the iPad mini should be comparable.

The iPad mini is also the lightest tablet available, although the upcoming Barnes & Noble Nook HD tablet will weigh just seven grams more at 315 grams.

Processing power, based on the specs alone, appears fairly similar, but specs don’t tell the whole story. The A5 processor inside the iPad mini is identical to the one inside the iPad 2 — which is now one and a half years old — compared to the newer processors inside both the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. On the other hand, the Android tablets may be faster and offer double the RAM, but Apple’s current operating system (iOS 6) is better suited for the included components, which makes it better at processing data more quickly and more efficiently. Google constantly updates its operating system to improve speed and efficiency; Amazon historically has not.

At the iPad mini’s unveiling in San Jose today, Apple’s Phil Schiller (Senior VP of Marketing) also mentioned how it feels much better than the Nexus 7, primarily because the Android tablet is made of plastic and feels cheap. I haven’t found that to be the case. The Nexus 7 is the best 7-inch tablet to hold because of a well-designed case that is easy to grip and feels warm in the hand. The Kindle Fire HD has a rubber-like back, which is also comfortable and warm. The iPad mini has a metallic back panel. I expect that it will be similar to the current iPad, which feels cold in the hand but provides good grip. I prefer the warm Nexus 7 to the iPad, though size and weight have to be considered as well.

The iPad mini is available in three capacity variations: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. The Nexus 7 starts with just 8GB, which in my use is completely inadequate. A 16GB model is also available, and 32GB models have been found in stores across the US. The Kindle Fire HD comes in 16GB and 32GB capacities.

All of the tablets use a 1.2 megapixel (MP) front-facing camera that can record video in 720p, but the iPad mini is the only tablet here that includes a rear-facing camera. That 5MP camera is likely the same found in the latest iPod Touch and the iPhone 4. Tablet cameras have traditionally offered mediocre to poor still photography and video recording, but larger 10-inch tablets have shipped with significantly improved cameras this year.

Most 7-inch tablets feature widescreen (16:9) displays, but the iPad mini has the same 4:3 aspect ratio as the full-sized iPad. This means all HD video on the iPad mini will be letterboxed with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. The Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD both have denser displays at significantly higher 720p resolutions, which will make HD media appear clearer and without letterboxing.

All of the tablets use high-quality IPS displays, but the iPad’s lower resolution and larger screen will make pictures appear blurrier and more pixelated. It’s surprising Apple didn’t include a Retina display on the iPad mini for exactly this reason.

Apple boasts the same 10-hour battery life on the iPad mini as on the iPad, though the Kindle Fire HD promises 11 hours of continuous use. As with any manufacturer’s promised battery life, take these numbers with a big grain of salt.

The iPad mini is also the only small tablet that can access fast LTE 4G cellular data. LTE will be available on the iPad mini in the US through Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint, for an extra $130 over the comparable Wi-Fi models.

The biggest difference between the iPad mini and all competing Android tablets is the price. The starting price for the iPad mini is $330, $130 more than both the starting Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD. The iPad mini also increases the price in $100 increments for doubling the memory, compared to Amazon, which only charges $50 more for the 32GB  model.

Additionally, other tablets like the Nook HD offer expandable memory through user-purchased memory cards; the iPad mini doesn’t.

In short, the iPad mini is far more expensive than the competition at equivalent capacities, and only gets more expensive as the capacity increases. In fact, the iPad mini is expensive even compared to the latest iPod Touch, which has all of the same internal components as the iPad mini.

Will you buy an iPad mini? Tell us what you think about it in the comments section below.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

While the big Apple news of the day was Apple’s new iPad Mini, CEO Tim Cook had some other big news to share at Apple’s big press event in San Jose today. And it came in the form of numbers.

iOS 6: Between iPads, iPods, and iPhones, 200 million devices have upgraded to iOS 6 since its launch last month.”This is phenomenal. This is the fastest software upgrade in history that we’re aware of,” Cook said.

iCloud: Big numbers also came from iCloud, which has become home to 125 million documents since its launch last year.

iPhone 5: As announced previously, Cook confirmed that Apple sold 5 million iPhone 5s in the device’s first weekend.

iPad: Cook revealed that, as of two weeks ago, Apple has sold 100 million iPads. “This is unprecedented for a new product in a new category. We sold more iPads in the June quarter than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC line,” Cook said.

iMessage: On the iMessage front, Cook said that users have sent 300 billion messages — 28,000 per second — via the service in the last year.

iBooks:  There are 1.5 million books available via the iBookstore, and customers have downloaded 400 million of them so far.

 Photo: Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Sure, the iPhone 5 passed Samsung’s Galaxy S III in web traffic just three weeks after getting on the market. But does that say more about mobile operating systems and differences between Android and iPhone users than it says about device sales numbers?

Online ad network Chitika released a study this morning based on millions of mobile ad impressions across the Chitika network. Chitika added up all the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy SIII web traffic, and 56 percent of it is iPhone 5, while 44 percent is Galaxy S III.

The iPhone 5, of course, has been in the market for just a few weeks, while the S III was launched a few months ago. But here’s the question: Is this due simply to sales numbers or also to different user behavior?

I asked Chitika’s data engineer for his insights.

“The differences between iPhone and Android users boil down to a couple of things,” Chitika’s Gabriel Donnini told me. “First is demographics, which translates to behavioral tendencies, and the second is the functionality and accessibility of the device.”

While Chitika could not provide data about per-capita web usage between iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III, and it does not track individuals due to privacy concerns, the company definitely sees that iPhone users access web data much more frequently than Android users. After all, there are 20 million S IIIs to perhaps 10 million iPhone 5s in the market today.

But is it also a user interface/user experience difference?

Donnini said that while up until very recently the general consensus was that the iPhone user interface has been more accessible than Android, and that has led to usage pattern differences. But, he says, with the last few iterations, Android has caught up … and the Galaxy S III, of course, runs Ice Cream Sandwich (or Jelly Bean, for those who have updated).

But this still has one big difference, according to Donnini:

“With the iPhone you basically have to use the default browser, versus on Android you can between choose multiple browsers. The majority of people just want a seamless experience, and if you have that, you might be more willing to surf and share content.”

So iPhone users access the web more due to both demographics, and — possibly — the iOS 6 user experience. That makes sense, and it follows existing trends.

But we’ll know more about the specifics of that when Apple releases hard sales numbers.

photo credit: liewcf via photopin cc

I guess those 3 percent are Silicon Valley tech blog writers.

ChangeWave Research just surveyed 4,300 consumers, and it turns out that they don’t care about Apple Maps versus Google Maps. In fact, one in three people surveyed said they’re likely to buy the iPhone 5, with 20 percent saying “very likely” and 13 percent saying “somewhat likely.”

“Despite the media attention surrounding both the Apple Maps issue and the Apple Lightning port issue, neither has had an impact on the massive numbers of buyers queuing up to buy the iPhone 5,” Paul Carton, a ChangeWave VP, said in a statement, adding that “both issues hardly rank as bumps in the road.”

Apple replacing Google maps with its own not-quite-as-solid version has dominated a lot of the media about the iPhone 5 launch, of course, with concerns about its lack of data and its sometimes-hilarious 3D flyover fails, causing Apple CEO Tim Cook to publicly apologize. But Consumer Reports gave Apple Maps a fairly positive review, and the app is, apparently, good enough to give Taiwan’s military a few hot flashes.

ChangeWave compared the current Maps issue with the iPhone4′s “Antennae-gate,” and Maps is not even in the same league. While 36 percent of consumers experienced an issue with iPhone 4 reception, only 10 percent have experience any sort of problem with the iOS 6′s new maps.

Additionally, when the research company asked consumers what was stopping them from buying an iPhone 5, Maps blocked precisely 0 percent of purchases. The biggest reason? People were satisfied with their current phone and saw no need.

photo credit: the past tends to disappear via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Slowly but surely, Apple is improving the iOS 6 Maps experience.

iPhone owners have begun noticing significant changes in Apple’s Maps app, which has added more 3D data. Two big examples are the newly 3D-ified Stature of Liberty and an improved Brooklyn Bridge, both of which were previously flat images. Similar improvements are in the map data for much Brooklyn, which is also available in 3D.

The improvements come a week after Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the initially lackluster Maps experience. “We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better,” Cook said.

Fortunately for iOS users, the improvements to Maps are coming sooner rather than later.

Apple’s latest fixes may be small in scale, but they’ll still go a long way toward proving to iPhone owners that Apple is serious about improving its Maps data.

But Apple still has a lot of work to do. Adding more 3D data may be a big deal, but the more irksome problems have been the ones related to incorrect addresses and, for city dwellers, the lack of public transit directions.

Photo: MacRumors/pacmania1982

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Google has given Apple Maps haters yet another reason to avoid that app by adding its well-liked Street View feature to its web app on iOS, the company announced today.

The biggest misstep Apple made with iOS 6 was replacing Google Maps with a half-cooked Apple Maps app. Until Google adds its own iOS app to the App Store, thankfully, there are alternatives like Bing Maps or the Google Maps web app you can access through the browser.

Now Google Maps on the web has been improved with Street View, which lets you see buildings in close detail as if you were walking by them. Street View on the web is a little sluggish, but for anyone seeking a reliable rendering of a destination, it could still come in handy.

Google writes:

Starting today, use Street View on your mobile browser to check out a new shop across town or get a feel for the ambiance at a restaurant before you arrive. To use Street View on your mobile browser simply go to maps.google.com and search for a location. Then click the “pegman” icon at the bottom right of your screen to access Street View. And to view still more helpful imagery, such as a photos shared by users or interior panoramas, visit the business’ Google+ Local page.

Also, transit, driving, biking and walking directions continue to be available on your mobile browser to help you help guide you to your destination.

For quick access to Google Maps on iOS devices, you can save a bookmark to your home screen. Simply click “Save to Home Screen” on the bottom of the page when you’re in Google Maps, or follow the instructions here.

Photo credit: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

By now you’ve either heard about how inadequate the native iOS 6 Maps app is compared to the old Google Maps app or experienced it yourself. Well, some good news is in the pipeline for those still suffering.

Google plans to add the Street View feature, which shows what an actual location looks like from the ground level,  to its iOS Maps web app. This is according to AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg, who mentioned the details within a review of the native Google Maps app on Android.

The old Google Maps app didn’t have the Street View feature, which means iOS device owners running the latest operating system may have one more reason to run back into the arms of Google. This isn’t even the first upgrade Google has made to remind people how awesome the service is by comparison. Last week, the search giant added high-res 45-degree imagery in 51 cities to Google Maps.

The new feature should be available on the web app Thursday, according to Mossberg. He added that the company still intends to create a native version of Google Maps for both the iPhone and iPad at some point in the future, which lines up with comments made last week by Google Chairman Erik Schmidt.

Apple Maps received almost immediately ridicule from iPhone owners when it debuted back in September, spawning its own Tumblr blog with examples of errors. It also resulted in a plethora of articles explaining why the app wasn’t on par with other Map services, including a good one by VentureBeat editor-in-chief Matt Marshall. The bad press caused Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue a public apology about the Maps app’s poor quality and even remove any mention that it was the best, ever.

That said, a Google Maps native iOS app would be ideal. But for now, the addition of Street View should keep everyone happy.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Yesterday, I pulled up the YouTube app on my recently updated iOS 6-sporting iPhone 4S. Or, I tried to.

Not finding the video app in my “Watch” folder, where I could have sworn I had put it, I started searching other folders. Not in “Look Up.” Not in “Play” or “Share” or “Navigate.” Finally, I gave up and slow-double-clicked the iPhone’s one button to initiate a search for the app I knew I had.

Source: John Koetsier

No YouTube app in my “Watch” folder

Results: zilch.

Turns out that Apple killed the app silently in the process of upgrading my phone to iOS 6. And I, a long-time Apple user with multiple Apple products and a technology journalist who covers Apple, had missed that little factoid about the latest and greatest mobile Apple operating system.

It also turns out I’m not the only one who has done so.

Ten thousand people have viewed this question on Apple’s forums about the missing YouTube app, and another thousand have viewed this one. Fantine, in Washington, D.C., had an unsatisfactory answer: Go to YouTube in Safari. Noble Seven tried desperately but cluelessly to help, suggesting that people who can’t find YouTube may have turned it off in their iPhones preferences.

But let’s stop and think about this for a moment.

Imagine that this was your Mac (or your PC). And, in an upgrade to a new version of the operating system, Apple or Microsoft deleted applications on your device. Instead of PhotoShop, you now get NewAwesomeImageEditor, and instead of Skype, you get … nothing.

This is outrageous.

Killing the old Google-powered Maps and replacing it with Apple Maps is one thing. It was premature. The app was, if not horrible, at least not ready, and it gave Apple such a black eye that Tim Cook felt the need to issue a public apology — which didn’t translate to restoring the old Maps app — and suggest other companies’ mapping products. (Though not archenemy Google’s, of course.) But at least it replaced something with something, even if inferior.

Killing the YouTube app and replacing it with nothing is even more annoying. But it’s also insulting. And maybe even evil.

A mobile phone is an intensely personal piece of technology. My phone is mine. I bought it, I pay for it, I use it, and I fill it with apps. It travels with me wherever I go, it stays by my bed at night, and it wakes me up in the morning. It tells me what’s happening, it connects me to the world, and it lets me share what I’m doing with those I love. How dare you reach into my phone and delete my apps?

Source: John Koetsier

Guess what the #1 free app by downloads is on the app store?

All of this has been well covered, in a sense.

Ars Technica detailed all the little bits and pieces that Apple has removed from iOS in version six. Others have talked about YouTube’s ungracious dismissal from the iPhone and the opportunity this has provided other video apps.

But no one seems to be talking about the arrogance that it takes to update an operating system and delete apps that users may have enjoyed, become accustomed to, and relied on. Consumers, incidentally, are speaking with their fingers right now: Google’s YouTube is the top free app by downloads in the app store today.

But are we so used to the gated garden of the app store that we don’t even speak out about this anymore? Are we so conditioned to having limited control over the iDevices we purchase that we just take this for granted?

It reminds me of Apple’s Newstand app — the app for magazine subscriptions.

Not only can this app not be deleted, the app cannot even be put into a folder.

Which means that I and millions of other iPhone users are stuck with a user experience of an app that we do not use and do not want … and cannot delete or even file away. (There was a trick to file it in a folder, but that seems to have been disabled in iOS 6.)

This is just unconscionable — even if some fine print in the terms of service or release notes legally cover Apple’s posterior. It’s not the right way to treat users as valued customers, partners, and human beings. It’s not the right way to build user interfaces and experiences. And it’s just plain not right.

Behavior like this may seem minor and inconsequential. But as it continues, and adds up, more people might start to think — and act – like iPhone owner Kaitheloner, who had a different solution in the Apple support forums … one which she gave divine thanks for.

That solution? Go Android:

I thank God that I have an Android tablet (Purchased the unlocked version for a 125$ ) as well as the iPad. Sure the android tablet *****, it hangs like **** sometimes, the interface is bland, but sometimes, it comes in real handy.

And I don’t think that is in Apple’s best interests.

Note: I did ask Apple for comment on this story, but I have not yet received a reply.

photo credit: Dunechaser via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

I put iOS 6′s new turn-by-turn directions to the test over the weekend, often alongside Android’s turn-by-turn directions. I gave it some hard tests, such as routes involving ferries, obscure country roads, and out-of-the way destinations. (No, that image above isn’t an error in Apple’s iOS maps. That’s Apple correctly showing the ferry that I was on.)

I was in rural Washington state, but it’s important to note that commercial database providers, such as those that Apple uses, generally do a good job of covering the United States.

I tried to look for problems that likely fall into patterns as opposed to one-off data errors. No database as large as those used in mapping (including Google’s) will be error-free. There is just too much data that change too frequently. In addition to the weekend’s testing, this analysis is based on more than a decade working in the local space, including some time I spent working on in-car systems.

Neither Google nor iOS met my benchmarks for the ideal navigation app (I have very high standards), but Google was clearly better. There were a couple of ways in which I consider iOS to be better. I also found several ways in which Apple could significantly improve the iOS experience in the short term.

The best designed navigation systems gives you the right information at the right time, without distracting you with unnecessary information.

Problems generally fall into three categories: user interface, algorithm, and data. UI problems are generally the easiest ones to fix. The data is in the system, the system is finding it correctly, and the app just has to change the presentation. With algorithm problems, the data exist but are accessed in a way that the best data aren’t surfaced. Data problems are the hardest — they require either collecting or fixing the data. With mapping in particular, this can be a human-intensive task.

Points of Interest. Navigation systems generally have a hard time with non-commercial places and complex venues. For example, I searched for the Grand Ridge trailhead. iOS couldn’t find it. Google Maps gave me several results in Olympic National Park, but not the actual trailhead. A search for Olympic National Park Visitors Center on iOS brought me to the visitor’s center at the base of the mountain; the same search on Android brought me to another visitor’s center at the top of the mountain, a windy 17 miles away. I consider both wrong and incomplete; I would’ve preferred to see both options.

Coming down the mountain after our hike, we wanted pizza. A few miles out, Android showed several pizza places in Port Angeles. At roughly the same point, iOS only showed one. As we got closer, the search on iOS revealed the other pizza places. This was an algorithm problem — Apple had the right data, it just didn’t search out far enough. One approach to resolving this is to keep expanding the search until you have a certain number of results or reach a distance like 25 miles.

We also wanted to go to a cidery. We searched for Finnriver. iOS got us to the road leading up to the cidery. Android took us the additional 1/3 of a mile to the entrance of the cidery. The place was well signed, so iOS wasn’t a failure; but Google’s directions were better. This is a problem that can be solved with user-generated data. If you see that every one who searched for the cidery goes another 1/3 of a mile, you can then add that road segment.

I like that iOS provides names and locations of nearby points of interest as you drive. You can see that there’s a gas station, cafe, or hotel up ahead. Android doesn’t do that. (It’s my long-term hope that navigation systems will end the visual blight of highway billboards.)

Road names. The biggest category of problems I found with iOS’s app is the road names it chooses to speak. Many roads have multiple names. One of the roads I frequently drove was Washington State Route 20. But iOS kept calling it “Sims Way.” (The iOS visuals showed both Sims Way and Washington 20.) Android spoke it as “State Route 20″. Most of the signage along the route referred to State Route 20. In another case, the road was identified by iOS as “Natl Forest Develop Road 2600 RD” but the sign said “Country Meadow Road”. Google had that correct.

If you watch the visuals of the map closely on iOS, you’ll get to the right place. But the best navigation systems will match the audible and visual directions to what’s on the road signs. The best way to do this is to actually drive the roads. But Google also had its issues: In one place, I was told to turn right onto 101 West, but the road sign only offered North and South as options. (iOS just told me to turn right onto 101.)

Audio cues. I found iOS to be way too chatty. In one span of less than a mile, it generated at least five prompts that were all some variant of “take I-5 north.” Such verbosity is only necessary when there are a lot of tricky maneuvers, not following a standard ramp with a lot of signage. iOS would also generate cues that included directions on what to do 10 miles or more out. When you’re that far out, the purpose of the cue is to tell the driver “keep going, don’t worry about listening to me for a while.” Asking the driver to remember what to do that far out is unnecessarily increasing the driver’s cognitive load. (Especially because the system will give the cues closer in.) It makes sense to give the left or right heads up a mile or two out so the driver can change lanes, if necessary.

In other cases, iOS didn’t give any audio cues at confusing intersections. I generally followed the path that most closely resembled straight ahead. Android was much better at this.

I also found iOS pronunciation of “W A 20″ annoying. W A 20 should be expanded to “Washington 20″ when spoken. (Abbreviation expansion is relatively easy, although in one navigation system I used, all of Washington’s roads were pronounced as “Western Australia” when I changed it to the sexy Australian voice.)

One thing I preferred in iOS over Android: in relatively urban areas, iOS gave me the next maneuver at 1/2 mile out instead of the 1/4 mile heads up that Android gave me.

Airports. Complex venues like airports have long been a challenge for navigation systems. Relying on iOS cost me about 15 minutes on my way to drop off my rental car at Sea-Tac Airport. Apparently, iOS routed me to what it considers the center of the town of SeaTac, instead of the airport. (If I weren’t testing, I would have just followed the signs on the freeway once I got near the airport.) My ideal navigation system would identify any query that looked like it might be an airport and then display a prompt asking if I wanted to go to arrivals, departures, or rental car return. My Android device wasn’t working on the trip to the airport, so I can’t offer a direct comparison. But I know Google has invested a lot of effort in making sure its airport data are correct.

It’s important to get airports right because so many users search for them, and bad directions can cause a missed flight. It’s also a relatively easy data challenge because it is a constrained problem set.

Ferries. My trip involved taking a ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. Both iOS and Android knew the ferry route existed, saving me the effort of driving around the bay. Neither won the available extra credit by telling me when the next ferry was departing. My ideal system would know ferry departure times and would calculate the optimal route based on my distance to the ferry and expected wait time at each dock. Heck, even a link to the WSDOT ferry schedule within the directions would have been very helpful. In my route, there were two different ferries I could have used; I manually calculated that I would miss the closer ferry and drove to the next one instead of waiting.

Visuals. I generally preferred iOS’s visuals to Android’s. Apple puts a lot less unnecessary information on the screen. The skeuomorphic design shows street names on street signs and generally looks cleaner than Google’s. Apple also did a better job of visually indicating the next step when multiple maneuvers were close together.

A subtle but important touch: Apple uses icons that correspond to road signage. In Washington, state route numbers are superimposed on a profile of George Washington. Apple displayed that; Google used an oval.

Speech. Android seems to make much more extensive use of concatenated speech; iOS uses much more synthesized speech. With concatenated speech, many short recordings of a human speaker are strung together and played back. With synthesized speech, a computer generates the audio. Concatenated speech is typically easier for humans to understand and creates less cognitive load on the driver.

Night mode. iOS lacks a night mode, which has been common in navigation systems for years. In night mode, the background of the map is dark and the screen emits a lot less light. The result is a display that is less distracting when driving at night. Although iOS does automatically dim the display based on ambient light, it’s not as effective as a real night mode. Android has this. This should be a very easy fix.

Miscellaneous. iOS doesn’t let you pan the map while navigating. I prefer having the option to see what else might be along my route. (Android allows this.) I would also love it if iOS paused my podcast when it gave a navigation instruction; as chatty as it is, I missed a lot of Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

Turn by turn directions are an important addition to iOS. It’s great that Apple has finally made free directions available as part of the OS. Unfortunately, they still need a lot of work. Maybe Apple can use this post as a roadmap.

For more on mapping apps, tune in to NPR Science Friday this week, where I’ll be discussing these issues.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

In less than two weeks, a majority of iPhone owners have updated to the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, warts and all, according to data compiled by web and mobile ad network operator Chitika Insights.

An estimated 60 percent of iPhones are now running iOS 6, Chitika found. The company sampled millions of mobile ad impressions between September 18 and October 1, 2012 to arrive at its conclusion.

The massive population of as-current-as-possible iPhones is especially notable considering the onslaught of negative press around the shortcomings of Apple Maps, which is installed by default on upgrade. The Maps situation, overblown or not, has proved such a nightmare for Apple that CEO Tim Cook issued an apology last week, and the company now recommends other maps applications in its App Store.

iPhone users showed more alacrity in upgrading than iPad and iPod owners. Approximately 45 percent of iPads and 39 percent of iPods are running iOS 6, according to Chitika’s findings.

The figures, while not official Apple numbers, point to the Cupertino company’s continued success at getting its hundreds of millions of iOS users to immediately install software updates. This is an area where Google has consistently struggled with Android due to complicated relationships with device manufacturers.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Surprise, surprise, Apple is being sued again. A San Diego gaming and restaurant software company is suing Apple for infringing four of its patents in the new iOS 6 Passbook app.

While it’s no shock to hear Apple’s being sued, it’s a tiny bit shocking that Samsung’s not on the other side of the V. A little more shocking is that the company involved is not, exactly, a patent troll — Ameranth actually has real, for-sale products. And perhaps even just a bit more shocking is that the company has received strategic investments from both Microsoft and Motorola.

Ameranth v. Apple is all about about Passbook.

Passbook is Apple’s entrant in the mobile wallet sweepstakes. Currently, it’s for tickets, boarding passes, and gift cards, and while it may graduate at some point to hold your VISA or American Express credit cards, currently Apple has only lightly integrated with  one credit card provider.

But it has the potential to grow, and to grow into the mobile wallet space highly coveted by giants such as Google, Microsoft (which just demoed a mobile wallet on Windows Phone 8), eBay, MasterCard, and others.

Ameranth says the software violates four of its patents: 6,384,850, 6,871,325, 6,982,733, and 8,146,077. The first two are both titled “Information management and synchronous communications system with menu generation,” and the second two are similarly titled: “Information management and synchronous communications system with menu generation, and handwriting and voice modification of orders.”

And yes, the patents are just about as bland as their titles: fairly generic-seeming data synchronization routines, plus data display.

But, Ameranth states in its court filing, several of its patents have been cited by Apple:

One of the Ameranth patents-in-suit, U.S. Patent No. 6,384,850 — the first patent issued in this Ameranth patent family — was cited as a prior art reference in two Apple iPhone patents issued to named inventors Bas Ording and Steven P. Jobs.

That, plus the fact that Ameranth has actual products, makes this more than just a money grabbing patent troll assault. Perhaps not much more — a cursory glance at Ameranth’s home page reveals more focus on patents than seemingly anything else — but definitely more.

The really interesting part comes in Ameranth’s PDF product overviews, such as this one for its Poker Room Manager software. Just after the obligatory “Ameranth has a very strong IP portfolio” statement, with reference to acquired patents, is this: “Ameranth has received strategic investments from Microsoft, Motorola/Symbol, Springboard Capital, and Western Pacific Capital.”

A strategic investment is often small in dollars but large in, well, strategy. And sometimes strategic investments cover a company’s posterior portions via guaranteed patent protection.

Food for thought, no?

VentureBeat contacted Ameranth for more information, but we have not heard back yet. We will be contacting Microsoft and Motorola for any comments as well.

photo credit: LucasTheExperience via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Everyone in the tech echo chamber knows that Apple Maps is the worst mapping service in the history of mapping services. Apparently, someone forgot to give Consumer Reports the memo.

The convention wisdom is that Apple Maps lacks data and shows crazy, fantastical images of important landmarks. Apple CEO Tim Cook has released an almost-unprecedented apology for Maps, and many iPhone owners are abandoning the app, so much so that Apple is vigorously promoting other company’s mapping solutions in the app store and softening the conventional best-ever marketing jargon about the new Maps on its website.

But is it really that bad? Well, honestly, no.

It’s not great — that’s definitely true. The fly-over footage has serious issues. Big chunks of Ontario, one of Canada’s larger provinces, seem to be just missing (update: Google doesn’t do much better). But Consumer Reports, which is known for its detailed and objective reports, provides a little outside-the-echo-chamber sanity.

Consumer Reports’ bottom line?

Both the free Apple and Google navigation apps provide clear routing directions. Apple feels like a less-mature product. But as seen with the initial competing applications for the iPhone, we would expect updates to this new app over time–and Apple has promised as much. When getting down to the nitty gritty, Google provides a better overall package, but we feel that both provide a good solution for standard software. We expect the competition between the companies will benefit customers with ongoing improvements.

Wow. That’s a little different than what we’ve been hearing. And it provides a useful counterpoint to the pile-on-the-bandwagon type behavior the blogosphere, which can be a little high school from time to time, has been engaging in.

The reality is, every mapping solution has its challenges — even the admittedly awesome Google Maps, which has sent people with medical problems on a wild goose chase while trying to find a medical center.

Apple’s problem is that is replaced best-in-class with pretty-good. That is a very risky proposition, as marketing guru Seth Godin indicates, because people are much more sensitive to what they’re losing than to what they’re gaining.

Consumer Reports liked App Maps’ interface, signage, and points of interest info. But Google has better reporting on traffic conditions and transit information such as train stations. And, of course, it’s a more mature solution.

There’s no doubt that Google Maps are better than Apple Maps. But it was intriguing to read Consumer Reports’ thoughts on the media frenzy:

But having more thoroughly tested Apple Maps alongside a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with Google Maps, we have a more favorable opinion–certainly more favorable than comments and articles that we’ve been reading online.

Google Maps gets the nod, as it should. But Apple’s Maps isn’t a complete train wreck.

Maybe it’s just that we’ve come to expect better from Apple.

photo credit: Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL via photopin cc

Hat tip: ModMyI.com

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

This post is written by Kevin Kim, author of the forthcoming book More iOS 6 Development.

Rather than brooding over iOS 6′s buggy maps, here are a few little features you probably haven’t discovered yet on the new OS. They won’t change the world, but they’re still pretty cool:

1) Emoji Keyboard
Enter Settings and navigate to General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard. Scroll down and look for “Emoji”. Once you’ve added it, your keyboard should show a little globe icon on the lower left. If you tap it, you can toggle between your English keyboard and Emoji one. (If you’ve already installed another keyboard, tapping the globe will cycle through all your keyboards.)

2) Limit Ad Tracking 
Inside Settings, navigate to General > About > Advertising (it’s near the bottom). From there, you have the option to “Limit Ad Tracking.” iOS 6 introduces the concept of the “Advertising Identifier,” a temporary, anonymous device identifier. If you turn”Limit Ad Tracking” on, apps are not allowed to send you targeted ads. It’s not clear if this feature is working 100% yet, but in theory, it seems like a nice idea.

3) Do Not Disturb Mode
Settings > Do Not Disturb. Your phone won’t light up, ring, or chime when messages, calls, or notifications arrive. I’ve been setting this every night before bed. You can customize it inside Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb. From there, you can schedule it to activate automatically, allow calls from specific groups of people, and allow a repeated (i.e. urgent) call to ring through. No more getting woken up by your friends’ late night Facebook updates, Tweets, or drunk dials.

4) Custom Alarm Sounds
Now when you set your clock alarm, you can use a custom ringtone or song. You can start your day with the theme from Rocky and take on the world!

5) Really Delete Gmail
When you want to delete a message from your Gmail account, tap and hold the Archive Box icon. You’ll be asked if you want to delete or archive the message. Not perfect, but at least now I can delete my Gmail messages.

6) (Bonus for giving your phone to kids) Guided Access
Technically, Guided Access is an “Accessibility” feature, but I use it when my niece or nephew want to play a game on my phone. Last time I did that, they called everyone in my Contacts (and got Siri to call me “Poopie Pants”). Turn on Guided Access via Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access. Launch the app you want and triple-tap the Home button. Once Guided Access is turned on, you can’t leave the app unless you triple-tap and enter a passcode.

Kevin Kim is a founder and partner of AppOrchard LLC, a Tipping Point Partners company focused on sustainable iOS development. He is also the author of the forthcoming book More iOS 6 Development (Apress, 2012).

[Top image c/o Apple.com]

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Today in Apple’s iOS 6 Maps soap opera, the company has apparently toned down the hyperbole on its website describing the new maps application, following a public apology from chief executive Tim Cook yesterday.

Apple’s website previously described Maps with the following language:

Designed by Apple from the ground up, Maps gives you turn-by-turn spoken directions, interactive 3D views, and the stunning Flyover feature. All of which may just make this app the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.

But sharp-eyed tech writer Amit Agarwal noticed this morning that Apple changed the second sentence of that copy to read: “All in a beautiful vector-based interface that scales and zooms with ease.”

It’s not a major change, but together with Tim Cook’s recommendation to use competitor’s map apps yesterday, it seems like a surprisingly humbling maneuver for Apple. The company can’t truthfully call its Map app the “most powerful mapping service ever” with all of the errors users are seeing, especially when better alternatives are just a few clicks away.

Apple yesterday also started highlighting alternative map applications on the App Store, including Bing, Waze, and Mapquest. Cook also recommended web apps like Google’s web-based version of Google Maps. An official Google Maps app for iOS is reportedly in the works and should be released by the end of the year.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard that the maps application in iOS  is awful. It is so bad, Apple actually apologized. What we haven’t seen until now is just how badly iOS 6 is hurting usage of Apple’s maps.

A company called Snappli, which just launched a few weeks ago (see coverage here and here) is a free mobile app that helps people stay within their mobile data limits by compressing and optimizing mobile data as well as video. Today they pulled some pretty interesting data around Google/Apple Maps, based on data from Snappli users in the UK and US. 64 percent of Snappli users in the U.S. and UK have migrated to iOS 6 in the past few weeks. Here’s Snappli’s summary of what those users did after upgrading:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple chief executive Tim Cook issued a public apology this morning for the company’s buggy maps application in iOS 6.

Cook admitted that Apple “fell short” on providing the best possible experience with its Maps application. He wasn’t afraid to suggest alternatives for customers to use while Apple gets its act together. Cook pointed to Bing, Mapquest, and Waze’s iOS apps, as well as Google and Nokia’s web apps. Ironically, by recommending Bing, he was in agreement with Microsoft.

Update: Apple is now featuring third-party map applications in the App Store. It’s a surprisingly pro-consumer move from Apple (though the company will still be getting its normal 30 percent cut from any sales).

Cook reiterated Apple’s iOS 6 stats, saying that 100 million people have upgraded to the new OS and are now using Apple’s new Maps application. He also noted that users have searched for more than 500 million locations.

Controversy over Apple’s Maps application began when iOS 6 was released a few weeks ago. Apple had been touting its app’s turn-by-turn directions and 3D building views, but once customers got their hands on iOS 6, it quickly became apparent that the new maps app had a number of issues. The app often sent people to wrong addresses, and the highly-touted 3D view had plenty of hilariously bad errors (for example, the Statue of Liberty doesn’t exist in the app). Map experts pointed out that Apple likely underestimated just how difficult mapping would be, and said that the app’s problems could last for some time.

The original Map application that shipped with the first iPhone used Google Maps data. Now, iOS 6 users are waiting for Google to release their own Google Maps application, which is expected before the end of the year.

As annoying as Apple’s Maps application is, we still think the iPhone 5 is the best new smartphone on the market.

Check out Cook’s full letter below.

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

When you’re comparing mobile maps apps, is it fair to throw a non-existent address at them?

The interwebs are in an uproar about evil Google subsidiary Motorola’s map comparison between Google and Apple. I’m sorry, but there’s no scandal to be found here.

The commentary includes phrases like “artificially portray Apple’s new iOS Maps as deficient,” and “uses phony street address to exaggerate Apple Maps flaws.” Another publication compared it to Nokia’s faked camera shots, and yet another claimed it was part of attempt to “make Apple’s Maps look bad.”

I love my iPhone and my Macbook Air as much as anyone, but Apple is doing that all on its own.

Shocking revelation here: When travelers need to find a place, they don’t always know the exact address. Therefore, a great mapping app will not only get you where you need to go when you have all the correct information … well, it will also work when you have only partial address data.

Source: Motorola

The offending Google+ post

As such, I don’t have any problem with Motorola putting a dodgy address into maps apps in a direct product comparison. Google Maps had to put up with the non-existential nature of the address, too — and might actually have shown even more impressively in the contrast, because Google Maps obviously has a semantic ability that Apple’s mapping product lacks.

In other words, Google Maps knows that even if 315 East 15th isn’t in its database, it must be in the 300 block of East 15th, which must lie between the 200 and 400 blocks.

If you look closely at the image, you’ll see that Google Maps also knows that 315 is going to be close to the beginning of the block. And, when I tested this myself on a Google Nexus, 380 showed at the other end of the block.

Those are precisely the kinds of user affordances that a real-world product needs, because in the real world not only do users input imperfect data, the world — big shocker coming up here — actually changes.

Whoa.

So a good solution is a humble solution, and good application logic is designed with an awareness of its own data limitations. For all the massive codebase behind Google Maps knows, the park on the 300 block of East 15th has been bulldozed in favor of a Kwik-E-Mart. And therefore, it gets you where you need to go — or as close as it can, given the limitations of its data and of your query.

So Moto is just doing smart marketing: showing where its product works better than the competitor’s.

Nothing wrong with that. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along, now.

Image credits: Motorola

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

One of the unfortunate side effects of the iPhone 5′s taller screen has been that many existing iOS apps haven’t been optimized for it.

Developers, however, are rapidly moving to fix the problems, however minor they may be.

The latest addition to the list of iPhone 5-optimized apps is Netflix for iOS, which was updated today with support for not only iOS 6, but the iPhone’s taller screen.

Apps not optimized for the iPhone 5 have been letterboxed to compensate for the device’s tweaked proportions. Instagram fixed its issues on Monday, and the iOS Facebook and Twitter apps were supported from day one.

App developers faced similar hurdles when Apple introduced the Retina display-equipped iPad. Fortunately for iOS users, the Apple developer community generally has been pretty responsive to Apple’s display shifts.

How does the saying go? The best offense is a good defense.

Fresh off rejection, Foursquare is making a full court press on iOS with the release of an iPhone 5 and iOS 6-ready version of its check-in application that touts — go figure — a more personalized maps experience for better exploring cities everywhere.

In version 5.3, released today for iPhone, the three-year-old startup has made design and feature improvements to the Explore tab to help users more easily find places they might like.

The Explore tab, which already made venue recommendations, is meant to be simpler to navigate, faster, and more efficient. Particularly, the tab now includes new search categories for finding places that a member has saved to a list, locales a person has previously or never visited, or venues that friends have frequented.

The update, while not major by any means, does enhance an important piece of the Foursquare experience that differentiates the offering from the likes of competitors like Yelp. Unfortunately for Foursquare, Yelp was chosen as the primary places engine for the Apple Maps experience. While likely not an intentional snub, Apple’s decision to rely on Yelp to serve users with business information, tips, photos, and check-ins is a snub all the same, and one that gives the newly public company exposure to millions of new people.

But Apple is the midst of a Maps nightmare, so the door is open for Foursquare to find favor with Maps haters looking for better ways to find nearby places.

Notice the careful wording included in the company’s blog post, emphasis ours.

Like any good map, if you type a specific place into Explore, we know where it is and can find it for you. But because we also know what you and your friends like, what’s popular in the neighborhood, and have data from tens of millions of tips and over 2.5 billion check-ins, we can also give you tailored suggestions instead of one size-fits-all results.

A previous blog post, published on iPhone 5 launch day, also highlighted the superiority of Foursquare’s maps experience. “With foursquare, you don’t get any map — you get one that’s made just for you,” the post said.

So you get the point. Well played, Foursquare.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Apple’s iPhone 5 may not look like a major update at first glance — it’s only 20 percent thinner, and its screen is only a half-inch taller than the iPhone 4S’s — but altogether, the seemingly minor changes add up to something huge.

This isn’t just a revamped iPhone — it’s the ideal iPhone.

That may be tough to believe if you haven’t had the chance to use it yet, especially since popular Android phones like Samsung’s Galaxy S III — with its massive 4.8-inch screen, NFC support, and removable battery — seem to dominate the iPhone 5 in terms of features.

But as Apple has repeatedly shown throughout the years, a great product isn’t made from a checklist of specifications. Instead, it comes from building a great experience, something that Apple has paid significantly more attention to than any other consumer electronics company.

The iPhone 5 is by far the best experience I’ve ever had using a smartphone, even if it’s not the first to feature a 4-inch screen and LTE 4G connectivity. It’s the culmination of everything Apple has been trying to accomplish since it stepped into the mobile industry — the only question now is, where can the company go from here?

The good: Almost everything

Holy crap, is this thing thin and light. Yes, everyone is saying it, but I can’t help but add to the chorus. It could be particularly noticeable because I’ve been using the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S over the past two years, both of which have always felt a bit hefty (mostly due to the glass front and rear).

With the iPhone 5, Apple went for a sturdier anodized aluminum back, which not only makes the phone much lighter — it weighs 112 grams, while the iPhone 4 weighs 137 grams — but also makes it feel less fragile overall. (The iPhone 4 is actually 4 grams heavier than the Galaxy S III, a figure that’s particularly shocking considering the Galaxy has a huge 4.8-inch screen, while the older iPhone has a 3.5-inch display.)

The 25 gram difference between the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4 is immediately apparent when you first pick it up, and it makes going back to my iPhone 4S feel painful. The lighter weight also makes a big difference in general usage — prolonged reading on the iPhone feels more comfortable, and there’s no stress on your wrist when playing games.

The iPhone 5′s light weight, coupled with its incredibly thin 7.6 millimeter width (a small, but noticeable, difference from the 9.3mm wide iPhone 4), makes it easy to forget you’re holding a powerful smartphone. At the same time, the iPhone 5 doesn’t feel as flimsy as Android competitors with plastic cases.

That sturdiness is a good thing, as you have even more screen to potentially break with the iPhone 5. Evolving from Apple’s traditional 3.5-inch mobile display size, which has so far remained the same since the first iPhone (though other improvements, like the iPhone 4′s Retina Display helped keep the smaller screens fresh), the iPhone 5 features a 4-inch display.

Sporting a 1,136 by 640 pixel resolution, the display isn’t any wider than previous iPhones, but it’s much taller. Now you can watch widescreen movies without black bars on the iPhone’s screen. Text-heavy apps like Instapaper and CNN’s news app feel almost paperback-like with the newer screen. Color accuracy seems slightly improved from the iPhone 4S.  On the home screen, you also get an added row of app icons.

Overall, the bigger screen gives the iPhone 5 and iOS much more room to breathe. It’s still smaller than many Android competitors (indeed, 4-inch Android phones are considered mid-range now), but I think it’s a wise balance between screen size and portability. The taller screen also allows the iPhone 5 to rest more firmly in your hand (though the skinny jeans contingent may have trouble pocketing and retrieving the phone).

It’s all about speed

I was impressed even before turning the phone on, but once you do, Apple’s methodical polish becomes even more apparent. Thanks to the revamped A6 processor, even the most intensive games load quickly. Epic’s Infinity Blade II, for example, took less than two seconds to load from the title screen to gameplay, while it took the iPhone 4S around 20 seconds (!) to do the same. That sense of speediness extends across everything you do on the iPhone 5: apps open faster, multitasking is seamless.

There’s simply no more waiting.

Just how fast is the A6 chip? The hardware gurus at Anandtech put it through a string of tests, and not surprisingly it beat out every other high-end smartphone in most. On average, the iPhone 5 performed around twice as fast as the iPhone 4S. In my usage though, it felt even faster.

With such a powerful processor, it’s fitting that Apple finally made the jump to LTE 4G with the iPhone 5. The new wireless technology promises speeds five to ten times faster than 3G, but just as significant, it offers greatly improved response times. So even if you’re not getting ridiculously fast LTE speeds, the iPhone 5 will still feel zippier than the iPhone 4S when relying on the cellular network, and it’s also better suited for fast-paced online gaming.

Using AT&T’s LTE network in Brooklyn and Manhattan, I saw speeds between 2 megabits per second and 9 Mbps for both uploads and downloads. The 4G network was particularly hammered on the iPhone 5′s launch day with download speeds below 1 Mbps in Brooklyn, but things have picked up since then. While faster than typical 3G, AT&T’s LTE speeds disappointed me because I’m used to seeing download and upload figures between 10 Mbps and 20 Mbps on Android phones. Just like how AT&T’s 3G network crumbled under the onslaught of the iPhone, I’m worried that the carrier’s LTE network is similarly unprepared.

On Verizon Wireless, which had almost a year-long headstart on building its LTE network, iPhone 5 owners in New York City that I’ve talked to reported download speeds around 15 Mbps and upload speeds around 10Mbps. It could just be that AT&T’s LTE network isn’t as mature in the areas I’m testing, but the speed disparity is enough to make me considering jumping to Verizon when I get my own iPhone 5.

Even with my disappointing LTE speeds, the phone still feels zippier than the iPhone 4S. And once I hit killer LTE speeds, the iPhone 5 feels indistinguishable from a home Wi-Fi network (and at times, it performs even better than many home broadband setups).

Next: Battery performance, camera, and the trouble with iOS 6

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

As great as the iPhone 5′s 4-inch screen may be, plenty of apps still haven’t received updates to take advantage of the new display, which leaves them running with ugly black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Now you can cross Instagram off of that list.

Instagram just released an update to support the iPhone 5′s larger display. Unfortunately, picture sizes haven’t increased (because the iPhone 5′s screen is the same width as its predecessors), but now you can easily browse more pictures at once and see more comments.

Honestly, it’s just nice to get rid of those black bars.

The update also includes a redesigned registration process, as well as better password recovery.

Plenty of iOS apps still haven’t yet been updated for the iPhone 5, but with Instagram’s update, it looks like the most popular social networking apps are all good to go. Twitter and Facebook supported the larger screen when the iPhone 5 launched, and Pinterest was updated pretty quickly as well.

Game developers are worried about the loss of discoverability with the new App Store search feature in iOS 6, the latest version of Apple’s operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. And with good reason, according to data crunched by the new search tracking startup SearchMan.com.

The problem was that it was already tough to get discovered on the App Store, where there are 737,917 active apps. Many developers have had to pay a considerable amount of money on marketing, driving the cost of acquiring a single user to absurd heights. Now the new search function adds to the pain that developers feel. One game developer, who requested anonymity for fear of angering Apple, told us that the new search function in the App Store is horrible for getting games discovered.

In the previous iOS 5 version, searchers could see five results in the search rankings and get to 25 with the flick of one finger. With iOS 6 search, you only see one app per search page. That makes it less likely that a user will discover a cool app that is in the top 100 search results.

But Niren Hiro, co-founder of SearchMan.com, says that savvy developers could still use the changes to their advantage. Mountain View, Calif.-based SearchMan.com is a data service that helps app developers track search rankings of their apps and optimize their keywords to improve discoverability.

“If you assume that some of the user behavior we see on the web will transfer to mobile, then when it gets cumbersome for users to browse results, they will enter more descriptive phrases to get relevant results fast,” he said.

For instance, users will search for “free video poker game” instead of just the word “poker.”

“Longer phrases are 70 percent of search volume on the web (indicator), they’re less competitive, and probably see higher post-click conversion (download) rates because the user explicitly searched for “free video poker game,” said Hiro, whose service launched three months ago.

Developers can take steps to get the No. 1 rank under each of their “long tail” keywords. That is, developers can optimize their rankings for keywords that will give them better results on the App Store when users go searching for certain kinds of apps.

“For developers without access to a giant ad budget to boost-market their App into the Top Apple Charts, App Store SEO might be the best bet to improve discoverability inside the over-crowded App Store,” Hiro said.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

That didn’t take long: Yesterday, iPhone hacker Grant Paul, aka chpwn, posted pictures of his jailbroken iPhone 5.

“Taller screens like Cydia too,” Paul tweeted, referring to the Cydia app store for jailbroken iPhones, and including a screenshot of his iPhone’s home screen.

Taller screens like Cydia too. http://t.co/fE14vXN2—
Grant Paul (chpwn) (@chpwn) September 21, 2012

It could have been an easy Photoshop job, but Paul has a good reputation in the jailbreaking community. He’s one of the co-authors of a 2011 hack that enabled Siri on jailbroken iPhones. He also runs a site that helps people jailbreak their iPhones. Paul posted additional images to back up his claim: one screenshot showing the Cydia store screen, plus a photo of his iPhone.

Here’s the Cydia homepage on the iPhone 5: http://t.co/w0qVYaxG—
Grant Paul (chpwn) (@chpwn) September 21, 2012

Paul hasn’t posted details on his jailbreak, and other hackers don’t seem to have replicated his work yet. Still, as one commenter wryly noted (and Paul retweeted), it suggests that iOS 6 is vulnerable to zero-day hacks.

Some people wanted the bottom row of text from Cydia, or a photo of the device itself: http://t.co/T5mSNTNQ—
Grant Paul (chpwn) (@chpwn) September 22, 2012

We’re working to get more details on the jailbreak and will follow up as we learn more.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

American Express is launching an integration with Apple’s Passbook today. (Disclosure: I own a small stake in $AXP .) Passbook, a feature of Apple’s newly released iOS 6, is a mobile wallet that allows iPhone and iPod touch users to keep frequently used cards at their fingertips. Some examples include a boarding pass from American Airlines or United, or movie tickets from Fandango. Instead of having to fumble through apps, these items are available immediately. They can also pop up automatically based on a user’s location.

Before you get too excited, no you won’t be able to pay with AmEx using Passbook. (Most retailers don’t have the infrastructure to take payments like that.) But you will be able to get details on recent transactions as they happen.

“We’ve essentially re-imagined what’s possible for the newly launched Apple iOS6 Passbook technology – taking it beyond just mobile ticketing, coupons, and loyalty cards,” AmEx spokesman Brad Minor told me in an email. “This is an entirely new use-case for Pass that makes it useful every day, and not just for specific occasions.”

In the initial release, AmEx will be able to notify cardholders when there’s a new transaction on their account. Cardholders can also see current balance and access other recent transactions and customer service information.

The real-time notification capability allows AmEx to have a two-way dialogue with consumers that hasn’t really existed before. This creates a channel that AmEx could use for new features:

• See nearby offers from merchants based on your phone’s location. AmEx has been a leader among the credit card companies in creating offers.
• If a charge is flagged by AmEx fraud systems as suspicious, the network could send a real-time alert to the user’s registered phone number. The user could then enter a PIN to verify the transaction. Or, the transaction could automatically be verified by determining that the phone is in the same location as the merchant. This would help alleviate the pain of false positives in fraud alerts, increasing legitimate transactions, decrease fraud, and decrease customer service calls. Even in the current implementation, simply knowing that a transaction was attempted in Fiji while you’re in Chicago helps to identify fraud.
• Real-time reviews. Once someone has dined at a restaurant and paid, the transaction alert could be used to solicit a review. This would allow AmEx to create a very powerful competitor to Yelp that avoids two of the biggest data problems with Yelp: it ensures that only verified customers can review a business, and it should increase the volume of data collected by closing the loop and soliciting feedback. (Disclosure: I am short $YELP.) As I’ve written before, transaction data makes AmEx the king of checkins.
• Real-time redemption of Membership Rewards points, AmEx’s loyalty program. When a transaction occurs, the notification could offer consumers the option to pay with points instead of with cash.
• Transaction review data for the blind. The real-time transaction information could be spoken to blind customers, allowing them to verify the transaction amount that was authorized and resolve any issues while they are still at a business instead of after the fact.

The Passbook integration will go live later today.

[Update: AmEx has not yet launched Passbook integration. I will update this story when it has launched.]

[Update: The integration has launched as of Sept. 27. Go to amexpassbook.com on a Passbook-capable device to configure your pass.]

Real-time communication between the consumer and payment networks offers a lot of interesting possibilities. Although today’s move is a small step, it’s an important one that shows how AmEx stays ahead of other card networks.

AmEx adds real time account alerts to Apple’s Passbook.