written by Michael Rockwell
Long Zheng regarding copy and paste on Windows Phone 7 Series:
As it turns out, the development team actually knows exactly how they will be implementing copy & paste in WP7S but did not believe it could be implemented without affecting the release schedule they’ve committed to and therefore will be including it in an update down the road.
I don’t think anyone actually thought that it would never have copy and paste.
Apple’s go-to writer for “controlled leaks” got the ball rolling yesterday when the Wall Street Journal published an article by her and two other writers that focused on Apple’s upcoming iPhone refresh.
Sourcing “people briefed by the company,” the WSJ says that Apple is planning to release a CDMA iPhone compatible with Verizon’s network. Pegatron is said to be manufacturing the new handset and they plan to start mass producing it in September.
Knowing as much as I do about Apple, I find it hard to believe that Apple would release an iPhone on Verizon’s network. Let’s not forget that the Motorola DROID’s entire marketing campaign appears to hinge on what it can do and the iPhone can’t. We also shouldn’t forget about Apple’s line of ads showing the ability to use AT&T’s data network while on a phone call. I just don’t know if Apple’s ready to drop AT&T exclusivity quite yet.
Soon after the Wall Street Journal’s report Engadget heard that the upcoming iPhone would be named the iPhone HD and would be announced on June 22. John Gruber also decided to weigh in and point out that the WSJ didn’t mention anything about the A4-family CPU, the 960×640 display, or the front-facing camera. He doesn’t exactly come right out and say it but it appears that this is what he’s been hearing.
Sounds like this is going to be a pretty good handset. Look out Windows Phone 7 Series.
Update 3/31/10: Changed some wording to make it clear that John Gruber didn’t specifically say that the next iPhone would have all of these features, simply that the WSJ didn’t mention them.
Shortly after App Annie posted iPad App Store screenshots, Federico Viticci has published two videos to his Vimeo account demoing the iPad App Store.
The first video, Browsing the iPad App Store: A Video, shows the ability to browse applications in coverflow, individual application pages, and also reveals some of the pricing of iPad applications. According to the video, many iPad applications will be around twice as expensive as their iPhone counterparts. Plenty of $7.99 and $9.99 price points.
The second video, Browsing the iPad App Store, Part II: Charts Categories, iPhone Apps, reveals more application prices, various charts including top revenue, top paid, and top free. The video also displays a new feature (at least to me), the ability to show and hide iPhone apps from the App Store.
I’m incredibly excited to see what developers have been working on for the iPad. My only worry is that they’re pricing their applications too high. I’ve always felt that a really good iPhone application should cost $2.99-4.99 and my impression is that really good iPad applications should cost $4.99-9.99. But, I think there will be far more $9.99 apps at launch then there should be.
Apple today published iPad guided tours on their website. The videos focus on Safari, Mail, Photos, Videos, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, iBooks, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers.
There isn’t a whole lot of new information here, but the videos do show an integrated search feature, brightness control, and dictionary in iBooks and a special keyboard for writing formulas in Numbers.
After watching these videos I’m even more certain that the iPad is going to be the simple laptop replacement that I’ve always wanted. This device is everything that I need it to be. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a single thing I use my MacBook for that I won’t be able to do on the iPad.
The iPad is a big deal.
Aside from the aforementioned Instapaper for iPad there have been glimpses of several other iPad apps showing up around the web.
The folks at CNET got their hands on some screenshots of Zen Bound for the iPad. Zen Bound was a fantastic game that I purchased as soon as it was released for the iPhone. I enjoyed nearly every minute I played it but eventually uninstalled it — it gets a little repetitive after a while. As much as I enjoyed the app when it first came out, the iPad version looks identical to the iPhone version, except for the obvious resolution change.
GamePro has published screenshots of Godzilab’s “iBlast Moki,” Revolutionary Concepts’ “Frogman,” and 10tons’ “Sparkle HD.” They look pretty good, especially iBlast Moki, which I hadn’t heard of previously. iBlast Moki is now on my list of apps to pay attention to.
Unsurprisingly Apple has already started moving forward when it comes to approving apps for the iPad. PadGadget has found games listed in iTunes preview that appear to be destined for the iPad. Clicking on the links shows you an iTunes Store error telling you that “Your request could not be completed” because the application isn’t available. All of these games have “HD” at the end of their names and Gizmodo has learned that this is the preferred nomenclature for applications that are iPad only.
These are the games found so far:
On the periodicals front, Amazon has announced Kindle for the iPad and Panelfly has announced their comic book reader application for the iPad.
I had my doubts about the number and quality of applications available for the iPad at launch. I ignorantly assumed that developers would shy away from building applications designed for a brand new device that costs $499+. But it appears developers are as jazzed about developing for the iPad as they are about developing for the iPhone. They all see a gold rush coming on April 3, and I think they’re right.
iLounge learned last week that starting in May Apple will no longer be selling clear plastic screen protectors in their stores.
There have been several theories as to why Apple would decide to do this. I don’t believe it to be any one reason but a combination of several. For one, shelf space is valuable and if Apple doesn’t believe that their devices need screen protectors, they aren’t going to sell them anymore. The current iPhone and iPod touch screens don’t scratch all that easy, they is much more likely to crack than scratch. Apple has seemingly taken the stance that if you think that flimsy piece of plastic is going to protect your device, you can get it elsewhere.
Secondly, these screen protectors are incredibly difficult to apply. I went through my InvisibleShield phase, I bought three of them for three separate devices and finally gave up for good. Those things are darn near impossible to put on straight, not to mention all the dust and whatnot that inevitably ends up on it in the time it takes for you to take it out of the package and actually apply it to your device.
And lastly, Screen protectors may have been a good idea back before the iPhone, when screens weren’t made with such high quality material but the glass that Apple is using on the iPhone is absolutely superb. And the oleophobic coating on the screen does a great job of keeping all those nasty fingerprints away.
Speaking of the iPhone’s screen, I’ve never publicly told this story before but I think now is as good of a time as any to do so. When I was waiting in line for the original iPhone in 2007 I was behind a man who claimed to have a piece of the glass that Apple used on the iPhone. He said that Corning Inc. was the company who developed the glass and it was originally designed to be used for windows. It was incredibly sturdy glass but unfortunately it was just too heavy to be used in windows. Corning inevitably ended up shelving it for a while. It wasn’t until Apple contacted them about using glass for their displays that their glass finally had a home.
After telling his story the man went to his car to get the piece of glass, it was cut exactly in the same dimensions and size of the iPhone’s glass front. It even had the holes for the home button and speaker.
I haven’t been able to confirm whether his glass was actually the same glass that was used on the iPhone but I do live near Corning, NY (where Corning Inc. is located) and it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities for his story to be completely true. I saw it and touched it, and when I got home with my brand new iPhone that night, the similarity between the two pieces of glass were uncanny.
Of course, It’s also possible that he made the glass himself as a great way to impress the other people in line at the AT&T store, but I choose to take him at his word.
Last night Marco Arment published a preview of Instapaper for the iPad on the Instapaper Blog. Instapaper is a wonderful little service that single-handedly convinced me to get a Kindle. Instapaper let’s you quickly save web articles with a bookmarklet for later reading.
I use Instapaper on my iPhone and my Kindle but am really excited about using it on the iPad. Marco has decided to build Instapaper for the iPad as a universal iPhone/iPad application. That means that buying Instapaper Pro gets you the iPhone and the iPad version in one.
All of the features from the iPhone version of the app will be there, including dark mode and adjustable fonts. And, Marco has happily announced that Instapaper for the iPad will be available on (or near) day one.
Developers have been left with a choice to either release their application on day one without ever testing it on an iPad or wait to test on an iPad and release it late. Marco explains his decision simply:
While I could have taken the conservative option and waited until a month or two after the iPad’s release before launching Instapaper for it, an iPad without native Instapaper Pro is not a device I want to own.
I hope other developers feel the same way about their own apps.
Opera has announced that they’ve submitted their Opera Mini browser to Apple’s App Store. They’ve chosen to make this submission process very public, even putting an “Opera Mini Countup” page on their website that counts the seconds since the application was submitted to Apple.
Opera Mini uses server-side rendering which Opera claims can load web pages up to six times faster. But, the best feature by far is its ability to search the contents of a web page — something I’ve been waiting for Apple to implement since day one.
Whether Apple will accept the application remains to be seen. But, judging by the fact that Opera has decided to make this process so public, I have a feeling they don’t expect it to be accepted. I don’t know why else they would put a counter on their website publicly displaying how long it takes for Apple to reject or approve it.
I truly hope Apple approves it, even if it takes a rejection followed by public outcry for it to happen. I just want Apple to be forced to innovate again. They currently have the best mobile browser on the best mobile platform and without someone else to push them along I’m afraid they’ll be happy to sit where they are.
MacRumors reports that Apple has started accepting iPad applications into the App Store.
The iPad section of the App Store will be launching on April 3 and developers who hope to have their application in the store on the grand opening should submit their application by March 27 at 5 PM.
9 to 5 Mac has posted screenshots of the iTunes Connect submission interface.
It’s kind of mind boggling to think that the majority of developers haven’t been able to test their application on an actual iPad.
But for a select few developers, Apple has allowed them to test their applications on a real iPad. Douglas MacMillan, writing for BusinessWeek, shed some light on the terms of Apple’s agreement for those who do get access to an iPad. MacMillan spoke with four people familiar with the terms who claim that the iPad must be kept in a room with blacked-out windows. The device must also remain tethered to a fixed object.
It should come as no surprise that Apple has allowed some developers access to an iPad before it’s release. Apple allowed a few developers access to the iPhone SDK before it was launched, and this is no different. Apple wants this platform to be successful, and although the simulator gives developers a really good idea of how their application will work, there’s no substitute for trying your application on a real device.
I just hope that the developers who only have the simulator to work with won’t have too many serious changes to make once they get their iPads on April 3.
AppleInsider claims that Apple has developed a “full-on solution” to multi-tasking on the iPhone.
From the article:
From a user-facing perspective, Apple plans to deliver a multi-tasking manager that leverages interface technology already bundled with its Mac OS X operating system, according to those same people. It was requested that specifics be withheld at this time, as the iPhone Software 4.0 remains under development and reportedly has a quite ‘way to go’ before it’s ready for prime time.
I would love to hear a little bit more about how Apple plans to impliment multi-tasking on the iPhone. As much as I hope to see something like Expose or webOS-style application switching, I have a feeling Apple will come up with something very different.
But regardless of how multi-tasking will actually work, we at least know one influential writer who believes AppleInsider’s report.