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Posts tagged iOS 4
iOS 4 and its Newfound Camera Speed
Jul 8th
I was at a sci-fi convention over the weekend. It was my first one, so naturally I wanted many photos. My experiment was to use just the iPhone. The results? Not great. With iOS 3 (can we call it that, or is it iPhone OS 3.0?), the camera was slow, but some magic made nearly every photo clear, sharp and amazing.
Leo Laporte (of TWiT) had an interesting suggestion on what used to happen. Taking a photo would cause the iPhone to take several photos at the same time. Then, an algorithm would process the photos and pick the cleanest, sharpest, best looking one and save it to the camera roll. This process is what caused the iPhone camera to be “slow” in comparison. iOS 4 makes the camera much faster (x2 or x3 faster, even), but it feels like every photo is blurry.
Every lighting condition, every situation, every object in the frame - I had to take two or three shots to capture it clearly. Even still, I’m not pleased with the quality of my photos. The gentle quivering of my hand caused photos to be ruined. Even my “clean” photos are blurry.
The pictured photos are of a mostly stationary person on the elevator with a silly shirt tagline as an example. It took five photos to get the “clear one” you see in on the right. I’m convinced that iOS 3 would have been one photo. Has anyone else noticed this? Seriously. I’m pissed.
iBooks Available Now, Many Apps Updating
Jun 21st
The official release of iBooks is available now for download, get it here. In my quick look, it’s super smooth. Definitely blows GoodReader out of the water for PDF support. Animations are smooth, and effective. Like the iPad version, the application has hardware control over the brightness (cheaters). Chapter selection on PDFs does not appear to work, it goes by page instead. Bookmark syncing, notes, highlights and searches (on words) are all fully functional…, except in PDFs. I can’t seem to get it to work there. Don’t forget that Winnie-the-Pooh is free!
Also pouring in are iOS 4 enabled applications. Many simply getting fast app switching (which is just like multitasking for apps that don’t “do anything” like WordPress), but others getting legitimate multitasking capability as well. Engadget has a preliminary list here. Ars Technica has a massive, seven page epic on the new operating system for those that have some free time.
iOS Multitasking Works Exactly How It’s Supposed To
Jun 21st
File this under: duh. Pandora updated their famous radio streaming app and has added multitasking capabilities. I checked it out, flawless. The iPod button in the control section of the multitask bar (are there names for these things?) turns into a Pandora one…, neat right? Naturally, music continues to play. Subtle touches like that make Apple’s implementation of multitasking an interesting one for sure. Of course, some other smartphone owners see this as nothing new, but this is a big deal for Apple people (like a Pandora controlling widget on the homescreen make’s the Pandora button seem trite). As more apps become available, believe that I’ll have a few more things to say, including a full “review” of sorts.
Reminder: iOS 4 Drops Today
Jun 21st
Plug in your iDevices and mash that update button. The update apparently has come through for some, but not all. Patience everyone. As far as I know, no multitasking enabled apps are in the store - or none that I use. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait on developers for that. On a personal note, I hope iBooks drops today as well. If you’re a little anxious waiting for it, you can read the sneak peeks. MobileCrunch has some info too.
iOS 4 Sneak Peek: Game Center
Jun 17th
I’m sorry to report that there just isn’t much to say about Game Center yet. iOS 4 capable devices are few, so friends and friend requests are non-existant. The first tab has a status message, and it uses your iTunes account. I can elaborate on my one and only hope for it since I can’t actually test it (and these sneak peek photos don’t say a whole lot to me). All I want is a comprehensive solution to gaming with friends. The other networks (Plus+, Crystal, OpenFeint, etc) allow the connections, but I still never ever game with anyone. It’s too complicated right now to set things up. I want Game Center to permeate every game, and have everyone use it…, so there is no excuse anymore. Hopefully the transition is smooth and encompassing.
iOS4 Sneak Peek: Folders
Jun 17th
Don’t be too surprised. iPhone owners will take what they can get, and folders were definitely something we needed. As a self-diagnosed technology obsessive compulsive disorder suffer (SDTOCD), the layout of my applications caused me much grief and anxiety. Furthermore, devoting two pages of apps to “Games” but having one too many (thus being forced to put it on the “Media” page) put me in shock daily. Medication has arrived in the form of folders. While not overly exciting, they have reduced my anxiety, and pages of apps from many, to just two…, and are attractive to boot.
A few more folderiffic photos after the break.
iOS 4 Sneak Peek: Photos.app
Jun 16th
If you’ve got iPhoto and a device with iOS 4, then be prepared to see some new features in your Photos application. While I’m sure it has been mentioned in one of the Apple keynotes, events, albums, faces and places are now selectable options. Unfortunately, these probably require iPhoto (especially faces), but maybe there’s some hope for Windows users, at the very least, they’ll get albums and places (how do Windows users sync photos anyway?). Screenshots of the new Photos application, after the jump. Forgive the edits of names and places I deem sensitive).
Albums
Probably the most unchanged in the bunch. This should look familiar to most iOS users.
Events
You know, I couldn’t remember if I had sync’ed events in the past. Did iOS 3 have this functionality? Did they just show up as albums? Regardless, this is almost a carbon copy of Albums, except… they are events. Events, if you aren’t aware, are automatically generated based on the content of the complete photo import, and the time they were taken. It was implemented as a feature in iPhoto to make organization easier.
Faces
Oh yes, iPhoto will be required for this one. Using the auto-detecting face recognition, people are sorted into albums of their own. I’m not totally sure how this is useful, unless you have a lot of friends that like to look at themselves. Still, it’s neat to see how organized everything is. If you know you have a photo of a friend, then it’d be a snap to jump right to it.
Places
Probably the biggest “check this out” feature. If your photos are geo-tagged, then they will show up on a map, just like in iPhoto. This feature definitely requires network connectivity to download the Google Map. The area is pinch zoomable for more precision. Pushpins will glide into position based on zoom level, the farther zoomed out, the more they clump together. Photos taken from a whole city, would be represented by one pin. As you move in, they spread out to represent neighborhoods, then individual streets, then finally their actual location. Photos taken on the device do not show up here automatically. They must be synced to your computer, then synced back - bummer.
So that’s all for this taste. I hope to show off a few more new little things as the information gets to me.
iPhone 4 Pricing, Power, and Availability
Jun 7th
So the event is over, but an introduction isn’t what you’re interested in. Here’s all the details of what happened. Well…, at least the updates that are phone related. From our very own GuruChristine:
Honestly the iPhone 4 just blew everything else out of the water… Again #WWDC
And with that kind of glowing review, let’s hop right into the details.
PRESTUFF
-iBooks updated; note taking, PDF support. I think this propagates into the iPhone 4.0 version as well.
-Netflix on the iPhone! (Officially) It works on 3G and streaming started on an iPhone can be restarted on any other device. Pick up EXACTLY where you left off.
-Farmville on the iPhone…, guh, I’ll stick with We Rule.
-RIM at 35%, iPhone at 28%… closing the gap.
NEW iPHONE.
DESIGN: But you knew that. Stainless steel, glass screen. Thinnest phone ever. LED Flash, front facing camera. Second microphone for noise cancellation. The steel casing is apart of the antenna system. Tons of battery improvements. N speed wifi. Highly recyclable.
DISPLAY: Retina display, 4x the pixels. 326 ppi, 800:1 contrast ratio, IPS technology (which Steve claims is better than OLED), 940 x 640, the font smoothing is incredible…, it’s already amazing on the iPhone too. I can’t wait to see this in person. Yikes, things look good. Automatically will fix apps to look good on the screen.
“It makes it so your apps run automatically on this, but it renders your text and controls in the higher resolution. Your apps look even better, but if you do a little bit of work, then they will look stunning. So we suggest that you do that. So that is the Retina Display. Awesome text, awesome images, and awesome video. We think this will set the standard, and no one is going to come close.”
PROCESSOR: iPhone 4 is powered by the A4 chip. Same one as the uh, iPad.
GYROSCOPE: New Motion APIs, better motion based gaming. Think Wiimote to WiiMotion+. It will work from any orientation since uses gravity instead of velocity. Seems like this is going to be really good for augmented reality and compass stuff.
“We’re adding a 3 axis gyro, and we tied the gyro and accelerometer, compass, and gyro together for six axis. It’s perfect for gaming.”
CAMERA: 5 megapixels, backside illuminated sensor, LED Flash, 5x digital zoom. Apparently, squeezing pixels reduces quality. Apple’s doing something different here. 720p at 30 frames per second…, HD video recording. Built in editing, iMovie for iPhone! Flip is dead! Shoot, I was just about to write a neat movie editor I found…, I guess it still works for the 3GS. iMove is $4.99 “if they approve it.” Har har har.
Now everybody loves to talk about megapixels, but we tend to ask the question how do we make better pictures? Megapixels are nice, but what these cameras are really about is capturing photons and low light photography. So we’ve gone from 3 megapixel to 5 megapixel, but we’re using a backside illuminated sensor.
OPERATING SYSTEM: Apple is changing the name from iPhone OS 4.0 to iOS 4. Most of this stuff we know already. Multitasking, new APIs, unified mailbox, yadda yadda. Oohh, Bing search! Gold Master available today (I’ll let you guys know how it is). Update is free for everyone. iPhone 3G doesn’t support all the features and the iPhone OG/iPod Touch 1G aren’t eligible.
Yahoo, Google and Bing search. Thanks Engadget.
iBOOKS: Same as the iPad stuff, but, you know, smaller.
“Same bookshelf to keep your books… PDF reader… we’re really excited about this. And of course, the iBookstore right on your iPhone.”
iADS: Deja vu. Jeaze…, these last three are all rehashes from earlier this year. 60% profit, paid from iTunes Connect. Ads look good/fun, as weird as that sounds.
ONE MORE THING: Video calls, they call it… “FaceTime?” Wifi only, iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only.
“The video and audio quality is great. Now it’s going to be WiFi only in 2010. We need to work a little bit with the carriers…”
It looks like which camera can be used can be flipped. The demo video showed people using sign language. Uses tons of standards, so it may be possible to link this into Skype and other things.
AVAILABILITY
White and Black. $199 for 16 GB and $299 for 32 GB. 8GB 3GS for $99. Preorders available June 15th on sale June 24th. AT&T has an upgrade offer. France, Germany, UK, Japan and US get it right away, everyone else later. Apple is making a new dock, and case.
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