Monthly Archives: June 2013

At WWDC 2013, Apple unveiled many great new things. One of those things was not a product but an ad. This ad, or series of ads as Apple has two videos on their website, discusses the meaning behind an Apple product, the work behind it and finally once it meets their standards, their signature “Designed by Apple in California”.

What does the signature mean? What is the significance behind it? Apple has been adding that signature to their products for a long time. Apple makes some of the best designed products in the world. But they also go for something else. Apple products are meant to enrich the lives of many, to touch many lives. Apple makes it’s products with the question “Who will this help?” and “Will it make life better?”. All of Apple’s products can be given the answer “Yes” to them. The Mac lineup has changed the way some of us use computers by giving a completely intuitive interface to use computers with. The iPod has changed the way all of us listen to music, if you were to ask someone what they thought about 1000 songs in your pocket before the iPod was released, they would tell you that you were crazy. That is what Steve Jobs was, he was crazy but he was also bold and he pursued it anyway. Apple has sold over 350 million iPods, impacting many lives with those iPods. iPods have changed the way we listen to music and they have touched our lives with the iPod. Apple has also revolutionized the way we talk to people. Smartphones were junky and just didn’t work well before the iPhone. When the iPhone came out, Apple changed everything. They put smartphone technology into the hands of the masses, but they also put intuitive smartphone technology in the hand of the masses. In fact, Android phones were out only after the iPhone and Android copied many of Apple’s features early on so Android users have something to be thankful for from Apple. The iPhone is best for it’s ability to be so intuitive and change the lives of the people who own them. And finally, the magical iPad. The iPad, since it’s release in 2010, has effected so many people’s lives. It has influence in just about every field of work, medicine, teaching, businesses etc. It has brought joy to adults and kids alike. It is being used to better allow people with disabilities such as people with autism. Many people have been effected positively by the iPad, touched by it’s abilities to better connect them to the world around them. All of these products deserve Apple’s signature because they have all been designed to be beautiful and to change the way you do things positively. Every product that Apple has touched, touches the lives of those who touch them.

Personally, the signature means a lot to me too, despite the fact that I don’t work at Apple. It shows that the product is made by a company who wants to make an impact on the world by creating products for us to use, for us to appreciate, for us to make an impact on the world with. Apple has made an impact on the world and it is because they sign all the work they do. I have always connected with the signature because I am an Apple fan and I live and work in California and love it but after watching the “Designed by Apple in California” commercial, that phrase now has a whole other meaning.

I highly encourage that you watch the video down below.

I look forward to seeing what other ads Apple makes in this series. Personally, I think it is Apple’s best commercial since the Think Different commercials. Check out the poll below and as always don’t forget to comment your thoughts and bookmark The Church of Apple.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

I just thought I would share a video of Steve Jobs that I came across. It is a video of Steve Jobs discussing how products he helped create at Apple were either already obsolete or were becoming obsolete. See the video here.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

I believe that the Jailbreaking community’s days are numbered. There are a few reasons for this opinion. First, with the introduction of iOS 7 comes many new features that are borrowed from the Jailbreak community. The new Control Center is Apple’s answer to the various tweaks that perform the same process. Many Siri tweaks that add functionality to Siri will be made officially system-wide by Apple, come iOS7, such as the Siri tweaks in Cydia that allow Siri to control brightness and other settings. Now that that is officially in iOS, it’s significance in Cydia is unimportant. LiveClock allowed the user to make the clock app be live but now that is iOS 7 supported. Auxo and Dash have met their match with iOS 7’s new multitasking. A popular Cydia tweak, SBSettings is under attack by Control Center. Infinifolders is sure to end with iOS’ new scrollable folders. vWallpaper has trouble from Apple’s new wallpaper settings. Deep End will go off the deep end since it’s 3d designs are now being adopted by Apple. Tabs+ is sure to take a hit with Apple’s unlimited tabs in Safari. The list goes on and on. Many people jailbreak to download the various tweaks on Cydia but iOS 7 will provide those integrated in the system better than a tweak from Cydia can provide. Therefore the incentive to jailbreak will be ever-lessened.

In addition to the fading necessity of the jailbreak, Apple will continue, as always, to keep the jailbreaking community at bay by releasing patches. These patches continue to thwart any exploits used by jailbreakers. The Jailbreaking Community is finding it harder and harder to find such exploits to get the devices jailbroken. For example, the jailbreak for the iPad 2 took several months, as did the iOS 6 jailbreak. Another difficulty they will face is Pod2G’s threat to leave the scene. His genius has been the brains behind many jailbreak utilities in the past. However, he has mentioned that he may end his jailbreaking career due to him not being a fan of iOS 7 (fortunately for Apple, he’s a needle in a haystack, iOS 7 has brought a positive uproar from most people). Anyways, if he leaves the community, I believe the community will be in shambles and may not recover. There are many brilliant minds in the JB community but not many that stand out as much as Pod2G does. Just the fact that he is leaving the JB community may spell the end of the jailbreak as we know it.

Finally, there has been an increasing trend of people who are unjailbreaking for different reasons. Many people, including myself, leave due to the jailbreak’s instability. Devices become unstable, battery life disappears and apps crash constantly. Plus, due to the pirates that plague Cydia, people who jailbreak are increasingly getting a bad rap even if they have not downloaded anything illegal. Plus, the people who have unjailbroken have something to look forward to, iOS 7. People who don’t have a jailbreak will be able to upgrade immediately while people who have a jailbreak and want to keep it will wait months before getting an iOS 7 jailbreak, if one will exist at all. People are unjailbreaking and the jailbreak community is lessening.

I, for one, still support the JB community. It is a group of people who can make tweaks that can improve the use of a device. It allows for great creativity that I am proud to support. However, when it gets to a point where when I have a jailbreak, it renders my phone to a sub-performing device, I don’t need it anymore. When my battery can’t last more than three hours on a 4S, there is a serious problem with the JB. I now have all day battery again and I am basking in the non-jailbreak glory.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

iOS 7 is the biggest change to iOS since it’s introduction in 2007. iOS has been running behind in terms of it’s look and feel for the past few years and needed a change. Now, with Forstall gone and Ive in, we have that change. There are some outstanding new features and there is a new user interface that looks absolutely stunning and I will discuss all of this and more in this article.

System UI Changes

For the first time ever, the entire UI of Apple’s iOS software has changed. Gone are the skeumorphisms in exchange for solid colors and a simple elegant look. Every stock application has changed. There are solid colors across the whole OS. Icons have a whole new look as well. The lock screen has been changed to have a more clean look as well. A cool UI change is the addition of the parallax view which shows the images behind the icons move as you are moving the screen. The icons on the screen just pop at you and the colors they used are brilliant. In addition, this new OS has much more animations such as the one where when you open an app, the content splashes quickly till the screen fills. Go home and the app closes down to it’s original spot. Or double tap the home button for multi-tasking and the app you are in jumps up with the rest of the apps in the multi-tasking bar. It really looks cool. Also in iOS7, Calendar and Clock app icons are now alive, with each providing you the date and time respectively. While only the Clocks app is new to do that, it is the beginning of something great that Apple will probably continue to do in the future. The charging indicator also changes to allow you to see what the percentage of battery is left to charge when you are charging your phone, not just the little outlet plug icon like in iOS 6. New simple multi touch gestures are available too such as the upward swipe for Control Center, or the middle of the Home screen down swipe that allows you to activate search mode, that way you no longer have to go to Spotlight to search an for an app. Notification Center and Control Center act more like layers than actual apps and it brings simplicity to the OS. The whole system has been redesigned with a whole new look that looks so great, words can not adequately describe it. Therefore, I recommend that you go to Apple’s website and check out the new design here.

New Features

During the keynote, Apple announced a plethora of new features for the upcoming iOS release. These include improvements to the Photos and Camera apps, improvements to Safari, improvements to Siri, improvements to Notification Center, improvements to multitasking, improvements to App Store, improvements to Find My iPhone, the new AirDrop feature, the new iTunes Radio feature, the new Control Center, the new iOS in the Car feature and several other minor improvements. I will cover all of these great features.

Camera and Photos

The new Camera app now has a new design, just like all other Apple apps in the OS. You can take regular photos, videos, panoramas and now square photos. In addition to the new square photo feature, you can add filters to your images. There are eight filters for you to enjoy and while this may not deter you from renown filter apps, lesser known filter apps may be biting the dust. These filters should help you give your food a whole new look when you post it on Instagram. The new Photos app has also been redesigned and in doing so, allows an easier process on managing your photos. Your photos will now be placed in groupings such as Years, which shows all the images you have taken in a year, Collections, which are groupings of images during the year, such as your trip to San Fran, and finally, Moments, which are more specific such your trip to a monument in San Fran. You can hold your finger on a year a and move around to find a picture that you want to find and then touch it to look at it bigger. iCloud Photo Sharing allows you to share your photos to anyone and the people who you share it to can comment on them or even add their own photos and now, videos. Overall, we are seeing some great improvements to the Camera and Photos apps.

Safari Improvements

Safari, again, has a new look, the blue or black bars at the top and bottom are gone. Safari also has a few nifty features. You can now go completely full screen. You can now use a unified search bar just as in Safari on a computer. Safari now has a new way to manage tabs. You can organize them in a neat way, you can swipe a tab to get rid of it and now you can have as many tabs as you want. You are no longer limited to just 9 tabs. Just as in Safari in Mavericks, you can now see the links that people have shared with you. Articles in your reading list, like in Mavericks will just keep scrolling. No need to keep selecting the next one. You can just keep scrolling and the articles will appear in the order that you have them in your Reading List. Safari also has iCloud Keychain which saves your hard to remember passwords in iCloud and pushes them to all your devices. 1Password is no more. Whenever you want to purchase something or sign into something, it will remember you on all your devices. In addition, Safari can now generate a password for you and then remember that password in iCloud Keychain. With the new look and new features, Safari is sure to shine.

Siri Improvements

First off, Siri is a great way to communicate to your phone allowing you to control your phone through your voice. I use Siri all the time when I am in a Wifi-zone since it doesn’t work very well in my slow 3G connection. Anyways, Siri has some great improvements in iOS 7. Siri will no longer sound like herself. She has a new, more human-like voice. Siri is no longer a separate box that comes up over the home screen or app screen. Now Siri floats onto view, above whatever is on your screen. This, I think, is a cool design feature. Siri will now check more services such as Wikipedia and Twitter and thus becomes faster at answering your questions. She can also return calls, play Voicemail, control different settings such as increasing or decreasing brightness, control the new iTunes Radio in addition to the music controls she already has. Also, settings that she can’t control will be provided to you via a link to it’s location in the Settings app if you ask her (or him) to do that specified task. That’s right I did just say him in that sentence. You can change Siri’s voice to a man’s voice now. Siri can also know when you are talking and Siri also shows you when it knows since sound waves will move when you speak. In addition, you can now stay within Siri even when you tell her to search something for you. You will stay within Siri so you can ask her a different question after she provides search results. Siri’s improvements are the biggest ever in an OS release. Of course, this may be because this particular release isn’t your average release.

Notification Center Improvements

Notification Center has become more human like. It will give you the information you need in paragraphs of useful information instead of just blocks like it has been. And now Notification Center will now include a tab called “Today” giving you a run down of what you are doing that day, such as your calendar events and what the Weather and traffic will be like. The Today service reminds me of Google Now since both services are integrated in their respective OSs. Notification Center is also accessible from anywhere you need it, including the lock screen. NC has been updated in a big way just like everything else in the OS.

Multitasking Improvements

Multitasking in iOS 7 has changed dramatically. First of all, it no longer is a simple black at the bottom that comes up from underneath the regular dock. Now it is a colorful overlay that covers whatever you’re on, just like the new Siri. The multitasking really looks great. That aside, lets talk about its new features. Multitasking on iOS is now true multitasking. When an app is on multitasking, it will update while it is in the background. Take CNN for example. Let’s say I go on CNN right now, check the stories and then leave. Some major news event happens and I go back to the app, that major news event is already there. Finally, the multitasking that iOS users have been waiting for.

App Store Improvements

Like all the other apps, the App Store gets a design overhaul that is simple and intuitive. A new feature in the App Store in iOS 7 is called Apps Near Me, an intuitive new way to discover apps that are popular near you. That way if there is a popular event near you, you can easily find apps that correspond to that event. Or if you live in the countryside, perhaps it can help you find apps that can help you with your country life (if such help is needed at all). In addition to Apps Near Me, iOS 7’s App Store will now update apps automatically. Finally, that pesky badge is gone. The App Store also has a kids section which is divided by age group. This should be a huge relief for moms everywhere. Personally, I’m excited about automatic updates, such a great feature!

Improvements to Find My iPhone

Find My iPhone is an app on the App Store that doesn’t come as a stock app but it is an app that everyone should get. It is free after all, probably one of the only free things that Apple offers. Find My iPhone is exactly what it’s name implies. If your iPhone is lost, you can find it again using Find My iPhone on a separate device via iCloud.com or another Apple device, should you own one. Find My iPhone gets some great features in iOS 7. Now, if someone tries to turn off Find My iPhone, tries to erase the content on it or reactivate it, the iPhone will ask for an Apple ID and password, something only you would know. If your device is erased, Find My iPhone will still continue to display a message.

AirDrop

NFC didn’t come to the iPhone, technically, but AirDrop has. You can quickly share photos, videos and much more. You can share anything that has a Share button with it. All you do is tap Share, tap the person that you want to share it with and they will get it. Since it’s all done using Wifi and Bluetooth, you don’t need to go around bumping phones with people since you can share it with the whole room at one sitting, at one time with no phone bump. Phone bumping has come to an end.

iTunes Radio

iTunes Radio is a new addition to the iTunes family. iTunes Radio is Apple’s answer to Pandora. It allows you to create your own radio stations based on artists, genres, songs etc. Siri can also control iTunes Radio, so you can tell Siri to play a certain station for you. You can control iTunes Radio to give you Top Hits, Discovery or mixed so you can either listen to music everyone does or you can discover new music. You can view the history of everything you downloaded and choose to buy it from within the app, right through iTunes. It is a great way to discover music.

Control Center

Control Center is now the best way to control your device’s functions that you always seem to go for frequently. Swipe from the bottom of the screen up to access Control Center. From within Control Center you can access toggles for Wifi, AirPlane Mode, Bluetooth and Do Not Disturb. You can lock the screen orientation, control the brightness, control your music. You can connect to AirPlay devices and you can quickly access the Camera, flashlight, calculator and a timer. First off, say goodbye to the flashlight apps. Second off, this is a truly great way to get to the controls you care about most. I can’t wait to try it out myself. They are controls that I’m sure that you go to the Settings app when your on an iPhone. Now, that’s no longer necessary. This is definitely one of my favorite features.

iOS in the Car

iOS is the Car is coming to select vehicles come 2014. The indash system inside the car will now simulate iOS on the screen, showing Maps, Siri, Messages, phone calls, and music. You can now do everything on your phone that you would do normally on the phone, now on the car screen and wirelessly too. It will do what you want it to do without distracting you. The iOS in the Car comes to select vehicles sold by the following car makers: Acura, Chevrolet, Ferrari (gee, I wonder who came up with this one, oh Eddy), Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Kia, Opel, Mercedes Benz, Nissan and Volvo. Whoever owns one of these cars and an iPhone 5 is a very lucky person.

Other Features

Now, in iOS 7, you can block people from calling or messaging you. Folders now scroll so you can put much more apps in folders. You can swipe to go back in Safari. Sharing becomes better than ever with a new look and the ability to share to specific people. Elements within the OS change when you change your background. You’ll never see the same notification twice. When you view a notification on one device, it will sync to other devices that you viewed it. Made for iPhone game controllers are now officially supported which will give a big boost in gaming.

Concluding Thoughts

Apple has, by far, the best release of their mobile OS ever. It takes on some nice looks and some nice new features and it truly is the future of iOS. iOS needed a change and under Cook and Ive’s direction, they did it justice. I definitely look forward to downloading it this fall, just like everyone else.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Images Courtesy: http://www.apple.com/ios/ios7/features/

WWDC 2013 has just passed us on Monday and I’d figured that since we are an Apple news-based website, we probably should cover it. 🙂 Anyways, Apple announced some exciting new things at WWDC 2013 and I want to cover them all. Therefore, I am covering each new product in segments. There will be six articles covering the six new things announced at WWDC 2013 including, OS X Mavericks, MacBook Air, the new Mac Pro, iWork for iCloud, iOS 7 and iTunes Radio. That said, let’s delve into the new OS for Macs.

Apple announced Monday an update to their Mac operating system. As you know, Apple has been using the wildcat naming scheme since the introduction of Mac OS X in 2001. Apple has used, to date, Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. You may notice that Apple has runout of cats. Apple has also seen this problem and since they did not want to be the “first software company to be delayed due to a lack of cats”, they changed the naming scheme to last them “for the next ten years” by switching to names of locations in California, starting at the Mavericks. (Rest in Peace Cat names for OS X) OS X Mavericks is more of a power user update than anything else, focusing on reducing power consumption and processing power and saving battery life but it also introduced some new features as well. Let’s go into more detail of this new OS.

Advanced Technologies

OS X Mavericks is focusing a lot on saving you power and allowing OS X to run even more smoothly than before and there are a few ways on how it will accomplish this. First, Timer Coalescing is a new feature in Mavericks. When the processor works there are tiny periods of activity and inactivity going back and forth several times a second and that puts strain on the processor and ultimately, the battery. Timer Coalescing allows the computer to have more time in the idle state while still doing the same work you want it to do. It saves energy and you won’t even notice a thing, well except the additional battery life of course. App Nap is another new feature in Mavericks that goes after the same purpose, to reduce processor energy. When you have multiple applications open, those applications will take strain on the processor. However, you usually are only using one or two of them primarily. Let’s say you have a processor extensive Safari and a not so processor extensive iTunes open and you cover Safari with iTunes, the app you are working on at the moment. That time that you are working on iTunes, the processor recognizes that and “naps” Safari until you reveal Safari again, therefore the processor only works on the apps you are working on. It also works the same with Safari tabs, drawing resources to only the tab that is open. Another power saver feature is called Safari Power Saver and it allows the computer to draw resources to only the things that are drawing your attention and are in center. The content on the sides you don’t care about doesn’t draw any resources but all the stuff you want it to does. OS X Mavericks also uses less power when playing audio or video. Apple also has made OS X Mavericks compress memory so more memory is available at the Macs disposal. This allows the computer to run faster since it doesn’t have to continually transfer data from memory to storage and back. With all these great power saver features, your Mac will fun faster while saving energy, a big difference from OS X Lion or Mountain Lion, whose resources were eaten up quickly. Your Mac will run smoother, faster and longer.

New Apps

Apple announced that they are adding iBooks and Maps to the Mac and also announced some pretty cool features along with them. First, the iBooks Mac app is a port of the app from iOS to the Mac, like many other now current Mac apps such as Reminders and Notes apps from last year. Finally, we can read our iBook content on our Mac (I think this should have been done in the first place, when iBooks first came out). It is every bit as intuitive as the iBooks for iOS. You can save notes to review perhaps during class or when you review the book at a later time. iBooks on the Mac, just like the one on the iPad, will have interactive textbooks that will help you learn. The education system is slow to catch on, but these interactive iPad and now Mac textbooks are the way to go. iBooks will save your spot, bookmarks and notes so you can review them on your iPad when you are on the go. Overall, a nice addition to OS X. In addition to iBooks, Apple Maps also makes its way to the Mac. Don’t worry about fallen bridges, they have fixed those already. Anyways, Maps is a new way to see your routes on your Mac. You can now take full advantage of your Mac’s display to see Apple’s Maps. Flyover will look absolutely stunning on it due to the Mac having much more power than iOS devices. Just like iOS Maps, Mac Maps shows you points of interest, phone numbers, reviews, photos and more. It will show you turn by turn directions and when you are ready to depart, you can send it to your iPhone so your iPhone is ready to give you directions to where you want to go. Maps is built in to other apps as well such as Calendar, Contacts, and Mail so when there is an address in one of those apps, you can see where it is and of course, send the Maps information to your iPhone so you can be on the go. It is definitely a great way to figure out where to go and it will be a great companion to iOS’ Maps.

Updated Apps

Safari and Calendar have both been updated in OS X Mavericks. Safari has been updated to include features such as Shared Links, where you can view links that others have shared to you via Twitter or LinkedIn and the redesigned Top Sites, making it easier to organize your favorite sites. About time too, I am not a huge fan of the current Top Sites, I hardly ever use it. Safari also has improved Power Saver features as well. Safari will be snappier and take less of a toll on memory and battery. Safari, overall, has some improvements to the application. Calendar has been redesigned again. It has a fresh look and some new improvements. First, it will continuously scroll through the days, weeks and months. Events are easier to create and now you can add travel time to your calendar automatically so you know not to schedule anything during that estimated travel time. It also gives you a weather forecast for where you are going so you can plan ahead. Overall, great improvements to the Safari and Calendar apps.

Finder improvements

Finder finally has tabs. You can now move documents from one place in Finder to another in a much easier fashion. Each tab can be customized to your liking, each with it’s own view. Due to this development, Finder will be a better app to take full screen. In addition to tabs, Finder now has tags. Now you can organize by tabs that you make yourself, a feature I personally have been wanting for awhile now since I handle so many different files for so many different purposes. Now I can file those away easier. I could make folders but once you get too many folders, it can get too confusing and some files belong in multiple places at once. You can also find files by typing in the Tags they are in, similar to typing in Folder names and getting the contents of that folder as a result. However, unlike folders, you can type in multiple Tag names to further narrow your search to just one file. Again, great improvements to OS X.

Other Features

Three other features I have not mentioned yet are Multiple Displays, iCloud Keychain and new Notifications. First off, you can finally, finally have multiple independent displays. You could have multiple displays before but now each display is independent of each other, they have their own full screen apps, their own desktops, their own windows that run independently from each other. Also, your Apple TV can now be a second display. Great functionality but long needed and wanted! Second, Apple introduced iCloud Keychain, allowing your passwords to be synced across all your devices. You don’t have to remember your long and confusing passwords now! This I think, however, could lead to some serious security issues and I will probably turn this feature off. I don’t want other people having access to my passwords should any of my devices get stolen. Third, Notification Center and Notifications get a few adjustments. You can now reply to a message within an iMessage notification or Decline and reply with message on FaceTime calls. In addition, you can sign up to get notifications from different websites such as Ebay or CNN. Lastly, you will see the notifications you missed while you were away, right on your log in screen. Pretty cool, huh? Apple has done a good job with these new features!

Conclusion

Apple has done a great job with their new OS. I appreciate the new features and especially appreciate the new Power Saver features so now my Mac can be a bit faster and save energy and battery life. The new features are not big additions but many are much needed. This release also begins a new era. Gone are the days of the cats and now are the days of the places in California, a place where Apple engineers work and are inspired to do great things. Apple keep releasing great releases. Keep doing great work.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Images Courtesy: All images are the rights of Apple Inc.