We were at Starbucks on Saturday night and we couldn’t find one Lightning adapter for the Powermat.
iPad Pro is now available for purchase.
iPad Pro is now available for purchase. At the time of this writing, iPad Pro is available for pickup at Apple Store.
I would get a iPad Pro Wi-Fi + Cellular 128GB – Space Gray one.
My colleague is really looking forward to get the Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard which both would be available in 1-2 weeks.
iOS 9: Ad-pocalypse Now
Apple is set to release iOS 9 on Wednesday, September 16, 2015. One of iOS 9 features that gained a lot of attention is what many calls as “Ad-Blocking”.
Apple calls it Content Blocking Safari Extensions.
Content Blocking gives your extensions a fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups, and other content.
This would be the beginning of “Ad-Pocalypse”. Publishers should have realized that there are ways to display ads without alienating the readers. Irrelevant and annoying ads would only drive readers away. Extended page-loading time paired with clickbait-ads are disservice to the readers. Promise of of targeted-advertising are nothing but privacy-invading tracking system. One would wonder why a site would have the need for 16 different trackers and analytics.
Take a look at one of The Macalope’s columns at Macworld. There’s the “Promoted Links by Taboola” which is one of the most irrelevant ad-networks on the Internet. Then there’s a “Dell Latitude 11 3000 Series Laptop” ad. A Dell advertisement on an Apple/Mac-oriented site! Don’t forget the Amazon Affiliate link on the top of the screenshot. Three different monetization scheme in 2048-pixel span. There are a lot more in the post. Shame on you, Macworld!
Daring Fireball and The Loop are much smaller operations compared to others. What these two sites have done are good examples in presenting ads the right way. Remember that readers could easily walk away whenever they find sites being unfriendly.
Content-Blocking/Ad-Blocking will be the new gold rush in the Apple App Store. Watch for apps such as Crystal and Purify on the App Store,
The Ad-pocalypse is coming, at least to the iOS platform.
‘Twas The Night Before Apple WWDC 2015
Apple will kick off this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference at 10:00 a.m. San Francisco time.
As usual in addition to Apple live stream1 of the Keynote, some sites will provide live coverage.
Apple’s own live blog
Warning, Autoplay!
Links will be added when they are made available (or if the author of this post is not slacking – ed).
There are a lot of expectations with regard to what apple would announce at WWDC. Remember, this is a developer event; so don’t expect introductions of new iPhone or iPad on Monday. In 2010 Apple introduced iPhone 4 at WWDC. Since then Apple introduced new iPhone on its own event in the September-October time.
To dispel (or fueled) some rumors on Apple products, firstnameatappledotcom, who claimed to be definitely not Phil Schiller, told me a few things on and off the record.
firstnameatappledotcom: “Seriously, you won’t tell anyone all the stuff I said OFF THE RECORD, will you?”
Certainly, because I want firstnameatappledotcom to keep his/her job at Apple.
firstnameatappledotcom: “Some of us really want to stick it to the Apple Rumor sites and call it iOS 8.5 instead of iOS 9.”
That’d be hilarious since both Tech Press and Community assume that the next iOS will be called iOS 9.
firstnameatappledotcom: “Rotate the 8 90° and we get iOS ∞. Forget iOS 9”
Just like the seemingly perpetual OS X (read: OS Ten)?
By the way, iOS 8.4 beta 3 was last released on May 11, 2015; iOS 8.4 Golden Master is likely to be released during WWDC week.
me: “What else do you feel like blabbing about?”
firstnameatappledotcom: “It is reckless to assume that Force Touch will be in the next iPhone and iPad.”
firstnameatappledotcom: “Just because Force Touch is in the Apple Watch and MacBooks, doesn’t mean it works well on the iPhone.”
I have thought about that. There are a lot of elements to deal with bringing feature such as Force Touch to a larger touch screen device. For sure the Tech Press, analysts and pundits ignore the challenges.
firstnameatappledotcom: “Some expect Apple Watch to have plethora of sensors, GPS module, cellular connectivity, etc. At the same time they want Apple Watch to be thin and have ultra long battery life. Seriously, you can’t have all those features with the current state of our technology.”
Apple Research & Development department are certainly looking into those features.
me: “I can think of one Apple Watch feature that is relatively easy to incorporate to iOS. I’d like to see iOS gaining “doodle” or “sketch” feature. From Apple Watch to iPhone, iPad, iPod touch; vice versa.”
firstnameatappledotcom: “I can’t tell you on the record about unannounced features or products. One of the hardest parts is to figure out which features would be suitable for any products. Apple R&D comes out with tons of ideas for products, a lot of them didn’t even make it past prototype stage.”
I guess we’ll have to wait for WWDC 2015 Keynote to see what’s coming from Apple for the next 6 months.
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- Live streaming video requires Safari 6.0.5 or later on OS X v10.8.5 or later; Safari on iOS 6.0 or later. Streaming via Apple TV requires second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 6.2 or later. ↩︎
No-In-App-Purchases Games at iTunes App Store
My kind of games, no In-App-Purchases.
I just purchased XCOM: Enemy Within which does not offer any In-App-Purchases at all.
Desperate and Delusional BlackBerry CEO
Unfortunately, not all content and applications providers have embraced openness and neutrality. Unlike BlackBerry, which allows iPhone users to download and use our BBM service, Apple does not allow BlackBerry or Android users to download Apple’s iMessage messaging service. Netflix, which has forcefully advocated for carrier neutrality, has discriminated against BlackBerry customers by refusing to make its streaming movie service available to them. Many other applications providers similarly offer service only to iPhone and Android users. This dynamic has created a two-tiered wireless broadband ecosystem, in which iPhone and Android users are able to access far more content and applications than customers using devices running other operating systems. These are precisely the sort of discriminatory practices that neutrality advocates have criticized at the carrier level.
I wonder if John Chen realized how ridiculously wrong he is. The chief reason BlackBerry “allows” iPhone and Android users to download and use BBM service is that an overwhelming majority of users do not want BlackBerry phone. Thus, less and less people using BlackBerry BBM service.
BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion, dismissed the threat of the iPhone back in 2007. That’s one of their first mistakes.
BlackBerry would never care to release BBM on other platform if they were the most popular platform. Right now they are just desperate to keep the company afloat. John Chen is just delusional. Apple and Netflix do not have the obligations to make any of their services available on each and every single platform out there.
P.S.
One of my associates is still a BlackBerry user; she just acquired a BlackBerry classic. Yet, she prefers using SMS on the phone and iMessage on her iPad.
My relatives are still using BBM on their Android phones, that’s because they were BlackBerry users. They were.
iOS App: Waterlogue
Random pick for iOS App: Waterlogue ($2.99)
Waterlogue transforms your photos into luminous watercolors.
I’m having a lot of fun using Waterlogue.
