iPhoto’s face detection isn’t perfect, but we can’t blame the software for spotting a face in this unbaked batch of cookies.
I mean, c’mon, it looks like just a teddy bear! And maybe a teddy bear face doesn’t constitute a human face to some of you in the audience, but I like to think that our world has grown beyond such prejudices. I like to believe that we live in a world in which any face can be considered a face.
Category: Apple
An Argument Against the Ever-Present Rumor of an ‘iPhone nano’
Starting sometime before the launch of the iPhone 3G in July, the Apple rumor mill keeps churning up guesses about the ‘iPhone nano.’
The rumor consists of a few main points:
Apple will release a phone that is physically smaller. This iPhone will be cheaper because Apple will leave out features found on “regular” iPhones.
Let’s look at these points one by one:
1. A Physically Smaller iPhone: The iPhone now sports a 3.5-inch LCD (measured diagonally). The case is in-line with other smartphones - 4.5 by 2.4 by 0.48 inches. It’s comfortable to hold with one hand and big enough to cradle with your palm and type with your thumb. Anything smaller would be difficult to cradle.
A Different Look at the Matte/Glossy Debate
Scott Bourne, on his new glossy MacBook Pro and Cinema Display:
It doesn’t make sense to me to have a glossy main monitor for editing photos but a matte finish on the smaller laptop. I wanted them to match. I only do serious editing on my large monitor. I use the small laptop monitor only for looking at images downloaded while in the field and I do that in my nice, dark hotel room, so no worries.
Wedges and Logos
Zlok has a brief piece up about Rob Janoff, who invented the Apple logo. Here’s some direct quotes:
For inspiration, the first thing I did was go to the supermarket, buy a bag of apples and slice them up. I just stared at the wedges for hours.
At first the Apple logo was black to save on printing costs - remember, this was 1977 - but Jobs wasn’t happy about that:
‘I’m Just Not Cool Enough to be a Mac Person’
Microsoft’s new ad, targeting the “Mac Tax:”
Hey, you get what you pay for, sweetheart.
Also of note: at one point, she picks up a netbook and pokes fun of it, saying, “This is like a phone.” Subtle.
Biometric Security Coming to Apple Products?
Published for the first time this week, a patent filing for the process reveals that Apple wants to provide a more secure method for preventing unauthorized access to a whole device – or private information on that device – than current techniques like passcodes; however, it also wants to avoid taking up the owner’s time with a separate scan or consuming extra space with a distinct reader.
The solution, the company suggests, would be to automatically use a sensor either hidden within the device or else repurposed from its usual role. Devices could recognize a fingerprint* or finger vein pattern simply by waiting for the user to touch the display, which would hide the sensors on or behind the screen. A forward-facing camera could alternately look for retinal patterns or even recognize the facial features of owners when they’re in the right position for use.
10.6 UI To Be Darker?
…speculation pointed to the adoption of the smoother iTunes-style scrollbars and a move towards a darker chrome motif for application windows alongside an inverted menubar with light text on a dark background.
I think this is right on the money. iLife tends to give little glimpses into of the next version of OS X. A darker, more subdued, and more minimal user interface seems to fit not only with the newer versions of Apple’s other software, but with the iPhone OS as well.
iPod Touch Users Love Their Wifi
The iPod Touch doesn’t have a cellular connection, but users can access the Internet via Wi-Fi. It generated 6.7% of mobile traffic for AdMob in February. That’s less than the 11.2% traffic generated from the iPhone, but more than any other mobile phone. Motorola’s Razr came in third place, with 2.9% of AdMob’s traffic.
iPhone Tethering? No One Knows Nothing
iPhone OS 3.0 is set to include the ability to tether an iPhone to a computer to share the phone’s 3G connection - basically giving laptop users Internet anywhere via AT&T’s network. There have been successful attempts at tethering iPhones running the 3.0 beta already, but without any information from AT&T about pricing for the additional traffic. Here’s Ars Technica on the subject:>
We asked AT&T how Ars readers might update their iPhone 3G accounts to include tethering. AT&T responded by… not giving us any information. (The carrier said we must contact Apple instead.) After a brief back and forth, it became clear that any discussion regarding modification of iPhone accounts could only be handled by Apple. Our e-mail to Apple, which included AT&T’s redirect, was not answered by publication time.
Apple Kills Bluetooth Headset
Along with the introduction of the iPhone in January 2007, Apple also announced the iPhone Bluetooth Headset, a small, sleek-looking wireless earpiece that cost $129 and featured automatic paring with the iPhone. It originally shipped with a travel cable and dual dock, both of which allowed it to be simultaneously charged along with your iPhone.
In July last year, Apple stopped bundling the dual dock with the headset and dropped the price to $99, perhaps in an attempt to bolster disappointing sales. It didn’t seem to have helped, though, since the product has now been discontinued.
‘What Will It Take To Make The Switch?’
From Newton Poetry:
There are still Newton-like features missing on the touch screen platforms: a wide-open application base, handwriting recognition, innovative file system, and kick-ass battery life. Newton users never have to worry about Apple rejecting a great app, or of losing service thanks to AT&T’s sub-par network.
But still. Eventually, Newton users will have fewer and fewer excuses not to make an upgrade of some kind. If the very thing Newton die-hards are looking for - a bigger iPod Touch with full PIM capabilities - comes out in the next few months, will a lack of handwriting recognition be enough to hold off on making the purchase? What will be left lacking?
‘Virtual Apple 2’ Brings Old Games and Apps Back to Life Inside the Browser
Despite the typo in their name, the “Virtual Apple 2” is a very slick project. Here’s the info straight from the horse’s mouth:
Virtual Apple ][ is a site which will take you back to the 1980’s through its collection of more than 1250 game disks online. Play and enjoy old Apple ][ (Apple2) and Apple IIgs games and other disks through your Internet web browser. You will find games like Oregon Trail and Number Munchers which many of you played as kids, as well as games like Tetris, Battle Chess, Leisure Suit Larry, Choplifter, Archon II and Kings Quest.