Despite its flaws, the iOS 4 update is certainly a solid one with enough new features to make it worth upgrading for pretty much everyone. Trying to live without even the most basic aspects of multitasking (notably state-saving) can be frustrating once you have used it for a while.
The most exciting part about iOS 4 is really what third-party developers will do with the 1,500 new APIs. After all, the iPhone experience has become one that is almost defined by its apps, and Apple has opened up a new world of possibilities with its latest API offerings. As we go into the second half of 2010, we’re sure to see plenty of new apps that do creative things with Game Center, multitasking capabilities, the camera, and more.
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Users May Opt Out of Interest-Based iAds
Serenity Caldwell for Macworld:
You may not be able to completely shut off Apple’s new iAds system when it shows up on iOS 4 devices in July, but at the very least, you can stop it from using your personal information to tailor ads to you.
Similar in structure to Google’s ad preferences, which allow the user to opt in or out of “interest-based advertising,” Apple on Monday released its own Web-based tool, which, when visited on a device running iOS 4, will opt the user out of the iAds targeting system.
iOS 4 and the iPhone 3G
No multitasking, no home wallpaper and no bluetooth keyboard support make up the sadder part of the list.
BP Ruins Finding Nemo 2
Simperium Forms Around Simplenote
Simplenote — the simple, polished note syncing software for the Mac, web, iPhone and iPad — has just been given a new lease on life:
We’ve decided to focus full time on Simplenote. Henceforth, we’re elevating Simplenote from its humble status as one of several side projects to the lofty position of core product and service.
This has several implications. Administratively, and less importantly, we founded a new company. Simplenote is now brought to you by Simperium (@simperium on Twitter). So when you see the name Simperium here and there, don’t worry: we’re the same people.
‘It is Fantastic’
Shawn Blanc takes a look at iOS 4.
iOS 4 Brings Support for Snow Leopard Server Calendar and Address Book Services
Daniel Eran Dilger at Apple Insider:
Support for Calendar data store access from the new Calendar Event Kit, enabling apps to create and work with event information. Apple also now supports CalDAV-compliant account sync in Calendar (used by Mac OS X Server’s Calendar Server) and CardDAV-compliant account sync in Contacts (used by Address Book Server). Developers can also incorporate SMS features into their apps, add Quick Look support, and use improvements to Map Kit for drawing routes or adding overlays to map views they embed in their apps.
BP CEO Attends Yacht Race in England
In what one environmentalist described as “yet another public relations disaster” for embattled energy giant BP, CEO Tony Hayward took time off Saturday to attend a glitzy yacht race around England’s Isle of Wight.
[…]
Spokeswoman Sheila Williams said Hayward took a break from overseeing BP efforts to stem the undersea gusher in Gulf of Mexico so he could watch his boat “Bob” participate in the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. The 52-foot yacht is made by the Annapolis, Maryland-based boatbuilder Farr Yacht Design.
NY Times Documents Foxccon Worker’s Day
Mr. Yuan (pronounced yu-wen) wakes at 6:10 p.m. at his small apartment, a 20-minute walk from Foxconn’s campus. He arrives at the factory at 6:50 for a quick free meal at the canteen, then starts work at 7:30.
His task is to help complete 1,600 hard drives — his workshop’s daily quota — and to make sure every one is perfect. Seated in the middle of the assembly line in his black Foxconn sports shirt, cotton slacks and company-mandated white plastic slippers, he waits for the conveyor belt to deliver a partly assembled rectangular hard drive to his station. He places two plastic chips inside the drive’s casing, inserts a device that redirects light in the drive and then fastens four screws with an electric screwdriver before sending the drive down the line. He has exactly one minute to complete the multistep task.
A Typo Does Not Hype Make
While Evo hardware features sound great, the advertised numbers (like Verizon’s inaccurate “720p screen”) and features of Android phones aren’t necessarily living up to their hype. For example, the HTC Evo really only supports WiMAX 802.16e, not the minimum WiMAX 802.16m standard that is the actual minimum for classification as a 4G network, making its claim to be the first 4G phone dubious. Sprint doesn’t even offer 4G in many cities, and even in the few where it’s available the service inhales extraordinary battery life.
On Toy Story 3
Which is all to say that the first eighty minutes of Toy Story 3 make up as funny, rousing, surprising, and exciting an adventure as you’re likely to see all year. And it’s also to say that nothing in those first eighty minutes prepared me for the final fifteen minutes, which I spent bawling, as did every moviegoer around me. The tears streamed down my face as they had not since… well, since I saw Up. And then before that, the only time I cried at a movie was during… well, it was during Monsters, Inc. And so I wasn’t precisely surprised to have my waterworks turned on by a bunch of fucking toys, but still.
On iOS App Icons
It’s simply not possible to create excellent, detailed icons which can be arbitrarily scaled to very small dimensions while preserving clarity. Small icons are caricatures: they exaggerate some features, drop others, and align shapes to a sharp grid. Even if all icons could be executed as vectors, the largest size would never scale down well.
He’s done a great job at showing just how complex this all is.