Should I Get A Nexus 7?

I recently responded to a question from a friend of mine who wanted to know about getting a Nexus 7 tablet. He already has an iPhone and thought the Nexus 7 looked nice, seemed to do what he needed from a tablet, and at $230 was a more attractive price than an iPad Mini ($100 more). He said he needs to read books, Nook textbooks and PDF textbooks, create documents in Word/Excel, stream videos and music, and web surfing.

My take

First of all, when comparing with iOS, the Nexus 7 running Android can have only one app can on screen at a time. There are handwritten note-taking apps available on Android in the Play Store and they work with a standard touchscreen stylus pen; but beware, not all apps are created equal.

My concern is would be around the quality of Android's note taking apps. The absolute best apps debut on iOS before eventually being ported to Android if they are not exclusive to iOS. For example:

The best handwriting and note-taking app I've seen is an iOS exclusive called Notability: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/notabili ... 93530?mt=8
Evernote's Penultimate is good too, but mainly because it syncs with Evernote. The handwriting engine on Penultimate is one of the nicer ones available but still not quite as nice as Notability. If handwriting notes is important, there are apps on Android that will get it done, but the best will be on iOS.

I already own an iOS device

For someone who already owns an iOS device, there is also the obvious lack of "native compatibility" between the tablet and an existing iOS device. Although an Android tablet would do everything needed in this case, if I were making this decision I would keep things iOS because of the simplicity of things like iMessage, Reminders, Airdrop, iCloud, and Photostream. Taking a picture from an iPhone and having it almost immediately available on your tablet is very handy. I have been in many sessions when I’ve been taking notes and added pictures to them from whiteboards, charts, etc…

Can cross-platform can be done?

There are several cloud-services like Dropbox, Skydrive, and Google+ Photo Backup available as Photostream or Airdrop substitutes. Google Hangouts can substitute iMessage and Google Docs can substitute for iCloud. Again though, generally apps available on iOS are better than their counterparts on Android – even some of Google’s own apps have seen better versions released on iOS than Android.

Are iOS apps are better?

Developers have said that the Android toolkit for developing apps is lacking in certain areas when compared to iOS tools. Apple has seemingly just put more effort into enabling developers to build quality apps. Apple also maintains application uniformity and holds developers to strict approval standards.

In the end it comes down to how important the apps are to your everyday use. For simplicity in the connectivity between devices, stay with the same OS. For people who are a little more tech savvy, using cross-platform apps may not be much of a hassle at all.

Introducing iPhone 5

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/12/iphone-5-officially-announced/

• Thinner, longer, and 4” screen
• A6 processor
• iOS6
• Better camera (including panoramic mode)
• LTE 4G
• Turn by turn navigation
• 720p front facing camera
• Lightning port (new USB connector)
• Starting at $199 for 16 Gig

 

iPhone 5 vs iPhone 4s

iPhone 4 for free and iPhone 4s for $99

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/12/apple-discounts-iphone-4s-$99/

Apple Considered Creating An iCar?

Loads of crazy stuff coming out of the Samsung vs. Apple trial. Basically Apple says Samsung has ripped off their designs and the court proceedings are to either prove that or to show that Samsung products are not, in fact, Apple clones.

One of the more interesting pieces of information was revealed by Phil Schiller on the stand. According to Nick Bilton’s tweet, Schiller said Apple was having discussions around making a camera or a car – quote, “crazy stuff.”

What would an iCar look like? Maybe a car will fully integrated electronic links between computers, iPods, and radio? Something similar to Sync technology?

-Designer, Franco Grassi, Concept Design

Interesting to think about…and probably a better business strategy to get into iPhones instead.

Hood ornament image borrowed from: DVICE.com

Widespread Battery Issues with iOS5

iPhone users everywhere are complaining about much weaker battery life in the iPhone since upgrading to iOS 5.

There’s been many theories as to why, but it seems that Apple is either avoiding or not willing to give a definitive answer to the actual issue. It is generally understood that iOS5 is going to use more battery than iOS4 based simply on the nature of the upgrade and all the things it’s doing in the background that never happened before. Things like backing up data and documents to iCloud, automatically downloading apps, music, and books, the notification center running, iMessage services running. There is a lot of new stuff going on in iOS5 and it seems to be impacting batteries everywhere.

The strange thing is – it’s not happening to everyone. I have personally worked on at least three devices where people complained about bad battery life. I’ve done things like start with removing the email profile and re-adding it, leading all the way up to completely wiping the device and manually piecing it back together, still get less life. I even deployed a brand new 4S on a Friday and on Saturday the executive spent time at the Apple store getting it replaced.

Apparently it’s quite a problem. A thread on Apple’s message board is up to more than 2,300 messages and 160 pages. It’s been viewed over 160,000 times, and it’s full of people getting noticeably terrible battery life. Some people even report actually being able to watch the drain and every few seconds the percentage drops.

The latest report I got from one of the higher ups says that my most recent fix seems to have fixed the problem completely. I disabled location services, and disabled the iPhone from being able to back up documents and data over 3G. This seems to have significantly improved battery life. Yesterday he got about 20% drain in 2.5 hours, today he’s only lost 4% after the same amount of time.

Looks like Apple decided to copy something from Android this time. “Terrible battery life: a new feature of iOS5!” (jokes.)

Source: Computerworld

New features in iOS 5

 

Pretty long list here:

1. Notification Center: New Notification System
2. Improved app notifications at the top
3. Lock screen notifications. Swipe will open related app.
4. Notification options to choose for each app.
5. Notification sorting by app, time etc.
6. iMessage: Text messaging between iOS devices over Wi-Fi or 3G (Similar to WhatsApp)
7. Newstand: Similar to iBooks to store, auto-download magazine subscriptions & new issues.
8. Reminders: A list of reminders with Geo-fence integrated with Calendar app
9. Twitter Integration: Log in to Twitter from settings once and Tweet anything from Safri, Photos, YouTube etc. Similar to login & sharing used by Mail.app
10. AirPlay Mirroring for iPad 2: Duplicate the iPad screen on television wirelessly
11. iCloud integration: A new free service with more than 5GB data to be shared between iOS devices
12. Open Camera.app from lock screen: Double tapping on Home button will open the Camera.app from lock screen
13. Take pictures from lock screen: Volume up button can be used to take pictures
14. Camera Grid: For more precise focus and accurate photography. This feature was available on Camera+ app
15. Camera Zoom: Pinch-to-zoom Gesture like Photos.app on Camera.app
16. One tap Auto Focus and Auto Exposure
17. Lock Auto Exposure & Auto Focus for consistency.
18. Swipe Left to open camera roll
19. Crop Photos: Not available on 3GS
20. Enhance Color tones of photos: Not available on 3GS
21. Rotate Photos:
22. Red-eye removal: Remove, correct Red-eye within Photos.app
23. Photo Stream via iCloud over all your iOS devices
24. Organize photos within Camera Roll
25. Tabbed Browsing in Safari: For iPad only
26. Safari Reader: Like RSS reader
27. Safari Reading List: Save web pages for offline reading
28. Improved Performance: Like it was enhanced in 4.3.3
29. Private Browsing: Similar to Firefox / Incognito on Chrome.
30. Website specific data can be deleted
31. Cut the cord: Activate and setup iOS device without a Mac or PC
32. Over-The-Air (OTA) iOS Software Updates: Again, no need of a computer & cord
33. Delta Software Updates: Upgrade only changed files. No need to download & install entire OS. (Similar to WordPress!)
34. Wi-Fi Sync: Sync iOS device with PC or Mac over Wi-Fi
35. Backup and Restore from iCloud account
36. Sync Exchange tasks
37. Downloads: See a list of downloaded apps from App Store from any of your iOS device
38. Rich Text Formatting for Composing Mail (Bold, Italics, Underline, etc.)
39. Improved offline support for Mail.app
40. Indentation Control
41. Drag-able email addresses: Drag, arrange email addresses in To, CC, BCC fields
42. Improved mail search: Full content search in Mail
43. Flag Emails
44. S/MIME Security
45. Profile picture for Game Center
46. Friend recommendations for Game Center
47. Games recommendation
48. Friends-of-friends list
49. App Store in Game Center: App store integrated within Game Center to find & buy new Apps / Games
50. New Achievements like Perks, Points
51. Play turn-based games within Game Center
52. Swipe-Up with 4-5 fingers for multitasking bar (iPad only)
53. Swipe-Left or Swipe-Right with 4-5 fingers to switch between running apps (iPad only)
54. Pinch with 4-5 fingers for the home screen (iPad only)
55. New Split keyboard: For easier typing on iPad
56. New Keyboard Shortcuts (Not sure what it is)
57. Emoji Emoticons: Emoticons like we see in IMs now for iOS devices. Mostly with iMessage!
58. LED Flash for incoming calls and notifications for better accessibility
59. Custom vibration for incoming calls for better accessibility
60. VoiceOver improvements including custom element labeling
61. Custom tones for Calendar events
62. Custom tone for Received Mail
63. Custom tone for Sent mail
64. Custom tone for Voice-mail
65. Year view on Calendar: iPad only
66. Week view on Calendar: For iPhone & iPod
67. New Music App: Redesigned only for iPad
68. Music & Video: Two separate apps for iPhone (Instead of Video inside iPod app)
69. Scroll for long song titles
70. Song description: Tap & hold on a song title for description
71. Smart Playlists: Sync smart playlists from iTunes.
72. Weather Forecasts updates hourly
73. On-location Weather: Determines current location. Custom locations can be added/
74. Alternate routes in Maps
75. Print Maps: Print location, direction maps
76. Twitter Pictures: Use Twitter pictures for contacts with integrated Twitter
77. Auto Download in background: Newstand issues, apps can be downloaded in background once subscribed.
78. Sync in background: Now possible to use iOS device while it is still syncing in background
79. Links in background: Safari links, iTunes links can be opened in background
80. Space usage: Determine space used by each app, supported file types under settings
81. iCloud usage: Determine space used on iCloud under settings
82. Change device name: Change iOS device name on-the-go via settings
83. Some GUI Improvements
84. Personal Dictionary: Create & store own words for re-use
85. Built-in Dictionary: Built-in dictionary app
86. iTunes Tone Store: Choose, Buy, Install custom tones
87. Improved FaceTime video quality
88. VoiceOver Item Chooser
89. Speak Text:Speak text based on selection
90. Delete recent calls: Delete single or one-by-one recent call list
91. Delete app data: Delete saved games, saved data for specific apps / games
92. Time mid-call invitation alerts
93. Download Multiple Apps: Now its possible to download and install multiple apps instead of one-by-one.
94. Delete songs: Check to Delete songs / playlists on iOS device (It’s already possible I guess in 4.3.3 or its here on my phone only for me? )
95. New Keyboard Shortcuts: Type OMG and it will type Oh My God.
96. Custom Text Tones: Custom SMS tones. (Yeah, I think it’s there)
97. Auto Sync backup: It takes backup of the file on the device. Hence restoring from scratch is made easy. No need to grab all apps one-by-one. Saves lot of time.
98. ‘Install’ link instead of Price if the app is already bought.
99. Silent Switch: Shows volume level along with the Bell icon while switching back from Silent to Ringer (Currently it shows only the Bell icon)
100. Hotmail accounts have new icons & folders
101. Sync events, contacts, notes with predefined accounts under Mail.app (Like Hotmail, Gmail etc)
102. Marked Apps: All apps that are downloaded on iOS device for your account are marked as FREE (Free to download if they’re & free to download because you’ve already purchased them)
103. Arabic language support for VoiceOver
104. Icon Badges: Option to turn ON or OFF icon badges for apps. (Red circle with update)
105. Accessible input for mobility
106. Assistive Touch Gestures: Allows us to use iPhone with adaptive accessories while controlling touch sensitivity.
107. FaceTime over 3G: Yes, it is now possible. Not yet available for developers though.
108. Unsecured call notifications: I am not sure why does this prompt for confirmation for calls saying network is not encrypted! (Is this a feature or incomplete program?)
109. Mid-call Invitation Alert: If the phone is busy, we can still receive a placed conference call (Description is my interpretation)
110. Free @me.com email address: Yes. With iCloud integration, all iOS 5 users will get @me.com email ID
111. Custom Gestures: Create and save custom gestures. Mainly for motor-disables persons for use with AssistiveTouch accessories
112. Swipe-Left can let you browse through day-view one-by-one in Calendar
113. FaceTime without Sim card: FaceTime can now be activated and used either via a phone number or email address (Apple ID)
114. Unknown Caller details: When received a call from number that is not on contacts – the display also shows city name associated with the area code. Currently it shows in recent calls list only (I think I have seen this feature before on 4.2.1. Did you? )
115. Vibrate Alert for sent & received emails (What is they come-and-go the same time? Confusing?)
116. Real-TIme stock updates
117. Multiple Mark Read: Can now select & mark multiple emails as read.
118. Pause Timer: It’s possible to pause the Timer instead of ‘Cancel’
119. New German Keyboard: Easy access to  Germanic umlaut
120. 1080p Playback support for iPad. (Awesome)
121. Social Networking Integration: Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace along with Twitter (Options under Settings.app but not sure if integrated throughout the OS like Twitter)
122. Headphone Balance: Option to choose Left & Right balance for headphones under Accessibility
123. Mono audio option for headphones under accessibility (except to choose balance as mentioned above)
124. Cellular Network for App Store: Option to Enable or Disable using Cellular Network (GPRS, 3G) to download apps from the App Store. (This is excellent!)
125. Disable In-App Purchase: Ability to completely disable In-App purchases
126. iTunes Password Prompt: It is now possible to set frequency for iTunes Password prompt to appear.
127. Storage Usage Clean Up: We can not only see what files have taken up the space but we can empty that space with single wipe like Apps, Game’s saved data, Music, Videos etc.
128. Equalizer Presets: These are now more BASS oriented (Most likely)
129. Improved Sound Check for music
130. RSA ID is now available when setting up VPN. (Thanks @jaytrixz for this update). This is for performing two-factor authentication for a user to a network resource.
131. Folders for Mail: Yes. Possible for any allowed mail account including new Hotmail. (I mentioned about Hotmail above but this is new feature for all accounts & thanks @Karl for this info)
132. Hide Keyboard: Hide (Dismiss) keyboard button whenever necessary. (This is for iPad only. Not for iPhone. Confirmed)
133. Find My iPhone: This is available as a part of iCloud integration with an option to disable it. (Thanks Michael for confirmation)
134. Scrolling Titles for YouTube videos
135. HD YouTube video if connected to 3G
136. Option to disable HQ (HD) video playback over 3G
137. Take pictures using headphone remote: If you have headphone with remote them it is possible to take picture using Volume UP button. (Very useful if you have a tripod. Please confirm if anyone saw this!)
138. Animated GIF image support for iMessage. Does not animate in Photos.app
139. Hold and drag events from within different dates or time
140. Tapping and holding back button in Safari will show-up visited website history (iPad only)
141. Current time on Calendar if in landscape mode
142. New voices for Voice-Over
143. Option to display Stock & Weather widgets in Notification Center
144. Add family relations to contacts.
145. Restrictions with password required for purchases if enabled
146. Enable / Disable option for voice-dial if the phone is set to security with pass-code lock.
147. Purchase history on app store
148. Automatically set time for iPod Touches
149. Auto Correct & Spell Check are independent options.
150. Broadcast song information on devices (like car stereo) when connected over Bluetooth
151. New keyboard with prominent #(hash-tag) and @ (mention) buttons for Twitter app like we have a prominent ‘.com’ button for Safari address bar.
152. iPod app renamed to Music: How could I missed it writing here! It’s there on a screenshot on other post here
153. Enhanced Mail.app even in offline mode and sync back when online (like for deleted emails)
154. Help center: Learn more about every option under settings app to explore more about it (like Nokia has?)
155. New notification alerts within mail app if you forgot to write a subject line (Similar to Gmail!)
156. Hourly Weather Forecasts: Tap the current day and it will display hour-by-hour weather forecast. (This is separate from hourly weather update mentioned above)
157. En dash (–): Tap and hold hyphen (-) key to see & insert En dash. Em dash is already there.  (Know more here about En & Em Dash)
158. Third-party Cables: Support for almost all third-party TV-out cables. No need to download Resupported from Cydia. This would be one of the major features if true. (Can someone without jailbroken iPhone confirm this?)
159. Choose Notification Type: Banner notifications or the classic pop-up notifications (for each app)
160. Mail Sidebar: Can be swiped in or out
161. Install Twitter from Settings app (Twitter integration as one feature each? see below points)
162. Tweet Location: in Maps
163. Tweet Picture: from the camera roll
164. Tweet Website URL: from Safari
165. Tweet Video: from YouTube
166. Backup homescreen layout on iCloud (Please confirm)
167. Backup app data on iCloud (Like game saves etc)
168. Backup purchased music, apps, and books on iCloud
169. Backup SMS and MMS
170. Backup ringtone(s)
171. Backup contacts
172. Schedule daily OTA (Over the air) iCloud backup
173. Message / iMessage: Repeat alerts up to 10 times
174. iOS crash reports to Apple with options: Send automatically or Don’t send.
175. Nuance Speech to Text: Not available in current beta but the most anticipated feature in final release. See concept here.
176. Sync bookmarks, highlight from iBooks across devices
177. iMessages show a blue colored bubble to easily distinguish
178. Group messaging in iMessage
179. Delivery Reports
180. Read receipts for iMessage (enable from Settings)
181. See if other person is typing in iMessage (like in IMs)
182. Add Social Media info in to contacts
183. New rounded toggle switch
184. New separate Video app & icon
185. Nitro JavaScript speed improvements for Web Apps
186. iMessage will be sent as a text message in case iMessage is not available
187. Custom vibration for each contact so each pattern can let know who’s calling
188. New ‘Message’ option for iPod Touch under settings to use iMessage using an email ID
189. Setup AirPort device
190. Maximum recent email messages limit to 1000 instead of 200
191. Create & manage photo albums within Photos.app on device itself. (How did I miss this before? Thanks Joaquin for letting me know.)
192. SMS tones sound like they have been shortened than those were provided on iPhone 4 (Anyone felt it that way?)
193. While reading an email – swiping right would open a list of messages and swipe left would bring back to the open email message again. (Like if you’re reading an email from Inbox, it will take you to Inbox)
194. If you have multiple email accounts configured in Mail app – swipe left or right from one’s mailboxes folder list, it will take you to another account’s mailboxes. (from Google Mail to Hotmail or back)
195. iTunes App: Support for match & find songs based on previous song purchases.
196. Free upgrade to 256 kbps bit-rate for purchased songs if backing up on iCloud
197. Support for multiple audio devices (Could not understand exact meaning of this)
198. Mirror iPhone 4 on Apple TV
199. Skip tracks by swiping left – right on album art itself when not on lock screen (iPad only)
200. The name of the person that respond, appears in small light blue text directly above the response when SMS is sent to a group. (Thanks Melvin Baskin for emailing this)
201. Drag Keyboard on iPad: Drag keyboard up / down the screen wherever it is needed. It works for split keyboard as well.

CDOT Releases Blood-Alcohol Content App for iPhone

Want to estimate your blood-alcohol content after a night on the town? There's an app for that.

The Colorado Department of Transportation released a free iPhone app that lets users estimate what their BAC might be. The app takes basic information like your weight, sex, how many hours ago you've been drinking, and what you've been drinking. It's obviously not an exact science, but it should give you a good idea of how much alcohol is in your blood stream.

The app makes the estimation and then comes back with messages like "You're buzzed", "Don't even think about it", and "No hangover expected".

A spokeswoman for CDOS says, "People just need to be aware of hoe alcohol affects them. This is just a dool to give them a little idea of where they are."

The app even uses the GPS to determine where you are so you can click the "Taxi" button and be connected to the nearest Yellow Cab office, way easier than dialing 777-7777!

The app is part of CDOT's "Plan Ahead" campaign to cut down drunk driving this holiday season. They even have a new website, PlanAheadColorado.com that will list more than 60 bars and restaurants in Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs that will provide free $5 vouchers for cab rides this holiday season. There are also seven hotels in Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs that will give customers a discount if they ask for the "Plan Ahead rate".

Download the R-U-Buzzed iPhone app here! (Must have iTunes installed…duh)
Source: The Denver Post