Patrick Rhone on the iPad:

Everything you know about the “office” metaphor of computing, with files, folders, desktops, etc. is changing. Apple created it. Now they are replacing it. I think the confusing thing for many people is that, this time, they are not setting the paradigm from the top down (desktop to mobile) but from the bottom up (mobile to desktop).

Exactly.

Since the iPad’s announcement there have been countless complaints regarding its lack of multi-tasking, regretfully, myself included. But, while you can’t run native applications in the background, except for the default apps that Apple allows You to (e.g. iPod), there is one way to run applications in the background, web apps. I understand that me saying this is a lot like Apple telling developers that the only way to build apps for the iPhone is using the web, but hear me out.

I’ve heard John Gruber say countless times that he uses Safari on his iPhone more than any other app. And, I’m willing to bet that’s the case for most people who own an iPhone, I know that’s the case for me.

When I initially wrote about the iPad I complained that I couldn’t view a new document window and a web page at the same time, and although that is true I completeley forgot that Safari could be, not just the web page viewer, but also the new document window. This is already the case on my iMac where I view a web page and make use of WordPress’ “Press This” bookmarklet to do all of my writing. I could do the exact same thing on the iPad and simple switch back and forth between the two open Safari windows. If I need to make references, quote, etc. I can do that right in Safari.

From what I’ve gathered (and assuming it’s the same on the iPad), you can have 8 web pages open at a time. From my experience on the iPhone that doesn’t always work out too well. Often times the iPhone has to dump one of the web pages to free up memory for the current page but I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t happen on the iPad, due to the iPad’s faster processor and the likelihood of more RAM.

The further we get from this announcement the more I get it. This is a replacement for my notebook. I can’t think of a single thing that I actually do on my notebook that I couldn’t do on the iPad.

iLounge provides some details regarding Apple’s iPad accessories. Apple will be offering a new VGA to Dock Connector Adapter which will cost $29 and allow you to connect your iPad to a projector or monitor and a Camera Accessory Kit which will also cost $29 that will come with a USB and an SD card reader adapter in one package.

Apple will also offer an iPad case for $39 that still gives you access to all the iPad’s ports. It can also flip around and act as a stand for the device.

In terms of docks, Apple will offer a standard dock for $29 with audio and dock connector ports on the back. They will also offer a keyboard dock which offers the same ports as the standard dock but also includes a built in keyboard. It will cost $69, but it includes some very interesting keys (view this image at full size). There are several new keys in the function row such as search, lock, a blank one, one with a keyboard on it, and a couple others that I can’t decipher. Also interesting is the inclusion of control, option, and command keys on the keyboard. One would assume that these are for typing special characters but I wonder if Apple is planning to use those for new functionality, maybe even application switching.

Another interesting bit pointed out by iLounge is that the iPad will be compatible with Bluetooth keyboards. I’m really happy to hear this, I wasn’t too jazzed about the idea of having to spend another $69 if I wanted to use a real keyboard with the device.

Predictions:
Tablet
iPhone software 4.0
iWork ’10/’11
iLife ’10/’11

Minutes after I first learned that Apple would be holding an event on January 27 I created the note above in Simplenote. I haven’t touched it since then.

I wasn’t too far off with my predictions but I wasn’t expecting all of these announcements to be so uncharacteristic of the type of announcements Apple does. I hate the name iPad, I think the name “Tablet” would have been a much better name, I also think the name is too similar to “iPod,” but Apple knows a lot more about naming great products than I do. Regretfully, I should have known that Apple wouldn’t be talking about the iPhone, instead focusing on one device (hence the singular “creation” in the invite).

The iPad is a good step forward but not exactly the notebook replacement I was hoping for. It’s close, but the inability for me to quickly switch between apps is a big deal for me, the device has the horsepower, why can’t I switch apps?

I’m sure there will be a lot of people excited about the iPad but I have a very short list of tasks that I need to do on a notebook and the iPad only hits a couple of them, more specifically, news reading and media consumption will work great on the iPad. Writing on the other hand, isn’t going to be as easy as with my notebook because I won’t be able to view both a compose or new document window and a web page at the same time.

The use of AT&T 3G doesn’t surprise me at all, but the data pricing and the lack of contract does. $14.99 per month for 250MB of data and $29.99 per month for unlimited data sounds too good to be true. But when considering that this thing clearly isn’t a notebook replacement — instead built to dock with your real computer — I can’t imagine that they’d be able to charge any more without hearing a myriad of complaints from consumers. The lack of contract is a huge deal as well, you can cancel the contract at any time and only pay for the months where you’ll actually use it.

The Wi-Fi only iPads will be shipping in 90 days with the 3G versions shipping 30 days after that. $499 for the 16GB version, $599 for the 32GB version, $699 for the 64GB version, and an extra $130 to add 3G to any of them.

The keyboard dock is an incredibly interesting announcement, I figured Apple would announce a dock but I never thought they’d actually build a keyboard into the dock. It seems so odd — not something I’d expect from Apple in my wildest dreams. I thought that if Apple was ever going to let users use a hardware keyboard with the device you would have to do so with a Bluetooth keyboard, Apple would support Bluetooth keyboards but fully expect most users to go the life of the device without ever making use of that feature. Boy, was I wrong.

I like the way the device works with all current iPhone apps. Letting you choose to view it centered on the screen at it’s native resolution or to scale it up to full screen — I can’t wait to see how odd some applications look when scaled up — all of these apps weren’t built with this type of scaling in mind.

I find the use of a “1GHz Apple A4 chip” interesting but not surprising, Apple bought PA Semi for a reason and I fully expected their chips to start showing up in Apple’s devices soon. I doubt Apple would have been able to get 10 hours of battery life with a month of standby time without using their own chips.

I was happy to see Apple bring back the iBook name, in the form of e-books for the iPad. The interface for it looks gorgeous, but you have to wonder if the designers behind the app were fans of Delicious Library. Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette Book Group are all there, with more publishers to come.

Apple has developed versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for the iPad. They are credible versions of each, not pared down versions but what appears to be nearly full featured versions of each. Each of the applications will be priced at $9.99, which is exactly what they should cost.

I think that Apple expects this platform to eventually replace the use of notebook computers. It isn’t there quite yet, which is exactly why I am still undecided about purchasing it, but this announcements has me really excited about the future of the platform. Apple did exactly what they needed to do today, the announcements were solid and the pricing was where it needed to be. This is going to be a big deal.

Apple iPad

McGraw-Hill CEO, Harold McGraw III, was recently interviewed by CNBC, when asked about their textbooks on Apple’s tablet he replied:

Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they’ll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now — we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.

The bit above comes in at about the 2 minute 50 second mark.

There has been some speculation that this was a controlled leak by Apple. And I doubt it, this doesn’t show any signs of a controlled leak. Instead, this has “big mouth” written all over it.

The Financial Times is reporting that Apple is attempting to halve the cost of TV Shows from $1.99 to $1.

Apple’s belief, media executives said, is that drastically cutting prices could spur sales of TV shows on the iTunes digital entertainment storefront, which have so far frustrated Apple executives.

The article goes on to mention that Apple has “floated the idea” of offering a television subscription service, including a “best of television” offering that would include News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, Disney, and CBS content for $30 per month.

Kasper Jade reporting for AppleInsider:

When Apple finally takes the wraps off its long-anticipated tablet next Wednesday, the device will strike a familiar chord with owners of the original iPhone, with similarities in industrial design trickling all the way down to the handset’s button and connectivity components, AppleInsider has learned.

I think we’ve all assumed that the tablet would look a lot like a bigger iPhone. What’s more interesting is the ports and connectivity that the tablet offers. It’ll obviously have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a headphone jack, but Kasper Jade also says that it will have speakers, a microphone, GPS, 3G, and a 30-pin dock connector.

iLounge corroborates on the design but says that the tablet will have two dock connectors so that it can be docked in either portrait or landscape orientations, also giving added flexibility to accessory makers.

There is some question as to what Apple will actually call their upcoming tablet device. Much like with the introduction of the iPhone, no one is exactly sure what Apple will name it.

There have been many rumored names (e.g. Slate, iPad, iSlate, iTab). And, there are also many speculated names (e.g. Canvas, iBook, Easel).

But before the iPhone was announced, all of the rumor sites were calling it “the iPhone,” and guess what? Apple decided to unveil their handset under the name “iPhone.”

I tweeted a couple of weeks ago pointing out that John Gruber had been calling it “The Tablet” in all of his writings, he replied simply stating:

I totally and completely made up “The Tablet”. Needed something to call it before it’s announced. That is all.

I believe that he doesn’t actually know what the device will be called — he spent the last week speculating about what the name might be (he tweeted his bets on January 22).

What if we’re spending all this time speculating on a name that has already been decided? Apple will unveil the device on Wednesday under the name “The Tablet.”Not just because it is the most simple and obvious name, but because we’ve already become accustomed to calling it that. Why would Apple go against the grain after months, maybe even years, of rumors that referred to it as “The Tablet”?

BusinessWeek‘s Peter Burrows reports that Apple is in talks with Microsoft to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone.

Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the default search engine on its iPhone, according to two people familiar with the matter. The talks have been under way for weeks, say the people, who asked not to be named because the details have not been made public.

I wouldn’t doubt that Apple would talk with Microsoft about this, they are the number two search company, and Google and Apple haven’t exactly been getting along as of late.

But, John Gruber found the most interesting part of this BusinessWeek piece. Buried in the last paragraph is this little gem:

Even if it’s consummated, an Apple-Bing deal may prove short-lived. The person familiar with Apple’s thinking says Apple has a “skunk works” looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that “if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it’s about buying itself time.” Given the importance of search and its tie to mobile advertising — and the iPhone maker’s desire to slow Google — “Apple isn’t going to outsource the future.”

I’ve often thought that Apple only works with other companies until they have enough time to build a better version of the other companies product. Apple has been using Google Maps in the iPhone since its introduction but will most likely be using PlaceBase’s maps in their mapping application soon. And, given Apple’s want to control every aspect of the user experience, search is a logical progression.

One of my favorite gifts from Christmas was the Amazon Kindle. Up until now I didn’t have much to write about it. The device displays text that is very crisp and readable and the battery life is fantastic. The browser isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and the 5-way navigation button isn’t that great. But, overall I really enjoy my Kindle.

I have to admit something though, I don’t read books on it. To date, I’ve only read one book on the Kindle, William Strunk’s “The Elements of Style.” It’s the only book I’ve read on the Kindle, and I’m only 14% of the way through it (apparently the Kindle doesn’t display page numbers).

I instead use my Kindle as a way of reading articles that I’ve saved with Instapaper. When you want to read an article but don’t have time to right now, you just hit the Instapaper bookmarklet and the article is saved for you. Now that I have a Kindle I’ve set up Instapaper to send me the 20 most recently saved articles every morning.

Instapaper just announced some enhancements to the automatically delivered Kindle files. The files Instapaper generates are now formatted like Kindle magazines and newspapers. Tapping left and right on the 5-way navigation button will jump between articles, only the most recently sent Instapaper file is shown on the home screen, etc.

Instapaper isn’t the only one that is making the Kindle better for me, Amazon has announced the Kindle Development Kit. The beta starts next month and will give developers access to sample code, documentation, and a Kindle Simulator for Mac, PC, and Linux. The unfortunate part of the whole deal is the pricing. Amazon will take the thin side of a 70-30 revenue split but there will be limits on data transfers and the developer is responsible for overage fees.

Active content will be available to customers in the Kindle Store later this year. Your active content can be priced three ways:

• Free – Active content applications that are smaller than 1MB and use less than 100KB/user/month of wireless data may be offered at no charge to customers. Amazon will pay the wireless costs associated with delivery and maintenance.
• One-time Purchase – Customers will be charged once when purchasing active content. Content must have nominal (less than 100KB/user/month) ongoing wireless usage.
• Monthly Subscription – Customers will be charged once per month for active content.

So, if a developer wanted to offer a free or one-time purchase application, they would be limited to less than 100 kilobytes of data per user per month. Go over that limit, and the developer would have to pay the bandwidth bill.

The Kindle is a fantastic device and I enjoy using it everyday. Whispernet is one of the best features of the Kindle, but it clearly comes with some downsides, especially for developers.

Apple has released their MobileMe Gallery application to the App Store. The app allows you to view MobileMe gallery photos and videos on your iPhone or iPod touch.

From the application description:

• View your entire gallery including password protected and hidden albums
• Flick through photos and pinch to zoom in for more detail
• Rotate iPhone to see photos in landscape
• View your friends’ gallery photos and movies
• Access previously viewed photos when offline
• Easily share a link to an album from iPhone

I haven’t tried the application, as I don’t actually use MobileMe galleries. But, the application looks beautifully designed and, from what I’ve read online, it works really well.

MobileMe Gallery – Free

Donald Bell reporting for CNET:

Come Spring, the Zune HD should receive a firmware update providing support for MPEG-4 part 2 Advanced Simple Profile videos, including the torrent junkie’s format of choice, XviD. When pressed on whether DivX support would also be added, our contact explained it was unlikely, because of proprietary restrictions. Also unclear is what range of resolutions will be supported, although we did confirm that the new format support will maintain compatibility with the HD AV dock accessory.

The Loop reports that Apple has sent out invites to the media for an event to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on January 27.

There have been several rumors that have cropped up since the last time I wrote about the tablet. Jeffrey Trachtenberg has heard that HarperCollins Publishers has been negotiating with Apple, TG Daily has heard that Apple has bought up all available supply of 10.1-inch multi-touch LCD and OLED displays, and John Gruber has heard that the tablet won’t have a webcam.

All the rumors are interesting but I’m more interested in the number of writers speculating about what the tablet will and won’t do (Tim Van Damme did some speculating and also linked to many of the more interesting tablet speculators). Just like with the build up to the iPhone, we all just assume that this thing exists. I’m not doubting it’s existence, I just find it fascinating that almost no one is questioning it anymore.

Clayton Morris writing for FOXNews.com has went to the trouble of “confirming” that the tablet will be announced at the January 27 event.

Apple just announced an event on January 27th that will no doubt dazzle us with what the company is calling its “latest creation.” At the event, Apple will unveil the company’s long-rumored tablet device.

Honestly, does anybody really care about this confirmation? Like I said, everybody has just assumed for months that it was coming sometime in the first quarter of this year.

All of this build up has made me wonder why we’re so interested in the tablet at all. Whenever I ask anyone why they want a tablet, they don’t really have a good answer for me. Apple wouldn’t release a product without finding an answer to that question. But, John Gruber said it best:

“I’d use it on the couch and lying in bed” is not a good answer. You can already use your iPhone or MacBook on the couch and in bed.

If no one has a good reason for why they’d buy a tablet then why are we so intrigued by the idea of Apple building one?

I don’t think that anyone wants a tablet just because Apple wouldn’t release it without having a reason to include it in their product line. I think the real answer is more about our hope for a new way of interacting with our computers. I believe we’ve all grown tired of the same old user interfaces. No one wants to deal with files and folders anymore.

Put more simply, people are interested in the tablet because it is literally a clean slate (pardon the pun). The tablet isn’t about the hardware, it’s about the software — a new way of computing — done right this time (not like Microsoft’s tablet initiatives).

After countless rumors about the display, the technical specs, whether or not it will have a webcam, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the software — how we will interact with the device in new ways. The only absolutes with the tablet is that it will have Safari and a video player, beyond that it’s just pure speculation. It’s almost as if we’re all trying to come up with brilliant ideas before Apple manages to ship the product.

I’m not going to say that the tablet undoubtedly be announced on January 27, specifically (because who knows, maybe it’ll be like the iPod touch’s camera) and I’m not going to write several hundred words about what I think the tablet will be, others have done that.

I just want to remind you that the tablet will ship at some point, and when it does we’ll all be thinking the same thing: “I can’t imagine it working any other way.”

Image credit to Andy Ihnatko.

Om Malik:

What Motorola needs to do is take a page from the Apple/RIM playbook and get vertically integrated.

And in order to do that, the company should buy Palm. As I’ve already noted, Palm has a great OS. It actually has a couple of other things going for it as well, including Jon Rubenstein and the team he’s assembled, many of whom are former Apple folks. The Palm team should do the software and Motorola’s engineers, the hardware. And when it comes to the hardware, again, it should be adopting Apple’s design and development principles, which Rubenstein must know pretty well.

I agree with Om. Handset manufacturers need to realize that they can’t just be another company building another Windows Mobile or Android device. HTC can do that only because they have clearly become both Google and Microsoft’s favorite hardware partner. But Motorola, with their flagship handset launching just 2 months before Google and HTC announce the Nexus One, needs to take a different approach.

Motorola should buy Palm because Motorola needs something that will help them stand out in the crowd, webOS would do just that.

From the video description on Uncrate:

Just when you thought you were all ready to plunk down your holiday gift cards toward a new iPhone, Google comes out of a left field with a scrappy alternative.

This is the best hands-on video I’ve ever seen.

Kasper Jade writing for AppleInsider:

People familiar with Apple’s initiative claim the electronics maker is seeking allotments of LED camera flash components in the tens of millions for delivery during the 2010 calendar year, meaning future iPhones — and possibly the iPod touch — are the most likely recipients of those parts, due to their sales volume.

Poor camera quality is something that the iPhone has been criticized for in the past. The 3.2MP camera with auto-focus in the current iPhone 3GS was a huge leap in the right direction. But, anyone who has tried to take a picture with their iPhone in low light knows an LED flash would be a big deal.

AppleInsider isn’t the only one talking about the next iPhone. Bloomberg reports Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Chen who said the following in an interview:

Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone.

Chen mentions an improved camera and a touch-sensitive casing as some of the new features. He compared the touch-sensitive casing to that of the Magic Mouse’s.

I can’t really imagine what the new case would be used for and it seems a little too far fetched to me. But then again, if you told me two years ago that Apple was going to release a one-button mouse without a scroll ball, I would have thought you were crazy.

Spring Design has partnered with Borders to sell their Alex e-book reader. Borders will be selling the device in their retail stores  and will create a digital book store and some “mobile eBook applications.” Spring Design has also announced that the device will cost $359 when it is released on February 22, 2010.

So, Spring Design sues Barnes & and Noble for stealing their design and then partners with their biggest competitor for the Alex. Wise decision.

I couldn’t find the press release on Spring Design’s website but Engadget is hosting it on theirs.

Previously:
10/23/09: Spring Design Announces ‘Alex’

At CES Palm announced the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, both of which will be coming exclusively to Verizon on January 25.

The Pre Plus has twice the internal RAM and storage and comes with the inductive charging back cover by default. The Pixi Plus now has Wi-Fi and has more colors for the back covers, which are all capable of inductive charging. Both devices have lost their navigation buttons on the front.

Both the Pixi Plus and the Pre Plus will come with a mobile hotspot app that lets users turn their device into a Wi-Fi hotspot that uses Verizon’s 3G network.

Ars Technica has a great rundown of Palm’s other announcements at CES, including their native plug-in development kit and that they are opening up their developer program to everyone.

As a side note: AT&T announced that they will be launching two webOS based devices this year. They haven’t announced what devices they’ll be getting but it will certainly be some variant of the Pre and Pixi.

Previously:
12/20/09: Palm’s CES Announcement
10/18/09: Verizon to Get Palm Pre ‘Early Next Year’
5/27/09: AT&T to get WebOS and Android Based Devices This Year

Update 1/15/10: A Phone Arena “tipster” has told them that the Pre Plus will cost $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and the Pixi Plus will cost $99.99 after mail in rebate. This is clearly a rumor — this tipster could have pulled that number out of thin air – but it isn’t too far off from what one would expect a device like this to cost.

Alex Brooks wrote a fantastic piece on World of Apple entitled “You’ve All Gone Lala.” The piece was about the shoddy reporting by various online publications who connected the appearance of 30-second song previews in Apple’s web based iTunes.

the apparent appearance of song previews in iTunes Preview and the existence of Lala in Apple’s back pocket means that apparently the two are related.

Here’s why that is complete misinformation:

• Apple has had 30-second previews in the iTunes Store since its inception. As of iTunes 9 the iTunes Store has been built in HTML and rendered using Webkit, the same rendering engine which Safari uses. Surely wouldn’t be difficult to use the same technology for previews on both platforms.
• Lala’s streaming license has been said in the past to be non-transferrable, not a clear cut reason I’ll admit.
• Apple has been making song previews available via iTunes Store RSS feeds for years.

Alex goes on to  list many of those who falsely connected Lala with the 30-second previews.

I let this story pass by because I didn’t believe Apple needed to own Lala in order to add 30-second previews to their web based iTunes preview pages. But, I basically didn’t report on it because I didn’t think it was significant, whether Apple owned Lala or not, this was a logical step forward and therefore would have happened.

I guess I’m just amazed that nearly all of the big technology news sites reported on it, and did a poor job at that.

Google is taking a strong stand against censorship. I’m glad that a large company is finally willing to cease operations in China if they are not able to legally run their business the way they’d like to.

Google senior vice president David Drummond:

We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

He also reveals that there was a large-scale attack that attempted to gain access to Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights advocates. Drummond doesn’t come right out and say it but implies that the attack was the work of the Chinese government.

I hope that other search engines and web companies decide to follow Google’s lead.

Mark Zuckerberg talking with Michael Arrington about the recent change in default privacy settings on Facebook:

When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was ‘why would I want to put any information on the Internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?’

And then in the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that’s evolved over time.

We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.

So now, a lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and their legacies of what they’ve built, doing a privacy change for 350 million users is not the type of thing that a lot of companies would do. But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner’s mind and think: what would we do if we were starting the company now, and starting the site now, and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.

The recent policy change that he’s speaking of was quite a shocker to anyone who paid attention to it. If you were a Facebook user that hadn’t changed any of their privacy settings, when you were prompted regarding the new privacy settings, Facebook would default to letting everyone view your photos, status updates, friends, groups, etc..

I completely deleted my Facebook account a few months ago and am happy I did. I don’t want any part in a website that treats my personal information so carelessly.

Facebook allows you to “deactivate” your account but they make it a little more difficult to permanently delete your account. To permanently delete your account visit: “http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account”

(Via Valleywag.)

First Tech Credit Union has discovered that developer “Droid09″ has developed and released a mobile banking application that attempt to steal financial information.

The application has since been removed from the Android Market. But, if you installed Droid09′s application First Tech Credit Union suggests that you remove it from your device and “take it to your mobile provider to ensure it’s completely removed.”

Although I’m not particularly happy about the way the App Store is run, I’m certainly glad that I don’t have to worry about malicious applications.

I complained bitterly in August about iPhone weather applications. And, while I don’t think there’s one that does everything it should — while maintaining a clean design — I have discovered one that comes closer than all the rest.

Outside is a delightful weather application from the folks at Robocat. Upon launching the application for the first time it asks for your location (as it should) and then displays a well-designed welcome screen that explains how to use the app.

The current conditions and forecast are displayed on the screen as if you were looking out a window. The interface is very simple, swipe left to move from current conditions to today’s forecast. Continue swiping left to view the next 4 days, swipe right to go back. When looking out the window at current conditions the current temperature and “feels like” temperature is displayed, along with snow if it’s snowing, rain if it’s raining, etc.. This means that current conditions and forecasts are easily glance-able.

When looking out the window you can swipe down to get a more detailed view of the weather, including: UV index, humidity, cloud cover, wind speed, etc..

If this was the entire feature set of Outside it would be fantastic, but Robocat went one step further. Outside can send push notifications in the morning when it’s going to rain, have a high UV index, be cold, or warm. The notification times and temperatures are configurable. So, you can get a push notification every morning at a given time letting you know that you’ll need an umbrella.

There is a catch though, the application only comes with a 30-day subscription to these push notifications. If you would like to continue using the push notification feature after the 30-days, you’ll have to pay $0.99 per 90-days. It’s a fair price if you want the notifications and if you don’t want the notifications, you certainly don’t have to pay for them.

The only downside I’ve found with Outside is that it doesn’t display the forecast hourly, just daily. When I wrote back in August about iPhone weather applications that was one of the biggest problems I had with the default weather application.

It’s hard not to love this application, with or without hourly forecasts. Outside is currently priced at $2.99 and if you’ve been searching for the perfect iPhone weather application this is likely the closest you’ll get to it.

Outside – $2.99

Previously:
8/14/09: iPhone Weather Apps

Update 2/3/10: Outside 1.0.1 has been released with the following changes:

• Snow Notification
• Tap on calendar to quickly jump back to current conditions.
• Offline support for iPod touch.
• Dew point and wind chill added to details view.
• Option for 300-day notifications subscription.

From an Associated Press article published by the Mercury News:

Under an agreement announced today, Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service won’t send out Warner Bros.’ latest DVD and Blu-ray discs during the first 28 days after they hit the market.

I understand why Netflix did this, they’re going to get a discount on discs and the ability to offer more streaming movies and TV shows. I’m sure Netflix subscribers aren’t going to be happy about this, I’m certainly not.

Google has officially announced the Nexus One. The device has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, a second microphone used for noise cancellation, and a 3.7-inch OLED touchscreen.

The Nexus One is available unlocked for $529 or with a 2-year T-Mobile contract for $179. It will be available for Verizon and Vodafone this Spring.

The handset looks nice. I really like the idea of noise cancellation and 512MB of RAM is certainly nicer than the iPhone 3GS’s 256MB. But, I’m starting to get a little bugged that every 2-3 months there is a new high-end Android device. I can’t imagine developers are too happy about it and I’m sure customers will start to get annoyed that their brand new DROID is starting to look a little old already.

If Google wants Android to succeed they need to spend a little bit more time pushing a device before moving on to the next new handset.

Image credit to Josh Lowensohn.

Previously:
1/2/10: Google Announces Jan 5 Android Press Event
12/12/09: Google Gives ‘Google Phone’ to Employees

Update 1/6/10: David Pogue regarding the Nexus One’s storage capacity:

The Nexus can accommodate memory cards up to 32 gigabytes (a 4-gigabyte card comes with it) — and yet, inexplicably, the Nexus allots only a tiny 190 megabytes of storage for downloaded apps.

Thomas Ricker, writing for Engadget, has analyzed iFixit’s teardown of the Nexus One. Ricker has found that the Nexus One supports 802.11n and FM transmission in hardware. 802.11n is listed on Google’s technical specifications page but not on HTC’s.

Update 1/15/10: Google has removed 802.11n from their technical specifications. The device does indeed support it in hardware but the software isn’t there yet.

John Paczkowski, writing for All Things Digital, says that the rumored Apple event will be on January 27 instead of January 26.

The gathering is to be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, a space Apple often uses for media events like this. According to other sources, it will occur on Wednesday, Jan. 27, not Tuesday, Jan. 26, as had been rumored.

The Wall Street Journal’s Yukari Iwatani Kane and Geoffrey A. Fowler report that Apple will announce a tablet at the event that will have a 10 to 11-inch screen and will be shipping in March.

Regarding the material used for the device:

Apple was working on two different material finishes for the device, one of these people said, though it was unclear whether the Cupertino, Calif., company was just testing the finishes or planning to come out with multiple versions of a tablet at different prices.

Much like John Gruber, I find it very odd that they are so certain about the ship date but are uncertain about the finish. Then again, if this announcement is going to be on the level of the first generation iPhone announcement, it wouldn’t surprise me if the tablet team is split up, those working on software and those working on hardware. If that’s the case then it is entirely possible that someone in the company could know about a release time frame but not know many details regarding the hardware.

Previously:
12/28/09: Apple Tablet May be Announced in January
10/7/09: Apple Tablet Coming in Q1 2010
8/24/09: Steve Jobs Has Been Focusing on the Tablet

Update 1/6/10: John Martellaro shares his knowledge of Apple’s planned leaks:

Often Apple has a need to let information out, unofficially. The company has been doing that for years, and it helps preserve Apple’s consistent, official reputation for never talking about unreleased products. I know, because when I was a Senior Marketing Manager at Apple, I was instructed to do some controlled leaks.

He says that this recent Wall Street Journal report has all the signs of a planned leak. Seth Weintraub of 9 to 5 Mac takes it one step further and points out that Yukari Iwatani Kane has had a part in many of the recent “likely leaked stories.”

Ashlee Vance, reporting for the New York Times, says that Microsoft and HP are planning to unveil a “slate-type computer” during Steve Ballmer’s keynote at CES this evening. Ashlee Vance’s source said that the device could be available by mid-year.

Everyone has seen Gizmodo’s piece on the Microsoft Courier. Whether this HP-made device is similar, or even the same device, is yet to be known.

If Ballmer actually plans to announce a tablet device less than a month before Apple is rumored to announce a similar device, it better be good.

Who knows, it could be awesome. But, Steve Jobs was right when he said:

Nobody wants a stylus.

Previously:
9/23/09: Microsoft Courier

Update 1/6/10: Kara Swisher reports that Microsoft will certainly not be unveiling the Courier tablet. She says that Microsoft may be working on the Courier with HP but if a tablet is shown it won’t be much different than the tablet devices they’ve shown in the past.

The Ballmer keynote has ended and just as Kara Swisher said, the tablet (or slate as Microsoft is now calling them) was just a boring device running Windows 7. It’s not surprising, I didn’t really expect much innovation from this keynote. And honestly, did anyone else?

Mobile ad company, Quattro Wireless, has officially confirmed that Apple has acquired them.

From their Mobile Insight weblog:

We are thrilled to let you know that Apple has acquired Quattro. We want to share with you our excitement about this news and what it means for our customers. […] For now, the offerings and services you receive from Quattro Wireless will not change. We will continue to operate the Quattro Wireless network across all devices and platforms. Your client and support teams will remain the same, and you can continue to expect the world-class service we are proud to deliver to our customers.

CEO Andy Miller is now Apple’s vice president of mobile advertising.

I wonder if this acquisition is a sign that Apple wants to make some revenue from web apps designed for the iPhone. This, combined with PastryKit, could make for a compelling application platform for developers and users.

David Richards writing for Smarthouse:

HTC, who have been working closely with Google for the past 18 months have several working models of a touch tablet including one model, is based on the new Google Chrome Operating System say sources.

If HTC is indeed working on a tablet, I would have no doubt that one of their prototypes is running Chrome OS. Given HTC’s close relationship with Google, in regards to Android, I would imagine they would have put Chrome OS on a tablet, at least just to… well, prototype it.

Previously:
11/20/09: Google Officially Demos Chrome OS

Apple is looking to hire a “Wifi Software Engineer” to work full time on what appears to be 802.11n for the iPhone.

From the job description:

We are looking for a talented and energetic software engineer for the iPhone WiFi team to help develop the next generation of mobile Wireless LAN technologies.

There have been rumors of 802.11n support in the current iPhone and iPod touch but the only references to such functionality I’ve been able to find have been in rumors before the device’s launch.

Previously:
10/15/09: Apple Developing FM Tuner App for the iPhone
4/9/09: iPhone 3,1 Parts Shipping, 802.11n, Video Editing, and More

The year 2009 is over and 2010 is upon us. But, I think that we should reflect 2009, remembering the people that made the year better for us. There have been plenty of people that made my life better last year. There’s the obvious friends and family, but I specifically want to shine the spotlight on some of the writers, developers, and podcasters that made last year so good.

I’ll start out with an easy one. It’s not one person in particular, but all of the folks at Media Temple. They have been great to me this last year. And their fantastic 24 hour phone support is just the beginning, they’ve also moved my database to a SQL burst container (for free) when my web traffic demanded it. My site went down a few times throughout the year but Media Temple’s professionalism and courteousness went well beyond expectations, which managed to make up for any ill will that could have been built up from down time. I haven’t had too many web hosts in my time, but I can safely say that Media Temple is the best.

The next person I want to mention built two fantastic web apps that I started using this past year. Shaun Inman is the man behind Mint, a web analytics app that you host on your own server. Mint has been around for a while but I just discovered it this last year. I had been using Google Analytics for my sites but was very happy to find a good replacement which would keep all of my stuff on my own domain. But, it’s not only Mint, Shaun released an RSS reader in 2009 called Fever. I happily switched to it shorty after its release. The most clever part of Fever (and one of reasons I switched to it) was its use of a “Hot” section which displays the most popular links from the feeds I subscribe to. Shaun Inman has also developed an iPhone app, named Horror Vacui, a URL shortener called Lessn, and a sort of Quicksilver for the web service called Shortwave.

Speaking of Quicksilver, let’s give some credit to Nicholas Jitkoff. Nicholas now works for Google and the Quicksilver updates haven’t been coming as quickly as some of you may have liked, but the app continues to make my life easier every day. Nicholas Jitkoff developed an amazing app with Quicksilver, one with nearly limitless possibilities, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of it. Quicksilver isn’t the only application developed by Nicholas that made my life easier, though. He’s also the man behind Telekinesis, a simple application that you install on your Mac that allows you to access files and share your screen with your iPhone or iPod touch. It’s a clever (and free) application that comes in handy when I need it (albeit rarely). Nicholas has developed several applications and utilities that you can find on his website, Blacktree.

While Nicholas Jitkoff’s Quicksilver helped me be more productive, I’ve spent spent (or arguably wasted) countless hours with Tweetie. Loren Brichter’s delightful Twitter client for the iPhone. Earlier in the year Loren was well on his way to making it into this piece but really kicked it up a notch when Tweetie 2 was released in October. There’s no doubt that Loren Brichter made my life better with Tweetie 2 but his iPhone programming lecture at Stanford was what made me look up to him even more as a fantastic developer. Aside from Tweetie 2, Loren has also developed Tweetie for the Mac and Scribbles.

Later in the year I finally got around to signing up for Marco Arment’s Instapaper. Not only does Marco run Instapaper the service, he also developed the Instapaper app for the iPhone. Before using Instapaper I felt as though I was reaching a point where I was spending way too much of my time reading short-form content rather than the longer, more well thought out pieces that good writers put so much effort into. Marco’s service has made it easy for me to save all of the longer articles that I’d like to read. When I have time to read them I can do so where I’d like, whether it’s on my iPhone with Instapaper Pro, on the web, or on my Kindle using Instapaper’s fancy Kindle-friendly export feature. I really enjoy the fact that I read so much more well thought our pieces by the writers that put a little bit more into their articles, and it’s all thanks to Marco.

Speaking of writers, it’d be hard for me to write something like this without mentioning John Gruber. His website, Daring Fireball, is always the first feed I check when I load up Fever in the morning. Out of all the people mentioned here, John has probably had the most influence on me. Whether he’s writing 2000+ words on a JavaScript framework for iPhone web apps or writing about HTML5 he always manages to keep me interested from the first word to the last footnote.

I happened to discover Patrick Rhone this past year. Patrick Rhone is the man behind Minimal Mac, a weblog about minimalism, Macintosh, and related geekdom. Although I don’t follow Patrick Rhone’s “journal,” I do read every single word he writes on Minimal Mac. I’ve spent a great deal of my life trying to keep things simple and Minimal Mac has fed right into my obsession with minimalism.

One of my favorite podcasts is MacBreak Weekly, it’s one of the first podcasts I listen to when it shows up in iTunes. I enjoy all of the regulars on the show but one person stands out above the rest, Andy Ihnatko. Andy Ihnatko regularly writes for the Chicago Sun Times and his Celestial Waste of Bandwidth. But in my opinion, his best work is on MacBreak Weekly. He always has a fantastic pick of the week (whether it be a book or otherwise) and often times is the one trying to keep the other hosts from jumping to conclusions regarding whatever the latest outlandish Apple rumor is. I don’t read his articles as often as I’d like, but I always find time to listen to MacBreak Weekly.

The final person that made my life better in 2009 was John C. Dvorak. He’s another writer/podcaster and like Andy Ihnatko, I believe his best work is in his podcasts. He is a regular co-host on This Week in Tech and co-host of both DH Unplugged and No Agenda. Whether you agree with his political stances or not he does a great job of trying to keep Adam Curry grounded in reality on No Agenda and keeping the folks on This Week in Tech on topic. He always has something insightful to say and often tells fantastic anecdotes about the topic at hand.

2009 was a great year for me. I had a lot of fun, I wrote more than in any previous year, and I certainly read more than in any previous year. I consider all of the people mentioned here to be incredibly successful. All of them and their work certainly meant a lot to me this past year. And, without them, this year wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable or productive.

I’ve taken the time to build a Twitter list that includes all of the people mentioned here. If you’re even the least bit interested in any of them I would suggest following them on Twitter.

Update 1/4/09: Somehow I neglected to mention that Marco Arment is also the lead developer of Tumblr. Tumblr is a wonderful weblog platform that I used for a brief period of time in 2008. I really enjoyed using it but eventually decided to keep all of my content on my WordPress weblog instead.

A Gizmodo “tipster” has sent them screenshots of the Nexus One order page that reveals pricing details. The device will cost $179.99 with a 2-year contract or an unlocked version for $529.99.

There have been rumors of a press event on January 5 for the Nexus One. And, it has finally been confirmed by Google.

John Paczkowski reporting for All Things Digital:

Google will host an Android press gathering at its global HQ on Jan. 5. Presumably, the event will have something to do with the company’s Nexus One, an Android phone that Google plans to sell on its own Web site and perhaps through T-Mobile as well.

Previously:
12/12/09: Google Gives ‘Google Phone’ to Employees

Update 1/4/09: The Boy Genius Report says that one of their sources is telling them that there will be a version of the Nexus One that is compatible with AT&T’s 3G network.

Update 1/6/10: Google Nexus One

Apple is looking for a full time software engineer to work with their productivity team on a “rich internet application.”

From the job description:

The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.

Besides exceptional programming skills and devotion to creating great software, we look for one or more of the following kinds of expertise or experience:

• JavaScript language and browser technology – understanding from inside-out, or
• Computer graphics – the mathematics, algorithms and programming, or
• Experience developing scalable rich internet application, or
• Experience developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projects

It appears that Apple is planning to add editing capabilities to iWork.com. This shouldn’t be too surprising — it’s simply a logical progression.

VoiceCentral, a Google Voice application, will be returning to the iPhone. Not as a jailbreak application, and not as an App Store app either. VoiceCentral will be coming back to the iPhone as a web app.

The VoiceCentral developers, Riverturn, call the new version “Black Swan” edition. They are currently excepting registration for the private beta. This new version of VoiceCentral works very much like the native app did, the only downside is that you have to export your contacts to Google Voice to access them from within the app.

With Mobile Safari’s support of HTML5 web apps are becoming an incredibly viable alternative to the App Store.

But, there is still the issue of commerce.

Previously:
10/14/09: FCC May Investigate Google Voice
8/22/09: Apple, AT&T, and Google Respond to the FCC
8/4/09: Apple, AT&T, and Google Voice