MacRumors is reporting that Apple has sent out an email alerting customers to an urgent Apple TV 3.0.1 update to address an issue involving disappearing content. I haven’t received the email myself yet, nor am I home to check (and I stream all my content anyway), but in case any of you on Apple TV 3.0 are affected, here’s the letter they posted:
Dear Customer,
If you’ve installed the Apple TV 3.0 software update, you should immediately update to version 3.0.1. This prevents content from temporarily disappearing until it is resynced.
To update your Apple TV software:
Reboot your Apple TV (unplug the power cord and plug it back in)
Select Settings > General from the main menu
Select Update Software
Select Download and Install
Note: Your Apple TV will conduct a restart, which is followed by the Apple logo and a status bar.
Apple VP of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive discusses the philosophy behind everything from the iPhone to the iMac for the documentary Objectified and, quite frankly, shows why he’s the best there is at what he does, and why what he does is oh, so nice.
Watch the video. Especially if you’re designing for Apple’s competition. Please.
That annoying issue where iPhone sync would fail for Windows 7 users with Intel P55 Express chipsets? Gigabyte has issued a beta BIOS update for their motherboards that should fix things right up.
Asus and MSI, which also use the P55 express on their motherboards, haven’t issued any updates yet, but hopefully will soon.
If you’re rocking the Gigabyte and do the update, let us know how it works for you.
Google Dashboard gives you one handy, dandy place to keep track of all your Google stuff. Let’s face it, more than any other device, the iPhone is the mobile internet. Google — well it is the internet. If you’re a big Google user, they know what you search for, the contents of your Gmail, the appointments in your Google Calendar, the data in your Google Docs, your Google Latitude coordinates, and who knows what else…
Well, now you do. Let us know how that works for you.
(NB- No iPhone/Mobile WebKit optimized version yet but it works just fine in Safari).
Verizon’s Motorola DROID, launched November 6, 2009, wasted no time taking it to Apple’s iPhone 3GS, starting with a pre-emptive iDon’t TV commercial that mixed unflattering fact and fiction to appeal to geeks and general consumers alike. Many have now hailed it as the best competition to the iPhone to date, and the first flagship device to match it. Are they right?
Is Apple making a smaller, CDMA-compatible “world phone” for Verizon, and readying it for Q3, 2010? Maybe. And TiPb’s sure this “report” coming out on Droid Day is purely coincidental, given Google and Verizon’s moment in the sun. AppleInsider, however, claims a new report, with the prerequisite “sources in Taiwan” (SiT) say it’s so:
Qualcomm’s new hybrid CDMA/WCDMA chip offers the potential for a single, global iPhone that users can take to any major carrier, solving the network fractionalization problem. It also solves other issues that had served as roadblocks, including the issue of user confusion that would result from Apple selling separate CDMA and GSM/UMTS versions of the iPhone.
And that it will have a smaller 2.8 inch screen to go with it. (We make fun in the concept picture above, because we had such lingering hopes for a 480p iPhone HD…) With the Android Droid, Windows Mobile HD2, and even the BlackBerry Storm2 going for bigger screens and pixels, however, we’re hoping Apple doesn’t trend completely the other way…
Since it’s only a rumor, however, and a suspiciously timed one at that, we recommend you take it with a full iPhone-sized grain of salt… but let us know what you think!
Android Central has posted up their iPhone 3GS vs. (Motorola) Droid vs. (HTC) Droid Eris, and — spoiler alert!!! — the iPhone 3GS is still king of the browser hill:
Bad news for Droid lovers: the iPhone 3GS beat the heck out of the Droid in the above test. Other tests taken after the video weren’t quite as dramatic as what you’re seeing here, but facts is facts: the iPhone 3GS does load and render pages faster than the Droid.
(It’ll also load pages over 3G while you’re talking on the phone, whereas he CDMA Droids’ effective render speed under those conditions is zero. Multitask that!)
And yes, we’ll boast while we can, because we’re sure as the weekend progresses, the Droids’ will beat the pants off TiPb’s flagship device in other areas…
For now, click the above link, go check out the video, and let us know what you think!
Speaking of tiny, incremental improvements, Erica Sadun over at TUAW highlight a new addition some developers are seeing when entering iTunes Connect — a submission history:
Appearing near recently reviewed items, this option opens a detail table showing how your application has worked its way through the App Store review process, and on to the shelf. Stormont details this update on his site.
Sadun also states that the amber status bubbles are slightly more verbose now, adding “waiting for review” for the freshest uploads.
If you’re a developer and you’re seeing these, or any other changes in iTunes Connect, let us know, and let us know what you think about them, and what else you’d like to see.
It still baffles us how iTunes LP and iTunes Extras content — which was introduced in the seemingly Apple TV-ideal 720p format — wasn’t compatible with the new Apple TV 3.0 software to begin with. In fact, we’ve gotten Wall-E with iTunes Extras to play on our Apple TV already. But according to Apple, it’s now really for real compatible…
With the latest versions of iTunes (9.0.2) and Apple TV software (3.0), you can now use iTunes Extras on your Apple TV. We have updated iTunes Extras that were included with the movie Wall-E so that they can now be viewed on Apple TV in addition to your Mac or PC. It is available for you to download now, free of charge.
We’re downloading that new version of Wall-E now and will report back on what, if anything, looks different (any chance of a better UI for Extras?)
Still, we’re left to wonder — where’s the love for iPhone users, Apple? Could it be you’re prepping a new interface for them for iPhone 3.2? We’ll wait — if it’s worth it!
Umpteenth verse, same as the first — Macworld turned their iPhone ebook into and app and submitted it to the iTunes App Store. It was rejected. Several times. Finally editor Jason Snell expressed his frustration on Twitter and several high profile blogs picked it up. Apple called him immediately to try and make it right.
Good for Macworld. Bad for all the developers who lack the same megaphone by virtue of their job and connections.
Granted, with 100,000+ apps, the non-sensical and erroneous rejections remain a tiny percentage, but even a tiny percentage of 100,000+ represents many developers’ time, effort, and money. It’s frustrating for them and embarrassing for Apple.
Tim Cook and Phil Schiller claim they’re making improvements, and no doubt they are. From a pure perception point of view, however, this is one issue that needs fixing sooner rather than later.
