Mark your calendars, Apple fanboys. A certain feline themed operating system is ready to pounce on Macs everywhere, as its appointed date with destiny draws nigh. Sources have pinned October 26 as the date Apple will officially launch OSX (10.5) Leopard. Every Mac rumor site from here to Nepal is claiming confirmation by “sources.” Yeah, sources. I have mine too and they prove every bit as reliable as a magic 8 ball. The thing I love about Mac rumor sites is that when one reports a rumor, it sets off a chain reaction of counter-confirmations; as if they can somehow collectively will the rumor into fact by supporting one another’s claim. You’d be better off consulting the giant clown head at McDonald’s; it won’t give you an answer but it will take your order.
I have to say, so far Leopard hasn’t knocked my socks off. I look forward to its arrival but I won’t be standing in line outside of an Apple store on the day of its arrival, as I did for iPhone. Still, I saved Leopard a seat on my hard drive partition should it come round. Hey it can’t be any worse than Vista, right? Ah, Vista. Leopard may purr, but Vista is the real pussy.
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SummerBoard users may want to fire up Installer.app. Four new themes are now available for download; Oren, Phiberglass, JrWallace, and two variations of Tiger. Oren stands out as best theme, in my opinion. It gives your home screen a purple-hued “Fo’ Shizzle” look that speaks taste.
Nothing too dramatic, but who doesn’t love freebies.
See folks, this is why Apple locks out third party software development – using Steve Jobs’s products as adult sex toys is naughty, and voids your warranty.
An app called iBrate (cute name) turns your iPhone into a $600 $400 vibrator, the only device in the world that can make phone calls and orgasms at the same time. So, guys, the next time you call your gal and she sounds somewhat far away, with a suspicious buzzing sound in the background, you’ll know that iPhone is the man you aren’t.
To download iBrate, you will need to be running installer.app with the Community Source package installed. If that’s already done you should see it listed.
I wonder if this app really works? Hold my calls.
Hey, check this out. I heard from a guy who knows an Apple employee that heard a rumor from Steve Jobs’s cleaning woman, that Apple is planning to rollout a big ass iPhone update (version 1.1) as soon as later today or tomorrow. What’s in this update, you ask? Don’t know. All I do know is that it has something to do with bringing iPod Touch features like iTunes WiFi Store and that Starbucks thingy to iPhone. But word is that bugfixes galore are also in store.
Be still, my heart.
Tired of the same default homescreen, and its OSX Dashboard motif? Bored with tapping the same icons over and over again? Well fire up your Community Source package, and let SummerBoard cure those homescreen blues.
This amazing app changes the look and feel of iPhone’s default launcher, with a choice of four available themes. If you have Installer.app setup, just select SummberBoard from the list of source packages. After installed you will see a new icon on your homescreen called SMBPrefs. Tap that and pick a theme. It’s just that simple.
Leopard is my favorite. It’s colorful but not gaudy. For those of you who lust for those new icons found on iPod Touch, the included Louie Mantia theme will satisfy your craving. If you don’t like certain aspects of your UI skinned, like the dock for example, you can simply turn off features you don’t want. Try it out yourself.
Hey, look who just got its first drawing app. Yes, our little iPhone is growing up so fast. In no time at all he’ll be wearing his first service pack, and heading off to school to join his classmates from RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia. tears
LateNiteSoft created a nifty app who’s time is long overdue. Sketches allows you to make drawings on iPhone’s screen using your finger, opening a world of possibilities for utility and frivolity; draw simple sketches, scribble notes, annotate photos, or just pass away the time drawing mustaches on photos of your friends.
The software is currently in the proof of concept stage of development (that’s Alpha, in geek vernacular) and offers no configuration options whatsoever. For example, only images from your iPhone’s Camera roll can be be imported, and no drawing tool options are offered. Only a “Setup” button is present, but tapping that reveals a generic “Coming soon” promissory note.
Bear in mind Sketches is not a web 2.0 Safari app – it’s one of those shady “unofficial” third party applications that involves utilizing installer mods like AppTap to get up and running. So use at your own peril.
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The developers at Twenty08 aren’t waiting around for Apple to release iChat for iPhone. Instead they are introducing their very own native instant messaging client application, called MobileChat, that looks and works exactly as you would expect Apple’s own software. What’s more, they’re even making the source code available for download, for anyone to freely modify, or hack if you will.
MobileChat’s feature list is surprisingly comprehensive for a first generation product…
- AIM Account Support
- IM Abilities
- Full Buddylist with Statuses
- Change status: Away & Online
- Suspend and stay online
- Sound notifications
- Popup Notifications
Another example of developer initiative overcoming Apple’s autocratic control on iPhone. Come on, Apple. You’re embarrassing yourself. Just release an SDK and open your platform already.
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I came across this story this morning on PC World, and it stirred my own frustration with Apple. Web apps have their place and, truth be told, developers have found very clever ways to extend the genre, but I and every iPhone user on this hemisphere want the same thing – native application support!
What aggravates me further is that Apple does in fact have plans to open its platform. A friend of mine at Yahoo even informed me some time ago that they are currently working on their own native software for iPhone as we speak. So the question is…when will Steve Jobs unlock the backyard gate and let developers into his walled garden?
My suspicion is that a planned rollout is due to take place sometime in late Q4 to coincide with the release of Leopard, the next version of OSX. That day can’t come soon enough for me, but the problem is that when the moment does arrive it will be a point of embarkation, not a destination. In other words it will take developers months to study APIs and begin writing applications.
As someone who comes from an extensive Smartphone background, I relish productivity applications that form the basis of mobile computing. As it stands now, iPhone is like a high performance racing engine -it’s faster and more powerful than anything else on the road but it can’t go anywhere but on a racetrack. Every time I interact with my iPhone I feel as though I’m hitting a virtual brick wall. I keep wanting the device to do more than what it offers me. From day one I learned to accept the software limitations with an understanding that someday more applications would arrive, extending my user experience. With iPhone hype dying down, now is the time for Apple to create another spark by turning its product into a platform.
It’s your move, Steve. We’re waiting.
InfoWorld pits three reigning Smartphones against the iPhone, comparing the browser experience of each platform. The verdict: Safari wins. Color me shocked.
This was a foregone conclusion. Mobile web browsers are simply crap compared to iPhone. I speak from experience as a Smartphone aficionado, having used every platform under the sun. None of the devices referenced in this article delivers even a remotely comparable experience to Safari.
iPhone includes a real web browser – a desktop web browser. Not the toy browsers you’ll find on PalmOS, Blackberry or Windows Mobile, that render webpages through a paper shredder, producing a mangled stack of images and text.
While I won’t deny that iPhone has a few shortcomings, web browsing isn’t one of them.
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In addition to the big iMac announcement, Apple also made a few lesser but greater iLife feature introductions that could have a big impact on iPhone users – those who use Macs anyway.
iMovie ‘08 now enables video to be encoded and formatted for iPhone’s native screen resolution (HVGA). So now you can view your home videos on any iPhone, and share them with other iPhone users.
That’s not all. iPhoto ‘08 offers a new .Mac Web Gallery service for uploading and sharing photos from a Mac, PC, or…iPhone! So iPhone users can now upload images captured from the phone right to a .Mac account. Pretty nifty, eh? Of course you’ll have to pony $100 to purchase a .Mac account, and oh yes, a new iMac wouldn’t hurt.
So goeth the upgrade treadmill.
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