Simon OS

Comments & thoughts around the Apple and iOs world. This blog is no longer mantained. Follow me on my personal blog: simonbeckerman.tumblr.com

Bluetooth Sharing

Apple introduces a mysterious feature in the latest iOS 6 beta 4. Will it be their version of the NFC? I guess that if you put Passbook in the mix we can think of something boiling in Apple’s kitchen… And what about the recent rumor about their interest in The Fancy? ;)

My Tumblog

Follow me also on simonbeckerman.tumblr.com.

Moving Blog

Hi everyone. I decided to blog all my stuff in one place so please read me through my selectism.com column. I won’t be blogging only about tech stuff over there so I hope you enjoy what I have to say.

http://selectism.com/columns/simonbeckerman/

Please follow me also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/simonbeckerman

Maybe I’ll continue to blog here but I’m not sure, thank you very much.

Simon

Paid updates

I have the feeling that together with subscriptions we will see the introduction of paid updates too

iMaps

When I saw Google’s Andy Rubin at the conference showing off the new Motorola Tablet running the new maps application I asked myself what happened to the maps company that Apple acquired a couple years ago.

This is why I’m starting to believe that one of the new big features in the iPhone 5 (or iOS 5) could be a proper maps application with real navigation.

Lets assume for a minute that I’m right and iMaps is coming. How will it be?

For a start it will be integrated with the address book and iCal.

Then it will have a proper bookmarking feature where we will be able to easily store all of our favorite places and also share them with our friends.

It could also integrate external places from services like Foursquare, and it will obviously be available for use by other applications that need to integrate maps in their systems.

I’m not sure if it will offer an internal rating/comment system for public places, but I think this could be something to consider. If an integrated places feature will be added it would be more like a directory service, where companies could add themselves in a very easy way and be found in a simple and clean apple-ish style.

I don’t think it will have any features similar to Google Latitude, street view or even 3D. Not at the beginning at least.

The design of the maps will be very nice and it will have a couple of visual gimmicks that we will love!

It will probably have only two voices, one male and one female an no option to install others (not useful).

What about Airplay? Could it transmit maps to a car’s screen? Remember the Apple/Volkswagen rumor?

Other features could be voice control, route bookmarks, traffic detection and a couple of others borrowed from dedicated navigation systems like TomTom.

Apple is a company that innovates (this is why Ping really doesn’t stick yet) and the maps application also needs to innovate for them to have a unique selling proposition. But they could be so far behind market that they may need to do a lot of work to catch up. This is why I don’t exclude the idea that they initially decide to just swap the google service with theirs, directly into the already installed maps application, and without marketing the change. Many people won’t even notice at first, but Apple could start developing on top of that, one feature at the time, probably starting from simple bookmark and routing features.

Dictionary language detection

A common problem for us international users is that we often write messages also in English. Unfortunately after nearly two years of iOs I still haven’t learned to remember to change the dictionary language before writing a message. The result is that I end up having the first sentence of the message all wrong and I have to go back and start again. This is why it would be nice if there were some kind of language auto detection exactly like the one in the google translation service.

What’s the deal with the Beatles on iTunes?

Beatles on iTunes is a really important thing for the music business and this is why Apple dedicated their homepage and a series of tv ads. Last time they anticipated something on their homepage was in 2007 with the iPhone. Now that the Beatles are on iTunes there’s nothing one can really say anymore about digital downloads, it suddenly seems like the online music market has become more established, and I believe artists will think of it more like a place to be… I guess we’ll start to see indie bands releasing only on vinyl just to say they think different…

One little observation: for 12,99 euros per album I can buy 2 used cd copies at my local thrift shop…

Annoying

When I’m in the App or iTunes store and going through a long list, if I click inside an app or song (or even a ping) it often forgets the point I was in the list, and when I go back to it I have to start from the top again.

Come on! This should be programming abc… Even the worst twitter clients don’t have similar issues. I guess Apple store must load the interface from their servers every time so they can change stuff without requiring app updates (why?) but there must be another way to do it!

It makes the whole experience worse.

App store on Mac OS “Lion”

What about if Apple made an App store for the Mac? App store is what really makes the difference in an iOS device, more than it’s technical features or it’s innovative metaphors, and that is probably why most of their ads focus on apps more than anything else. More than it’s innovative user interface and new metaphors, and more than it’s technical achievements. So I believe that unless Apple decided that some sort of store on the Mac could slow down their diabolical secret plan of killing all desktop and laptop computers in the next years, we could see the app store or something similar in the Mac too.

The 7-inch iPad

It seems like 9to5mac and Gizmodo don’t believe a 7-inch iPad will ever be released. They say it’s too small to be useful and too large to fit in a pocket.

I disagree and think it would sell more than current iPads.

I first realized this during my trip in Turkey this summer. My girlfreind and I both had a copy of the Lonely Planet Istanbul guide, but I had the app version in my iPhone and she had the pocket version of the printed edition which happens to be around 7-inch in size. One day we both consulted ours simultaneously and when I saw her putting it back in her handbag I asked her: what if they made a 7-inch version of the iPad/iPhone that you could carry around in your bag? She told me she would buy one immediately.

Digital Paper

The iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone actually should be considered in many aspects the new digital paper. An iOs device is a book, magazine, guide, agenda, address book, moleskine, sketchbook ecc, and exactly as it’s real paper counterparts I don’t see why the 3-size line-up couldn’t work. iPhone is too small for a certain kind of reading. It’s good for quick reference and many other things but there’s some applications that would be much better in a bigger size, like on a 7-inch screen. Sure 10-inch is better but I think it’s just good to stay at home, on my coffee table, or to keep in the meeting room of my office, to use on any meeting occasion. But for carry around, even if both don’t fit in my pocket I would use a 7-inch.

Girls

They have handbags and they would know for sure how to carry a smaller iPad with them. In fact it occurs to me that the current iPad is not a very “girl” device. I don’t know many girls who own one. And in the paper world girls always loved mid sized books and also magazines - for handbag reasons…

Blackberry

I have many friends who use a blackberry and I had one too for three years. I understand the thinking behind a blackberry user, because the iPhone is such a different experience from any other phone of the past, you must actually own one to understand it. Blackberry is still very popular and in two things it still beats the iphone: typing and battery, the two typical primary needs for a bb user, so if you have a blackberry you don’t think you will need an iPhone soon. Some people with blackberries I’ve talked to about the 7-inch ipad (my girlfriend included) said they would buy one as soon as it becomes available for sale, as a companion for their bb’s. I actually have a coulpe friends who would actually diss their iphone to buy a blackberry and a small iPad…