Tech journalism is not an oxymoron
I didn’t know this:
If you’ve got a Wi-Fi-only iPad or iPad 2, you’re generally unable to use GPS to get more accurate location pin-pointing. Unless you also happen to own an iPhone and use its Personal Hotspot feature to tether—which, it turns out, passes along GPS data.
(via LifeHacker)
From Macworld.com:
Each month, users will freely be able to read up to 20 articles at the newspaper’s Website, though links from Facebook and Twitter will not count against this quota. If you want to read more than the allotted number, you’ll need to sign up for the NYTimes.com Plus Smartphone App plan at $15 per month. As the verbose name suggests, that plan will get you unlimited browser access to the Times’s site via all the devices you own, as well as unlimited access via the company’s official smartphone apps for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android.
If you want to read via The New York Times’s iPad app, which gained access to most of the pubilcation’s content last October, you’ll need the NYTimes.com Plus Tablet App plan, which runs $20 per month. This plan also offers unlimited browser access to the Times’s site on all your devices. But while it enables you to read the publication via its iPad app, the Times Reader 2.0 app for traditional computers, and the NYTimes Web app for Google’s Chrome browser, it does not include access via the smartphone apps.
If you want ubiquitous Web and app access to The New York Times, you’ll need the All Digital Access plan for $35 per month, which includes all aforementioned apps across all supported platforms.
If it takes 217 words to describe what you’re selling, something’s seriously wrong.
Speaking of superb reviews, Macworld’s Christopher Breen pens the definitive look at Apple’s GarageBand for iOS as only he — accomplished writer and musician — can.
GarageBand for iOS is what I’d always hoped it would be on the Mac. We’re no longer limited to just stringing loops together; now it’s possible to compose actual songs, with chord changes, without real instruments. The new version truly makes it possible for anyone to create real songs. I can’t say enough about it and it looks like Breen agrees with me — I don’t remember the last time I saw a full five-mouse review in Macworld.
Superb review of the new iMovie for iOS by my friend Jeff Carlson at Macworld. He mentions that the new version doesn’t run on the original iPad. True enough, but there are several workarounds that will let you get around that limitation, including at least one that does not require a jailbreak. (via Your Mac Life)
Jordan Yee ponders: “I’m just putting two and two together here, so hear me out: if an iPhone 4 can only make FaceTime calls over WIFI like the iPad 2, could an iPad 2 make a FaceTime call over 3G by connecting to an iPhone 4’s Personal Hotspot feature which is WIFI?” Absolutely. This already works on Jailbroken iPhones with MyWi installed. Um, that is, so I’ve heard. (via Daring Fireball)
It’s gotten better since it first launched — at least technologically — but I stopped reading it while it was still free. I don’t think this is going to be the subscription model for tablets that takes hold. (via paidcontent.org)
I got to meet my fellow MacJurors face-to-face at Macworld San Francisco 2010 for a live version of the MacJury podcast. Host Chuck Joiner and our panel recorded the session live on the floor of the Moscone Center — in the Music Theater stage, to be more specific — in front of a live audience. The panel consisted of Tanya Engst, from TidBITS and TakeControl Books, Ted Landau from Macworld and The Mac Observer, Jeff Gamet from The Mac Observer and the Design Weekly Podcast and yours truly. The audience was super, the conversation lively and it was a typically fun session. Thanks to all who attended and for Chuck for putting it together. The session — in all its video glory — is now available on the MacVoices.tv website.
I just wrote a post for The Mac Observer as part of a series on how the site’s staffers use their iPhones. (My contribution is Part III of II; you have to read it to understand.) Here’s a snippet:
One of the best things I’ve found about the iPhone is that it’s not really a separate device at all – it acts as an extension of not just my Mac at home, but of the accumulated knowledge of the human race. OK, that’s a bit hyperbolic, but that’s the way it feels. Before the iPhone came out, I wrote about the need for a “convergence device” – one that could be used away from my home Mac, but allowed me to access its power and functionality. The iPhone has very much become that convergence device for me. And that convergence has, well, converged even more over time, thanks in large part to the over-the-air synching capabilities rolled out via MobileMe and the speed of 3G networking.
The full article is on The Mac Observer — Don’t forget to read parts 1 and 2 for some insights from more “regular” staffers like Dave Hamilton, Bryan Chaffin, Bob LeVitus, Jeff Gamet and others.
On a recent MacJury, during a discussion on the new ability for iPhone applications to send “push” notifications, I joked about a Twitter client with that capability and what a nightmare it would be. We all had a good laugh at the ridiculousness of the suggestion and moved on to more serious topics.
I was surprised then to hear about Twitbit, a new Twitter client for the iPhone that features — you guessed it — push notifications. I’m struggling to comprehend the benefit of this. Unless you’re following very few people (and if you are I’d argue you’re not a good candidate for a for-pay Twitter client for the iPhone) it seems like the near-constant notifications of new Tweets would quickly drive you crazy — not to mention kill your battery.
Twitbit’s developers say the app will be configurable in future versions, so you can turn notification off for regular Tweets, but on for Direct Messages. Since you can already set that to happen via email, I still don’t see a big benefit. It will be interesting to see how Twitbit does (or evolves).
Had I known my predictions carried such power, I surely would have gone with something other than a Twitter client with push notifications.
Twitbit is available in the iTunes store for $4.99. More information is available on the app’s website.
I’ve appeared on Shawn King’s excellent “Your Mac Life” podcast several times over the last few weeks, but have neglected to mention it here. So before I forget again: I’m on tonight’s show, in a pre-recorded segment called “Pick Your Topic.” It’s a clever idea: Shawn presents three current Mac or Apple-related stories in the news, and the guest picks one of them to talk about. It’s also a little unnerving; the guest is not told what the choices will be, so he or she can’t prepare in advance. “Winging it” like this is way outside my comfort zone, but it makes it all the more exciting and I usually wind up really enjoying these segments.
Another Your Mac Life development I meant to talk about but didn’t: YML is now available from iTunes as a free podcast. Previously, you could either listen to (or watch) the show live or stream the previous week’s show from the yourmaclifeshow.com website. If you wanted to listen to it on the go, you had to subscribe to the show via Audible.com. I’ve been pushing for the show to go the free podcast route for a while now, so I’m tremendously glad to see it happen. I think it will open the show up to a much bigger audience–one it richly deserves. Shawn has been broadcasting Your Mac Life (and its predecessor, The Mac Show) for years now–way before the word “podcasting” was even coined. He is, in my view, the Johnny Carson of tech broadcasting and a genuine pro in the medium.
So–what was my topic for tonight’s show? You’ll have to tune in to find out: the show runs from 8:30-11:00 p.m. and is available from the show’s website.