By Alex Brooks iOS 7 preview (from left to right) iTunes Radio, Multitasking interface, Home screen, Control Centre, Safari Tabs
It’s been the talk of the town for some months now. With the departure of Scott Forstall last year the rumours pointed towards a major new direction for iOS—led by none other than industrial design God and revered designer of the Jobs era, Jony Ive. The rumours weren’t specific, but they were eyebrow raising. They pointed towards a whole new interface, a “flat” skeuomorphic free interface but the question on everybody’s mind, “How far would Apple go?”

So Flat
Today we have our answer and it’s somewhat shocking. iOS 7 presents a major departure from any version of iOS that has come before it. So much that I suspect for the average consumer that will run this update in September, they will be shocked and confused. But Apple had little choice, as outlined by myself and Gruber, times have changed since 2007 when the original iPhone took the very same stage that iOS 7 did today. Apple had been pushed into a corner by ever innovating Windows Phone and Android, by company’s that care less than Apple does about the effect on the end user and therefore is often more willing to push the boundary. Today Apple pushed hard; some may argue, too far.
iOS 7 preview (from left to right) Lock Screen, Home Screen, Control Centre | Image courtesy of Apple
The new interface is packed full of clean fonts, colourful icons and gesture ripe interfaces. The motives are simple when compared to the scene in 2007. Higher resolution and more vibrant displays can cater to more colours and thinner, sharper fonts. Typography can be used to complement interfaces like never before. In 2013 we’re used to touch interfaces, we’re used to gestures and we’ve departed from buttons, clickable areas and boundaries of interfaces. iOS 7 packs in endlessly scrolling interfaces, UI elements that fade away upon interacting with the content and buttons that float in a translucent area above the content. It’s all so 2013.
Features Too
Thankfully iOS 7 is more than just an overhaul of the UI, Apple also took some time out of today’s two hour keynote to show off a mere ten headline features of the new OS. Some of them are eye catching such as the long overdue Control Centre that slides up from the bottom of the display. Packed into this confusing interface is all the access an iPhone user would want, from quick access to WiFi, Do Not Disturb, all the way to a quick access flash light (Sorry flashlight apps).
There’s not much innovative about Control Centre though, it’s been a no brainer since iOS 3. Notification Centre has taken a more iterative route, accessible from the Lock Screen it’s now easy to see a lot of Notifications at once. Also just a swipe way from Notification Centre is the new Today feature showing a run down of the day ahead including the weather, traffic and meetings. Is that enough to compete with Google Now?
On the other end of the scale, there are some innovations. Apple continues to dismiss the idea of NFC and has brought AirDrop from OS X onto iOS, allowing easy sharing of files with people around you. In fact going around the room tapping phones was actively encouraged as being silly, AirDrop is the future of iOS file sharing.
Apple has also been listening to those law enforcement agencies and has strengthened Find my iPhone with Activation Lock. This feature prevents Find my iPhone being turned off without entering the Apple ID and can even prevent erasing of data or reactivation of the device.
There’s also some nice improvements in iOS 7, including an update to Siri giving it far more power (“Turn on Bluetooth”) and a new voice, Notification sync will clear notifications across iOS and OS X devices, and FaceTime audio is a fancy way of saying Voice over IP calling (sorry carriers).
My favourite new feature is the redesigned Photos app which should make that Camera Roll a bit easier to navigate. iOS 7 will group photos into Moments, so by place and time, making navigation far simpler. And let’s face it the iPhone now packs over five years of photos and it’s only growing quicker and quicker.
The Not So Good
It’s clear that Apple has had its work cut out. Redesigning an entire OS from the ground up is no easy task and it’s going to be a painful transition for hundreds of thousands of apps. Clearly it was too much work for Apple too, you’ll note that during the whole 40 minute demo of iOS 7 that not a single iPad was seen—good luck finding one of the Apple website too.
Then there’s the really not so good. I had a niggling feeling it would happen but this grand overhaul of the interface has distracted from the real meat of the matter. iOS is beginning to drag and it clearly comes down to the Jobs-era philosophy that Apple designs the look and feel of the device, not the consumer. On one hand it means that I can’t integrate Fantastical as well as the built-in Calendar, it’s icon will be unable to show the current date for example. But even worse it appears that even Apple’s own apps are still stubborn, static icons.
iOS Today view in Notification Center and Missed View | Image courtesy of Apple
Putting access to Today and Notification Centre in the Lock Screen is not how I want to see what’s going on in my social sphere, or how I want to quickly catchup up on news without having to unlock and open an app. It’s a different world out there on Android and Windows Phone, I’m not saying it’s better but it sure looks brighter.
iOS 7 will grow on all of us over the coming months. I will offer a more in depth look as and when I’ve played with it but on the surface iOS 7 is a beautiful renovation of the oldest mobile OS on the market. But I remain unconvinced that Apple has packed enough into this update for some to stick around.
iOS 7
As is the norm, iOS 7 is available now for developers to begin prepping their apps and for Apple to continue testing and refining. Apple says iOS 7 will be available in the fall for consumers, that historically means late September, accompanied by new iPhones and iPads.
Refreshingly iOS 7 is slated as working with the iPhone 4 and up, iPad 2 and up and iPod touch 5th generation and up but there was no mention of how severely some features would be scaled back for those lower end devices.

Source: World of Apple

By Alex Brooks Moscone West dressed up for WWDC 2013 | Image courtesy of Simon Tunbridge on Flickr
It’s the eve of WWDC 2013 and San Francisco is alive with developers, designers, and journalists pulling into the city in taxies and heading to the nearest bar to see friends. Friends that they probably only see once a year in person. It’s a scene that is completely lost on those that have never been to Apple’s only annual conference; those on the outside simply witness the new products, the keynote and that’s it but for attendees of WWDC (even without a badge) it’s the centre of the Apple world for 5 days. Everyone and anyone that covers, comments, or is associated with Apple is in San Francisco this week (except myself, ironically).
Also different is this coverage of WWDC from the author. Unlike previous years this will not be presented as a comprehensive rumours roundup but more of a thought journey. There’s two reasons for this, primarily because there’s more than a dozen rumour roundups already out there but second because of secrecy.

On Secrecy
Tim Cook said this distinct line at the AllThingD’s opening keynote in 2012 “we’re going to double down on secrecy on products.” In a way even I scoffed at this a little and I wasn’t alone. In the weeks and months that followed this comment from Cook we saw much of what Apple was working on, upon revealing the design of the iPhone 5 was no surprise to anyone and the existence of the iPad mini was well known.
Fast forward to now and we’re a little over 24 hours to go before the WWDC keynote and all we have rumour wise is a cacophony of silence. And when I say rumours I mean those product leaks that make it clear what’s coming and those rumours that pinpoint the details so well that it takes all the buzz out of the keynote.
Whatever Cook set out to do he is achieving, it’s not easy to set out and change the mindset of a company the size of Apple. The business of publishing Apple rumours is a lucrative one and that no doubt translates to staff being under pressure for information or for them sometimes feeling the desire to leak. But surely and slowly the holes are sealing up; Apple will never be water tight but this is as close as I’ve seen the company for years.
The other aspect to be considered is that Apple has always been excellent at keeping secrets on the software side of the business. The reasons are obvious: the software very rarely leaves Apple’s campus where as hardware will inevitable end up in the hands of a dozen or so manufacturers and assemblers. The scope for leaks on the hardware side is considerably larger.
On Hardware
WWDC has in the past been a stage for Apple to unleash new hardware. There have been new Macs and there have been new iPhones. For reasons that I’ve outlined a few times, Apple is beyond iOS hardware before the fall (late-September, October) but Macs aren’t out of the question.
There’s a number of signs pointing towards Mac refreshes. Last year at WWDC Apple refreshed the entire MacBook lineup with Ivy Bridge processors and unleashed the first Mac with a Retina display. Intel has had its latest architecture on the market publicly for a few weeks now—it’s known as Haswell.
So not only is there an upgrade path available but the precedence of Mac hardware updates at WWDC also exists.
As stated expect those updates to include a push to Intel’s Haswell chips, we may also see the introduction of 802.11ac WiFi chips. It’s still not quite the time for a Retina MacBook Air so those waiting will probably have to wait another year.
The question is whether Apple will update the long overdue Mac Pro. The top of the line workstation was updated last year but immediately criticised for not bringing the latest technology to Apple’s expensive desktop machine. Apple took the unusual line of confirming that a bigger, better update would come “later in 2013″. We’re now nearing the halfway point of 2013 so the update is surely nearing but despite being a great stage for showing off new Mac Pro hardware Apple’s growing focus on the consumer market with the WWDC keynote will push it a little further out.
WWDC 2013 Tagline: Where a whole new world is developing | Image courtesy of Simon Tunbridge on Flickr
On iRadio
Here in the UK we’ve been lucky enough to have had access to Spotify for a number of years. It was when such a product comes along that you begin to wonder why the largest seller of music around the world can’t supply a similar, amazing service. However it’s because of Apple’s size and dominance that bringing a streaming music service to market has been troublesome. The first problem is the reach that Apple would be going for, Spotify and similar services are available in a handful of markets, Apple would be pushing for hundreds. The second is concern that Apple would be eating its own music store sales (concern from music labels that is) and that is what I’m guessing has led to what I suspect will be a massive compromise.
We’re working off conjecture here but iRadio as it has been dubbed seems more in line with Pandora than Spotify or Rdio. For those unfamiliar with these services the distinction is quite large. Radio services work like a custom radio station, learning over time and supplying songs based on tastes or genre, often punctuated with adverts but limited by an inability to skip too often or select a song. Services like Spotify are just giant catalogs of music able to be streamed.
If Apple goes the streaming radio route as the rumours suggest then I see it not being the success that Apple will be hoping for. Primarily for the reasons that Apple dislikes the current status quo of television is that it’s a linear stream that cannot be changed. iRadio won’t be this extreme but I do enjoy being able to pick a song and play it over, and over, and over again. I’ll hold judgement for when it’s in the public though.
On Apple TV
The rumours have dragged on and on about what Apple will do in the television space. Any interview or investor call involves some mention of the TV space and how Apple will enter. Almost all of those occasions include an executive answering by talking of the continued success of Apple’s current offering, of the growing sales.
If you ask me this is Apple’s way of saying “we’re happy with our hardware offering”, or for the benefit of Gene Munster translated roughly to “we’re not going to make a TV”.
Here’s where I see Apple going next and I’m going to annoy people and read a little into Apple’s pre-WWDC marketing. There’s a banner outside Moscone West (pictured above) in San Francisco that reads “Where a whole new world is developing”. Does that suggest a whole new leg for the stool? A whole new platform?
In my view Apple tackles the TV space with software, with the obvious combination of hardware to complement but doesn’t lead with it. An Apple TV SDK would put both Microsoft and Sony on the backfoot with their expensive, gaming and TV focused games consoles that they’ll be attempting to pedal later this year.
Of course for Apple to break into the gaming on TV space then there will need to be a controller sold separately, and I’m not in the school of thought that Apple will rely on iOS devices for control.
Do I see Apple TV development being Apple’s big announcement, a whole new world of developing, something to fill all those empty sessions on the WWDC schedule? Yes I do. (Do I also have a hat at the ready to be eaten? Yes.)
iOS 7 Banner at WWDC 2013
On iOS
It all comes down to this. The rumours have focused on it (with limited detail) and the eyes of the world are focused on it. Apple’s most successful platform relies on iOS edging ahead of the competition that has admittedly done an amazing job of catching up and in some cases careering ahead. iOS of 2012 does very much feel like the iOS of 2007 and that’s a problem but I suspect it’s a problem that is being tackled.
iOS is not just in need of a visual overhaul though. The way it works needs a rethink too, we’re in an age of faster hardware, faster connections, more pixels and bigger batteries. iOS doesn’t take advantage of this and remains in the mindset of the slow, RAM limited, slow connection world of 2007.
So whilst a visual refresh led by Jonny Ive is welcome I also wish for a rethink of the concept of iOS. The problem for Apple is that whether it be Android on one side or Windows Phone on the other it’s extremely hard to innovate in this area and innovation is something everyone expects from Apple. However, I trust that they’ll nail it.
I also see problems. Android has the power of Google’s services and with that has been able to produce Now an amazing service that can seamlessly fit in with day to day life supplying a constant stream of data about traffic conditions, public transport links, the weather, and what’s happening around you socially. It’s possible because Google has that data. iOS has Google Now but it’s tucked away behind an icon, an icon that I have to actively click on to get the information.
Apple doesn’t have this data to do their own solution, their mapping is poor, their data sets are worse and they have no understanding of social. I’m interested to see how they tackle this problem, if they don’t even bother to do that then expect many to start looking at other mobile solutions.
OS X Banner at WWDC 2013 | Image from 9to5Mac
On OS X
Last year Apple took the unprecedented step of showing OS X off to journalists before an official announcement. The first time they showed a live demo of OS X Mountain Lion was during the WWDC keynote, several months after the announcement.
This year things are far quieter. Rumours point towards Siri, multiple monitor support for fullscreen apps, Maps integration and possibly a refreshed Finder. But as with many software rumours, details are scant.
The general expectation is for this version of OS X to be a more of an incremental update. The UI changes that often filter down from iOS will do so in the following years.
On Product Cycles
Last October I wrote up my thoughts on Apple’s product cycle. I never published those thoughts, they seemed a bit crazy. I was proposing the idea that Apple would spend the first six months of 2013 without releasing a single product. That they would break from their March iPad release and that Apple’s season of product releases would be four months long and start in June.
The prediction was nothing new, for years I’ve been baffled by Apple releasing new iPad hardware three months before showing off a brand new version of iOS. Now the cycles are set, in fact they’re almost like clockwork.
Chart of Apple hardware releases over the past three years (Unpublished from October 2012)
iOS and OS X refreshes kick off the season with a mix of new Macs dotted along the way. The new iPhone (and a possible variation in product line) and new iPads will come in late-September or October when iOS has completed its developer only beta testing. It’s simple really.
This does present problems for Apple in terms of manufacturing, keeping the marketing message clean and also what it does in the those quiet six months at the start of the year. But challenges I’m sure that the company is on top of, having had a pretty decent practice run in 2012.
WWDC 2013
So another WWDC is upon us and considering the amount of rumours out there we’re going to be in for a real surprise filled showed. As is common Apple looks unlikely to live stream the keynote so those not lucky enough to be in the room will have to rely on text and photo streams. [Update: Apple is video streaming the Keynote on the Apple TV and on the web.]
The keynote kicks off at the following times on Monday, June 10th:
10:00AM – Pacific
11:00AM – Mountain
12:00PM – Central
1:00PM – Eastern
6:00PM – London
7:00PM – Paris
9:00PM – Moscow
2:00AM – Tokyo (Tuesday 12th)
4:00AM – Sydney (Tuesday 12th)
World of Apple will provide analysis after the keynote and during the week. Follow myself @alexbrooks on Twitter for regular updates on WWDC goings on and the keynote and follow @worldofapple for major announcements.

Source: World of Apple

By brolloh With so many notifications coming in from so many apps and people, it can be hard work looking at your phone every five minutes only to see that you’ve had yet another pointless email come through.
iOS 5 and iOS 6 feature custom vibrations so your important contacts stop getting lost amongst the rest.
To create this new vibration, navigate to Settings > Sounds > Select your current ringtone > Vibration

You’ll be given a list of seven default vibration patterns. Scroll beyond the bottom of this list and you’ll see ‘Create New Vibration’

You’ll be presented with a large grey square to tap on, this will record the vibration you have in mind. (Quick tip: simplicity is the key but who are we to judge?)

When you’re finished, you can tap Save and name your masterpiece.
Now navigate to your Contacts app, find your loved one, tap Edit, just under E-mail you’ll see Vibration: Default, tap this.

Scroll to the bottom and select your custom vibration.

Now you know who calls or iMessages you before you see it.
More soon!

Source: SquareCMD

By brolloh We’re getting a little formal at Square HQ today, we have lots of PDFs to sign so we’re using a feature introduced to Preview with OS X Lion – Signatures.
We love how simple and speedy this feature is. To start, open a PDF within Preview that’s awaiting a signature. Select ‘Annotate’ then ‘Signature’ then ‘Creature Signature from FaceTime HD Camera (built-in)’

A new window will launch and you’ll likely see yourself in the video capture window. As the instructions suggest, you’ll need to scribble down your signature on a plain piece of white paper and hold it up to the camera with the blue line directly underneath. You’ll see a live preview of the digital signature so select ‘Accept’ when happy.

Your signature has been vectorised and now sits patiently within the Signatures drop down menu, select the signature and you’ll be required to draw a box where you’d like it to appear.

As the signature is vector based, it can be as large as you require without pixellating. You can add as many signatures as you’d like if you have different versions (or a stage name!)

Simple but such a great feature!
More soon!

Source: SquareCMD

By roman Want to leave your Mac on for a while for some process to finish? The default behavior in OS X is to put the computer into a low power sleep mode after a couple of minutes of inactivity. While this … Continue reading →

Source: MacTip.net

By roman Generally, most people prefer to buy gadgets early in the product’s life cycle, so it remains “new” for longer. Others prefer to buy a bit later, waiting for any early issues to be worked out. And everyone will agree, that … Continue reading →

Source: MacTip.net

By brolloh Since iPhone received notifications in iOS 5, we’ve been much happier seeing our alerts roll in at the top of our devices instead of over the top of our current task.
However, a lot of standard Apple and third party apps have navigation buttons in the same place. So whilst you may want to simply go Back, instead your unfortunately timed prod takes you to a lonely smiley face from your friend. Not ideal.

As ever there’s a trick for getting rid of notifications rather than waiting 6 seconds for them to retreat. Simply wait for one to appear and slide you finger (or thumb!) from right to left. A well aimed slide will get rid of your notification in an instant.
More soon!

Source: SquareCMD

By Alex Brooks Apple’s fiscal second quarter revenue with top end Apple estimate
Apple today announced financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2013 which ran from January 1, 2013 until March 31. Apple posted revenue of $43.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $39.2 billion and net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 37.5 percent compared to 47.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple reported the following number of shipments for its products during the quarter:
37.4 million iPhones compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago-quarter
19.5 million iPads compared to 11.8 million in the year-ago-quarter
3.95 million Macs compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter
5.63 million iPods compared to 7.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

“We are pleased to report record March quarter revenue thanks to continued strong performance of iPhone and iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”
“Our cash generation remains very strong, with $12.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter and an ending cash balance of $145 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.
Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2013 second quarter:
revenue between $33.5 billion and $35.5 billion
gross margin between 36 percent and 37 percent
operating expenses between $3.85 billion and $3.95 billion
other income/(expense) of $300 million
tax rate of 26%

Source: World of Apple

By brolloh Our second foray into YouTube with SquareCMD tells you how best to wipe your hard drive and reinstall OS X. Follow this video guide and we’re sure you’ll find this difficult sounding task easy!

More soon!

Source: SquareCMD

By brolloh Do you find you write the same phrase over and over in iPhone messages? For example if you’re a happy, contented sort you might be writing “I love you” in every message. That’s 8 characters! Your time is precious, 8 characters typed ten times a day means you’ll have wasted three days by the end of your life being mushy!
If you must stick with love-based cellular communication, we have a suggestion.
Navigate to Settings>General>Keyboards and scroll down until you reach Add New Shortcut….

Now you can type ‘ily’ and your phone will fill in the rest, romance will arrive on your darling’s phone as usual, but they’ll be unaware you’ve regained three days of your life back. If they do find out you’ve found a romance shortcut, firstly we didn’t tell you, and secondly you only did it so you could have three more days with them, which is quite romantic anyway.

More soon!

Source: SquareCMD