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AT&T “Working with Apple” To Show 4G Indicator on iPhone 4S→

AT&T “Working with Apple” To Show 4G Indicator on iPhone 4S

According to a document posted by This is my next, AT&T is “working with Apple” to enable a 4G indicator in the iPhone 4S’ status bar.

the carrier is apparently “working with Apple” to change the indicator in the iPhone 4S (which tops out at 14.4Mbps, up from the iPhone 4′s 7.2Mbps) to show “4G” in the status bar as well. That’s surprising considering Apple’s general reluctance over the past four years to bow to carrier pressure on… well, pretty much anything — and what’s more, the indicator will require an iOS update to enable.

Among the improvements of the iPhone 4S, there are faster download speeds through HSDPA, which Apple has purposely avoided to define as “4G speeds” leaving the debate on 4G standards to “others to talk about” (as Phil Schiller noted at the October 4th event). The confusion generates from the “4G” marketing term, used by carriers like AT&T to indicate both HSPA+ and LTE networks. AT&T is rolling out improvements to its Long Term Evolution network while giving “4G speeds” to the older HSPA+ standard, a marketing choice that has caused confusion among consumers, the tech press, and device makers.

In the past, Apple has shied away from implementing carrier’s modifications to the iPhone’s software, giving them only choices over App Store 3G download limits, or Personal Hotspot. AT&T seems pretty confident they’ll enable the 4G indicator through a software update – iOS 5 is coming out on October 12th, two days ahead of the 4S’ release. Check out the leaked document here.

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iPhone 4S Voice and Data Plans: AT&T vs. Sprint vs. Verizon→

iPhone 4S Voice and Data Plans: AT&T vs. Sprint vs. Verizon

If you’re looking for the cheapest possible monthly deal, Sprint wins, with a total monthly cost of $99.99 for 900 minutes, unlimited texting, and unlimited data.

Excellent roundup of plan prices from PC Magazine. Contrary to the above, what I’ve found is that you can get the cheapest plan on AT&T, but you’re only going to get 450 minutes and 200 MB of data without a text messaging plan to pull it off. No frills here, but you’d only have to pay $55 a month. If you’re on WiFi a majority of the time, your friends have iPhones (for iMessage), and have good AT&T coverage, this is your budget plan.

The best overall plan would go to Sprint. The nights and weekends given are good, 450 minutes, and unlimited data and text messaging will net you a solid plan for $80 a month. Pricey, but cheaper than AT&T and Verizon for similar upgrades. Keep in mind the “unlimited data” is around 5 GB, though this was true for Verizon as well when they carried unlimited plans.

If you want the best coverage, Verizon is likely going to be your choice. I have never had a signal problem with Verizon no matter where I ended up in my travels, although call quality is lacking in my opinion. Verizon is a good choice if you want better text message flexibility (250 messages for example) where AT&T gives you none, although you don’t have the same choices with data use.

[via OS X Daily]

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Siri Example Phrases→

Siri Example Phrases

Erica Sadun at TUAW says they’ve tracked down a series of example phrases for the iPhone 4S’ voice assistant, Siri. The list of “Apple-supplied examples” includes categories like Alarms, Friends, Messages, and Notes. The “Email” commands are the ones that intrigued me the most:

- Email Lisa about the trip

- Email Jennifer about the change in plans

- New email to Susan Park

- Mail Dad about the rent check

- Email Dr. Manning and say I got the forms, thanks

- Mail Lisa and Jason about the party and say I had a great time

In the first two examples, I assume Siri will start composing a new email message with “trip” and “change in plans” in the Subject field. That’s also assuming Siri interprets “about” as the subject of “email” – which would make sense. But the last phrase is where I think Siri will really prove its potential – chaining different fields and multiple strings of text together. You see, the last phrase contains a command (mail), two Address Book contacts (Lisa and Jason), a subject (about the party) and the message (I had a great time). The examples Apple ran yesterday on stage were rather simple, albeit still impressive, and provided some context into Siri’s artificial intelligence.

What I’m really curious about at this point is the chaining of multiple commands – if I had an assistant in real life, I imagine I’d ask her to “schedule a meeting with Jason then call Chris and check on my schedule for Friday”. Will Siri be able to go back and forth between multiple commands from a single question? Perhaps something a little simpler than my example above? Will it support basic if/then operations? I guess we’ll have to wait for a real hands-on to find out.

In the meantime, check out the full list of examples over at TUAW.

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Dialvetica 2.0→

Dialvetica 2.0

Dialvetica is one of my favorite iPhone apps – it has replaced Apple’s Phone app in my dock thanks to its powerful search functionality and built-in dialpad. If you missed my previous article about it – it’s basically a continually updating list of most-contacted people in your Address Book that is kept up to date based on your habits. So, in my Dialvetica, the top entries are my parents and close friends, with anyone else down in the list.

The new 2.0 version released today adds an iPad version, which I’ll never use in spite of Dialvetica’s support for email adresses, and, more importantly, a completely rewritten engine. Search is visibly faster on my iPhone 4, and the custom keyboard feels snappier, too. Also from the 2.0 changelog:

- Google voice support.

- Search by company title.

- Slight interface improvements. Check out settings to customize.

- Tighter control over data. You can clear your history, reset a contacts call count, etc.

Apple is expected to unveil Assistant tomorrow, and I wonder if there will be some voice-related functionalities to ask iOS to call or text someone in your Address Book, and let the OS figure out on its own which phone number or address to use. We’ll see. In the meantime, you can download Dialvetica 2.0 on the App Store. It’s $2.99.

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JAMBOX 2.1 Software Update→

JAMBOX 2.1 Software Update

When Jawbone shipped the 2.0 software update for the JAMBOX (my review), I was very disappointed. Not only I couldn’t experience the three-dimensional binaural recordings (in spite of listening multiple times to the dedicated Spotify playlist) – the update itself made overall audio quality considerably worse, even with LiveAudio turned off. I’ve heard mixed responses about the 2.0 update (some people seemed to love it, others couldn’t stand it at all), and whilst it didn’t stop me from using the JAMBOX every day, I was definitely looking forward to the “fix” that Jawbone promptly promised. On 2.0, sound was distorted, “cold”, fuzzy – it wasn’t the same JAMBOX I bought.

With the 2.1 update released this week, Jawbone seems to have fixed most of the annoyances that creeped into version 2.0. I still can’t fully understand (or, for that matter, hear) LiveAudio, but the JAMBOX engineers have restored the device’s original audio and introduced a new Sound Clarity option that delivers distortion-free audio at high volume levels when LiveAudio is off. From Jawbone’s email about the update:

You can also enjoy a clearer, distortion-free sound when LiveAudio is OFF by turning Sound Clarity ON. When Sound Clarity is ON, the software uses an audio tuning algorithm that cleans up distortion at high volume levels. Sound Clarity is OFF by default - to turn it on, go to Advanced Settings in MyTALK and set “Sound Clarity” ON.

After a full day of testing, I can say I like this latest software update. A lot. I’ve listened to Pink Floyd, Biffy Clyro, Kasabian, Blink-182, Bon Iver and Noel Gallagher this afternoon, and sound quality was at the same level of my original JAMBOX review. With Sound Clarity on, the JAMBOX perhaps loses a bit of detail and bass deepness, but there’s a sensible gain in loudness with clearer sound.

Go update your JAMBOX right now. You can visit mytalk.jawbone.com to download the latest Jawbone Updater for Mac, and then configure LiveAudio and Sound Clarity directly in your browser. Highly recommended.

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Reuters: Brazil’s $12 Billion iPad Deal Is “In Doubt”→

Reuters: Brazil’s $12 Billion iPad Deal Is “In Doubt”

According to Reuters, Brazilian officials are claiming the $12 billion deal between Brazil and Foxconn, maker of the iPad, is “in doubt” because of a lack of an agreement on tax breaks, work conditions, and other “crazy demands” by Foxconn. It appears the talks between the local government and Foxconn have been difficult, mainly due to Brazil’s high taxes and non-skilled workers that don’t meet Foxconn’s expectations. These demands may also include priority treatment at Brazilian customs, Reuters reports.

We’re dealing with a lot of issues, like the (Taiwanese) trying to figure out how to do business in Brazil … and Brazil figuring out how to produce these complicated products,” a second government official told Reuters.

Maybe we will end up starting with something smaller.

The deal between Foxconn and Brazil was announced back in April by Brazilian’s President Dilma Roussef, with production set to begin in July. The date was then pushed back to November, and more recently Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology, Aloízio Mercadante, said that the new factory was “ready” and making iPads that would start shipping in December.

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A Look At Instagram 2.0 Filters→

A Look At Instagram 2.0 Filters

Owen Billcliffe at my glass eye takes an in-depth look at the new filters introduced in Instagram 2.0, as well as the updated ones:

Instagram said that all the filters have been completely re-written to work with the new live preview system and to output far higher resolution images, and it seems to me the re-writes just haven’t nailed the original look. I have a feeling this may be for technical reasons, that the new engine for live preview just can’t support certain features like textures. I suppose it’s also possible the Instagram guys wanted to make some tweaks deliberately but if they did then that’s not cool in my opinion. Users preferring the social side may not mind much, but I had some favourite filters that just don’t feel the same at all and I know I’m not alone.

I don’t use Instagram as much as I’d like to, but I’ve noticed the same issue Owen has with the new filters – Instagram 1.0 had more “personality” in that developers weren’t afraid to have absurdly colorful, contrasty, washed out filters. As Gruber notes, that’s what made Instagram fun. The new filters are less washed out and contrasty, some look very similar to each other – you should take a look at Owen’s gallery with comparison shots before and after the upgrade.

The Instagram developers have a good track record with updates and I’m sure they’ll listen to feedback. Although I do wonder if these changes are somehow related to Apple’s upcoming CoreImage support in iOS 5.

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FIFA 2012 Comes To The Mac→

FIFA 2012 Comes To The Mac

Electronic Arts and TransGaming have announced the release of FIFA Soccer 12 for the Mac, The Loop reports. This is the first time the popular soccer franchise is available on the Mac platform, and as usual with TransGaming’s OS X release, the port has been done using the Cider translation engine. Cider has been used in the past years in several Mac games including the recently re-released GTA series.

FIFA 2012 comes with important changes in the physics and artificial intelligence engines:

Chosen Best Sports Game by E3 Game Critics, FIFA Soccer 12 brings to the pitch the game-changing new Player Impact Engine, a physics engine built to deliver real-world physicality in every interaction on the pitch. Revolutionary gameplay innovations inspired by the real-world game make FIFA Soccer 12 deeper and more engaging. All-new Precision Dribbling creates a higher fidelity of touch on the ball for better control in tight spaces, more time to make decisions on attack, and more control over the pace of the game. Innovations in attack are balanced by a re-designed defending mechanism called Tactical Defending, which fundamentally changes the approach to defending by placing equal importance on positioning, intercepting passes and tackling.

FIFA 2012 requires a Mac with OS X 10.6.8 or later, Intel Core 2 Duo or better, 4GB RAM, and ATI HD2600 or Nvidia GeForce 9400M or greater. You can buy FIFA 2012 for $39.99 at GameTree Mac.

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Labeling iOS’ Back Button→

Labeling iOS’ Back Button

Neven Mrgan shares a solid piece of advice for iOS app designers and developers: A Back button labeled “Back” is never a good option.

As he notes, Apple never labels the “Back” button – the left-pointing arrow at the top of most iOS apps – “Back”. They provide context as to how a parent view (the previous screen) should be shown in the button’s label.

This is a widespread issue, present in many extremely popular apps.

This is redundant and it provides no context. Note that Apple never does this, not in any app. Instead, they provide either the full title of the previous view, or an abbreviated/truncated version of it.

He offers some do/don’t examples in his blog post. Here’s a series of screenshots from my iPhone, showing apps that correctly use the “Back” button:

One of my favorite examples, the Rdio app for iPhone:

And here’s Apple in the Apple Store app:

The button itself means “back”, so the additional “Back” label is not an option. These are the minor details that make great apps, well, great.

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