It’s here, everyone! Our favorite day in March besides Talk like The Wire Day. Follow along with Editor-in-Chief Chris Slate, Executive Editor Susie Ochs, and Managing Editor Florence Ion as we uncover the mysteries of the next iPad with our friends at MacFormat. We’re also keeping our fingers crossed for a new version of iOS, and maybe even a new Apple TV to go with it. Come join the conversation March 7 at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST. Sign up for a reminder below!
Apple’s busy day continues, with the company’s new Find My Friends app going live in the App Store ahead of iOS 5 and iCloud. Now you’ll never lose track of your friends and loved ones — assuming they have the good sense to also have an iOS device, that is.
Apple has released their new Find My Friends app to the iOS App Store on Wednesday morning ahead of iOS 5 and iCloud. Developers currently running the iOS 5 gold master can grab it now by heading to iCloud.com from their device and tapping “Install Find My Friends,” but the app should start showing up for everyone later in the day as well.
“Find My Friends allows you to easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch,” the app description reads. “Install this free app on your iOS 5 device and sign in with the Apple ID you use with iCloud. Adding a friend is easy — just send a request to see their location. Once your friend accepts using the Find My Friends app, you will then be able to see that friend’s location on a list or on a map.”
As mentioned during last week’s “Let’s talk iPhone” event, one of the great things about Find My Friends is the ability to share your location for only a limited period of time with a group of friends — great for those occasions where you’re all together in the same city or large event and want to keep tabs on one another.
Find My Friends is now available on the App Store; the free, universal app is a 10.4MB download and requires iOS 5 and an iCloud account.
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It was both a blessing and a curse to be an Apple fan last week, with the iPhone 4S announcement immediately overshadowed the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. But now, the second full week of October is in full swing, with more than a million preordered iPhone 4S units headed to customers this Friday. Here’s what else is making news for Monday, October 10, 2011.
If there’s one internet company with an identity crisis right now, it’s Netflix. According to a posting on The Netflix Blog by CEO Reed Hastings, the company has reversed their decision to split the streaming and DVD services up, with the optical discs being shuffled off to a new site called Qwikster. Those plans are now dead, with everything staying put under the Netflix shingle. However, the CEO didn’t say what will be happening to the company’s plan to start offering video games via Qwikster, so there could still be some blowback yet to come from that camp.
Still looking for a slick IM app for your iPhone? How about one that also does double duty on your iPad as well? Look no further than Verbs IM, which is celebrating the arrival of a universal version 2.2 with full iPad support with a price drop to 99 cents for a limited time only. The app delivers GTalk, AIM, MobileMe and Facebook IM chat in a slick, clean interface, but take note: You’ll need to shell out .99 via in-app purchase if you want Pro features like push notifications or keeping your account logins valid for up to seven days.
Apple’s Phil Schiller gleefully touted a 2x increase in speed with the iPhone 4S over the previous model, but was it all just marketing chatter? Apparently not, with MacRumors reporting on the first hands-on video from AppVV.com, where the handset scored 89567 using BrowserMark, a Mobile Safari-based benchmark tool. By comparison, an iPhone 4 running iOS 5 clocked in at a poky 44856 — just a hair under the promised 2x speed boost. Sounds like we’ll all be flying come October 14!
iCloud is rolling out to users on Wednesday alongside iOS 5, but according to AppleInsider, Apple will be rolling out some necessary updates ahead of time to get you ready. Japanese blog Macotakara claims that OS X Lion 10.7.2 and a new version of iTunes are both due either Monday or Tuesday, but they failed to mention that iPhoto will also need an update to support the iCloud Photo Stream feature. Developers have been beta testing iTunes 10.5, but no one knows for sure if that will actually be the version pushed out this week to support iCloud. Stay tuned!
According to 9to5Mac, Apple CEO Tim Cook has fired off an internal email to employees, announcing the company’s plans for a private celebration of co-founder Steve Jobs’ life which will take place on October 19 in the outdoor amphitheater on the Cupertino campus. The full email can be found by hitting up the link above, which opens with Cook confessing, “I have experienced the saddest days of my lifetime and shed many tears during the past week.” While it’s hard for all of us as fans, you can only imagine how difficult it will be for those who actually worked side by side with the man.
In related news, Bloomberg today confirmed that Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto and a death certificate released this afternoon listed the cause of death as respiratory arrest caused by a “metastatic pancreas neuroendocrine tumor.” The time of death was listed as 3pm PST on October 5; no autopsy was performed and Jobs was buried at a “non-denominational cemetery in Santa Clara County” on October 7.
Facebook has just rolled out a big iOS version 4.0 update, including the addition of native support for the iPad as part of the newly universal app. There are seriously a huge amount of changes noted with the release, so it’s probably easier to just head to the App Store and get downloading rather than sitting here reading this. Seriously… just do it.
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
Join us on Tuesday, October 4 at 10AM PST as we live blog Apple’s very special iPhone event. Let’s talk about the next iPhone with Tim Cook and friends, straight from Apple Town Hall. Bookmark this page and make sure to be right here tomorrow to join in on the conversation. After all, we’ve been waiting for this for awhile.
If Cover It Live is down, check out our Analog Live Blog or follow us on Twitter.
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11:38: Good bye, Tim! Thanks for everything!
11:38: Review time!!! (Oh God, I’m so hungry…). iOS 5, Icloud, iPhone 4S, Siri. Everything is great, industry leading. What sets them apart is how they work so well.
11:37: Pre-orders happen October 7, that’s three days from now. Launching the 14th of this month.
11:36: Sprint! Sprint you’re getting it! WAHHHHH. T-mobile, no.
11:35: iPhone 4 will also be available only for . iPhone 3GS in 8GB will also be available, for GRATIS!! That’s free, in spanish. Language lesson for you there today.
11:34: Phil says it’s going to be 9 for 16GB, 32GB for 9 and 9 and 64GB. 64GB first time for an iPhone. Think of all the space!!!
11:31: iPhone 4S video in action right now.
11:26: Siri demo dragging on. Keeping us in anticipation for price and capacity …
11:23: Oh, and Siri will also replace all those other services you use. Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha? Meh. Ask Siri about it. It’ll tell you.
11:22: Siri is iPhone 4S only because it needs so much CPU power. Sorry, other guys.
11:21: Text back with a Bluetooth headset! Ask it for directions! Holy crap, driving just got safer. Um, kind of.
11:19: You can ask it where to go eat. Siri can also read your messages to you.
11:17: Siri is the name of the company/app that is doing this for Apple, btw (I am assuming!). The site is down, probably because everyone’s reading about it.
11:15: “Intelligent assistant”. Will let you know if it’s raining in Cupertino…You can ask it if you’ll need an umbrella, or if it’s cold outside. Literally, you’ll never need to talk to anyone ever again because your phone will let you know what’s up. The future is here.
11:14: Ahh, Phil mentions another feature: voice. Explains that all we really want to do is talk to our device. iPhone 4S will include Siri…
11:13: PS) the new iPhone 4S looks exactly the same as the old. I wonder if the Verizon one will still look silly? Anyway, we’ll find out for you if the cases fit the old and the new …
11:12: AirPlay mirroring! Play Infinity Place on your telly! What about Cut the Rope? Some of us ain’t all action, y’know. But this does wonders for serious gamers who aren’t into le consoles.
11:10: 1080p, real-time video image stabilization and real-time temporal noise reduction. Phil’s going to show us a demo. And we wish we were there so we could drool over all of this.
11:10: Next up: video. HD video and, for the first time, 1080p video.
11:08: 1.1 seconds to next photo. Way faster than any Android phone, says Phil. Zing!
11:07: Better white balance, facial recognition. A5 processor should help it take faster pictures.
11:06: 60% more pixels. f/2.4 aperture (whoa), 30% more sharpness due in part to five element lenses. It will put other phones to shame, shame, shame.
11:05: Also, all new camera. 3264 x 2448 resolution. Things just got big.
11:04: Good news, everyone! It’s CDMA/GSM. Dual-band! That means you can actually use it on Verizon (or Sprint, maybe) and then go to London and be all like gabby-gabby on your iPhone in the UK. Sweet deal!
11:03: Faster downloads. Up to 14.4 Mbps over HSDPA.
11:02: Antenna system that switches between transmitting and receiving. Let us forget the transgressions of Antennagate.
11:01: Battery life extended on 4S, too. 8 hours of 3G talk time. (I guess as long as you’re not on AT&T in San Francisc. Guffaw.) 14 of 2G talk time. 6 of 3G browsing. 9 for Wi-Fi browsing. 50 hours of listening to music.
11:00: Game demo, game demo, game demo. Rabble, rabble, rabble. Infinity Blade is out December 1.
10:58: Infinity Blade update. Mike Capps from Epic Games says these graphics “aren’t even available on home gaming consoles.” Unreal engine, apparently, looks fantastic from the demo.
10:56: Demo time with Epic games!
10:56: The A5 chip is now in the iPhone. Dual-core CPU, 2x as fast. Dual-core graphic. 7x faster in the previous iPhone. It’ll “scream” in games, Phil says.
10:54: Next…THE IPHONE!!! IN CAPS AND BOLD! It’s called the iPhone 4S.
10:53: New iPod touch! Retina Display, HD video, gyroscope, FaceTime…Hmm. This sounds familiar. Oh, and it comes in white now. Cool. 9 for 8GB.
10:52: iPod touch!! My [Flo's] favorite. The most popular music player and game player in the world. Booyah Nintendo! (Though there’s still no Pokemon…)
10:51: Comes in 7 delicious colors! 8GB is 9 and 16GB is 9. Available now. NOW!!!
10:50: Apple noticed that third-party companies have turned the nano into a watch…So now there are 16 new clock faces to outfit your Incase watch band. Just, uh, don’t wash your hands with that thing on?
10:48: An update on the iPod nano! Again! So soon. I really liked last years. But anyway, this is better. It’s geared toward the “fitness experience”. right out of the box, you can take it for a walk or a run. It’ll include a multi-touch display with bigger icons.
10:47: Phil Schiller is in da house. “I’m really please to talk to you about the iPod. We started the iPod simply because we love music. We still love music, and we’re still making great iPods.”
10:47: iPod app will be gone in iOS 5 and replaced with iTunes Match. It’ll cost .99 a year and comes out the end of this month. Which is October, in case you forgot. I forget sometimes, too.
10:45: iTunes Match Service, in case you didn’t hear about it in the last kenote: It scans and matches your library against Apple’s 20 million songs and uploads what it doesn’t find. Also, Eddie said the word “stream” which is bound to cause speculation all over the internet, so there’s that.
10:44: But let’s not forget iTunes Match.
10:43: All of this will be a part of iCloud. Free for iOS 5 and Lion users with updates.
10:42: And now, Apple’s answer to FourSquare and Facebook Places: Family and Friends. Lets your family and your, um, friends, check in so you can see where they are. It’ll let you set location sharing blocks of time, so you only send and receive information what you’re feeling it. If you’re not feeling it holmes, you just ain’t.
10:41: Backing up will also be a huge part of iOS. It’ll be easy to restore right from iCloud. Eddie also talks syncing contacts, calendars, mail and an ad-free me.com mail account. Find My iPhone will also be a part of iCloud.
10:40: And Documents! You can take those into the cloud, too. Naturally. You’ll be able to edit them in Pages on the iPhone and update those docs across ALL devices. Fabulous.
10:39: iTunes in the cloud. Next up is Photo Stream, which will work like iTunes in the cloud but with your photos.
10:37: Over one-third of things are purchased on iOS device. “Keeping it in sync can be frustraing.” Oh Eddie, how you know me. Now he’s telling us how the cloud syncing will work. It will be awesome.
10:37: Hello Eddie Cue! Now tell us about iCloud. We, we so excited.
10:36: October 12 for iOS 5. Get your syncing cables ready …
10:34: Mail enchancements! Not male enhancements! Sorry, someone had to make that joke. Scott’s talking about going PC-free. “We have a lot of customers who want to use the iPad or iPhone as their only device.”
10:33: Mobile Safari! Will have Reader, which will perfectly format things for you on the device and load it so you can just scroll through and read it. But haven’t we been doing that with others apps, anyway? Whatever, Apple’s doing it so it’ll be ahh-mazing!
10:31: Scott talks about the Camera, the volume up button. Then he talks about how you can add grid lines to line up your photo, how you can use touch gestures to edit your stuff. Technology is amazing, and even better when it comes from Apple.
10:30: Twitter integration! So amazing. Tweet photos, web sites, videos, locations from maps. Newsstand will be amazing, too …
Alright, we’re tapping our foot here. What is it, Scott? What are we getting today?!
10:28: Now time to talk about iOS 5… Notifications. iMessage. New messaging services and way to find out about what you got. Push to all devices, pick up where you left off. It’s going to be amazing. So where is it? …
10:26: Now you can order post cards! Through an iOS app! Genius! Create and mail beautiful cards with Apple postage. .99 in the US, .99 if you send it anywhere else. Happening October 12.
10:24: App Store is number one for downloading apps. Customers downloaded more than 18 billion and it’s accelerating. They’re downloading more than 1 billion per month.
10:24: 140k apps made just for the iPad. 500k total.
10:23: Scott is now on stage. Says Apple sold over a quarter billion iOS devices. That makes it the #1 mobile OS with 43% of the market. Customers love the devices and iOS accounts for 61% of the market.
10:22: iPad is powered by the most avanced operating system along with iPhone and iPod touch. Apple has passed 250 million iOS device sales mark. And today, Tim’s saying they’re gonna take it to the next level. Let’s bring out Scott!!
10:20: Pilots are also replacing 40ib flight bags full of paper manuals and log books with iPads! ore efficient. They’re also showing up in hospitals. Doctors use it for patient info, administering bedside care. Over 80% of top hospitals in the US are testing or piloting the iPad. 92% of fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying. This is in less than 18 months. Phenomenal growth.
10:20: Customer satisfcation ratings on it show that it’s more than just a tablet. It’s showing up everywhere, in schools for instance. Almost 1,000 K-12 schools have a 1 to 1 program so a kid can use the tablet device for the entire day. Colleges are also adopting it, like Stanford, Notre Dam, U of Chicago and U of Penn. All have iPad programs.
10:19: And now we talk about the iPad.
10:17: But despite all of this, iPhone has 5% share of the worldwide market of handsets. This market is an enormous opportunity for Apple.
10:16: Consistently rated number one in customer satisfcation. Number one smartphone in the world. Momentum continues as 93% of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying the iPhone. Everyone LOVES the iPhone.
10:15: Now on to the iPhone… iPhone 4 in a very short period of time has sold over half of the total iPhones sold the entire time Apple’s been selling ‘em. “This could be a reason why the room is full today,” says Tim. Yes, probably.
10:14: Sony couldn’t top that. Took them 30 years to sell 230,000 Walkman cassette players. Of which all the Mac|Life editors had at one point. The mp3 market is the mature market, says Tim. We’ve sold 45 million iPods im the last year ending in June.
10:13: iPod is the number one music player in the world (tru dat!). In the US, market share above 70% for a very long time. Sold 300 million iPods around the world. That’s alotta white ear buds.
10:13: It was only ten years ago that the iPod launched. It revolutionized everything. And now I’m guessing Tim’s going to talk about some sort of new iPod. We hope?
10:12: Mac growth has outpaced PC growth every quarter for give years now. Up 23 percent market share as of August.
10:12: MacBook Air doing it well. Wired called it “laptop nirvana”, and we agree.
10:11: MacBook Pro and iMac are the number one best selling laptops and desktops in the US. Mac outgrew the PC market by almost six times. Approaching 60 million users. About 1/4 of the personal computers available in stores.
10:10: Lion digital downloads were staggering. Downloaded 6 million times, way ahead of Snow Leopard. Took Windows 7 20 weeks to do what Lion did in two weeks.
10:10: Reviewing four product groups today, starting with Lion. You guys have heard of Lion, right? (Sigh.)
10:09: “Our products are the core of what we do, and are a responsible for the momentum we have.”
10:08: Tim says he could watch that video 100 times more.
10:06: Oh yeah, no black turtleneck for ol’ Tim, in case you were wondering… (Showing a retail promo video now…)
10:05: Recapping the success of the retail stores, especially the two pretty ones in China.
10:03: Tim Cook talks about the history behind Town Hall. Then says he’s going to talk about innovations in software and hardware, and the “powerful yet simple integrated experience.”
09:54: Tim Cook’s on stage! Let’s do this thing!
