Filed under: iPhone

The iPhone broke sales records for Apple (1.7 million units sold by release day) and still had people lining up a week later. That's impressive, but according to one analyst it could have been even better.

Shaw Wu of Kauffman Bros. believes that Apple could have sold between 2 million and 2.5 million iPhones had that many units been available. AppleInsider reports that he predicts Apple will sell 9 million iPhones in the June quarter and 40 million in 2010.

In related news, iSuppli said this week that Apple's failure to meet demand could be an opportunity for other manufacturers, as frustrated would-be iPhone owners give up. "Consumers, questioning Apple's supply chain management capability, have started to look for alternative devices," wrote Tina Teng, senior analyst for wireless communications at iSuppli.

Sure, some potential customers might abandon the iPhone in frustration, but enough to make a significant dent in Apple's bottom line? I doubt it. Those who really want one will eventually buy. If people are willing to stand in a sweltering line for 10 hours, a few weeks of waiting in a comfortably air-conditioned house is no biggie.

TUAWApple taking risk with iPhone shortages originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPad

We've speculated before about what artists could do with the iPad's bigger screen, and here's an answer. In the video above, portrait artist David Kassan uses the Brushes app to create a painting from a live model. I don't know what the fingerless gloves are all about, but you can definitely see how the iPad helps -- he can make bigger swipes across the screen, match colors with the extra screen space, and run touchups on a few different parts of the work at a time.

According to the video's description, the whole thing took about three hours, and the end result looks great. I like one of the YouTube comments on this one, too: Who needs a camera on the iPad, anyway?

TUAWFinger painting on the iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Graphic Design

Recent versions of Webkit, the browser engine that Safari and Chrome are based on, have allowed for extensive use of CSS3, as well as some proprietary CSS tricks. The result has been some very innovative art created entirely using CSS. Take, for example, the set of iOS icons created using some CSS3 properties such as rounded corners, shadows and gradients (among others). The finished set is stunning. Of course, the demo will only display properly in a compatible browser, so if you're using something other than an up-to-date version of Safari or Chrome (or Webkit, of course), you won't see much.

If you're not a web designer, this might not look like a big deal. What you're seeing, though, are images created entirely without images; they're built using nothing but code that defines shapes, gradients, colors, etc. You can hit View Source on the page to see the code that defines these things -- it's nothing but divs and the CSS to color and shape them.

If you are using a browser that can render these designs, you'll also want to check out Jeff Batterton's iPhone world clock, rendered in pure CSS3. Considering the rectangles that CSS has left designers stuck in for years, this is some pretty exciting stuff. I can still recall the first wave of people doing really innovative tricks with CSS2, and the push that they provided to the general web design community. I hope to see web design taking great strides forward as these new standards become accessible to an increasingly wider range of the web-surfing public. Modern browsers are pushing new limits ... we just have to wait for certain other browsers to finally be put to rest.

TUAWIcons and World Clock created with CSS3 magic, courtesy of Webkit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: App Review

Geo Walk is a clever little iPhone app from Vito Technology, the developers who produced the breathtaking Star Walk astronomy app for the iPad and iPhone.

Geo Walk doesn't explore deep space; it explores our own varied planet. You start with a 3D globe and spin it to any part of the world you want to explore. Little bubbles appear, and you can click on them to get interesting info on places, historical figures, flora, and fauna. Think of Geo Walk as a world fact book at your fingertips.

There are 300 entries in the app, each with photos and text. You can filter the objects displayed, so if you are only interested in visiting places, you can do that.

TUAWAround the world with Geo Walk originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone

I don't know exactly how useful this site is, but I'll let you check it out and decide for yourself. Worst Phone Ever is a site that purports to try and track all of the dropped calls being racked up on Apple's devices and AT&T's service. The idea is that you upload your dropped call log file, then they'll flip through it, and add it to the data they've already compiled.

As of this writing, the site has already parsed over 1.5 million calls, and claim that 5.52 percent of them were dropped, costing users over $154,448 (you can see more about how that's all calculated on their FAQ page).

Now, the paranoid in me has to warn you against actually sending them any logfiles -- while the FAQ claims that no "personal or uniquely identifying information" is in the files, they do say they're tying them to your email address, and I find it hard to believe that there aren't at least area codes in there for Apple's information. Their FAQ, again, admits that they're "going to do everything we can" with the data, and I can't really recommend you give them something from your computer under that agreement.

But if nothing else, the site might turn out to be a nice compendium of information on just how many calls AT&T is dropping. If these averages from earlier this year are any indication, it might be just as high as frustrated customers think it is.

TUAWWorst Phone Ever chronicles dropped iPhone calls originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPad

Apple touted iBooks 1.1 as a major upgrade which allows users to sync and view PDFs from their computer to the iPad. While Apple has delivered the ability to sync and view PDFs in iBooks 1.1, there are some major limitations, including some features that iBooks 1.1 is advertised as being able to do, but actually cannot. The image above is a screen shot from Apple's iBooks page. It states:

Tap a PDF to read it and it fills the screen just like an ebook. You can flip through pages, add bookmarks and highlights, or zoom in for a closer look.

The problems with this is that you can't actually flip through pages or add highlights to a PDF. There's a difference between flipping through pages and swiping. iBooks 1.1 lets you swipe one page off the screen in order to bring on the next. That's very different than flipping the page as you do with an ebook in iBooks. As for highlighting - well, the feature just isn't there.

TUAWiBooks 1.1 doesn't deliver what Apple promises originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone

I wound up taking two FaceTime calls today, but a third failed. First up was our old friend Nik Fletcher from way across the ocean in the UK. I was shocked at the excellent quality of the call and the video. It was definitely nicer than a standard webcam. To be clear, I'm not a huge fan of this concept. By that I mean that I still see social hurdles to this technology being widely adapted. If you've ever made faces while talking to someone on the phone, you'll know what I mean. Plus, having to hold the phone out in the air was a little tiring, but I'm sure the accessory market will create scads of "solutions" to this problem.

Drew Olanoff and I chatted next, and I did seem to notice a slight lag in the call. I noticed my Wi-Fi dip a bit as I moved about, but honestly I don't know what caused that. Still, the conversation flowed and was mostly natural, as though we really were face-to-face. My brother and I tried to connect, but he was supposedly logged in to a secure network but couldn't engage the FaceTime button nor could he take my request.

As you can see from the pics, FaceTime is a clean and simple interface. There's a button to change cameras (now also in the Camera app), allowing you to give a virtual tour or a peek at someone's crotch. (Thanks, Drew.) There's also a mute button for the speaker on your end. To begin a FaceTime call, you just click on the button that says "FaceTime" and wait for the other person to accept the request. Like Skype, you have to accept the request to video chat. Oh, and don't forget this is Wi-Fi-only for now, but we're told that will probably change someday. The future is ... soon!

TUAWFaceTime is a tiny bit awkward, but a whole lot of fun originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone

It's not hard getting ringtones on your iPhone. You certainly don't have to buy them. If, however, you'd like something a bit more customized, there is a nice app called AutoRingtone Pro Uncensored.

In a nutshell, it lets you pick out what the ringtone should say. It can be just an announcement about who is calling, like "Your friend Bob is calling from Las Vegas" or it could be a bit more insulting like "Your dumb buddy John from Indianapolis is on the phone". Basically, it takes what you've written and converts your text to speech in a voice you have selected.

Here's how it works: Type what you want the phone to say into a field. Then choose a voice, like British female, quiet whisper, American male and so on. You can also precede the message with a sound, and there are about 200 to choose from.

When you're ready, the instructions you've given are sent to a server (you must have internet access) where the ringtone is rendered. You retrieve it from a special website, and drag it into iTunes to get it on your iPhone. There are no fees or subscriptions, and you can make as many as you want.

TUAWRingtones and a twist with AutoRingtone Pro Uncensored originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPhone

Last week I went and did it. I reserved the new iPhone. I'll pick it up Thursday morning. To keep the purchase price cheap, I sold my old one to Nextworth, one of a few firms that gives good deals on used electronics. I sent it in yesterday to make sure it got there in time, because they want it postmarked within a week of the price quote.

Two days, I thought. I can get along without my iPhone for 2 days, right? Silly me.

I hadn't realized how dependent I'd become on that little fella. I grabbed a bite out for lunch and realized that I had no New York Times to read while I dined. No emails. No using iCam to check the household parrot. I felt utterly and absolutely naked. Worse, I kept reaching up to my pocket to grab my non-existent phone. Yikes!

TUAWTwo days without an iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: iPad

We can't say for sure if the Apple iPad is the cause, but it's a pretty good bet the iPad and the iBook app are part of the problem for Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Both booksellers today dramatically cut the price of their competing e-book readers.

Nook started the ball rolling downhill this morning when the original Nook, priced at US$259, was cut to $199, and a new Wi-Fi only model was introduced at $149. Now Amazon has just responded, cutting the $259 Kindle to $189. Whew! It's getting competitive out there.

Many people still prefer a dedicated book reader, but the iPad has come on strong. I've read several books on my Kindle, and the screen is detailed, but I actually prefer reading on the iPad where I don't have to worry about finding an external light source. I also prefer the color illustrations on the iPad for the books that feature them.

It will be interesting to see how this all winds up. Of course you can read Kindle books and purchases from the Nook store on your iPad or iPhone (and on your Mac), so readers have plenty of choices. Sadly, you have to juggle a lot of different e-reader apps on each device, but we all benefit as consumers when the competition gets up and running.

TUAWKindle and Nook e-readers get massive price cuts originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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