New iPhones Rake in Revenue

Just three days after its iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models hit store shelves, Apple announced Monday that it had sold a record-breaking 9 million handsets.

In addition, more than 200 million devices were running iOS 7 as of Monday -- a mass upgrade that Apple called the fastest in its history.

Apple did not break down sales between the two devices. However, the iPhone 5s outsold its flashier counterpart by a factor of 3.4 times, according to Localytics.

After three days of sales, the iPhone 5s accounted for 1.05 percent of all iPhones in the United States, the firm said, while the iPhone 5c accounted for just 0.31 percent. Although the 5c was expected to do better in some markets outside the U.S., the iPhone 5s was preferred.

The 5s outpaced the 5c by a factor of 3.7 times in first weekend sales, Localytics noted, and in some cases -- such as in Japan -- the gulf between the two was even more pronounced.

Is the iPhone 5c a Dud?

The big question is whether these early trends will persist.

Wall Street expectations for opening weekend were more than met, which has fueled enthusiasm for the iPhone 5s, N. Venkat Venkatraman, a business professor at Boston University, told MacNewsWorld.

More time is needed for demand to unfold and customer behavior to develop before definite conclusions can be drawn about either device, he said.

During the first few days of sales, early adopters were bound to be out in force, skewing impressions about general customer demand for the devices, Venkatraman noted. It is impossible to know how China and Japan are reacting to the 5c for at least one quarter. More data further down the consumer pipeline will be needed to reach any conclusions about the 5c.

"The 5c is simply a lower price version of 5," he added. "I would be interested to see how many upgrade from 4S to 5c and how many upgrade from 4S to 5s on a global basis before we can declare 5c to be a dud."

For the Kids

A very important 5c constituency is parents, who are not likely to rush into a purchase in the early days, Trip Chowdhry, managing director of equity research at Global Equities Research, told MacNewsWorld.

"I think the 5c will be a formidable device for the younger set, and the chief purchasers will be parents. However, parents don't tend to just buy anything anytime for their children. For a device like this, they will research and think about it. Then, once they have made the decision to buy, they will do it," Chowdhry said.

The 5c will be a big gift item this holiday season, he predicted.

A potential major constituency for the 5s has not weighed in yet either, though. It could turn out that corporations become major buyers, which might mean the 5s will remain the better-selling device, SAP Senior Director of Mobile Product Marketing Adam Stein told MacNewsWorld. "Corporations are investing more rapidly in building out their mobile workforce by purchasing the newest, most powerful mobile devices with processing and performance."

Source: Mac News World

Los Angeles Times News App Review

The Los Angeles Times has completely redesigned its iPhone news app (US$1.99), and the new version is now available for download in the iTunes store. There are several good choices among iPhone news apps, so the LA Times app faces some stiff competition.

Los Angeles Times News App

Plenty of local content

The homepage of the Los Angeles Times iPhone app is divided into six sections, including headlines, photos and L.A. Now (a section that focuses on local Los Angeles news and traffic). Under headlines, users can access a variety of news categories, such as local, national, business, sports, and entertainment. Under the columnists tab, you can browse opinion articles sorted by author. The LA Times news app also has some nifty social features, including an L.A. Tweets section that displays recent tweets from the Times’ various Twitter accounts.

Articles can be shared via Facebook, email, or Twitter, and you can also save articles to your favorites for later reading. The Los Angeles Times news app also supports offline caching, so you can read articles later -- even if you don’t have an Internet connection.

The photos section includes a handful of photo albums. While the photos are easy to browse and include detailed captions, the albums seem rather old and date back to news events that happened over a week ago. This may change, however, as the app is rolled out. 

Sports fans will particularly like the LA Times app. The sports section automatically displays the top headlines, but you can also sort news by your favorite teams, including the Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers, Ducks, and college teams like USC and UCLA. Entertainment junkies will also enjoy targeted content like specific blogs for American Idol or celebrity gossip.

Simple interface

The app itself is very easy to use, even if the interface is boring. Unlike the flashy CNN app, the Los Angeles Times keeps things simple. Headlines are plain black text on a white background, although some are illustrated with thumbnails. The LA Times app includes ads, but they are rather unobtrusive and usually only show up at the bottom of select articles.

The Bottom Line

The Los Angeles Times did a good job with its news app. Although it’s not the sexiest news app available, it does contain a great deal of content -- especially for Los Angeles residents -- and it is super simple to use. If you want a basic app for browsing the latest news headlines, the LA Times app is not a bad choice. However, there are several excellent news apps that are available for free, including The New York Times or AP Mobile.

Source: http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonenewsappreviews/fr/LA-Times-News-App-Review.htm

Apple patent application eyes eye-tracking technology

Apple may be aiming to challenge Samsung over eye-tracking technology.,

An Apple patent application, dubbed "Electronic Devices With Gaze Detection

Capabilities," was published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The application describes a feature in which your mobile device reacts to the movement of your head or eyes.

Turn your head or eyes away from the device, and the screen dims. Look back at the device, and the screen returns to life. Looking away could also put the entire device in standby mode, meaning certain functions are powered down to preserve battery power. In yet another example, turning away from the screen would pause a video, while looking back would resume the video.

Sound familiar? That's because Samsung adopted a similar feature for its Galaxy S4. Samsung's Smart Pause pauses a video when you gaze away from the screen and then resumes the video when you look back. LG Electronics has also gotten into the eye-recognition act with a feature called SmartVideo, which likewise controls video playback by tracking your gaze.

So, what's Apple up to?

The company's patent application is actually a divisional application, which means Apple took the eye-tracking invention from a prior patent filing and separated it into its own individual patent filing. The previous parent patent application was filed on September 20, 2008, while the divisional one was filed on January 25, 2013.

Samsung filed a trademark patent for a feature called "Eye Pause" on January 24, 2013, according to AppleInsider, and another one for a feature known as "Eye Scroll" in February. Yet another trademark filing for something called Samsung Smart Scroll was filed on March 8. However, Samsung also has an older patent called "Apparatus and method for detecting speaking person's eyes and face," which was filed in 2000 and granted in 2003.

Given the bad blood between Apple and Samsung, a patent battle over the eye-tracking technology could easily spring up. If Apple is eyeing this feature for a future iOS device, the company may be attempting to show that it possessed the technology first as described in its original 2008 application.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57586815-37/apple-patent-application-eyes-eye-tracking-technology/

Analog Camera for iPhone: When Is Simple Actually Too Simple?

A little over a year ago, Realmac Software released Clear, an iOS to-do list app that made the task of keeping track of tasks easy with a beautifully simple design. Starting right now, you can check out the developer's crack at replicating that success-by-simplicity formula with a $1 camera app.

For the most part, Analog Camera for iOS delivers what you'd expect: an unbelievably fast and straightforward app for snapping photos, adding gauzy filters, and uploading the shots to the Internet. You can see the filters and sharing in the screenshots above. There's nothing surprising about this functionality at all.

Whether or not you think the app is a success more or less hinges on how impressed you are with the following gesture. With a simple vertical flick you can switch between the camera UI and the gallery view. It's a descendant of the slick gesture-based UI from Clear.

That's pretty fast. From there the app works hard at keeping things simple. You can tap to pick a focus and point with one finger. A two-finger tap reveals separate boxes for focus and exposure metering. So that the camera can focus in one place and measure exposure in another.

That's another wonderful gesture. Unfortunately, it's not a new one. The very popular Camera+ already has this functionality.

From here, Analog Camera's evolution is really a reduction. Fewer options for changing the appearance of your photos. Note all the differences between Camera+ (left) and Analog Camera:

You can't even take a photo with the front-facing camera with Analog Camera! Which says nothing of missing useful features like exposure compensation, which allows you to make you photo a little brighter or darker.

Realmac software argues that the simplicity allows you to get to the actual task of taking photos faster without the "clutter" found in other applications. Whether or not you'll like the app, then, sort of depends on whether you think other applications are cluttered.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/analog-camera-for-iphone-when-is-simple-actually-too-s-510254328

Apple's iPhone Software Has Flaws, And Just Changing The Design Won't Be Enough

The biggest story for Apple right now is that it is said to be on the cusp of redesigning the look of iOS, which is the software that powers iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.

If Apple doesn't do more than just superficially update the way iOS looks, it puts itself at risk of seriously falling behind Google's Android.

The new iOS look will be "flatter," supposedly abandoning the familiar design style that made the iPhone a multi-billion success. Instead of glossy icons and images that mimic real life objects, Apple's design will become simpler, more minimal.

Jony Ive, the company's hardware design god, is leading the changes. He's the man who helped revitalize Apple by creating gorgeous hardware like the iMac, iPod, and iPhone.

In an executive shake up last year, CEO Tim Cook put him in charge of the look and feel of iOS, booting long time iOS leader Scott Forstall.

Ive's flavor of minimalism, which is present in each sleek gadget Apple sells, is said to be coming to Apple's software.

A crisp new haircut, some new shoes, trimmed nails and a shower could make iOS sexier, and it is welcomed, but what Apple really needs to do is to overhaul how the operating system works.

The operating system has seen a variety of incremental updates since it was first introduced. For the most part, these updates have kept it ahead of Android. However, the gap between iOS and Android is increasingly narrow.

While it's nice that iOS is going to get a design overhaul that goes for the "minimal" look and not a "realistic" one, it's not essential. Apple's real iOS problems have very little to do with look and feel. The biggest flaws with iOS involve the core functionality of the operating system and Apple's native applications.

Making iOS look different is merely a fresh layer of paint. Making it work better requires a much greater effort. It's unclear if Ive can or will, address these issues.

The iPhone's software, while excellent, struggles in a number of areas.

Every single one of Apple's built-in applications has been outdone by a third-party developer:

• Google Maps is better than Apple Maps. It's better for search, it has transit directions, and it's generally more precise.

• Evernote is better than Notes. Evernote syncs brilliantly across the web. It does photos, audio, and third parties can build into it.

• Camera+ is better than Camera. There are more shooting modes, editing of photos is better.

• Fantastical beats Calendar. The layout is better, and it's easier to add events. 

• Weather Channel beats Weather app. It's more robust, more up to date.

There's more, but you get the idea. The reason these applications are better than what Apple offers has little to do with looks. It's all about function.

There are other creaks in Apple's operating system.

• The Weather app's icon is stuck with 73 degrees and sunshine. It should be able to update in real-time, reflecting the actual weather.
• 
  
• When new notifications pop up on the screen, they cover your content. Josh Topolsky at The Verge pointed out how annoying these notifications can be. An example of this: In the morning, I check my email and I get dozens of notifications rolling at the top of my phone. I can't operate the top of the iPhone while those notifications take over my phone.

• The settings menu needs work. It takes way too many steps to turn on and off blue tooth, or WiFi. Adjusting what appears in the notification center takes too much effort.

• The notification center is great, but still needs work. To clear items you have to hit a tiny space twice. And there is no "clear all" option, like there is in Android.

And then, there's the big stuff, like search.

Searching through email is still horrendous on the iPhone. It can't search your message, making it weak compared to Google's Gmail app.

Searching in Apple Maps needs a major upgrade. Apple's Maps struggle with context.

Search is not something a person who just understands design can fix. It's about algorithms and data. It takes years, and millions, perhaps billions, of dollars to understand and fix the problem.

Siri is another area of Apple's operating system that needs more than a design tweak. It needs a complete re-thinking. It's just not useful as presently constructed.

Google Now is a better version of Siri. It's a true personal assistant. In Siri, you have to ask for directions home. With Google Now, Google does its best to just have directions home already prepared. Google Now also gives you sports scores without asking. It gives you weather without asking. It basically has the information ready to go.

The good news is that Apple appears to know it has big problems to solve with iOS.

On Twitter, Apple reporter Mark Gurman tweeted cryptically, "there’s more stuff that hasn’t come out yet," when I tweeted, "I think iOS needs functionality update, not just a looks update."

Microsoft's former Windows boss Steven Sinofsky also chimed in on Twitter. There was a report saying that Ive taking over iOS could lead to some delays. Sinofsky seemed to hint that if there are delays, it means Apple is tweaking usability of iOS, not just design.

Pixels, it seems, are easily rearranged. Core functions are not.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-software-update-needs-more-than-new-looks-2013-5