Verizon customers started pre-ordering their iPhones this morning. The device should be in actual users’ hands by this time next week. Meanwhile, reviewers have noted good call quality while confirming that voice and data cannot be used at the same time.
Apple Stores will open early on February 10 to start selling the Verizon version of the iPhone. In addition to Apple Stores and Verizon Stores, Best Buy will also be selling the Verizon iPhone.
The long-anticipated iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, launched yesterday. The design is similar to many iPad magazine apps, with text, animation, audio and video. The Daily is the first app to feature Apple’s new subscription payment model. You can sign up for a recurring $0.99 per week payment to continue to receive The Daily. It is being offered for the first two weeks for free.
In case you missed it, The Daily launched this week. This is an iPad-only daily newspaper. It is significant in many ways. It is a new publication, not a new version of an old paper. It is iPad-only with content not even available on its web site. It also is the first app to use a subscription payment model. After the first two weeks it will cost $0.99 per week to subscribe. Too early to tell whether it will succeed in changing how we think of newspapers.
Do you like to have the Dock visible all the time, but find that sometimes it gets in the way? You can quickly hide the Dock with Command+Option+D. This turns “hiding” on so you can access items under the Dock, though the Dock still pops up after a second if you leave the mouse there.
If you give presentations often, or record screen capture video, then check out Boinx Mousepose. It dims the rest of the screen and highlights the area around your cursor. It can also show mouse clicks and keys pressed. There are tons of customizable options. I plan on using it in future presentations and perhaps in some future MacMost videos.
“I’d switch to Verizon but I’d have to pay more than $200 to break my AT&T contract.”
Even when Apple doesn’t release a new product it seems to know how to make headlines. The iOS App Store had its 10 billionth app download this week and Apple celebrated with a contest giving one lucky app buyer a $10,000 iTunes gift card.
The 10 billion number is significant when you realize it was done in about 2.5 years. Adoption of the iTunes Music store was much slower, taking about three times as long to reach 10 billion. But then again, the app store is filled with free content which probably accounted for a majority of the downloads.
There was an update to iMovie 11 this week. Version 9.0.2 fixes a nasty bug that plagued many people who found that audio was out of sync when they exported their video.
As the Verizon launch of the iPhone draws nearer we’re seeing some interesting things. Verizon has begun to run commercials for the iPhone thanking customers that stuck with them and “who never stopped believing this day would come.” Apple has an ad that shows both AT&T and Verizon next to each other: “two are better than one.”
AT&T would like to hold on to existing customers too, and has reportedly been offering their old unlimited data plan to those that call and ask. Verizon will be offering unlimited data for $30/month, but indicated that that plan will be phased out in the future.
It is amazing that we can still find new ways to simulate golf in video games. With Flick Golf you can probably guess how you control the swing. But you can also control the flight of the ball. Plus the game plays a little more like an arcade game than a traditional golf game, with bullseye targets and timers.
Scroll bars are everyone in Mac OS X and applications. There are two things that can happen when you click in the scroll bar, above or below the marker. The first is the window can move up or down one page. The second is the window can jump to a position in the document relative to the spot you clicked in the scroll bar. Switch between these two options in System Preferences, Appearance. Look for the “Click in the scroll bar to” option.
He heard that Macs are safe from viruses, and he doesn’t want to get the flu this season.
When I first became a parent I was given a copy of Love and Logic, a parenting book. I recommend it. It is a lot of common sense stuff that should be obvious about parenting, but for some reason isn’t.
Among the many ideas in there is the idea of giving children a choice. For instance, if we were to tell our daughter “you must wear this shirt” we may get some resistance depending upon whether she liked the shirt or not. But if we give her two choices of shirts to wear, she is thrilled at the chance to make a choice, even though it is a small one. Sometimes the second shirt we pick is one we know she doesn’t like anyway. You get the idea.
This week started off with quite a shock as Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced another medical leave. He will remain CEO of the company, but COO Tim Cook will once again take over the day-to-day operations.
We don’t know what prompted this third medical leave in the last 7 years, and no indication was given how long it will be until his return. Jobs received treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and a liver transplant in 2009. Reportedly it is common to have periods of immune system trouble after a liver transplant.
On Tuesday Apple announced yet another record-setting quarter. The company had $6 billion in profits on $26.7 billion in revenue, more than 70 percent higher than last year’s numbers.
