Thats right, another one is up. This time its an interim podcast previewing issue 59. There’s also an interview with Cassie Gilbert about switching from PC to Mac. Good stuff.
Check it out on iTunes or go to our website and download directly from there.
Enjoy
We love September. It means new iPods. This September is no different, Apple has just invited us to a ’special event’ on September 9th.
We’re expecting to see a new iPod Nano as well as a form factor change for the iPod Touch so it matches the iPhone and we’ll probably get various storage bumps in there too.
Stay tuned on the day because I will sending blogs up as the event happens. Can’t wait.
As you may have noticed our Blog has had a bit of an update. Have a good look around the new interface and let us know your thoughts on it in the comments below.
Its getting to that time of year again when we start thinking about new Apple products. As each summer winds down, the misery of the good weather leaving us is put on hold by the promise of new goodies from Cupertino. September is the time of year when Apple gives us something new to play with. Usually its an iPod update, so at the very least we’ll get some new features and a bump in memory.
This year however, we’re hopeful for a whole lot more. I have just been speaking with our esteemed Head of Design, Ross Andrews and we have now both convinced ourselves that we’ll see an update to the laptop line (its about time!) and also a brand new bit of hardware.
This is the point we couldn’t agree on. Will it be a small netbook with a 7-9inch screen and physical keyboard? Or will it be a fully pimped dual touch-screen tablet that you can plug into you Mac at home and use instead of a mouse?
We love to speculate on Apple products and we want your ideas too, what do you think is the next big thing that will come out of Cupertino? Let your imaginations run wild and if you have mock ups that you’ve made in Photoshop let us see those too!
Here are some images we’ve nabbed off the net to whet your appetites…
It seems as though Ricky Gervais has gotten wind of iCreate’s successful podcast and is so worried that we might beat his world record (as the most downloaded show) that he’s decided to make another series of podcasts.
We’re on to you Ricky and you know what? We’ve got the momentum already, you’ll never stop us! The world record is coming to iCreate!
The new Gervais podcast is set to be released on the 16th September.
Ok, we should have seen this one coming really - Microsoft are finally answering Apple’s awesome Get a Mac adverts. Its about time. I mean, Apple have been slating Microsoft for ages and ages without even so much as a sniff of a retort.
What’s interesting about this is not that they’ve enlisted Jerry Seinfeld but that Bill Gates himself will appear in the ads. You’re not helping yourselves Microsoft, you may as well get Balmer in there as well rapping about developers. Sad really.
I’m just wondering if they’ll be brave enough to play the same game as Apple and directly attack the opposition. I doubt it, but the $300 million they are throwing at the campaign should at least mean they’ll all make prime time TV.
We wait with baited breath!!
iCreate would like to know how much of your hard earned cash you have spent on the App store.
As a result of the news that there have been over 60 million downloads we’d like to do a small survey of iCreate readers and their App store spending habbits.
Just leave a comment, or visit our forum and let us know how much you’ve spent so far. If you feel really strongly about a brilliant or poor app or any of the pricings that you’ve encountered, let us know that too!
You could even find yourself quoted in the magazine!
We all knew that the App store would be pretty busy once it opened, I mean, Apple are great at building the hype for a launch so that each and every one hits the news stand like an atomic bomb but I don’t think anyone expected there to be 60 million Apps downloaded already.
Ok, you could get defensive and say that some or a lot of those downloads are free Apps, but still, 60 million! Even the king of cool Steve Jobs seemed a bit flabbergasted by this one. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal he said:
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my career for software,” he then added that sales could “crest a half a billion” in short order and that $1 billion could arrive “at some point.”
The activity on the App store has obviously not gone unnoticed by the rest of the mobile phone world, no doubt other phone makers are scratching their heads wondering how they can possibly compete.
T-Mobile have decided to respond by planning their own App store, for every single handset that they offer. This is really desperate. How many people will log on to that site hoping to download a game only to find it isn’t supported by their phone. I mean, come on guys, you have to innovate yourselves, not recycle whats just come out in th hope you can squeeze a few more pounds out of your customers.
I really can’t see anything stopping the iPhone its tracks. What Apple should really do is end the exclusivity deals so that customers from every provider can get in on the action, it would also then create a bit of healthy competition so iPhone owners could get a decent deal.
Right, how long before we hit 100 million? Two weeks?
A Gordon Ramsay-esque website has appeared on the web that vents the frustration of iPhone Developers who have been silenced by Apple’s famous NDA.
A Non-Disclosure-Agreeement is signed by every developer before they are allowed to make Applications for the iPhone (we journos sometimes have to sign them too, before products are launched). It prevents developers from sharing the way they code and build their applications.
This is typical procedure for Apple who believe that by stopping people from communicating about the inner workings of the iPhone it will prevent malicious hackers from gaining valuable knowledge about how to reach parts fo the iPhone OS X that could be exploited.
The downside of this is that developers have to do their work in virtual silence, unable to communicate with others who may be able to help them make their applications better.
As a result there have ben frequent twitter posts of ‘F**king NDA!’ in the iPhone community. There have been so many in fact, that a website with that same name has now appeared online to document the sheer volume of posts.
Its easy to understand both sides of the story in this situation. On the one hand nobody wants to dwnload an application that will brick their iPhone, and on the other hand it seems overly paranoid for Apple to forbid communication between developers because of just a few bad apples in the communty (no pun intended).
Apple have so far been louding the simplicity of the iPhone as a platform to develop for, but at the moment at least it, seems as if there may be a bit of a backlash heading their way. Lets hope some sort of middle ground can be reached so that our apps can get better without anyone ruining it for the rest of the development community.
I had a few days off recently and went to Cornwall where it rained solidly for two days. Apart from the bad weather I was without a signal on my iPhone for pretty much the entire time. With any other phone this kind of impediment would have just meant the inability to recieve and make phone calls, something which, on holiday, would have been a blessing. But, on this occassion it also meant that I had no way of getting online to do all those things I’d taken for granted before.
One of the big things I missed was downloading and trying out free apps on the iPhone. Its gotten to the stage where its becoming an addiction. If I were wealthier I would no doubt be downloading everything, but as it is, I’m fine downloading the free Apps.
So, as I was saying I was without the ability to get more apps on my phone and it served the purpose of highlighting to me how quickly I had become bored of some of the other apps. Admittedly they are mostly free ones but with the promise of newer, better free apps out there I have to say that I have become rather spoiled.
A few weeks ago I’d have killed for a single app on my iPhone and now, with hundreds to choose from I’m like a little brat, always after more, more, more. I need to take stock and think about how lucky I am to even have the ones I’ve got.
The iPhone is an amazing bit of technology and I should probably treat it with more respect, that said it’s just stopped syncing, a quick look at the App Store wont hurt…
There is a great comic on theJoyoftech.com that I’ve put down here that sums up what a lot of iPhone owners must be going through…
