My Online Thoughts & Pontifications

We’ve heard from multiple sources that Twitter is likely to have a big-time partner for such a service: Apple. Specifically, we’re hearing that Apple’s new iOS 5 will come with an option to share images to Twitter baked into the OS. This would be similar to the way you can currently share videos on YouTube with one click in iOS. Obviously, a user would have to enable this feature by logging in with their Twitter credentials in iOS. There would then be a “Send to Twitter” option for pictures stored on your device.

Be interesting to see how this one plays out tomorrow at the Keynote. Can't quite see why Apple would want to do this myself but you never know

“Now you can use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on iPhone and iPod touch to create amazing presentations, documents and spreadsheets right in the palm of your hand,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The incredible Retina display, revolutionary Multi-Touch interface and our powerful software make it easy to create, edit, organize and share all of your documents from iPhone 4 or iPod touch.”

Keynote, Pages and Numbers import and export documents from iWork for Mac and Microsoft Office; print wirelessly using AirPrint™; and include beautiful Apple-designed themes and templates. All iWork apps now include improved document management with thumbnail images that let you find your files quickly, organize them and group them into folders using intuitive gestures. From the Tools button in the toolbar, you can easily share any presentation, document or spreadsheet without leaving the app.

Apple announcements keep coming today! I'm not sure how useable these will be on the iPhone, with mixed reviews of them on the iPad when compared to their Mac equivalent. However its nice to see and hopefully the upcoming announcements on iCloud will make it easier to sync documents between all your devices.

Apple has announced that it will be indeed be releasing iCloud at this year's WWDC in June, although it looks like the launch of the iPhone 5 will be subject to delay.

In a rare email, which maps out what will be shown at WWDC, Apple explained:

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00am.

"At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple's advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud services offering."

Well no surprise there then, seeing as all the blogs and podcasts have been predicting this for months now. Can we now have some peace and quiet on the matter until the keynote?

Samsung will demonstrate an all-new 10.1-inch display at the SID Display Week 2011 International Symposium next week. Samsung's new display will have a 2560 x 1600 resolution, far in excess of anything on the tablet market today. At 300 dpi, the display also compares favorably with the Retina Display resolution of Apple's iPhone 4; meanwhile, Samsung claims the PenTile technology used in the display allows it to operate while drawing 40 percent less power.

Looks like an interesting new display from Samsung both in terms of resolution and power consumption. Could this be the first good reason to hold off on buying an iPad 2 and wait for the iPad 3?

There have been many rumors about an iTunes digital locker, a rebranding of MobileMe, and a major software / hardware announcement in the fall. It is exciting to think that in the next several months we may see some significant new software products from Apple.

And so, as any respectable Apple-centric blogger knows, it’s part of the job description to post wild speculations about what we think will happen and when. Below you will find my iCloud predictions.

There is a lot of rumour going around the blogs at the moment about what we all expect to see in the coming months from Apple, a revamped Mobile.me service including cloud based iTunes, probably to be called iCloud.

Shawn Blanc has taken his turn at outlining his thoughts on what we may see, including an initial stab at timelines. All seems pretty reasonable to me and hopefully we will see this all during 2011.

To me, while cloud based iTunes would be useful, the most important feature Apple needs to address is the ability for mobile devices such as the iPad to seamlessly sync content with your desktop computer. Like many I use Dropbox to achieve this at the moment and am a massive fan of the service. However an Apple based alternative that is not just a revamp of the iDisk would be extremely compelling.

Pretty amazing when you consider that VAT has also gone up since the last one was launched. The great news though is that you can now you can get your hands on a shiney new 16Gb Wifi iPad 2 for a smidgen under £400.

Apple Stores will open their doors at 5pm Friday evening and online orders can be placed from 1am Friday but its anybodies guess when you will receive them, with 4-6 week delivery times being quoted in the US at the moment.

Its probably also worth checking out other retailers such as PC World which are also likely to stock them from Friday, as they did on the original launch day. Just don't expect all the whooping and clapping from PC World staff as you make your purchase

Apple releases Xcode 4; free for developers, $4.99 for everyone else

by Michael Grothaus (RSS feed) on Mar 9th 2011 at 3:30PM

Apple has released Xcode 4 for free for all registered developers. The new Xcode offers a streamlined interface "that integrates UI design, coding, testing, and debugging, all within a single window." In addition the embedded Apple LLVM compiler underlines coding mistakes, much like Microsoft Word underlines spelling mistakes, as you type and can even correct your mistakes automatically.

Interestingly, Apple has also decided to sell Xcode 4 to anyone for only $4.99 through the Mac App Store. It is not clear the reasons Apple has decided to sell Xcode 4 on the Mac App Store, however it's possible they want to spur app creation for both the Mac and iOS app store for developers who normally wouldn't have access to Xcode (or indeed, even know of its existence).

Looks like Apple are making the effort to publicise XCode beyond their developer program by putting it in the Mac App Store. Seems like a good idea but I can't see how it will yield that many more developers than their existing developer programme.

One of the issues many film buffs have with the latest version of Apple TV, is its inability to stream video content at full 1080p. While we fully expect this to be resolved with the release of Apple TV 3 later in the year, the announcement of iPad 2 earlier this week may have brought us a solution sooner than we thought.

The combination of the new HDMI adapter for the iPad, the iPad 2's ability to output content through this at a 1080p and the iTunes Home Sharing features of iOS4.3 means you can easily stream full HD content to your TV.

While this isn't as neat as the Apple TV and doesn't give you the ability to rent films, for those like me that just use their Apple TV to stream iTunes content, you may now question why you would want an Apple TV at all?

Apple's 'Year of iPad 2' doesn't necessarily mean no more iPad updates in 2011

Apple could likely keep most of the iPad 2's internal hardware the same, shove a Retina Display into it in September, and still call it the iPad 2 (or iPad 2 HD, if you like). With the iPad 2's graphics hardware providing up to nine times the performance of the original iPad, quadrupling the number of pixels on the screen isn't going to be too much for the A5 processor to handle. Other hardware, such as system RAM, would likely need to be boosted to drive such a display, which could constrain production of a Retina Display-equipped iPad and drive up costs; however, to address those concerns, Apple could easily continue to offer the current iPad 2 alongside the iPad 2 HD model, positioning the Retina Display model as a "pro" iPad at a higher price in order to maintain margins.

So as became apparent this week, I was wrong in my suggestions that Apple may hold off the launch of iPad 2 until June, bring it in line with the iPhone release and its launch closer to the more profitable Autumn season for Apple.

A lot of people, me included, assumed that Apple's statement at the keynote on Wednesday that "2011 was the year of iPad 2" meant we wouldn't be seeing any other releases this year. However TUAW made some interesting observations yesterday that John Gruber's earlier suggestion that we may see a iPad 2.5 later in the year may not be quite so wide of the mark.

With the increased graphics performance of the iPad 2, Apple could easily stick a higher resolution screen on this and offer it alongside the existing iPad as a Pro or HD option, something they already do on their Macbook line. This would allow Apple to keep the $499 entry point while heading off some of the higher resolution options that will surely be out from competitors during the year.

How likely is this? Well I don't have a great track record on predictions but lets hedge our bets and go with 60/40 that we do see something in the Autumn