Posts tagged wwdc

iMessage in iOS 5

8 months ago
by Sam in , ,

Of all the exciting announcements made at the WWDC keynote last Monday, two of the things I am most excited about are both part of the upcoming iOS 5 in the Autumn: iMessage and Notification Centre.

My friend Chris’ thoughts, over at techese, pretty much sums it up for me;

I think one of the larger benefits of iMessage will be interacting with several friends in the UK quickly and easily. There have been many times where I have a question for one of these friends, and a text message would be a fantastic medium. Sadly, I’ve had to resort to twitter or email. Twitter is great, but not everyone is constantly checking it, and email — well, no one wants more email.

Just last week during the Apple event, I wanted to ask Chris a quick question and immediately opened SMS.app before realising that we don’t and never have communicated that way due to the amount it would cost to text someone in the US. There are inexpensive texting apps on the App Store such as WhatsApp which open this particular channel up, but the app is in no way as quick and easy as texting in SMS/Messages.app. I certainly won’t miss using that thirt-party app when all my friends are using iOS 5.

Unlike my friends in other countries, in the UK it’s common for phone networks to provide UK to UK unlimited texts. I have this on my £15 per month iPhone Simplicity (o2) tariff and therefore I can text my friends on any other network as much as my heart desires without incurring any other charges. I love this as I’m quite a big texter and it’s by far the most convenient solution to stay in touch the friends I communicate with the most. To be able to do this freely and for free with my overseas friends will be most welcome.

I am really looking forward to using iMessage. I have several friends in the Apple Developer Program who are already raving about it and I must say it is rather tempting me into the program to give the new features a go. My biggest concern has been the reports of battery drain which I guess is quite normal for a Beta 1, so I’m hoping that Beta 2 will have at least helped that particular issue. If it has then you can probably expect some ooh-ing and ahh-ing from me on Twitter quite soon.

WWWish List

5
2 years ago
by Sam in , , ,

With the WWDC 09 Apple event tomorrow, I am getting increasingly excited about what we will be seeing. I don’t follow the rumour sites intensively thesedays as I would rather like a surprise, although to be fair it does seem like the iPhone will be getting all of the attention. More about that in a moment.

An Apple In My Pocket

My laptop needs have always been fairly low. My main machine is a 20in iMac which I use 95% of the time. I also have a 15in PowerBook G4 that is perfect for using in the garden, on the sofa or in bed. However, the 1hr 30min to 2hrs that the battery charge used to last me for is declining rapidly, meaning I’m lucky to squeeze half an hour out of it. Unless I want to trail the power supply around the house with me then it’s not really practical anymore and I feel will soon be redundant.

So, my thoughts turn to netbooks. A perfect alternative to my aging PowerBook. I know there are small machines out there which are capable of running OS X – the Hackintosh, but I want something legit. An Apple computer running OS X. I’m a stickler for the genuine article.

My needs, like with most people in the netbook market, are really quite basic and leisurely. The ability to check my e-mail in Apple Mail, surf the web in Safari, chat with iChat and mess around in Photo Booth with an integrated iSight (this for the younger family members, obviously!!). A small 10-incher which is light and portable would be perfect. I am not particularly bothered about touchscreen as that would just send the price up.

As for the price range, I think for a netbook I’d be more than happy to pay anything up to £500. When we’re talking basic and leisurely needs I think it needs to be aggressively priced otherwise you’ll have people thinking they may aswell just plump up a bit more cash and go for the MacBook. £449 would be a great price, I think.

Since there have been no rumours, to my knowledge, of an Apple Netbook imminent then I doubt we’ll see anything of the sort tomorrow. All the news seem to point towards the new iPhone and some of the rumours I have heard are pretty exciting, although how much of those will materialize remains to be seen. I think a front facing camera for video iChat would be very well received. I don’t so much do video chats, but I would love to see an iPhone Photo Booth app if we do get the front facing camera…again for the young family members to play with that I alluded to before ;) Ahem.

So, let’s see what tomorrow brings. Aside from what I mentioned above, I would also love to see the unveiling of Steve Jobs back on stage as the ‘one more thing’, but that’s just a personal request that will unlikely be fulfulled!

What are you hoping for tomorrow?

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