Let's Talk Tech
Pretty video isn’t much fun to watch if your audio is terrible. Sennheiser has partnered with Apogee to bring their popular professional ME2 Lav Microphone to iOS devices. How does it sound? Let’s take a listen!
Shop the ClipMic on Amazon.
More info on Sennheiser products.
It’s that time folks. We’re getting close enough to the launch of a new iPhone for the rumor mill to kick into high gear. Around this time last year, many were praising the merits of sapphire for phone screens, only to have Apple omit that particular lifestyle feature.
Now with the 6S and 6S+ on the horizon, iOS fans are wondering if we’ll see improvements to storage.
This generation, Apple took a great step up for their mid-tier iPhone. Instead of spending $100 to bump up your phone to 32GB, you would receive a whopping 64GB. Unfortunately the base model iPhone remained at 16GB, which is a bit lean for a modern smartphone. Even 32GB can feel a bit cramped these days.
We’re expecting improvements to the camera, likely resulting in larger photos and video files. Phones are often a primary device for storing music, our apps are getting more demanding, and OS updates require a certain percentage of your storage to be unused and available. We ask a lot of our smartphones, and lacking the ability to upgrade the storage on an iPhone means users have to monitor their geebees very closely on that first tier iPhone. Continue reading “Will Apple Ever Kill the 16GB iPhone?”
Borrowing inspiration from Apple Photos and Lumia Storyteller, Google has given their Photos app a fresh coat of paint. Combined with Unlimited storage for compressed photos and videos, it’s a nice step in the right direction for cleaning up the disparity between Manufacturer photo gallery apps and Google Plus. Let’s take a full tour through all the new features and tools!
As part of their roll out for Windows 10, Microsoft will be making their services as accessible as possible to people on all operating systems. They’ll be delivering music apps, for example, which will tie into OneDrive for people to stream their entire music collection anywhere they have data.
Most interesting however is the recent reveal that their digital assistant Cortana will also be going cross platform. Syncing any phone with a Windows 10 PC will setup their companion app which provides deep integration with services on the phone.
Similar to Google Now and Siri, Cortana can look for relevant information in emails and calendar entries, and can respond to voice commands. She’s become popular for having a bit more personality than offerings from Google or Apple.
It’s an interesting move from Microsoft as they shift away from making popular services exclusive to their ecosystem, and opens the door to broad adoption from people on every platform. You can catch more info in their announcement video below.
(via Microsoft)
I think the iPhone’s home button is a bit over-worked. Single press, double press, long press, music functionality, and an accessibility custom triple press. At some point some other hardware control might help this poor beleaguered button.
Kickstarter project Halo Back is looking to aid the home button with a special screen protector that will add a bottom mounted back button. As the iPhone has gotten larger, reaching up to the top of the screen for those apps that have software back buttons isn’t quite as convenient as it used to be.
It would seem a number of people agree with Halo Back as the project has already raised over $100,000, over five times their initial goal, and there’s still sixteen days left to back the project.
You can watch their pitch video below, or head directly to their project page for more info.
***Update for tech clarification at the end***
The Windows Phone platform has often been criticized for a lack of apps. Windows 10 will bring new tools for developers to create universal apps that run on Phones, Tablets, Laptops, Hybrids, Desktops, and the XBox.
Yet it can still be difficult courting developers to stray from the iOS and Android duopoly. There have been rumors swirling that Microsoft would be allowing ported Android apps to run on Windows 10, and at the Build Developer conference Microsoft took it one step further.
New tools will be provided to easily transition Java and C++ apps from Android, and developers will also be able to transition Objective C apps from iOS to Windows Phone.
Developers typically focus on iOS first to bring new services to market thanks to the consistency of Apple’s ecosystem. Conceivably, those same developers can invest far fewer resources to bring that service to EVERY device running Windows 10 than moving that same app to Android.
King.com was given as an example of one of the first companies to utilize these new tools, porting Candy Crush from iOS to Windows Phone in a matter of hours.
There’s now even less of a barrier for developers to bring services to the Windows ecosystem, especially as Microsoft expects Windows 10 to be on over one billion devices within the first year of release, handily outpacing the number of gadgets running iOS 8 or Android 5.0.
***Update***
For those wondering, Microsoft will be adding a subsystem to Windows 10 that can run Android Open Source Project software. The APK’s which install Android apps will be installed directly, in a secure partition, though if apps call certain API’s or depend on services Google wont allow on Windows, then obviously the app wont work. Microsoft will be providing tools to easily port certain actions, say an App calls for Google Now, it can be pointed over to look for Cortana instead.
For iOS apps, Microsoft is providing software for devs to completely recompile apps written in Objective C. iPhone apps will not be running in Windows Phone in the same way Android apps will run in a little emulation pocket.
While we’ll have to wait for Windows 10 on more devices to see the fruits of Android APK support, Microsoft has already released the iOS re-compiler for free, which hopefully means we’ll start seeing iOS services show up in the Windows store soon.
The video broadcasting wars are heating up. Where we used to only have Google’s Hangouts, now we have services tied to Twitter for real time live streaming video and chat. Let’s take a quick look at Periscope, currently only available for iOS
I recorded a video earlier this week in response to Apple’s MacBook and Apple Watch announcements, where I washed my hands of the tech angst many of us gadget geeks face when discussing Cupertino. Many of us who are now the most critical of the company, were at one time the most passionate advocates of the brand. I myself was an Apple product specialist for a company that sold systems and maintenance contracts to Department of Energy research facilities. The general thesis of my video focused on the realization and acceptance of the fact that Apple is not (and some would argue hasn’t been for some time) a tech company, but is now a full-fledged fashion and lifestyle brand.
Scanning through Apple’s site and ads, we see a company showcasing design in much the same way that a jewelry website would show off luxury, premium offerings. Sure, there’s a tab you can click on to get a full listing of hardware specs, but it’s neatly tucked to the side, while large banners talk about “Reinventing the Laptop”, or how Apple Watch is their “Most Personal Device” yet. Marketing intangibles, statements designed to make you feel good, appeal to you emotionally, but which aren’t quantifiable or verifiable.
While Apple has often been accused of recycling their designs, the tick-tock update schedule of the iPhone is a perfect example, the company has learned an incredibly important strategy from the retail arena. While iProducts rarely change much from year to year, the subtle design changes keep brand awareness high amongst the demographics of folks with money to burn.
When moving from the Black iPhone 5, to the “Space Grey” iPhone 5S for example, this was a clear visual signal that you had spent money recently to acquire the new phone, instead of slumming it with an old phone. A Silver MacBook likely wont stand out much in a coffee shop when surrounded by MacBook Airs, but a Gold MacBook gives up a ready signal that you are on the pulse. It just wouldn’t do to be seen with last season’s Apple gear. We can count on the next MacBook to be a modest iteration improvement to the internal technology, but we’ll likely focus more on a new design accent or a new color option. Continue reading “Apple, Fashion, and Perceived Exclusivity – Keeping Desire High for iProducts”