Adobe’s announcement clearly states that only Flash Player for mobile is going away. The tools — the things that Adobe’s customers really turn to Adobe for — can now grow freely to please creatives in new, forward-looking ways.
I truly believe that a long-term Quixotic commitment to Flash Player would have destroyed Adobe from within. It was an expired product that distracted the company from its core competency of making tools for creative professionals. Adobe still has a lot of work to do if it wants to be a real leader in modern web technology, but this is the right first step.
Mac OS X Hints has discovered that Macs running OS X Lion and registered with iCloud have a hidden "drop box" in the user's Library folder that allows for easy document and file syncing between Macs. A folder within ~/Library (which Lion hides by default) called "Mobile Documents" contains iWork documents synced with iOS devices via iCloud.
I saw this article a few weeks back and have been to busy to post it. This gives me a lot of optimism that perhaps, one day, iCloud can replace Dropbox for me. Hopefully within the next year, even.
Instapaper has now gone version 4 and Marco Arment has been kind enough to let me test out this new version. I can say that this new version is, without a doubt, fantastic.
Arment is fond of saying that Instapaper has the most generous update policy (every update has been free) and I would argue that the only software company more generous is Apple with iOS. But, why — why wouldn’t Arment charge for these fantastic updates? Let’s let him explain:
There’s no good way to charge for updates in the App Store. Maybe Apple will add this functionality in the future, but they don’t seem to care so far. Maybe they’ll add it when they want upgrade pricing for the next version of Aperture or Final Cut Studio.
But I’m not sure I’d charge regardless. I get a lot of goodwill from my customers by continually improving the product that they bought months or years ago, and that goodwill helps spread the word and drive new sales. I know I charge a “premium” compared to many other apps, but I want people to feel like Instapaper is a ridiculously good deal.
In my book Instapaper is certainly a “ridiculously good deal” and that may sum up Instapaper 4 perfectly.
Read Ben's entire review for a complete overview of each new feature.
Marco Arment, posting on the Instapaper blog, has announced the release of Instapaper 4.0 for the iPhone & iPad. Marco's post outlines, in detail, all of the new features packed into 4.0 including:
* complete navigation UI redesign
* tweaked reading UI redesign
* support for wikipedia lookup
* footnote support
* multi-select support
* expanded sharing support for browsing - see all links in your Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr feeds that friends have shared
* complete reading and archive list search support
* app directory showcasing Instapaper compatible apps
* other minor features
App Store Link
In the bigger picture, this is something that Apple seems to understand time and time again that their rivals do not. Technology is an ever-important part of everyones’ lives, but the only way to make it truly accessible to the vast majority of users is to humanize it. That’s Siri. Google, Microsoft, etc — they all fail miserably at doing this.
There are many good sections that it was hard to quote just a single paragraph. Read the entire article.
Today was Apple's largest simultaneous software rollout, ever, or at least for as long as I can remember. In no particular order, these items were released in the past 24 hours:
* OS X 10.7.2 - adding iCloud support & other fixes.
* OS X 10.7.2 - recovery partition update
* iTunes 10.5 - adds iCloud support and is required for iOS 5
* iOS 5.0 - for iPhone 4S, 4, and 3GS
* iCloud 1.0 - go to me.com to convert your MobileMe account. I highly recommend you read Serenity Caldwell's iCloud article which should answer any questions you may have about the new service and the transition over to it.
* iOS iWork apps: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote - adds iCloud document storage support
* iPhoto 9.2 - adds iCloud integration with Photo Stream
* Aperture 3.2 - adds iCloud integration with Photo Stream
* Cards app - new iOS app
* Find Friends app - new iOS app
* Airport Utility app - new iOS app
* iTunes Trailers app - new iOS app
* Newstand store - new iTunes component to support iOS Newstand feature
* iMessage network - adds support for iMessages in iOS 5
* Safari 5.1.1 - adds iCloud support and fixes bugs
* AppleTV update - adds AirPlay mirroring support & iCloud support
And while not released today, some customers have reported as to already having received their iPhone 4S devices early, despite that they were to be delivered on Friday. As a result, retail customers (not just review journalists) are now making use of the new Siri servers with their new iPhone 4S handsets.
Whew. Did I miss anything? That is an impressive list.
What other technology company has recently pulled off a software rollout on this scale and can report the only complaint from customers has been that downloads were slower than usual (because everyone is downloading the updates currently)?
This is the easiest product review I’ve ever written. The iPhone 4S is exactly what Apple says it is: just like the iPhone 4, but noticeably faster, with a significantly improved camera, and an impressive new voice-driven feature called Siri.
Want to see Siri in action? The Editorial Direction at Macworld, Jason Snell, posted a demo video last night:
This is listed above in the iCloud bullet point, but again, I highly recommend you read Serenity Caldwell's "Getting Started with iCloud". Even if, like me, you feel you are a know-it-all asshole who doesn't need to read anything that begins with the title "Getting Started..." suck it up and do it anyway. Serenity includes a few useful tidbits that even I didn't know about.
Also, today's Talk Show episode over on 5by5 with Dan Benjamin and John Gruber dedicated almost all of its time to discussing iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S.
iPhone 4S Upgrade Eligibility
On the subject of the iPhone 4S: I do not plan to buy the 4S, as I am waiting for my AT&T contract to expire in order to switch over to Verizon next summer (or next fall - whenever the iPhone 5 comes out). However, I did use Apple's "eligibility check" web app to see my upgrade availability status. I was puzzled to find that AT&T won't let me buy an iPhone 4S at the subsidized price until February 12, 2012, despite my having bought an iPhone 4 on day 1 one of its release last year. Marco Arment did a bit of wrote an article on this very subject today. Useful stuff.
Oh, and no sign of iTunes Match yet. Apple seeded iTunes 10.5.1 to developers last night, which has iTunes Match. I was under the impression that iTunes Match was supposed to roll out alongside the rest of these updates. Perhaps this means that there were a few bugs yet to be worked out still. Apple is probably focusing on those now, to hopefully have iTunes 10.5.1 out to customers by Friday (alongside the iPhone 4S launch) or perhaps next week?
Adobe is shutting down two of its app stores dedicated to mobile and desktop application distribution, Adobe InMarket and the Adobe AIR Marketplace. The decision, the company says, was based on developer feedback. Adobe says it will now focus its efforts on helping developers publish their apps on multiple platforms, including official app stores like Apple's iTunes, Google's Android Market, BlackBerry App World, Intel's AppUp, Samsung Apps and Toshiba App Place.
I had never heard of these two App stores until today.
Then, about three weeks ago, something happened that altered my worldview a bit. My main PC, a Sony VAIO laptop, burned itself out. Literally. It overheated, despite a fan that sounded like a jet engine. It still works, but can’t connect to the Internet. Normally, I would have trouble-shooted the problem, fixed it or bought a new laptop. I also have older PCs around that I could use. But this time, my son was about to leave on a very long trip abroad and offered to let me use his 27-inch iMac. I was too busy to deal with the Sony, so I just used the Mac.
I’ve found it so easy and enjoyable to use – beautiful screen, silent operation, incredibly elegant industrial design, etc., etc., — that I haven’t even bothered to troubleshoot the laptop. I don’t even want to look at it.
I wanted to post this after I saw it, because I just ended a 40 minute phone conversation where I convinced my cousin to buy a Mac.
Also,