From Left: Apple Pro Keyboard (Black), 2007 Dock Connector, 2011 Dock Connector, 2012 Lightning Connector

It may not be all that glamorous, but Apple does bother improving (or at least, shrinking) the USB end of its cables. The white part around the Lightning cable is only barely bigger than the pins, compared to that old keyboard cable which is huge (sorry I don’t have a white one – I only bought PowerBooks during the white era and went out of my way to purchase new old black Pro Keyboards until the chiclet (are we calling this “unibody”?) keyboard came out).

When you buy a new Dell keyboard today, I wonder how big the connector is. Surely, cables don’t need to be as minimalist as Apple is going for, maybe even the Pro Keyboard size is easier to work with. But Apple is probably the only company that’s even giving this consideration. It certainly looks like Monoprice isn’t interested in trimming the connector any. (btw I LOVE monoprice and give them tons of cost-effective money all the time)

Google should add streetview and directions (especially transit) to Google Earth for iOS (they’re there in the desktop version) ASAP.

But that’s not what will happen.

Google will wait until it can serve an ad-jamed clusterfuck app to iOS users we’ll hate so much that we’ll accept the limitations of iOS Maps (many of which might be solved by that time).

I wonder if Microsoft had purchased Nokia by now and enhanced Bing maps with it how this story might be different. Bing maps remains to this day impossible to use because it doesn’t find addresses well, even when you give it an address.

Talking about Maps and the Google/Apple divorce is getting boring. Even as we learn more information it’s still boring. I’ll write about something cool soon.

It looks like Apple isn’t expediting updates anymore, and my iPhone 5 might not arrive until October 4^th. I don’t blame anyone for that (I woke up at 7 EST, not 3 EST… I still have a day job after all) but I’m upset that AT&T never told me the delivery date wouldn’t be last friday until I called (the order confirmation email listed the 21^st as the delivery day). I had planned to wait until I had a device and submit over the weekend but since I won’t get one for a few weeks I’m starting to submit and hoping for the best.

*** Update, arrived 9/26, was overnighted from 9/25, not bad ***

Normalize

• Submitted, Approved for Sale, Available
• Uses new iOS 6 share sheets, thus gaining FB/Twitter etc support
• Minor bug fix

Auto Adjust

• Tested on device, Submitted
• Without device to test A6 performance and making no assumptions, the downsampling in the progressive rendering engine will be more aggressive (blurrier) than it needs to be for now.  Don’t worry, I’ll update when I get my iPod Touch 5.
• Minimum iOS will be 5.1. It’s “impossible” to support armv6 (pre 3Gs) devices which means all supported devices support iOS 5.1 or 6, so upgrade.
• EXIF preservation not rushed into this release. Stay tuned for a 3.5 or 4.0
• Couldn’t add share sheets without breaking the UI rules of modal views calling modal views. Again, stay tuned for a 3.5 or 4.0

iDecorate

• In Development
• iOS 6 share sheets supported
• iOS 5.1 still supported, but tempted to drop
• Using 3:2 images in 16:9 revealed a bug that’s been there since 2.0 probably.
• Using 3:2 or 4:3 images in 16:9 crops more off than using them in 3:2 did.
• iDecorate is an iPad app with iPhone support, not vice versa, so this low priority compared to Auto Adjust, which IS an iPhone with iPad support (although you wouldn’t know it from sales sometimes).

I’d make it have the same kind of screen as the Amazon Paperwhite. Why? Movies, Coverflow, and Photos have always been stupid features for iPods. If apple can make an e-ink screen that can refresh fast enough for click-wheel scrolling, they’d have the best iPod Classic possible.

Things I miss about the 4th Generation iPod

• Scrolling Smoothness and Speed
• Outdoor Screen Visibility
• Lack of unused features

If Apple can stop playing copycat (that’s right, I went there) and make a device that’s ONLY the best music player (and not the worst photo viewer) then the iPod Classic would have.

• A frontlit E-Ink screen for viewing in all lighting
• All Flash architecture for worry free skip free playback
• No battery sucking features like coverflow
• BT 4.0 for wireless headphones / stereo connectivity
• WiFi for syncing/AirPlay only
• Ridiculous battery life
• iPhone 4 style volume buttons (not a rocker)
• No Camera
• No Photos
• No Videos
• Brick, Solitaire, and Music games but no others.
• Read Only Contacts/Calendars/Notes

My justification is simple: build an iPod that iPhone owners might actually consider buying, the same way iPhone owners also own iPads. To do so, you have to decrease feature overlap and make the primary feature (music playback) so much better. The first, obvious way is that you’re not sharing music storage with Apps and photos (8MP photos take up space quickly). But iPods already do that. What they don’t do is behave as smooth as iPods did in 2003. The greyscale screen’s anti-aliasing algorithm was faster and thus the UI was faster. The greyscale screen was also viewable outside. Finally, scroll wheels are can be operated blindly in a way a touch screen can never hope for.

I’d buy one to leave in the car.

The thing I miss / needed most about Google Maps transit directions were that they included effectively all transit agencies: NYC Subways, Metro North, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak, etc. One way I’m going to be testing “replacements” is by giving them a route I know crosses agencies.

A simple route is from New Brunswick NJ to Washington DC. Both are Amtrak stations on the Northeast Corridor Line, but New Brunswick isn’t serviced by most trains, so you have to take an NJT train North or South to a more regularly served Amtrak Station. I usually use Metropark even though being north it’s in the wrong direction because it’s a shorter trip on NJT and a longer trip on Amtrak (the Amtrak trains are obviously much faster).

Here’s Google offering exactly that

And here’s HOPSTOP, an app recommended by a 9to5mac article.

And no, those 6 hr routes on the bottom aren’t just slower Northeast Regional Trains and a long wait at New York Penn. Here’s the map of that first “Recommended” Route.

Needless to say, the maps.google.com shortcut is now on my home screen.

I only see a need for two and a half non iOS iPods. They are:

1. The clip on shuffle, as is, maybe more storage.
2. A (probably expensive) frontlit e-ink SSD based Classic – no non-music features – BT but no WiFi
3. Something the exact form as the shuffle (I understand if it isn’t technologically possible to also make this the stand alone Shuffle), but servers to turn any headphones into a remote+mic for BT enabled iDevices (including my e-ink Classic

I don’t think the new nano serves anyone, and I don’t think there’s a need for watch computers either. When I run, I run. I’m not putzing around some paved road in a park, I’m deep in the woods, going up and down hills, doing speed work, stretching… the only way I’ve been able to use an iPod while doing this is a shuffle clipped to as high as possible on my shirt, usually the collar, maybe the strap if it’s a tank top, with headphones with a shortened cord that stay attached to the ear somehow. Lately I’ve been using in-ear style that also have an around the ear holder.

Attaching a full sized iPhone with an armband is a great way to hold it while sprinting, but your arms move too much for you to use headphones with it, and trying to put it in a pocket or clipped to your pants just wrecks your form.

Maybe the armband works for me, but maybe not for bikers where the last thing you want to do is touch one arm with the other. That’s why I want this turn any headphones into wireless headphones + remote + mic. Let me secure my iPhone anywhere – pants, a backpack, somewhere on the bike, whatever, somewhere safe and secure. Then let me run the shortest cord possible from the top of my shirt to my ears (a hair scrunchy is a great place to clip a shuffle too). I would even use this just walking around in the winter since the Shuffle is compatible with gloves.

If this device was both a shuffle and the remote thing I’d pay $99, the current $49 if it’s jut one. It should also come with intentionally short headphones.

I’ll go into detail on the e-ink Classic in its own post.

Saying a “shipping” version of something feels (or objectively IS) incomplete isn’t usually the kind of thing I’d say about Apple. Windows 8 feels Incomplete. Windows 8 phone IS Incomplete. So is iOS 6.

When Apple is still working on things behind the scenes (this is before even announcements, not just when it ships) they occasionally ask a few developers to help them demo the top secret project. Lately, it’s been game developers demoing how great the new GPU and screen are. They should have been populating this list instead. Xcode includes a Maps Integration checkbox (followed by checkboxes for the various types). You’d think they’d at least get Amtrak in there. Who knows why there isn’t anything there: maybe they did talk to transit agencies but they didn’t deliver, maybe they could’ve delivered if they heard about it before WWDC, maybe it’s just an oversight because everyone drives to 1 Infinite Loop.

I’d like to believe there’s a good reason, but the most likely scenario is that no one (like Amtrak for example) heard a word of this until WWDC, followed by Apple not promoting “hey, you guys need to write Apps that will appear here” at WWDC or on developer.apple.com. In fact, I couldn’t find any documentation on how to do anything if you select those checkboxes. Is it just a .plist entry that makes your app appear there? Is there a URL scheme you need to support? Developer.apple.com’s iOS 6 main page has guides written for Passbook, iCloud, Location Awareness (the new kind of localization, not maps related per se), and the new Social Framework which expands/obviates the old twitter framework, but nothing related to this.

It’s also odd that they wouldn’t put something here to help demonstrate another feature of iOS 6: the ability for apps to present and purchase ANY iTunes content, not just their own In App Purchases as was the case prior to this. Conflictingly, when you open the also empty passbook, it takes you to the app store rather than displaying its own empty list.

At least they had the documentation for passbook and we’ve heard loud whispers from agencies intending to use it. But the contradiction in UI is another point to bring up. The black nav bar for the empty maps apps list seems to be the new brushed metal. It’s in the new apps in random places but not across the board. The rest of iOS 6 maps uses and exclusive shiny chrome look (not anodized aluminum looking) and a lot of apps still use the old blue on iPhone and silver on iPad. The iPhone settings app still has its pinstripes!

***

None of this relates to why I don’t have any of my apps ready on launch day. Those reasons are a little more complicated. For one, I can’t build from Armv6 devices (anything before the 3Gs) anymore so any update to Auto Adjust is going to push it to iOS 4.3, so I’m targeting 5.1 on that. Besides, other than letterboxing on the new iPhone, the store builds of all my apps run without a hitch on iOS 6. There was one small bug in Normalize I was waiting for iOS 6 to submit with and it should land on the app store whenever Apple approves it. I also don’t like being in the day one update deluge. By doing so you basically forfeit your position in the By Date lists. It’s also a bit laughable to ship something without testing it on a real device. I’m not going to just take Apple’s word that the new iPhone is just as easily onehandable until I hold one and confirm my thumb can still reach the corner controls.

With the iPad junior still unannounced, there’s still time for maybe something to change, but for now, I was wrong about the following:

The 5^th generation iPod Touch did not come in at the existing $199 and did not therefor create a $99 4^th generation iPod Touch, but at least I predicted the 4^th would stick around as a still-being-manufactured product. I bet Apple wanted to do what I suggested but opted for the IPS display and 5MP rear camera instead, making the iPod Touch a carrierless iPhone more than ever (we’ll see how much RAM it has… I bet 512).

We also didn’t see an AppleTV refresh which I expected to be a very modest ability to create wireless networks. It would have been the kind of update that only matters for new users, not one existing users would care about replacing their puck for.

The higher than expected price of the new iPod Touch has me a little worried that Apple might introduce the iPad Junior at $399. I think that would be suicide. I maintain that the non-retina WiFi iPad Junior with base capacity will be $299.

Next year, this years iPad Junior will be $199, the new retina version will be $299, iPod Touch updates will be skipped and prices will fall $100 on each model.

If the GeekBench score of 1600 for the iPhone 5 is to be believed, it’s somehow as fast as Android phones with twice as many cores an similar (if not higher) clock speeds. If you take a look into the results, you can see the Quad Core 1.4 GHz S III gets higher Integer and Floating Point scores (the Arithmetic tests) sort of. The aggregate 2857 vs the 2051 for floating point performance isn’t as wide as it should be for heavily parallelized tests. At a higher clock and twice as many cores, the S III should be at LEAST 2x the iPhone 5’s scores, not ALMOST 2X. It’s hard to believe that Geekbench would only test two threads but I won’t write off the possibility.

Where it gets really weird is the Memory and Stream performance comparisons. All the S II benchmarks have a bizarrely low sequential read score compared to their sequential write score. These results are essentially worthless unless both devices were “fresh off a reboot”.

If things continue to pan out this way, Apple has done some serious optimization that the Java based Android can never hope to do, even if it had custom chips.

Perhaps more relevant news though, is that the Mirrored Drive Doors PowerMac G4 (dual 1.4GHz) has an aggregate score of 1234 and is the highest scoring G4 based machine. The 2005 2.5GHz Quad G5 is still a long ways off at 3319 but it’s worth noting that that machine wasn’t passed by Intel MacBooks for a while depending on model and neither of my Core2Duo Minis beat it. Considering that iPhones are doing a good job of obeying Moore’s law and doubling their score with each iteration, the last G5 should be scared, very scared.

Since there’s no need to push pixel densities higher than 300ppi (or less, depending on viewing distance), we’re getting closer to certain specs no longer needing upgrading. That’s what I find most exciting.

I’m loving this. I’m buying at least two of these.

*** Update after listening to The Talk Show last week (#16 Big in Indonesia)

While we’re usually interested in if it looks cool or not on its own, this is the first time Apple has unified the look across the iDevices (iPad pending, of course). Prior to this refresh, the Shuffle and Nano were shiny metal, all iPod Touch had the classic iPod chrome back, and the back of an iPhone looked like the front. I suspect the iPad Junior with 3G will look like the back of the iPod Touch with the same plastic stripe we’ve been seeing so far. This would align the iPad Junior as an iOS type device rather than a “real computer”.

I also didn’t notice that killing the plastic MacBook made all of Apple’s notebooks have the same exterior finish (which match the G5, Mac Pro, and Cinema Displays. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the big iPad (can we call it Papa iPad?) stays looking like a MacBook since it’s a “real computer”.