Harry Potter coming to ebooks.....finally!

I guess the fact that ebooks are outselling their actual counterparts 3-1 these days has finally got the attention of J.K. Rowling.  She announced this morning that the Harry Potter books will be coming to ebook format this fall.  A new site called Pottermore has arisen with new content promised in October.  She'll probably make a billion dollars on this venture.

Highlights from WWDC Keynote

A ton of cool stuff was announced in the keynote at Apple's WWDC yesterday, here is a good list of some of the things announced:

Lion OS X 10.7

  • Available in July.
  • 29.99 pay only once for all your mac computers(under the same app store id I assume).
  • Download only through app store.
  • A ton of mult-gesturing controls in the gui.
  • Seemless peer to peer wifi file sharing(great feature).

iOS5

  • 200 new features.
  • Notification Center - all notifications go to single screen.
  • Notifications will be non-interruptble.
  • Twitter -full twitter integration in apps, notably(Camera, YouTube, Safari and Maps).

Safari Enhancements

  • Tabbed browsing.
  • Email stories from the browser.
  • Reading lists, which can be synced across multiple devices.

Reminders (awesome looking list maker!)

  • Store multiple list with dates to remind you
  • Can assign location to remind you of task upon arrival or departure of a certain location.

Camera

  • Faster and easier access to camera even if phone is locked.  Double tap home button, tap camera icon, even if the passcode is set you can't see anything else until you enter the passcode
  • Volume up button can be set to take photos now.  Hmmm believe Camera+ had this first then they were banned from the app store for sneaking that feature in an update.
  • Optional grid lines so you line up shots or use the rule of thirds.
  • Pinch to zoom
  • Hold finger to auto-focus and auto-exposure lock in addition to tapping, another feature taken from Camera+ app.
  • Basic editing from iPhone.
  • Crop and rotate
  • Red eye reduction

Mail

  • Rich text formatting
  • New keyboard option: grab it with your thumbs and go up and it splits.  Kind of like an ergonomic keyboard for your thumbs.
  • Dictionary from iBooks is integrated not just in mail but available for all apps where it might be needed.
  • Search, not only the phone but also searches your mail server now.
  • S/MIME for encryption to make your mail more secure.

iMessage

  • Messaging service between iOS users(iPhone, iPad and iTouch)
  • Delivery receipts, read receipts, and real-time typing notification, video, photos... pushed to all devices
  • Cross-device integration so you can start a conversation on your iPhone and pick it up on your iPad.

PC Free

  • iPhone,activates after you turn it on, no more iTunes activation.
  • Updates are over the air and delta updates occur so only changes get updated, no longer removing the software and installing it again after update.
  • Wifi sync to iTunes
  • When charging at night, will find iTunes, back up and sync.

iCloud

  • iCloud stores content in cloud, wirelessly pushes to all devices. Completely integrated into apps.  Right now Pages, Numbers and Keynote have the functionality, these were released last week and currently work well with MobileMe.  
  • MobileMe apps have been completely re-written to work on the iCloud.
  • Contacts added in any device are pushed to the cloud and then sync'd down to all the other devices.
  • Calendars works about the same, make any changes and they get pushed. Plus, you can share your calendars with other users.
  • Get an @me.com account and all your mail messages are sync'd and pushed across.
  • MobileMe used to cost $99 annually. iCloud will be free!
  • AppStore, which lets you see all your app purchases, even if they're not installed on the current device.
  • Tap on the cloud button and apps are pulled down to the current device. When you buy a new app or a new device everything is propagated across again.
  • Every day content will be backed up. Get a new device? Just type in your ID and password and there's your content, pushed right there.  Backed up over WiFi only, including purchased music, books, photos and videos, device settings, and App data as well.
  • Pages, Numbers, and Keynote storage and integration into iCloud
  • Photo Streaming, Any photos taken on any devices are pushed to the cloud and then sent to the other devices. Automatically.
  • Apple will store the last 1000 photos uploaded to the cloud and keep photos for 30 days, If you want to keep something permanently, just move it into an album. On the Mac or PC, all are stored permanently.
  • iTunes - Anything bought can now be downloaded to any of your devices at no additional charge.  No charge for multiple downloads to different devices.
  • There's a new "Purchased" tab in iTunes. You can look at all your albums find anything you like, and then just hit that cloud button.
  • It's 256Kbps AAC and you can push to up to 10 devices.
  • 5GB space for backups, documents and mail for free.
  • iTunes Match Software will scan your tunes and match it up with those songs in the store.  If any songs don't match they'll be uploaded for you. Anything that's matched is upgraded to 256Kbps AAC, without DRM.
  • iTunes Match costs $24.99 per year regardless of how many songs you have.

 

 

Steve Jobs goes off in earnings call

This is quite amusing, I'm not one who really enjoys listening to earnings calls but the one from Apple this week was quite entertaining. Jobs goes on rant like boxer does during a pre match press event. Here's the link, you can scrub to the middle to catch Jobs. http://bit.ly/9dcZ0R

Cool little HDR trick with the iPhone

Normal exposure

HDR corrected image

I found a cool little trick to really enhance photos that I take with my iPhone. I take a photo and pull it into an HDR app like True HDR. Typically when you use this software you take two pictures one where you use the light point in the photo to expose on and then another one where you expose on the darkest point. After you take the shots, you merge the two together and get a really nice looking HDR photo. Well I've been experimenting with taking just one shot and merging it with the exact same shot and the results are surprising. As you can see the first picture is a normal shot of the Apple cube in New York City, the second shot is the same shot merged on top of itself. The results are really cool, the colors really pop out in the photo. It will be interesting to see how the new iOS coming out next week(with HDR inclusive for the iPhone's camera) handles shots like this compared to 3rd party apps.

Blogging from 30K feet....

Just thought I would post a quickie from the airplane @ 30K ft. (ATL -> EWR) . This week I obtained my redress number, for some bizarre reason my name was put on the Homeland Security watch list. It was a big pain to deal with as much as I have been flying lately. But filling out the paper work and waiting the obligatory 30 days seems to work. I was awarded today for all my pain an upgrade to 1st class.....so I guess I can't complain too much!

Thoughts on Apple's new fall lineup......

iOS 4 update - I can't wait for this update, supposedly a software fix for the proximity issue.  I've struggled with this issue and can't wait for this fix.  HDR functionality for the camera, this is a surprise and could be huge if it really does HDR.  I've used other 3rd party apps for this on my iPhone so it'll be interesting to see how it compares with those apps.  Apple may become a good competitor/innovator in point and shoot camera market before long.   

Ipod refresh:

  • Shuffle - nice look and feel, it just keeps getting smaller and price point is very nice.
  • Nano - love this new look, touch screen now and no more click wheel, FM radio(nice little add-on) definitely worthy of adding to the collection.
  • iTouch - or should I say the iPhone for anyone not using AT&T?!?  Camera feature is finally included, it will take very nice video but the still shot capability will be marginal at best.

iTunes 10 - it has a cool looking icon....I just downloaded it and played around with Ping (the Apple social network) I did not get to play around with it enough to give an opinion about it just yet.   

Apple TV - aka... Apple's hobby?  It's a very cool idea, nice price point at $99 but I don't think it's quite there yet or at least at the point to make me want to jump out and reserve one.  I really think to make this fly off the shelves, it needs to be able to use the apps from the app store.  If it can connect to iTunes and uses iOS then you should be able to run apps off of it.  MLB app running off of this through AirPlay to my HDTV would be pretty awesome, might even make me want to pony up for the $100 subscription fee to see any of the games on demand.  Also with the rumors of HBO creating a pay on demand iPad app, makes this idea even more compelling.  Maybe this is what the future holds, who knows?!?

Overall, it was a really good lineup announcement.  The new nano intrigues me and the iOS demos of what is to come were really nice, great software options for the iPhone/iPad/iTouch coming down the road that is for sure!