Tag: iOS

Standing Up For Android – Marco.org

Shifty Jelly’s challenge to Marco Arment to write an Android app.

… we’d like to publicly challenge Marco Arment to bring Instapaper to Android and drop the negative attitude. We’ll bet you one large cup of our finest Australian Coffee that you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how great the Google Market is. In many ways it’s a better place to be than iOS, since so many developers are ignoring it, and yet there is a massive install base waiting to give you their money. (via Shifty JellyAnd Marco’s response: So I’ll make it more interesting. Instapaper has a public API. I’m not aware of any good, >stable, feature-rich Android Instapaper clients that actually use it and aren’t just ripping off my iOS app’s private API. If you make the first great Android Instapaper client that: uses the official API contains a significant portion of the iOS app’s features, the details of which we’d work out privately runs on a wide variety of Android devices and OS versions including modern smartphones, the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, and whichever 10” tablet matters at the time of completion is priced at $2.99 or higher in the U.S. with approximately equivalent pricing elsewhere, and satisfies requirements to be sold in the Google Marketplace, Amazon Appstore, and whatever B&N uses for the Nook Tablet I’ll call it the official Instapaper app for Android, I’ll promote it on the Instapaper site, I’ll drop the subscription requirement for its API access, you’ll answer all support email that comes from it, and we’ll split the net revenue 50/50.

iCloud's PhotoStream

iOS 5 was released this week with a large list of improvements and new features. One new feature that I've come to love immediately — I have used the iOS 5 developer beta — is the PhotoStream feature of the update Photo app. Smartphones have grown in popularity and so along with the resolution and sensitivity of the cameras in those devices. My iPhone 4 has a five megapixel (MP) camera and the newly announced iPhone 4S will have an 8MP camera. When you consider how lightweight and compact smartphones are and that we have them with us everywhere we go, you can understand why many people are neglecting their point-and-shoot digital cameras and instead opting to use the camera apps in their smartphones.

##What is PhotoStream##

PhotoStream is a feature of iCloud and iOS 5 that enabled smartphone photography like never before. With PhotoStream almost every photo I take with my iPhone - there is a 1000 photo limit - are automatically saved to iCloud for up to 30 days. Why is that a big deal? Imagine being on vacation somewhere pleasant and tropical. You've snapped away on your camera for a few days when suddenly the camera warns you that you have exhausted the memory card. Yikes WIth PhotoStream you don't need to worry. You can store 1000 of your most recent photos. You can use the new editing features of the Photo app to make enhancements including red-eye reduction.

What's really cool is that PhotoStream works on both the iPad and the iPhone. That means that my iPad can use (and edit) the photos taken on my iPhone that are save in my PhotoStream. I can use the larger screen of the iPad with more capable apps to make more detailed edits which I can save back to PhotoStream. With PhotoStream, the iPhone and the iPad are partners.

##Enabling PhotoStream##
PhotoStream is enabled from the Settings app on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

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Launch the Settings apps and click the iCloud icon
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Now tap the PhotoStream icon.
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Make sure the to switch on PhotoStream before exiting the Settings app.

There are quite a few other features of iOS 5 that are enabled by iCloud and PhotoStream is just one of them.

But there's one more thing. An update to iLife make iPhoto work with iCloud. Now image that you've taken hundreds of photos on that vacation using your iPhone. You return from your vacation and launch iPhoto to download your photos from your camera. But, surprise, because your photos have been stored in iCloud, iPhoto automatically downloads them for you. No cables! But that's a different blog post.

Multi-Platform is a Feature

David Sparks writes out loud about something I've thought about since I got both an iPad and an iPhone. Most of the apps I use on my Mac, iPad and iPhone were chosen because I can use or sync information between the devices. I want to be able to pick up any one of my devices and get "work" done. Apple's iCloud strategy is a really a mobility strategy that I think most enterprises could embrace1.

With iCloud, there is no secret incantation, retina scan, or hacking involved. Your data just is. No longer will you have to consider whether the right folder is synced to the right app. Work on one device. Turn it off. Work on another device and pick up where you left off.

  1. Ubiquitous data sync/access scares the crap out of command and controls corporate IT environments. However, an enterprise rights data management strategy could mitigate most of the risks. ↩