Monthly Archives: February 2010
The future of iPhone OS and Mac OS
One of the big topics of discussion yesterday in our TUAW back channel was this post from the New York Times Bits blog. In “Why can’t PCs work more like iPhones,” Bilton pointed out that the iPhone has given Apple a chance to build a new OS from the ground up.
This is a familiar viewpoint to us here on TUAW. Last year, I asked whether the future of the Mac OS would turn out to be the iPhone. In my write-up, I pointed out that the iPhone OS was built from scratch to work with Objective C 2.0 with its properties and other modern language features. Its API, far from being cobbled together, showed ever increasing design maturity without the weight of heavy backwards compatibility concerns. I concluded that Apple might take a lesson from the iPhone OS and consider offering a ground up redesign for Mac OS X, at least in terms of core OS principles.
In his post, Bilton considers how Mac OS X might integrate iPhone OS features into its user experience, suggesting a possible Front Row-like overlay layer, running an iPhone OS interface. The goal would be to craft iPhone-style GUI simplicity onto the desktop experience, so that users could move seamlessly between their mobile and desktop worlds.
Apple May Lower Price Of iPhone 4G To Boost Adoption Rates
Apple may induce greater iPhone adoption rate among smartphone buyers by launching a new device that will have a lower cost of ownership – This was one of the key points made by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty in a recent note to investors.
According to Huberty, one of the greatest barriers in increasing the iPhone adoption rate among consumers is the cost of hardware followed by the service plan cost.
Huberty believes that by lowering these costs, Apple will be able to establish a wider customer base in both the developed and developing markets. In her note, Huberty writes:
Touch Cams 1.5 for iPhone released and on Sale this Weekend
Mataro (Barcelona), Spain – Independent developer Pere Orra today announced that Touch Cams 1.5 will be on sale this weekend, February 26th through 28th for only $0.99. Touch Cams 1.5, the Minority Report style interface webcams viewer, now includes a built in database with more than 800 webcams from 58 countries and 404 cities fully categorized (traffic, weather, sea, monumets, etc).
Touch Cams is a webcams viewer that lets you freely distribute the cams on as many screens you may need. Touch Cams now includes a complete webcams database that will be increased with every new release.
Place cams freely on the screen with your fingers, scale and rotate by pinching. Place as many as you can fit in a screen (Minority Report style), and if you fill the screen simply create a new one. Double tap a cam to zoom in, double tap again to zoom out. Touch Cams has a integrated browser with google search that helps you find webcams.
iControlPad: Play iPhone Games With Physical Buttons And Joystick
We first wrote about iControlPad nearly two years ago. It’s a pretty cool iPhone accessory that will help you replicate a gaming console experience on your iPhone by augmenting touch screen controls with actual analog joystick based controls.
The accessory allows you to slide your iPhone or iPod touch into a casing containing joysticks and physical buttons, which is connected to the iDevice through the dock connector and lets you play iPhone games in much the same way as you would on a mobile gaming device like a PSP.
Can An iPhone OS Layer On Top Of Mac OS X Bridge The Platform UI Differences?
Technology companies have for long focused on just the three media platforms – TV, computer and mobile phones for customers to consume content. While tablet devices are not exactly new, a renewed focus on the fourth platform is now beginning to happen with the launch of iPad and a host of other tablet devices. In fact, the New York Times calls 2010 the year of the Tablet.
As we move towards an era where smartphones are increasingly being used to act like computers, there is also a need to bridge the differences in the user experience over these two platforms. While Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows continue to remain popular among their users, the intuitiveness of these platforms are no doubt still a far cry from what users experience with smartphone platforms like iPhone. However, replicating an iPhone OS experience on Mac OS X is not a simple task. In an article titled “Why Can’t PCs Work More Like iPhones?“, Nick Bilton from the New York Times writes
“One of the big challenges to moving the iPhone or Windows Phone 7 operating system to personal computers involves the multitouch interface. Although Microsoft and Apple have been working for years to integrate multitouch into their respective operating systems, it’s not as easy as starting from scratch — especially for Mac OS X, Apple’s current computer operating system.”