This review is not about Illustrator vs Affinity Designer. Neither will I mention every feature of the app. I will cover those features which stood out to me as I used the app over the last few weeks.

It’s not often that we get to see people challenge what has become a ‘norm’ or an ‘industry standard’. A quick search on YouTube or Google for tutorials on learning how to draw vectors, learn web design or UI design will lead you to professionals using Illustrator and Photoshop as their preferred choice of software. If Affinity Designer for Mac needs to make its presence felt in an area dominated by Adobe, it needs to prove to users that it is better at accomplishing tasks related to graphic design.

For any application its UI is crucial to its success or failure. However, if you take a look at Illustrator or Photoshop their user interface isn’t all that comforting for beginners, yet pro users seem to have got accustomed to it. Over the years Adobe’s  software suite has increased the number of features it has however, not much has changed in terms of its UI and UX (user experience).

This is exactly where Affinity Designer makes its first big impression. The user interface of Affinity Designer for Mac is everything you’d expect from a modern app. While there is instant familiarity with the workspace from Illustrator, the user interface is more beginner friendly and is very intuitive. The software takes a more visual and gesture based approach rather than features being hidden deep inside menus.

The way we interact with software is increasingly changing. With the advent of touch based interactions on our smartphones and tablets, trackpads on notebooks and desktops, gestures have become a ubiquitous interaction mechanism. It’s great to see Affinity Designer embracing gesture based interactions. The software does this by creating active drop zones in the layer panel.

For example, you can create a clipping mask by simply dragging the object halfway under the main object. You can also mask a vector shape by dragging other vector next to its thumbnail in the layer panel. But, it doesn’t stop there as you drag the object in different drop zones the app shows you live preview of what a clipping mask or layer mask will look like. This feature is fantastic. If you never knew how these features work trying and testing with live previews makes experimenting a lot of fun.

Experimenting can only be fun if you can undo and get back to previous state in case you don’t like the changes. Affinity Designer features a modern take on undo function. You can slide through more than 8000 steps of history so there will never be a moment where you feel that you messed up your file.

It’s worth mentioning that Affinity Designers’ full compatibility with popular file formats such as .psd, .ai, and .pdf will play a critical role in its success. The developers spent almost four years in R&D while developing the software and compatibility with Adobe’s suite of apps is a great achievement.

Affinity Designer for Mac when under development carried a codename ‘Persona’. Although the app was named differently when released, Personas bring a new workflow to the mix. The app features three Personas, Draw, Pixel and Export.

Draw Persona is all about vector drawing however, you are greeted with a pleasant surprise when you click on Pixel Persona. The app geniously brings pixel brushes, selection and effects like smudging, blurring, erasing vector brushes, sharpening and more to a vector drawing app. Want to apply a grunge brush to your vector art? No need to switch the app you are using. Affinity Designer can handle both.

The developers didn’t just stop at adding pixel persona, they added an intelligent assistant to make your tasks easier and enable you to work in an intuitive manner.

If I switch from draw to pixel persona and add a pixel brush stroke to my artwork technically I would need to first add a ‘pixel layer’ however, with the assistant working in the background you don’t have to worry about it as it automatically does the needful. The assistant can also place mask layer inside the vector when erasing. It can rasterise vector layer and then apply other brushes, automatically add adjustment as child layer to selection and rasterise layer and then apply filters.

Even the layer blending modes have received some love and gained live previews. Scrolling through different blend modes such as overlay, multiply, soft-light etc. will show you a live preview of what your design will look like so that you can make better choice quickly. This feature again goes onto show that the developers have paid close attention to the details.

Affinity Designer features dedicated gradient and transparency tools. These allow you to apply multiple gradients in an intuitive manner without the need to open any dialogue boxes.

Once you’re done creating your graphic design you can use the export persona to export your design. You can choose to export your design as 1x, 2x and 3x which is important as you may be creating design for retina displays or even mobile devices.

Another feature I’ve really liked is continuous export, once selected it automatically updates the exported file in the specified format and setting even as you continue to make edits and make alternate design decisions. It’s great to know that your final artwork folder will always contain the latest file no matter how many times you choose to make changes. Since the exported file is always overwritten you won’t have to deal with any duplicates.

Can Affinity Designer replace Illustrator? The answer to this question will depend on whether you are doing a feature by feature comparison or questioning its capabilities as a graphic design software.

There’s no doubt that Illustrator wins when it comes to the number of features. However, this doesn’t takeaway the fact that Affinity Designer is a very promising and extremely powerful graphic design software for the Mac. If you never knew Illustrator existed and used Affinity Designer for your project, you’d be able to accomplish nearly everything.

Affinity Designer is not fighting a feature vs feature battle rather it sets an example of how keeping usability in the forefront can result in a more productive and intuitive experience. The developers have said no to many features and yes to the ones that don’t sacrifice usability and provide reliable experience without adding any clutter.

If you are a beginner in vector drawing and graphic designing, I would recommend that you start right here with Affinity Designer. If you are a pro user who has been using Illustrator all this while, give Affinity Designer a try (trial available) and you won’t regret it.

Even though the application overall has highly impressed me there are a few concerns. If you’ve been using Illustrator you’ve got accustomed to certain keyboard shortcuts. In Affinity Designer you may need to learn different shortcuts. The software currently lacks any sort of symbols management. You can’t type text on a path. The only way to work is with layers, there’s no support for pages or art-boards.

It’s important to note that Affinity Designer was released on October 02, 2014. With the set of features already available in V 1.x it’s exciting to wait and see how the developers expand the current feature set.

Another point worth mentioning is that Serif Labs has opted to sell the software for a one-time price and not a subscription model. This alone is a very attractive investment for anyone from beginners to professionals.

Affinity Designer for Mac brings a fresh breath of air to the traditional vector drawing applications. Its focus on usability without sacrificing on advanced features is applaudable.

Watch Affinity Designer Features Overview Video

Having access to important documents on your iOS devices has proved to be one of the key factors that has lead to the growing adoption of iPhone and iPad in business. Apple understands the importance of having powerful business tools and as a result they’ve been aggressively marketing iWork suite of apps for iOS.

If you often use MS Office for creating documents, presentations or spreadsheets then iWork for iOS might not be the best solution. Even though you can import and export MS Office docs using iWork you will often run into compatibility or formatting issues.

Polaris Office previously $19.99 and now $0.99 (for limited time) offers more than 230 editing functions and features  Microsoft Office document compatibility that will put your worries about editing documents on iOS devices at rest. The developers of Polaris Office are working on a new version 5.0 update that will enhance compatibility features and add more cloud services.

The app allows you to create documents in .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx and .txt format. The user interface is simple and easy to follow. Selecting an element and then tapping the inspector button will expand options in the keyboard area where all options are arranged in vertical tabs.

One of the unique features of the app is the ability to take photos within the app and then apply border, light and other effects. To help you with the creation process Polaris Office even features 15 templates, 18 2D/3D charts and 80 figures.

For those who can’t live without creating spreadsheets for budgets, shopping lists, or sales records, Polaris Office features over 300 functions. The list of features in this app is huge it almost feels like the entire MS Office was squeezed to a 4inch display (when on iPhone). If these features were not enough, you can even directly open zip files and in slideshow mode you can use pointers or even scribble on the slides.

The blogosphere has been reporting on rumours about Microsoft developing MS Office apps for iPhone and iPad, but you can buy Polaris Office for just $0.99 and your wait just got over.

Polaris Office has cloud based storage services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, cloud built in so you will never lose access to your files whether you created them online or edited on your iOS device.

Overall the app is robust in terms of the features it provides. The app has been downloaded over 400 million times and for a limited period the app is available at 95% off sale. If you’ve always been looking for an app that offers MS Office compatibility and editing features then get this app before the price goes up.

At an event earlier today Motorola, a Google company unveiled its latest ‘budget’ smartphone called “Moto G”. The theme of the entire event and the ideology behind the product was to make premium features available at a non-premium price.

While announcing the new Moto G product Motorola executives mentioned Apple’s iPhone 5s, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and HTC a few times. Moto G features 4.5 inch high resolution screen with 329 ppi and 720p. The executives were quick to point out that the screen has better quality than Apple’s flagship iPhone 5s. Moto G runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.2 GHz, 1GB RAM, and offers “all-day” battery life with around 14 hours of talk time on 3G networks. In comparison, iPhone 5s according to Apple offers 10 hours of battery life on 3G.

After unveiling the hardware features and sharing the idea behind creating a budget phone Punit Soni who is responsible for software product management for Moto G took the stage to talk about software. Soni mentioned the three main tenets of their software strategy for Moto G. The first being build on pure foundation of Android, second build experiences that compliment Google services and not compete with them and lastly ensure that the software can give value back to the users.

If you’ve ever seen any Android device in the market manufactured by Samsung, HTC or Sony among many others you will immediately realise that all these companies have two things in common. They add a layer of their own software to the stock OS and bundle services that compete with Google’s software services.

Soni began to elaborate on the three main tenets by saying:

In today’s ecosystem mobile manufactures have a very confused relationship with Android they build on top of it but then they add all of these custom skins which detract from the user experience and hogs resources then they go ahead and put duplicative software on top of it which basically compete with Google services.

He goes on to mention that devices bundled with multiple mail apps, app stores, video players and music players results in “non-intuitive” and “cluttered” user interface.

At the time of purchase of Motorola by Google for a record  $12.5 billion the search giant claimed that they bought the company to secure Android’s position in future by acquiring key patents. Even though Google claims to treat all Android partners equally, at today’s event Soni was sending an indirect yet strong message to ‘other’ Android device manufacturers.

While referencing to the custom skins the slide Soni used had TouchWiz, Sense UI and Xperia UI. Clearly, targeting the top three Android manufacturers to convey that Moto G’s software strategy is superior to other Android partners. So, in essence Motorola a company owned by Google called Samsung, Sony and HTC “confused”.

Soni then goes on to advocate the use of “pure Android” in mobile devices and says:

A device that’s built on pure Android with minor optimisations is gonna have an incredible high performance

Here again Soni is sending out a clear message that any device with custom UI layers may be missing out on high performance as other non-stock apps and skins may hog more resources than required.

This could have a long term effect on customer mindset when they buy Android devices. Users could soon start associating “real” Android experience with Motorola (since Google owns Motorola) and “spinoff” experience with other smartphone manufacturers.

When it comes to smartphones most devices are beginning to look quite similar in terms of hardware so ultimately manufacturers try to differentiate their products with custom skins and other software services. However, at today’s event it appears that Google might have used the announcement of Moto G as an opportunity to convey Google’s stand on device manufacturers trying to add custom layers.

If this wasn’t enough, Motorola went on to compare performance of Moto G in terms of answering calls, making calls, launching browser, returning home and booting to Samsung Galaxy S4 to show how stock Android OS was clearly the winner.

This is the best validation of a strategy which involves disciplined software which focuses on optimisation that creates value for the user

In his attempt to bring attention to stock Android experience Soni suggests that software strategy being followed by other Android device manufacturers is rather indisciplined.

So, in conclusion on one hand Google’s Motorola tried to highlight the features of its new low-priced smartphone but on the other it clearly didn’t fall short of ridiculing Google’s Android partners.

It will be interesting to see how Samsung, HTC and Sony respond to Motorola claiming that their devices are non-intuitive, have cluttered interface and custom skins that hog resources.

Apple introduced iOS app folders in iOS 4 and has had the ‘Jiggle Mode’ UI since iOS 1. On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple the patent for iOS app folders and the ‘Jiggle Mode’ UI.

The patent, which is listed as U.S. Patent No. 8,423,911, describes the iOS app folders as “Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders” and describes the methods to rearrange applications and organizing them. In the patent file from the USPTO, Imran Chaudhri is listed as the inventor of the UI feature.

For example, using a sequence of inputs to create, modify and/or delete folders and content within folders is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, existing methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.

Apple’s “Jiggle Mode” is also included in the patent, an animation that signifies that the user is able to move any of the applications on the home screen around. This is likely the reason that both features were including in the same patent, because of their interaction in iOS. In Jiggle mode, when a user places an app on top of another, it will automatically generate a folder with type of app such as ‘Games’ or ‘Productivity’. These names are taken from the app’s metadata generated from the App Store’s organizational categories.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5B, the selectable user interface objects jiggle as though they are floating on water (e.g., each respective selectable user interface object oscillates about a respective average position of the selectable user interface object on the display).

Apple does not own patents on all of its iOS features, getting these patents over 2 years after introducing the feature. However, as the company releases more iOS features in iOS 7 and beyond, they will begin to collect more patents along the way.

{Via AppleInsider}

Late last month, Apple introduced a standalone Podcasts app, pulling the service out of the Music app on iOS and building a new UI around it. However, soon after release, it became apparent that the app was ridden with numerous bugs as with any introduction of a new user interface or application.

On Wednesday, the Cupertino company addressed these issues with an update to the Podcasts application. Aside from performance and stability improvements, the app has also gained the following:

• Ability to remember custom playback speeds when flipping through new episodes
• Badges in Podcast library to identify number of unplayed episodes
• Fixes issue causing “Subscribe” button to defect and not operate properly
• More reliable artwork for “Top Stations”
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Apple continues to remove smaller services built into iTunes and give them their own standalone applications and user interfaces. The app is currently offered as a free download on the App Store {iTunes Link} for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

{via The Verge}

Sean Kovacs, developer of the Google Voice application for iPhone called “GV Mobile” recently updated his Twitter status saying:

Good news: I did get confirmation back from Apple that it will most likely get back in once I resubmit.

GV Mobile for iPhone was not approved by Apple when it was submitted for approval earlier and it lead to a controversy. When Apple responded to the  FCC’s questions they claimed that:

The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail.

However, now it seems that the app will be available soon as the developer has re-submitted the app to Apple for approval.

9to5Mac contacted the developer and published new details about the upcoming app:

• New app name is “GV Mobile +”
• The app will support the retina display
• The app will do iOS 4 quick-app-switching/multitasking
• There may be some sort of push notification feature in this release or in a future update.
• It will be free for the first 12 hours then will go to $2.99

App Layout [rating: 3/5]

App Layout allows anyone to mock up iPhone or iPad User Interface designs on their iPad. You can then save the design as an image and share it with others. Is this something you might be looking for?

App Layout has hit the iTunes App Store at a price point which certainly makes it worth investigation. Similar packages are currently selling at around $9.99, compared to App Layout’s low $4.99 price point.

Do you get what you pay for? Or is this app a bargain? Let’s find out…

Review

From my perspective as a developer I can see the appeal of having something that allows me to mock up app layouts when on the move. I may well fire up something like App Layout in idle moments when I don’t have a laptop with me that can run Apple’s development tools and I want to work through an idea. That could be an idea either for myself alone, or with a client in his or her office.

I have also dealt with some pretty awful hand drawn App Designs from prospective clients in the past. I am not sure if any app can “cure” people of bad design. But it can certainly give those who simply have problems expressing their ideas a useful framework to work within, and offer them the opportunity to meld their concept onto a mobile screen’s dimensions.

App Layout goes some way towards offering a solution to people in either of the two situations I just outlined. And at $4.99 it might even be worth a purchase if you have absolutely no idea what app design is and simply want to play at it!

But this app is not without its flaws. It is relatively new however, so I will be keeping an eye on updates in the future.

On the one hand having access to the majority of iOS User Interface elements in a mobile app is a great thing. But the ease with which we can put something together using them is what separates a truly great utility from an average one.

App Layout has a fun, informal feel overall. Even down to the hokey home grown music menu so that you can have some tunes playing as you design.

Initially accessing User Interface elements in App Layout is fun. You can swipe thorough a vast array of widgets and buttons, as well as fully blown iPhone or iPad screens. You then tap one to make a copy appear in your app design canvas.

You can then slide any chosen widget into position on a mockup device; iPad or iPhone. It’s at this point that App Layout’s limitations become clear. Selecting the user interface elements to put into your app layout should really be done by dragging them from the widget menu. Not tapping them to make copies appear on the screen in the top left hand corner, which can then be manipulated. It’s a small thing, but counterintuitive, and it makes your workflow more awkward then it needs to be.

Likewise scaling, or rotating elements should be done with multi-touch actions on those elements. Not by tapping buttons on a pop out menu. We are in 2010, and this is an iOS app after all Flicking forwards and backwards across a screen to find controls is not what good app design is about nowadays. People want to use their fingers to move, resize and rotate things on iDevices. So it is somewhat ironic that an “app design app” has these short comings. You can tell that App Layout has been designed primarily in a Simulator, and not on a device because it is mouse-centric, and not multi-touch-centric in many many ways.

When positioning items in your app mockup it would also be nice if there was a snap to grid option. Or if pieces would nudge up to one another when close together. Yes, that kind of option can be irritating. But it can also be a boon, particularly on a touch interface when it comes to positing things accurately, and neatly. It’s also a feature of Apple’s free desktop Interface Builder app, which I use daily, and Photoshop as well as most other design apps on the market. So I miss it terribly when it’s not in other people’s offerings.

It is also not possible to save an active project in App Layout. Something which necessitates you finishing a design and then saving it as an image, all in one session. You then don’t have the option to go back and work on that design again. Or to copy and fork it and try different concepts. More importantly you can’t suspend your work easily with the intention of coming back to it later. This last restriction makes the tedious nature of widget layout more frustrating. And beggars the question: What is the target audience for this app? If it’s for quick layouts then it needs a more intuitive and efficient user interface. If it’s for app designers then it needs options to save, copy and suspend work for later.

In short, App Layout is basically a painting app which uses iOS User Interface Elements as its brushes.

However, at $4.99 you cannot reasonably expect this program to offer all of the features of more pricey offerings, right out of the starting gate. Hopefully the developer is working to address these issues, and they will be forthcoming in a future update. I was just hoping for more – especially in an iPad app. I am certainly willing to take another look then.

It should be remembered that App Layout’s more expensive rivals are not perfect by any means either. And they should perhaps take note of the price point of this app, and worry that the developer might solve the niggles I have with it, and really challenge their pricing and market position.

In summary, at $4.99 App Layout is a cheap alternative to other more expensive app design options. But it is more of a hobbyist’s app than something a professional would use. And its a little too frustrating to offer to my clients to use.

Let’s hope the developer grows the concept.

Pros

• Cheap and friendly app.
• Layout options for iPhone and iPad in Landscape and Portrait orientations.
• Access to a large array of UI elements.
• Facebook and email integration.

Cons

• Cannot save a project, only a picture.
• App does not work in all orientations.
• No snap to grid.
• No Pinch Zoom, or multi-touch rotate for objects.
• The included Music!

App Layout iPhone & iPad – Part 1

Price: $4.99 (App Store)
Category: Productivity
Released:Aug 03, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.0
Size: 39.7 MB
Language:English
Seller: Jason Jardim
© www.MacSpots.com
Requirements:Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.

The app, called Vonage Mobile for Facebook, connects with facebook using Facebook Connect and then displays a list of all of your friends. The friend list is grouped into two groups, those who have the app installed on their iPhone and those who do not. For the users who do not have the app installed, you are able to chat with them using a SMS like user interface. The real power of this app, however, is for friends who do have the app installed.

Friends who have the app installed on their iPhone can be called without using their airtime minutes or incurring additional charges (data charges not withstanding). To call, simply choose the friend to call and the app will make the call. If your friend does not have the app running, they will get a notification that they have a call waiting for them and when they view the notification, the app will start and ring. The App emulates the iPhone’s phone app user interface and even supports bluetooth audio.

In my initial testing of the app, the call quality was very good (if not perfect at times). I was able to hold lengthy conversations without experiencing any drop offs. It remains to be seen whether or not this app will be able to survive against the likes of Skype, Fring, and the several other providers of VOIP calling including Vonage’s other apps themselves which provide some of the same functionalities. When Vonage will be releasing the same type of app for the Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile platforms, this app will allow for easy, VOIP communication using a social platform that many are already using as a contact list.

Vonage has hinted that there is going to be an iPad app coming soon (the name of the current app has the words iPhone and iPod in the title.) Hopefully, the app will also be updated to support background running (such as Skype) which would make it more user friendly and streamlined.

Overall, this is a great solution for those who do not want to maintain yet another contact list and require yet another set of invites and acceptances. For those who have never used the likes of Skype and Fring, but are active Facebook users, this app will be a welcomed option. To make this app infrastructure complete, Vonage should release a facebook app that can accept calls via a browser. Only time will tell how far Vonage will take this app and its infrastructure.

Vonage Mobile for Facebook – iPhone and iPod touch [App Store] ]]> https://touchreviews.net/vonage-lets-call-facebook-friends-free/feed/ 0 https://touchreviews.net/calcbot-iphone-ipad-calculator-app/ https://touchreviews.net/calcbot-iphone-ipad-calculator-app/#comments Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:04:54 +0000 https://touchreviews.net/?p=8275 Read More]]> Calcbot [rating: 2/5]

The app store has hundreds of different calculator apps. The specialized calculators such as the graphing calculators, builder’s calculators, and engineering calculators all provide features not found in the native iPhone calculator app. The rest of the apps which seems to be nothing more than different user interfaces for the same basic calculator have always made me question the need for yet another calculator app. Now, the good folks at TapBots who created the amazing ConvertBot conversion app, have released yet another basic calculator application with a couple of features that should have been implemented better to make them useful.

CalcBot, just like all other apps by TapBots feature a stunning user interface. It uses a dark user interface and features the almost neonish blue text that ConvertBot made famous. The buttons are all clearly labeled and are sized appropriately for fast and easy operation. If it was up to the user interface alone, this app would be named the king of all calculators. But looks are not everything.

The tagline used to describe CalcBot is “never lose your place in a calculation again” and the concept is simple. Provide a calculator that mirrors desk tape calculators. As you type, the display shows you a “formula” view of your calculation. Under the current total, the steps of the calculation are shown as a formula. Press the equal button and the calculation is transferred to a virtual tape that you can access by swiping down on the screen. Access more formulas by swiping sideways. Want to recall a previous calculation? Click on it on the tape and it is transferred to the calculator screen where, conceptually, you can edit the formula as needed. While this all sounds great, in practice, it is far from great.

Rather than using a traditional tape where each operation is listed on its own line, the tape is simply a list of the previous calculations shown in a formula view. Long formulas are cut off and do not wrap around to show all the steps. Pressing on the formula, will transfer it to the calculator window. This is where the app missed the concept of an electronic tape calculator. Rather than allowing the user to edit the individual parts of the formula, the user is only able to erase the parts starting at the last part and moving in reverse. This means that if you found a mistake in your calculation in the middle of the formula, you have to erase everything to the right of the mistake, fix the mistake, and then re-enter the rest of the formula. That in itself renders this app useless for what some may need a tape calculator for.

In its current incarnation, I can not recommend CalcBot as a useful tape calculator for users who use calculators extensively. Users looking for a companion app to ConvertBot that uses the same beautiful user interface theme will be happy with this app. Power users will soon be looking for a more robust and useful application.

Price: $1.99 (App Store)
Category: Utilities
Updated:Jul 29, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.1.0
1.1.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
Size: 9.9 MB
Languages:English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish
Seller:Tapbots
© 2010 Tapbots LLC
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later.

Apple has certainly been on a streak lately. The public release of the iPad has been a complete success and now the details of the much anticipated iPhone OS 4.0. The new operating system has been the main object of speculation and rumor since the unveiling of the Apple tablet in January. Today’s announcement finally threw back the curtain and gave us all a vision of the future of the iPhone and iPad platforms. While the tech media machine discerned and speculated most of the features beforehand, there were still a few surprises no one saw coming.

Let’s review the seven main features of the announcement:

• Multitasking

This was the big feature everyone has been waiting for. While it remains to be seen whether this is true multitasking in the sense that the application runs in the background or is preserved in some kind of frozen state, this feature should enhance the iPhone experience greatly. What we do know is multitasking will support audio, VoIP, location and navigation applications running in the background. In addition to this multitasking will include enhanced push notifications, local notifications, task completion, and fast app switching.

• Folders

One of the main complaints about the iPhone user interface is the endless succession of home screens full of icons. The Folders feature allows a user to create a pile of icons that appear as a folder on their home screen. Tapping the folder provides access to all of the apps in the folder.

• Enhanced mail

iPhone OS 4.0 will enhance the native Mail app in several significant ways. The most significant is a unified inbox. All of a user’s e-mail can now be delivered to one location. On the e-mail side, messages can now be organized by thread and attachments opened with an external app identified for that purpose or file extension.

• iBooks for iPhone

Apple will bring the iBooks application to the iPhone.

• Enterprise

iPhone OS 4.0 will bring a number of enhancements relevant to Enterprise users. They include increased data protection, mobile device management, wireless app distribution, multiple Exchange accounts, Exchange Server 2010 support and SSL VPN support.

• GameCenter

This was an enhancement no one saw coming. GameCenter provides an Xbox Live type interface for iPhone gaming. It integrates social gaming, friend invites, matchmaking, leaderboards and achievements. It will be interesting to see how developers use this enhancement and how much it cuts into the business of applications like OpenFeint.

• iAd

iAd is Apple’s entry into mobile advertising. While this may seem like a rather mundane enhancement, iAd will feature rich, in-app interactive and video advertisements. The advertisements demoed at the presentation seemed more like applications than static ads. Apple will sell and host the ads and split revenue 60/40 in favor of developers.

Multitasking was easily the most exciting and interesting announcement. The single criticism most used against the operating system is now gone and if Apple is prepared to release it, you know it has been tested and works extremely well. It may not be the full, preemptive multitasking users are familiar with from a desktop computer paradigm but I think it will be enough to make users happy without running into the problems encountered on mobile platforms like Android.

The move to version 4.0 seems like more of a major upgrade than the move to version 3.0 a year ago. I think this has a lot to do with the fact the iPhone OS now supports a major device in the iPad. I think it’s also indicative of Apple’s vision for the future, a vision where the iPhone OS and its ancestors are the future of Apple computing. Sure, Mac OS will always exist as a full operating system, but as Apple shifts focus from computers to consumer electronics the iPhone OS represents the lightweight operating system required to make such a change. Version 4.0 will be available in the summer for the iPhone and iPod Touch and in the fall for the iPad. The iPad, iPhone 3GS, and 3rd generation Touch will be able to run all of the new features. The iPhone 3G and 2nd generation Touch will run most features but notably multitasking will not be available. No word on pricing as of yet.

What are your thoughts on today’s announcements? Did Apple fill some of the major gaps in the iPhone OS? Would you be compelled to buy a product that runs the new operating system? Are you encouraged by Apple’s vision of the future based on the new OS? Leave us a comment and let us know.

You can read our complete  live coverage here.

Microsoft’s Courier tablet was first mentioned on tech sites a couple of months ago. At the time it was only a concept which existed in the form of a kind of User Interface showcase with cartoon hands controlling a virtual device. But those concept videos were rather impressive and very forward thinking. Of the many UI features that impressed me one really stuck in my mind. It was perhaps the simplest of them all, but it struck me as really nifty. When you want to transfer a picture or note to the clipboard you just slide it to the hinge of the device and it sticks there partly exposed on both screens. You can then flip through pages until you find the one you want. Once there you slide the clipping out onto either screen and paste it. Simple, but so cool I wanted one just so I could try it!

The User Interface of the Courier overall had the same shock and awe effect on me that the iPhone’s did when I first saw it. Before that OS X blew me away similarly.

Because at that stage the Courier was a concept no-one had any idea of the dimensions of the device. Or how much of the hardware was actually real. Or even how close to reality the incredibly impressive conceptual GUI of this thing was. All we did know was that the Courier had two screens, and opened like a traditional book with a hinge in the middle. It also supposedly had a pen, although the UI videos showed both multitouch with fingers and the pen being used. Oh, and it had a camera if the concept videos were accurate. We get to see it taking shots with that, and those snaps being filed away in a scrap book, edited and collated, and used as part of a presentation.

My initial reaction to the hinged device idea was that I wondered how people were going to actually use a device on the move which folded in the middle. How would it stay open on your lap? How would you type, draw or work with it when also having to hold it. Would the hinge be floppy or stiff? It was all the same kind of concerns that people had about how Apple’s take on a Tablet would work for typing and viewing movies etc. But I loved some of the ideas that were being explored with the Courier. Part of the reason that I worried about the folding design was that I envisioned it being around the size of a legal note pad when folded shut. So around the size of a magazine. I am not sure why, but that was my impression. My mind was stuck with the idea of a traditional tablet sized device or something about the size of the iPad, I guess.

Looking at the concept videos again it is fairly clear that this thing is not actually that big. Indeed, pictures that Engadget have today show the device (or at least a mockup) in human hands, and as being much closer to the size of a traditional paperback. For some reason this has made a massive impression on me. Engadet’s information on the device is here.

The videos (which have been around for a while now) are further down the same page. Make sure you watch them. They are obviously not real. By that I mean they are not running on a real device. But there is no reason in this day and age that a User Interface could not do all the things we are seeing there. And if Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 interface is anything to go by then the general look and feel all fits. Again though, all we’ve seen of that is flashy web sites and conceptsÉ so far.

Engadget have this to say: “Courier will function as a “digital journal,” and it’s designed to be seriously portable: it’s under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn’t much bigger than a 5×7 photo when closed. That’s a lot smaller than we expected.” With reference to that last sentence: Join the club guys!

If, and this is a big if. But if Microsoft can produce this device so that it looks as good as the pictures we have seen to date. And if the User Interface has the functionality detailed in those concept videos, then the Courier is going to be truly remarkable. And I will camp outside a store or travel half way round the world to buy one on day one. And I’ll want to develop for it too.

I am not convinced that this device will be all that the videos and pictures promise. It just seems too good to be true. But if it is then I think we could see a massive shift in power in the mobile market place.

Microsoft could really be making a rather incredible device that people simply must have.

What do you think about the Courier? Is it the iPad slayer or is it promising too much and will it underwhelm in real life?

By: Stephen Northcott

Microsoft’s Courier: Videos of the interface in action

Images and Video Credit: Engadget

Winterboard app via Cydia

“Simple iPad Theme” via Cydia

MakeItMine app via Cydia to Change the Carrier logo to iPad. More details here.

Shrink app via Cydia to reduce the size of all the icons on the springboard.

ProSwitcher via Cydia for Multitasking. More details here.

NYTimes – The New York Times app for iPhone via App Store

Classics – The iBooks lookalike app for iPhone via App Store

Kindle for iPhone via App Store

Video Instructions

Hottest Girls was recently pulled from the App Store for serving questionable content from a server though the app when approved was Rated 17+ for “frequent/intense sexual content or nudity” and “frequent/intense mature/suggestive theme.”

Latest app to serve Porn on App Store (currently available) is .folder – saved photos at secret folder developed by Ryota Namiki. This simple little application gives you a private space on your device to keep photos away from prying eyes should you happen to leave your iPod touch unattended or let someone play with your iPhone.

The app features a “Recommend” option which takes you to a photo viewing User Interface with a refresh option on the top right. According to the app description it pulls images from various websites but as far as I can tell it pulls 5 images with every refresh from 4u.straightline.jp

After refreshing a few times our reviewer reported some highly questionable content. To to say the least, featuring pictures of Japanese women and girls in various situations and stages of undress. You will also find pictures of girls topless or in suggestible poses such as up skirt or naked, covered in as little as possible.

According to Apple, iPhone OS 3.0 gives more control to parents and let them decide what music, videos, and apps their kids can access. But with apps like .folder – saved photos at secret folder serving Topless images being Rated 4+ on App Store, Apple’s review process is seriously concerning.

This app is still available on App Store ($.99) and was updated yesterday, it will be interesting to see how Apple will react to this!

We will update this post as soon as we get any reactions.

.folder – saved photos at secret folder Screenshots (censored)

Photos removed due to violation of adsense policies.

Posted by: TylerDurdan