Always felt that the Vision Pro's strategy of emulating the real world through cameras was going to be short lived.
It's surprising that Apple ever thought that cameras would be small enough to fit in a sunglasses form factor faster than displays in prescription lenses will gain resolution.
Goes back to the biggest design paradigm of our time. Do we want to build software that emulates the physical world, or do you want to build something that augments it.
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Thursday, October 02, 2025
Friday, September 12, 2025
Some more thoughts on the iPhone Air
I think it's pretty insane that they packed the entire iPhone in a camera bump, and then proceeded to put battery in the rest of the unit.
I think this will be remembered as one of the best iPhones to come out, especially in terms of industrial design. It's right up their with the likes of iPhone X, iPhone 6s, iPhone 5, and iPhone 4. It's a stunning design with some insane forward looking electronics.
This is the first iPhone to get me excited about iPhones in a while.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Customary Apple Keynote Post
Back to watching these live. Last couple of years with classes, I don't think I saw any of the videos live apart from WWDC. But then again, there's something to be said about the fact that this is the 19th iPhone introduction keynote. I don't know about others, but I am a bit bored. I can't watch feign interest for an event that's been happening like clockwork.
Don't get me wrong, I still like the new iPhones, the Air looks ridiculously good (barring the camera bump), but the fact remains that these videos are winnning no one over. People will buy a new iPhone when their old one is no longer good. Everyone has their own cadence. Some buy every 3 years, some every 5, but at the end of the day, if you're an iPhone person you pretty much know it, and if you aren't you know that too. Nothing that Apple introduces is likely going to convert an Android user who was holding out for one killer feature that the iPhones didn't have.
So yea, that's my two cents on this.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Don't Peep in the Kitchen just Yet
Sometime back, while I was designing the Watch app for LookUp, my brother (and the Co-Creator of LookUp) arrived at my desk, looked at me designing the interface and exclaimed, “This Looks Terrible! I hope we aren't shipping that!”, my response to him was simple, “Don't Look into the kitchen while the food is being prepared”, I meant to tell him that while I was in the process of designing an interface, there'd undoubtedly be things that I'd change, improvise on or remove before I finish making it, and in general it's not a good idea to critique the design during the process.
Sometimes I feel the same is true with Apple bloggers and rumor websites. Sometimes, they peep into the kitchen too early, set their expectations too high, and when the final product is ultimately different, or all together scrapped, there's an altogether different slew of rumour on rumour reports.
By now you've probably guessed what the post is about: Rumors on the Apple Car. Sometime in 2015, rumor began that Apple was planning to make a car. They'd insist that the car would be ready by 2018 and have self driving capabilities and would be an electric car. Months passed, Now the ambitions were reportedly toned down, and the first version was to just be an electric car And self driving would come later. A few months later, reports started pouring in that Apple had scrapped the idea all together, and was focusing on the software instead. Confusion ensued, is Apple making a car or not? Is even Apple clear about what they want to do with their car project? (Given a new reports suggesting that they working with law makers to work on self driving tech) Apple's Famed Car project was now termed the failed car project.
What!? Failed Car Project!? Were they even making a car in the first place? This to me appears to be a Peeping to early in the kitchen problem. Apple was probably working on a car, like they work on almost everything And the rumor went out rather earlier than it should have, and the result? Everyone assumed Apple would be ready with a car. They didn't even think of the possibility that they wouldn't eventually go ahead with it, or possibly shelf it. It's as if you were told of a touch screen Mac back in 2003, subsequently being told that Apple had “toned down” the ambitions and were focusing on building a touch screen phone instead.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Notes on Apple Watch
Vidit Bhargava
It's January 9th 2007, Steve Jobs is on stage, he's showing the world a better smartphone. You already want one. It's beautiful, elegant and potentially life changing but you don't see a lot of use instantly.
That's exactly how it felt when Tim Cook showed the world Apple's first generation SmartWatch this week. It makes other smart watches seem like ancient stone work.
Little is known about the Apple Watch at the moment. There are few details, a lot of questions and only some answers right now. I'd like to draw your attention to a few key points though:
First it's a watch. Looking at the Apple Watch from a watch buyer's perspective, I'd say it's pretty neat. Nothing comes close at this price range that's as beautiful or as well made as the Apple watch. Add to that the watch faces are phenomenal, I specially like the analog watch faces, they look elegant!
Here's a what Benjamin Clymer of Hodinkee had to say from his first impression
Looking at the watch one realizes just how much detail has gone into the making of the Watch. The curved glass blends perfectly into the stainless steel watch enclosure, the rich detail on the digital crown gives it the right fit, finish and feel for a watch crown. In terms of sheer watch design Apple's competing with neither of Motorola, Samsung or Pebble. It's taking a direct shot at brands like Tag Heuer, Seiko or Hublot.
But The watch's construction is quite like any of Apple's first generation products. Just like the first iPhone or iPad, it's a little thick, the screen resolution could get better but I'm sure that the Apple watch will only get better and thinner in the next few generations of the watch.
Another interesting point to note here is the strap
design. A few months back when I first heard the rumor of an apple designed watch, I looked at mine and instantly felt the need of a better strap, I've used a leather strap before and am currently using a velcrow strap for my wrist watch and both of them are quite terrible.
Looking at the six different strap variants I was quite pleased to see the Milanese Loop and the Leather Loop feature in the list both of them solve my watch strap problem quite efficiently. I guess the Milanese loop might be more high end but that's the one that I've found most appealing yet.
As for the software, I like the customizable Watch Faces and the new messaging app which allows you to draw and send short messages to other Watch users.
But the thing that's most exciting here is a feature called “Glances” which basically presents quick access to things like the Weather widget or the Apple TV Remote. It's going to be very useful and I guess a lot of people will end up using Glances more than the Watch Apps.
The new Typeface is pretty good over here, when printed on the back of the watch, it reminds me of the text writtent at the back of some of the analog watches, in the OS with lower case text it is far more legible than Helvetica or Lucida Grande or even Myriad Pro. There was some claim that it felt similar to roboto, I compared both of them and the differences are quite big. Take the letter R for example, Roboto has significant Helvetica Influence, while the Watch Typeface is more similar to Lucida Grande than Helvetica.
During the demo, a lot of apps were shown, of which Some of the apps felt like they wanted to show too much on a tiny screen. But I really liked the Starwood Hotels app which allows you to unlock your room by waving the watch. The BMW app and Apple Pay are quite neat too. Also, Apple's Fitness apps are quite interesting.
It's still early days for the Watch Space and already a few apps seem to stand out as experiences just meant for the wrist. There's a lot of scope for interesting ideas in here.
I think what's important here is Taptic Feedback, and Digital Crown. The interactions these two define will shape the direction in which Watch apps will go.
Price is the key here, it's $349. Another Affordable Luxury sweet spot. If you are looking for a cheap workable wrist watch that costs less than a $100, you'll be disappointed. But if you were planning to buy something in the range of $200 - $500, the Apple Watch May be your best bet, even if you are just looking for a watch.
The apple watch does leave a few questions though. For instance, what's the upgrade cycle going to be like? People tend to use Watches for a long time , it's definitely not something that one changes every year. Personally I feel a minor update every year followed by a major update in every two-three years is going to be fine.
And then there's the all important question on battery life. From the subtle hints that Apple dropped in the keynote, it feels like the watch will have at least a day of battery life at launch. But Apple's got roughly six months to launch this device and I'd be surprised if they didn't go on to improve its battery life from what it looks to be now.
As the keynote finished, I realized the atmosphere was similar to that of the initial iPhone and iPad Launch. I really want the Apple Watch, it's beautiful, elegant and something you'll instantly want to wear. I don't see a lot of use for a "smart" watch instantly, but I'm quite certain that just like the iPad, 3rd Party apps will eventually carve out incredible uses for the Apple Watch. I can already see Starwood Hotels and City Mapper leading the pack.
Images from Apple and Hodinkee
It's January 9th 2007, Steve Jobs is on stage, he's showing the world a better smartphone. You already want one. It's beautiful, elegant and potentially life changing but you don't see a lot of use instantly.
That's exactly how it felt when Tim Cook showed the world Apple's first generation SmartWatch this week. It makes other smart watches seem like ancient stone work.
Little is known about the Apple Watch at the moment. There are few details, a lot of questions and only some answers right now. I'd like to draw your attention to a few key points though:
First it's a watch. Looking at the Apple Watch from a watch buyer's perspective, I'd say it's pretty neat. Nothing comes close at this price range that's as beautiful or as well made as the Apple watch. Add to that the watch faces are phenomenal, I specially like the analog watch faces, they look elegant!
Here's a what Benjamin Clymer of Hodinkee had to say from his first impression
"Apple got more details right on their watch than the vast majority of Swiss and Asian brands do with similarly priced watches, and those details add up to a really impressive piece of design."
Looking at the watch one realizes just how much detail has gone into the making of the Watch. The curved glass blends perfectly into the stainless steel watch enclosure, the rich detail on the digital crown gives it the right fit, finish and feel for a watch crown. In terms of sheer watch design Apple's competing with neither of Motorola, Samsung or Pebble. It's taking a direct shot at brands like Tag Heuer, Seiko or Hublot.
But The watch's construction is quite like any of Apple's first generation products. Just like the first iPhone or iPad, it's a little thick, the screen resolution could get better but I'm sure that the Apple watch will only get better and thinner in the next few generations of the watch.
Another interesting point to note here is the strap design. A few months back when I first heard the rumor of an apple designed watch, I looked at mine and instantly felt the need of a better strap, I've used a leather strap before and am currently using a velcrow strap for my wrist watch and both of them are quite terrible.
Looking at the six different strap variants I was quite pleased to see the Milanese Loop and the Leather Loop feature in the list both of them solve my watch strap problem quite efficiently. I guess the Milanese loop might be more high end but that's the one that I've found most appealing yet.
As for the software, I like the customizable Watch Faces and the new messaging app which allows you to draw and send short messages to other Watch users.
But the thing that's most exciting here is a feature called “Glances” which basically presents quick access to things like the Weather widget or the Apple TV Remote. It's going to be very useful and I guess a lot of people will end up using Glances more than the Watch Apps.
The new Typeface is pretty good over here, when printed on the back of the watch, it reminds me of the text writtent at the back of some of the analog watches, in the OS with lower case text it is far more legible than Helvetica or Lucida Grande or even Myriad Pro. There was some claim that it felt similar to roboto, I compared both of them and the differences are quite big. Take the letter R for example, Roboto has significant Helvetica Influence, while the Watch Typeface is more similar to Lucida Grande than Helvetica.
During the demo, a lot of apps were shown, of which Some of the apps felt like they wanted to show too much on a tiny screen. But I really liked the Starwood Hotels app which allows you to unlock your room by waving the watch. The BMW app and Apple Pay are quite neat too. Also, Apple's Fitness apps are quite interesting.
It's still early days for the Watch Space and already a few apps seem to stand out as experiences just meant for the wrist. There's a lot of scope for interesting ideas in here.
I think what's important here is Taptic Feedback, and Digital Crown. The interactions these two define will shape the direction in which Watch apps will go.
Price is the key here, it's $349. Another Affordable Luxury sweet spot. If you are looking for a cheap workable wrist watch that costs less than a $100, you'll be disappointed. But if you were planning to buy something in the range of $200 - $500, the Apple Watch May be your best bet, even if you are just looking for a watch.
The apple watch does leave a few questions though. For instance, what's the upgrade cycle going to be like? People tend to use Watches for a long time , it's definitely not something that one changes every year. Personally I feel a minor update every year followed by a major update in every two-three years is going to be fine.
And then there's the all important question on battery life. From the subtle hints that Apple dropped in the keynote, it feels like the watch will have at least a day of battery life at launch. But Apple's got roughly six months to launch this device and I'd be surprised if they didn't go on to improve its battery life from what it looks to be now.
As the keynote finished, I realized the atmosphere was similar to that of the initial iPhone and iPad Launch. I really want the Apple Watch, it's beautiful, elegant and something you'll instantly want to wear. I don't see a lot of use for a "smart" watch instantly, but I'm quite certain that just like the iPad, 3rd Party apps will eventually carve out incredible uses for the Apple Watch. I can already see Starwood Hotels and City Mapper leading the pack.
Images from Apple and Hodinkee
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Notes on iPhone 6 and 6Plus
Vidit Bhargava
I am sure most of us have gone through the "features" of the new phones. This post is meant to draw attention to some slight details of the new device:
1. The iPhone design and plastic bars.
Some time back in 2012 Apple announced what was perhaps their best designed iPod ever. The 5th Generation iPod Touch. That device's back was a clear indication as to where Apple wanted to go with it's new iPhones. The iPhone at that time had an aluminum back with two glass panels at the top and bottom of it. It was clearly visible that engineering constraints made apple do that. Limitations at the time stopped apple from bringing an all metal back to the market without destroying call reception.
Jump to 2014, and Apple's out with a completely new all metal design for its new iPhones. It's nothing short of an engineering marvel.. But some plastic bands still exist. Apple's design feels great, it's one of their best works yet but at the same time it feels like a compromise. There's a Slight room for improvement here. The camera protrusion can be ironed out, the plastic bands wiped out.
The design is no doubt great and while this may be the closest we've got to a perfect Aluminum back for the iPhone, I guess the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 might have significant updates to the design which bring us much closer to the extinction of plastic bands from the iPhone.
2. Apple Pay
I'm not to sure about the NFC tap to pay machines that'll enable iPhones to pay via a single tap and authenticate via TouchID but I'm sure that the Apple Pay for online transactions is going to be big.
Most online transactions generally require a one time passcode or login Ids to authenticate a payer's identity. Something like the Apple Pay can be highly successful here. You just need to authenticate via your finger print to purchase something, getting rid of the extremely inconvenient login passwords that one needed to enter before every transaction.
But The international availability of Apple Pay is going to be a big question here. For India it's just a matter of how quickly RBI approves finger print authentications as passwords for online payments.
3. A Case for the 5.5-inch iPhone
5.5-inches just feels too big to me ( and to lots of other people) but at the same time there are a good many customers looking forward to something this big. First, a 5.5-inch phone handles content creation lot better than how a 4.7-inch device would. And Secondly, the screen is far better for on the fly entertainment like watching movies. If those two things are your priority instead of something more pocketable, I guess the iPhone 6Plus is a no brainer then.
Another interesting point about the new iPhones was made on John Gruber's show sometime back, he says that it may look extremely awkward to hold something as big as an iPhone 6Plus to your ear but the way forward in phones hardly involves that gesture any more. In fact the screen matters more if you are using something like FaceTime or Skype.
In the end I guess the phone screen sizes are going to become like Laptop sizes, there still exists an 11-inch MacBook Air and a 15-inch MacBook Pro but the sweet spot for a lot of people is the 13-inch Variant. I don't see why the phones won't follow a similar vein, with 4-inches being the smallest but going all the way up to 5.5-inches if someone likes.
For me, the 4.7" on iPhone 6 is the maximum screen size that I can go to. I still think 3.5" or 4" are the optimum sizes for a phone.
4. Camera
When it comes to Camera updates Apple goes on a nerd roll during its keynote. There's hardly a thing I understood about the new sensors but the gist of it was that the iPhone would get a lot better at Auto Focus and Low Light Images.
Final Thoughts
The iPhone 6 and 6Plus are solid upgrades to the iPhone lineup. I personally like the 4.7" iPhone 6 very much. I'm particularly excited about the camera improvements and Apple Pay in the new iPhones.
There's a strong echo of iterative design here, a reluctance to do too much in one iteration. This is something I strongly admire about apple's products. While every generation of their new product is just a small iteration but even if you look at something that's 2-3 generations old, you see how big a change the new one is.
I am sure most of us have gone through the "features" of the new phones. This post is meant to draw attention to some slight details of the new device:
1. The iPhone design and plastic bars.
Some time back in 2012 Apple announced what was perhaps their best designed iPod ever. The 5th Generation iPod Touch. That device's back was a clear indication as to where Apple wanted to go with it's new iPhones. The iPhone at that time had an aluminum back with two glass panels at the top and bottom of it. It was clearly visible that engineering constraints made apple do that. Limitations at the time stopped apple from bringing an all metal back to the market without destroying call reception.
Jump to 2014, and Apple's out with a completely new all metal design for its new iPhones. It's nothing short of an engineering marvel.. But some plastic bands still exist. Apple's design feels great, it's one of their best works yet but at the same time it feels like a compromise. There's a Slight room for improvement here. The camera protrusion can be ironed out, the plastic bands wiped out.
The design is no doubt great and while this may be the closest we've got to a perfect Aluminum back for the iPhone, I guess the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 might have significant updates to the design which bring us much closer to the extinction of plastic bands from the iPhone.
2. Apple Pay
I'm not to sure about the NFC tap to pay machines that'll enable iPhones to pay via a single tap and authenticate via TouchID but I'm sure that the Apple Pay for online transactions is going to be big.
Most online transactions generally require a one time passcode or login Ids to authenticate a payer's identity. Something like the Apple Pay can be highly successful here. You just need to authenticate via your finger print to purchase something, getting rid of the extremely inconvenient login passwords that one needed to enter before every transaction.
But The international availability of Apple Pay is going to be a big question here. For India it's just a matter of how quickly RBI approves finger print authentications as passwords for online payments.
3. A Case for the 5.5-inch iPhone
Another interesting point about the new iPhones was made on John Gruber's show sometime back, he says that it may look extremely awkward to hold something as big as an iPhone 6Plus to your ear but the way forward in phones hardly involves that gesture any more. In fact the screen matters more if you are using something like FaceTime or Skype.
In the end I guess the phone screen sizes are going to become like Laptop sizes, there still exists an 11-inch MacBook Air and a 15-inch MacBook Pro but the sweet spot for a lot of people is the 13-inch Variant. I don't see why the phones won't follow a similar vein, with 4-inches being the smallest but going all the way up to 5.5-inches if someone likes.
For me, the 4.7" on iPhone 6 is the maximum screen size that I can go to. I still think 3.5" or 4" are the optimum sizes for a phone.
4. Camera
When it comes to Camera updates Apple goes on a nerd roll during its keynote. There's hardly a thing I understood about the new sensors but the gist of it was that the iPhone would get a lot better at Auto Focus and Low Light Images.
Final Thoughts
The iPhone 6 and 6Plus are solid upgrades to the iPhone lineup. I personally like the 4.7" iPhone 6 very much. I'm particularly excited about the camera improvements and Apple Pay in the new iPhones.
There's a strong echo of iterative design here, a reluctance to do too much in one iteration. This is something I strongly admire about apple's products. While every generation of their new product is just a small iteration but even if you look at something that's 2-3 generations old, you see how big a change the new one is.
Sunday, February 02, 2014
Learning From Mistakes
Vidit Bhargava
A simple example from Apple's previous products about learning from mistakes made in the past.
In 2000 Apple came out with PowerMac G4 Cube, a computer that was an aesthetic masterpiece but overpriced and under performing, something which became the reason of its failure. Also it was perhaps the first time people realized that aesthetics are temporary (the Cube developed cracks very easily) but design (not just aesthetics but how well the parts of the product gel together as well) is permanent. In 2013, Apple came out with MacPro A cylindrical Mac which aesthetically challenges the same concepts of computing as the G4 Cube did. Why does a desktop have to be a Tower? Why can't pro users enjoy a luxurious Mac? But unlike the Cube the Mac Pro is neither under powered nor overpriced. (check price comparisons which show how much does it take to assemble a PC with same specs). And is doing well along with getting some great reviews as well.
A lesson well learnt about design. Aesthetics are temporary. Design is Permanent.
A simple example from Apple's previous products about learning from mistakes made in the past.
In 2000 Apple came out with PowerMac G4 Cube, a computer that was an aesthetic masterpiece but overpriced and under performing, something which became the reason of its failure. Also it was perhaps the first time people realized that aesthetics are temporary (the Cube developed cracks very easily) but design (not just aesthetics but how well the parts of the product gel together as well) is permanent. In 2013, Apple came out with MacPro A cylindrical Mac which aesthetically challenges the same concepts of computing as the G4 Cube did. Why does a desktop have to be a Tower? Why can't pro users enjoy a luxurious Mac? But unlike the Cube the Mac Pro is neither under powered nor overpriced. (check price comparisons which show how much does it take to assemble a PC with same specs). And is doing well along with getting some great reviews as well.
A lesson well learnt about design. Aesthetics are temporary. Design is Permanent.
Monday, January 13, 2014
What will your verse be?
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering — these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love — these are what we stay alive for.
To quote from Whitman,
“O me, O life of the questions of these recurring.
Of the endless trains of the faithless. Of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer: that you are here. That life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
What will your verse be?
To quote from Whitman,
“O me, O life of the questions of these recurring.
Of the endless trains of the faithless. Of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer: that you are here. That life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
What will your verse be?
Friday, October 04, 2013
Thoughts on the New iPhones
Vidit Bhargava
It makes for a great visitor count on a blog to write about an apple or iPhone flaw. Or to talk about how the company is doomed or how much a disappointment the phone is. This post falls in none of the categories. It talks about the innovation, the design and construction of the new iPhones.
Software
A fresh new Interface, new ways of user interaction, improvements in the usability and a few other bold changes. Changing the design of an operating system changes a lot of things, it changes how we perceive a piece of software and even more so in touch interfaces, where changing user interaction has significant changes on the software's usability and productivity itself.
But even with so many changes, iOS still remains an operating system with its own identity. It remains the OS which let's an app, take full space of the screen to convey its idea. Your iPhone is a phone, wide screen iPod with touch controls, Internet communications device, gaming console or a camera. Thanks to its operating system it can take various shapes. This is what makes iOS different from android or windows phone or blackberry OS.
The software's identity gives users a choice to select from. Android (Low Cost, Lots of Geek Stuff and Insanely customizable) or iOS ( Apps, Quality, Usability and efficiency ) ? it's your pick.
Color vs Forward Thinking
Unlike previous years, apple has given two choices to its buyers this time. One of a premium quality device with a colorful enclosure and the all the pre-requisites of an iPhone. The other with newer technology like a fingerprint sensor, advanced camera options breakthrough flash technology, 64 bit architecture and a motion co-processor. The price points, a question of much debate are actually very interesting here. Let's just take every prejudice away from our minds and think. A new iPhone until last year started at $199. This year, it starts at $99. Which seems to be a good deal. But is the iPhone 5c really a new iPhone?
Meet the new iPhones
The iPhone 5c lacks speed improvements from the iPhone 5. It's just as fast as the iPhone 5 but not quite as fast as the iPhone 5s. But the 5 itself wasn't a very slow device. Infact, the 5c does very well in benchmarks. The iPhone 5c has a significant advantage over 5 and to some extent 5s when it comes to the form factor, construction and fun-ness. The polycarbonate shell on the 5c is much more easier to grip and hold than the aluminum enclosure of the iPhone 5 or 5s. Also, the new coat of colors is definitely going to appeal the youth (the lower cost also helps).
The iPhone 5c might not seem to be an improvement over the previous generation iPhone 5 on a spec sheet but it definitely is, when it's held in the hand and played with. Apple innovates again, this time by giving us a polycarbonate shell that feels premium and extremely sturdy (steel reinforcements along the edge make sure of that ).
The iPhone 5s is a great stability upgrade and one with significant other features as well. The 5s has a significant speed bump, it also brings in a 64 bit ( some tech-guy should really explain me how it helps ) version of iOS7 and there are some major camera improvements. There are graphics improvements to which mean better games and much better UX. Again, apple isn't playing a spec-sheet battle over here. It doesn't pack 8 cores & doesn't even mention RAM. But it delivers a benchmark trumping performance with a dual core A7 Chip. True innovation doesn't lie in packing as many cores as possible it lies in optimizing the software that it runs faster on two cores only. Apple does the same with its iPhone camera. The 5s has an 8MP camera but with much larger pixels ( bigger pixels = better picture ) and a breakthrough camera app. I specially like the slo-mo camera. It does some awesome & professional looking stuff in 120fps and is really cool. The burst mode and the white balance flash are great too.
But the feature that makes every other phone look stale in comparison is the finger print sensor. It's the first stab at an age old tradition of passwords. It's great! You can buy stuff on your phone with a fingerprint authentication! ( everyone knows how cumbersome is it to manage passwords ). Perhaps more than the technology itself it's implementation is much more brilliant.It's the first fingerprint sensor I have seen which doesn't look or work terribly.
So there we are, two new iPhones both on the same fundamentals as all other iPhones. Significantly better than their predecessors (yes! the 5c too is better than the 5 ) and fully focused on a wonderful user experience and great usability. The screen sizes are just appropriate. The technical specs, good enough to top benchmarks and features that attract a lot of people who wish to do different things on their phone.
Image Credits: iMore and TechCrunch
It makes for a great visitor count on a blog to write about an apple or iPhone flaw. Or to talk about how the company is doomed or how much a disappointment the phone is. This post falls in none of the categories. It talks about the innovation, the design and construction of the new iPhones.
Software
A fresh new Interface, new ways of user interaction, improvements in the usability and a few other bold changes. Changing the design of an operating system changes a lot of things, it changes how we perceive a piece of software and even more so in touch interfaces, where changing user interaction has significant changes on the software's usability and productivity itself.
But even with so many changes, iOS still remains an operating system with its own identity. It remains the OS which let's an app, take full space of the screen to convey its idea. Your iPhone is a phone, wide screen iPod with touch controls, Internet communications device, gaming console or a camera. Thanks to its operating system it can take various shapes. This is what makes iOS different from android or windows phone or blackberry OS.
The software's identity gives users a choice to select from. Android (Low Cost, Lots of Geek Stuff and Insanely customizable) or iOS ( Apps, Quality, Usability and efficiency ) ? it's your pick.
Color vs Forward Thinking
Unlike previous years, apple has given two choices to its buyers this time. One of a premium quality device with a colorful enclosure and the all the pre-requisites of an iPhone. The other with newer technology like a fingerprint sensor, advanced camera options breakthrough flash technology, 64 bit architecture and a motion co-processor. The price points, a question of much debate are actually very interesting here. Let's just take every prejudice away from our minds and think. A new iPhone until last year started at $199. This year, it starts at $99. Which seems to be a good deal. But is the iPhone 5c really a new iPhone?
Meet the new iPhones
The iPhone 5c lacks speed improvements from the iPhone 5. It's just as fast as the iPhone 5 but not quite as fast as the iPhone 5s. But the 5 itself wasn't a very slow device. Infact, the 5c does very well in benchmarks. The iPhone 5c has a significant advantage over 5 and to some extent 5s when it comes to the form factor, construction and fun-ness. The polycarbonate shell on the 5c is much more easier to grip and hold than the aluminum enclosure of the iPhone 5 or 5s. Also, the new coat of colors is definitely going to appeal the youth (the lower cost also helps).
The iPhone 5c might not seem to be an improvement over the previous generation iPhone 5 on a spec sheet but it definitely is, when it's held in the hand and played with. Apple innovates again, this time by giving us a polycarbonate shell that feels premium and extremely sturdy (steel reinforcements along the edge make sure of that ).
The iPhone 5s is a great stability upgrade and one with significant other features as well. The 5s has a significant speed bump, it also brings in a 64 bit ( some tech-guy should really explain me how it helps ) version of iOS7 and there are some major camera improvements. There are graphics improvements to which mean better games and much better UX. Again, apple isn't playing a spec-sheet battle over here. It doesn't pack 8 cores & doesn't even mention RAM. But it delivers a benchmark trumping performance with a dual core A7 Chip. True innovation doesn't lie in packing as many cores as possible it lies in optimizing the software that it runs faster on two cores only. Apple does the same with its iPhone camera. The 5s has an 8MP camera but with much larger pixels ( bigger pixels = better picture ) and a breakthrough camera app. I specially like the slo-mo camera. It does some awesome & professional looking stuff in 120fps and is really cool. The burst mode and the white balance flash are great too.
But the feature that makes every other phone look stale in comparison is the finger print sensor. It's the first stab at an age old tradition of passwords. It's great! You can buy stuff on your phone with a fingerprint authentication! ( everyone knows how cumbersome is it to manage passwords ). Perhaps more than the technology itself it's implementation is much more brilliant.It's the first fingerprint sensor I have seen which doesn't look or work terribly.
So there we are, two new iPhones both on the same fundamentals as all other iPhones. Significantly better than their predecessors (yes! the 5c too is better than the 5 ) and fully focused on a wonderful user experience and great usability. The screen sizes are just appropriate. The technical specs, good enough to top benchmarks and features that attract a lot of people who wish to do different things on their phone.
Friday, August 23, 2013
iOS7: Looking beyond the Aesthetics
Vidit Bhargava
So we've all seen iOS7 getting previewed. We've had our first impressions from the launch video. We've all complained about the icons and we have also seen iOS7 improve dramatically from Beta 1 to Beta 6. Its near perfect now. The confusing lock screen isn't confusing anymore. The extremely high-saturation in the iTunes App Icon has gone, I am getting used to seeing larger circles and 3.5" phones look nice again!
iOS 7 Plays a major role over here. Right from the moment you wake your screen you perceive it looks larger because its a cleaner user interface which gives the screen a lot of open space instead of a cramped up iOS6 lock screen where more than half of the space was eaten up by a large slide to unlock bars and time & date headers. They've gone for good. Then there's the browsing content, where the navigation bars and the address bars just slide away to give a better full-screen reading experience and this seems to be, by and large the approach of this operating system throughout its default apps, be it the translucent keyboard or the semi-transparent navigation options of the camera app. They are perhaps the most important efforts put in iOS7 to improve the phone's form-factor. A perfect example of where the software helps the hardware in every way possible for a greater User Interface and is definitely a great way to solve the screensize problem.
UX: User Experience
Perhaps the most important aspect of a human's interaction with a device is its UX where more often than not we seem to ask the question, "How does the software behave to your touch?" And here come some of the most ground breaking 'changes' that apple has made to the phone's operating system. Coming to the home screen again, when you slide to unlock your phone now, you slide the screen and not the slider. The icons also fly in instead of just being statically placed there. The phone gives a depth perception. You feel as though the screen had 'layers' of content instead of a static display making the operating system feel three dimensional. The parallax on the home screen is just an extension to this effect. The sliding from the edge of the display in Safari and Mail now make you go to the previous screen, an extremely intuitive way of navigating. There are developer APIs for the same too. By redoing the entire UX for iOS7, Apple has made a bold move where they've practically changed the way the entire operating system works on your touch but have kept your touch just the same. You still slide to unlock but now you are sliding the screen instead of the slider.
Smartwatches and Game Controllers: New Bluetooth APIs help your iPhone and iPad interact better with these devices. So your shiny new Pebble watch will have greater access and so will the nike fuel band. Also, there's Game Controller support.
AirDrop: Friends have constantly asked me whether there are apps that let them share 'files' via bluetooth. Much to their disappointment they can't. iOS7 changes that. Developers now have access to use AirDrop which will allow users to share content like photos or links with fellow iOS7 owners. Developers are sure to pounce on the opportunity to create apps which allow sharing of notes, documents and what not!
Control Center: If not in as major a way as AirDrop or iBeacons, control center gives iPhone its own share of quick access content. You can start playing music, turn on/off bluetooth, airdrop, wifi and more, goto to camera, calculator or timer instantly. This is going to be quite a handy tool for iOS Device owners.
Multitasking: More multitasking abilities will now help apps download content in the background, iOS7 now supports complete multitasking abilities and better optimisation ensures you still get the good battery life.
iTunes Radio: You can select from a selection of featured stations which are based on genre or artists or select from suggested stations which are customised to the user's listening habits. iTunes Radio is Apple's answer to the deteriorating iTunes listening habits of people and a shift to pandora and spotify. This is also a clear indication that the next generation of iPods are likely to have WiFi!
Well there we are, i've not even talked about the flat Aesthetic yet. So you see, beyond UI, UX & Aesthetic changes there lie a lot more meaningful improvements to the operating system. iOS7 devices will have the ability to interact with devices that have been traditionally unassociated with modern day tech, and that is what excites me to use iOS7 which is well and truly the biggest update to the operating system. Both Aesthetically and technically! This is definitely worth an upgrade from iOS6.
--
P.S.
We often hear from Apple's critics and Android Adopters about how closed and guarded the iOS platform is and how much open the Android platform is. And yet with all its openness, Android has failed to produce a single app which is technically superior in working than any iOS app. Infact the only place where the openness is openly visible is the malware industry which is at an all time boom on Android devices.
Image Credit: CNET & iMore
Thursday, August 16, 2012
OSX Mountain Lion Review
Vidit Bhargava
Software: OS X Mountain Lion
Device Tested on: MacBook Air (June 2012)
10 Minutes of using OSX Mountain Lion and you'll realize that it's the 200+ tiny invisible new features that are making your experience so lovable and not just the 10-12 new things that have been advertised.
OS X Mountain Lion is an extension of what Lion was. It's a sequel to the previous OS which introduced various iOS elements like the Launchpad, and new management tools like Mission Control. Mountain Lion betters that experience and adds a few more iOS elements in the decade old OS X which just gets better after every software update.
Among the little things that have been improved in OS X are the multitouch gestures and the overall scrolling experience. There's a simple intuitive gesture from almost every task you'd be performing. You can tap with three fingers to launch a quick preview of any file in the finder. A pinch inwards with your thumb launches the Launchpad and a pinch outwards cleans everything up and you get a clear view of your desktop. OS X maintains its love for gestures and they just get better by the day.
Launchpad is easily the quickest way to get to your applications in OS X but it can get tiresome sometimes, to navigate pages of applications only to find something essential. Come OS X Mountain Lion, the problem is ingeniously solved. Perched at the top of application icons is a search bar which activates as soon as you start typing with Launchpad open. Doesn't look anything awesome, isn't it? But it does make app launching significantly faster and is one of the neatest improvements you'll see in an OS (These things just get ignored most of the time.). Launchpad is something we saw in OS X Lion too but it gets more meaningful with Mountain Lion.
iCloud Integration with iWork: At the time of its launch the iCloud was criticized for its Mac implementation. It was clearly obvious that iWork would get an iOS like document browser for iCloud documents and people were really disappointed when it didn't come at its launch in October 2011. Well, it has come now. And it's a blessing! You can save / open files from your iCloud Documents and access them on almost any iOS device you own (Will need iOS 5 or later) and all your mountain lion macs. It's clearly a win-win situation for those who own multiple Macs or iOS devices.
Gatekeeper: It's a tool that gives you the power to pulldown a shutter on any outside apps and converts your Mac into a closely guarded walled fortress. You can then download applications from the Mac App Store only or choose an option to download apps that have are signed with a genuine developer ID. This is quite a disappointment. The Mac App Store doesn't have a really good selection of apps to choose from and the sandboxing of applications is still taking a little time, even though most developers have done that. It's better to keep the gates open for now.
Apart from these little additions, almost everything has undergone changes which improve the user experience and provide more functionality in most cases.
Apple's update to the new OS is more productive at many fronts. For Example, you get all your Mails, tweet replies, news updates, reminders and very soon, Facebook notifications on the notification center, as soon as you switch on your Mac. The great part is that all you need to do is a simple two finger swipe from the edge of your track pad to reveal the notification center. A Notification Center on any device is extremely helpful. At times I find my self 'switching on' the computer only to check for mail and news updates and i end up doing all kinds of un-productive work most of the times, but having a notification center really helps curbing that to a great extent. The only thing that bothers me here sometimes is the lack of weather and stocks widget in the Notification Center. Both the iPad and Mac lack them. But these widgets on the iPhone are extremely helpful and it's a disappointment not to have them on the OSX.
There are things Apple has done to build a stronger Eco-system between iPhones, iPads and Macs, With this update. Some of them are very powerful (iClouds Documents and Data) others like Reminders and messages are cool additions but I can hardly find any common uses of them when using a laptop, compared to using a phone. I'd rather have my self notified on a phone about my grocery shopping every time I'm near the grocery store than be reminded on the move on a Mac when in all probability I'll be doing some extremely urgent or important work (hence even using it on the go). But it works just about fine the other way around, say I set up reminders to take certain things or drop a package to my friend, on a mac. I can then receive notifications on my iPhone and iPad whichever device I have. The restriction of course is that you need to be a part of the eco-system. And to do that you must have at least two iOS/ Mac devices.
The other ecosystem loving app is the Messages application app that comes as a replacement to the old iChat. Messages maintains a good balance between your IM chats and the others that you do with your friends having iOS / Mac Devices. Its just ideal for Mac-Mac conversations. And There are many more uses of such an app, including the fact that you are actually receiving chat notifications as soon as you are on your computer. Moreover messages could benefit in the future with a PC app to. That'll then create a definitely powerful and successful chat client for communications between computers (something like an SMS service for a computer). But that seems to be a far fetched dream for now.
There is also the notes application which is quite snappy when referring or creating quick notes but handles image formatting quite badly. Notes also lacks options to attach audio or video to the notes and has a very premature image embedding option. In short Notes is behind a lot of competition when we look at how others like Evernote provide such features but in simplicity Notes for OSX beats all other apps including Evernote. There is no immediate revolutionary use of this app but it's not bad to have something like this.
Sharing is big in OSX Mountain Lion. You can share links, photos and videos on the two biggest social networks Facebook and Twitter (and of-course Seina Weibo too) and you can also upload photos and video to Flickr and Vimeo. You can just about share anything from any where. A single swipe to the notification center brings up the share via tweet option (and will soon have share via Facebook too), everywhere else you'll either find a share button or will have a share option. Everyone's on a social network these days. And sharing options make it easier to be more active on them and a good implementation just makes the experience more snappier.
Safari's Offline Reading lists and the new tab view are little gems. The unified search and address bar was inevitable, but the reader icon that stays there at all times even when there isn't Anything to "read" is a bit irksome and feels a little out of place at sometimes. Safari feels quite fast on OSX and hence gains a lot more audience than chrome (running on a similar engine) ends up getting.
Dictation on OSX is quite average, it's hardly able to recognize the Indian accent without making mistakes. But Having said that dictation on OSX ranks among the best speech to text tools available in the market. Dictation actually gets better over the time, it learns how you pronounce certain words, it gathers the speech data to do this. In our tests speaking in an Indian accent, Dictation showed only 44% accuracy but when tested on American accent the accuracy was pretty good. We may just be a step away from Siri on Macs. And that, would be amazing.
And the last thing that makes this OSX experience filled with sublime awesomeness is the AirPlay compatibility, with AirPlay built-in you can now listen to audio on your AirPlay speakers from any source not just iTunes or QuickTime. This is a really going to be helpful for those who've got either an AirPlay enabled TV or speakers, it makes the experience of using Airplay much better.
The dock Is an area of concern On OSX Mountain Lion. They've now put a grayish, more opaque than translucent dock with tiny lights that indicate whether an app is running or not. Compare that to the dock in OSX Lion or Snow Leopard and you realize how bad it is, it's not the grey color thats so appalling but the tiny lights which leave you with a sour feeling.
The Battery Life on the MacBook Air that I tested was quite appreciable and was quite unaffected by the upgrade. It runs a respectable 6.5 hours during heavy app Development hours and crosses the 7 hour quote sometimes, when you're just doing casual browsing or chatting on Messages. My tests on the software end seem satisfactory their doesn't seem to be any drastic change in the battery life ever since the MacBook Air was upgraded to mountain lion.
Summarizing the OSX experience, Apple's OSX Mountain Lion is a "massive upgrade" and perhaps the first truly social operating system. Having said that we're still in the OS 'X' era, and Mountain Lion maintains all traits of a typical OS X update and not something completely new. OSX is lovable to use and there aren't many glitches. It's perhaps the best update to OS X ever since Leopard. It's super cheap at just $19.99 and it'll be unwise not to upgrade your OS.
Rating: 9.1/10
Software: OS X Mountain Lion
Device Tested on: MacBook Air (June 2012)
10 Minutes of using OSX Mountain Lion and you'll realize that it's the 200+ tiny invisible new features that are making your experience so lovable and not just the 10-12 new things that have been advertised.
OS X Mountain Lion is an extension of what Lion was. It's a sequel to the previous OS which introduced various iOS elements like the Launchpad, and new management tools like Mission Control. Mountain Lion betters that experience and adds a few more iOS elements in the decade old OS X which just gets better after every software update.
 |
| Notice the Search bar at the top, its just brilliant! |
Launchpad is easily the quickest way to get to your applications in OS X but it can get tiresome sometimes, to navigate pages of applications only to find something essential. Come OS X Mountain Lion, the problem is ingeniously solved. Perched at the top of application icons is a search bar which activates as soon as you start typing with Launchpad open. Doesn't look anything awesome, isn't it? But it does make app launching significantly faster and is one of the neatest improvements you'll see in an OS (These things just get ignored most of the time.). Launchpad is something we saw in OS X Lion too but it gets more meaningful with Mountain Lion.
iCloud Integration with iWork: At the time of its launch the iCloud was criticized for its Mac implementation. It was clearly obvious that iWork would get an iOS like document browser for iCloud documents and people were really disappointed when it didn't come at its launch in October 2011. Well, it has come now. And it's a blessing! You can save / open files from your iCloud Documents and access them on almost any iOS device you own (Will need iOS 5 or later) and all your mountain lion macs. It's clearly a win-win situation for those who own multiple Macs or iOS devices.
Gatekeeper: It's a tool that gives you the power to pulldown a shutter on any outside apps and converts your Mac into a closely guarded walled fortress. You can then download applications from the Mac App Store only or choose an option to download apps that have are signed with a genuine developer ID. This is quite a disappointment. The Mac App Store doesn't have a really good selection of apps to choose from and the sandboxing of applications is still taking a little time, even though most developers have done that. It's better to keep the gates open for now.
Apart from these little additions, almost everything has undergone changes which improve the user experience and provide more functionality in most cases.
Apple's update to the new OS is more productive at many fronts. For Example, you get all your Mails, tweet replies, news updates, reminders and very soon, Facebook notifications on the notification center, as soon as you switch on your Mac. The great part is that all you need to do is a simple two finger swipe from the edge of your track pad to reveal the notification center. A Notification Center on any device is extremely helpful. At times I find my self 'switching on' the computer only to check for mail and news updates and i end up doing all kinds of un-productive work most of the times, but having a notification center really helps curbing that to a great extent. The only thing that bothers me here sometimes is the lack of weather and stocks widget in the Notification Center. Both the iPad and Mac lack them. But these widgets on the iPhone are extremely helpful and it's a disappointment not to have them on the OSX.There are things Apple has done to build a stronger Eco-system between iPhones, iPads and Macs, With this update. Some of them are very powerful (iClouds Documents and Data) others like Reminders and messages are cool additions but I can hardly find any common uses of them when using a laptop, compared to using a phone. I'd rather have my self notified on a phone about my grocery shopping every time I'm near the grocery store than be reminded on the move on a Mac when in all probability I'll be doing some extremely urgent or important work (hence even using it on the go). But it works just about fine the other way around, say I set up reminders to take certain things or drop a package to my friend, on a mac. I can then receive notifications on my iPhone and iPad whichever device I have. The restriction of course is that you need to be a part of the eco-system. And to do that you must have at least two iOS/ Mac devices.
The other ecosystem loving app is the Messages application app that comes as a replacement to the old iChat. Messages maintains a good balance between your IM chats and the others that you do with your friends having iOS / Mac Devices. Its just ideal for Mac-Mac conversations. And There are many more uses of such an app, including the fact that you are actually receiving chat notifications as soon as you are on your computer. Moreover messages could benefit in the future with a PC app to. That'll then create a definitely powerful and successful chat client for communications between computers (something like an SMS service for a computer). But that seems to be a far fetched dream for now.
There is also the notes application which is quite snappy when referring or creating quick notes but handles image formatting quite badly. Notes also lacks options to attach audio or video to the notes and has a very premature image embedding option. In short Notes is behind a lot of competition when we look at how others like Evernote provide such features but in simplicity Notes for OSX beats all other apps including Evernote. There is no immediate revolutionary use of this app but it's not bad to have something like this.
Sharing is big in OSX Mountain Lion. You can share links, photos and videos on the two biggest social networks Facebook and Twitter (and of-course Seina Weibo too) and you can also upload photos and video to Flickr and Vimeo. You can just about share anything from any where. A single swipe to the notification center brings up the share via tweet option (and will soon have share via Facebook too), everywhere else you'll either find a share button or will have a share option. Everyone's on a social network these days. And sharing options make it easier to be more active on them and a good implementation just makes the experience more snappier.Safari's Offline Reading lists and the new tab view are little gems. The unified search and address bar was inevitable, but the reader icon that stays there at all times even when there isn't Anything to "read" is a bit irksome and feels a little out of place at sometimes. Safari feels quite fast on OSX and hence gains a lot more audience than chrome (running on a similar engine) ends up getting.
 |
| The New Tabbed Browsing loves the trackpad but has a strong aversion to the 'mouse'. |
 |
| Safari's Reader Button, stays there, even when there is nothing to read. |
Dictation on OSX is quite average, it's hardly able to recognize the Indian accent without making mistakes. But Having said that dictation on OSX ranks among the best speech to text tools available in the market. Dictation actually gets better over the time, it learns how you pronounce certain words, it gathers the speech data to do this. In our tests speaking in an Indian accent, Dictation showed only 44% accuracy but when tested on American accent the accuracy was pretty good. We may just be a step away from Siri on Macs. And that, would be amazing.
After long attempts, The Dictation in OS X 10.8 finally recognized my brothers name, when i dictated mine :/
— Vidit Bhargava (@viditb) July 29, 2012
No matter how unproductive voice dictations may be but they r fun 2 play with!@viditb:My iPad is awesome! Dictation: My headache is awesome
— Mudit Bhargava (@muditb) July 30, 2012
And the last thing that makes this OSX experience filled with sublime awesomeness is the AirPlay compatibility, with AirPlay built-in you can now listen to audio on your AirPlay speakers from any source not just iTunes or QuickTime. This is a really going to be helpful for those who've got either an AirPlay enabled TV or speakers, it makes the experience of using Airplay much better.
The dock Is an area of concern On OSX Mountain Lion. They've now put a grayish, more opaque than translucent dock with tiny lights that indicate whether an app is running or not. Compare that to the dock in OSX Lion or Snow Leopard and you realize how bad it is, it's not the grey color thats so appalling but the tiny lights which leave you with a sour feeling.
The Battery Life on the MacBook Air that I tested was quite appreciable and was quite unaffected by the upgrade. It runs a respectable 6.5 hours during heavy app Development hours and crosses the 7 hour quote sometimes, when you're just doing casual browsing or chatting on Messages. My tests on the software end seem satisfactory their doesn't seem to be any drastic change in the battery life ever since the MacBook Air was upgraded to mountain lion.
Summarizing the OSX experience, Apple's OSX Mountain Lion is a "massive upgrade" and perhaps the first truly social operating system. Having said that we're still in the OS 'X' era, and Mountain Lion maintains all traits of a typical OS X update and not something completely new. OSX is lovable to use and there aren't many glitches. It's perhaps the best update to OS X ever since Leopard. It's super cheap at just $19.99 and it'll be unwise not to upgrade your OS.
Rating: 9.1/10
Friday, June 22, 2012
How Apple Passbook Works
Apple released their latest iteration of iOS, last week at the WWDC 2012. Amongst many enhancements (which included a completely new vector based maps tool too) the announcement of a new inbuilt app called Passbook was slightly side lined. What exactly is Passbook? Or How is it going to change our Wallets?
Passbook is a pre-installed iOS 6 Application which will let you view your digital gift cards, coupons, boarding passes, shopping cards, etc. You can then use them instead of their offline counterparts.
Say you book a travel ticket, and receive an online boarding pass via email. Now at the airport you’ll have to search through your emails for that boarding pass and then get it scanned. Apple simplifies this task with the Passbook tool. The Airlines can create a Passbook based boarding pass and share it to you via email, which you can then open in your passbook application. Once in the passbook app, your new digital boarding pass will be updated real time. Also when you are near to the airport a push notification will come up at your lock screen, through which you can instantly access the pass!Passbook can also store your movie, sports tickets, gift cards, store cards or whatever that qualifies as a coupon, pass or ticket.
Here’s how it works: The developer creates a passbook pass using Apple’s Pass-Kit API and then shares it to the user via Email, URLs or an iPhone App. The User then opens up the pass (ticket, coupon or card) on his phone, which takes him to the Passbook app and the pass is stored. Now the user can get push notifications for his pass. (For Example, if a certain store whose store card is in your passbook is near by, a notification will come up on your phone telling you that a certain store is in the vicinity, you can then open it to use it, as you enter the store)
Passbook is sure to provide a very productive future to the iOS Users. Almost certainly the weight of wallet is going to drop a bit, as you get rid of all those membership cards and gift coupons and instead store them on your phone.But Passbook is a little far from perfect. There is a certain lack of availability of advanced 2D Bar Code Readers at many places. Currently Passbook Passes are restricted to embedding 2D or QR Bar Codes only, this is going to demand inputs from the companies to install the new and more expensive 2D Code Scanners at their shops. Here Developers might have to step in, by providing necessary hardware for many of their clients. The same is going to be a problem with many other countries all over the world. So if major outlets are willing to provide these services, they’ll need to actually have proper hardware first.
The success of the Passbook depends on how companies take steps to utilize it and how fast they install the necessary hardware. With Passbook Apple is not trying to digitalize your wallet but its creating a tool for online Passes. Much like what Adobe Reader is to PDF files, Passbook is to Digital Passes (only those created via Apple’s Pass-kit!)
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
All About the New iPad
Vidit Bhargava
Apple finally unveiled the third generation iPad on March 7th 2012. Just about an year after it had announced the iPad 2. I’d like to start with the iPad 2 today. To make it clear iPad 2 was a major design upgrade. The new Aluminum back was just about how much Apple could change the iPad’s look in one update. And hence, contrary to what others might say, iPad 2 was the design overhaul update and not a stability update. So let’s paste Apple’s upgrade trends for iOS devices now. The first update usually brings a design overhaul while the second update becomes a stability update for the first one without any significant change in design. Therefore, The Third Generation iPad had to be a similar looking, more stable version of the iPad 2. It’s just that. And goes a little further.
Let me walk through the ‘new’ iPad’s key-features one by one now:
Retina Display: The iPhone 4 was the first device to get a retina display and so everyone had hoped that it will come to the iPad 2 also. Turns out a Retina Display on the iPad 2 was not only expensive it also had technical difficulties to overcome, and so it came an year later to the iPad screen.
You’ve got to experience a retina display in person to know how it feels, it’s not the same thing as using one on an iPhone, it’s even better and brighter. Infact the 2048×1536 pixels resolution is even better than what an HD resolution would like on a tablet. The iPad with its Retina Display and IPS LCD has the best screen any mobile device (phone or Tablet) has ever had. And takes the 3rd Generation iPad miles ahead of competition in terms of graphics and display quality. Instantly all other tablets in the world, now look dull and of ancient ages. To top it all the new iPad maintains the same battery life of 10 hours which makes it all though more difficult for competitors to catch up with the father of all tablets.
5MP Camera: The back-camera which is now called an iSight Camera has got a major tech-bump in terms of image quality, the new iSight Camera, believe it or not, takes better pictures than the iPhone 4 camera. Even though both of them are 5MP. Yes, the key to great photography is not in the megapixels but the technology involved in the camera, and Apple’s idea of adding another lens and widening the camera aperture is a good one. And adds real color to the images.
There are obviously high-expectations from the camera, given that the same technology did wonders for the iPhone 4S. The initial shots look great, but I won’t comment on the quality before I actually lay hands on one.
A5X: it’s not A6 or last year’s A5. It’s the A5X processor. The A5X processor has a dual-core and quad-core graphics. Quad-Core Graphics engine now help the iPad to get better games with console-like graphics, Apple had demoed A NAMCO developed Action Game and the Infinity Blade Dungeons by Epic Games. Both of them had looked spectacular and the iPad like an equal amongst its console rivals.
So, while A5X might not bring a steep performance update in CPU, but graphics have definitely become top-notch. Hence the name A5X and not A6.
But a word about the technical specifications over here, Apple controls it’s own hardware and software and hence your new iPad is not likely to be a slow experience in any way. You are definitely going to get a blazing fast experience and by upgrading the hardware apple allows the developers to build better apps which provide a great experience to the customer.
While we can compare Android Tablets by the processor speed, RAM or any other technical specification, we cannot do the same when comparing an Android Tablet to the iPad. So, when we compare an Android Tablet to the iPad we will also have to compare the user experience of using the same apps on both the devices, moreover an overall experience is to be compared rather than a fragment of it.
4G LTE: While Indian users might not get the 4G speeds on the third Generation iPad when it launches, users in the US have a lot to be happy about, The new iPad is a 4G LTE device which comes with AT&T, Bell, Rogers and Verizon as supported 4G suppliers. Moreover 4G LTE means that the new iPad will allow for faster web-browsing and web-experience. So this is 4G, of know use in the Indian Market but of immense power in areas it is present.
Voice Dictation: Unlike the iPhone the iPad doesn’t come with Siri built in. The new iPad however has Voice Dictation. Voice dictation is a part of Siri, which takes voice input and converts it to text. We can expect Siri once it’s out of the beta stage, though.
Pricing and Availability:
| 16th March 2012 | 23rd March 2012* |
| United States | Belgium |
| Canada | Greece |
| United Kingdom | Ireland |
| France | Italy |
| Germany | Macau |
| Switzerland | Mexico |
| Japan | New Zealand |
| Hong Kong | Portugal |
| Singapore | Spain |
| Australia | Sweden |
* The 3rd Generation iPad will release In 26 European countries on 23rd March 2012. Only Some of them have been listed above.
Pricing:
| 16GB | 32GB | 64GB | |
| iPad WiFi | $499 | $599 | $699 |
| iPad WiFi + 4G | $629 | $729 | $829 |
| iPad 2 WiFi | $399 | - | - |
| iPad2 WiFi+ 3G | $529 | - | - |
Summing Up:
In a time where the only significant tablet in the market is the iPad, And others are only catching up, even a minor update to the tablet would mean even more to catch up for the competition. The new iPad builds on the image of the previous two versions. And with more and more tablet buyers emerging everyday, the new iPad will gain on that front too.
A major selling point of the iPad will be the Retina Display, with the Retina Display the new iPad opens up an array of improvements that graphic based content could get. And along with the new quad-core graphics, everything on the new iPad will look brighter and wonderful, specially movies and nextgen games.
Should you Upgrade? Those who had bought the first generation iPad can upgrade now. The iPad has come a long way after its 2010 release, and with the new iPad being more of a stability upgrade, upgrading from the first generation iPad will definitely turn out to be a great idea.
For Those who had bought the iPad 2, an upgrade is not recommended. The iPad 2 is nearly as good as the new iPad but sans Retina Display.
For those wanting to buy a new iPad, it is a golden period to buy one.
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