How You Could Build a Hit iPhone App Without Learning to Code [VIDEO] - Mashable

So you’ve got a great idea for an iPhone app. It’s fresh, it’s useful and no one’s ever done it before. Except there’s just one major hitch â€" you can’t write a line of code to save your life.

But coding illiteracy could soon become less of an issue for wannabe iOS app developers if a startup called RadicalFlow achieves its mission. The company says it needs $75,000 to make the vision real for everyone and is taking to Kickstarter to raise funding. With donations open until May 26, RadicalFlow had raised about $3,500 at time of writing.

RadicalFlow is a web-based HTML5 tool. “Think of it like opening Photoshop or Powerpoint with a blank slate ready for your creative input,” reads a portion of the company’s Kickstarter pitch. You design the interface, add buttons and create interaction, while RadicalFlow handles the backend heavy lifting. Then, once you’ve built your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch app, the company touts an added bonus â€" a platform to publish your product without having to obtain an Apple developers account.

The Brooklyn-based company says meeting its funding goal will help fill out its development and design team, pay for server costs and legal fees, and support a marketing and promotional push. It also plans to add porting ability to Android devices in the near future.

But you don’t need to be a coding noob to benefit from RadicalFlow. Advanced features will enhance what you can alredy do on your own, according to the company’s Kickstarter pitch. A desire to make app-building easier for coders and non-coders alike is actually how RadicalFlow was born. The tool was founded by a trio of longtime iOS app makers who write that “all of the work related to RadicalFlow comes out of our need to create tools that would make our lives easier, both on the design and development side.”

Do you think RadicalFlow is a cool idea? Will you contribute to its Kickstarter campaign? Check out its full video pitch below and let us know in the comments.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, akinbostanci

iPhone 5: Apple Mulled Physical Keyboard for Original iPhone, What About Next ... - Mobile & Apps

iPhone 5 Concept Design by Federico Ciccarese(Photo: Federico Ciccarese)

According to a former Apple executive, Apple seriously considered a physical keyboard for the iPhone way back in 2007, before the first iPhone was released.

In a Friday interview with The Verge, former Apple executive Tony Fadell said the physical keyboard was a hot topic at Apple when the first iPhone was being developed. Fadell worked at Apple when the company was still discussing concepts and building prototypes for its first phone.

'Heated Topic'

Fadell recalled that a BlackBerry-like prototype was never built, but it was definitely discussed and Apple was divided into camps pro or against a full touchscreen. "It was definitely discussed, it was a heated topic," Fadell told The Verge. At that time, BlackBerry was the biggest player in the sector, and its handsets featured physical QWERTY keyboards.

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The former Apple executive said he was not a big fan of the physical keyboard idea, but he was also "skeptical" whether the full touchscreen concept would catch on. The resistive touchscreen technology used in early smartphones was not very good, and virtual keyboards were far from intuitive, requiring a stylus in many applications.

"I didn't know a lot about touch screens and I was skeptical, so I wanted to try it first," said Fadell. "I wanted it to work because it made sense to have a big screen and not just a little keyboard."

Prototypes

Before releasing the device in 2007, Apple had narrowed the design for the new iPhone down to three prototypes. "There were all kinds of different gestations to it. There were three different types of iPhone. There was an iPod + Phone, then there was the iPhone and then there was the next generation iPhone, which was the one that actually showed up," explained Fadell. "The biggest problem with the iPod + Phone was that we had this little wheel... Sometimes you have to try things to throw them away."

In the end, Steve Jobs had the final say, and he sided with Fadell, eliminating the physical keyboard. The iPhone brought capacitive touchscreens to the masses, allowing Apple to create an innovative, sleek and elegant phone, more user-friendly than most of its smartphone contemporaries. The lack of a physical keyboard allowed for a larger display, which extended the device functionality to completely new areas, such as video or complex games.

So it All Began

After the first iPhone's debut, the overall market started adopting multi-touch screen technology, and slowly shifted from physical to virtual keyboards. Some users still prefer a physical keyboard even today, but the virtual solution has gained significant ground.

The iPhone has come a long way since its debut in 2007, and now the tech world is eagerly waiting the sixth generation. Apple is expected to launch its new iPhone sometime this year, with most reports favoring an October release. The next-generation iPhone is expected to feature a bigger screen, LTE connectivity, NFC, an enhanced version of Siri, improved camera and battery performance, and many other exciting features. But don't expect a physical keyboard.

(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)

Wozniak: Windows Phone More Beautiful Than iPhone - eWeek

There has certainly been no lack of provocative comments about Apple in the last few weeks, between Forrester Research CEO’s prophecy that Apple is doomed to fall into decline following the passing of the company’s CEO and founder Steve Jobs. The latest statements come from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who told the technology news blog aNewDomain that he thinks the interface for Apple arch rival Microsof’s Windows 7 phone is more beautiful than that of Apple’s best-selling and much-lauded iPhone.

"I'm shocked, every screen is much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone," he said. "The iPhone has a lot of beauty and simplicity and you don't get lost as much in it but it is more awkward to use (than Windows Phone 7.5 Mango). "Ill be carrying the Windows Phone with me almost everywhere."

The comments kicked off an intense debate in the technology community, as gadget aficionados prepare for the impeding release of the Windows 8 operating system and the expected launch of the iPhone 5 sometime this year. Wozniak later clarified his comments with a post about the interview that added a new dimension to the controversy, giving love to Apple and at the same time adding more provocative comments as to how the Windows 7 operating system came to be so polished.

"iPhone is my favorite phone. I did give my opinion that the Windows 7 phone had superior visual appearance and operation cues that were also more attractive. In my opinion, it sets the mark for user interface. I would recommend it over my Android phones given that it doesn't yet have the breadth of apps,” he wrote. “I surmise that Microsoft hired someone from Apple and put money into having a role in the UI and appearance of some key apps. I also surmised that Steve Jobs might have been reincarnated at MS due to a lot of what I see and feel with this phone making me think of a lot of great Apple things."

The comments come on the heels of a blog post by Forrester Research CEO George Colony, who wrote a blog post comparing Apple’s future to that of Sony, a tech giant that struggled to find a clear vision following the end of founder Akio Morita’s run as company executive.

Colony, who wrote an April 25 blog post titled "Apple=Sony," which concluded that without Jobs' "singular charismatic leadership," risk-taking prowess and "unparalleled ability to envision and design products," the company was likely to coast for a period of 24 to 48 months, and then fall into decline. The blog post has generated a serious online response, with many technology observers attacking its premise and its conclusions about Apple in the post-Jobs era.

What if Siri just blew up your iPhone? (video) - Washington Post (blog)

Aatma Studio released a video Fridaydepicting a potential security measure against someone stealing your iPhone. (Oli Scarff - GETTY IMAGES)

A video making its way around the Web shows an imagined security measure against someone stealing your iPhone: Siri just blows it up.

The video shows an unidentified user of a computer-generated iPhone. The user tries three times to enter the correct passcode on the phone. After the third unsuccessful attempt, Siri takes over.

“Incorrect password, I’m now going to disable the iPhone. Goodbye.”

Goodbye, indeed. The phone’s screen cracks, leaving a hole where Siri’s animated icon once was. The scenario is fictional (so far) â€" created by animation and digital content company Aatma Studio, based in San Francisco.

In an e-mail Monday afternoon, Aatma CEO Pramod Modi Shantharam wrote, “The video was created by a three-member team at Aatma. The computer generated Siri feature was designed to be a funny concept, while simultaneously pushing the envelope on iPhone security.”

Aatma’s YouTube channel is a collection of iPhone what-ifs in the form of digitally-rendered prototypes. The company has been re-imagining Apple products for some time, showing off renderings of ultra-thin tablets and phones. Their iPhone5 concept video received over 50 million page views, since it was uploaded in August.

What do you think the next innovation should be from Apple? Leave your ideas in the comments below.

Read more news and ideas on Innovations:

’Staying calm is stupid’: Non-profit produces video to combat stereotypes of African men

Billy Joel praises a young ‘piano man’

In STEM, All girls allowed

iPhone app downloads in US iTunes App Store fall of 30 percent in March - Appolicious

The iTunes App Store saw a big drop-off in iPhone app downloads last month coming off a record-breaking holiday season, dropping nearly two million downloads month-to-month.

As GigaOM reports, marketing research firm Fiksu marked a 30 percent decline in U.S. iPhone app downloads from February to March, indicating perhaps that the novelty of new iPhones received by many users during the 2011 holiday season is wearing off. App downloads dropped from 6.35 million in February to 4.45 million in March, the numbers show, the lowest level the App Store has hit since September.

Fiksu monitors daily downloads for the top 200 free iPhone apps in the iTunes App Store. The firm found that downloads started to hike up after the release of the iPhone 4S back in October, and increased to their height in January of 6.75 million downloads per month. That number declined slightly into February, but then dropped sharply in March by nearly two million downloads. However, the firm isn’t keeping track of international downloads, so just how the App Store is faring in all countries â€" including those with cultures that don’t include a winter holiday season â€" isn’t clear from the data.

The download drop-off in March was expected, Fiksu said, given that there weren’t really any events, like holidays or the launch of a new iPhone, to drive new discovery of iPhone apps during the month. However, Apple also recently changed its App Store policies to ban firms from using robots to download free apps to drive up their rankings, which the firm says may also have contributed to the fall off in downloads.

While downloads are down for iPhone apps, however, the number of people using them hasn’t died down, Fiksu reports. It also tracks a metric called Cost Per Loyal User, which determines how much developers are spending on marketing their apps to create loyal users, which are users who open up their apps three times in a month. Fiksu found that that cost dropped to about $1.14 per user in January, and leveled off at around $1.30 per user in February and March. That number is lower than what developers were spending before the holidays last year, which suggests that more users are making use of their apps even if they’re not out downloading more of them.

Still, even though U.S. downloads are down, Apple’s App Store is still seeing some huge numbers. The company recently reported it had surpassed 600,000 apps available in its market, and noted it had made $1.92 billion in revenue from selling content in iTunes in its second quarter of 2012.

Find more great iOS games here

iPhone app downloads in US iTunes App Store fall of 30 percent in March - Appolicious

The iTunes App Store saw a big drop-off in iPhone app downloads last month coming off a record-breaking holiday season, dropping nearly two million downloads month-to-month.

As GigaOM reports, marketing research firm Fiksu marked a 30 percent decline in U.S. iPhone app downloads from February to March, indicating perhaps that the novelty of new iPhones received by many users during the 2011 holiday season is wearing off. App downloads dropped from 6.35 million in February to 4.45 million in March, the numbers show, the lowest level the App Store has hit since September.

Fiksu monitors daily downloads for the top 200 free iPhone apps in the iTunes App Store. The firm found that downloads started to hike up after the release of the iPhone 4S back in October, and increased to their height in January of 6.75 million downloads per month. That number declined slightly into February, but then dropped sharply in March by nearly two million downloads. However, the firm isn’t keeping track of international downloads, so just how the App Store is faring in all countries â€" including those with cultures that don’t include a winter holiday season â€" isn’t clear from the data.

The download drop-off in March was expected, Fiksu said, given that there weren’t really any events, like holidays or the launch of a new iPhone, to drive new discovery of iPhone apps during the month. However, Apple also recently changed its App Store policies to ban firms from using robots to download free apps to drive up their rankings, which the firm says may also have contributed to the fall off in downloads.

While downloads are down for iPhone apps, however, the number of people using them hasn’t died down, Fiksu reports. It also tracks a metric called Cost Per Loyal User, which determines how much developers are spending on marketing their apps to create loyal users, which are users who open up their apps three times in a month. Fiksu found that that cost dropped to about $1.14 per user in January, and leveled off at around $1.30 per user in February and March. That number is lower than what developers were spending before the holidays last year, which suggests that more users are making use of their apps even if they’re not out downloading more of them.

Still, even though U.S. downloads are down, Apple’s App Store is still seeing some huge numbers. The company recently reported it had surpassed 600,000 apps available in its market, and noted it had made $1.92 billion in revenue from selling content in iTunes in its second quarter of 2012.

Find more great iOS games here

iPhone 'just getting started in China,' Apple could reach 35M sales in 2013 - Apple Insider

By Neil Hughes

Published: 08:12 AM EST (05:12 AM PST) Apple has "enormous" potential to grow its sales in China, as one new estimate predicts Apple will sell 25 million iPhones there this year, and sales will grow to at least 35 million in 2013.

The estimates come from Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank, who believes that the iPhone is "just getting started in China." He expects China Telecom and China Unicom � Apple's two carrier partners in China�� to approach 300 million 3G subscribers by the end of 2013.

If Apple adds China Mobile as a partner, as it has been rumored to do for some time, the iPhone maker's addressable market in China would increase by about 125 million 3G subscribers in 2013, bringing the total number of potential customers to nearly 425 million.

Whitmore estimates that Apple sold between 6 million and 6.5 million iPhones in the first quarter of calendar 2012, representing about 15 percent of its current addressable market. But he also believes that iPhone momentum will slow slightly in China over the coming months as the life cycle of the latest-generation iPhone 4S continues.

However, over the next few years, he believes Apple will benefit from the coming growth of 3G subscribers from China Telecom and China Unicom. If Apple were to grow its penetration of the potential subscriber base to between 20 and 25 percent, he estimates iPhone sales in China would be around 35 million in 2013 � and that's without a potential partnership with China Mobile, the largest carrier in the world.

Though China Mobile is not an official carrier partner with Apple, the company does have 15 million iPhone users on its network. Subscribers who use the iPhone with China Mobile cannot reach 3G wireless speeds because the carrier's TD-SCDMA network is not compatible.

Currently, the dominant handset vendor in China is Samsung, which has a 28 percent share of the market. Nokia is the second-largest vendor in China with a 23 percent share, followed by Huawei (15 percent) and ZTE (13 percent), while Apple comes in fifth with just 9 percent.

Apple's sub-10-percent market share in China compares to the company's 43 percent share of smartphone sales in North America, demonstrating the huge potential for growth Apple has not only in China, but in the entire Asia-Pacific region.

"We believe the iPhone is extremely well positioned to capture the tremendous growth in China and long-term opportunity for the iPhone in this market is substantial," Whitmore wrote in a note to investors on Monday.

With a possible China Mobile deal and an anticipated sixth-generation iPhone launch in the future, Deutsche Bank has reiterated its "buy" rating for AAPL stock, with a price target of $650.

TGI Friday's Lets Customers Pay With iPhone, Android - PC Magazine

• April 30, 2012 12:56pm EST

On your next visit to T.G.I. Friday's for dinner and drinks, you won't have to bother reaching for your wallet. Instead, you can pay your tab with your iPhone or Android device.

The restaurant chain released a new application for iPhone and Android that lets customers start a tab, keep track of their bill, and pay it right from their phone. Currently, 350 of the chain's 600 locations nationwide are now accepting the new mobile payment method. Users can download the app now from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

"This new app puts the Friday experience at guests' fingertips â€" whether they're looking for the closest Friday's to celebrate and indulge or if they want to pay their bar tab quickly," Ricky Richardson, chief operating officer at T.G.I. Friday's, said in a statement.

The app's payment functionality is powered by a platform called Tabbedout, which launched earlier this year at SXSW in Austin, Texas. The app automatically integrates with Friday's point of sale software, allowing customers to pay their bill without the need for additional hardware.

Paying with the app seems fairly straightforward. When a user opens a tab within the app, they are presented with a five-digit code to show their server. The serer then enters the code on the restaurant's point-of-sale system, and then the order proceeds just like usual.

When ready to leave, a user can enter a tip, and pay with a credit card saved inside the app. The app is programmed to suggest an 18 percent tip, but users can increase or decrease the tip as they like.

The app also lets users find Friday's locations, view the food and drink menu, as well as drink specials and promotions. Friday's is the first national dining chain to support mobile payments.

"The launch of the T.G.I. Friday's app is only the beginning for us in this realm," Richardson said."We look forward to continuing to enhance the digital experience and new mobile app with more functionalities to come."

With well-known brands like Friday's getting on board, mobile payments could see widespread adoption in the coming years. Sixty-five percent of experts think most people will fully adopt mobile payments by 2020, nearly eliminating the need for cash or credit cards, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center.

However, a separate survey from the University of California, Berkeley indicates that most Americans aren't ready for the new technology just yet. In the study of 1,203 U.S. adult Internet users, 74 percent said that they do not plan on adopting a mobile payment service.

For more on mobile payments, see the PCMag's reviews of Google Wallet and Square, as well as Hands Off With the PayPal Here.

For more from Angela, follow her on Twitter @amoscaritolo.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

This Week In Apple Rumors: iPhone Nano, New iPhone Mockup And More - Huffington Post

Every week the numerous blogs covering the machinations of the Apple empire float unconfirmed rumors, blatant speculation and questionably-sourced reports on what the company might be unveiling in the near or distant future. Let's take a look back at what the Apple blogs were excited about during the week of April 22 - 28. Check out our last edition of Apple rumors here, and for all the latest follow me on Twitter right here.

What The Heck Is An iPhone Nano?

First, Apple had the iPod Nano. Then, we heard tons of rumors that Apple was working on an iPad Mini. Now, the Apple Rumor of the Week is that there is something called an iPhone Nano in the works. What is this, an Apple Inc. for ants?? Welcome to a Mini-Edition of This Week In Apple Rumors, led off by a teensy rumor that could mean huge bucks for Tim Cook and company (somebody, alert Apple's accountants in the Caymans!). As Apple looks to expand in China, its growth could be bolstered by a cheaper so-called iPhone Nano to appeal to lower-income mobile shoppers, as the China Times reports (in Chinese, natch). Citing "unnamed sources within Apple's supply chain," per BGR's translation work, Apple is apparently working on just such an entry-level phone, codenamed "iPhone Nano," though it wouldn't necessarily be much smaller than the (already pretty small) iPhone 4S. The "Nano" apparently refers to the price of this hypothetically cheaper iPhone. The China Times says that Apple will launch the "iPhone Nano" concurrent with the sixth-generation iPhone later this year. This is a pretty new rumor, however, with little corroboration from other sources, so I wouldn't start banking on it just yet -- either as a prospective cell phone buyer or as one of Apple's tax preparers in the Caribbean. Speaking of the next iPhone: Why don't we take a look at what that just might look like, shall we? It's ridiculous iPhone 5 mockup time! Let's build this city on rock and roll!!!

First, Apple had the iPod Nano. Then, we heard tons of rumors that Apple was working on an iPad Mini. Now, the Apple Rumor of the Week is that there is something called an iPhone Nano in the works.

What is this, an Apple Inc. for ants??

Welcome to a Mini-Edition of This Week In Apple Rumors, led off by a teensy rumor that could mean huge bucks for Tim Cook and company (somebody, alert Apple's accountants in the Caymans!).

As Apple looks to expand in China, its growth could be bolstered by a cheaper so-called iPhone Nano to appeal to lower-income mobile shoppers, as the China Times reports (in Chinese, natch). Citing "unnamed sources within Apple's supply chain," per BGR's translation work, Apple is apparently working on just such an entry-level phone, codenamed "iPhone Nano," though it wouldn't necessarily be much smaller than the (already pretty small) iPhone 4S.

The "Nano" apparently refers to the price of this hypothetically cheaper iPhone.

The China Times says that Apple will launch the "iPhone Nano" concurrent with the sixth-generation iPhone later this year. This is a pretty new rumor, however, with little corroboration from other sources, so I wouldn't start banking on it just yet -- either as a prospective cell phone buyer or as one of Apple's tax preparers in the Caribbean.

Speaking of the next iPhone: Why don't we take a look at what that just might look like, shall we? It's ridiculous iPhone 5 mockup time! Let's build this city on rock and roll!!!

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What The Heck Is An iPhone Nano?

First, Apple had the iPod Nano. Then, we heard tons of rumors that Apple was working on an iPad Mini. Now, the Apple Rumor of the Week is that there is something called an iPhone Nano in the works. What is this, an Apple Inc. for ants?? Welcome to a Mini-Edition of This Week In Apple Rumors, led off by a teensy rumor that could mean huge bucks for Tim Cook and company (somebody, alert Apple's accountants in the Caymans!). As Apple looks to expand in China, its growth could be bolstered by a cheaper so-called iPhone Nano to appeal to lower-income mobile shoppers, as the China Times reports (in Chinese, natch). Citing "unnamed sources within Apple's supply chain," per BGR's translation work, Apple is apparently working on just such an entry-level phone, codenamed "iPhone Nano," though it wouldn't necessarily be much smaller than the (already pretty small) iPhone 4S. The "Nano" apparently refers to the price of this hypothetically cheaper iPhone. The China Times says that Apple will launch the "iPhone Nano" concurrent with the sixth-generation iPhone later this year. This is a pretty new rumor, however, with little corroboration from other sources, so I wouldn't start banking on it just yet -- either as a prospective cell phone buyer or as one of Apple's tax preparers in the Caribbean. Speaking of the next iPhone: Why don't we take a look at what that just might look like, shall we? It's ridiculous iPhone 5 mockup time! Let's build this city on rock and roll!!!

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iPhone 'just getting started in China,' Apple could reach 35M sales in 2013 - Apple Insider

By Neil Hughes

Published: 08:12 AM EST (05:12 AM PST) Apple has "enormous" potential to grow its sales in China, as one new estimate predicts Apple will sell 25 million iPhones there this year, and sales will grow to at least 35 million in 2013.

The estimates come from Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank, who believes that the iPhone is "just getting started in China." He expects China Telecom and China Unicom � Apple's two carrier partners in China�� to approach 300 million 3G subscribers by the end of 2013.

If Apple adds China Mobile as a partner, as it has been rumored to do for some time, the iPhone maker's addressable market in China would increase by about 125 million 3G subscribers in 2013, bringing the total number of potential customers to nearly 425 million.

Whitmore estimates that Apple sold between 6 million and 6.5 million iPhones in the first quarter of calendar 2012, representing about 15 percent of its current addressable market. But he also believes that iPhone momentum will slow slightly in China over the coming months as the life cycle of the latest-generation iPhone 4S continues.

However, over the next few years, he believes Apple will benefit from the coming growth of 3G subscribers from China Telecom and China Unicom. If Apple were to grow its penetration of the potential subscriber base to between 20 and 25 percent, he estimates iPhone sales in China would be around 35 million in 2013 � and that's without a potential partnership with China Mobile, the largest carrier in the world.

Though China Mobile is not an official carrier partner with Apple, the company does have 15 million iPhone users on its network. Subscribers who use the iPhone with China Mobile cannot reach 3G wireless speeds because the carrier's TD-SCDMA network is not compatible.

Currently, the dominant handset vendor in China is Samsung, which has a 28 percent share of the market. Nokia is the second-largest vendor in China with a 23 percent share, followed by Huawei (15 percent) and ZTE (13 percent), while Apple comes in fifth with just 9 percent.

Apple's sub-10-percent market share in China compares to the company's 43 percent share of smartphone sales in North America, demonstrating the huge potential for growth Apple has not only in China, but in the entire Asia-Pacific region.

"We believe the iPhone is extremely well positioned to capture the tremendous growth in China and long-term opportunity for the iPhone in this market is substantial," Whitmore wrote in a note to investors on Monday.

With a possible China Mobile deal and an anticipated sixth-generation iPhone launch in the future, Deutsche Bank has reiterated its "buy" rating for AAPL stock, with a price target of $650.

MotionX Sleep for iPhone - Macworld

by Joel Mathis, Macworld.com

Most apps take aim at some small slice of your life and help improve it. MotionX Sleep is more like the rock band The Kinksâ€"it wants to be with you all day, and all of the night.

Dreamtime Data: MotionX Sleep registers when you experienced light, moderate, and heavy sleep, depicted in an easy-to-intepret chart format.

As the name suggests, MotionX Sleep intends to make sure you’re getting a good night’s sleep. Activate the app’s sleep-monitoring mode, place your iPhone on the bed next to youâ€"or strap it to an athletic armbandâ€"and the phone’s motion sensors will monitor your movements while you rest Be careful if you’re sharing a bed: The app can capture the movements of both you and your partner, and that makes for less-than-helpful data.

When you wake, MotionX’s app provides analytics showing when you experienced light, moderate, and heavy sleep. (It also offers a “sleep efficiency” number.) Those charts, which track data for as long as a month, can be shared with your friends via Facebook or Twitter.

Those analytics can help you make smarter daytime choices. After one night of tossing and turningâ€"marked as an extended series of bright orange lines in the chartâ€"my wife pointed out I’d had a mid-afternoon coffee the day before. So no more afternoon caffeine for me.

MotionX Sleep also comes with an unusual alarm clock. You can set the alarm for, say, 7 a.m.â€"but if the monitor determines you’ve entered light sleep during the hour before that, it will wake you up at that “optimal” time. Often, in my case, that meant waking up the full hour before the alarm, but I did feel relatively refreshed.

Keep On Moving: In addition to monitoring sleep habits, MotionX Sleep can double as an electronic pedometer and it can warn you if you’ve been sitting around for too long.

The app doesn’t confine itself to your sleeping hours. It can also monitor your daytime activity, acting as an electronic pedometer that counts your steps while you walk. A related function also sounds an alarm if you’ve been sitting at your desk without moving for an hour. (You can adjust the time increments.) That alarm doesn’t always seem to work properlyâ€"MotionX Sleep reminded me to move just after I’d been up and around doing errands in my house.

If you want slightly more active encouragement, MotionX Sleep includes a voice coach to guide you on recorded walks, measuring the distance you march while updating youâ€"through your earbudsâ€"on the elapsed time and estimated calories.

Some drawbacks: A round-the-clock app can obviously put a strain on your iPhone’s battery life. The developers suggest plugging in the phone during sleep hours, but that’s not always a satisfactory solution if you’re monitoring your rest. More likely, you’ll have to choose whether you want the app to monitor your sleep or monitor your daily movements: It will be hard to capture both accurately.

But MotionX Sleep really does do what it promises: It can help you move more and sleep better. There aren’t too many apps that can be truly called “refreshing,” but this one fits the description.

[Joel Mathis is a writer in Philadelphia.]

Why AT&T and Verizon May Love Windows Phone - But Can't Live Without the iPhone - ReadWriteWeb

AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the nation’s two largest wireless carriers, intend to market the heck out of Microsoft Windows Phone to prevent Apple from gaining a stranglehold on the U.S. smartphone market. But the strategy has many pitfalls, including the fact that the carriers still can’t afford to live without the iPhone. Bottom line, their love-hate relationship with Apple isn’t ending any time soon.

Reports in the The New York Times and elsewhere indicate that the carriers are not happy paying a hefty subsidy on each iPhone they sell with a two-year contract, plus a portion of the monthly revenue they get from every subscriber of the smartphone. Since AT&T and Verizon Wireless are in the business of maximizing profits, it makes sense that they would try to gain more leverage against their hard-bargaining supplier.

“We’re really looking at the Windows Phone 8.0 platform because that’s a differentiator,” Fran Shammo, Verizon’s chief financial officer, told Reuters. “We’re working with Microsoft on it.” AT&T is already selling and marketing Windows Phone 7 on Nokia’s Lumia 900, the first smartphone created under a partnership between the handset maker and Microsoft. Windows Phone 8 is expected this year.

A Complicated Relationship

While the carriers' scheming is understandable, their chances of success are complicated by a variety of factors.

First, both carriers are making big money off Apple, and there’s no data showing the Windows Phone will be a top seller anytime soon. This month, Verizon reported selling 3.2 million iPhones in the first quarter, roughly half its total number of smartphones sold. At the same time, data service revenue rose 16% and profit margin increased four percentage points to more than 46%. Despite those heavy subsidies, Verizon made a pile of money selling iPhones.

AT&T also did well in the first quarter on the iPhone. Of the 5.5 million smartphones it sold in the quarter, a whopping 4.3 million were iPhones. Despite that high percentage, AT&T's wireless operating income margin rose more than 27%, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) on wireless services rose significantly, to almost 42%.

There are other reasons the carriers may find it difficult to temper Apple with the Windows Phone. In the most recent quarter, Verizon added fewer than half of the number of subscribers it had signed up in the previous quarter, and AT&T added only about 25% the number it did the previous quarter. At the same time, the percentage of AT&T subscribers who own a smartphone is closing in on 60%, which means the number of potential new smartphone customers could be shrinking.

In addition, 29% of U.S. smartphone owners use an iPhone, and 39% of consumers who intend to buy a smartphone in the next six months plan to buy one from Apple, according to the Yankee Group.

Apple Poised for Gains

This suggests Apple is poised to gain significant market share against Google Android, the current market leader in smartphone operating systems and another big seller for the carriers â€" and one that also costs the carriers less in subsidies. Android handset makers include Samsung, Motorola, HTC and LG. Research In Motion, which sells the BlackBerry, is another major smartphone maker, but its fortunes have been sliding lately.

“The plethora of phone vendors who are targeting AT&T and Verizon may be about to be hit by a triple whammy â€" slowing overall [subscriber] growth, slowing smartphone growth and lower market share for non-iPhone smart devices,” Tero Kuittinen, a mobile analyst and vice president of Alekstra, wrote for Forbes magazine. Alekstra sells services to help people manage phone bills.

While AT&T and Verizon may have plans to boost Windows Phone sales, and Microsoft may be doing everything possible to sweeten the pot for them, those plans may not be enough to materially alter their ongoing dependence on Apple.

Lexmark Mobile Printing (for iPhone) - PC Magazine

Lexmark Mobile Printing (for iPhone) is a free app designed to let users print out PDF documents, image files, and clipboard text and art from an Apple mobile device (iPhone or iPad) connected to the same WiFi network as a compatible Lexmark printer. Though a step up from the LexPrint photo-printing app, it lacks features we’re seeing in other apps; namely, the ability to print out Office documents or initiate scans. Lexmark Mobile Printing is only compatible with select Lexmark printers and MFPs, which excludes some that work with LexPrint. PDFs printed through Lexmark Mobile Printing generally were better formatted than those printed through AirPrint, though the Lexmark app’s PDFs were subject to hangs.

Basics

Lexmark Mobile Printing is available for free through the iTunes app store. The same app is good for both the iPhone and iPadâ€"an Android version is also available. I reviewed it for the iPhone here, though I also tested it with an iPad and noticed no functional or performance differences. This app works with Lexmark printers and MFPs that support IPP network printing and Direct Image printer language. Compatible models include the OfficeEdge Pro4000 and Pro5500, the Pro715, Pro915, S215, S415, and S515â€"all inkjetsâ€"plus most of Lexmark’s laser series from recent years. (A complete listing is available in the iTunes App Store’s description of the product.)

This excludes many inkjets more than a year old, including the Pinnacle Pro901 I generally use for Lexmark print app testing. (When I searched for it with the app, it didn’t show up on the list of supported printers.) Many older inkjets do support the LexPrint app, which is limited to photo printing. But, in addition to installing LexPrint on your i-device, you may also have to install a LexPrint Listener utility on your computer.

Once you install Lexmark Mobile Printing, you can search for supported printers on your WiFi network; it had no trouble locating my OfficeEdge Pro5500. The program’s interface includes tabs along the bottom: Add Device; Jobs; Photo; Clipboard, and About. Above the tabs is white space, in which appears a list of supported printers, documents ready to print, or a photo preview, depending on what task you’re working on.

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Testing

I first tested the app’s photo printing. It can print photos either from your i-thing’s photo albums or directly from images shot from within the app. Its printing choices are limited: which printer to use (in case you have more than one Lexmark printer on your network); the number of copies; the number of pages per side; one- or two-sided copies; and if two sided, whether the pages are flipped along the long or short side. (The choices are the same whether you’re printing from photo, Clipboard, or PDF.) AirPrint’s choices are just as sparse: printer; page range; number of copies; and one- or two-sided copies.

Through Clipboard, you can print out emails or other documents copied in your clipboard. To overwrite the Clipboard, you simply save a new document to it. Like AirPrint, it is able to print out HTML-formatted documents, and in even fewer pages. Clipboard printing worked flawlessly in my testing.

Lexmark primarily intended this app to facilitate the printing of PDFs for SMB and small workgroup users. To print a PDF, you must first load it in some other app (I used GoodReader and Adobe Acrobat for testing), and then open it in the Lexmark app. In printing PDFs, it provided some smarts that AirPrint lacks. (I tested Lexmark Mobile Printing on a Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro5500, which is also AirPrint compatible, so I could do a head-to-head comparison.) For instance, in printing out a landscape-oriented full-page illustration, it used the entire page, while AirPrint rotated and shrunk the image to fit the portrait width while leaving swaths of white space above and below. Photos in PDFs printed with the app were generally brighter and showed better color than those printed via AirPrint.

A downside is that I encountered several hangs when printing out PDFs. The printer would stop printing in the middle of the document, and I’d have to cancel the job. Sometimes the printer would go through the time-consuming process of rebooting itself after a hang. The hangs seemed related to how the app processes the file, as they happened at the same spot in a document if I tried to print it more than once (and from both my iPhone and iPad), it would stop at the same point whether the document was loaded in GoodReader or Acrobat, and the issue didn’t show up when I printed out the same document from one of those two apps using AirPrint. They tended to occur in longer, complicated PDFs.

Lexmark Mobile Printing (for iPhone) is free, and well worth trying if you have a compatible Lexmark printer. It has some qualitative advantages over AirPrint such as printing clipboard documents in fewer pages, better formatting and photo reproduction in PDFsâ€"and it supports many Lexmark models that aren’t AirPrint compatible.

Though Lexmark Mobile Printing (for iPhone) suffered occasional hangs in PDF printing in my testing, Lexmark’s other printing app, LexPrint, doesn’t print PDFs at all and is limited to photo printing. Speaking of limitations, adding support for the printing of Microsoft Office documents in a future version would greatly improve the new app. But as is, Lexmark Mobile Printing offers the convenience of letting you print PDFs and other material straight from your iPhone, and formats them nicely to boot.

For more iPhone Software, see:

•   Lexmark Mobile Printing (for iPhone)
•   Opera Mini 7 (for iPhone)
•   Zippity (for iPhone)
•   Wavii (for iPhone) (beta)
•   Hunger Games: Girl On Fire (for iPhone)
•  more

Apple Had Considered iPhone Design With Physical Keyboard - Gotta Be Mobile

Before the launch of the original iPhone in the summer of 2007, Apple had at one point in the design stages of its flagship and debut smartphone considered a physical keyboard for the iOSâ€"at the time it was called the iPhone OSâ€"smartphone. Revelation of the physical keyboard design consideration was revealed by famed iPod and iPhone designer Tony Fadell, who had since left Apple to start his own company called Nest.

According to Fadell in an interview on The Verge, Apple had considered three final prototype versions before settling on the aluminum-clad design that we saw in 2007, and one of those three prototypes contained a physical keyboard. AppleInsider reports that the three designs included:

He notes that when Apple was readying its first handset, the final three designs were an iPod-phone hybrid, an undisclosed version also called “iPhone” and the final model that reached customers’ hands.

Ultimately, in the end, Apple went with the iconic touchscreen-dominated keyboard-less design and opted to use a more intuitive multitouch software keyboard with the autocorrection feature that we see today rather than rely on physical hardware keys. Fadell says that at the time, he saw the potential for a software keyboard, and his early intuition was supported by late CEO Steve Jobs.

When the iPhone debuted, many smartphones at the time were trending towards designs with either a front-facing physical keyboard or ones with slide-out keyboards. Both the Palm Treoâ€"including designs that operated on Windows Mobile and Palm OSâ€"as well as Research in Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones relied on quick messaging as a key selling point with well developed front-facing keyboards. HTC and a few others relied on landscape-oriented slide-out keyboards. The success with the touchscreen keyboard was aided in no small part by Apple’s capacitive touchscreen technology, which allowed users to merely touch the touchscreen, rather than have to press down on the touchscreen as with the resistive touchscreen technology that was employed by the smartphone industry prior to Apple’s arrival.

Ironically, it was with the launch of Androidâ€"which Steve Jobs believed to be in violation of Apple’s intellectual propertyâ€"the keyboard was resurrected. The very first Android smartphone, the HTC G1, which debuted on T-Mobile USA’s network had come out with a skewed landscape-oriented sliding keyboard design. The Motorola Droid popularized the physical keyboard with its design and that keyboard has since evolved over four generations of the Android flagship line. In more recent memory, HTC had boldly proclaimed that it will no longer release phones with keyboards, citing that consumers wanted thin and and light smartphone designs as the major reason.

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Tags: Apple, Design, industrial design, iOS, iphone, keyboard, SIP, software keyboard

Category: Mobile

About the Author (Author Profile)

Tech enthusiast in Silicon Valley enjoying the possibilities of ubiquitous connectivity, information sharing, and collaboration enabled by mobile broadband. You can contact Chuong on Twitter @chuongvision or with the same ID on Skype.

Apple Had Considered iPhone Design With Physical Keyboard - Gotta Be Mobile

Before the launch of the original iPhone in the summer of 2007, Apple had at one point in the design stages of its flagship and debut smartphone considered a physical keyboard for the iOSâ€"at the time it was called the iPhone OSâ€"smartphone. Revelation of the physical keyboard design consideration was revealed by famed iPod and iPhone designer Tony Fadell, who had since left Apple to start his own company called Nest.

According to Fadell in an interview on The Verge, Apple had considered three final prototype versions before settling on the aluminum-clad design that we saw in 2007, and one of those three prototypes contained a physical keyboard. AppleInsider reports that the three designs included:

He notes that when Apple was readying its first handset, the final three designs were an iPod-phone hybrid, an undisclosed version also called “iPhone” and the final model that reached customers’ hands.

Ultimately, in the end, Apple went with the iconic touchscreen-dominated keyboard-less design and opted to use a more intuitive multitouch software keyboard with the autocorrection feature that we see today rather than rely on physical hardware keys. Fadell says that at the time, he saw the potential for a software keyboard, and his early intuition was supported by late CEO Steve Jobs.

When the iPhone debuted, many smartphones at the time were trending towards designs with either a front-facing physical keyboard or ones with slide-out keyboards. Both the Palm Treoâ€"including designs that operated on Windows Mobile and Palm OSâ€"as well as Research in Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones relied on quick messaging as a key selling point with well developed front-facing keyboards. HTC and a few others relied on landscape-oriented slide-out keyboards. The success with the touchscreen keyboard was aided in no small part by Apple’s capacitive touchscreen technology, which allowed users to merely touch the touchscreen, rather than have to press down on the touchscreen as with the resistive touchscreen technology that was employed by the smartphone industry prior to Apple’s arrival.

Ironically, it was with the launch of Androidâ€"which Steve Jobs believed to be in violation of Apple’s intellectual propertyâ€"the keyboard was resurrected. The very first Android smartphone, the HTC G1, which debuted on T-Mobile USA’s network had come out with a skewed landscape-oriented sliding keyboard design. The Motorola Droid popularized the physical keyboard with its design and that keyboard has since evolved over four generations of the Android flagship line. In more recent memory, HTC had boldly proclaimed that it will no longer release phones with keyboards, citing that consumers wanted thin and and light smartphone designs as the major reason.

• Share this Article:
• Email
• Facebook
• Reddit

Tags: Apple, Design, industrial design, iOS, iphone, keyboard, SIP, software keyboard

Category: Mobile

About the Author (Author Profile)

Tech enthusiast in Silicon Valley enjoying the possibilities of ubiquitous connectivity, information sharing, and collaboration enabled by mobile broadband. You can contact Chuong on Twitter @chuongvision or with the same ID on Skype.

Mob Tells iPhone Fans To "Wake Up" - CIO

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Mob Tells iPhone Fans To "Wake Up" - CIO

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• HP Intel VMware Virtually There: Using the Power of Virtualization to Your Competitive Advantage
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Mob Tells iPhone Fans To "Wake Up" - CIO

Solution Centers

• F5 Realizing the Benefits of Cloud Computing
• GT Nexus Cloud Supply Chain Solution Center
• HP Intel VMware Virtually There: Using the Power of Virtualization to Your Competitive Advantage
• HP + Microsoft Data Management Appliances & Architectures
• IntraLinks Extended Enterprise Collaboration Center
• Oracle-Endeca Executive Toolkit: Bringing Agility to Your BI Environment
• Riverbed Accelerate Business Performance Solution Center
• View all Solution Centers

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• Subscribe
• Subscriber Services

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