Many are wondering if it is a good time to buy a new Mac. Here’s what I’ve got to say on the matter.

There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty swirling around Apple’s Mac line of computers right now. This is despite the company’s claim that they are doubling down on the Mac with major annual updates to OS X, spearheaded this year with Mountain Lion. Even so, it’s apparent Apple’s earnings reports that the Mac is no longer their cornerstone product. The iPhone and iPad are now in charge.

There have been no major Mac hardware updates and we are five months into the year. Granted, it seems that Apple is waiting on Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors to make it to the market. Still, the Mac is stagnant, and it appears that it is slowing sales.

On the flip side, there are plenty of rumors circulating regarding the MacBook Pro line. Many believe that Apple will morph the Pro line into a more MacBook Air-like form factor. I tend to agree. I just don’t know if we will see that change with this next update. Still, a nice update is due, and now that it is this late into the year, I would wager that they introduce new Pro machines at WWDC in June. You know, an introduction in front or a Pro audience.

So, if the question on your mind, is whether it’s a good time to buy a Mac. In a word- no. It is not a good time. There is a caveat however. If you need one right now, of course, go get one. It’s not suddenly going to go bad the day after a new one has been introduced. But, if you are waiting for the latest and greatest, keep waiting, updates seem to be right around the corner.

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The Worldwide Developers Conference will take place in early June, and with it will likely come a preview of iOS 6. As such, we’ve put together a team list (organized by author) of the improvements we’d like to see in the next iteration of iOS. The wishes here are varied, but it’s clear (due to a bit of repetition) that notifications, iCloud, and the file system on the iPhone and iPad could do with some loving this year.

ROB RENK

• Better Maps. I was very happy to see the news that Apple is rumored to be moving to in-house mapping solutions for iOS 6. The possibility of seeing less and less of Google in my life makes me smile inside. I’m also feeling a little greedy with this request – not only do I want to have an in-house mapping solution that will be better than anything we’ve seen before, but I would love to have turn-by-turn navigation built in, and map views available in landscape mode, too! I’d just assume not to have to use anymore third party mapping applications if I didn’t have to. I would also love to be able to download or cache regions ahead of time for those instances that I don’t have a reliable data connection. In my line of work this is a very regular occurring problem for me. Currently this is only possible by buying applications that are very large in size because all the mapping data is downloaded onto the iPhone via the app.
• Notification Center improvements. Notifications on the iPad look out of place, ugly and very un-Apple like. I’m not sure how to improve it, but having the Notifications menu centered in the middle of the screen as small as it is just looks wrong. I think Apple can do better. To expand on that, I want do-not-disturb capabilities like we are seeing in Mountain Lion, mostly for when I’m playing games or working on something that I need to focus on. A simple switch or button, perhaps located in Notification Center, would work just fine. In addition, it sure would be nice to have the ability to customize Notification Center a little more with shortcuts to commonly used features without having to jailbreak my device. Weather, Stocks, Calculator and a voice recorder are available on the iPhone, and Apple should add them to the iPad.
• Zephyr-like gestures sure would be nice. I had Zephyr on my jailbroken iPhone a while back, and I came to really enjoy it. I think it would be a great improvement, on the iPad as well.
• There was a recent iPad video that went viral last week illustrating an amazing take on text editing improvements. I want that feature built right into the OS so I can use it anywhere I enter text. The idea seems so simple and natural, I really hope the exposure the video received last week caught Apple’s attention, or maybe they already have something more advanced in the works.
• iPad window-based multitasking. I know, I know, I’m not supposed to use the iPad that way. If I want to have multiple windows open at a time just use the multi-tasking bar and open the next window/app – or buy a laptop, that’s what they’re for. Sorry, that argument just doesn’t fly with me. There are real-life situations in my work flow where having multiple windows open at the same time would be highly advantageous. Plus now with the Retina display on the new iPad, text is sharp and crisp and very easy to see, even if it’s in a smaller window view than what we are typically used to seeing.

PATRICK JORDAN

• More Choices / Control Over Photos Handling: We should be able to move images from the Camera Roll into albums, not just copy them. The current system where you copy something to an album then find that if you want to delete an image your only choice is to ‘Delete Everywhere’ is way beyond stupid.
• Easy Services Toggling: This is so, so long overdue. The jailbreak favorite SBSettings has been showing how to do this for years now. It’s stupidly hard to toggle Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, Location Services and others on and off in iOS. I would easily ditch the brightness slider in the Multitasking Bar if it could be replaced with services toggles. Same goes for the redundant volume adjustment slider.
• Something, Anything to Make Home Screen & App Organization Easier: I agree with David Chartier – folders is not enough and this needs a more major rethink.
• Proper Backup and Restore Abilities in iCloud: The current iCloud backup system is better than nothing, but just barely. Restore (except in relation to Apple’s own iWork apps) is an all-or-nothing choice – which again is hugely stupid and nothing like backup and restore is meant to be. We should have more choice on what gets backed up, an ability to name backups, and an ability to do selective restores. [Ed.: Apple needs to take inspiration from Time Machine here!]

New Maps Need to Kick Ass: If all the strong rumors are true and iOS 6 is ditching Google Maps for an in-house Apple solution, then they need to be awesome – at least as good as what Google offered. I’m happy to see the change, as long as we don’t lose functionality or features.

THOMAS WONG

• Better hardware keyboard support: I’ve said this over and over again, but since we’re nearing a likely preview of iOS 6, it’s time to say it once more. If the iPad really is going to be treated more like a “computer” and not just a “mobile device”, then it needs some decent hardware keyboard support. Spotlight and Home button keys are great, but the iPad could really do with acting more like a desktop OS in certain situations.

• Take, for example, starting a Spotlight search. You can type the entire search in with your keyboard, but you can’t actually initiate it without lifting a finger off the keys and tapping on the screen. If the iPad were set up better, a simple tap on the “return” key would start the search.
• The same goes for switching between apps by double-tapping the home button: it’s possible with a Bluetooth keyboard, but you still need to tap on the screen to actually switch between apps.

BRANDON STEILI

1. The Springboard needs to be more informational. Frankly, compared to Windows Phone or Android, the iOS springboard sucks. iOS has badges. Little red icons with numbers. Whoop-di-do. WP7 has live tiles that can display everything from the weather to your calendar or your family photo album. Android has widgets which can do the same and even interact so the app itself never even needs to launch. Little red dots simply don’t cut it. And don’t get me started with the 12 apps per folder limit.
2. Thomas mentioned this as well – Abstracting away the filesystem was a novel concept and for many intents it works well. It keeps people further away from the OS layer and more in the app layer which is great for lowering support issues. But the problem is – moving files between apps SUCKS. It’s just flat-out terrible. If an app hasn’t registered as a file handler with the OS you can’t move a file to it from another app OR if your app isn’t coded to share files to other apps you have to go through the hoops Thomas mentioned. Does anyone else get how completely asinine it is that I have to export a file, email it to the web, download it back to my iPad, then open it in another app? WE’RE TALKING AOUT A FILE THAT’S ALREADY ON THE DEVICE! Now, I’m not asking for full fledged file access like Android has (although I enjoy having that) – what I’m asking for is a “shared folder”. A place where every app can save and every app can delete (with user confirmation). Is that so tough? [Ed.: AirDrop, introduced in OS X Lion, could prove to be an interesting solution for this problem on iOS.]
3. Notification Center Toggles. Wifi, BT, VPN, GPS, Airplane Mode, Data On/Off, Screen Rotation. This is just a user friendliness issue at this point and, frankly, I think Apple has been too stubborn for it’s own good here. SBSettings did this YEARS ago so you can’t tell me Apple can’t figure out an elegant way to do it. Stop making me click through three or four menus just to disable a service. Let me swipe down from the top and disable/enable something so I can get on with my life.
4. I’m a big boy. I’m frankly tired of Apple telling me what is and is not appropriate for me to access on MY DEVICE. Apple has my details – they know my birthdate, they have my credit card – they know I’m old enough to think for myself. So they can stop filtering what gets presented to me on the device. I understand this is Apple’s walled garden. But at a certain point you’re spending so much time curating and perfecting your little patch of grass, that you start yelling at everyone who walks on it and forget that the whole point of the garden was to share it with others.

ALICIA

1) Free Facetime! I love Facetime but I think it needs to meet its true potential as a WhatsApp, BBM killer by accepting users on other platforms. Let the BB, Android and heck, Windows Phone users, in and I think it has the potential to even take over Skype. Seriously. Apple can make this work.

2) Simplify “Other”

iOS 5 makes it difficult, if not impossible, to know what the “Other” data that iTunes says is taking up space on your iPad or iPhone. Your best bet at the moment is to go into Usage and check the space taken up, application by application. I’ve done this over and over and over and still cannot figure out what is taking up space. I can only suspect these are attachments on email messages but this theory is not easily corroborated.

3) I’d like to be able to put Newsstand into a folder. I don’t use it that often ands clogs up my minimalist iPad desktop.

4) I’d like to see a Smart app/folder organisation by tags, recently used, newly added, last used.

5) It would be great to have a unified file or document structure. It’s hard to know if I have a doc in Dropbox, Pages or iAnnotate – I’d like to be able to access them quickly. Also it would be good to see if I have duplicates.

JAY ROTH

• A useful multitasking tray! Having a double-click on the home button that displays EVERY “recent” app is absurd. After two swipes to the right, it’s no longer useful. Additionally, it adds to the confusion about whether all those are actually still running in the background (which they’re not). This highlights the hope others have expressed with SBSettings jailbreak – a way to see and kill the resource-hogging apps running in the background.
• I think Apple can also allow a default to help maximize the real estate on the iPhone. How? I like how some apps will “maximize” and cover the top status bar. Why not make that an option in iOS? And even better, when turning landscape, why not have that darn bar disappear? It uses space that could be devoted entering text.
• First there should be an improvement to notifications that include quiet hours! Many of us use our iDevices 24/7 and having email sounds, Facebook notifications, etc. go off all night long is ridiculous. Yes, most apps can individually be turned off, but it’s an “either/or” setting: either always on or always off. The Silent switch just doesn’t cut it.
• Next, it’s time to improve the keyboard on the small handhelds. Recently, while driving, I handed my iPhone to a passenger to text for me. As an Android user she tried swiping across the keyboard instead of tapping. “What a novel idea,” thought I. Since I have terrible typing skills on the iPhone, as well as a jailbroken iOS 5.1 iPhone 4S, I located and tried the “Swype” keyboard. It’s pretty sweet. How wonderful if Apple decided to integrate that concept and do it right.

ALEX JORDAN

• Improvements to Siri. I love Siri, I think it’s a great feature, even when taking into account its rough edges. In fact, because we’ve been living with the first interation of Siri since it launched last October with the iPhone 4S, it seems that we’re a now excusing some of its shortcomings. I say that honeymoon period is about to run out, and I would very much like to see Apple further develop and improve upon the service with the release of iOS 6. I would love to be able to launch apps, send tweets, update Facebook, and other similar tasks via Siri. Plus, I would love to see Siri make its way to the iPad with the introduction of iOS 6.
• Improved Built-In Weather App. I would like to see a better built-in weather application. The current weather application was great when it was first introduced, but since the introduction of the App Store, feels passed up by the competition. A great example, to me, of a better user experience, comes from Weather 2x. The weather app is used by a lot of people, and certainly feels due for a significant update.
• Better Podcast Updating. A better way to download podcasts directly to your iOS device. I subscribe to a number of podcasts, and usually just sync them to my iOS device through iTunes on my computer. However, there have been occassions where I have been on the road and wanted to download the latest episdode of a podcast, tapped on the “Get More Episodes…” link in te Music app, been yanked out of the app and into the iTunes store, and have been presented with a list of episodes. This should work much more smoothly; I’m thinking of a situation similar to how podcats work on iTunes on the Mac/Windows, or perhaps like an in-app purchase on iOS. Surely I’m not the only person that finds this annoying and worthy of a fix. The current method of updating podcasts just seems very inefficient and needs to be changed. [**Ed.: For those who also feel this way, see Instacast.]
• Reminders Redesign. Although Reminders was a new introduction with iOS 5, it has a less than optimal user interface. It’s ugly and hard to use. If you’re not setting up a reminder via Siri, this app is a muddled mess of buttons to navigate. I doubt a redesign will happen though, as it seems Mountain Lion’s version of Reminders will have a very similar user interface to the iOS version. One can hope though…
• WebKit Improvements in Safari. Lastly, I would like to see major improvements to the Safari WebKit engine. Granted, most of the limitations to Mobile Safari are due to the lack of raw processing power on mobile devices. That said, I have a feeling there are more optimizations Apple could wring out of WebKit. Some intensely HTML5-based sites feel sluggish on the latest iOS hardware, and I consider this a big weakness as we move into an increasingly web-based future.

BRANDON KOSAL

The Most Important

Notifications need a serious revamp. Apple can be charmingly late to the party when it comes to iOS features. They famously lagged way behind in terms of implementing notifications within the iPhone OS. Once announced, they were met with a collective “whatever.” It’s not that they don’t work – it’s that they could work so much better.

The spinny box on top has to be rethought, as it becomes a nuisance quite often within certain apps. I’d also love to see icons in the top bar, similar to those of BlackBerry and Android. Next to the time, I’d like to at least see the number of texts, e-mails, and phone calls / voicemails I need to tend to. Customization here is key, as other apps should be able to utilize this function as well.

The Most Annoying

Someone at Apple owes us an explanation as to why we can’t hide that pesky Newsstand icon. It makes zero sense whatsoever. There is no excuse for this to not get corrected this time around.

Somewhat Important

I’m not suggesting Apple do away with the icons. It’s just that it looks so plain right now. I’m also not asking for a full revamp, but how about some custom folder icons? Widgets to break up the apps a bit? Basically, I want more control over the look of my home screen.

Somewhat Annoying

I may be splitting hairs here, but Apple needs to become the leader within the iOS world again. Now, please understand that I prefer iOS over everything else. But a lot of the features and styles that Apple implements feel like, as I said above, they’re late to the party. Examples: Copy & Paste, Notifications, and even MMS for crying out loud. Apple is really great at taking a concept and refining the heck out of it. But as they have also proved time and time again, they’re great at innovating. I’d really like to feel blown away with the new OS.

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Have you been doing a lot of Pinging lately? Not pinging like ‘ping google.com’ to test your connectivity, you know using Ping to tell all your friends about music you’re listening to.

You remember Ping right? Apple’s ‘social network for music’ launched back in September of 2010. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about Ping until a couple days ago. I used it a few times right after it launched to ‘follow’ a few bands I like – but for me it suffered from the worst ailment that can afflict any social network: none of my friends or acquaintances were on it. And when that’s the case you’re basically playing round in a virtual echo chamber.

I have used a few other apps that let you share songs you’re listening to over the years, and recently started using Spotify – which I love so far and sometimes use for shouting out about a track I like.

Anyway, I ‘m just a little curious – am I missing the boat on Ping? Is it massively popular and I just haven’t noticed, or is it one of these rare swing and a miss situations for Apple? Do you use it? If so, how often or for what?

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Now that rumors surrounding the next-generation MacBook Pro have reached a fever pitch, ABC News has rounded up those rumors and throws in their own two cents. Specifically, Joanna Stern claims that the iMac will also gain the new ultra high-resolution “Retina” displays that are already in use on iPhones and iPads, and believed to be coming to the new MacBook Pros.

For quite some time now, Apple has been building in “HiDPI” support into the latest version of OS X. This allows on-screen graphical elements to scale to the high-resolution displays. Of course, this technology is being built in, but with a complete lack of Macs currently shipping with ultra-high resolution displays, it is currently unused. It would be a naive assumption to think that Apple would build all of this in for only one line of computers. It may take time, but I suspect “Retina” displays will make their way to all of Apple’s products with displays.

That said, there is a technical issue- if Apple were to simply double the resolution as they did with the iPhone and slap a “Retina” label on it, they could run into problems. Firstly, I doubt they can make displays with a ultra high, double-resolution at that (21 and 27-inches) size, in a mass quantity at this time. The yield rates just aren’t there. Secondly, a doubling of resolution could quickly bog down even the beefiest of current-generation graphics processors.

So, instead of just doubling the resolution and calling it a day, I suspect that Apple will bend the definition of “Retina” with regards to the Mac. That is, display resolutions will be bumped significantly, but not a true doubling. This will pass, due to the greater average viewing distance of a computer display as compared to, say, iPhones and iPads. In other words, the greater viewing distance makes up for the relatively lower pixel density (compared to the Retina displays we’ve come to know and love), which in turn, still brings an extra-crisp experience to the user.

Rounding out the Mac Retina display rumors, 9to5Mac is reporting that the next-generation MacBook Air will also sport a Retina display. The report notes that this will likely be the most significant change in the forthcoming update. However, due to power constraints, it may be a while before the Retina-equipped Air makes its way to market.

So, the long story short is that it seems pretty certain that ultra-high resolution “Retina” displays are on their way to the Mac. And it seems that all of Apple’s notebook lines are poised to see this upgrade when they are updated, and if other reports are to be believed, most will be updated in the very near future.

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Due is one of my favourite apps on iOS. It’s consistently on my iPhone’s first home screen and I end up finding uses for it every single day. Even if you’ve already got great apps for timing things and setting quick alerts or tasks, you’ll likely still find a good use for Due. It really is that good.

So it was interesting to hear the over Twitter today that Phocus LLP has released a $9.99 Mac version of Due, as I had no idea that one was in the works. Due on the Mac looks a little different with its new icon, but all of the other natural language task creation and multiple timers that are so horrendously useful in the iOS versions are still present. It also syncs with the iOS versions of the app over iCloud, so you can get up and going in just seconds.

Fore more information, check out the Due for Mac website.

[via @dueapp]

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Diablo III – the latest, clickiest demon-slaying action RPG from Blizzard – launched earlier today at 3 AM EST and is available for the Mac. The release of D3 basically spells the end of the world for everyone’s free time, and the fact that a single $60 license works on both Macs and PCs means that it’s going to terribly difficult to not play this bloody game anywhere you own a computer.

I tested D3 out on my 2009 13″ MacBook Pro (using the latest version of Lion OS X) earlier this morning and found my three-year old machine to be a little lacking. Two-player co-op over Battle.net was chugging along at around 10-15 FPS on the lowest playable resolution and with most of my 8 GB of RAM cleared. Frankly, this was all to be expected considering the game’s minimum specifications, but your experience should be a lot more favourable if you’ve got a more powerful i5 or i7 CPU and a dedicated GPU (present in 15-and-17″ MacBooks).

iOS gaming has been doing pretty well for itself and Mac App Store and Valve’s Steam have helped bring more mainstream titles to OS X over the past few months, but it has taken a triple-A title like Diablo III hitting the Mac on the same day as the PC versions for me to really get excited about the prospect of Mac gaming again.

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Apple Brings Flashback Removal Tool to OS X Leopard

Apple is moving at great speed to lock down the Flashback trojan threat. As of today, Apple has released a Flashback removal tool for Leopard users. They also released Leopard Security Update 2012-003, which automatically disables out-of0date version of Adobe’s ubiquitous Flash Player. This is in an effort to further lock down any opening that Flashback might try to take advantage of.

A Glimpse of what the Next-Generation iPhone Might Look Like

MacRumors has posted professional mockups of what the next-generation iPhone might look like based on currently-circulating rumors. It’s slightly longer, and has a slightly longer screen. [Read More]

Report Claims Next-Generation iPhone to Have Updated Dock Connector

A recent report has surfaced claiming that the next-generation iPhone will have a smaller, updated dock connector. They also claim that the device will look very similar to the current iPhone 4/4S design. No changes to the screen either. [Read More]

Confirmed: Notes and Reminders Coming to iCloud.com, More

A new report from The Wall Street Journal notes that Apple will be unveiling and upgraded iCloud at next-month’s WWDC. They confirm that Notes and Reminders will be making their way to iCloud.com. They also claim that Photo Stream will support videos, and there will be a photo-sharing functionality built in. None of this sounds like a bad thing to me. [Read More]

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The first real evidence that a next-generation MacBook Pro and iMac exists, comes in the form of Geekbench benchmark results. These system benchmarks were discovered in Geekbench’s database, and have lead to flurry of speculation.

First up, is a benchmark for a MacBookPro9,1, which is a model number that corresponds to no product on the market as of this moment. The current Pro models are labeled MacBookPro8,x. This can be easily faked, yes, but the system specs match up nicely with the rumored internals coming in the next-generation MacBook Pro.

This new machine, according to the benchmark, has a 2.7GhHz Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3820QM quad-core processor. It is a 45-watt chip, making it unlikely that such a chip will make it’s way to the 13-inch model due to its smaller battery. Overall, this machine scored a 12,262, compared to 10,500 compared to the Core i7-2860QM found in current MacBook Pros.

As for the iMac, it is marked as a iMac13,2, which would correspond to a new 27-inch iMac model. Again, this machine has a beefier 3.4GHz i7-3770 quad-core processor. This new model scores at 12,183 compared to the 11,500 of the current Core i7-2600 processors.

It would seem that significant updates, at least in regards to horsepower, are in the pipeline.

Following up these benchmarks comes a report from 9to5Mac, which claims that the next-generation 15-inch MacBook Pro will be considerably thinner than the current Pro design. Their source claims that the machine will look essentially the same, but will have a reduction in thickness due to the removal of the optical drive. In short, it will look like a thiner MacBook Pro, and less like the tapered MacBook Air design as had been previously rumored.

It seems that this will be a truly “pro” machine, with all of the ports that are reportedly included. The right side will offer a pair of Thunderbolt ports, a USB port, and SD card slot, and a Kensington lock slot. The left side will have two USB ports, audio in/out jacks, MagSafe power connector, and battery indicator.

The report is unsure as to whether the new Pro will retain FireWire connectivity. However, they are certain that the dedicated ethernet port is gone. Users will have to rely on a USB-to-enthernet dongle if they want to connect via hardwire.

The report also notes that the new MacBook Pro will have a “Retina” display, which should come as no surprise considering HiDPI graphics and settings have been popping up in the latest builds of Lion and Mountain Lion.

Lastly, this 9to5Mac report claims that the USB ports will be USB 3.0. This claim seems fishy considering Apple’s push for their own proprietary Thunderbolt connectivity that they developed with Intel. However, this claim isn’t totally dismissible, as other reports dating back to last year, claimed that Apple was still considering the use of USB 3.0 in future machines.

As for the launch timeframe, a report from Bloomberg states that Apple will be introducing these new machines at WWDC which kickoff on June 11th. This report also claims the machines will include flash memory to cut down on startup times. A vague, precise report like this strikes me as one of Apple’s controlled leaks they have been known to use in order to drum up hype ahead of a launch. Besides, what better time would there be to introduce a new Pro machine, than at a pro-user conference?

Not to brag, but all of this fall in line nicely with what I predicted awhile back. These new MacBook Pros won’t be as thin as the MacBook Air, but most certainly will be thinner than current MacBook Pros. I still wager this extra room is for the beefier internals, yes, but more likely, for traditional higher-capacity Hard Drives with moving parts. The high-capacity that pro users demand, is still economically unfeasible in today’s solid state drives.

June 11th is right around the corner, and I have a sneaking idea that these report hit the nail right on the head. I would expect slimmer, more powerful MacBook Pro to be released very soon.

Images courtesy of Geekbench and 9to5Mac.

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I’m still a little annoyed with Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance’s (N.O.V.A.) lackluster attempt to make a fake acronym, but there’s no denying the third installment of Gameloft’s shameless Halo clone is pretty. Many of the delicious FPS delights – like dynamic lighting, particle systems, and enemies that fly away like ragdolls when you shoot them – are now present in a $7 iOS game. The production values are generally good enough for me to describe N.O.V.A. 3 as a “first person shooter”, and I no longer feel the need to preface it with the word “mobile” as a sort of disclaimer. I’m also a fan of the universal status of the app, which means that a single price tag nets you both the iPhone and iPad versions of the game.

I still don’t like Gameloft’s unabashed copycat game designing style, but if clones on iOS are looking this good, that’s got to be a decent sign for gaming on the platform, right?

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Ben Brooks recently linked to an interesting Smashing Magazine article on the mobile web, which discusses whether or not websites should bother having separate, mobile-optimized versions. I could see the argument for simpler, leaner mobile websites years ago when I still used a Windows Mobile 5 device and browsed with the barely-capable Internet Explorer Mobile, but viewing mobile versions of IMDB.com (or iSource.com, for that matter) just doesn’t cut it for me.

iPhones and iPads are powerful enough to chew up and spit out most websites I visit, and services like Safari Reader and Instapaper help me to instantly adapt most websites for easier reading. 90% of the time that I see a mobile version of a website, I’ll end up switching to the full desktop version (the 10% exception to the case are web apps like Grooveshark and Gmail or Svbtle blogs, which are beautifully optimized for non-desktop devices). I think a lot of sites would be doing me a favour by simply displaying their full desktop versions to my iPhone and iPad – and not just to my Mac.

[via The Brooks Review]

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Welcome to our weekly installment of Picks of the Week at iSource where we provide our expanded coverage of Apple accessories and applications. Here we will promote our favorite iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac and Apple TV related items, as well as bring you occasional tips and tricks. Hopefully many of our favorite items will also be of interest to you. Please feel free to comment on our selections, and suggest picks of your own. Check out this week’s picks after the break.

Spotify  [ v 0.5.0 ]

Picked by: Alex Jordan

Until very recently, I had not paid much attention to Spotify, a music streaming service that wasn’t even available in the U.S. until last last summer. The other day, the Spotify app was in a prominent spot iOS App Store, and I though, “why not?”. I downloaded it, logged-in with my Facebook credentials (don’t be creepy) and immediately began listening to music that I like. On demand. Whatever I wanted to hear. There are other feature, such as offline playlists, and computer to device streaming, but the meat of the service lies with streaming whatever you want to listen to, whenever you want to hear it. This is very liberating compared to Pandora, which functions much more like traditional radio.

Upon signing in for the first time, a 48-hour trial starts immediately. After that, you have three options for the service: the free account which is ad-supported and allows a limited number of playback time, the unlimited account for $4.99/month that gets rid of ads and allows unlimited playback, and then the premium account which gives access to a number of other features, besides unlimited playback. Also, the iOS apps are very well designed, and easy to navigate. The iPhone version is nice, but the iPad version is exquisite.

Over the long run, I believe Apple is right, insofar that the majoritu of people want to own their music, instead of renting it. But to my mind, Spotify fills a gap, for those who do want to rent, and those of us who like to discover new music, that they will then later purchase.

You can download the Spotify software for OS X, Windows, and other platforms from their website–and of course, the iOS version is free on the App Store.

Free [ iTunes ]

Free [ App Store ]

iTranslate Voice  [ v 1.0 ]

Picked by: Thomas

iTranslate Voice (separate from the plain “iTranslate” app) has been making the rounds on Twitter recently. It licenses Nuance’s voice recognition technology (the same tech used by Siri on the iPhone 4S) to recognize and then translate what you say from one language to another – in mere seconds. Speaking into the microphone usually does the job, but you’re free to edit the resulting text, in case something isn’t recognized properly.

Automated translations still aren’t natural and they won’t easily pass for native speech, but I’ve already had my $0.99 worth of fun by using iTranslate to hear what “In Soviet Russia, car drive you” sounds like in Russian.

Free [ iTunes ]

Spotify  [ v 0.5.0 ]

Picked by: PatrickJ

Free [ iTunes ]

Free [ App Store ]

There you have it!  Hope you enjoyed this week’s installment of Picks of the week. Please let us know what you think, and share with us some of your favorites in the comments section below.

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Evernote is great for storing memories, but it can be a little slow when it comes to capturing them. As such, I’ve taken to using quick-entry apps, like Drafts, for storing my ideas as they pop up. This lowers the number of ideas that simply get lost and then send them to Evernote for more permanent storage.

However, thanks to a post on The Brooks Review, I now know of an even more direct method for quickly capturing and sending text notes to Evernote. Fastever is a $0.99 iPhone app that loads up, prompts you for text, and then sends it all to Evernote with one tap of the save button. If you’re offline when you try to save, the app will simply queue the post up for uploading next time there’s a connection. You can also specify the tags and the notebook for a given note, and the text that you input will stay saved until you export it to Evernote or manually clear the screen.

The only thing that’s really keeping me from using the app full time? The icon. It features a charging green elephant, and that just feels too cartoony for my liking. I hope Evernote is keeping watch, though: this type of quick-input interface is something that would really bolster the utility of the main iOS app.

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Apple is testing out a new version of iCloud.com at beta.iCloud.com, wherein Notes and Reminders are added to the existing Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Find My iPhone, and iWork web app icons.

Accessing this new beta portal has been spotty at best. Most of the time, images are broken, or the user is redirected to Apple’s standard iCloud information page. Remember, this follows Apple’s testing of of Notification Center updates on the iCloud.com webpage. I suspect Apple will open full beta access to the updated iCloud.com at WWDC.

All of this points to Apple making significant upgrades to the iCloud.com experience, which can’t be a bad thing. But, let’s be honest, nothing could be as bad as MobileMe ever was. It’s probably a good thing Apple is at least changing something to keep iCloud.com fresh.

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9to5Mac is reporting that Apple will indeed be moving away from Google Maps to in-house map technology with the introduction of iOS 6. This new mapping service will include 3D views. Remember, Apple bought mapping companies, Poly9 and Placebase a few years ago. Just last year, the Apple also bought C3 Technologies, a 3D mapping firm, just last year.

Other than the 3D services, Apple’s new maps look very similar to the currently-implemented Google Maps-powered applications we’ve all become accustomed to over the years. Overall, Apple’s implementations will be faster and more reliable the report claims.

This development should come as no surprise. Apple has been acquiring mapping companies for several years now, and also posting job openings. Plus, the biggest move came with the introduction of iPhoto for the iPad earlier this year- the Photo Journals feature takes advantage of OpenStreetMap to populate map tiles.

Apple and Google are ever-increasingly at odds with one another, as each are encroaching on the other’s businesses. More Google than Apple, with mobile operating systems, app marketplaces and the like. That said, Apple has moved in to Google’s markets with such initiatives as iAds, and now maps.

So, I would expect Apple to announce this new service at WWDC alongside iOS 6, which will be held the week of June 11th – June 15th. I would also wager that Apple shows off a more complete version of OS X Mountain Lion. We’ll keep you posted.

Mockup courtesy of 9to5Mac.

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Apple Testing Notification Center on iCloud.com

It seems that Apple is testing notification center on iCloud.com. The test message has appeared on the top of the window upon logging in. It seems Apple is getting their ducks in a row ahead of the Mountain Lion release later this summer. [Read More]

T-Mobile USA to Have LTE in 2013, iPhone-Ready By End of 2012

T-Mobile has made the announcement that they will have LTE service in place for 2013. In the mean time, they plan to build-out their HSPA+ service in the 1900MHz band, which will be iPhone compatible, and will be ready by the end of 2012. [Read More]

Apple to Split Initial Costs to Improve Working Conditions at Foxconn Facilities

A report has surfaced claiming that Apple will be splitting the initial cost of improving conditions at Foxconn. It seems that Apple is putting their cash stockpile to work on good things. [Read More]

OS X 10.7.4 Released to Public, HiDPI Icons Showing Up

Apple has released OS X 10.7.4, a minor update to OS X Lion. This update addresses a security issue with FileVault. More interestingly, this update also tweak certain system icons, making them ready for high-resolution displays when they become available. [Read More]

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There’s a fair amount of congratulating to be done when it comes to the release of Instapaper 4.2. Not only did Marco Arment manage to improve upon the reading experience of his best-in-class app, but he did so while welcoming a new member into his family.

There’s a lot to love in v4.2:

Page Turner

A new Fast Pagination mode makes reading articles feel more like reading eBooks, with silky smooth page-dissolving transitions and a great new control scheme; there are three ways to navigate a paginated article: swipe left to flick to the next page, drag a finger along the new dot bar, or tap just below the text to turn the page. You can also enjoy iBooks-style turning animations in 4.2, but I still prefer Marco’s.

Less Chrome

Full-screen mode is now set to activate automatically, a few seconds after you open an article; the mode is also smart to turn itself off when you reach the end of the text, making it easier to close an article or share it. A two-finger swipe to the right will close the article you’re in – something you’ll be grateful for while all the controls are hidden in full-screen mode.
This is another example of gestures and automation done right: power users will know to use two fingers to leave an article, while newer users will be presented with on-screen buttons when they enter or leave an article.

Share Better

Instapaper can now share text to Drafts and Quotebook, making it easier to quickly save some of your favourite quotes. Sharing text with Drafts will automatically place the origin URL at the top of the note, so you know where the quote comes from.

Simply put, Instapaper 4.2 is one of the most significant updates the app has seen for a while – not because the added features are “new”, but because they really flesh out the concepts added in earlier updates. Full-screen mode and pagination were present in previous versions of Instapaper, but it’s this version that has really brought those concepts to fruition.

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I still use Alfred on a daily basis as a Spotlight replacement and file launcher. Now Alfred 1.2 is here, bringing with it a pretty significant new feature: 1Password support (Power Pack only). This new level of app integration means that it’s even easier to access your keychain of stored passwords with quick keyboard shortcuts.

Other new features include: new large type display options (great for keeping a phone number on screen while you dial it into your phone), new themes (good for your eyeballs), and new clipboard merging and hotkey options (one of my favourites is the 10% volume increase for iTunes).

If you’d like to see a few Alfred tips or news on this latest patch, head over the the Alfred blog.

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Manga Rock has always been my favourite manga reader for iOS, so I’m happy to announce that the newest release of the app, Manga Rock 2, is now available as a universal download for iPhone and iPad.

MR2 is a completely new app (and therefore a separate download and purchase) with a much sleeker interface for browsing, managing, and reading manga from MangaReader, MangaFox, and MangaEden(EN). This means that you can use just one app to read all of your manga, which translates to a library that’s easier for users to manage, and an easier update cycle for the developers.

I’ll have a more in-depth review coming in a few days, but it was worth announcing that the in-app purchase that unlocks the full version of MR2 is available for $0.99 (normally $3.99) for the first three days after the launch. If you’re already a user of a previous version of Manga Rock, then this is a dirt-cheap way to upgrade to the newest app – and even if you’re totally new to the world of manga, $1 is an absurdly cheap price to pay for access to thousands of translated titles.

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Just recently, I bought a new car, and it was sorely needed. I purchased a very lightly used 2010 Ford Focus, and compared to what I was coming from, this car is like driving a super computer. In my modest experience so far, it has the user experience of a super computer, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

First off, the Sync functionality, which is provided by Microsoft, allows you to pair your phone. I would wager most smartphones are compatible with the system that allows you to make phone calls and such, with voice commands. This is all well and good, if you can figure out how to pair your phone in the first place.

I like to think I’m a pretty tech-savvy person. That said, a button, on the steering wheel, in plain sight, is what you need to press after turning on Bluetooth on your device. I totally missed the button, perhaps it would be more apparent to someone else, but I missed it.

From there, the two devices will find each other, and you will be presented with a passcode, a series of numbers, on the display located in the dashboard. Punch those numbers into the field that displays on your iPhone, and you are now paired and ready to make calls and stream music from your phone.

In my experience, there aren’t many voice commands when connected via Bluetooth. You can tell Sync to call someone, and use it for basic music controls such as play and pause. If you want to really control music, such as playing a specific song or artist, you need to connect your device via the built-in USB port. For this to work, your song file must have the meta data in place so that the system can index the content.

Once all of this is in place, a simple push of the button on the steering wheel, will open the system up for voice commands. Overwhelmingly, Sync understands my commands, despite my semi-thick southern accent. That said, these commands are not like Siri. You cannot speak casually to Sync. There are a handful of scripted commands, which Sync can remind you of, that control the different features. This can be frustrating until one memorizes them.

For instance, I would tell Sync to ”play song ___ ” and it would go off and do its own thing. Then I remembered, the correct vernacular is ”track” not ”song”. Whatever, I’m over it.

Making phone calls, is usually a breeze. Tell Sync to ”call ____” and it will. If there is more than one entry for that person in your address book, then it will ask you which you’d like to dial. For instance when calling my brother it will ask me if I want to call his home or cell. Much the same way Siri will ask you when you give her a similar command to call someone.

I did notice a difference in the feel surrounding Sync when compared to Siri. At the time Sync was introduced, it was leaps and bounds ahead of anything we had seen before in a car. It still holds up pretty well. But now that we have something like Siri, and other competing voice command products to compare it to, it’s starting to feel a little dated, simply due to the rigid, scripted commands it can accept. Siri, although it is not perfect, certainly feels more conversational and friendly than Sync, despite them both having that same stock, robotic-y female voice. One has a sense of humor and personality, the other does not.

At this point you are probably wondering what part of Sync I actually like. Yes, I’m really raking it across the coals, but that’s because I know it could be perfect, instead of just really good. It works better than a demo, but not up to my liking. Besides, it has Microsoft-esque features such as activation for the directions features, and the on-display options are difficult to use. That is, trying to toggle through options presented to you on the dashboard display and are controlled by toggling through via the buttons on the steering wheel. It’s confusing at best, for a nerd like me, so I’d hate to see what an average user, such as my non-techy mother, would do with it.

Now that we’re this far into it, I’d like to note that I have the lowest rung version of Sync. It comes in several flavors, mine pulling up the cheap end, with options going as far as to offer color touch screens. With my perfunctory understanding, those higher-calibre versions can read your incoming text messages and offer dictation for responses. Perhaps my version of Sync offers this as well- I sure as hell can’t figure it out.

I suppose that is the moral of this story- Sync, Powered by Microsoft, is a great feature, totally worth taking into consideration on your next car purchase. That said, you will likely need to sit down and read up on how to operate it. There is still plenty to learn. To me, this is a squandered opportunity to define a user interface, and make it canon for years to come. Instead, you’re left trying to operate a pretty sophisticated feature through toggle buttons on your steering wheel and dash. They could have done so much better.

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Fortune has released its annual rankings of America’s largest companies based on revenue, and Apple is moving up the list very quickly. Last year, Apple ranked at #35, this year the company ranked at #17. The report also notes that Apple is currently sitting on $97.6 billion in cash.

In 2011 Apple saw profits of $25.9 billion, which was third most profitable behind Exxon Mobil with $41.6 billion and Chevron with $26.9 billion. Microsoft, arguably still Apple’s main competitor, ranked at #4 with $23.2 billion in profit.

Based on the $85.5 billion in revenue Apple has already raked in this year, the company seems poised to break the top five for next year’s ranking. After all, General Motors is sitting in the #5 spot with $150 billion in revenue for 2011, well within striking distance of what Apple could do with a blockbuster quarter under their belt.

This still blows my mind. Even as a kid in the 90s I remember Apple as the insignificant player relegated to a niche market. Now Apple is the one making products that most of the other companies on the Fortune 500 list use to conduct business. That’s one hell of a turnaround in little more than a decade. Truly amazing stuff.

Image courtesy of Fortune

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This is a tip that I saw on my Twitter timeline a few thousand tweets ago, but simply cannot attribute properly, because I forgot to favourite the tweet. However, it boils down to this: if you’ve been looking for a fast and easy way to share text, URLs, and pictures across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, then sending yourself an iMessage is a great way to do so. As long as iMessage is working properly (which is, admittedly, an *if*), you’ll receive the data across almost instantaneously across all of your devices.

Sure, you could use Safari Reading List for URLs, the Notes app for quick bits of text, or use Photo Stream for pictures, but iMessage has the advantage of being faster, popping up with notifications, and allowing you to select paragraphs of text with a quick tap-and-hold. It’s not a solution you’ll want to use all the time, but in a pinch, iMessage can make for a quick universal clipboard between your devices.

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Remember the comical, stupid ‘guerilla marketing’ Wake Up stunt outside an Apple store in Australia? That’s the one everyone initially suspected Samsung was behind; but it turned out that it was yet another hairbrained scheme from the marketing geniuses at RIM.

The ‘campaign’ behind the stunt has now been revealed, via the Wake Up Be Bold website. If anything, the site is even worse than the ridiculous initial stunt. The web page is just a black screen hosting a short audio speech accompanied by scrolling lines from it, on what it, supposedly, means to be ‘in business’. It takes a predictable potshot at Apple with a couple of lines about not just thinking different but needing to ‘do different’ and comes to the conclusion that to really be in business you need to wake up, be bold, get a BlackBerry.

It’s a fascinating premise, given that BlackBerry’s momentum in the enterprise (traditionally their stronghold) is on a major downward spiral – and many have been predicting that RIM itself is not likely to be in business for much longer.

It’s good to see that RIM”s marketing efforts continue to talk the talk even while their products haven’t walked the walk in ages.

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Cult of Mac is reporting that they have a source who has seen a prototype Apple television set. They claim that the set looks very similar to Apple’s 27-inch Thunderbolt display they are currently shipping, but “much larger”.

The most notable feature in the report is a Siri-enabled camera that is capable of tracking faces, and to be used to make FaceTime calls. This face-tracking feature is in place due to the greater distance the television would be used at as compared to, say, an iPhone or iPad. It would also be capable of zooming in on a face and tracking the user even as they move around in a room. This sounds very cool.

Ever since the line from Jobs’ biography made its way to the public, that is, the line wherein Jobs reportedly stated that he had finally “cracked” the user interface problem surrounding television sets. Immediately after that nugget became public, claims began to surface that this was in reference to Siri, and thus voice commands.

As I’ve stated before, I have no doubt that Apple is at least tinkering with the idea of a television set based on the reports we’ve been hearing over the last few months. This report, to me, lost credibility when it began to claim some things, that I believe are unrealistic to expect at this time. Specifically, I’m thinking that tracking and zooming in on a face from across the room feels a little space aged. Perhaps it’s in the works. After all, Apple has done some amazing stuff in the past that I thought wasn’t possible at the time.

Image courtesy of Cult of Mac.

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Digitimes is reporting that Apple is set to launch a less-expensive MacBook Air in Q3 of this year. Specifically, they will be lowering the entry price from $999 to $799. This move is reportedly in response to Intel’s push for Windows-based “Ultrabooks” which have a similar form-factor to the MacBook Air.

Ultrabooks have not taken the world by storm, mostly due to their higher-pricing compared to the MacBook Air. This is one very clear instance wherein Apple is not the highest-priced manufacture in the game. But these days, they usually aren’t.

On the flip side of this rumor, it almost seems unreasonable to assume that Apple could lower the price by $200, especially considering how the company likes to keep high-profit margins on their products. That said, what I would wager is one of the highest priced components in the machine, the solid state drives, are continuously coming down in price. Perhaps Apple could lower the price.

With all of that said, Digitimes has a spotty track record. Plus, I believe Apple needs to respond to the “ultrabook” threat as much as they did with the whole netbook craze a few years ago. That is, not at all. Apple never created something to directly compete with cheap, junky, netbooks, and they still managed to thrive in the marketplace. I think Apple will do just fine competing against ultrabooks as well. I wouldn’t bet on this rumor panning out.

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