Installed the iMT plugin just now for my MovableType blog. Zero configuration; just drop it in and it works! Now I can manage and create entries from the iPhone. Imagine how much less real work I can get done now!
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Results tagged “iPhone”
So, here I sit, in the Apple Store in South Portland, Maine, while my wife's new iPhone 3GS (we both had our 3GS phones replaced due to case cracking yesterday) continues to not work properly.
Upon replacing the phone and restoring it from the last backup, the phone (now iOS 4.01; the backup was iOS 4, and the phone was OS 3.x until a day or so before the swap.) exhibits the following symptoms:
- Safari crashes when visiting any site
- App Store crashes when updating the one app that needs updating
- We determined that other apps that depend on the network may or may not fail; there isn't a definite correlation between what makes them crash.
So, we restored the phone to factory new, and then synced it with her computer.
Initially, surfing the web crashed Safari, but we wiped out the bookmarks and the cached pages and cookies, and we could surf the web. Yay! Although we could surf the web, we couldn't set up any email accounts. Boo! Google Apps (gMail, actually) claimed that the password was wrong, but I was able to setup the same account on my iPhone without any trouble. Quite easily, in fact.
I then removed all of the apps from the phone in the hope that there was an app that was causing the conflict with iOS 4. That didn't do the job.
Out came another brand-new iPhone 3GS, and we moved the SIM card and began the restore process. Unfortunately, the phone was iOS 3, so it had to be upgraded to iOS4 before we could continue. Unfortunately, the phone failed the OS upgrade, with the ever helpful "Unknown error."
Moving the new new phone to another computer for restore, it failed, so we declared it DOA. Now, back to the one we got yesterday for another try.
After restoring it to factory new, we were unable to surf the web. So, now I have had three different iPhone geniuses poring over the phone, and all are puzzled.
Next, we take the new phone (not the DOA one from today, but the replacement from yesterday) and restore it to new phone state, without ever connecting it to my wife's computer. In this factory new state, the phone wouldn't run Safari! Now, we have at least a diagnosis: the new phone has some issue with its network hardware that prevents it from working properly. Unfortunately, between my wife and I, we have exhausted the on-hand phones, so there is no replacement phone available. One was ordered, and should arrive tomorrow or Wednesday.
All in all, we had three computers attached to several iPhones in different combinations for over three and a half hours with a diagnosis, but no satisfaction. Now, the new phone is back to its hobbled state, able to work as a phone and get email, but unable to surf the web.
So, here I sit, in the Apple Store in South Portland, Maine, while my wife's new iPhone 3GS (we both had our 3GS phones replaced due to case cracking yesterday) continues to not work properly.
Upon replacing the phone and restoring it from the last backup, the phone (now iOS 4.01; the backup was iOS 4, and the phone was OS 3.x until a day or so before the swap.) exhibits the following symptoms:
- Safari crashes when visiting any site
- App Store crashes when updating the one app that needs updating
- We determined that other apps that depend on the network may or may not fail; there isn't a definite correlation between what makes them crash.
So, we restored the phone to factory new, and then synced it with her computer.
Initially, surfing the web crashed Safari, but we wiped out the bookmarks and the cached pages and cookies, and we could surf the web. Yay! Although we could surf the web, we couldn't set up any email accounts. Boo! Google Apps (gMail, actually) claimed that the password was wrong, but I was able to setup the same account on my iPhone without any trouble. Quite easily, in fact.
I then removed all of the apps from the phone in the hope that there was an app that was causing the conflict with iOS 4. That didn't do the job.
Out came another brand-new iPhone 3GS, and we moved the SIM card and began the restore process. Unfortunately, the phone was iOS 3, so it had to be upgraded to iOS4 before we could continue. Unfortunately, the phone failed the OS upgrade, with the ever helpful "Unknown error."
Moving the new new phone to another computer for restore, it failed, so we declared it DOA. Now, back to the one we got yesterday for another try.
After restoring it to factory new, we were unable to surf the web. So, now I have had three different iPhone geniuses poring over the phone, and all are puzzled.
Next, we take the new phone (not the DOA one from today, but the replacement from yesterday) and restore it to new phone state, without ever connecting it to my wife's computer. In this factory new state, the phone wouldn't run Safari! Now, we have at least a diagnosis: the new phone has some issue with its network hardware that prevents it from working properly. Unfortunately, between my wife and I, we have exhausted the on-hand phones, so there is no replacement phone available. One was ordered, and should arrive tomorrow or Wednesday.
All in all, we had three computers attached to several iPhones in different combinations for over three and a half hours with a diagnosis, but no satisfaction. Now, the new phone is back to its hobbled state, able to work as a phone and get email, but unable to surf the web.
Once again, I am left scratching my head by an Apple update. First, we are told that the algorithm used to calculate how many bars to display for signal strength was flawed, and that the number of bars shown did not correspond properly to the signal strength. Then, we were told that in order to make signal strength clearer to the user, Apple would increase the size of the bars that the iPhone would display.
I installed iOS4 just now, and was struck by two things:
- First, the bars are indeed a little bigger. Now, I won't be left wondering whether one bar (which looked like an underscore) was really zero bars.
- Second, the number of bars my iPhone 3GS displays in my dining room is now LESS than it was prior to the update.
So, I guess that for me, the phone was giving me an optimistic response to signal strength before the update, and now it's telling me truthfully how lousy my AT&T coverage is.
Consumer Reports has decided to not recommend the iPhone 4 due to what it calls an antenna design flaw.
This is in direct conflict with Apple's unbelievable letter to the public that the phone's problems are with the software that displays how many bars you have, and not with the antenna design. Come on, Apple, fess up and fix the problem. It's a sign of a good company that makes exciting products and keeps the public energized about its brand. It a sign of a great company that owns up to its mistakes and fixes them before they become a public relations nightmare.
Look at Toyota. Their recall problems over the last year are legendary. However, have you heard that Honda has had similar recalls? Sure thing, my Honda Odyssey and a whole slew of other Honda cars were recalled for braking and transmission problems. Hmm, sound familiar? The thing is, though, that Honda reached out to us owners through the mail and through communication from the dealer to get us in to the dealer and get the problems solved. I didn't have to learn about it on the evening news, and I feel a lot better about my Honda.
I believe that Apple's customers would feel a lot better about their iPhone 4 purchase (and, of course, future technology purchases from Apple) if it would take steps now to fix the phones and get new ones into the hands of its customers.
I took a trip to Boston yesterday, and decided to let the Garmin StreetPilot C340 and my iPhone 3GS with iOS4 and MotionX GPS Drive 5.0 go head to head.
MotionX GPS Drive features spoken turn by turn directions, but you must pay a fee to access them. The $3 per month or $25 per year access charge from FullPower is quite reasonable, considering the $10 per month from AT&T (discounted to $6.99 recently). The cost of the app is also quite reasonable, at $2.99 for iPad and $.99 for iPhone.
My Garmin requires periodic map updates, and I had purchased the NüMaps Lifetime Maps package over a year ago. I strongly recommend that to anyone who has a Garmin device. I had updated my device a few weeks ago, so I am confident that its maps are as current as they can be.
MotionX GPS Drive pulls its maps from the air via 3G or WiFi (if it has a connection), so if you have a 2GB data plan, you might want to watch your data usage come the end of the month if you rely on MotionX GPS Drive. Relying on cloud-based maps, though, make its maps theoretically more accurate than the Garmin's, especially as you near the end of the quarterly update cycle for the Garmin.
Operationally, Drive's interface is reasonable if a bit crowded. It has more options than the Garmin, and it features walking as well as driving directions. Other Garmin devices feature walking directions, but the C340 is intended as a driving only device. Drive can operate in Portrait or Landscape mode, and I recommend a window mount for anyone who will use Drive as a daily GPS device. I propped the iPhone on the dashboard near the Garmin, which has a dedicated charging stand.
The two systems began chatting at me almost simultaneously once I got moving, and provided similar instructions. While Drive gave me "get ready to turn" followed by "Turn now" instructions, the Garmin lets me know long in advance what's coming up, and then reminds me to "Turn right onto xxx Street" when it's time to turn. Since I was doing some in-town driving first, the "prepare to turn" messages from Drive got to be a little annoying, but they would be welcome in unfamiliar surroundings.
I intentionally left the programmed route to see how the devices would respond, and they both gave the same instructions to return to the desired route.
On the highway, I noticed that my iPhone battery was getting low. I had the iPhone plugged into my charger, and when I turned off Drive, the iPhone charged as expected. Hmm. This morning, I fired up Drive, set a route, and plugged the iPhone into my computer. Although I wasn't going anywhere, Drive gave me periodic reminders to get moving. While attached to the computer, however, the battery charged as expected. I will need to investigate this further, or get another charger. It could also be that the car 12V port can't push as much current as the computer can while charging, resulting in a net loss of charge in the battery in the car.
The position of the iPhone matters when driving. I put it in different positions on the dashboard and on the passenger's seat, and found that not all locations were favorable to GPS reception. While pulled over to take a call, for instance, the iPhone lost signal, but the Garmin kept right on tracking.
Background operation in iOS 4 is also nice. Rather than using the built-in iPod interface, you can use iPod to control your music. I am an audiobook listener, so I like having access to the chapter list in the built-in interface. Also, since Mail runs in the background, I was able to know when emails arrived that were pertinent to my trip.
Assuming that I can resolve the charging issue with the car, I believe that I could use Drive while traveling. The Garmin is certainly more battery-efficient, but toting two devices while traveling is a drag. I can't forget that I got the iPhone so I could combine my Palm T5 and my Motorola flip phone into one unit. I don't believe, however, that I'll toss the Garmin just yet.
I tried out the new Photos app on my iPhone 3GS with its new iOS 4. Wow! It used to seem like an eternity between pushing the shutter button and the camera being ready for the next image. I was trying to take some photos of my son during dinner, and now, the camera resets very, very quickly. I surely wasn't expecting how responsive the camera is, but it is like having a whole new device. Good job on this part, Apple!
After the iOS 4 update, I received several calls today that went to voice mail, but I wasn't notified of the voicemail. When I went to Phone, then selected Voicemail, I was prompted to enter my voicemail password. Not thinking anything of it, I skipped that step and moved on to something else. I got an email message from a client much later in the day saying that she had left me a voicemail in the morning, but I had gotten no notification on the phone. Yikes!
I returned to Phone this evening and then entered my voicemail password. There were two unheard messages from today, about which I was very unhappy. Moral of the story: be sure to visit Voicemail immediately after updating the iPhone, or you'll never know it when you get a message.
Took a hike with the boys this afternoon and tried out MotionX GPS on the iPhone 3GS and its new background Track Recording capability. In previous versions, one needed to turn on the GPS and leave the app running in order to track. If you hit the power button or opened another app, it would stop background tracking. In order to use it, therefore, you would turn down the screen brightness when it was tracking. Regardless, the iPhone would warm up considerably when tracking. This led to some pretty poor battery performance when using the app.
Today, we went out for a 40 minute hike with about 42% of battery life remaining.
I was able to switch to email (which pinged every 15 minutes with new emails on the hike) and other apps while hiking, and the Track Recorder never missed a beat. I was able to hit the power button with no loss of tracking as well. We took some photos and uploaded to Facebook, surfed the web, and sent some email as well. When we returned to the house, I had about 22% of battery life left. Looking in the app tray, I discovered that I had 16(!) apps in there, which could be a contributing factor to the giant power suck. Based on this rate of consumption, though, we should be able to go gout for several hours and get decent tracking data before having to recharge the phone.
Well done, MotionX. I finally feel like I can use the GPS the way it was intended.
Adobe announced the availability of Flash Player 10.1 for mobile platforms such as Android and WebOS. #AdobeCP
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201006/06222010FlashPlayerAvailability.html
When we talk about web events and web meetings, more and more we are asked about how mobile customers can participate. While there is a Connect app for iPhone, other platforms have been lagging. Now, with FP 10.1, many of the other platforms suddenly become viable web event viewers, and the reach of web events has just exploded.
I just finished delivering a Connect session on Connect for Web Events (Recording: Webinars that Wow! with Adobe Connect), and when I mentioned that Flash Player 10.1 was announced and that smartphones would be able to participate in Connect meetings (Connect is a Flash-based platform), there was a very positive reaction.
"THIS IS HUGE!" says one attendee (his capitals).
"Did you REALLY say that smartphones could attend Connect meetings?" asked another. "Yes, I did," was my reply. "WOW!" came the response.
Other responses were equally enthusiastic. While the Connect app for iPhone has been available for months, there is a huge pent-up demand for other smartphones to be able to attend web meetings, and with Flash Player 10.1 in the mobile marketplace, Adobe Connect becomes more relevant than ever before.
Photos
I have been a fan of the iPhone camera since I first bought the phone. While its resolution isn't great and it has a lousy dynamic range, it's great for getting that quick shot for later reference. Also, the Photos app is very easy to use, and even little Zeke "got it" within seconds of first touching the phone over a year ago.Photos in iOS 4 adds a new tab called places. While the iPhone has been quietly adding location tags to my photos all along, it now can display a map that shows me where my photos were taken. See the three screen shots below to see how the number of pins grows as you zoom in on the map.
When you start the camera for the first time, it asks whether to enable location tagging for new images. I turned it on, and started snapping new photos.
Skype
Eager to try the multitasking, I turned on Skype and was greeted with an unexpected warning that Skype wasn't supported in modified iPhone OS 3. OK, I thought, and continued.
Skype, while seeming to run in the background, only logs in when it's the foreground app. As a result, although I was logged in, I was unable to take a call while using another app. I am sure this is a minor delay, but am eager to see what they do with iOS 4.
MotionX GPS
I am a long-time MotionX GPS customer, and was excited to see an update after installing iOS 4. The update to version 12. In addition to background operation, it allows you to shut off the screen while recording tracks, background voice coaching, and a Wifi/Triangulation mode to estimate position when GPS signals are unavailable. I'm looking forward to my next outing.
I installed iOS 4 on my iPhone 3GS this afternoon. The installation took longer than I had anticipates (over 1.5 hrs), but a big chunk of that time was taken up by photo optimization. This tells me that although the photos had been optimized for iPhone OS 3, there must be some more sophisticated photo optimization going on now. Or, iTunes just forgot and re-optimized the photos.
My first task was to stack some apps. Stacking allows us to group apps into a single icon that you can organize any way you like. I made some stacks in iTunes, and found myself frustrated by how hard it is to actually get apps to stack. Dragging an app on top of another one is supposed to highlight the target app (or stack), and when I release the app, it joins the other apps in the stack or creates a new stack. I found that dragging the app near a stack or another app caused the target to move out of the way. Some apps always accepted another app, while others just wouldn't join, no matter what I did. This drag and drop works better on the iPhone itself, but it is easier to select multiple apps and move them around in iTunes. I hope this improves.
Apps don't quit when you hit the home button anymore. Now, they drop into a tray that you can see when you double-tap the home button. The tray only shows four apps at a time, so you may need to slide it to the left or right to see the hidden apps. Unfortunately, apps now don't close. They collapse into the tray, and in order to quit them, you must open the tray and then press and hold one of the apps, then click the minus sign that will appear when they all start to shake. This makes me a little nervous, as it feels like force-quitting rather than an orderly shutdown.
I enabled notifications for email, and told email to run every 15 minutes. gMail doesn't push (or, perhaps it needs to be configured to push), so I have turned off push notifications for email. I like getting the email notice like my colleagues get on their Blackberries. Other apps are receiving push notifications just fine.
It is unclear to me what the impact of multitasking will be on my battery life. I will ramp my email notifications back to 30 minutes or an hour most likely once I understand the battery life situation.
I do appreciate the unified email boxes. I have two email accounts, and used to spend a lot of time switching between the two in Mail. Now, I can choose to look at each account separately or together. In addition, when replying to a message, I can select from which account I want to reply. This is super useful for me, since I often get mail on one account that I want to respond to from the other account.
I'll report more impressions as I use the phone over the next couple of days. So far, so good...
I installed iOS 4 on my iPhone 3GS this afternoon. The installation took longer than I had anticipates (over 1.5 hrs), but a big chunk of that time was taken up by photo optimization. This tells me that although the photos had been optimized for iPhone OS 3, there must be some more sophisticated photo optimization going on now. Or, iTunes just forgot and re-optimized the photos.
My first task was to stack some apps. Stacking allows us to group apps into a single icon that you can organize any way you like. I made some stacks in iTunes, and found myself frustrated by how hard it is to actually get apps to stack. Dragging an app on top of another one is supposed to highlight the target app (or stack), and when I release the app, it joins the other apps in the stack or creates a new stack. I found that dragging the app near a stack or another app caused the target to move out of the way. Some apps always accepted another app, while others just wouldn't join, no matter what I did. This drag and drop works better on the iPhone itself, but it is easier to select multiple apps and move them around in iTunes. I hope this improves.
Apps don't quit when you hit the home button anymore. Now, they drop into a tray that you can see when you double-tap the home button. The tray only shows four apps at a time, so you may need to slide it to the left or right to see the hidden apps. Unfortunately, apps now don't close. They collapse into the tray, and in order to quit them, you must open the tray and then press and hold one of the apps, then click the minus sign that will appear when they all start to shake. This makes me a little nervous, as it feels like force-quitting rather than an orderly shutdown.
I enabled notifications for email, and told email to run every 15 minutes. gMail doesn't push (or, perhaps it needs to be configured to push), so I have turned off push notifications for email. I like getting the email notice like my colleagues get on their Blackberries. Other apps are receiving push notifications just fine.
It is unclear to me what the impact of multitasking will be on my battery life. I will ramp my email notifications back to 30 minutes or an hour most likely once I understand the battery life situation.
I do appreciate the unified email boxes. I have two email accounts, and used to spend a lot of time switching between the two in Mail. Now, I can choose to look at each account separately or together. In addition, when replying to a message, I can select from which account I want to reply. This is super useful for me, since I often get mail on one account that I want to respond to from the other account.
I'll report more impressions as I use the phone over the next couple of days. So far, so good...
One of the glaring deficiencies with Facebook Mobile on iPhone has been its lack of support for playing video. Video linked through youtube would usually play correctly, but video posted to Facebook wouldn't. Interestingly, you could upload video from your iPhone, but you couldn't watch it again until you got back to your desktop or laptop computer.
Facebook Mobile 3.1.3 now supports playing video, as well as allowing larger photos and other bug fixes. The notes report that photos now upload at 720 pixels wide, which allows for more detailed images portrait mode.
I am now more likely to use the mobile app than before because of the improved video support.
I was wondering what Woz thought about the spat between Adobe and Apple over Flash, and I came across an article on MacDailyNews.com featuring an interview with Woz. #AdobeCP
The interview was cribbed from Fox Business News' web site. What caught my attention wasn't the interview itself, but the Note to Advertisers, which advises advertisers: "you might want to consider dumping your flash-based ads and moving to a more open format that people with money and the will to spend it can actually see." I then provides a series of links to specific petitions or user comment pages on large, popular sites that deliver content via Flash.
The claim is that advertisers are missing out on >86 Million eyeballs attached to discretionary income. These 86 million are iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users who can't view the Flash ads. Is the motivation the site's clear salivating love for all things Apple, or the likely fact that its revenues are negatively impacted by their advertiser's choice of delivery method?
Thinking like an advertiser, I have to balance cost of ad creation and delivery with the potential return on that advertisement. Do I develop two ads: Flash for the >1 Billion with a B Flash-enabled devices out there and javascript/CSS for the 85 million with an m Apple iDevices? Or, do I look at the bigger picture and realize that the iDevices represent less than 10% of the market, and that the number is going to be steadily offset with Android devices over the next year?
Yes, the iDevices are cool and hot at the same time, and get a lot of press. The reality here is that the advertisers look at marketshare as well as the cool factor, so to demand a delivery method change of your advertisers is biting the hand that feeds you.
I was wondering what Woz thought about the spat between Adobe and Apple over Flash, and I came across an article on MacDailyNews.com featuring an interview with Woz. #AdobeCP
The interview was cribbed from Fox Business News' web site. What caught my attention wasn't the interview itself, but the Note to Advertisers, which advises advertisers: "you might want to consider dumping your flash-based ads and moving to a more open format that people with money and the will to spend it can actually see." I then provides a series of links to specific petitions or user comment pages on large, popular sites that deliver content via Flash.
The claim is that advertisers are missing out on >86 Million eyeballs attached to discretionary income. These 86 million are iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users who can't view the Flash ads. Is the motivation the site's clear salivating love for all things Apple, or the likely fact that its revenues are negatively impacted by their advertiser's choice of delivery method?
Thinking like an advertiser, I have to balance cost of ad creation and delivery with the potential return on that advertisement. Do I develop two ads: Flash for the >1 Billion with a B Flash-enabled devices out there and javascript/CSS for the 85 million with an m Apple iDevices? Or, do I look at the bigger picture and realize that the iDevices represent less than 10% of the market, and that the number is going to be steadily offset with Android devices over the next year?
Yes, the iDevices are cool and hot at the same time, and get a lot of press. The reality here is that the advertisers look at marketshare as well as the cool factor, so to demand a delivery method change of your advertisers is biting the hand that feeds you.
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Verizon and Google are working on an Android based device to challenge the iPad. Good for them. #AdobeCP
I also read that, according to the NPD Group, Android-based smartphones have very quickly overtaken the iPhone in terms of units sold. While the actual numbers in this report are debatable, it is clear that Apple needs to pay attention to Google in the smartphone market. Why the big jump in Android sales? Some say it's Verizon, who offers a buy one, get one promotion that includes the Android devices. Others say it's frustration with iPhone and the corresponding coolness of the Android OS. The Android marketing blitz (HTC, Verizon, others) must also be credited.
For me, though, I am interested in the deployment numbers. When it comes time to develop an application for mobile, I want to be sure I am not spending a lot of effort to cater to a minority share in the market. Apple knows this pain well when reflecting on its marginalization in the 1990s. Developers wouldn't expend the resources on Mac apps for a tiny marketshare. In the mobile marketplace, Apple enjoys robust sales numbers due to the sexiness factor as well as its App store paradigm.
Apple stands to lose those attracting features very quickly, though, as Android phones gain ground. While strong sales now translate to eventual significant deployments, it will be a while before the Android platform can catch up to iPhone in terms of units actually in service. In the mean time, developers need to consider where to expend their efforts on application development.
Now, HTC, a Google ally and maker of innovative smartphones, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. While I don't think it will have an immediate impact on Apple's ability to sell its iPhone and iPad, it certainly must add to the general level of annoyance felt by Steve Jobs.
I know that since Apple shut the door to third party developers, many have complained. I look at the Android SDK and its impending ability to use the Flash Player 10.1 and AIR apps. I already know how to make an AIR app and a Flash app, so for me, the learning curve is just about zero to make an Android app. To make an iPhone app now, I have to learn a new IDE and a new language.
I hope that these developments prompt Apple to rethink two if its business decisions. First, reopen application development. Second, let me use the phone where I want to use the phone and not decide for me that AT&T is the best choice. Where I live in Maine, coverage is abysmal, so I am forever losing calls and unable to use the 3G features of my iPhone.
Apple doesn't forbid me from tricking out my Mac, and running whatever apps I want on it. I can even change the look and feel of the interface without retribution. I can develop apps in a wide array of environments and deploy them where and how I wish. I wonder if MacOS 11 will be as closed as the iPhone and iPad.
In checking in for my flight home tonight, I went online to delta.com to print my boarding pass. Not having a printer handy, I was going to at least get a seat chosen and then reprint when I got to LGA. Surprise, after checkin, I saw the check box to send the pass to my mobile device. Nice! Within seconds, a QR code had arrived on my iPhone, and I'm ready to fly. I have no doubt that it will get me on the plane; let's hope it gets me past TSA...
#AdobeCP Adobe is now shipping its Creative Suite 5. For those not wanting to wait for a box, it is available for download from the Adobe Downloads page now. I have some training materials in the works with Total Training, and have completed the InDesign CS5 Essentials course. View a sample here. I'm working on some other titles as well, and will post them here when ready.
Back to CS5. As announced earlier this month, CS5 is broken into 5 versions. There are two Design suites, a Web suite, a Video Production suite, and their catch-all Master Collection. You can compare them here.
I have had the pleasure of using many parts of the CS5 for several months now, and am quite pleased. While some products are very mature, like Photoshop and Illustrator, and others are new to the scene, like Flash Catalyst, all offer design and workflow enhancements that make them worth the investment. I've got some thoughts on the parts I have been using and about which I can speak with some authority. I haven't gotten my hands dirty with Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Contribute, nor with Encore, Premiere and After Effects. Those are coming, though, so I'll write about those in another post or two.
Photoshop has a raft of performance improvements as well as some new tricks up its sleeves. 64 Bit on Mac is most welcome, especially for those photographers, videographers and large format printers who routinely work with files >2GB. In addition, its new Content Aware Fill, Delete, and Healing Brushes are just amazing. There are new brushes that respond not only to stylus pressure, tilt and rotation if you have the right graphics tablet, but the new Mixer Brush makes Photoshop feel much more natural as a painting tool. I also like the new Refine Selection tool that lets you mask out fine elements like hair much more easily. I have to admit, though, that it takes some practice with the smart radius tool not to end up with what look like little water-stains around your selection after making the mask. Nevertheless, the results are great, and I can't help but be impressed.
Illustrator continues to grow as a multi-channel design platform, with an enhanced multiple artboard workflow, perspective drawing, a new stroke paradigm, and more. I was expecting the Perspective Drawing grid to behave more like Photoshop's Vanishing Point, but I think that we'll see that evolution over the next version or two of Illustrator. For now, it's a good start. Several new tools have appeared, such as the Shape Builder tool that allows you to do many of the Pathfinder tasks without ever opening the Pathfinder panel. There's also new paint brushes called Bristle Brushes, which allow designers to use illustrator more like a painting tool. There's a caveat there, though, because while the brush strokes look great, they can slow down a non-PDF Print Engine RIP in a commercial printing situation. It's always best for early adopters to let their printers know that they are using AI CS5 for their drawings so that they can be prepared.
InDesign is simply amazing. When I use it, I feel like a kid again, with all of the delight of looking out on a newfallen snow on a school day. Routine actions that took many steps have been simplified due to consolidations on the control bar and in the contextual menus. New tools like the Content Grabber look unwieldy at first, but you quickly not only accept them but embrace them. Indesign can now have more than one page size in a document, and while the printers are now having heart attacks, the designers are giddy. We can now create an entire campaign in one InDesign document: letterhead, business card, envelope, label, postcard, poster, etc. The redesigned Layers panel is a dream come true, not only because it gives us object level control à la Illustrator, but also because it allows us to name our objects for when we export to Flash. This makes the job of converting an InDesign document to an interactive Flash app or site much, much easier.
Speaking of interactivity, InDesign can now create complex motion graphics for Web and PDF without the designer having to know any code. Of all the things in the Suites, this is the most exciting to me. When shown the interactivity features for the first time, I sat down and created a little interactive graphic in about 5 minutes, including the lousy sawing sound. It features sound from SoundBooth, drawing elements from You can view it here. OK, it's not anything to write home about, but it took 5 minutes! I have since created entire web sites in InDesign, and I promise to post more examples soon. InDesign has a lot more to offer than the little bits I've mentioned here. If you do nothing else, please download the trial of InDesign.
Continuing with motion graphics and interactivity, I have been slowly gaining an appreciation for Flash Catalyst as well. A new entry on the scene, it was explained to me as a tool to help Flex developers create interfaces more efficiently. While that may be true, I see it more as a way for designers to create interactive content quickly, easily, and without code. They can then hand off their work to a developer, who can hook it up with backend server code to create the complete application. Perhaps you want to create a microsite for a specific product, and you want to include audio, video, and interactivity. The site doesn't need to talk to a server, it just needs to provide some information to customers in a flashy way. Flash Catalyst to the rescue! Create pages or states in Illustrator or Photoshop, add interactivity and motion in Catalyst, and you're done. And, you can round-trip your designs between Catalyst and Illustrator as well as Photoshop. As I said, it took some time to understand the workflow, but now it's second nature and very easy to explain and to use. I think the hurdle for me was that I expected it to be harder to use, and was looking for the trick I needed to get work done. There's no trick; it's just that easy. I believe that Flash Catalyst will be a much needed missing link between the visual, creative designer and the logical, code-centric developer, and will enable much closer collaborations between those often disparate worlds.
Flash has gotten a lot of press from an ongoing spat between Adobe and Apple over the iPhone and iPad platforms. Many people (including me!) have blogged about it, and the debate will rage for months to come. Regardless, Flash is two things, though. First, it's the underlying technology that enables web pages (through the Flash Player browser plugin) and desktop applications (through the AIR Runtime) to display video, audio, and interactive elements the same way regardless of browser or platform. Flash is also the integrated development environment (IDE) that lets developers (and designers...) create interactive elements and applications that run in a browser or on a desktop using the aforementioned browser plugin and AIR. Let's focus on the IDE aspect of Flash.
I will admit that I shied away from Flash for many years, and only embraced it in the CS3 timeframe. I am not an Action Script coder. I just wanted that to be clear. I can write Action Script, though, so I'm not completely ignorant of what it can and can't do. I am more interested in the aspects of the Flash IDE that help designers build interactive movies and other content without knowing code. Of course, designers can use Flash to go as far as they can go, and then hand it all off to a developer to finish the job. The features that jumped out at me as being "wow!" features were the new text engine and the code snippets. There are other time saving features like the new video previews, and there are interesting new controls like "springiness" in the Inverse Kinematics (Bones) tool, but code snippets and the text engine really catch my attention.
Text has always been clunky in Flash, and the new text engine brings much of the flavor of text composition in Illustrator or InDesign into Flash. The new Text Layout Framework (TLF) makes it possible to link text frames, have multiple columns, and use OpenType ligatures as well as other enhancements. Remember when I said I am not an Action Script coder? Back in AS2, there were Behaviors. In AS3, you have to write code to build those behaviors on a case by case basis. Flash now has a set of code snippets that you can drag onto an object and get those behaviors back, and more. Simply select an object, choose a behavior from the code snippets panel, and then complete the code. Yes, a contextual pickwhip would be even better for code completion, but this is a great start.
All in all, CS5 has much to offer. Workflow and performance enhancements will be worth it for the folks who make their livings from the software, while the new creative and interactive features will make the suites attractive to casual and hardcore users alike. This release is the one that we've been waiting for since Adobe and Macromedia got together back before CS3. Cross-application integration and round-trip workflows feel solid, and my enthusiasm for interactive design in InDesign and Flash Catalyst is as yet unbounded.
Steve Jobs posted a long letter on the Apple web site to "jot down" in great detail why Flash is such a lousy technology and why Apple remains forward thinking and insanely great.
He continues to assert that HTML5 is a standard. He needs to check his calendar, since there is no HTML5 "standard," although the W3C is working on creating a specification. Since there is no specification as yet, he should quit his false and misleading claims that HTML5 is done now. In case he needs a refresher, here's a link to the latest proposed specification at the W3C site.
Quoting directly from the specification:
Implementors should be aware that this specification is not stable. Implementors who are not taking part in the discussions are likely to find the specification changing out from under them in incompatible ways. Vendors interested in implementing this specification before it eventually reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage should join the aforementioned mailing lists and take part in the discussions.
Sounds to me like basing a multi-billion dollar mobile platform on a specification that's likely to be a moving target for many years to come is a risky decision.
While Mr. Jobs complains about Adobe's Flash, his beef is really with the player. It is true that the Flash Player is proprietary, but there are plenty of open source methods for creating SWFs, the files that play in the Flash player. It is also true that Adobe's track record with respect to security in the current release hasn't been up to Adobe's usual level, they have been quick to respond to known threats with patches. I can't help but notice that Apple has released several security patches to its proprietary operating systems and its proprietary QuickTime player from time to time as well, but Mr. Jobs doesn't care to mention that.
The Flash player aside, Apple has also closed the door to development environments other than its XCode. While Mr. Jobs claims that open standards for the web are better for everyone, an open development ecosystem for his platforms apparently are not. Apple has stated that it will deny any iPhone or iPad app that wasn't created with XCode. Although Mr. Jobs believes that his pristine and crash-free (that's a joke, in case you missed it) app universe will be polluted by developers who apparently can only create dirty and unstable code with tools such as Flash CS5 and others, he is missing the point of an open app development ecosystem. The market will decide whether a lousy app will survive. To quote the Bad News Bears, "Let Them Play!"
I am disappointed that Apple has closed its developer doors to the open market. I am disappointed that Apple continues to cross its arms and frown at the Flash player. Unfortunately, with ratification of the HTML5 specification due in 2022 (no joke. Check Ian Hickson's remarks on the subject), I believe developers will soon look at other emerging platforms for their mobile apps. HP's purchase of Palm (announced April 28) is quite exciting, as HP has a lot of experience in platforms, interfaces and manufacturing, not to mention its existing iPAQ product line. How is it that Apple hasn't sued HP over that name yet? The Android operating system is also exciting, and the phones are amazing. It won't take long for Android devices to eat into Nokia's and RIM's and Apple's market share. Interestingly, though, the Android platform is the only one of these that's completely open and free for developers.
24WorldNews.com reports that AdMob posted some statistics recently that show more ads shown on Android phones than on iPhones, despite almost 2 to 1 iPhone to Android devices. This means that advertisers should be looking more closely at Android apps, as that's where the eyeballs will be in the near future. Apple's closed in-app ad network might want to take notice of that trend.
So, what to do? I continue to carry my MacBook, my iPhone, and my iPod. I'll buy new ones when these finally fail. I continue to curse Hulu for requiring Flash player, and am eagerly awaiting the Netflix iPhone app. I doubt very much, though, that I'll devote much time to creating an iPhone app, when the larger web is calling and I can use one development platform (remember, Flash the development environment, not the player) to create apps for web and mobile, so long as that mobile isn't iPad or iPod.
