Maps are now a section in the App Store

Realizing how upset people are with Maps in iOS 6 map apps are now highlighted in the App Store in their own section.

This is a good effort on the part of Apple to appease those that are inconvenienced by the Maps app on iOS 6.

Tim Cook apologizes for Maps in iOS 6

Read the open letter by Tim Cook here.

Apple acknowledged the flaws in their Maps app and apologized today. Stating they only wanted to provide a better user experience than they were currently allowed to provide with Google Maps. Also suggesting other map apps you may want to try out whilst Apple works out the kinks with their own Maps app.

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

Flipboard as a YouTube viewer

I mentioned Jasmine in a previous post but now I'm going to talk about Flipboard in regards to watching YouTube video.

As good as Jasmine is, there are some drawbacks, namely the inability to comment whilst still watching the video. You have to take your turn and do them separately. Also I noticed some glitchy behavior with regard to rewind, fast forward, and AirPlay streaming. That is why for the time being I prefer to use Flipboard, although I still use Jasmine for when I want to reply to someones comment (as far as I can tell, I can start a new comment, but not reply to an existing comment on Flipboard. If this is wrong, please correct me).

Just go to the "Account" section of Flipboard, from there you can log into YouTube and a plethora of social networks. After you are signed into YouTube you can start viewing videos directly within the Flipboard app itself. As you will see in the images below, all your usual suspects are there. Subscriptions, Favorites, Playlists, Trending, popular, etc.

At the bottom are the Comment, Like, and Share buttons. Unfortunally there is no unlike button like there is on the YouTube website (Jasmine has stars, like the old YouTube had before switching over to the like/dislike system). Also in the Share menu is the Flag Inappropriate option. If you have a Pocket account you can even save the video to watch later from within Share.

And when watching a video in full screen, the controls are exactly the same as they were in the old native YouTube app in iOS 5. Complete with a shrink button (something Jasmine doesn't have) so you can continue to watch whilst as the same time leaving a comment.

Overall, I like both apps for watching YouTube and both offer a little different experience. I prefer watching the videos on Flipboard and for basic commenting, but if I wish to reply to a comment, I still have Jasmine for that. Give both apps a try and use whichever one you prefer.

Early Adopters, you're saying it wrong!

There are five stages of product adoption: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggards.

Use Television as an example. In the late 1920s to around the mid 1930s, you could buy a very expensive experimental TV. These would be the "Innovators" as there was no real market for them and people could actually tinker with the sets and improve them. Every brand TV had their own frequency, so no two could watch the same programs. Some had round screens, others had square screens. Some were black and white, others were in color. Yes there were actually color TVs in the 30s! A standard was finally settled on, and the FCC recommended all focus be on black and white TVs. Black and white was cheaper to make and also faster to produce and the government needed a large amount of them soon because the troops were coming back from the war and needed something to entertain them.

The "Early Adopters" would then be all the people that bought those first black and white TVs in the 1940s, making the 1950s and 1960s the "Early Majority" and "Late Majority" with the rest being the "Laggards." That is, until HDTVs were introduced. A technology much different than the TVs people were used to, thus started the cycle all over again with people buying the first HDTV units being the "Early Adopters" (the "Innovators" in this case would be the people that built the technology).

The problem is that people don't seem to know what an "Early Adopter" really is, as they throw the term around to mean buying ANY product within the first month it comes out. I see people on websites call themselves Early Adopters for preordering the iPhone 5. Let me make this clear to you, you are not an early adopter. The iPhone has been around for six years now. With technology moving as fast as it does, and with the widespread adoption of smartphones, the term Late Majority might not even fit, I dare to say you might be a Laggard. (although really a "Laggard" is when when you finally buy something right before it becomes obsolete for the next thing, like buying a VCR when DVD Players hit the market). In either case, you are NOT an Early Adopter.

Just because a product is an upgrade from a preexisting product doesn't mean you're an Early Adopter because you bought one within the first 24 hours. That is not how it works! I was an Early Adopter when I bought a Google TV on the day they were first released, back when Sony was charging around $400 for their Blu-ray Disc Player with integrated Google TV software. It was $100 more than the Logitech Revue, but I figured even if Google TV turned out to be horrible (and it was, still is) at least I'd be able to watch Blu-ray movies. Now fast forward to today when you can pick up a Google TV box for around $99 with better hardware from Sony and Vizio. People that never had one before, that buy one now, you can no longer be considered an Early Adopter. You're an Early Majority since more people I know have them in their homes than before (when I got mine, there was only a small handful of people that owned them). When they became cheaper, more people bought.

So please, before you call yourself an Early Adopter for buying an iPhone, stop and think for a moment if you are really using the term correct.

Facebook and iOS 6

As I'm sure many of you know, in iOS 6 you can integrate Facebook into your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. This gives you the ability to post links, photos, and videos directly to your Facebook profile. As well as the ability to post to your wall from within the notification center.

However the ability to post directly from within other apps is not worth the annoyances the marriage of the two can bring. Namely having "Like" buttons all over the stores (such as the App Store) and having Game Center bug you every time you open it. (If you don't want Facebook inside of Game Center, you have to keep taping "Later" as there is no option for "No")

The best thing in my opinion, is divorce the two by going to Settings and removing your profile details. This removes the "Like" buttons and gets Game Center to stop nagging you. Of course it also means you can't easily post to Facebook from within other apps, but so what? The annoyances far outweighs the benefits.

Jasmine makes a good YouTube viewer

In a previous post I mentioned why I'm no longer going to watch YouTube on my iPad. But something cool happened since then. I discovered a great app called Jasmine that is a replacement to the native YouTube app we all lost when upgrading to iOS 6, but with added features. I recommend this app to anyone looking for a new YouTube app.

The people have spoken, new Twitter app sucks!

After 24 hours of being on the App Store, the 5.0 update to the iPhone and iPad Twitter app has received many complaints. Mostly that Twitter now makes the iPad look like a giant iPhone.

The main offense people are having is that it does indeed look like a giant iPhone app. The panels are removed so you can't view your Twitter feed and a specific linked website anymore. And the ability to (obviously) quickly switch accounts is also removed (it's still there, just not obvious). Now the obvious method requires 3-4 taps, the more direct route is not obvious at all and it's as simple as holding down the "Me" button until the account switcher pops up. But this is not at all as convenient or obvious as it was in the old version of Twitter for iPad.

FreedomPop is working on new sleeves for iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5

FreedomPop is a company that makes MiFi cases that slip on your iPhone or iPod touch, essentially allowing you to carry one device instead of two separate ones. But the new iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5th generation are taller, so the current cases won't fit. I reached out to FreedomPop about whether or not they are working on new cases and this is what they said:

Because our Freedom Sleeves do not need an iPod or iPhone in them to function as a hotspot for other devices, you will be able to connect the new Apple products to our 4G Network through the iPod/iPhone Freedom Sleeves. However, the iPhone/iPod Touch 5 will not physically fit inside the current iPod Touch Freedom Sleeve. We are in the development stage of a device to work with the new ones, but we do not have a release date set yet.

So they are working on new cases, but at this time have no release date for them. In the meantime, the old cases will work, just not fit, so you'll have to carry two devices.

Please note that FreedomPop currently uses WiMax, which is not supported in all areas. According to their website, there is no WiMax coverage in my area. This may change in the future and other technologies may be added, but for right now FreedomPop just uses WiMax.

The reason I will stop watching YouTube on my iPad when iOS 6 comes out

A few days ago, Google released a stand-alone YouTube app for the iPhone and I can only assume that they'll release a native iPad app in the near future too. This is because their contract with Apple has expired so Apple is no longer allowed to have YouTube preinstalled on iOS devices. (if you stick with iOS 5, the Apple-made YouTube app stays, it only goes away in iOS 6). The deal was that Apple would create the app, and it would be void of any advertising.

With the contract expiring, this opens the flood gates for Google to load advertisement into the YouTube app that they create themselves for the iPhone and iPad. On my Mac I have a Safari extension that forced the HTML 5 version of YouTube videos. So this is how I see YouTube on my Mac.

As you can see the video player is exactly the same as the Apple-created YouTube app on the iPad. No annoying annotations, no advertisement, just a simple full screen button. Very minimalistic, as it should be. Why do I want a mobile YouTube that tries to mimic the awful Flash player, which is what Google's current HTML 5 player does on their mobile site at m.youtube.com.

That big gaudy red track bar, Google's player is very tacky. Who wants that? If I stick to watching YouTube on my iPad, this is what I'll have to face in iOS 6. Even if I choose to use Safari instead of the new Google-created YouTube app, I still have to face this.

So with all these downsides, why would anyone want to continue viewing YouTube on their iPad? Unless you like ugly design and advertisements, I don't know why anyone would want to. From now on, I'll just stick to using my Mac to watch YouTube.

You can follow this link to the awesome extension I use in Safari on a Mac (might also work on Safari for Windows, I have no idea). Install either ClickToFlash or ClickToPlugin, whichever you prefer. ClickToPlugin, as the name suggests, controls more than just Flash content. They are both great extensions for when you just don't want certain things to load on a page.

Late app of the week (or maybe none this week)

Since Apple first launched the "App of the week" they have always released a new one every Thursday. But today is Thursday at almost 10:30 at night and still no new app of the week. Last week "Temple Run: Brave" received that honor, and it's still listed as such in the App Store. So unless Apple is breaking their weekly cycle and will release a new one tomorrow, there will be no free App of the Week this week.

Edit (Friday at 2:45pm)
So it seems like Apple broke their Thursday cycle because today the App of the Week is finally released. It's called "Run Roo Run"

Finally an iPod touch you can be proud to own

I've used every generation of iPod touch since the first generation in 2007, and the new fifth generation announced today is the one I wanted for for five years now.

I'm one of those people that prefer to keep my music/video player separate from my phone, so the iPod touch has always been my iOS device of choice. Not just because I prefer to keep my devices, but also because until recently the iPhone never had enough space. The recently announced iPhone 5 can have a max of 64 GB, but it was not always like that. Even the original iPod touch had more storage than the original iPhone.

The problem with the iPod touch has always been it's lack of features that I wanted. Mainly a decent camera.

The first gen touch didn't have Bluetooth or a speaker. Second and third had both, but no camera. The fourth gen had the same garbage camera the iPad 2 has. Last year, a new iPod touch wasn't even released, instead the fourth gen was just recolored white. Now with the fifth generation iPod touch Apple finally added a decent camera. 5MP camera with LED flash. Not even the 3rd generation iPad has a flash for its camera. This is great news!

Thank you Apple for finally listening to what your customers want. Now if only you gave us a battery percentage indicator on the iPod touch, it would then be ideal.

iPhone 5 – a disappointing name

Apple had their keynote event today, in which they announced the new iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nano, and new version of iTunes and the iOS stores, as well as iOS 6.

During the announcement, Apple unveiled that the official name of the new iPhone is the iPhone 5. However, the new iPhone is the sixth generation of the iPhone. Why Apple didn't name it the iPhone 6 is beyond me. Sometimes Apple makes mistakes, after all the company is made up of human beings, and no human is perfect. However deciding to go with the name iPhone 5 seems like a huge blunder to me.