Jeff Richardson

Yesterday, Steve Jobs hosted an event at Apple’s campus called “Back to the Mac.”  It was obvious that the event would include a preview of Mac OS X 10.7, code named “Lion,” and I had assumed that the title “Back to the Mac” just meant that after all of the attention that Apple has been paying to the iPhone and iPad, it was time to refocus attention on Mac hardware and software.  In part that was true, and Steve Jobs did emphasize yesterday that even though iPhone/iPad etc. get a lot of attention nowadays, fully a third of Apple’s revenue still comes from the Mac.

But it turned out that there was another meaning to “Back to the Mac.”  Jobs explained that Apple took the Mac’s OS X operating system to create the iOS operating system used by the iPhone and iPad, and now Apple’s plan for the next version of OS X is to take some of what was learned in developing the iOS and bring it back to OS X.  As Jobs stated:

What is the big idea, what is the philosophy behind Mac OS X Lion?  Well, that’s where “Back to the Mac” comes from.  What we’ve done is we started with Mac OS X and we created from it a version called iOS, which we used in the iPhone.  And we invented some new things, and we’ve perfected it over the last several years, and it’s now used in the iPad as well.  Well what we’d like to do is — we’re inspired by some of those innovations in the iPad and the iPhone — we’d like to bring them back to the Mac.  And so that is what Lion is about.  Mac OS X meets the iPad.

Thus, the new version of Mac OS X, due in Summer of 2011, will include, among other things, the following features that debuted on the iPhone and iPad:

• Multi-Touch gestures.  On a notebook, you can use the trackpad.  On a desktop, you can either use the touch sensitive Magic Mouse that Apple ships with its new Macs, or you can use the Apple Magic Trackpad that the company introduced earlier this year.
• App Store.  Over 7 billion apps have been downloaded for the iPhone and iPad in the current App Store.  Apple is planning to introduce a Mac App Store that will include one-click downloads, both free and paid apps, automatic app installation and updates, and the ability to use downloaded apps on all of your personal Macs.  Unlike the other features Jobs debuted yesterday that will come out in Summer of 2011, the Mac App Store will actually be introduced by January of 2011 and will work with the current version of Mac OS X.
• App home screens.  On the iPhone, all of your apps are listed on the home screens.  Apple will bring this same idea to Mac OS X by adding a feature called Launchpad.  When brought up, your computer screen fills with app icons (and folders containing app icons) and you just click an icon to launch an app.
• Full screen apps.  Apps on the iPhone and iPad generally don’t devote screen real estate to menus and only show one app at a time.  Thus, the entire screen is devoted to using the app.  Apple plans to bring this idea to programs on the Mac.  For example, yesterday released a new version of iPhoto that has a full screen mode.
• Auto save.  Everyone knows the agony of having a computer crash when it has been a while since you saved your work, so Apple has plans to integrate auto save throughout the next version of Mac OS X.
• Apps resume when launched.  Presumably this will make it faster to get back to your work.

The idea of applying the iPhone back to the Mac is not just limited to software.  Apple also introduced a new laptop computer yesterday, the new MacBook Air, that takes what Apple learned about making small and powerful iPhone and iPad devices and applies it to an impossibly thin but full featured laptop computer.

Like the iPhone and iPad, the new MacBook Air will turn on instantly, uses flash storage instead of a hard drive, and is thin and light.  And like the iPad, the new MacBook Air has great battery life.  It comes in two models, 11 inch and 13 inch, and starts at $999.

Finally, Jobs debuted a feature that most iPhone 4 users have been requesting since the iPhone 4 was launched earlier this year — the ability to use FaceTime to talk to a computer.  The new FaceTime program for the Mac allows an iPhone 4 owner to video chat with a person using a Mac and vice versa.  Right now the program is only in the beta stages, but it seems to work fine in my tests.  Hopefully Apple will bring the program to Windows as well.

I figured that Apple would introduce something yesterday that would be useful to iPhone owners, such as the new FaceTime program for the Mac.  I didn’t expect Apple to so obviously seek to incorporate iPhone technology into the Mac software and hardware.  Although I have to use a PC at work, I’ve been a Mac user at home for over 20 years, and I am excited at the prospect of seeing some of what I love about the iPhone become a reason that I love my Mac even more.

On Monday, Apple released the results for it’s 2010 fiscal fourth quarter and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. As has often been the case since 2007, the iPhone dominated the discussion. But in a rare surprise, Steve Jobs decided to participate in the call himself.  (I believe that the last time that Jobs participated in one of these calls was two years ago in October of 2008, shortly before I started iPhone J.D.)  Why did Jobs appear, considering that Jobs will also be speaking on Wednesday at Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event?  Perhaps Jobs wants to concentrate on the Mac on Wednesday so by participating yesterday he could say what he wanted to get off his chest about the iPhone and iPad. The only explanation offered by Jobs himself was that he couldn’t help stopping by for Apple first $20 billion quarter.  Whatever the reason, these calls are always more interesting when Jobs is there.

If you want to hear the full call yourself, you can download it from iTunes or you can read the transcript provided by Seeking Alpha.  You can also read Apple’s press release here.  Here are the iPhone-related highlights of the call:

• Apple had its best quarter in the history of the company with $23.3 billion in revenue.
• There are over 300,000 apps in the App Store.
• Apple sold a record 14.1 million iPhones.  The previous record, set during the first few months of calendar year 2010, was 8.75 million iPhones, so Apple beat its previous record by over 5 million iPhones.  And Apple reported considerable backlog so it could have sold even more if it could have kept up with demand.
• Many of those are sales to law firms and other companies.  Apple reported that a record number of companies are using the iPhone, including around 85% of Fortune 500 companies.
• To provide some perspective, Apple reported 91% growth in iPhone sales during a quarter when overall smartphone sales were up 64%.
• To provide even more perspective, RIM sold 12.1 million BlackBerries during the same quarter, and Jobs noted that he doesn’t see RIM ever catching up to Apple’s lead.
• Jobs noted that the real competition to the iPhone is Android, and while Google claims that Android is better because it is “open,” Jobs said that is false. The real difference is fragmented versus integrated. Android is fragmented and apps that are written for one device won’t always work on other devices which discourages app developers. With the integrated iPhone, where Apple makes the hardware and the software and there are only one or two supported versions of the iOS at one time, developers have more opportunities for sales and there is less confusion for the consumer.
• Jobs also compared Apple to Nokia:  “Our goal is to make the best devices in the world. It’s not to be the biggest.  As you know, Nokia is the biggest, and we admire them for being able to ship the number of handsets that they do. But we don’t aspire to be like them. They are good at being like them. We want to be like us, and we want to make the best ones. … Nokia makes $50 handsets, and we don’t know how to make a great smartphone for $50. We’re not smart enough to figure that one out yet, but believe me I’ll let you know, when we do.”
• Jobs also discussed other iOS devices.  The iPad had an amazing quarter as well with 4.188 million sold, a total of 7.4 million sold to date. Looking ahead to the competition on the horizon, Jobs noted that a few other companies plan to release tablets with 7 inch screens (versus the 10 inch screen on the iPad), but Apple believes that is too small. When people want a smaller screen they opt for a smartphone. (I agree with this 100%.). Jobs also noted that there are already over 35,000 apps designed for the iPad, which makes it even harder for competitors to catch up.
• Speaking of the iPad, Jobs noted that while Apple hasn’t been pushing business sales, business customers are buying the iPad in droves. (This is certainly happening in the legal arena.)  Jobs stated:  “We haven’t pushed it real hard in business, and it’s being grabbed out of our hands. And I talk to people everyday in all kinds of businesses that are using iPads, all the way from Boards of Directors that are shipping iPads around instead of board books, down to nurses and doctors in hospitals and other large and small businesses.”
• The Apple TV (which runs a version of the iOS) has had amazing initial sales, with over 250,000 sold so far. Jobs noted that when iOS 4.2 comes out next month with the new AirPlay feature that let’s you play iPhone video on an Apple TV, the Apple TV will become an even better product. (Again, I agree, and I cannot wait to see what becomes of this feature.)

So in short, it was a record quarter for Apple as a whole, and a record quarter for the iPhone.  Surely at some point Apple will hit a peak, but for now sales just keep getting better and better.

Amidst all of the speculation over whether the iPhone is coming to Verizon in 2011, yesterday Verizon announced that it will be selling an iOS device starting October 28.  No, not the iPhone, but the Wi-Fi version of the iPad bundled with a Verizon MiFi 2200 mobile hotspot.  (Click here for report from Eric Slivka of MacRumors.com.)  Upside: you can also use the hotspot with your computer, your iPhone, etc. Downside: you have one more thing you need to remember to carry around and charge.  The bundled prices are the same as the prices of the 3G versions of the iPad.  Verizon will also just sell you just an iPad if you don’t want a MiFi or already own one.  You need a monthly contract for the MiFi to work on Verizon, and Verizon will offer a monthly 1GB data plan priced at $20 (or $35 for 3GB, $50 for 5GB).  AT&T stores will also start selling the iPad on the 28th (both the Wi-Fi versions and the 3G versions), and their iPad data plans remain $15 a month for 250MB or $25 a month for 2GB.  But the big news here is that there is now officially a relationship between Apple and Verizon:  another sign that the iPhone may be coming to Verizon in the near future.  Other news of the week:

• If Verizon is going to have the iPhone, Spencer Ante of the Wall Street Journal writes that Verizon’s experience with Android has prepared the company to handle the heavy data traffic that would come with the iPhone.
• Bryan Wolfe of AppAdvice writes about the latest update to the Amazon iPhone app.  The app has long had the ability to take a picture of a book and then tell you how much the book costs on Amazon with the option to order it.  Now the app adds the ability to scan a barcode and show you the price.  Sounds like a great way to save some money — and really annoy the local store where you are scanning barcodes.
• Apple’s stock price rose to over $300 this week for the first time in the history of the company, as reported at TUAW and elsewhere.  AAPL started this year at $200.
• Apple announced yesterday that it is holding a “Back to the Mac” event on Wednesday, October 20.  Presumably the focus will be the next version of the Mac operating system, version 10.7"Lion”.  I hope we also see an update to the iLife apps, and perhaps some part of the announcements will relate to iPhone owners, such as adding FaceTime to iChat.  For an insightful and humorous take on the upcoming announcement, read this column by Andy Ihnatko.
• Sam’s Club will soon be selling the iPhone and iPad, according to Charles Starrett of iLounge.  No word yet on whether you need to buy a case of them at a time.
• If you set a 9am appointment when you are in the Central Time Zone, do you want it to automaticaly shift to 10am while you are in the Eastern Time Zone?  David Pogue of the New York Times explains the Time Zone Support feature of the iPhone Calendar.
• Eric Slivka of MacRumors.com writes that Apple now has a registered trademark on the phrase “There’s an app for that.”
• And finally, how many times do you find your self wondering which yacht to purchase and wishing that there was a way that your iPhone could help?  Well now, there’s an app for tha…. um, can I say that anymore without paying Apple?  Rather than say anything, I’ll just let this video from Sunseeker explain it for me:

Bloomberg television has a series called Bloomberg Game Changers that profiles “today’s most influential leaders in technology, finance, politics and culture.”  The first episode was a profile of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and you can view it online here.  I watched it earlier this week, and it was pretty good.

Tonight, the second episode of the series profiles Steve Jobs.  According to a report by Dave Caolo of TUAW, it features interviews from many significant players in Apple history including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, former Apple CEO John Scully, tech columnist Robert X. Cringley and former Apple Chief Evangelist Guy Kawasaki.

The show appears at 8 Central / 9 Eastern tonight.  If you use DirecTV like I do, it is channel 353.  You can use the free DirecTV app to set your DVR.  Here is a preview of the show:

The Google Mobile app was the very first iPhone app that I reviewed on iPhone J.D. back in 2008.  That app includes the useful feature of letting you use your voice to dictate your search terms and then have a search run.  Very fast, very effective. 

The latest update to Google Mobile adds the very cool Google Goggles feature.  Take a picture of an object, and then Google does a pretty good job of figuring out what the object is and runs a search based on the picture.  It works best with distinctive objects such as a landmark, a book cover, an ISBN number, a wine label, a DVD cover, etc.  It can also read text. 

Google put together this great video to show you how it works and why you would find this feature useful. 

In my tests, when the feature works, it works really great.  Google Mobile is free, so if you don’t already have it, get it now so that you can try out this cool new feature. 

Click here for Google Mobile (free): 

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, with its unique touch input method and beautifully designed interface, Apple revolutionized the cell phone industry.  The first year’s model had some shortcomings, but by 2008 when the iPhone 3G added features such as third party applications and integration with Microsoft Exchange, there was nothing else close.

In January of 2009, I was really impressed when Palm introduced the Palm Pre.  But for whatever reason, that phone has not found many buyers.  I can only think of two people I know who use a Palm Pre, and one of them works for HP (the company that now owns Palm).  Since then, Google’s Android operating system has come on strong, and RIM has at least tried to add some improvements to the BlackBerry.

But I’ve really been waiting to see what Microsoft would add to this space.  Microsoft has a history of devoting a lot of resources to new products and, eventually, getting it right.  The first version may have some shortcomings, but give the company time and subsequent versions get better and better.  (See, e.g., Windows, Internet Explorer, XBox, etc.)

We’ve seen sneak peaks for a while now, but yesterday Microsoft officially unveiled Windows Phone 7, the company’s next generation smartphone.  From the demos that I have seen and the reviews that I have read, it looks like Microsoft has a credible product here.  The interface is unique for a smartphone (although it clearly has roots in the Zune, Microsoft’s ill-fated answer to the iPod) and much like Android, there are several different manufacturers offering different takes on the operating system. 

Will this end up like the Palm Pre (or the Zune) — a lot of splash at first, but few sales?  I don’t think so.  Some people ask whether Windows Phone 7 will “beat” the iPhone.  I don’t think that is possible any time soon — Apple has such a head start with third party apps, the iTunes/iPod music environment, and Apple’s expertise in user interface design — but I also don’t think that is right question.  I just hope that Microsoft has a viable alternative to the iPhone so that we have competition and innovation.

If you want to get a sense of what the Windows Phone 7 interface looks like, check out this page on the Microsoft website.  Also, for a good perspective on the new smartphone operating system, I recommend this article by Harry McCracken in Technologizer.  And Nick Bilton of the New York Times has a good overview on yesterday’s announcements.

I’m a big fan of the Take Control series of electronic books, published by Adam and Tonya Engst, the folks who run the excellent and long-running Macintosh newsletter TidBITS.  Take Control books are published electronically as PDF files, which means that there is very little delay between when the book is finished and when it is published.  They include full color photographs, useful sidebar descriptions of concepts discussed in the main text, and lots of hyperlinks to make it easy to jump to one part of a book that is referenced in another part of a book.

Over the last few weeks, several new iPhone-related Take Control books were released.  I was given free copies for review purposes, and I enjoyed reading them.  Here are the product descriptions for these three books:

Learn core iPhone skills with former Apple writer Karen G. Anderson, who helps you decide which iPhone and accessories to buy, understand power management, set everything up nicely (including transferring data from a computer), find your way around, and use the apps effectively.

Take Control of Mail on the iPhone and iPod touch, iOS 4 Edition ($10.00)

Need real-world advice about using the Mail app on your iPhone or iPod touch? Email expert Joe Kissell explains how to devise an effective mobile strategy, plus how to configure accounts and the best ways to receive, send, read, and file your email. You’ll also find troubleshooting help.

Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ ($10.00)

Find answers to all your iTunes questions! In this FAQ-style ebook, iTunes expert Kirk McElhearn explains importing, tagging, organizing, playing, sharing, and more so you can get the most out of your audio, video, and book collections in iTunes 10. You’ll also learn the best way for you to transfer media to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod.

The first book, Take Control of iPhone Basics, is my favorite of the three.  If you (or someone you know) is new to the iPhone, this is a fabulous resource that will get someone up to speed. And it is updated for the latest iOS 4, unlike the physical books on the shelf of any bookstore right now.  If you are an advanced iPhone user, you will get less out of the book, although I did run across quite a few useful tips that I either never knew or that I had forgotten about.

If you use the links below to purchase any of these books, a small percentage of the sale goes to iPhone J.D. to help offset the cost of running this site.

Click here for Take Control of iPhone Basics, iOS 4 Edition

Click here for Take Control of Mail on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch

Click here for Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ

It can be fun to speculate on what is coming in the future, and I do that from time to time, but I try to stay away from reporting rumors on iPhone J.D. because they are so often very wrong.  And if there is one topic that has been the topic of non-stop rumors since the iPhone was first released in 2007, it is the topic of the iPhone coming to Verizon.  As Jenna Wortham of the New York Times wrote yesterday, “By now, the rumors of a Verizon iPhone are as common (and tired) as Lindsay Lohan’s repeated stints in jail.”  Nevertheless, one of the top questions that I am asked by people thinking about buying an iPhone is whether the iPhone will come to Verizon in the near future, so I know that there is great interest in getting hard facts on this topic.  That is why I reported last month that AT&T is taking steps that indicate that AT&T thinks that the iPhone is about to come to Verizon.  And that’s why I decided to mention today that the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iPhone will be on Verizon in the first quarter of 2011.  The WSJ report is based on unnamed sources, but that paper has a good reputation for vetting stories so there may well be something to this one.  [UPDATE:  The New York Times is now reporting the same thing.]  And now for the other iPhone news of note this week:

• Since I’m talking about stories based on anonymous sources today anyway, I might as well report on this one as well.  Ryan Block of GDGT reports that he has been told by Apple insiders that the glass on the iPhone 4 is especially prone to scratching and then breaking when slipped into a tight case.  In other words, you think that you are protecting your iPhone by using a case, and instead the case causes it to break.  It will be interesting to see what comes of this story.
• Ryan Block’s partner at GDGT, Peter Rojas, wrote an interesting article on how Apple was smart to let AT&T provide the network for the iPhone instead of Apple starting its own phone network.
• The free Netflix iPhone app recently added a video out feature.  Thus, you can stream a Netflix movie or TV show to your iPhone, plug your iPhone into your TV, and then watch streaming video on your big screen TV.  The iPhone acts as your set top box.  Of course, for this to work, you need the cable that connects your iPhone to a TV.  Apple has a $50 option, but Alan at Art of the iPhone describes some of the cheaper options.  Keep in mind, though, that instead of spending upwards of $50 on cables, you can spend $100 on an Apple TV, and when iOS 4.2 comes out next month you are supposed to be able to wirelessly stream from your iPhone to the Apple TV — plus get all of the other advantages of an Apple TV. 
• Speaking of the Apple TV, Jesse David Hollington of iLounge describes 15 lesser known features.
• Harry McCracken writes for Time about the differences between the iPhone and phones that use Google’s Android operating system.
• Actor Tony Curtis died recently, and Oskar Garcia writes for MSNBC that Curtis loved his iPhone so much that he asked to be burried with it.
• Jeff Gamet writes for the Mac Observer that AT&T will be adding cell phone coverage to New York City’s underground subway stations.
• Logan Kugler of Computerworld recommends 10 iPhone apps for business collaboration.
• And finally, New Orleans attorney Ernie Svenson shared this video with me showing off one of the most bizarre iPhone chargers that I could possibly imagine.  I’m still trying to decide whether I should tell Svenson “thank you” or “yuck” for sharing this one with me.  So I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you don’t care for this one, direct all hate mail to Svenson.  (Via Boing Boing.)

I love my iPhone 4, and perhaps my favorite new feature is the high pixel density, a feature that Apple calls the Retina display.  It vastly improves the iPhone experience whether you are reading text, looking at a picture, surfing the Internet or playing a game.  Apple unveiled a new commercial for the iPhone 4 this week which touts the benefits of the display.  Here it is:

As I think back to all of the fun things that my father and I did together when I was a kid, numerous Cub Scout activities come to mind such as the Pinewood Derby, but one particular favorite was launching model rockets.  I remember wishing that there was a way that my rocket could go all the way up into space.

Fast forward about 30 years and Luke Geissbühler of Brooklyn, NY, who works by day as a Director of Photography on films, worked with his seven year old son Max — and other friends in a group he founded called the Brooklyn Space Program — to launch a homemade spacecraft all the way into the upper stratosphere.  The contraption he built would need to be able to survive 100 mph winds, extreme cold temperatures, and a drop from 19 miles high at over 150 mph.  It took eight months to design, but less than $500 to build.  And it worked.  I realize that this is the little boy in me talking, but oh-my-goodness what an an amazing father-son project!

How did he build it?  He used a weather balloon to lift his 1.5 lb. spacecraft and a parachute to help it fall back to Earth.  The spacecraft carried a GoPro Hero HD camera to record the flight.  To keep track of the flight, he put inside the spacecraft an old iPhone 3G (that already had a cracked screen, donated by a friend) running the GPS Tracker app.  [Click here for GPS Tracker (free):  ]  The GPS Tracker app sends information such as latitude, longitude, speed, and a timestamp every five seconds to the free InstaMapper website.  Thus, during the flight, Geissbühler just had to view a page on the InstaMapper website to continuously monitor the iPhone as it ascended and descended and to locate the iPhone after it landed (in a tree).  (Actually, the GPS could only pick up satellites below 50,000 feet, so for the second half of the flight he had to do some complex modeling to estimate the coordinates).

If it looks like something you might want to try, click here to learn of Geissbühler’s plans to put together a how-to book.  Click here for a New York Daily News story with quotes from Geissbühler.  And best of all, here is the video: