Sunday, March 14, 2010
Business Objects Enterprise XI and Crystal Report Development
Pocket Chef for iPhone
Developed by Gameloft, Pocket Chef is a cooking simulation game for the iPhone designed for the cooking-impaired. The app features 25 different recipes, some of which need to be “unlocked” by completing simpler and more familiar recipes. Each recipe requires a variety of different cooking skills that manifest themselves in mini-games with handy introductory tutorials. Pocket Chef tasks its players with cutting onions, stirring curry spices, spreading glaze on bread or deep-frying chicken at any given time. Each mini-game is pretty easy to get the hang of, and as you advance to more complicated recipes, the tutorials found earlier in Pocket Chef gradually disappear. An instant cooking mode allows you to easily re-cook any recipes that you have already unlocked.
All of the excitement of grilling burgers! Right on your iPhone!
The game plays like an iPhone advertisement—Pocket Chef takes advantage of the double-touch so you can open cracked eggs and uses the internal accelerometer to let you flip items in a sauté pan. I’m ok with the slight overuse of gimmicks, but it makes it difficult to discreetly play your game when you’re tilting melting butter in pans and stirring big bowls of eggs and flipping flapjacks.
My warning to bad/inexperienced cooks: do not go try to cook a five-course meal after playing a few rounds of Pocket Chef. The little cooking mini-games are in no way realistic portrayals of the right way to cook food, I assume partially so that the game can be more accessible and partly because real cooking is time consuming and boring to watch. Pocket Chef does offer a recipe book, but at only 25 recipes, Pocket Chef can’t compete with real recipe apps like Whole Foods Recipes or Epicurious Recipes, both of which have more recipes and are much cheaper than Pocket Chef’s $4.99.
Though not a game that's going to teach you to cook, Pocket Chef is a fun, graphically impressive, and clever casual game. Pocket Chef will make for a fun distraction for those who want to learn how to cook but never will, and for everyone else, it might be more filling to keep your $5.00 and order in Chinese food.
Apple to replace iPad batteries with a new iPad
After facing criticism—and lawsuits—in the past over the irreplaceable batteries in its products, Apple appears determined to get in front of the issue with the iPad. Three weeks before shipping its new tablet, the company announced an iPad battery replacement program.
The replacement program can be set up over the phone. Apple expects it’ll take about a week for you to receive your new iPad. The support document suggests you can also do this in person at an Apple Store or an authorized reseller, which leads me to wonder whether a store employee just hands you a new iPad immediately if one is in stock; the one-week wait is specifically for phoned-in replacements.You won’t just get a new battery under Apple’s program—the company says it’ll ship you an entirely new iPad if your iPad’s battery no longer holds a charge. The service costs $99 plus a $7 shipping fee.
There are limits to the program’s generosity. The terms outlined by Apple say the iPad has to be in good condition—aside from its dead battery, of course. Also, since you won’t be getting your first iPad back, it’s on you to make sure your data is synced to iTunes so you don’t lose anything.
The timing of the program’s announcement is interesting. Not only does it come before the iPad’s April 3 arrival date (though right after the company begantaking pre-orders for the tablet), but potentially three years before anyone should start to see battery degradation. That’s how the math works out, assuming the iPad’s battery is good for 400 to 500 recharge cycles and you recharge the device every two or three days.
I also wonder what happens in 2012 or 2013 when people return their 2010 model iPads, should Apple come out with a newer version between now and then. I can’t expect that Apple would keep a stockpile old models purely for the purpose of returns, so this might signal an Apple strategy to sell 2010 iPads at a discount alongside newer models, much as the company already does with the iPhone 3G.
iPhone 3GS
In the face of the stepped-up competition, it’s possible to consider Apple’s new iPhone 3GS a minor step forward for Apple. After all, it looks almost identical to its predecessor, which itself offered very few changes from the original iPhone model. But with the iPhone 3GS, combined with the iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update, Apple has addressed all of its product’s key weaknesses while adding several important new strengths.
Yes, the competition is much closer to Apple now than it was two years ago. But the iPhone 3GS makes it clear: Apple is still leading the pack, in most cases by a wide margin.
The S is for “same”
Externally, Apple hasn’t messed with success—the iPhone 3GS is almost completely indistinguishable from the original iPhone 3G model, which itself was remarkably similar to the original iPhone. Front and center is the iPhone’s signature feature: a bright, beautiful high-resolution 3.5-inch diagonal touchscreen, offering a resolution of 480-by-320 pixels. The iPhone 3GS has Apple’s usual complement of four physical buttons (Home just below the touchscreen, sleep/wake up top, a volume up/down rocker on the left side, and a ringer toggle just above the volume controls) and the same black or white plastic back shell introduced with the iPhone 3G.
If you need to know which model is which, there’s only one clear way to do so: Look at the lettering on the back of the phone. If it’s in the same silver ink as the Apple logo, it’s an iPhone 3GS. (Likewise, if 32GB appears below the word iPhone, you know it’s an iPhone 3GS—the previous model was only available in 8 GB and 16 GB editions, while this phone’s capacities have doubled to an impressive 16 GB and 32 GB, allowing users to load their phones up with even more apps, tunes, and videos.)
Beyond the color-matched lettering, which shows a uniquely Apple-like attention to detail, the only other change to the outside of the device is the addition of an oleophobic coating to the device’s touchscreen. When Apple designed the iPhone to be controlled entirely by touch, the company has had to deal with the unpleasant reality that human beings tend to secrete oil from their pores, as well as stick their fingers in greasy foodstuffs from time to time. The iPhone 3GS’s screen coating is intended to keep fingerprints to a minimum.
I’ve never really found fingerprints to be a major problem with the iPhone, since the device’s screen has always been quite bright. But it’s undeniable that in the right lighting conditions, fingerprints can really get in the way—especially when you’re trying to watch a video.
The iPhone 3Gs’s oleophobic coating doesn’t make your fingerprints magically fade away. What it does is create an oil-repellant surface that’s easily wiped clean. When I handled an iPhone 3G and an iPhone 3GS with similarly oily hands—olive oil, if you must know, from a pizza I was making—I was rapidly able to dump my grubby prints all over both devices’ touchscreens. After I rubbed the iPhone 3GS screen onto my t-shirt’s right sleeve, it was perfectly clear. In contrast, rubbing the iPhone 3G’s screen on my t-shirt’s left sleeve seemed to leave a thin film of oily residue spread uniformly across the entire surface, rendering everything a bit hazy.
Will people buy the iPhone 3GS because it’s got an oil-repellant screen coating? Certainly not. But in adding the coating, Apple combats a weakness—albeit minor—in the design of the iPhone. Given how few changes Apple made to the iPhone’s exterior, this is clearly a company that feels great confidence in its current product designs. Instead of revamping the phone’s look and feel, the company’s designers are instead focused on the little things, like making it easy to wipe off greasy fingerprints.
That said, I have to point out that many iPhone users choose to protect their iPhone’s screen from hazards more noxious than oil by using some sort of screen protector. When you see those people on the street, whatever you do, don’t say the wordoleophobic. It will just remind them that this is one feature they’ll have no use for.
The S is for “speed”
The lack of external changes belie what’s going on underneath the iPhone 3GS’s glass and plastic exterior. The iPhone’s last upgrade added a faster cellular radio and a GPS chip, but otherwise, the iPhone 3G’s internals were largely unchanged from the original iPhone. The iPhone 3GS, on the other hand, is a major step forward in terms of the iPhone’s technological underpinnings. Its processor runs at 600 MHz, compared to previous models’ 412MHz. It’s got 256MB of RAM, compared to 128MB in previous models.
The result is an indisputably faster device, not just at some tasks, but at every task. The iPhone 3GS booted faster than any other iPhone OS-based device, and launched every app I tried in record time. Its Safari browser had the dramatically fastest JavaScript engine as measured by the SunSpider benchmark, and loaded Web pages dramatically faster as well. Every aspect of using the phone felt noticeably faster on the iPhone 3GS than on the iPhone 3G. Even actions that only took moments before now happen instantaneously.
iPhone speed tests
Results are in seconds. Best results in bold. Reference systems in italic.
All devices were tested running iPhone OS 3.0. Peggle, PCalc, and Star Defense were app launch times. Sunspider was the time to run the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark. Page load test was amount of time it took to load nytimes.com.—MACWORLD TESTING BY JASON SNELL
While you’ll notice how responsive the iPhone 3GS is thanks to its increased processor speed, the programmers who develop your favorite apps will appreciate the large amount of RAM. The more memory that’s available for iPhone apps, the faster and more stable they will be. Numerous iPhone developers complained about the extremely tight memory conditions in previous iPhone OS devices, which led to slowdowns and plenty of app crashes. With the iPhone 3GS, those apps have twice as much room to breathe. The result should be a faster and more stable system.
The speed doesn’t stop with app launches and fast-loading Web pages, either. The iPhone 3GS supports the new OpenGL ES 2.0 standard, meaning that a slew of iPhone game apps will be able to capitalize on advanced graphics features to create higher-quality graphics than have been seen on the iPhone up to now. But more important, the iPhone 3GS is just better when it comes to graphics. Games that featured jerky, low-frame-rate gameplay on the original iPhone and iPhone 3G—we’re looking at you, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D—spring to life on the iPhone 3GS with high frame rates and smooth motion. The end result: old games will get new life, and the new games to come will blow away anything you’ve seen so far on the iPhone platform. Sony and Nintendo, be warned.
The last component of the iPhone 3GS’s speed is, of course, the speed of the cellular network. Here, Apple’s integrated a new cellular radio that supports the 7.2 Mbps HSDPA specification. Basically, what that means is that the iPhone 3GS will support a new generation of cellular technology that will offer dramatically fast download speeds—once AT&T builds the network to support it. AT&T says it’ll start rolling out that network this fall, but it’ll be a lot longer before it’s widely available. So perhaps it’s safe to say that while your iPhone 3GS won’t seem any faster that previous models on today’s cell networks, it’s got room to grow that the other phones simply don’t have. Now it’s up to AT&T to deliver on that promise.
The S is for “snapshots”
The original iPhone included a mediocre 2-megapixel still camera. As I said in my review two years ago, “It doesn’t zoom and doesn’t work well in low light, but with still subjects in well-lit areas it produces nice results. It’s definitely more appropriate for fun shots when no other camera is around, [rather] than as a replacement for your digital camera, even if your camera is five years old.”
The iPhone 3G didn’t improve matters a whit, using the same camera as its predecessor. Quoting myself again, from last year’s iPhone 3G review: “For a product as on the cutting edge as the iPhone, its built-in camera is an embarrassment. Like the camera on the original iPhone, it’s got a basic two-megapixel resolution, doesn’t zoom, has no flash, doesn’t work well in low light, and doesn’t take videos. With still subjects in well-lit areas it produces nice results. In terms of quality, the consumer point-and-shoot digital camera I bought seven years ago still blows it away, and most of the iPhone’s smart phone competitors offer better cameras as well.”
The iPhone 3GS finally addresses perhaps the iPhone’s weakest feature, upgrading the camera to a 3-megapixel model (still not exactly earth-shattering in terms of resolution). It still won’t zoom or flash, and the low-light images it produces are better, but still not great. Still, there’s no denying that this new camera is an improvement on the original. In general I found the images from the iPhone 3GS to be clearer, with brighter colors and sharper definition.
A still photo from the iPhone 3GS camera (left) definitely shows more detail and offers better quality than a still from the iPhone 3G (right).
Aiding the iPhone 3GS camera’s output is the ability to focus, which the previous iPhone camera lacked. By default the camera auto-focuses on the scene you’re shooting, though you can tap on the touchscreen to make it focus on a particular object. If that object is in a darker or lighter area of the frame, the camera will also adjust to make sure that location is properly exposed, even if that means other areas of the frame will be blown out or left in darkness. The focus isn’t exactly quick, but it does work, and the resulting images are definitely sharper than in previous models.
The new camera also allows you to take pictures of close-up objects—a test that previous iPhone cameras utterly failed. Not only is this exciting for people who want to e-mail a shot of a newspaper or magazine page or a close-up of one of their kids’ toys, but it opens up the possibility that the iPhone 3GS can actually function as a barcode reader for the first time, now that it can snap images of barcodes with clarity. (In many countries grabbing a bar code with your cell phone in order to get more information about a product on a billboard or in a magazine has become a somewhat common activity; personal-inventory apps such as Delicious Library could also benefit from integration with the new camera.)
This extreme close-up shows the dramatic improvement in macro shots on the iPhone 3GS's camera (bottom) compared to the one on the iPhone 3G (top).
Then there’s the big news with this new iPhone camera: it shoots video. It’s real video, too—not high-definition, granted, but full standard-def video. To shoot video, you flip the Camera app into video mode by touching a small switch in the corner of the screen and press the big red button. Once you hear a chime and see a time code begin to count upward from zero, you’re recording video.
I compared the video the iPhone 3GS shot to the video from my point-and-shoot camera, aCanon PowerShot SD700 IS. The iPhone’s video is much softer than the PowerShot’s, making it pleasant to look at but fairly lacking in detail. However, the audio recorded by the iPhone 3GS was excellent, far better than the (frankly awful) quality of the PowerShot.
This video still shows the relatively soft iPhone 3GS picture (top) compared to video shot by a Canon Powershot point-and-shoot camera.
I asked our Christopher Breen to test the iPhone 3GS against his Flip Ultra, the popular pocket standard-definition camcorder. His results were much the same, with the iPhone 3GS's video being much softer than the Ultra's, with bright portions of the image easily blown out in the sunlight. In addition, the Flip Ultra proved to have much superior audio than the iPhone 3GS.
These video stills show that the Flip Ultra (bottom) offers much more detail than the iPhone 3GS (top).
Bottom line: the iPhone 3GS shoots decent, albeit somewhat soft, standard-def video. It’s great for shooting video when your iPhone’s the only device you’ve got with you. If you want better-quality video, you probably want a dedicated video camera, ideally one that can shoot in high definition.
The new photo/video interface displays videos with an icon and video length; the filtering buttons at top are only available via the Camera app.
If you access your Camera Roll by tapping the small thumbnail icon in the bottom-left corner of the Camera app, you’ll see much the same thing, but this alternate view includes a toolbar that lets you display all media, just photos, or just video. (I’m not quite sure why this option is absent from the Photos app itself.)
When you tap on a video, you can choose to play the video or, via a film strip that appears at the top of the screen, trim it by dragging the beginning and end points to different locations. Once you tap the Trim button, the video is trimmed—and as far as I can tell, there’s no going back via an undo or any other means. That’s unfortunate because it means you can’t take a long video, trim a small portion for e-mailing or posting to YouTube, and then retain the longer version for later use. You should be able to undo trims or have the option to duplicate a clip so you can create multiple versions. (And—pie-in-the-sky feature request here—have the ability to attach several clips together to make one mini-movie.)
Once you’ve checked your video and trimmed it if necessary, the Photos app lets you share it with the world by e-mailing it, sending it to MobileMe, or uploading it to YouTube. Uploading was surprisingly fast and easy. And if you’re not a connoisseur of YouTube, no worries—e-mailing videos to Flickr and Vimeo worked like a charm, too.
iPod nano, fifth-generation (5G) 8GB
Specs
Apple’s smallest screen-bearing iPod, the iPod nano, has evolved in impressive fashion. A highly capable and affordable performer in its previous two iterations, the fifth-generation (5G) iPod nano adds the kind of useful and entertaining features that will compel someone on your holiday list to sidle up and wheedle, “You know what I’d really like this year?”Those features include a video camera and microphone mounted on the back of the iPod, an FM radio with buffering and iTunes Tagging capabilities, a larger screen, a built-in speaker, expanded accessibility support, and a pedometer for keeping track of your footsteps. Additionally, the $149 (8GB) and $179 (16GB) nanos come in an array of nine bright colors: silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink and [Product] Red.
On the outside
The dimensions of the 5G nano are identical to that of its predecessor, the fourth-generation (4G) iPod nano (
The 5G nano's display (left) is longer than the 4G nano's display (right).
The obvious difference between the backs of the two models is the camera lens and microphone unit found on the bottom-left of the 5G nano. And the bottom of the newest nano has the headphone port on the left of the Dock connector (as you look at the display) rather than on the right side (its location on the 4G nano).
The other difference you’ll notice is that if you press Play without connecting your headphones, the 5G nano will play audio through a new, internal speaker. Its sound quality is comparable to that of the iPod touch—very tinny and useful only for previewing songs or, if you’re just this side of desperate, listening to the audio that accompanies the video you’ve just shot.
Video camera
The feature that has garnered the greatest attention is the nano’s video camera. When Steve Jobs introduced the 5G iPod nano he compared it directly to Pure Digital’s popular $149 Flip Ultra standard definition pocket camcorder. The idea being that, like the Flip camcorders, the 5G nano provides you with an ultra portable video camera that’s incredibly easy to operate and is likely to be used in situations where you don’t care a great deal about the quality of what you shoot.
The new video camera is located on the bottom left of the back of the iPod nano.
Using the camera couldn’t be much easier—though it’s not quite as easy as pushing the Flip’s Big Red Button. Just choose Video Camera from the nano’s main menu, press the Center button, and the nano's display becomes a viewfinder. Press Center again and the nano starts recording. Unlike most pocket camcorders, it does not display a red recording light on the front of the “camera” nor make a noise when it starts recording. For those concerned about privacy as it relates to video taken on the sly, this could be an issue.
You can also add effects to video as you shoot it. Just navigate to the viewfinder screen and press and hold the Center button. Doing so produces a screen that contains 15 video effects (plus a Normal setting). Among the effects you’ll find are the descriptively named Sepia, Black & White, Film Grain, Cyborg, Kaleido, Twirl, and Stretch. If you’ve ever used the video effects in Apple’s Photo Booth or iChat, you have a good idea of what these things do. The effects are permanent, however—they are added as you shoot and can’t be removed.
Press Center again to stop recording and the video is added to the nano’s Camera Roll screen. Videos are organized there by date. Select a date, press Center, and any videos you’ve shot on the selected day appear in a separate screen. Choose one using the clickwheel, press the Center button, and the video plays in the orientation in which it was shot. (If you shot it in landscape orientation, you can rotate the nano either to the left or right and the video will rotate along with the nano.) To delete a video from the nano, just select it in the date screen and press and hold the Center button. A drop-down menu appears offering Delete All, Delete, and Cancel options.
When you plug a 5G nano that contains recorded video clips into a Mac, iPhoto opens by default and offers to import the clips. Video is encoded in 640-by-480 resolution using the H.264 video codec, with 44.1kHz AAC audio, at a total data rate in the range of 2500 to 2800 kbps.
You might think that the placement of the nano’s camera will cause a lot of people to shoot video of the inside of their palms. Not so, if you’re careful. If you prefer to shoot in portrait mode, just turn the nano upside down so the lens sits above your hand. The nano understands that it’s standing on its head and when you transfer the video to iPhoto, the clips will appear right-side up. Clever.
I did, however, manage to move a finger in the way when shooting in landscape orientation. To help prevent that, I vowed to rotate the nano to the right so the lens sits at the bottom-right (from the subject’s perspective) rather than the top-left, where it’s easy to obscure the lens with your right index finger.
Compared to a pocket camcorder
Steve Jobs was careful not to compare the quality of the nano’s video to that of today’s pocket camcorders, and rightly so. For its intended purpose—shooting videos of your friends and family and posting the results up on YouTube—the nano’s video is acceptable. But it’s not as good as video shot by an iPhone 3GS (
I compared the nano’s video to that shot by an original Flip Ultra pocket camcorder. Outdoors, the nano’s video was darker and bluer than the Flip’s. Much of what it shot looked drab. Indoors, under natural light, the nano failed to pick up detail and stuck with its blue tendencies. Under lamplight at night, its results were just poor—full of noise, washed out, and producing unhealthy skin tones.
The 5G iPod nano is a very poor indoor shooter under lamp light. Nano on left, standard definition Flip Ultra on right.
But it’s not a dedicated pocket camcorder—it happens to come with a fairly outstanding media player. I’m all for seeing Apple make improvements to this camera, but for a feature that emphasizes fun over quality, it’s a perfectly acceptable addition and one—unlike bulky full-sized camcorders—that you’re far more likely to have with you when you need it. (Note that you can't use the nano's camera to take still photos, only video.)
Music and video
With all the talk of the new nano’s video camera and exercise features, it’s easy to forget that it’s primarily a media player. And as such, it performs as you’d expect a modern iPod nano should.
I plugged several pairs of headphones into the new nano and I was as pleased as ever with the sound, playing MP3, AAC, and AIFF files. I then connected it to my Sonos system’s Line In portand was just as happy with what came out the attached B&W speakers.
Video is larger on the 5G nano (top).
The 5G nano uses a TFT display whereas the previous nanos have used LCDs. Compared to my 4G nano, the 5G’s display is a little bluer. Take the older iPod away, however, and you don’t notice it. Video is enhanced by the larger screen. I compared the same episode of Dexter on 4G and 5G nano screens and although the picture was only slightly larger on the 5G nano, every little bit helps and the difference between the two was noticeable.
Speech and recording
The 5G iPod nano also expands on some of its sibling’s features. For example, the 4G iPod nano introduced a Spoken Menus feature that, when enabled, allowed the iPod to speak the name of highlighted commands, screens, and controls. This was a boon to the visually impaired or blind, allowing them to finally navigate an iPod.
The 5G iPod nano retains this feature but also adds a separate VoiceOver feature. With VoiceOver engaged, you can hear the name of the currently playing tune within the Now Playing screen by pressing the Center button. You don’t have to be visually impaired to find this useful. VoiceOver is a far safer way to learn the name of a song and its artist than taking your eyes off the road while driving with an iPod. VoiceOver kits are available for Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.
VoiceOver can be enabled without also switching on Spoken Menus. However, if you enable Spoken Menus in iTunes, VoiceOver is also turned on. You can switch Spoken Menus off within the iPod’s General settings screen. The only way to turn off VoiceOver, however, is to disable the option in iTunes and then sync the iPod.
Voice Memos were not new to the 4G iPod nano—the nano’s been able to record memos with a compatible microphone since the second-generation model. What is new is that you no longer need a microphone to record these memos. Just choose Voice Memos from the Extras screen and you’ll see a screen reminiscent of the iPhone’s Voice Memos application. Press the Center button and the nano starts recording through the built-in microphone. The 5G nano saves its recordings as 128kbps AAC stereo files. The previous nano saved files in a mono Apple Lossless format.
Note that you needn’t flip the nano around and shout at the mic to make yourself heard: the mic will pick up your voice either way. However, if you do speak into the back of the iPod you’ll get better results—both in terms of volume and representation of your voice. I got a richer baritone sound by flipping the iPod around to the back, as opposed to a somewhat tinny sound when I talked to the front of the iPod. As with the previous recording-capable nanos, voice memos are moved to your iTunes library when you sync the iPod.
Radio
One of the more unexpected features that arrived with the 5G nano is FM radio. This is a feature that some users have been clamoring for since day one, and Apple has finally relented. But, typical of Apple, this is more than the standard FM radio you find in other MP3 players.
Sure, you can tune the radio from 87.5 to 107.9 by using the clickwheel. You can add favorite stations by simply selecting a station, pressing and holding the Center button, and choosing Add To Favorites from the drop-down menu. And you can scan for stations with a strong-ish signal by pressing and holding the Forward or Back portion of the clickwheel while viewing the radio dial, and the iPod will grab the next strong station, play a bit of it, and then move on to the next solid frequency.
The 5G iPod nano's radio buffer feature.
What makes this radio interesting is that you can “pause” and buffer 15 minutes of radio playback. To test the radio I plugged the nano into my car’s auxiliary input jack, chose a station, and headed to the local petrol emporium as the tank was running dry. As I stepped out of the car I pressed the Play/Pause portion of the clickwheel to pause the playing station. I pumped the gas, paid the bill, jumped back in the car, pressed Play/Pause on the nano, and the broadcast picked up where it left off without a discernible change in the quality of the audio.
For fun, I pressed Play/Pause to stop playback. This produced a timeline with a time readout above it—1:51 AM, for example. I then swiped my finger counterclockwise around the clickwheel to rewind back in time (up to 15 minutes). To move forward, I pressed Play/Pause and swiped in a clockwise manner.
You can’t save any of this audio or sync it back to your computer. Once 15 minutes has elapsed, the buffer begins to empty, dropping the oldest audio as new audio is buffered. Regardless, this is a great feature, particularly if you’re often interrupted during a favorite radio broadcast.
Another unique feature of the nano’s radio is its ability to save iTunes tags. Tags are bits of data embedded in audio files broadcast over radio stations that support iTunes Tagging. When the iPod is tuned to one of these stations and a tagged song comes along, its title and artist appears below the radio station number readout with a small Tag icon next to it. Press and hold the Center button and you’re offered the option to tag the track. This places the song’s title in the iPod’s Tagged Songs screen. More importantly, when you next sync the nano, the track’s name, artist, and (in some cases) album appear in a new Tagged playlist that appears under the Store heading in iTunes Source list. In that playlist you can choose to preview or purchase the song. If you often listen to stations where the DJ’s fail to name tunes, this is a great resource.
Tagged tunes in iTunes.
Note that stations supporting iTunes Tagging aren’t found everywhere—we found just a couple in San Francisco and I couldn’t find a single one near my home. It’s a technology in its infant state, but one likely to catch on now that a device as popular as the nano supports it.
The 5G nano allows you to choose from among five radio regions—America, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Japan—making it a reliable international companion. Since the nano doesn't have a built-in antenna, you must have something plugged into the nano’s headphone port for the radio to work—a set of headphones or audio cable will do. A dock won’t, however. Place the nano in a dock or leave the headphone port empty, try to use the radio, and you’ll see a message telling you to plug in headphones for the radio to work.
And how does the radio sound? It depends on the strength of the frequency you’re tuned into. I found the reception far better than the radio on an older SanDisk Sansa player I own but not as good as my car radio, the tuner in my home stereo, or the radio I listen to in the kitchen. But then I live in a valley where radio reception can be dodgy. In a more densely populated area you’ll likely get better results.
I did find the radio’s interface a little frustrating at times. The bottom of the screen displays three sets of controls—station tuning, buffer, and volume. There would be times I’d want to adjust the volume and I tried to do that when the station tuning display was present. Scroll the clickwheel and you choose a different station rather than adjust the volume. What I should have done is press the Center button to display the buffer bar and then scrolled around the clickwheel to change volume. Such is the limitation of a broad control like the clickwheel.
Pedometer
The 5G nano’s pedometer isn’t a replacement for the Nike+ hardware—a kit that uses your stride length to calculate and compare workout data. The nano’s pedometer works with the accelerometer to measure the steps you take—a bump will count as a step as far as the nano is concerned.
To use it, choose Fitness from the Extras screen, select Settings from the Fitness screen, select a daily step goal, weight, and screen orientation; choose Pedometer; and start moving. The Pedometer will keep track of the number of steps you take, estimate the number of calories burned, and track the time it’s been engaged. To stop a session, press the Center button and return to the Settings screen. You can then choose History and see how many steps you’ve taken and how many calories you've burned on a given calendar day.
When you sync the nano, its pedometer data will be copied to your computer and, optionally, synced to the Nike+ Active site. (Free registration with Nike+ required.) I wasn’t able to log any workouts but I plan to as this looks like a fun way to keep track of an activity I consider otherwise dreary.
Operation
The 5G iPod nano differs very little from its predecessor in the way it plays media. Like that earlier nano, it includes a Cover Flow view for scrolling through the device’s music collection when holding it in a horizontal orientation. This iPod also supports creating Genius playlists just as did the 4G iPod nano.
You can also give this nano a vigorous shake to shuffle through the music housed in the iPod. As with the previous nano, you can’t limit shuffling to an artist, album, or playlist. Once you shake, you’re in Shuffle Songs mode even if you’ve configured the Shuffle setting to shuffle by album. In short, anything you could do with the 4G iPod nano also works with the latest one.
Macworld’s buying advice
The 4G iPod nano was an incremental update to the 3G nano that preceded it—new form, new colors, better storage, Genius playlist support, Spoken Menus, and an accelerometer. A fine, but hardly earthshaking, update. The 5G iPod nano is different. A video camera, built-in microphone, and buffered FM radio make this iPod nano a far more functional, flexible, and entertaining iPod than its predecessor. It won’t replace your full-sized camcorder (or even last year’s pocket camcorder). It’s not Tivo for radio nor a field recorder. It’s a compelling upgrade to an already solid and affordable media player. If the iPod you own is starting to look a little limited, this is the iPod to ask for this holiday season.
| Capacity | 8GB flash memory |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 1.5" x .24" x 3.6" |
| Weight | 1.3 ounces |
| Rated battery life | 24 hours (music), 5 hours (video) |
| Included accessories | USB dock cable, Universal dock insert, earbuds. |
| Display size | 2.2 inches, 376x240 pixels, color |
Say It & Mail It updates improve map features
Carnation Software updated itsSay It & Mail It app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Version 2.0 improves the way Say It & Mail It handles map screenshots; it also allows you to shake your mobile device to start recording a new voice message.
Say It & Mail It lets you e-mail a voice recording to yourself or to others. The e-mail can also include photos, movies, or a Google map of your location. If you’re e-mailing yourself, the e-mail address and subject line are autofilled so you don’t actually have to type anything. Voice memos aren’t actually stored on your phone, so you don’t have to worry about managing files.
Carnation suggests a handy function for Say It & Mail It—you can use it as a car parking app where you record a short voice memo about your parking spot, take a photo of the car, include a map, and have the app e-mail the information to you. When you’re ready to return to your car, you won’t have to stress about remembering where exactly you're parked; just consult the e-mail you've sent via Say It & Mail It.
Immediately following the release of version 2.0, another minor update added map accuracy information to your e-mail. Say It and Mail It 2.1 is available now for $2 in the iTunes App Store. You’ll need an iPhone running iPhone OS 3.1. iPod touch users can use the app if they have headphones with a microphone.
Software Company Delhi Growing Story of IT Parks in Delhi India for Software Companies
- Three Blocks, wherein the Software Development Companies carry out their business processes
- A parking facility where each block can store near to 300 cars
- A branch of Central Bank of India in case you need instant cash
- A gymnasium
- Training Rooms
- Conference Halls
