Home theater

If you want to bring your Apple products into the home theater, you might want to start with the new Epson Megaplex projectors with an integrated iPhone/iPad dock. The Epson MG-850HD provides 720p video (and integrated speakers) from a 3LCD system with 2800 lumens: plenty bright to use for business presentations by day and movie screenings by night. You can quickly set up a screening for the kids by playing a movie from the iPad or running an app that allows video output over the 30-pin dock connector. Priced at $800, the Epson Megaplex is perfect for setting up an outdoor movie night for the kids and their friends.

Crestron is well-known for its high-end home theater and automation equipment, and it’s a first-time exhibitor at Macworld, showing off the Crestron Mobile Pro control app for iOS. The app replaces proprietary touchscreen controllers, which can cost thousands of dollars, with a software solution that works just as well on your existing iPad.

Audiophiles

On the music side, we also have consumer and audiophile offerings. SRS Labs is showing off its iWOW 3D accessory to enhance the audio for headphones or the car stereo, as well as a music player app that incorporates the company’s sound processing technology along with some high-end features like 10-band EQ and tempo adjustment.

Audioengine is showing off its DACs (digital to audio converters) for improved sound quality to powered speakers. The D1 ($169) or the wireless D2 ($599/set) DACs work great with the Audioengine 5+ bookshelf speakers the company had on display. At the high end, Peachtree Audio is also showing off its converter offerings, ranging from the small DAC•iT ($449) to the world-class Grand Integrated ($4295). All these DACs are capable of playing high-resolution 24/96 audio files, far better than what you can get from CD.

Speakers and headphones

Monster has its Clarity HD bookshelf speakers ($749) on display. You can also check out the Audioengine 5+ speakers mentioned above. Bang & Olufsen is at the show with its BeoSound 8 iPhone dock boombox and the portable BeoLit 12 AirPlay system.

Accessories

MicW has a nice calibrated cardoid mic for the iPhone and iPad you can use with a sound pressure level meter iOS app to EQ your room or concert hall. Studio Six Digital is showing AudioTools, its acoustical test and measurement app.

Blinq is demonstrating a universal remote app (and IR emitter) to control your whole setup and connect to a social program guide. Another remote is the VooMote Zapper, which combines an app with an IR blaster built into a case, coming soon to an Apple Store near you.

That’s my list of highlights for sound, picture and video fans keen on what’s interesting at Macworld | iWorld this year. Let us know if you spotted anything equally interesting.

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SDKs and services

Audible Magic is showing its new TViD content recognition engine which can identify TV shows, including live events or first-time broadcasts. It creates a way for developers to build a second-screen experience tailored to what their users are watching.

Heatma.ps UI Testing SDK allows you to integrate touch tracking in your app to collect aggregate data from beta testers and/or real users of your app. Results are sent back heatma.ps’ server so you can view the data as a heat map of how users are interacting with your software, including where exactly their fingers are tapping.

MLState is demonstrating its Opa programming language targeted at web and social app development. Nuance is at the show talking about its consumer apps, but you could hit the company up for info on its mobile developer program if you’re looking to integrate voice in your iOS  software.

Payment solutions

For vendors that sell digital goods direct to consumers, eSellerate is at the show representing its e-commerce platform. You would use this instead of the Mac App Store, either to save money over the 30-percent fee Apple charges or because your app is prohibited from the App Store sandbox for whatever reason.

Fastspring is also present, talking about its all-in-one e-commerce, merchandising and fulfillment solution, which makes getting your sales tools in order an easy task, so you can focus on zapping bugs and getting a product shipped.

Prototyping and rapid development

TapDesigner is a new tool for prototyping mobile apps. It uses a drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG interface to allow you to rapidly build visual representations of what your app will look like, complete with custom navigation and menu bar elements.

WidgetPress FormEntry is in the Mac OS X Zone, talking about its tool for creating forms-based apps for Mac and iOS. This could have potential applications in any number of industries; for example, a realtor could quickly deploy surveys for customers to help them identify exactly what kind of property they’re looking for.

Consulting services

Carr/Ferrell Attorneys are there to guide you with IP, licensing, contracts, and other legal needs, which are still a big concern with ongoing problems like the Lodsys saga. This is one of the thorniest aspects of software development, and ongoing legal disputes between the biggest companies involved could always potentially result in fallout for smaller players, too.

That’s my bite-sized overview of what iOS and Mac developers might find most interest at this year’s Macworld | iWorld conference. Chime in down in the comments if you saw some other interesting displays or vendors aimed at developer’s at the show.

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The new show has been recast as a celebration of the best the Apple community has to offer, drawing from music and the arts for inspiration as well as sharing tips and tricks. The iFanEvent, as it’s being called, goes beyond the usual media personalities presenting tech topics in lectures or panel discussions. The Midway will highlight music performances, interactive sessions, and galleries for visual arts and film. I got a small preview Wednesday, and a visit to the South Park Gallery and the Digital Art Gallery  is worth the time it takes to ride the escalator up to the second floor. There will also be a full schedule of music performances and live art creation, as well as a film festival screening on Friday evening.

In addition to the iFanEvent itself, the concurrent MacIT Conference continues the tradition of more advanced technical training for professionals and educators. All-day workshops took place Wednesday, and various sessions are scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I didn’t get a chance to visit all the workshops, but I did notice the Educator track presented by Computer-Using Educators, Inc. (CUE) was well attended compared to previous years, especially considering the Wednesday timing which would require teachers to arrange a sub in order to attend.

There was no Industry Showcase this year, but the Media Preview event yesterday highlighted a few interesting vendors, and the First Looks program brought together all the new product announcements in one place. Consigned to a few small folding tables in the lobby of Moscone West, I felt the First Looks program didn’t necessarily present the most attractive venue, but we hope to bring you details on some of the more interesting items in our ongoing coverage.

David Greenbaum and I will be roaming the show floor Thursday and Friday looking for all things new and interesting, in addition to meeting with various companies to get detailed looks at products to share with you over the next little while. If you’re at the show, be sure to stop and say hello if you see us on the floor and let us know what you liked. If you can’t make the show this year, let us know if there’s anything specific you’d like to hear about.

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The solution comes in three flavors: 100% Natural, Triple Strength (which also disinfects), and a deep cleaning gel. The bigger packages include a 240 mL bottle to keep at home or the office and a 60 mL bottle (small enough to get through TSA screening) to carry with you. They also include a cloth with a heavy nap good for picking up dust and dirt. The Deep Cleaning gel comes with a smaller, chamois-style cloth.

I started with the Triple Strength solution and cleaned up my screens with a couple spritzes. It features a non-drip formula that’s safe to spray directly on your screen, but old habits die hard, and I still sprayed the solution on to the cloth, wiped it on the screen, and then used the dry side to finish. The results were impressive, but nothing I wasn’t used to with other cleaners.

The real surprise was that after a day or two of use, there was a noticeable difference. I had far less dust on my MacBook Pro screen and far fewer fingerprints on my iPhone compared to usual. I definitely noticed that my iPhone was still looking great after two days. Sure enough, I went back to the packaging and found that the Antec cleaning solution is anti-static and fingerprint resistant. Color me impressed.

The 100% Natural solution has the same anti-static and fingerprint resistant qualities, but forgoes the chemical additives that add non-drip and disinfectant properties to the Triple Strength variety. Both types are available in a few different combo packages, some of which include wipes in individual travel packets.

I found all the above Antec cleaners at Newegg.com at a pretty good discount off retail too. So not only does this stuff work really nice and keep my screen clean for longer than with the competition’s products, it’s actually cheaper too. Love it.

Disclaimer: Antec provided the products for review.

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1. The App Store is here to stay

The iTunes App Store and the Mac App Store are a way of life now. As much as people might object to app sandboxing and other limitations of the Mac App Store, it’s not going anywhere in 2012. Adoption will only increase as publishers concede that the App Store is where the customers are. Oh, and managing volume purchases will still be awful a year from now, too.

2. Thunderbolt will still be confusing

Without a large number of accessories that use Thunderbolt, expect continued complaints that Apple hasn’t adopted USB 3.0. That might change in 2013, but 2012 will be the year that Apple continues to push Thunderbolt while everyone else wonders why.

3. iPad will soon revolutionize education

Soon. Very soon. But not this year. Sure, there might be announcements coming of e-textbook, rentals, or other features that will soon revolutionize the classroom, but Apple announcing is different from the market adopting. Always “soon.”

4. Full Screen will still be awkward

It’s supposed to be the future, but multiple displays with Full Screen apps doesn’t work right. And it still won’t later this year. This is a feature that will stick around for a while but will not get the attention to make it work well enough for normal people to use regularly.

5. Lion Server still won’t be a “real” server

Oh sure, it’s good for Directory Services, file sharing and a few other tasks, but it’s not a “real” server that has “real” hardware to run on. This won’t change one bit during 2012. “Real” sysadmins will use “real” servers and some people will still complain that Lion Server isn’t Red Hat Enterprise Linux (or whatever distro you prefer) that can run on rack-mount hardware. I think it’s useful in many situations, but I didn’t try to build a computing infrastructure around Mac OS X Server in any year and I sure won’t be doing it in 2012.

6. Text Editors will still be boring

Yes, text editors are extremely useful and critical to a large number of creative professionals for coding and designing web pages. They are also occasionally useful for editing text. But text editors are tools and rather boring ones at that. Despite the fancy names and incremented version numbers coming in 2012, don’t be fooled. Rather than trust the hype, find something that works and learn how to use it.

7. Printers will still suck, and be expensive

Have you tried buying a printer in the last couple of years? Ink cartridges that cost more than the printer? That get jammed with paper, or clogged with ink? That are impossible to configure correctly? You’d think someone would have figured this out by now. Maybe in the future, they will. But not in 2012.

8. Duplicate contacts

It’s awesome having all your contacts everywhere, synced with all your devices, the cloud and so on. It’s so good, maybe having 5 copies of every contact will be even better! As it turns out, having only one copy would be just awesome, thank you very much. Syncing contacts has been a problem for the last 20 years, why would anything change in 2012?

9. Congress will still try to kill the Internet

There was a pretty good backlash against SOPA and Protect IP, but there will just be new bills with new acronyms to try to destroy the Internet in 2012.

10. The MacBook Air is what you get, and you’ll like it

The Air is still the “future of notebooks” for Apple. Optical drives are dying out (in large part due to the online App Store). Get used to SSDs, longer battery life, and lighter weight. Hmm, maybe you will like this one.

11. iPhone will still generate boatloads of profits

Sure Android is surging or whatever, but no one will make any money off it, regardless of what Google executives say. Apple will continue to reap a generous share of the profits in the mobile industry.

12. We’ll still be waiting for a really good Android tablet

Still waiting.

What else are you expecting not to change this year?

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Alyssa & Hannah (iPhone 4)

They were excited about Siri and all the possibilities that come with talking to your iPhone to have it do things for you. But when I talked to these two early birds, they were most genuinely enthusiastic about the camera. Hannah was convinced that the better camera alone was worth the cost to upgrade from her 3GS. I suspect that many others are just like Hannah, and rely on the iPhone as their primary camera for taking snapshots of their lives. But just how much better is the new camera? While I’m sure that more thorough testing will come in over the following weeks, here’s a quick comparison of the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S.

I took these two pictures just before the store opened with the Colorado sunrise behind me.

Aspen Grove Apple Store (iPhone 4)

iPhone 4S Campers (iPhone 4)

The first thing you’ll notice when you first try the camera app is that it is faster. Not a lot faster, but enough to notice. Everything is just a little snappier. But the real treat is the actual image itself. The image below was taken about an hour after the above pictures outside the store. The early morning light is quite a bit better than the sunrise light, and you can click-through to see the detail in the new pics.

Aspen Grove Apple Store (iPhone 4S)

iPhone 4S Line (iPhone 4S)

The new camera sensor is a respectable 8 megapixels (up from 5MP in the iPhone 4) and video capture has graduated to 1080p (up from 720p). The new larger f/2.4 aperture lens makes an immediate difference as well. Low-light and indoor lighting performance is significantly improved. Below are two indoor shots with limited light coming through the closed blinds. The iPhone 4S shot has better exposure, even if the low-light still poses some difficulty for the camera.

Teddy Bear (iPhone 4)

Teddy Bear (iPhone 4S)

Outdoor lighting shows much more consistent exposure between the two models, but the improved resolution of the iPhone 4S is an obvious advantage.

This shot of the planter has shadows and some strong highlights. Both images were taken at the same time with the same light, but you can see that the iPhone 4S has improved shadow detail. The red push seems more subdued as well.

Planter (iPhone 4)

Panter (iPhone 4S)

This image of the pepper from my salsa garden was taken with the HDR setting in indirect light. Here the difference is less stark, but the increase in resolution is nice, especially if you wanted to crop the image down.

Pepper (iPhone 4)

Pepper (iPhone 4S)

Here’s some other outdoor shots to show off the differences. Pay particular attention to shadow detail and the red push in the marigold pictures. I believe the iPhone 4S pictures would be easy to pick out even without the captions.

Flower (iPhone 4)

Flower (iPhone 4S)

Marigold (iPhone 4)

Marigold (iPhone 4S)

Flower Bed (iPhone 4)

Flower Bed (iPhone 4S)

The iPhone 4S camera is a great upgrade for anyone, even those coming from an iPhone 4. The new f/2.4 lens makes both low-light and high-contrast exposure photos a bit better, and the higher resolution is great. I think Hannah will love using the iPhone 4S as her every day camera, as will anyone else that don’t carry a separate point-and-shoot. What are your thoughts on the image-taking abilities of the new iPhone 4S?

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Truth as used here has an inside technical meaning — the master or “truth” database in a distributed data system is the authoritative record for resolving conflicts. The master store in Apple’s existing Sync Services is the “truth database.” Here’s an image from Apple’s public documentation for Sync Services that illustrates the term.

In the existing Mac-centric sync model, the truth database is stored on the computer. Applications that want to interact with Sync Services don’t talk directly to the underlying database itself, but rather communicate through the Sync Engine, part of Mac OS X, which maintains the integrity, or truth, of the authoritative master data.

The other side to the “truth in the cloud” comment is that iCloud is more than just online document storage. Jobs made reference to this on Monday, saying:

Some people think the cloud is just a hard disk in the sky. We think it’s way more than that. iCloud is integrated with your apps, so everything happens automatically. It just works.

After a demonstration of iWork apps saving documents to the cloud, Jobs quickly added that iCloud Storage APIs would also include key value data. If Apple follows some of the existing conventions of Sync Services, developers would not interact directly with the master store, but would rely on system-level services, the APIs, to maintain the integrity of the cloud data. These system services will remove a tremendous burden from developers, making it much simple to integrate iOS apps with iCloud.

Syncing key-value pairs is also more flexible than syncing documents, and perfectly suited for several common uses. For example, to keep track of which levels are unlocked in a game like Angry Birds, the developer could update the key-value pair for each level independently from the others. In this scenario, the key might be the level id (“world-3-2″), and the value would be “locked” or “unlocked” as appropriate. It is simpler to fast sync just the one key-value pair that has changed instead of updating the entire settings file each time. This key-value pair approach also makes it much easier for developers to avoid situations where updating settings on one device would overwrite or erase all the settings on another device.

Some might be skeptical since Sync Services has suffered from a number of issues like mistaken duplication of contacts and calendar events. Jobs poked fun at Apple’s missteps with their previous cloud efforts when he said joked that users might ask “why should I believe them? They’re the ones that brought me MobileMe,” but he continued finished by admitting that while “it wasn’t [Apple's] finest hour,” the company “learned a lot.” Apple will have to put all of that learning to use to build a rock-solid online key-value store that can deal with billions of transactions coming from hundreds of millions of devices. That learning will be especially important when safe-guarding all that customer data in the key-value store.

Key-value stores have gained a lot of recent attention in web development circles because they offer a flexible, and fast, way to access small bits of data like user preferences. Solutions like MongoDB, Redis, Tokyo Cabinet, Memcache, Hadoop, MapReduce, Cassandra, Google’s BigTable , and Amazon’s Dynamo are all examples of web-friendly datastores that work with key-value pairs. Derrick Harris, over on our Structure channel, broke down how some of these technologies are being used to power the gear in Apple’s new data center, and highlighted a job listing which called for experience with key-value store technologies like Hadoop, Memcache and Cassandra.

iCloud is not just about online document storage, but a whole infrastructure for syncing data and preferences with an online key-value store — a new Sync Services built around the idea of keeping the truth database in the cloud instead of on a computer. The cloud is the new center of the Apple universe, in other words.

A ‘key’ difference (again, so sorry) between iCloud and other key-value stores is that Apple is focused on providing infrastructure for native iOS and Mac apps while others are working on platforms for web apps that run in the browser. Apple wants to make things “just work” for iOS apps without placing unnecessary burdens on developers as they incorporate iCloud services. This tension between open and fragmented and closed and integrated, which we’ve already seen in the Android and iPhone platforms, is being played out again here. But the fight is a good one for consumers, since it should lead to ever-better apps that test the limits of what we thought we could do with mobile devices.

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• Design. Well-designed apps are delightful, elegant, intuitive, engaging, exciting, compelling, and reliable.
• Innovation. Innovative apps are revolutionary, inspirational, unique, and do things in completely new and exciting ways.
• Technical excellence. Technically advanced apps have excellent performance and make extensive use of the latest Apple technologies to deliver innovative, platform differentiating, and advanced features.

The winners are chosen for Student, iPhone, iPad, and Mac categories from apps available for sale in the iTunes App Store and the Mac App Store (app links below are to the respective App Store). The 2011 ADA winners are:

Student

• Grades 2 by Tapity – a GPA calculator.
• Pennant by Vargatron – an interactive history of baseball.
• Pulse News by Alphonso Labs – an innovative and beautiful news reader.

iPhone

• Cut the Rope by chillingo – a physics-based puzzle game.
• Golfscape GPS Rangefinder by Shotzoom – an augmented reality rangefinder for 35,000+ golf courses.
• Infinity Blade by Chair Entertainment Group – a sword-fighting action game.

iPad

• Osmos for iPad by Hemisphere Games – a physics-based game of survival.
• Our Choice by Push Pop Press – an interactive book platform featuring Al Gore’s latest publication on the environment
• Djay by algoriddim – DJ software for your iPod library.

Mac

• Capo by SuperMegaUltraGroovy – a learning tool for musicians.
• Pixelmator by Pixelmator Team – an outstanding image editor.
• Anomaly Warzone Earth by 11 bit studios – a highly rated game with a “mixture of action and strategy in a tower offense formula.”

Congratulations to the winners! Anyone you think was overlooked this year? Let us know in the comments.

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What was your favorite announcement?

Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of Bare Bones Software Inc., which makes Yojimbo: The amount of user-facing work that’s going into Lion and iOS 5 is truly impressive, especially as it reflects an enormous amount of infrastructure work.

Gedeon Maheux, Principal / Designer at The Iconfactory, which makes Twitterific: We’re most excited about all of the potential in iOS 5, such as Apple’s new iCloud API. Hopefully synching Twitter timeline positions across multiple copies of Twitterrific will work with relatively little effort.

Ken Case, CEO of The Omni Group: I’m really looking forward to updating our document-based apps (OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle . . . ) to leverage iCloud’s document syncing.

David Frampton, founder of Majic Jungle Software, which makes Chopper and Chopper 2: AirPlay Mirroring. I wasn’t expecting that, as it seems a pretty amazing technical achievement. Not sure on the details yet, but it could be a big deal for gaming.

Layton Duncan, founder of Polar Bear Farm, which makes Air Forms: By far iCloud, specifically Photo Stream. Photos across multiple devices, iPhone, laptop and desktop have been a real pain point for a while. It’s nice to have something to now sync consistently and transparently across all my devices.

What were you not expecting to see?

Maheux: Personally I’m excited about iMessage as a potential replacement for the aging application iChat and the newly redesigned notification system in iOS.

Case: Reminders in iOS 5 looks good! Glad to see Apple providing it as important baseline functionality (and challenging us to take things further).

Siegel: When they announced iTunes music storage, my immediate question was, “But what about music that I *didn’t* buy from iTunes?” The answer to that comes as iTunes Match, which was a pleasant surprise for me.

What was the most overdue announcement?

Frampton: Fixing the notification system. It’s been pretty bad, so it’s great to see that they’ve made some major improvements.

Duncan: Absolutely the notifications overhaul. They have been terrible in iOS for a long time. Now it looks like they finally have a scalable solution.

What new feature is going to have the biggest long-term impact?

Duncan: To me it’s the iCloud document syncing. It’s a feature that in the future you’ll not necessarily notice day-to-day because it just happens, but won’t be able to live without.

Siegel: It’s really impossible to fully gauge the developer impact just yet, but these user-facing features are exciting developments, and they’re backed by a huge number of new APIs. As the week goes on I expect to have a better sense of how we can employ the internal developents to make better software.

Frampton: iCloud is a big deal. It takes a bunch of totally separate devices and unifies them, which I think will permanently change the way we view and use them.

Anything that worries you?

Frampton: Apple announced a number of new apps and features that totally obsolete many third-party apps. This has caught a number of developers off guard, and there is no guarantee they won’t obsolete other apps and business models in the future. In fact, they certainly will.

Duncan: There were some concerns with new features, specifically the Reminders app, which seems to directly compete with developers, with no real reason, given it’s a feature that doesn’t need to be deeply integrated into the OS. Secondly, the use of the volume button as a camera button, given the history of that feature in Tap Tap Tap’s Camera+ app [it was introduced to Camera+ as a hidden feature, which prompted Apple to pull the app from the App Store for many months].

Siegel: Nah. :-)

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1. Multi-touch gestures. As laptops with trackpads now account for nearly 75 percent of Apple computer sales, OS X Lion gives full consideration for multi-touch gestures. These gestures also help bring some UI conventions from iOS devices to the desktop OS.
2. Full-screen apps. While developers have always been able to create full-screen apps, it takes quite a bit of extra work to get it right. Apple has added specific features to Lion to make it easier for apps to go full-screen. This is another nod to the importance of the laptop market with smaller built-in screens.
3. Mission Control. Integrates the best of Exposé and Spaces and ties it to gestures to make it even easier to switch between apps. This type of quick switching is particularly important with full-screen apps.
4. App Store. The Mac App Store has been a great success. Apple is adding new features like in-app purchase for Mac apps and delta updates to reduce the size of downloads.
5. Launchpad. A new way to launch apps. My impression is that full-screen makes the dock less usable and Apple is experimenting with creating an easy way to use gestures to bring a list of apps up on screen.
6. Resume. Developers can now take advantage of system-level features in Lion to automatically save the current state of applications. Now when you relaunch the app, it will automatically resume exactly where you left off, with window positions, pallettes, documents, etc. exactly as it was.
7. Auto-save. We’ve all lost work at one moment or another because we forgot to save a document. Lion now brings auto-save to every application and integrates closely with the next feature…
8. Versions. Because apps are auto-saving documents frequently, Lion keeps track of all the previous versions of that document. You can browse old versions much like Time Machine for backups of older files.
9. AirDrop. A simple way to share files over a local-area network, Airdrop will automatically discover other Macs nearby and help you securely transfer files with your permission and confirmation from your colleague.
10. Mail. The new Mail app has been updated to use all these new features of Lion and work well in full-screen mode. There’s a new Conversation view that brings threaded email to the Mac and some new search magic to make it easier to find the message you are looking for.

I’m not sold on full-screen apps and the associated changes to Mission Control and Launchpad, but Resume, auto-save and Versions will make users’ lives much easier. What is your favorite new feature in OS X Lion?

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iOS Conferences

There are quite a few other conferences designed just for iPhone developers. While these other conferences don’t offer the same opportunity to interact directly with Apple engineers, they do provide great training, and the chance to share and learn from other developers. Tickets are still available for 360|iDev, a three day developer-focused conference. Upcoming sessions of other conferences are expected to be announced.

• 360|iDev coming up Sept. 11-14, 2011 in Denver.
• Mobile Connections last held April 17-21, 2011 in Las Vegas.
• iPhone / iPad DevCon East last held April 4-6, 2011 in Boston. Future event announcements expected soon.
• iPhone Developers Conference last held April 9-10 in Seattle. Program design led by Erica Sadun.

International

If you live outside the United States, there are some iPhone development conferences in Australia and Europe worth checking out.

• Swipe coming up Sept. 5-6, 2011 in Melbourne, Australia.
• Mobile World Congress 2012 coming up Feb. 27 to March 1, 2012 in Barcelona, Spain.
• NSConference UK last held March 21, 2011 in England. Future dates to be announced.

Mac Conferences

There are two great Mac IT and development conferences in the United States. Unfortunately, the dates overlap this year so you’ll have to pick one or the other (or catch a flight from LA to Denver on Nov. 4).

• MacTech Conference Nov. 2-4, 2011 in Los Angeles.
• 360|MacDev Nov. 4-5, 2011 in Denver.

Classes

If conferences aren’t your thing, there are two major classroom training providers in the United States. No word on iOS 5 specific classes yet, but I would expect offerings to come soon.

• Big Nerd Ranch
• Pragmatic Studio

Meetups

Local meetups are a great way to improve your skills, and network in the development community. CocoaHeads helps coordinate a number of meetups in the U.S. and abroad.

Online Forums

If you’d rather interact with people across your keyboard than face to face, you can find a great deal of help online.

• Apple Developer Forums
• Stack Overflow

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The wording on the banners suggests iCloud will be a subject of developer training, just like the OS X and iOS 5. There are some interesting possibilities for a system-level cloud service accessible to both Macs and iPhones, and some pitfalls as well. A big draw of cloud-based services for mobile devices is the possibility of syncing content and settings easily via an official API. The implementation, of course, isn’t without potential pitfalls.

For those who have both an iPhone and an iPad, it would be great to have access to Pages documents on both devices. Make some edits and save to the cloud on the iPhone, and then pick up the same document on your iPad and continue writing. It would also be nice to keep achievements and unlocked levels for a game in sync, so you don’t have to start over if you want to play on your iPad at home and on your iPhone while commuting. Access to a shared filesystem is required to make this happen.

But, wait! Can’t I access files on MobileMe from Pages now? Sure. The iWork apps for iPhone and iPad include support for accessing your MobileMe file storage via WebDAV. A number of apps have WebDAV support, but that’s the only way to access MobileMe files. There’s no system-wide approach or MobileMe SDK for developers to use with iOS. Right now, the SDK only supports access to local files stored on the device itself.

The filesystem on iOS devices today is “sandboxed,” so apps can only access their own files. Essentially each app gets its own little corner of the device storage to play in, but it can’t interfere with other apps and their files. One solution would be to just mirror that part of the filesystem up to iCloud. Imagine if cloud storage access were as simple as it is to allow iTunes file transfer access today. Replacing iTunes file transfer with a cloud solution would likely get developers excited, as it could make moving files between iOS devices much easier than having to resort to email or other clumsy solutions.

This approach has the benefit of being dead simple, but it creates the potential for conflicts. What does the app do if I’ve unlocked all the Classic courses for Super Stickman Golf on my iPhone, but I’ve been playing the Super courses on my iPad? I would love to merge the two settings files and unlock both sets of courses on both devices, but I’d be a tad unhappy to find that I got one and lost the other. Developers would have to manage these kinds of collisions, and Apple could probably help.

When we get into more complicated cases, like trying to share files between two different apps, it’s clear that we need a system-level solution to the problem, because it would be a nightmare for both developers and end-users if they were left to their own devices for resolving conflicts. Still, Apple provides access to shared storage from multiple apps right now via things like the on-board Photos library, so it should know a thing or two about directing traffic and regulating shared access.

Syncing settings and documents from the iPhone to iCloud opens up lots of interesting possibilities, but it also presents some real challenges due to the possibility of overwriting files or mismanaging merges. Apple is going to focus on the user experience first, and make sure that any such service works consistently across apps so that users understand what will happen with their data. That sounds like exactly the sort of thing that developers would want to hear about next week at WWDC.

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iCloud is rumored to be, among other things, a cloud-based music service that would let you stream songs, and perhaps movies or TV shows, from your collection to your iPhone over the Internet. Streaming requires buffering to avoid stuttering or pauses as you wait for content to arrive. A bigger buffer is required if you want to rewind and fast forward, or skip a chapter in a movie. While storage is somewhat limited on an iPhone (8 to 32 GB), a Time Capsule has a much larger drive — up to 2 TB. If the Time Capsule, which also acts as your Internet router, were to cache the content from iCloud, it would be like having your own Content Delivery Network (CDN) in your house to guarantee smooth streaming.

Having a local cache of content from iCloud would also make it easier to pause on one device and pick up the stream on another. Say you were listening to an album on your iPhone while working in the den. You could move to the kitchen to start making dinner, and push the stream to your Apple TV connected to the stereo in the next room. Or maybe you could push your movie streamed from the cloud from the small screen of an iOS device to your TV without skipping a beat. Ars Technica heard from a source that new AirPort hardware might run iOS, which would make this kind of thing even easier.

AirPlay would make a nice update to the AirPort Extreme as well. Adding an optical audio out to the router, like the one the Express has, wouldn’t be difficult. And while we’re on the subject of adding support for features, why not AirPrint? The current AirPort Express, Extreme and Time Capsule have USB ports to support wireless printing. Is it much of a stretch to imagine AirPrint-compatible printer sharing so that iOS devices could use any printer connected to an AirPort, even if that printer doesn’t directly support AirPrint itself?

I would love to see some updates to the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule. And while caching software updates would be useful, caching iCloud music and video and adding support for AirPlay and AirPrint sounds a lot sexier to me. The AirPort devices haven’t seen an update since 2009, and adding CDN capabilities would certainly make for a splashy refresh. What do you think?

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• The Case for Increased M&A in 2011: Actions and Outlooks
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Without going into too much history on the subject, what makes music copyright a bit unique when compared to other media is that the law recognizes two co-existent copyrights: the underlying musical composition, and the recorded performance. The law requires permission, usually in the form of a license or royalty fee, from both parties to sell a song for download, play it on the radio, play it in a bar or restaurant, and so on. Licensing is handled by publishers and record labels, and blanket licenses for certain uses are provided by performing rights organizations (PROs) like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SoundExchange and the Harry Fox Agency.

While certain uses, like “synchronization” rights to use an audio recording in a movie or on TV, or “master use” rights to put a recording on a compilation album require a specific agreement, a CD comes with an implicit license for the buyer to play the music for their own personal use. It does not allow public performance. However, the American music industry long ago recognized that it would be in their best interests to simplify licensing for certain public performance uses, like recording a song someone else wrote on your record, using a short sample on a hip-hop record, playing a CD in a bar or restaurant, or playing a song on the radio. The rates for these uses are set by congressional statute. These statutory licenses allow radio stations to play music without negotiating a specific license for each and every song with both the publisher and the record label.

In a twist of historical circumstances, U.S. copyright law treated radio airplay differently in that it required the payment of publishing royalties for the songwriter, but not performance royalties for the recording artist or their label. It was thought that this arrangement would be fair because radio airplay would help market the record and drive sales for the recording artist. Internet radio, which emerged in the mid-90s, challenged the status quo because it could lead to a future where all music would be streamed over the Internet, and only songwriters would get paid and recording artists would get nothing.

So for just over the last 15 years or so, the music industry has been trying to work out how to craft an arrangement that compensates everyone — writers, publishers, recording artists and record labels — in the face of changing technologies that demolish laws and contracts crafted in the days of AM radio. The current law requires non-interactive digital streaming services like satellite and Internet radio to pay both publishing and performance royalties, but traditional broadcasters like AM/FM radio still only pay the publisher. Interactive online services (like Rhapsody, Rdio, or Spotify where the user picks the songs) are not allowed to use statutory licenses, and have to negotiate their own deals with publishers and record labels.

For Apple, the issue is determining if their new cloud music service changes their role from a music retailer, to that of a broadcaster, or an interactive streaming service.  Should they have to pay a royalty each time that song is played or streamed over the Internet? Can they pay the statutory license fees, or do they have to negotiate with the labels?

Amazon has chosen not to reach an agreement with publishers and record labels. Google, rumored to have been rebuffed by the labels in their negotiations, is now in a similar position. They both argue that their services are simply cloud storage for digital downloads for which the consumer has already paid a one-time permanent license. By their argument, there is no difference between using a digital media player to access a file stored in the cloud, and accessing a file on a computer hard drive over your home network.

Apple is going straight to the publishers and the record labels to work out a deal that will allow them to offer the music service they want to provide at a cost that makes sense. As rumors describe it, Apple’s service would not be an interactive subscription to any music (such as Rhapsody or Rdio), but rather on-demand access to only music you’ve purchased.

One of the sticking points is reported to be the “scan and sync” feature to avoid unnecessarily uploading copies of songs from the user’s music library if Apple already has them on file. It worries record labels that Apple might scan an illegal copy of that song on the consumer’s computer that was never paid for, and then “sync” that song to provide access to a legal copy on Apple’s service. The rumored solution is that Apple is willing to pay some amount for every “synced” song, no matter if it was originally purchased on the iTunes store or not. Despite the licensing cost to Apple, it does save Apple from paying for the bandwidth usage for everyone to upload gigabytes of music, and it saves the cost of storage to keep 10 million copies of Lady Gaga’s latest single.

While it’s difficult to predict what will happen, it does seem likely that Amazon and Google have made Apple’s offer more attractive to the record labels. Even in the complicated world of music licensing, any royalty, even if smaller than the labels desire, is infinitely better than no royalty at all.

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It’s no coincidence that new iPods are usually introduced right around the time that the back-to-school promo ends. The promotion helps Apple move old inventory and ensures a large number of white earbuds on display at campuses in the fall.

But maybe an iPod (even an iPod touch) isn’t the marquee item to lure college students that it once was. A discount on an iPad might be a better option. Microsoft has come up with its own plan capture the hearts and minds of American college kids — a free Xbox 360 4GB with the purchase of a Windows 7 PC priced $699 or higher. This Xbox model usually sells for $199, making it an equivalent value with the Apple promotion.

But an iPad has a lot going for it as both an entertainment device and an educational tool. It works as a lightweight companion device to bring to class for taking notes, checking online references, or maybe even reading textbooks. It’s also quite a bit of fun, maybe even during class if you happen to get a math prof that talks to the board for 90 minutes twice a week like the one I had.

Taking $200 off the list price would be a strong enticement for many customers to walk out of the Apple Store with both a Mac and an iPad. It could only help Apple in the education market to send large numbers of kids to school with an iPad. It might be part of the pitch to get more textbook publishers to go digital.

An iPhone is another alternative, but I don’t see Apple doing that because of the cost of the device and carriers involved. The only other Apple device that makes sense with a back to school promotion is an Apple TV. The perfect companion product to a Mac with iTunes, the Apple TV would be a big hit in dorm rooms. You can watch movies and play music, and it even ties into some online services like Netflix, NBA League Pass, and MLB.tv. Add support for Hulu Plus, and a rumored Apple cloud-based music and video streaming service, and that would allow college kids to completely cut the cord on cable television. Now, doesn’t that sound like a great way to go back to school?

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One of the selling points of the original Apple Store was the red “hot line” that the Genius staff could use if they were stumped on a problem. After a time, that phone disappeared.  Turns out, Apple didn’t want customers tying up the bar trying to play stump the genius (a surprisingly amusing pastime). What they actually wanted was for the Genius bar to take care of problems on the spot, and delight the customer with excellent, attentive service.

Over and over, Apple has been willing to change things up, experiment, make adjustments, and even throw away things that don’t work. Here are some other examples of those changes, large and small:

• The Genius Bar originally didn’t have appointments. You just walked in, wrote your name down on a piece of paper, and you were given a pager to tell you when it was your turn. Apple migrated to an electronic waiting list and then implemented appointment times. After the iPhone, the service queue was split up into separate Mac and iPhone/iPod lines.
• The Genius Bar originally did all the product training in the store. Apple later rolled out ProCare with training sessions included, and then split training off from ProCare into One to One. Now One to One is only available for new Mac purchases, and group training has been emphasized.
• Theaters were installed in all stores for product demonstrations and education. Theaters remain in the flagship stores, but the floor space has been given over to the Genius Bar and Creative training areas in smaller stores.
• The Rhonda app on all of the display machines would turn the screen a certain color so that staff would be alerted to a customer waiting for help (Help Me Rhonda. Help, Help Me Rhonda!). This was later dropped.
• Stores were directed to get average repair turnaround times under 2 days. In order to meet the challenge, stores started to keep parts for quick repairs on hand so that they could get some done on the spot.
• The original store layout had several cash drawer stations around the store where customers would queue up to make purchases. EasyPay changed that so all credit card transactions could be handled on the floor. Cash drawers started to disappear and many stores only have one for the occasional check or cash payment. The EasyPay system migrated from a Windows CEapplication running on Symbol hardware to an iPod touch outfitted with a card swipe reader and bar code scanner.
• With the cash drawers gone, stores started posting greeters at the front to direct customers and introduce them to the way things worked. This position was formalized into a special Concierge position. Later the concierge would check you in for your Genius Bar or One to One appointment with an iPod touch or iPad app.
• Apple installed receipt printers under tables throughout the store which meant sales staff could stay closer to the customer. Staff can now request product to be delivered from the back room, so the customer can continue to ask questions or receive help.

After 10 years and billions of dollars in profits, it is easy to look back and think that Apple Retail was an inevitable success. But Apple has had its finger on the pulse of consumer desire for all that time, and the ability to identify changes in that pulse and adapt quickly is a quality that should help Apple continue to succeed in the coming decade as well.

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