Mystery App for iLife: iPad MediaBook Builder

Rumors have been circulating: The new 64-bit iLife ‘11 will ship with a “Mystery App” - and without iDVD.   Could these two rumored details be related?

Here’s what I expect:  An iLife application for creating rich iPad “MediaBooks” - virtual photobook presentations you swipe your way through.  A page contains some combination of photos, videos, maps, and text.  Music tracks are assigned to a range of pages.  The layout might be very similar to the books you create and purchase as printed copies through iPhoto.  But they’re multimedia, instant and free. Click the photo above for an ultracrude-mockup.

The format would replace what many people would have done with iDVD.  Until now, iDVD has been the way to distribute and present (minimally) interactive content.  But DVD menus aren’t the most inviting interface.  Given a choice between navigating a DVD or flicking through pages on an iPad which do you think Steve Jobs would pick?

The flipbook model better reflects Apple’s direction.  Does Jobs want you gathering people around the TV to watch a DVD, or would he prefer passing an iPad around - immersing people in a mediabook of your summer?  The same gestures used in the iPad’s native photo app are a crowd-pleaser - pinching and expanding a virtual pile of photos. Expand a video to play full screen. View included maps in the Maps application. It’s an application that sells iPads.

Throw in some slick page turn animations and the people still using iDVD will forget about it.  Best of all - it’s a reason for iPad-owning Windows users to consider a Mac.

Don’t Get Investment Advice From Paul Thurrott

Tom Merritt and Windows expert Paul Thurrott were talking on Windows Weekly about the last time MSFT split.  Paul Thurrott said it’s split “at least once in the last twelve months.”   Actually, the last split was February, 2003.

From the July 30 episode of Windows Weekly:

Tom Merritt: When’s the last time they (MSFT) split?

Paul Thurrott:

“Actually they do split the stock fairly regularly.  In fact, I want to say they’ve done it at least once in the last twelve months.  They are pretty good about that kind of stuff……And I think that, you know, I think they have to be, just to retain whatever investors they have and so forth.  But yeah, the stock price is not a strength of Microsoft.”

I love listening to Thurrott’s show.  He won’t let you bash Microsoft but it’s ok if he does.  He likes Apple products but has a tough time admitting it.  The regular host, Leo Laporte, often brings up Apple and you can feel Paul’s frustration build.  If you haven’t listened to any of Leo Laporte’s podcasts you should.  He gets great guests and doesn’t let discussions run off the rails.

Microsoft’s iPad Competitor

Ballmer discussing Microsoft’s lack of product in the iPad category reminded me of an HBO film called The Pentagon Wars (YTube link).  The plot covers the misguided development of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.  Here’s a brief excerpt from wikipedia:

Originally developed as an armored personnel carrier by Colonel Robert L. Smith (Schiff), the Bradley, after being subjected to the changing (and often conflicting) demands of a panel of armchair generals, is transformed into a hybrid of a troop carrier, a scout vehicle, and an anti-tank weapon platform. To make room for the weaponry, its complement of troops is reduced from eleven to six men; and despite its firepower, it has to be made of lightweight aluminum to serve as a scout vehicle. In the incredulous summation of Burton and his assistant, Sgt. Fanning (Viola Davis), the finished Bradley is “a troop transport that can’t carry troops, a reconnaissance vehicle that’s too conspicuous to do reconnaissance, and a quasi-tank that has less armor than a snowblower, but carries enough ammo to take out half of D.C.”

By the time General Partridge is put in charge of the project, the Bradley has been in development for seventeen years, at a cost of $14 billion.

Tablets running full Windows had their chance.

AT&T Takes Care of Charlotte, Again

CHARLOTTE, NC - For the third time in the last year Charlotte, NC is getting in early on AT&T rollouts. This time Charlotte will be the second trial city for a Wifi Hotzone, provided free by the wireless giant. In past months North Carolina was the only state included in the initial rollout of AT&T’s Microcell product. And Charlotte was one of six cities promised an early deployment of HSPA 7.2 at the end of 2009. The first Wifi Hotzone was deployed to New York City.

Aside from the weak 3G signal in this area it’s hard to justify the site selection. The heart of Charlotte is a couple blocks up, running between College Street and Church Street. That’s where the banks are and the majority of the office space. Entertainment, shopping, residential - it’s just not present in the deployment area. Which leaves the two AT&T buildings that anchor the site as somehow being intrinsic to the selection.

Photos taken by Murphy Mac in December of 2009 show two AT&T buildings that anchor the exact area AT&T plans to serve with their new initiative. One photo was taken in front of a sizeable AT&T office building located only four blocks from another AT&T building with numerous antenna arrays on the roof. But only EDGE connectivity is available at the location.

The area to be covered includes the new NASCAR Hall of Fame at one end, next to the large AT&T office building. The zone continues along Brevard Street ending near East Trade Steet, close to the other AT&T building previously mentioned.

The Hotzone coverage will also include parts of the LYNX light rail system, although it’s not clear if that’s only in the immediate area described or a larger portion of the line.

AT&T likely chose this area for its weak 3G signal. While the convention center and the NASCAR Hall of Fame are located in the zone there isn’t a great deal of pedestrian activity. The service is not targeted at indoor use and other parts of the city typically have much higher concentrations of outdoor gatherings.

The next Hotzone could be coming to Chicago according to various reports.

iPhone GPS Abroad

Worried about iPhone international roaming charges while traveling abroad, but you want to use the phone’s GPS? If “abroad” means Canada or the US you can use MotionX maps. Also - information on using the iPhone GPS without incurring data charges.

I’ve had lots of people ask me about using their iPhone when traveling abroad. Specifically, they want to know if the GPS will work without the SIM card installed (yes) or while in Airplane Mode (no).

MotionX GPS updated their iPhone app a while back with an extremely useful feature: The ability to preload a map cache for selected geographic areas. You can also select a range of zoom levels you wish to cache. The interface is as simple as dragging a circle around the area to be cached. You can also drag an oval shape if your travels are more linear-inclined.

Before the update I preloaded map tiles into MotionX GPS by dragging maps around an area of interest in advance of my travels. That wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t have to repeat the procedure for every zoom level you might want to view while offline. Omissions were inevitable.

Of course as you select closer and closer zoom levels there will be far more tiles to download. The app lets you know how many megabytes you’re downloading and a progress bar lets you know when the cache has been built. You can also delete a cache when you don’t need it anymore.

Cached maps improve performance while online as well, so maybe you’d download your home town. The maps will load faster when they’re already on your iPhone. Note that MotionX GPS works with Google and Bing map tiles but the preload cache feature only works with MotionX’s own maps. The MotionX maps have been fine for Murphy.

Your phone has a button to turn off data roaming, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t use the iPhone for voice or data. Instead of using Airplane Mode while in Toronto I removed my sim card to ensure I wouldn’t be charged international data rates. Airplane Mode turns off the GPS receiver. My hotel wifi connection gave the GPS enough information to get a fast fix on my location and from then on the GPS worked just fine. Without a cellular or indexed wifi connection it could take a very long time for the iPhone GPS to report its location.
Note: Turning on Airplane Mode turns off wifi too, but you can manually turn wifi back on while in Airplane Mode.

MotionX GPS isn’t primarily designed for tourists or finding restaurants. But to find your way around the streets in an unfamiliar city it’s more than adequate. The application is built for biking, hiking, running, etc. But the cache and other features make it useful in many situations. For $2.99 MotionX GPS is easily one of the best paid apps Murphy has purchased.

MotionX GPS ($2.99) has frequently been updated with useful new functionality since I purchased it. They also make a turn-by-turn direction product called Drive that Murphy hasn’t tried yet.

More on MotionX GPS:
Loading Google Directions into MotionX GPS
Intro to MotionX GPS