All posts in Apple

Carefree musings on Apple TV

By On Thu, Nov 3rd, 2011 In Apple With No Comments Permanent Link to Carefree musings on Apple TVPermalink

While listening my favorite podcasts these days, quite a bit of them are discussing this quote from the Steve Jobs biography:

I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.

Mouth-watering, isn’t it? Given the fact what was done for phone and tablets, this is beyond interesting. John Gruber, Marco Arment and John Siracusa all shared how they see this working. As usual, I agree with bits from all of the stuff they said, but not all of it (and them do not agree on all counts). There’s also an oft-linked NY Times article on Siri as the main interface for this new TV.

Here’s what I believe will be main features of the future Apple TV business.

There will be a physical TV made by Apple. Probably offered in several typical sizes, with whatever screen technology they choose for it. IT will have integrated their current little black box with the same name, or (more likely) iPad internals. It will of course have new software that will support stuff I’ll mention in a bit.

It will use a new remote based on Bluetooth 4.0 + it will have integrated Siri support. Siri will be activated either from your existing iOS device (which will previously be connected over Bt4.0 with the TV) or through a button on the new remote. The new non-IR remote will allow you to manage it from anywhere in TV surrounding, not when facing it directly (as you need to do with IR remote).

No cable cards nor anything like it, only one (or maybe few) HDMI ports so you can plug-in your existing set-top box. They can’t have all the possible content from the get-go (although I’m sure they will strive to have lots of it) so they must support existing stuff somehow. Adding HDMI ports is the easiest way and TV software will allow you to switch to that port and then simply be a screen for whatever is there. HDMI can also be used to support gaming consoles and such, but I somehow don’t see Apple caring much about that.

Channels will become apps. As Gruber points out, some content producers are already doing this. The issue here is what to do with like 100 apps or who knows how many channels exists around the world, both actual TV stations or shows produced by popular web sites (like Engadget). Well, they already have a solution for this.

Apps will be inside a new special folder I’ll call TV stand which will work exactly like Newstand does now. But it will be enhanced (probably in iOS 6) so that app icons will be live. When you open the folder, it will change from static app icons to live previews of whatever is currently broadcasted on that particular app. They already have this on the Mac – live thumbnails in Exposé.
Further, on the TV it will take over entire screen and basically look like a grid of TVs. It will have infinite scroll to support any number of apps and you could easily check out all the stations, all the shows. They might even have two folders, one for live TV and another for periodicals (TV shows and such).

TV stand will feature subscriptions just like newsstand and this will deeply integrate with  your existing iTunes season passes and what not. If they go really crazy on this, they could do their own version of what the wonderful Plex app (and Boxee and Roku and…etc) is doing right now and offer full access to everything you have through iCloud. Watch your content (both your local and broadcasted) from any device, at any internet-enabled location.

Each of these channel apps will have full iOS API at their disposal and they could create interactive content beyond anything that was possible so far. Imagine viewers calling-in over face time, real-time version of CNN’s iReport (if they choose to do that) etc.

Air Play will allow full screen gaming, basically killing off whatever gaming consoles survive until then. You will use iPhone, iPod touch or iPad as controllers and play on the TV. Alone or with friends. New APIs will enable that. Some apps already offer it (using Bluetooth) – see this demo trailer for majicJungle’s wonderful Chopper 2.

I can dream more, but this is the essence. With this, “Apple will get into your den”. Remember that one? :)

iPad 2gen prediction

By On Tue, Aug 3rd, 2010 In Apple, Hardware With No Comments Permanent Link to iPad 2gen predictionPermalink

When Apple updated screen res of the iPhone 4 to 640×960 on the same 3.5″ (diagonal) form factor as previous iPhones, the magic Retina Display number turned out to be 326ppi (pixels per inch). The result is an awesome display, the best I have ever seen.

iPad on the other hand has 9.7″ (diagonal) with 1024×768 resolution, which gives 132ppi. John Siracusa said that next iPad will most likely have the same improvement in display rez, meaning it will have 2048×1536 – so the iOS4′ @2x API stuff work the same.
Granted, such resolution sounds ginormous – not even Apple’s latest 27″ monitor is big enough to design interfaces that big. But if that really happen…

…how big the iPad would physically needs to be?

iPad has 1.33x aspect ratio and 9.7″ diagonal display now. 2048x1536 and with 326ppi equals to about 9650in in one very long line, or divide again to get about 29.6in2. From there, the math is easy: 1.33x * x = 29.6, means that x is 4.71in and that physical screen size of the Retina Display iPad would be 4.71 x 6.28, or about 7.85″ diagonal.

Sounds quite possible, does it not?

iTunes 9 on Windows 2003 — the complete solution

By On Sun, Nov 1st, 2009 In Apple, Software I use With 5 Comments Permanent Link to iTunes 9 on Windows 2003 — the complete solutionPermalink

Some of the stuff here also apply to problems appearing during installation or use of iTunes 9 on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 2008. Meaning – do try them, it might help you solve the issues you’re having.

What does this solve?

If you have any of these issue, this article will most likely help you.

  1. You use Windows 2003 and iTunesSetup.exe refuses to run on it (it’s touting only XP or Vista/Windows 7 as supported OSes).
  2. At the end of the iTunes install, when dialog says “Starting services” it failes to start iPodService.exe with the following message: “Service ‘iPodService’ (iPodService) failed to start. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system service.”
  3. You have trouble starting iTunes.exe after install.
  4. You see dialog boxes telling iTunesHelper.exe failed to start.

My wife uses Windows 2003 as development machine and I had all of these happening.

iTunes refuses to install due to OS mismatch

Apple is — like many other companies do in the last year or two — touting iTunes 9 as compatible only with Windows XP and Vista or Windows 7. This is safe net for them. If you run Windows 2003, this is just about the same thing as XP, regarding ordinary software.

Thus, solution here is to kill the OS-based launch conditions, which good people at WebKeyDesign have already explained how to do. The solution goes like this:

  1. Unpack iTunesSetup.exe so you have all the various .msi files inside it copied to some folder. Use Winzip, Total Commander or any other de-archiver to open iTunesSetup.exe and extract the files
  2. Download free tool called InstED and start it
  3. Drag all .msi files into InstED
  4. For each of them, find the LaunchCondition key in the left panel and then in the right-panel look for ((VersionNT=501 And ServicePackLevel>=2) OR VersionNT>501) and delete it. Then save the file.
InstEd - removing launch conditions

InstEd — removing launch conditions

QuickTime has two conditions, remove both

QuickTime has two conditions, remove both

Once you’re done with all of them, install them, one by one. Start with AppleApplicationSupport, then AppleMobileDeviceSupport and then continue until iTunes as the last. Ignore SetupAdmin.exe

iPodService.exe failed to start

At the end of iTunes installation, it will try to start iPodService.exe. This fails and manifests in a variety of ways. There’s an amazing number of “solutions” on the net, but remarkably none has pinpointed the actual cause.

It’s Data Execution Prevention feature of the Windows — it will kill the process as soon as it tries to run. DEP is made to prevent malicious software using private or undocumented API or doing any sort of suspected malicious activity. iPodService.exe falls into this trap according to DEP, so we need to tell DEP to let it go as exception to the rule.
Here’s how:

  1. Right-click My computer, choose Properties
  2. Go to Advanced tab, click on Settings under Performance, then onto the DEP tab
  3. Click Add, go to Program Files\iPod\bin and choose iPodService.exe
  4. Retry/continue the iTunes installation and it will finish it up very quickly.
Data Execution Prevention is what kills iPodService.exe

Data Execution Prevention is what kills iPodService.exe

iTunes.exe or iTunesHelper.exe don’t start

You click, they appear to start but then fail. The reason is the same as above: DEP. Add both .exe files (they are in Program Files\iTunes folder) to the DEP exception window and they will start just fine afterwards.

To expand this a bit — every time you have a known, valid software failing to start, always add them to DEP and see if they work. Most likely they would.

How to find crash logs for iPhone applications on Mac, Vista and XP

By On Sat, Aug 8th, 2009 In Apple, iosdev With 24 Comments Permanent Link to How to find crash logs for iPhone applications on Mac, Vista and XPPermalink

iTunesConnect service — a web site that iPhone developers use to manage their published applications — has a separate area that will list all the synced crash reports from the application users.

However, not all of the crashes appear there, or are slow to appear. Thus, if you have a desperate problem with someone’s application, it’s a good idea to pick these up and send them to a developer.

Here’s how, in three major operations systems: Mac OS X, Windows Vista / Windows 7 and for Windows XP.

Please note: this is a personal website, NOT a support resource for various large games and app companies that send their customers here. Use this page to find the crash logs but then contact them, not me. Please!

iTunes sync

Application crash logs are transfered to your computer each time you do a sync with the device, in the iTunes. Thus, first step is to sync with iTunes:

Sync the iPhone or iPod Touch through iTunes

Sync the iPhone or iPod Touch through iTunes

Mac OS X

On the Mac, crash logs are kept at:

~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<DEVICE_NAME>

where ~ is your Home folder. Here’s an example:

Crash logs on the Mac OS X. Device name is "iPhone AV" here

Crash logs on the Mac OS X. Device name is “iPhone AV” here

There’s the .crash file and .plist file – archive them both and send to a developer. Actually, pick all the files you find there that have the name of the problematic application.

Windows Vista / Windows 7

Files are located here:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<DEVICE_NAME>

AppData folder is hidden by default, so here’s how to access it. Get into your personal folder:

User folder, with Vista folder path

User folder, with Vista folder path

Now click on the folder (address) bar which will change the display into Windows folder path and add \AppData to it, then click Enter.

When clicked, the address bar changes into regular Windows folder path

When clicked, the address bar changes into regular Windows folder path

This will then show the folder contents. From here, you can follow the path above until you get to the crash logs.

For Windows 7, follow the same procedure.

Windows XP

Location is here:

C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter/<DEVICE_NAME>

<USERNAME> is your login username. Application Data folder is usually hidden by default, so you need to reveal it in the same way as in Vista — by typing in and pressing Enter.

And that’s it. Easy :) – rest is for developer to sweat it.

Apple should ditch DVD drive in their notebooks

By On Wed, Jul 29th, 2009 In Apple, Hardware With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Apple should ditch DVD drive in their notebooksPermalink

I wrote about my disappointment due to Apple’s removal of ExpressCard/34 slot in the last generation of its Macbooks. I can’t imagine this is due to cost issues — it’s probably the space constraint since they wanted to add SD card slot.

Here’s a proposal: remove the DVD drive entirely. I don’t know about you, but I have used that thing less than 10 times in last 2 years of owning Macbook Pro. It mostly collected dust and stopped working reliably rather quickly due to that same dust; last few times when I wanted to do anything with it, it spent ages trying to recognize the disk. Or even failed to read it — even Leopard original install disk, which is in pristine condition. Or last night, when it failed to write an empty DVD, which I then burned with no issues on my wife’s Sony VAIO drive.
It’s by far the worst part of the otherwise great notebook.

It’s useless outdated thing, ripe for replacement. It would free up huge space in the notebook for many, much more useful things like:

  • integrated SIM card slot
  • ExpressCard/34 or even /54 slot
  • one or two eSATA connectors
  • at least one more USB port

For anyone that needs the drive, they already sell external SuperDrive for Macbook Air and there’s plenty of 3rd party external packages.

What’s not to like? Eh, Apple, how about that?

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