Apple has been teasing us for a long time with IOS5 and they’re just about to release it, but if you’re like me, you want to get your hands on it early. Everyone wants to try the latest and greatest first, but there’s another advantage to diving in early. If you’ve ever tried to update your IOS on the release day, you’ve surely realized the painful wait for the software to download as millions of other people try at the same time. Grabbing this early release should eliminate that problem as well. Warning: Back up before you begin! This kind of update can be riddled with unexpected problems, so be prepared for anything.
Here’s all you have to do to update early:
(edit 1: I added a new first step, to first install iTunes 10.5 Beta 7 or higher) (edit 2: Plug directly into the computer – don’t use a USB extension cable as this can slow the backup/restore down a LOT) (edit 3: Want the official release now? Download the latest iPhone ISPW and repeat steps 2 and then 5-7 below – 8 id needed)
4. Extract the file you downloaded. I suggest using 7Zip if you’re on a PC. Find it at Download.com
5. Hold down SHIFT (or “Option” on a MAC) and click “Restore” in iTunes
6. A file selection box should open up. Choose the ISPW file that you extracted from the DMG file you downloaded.
7. iTunes will wipe your device and install IOS5. That’s OK.
8. After the install, it should ask if you want to restore from a backup. Say YES and choose your backup from Step 1.
The Mac App Store launched today and my first thought was how awesome it is for developers, but then I started thinking about what it means for software in general.
On the surface, the Mac App Store is really just an extension of Apple’s existing App Store for their iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices. While that may sound like no big deal, there’s a reason the image above (from the Apple site) is exploding with excitement and had a file name that included the word “hero” (no joke). In one move, Apple has both consumers and software developers excited again and may have changed the way we deal with software from now on.
What It Means For Consumers
Consumers now have a single place to find, view, rate, and purchase software for their Macs. While I’m still a PC guy, I fell in love with the App Store for my iPhone. I have had several Windows Mobile phones and finding and installing software was always more expensive and cumbersome at best. Moving to the iPhone I found myself with more software (apps) than I could handle and the best part is that the competition brings the bar way down for pricing. I suspect we’ll see the same with the Mac App Store. With titles like Turbo.264 HD and iMovie 11 in the App store, competition will surely bring down prices for full fledged apps as well. Even those outside of the app store will need to remain competitive to stay in the game. Maybe we’ll see some of the $400 apps come down in price for the rest of us.
What does it mean for those of us using Windows? Hopefully, like the iPhone did for Android, this will nudge a PC App Store into the works. There’s already things like Download.com and there’s Adobe Air, but there’s no competitive one-stop shop for Windows software and I think it’s only a matter of time. Adobe, in particular, is in a good position to strike. They have a good platform with Air and as more people use it, a marketplace like Apples App Store makes a lot of sense. If you build it (and it’s done right), they will come.
What It Means For Developers
The Mac App Store can be a blessing for small developers and a bit of a curse for the big ones. As mentioned before, this is sure to drive more competitive pricing for Mac software. It will also force more developers to think outside the box, add more features, respond to requests, etc. The competitive marketplace will really keep developers on their toes. But that’s a good thing, too. Software that might otherwise go unnoticed will now have an instant audience and when Apple features an app, it’s like the Oprah effect, driving sales through the roof. Mac Apps that work well and offer all the features people want at a competitive price will now need a much smaller advertising budget. The people will find them and the cream will rise to the top, especially if it’s an addictive game for under five bucks.
What It Means For The Software Industry
This is the part I’m not really sure of yet, but I have some predictions and some fears. One thing I don’t want to see is Apple turning their Mac computers into giant iPhones. They did this with the iPad, restricting installs to those accomplished through the App Store, and it’s OK for what the iPad is. A Macintosh computer, on the other hand, needs to keep its freedom. I envision Apple trying to lock Macs down to only Apps from the Mac App Store and that would be a huge mistake. Know your limits, Mr. Jobs.
As for the industry as a whole, I think it could use a push in this direction. A centralized marketplace that becomes THE place for everyone to turn for software (Mac AND PC) will bring with it the competitive advantages mentioned above. Again, I wouldn’t want it to be the only place to get software, but it would be my first stop and a nice option.
On my PC I’m running the latest version of iTunes and it offers no Mac Apps. If you’re on a Mac and have installed anything from the new Mac App Store, I’d love to know your opinions and experience in the comments below.
I hate it when I see s price for something I’ve decided I’m going to buy and then when I get to the store, it’s not the same price. This was the case last night as my wife and I arrived at our local Best Buy store to purchase an iPod touch for her. But we found a way to save the money and get her iPod touch without any arguments, threats, hassles, or even coupons. Right after paying, I told her I really should share this with my readers in hopes that some of you can save a few bucks.
Buying Online Is Cheaper
My wife had poked around looking at prices and found that Best Buy had a decent price ($354.99) on the 64GB iPod Touch (3rd Generation) she wanted. She called me up and we agreed to head over there before dinner. After work, I picked her up and we went to the Best Buy to find that they had her iPod, but in the store, it was the same price as at the Apple store and other retailers. At $399.99, it was $45 more than we expected. While that’s not going to break the bank, I’m not eager to throw away $45. So I pulled out my iPhone, loaded up the Best Buy web site, and found the same product in the online store for the price she saw earlier in the day. Then I noticed the “Online only price” in red letters near the price. Although I found a way around that at that moment, it wasn’t until today that I noticed that the product listing on the FULL version of the site did not have this “online only price” notice like the mobile version of the site, which seems a little tricky to me, but is likely just a mistake.
(Click either image below to see the full size)
Full Site
Mobile Site
How We Saved Money
Not one to just give up, I asked the employee working the MP3 player section if we could just buy online and then use the in-store pick up option. As I was showing him the price online on my iPhone, he pointed out the “online only” notice and said that he was pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to but we could check with customer service. Of course, we checked with customer service and they said we could. At my request, she was nice enough to check inventory and let us know there were plenty in the store to buy, so we bought one using my iPhone. There’s a 45 minute wait for the order to be completed and brought to the pickup area, so we went to dinner and came back to complete a purchase, having saved the money we had hoped to save.
Knowing what we now know, we would have placed the order from a computer at home just because it’s faster and easier to fill out all the information, but otherwise, it was a pretty painless experience and we never even had to try and convince anyone we should get the online price or have any uncomfortable discussions about why the price is different. And really, I understand the reasoning but was pleased to find a way to have my cake and eat it, too.
What’s The Lesson Here?
Although this is specific to our scenario at Best Buy with this product, the lesson to be learned extends to any consumer activity and could be applied to car purchases easily. Don’t be afraid to look for ways to get the price you want. There’s no reason to not look at your purchase from every angle, compare prices, and ask questions. You never know when it’ll save you a few bucks.
I love to travel… I don’t get to head out of town often, but when I do, I need my technology. Being away from my computer for more than a few hours gets me a little twitchy, so road trips have traditionally been hard to deal with. With the iPhone and the almost unmanageable list of applications to choose from, things have gotten much better. I just got back from a road trip from Phoenix, AZ to Long Beach, CA, where Michelle and I stayed on the Queen Mary for an extended party, and my iPhone helped a lot when it came to relaxing and getting things done. Here’s a list of ten must-have iPhone applications for your road trip.
Google Maps
One of the original built-in applications in the iPhone’s OS is the Google Maps app. With it, you can quickly search for your destination and map your route to get there. With your trip all mapped out, you can relax and just check in once in a while for any freeway changes or other details. Of course I’m still waiting for Google to give us turn-by-turn directions on the iPhone for free (yes, I AM that spoiled by Google), but there’s a few (not free) apps out there to try as well. I use Google because it’s incredibly simple and I can jump right to street view to see what the building I’m looking for looks like.
Pandora
My favorite source for streaming music on the web is also my favorite source on my iPhone. What I didn’t know was how useful it could really be on a road trip. I intended to make a note of where in the desert it stopped working, but it just kept working the whole time. Other than a couple times cutting out for about 30 seconds, Pandora streamed brilliantly over AT&T’s 3G network the entire drive. Now if AT&T could just get my phone to reliably make phone calls where I need it to…
Email
Another standard app on most smart phones is an email application and the iPhone has a pretty complete email program and it handles multiple accounts. The thing that I used to hate is coming back home to find thousands of emails to go through. This weekend, I was able to keep up with my two important email accounts and respond to people in a timely manner while removing all the spam from my server to only sync valuable emails when I get home.
TweetDeck
While I tried to enjoy my vacation more than Twitter, I still have thoughts and photos I want to share while out of town. Vacations also offer lots of fun things to tweet about. I’ve tried a few of the top Twitter iPhone apps, but this one is my favorite. Just waiting in line for tickets to the aquarium, I was able to check for new tweets, mentions, and DMs and reply to a couple in just a couple minutes. Then I globally marked the rest as “read”. Easy.
Weather
It’s always important to know the weather where you’re going, and if you’re on a long road trip, this can be tricky. When we drove to Detroit and back last summer, we passed through several states and the weather app was very useful to plan out our wardrobe as well as touristy events.
Safari
Despite the completely unexplainable fact that I still can’t view flash in a web site in Safari on my iPhone, it’s still a great browser. It’s pretty fast and renders very nicely. Best of all, it’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to a real web browsing experience on a phone (except sites with flash). Wireless access in many hotels will run you about ten bucks a day and in the Queen Mary, it didn’t matter because I got almost no wifi signal in my room. Browsing the web over 3G in my room was a huge convenience on many occasions.
Gazette
I read a lot of blogs. I try to stay on top of industry news and events and still read blogs of colleagues and influential bloggers. I could lock down an hour in my room to do this on the laptop, but then I wouldn’t be vacationing, would I? Instead, I prefer to skim my preferred feeds in the frequent spare moments when I’m waiting for Michelle to get ready, the elevator is taking forever, or, dare I say it… the bathroom. Catching up in these otherwise wasted spare minutes leaves that hour free for vacationing.
Camera
I have a digital camera and it takes better pictures than my iPhone, but it also runs on AA batteries, is inconvenient to tote around, and lacks the luxury of instant sharing. With the iPhone’s camera, I can snap off a shot any time and I can take thousands before I run out of space. There’s tons of ways to share my photos, from the Facebook or MySpace apps to Twitter apps to Flickr apps like the one mentioned below. Additionally, with the 3G S, I was able to shoot video, which I found myself doing a lot more on this trip.
FlickIt
One of the apps I use the most, vacationing or not, is FlickIt. It just uploads your photos right to your Flickr account. You can add detailed information and tags to each photo, but I usually just do that later from a PC. The only thing missing is the ability to upload videos to my Flickr account. Then it would be perfect.
WiFiTrak
WiFi is almost always a better option than 3G in terms of speed, but when you travel, you often have to wait until you’re at the hotel or near a hot spot and even then, it will usually cost enough to make you grimace a bit. One way around this is to leech off someone else’s WiFi. Just fire up this app and find a suitable (and open) connection and use it. As seen here, you won’t always find an open router, but when one is nearby it helps to have a fast way of knowing and connecting to it.
Bonus : RDP
What if that piece of information, email, phone number, etc is only available to you from your home or office computer? This happened to me over the weekend. I can’t think of a better test case. Servers were about to be moved and I needed quick access to some IP addresses that were in a list only on my computer at the office. I was on the beach with no other electronics than my phone, but I opened the RDP app and connected to my computer at the office, got the information I needed, and went back to enjoying the beach. The alternative would have been to catch a cab, get back to the hotel, fire up the laptop and pay for the WiFi access. I have only needed this app twice and it could use a little bit of tweaking, but both times it was a life saver.
