Maccast 08.23.2012 - Show #412

Links

Opening

Opening Music

Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles

Mandaandthemarbles.com

Sponsor: Squaretrade

Look. Stuff happens. I saw a friend on twitter today who dropped his new iPhone in the toilet. Or say your the type of person like say, I don't know who, who may leave the iPhone and iPad on the top of their car and drive off.

squaretrade.com/maccast

The question is, will you now b eshelling out full boat for a new device, or do you want to be protected for the little "oops" moment we have in life.

If you got a SquareTrade warranty right, you don't have to worry because you're covered for these kinds of accidents.

A SquareTrade extended warranty covers you for drops and water damage including 'full immersion' which sometimes isn't covered by other plans

The coverage is also very affordable. Carriers offer coverage, but at $10/mo your looking at $240 by the end of your 2-year contract,

SquareTrade offers 2 years of coverage for just $124 and if you use the Maccast link and sign up now it's just $99.00

And if you have other devices you want coverage for like iPads, laptops, cameras, tvs, appliances SquareTrade has plans for those things too.

News

iPhone 5 First Impressions

Some first impressions and early reports on the iPhone 5

Look and feel

I love the look and feel os this iPhone

Feels like the size was made for you hand

Stretches the limits of my thumb range, but for sure you can use it one handed, just maybe not comfortably for an extended period.

Construction is unbelievable. Everything seems smooth and refined.

I've put an album up on the Maccast Facebook page

facebook.com/themaccast

LTE

LTE seems to be a case of location, location, location.

Also speed, at least on AT&T, seems to vary widely

My Speedtest.net score have ranged from around 6.00 Mbps down / 3.00 Mbps up up to 42.60 Mbps down/21.11 Mbps up. All in the same LTE "city", just in different places all within a few square miles of each other

Also at first I had not LTE at my house then today I suddenly had LTE, but a "moderate" version. 14 Mbps down and 9 Mbps up.

Still WAY better than my HSPA+ "4G" which averaged around 3 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up.

Scratches

"Scratchgate" as coined by iFixit who did some informal tests

I have a scratch on mine from just putting in my pocket accidentally with my keys one time.

The "chamfered" edge seems to be most susceptible, but the anodized back may also scratch.

Seems like the black coating (paint?) on the edge comes off too easily

Good news is some early drop tests I've seen make it seem like the device, while not looking pretty after, seems to survive with less chance of cracked glass.

Battery

Battery seems to run down pretty quickly

I've put it through 2 full cycles in 2 days which isn;t too bad, but seems to run down more when I'm not using it

Don't know if that a factor of the LTE running in the background for notifications, etc.

Also feels like the classic issue with a new device where the algorithm that displays the battery percentage is off. Seems to draw own quickly on the front end and then slow on the backend,

I lost 30% battery overnight, yet only lost 20% battery over the next 6 hours with use.

Camera

launches faster and takes shots about as fast as you can press the button.

Low light performance seems improved.

Earpods

I for sure like the fit better than the old earbids. Much more comfortable, but not necessarily better than form fitted earbuds.

Sounds is a lot fuller, but maybe too much bass.

I like the case although opening it and putting the earpods back in can be tricky

Verizon phone is unlocked GSM "world" phone.

A6 specs have been revealed

UBM TechInsights and Anandtech, and Chipworks have done their diffusion image and microscopic tricks and turned out the details

UBM TechInsights and Anandtech

3 GPU cores, assumed to be a PowerVR SGX 543MP3 running at 266MHz.

Dual general purpose ARM cores

Two 32-bit LPDDR2 memory channels

1 GB of 1066MHz DDR2 RAM

The A6 is a 1Ghz dual core custom Apple chip that is armv7s-compatible.

Chipworks

Confirmed the iSight is an Omnivision sensor and that Sony makes the 8MP front camera

Performance benchmarks seem to also show the A6 smoking the old A5s and Android phones

Sponsor: Smile

Text Expander 4

I couldn't run the show without it.

smilesoftware.com

Literally a time saver, they have a statistics window and I've saved typing over 650,000 characters or 27 hours of time.

I'll very often get asked the same questions or need to respond to various requests for tips and tricks.

heck I even added one snippet recently to keep track of the new craft breweries that are in town, so I can share that with other fans who come to visit.

Basically the second time I find myself typing the same content I make a snippet for it.

And they don't have to me impersonal. With fill-in forms and multiple options for variable content you can customize text at expansion.

Also with TextExpander Touch you can have your snippets on iOS also. Over 140 apps have TextExpander technology integrated into them.

Feedback, Comments and Commentary

Getting Podcasts back in Music

A few people have written in to ask how to fix Podcast Smart Playlists in iOS 6 now that the Podcast app replaces Podcasts in Music

Luckily there is a trick that will let you get Podcasts back in Music.

On your iOS device quit the Music and Podcast apps. Be sure to also double click the Home button, press and hold the icons, and close them from running in the background.

Return to the home screen, find the Podcast app, press and hold the icon until it jiggles, tap the "X" to delete the App from your device.

You will need to confirm the delete

Note, that this may also delete and data in the Podcast app.

Downloaded podcasts seem to be retained

Now relaunch the Music app and the Podcasts section should be back

The main downside to this trick is that you will not be able to download more episodes or stream directly from the Music app

Clicking "Get More Episodes", give you the Podcasts have moved message telling you to download the Podcast app.

You'll need to sync from iTunes on the Mac, but your Smart playlists should work again.

Virtual launch day interviews

Play interview with Ken

Play interview with Glenn

mactrast.com