By Gilbert Falso :: 10:54 AM
Apple has announced that CEO Steve Jobs will lead the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6. It is expected that during the address, Apple will unveil its next generation of software – Lion, the 8th major release of Mac OS X.
The company will also announce iOS 5, the next version of its mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. It is doubtful that a new iPhone will be offered at this event, as has been the trend in previous years. Industry speculation points to late September as the date for that unveiling.
Among one of the most awaited announcements is that of the new iCloud range of services. This new offering will allow subscribers stream songs and albums directly to Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, iPod touch devices and Apple TV. Last week, BusinessWeek wrote the following about iCloud, “Armed with licenses from the music labels and publishers, Apple will be able to scan customers’ digital music libraries in iTunes and quickly mirror their collections on its own servers, say three people briefed on the talks. If the sound quality of a particular song on a user’s hard drive isn’t good enough, Apple will be able to replace it with a higher-quality version. Users of the service will then be able to stream, whenever they want, their songs and albums directly to PCs, iPhones, iPads, and perhaps one day even cars.”
Jobs’ appearance was not guaranteed at this event, as he went on his third medical leave in January. He is a survivor of pancreatic cancer.
By Gilbert Falso :: 2:16 AM
If you want to share a photo on Twitter, you need to host it somewhere else first. The options are plentiful – Twitpic, yFrog, Flickr, Instagram, etc. – but the process to upload and link the photos from Twitter clients is not always seamless. Twitter hopes to change this by offering its own photosharing service, to be announced later this week.
Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo is set to make a statement regarding the service at AllThingsD’s D9 conference on Wednesday. The news was first broken on Monday afternoon by TechCrunch.
This is not a surprising turn of events, given statements earlier this year where Twitter told its developer network not to work on clients that mirrored the general features that Twitter already provided. Also, Twitter’s recent purchase of the TweetDeck platform shows that the company is trying to get a hold on, and standardize, the Twitter user experience. Bringing photosharing into the fold will only strengthen this position.
The one elephant in the room yet to be addressed, however, is the right of users to control how their images are used once they have been uploaded to the new service. The photosharing site TwitPic recently came under fire for changing their Terms of Service earlier this month, allowing sales of user images to third-parties.
By John Rossi :: 7:08 AM
Calling all Parrotheads! Margaritaville Online, described as an “escape to a tropical paradise inspired by the lifestyle of singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett,” is coming to Facebook and iOS devices later this year.
Details are still spotty at this point, but the creators say that a Margaritaville state of mind is inherently social, and so Buffet fans will be able to connect and party in an immersive 3D paradise. In addition, the game will allow users to interact with characters from Buffett’s novels and songs, create their own island resorts, form bands and play games. They will also be able to listen to Buffett’s musical catalog.
The game is targeted toward Facebook’s Farmville audience, which currently numbers over 45 million, as well as fans of Buffett’s music.
By John Rossi :: 11:55 PM
According to a recent study, led by led by Thomas V. Pollet of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, an individual’s success, socially, in a virtual setting doesn’t appear to carry into the real world.
117 people, aged 18 to 63 were asked questions about the amount of time they spent on instant messaging and social networking sites, and the number and closeness of relationships they had overall.
The study revealed that spending a lot of time online was not linked to having a larger number of friends offline. In addition, the relationships of people who socialized more online weren’t any closer or stronger than people who didn’t use social networks.
Pollet’s study was published in April’s edition of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
By John Rossi :: 12:50 AM
Seattle-based Alaska Airlines has announced that they will outfit all of its pilots with Apple iPads by mid-June. Alaska is the first airline to replace traditional paper manuals and flight operation guides with electronic document readers.
Gary Beck, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of flight operations says, “We’ve been exploring the idea of an electronic flight bag for several years, but never found a device we really liked. When the iPad hit the market, we took one look at it and said this is the perfect fit.â€
The iPads will be loaded with an application called GoodReader, which will have PDF versions of over 40 flight systems and performance manuals, reference cards and other flight-related materials. The airline claims that the electronic flight documentation will save over 2 million pieces of paper.
In addition to the paper savings, the airline anticipates there will be “fewer back and muscle injuries caused by pilots carrying flight bags that can tip the scales at 50 pounds or more fully loaded.”
Although the iPads will be located in the cockpit, the pilots will have to stow them during takeoff and landings, just like their passengers are required to do.