iOS 4.3 adds new Photo Stream service, iPad FaceTime and PhotoBooth
The developer release of iOS 4.3 beta 2 includes mention of a new MobileMe-based Photo Stream picture sync feature, apparently part of a new Media Stream service, and includes versions of a standalone FaceTime and PhotoBooth app for iPad.
Photo Stream cloud sharing and sync
"Photo Stream uploads and stores the last thirty days of your photos on MobileMe and downloads them to all of your devices," according to text appearing in iOS 4.3 beta 2.
Apple previously offered a feature in iPhoto called photocasting, which allowed users to share an album with friends via an email link. Once shared, the album would appear in their iPhoto source list and stay updated (as new photos were added) via an RSS feed, similar to a podcast.
That feature was replaced by MobileMe Gallery, an online "cloud" service that stores selected photos on Apple's servers, for open or password-protected access by other users. MobileMe Gallery also supports movie sharing.
The new Photo Stream feature appears to make MobileMe Gallery sharing automatic, apparently enabling users to automatically share all their photos as they take them
Once in the user's MobileMe Gallery, they can be made available publicly or to select friends and family just like the existing MobileMe Gallery. It appears the feature will also allow a user to keep his or her own devices synced via the cloud, so that recent pictures snapped by an iPhone would also appear on the user's iPad, for example.
Photo Stream appears to be part of new Media Stream development, suggesting that the same type of service might be offered for sharing and syncing movies. There's also hints that the service may offer hooks for third party developers to use, enabling them to take advantage of the automatic media sync and sharing features just as they are now able to tap into MobileMe contact and calendar data sync, or desktop app preferences sync to regularly update the settings of an app installed on a user's various Macs.
New FaceTime, Photo Booth and Camera apps for iPad
Apple will also apparently be bundling a new standalone FaceTime and PhotoBooth apps for iPad, as well as including a Camera app to take advantage of the rear facing camera, which has been anticipated for some time.
While not installed in the developer build, FaceTime and PhotoBooth apps are depicted in a wallpaper preview image that has changed since the previous developer beta (shown below, first discovered by MacRumors). The image inadvertently leaks the internal development of those apps.
On the Mac, Photo Booth includes support for using Quartz Composition filters to distort, transform, chroma key (blue screen), or apply other affects in the pictures and videos it captures. Additional Quartz Composition filters can be created using Apple's free Quartz Composer application and installed for use by Photo Booth. The depiction of Photo Booth as an app on the iPad suggests similar functionally within the new iOS version.
Also in iOS 4.3 developer builds
The iOS 4.3 Beta 2 release also previewed full handed gestures for rapidly moving between multitasking apps or returning to the Home screen, although it warned that feature was experimental and not planned for public release in the next build.
The first beta of iOS 4.3 introduced a personal hotspot control panel, new multitouch gestures for the iPad, and updated SMS alert settings. Resource files accompanying the release also provided hints at a handful of new iPad and iPhone models, as well as a potential "Find My Friends" social networking feature.
Photo Stream cloud sharing and sync
"Photo Stream uploads and stores the last thirty days of your photos on MobileMe and downloads them to all of your devices," according to text appearing in iOS 4.3 beta 2.
Apple previously offered a feature in iPhoto called photocasting, which allowed users to share an album with friends via an email link. Once shared, the album would appear in their iPhoto source list and stay updated (as new photos were added) via an RSS feed, similar to a podcast.
That feature was replaced by MobileMe Gallery, an online "cloud" service that stores selected photos on Apple's servers, for open or password-protected access by other users. MobileMe Gallery also supports movie sharing.
The new Photo Stream feature appears to make MobileMe Gallery sharing automatic, apparently enabling users to automatically share all their photos as they take them
Once in the user's MobileMe Gallery, they can be made available publicly or to select friends and family just like the existing MobileMe Gallery. It appears the feature will also allow a user to keep his or her own devices synced via the cloud, so that recent pictures snapped by an iPhone would also appear on the user's iPad, for example.
Photo Stream appears to be part of new Media Stream development, suggesting that the same type of service might be offered for sharing and syncing movies. There's also hints that the service may offer hooks for third party developers to use, enabling them to take advantage of the automatic media sync and sharing features just as they are now able to tap into MobileMe contact and calendar data sync, or desktop app preferences sync to regularly update the settings of an app installed on a user's various Macs.
New FaceTime, Photo Booth and Camera apps for iPad
Apple will also apparently be bundling a new standalone FaceTime and PhotoBooth apps for iPad, as well as including a Camera app to take advantage of the rear facing camera, which has been anticipated for some time.
While not installed in the developer build, FaceTime and PhotoBooth apps are depicted in a wallpaper preview image that has changed since the previous developer beta (shown below, first discovered by MacRumors). The image inadvertently leaks the internal development of those apps.
On the Mac, Photo Booth includes support for using Quartz Composition filters to distort, transform, chroma key (blue screen), or apply other affects in the pictures and videos it captures. Additional Quartz Composition filters can be created using Apple's free Quartz Composer application and installed for use by Photo Booth. The depiction of Photo Booth as an app on the iPad suggests similar functionally within the new iOS version.
Also in iOS 4.3 developer builds
The iOS 4.3 Beta 2 release also previewed full handed gestures for rapidly moving between multitasking apps or returning to the Home screen, although it warned that feature was experimental and not planned for public release in the next build.
The first beta of iOS 4.3 introduced a personal hotspot control panel, new multitouch gestures for the iPad, and updated SMS alert settings. Resource files accompanying the release also provided hints at a handful of new iPad and iPhone models, as well as a potential "Find My Friends" social networking feature.
Comments
Looks like Jobs was just talking when he said that MobileMe would "get better" this year.
It has barely started!
Now lets all hope that Steve Jobs returns quickly and in good health.
…to tap into MobileMe contact and calendar data sync, or desktop app preferences sync to regularly update the settings of an app installed on a user's various Macs.
It sounds complex, but it would be a useful MobileMe service to be able to sync iOS and Mac OS preferences, and various app preferences across devices. I always like consistent preferences as much as possible for my own convenience. This would beyond just synching contacts, calendars, bookmarks, photos and movies. Of course, administrative authority and security has to be kept intact and not compromised.
"I know," says one, "let's make a beautifully simple tablet device, that anyone can use, and therefore become ultra successful."
"Hey," says the other, "what a great idea. Then once it's successful we can spend the next year overcomplicating it.
If there's one thing I've learned from Microsoft, it's that more features is always better! We could have a home button that you double tap as well as tap. We could let it run 10 programs at once instead of one. We could have 4 and 5 finger gestures to do stuff instead of 1 or 2. And the Piece de resistance - we could make it when you quit apps they don't really quit! Ahhh, it will be a good year."
I also think that (as with most Google services) YouTube lacks quite a lot in user friendliness.
Here Apple could do something with MobileMe. And these things to me suggest that's the direction.
Last question will be about the cost for MobileMe. People tend to accept crappy services since they are free. Either Apple makes MobileMe free and with the quality of Apple services this could hunt Google down totally. Or they judge that the services are so good, it's worth paying for. Maybe additions will make them that good? In the last case, they will not have the same volumes, but they will get the users they prefer, i e people who accept to pay for quality and appreciates it.
Either way - as a share holder I will win. Actually - as end user I will accept both also!
Given the %age of users (small) who buy it, Apple could garner both market share and great goodwill if it made at least a "light version" of MobileMe the bundled iLife of the early mobile computing age to really complete their "ecosystem" - and they'd likely make more money from upgrades to the "pro" version (including lots of GB of file storage - which would draw from DropBox and other cloud storage vendors) from the vastly larger active user base than from today's all or none policy. Plus have extra 3rd party developer attention to extend its functionality.
And I'd say then nobody would have anything like it, except that both Google and MS are "giving away" a ton of web services these days (and more every day), including many equivalent to many in MM (I'm not in a position to argue their relative quality, and for many, just having any free usable forms of them is sufficient to lock in a base), so it's not so much that this would put Apple further ahead in totally meeting user needs in the cloud service area, it's keeping up with the free competitors as well.
PS: Did Apple break out MM's gross revenues in their recent sales data dump on the market? Gotta be small potatoes in the big pic. But I could be wrong (again) (again).
Apple is trying to redefine the way we think about a computer. That is a big task. In order to accomplish such a large goal, you need to take small steps. This is why each edition of iPhone, iPad, etc. adds features a lot of people complain are missing. Apple is very carefully, deliberately, picking and choosing each major feature to overhaul, and every year we grow accustomed to the new way that things work.
This time, it's the cloud.
Example:
There was no app store, originally. Apple had to introduce the concept of touch screens, the home screen, navigation, the core utilities.. etc, before the app store, so that people (read: the average Walmart shopper) would not be overwhelmed. I believe originally, iTunes was part of iOS, right? The iTunes app helped familiarize people with the "mobile store". Then the app store came out.
They do the same with developers. Initially, developers were given strict guidelines and a small number of frameworks to work with. This forced developers to keep things clean and simple and not get too crazy. Over time, Apple has loosened their grip on the developer. They finally allowed multitasking, but they reengineered it for the mobile world in a way that developers can't abuse. iOS 4 also introduced hundreds of new frameworks. The idea being that Apple had these intentions from day 1, before anyone thought touch screens were even a good idea for a phone.
This is why I stick with Apple. I love the freedom of Android, I really do. I love Linux. I love the idea of having complete control over my device. But Apple is a good company, with good engineers, and they think things through, keeping the long term goal in mind. So I have no problem "locking myself in", because I have utmost confidence that Apple knows what they are doing. Right now, I might not have feature X, but that is because Apple is playing chess, not war.
To me this feels like they are re-thinking how people may share videos. Someone commented regarding YouTube (and the debate about HTML5/h.264) that for him actually Faceboook was better, since he wanted to show videos (and photos) for friends and family rather than the whole world. Thus a change of formats (which Google tries to impose on all of us) would not hurt that much.
That guy sounds like me
There's definitely an opportunity for improving the way people share media with each other. YouTube tries, but it is a really poor implementation (and only covers video). Facebook is better but still not great as people tend to be "friends" with other people they are not really "friends" with! They are trying to improve it - and there are a lot of startups pushing them along.
In any case the best part of Facebook isn't so much the functionality or user experience, it's that everyone has an account. I have no doubt that Photo Stream could offer a better way of sharing content, but Apple would need to find a way to get everyone to sign up. Maybe they could link it in with Facebook Connect.
Back on topic, Photo Stream sounds like it has been ripped right out of the Microsoft Kin/WP7 playbook! I wonder if a few of those 5000 Kins happened to find their way down to Cupertino
Microsoft's strategy is basically to have one's digital life follow them around, regardless of what device they are on, by sync'ing a users data and settings between devices using the cloud. (It's almost like a return to roaming profiles!
Apple would do well to follow Microsoft's lead (and stamp it with the Apple UX) as a good idea is still a good idea, regardless of where it came from.
The other option is Google's world where the apps themselves live in the cloud. I think we might get to this stage one day, but for now the best user experience can be had with local apps and a local copy of data that is sync'd between devices using the cloud.
My last point is that I wonder if Apple will integrate this with 3rd party services. It could be nice, but I suspect it won't happen.
Microsoft want people to buy Windows licenses, they don't care as much about hardware or the brand as the functionality. They seem happy to aggregate 3rd party services as it adds functionality and makes them the glue in the middle.
With Apple if they aren't selling you hardware they aren't making money. The brand is everything, which means the user experience is everything. I'm not sure the functionality boost they would get from pulling in 3rd parties would out weight the effect on the UX from no longer controlling everything end to end.
This is how I see Apple's iOS shenanigans:
Apple is trying to redefine the way we think about a computer. That is a big task. In order to accomplish such a large goal, you need to take small steps. This is why each edition of iPhone, iPad, etc. adds features a lot of people complain are missing. Apple is very carefully, deliberately, picking and choosing each major feature to overhaul, and every year we grow accustomed to the new way that things work.
This time, it's the cloud.
Example:
There was no app store, originally. Apple had to introduce the concept of touch screens, the home screen, navigation, the core utilities.. etc, before the app store, so that people (read: the average Walmart shopper) would not be overwhelmed. I believe originally, iTunes was part of iOS, right? The iTunes app helped familiarize people with the "mobile store". Then the app store came out.
They do the same with developers. Initially, developers were given strict guidelines and a small number of frameworks to work with. This forced developers to keep things clean and simple and not get too crazy. Over time, Apple has loosened their grip on the developer. They finally allowed multitasking, but they reengineered it for the mobile world in a way that developers can't abuse. iOS 4 also introduced hundreds of new frameworks. The idea being that Apple had these intentions from day 1, before anyone thought touch screens were even a good idea for a phone.
This is why I stick with Apple. I love the freedom of Android, I really do. I love Linux. I love the idea of having complete control over my device. But Apple is a good company, with good engineers, and they think things through, keeping the long term goal in mind. So I have no problem "locking myself in", because I have utmost confidence that Apple knows what they are doing. Right now, I might not have feature X, but that is because Apple is playing chess, not war.
I don't see this as too much of an embellishment....I think much of what you say may be correct particularly as a broad strategy...
And I agree completely with your last paragraph.
One of the biggest mysteries remains in North Carolina right now. What are they going to do with that facility?
Mobile Me is an awful solution/value as it stands. I would be thoroughly impressed if they managed a major overhaul and drastically reduced, or even eliminated the pricing for it as well.
Right now the two biggest things I'm looking forward to are iOS 5 and the reveal of what they are doing in NC.
Unfortunately I think if Ipad 2 does not have doubled resolution, then I will either be sitting out of the tablet market for another year to see what happens or possibly picking up a heavily discounted version one on ebay if the right deal came along, but I doubt it.
Hi res or bust for me is most likely.
Looks like Jobs wasn't just talking when he said that MobileMe would "get better" this year.
ways to fill that server farm, i think that's just the tip of iceberg, but would be great to take a picture and auto upload, i've got eyefi to do just that but with shutterfly, but hey i'd share my public gallery apple needs to make things simple automatic and less tied to a desktop, laptop, home system
mobile man mobile
This is how I see Apple's iOS shenanigans:
Apple is trying to redefine the way we think about a computer. That is a big task. In order to accomplish such a large goal, you need to take small steps. This is why each edition of iPhone, iPad, etc. adds features a lot of people complain are missing. Apple is very carefully, deliberately, picking and choosing each major feature to overhaul, and every year we grow accustomed to the new way that things work.
This time, it's the cloud.
Example:
There was no app store, originally. Apple had to introduce the concept of touch screens, the home screen, navigation, the core utilities.. etc, before the app store, so that people (read: the average Walmart shopper) would not be overwhelmed. I believe originally, iTunes was part of iOS, right? The iTunes app helped familiarize people with the "mobile store". Then the app store came out.
They do the same with developers. Initially, developers were given strict guidelines and a small number of frameworks to work with. This forced developers to keep things clean and simple and not get too crazy. Over time, Apple has loosened their grip on the developer. They finally allowed multitasking, but they reengineered it for the mobile world in a way that developers can't abuse. iOS 4 also introduced hundreds of new frameworks. The idea being that Apple had these intentions from day 1, before anyone thought touch screens were even a good idea for a phone.
This is why I stick with Apple. I love the freedom of Android, I really do. I love Linux. I love the idea of having complete control over my device. But Apple is a good company, with good engineers, and they think things through, keeping the long term goal in mind. So I have no problem "locking myself in", because I have utmost confidence that Apple knows what they are doing. Right now, I might not have feature X, but that is because Apple is playing chess, not war.
Nailed it! I rejected MobileMe for years because it was so obviously inferior to free options out there. But after a short trial period, I saw my error. Every time I think disjointed offerings such as google's are the better option it ends in disappointment. Apple is not perfect but they get it mostly right more often than the other offerings out there and I am confident that their cloud will be something to be reckoned with in the future.
The developer release of iOS 4.3 beta 2 includes mention of a new MobileMe-based Photo Stream picture sync feature, apparently part of a new Media Stream service, and includes versions of a standalone FaceTime and PhotoBooth app for iPad. ...
I find the title of this article kind of misleading (again).
It tells us that all this stuff is coming in iOS 4.3 when it's pretty clear that it isn't necessarily so.
There is a big difference between this stuff being in the beta and it being included in iOS 4.3. Most notably, just two days ago we heard that the gestures, while in the beta, are not going to be in the finished product.
Also, since all three of these new apps require a camera, it makes no sense that these will make it to the iPad in 4.3 even if they make it to the iPhone. Why would Apple update all the iPads with three new camera apps when the iPad won't have a camera for six months? Since Apple also just spent a long time and a lot of effort to get all the device on the same version of iOS, it also makes little sense that they would release 4.3 for the iPhone only, leaving the iPad behind.
Apple should buy Dropbox, make Mobile Me free, and stop pussy-footin' around.
I thought that on an iPad you had 5 icons on the Dock vs. 4 with an iPhone/iPod touch?
No, but you can put up to 6 icons in the dock.
The real question remains: when will Mobile Me be free?
Apple should buy Dropbox, make Mobile Me free, and stop pussy-footin' around.
Apple should buy Dropbox or copy the way it works (since they already use that method for backups in their TimeMachine sparse bundles).
MobileMe should never be free. I want accountability for products. I want to buy a product, not be the product. Let?s add to the feature set that no one else has yet been able to match instead of making it free because a subset of the MobileMe services are available from various places.
MM's still not a hundred buck a year value add for me. (Tho' granted I can see that if you really can make productive use out of one or two features, it could be for a subset of Apple users.)
Given the %age of users (small) who buy it, Apple could garner both market share and great goodwill if it made at least a "light version"
They've already moved that direction some, though they haven't done a good job advertising it or marketing it that way. Right now you can use "Find My iPhone" for free if you have an iPhone & you can sign up for a MobileMe chat account for free, allowing you to chat with AOL users without needing to deal with AOL. Past that many of their services are comparable to Microsoft Live, except the service gets it's strength from it's integration with Macs more than just the services it offers.
I think they would do well to offer a version of MobileMe that was free and included e-mail, chat, calendar, contacts, and photo sharing. Make iWork part of MobileMe and tack on iWork.com with purchase of iWork and Find My iPhone with purchase of iOS device. Give total of maybe 10GB shared for services & then tie in iAd somehow. Pretty much like what you are saying, something sort of comparable to Google Apps.