MacTheNews

ANZ Bank launches iPhone to phone payments

Written by Gary McArthur Friday, 03 September 2010 06:37

A report in iTWire tells us that the ANZ Bank has officially launched its goMoney iPhone application which allows ANZ customers to monitor and manage their money, and send a payment to any mobile phone.

Demand for the iPhone application has surprised ANZ, with 31,000 downloads five days into the application’s soft launch on the iTunes App Store.

While most banks have mobile phone applications, ANZ is claiming the edge in terms of ease of use and speed. Once registered, iPhone users can access account details using a four digit pin. Once logged into the system they can view balances, manage accounts and make payments.

And the killer feature? Head over to iTWire for the details of the iPhone to any mobile phone payment/transfer system and the development of contactless payments technology which could provide additional functionality to the system in the future.

Aussies still can’t rent TV on the Apple TV

Written by Gary McArthur Thursday, 02 September 2010 19:11

The emphasis in the newly updated and miniaturised Apple TV is all about renting media, explains Angus Kidman over at Lifehacker. However, despite its name, for users in Australia, media only equals movies, and for that reason it’s a somewhat less appealing upgrade.

The idea of being able to rent new-release TV episodes in HD for $US0.99 is pretty appealing, and Apple apparently considered it so important that it’s at the very top of the US press release announcing the latest incarnation of the Apple TV, which goes on sale later this month for $129. However, it’s not going to be an option in Australia ... This gap in availability is hardly unusual.

Head over to Lifehacker where Angus gives background to this continuing dilemma and discusses what the future could hold.

Apple Event: the roundup

Written by Matthew JC Powell Thursday, 02 September 2010 06:04

Apple CEO Steve Jobs fronted up for Apple's now-annual iPod event in San Francisco this morning to unveil a new range of iPods, a new version of iTunes, and a revised version of the four-year-old AppleTV. he also offered some insight into upcoming versions of iOS, the operating system on iPads, iPhones and iPod touches.

He also offered a tantalising mention that iOS is also the operating system on the new iPod nano.

The nano, now in its fifth incarnation, has been transformed into a small device not much bigger than an iPod shuffle that is effectively all screen (and, like a shuffle, has a clip on the back for wearability). Swapping the buttons for a multitouch screen means that the new device also runs a version of iOS, though whether third-party developers will be invited to create apps for it was not illuminated. Unlike the fourth-generation iPod nano, the fifth lacks a camera. It also cannot play videos.

It is, however, available in seven different colours and two sizes. The 16GB version will cost $A229 and the 8GB version $A199.

The iPod touch received a major revision, with a much thinner form factor, front-facing camera (and the capability of FaceTime calls with other iPod touches and iPhones), a retina display like that on the iPhone 4 and HD video recording, again just like the iPhone 4.

The iPod touch will come in three varieties: 8GB for $A289, 32GB for $A378 and 64GB for $A499.

Of perhaps more interest for the iPod touch crowd (and of course iPhone users) was the announcement of iOS 4.1, including features like Game Center, a multiplayer gaming network built around the iPhone and iPod touch. Users will be able to play games with friends or even strangers over the internet using their iOS devices. Game Center leverages the iPod touch's position as, according to Jobs, the #1 handheld gaming platform in the world.

iOS 4.1 also includes the ability to take High Dynamic Range (HDR) photographs. Once the preserve of high-end photography, HDR involves taking three shots of the same scene with three levels of exposure, and combining the three to provide maximum detail. In many cases this ends up more closely approximating the range of light and dark shades the human eye can see. In other cases it creates a "hyper-real" look that can be jarring. It will be interesting to have the capability on millions of telephones.

The update, available next week, also addresses bugs in iOS4's uses of the iPhone proximity sensor, much-lamented connection problems with Bluetooth and — most welcome — performance improvements for iPhone 3G users who have found the ugrade to iOS 4 anything but speedy.

The other iOS news involved iOS 4.2, which will bring features like multitasking, folders, unified mail inbox and more to the iPad. iOS 4.2 will support wireless printing, though few details were offered as to exactly how that would work. Nonetheless it was a welcome sight to iPad users struggling with that rather significant limitation.

 

 

 

Why only Apple users can watch Sept 1 event

Written by Gary McArthur Wednesday, 01 September 2010 18:13

You can watch a live stream of Apple's event tomorrow, the company has announced — but only if you're using an Apple device, says ReadWriteWeb.

Apple will broadcast the event using its internally-developed HTTP Live Streaming Protocol, which requires either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher or an iPad. It's not because Apple only wants its fans watching, however.

The HTTP live streaming protocol is a feature of the latest version of Apple's multimedia player and framework, QuickTime X. The protocol lets users stream audio and video over HTTP.

ReadWriteWeb explains why this protocol is superior to others, particularly for mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.