Where do you get your Apple theories?

We all know 9to5mac, TUAW, AppleInsider, and MacRumors. They deliver Apple news, and rumors. But do they provide perspective, and thought? www.bitefromtheapple.com takes their news postings and analyzes them, correlating them with Apple's past actions to best predict what the tech giant will do. Visit us everyday for the best perspective on Apple there is to offer.

We will also be giving away a weekly prize. So, go to out website as much as possible, and, if you see the red button in the sidebar (which usually isn't there), click on it to get a prize!

Opera for the iPhone -- Will it make it to the App Store?

Opera recently made a Blog post announcing that during the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Oslo in a few days, Opera will be showing off what they have planned for Opera Mini on the iPhone. Now, whether or not Apple will release it in the iTunes App Store is a completely different story. Opera may have plans to release it, but we'll see if Apple will deny it. They may come up with the Google voice excuse and saying that users already have safari, so why need Opera Mini? Honestly, I would hate for that to happen. I'm sure Opera put a lot of work into releasing a mobile web browsing application, so I hope Apple approves this.

I really can't wait for the app to be released, and let's hope Apple approves it, because after seeing only one picture I'm excited about what Opera Mini for the iPhone has to offer.

Will the iPad gain more hardware features before it's released?

There is a possibility that the Apple iPad will gain more features before it is released. The current rumors going around is that the iPad was intended to have a camera, but, ultimately, Apple decided not to include it, because it was glitchy, or wasn't implemented well.

I disagree.

Just about every other Apple product has a camera built in. It would require almost no effort do put one into the iPad. In fact, there is a hole in the iPad frame that perfectly fits and iSight camera. I think that Apple truly did intend to put a camera into the iPad, but it wasn't because it was glitchy, or didn't work. I think it was done to speed up FCC approval.

The FCC said that they're concerned that the iPad is going to bring down AT&T due to the increase of data traffic. Because they have to approve every cellular device before it can go on sale, they would have the power to halt the iPad if they saw it a a threat to cellular bandwidth, due to major data usage. The iPhone OS 3.2 SDK showed support for video calling, and most likely, if the iPad had a camera, that's what it would do. Video streaming takes up huge amounts of bandwidth, and the FCC would definitely not approve the iPad if it could do video calls.

My father is a holder of numerous patents, and deals with government regulations very often in his medical practice. According to him, it is easier to get the bare minimum approved, and slowly add on more and more features. If you try to get all the features approved at once, chances are, they will not be approved.

I think once Apple gets the iPad approved by the FCC… Read more

MacPad

On January 27, 2010, Apple released the iPad. But could it be possible that Apple is just getting started, and is preparing to release a Mac version of the tablet?

View the original article here.

Mentioning my previous article, The Future of Computing, I discussed the possibility of a fully touch-based OS for a fully-fledged computer; not a mobile device. Well it makes perfect sense to put a touchscreen onto a type of device that runs a touch OS.

I don't believe this will be released [necessarily] this year…I think this will be released with OS 10.7, which I think will have support for touch input (10.6 has some support for that. It supports gestures on the trackpad). However… Read more

The Future of Computing

On January 9, 2007, Apple unveiled the future of computing, in the form of a phone.

Whether or not you hate the iPhone, it is hard to deny, it changed things. It changed how everything works. No bulky file systems, no task manager, just touch. Touch, and the phone does. No defragmenting to worry about, no file organization to worry about. Just…just…touch…

Our current desktops have file systems, task managers, Application folders, and lots of things that the average user (aka "The rest of us") doesn't understand. I have met some people that have used a Mac for years, and still doesn't know how to distinguish between a file and a folder, and had every single one of their files on their desktop. On the other hand, I've seen a 2 year old use an iPhone. The UI is so easy and simple, that there's nothing to worry about. You just DO! And that, my readers, is the future of computing. With the expansion of the app store, the iPad and iPhone will start to replace desktops and laptops. In fact, I believe Mac OS 11 will be a fully touch OS, with the option to add a physical keyboard, like the iPad and mouse. Nobody will have to worry about file systems. You open your word processing app, see a list of all your documents, tap on one, and start working on it. You don't have to search the drive, and you don't have to search the file system. Each app has a list of all the documents you're working on, and they're right there… Every file is stored within the app. And, this is so expandable! For instance, Apple could release Final Cut, or iMovie for the iPhone OS! Just imagine editing the clips on an iPad with your hands! It would be so easy, and such a pleasure. This is what I believe will make its way into OS 11. You'll get access to a file system through a developer menu for advanced users, but otherwise, the average user will have absolutely nothing to worry about. Absolutely nothing to think about. 

Let me show you an example. I'm going to compare phone to phone, because phone to computer would pose more variable to analyze. Below are pictures of the iPhone and a Windows mobile phone.

 The WinMo phone requires you to eliminate background processes with a task manager. So, you have to scroll through the long list of tiny, obscure words, and guess which one will end the runaway process. But, careful; don't kill a vital process, or you may, irreparably crash your phone.

But iPhone users don't have to worry about this at all! There is no task manager; nothing that resembles a conventional computer that could completely confound the average user. It just works, and that was what the Macintosh did in 1984. It made things easier.

Well, the iPhone took it to the next level. And we are on a road to change. I can't wait to see where it'll lead.