Dear Santa: TUAW's we-have-been-nice wish list
Dear Santa,
We've been very good reasonably well-behaved bloggers this year. We've brushed our teeth, been polite to our parents, and made sure to walk our dog.
So for this year, would you please please please consider our requests? Here's what we're wishing for under the TUAW tree this year.
iBooks for Mac and Windows. We love our iPhones and iPads, but we have lots of books we'd like to read on our personal computers as well. That whole iBooks DRM thing means we can't use any of the (admittedly subpar) readers currently on the market like Adobe Digital Editions. So Santa, won't you please ship us iBooks so we can read in as much style at home as on the road?
iAuthor. Speaking of iBooks, it's been a bad year for ebook authoring tools. We're never going to see what Push Pop Press was building and apparently Monster Costume's interactive media creation tools are no longer being planned for market release. So we'd love to see some lickably delicious authoring tools fill out this ebook space. Kindle Direct Publishing has shown there's a huge demand for independent book production, especially ones that create simple but well formed output. Please give us some awesome tools, Santa.
iMessages. Santa, we TUAWians have become big iMessage addicts. So where's our OS X client? We don't mean to be a pest, Santa, but we'd like this on our computers like, you know, yesterday. It's gotten to the point where we've started to judge people by the color of their talk bubbles, and blue iMessage bubbles rule the day.
OS X Siri. We're not talking about a proof of concept here. The concept has, as far as we're concerned, been proved. We want product now. Can we please have Siri dictation at least, right away please, with full Siri OS integration to follow? Thank you, Santa. Yes, we know that Apple's licensing arrangement with Nuance for the dictation savvy in Siri may be limited to things running iOS. To that, we say it's time to shell out some more of that cash hoard and make a deal for the desktop, please.
HyperCard for iOS. We know that Apple wants to make sure that malicious things don't happen on mobile devices (or on any systems) but we'd really really really love to be able to create and share HyperTalk-style stacks for iOS. It was a great idea in the 1980's and it's still a great idea now. HyperCard for iPad and iPhone would rock. Heck, while you're at it, bring it back for Mac OS X.
Updated iWork. Santa, we don't mean to be rude, but we've been waiting for an updated version of iWork for an awfully long time. Not that the whole iCloud thing isn't nice and all, but where are our updated iCloud-integrated desktop versions? The current iWork release feels creaky and dated. We'd really like to see fresh desktop hotness debut soon.
Apple Camera. OK, Santa, this one might be a little farther out on the Christmas tree limb than the others, but we'd like a dedicated high-end DSLR camera made by Apple. Yes, there's a very nice point-and-shoot in the iPhone 4S, and the cameras in our other devices are only going to get better. But the quality still isn't there compared to a DSLR for stills or video, and given how ugly the interfaces and UIs of even the most expensive cameras are, this market seems primed for Apple to sweep in with a beautiful and brilliantly designed device (which, by the way, would also finish off the vertical integration that iPhoto, iMovie, Aperture, and Final Cut Pro have already started).
Apple's at the crossroads of the creative arts and technology, and Santa, while these cameras on the phones are nice, how sweet would it be if Apple did for digital cameras what it's already done for MP3 players and cell phones? It's not like you haven't tried it before.
An iOS Amazon Media Viewer. Santa, We've got Amazon Prime. Along with fast, free shipping, Amazon gives us a bunch of free media like movies and TV shows that we can stream to our Mac or PC. Unfortunately, the bozos (or the Bezos) at Amazon won't let us watch it on our iPad or iPhone. They want us to buy an Amazon Kindle Fire. Can you bring me a native Amazon app so we can watch our free movies and shows on our iPads? Please don't make it a Kindle Fire -- even the guy writing the Missing Manual isn't planning to keep his. Oh, and a rainbow-colored unicorn pony would be nice, too.
Apple TV HD. We're not talking about some mythical Apple HDTV, but rather an update to the existing Apple TV box. Keep the current form factor, but slap an A5 chip in there so Apple's little hockey puck hobby can deliver full 1080p HD video content to our HDTVs. And hey, while we're at it, how about offering some 1080p content in the iTunes Store, hmm?
We've left out a plate of Safari Browser cookies for you and a nice warm cup of milk.
Love and hugs,
The TUAW kids
