Zaprudering
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Zaprudering the Invite: Anything to see?
Whatever you might think of Apple's grammar, there's not much this invitation's artwork is giving away. Of course, we all want to know: is there a camera up there? If so, we're not seeing evidence of it in the top-middle of the graphic. Perhaps there is a left-mounted camera hidden by March 2, or perhaps there is no camera to be seen at all, which will disappoint FaceTime chatters everywhere. Or perhaps Apple is simply being a tease ... as usual. The volume toggle and mute switch appear unchanged, and I suppose it's nice to know that the virtual iPad has been fully charged before being incorporated into the invitation. The numeric battery charge meter is, however, out of action in this shot, which lends a certain falsity to the image. The iPad appears to be sporting the iPhone 4 default wallpaper. Could that mean anything? Nah. Probably not. Can you guess what technology or innovation will help define 2011 through the iPad? We're still scratching our head and making guesses here in TUAW-land. Our own Kelly G. rolled her eyes at the language. While it's not TUAW's place to smack down Apple for a badly constructed sentence, we're more than happy to turn over pedant duties to our commenters. How would you have phrased your invitation? Let us know!
Zaprudering the iPhone Commercials: Maps
Wow. The things you can learn from Apple commercials. Notice anything about that map icon? It looked mighty familiar to me and as TUAW reader Brian noted in our comments, that's a wee stylized image of 1 Infinite Loop, Apple Headquarters--or at least...kind of. The arrow looks more like it's on North de Anza Boulevard than Infinite Loop itself, but it's close enough for me. Here are a bunch of other things I've noticed about iPhone maps. We got a great look at the keyboard interface, when doing the Maps search. The QWERTY keyboard includes a shift button, a delete button, an option to switch to a numeric view, and a search button (which I assume is the same as "return").It looks like the interaction order is: Search, select a pin, press the (>) button on the link, and then view the location information. Pacific Catch is a real restaurant. I called it up and spoke briefly to a hostess named Fancy (like the adjective). "We've been getting calls all morning from all over the country. People want to know if we're a real business. We are." %Gallery-3638%
Zaprudering the iPhone commercials: email
The iPhone commercials that just recently aired offered a nice look into some of the built-in programs in action. Take email, for example. It's one of the four main iPhone modes (the other three are: Phone, Safari and iPod). The videos revealed a number of mail features: The number of unread new mail items in your inbox appears over the mail icon in the dock at the bottom of the iPhone main menu. In the inbox, unread items are tagged with a familiar blue dot. The standard blue paperclip indicates attachments. When displaying individual emails, a taskbar at the bottom of the screen presumably allows you to refresh your inbox, transfer mail to folders, delete mail, reply to the current message and write a new message. At the top of the screen a button may lead you back to the current mailbox, show you which item you are viewing in the mailbox (e.g. 2 of 11) and allow you to move to the previous or next message. Direct actions on the message scroll you up and down the currently displayed email. %Gallery-3614%
