Last year at Macworld Expo we saw Quickoffice for the iPhone. This year we got a look at Quickoffice for the iPad, including some features that aren’t yet available from the App Store. With this release, the Quickoffice team has emphasized cloud-based storage and publishing. Plus, the iPad version now includes PowerPoint editing. Here’s our quick look at Quickoffice for iPad. You’ll find a video after the break.

The app’s full title is Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPad, and it’s quite nice. Upon launch, you’ll see a list of supported cloud services. On the far left of the display you’ll see all of the available services, or “connected partners,” including iDisk, Google Docs, Dropbox (naturally), Box.net and new with the iPad app, Huddle and SugarSync (I wonder if iDisk feels self-conscious while hanging out with the cool kids like Dropbox).

From there you can select any Microsoft Office file as well as PPT, PPTX, PDF, iWork, HTML, PNG, JPG or GIF files, among others. Of course, the Office files are fully editable and since they’re stored remotely, can be accessed from nearly any computer with an Internet connection.

Some cool features include pinch-and-zoom within Excel documents (it’s very smooth). Word docs viewed with Quickoffice for iPad are displayed as pages, as opposed to the iPhone which doesn’t break them up. I think it’s much nicer, visually, to see your file with the page breaks. There’s also a very nice “Toolbox” available when editing Word docs that’s similar to the Inspector in Pages and some other apps from Apple. In fact, you can apply style changes to text right within the Toolbox window. It saves jumping around and is well done.

The new PowerPoint editing is also interesting. I especially like the option to batch-select slides for repositioning, a “film strip” that works as a type of presenter mode that only displays on the iPad as well as a “laser pointer” that lets you highlight the important bits or distract the easily distracted.

One feature that’s not yet on the current release lets you drag-and-publish files to Slideshare, Scribd and docstock. It’s super simple and should be included in a future release.

Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for iPad is available now from the App Store for $US14.99. Watch our video below for Mike’s demonstration.

Continue reading Macworld Expo 2011: Quickoffice for iPad offers cloud storage, publishing

Macworld Expo 2011: Quickoffice for iPad offers cloud storage, publishing originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The doors have closed, the carpet has been disposed of, the booths have been dismantled, and the TUAW team is, for the most part, back home from Macworld Expo 2011 in San Francisco. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were setting up Booth 1012 at Moscone West to prepare for the Expo (see photo at right).

It was an amazing and exhausting week and, for the TUAW blogging team, it was also a blast meeting literally hundreds of you who listen to the TUAW Talkcast each Sunday, watch TUAW TV Live on Wednesday, or read the site every day.

Tonight at 10 PM ET (7 PM PT) we’ll do a wrap-up of our favorite hardware, software, people, and moments from Macworld Expo 2011. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 PM EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cell phone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.

TUAW Talkcast: The post-Macworld Expo recap originally appeared on TUAW on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On stage at Macworld 2011, two of our friends from iFixit, Kyle Weins and Luke Soules, attempted to fix broken Apple stuff right in front of an audience. The session was moderated by Chris Breen, who asked the audience to bring up their broken gear in the hope that it could be fixed right on the spot.

iFixit, for those that don’t know, is a firm that not only posts teardowns of popular Apple products, but strongly believes in empowering users with the ability to fix their own Apple equipment, and sells replacement parts and tool kits to allow people to do it. As Luke attempted repairs, Kyle described exactly what was going on. During the session, they unfortunately weren’t successful at any repairs but they were working under some impossible conditions. People in the audience had a lot of different broken things, and iFixit was only able to bring in two boxes of parts, which limited them dramatically.

Continue reading Macworld Expo 2011: iFixit wields their magic in person

Macworld Expo 2011: iFixit wields their magic in person originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I stopped by the iConnectivity booth here at Macworld because I’d heard about a zero-latency MIDI-to-iOS hub they were releasing. As you’ll see in the video below — at least for musicians with MIDI elements in their kit — it was worth the stop! Using CoreMIDI (iOS 4.2 only), the iConnectMIDI unit can provide a connection between multiple (up to 8) MIDI sources (both legacy DIN and USB->MIDI) and your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or even a Mac or Windows desktop. In the demo they set up, there were several controllers all playing different instruments through a third-party iPad app (Music Studio, US $14.99), with an additional iPod touch controlling pitch bend on the bass through its accelerometer. Pretty neat.

The unit will ship in April for under $200, and we’ll be bringing you a hands-on review in February. More information on the device can be found at the iConnectMIDI website.

Continue reading iConnectivity presents iConnectMIDI at Macworld 2011

iConnectivity presents iConnectMIDI at Macworld 2011 originally appeared on TUAW on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Long time Apple devotee Sinbad delivered a very funny Keynote address this afternoon at Macworld, talking for about 20 minutes and then taking questions from the audience. He has been coming to Macworld since 1991 and talked about everything from his first Mac, which was a Macintosh 512K that he said had so little memory that putting in his password maxed it out. He joked about Steve Jobs designing the Mac for the dumbest, silliest person in the world. Steve brought some of them into a room and asked them, what can you do? They told him they could click and that’s how it all started.

He thought it funny that whenever someone talks about what will be the next iPhone killer, iPad killer, iAnything killer, everyone gets really interested. However, if you ask what will be the next Android killer — who cares? Someone in the audience asked what interesting feature will the next iPhone have, and without a beat he said “reception.” With the current iPhone, Sinbad noted, “I can shoot movies, solve science problems, but I can’t call my Momma.” When asked when the government will switch to Macs, he said “Never, cause it would work, and that would be very dark times.”

He talked a lot about creativity and that you can do just about anything on an iPad and iPhone. All you need to build a recording studio is a Blue Mikey Mic, a four track app and and iPhone. Friend of his are recording music on just that.

As for Sinbad’s favorite apps, he listed 1stVideo, Guitar World Lick of the Day and other apps from Vericorder Technologies. So take it from Sinbad and go out and create something.

Sinbad gives the Keynote at Macworld 2011 originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mike Schramm and I just spoke with Oliver Breidenbach from Boinx, and we’re pretty excited to hear about a new Mac App Store release (tomorrow) of a new version of BoinxTV: BoinxTV Home. It’s a consumer-level version of the live-broadcast software with a lower price point and distribution through the Mac App Store.

We’ve covered BoinxTV on TUAW a few times, and it’s great to see a more affordable version coming to the masses. In contrast to its US $299-$499 older sibling, BoinxTV Home will be $49.99, and is geared more toward YouTube than broadcast applications. It only works with one camera, but still accepts all video inputs from other applications, so there are plenty of possibilities. It also caps out at 15 layers, but that’s more than enough for the average “home” user. Overall, it sounds to us like a good move and will bring BoinxTV to a larger group who could really make use of it’s impressive capabilities.

Oliver will be demoing the new version for us tomorrow, so tune in to the TUAW live stream at 11:30 PST tomorrow to see it!

BoinxTV Home out tomorrow on the Mac App Store originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Office 11 for Mac is an interesting little bit of software put out by a smallish Seattle-based company called Microsoft — it’s a nice suite of business apps, including a word processor, database software, an email client, and a few other helpful programs all bundled up. You may not have heard much about it before (it’s kind of like OpenOffice, if we understand it right), but if you want to give it a try, this Microsoft company is offering up a free 30-day trial over on the official website. We’re not sure how useful the suite actually is, but free’s free, right?

OK, all kidding aside, you probably already have some form of Office installed on your Mac. But the Microsoft team is offering up a free trial of Office 11 during Macworld, and if you haven’t seen the latest version of this ubiquitous software yet, consider this your chance to check it out.

Plus, we’ve heard some pretty interesting things about this “Microsoft.” Apparently they also make their own operating system, but it’ll run on any computer, not just the ones you buy at the official store. Crazy!

Microsoft offering free 30-day trials of Office 11 originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Calling all Final Cut Pro users who want to bring their new iPad into the editing room with them — this news is for you. According to The Mac Observer, Factorial Ltd.’s ClipTouch 1.0 for iPad Final Cut Server client app was recently released and allows content creators to browse, archive, restores, and display video assets on their iPads via WiFi, 3G and VPN, with no server configuration required.

Apple’s Final Cut Server was released in 2008 as a “a scaleable server application…(which) allows searching across multiple disks and SAN volumes and enables viewing, annotation and approval of content from anywhere using a PC or Mac” and continues to be at the forefront of video content creation and delivery. This new iPad client app should help it stay that way.

ClipTouch 1.0 for iPad is compatible with iOS 4.2 or later and Final Cut Server 1.5.1 and up and is available for US$14.99 at the App Store.

[via The Mac Oberver]

Final Cut Server app ClipTouch 1.0 for iPad released originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has countersued S3 Graphics after the company, a maker of graphics-visualization technologies for the notebook and desktop markets, originally sued Apple last June for patent infringement related to a number of Apple’s devices, including the iPhone, iPod touch and MacBook computers. The original complaint stated that Apple has violated four S3 patents relating to image processing systems and “fixed-rate block-based image compression with inferred pixel values.”

AppleInsider notes that at this time it is not clear why Apple is countersuing S3 Graphics. The details of their complaint, filed this month, remain unknown. Apple’s complaint in a US District Court in the Northern District of California is currently classified as an “oversized document,” which means that no one can download it (yet) to find out what it contains. The countersuit does appear to be related to patents. However, it is not currently clear whether Apple is accusing S3 Graphics of patent violations itself, or if Apple is seeking to invalidate the patents S3 is suing it for violating.

Apple countersues S3 Graphics in patent dispute originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The evidence of a shift in Apple’s wireless chipset choices for upcoming iDevices is growing stronger. First there was Engadget’s strongly sourced report indicating that Qualcomm (the key innovator/inventor in the CDMA space) was going to take over the radio component sourcing for both the iPhone 5 and future iPads, instead of the Infineon hardware that’s been used up until now.

Add to the pile this new post from jailbreak impressario Zibri, who says that there are key items in the current iTunes build that clearly show support for a Qualcomm baseband. It’s great that they’re there, don’t get us wrong, but chances are they’re in place to cover the forthcoming/announced Verizon iPhone rather than future unannounced iPhone and iPad versions. In fact, as far back as August of 2010, TechCrunch put a stake in the ground and predicted a January 2011 launch of a CDMA Verizon iPhone based entirely on the chain of component orders that could be traced back to Qualcomm’s manufacturing partners.

Any time there’s a drastic shift in the architecture of an Apple product, the component story has to change along with it (see the 68040 to PowerPC transition, PPC to Intel only five short years ago, and hard-drive-based to flash memory for iPods as past examples). Chances are we will be hearing a lot more about Qualcomm in the weeks and months to come.

Thanks to Zibri for sending in the tip.

Zibri spots more Qualcomm evidence in iTunes originally appeared on TUAW on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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