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iOS 4.1 Breakdown

Zander — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:58:32 +0000

If you have not heard yet, a new update is coming to an iPhone or iPod touch near you! You can expect this update next week, but I am expecting it early( as early as tuesday of next week). But I digress now let’s get down to business and tear this update apart and see what’s new and see my favorites of this update.

HDR Photography

Be a photographer myself I was already familiar with HDR photos, or High Dynamic Range photos. This is a cool feature that helps to “pop” those small features out in your photos. It works by taking three pictures at the same time, but here is where it getting interesting. It over exposes one, under exposes one, and the last is taken at normal exposure. These are all then combined together, and then bam, you have an HDR photo. I think this is definitely gonna be a cool feature I am going to be using a lot.

Game Center

Have you ever been playing a game on your iPhone and thought, I really want to play my friend right now. Well no longer will you have to think that anymore. You will be able to challenge your friends in any game that develops allow support for game center in. But not only is game center only going to allow you to challenge friends, but you will be able to post high scores and compete with friends in scores as well. One game already known to support game center will be Angry Birds.

Bug Fixes

There are also going to be some bug fixes to clean everything up. One big one is going to be the proximity sensor fix. It has been sorta annoying when I accidentally put my phone on speaker phone when my proximity sensor decides it doesn’t want to work. There will also be some other minor bug fixes to fix up any other known problems at this time.

Wrap-Up

I am excited for this update, especially game center. I guess Nick and I will finally be able to find out who is the real champion at Angry Birds now!

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Summary: Apple’s iTunes 10

Nick — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:30:38 +0000

San Francisco – Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs, announced several announcements that change the way we have known the iPod, and additions of several new services. Apple is now beginning to jump into parts of the social networking business with their new server, Ping, which is integrated into the updated iTunes 10.

“iTunes Ping lets you post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes, plus view concert listings and tell your friends which concerts you plan to attend.”

Ping

Ping allows you to follow your favorite artists’ photos and tour dates. A new way for artists to keep in touch with their fan database. A neat feature with Ping is a consolidated Top 10 list with other friends you are connected through Ping. These are just some of the features that Ping has to offer, it will be interesting to watch how Ping is accepted in the social networking business.

iTunes Rentals

Another addition in iTunes 10 pertains to the iTunes Store now allowing renting of HD TV shows for a fee of 99 cents an episode from networks such as: ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America. According to the PR release, episodes are available after the broadcast of the show and you are given a 30 day renting period from the day you press the ‘Rent’ button in iTunes. The rentals can also be transported onto your iDevice, for your viewing pleasure on the go. I do no think there will be much success from the new TV show rentals. Why would a consumer want to pay Apple 99 cents for an episode when most of the time it is available for free on Hulu? Granted, if you are using Hulu Plus app on your iDevice, you are stuck with a limited ‘Free Gallery”, but the $9 fee (with ads) may be more economical compared to 99 cents an episode.

AirPlay

iTunes 10 also dubs AirTunes to AirPlay. The feature is the same, but Jobs wanted to give AirTunes a new name since more than music will not be able to be transferred through the Air – to your new Apple TV for example. AirPlay is a great alternative to expensive wireless music systems such as Sonos – see our guide on AirPlay in the house here. I love the idea of AirPlay and would like to see what creative ideas consumers will create from AirPlay.

“AirPlay now works without AirPort Express, using speakers, receivers and stereo systems from companies including Bowers & Wilkins, JBL, Denon and iHome…”

Final Thoughts

One of the features that I am most happy about is the improved syncing with my iDevices. In past versions of iTunes I have had to suffer painfully slow backups and syncs. Not to mention, iTunes 10 also includes a new look to the icon, with a music note inside a circle. Also, the interface in iTunes 10 has a new feel, with a redesigned user interface of iTunes 10, it gives the application a slick musical look.

Download iTunes at: www.itunes.com

Let us know, what do you think of iTunes 10?

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iPhone 3G + iOS 4 = ?

Nick — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:30:21 +0000

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How to: Find an iPhone

Nick — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:38:07 +0000

Didn’t pre-order the iPhone 4, but now want one. Here are a few handy ways to feed the iPhone 4 crave.

The Apple Store Online is a safe alternative, but it will take about 3 weeks according to the Apple Store Online. From my conversations with the Apple Retail Stores, they are saying that the reserving in store would be a shorter wait. Note, you do not need to walk in the Apple Retail Store to reserve, you can call; however, reserving means picking the device up in store within 24 hours of receiving the email.

Best buy stores are also an alternative to purchase the iPhone 4. But, from speaking with customers and employees, they do not have a time frame in which you would receive your device. Additionally, from talking to Radio Shack, they do not have the iPhone 4 in stock but can order one for you. But, even Radio Shack claims they do not know when the iPhone would arrive.

All in all, the choice on how you would like to reserve your device is up to you. Personally, I would choose an Apple Retail Store as they tend to have a higher priority on receiving the devices. If possible I would call multiple Apple Retail Stores in the area and reserve the iPhone 4 – it would help increase you chances on receiving the iPhone 4 sooner.

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iPhone 4 Review

Zander — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:09:31 +0000

So as I have officially finished my testing of the iPhone 4, I believe it is time for me to share details about big updates and a few tiny things that were added. So let’s start.

Overall Design

This iPhone is different how Apple broke off from their normal design. They went to something that was completely out of the ordinary for them. They used aluminum the outlining of the phone, which also serves as the antenna. And before I continue, it is true that when you hold your phone the “wrong way” your signal decreases. It is beautifully made, and feels a little different at first, because it is pretty boxy, but like with most Apple products you do seem to get used to it right away.

Retina Screen

The Retina screen truly does make a difference. It is like holding a high-def screen in your pocket, and when Apple said you can’t distinguish pixels they were right. The screen I think has made the biggest difference to me with my iPhone usage so far. It has made games that are updated amazing, and games that haven’t been updated yet, you can really tell they were made for an iPhone 3Gs.(Picture below)

Camera

Next is the camera. I have seen maybe the most changes in here. There is the edition of the flash on the back and an upgrade to 5 megapixel camera, as well as a VGA camera on the front for FaceTime. The video quality is very clean and crisp and I will take a few shots and video to show you the quality.(Pictures at the end of entire article) The camera is definitely to my liking now. It shoots crisp video and pictures and no more of those trying to flip your camera around and take a picture.

Audio

The speaker on the bottom of the iPhone has definitely been updated. Now when I use the speaker for calls it is loud. I have been testing it with music and now I only have to turn it up to about 75% for a good amount of sound. For calls, however, I do find myself turning it all the way up if I am talking to someone who is a little bit quieter.

Internal Changes

One of the best internal changes for me is the A4 chip. It makes the iPhone process so quickly. Now Guitar Hero doesn’t lag up and quit on me anymore. I do find some of my application quitting at random moments still, but I believe that is the application or the OS not the A4 chip.(I will include an update at the bottom if I find the problem) Another addition, is the gyroscope inside the iPhone. I have not seen many apps to take use of this as of yet, but hopefully there will be more as developers keep at it. Of course there is also the standard accelerometer and the same sensors as before. Another addition is a larger lithium-ion battery, but I will go more in depth in the battery section.

Battery

The battery has increased time quite a bit. I have noticed a much longer battery life and it has kept it’s charge so far. I am hoping it will still do well after a couple hundred charges. I have noticed when using the flash on my camera excessively, but that was sort of expected.

Software and OS Changes

There are a lot of changes here so I will number the bigger ones:

Background- The background can now be changed on your home screen as well as your lock screen.
Folders- Group your favorite apps together or group games with games. Folders also have a smart naming feature that help to automatically name the folder.
Multi-tasking- No longer shall you quit an application when you can run it in the background. You can easily return to it by double clicking the home button and clicking on the icon, and it does not slow down your iPhone.
Mail- Now, all your inboxes are combined into one master inbox that includes all of your accounts.
Facetime- You can now video chat(as long as you are on wi-fi of course) using facetime. You can either start it while in call, or while you are looking at your contacts you can click the facetime button with-in a person’s contact card.

You can find all of these with-in the new iPhone 4 and Apple’s new iOS 4.

Finally, the moment you have all been waiting for, those pictures I took, well here you go.

Pictures outside in the courtyard:

Picture with flash:

Picture without flash:

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Apple/Pixar Love Fest

Andrew — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:12:14 +0000

So, you may have noticed that Apple and Pixar are somewhat unofficially associated with one another. Well, that’s because they are. In a sense, they are brother companies. You see, they share a parent: Steve Jobs. After Jobs was booted out of Apple in the 90s, he founded Pixar Animation Studios. If you think about it, the two companies have a lot in common: Both are in the tech category; both have anticipated regular annual release dates (e.g. Apple’s annual iPod updated line, or Pixar’s annual Disney/Pixar major motion picture, such as this year’s Toy Story 3), both have a similar logo style with the white background and simple, familiar picture, both were founded by Jobs, both are highly successful, among many other things such as business styles, etc. Is Steve Jobs not only a tech genius, but also a business genius? I don’t know. But here are some solid examples of the Apple/Pixar love fest:
-Disney Pixar’s Wall-E: the robot’s charging sound is the same as the Mac startup sound
-Apple’s introductions of just about any product with video within the past year have showcased Disney/Pixar’s Up
-In Toy Story 3, the younger sister is shown with an iPod
-In Toy Story 3, the toys clearly use Safari browser on an iMac to map out a route on the Internet
-Many more. . . just search it in Google.

All in all, this whole deal raises the question of how each company benefits from such benefits, and did Jobs plan this? Apple has always had a way with the media. What do you think of this unofficial partnership? Leave a comment below.

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Safari 5?

Andrew — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:58:21 +0000

At the WWDC last Monday, in addition to iPhone 4, Apple released Safari 5. What’s different in Safari 5? At first, it appears that not much is new. . . visually. But, it turns out that Safari now includes some features that may determine the future of surfing the Internet. (By the way, notice how I capitalized the ‘I’ in Internet? That is because Internet is a proper noun, and thus, it is grammatically correct to capitalize it. Yes, it’s true. Weird, but true.) Anyway, what has been supposedly the world’s fastest browser just got faster. That’s one of the non-visual things in Safari 5. The other is better HTML 5 support including full-screen view/closed-captioning for video and geolocation.

Then there are a couple visual things. Let’s see, there is now a tab on Topsites that allows you to quickly switch to full history search mode. And the Google search bar in the upper right corner now works with Yahoo! and Bing as well. Oh, and they brought back to old blue loading bar, which kind of annoys me. But, perhaps most noticeably and importantly, there is a new feature called “Reader.” Reader allows the user to view a ‘quick-look-esque’ enlarged view of an article on a webpage without the clutter of ads and graphics. Safari 5 automatically detects when a webpage has an article and displays an icon in the address bar that says “reader.” If you click on it, you can read the article in a front-and-center view. It’s very nice. For a demonstration, visit the download page to download safari, then revisit this site and continue reading this article in Reader! The other nice thing about Reader is that you can download the article while in Reader mode with the click of a button. Could this type of viewing be the future of Internet surfing?

Well, to conclude, the reason I included a question mark in this article’s title is because I’m not sure if this updated version of Safari deserves its own number. Perhaps Safari 4.5 is more fitting. However it is a worthwhile update and I urge you to download it. After all, it’s free!

What do you think? Leave a comment.

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Apple Releases New Mac Mini

Nick — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:58:55 +0000

Though most hype today may revolve around the ability to pre-order the new iPhone 4, Apple also gave us a new present-a unibody Mac Mini. From comparing the specs of previous models to the newly released unibody Mac Mini, they crush the previous generations and give current line models such as the iMac a run for the money. With the new slick design of the Mac Mini, the model looks extremely stylish and finds it way home to the unibody MacBook Pro. Here are the specs:

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM
320 GB hard drive
$699

or the “server class” Mac Mini:

2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB RAM
Dual 500 GB hard drive
$999

Additionally, the new Mac Mini sports HDMI and an SD card. The new Mac Mini could fit comfortably instead of your current DVR. Could we expect HDMI to come in future updates? Also, unlike previous generations, the RAM is now more easily accessible. Twist the panel from the bottom of the Mac Mini and your good to go.

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