The Real Mac GeniusLearn about the latest generation of the iPad family, iPad Smart Cover, and Steve’s health.
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As many of you may know by now, earlier today Apple confirmed the rising swell of rumors by releasing the iPad 2. Apple boasts that it’s “Thinner. Lighter. Faster.” on its website, but what exactly makes this version of the iPad different from the original iPad model? Well, there are a few major changes that make this new iPad stand out as the best tablet computer on the market.
First, Apple made a new chip specifically for the iPad 2 that they call the A5. This chip has duel-core processors, which translates to double the speed of the first iPad, and 9 times the graphics speed. This allows for amazing games and faster-loading apps. The new chip plus an LED-backlit display translates to amazing graphics for all of your games and movies on the iPad 2, and absolutely no lag, even in graphic intensive games like Infinity Blade, opening the App Store up to even more graphic intensive games than ever possible before. Apple once again revolutionized the market, creating not only the first tablet with a duel-core processor, but also the most beautiful.
Apple also made the iPad 2 33% thinner than the original iPad. This makes it much more portable than the original, and .2 pounds lighter. Reading ebooks at the beach or taking an all-in-one travel companion with you has never been easier!
One of the most expected updates for the iPad 2 was rear and forward-facing cameras, with FaceTime support built in, and Apple didn’t disappoint. With the new 4.3 software update, not only will FaceTime be added, but PhotoBooth, the iPad equivalent of the Mac app, and iMovie for iPad, which allows you to edit the HD videos you take with your iPad camera, will also be added. PhotoBooth looks almost identical to the Mac version, with the same effects that make this app so fun to play with.
Another important update for the iPad 2 is the addition of a gyroscope. This allows the iPad to better track its movement, making games that rely on the accelerometer more accurate and allowing for increased screen-rotation accuracy. If you own the original iPad, you know that it can sometimes be frustrating to lift your iPad up to reorient it when you changed its orientation on a stand, but the gyroscope on the iPad 2 fixes this problem.
Surprisingly, Apple claims that the battery life of the iPad 2 is the same as the original iPad, at 10 hours of standard use. This, to quote Steve Jobs, “legendary” battery life is part of what made the iPad so popular
Apple also announced its own accessory for the iPad 2, dubbed the Smart Cover, that magnetically attaches to the iPad, acting as a cover, stand, screen cleaner, and screen protector, all in one. When the cover is rolled up, it acts as a stand, both in landscape and portrait, while rolled down it covers and protects the iPad screen. The microfiber lining on the inside of the case cleans your screen when you put it on, and the iPad 2 detects when you are rolling the case on and off and responds by waking itself up. The smart cover comes in polyurethane and leather in a variety of colors.
The iPad 2 starts at $499, with the same pricing model for the original iPad. The 3G model will offer a choice between AT&T or Verizon. Smart Covers are sold separately.
*All images are from apple.com
Most Mac users know when you purchase a Mac, it comes with Apple’s own set of bundled software. The software ranges from Mail (Email Client) to iMovie (Movie editing software) and of course iTunes (Media library viewer). The bundled software is a great way for Apple software to be integrated in the end users life. After all, their software is integrated within itself, once you have created a movie in iMovie, send it over to iDVD to burn the DVD or why not send it to iTunes, so you can sync it with the iPad you purchased with your iMac.
But we digress, Mail for the most part has been apart of Mac OS X. It’s the built in email client designed by Apple, and after the release of Snow Leopard, has allowed Microsoft Exchange support. With the ability of Exchange support, it allows Mac OS X users to use their Mac to retrieve and send email hosted through their work, without having to install products such as Microsoft Office for Outlook or Entourage depending on the version. In my opinion, Microsoft Office was created better on the Mac than on Windows.
Let’s dive into Mail 5, Apple announced that the new redesign of their Mail application. If you use Mail on the iPad, it looks very similar. After all, it’s about “The power of the Mac. The magic of the iPad.” The new Mail sports a mail bar with many of the features of the iPad along with full-screen support.
Additionally, Mail brings the concept of “Conversations” to the Mac. Conversations look very similar to the threads that Apple has introduced on the iOS. This looks like a very Gmail inspired feature that I find very helpful, but a times annoying.
What do you think about the new redesign of Mail in Lion? Leave a comment below, stay in the loop, follow us on twitter @realmacgenius!
Today, Apple has released seeds of it’s latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. One of the features of Lion that was not covered in his keynote at WWDC last year was the feature called AirDrop. With AirDrop, you can simply drop files to another user who is using AirDrop – pretty clever.
Send it by air.
With AirDrop in Mac OS X Lion, you can send files to anyone around you – wirelessly. AirDrop doesn’t require setup or special settings. Just click the AirDrop icon in the Finder sidebar, and your Mac automatically discovers other people nearby who are using AirDrop. You’ll even see contact photos for those who are already in your Address Book. To share a file, simply drag it to someone’s name. Once accepted, the file transfers directly to the person’s Downloads folder. When you’re done with AirDrop, close the Finder and your Mac is no longer visible to others.
Apple has just released new App Store policies for in-app subscription sales. With the coming release of iOS 4.3, your iOS device will now be able to support in-app subscription sales, but there is a catch, Apple is asking for in-app subscription companies to pay a 30% fee, just like other in-app purchases. Any titles that involve subscriptions or purchasable content will have to offer an in-app option that cannot be more expensive than anywhere else. This will pose a problem for developers and vendors. They aren’t allowed to provide a link to an outside market for things that can be purchased within an app. In general, that means if I was a developer, I wouldn’t be able to sell an app that directs users to my own website to buy a subscription to my content. I would still be able to sell my subscriptions to customers I found on my own. It is also mandatory to make it possible for users of my app to purchase my subscription content through iTunes if I want to put my app on iTunes. There is also some reason why this is not a bad idea. Apple actually acts as a newsstand when it provides subscription. Apple provides the subscription service, manages the delivery of the content, and acts as a tollbooth by taking 30% of the revenue.
There is also an alternative called the Google Way, which makes content free when it’s placed next to ads. The downside is that the content generator gets a tiny fraction of the minimal ad revenue generated.
A big issue about this is that Apple thinks it is simple that if Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple should receive 30% of the revenue, but if a publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publishers keeps all 100% of the revenue. But can you really say that Apple brought a person to the app if the person decides to search up the app for a subscription because they already knew ahead of time that they wanted to subscribe to that certain company? You can’t really say that Apple brought the customer to that app. Another big issue is that maybe companies will decide to not make an app to begin with anymore. Big companies may decide that they don’t need to provide their service on iOS devices. What will we do now? There are many issues that will arise from this and it would be best to avoid it. I think Apple should rethink their ideas.
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