Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced a new Apple TV with 1080p capabilities. The new Apple TV interface now looks more like the iOS. iTunes movie and video rentals have also been updated to add to the higher resolution formats.
Category: Apple
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Apple iOS 5.1 goes live today
A very convenient time to announce new OS updates, at the next gen iPad launch. Apple CEO Tim Cook has just announced that iOS 5.1 is going live today. It will bring Japanese language support for Siri. The update is available today and will be rolling out in Japan over the next few weeks.
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Tim Cook : 76 percent of Apple Revenue comes from iPhone, iPod and iPad
Al the launch event of the next generation iPad, Apple CEO Tim Cook has just declared that about 76% of Apple 2011 revenues came from the “three post PC products”. The iPhone, the iPod and the iPad made up for most of their income streams. Lets see what the iPad 3 does for the company.
“iPhone, iPad, iPod touch are all based on iOS and we have now sold an astonishing 315 million ?devices through last year, 62 million in Q4 2011.”- Tim Cook
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The next iPad is coming what features do you want?
With just hours from the launch of Apple’s next-gen iPad, what features do you want Apple to include?
We for one would like the following
- Higher Resolution Screen
- Higher Resolution Cameras
- More gestures in iOS
Whats on your list of features you would like to see on the iPad 3, and what do you think the name will be : Apple iPad HD, Apple iPad 3 or Simply iPad 2S
drop in a comment!
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Apple wins Injunction against Motorola in Germany
The Munich I Regional Court handed down a decision awarding Apple an injunction against all Motorola devices for Apple’s patent on “portable electronic device[s] for photo management.” According to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller, there is a chance that Apple could choose to enforce the ban, which could require Motorola to destroy all existing products that violate the claim.
“Today’s ruling in Munich, Germany on the patent litigation brought by Apple concerns a software feature associated with performing certain functions when viewing photos in a ‘zoomed in’ mode on mobile devices. We note that the Court ruled that performing the functions in a ‘zoomed out’ mode does not infringe on this patent. We expect no impact to supply or future sales as we have already implemented a new way to view photos on our products that does not interfere with the user experience.”
-Motorola
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Apple Invitations start rolling out – iPad 3 confirmed for March 7th
Apple has issued invitations for the the release of their next tablet supposedly called the iPad 3 ( or iPad 2s, knowing Apple) . This also confirms earlier rumors that the Apple iPad 3 will launch on the 7th of March. Looking at the invitation it is easy to make out that it is an invite for the iPad 3 as well as the fact that the resolution of the icon in the image is much better than the resolution of icons on the current iPad, which could possibly mean that the rumors of the new high res display may also be true.
It will take place on Wednesday, March 7th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. And Apple says on the invite : “We have something you really have to see. And touch”.
Expect updates as the event unfolds.
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Apple is designing better water damage sensors, shows new patent
Apple’s endless patent applications have yet another addition. A new water damage sensor, that will help Apple avoid being misused for their warranties. A new patent application uncovered by AppleInsider imagines an Apple portable device that detects water damage using a sensor covered in water soluble conductive glue that, when dissolved, allows the sensor to detect its absence and log damage. Currently all iDevices use soluble stickers that turn color when wet. Apple hopes to install several of these inside your iDevice to ensure accurate water damage sensing.
No more pool parties with your iDevices.
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EDIT : 2012 Another Year of the iPad
Its been 2 years since Steve Jobs got up on stage with a device that would change the way we look at portable computing forever. Since it launch, the iPad has held the crown as the most loved Tablet, with multimillion units sold each quarter. Now with the iPad 3, around the corner one can only wonder if Apple will continue to hold the lead over the competition. A kind of competition that never hindered them, there has been no real problem for Apple except the launch of the Amazon Kindle, but thats a story for another day.
Lets look at why we feel the iPad 3, if keeps up with claims, will be another tablet of the year.
Build and Form Factor
Since the beginning the iPad has been the only tablet in a unibody aluminum shell, the sheer feel of the tablet exudes to the effect of a premium device. Slim and well weighted the tablet is robust in construction and not easily destroyed, especially if you take care of the 9.7 inch display in front which can be extremely fragile.
The iPad was a wonderful device to hold in the hand, typing was easy – better in portrait and possible in landscape, it was not the most comfortable device to hold single handedly. The iPad 2 changed that completely, with a newer design that fit better, was lighter and had improvements to software which also made single hand operation easy ( gestures).
The iPad 3 is supposedly going to be built on the same platform as the iPad 2 with a small thickness increase, something that will not bother the buyer.
OS and Apps
When the original iPad was launched people called it an oversized iPod touch, possibly because the iOS was the same iOS as on an iPhone or iPod touch. Things have changed since then and Apple has added a bucket load of goodies to make the OS more a powerhouse for the best selling tablet. The OS is streamlined to make the iPad a pseudo-personal computer, with iCloud – data handling and synchronization has never been easier.
iOS for iPad also has better custom apps including professional creative apps from companies like Adobe, including Photoshop, Office apps from Apple themselves: iWork with pages, keynote and numbers for easy as pie office documentation.
Customizations to the OS, like a split keyboard and gesture navigation, make it really easy to use the tablet and no other company has been able to replicate the process in an easy streamlined manner.
The iOS platform also has the largest number of Apps on a mobile OS platform, with mostly all apps compatible with the iPad the entertainment and quality of games on the iPad still remains unmatched.
The iPad 3 is said to feature a major OS upgrades for the tablet including a main feature that is Siri on the iPad, which is already possible if you own a jailbroken iPad, but an official version will be well accepted and appreciated.
Hardware
The new iPad 3 is supposedly coming with a bumped up processor(A6 or the rumored A5X), which is supposedly carrying a new quad core processor with an advanced GPU, which will -or should improve performance by atleast 10 times. The new display will be a retina display (246 ppi : not true retina) with a double resolution ( 2048 x 1536 px) compared to the existing iPad /iPad 2, which will not only improve the media quality on the iPad, but also make it an excellent Book Reader, especially considering the new iBooks upgrade.
There are also claims of a network capability boost in the iPad 3, where some rumors point to a 4G/ LTE equipped iPad chipset, others claim that it will be a unified global device capable of CDMA/GSM network capabilities in the same device.
Apart from the above obvious upgrades, speculations of more ram and upgraded camera optics along with better speakers are also in the mix. So expect HD FaceTime and better speakers for your iPad 3s.
Games and Apps will perform better and open faster, seamless integration with iCloud will sync all your devices and keep them up to date. Apple may also bump to storage capacities to a possible 128 GB iPad.
Availability
The industry is buzzing with news of the iPad 3s release date, almost everyone claims that its going to be announced on the 7th of March 2012 with availability within 2 weeks.
Conclusion
Arguably, the iPad is not the best tablet in the market, but truly its the only one that has sold units in numbers close to PC sales. The Apple ecosystem developed by iOS – iCloud and Mac OS make it an Apple owners delight, somethings are just better on the iPad. Agreed Android offers more flexibility but the platform is still very fragmented. Even with ICS, android is laggy and the overall interface is not nearly as smooth as iOS.
If Amazon does come out with a 10 inch tablet, you can expect it to eat heavily into Apple’s share of the profit pie, only because Amazon will price it aggressively. Windows 8 / Windows Phone Apollo Tabs could also be another factor ( if ever released) .
Unless something truly unique is outed by manufacturers ( possibly a 10 inch Galaxy Note) no one will be able to bother Apple iPad sales, and the new iPad 3 will continue to lead the way through 2012.
What do you think?
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Apple granted injunction in German patent suit against Motorola
Apple has been granted an injunction in the patent suit against Motorola at the German court. The case originally focused on three separate applications of this gesture tech two for phones and one for Tablets, but for now, the one used on the Xoom has been deemed outside of Apple’s purview. This win could cause a further blow to Moto’s already dying numbers. Apple has been in the front race this past year for their Patent wars on a number of handset manufacturers.
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Messages Beta available for Mac OS X Lion
If you heard about the recent launch of the new OS X Mountain Lion from Apple, you would have heard of their iMessage client for Mac – messages. The folks at cupertino have seeded a beta download for all those on Mac Lion to preview and test out the upcoming Messages on OS X Mountain Lion. Hit the link below to begin the download if you are already on Lion.
[Apple]
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Apple developers get Mac OS X Mountain Lion downloads
If you continue to stay on the Apple Developer program then you can have yourself a developer preview download of the new exciting Mac OS X Lion. The new versions of Reminders , messages , gatekeeper, Notification center and iCloud and sharing capabilities can be experienced in this preview. Hit the link below to sign into your member area and begin the download.
[Apple]
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Apple shows off OS X Mountain Lion
Apple has already begun the next update cycle of the OS X platform with just over a year ago Apple unleashed OS X Lion on Mac owners. This time around the number is bumped to 10.8 and the name to Mountain Lion. The overall outlook of the OS remains the same with more integrations and basic app changes in tow.
The biggest add-on for the OS has to be the Notification centre that has been inspired from the iOS notification centre.
Notification Centre.
The spotlight icon on the far top right of the screen is replaced with a circle with a dot in the centre, which lights up when you receive a message or a notification even a calendar reminder.
Messages
The other major release in OS X mountain lain will be the replacement of iChat with messages, which will allow you to message all iOS devices on iMessage and other macs on Messages. Using the service, you can send messages, documents, HD videos and photos (up to 100MB apiece) to one person or several, using phone numbers or email addresses as points of contact. Messages on Mac still incorporates chat services like AIM and GChat. Messages sent through the service are encrypted, and the app also uses a notification to let you know when messages have been delivered / read.
Reminders
The next cool thing of our liking that has been ported from iOS to Mac is Reminders. For those who don’t know , this is more of a glorified to-do list. It will sync with iOS reminders keeping the seamless architecture intact.
Notes
Another addition to the Mac OS X Mountain Lion is the Notes app, which not only completely resembles the on on iOS but also syncs up with all your devices and email addresses via iCloud.
Apple has added deeper integration of iCloud on Mountain Lion, allowing users to sync up and back up more data, also allowing seamless interconnectivity with all other Apple devices owned by a user. The other additions to Lion include Airplay mirroring, integrated Game center and included sharing – allowing you to instantly share content from your desktop via email, message, AirDrop and third-party services like Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo.
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Apple vs Samsung Heats up : new complaint : 17 devices infringe 8 patents.
With the old lawsuit not yet over, Apple has filed a new complaint that attack 18 new Samsung devices. According to Apple the devices infringe 8 patents that are currently owned by Apple. Four of the patents in question having been granted since the last time Apple filed suit against the Korean firm including missed call management, slide-to-unlock and data-syncing technology.
The devices infringing the patent include the new Galaxy Nexus along with all variants of the Galaxy SII, Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Galaxy Tab 8.9.
Looks like this battle is going to be a never ending one, or at least till cupertino gets some korean slaves in its undertone.
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Hong Kong Court clears Apple in the Name Dispute
The Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in the Proview Technology vs Apple case, the former owns the iPad name in China. Apple claims that a Hong Kong court has sided with it in a similar battle
“Apple bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago, Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple.”
Proview’s lawyer said that the court ruled that the trademark couldn’t be sold to a third party before hearing ends, meaning that it has no real affect on the dispute in China. Its like one way or another Apple is surrounded by Lawsuits.
