Tag: apple event

24th April Onwards Apple Watch Will be Available in Nine Countries

While we have known most details about the Apple Watch since Apple’s last major event, the company officially announced the smartwatch today. It is one of the newest entrants in Apple’s ecosystem. Tim Cook, Apple CEO, had earlier announced that we would be able to buy the device sometime in April, we have now been given an exact date for the same.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”Tim Cook” author_title=”Apple’s CEO”]

Apple Watch begins a new chapter in the way we relate to technology and we think our customers are going to love it,

[/quote]

It will be available on 24th April to customers in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US. While 10th April onwards, in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US, Apple Watch will be available for preview, try-on by appointment at Apple’s retail stores, and available for pre-order through the Apple Online Store. Customers who purchase online or in-store from Apple will be offered Personal Setup to customise and pair Apple Watch with their iPhone.

Want to know more about the Apple Watch? Click here.

March 10, 2015
Apple Announces ResearchKit, a Software That Turns iPhones into Powerful Diagnostic Tools

The much-awaited ‘Spring Forward’ event by Apple has finally commenced and before the main highlight of the show, the Cupertino giant made several other important announcements. The CEO of the company Tim Cook took to the stage and recalled the strongly growing iPhone ecosystem. He stated that iPhones will continue to transform every part of our lives through three mediums – CarPlay, HomeKit, and HealthKit.

Today in San Francisco, Apple today announced ResearchKit, an open source software framework designed for medical and health research, helping doctors and scientists gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone apps.

It is made specifically for medical researchers. ResearchKit and HealthKit work hand in hand. Simply put, the ResearchKit turns iPhones and HealthKit into power diagnostic tools.

The University of Rochester together with Sage Bionetworks built mPower, an app that uses ResearchKit to conduct Parkinson’s disease research. It helps iPhone users sign up for studies, which will help further research. Now it’s simple for Parkinson’s patients to take tests and perform tasks and feed the information to researchers.

Apple is releasing ResearchKit next month, and the first five apps will be available from today. The first apps made with ResearchKit target diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and breast cancer.

For more updates, keep checking back this space.

March 10, 2015
Pricing of the New Apple MacBook Revealed for India

Apple today unveiled the all-new MacBook, a new line of notebooks. At just two pounds and 13.1 mm thin – they are their thinnest and lightest Macs ever. The new MacBook features a 12-inch Retina display that is the thinnest ever on a Mac, an Apple-designed full-size keyboard which is dramatically thinner and highly responsive. With this launch, for the first time, MacBook is available in three finishes—gold, silver and space grey.

For India, the MacBook will begin shipping on Friday, 10th April through select Apple Authorised Resellers. The new notebook comes in two variants – one with a 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.4 GHz, 8GB of memory, 256GB of flash storage and Intel HD Graphics 5300. It is priced starting Rs. 99,900.

The second, and the more powerful variant, comes with a 1.2 GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.6GHz, 8GB of memory, 512GB of flash storage and Intel HD Graphics 5300 is priced starting Rs. 119,900.

Stay tuned, more details coming up soon.

March 10, 2015
Apple Outs its Lightest, Thinnest Notebook Ever; Meet the ‘MacBook’

Apple’s Spring Forward event, recently dubbed as the ‘Apple Event’, will soon be renamed the ‘MacBook Event.’ We were looking forward to a slew of major announcements about the Apple Watch, but instead we were introduced to the new MacBook. Yes, that’s the name. It has been simply named ‘MacBook.’

The new notebook, weighs a mere 2 pounds (lightest ever.) It comes with the beautiful retina with edge-to-edge glass covered 12-inch display with a 2304 x 1440 resolution. It’s as thin as 13.1mm thin, compared to 17.3mm of the MacBook Air. It’s 24 percent thinner than the Air, the company mentioned at the event.

The new MacBook has an all-new, full-size keyboard that’s been reengineered from the ground up. One of the most interesting aspects about the newly unveiled device is the fact that it comes with a Force Touch trackpad. Force Touch was introduced with the Apple Watch, it is the mechanism which senses pressure. The Force Touch trackpad has force sensors that detect how much pressure you apply on its surface. So basically, it can tell the difference between a light tap and a deep press.

The keyboard comes with a brand new backlighting system, with every key having its own LED light. It helps the entire keyboard get a uniform glow. Not only does this save space, but it also allows the new MacBook to run in silence. The company claims to have added a new, custom-shaped battery maximizes every millimeter of space, helping the MacBook achieve an all-day battery life.

Another first from the company, it has used USB-C a third the size of a standard USB cable (more on that later.) The Macbook comes in two variants, 256GB (1.2GHz Intel Core M) priced at $1299 and the second configuration for $1599 features the 12-inch Retina display, 1.2GHz Intel Core M, Intel HD Graphics 5300, 8GB memory, and 512GB of flash storage.

The MacBook starts shipping on 10th April 2015.

March 9, 2015
Apple Brings Out the iPad Mini 3 with Touch ID for $399

Apple has confirmed the third generation iPad Mini featuring the new Touch ID fingerprint sensor during an event at its Cupertino headquarters. The device is identical to the latest 7.9-inch tablet and the iPad Mini with Retina Display that was unveiled last year. Apart from the Touch ID, it has the same Retina display with an aluminum coating at the back and will be available in gold, gray and silver colour variants.

It features a 5 megapixel iSight camera and a FaceTime HD camera and carries iOS 8 features such as time-lapse and panorama. This iPad features dual microphones, on the front and back. Instinctively, when you switch cameras from front to back (or vice versa), the microphones switch, too. iPad mini 3 promises lightning-quick Wi-Fi performance using its two antennas and MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology. With dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and MIMO, download speeds can reach up to 300 Mbps.

It starts at $399 (Rs. 24,574 approx.) for 16GB in Wi-Fi only, while the 128GB + LTE model will cost $729. Pre-orders start tomorrow and shipping starts by the end of next week. Meanwhile, the previous generation iPad mini with Retina display — now called the iPad Mini 2 has received a price cut and can now be bought for as low as $299.

October 17, 2014
It’s Official! The 27-inch iMac with ‘5K’ Retina Display is Here

At a mega event held in Cupertino Apple finally unveiled the long awaited its 27-inch Retina iMac. The event carried several announcements; the company announced the date of the Apple Pay launch, the revealed the new upgraded iPads and finally, then showcased the ‘World’s Highest Resolution Display.’

The Retina iMac features a 5K display, has new Operating System Yosemite, which includes aesthetic changes along with new functionality. This next generation Operating System has enhanced sync abilities with iOS devices.

The new iMac features a 27-inch display with 5210×2880 pixels resolution, which is 14.7 million pixels, which according to Apple, “Is the world’s highest-resolution display”. Seven times more pixels than a Full HD TV, 67 per cent more pixels than 4k. The display is only 5mm thin at the edge. The Oxide TF and a new low-power backlight helps it use 30% less energy despite the large display and heavy resolution.

The base model runs on a 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics card, has 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB Fusion drive. The iMacs are priced starting $2499 (Rs. 1,53,913 approx).

October 17, 2014
Apple Unveils the Super Skinny iPad Air 2

It has been a year since the launch of the iPad Air, and now Apple has finally pulled the curtains on the long awaited iPad Air 2 at an event tonight at its Cupertino headquarters.

The new refreshed Air is 18 per cent thinner with a thickness of just 6.1 mm. As expected, it is powered by the new Intel A8x Chip, a 2nd gen 64 bit architecture, which is 12 times faster than the current one. Apple claims that graphics performance of the new iPad Air 2 is 180 times faster, which gives console like gaming experience on the iPad Air 2.

The tablets will feature a fingerprint scanner similar to the one found in the latest iPhones. The sensor enables people to use a fingerprint instead of a passcode to unlock the device, and also can be used to make purchases using Apple Pay.

The new iPad Air 2 houses the 8MP iSight camera on the back with a f/2.4 aperture and supports HD video recording. Along with that there is a front camera which features a new face time HD cam, burst selfie, slo-mo and more. In terms of connectivity it offers faster WiFi, better LTE connectivity of upto 150 Mbps. It can provide a battery back-up of upto 10 hours once fully charged.

The iPad Air 2 runs on the latest iOS 8.1 and features a LCD layer on the display along with an anti reflective coating, reducing reflection by upto 56 per cent. The iPads are priced starting $499 (16GB). The 64GB version is available for $599 and the 128GB for $699.

October 16, 2014
Apple Event : Yosemite to be Available from Today and iOS 8.1 from Monday.

Taking continuity to the next level. Apple definitely is the first company to benefit from this because of its enormous hardware ecosystem. OS X Yosemite is the upcoming eleventh major release of OS X, Apple Inc.’s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers and it will be available from today. It can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for Free.

Yosemite gives you mirrored access across all Apple platforms for instant access. For example, the iPad recognizes what you’ve been working on and prompts you about it. You can stop working on the Mac, pick up your iPad and start working on your project right way without a second of lag. There is no need for third party apps. There is no need to open a cloud app and download the file, it’s always there.

Along with Yosemite, Apple is bring out the updated version of iOS. They’ve spent time and effort taking in user feedback and have updated the problem-prone update. iOS 8.1 brings the Camera Roll and iCloud Photo Library in beta, a feature that allows you to store all of your photos from all your devices in the cloud.

October 16, 2014
Everything You Need to Know About the Apple Watch

We had been waiting for the elusive Apple Watch to appear on Tim Cook’s wrist for a long long time. The day is finally here and we have to admit, it has been one of Apple’s most well-kept secret. At the massive Apple event held in Cupertino California, the audience couldn’t contain their excitement and stood up to greet Apple’s newest innovation. On the other hand, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, managed to patiently walk the audience through a few of the exciting features of this insane device (he promised there was much more.)

The Apple Watch will be priced at $349 and will be available by early 2015. It will come in three variations – Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and the Apple Watch Edition. The wearable will be compatible with iPhone 5, 5S, 5C, 6 and 6 Plus. We’re glad Apple decided against forcing people to invest in the newly released iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Here are some things that you should know about the Apple Watch:

Personalised Interface and The Digital Crown

The company assured the audience that they’ve haven’t simply decreased the size of the iPhone to put it on your wrist. They spent time and effort to make sure the interface was made-to-fit. For this, they’ve developed the very useful ‘Digital Crown’. The company compared it to the revolutionary mouse, iPod’s click wheel and the much more recent, multi-touch screens. Instead of using pinch-and-view touch screen, which would inevitably crowd the screen, the Digital Crown will help navigate through the interface better. It sits neatly on the right side of the watch face, helping users scroll through the screen without blocking it.

Apple has also made the effort to provide a wide-variety of Watchfaces. Once you force touch the homescreeen, it instantly gives you options to change the style. Again, you can switch and check out different options using the crown. The Apple Watch uses a unique charging system, which doesn’t require alignment or exposed contact to charge.

Design

Since you would wear the Apple Watch everyday, all the time, the company decided to make sure it suits everybody’s style. The Apple Watch will be available in six designs. The watch comes with a mechanism which would make it super easy to switch between the straps. Picture this: if you have a suave leather strap on for an important meeting, before stepping into the gym you can make a quick switch to the sport-friendly band.

The straps include a sport band, soft quilted leather and stainless steel options. And since one size does not fit all, Apple has also developed smaller sizes.

Next-Level Communication

Apple promises that the person sitting next to you would not be able to tell that you’ve received a notification. The notification buzz will simply gives the effect as if someone is tapping you lightly on your wrist. You can customise the apps which you’d like notifications from. It will the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi from the iPhone for all communication purposes. The built-in speaker phone and microphone can be used to receive calls and use the built-in Siri. With a simple tap on the digital crown, Siri can be activated.

One of the coolest features, the Apple Watch reads and analyses your texts. Uses that information to give you options of short then gives you Smart Replies.

Using the same NFC technology, which was also introduced on the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, you make short and direct payment. They’ve already roped in several partners in the US, where payments can be made with a quick touch. Apple now would like to replace credit cards and reduce the bulk from your wallets.

Focus On Fitness

Health and Fitness has always been an important arena for Apple. This Watch promises to take over and take it to a whole new level. Instead of simply tracking daily activities, the watch will actually encourage you to be more active. It has two key apps for this; the first will map your fitness activity through the day, while the second and the more important one, will help you set goals and then help you achieve them. It takes it a step further. The Apple Watch would like us to sit less, move more and get some exercise.

It’ll help set goals according to the number of calories needed to burn, distance you’d like to achieve or the number of minutes spent exercising. These apps will take the extra effort to get to know you better, according to which it will then sent personal reminders to make sure you take care of your health. It will then share this data with third-party apps. Speaking of which..

Third Party Apps

Apple has already experimented with a few third-party apps. Developers will be able to create custom notifications for the home screen. For example, the City Mapper will remind you to get off at the right station, the BMW app will direct you to where you would’ve parked your car and the Nike app will allow you to challenge your friends to go for a run.

September 10, 2014