Monday, June 9, 2008
WWDC Announcements 3G iPhone & Mobile Me
iPhone:
The iPhone 3G will be available July 11th in 22 countries for $199 for 8 GB and $299 for 16 GB.
New Features:
-3G-capable
-GPS
-2.0 Software( App store, Microsoft Exchange, new calculator, ect)
-Thinner in some parts thicker in others (Tapers like Macbook Air)
-Comes in White & Black (White is only an option on the 16gb model)
-Lighter
-flush headphone jack and improved Audio
-Better battery life: 5 hours talk time on 3G 10 hours on 2G, 300 hours stand buy time, 5 hours of internet use on 3G and 6 hours on Wifi, 7 hours of video playback, and 24 hours of Audio playback.
Things to note:
-Dose not come with a dock like previous generations
-Comes with new mini wall charger
-Plastic back might be more prone to scratches and finger prints
-No front facing camera, only rear facing like previous (2.0 megapixel)
Mobile me:
-Push Email
-Push calendar
-Push contacts
-Synchronization between iPhone, Mac and PC (Outlook for Windows integration)
-Desktopish Web Applications for Mail/Contacts/Calendar/photo gallery/ iDisk /
-Individual membership comes with 20GB storage
-Family membership comes with 40gb of storage
My Thoughts:
I personally can not wait for the new iPhone to launch here in Canada i am fairly certain that i will be lining up to get one on launch (unless my contract holds me back). I like the new look of the iPhone but the new black back is probably prone to scratches and finger prints more than that of the previous generations aluminum backside. One confusing thing about the new iPhone is that it comes in white as well.. it doesn't make sense to me with Apples new design direction. Overall im impressed an excited for the new iPhone as well as Mobile me but, i still think that .Macs replacements price is too high for what you get.
Images and information from Apple
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Movies finaly avalable on iTues for Canada!
Apple has announced that Movies are now available for both rental and purchase on the Canadian iTunes store; now i have another reason to finally get an Apple TV. If you rent you have up to 30 days to start watching it,when you start a movie you get 48 hours to finish it.
$9.99 catalog title purchases
$14.99 for recent releases
$19.99 for new releases.
Rentals are $3.99 for library titles a
$4.99 for new releases
HD is one loonie more (Apparently only avalable through Apple TV)
Quote from Apple:
“Canadians have made iTunes the most popular place to find and buy music and TV shows online,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re thrilled to give iTunes customers access to over 1,200 movies from major studios to rent or purchase, whether to enjoy at home on their widescreen TV with Apple TV or on-the-go on their iPod.”
Saturday, May 24, 2008
New Apple Retail Store in Vancouver Overview
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Vancouver B.C. Apple store Opening! May 24, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Apple spills the beans on new Macbook?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Leopard Tip: How to Setup Time Machine
Step 1: Connect your back-up drive of choice (must be at least the size of your internal drive)
Step 2: Launch the Time Machine application in either your dock or application folder if it did not launch automatically.
Step 3: Slide the Off button to On, and choose where and when you want to backup your files.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
iPhone Finally Coming To Canada!!!!
It is about dam time, i have waited ages for the iPhone to finally drop in Canada. Rogers has officially announced that the iPhone will be coming to Canada later this year! I no i will be lining up on launch day :D
Official statement from Rogers:
TORONTO, April 29 /CNW/ - Ted Rogers, President and Chief Executive
Officer of Rogers Communications Inc. today issued the following statement:
We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the
iPhone to Canada later this year. We can't tell you any more about it right
now, but stay tuned.
Monday, April 28, 2008
iMac updated to faster Intel Processors
Apple Updated the iMac with a processor bump today; the new Intel chips have 6mb of L2 cache and a 1066 MHz front-side bus.
Specs for the latest models are as follows:
20", 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128MB. $1199
20", 2.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 256MB, $1499
24", 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 256MB, $1799
24", 3.06GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS 512MB, $2199
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Apple brings home the bacon
Apple officially announced its profits for the second quarter which ended March 29, 2008. Today Apple achieved a revenue of $7.51 billion dollars! Read below for official details from Apples site.
P.S. I'm taking a short brake this week to make adjustments to the blog, it will be up and running regularly on monday.
(CUPERTINO, California—April 23, 2008—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 second quarter ended March 29, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 32.9 percent, down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10,644,000 iPods during the quarter, representing one percent unit growth and eight percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 1,703,000.
“We’re delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over $17 billion in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters.”
“We’re thrilled to have generated $4 billion in cash flow from operations in the first half of fiscal 2008, yielding an ending cash balance of $19.4 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00.”)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Leopard Tip, how to customize Stacks
One of the annoyances with stacks is that the top most document/application icon appears and shows all of them clumped together, in my opinion it looks ugly and disorganized. A simple way to solve this problem is to download a set of icons provided by Optica Optima. The download adds a drawer like image to your stacks; When you do this you create an elegant and organized solution.
Step 1: create a stack if you haven't already, all you have to do is drag and drop the folder that you want to become a stack into the right side of your dock.
Step 2: Download and unzip the package
Step 3: Drag the the icon you want to its corresponding stack
Its as simple as that, enjoy your beautified stacks :D
Monday, April 21, 2008
iPhone coming to Italy!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Apple continues to force Safari on Windows users
Apple has made some changes to there safari update via iTunes, since it has had some major criticisms. The prior update placed safari with the iTunes update so windows users wold think its an update. The new download manager separates the two in sections "updates" and "new software". I personally think Apple shouldn't force downloads on people to gain safaris market share, if safari is the superior browser people will download it on there own.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
New Aluminum Macbook and Macbook pros leaked?
Today a Macrumors reader came across a sketchy .Mac web site and forwarded it to them. The page has "promotional" images of Apple products and some were ones that haven't been released (the new Macbook, Macbook pro and iTunes 8)
Update: it appears that the images are indeed fan made, but that does not explain how the email was from an Apple owned account :O something seams fishy...
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Safari update 3.1.1 now avalabe, recomended for all users
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT upgrade kit released!
Apple released a new graphics upgrade kit today, the kit is the $279 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (first generation) The new Graphics upgrade offers 512mb of dedicated memory, PCI Express interface, and has two dual link DVI ports. Apple says "Requires Mac Pro (bus speed 1.33GHz) with PCI-Express Includes a DVI to VGA connector for easy connection to VGA-based displays. Note to owners of Mac Pro (early 2008): Please select the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (early 2008) Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro."
Monday, April 14, 2008
Psystar comes out with Headless Mac
Psystar has announced an $399 PC called "Open Mac" they claim that it is a leopard compatible mac built from PC parts. The $399 price tag gets you a 2.2GHz intel core 2 duo, with 2gb of ram, integrated intel GMA 900 Graphics, 20x DVD drive, 4 usb ports, and a 250GB 7200RPM drive.
Robert from Psystar says that they are not doing anything wrong or illegal..."Psystar believes Apple's prohibition against third-party installations might not hold up in court: What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you could only drive it on the roads they said you could? We're not breaking any laws,"
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Nike+ coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch
Friday, April 11, 2008
Pro Applications Update
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Adobe Media Player for Mac
Adobe launched an new media player today which offers free content that is ad-suppoted. Adobe said that it will have payment systems in the near future for rentals and purchases. The Adobe Media Player supports FLV, h.264, and HD content (1080p, 720p) It is said that this content is to be DRM free when downloads are available. I have tried it out my self and its pretty slick so far look for a review soon.
Adobe Media Player
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
iPhone build v2.0 brings contact search and meeting invite folder
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Firmware update time
Today Apple released firmware updates for the Macbook Air, Macbook, Macbook pro, and iMac.
Apple says
"This update fixes several issues to improve the stability of [MacBook Air. Macbook, MacBook Pro, iMac] computers."
There is also an Aluminum keyboard firmware update available for download
"This firmware update addresses an issue with the aluminum Apple Keyboard and the aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing." The update is available through software update.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Apple notebooks are about to see Major Design changes
Appleinsider claims that the current Macbook and Macbook Pros are about to go through a "major" design change. The Macbook family is said to adopt the same look as the Macbook Air being both more economically friendly and lighter/thinner. Those who hate the black keyboard might want to stay away, since this keyboard is likely coming to the new Apple notebooks. The new Macbook's are rumored to launch in June with the Montevina chipset, which are said to have a faster front-side bus (1066MHz) and processor speeds of (2.26-3.06GHz).
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Images of the 3G iPhone appear
Apparently the next generation iPhone will have a shiny black back instead of the aluminum one it had before... Some images of the next generation iPhone are popping up all over the web, although this could very well be a custom colorware iPhone it also might not. I personally like the aluminum it has now and think the shiny black plastic makes it look cheep what are your thoughts?
Saturday, April 5, 2008
3G iPhone coming in 60 days?
Walt Mossberg says that there will be an iPhone with 3G in about 60 days, since Mossberg usually gets Apple products ahead of time to review them.. he possibly might all ready have one, or one is coming for him to review in 60 days.
9to5mac reports
On another note i will be back on track to blog regularly now since i am no longer sick, luckily not too much Apple news has been dropped or rumored this week. I look forward to get back into the swing of things tomorrow.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Mac OS X 10.5.3 (9d10) seeded to developers
Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.3 (9d10) to developers yesterday, this update addresses multiple issues with dashboard, parental controls, iCal syncing, memory leeks and stability problems. The parental controls are in dire need of fixing in fact some of the settings do not even work at all, like time limits and website restrictions, hopefully this seed will improve there stability issues.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Asus Eee PC 900 is a Macbook Air wannabe
The manual of the new Asus Eee PC 900 reveals a Macbook Air style trackpad, no GPS or Touch screen as previous rumors suggested. Will Asus be able to create the smooth feel of the Apple trackpad or will it be just a cheep nock off? Although this might be bad news for Apple its good news for consumers because, this means that multi-touch will probably be mainstream and will be offer by other companies other than Apple.
3G iPhone coming in a few months?
Ken Dulaney claims that he has herd from "sources in Asia" that Apple has already ordered 10 million 3G iPhones. Some other feature that are said to make it into this version of the iPhone are an OLED display which would improve battery life, and a camera on the front for video calling. This version of the iPhone is said to drop in a few months, so hold of on buying one if you can.
Monday, March 24, 2008
John Mayer reports a Bug to Apple :P
John Mayer reports a bug to Apple read on to find out what happened its actually quite funny.
"From time to time, I ask my Mac to do a few too many things at once and an application locks up on me. When it does, it asks me if I'd like to report the incident to Apple. It always strikes me as unnecessary, like filing an insurance claim on a fender bender that doesn't leave any damage. "I don't see any reason to make this harder on us", I say. Lately, though, I've been wondering what would happen if I did file a report, and it is out of sheer curiosity that I decided to click on the blue button instead of the white one..I'll let you know if I get a response from anyone at Apple. I wonder if somebody on the other side is really going to read it ... I can hear it now, the squeak of a chair pushing away from a desk as a man grinds his cigarette into an ashtray, stands up waving a printout over his head and screams "WE GOT AN iTUNES CRASH OVER HEEAH!!!" Because in my mind everything looks like a '60s era spy movie.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Mac Mini to be reworked?
Apparently there is a small team of engineers that have been working on the Mac Mini, and giving it a new lease on life. Some of the changes include processors from 2.1GHz with 3MB of L2 cache and 800MHz front side bus. The new Mac mini is said to have the same internal graphics card as the current Macbook lineup.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Adobe will bring Flash to the iPhone
Adobe is developing a flash player for the iPhone, however it is almost impossible with the current SDK because you cannot create plugins. Though there is an option that does seam most likely if Apple doesn't allow a flash plugin for Safari. Adobe would just have to develop a standalone flash player just like quicktime.
Subscription based iTunes service
Monday, March 17, 2008
iPhone flip phone patent
Apple updated the AirPort Express
Saturday, March 15, 2008
iPhone in Austria
Apple and T-Mobile are now selling the iPhone in Austria. The iPhone will be 399 euro for the 8GB and 499 euro for the 16GB. Apple said that they plan to launch the iPhone in Asia and other European countries in 2008.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
WWDC Date Announced
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
iPhone SDK downloads/My 50th Post!
Apple has said that Over 100,000 iPhone SDK downloads have taken place over the span of only 6 days, and over 1 million people have watched the launch video on the Apple website. This shows that there is great interest in the iPhone SDK, and when the applications are released will obviously provide a huge leap in iPhone sales. At the present moment this is my 50th post on Aluminum & Glass, i am looking forward to manny more posts in the future :D Thanks for reading and i hope you have been enjoying my Blog Thus far.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
New Mac Pro Software Update available
Apple pushed out an update for Mac Pro owners today, this includes the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Firmware update and an Airport Utility update. The firmware update of the ATI Radeon HD improves system reliability and meats the latest energy star requirements. The Airport Utility update also improves system reliability, but also has other general bug fixes.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Lionsgate will soon be offering an iTunes digital copy of their films.
Not only Fox will be offering the free iPod/iTunes ready digital with some of there DVD and Blu-Ray films, now Lionsgate is joining the party. In order to copy the film to iTunes you will need to use a code found within the movie case. Officially the first two movies to come bundled with this are Rambo and The Eye, they will be available for purchase around summer.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Java coming to iPhone
Sun Announced that they are getting ready a virtual machine to let Java applications run on the iPhone. The version of Java that will be native on the iPhone thanks to the SDK will be based on the Java micro edition (ME). This will let the iPhone run a huge library of existing java applications such as games from EA, Gameloft, and Omnigroup.
"We're going to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible,"
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Penryn iMac and Mac Mini updates soon?
Macscoop reported that apple is to start shipping the 45nm Penryn chip in the iMac and the Mac Mini. They also speculated that the Mac Mini will be upgraded to the GMA3100 graphics chipset which is currently used in the latest Macbook's. Even thought they also reported that Apple is trying to make the iMac even thinner, this update is likely not to be cosmetic.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
iPhone/ iPod Touch Games
The iPhone/iPod Touch are getting multi-touch games and they take advantage of everything the devices have to offer. EA and Sega are developing games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Some games that were demoed included Spore and Super Monkey Ball, each will be complete games and have full featured levels and neat gameplay. Since the iPhone and iPod touch don't have buttons you play by using the accelerometer providing a "Wii" like gameplay.
App Store
iPhone/ iPod Touch SDK
CUPERTINO, Calif., March 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple(R) today previewed its iPhone(TM) 2.0 software, scheduled for release this June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers. The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks.
"We're excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iPhone's enterprise features combined with its revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface and advanced software architecture provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform ever for a mobile device."
The iPhone SDK provides developers with a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools to create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod(R) touch. Starting today, anyone can download the beta iPhone SDK for free and run the iPhone Simulator on their Mac(R). Apple today also introduced its new iPhone Developer Program, giving developers everything they need to create native applications, and the new App Store, a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod touch users.
With the iPhone SDK, third party developers will be able to build native applications for the iPhone with a rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies. The iPhone SDK will allow developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone's groundbreaking Multi-Touch(TM) user interface, animation technology, large storage, built-in three-axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.
Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft and is building it right into the iPhone, so that iPhone will connect out-of-the-box to Microsoft Exchange Servers 2003 and 2007 for secure over-the-air push email, contacts, calendars and global address lists. Built-in Exchange ActiveSync support also enables security features such as remote wipe, password policies and auto-discovery. The iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPsec VPN to ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption available for transmission of sensitive corporate data, as well as the ability to authenticate using digital certificates or password-based, multi-factor authentication. The addition of WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x authentication enables enterprise customers to deploy iPhone and iPod touch with the latest standards for protection of Wi-Fi networks.
The iPhone 2.0 software provides a configuration utility that allows IT administrators to easily and quickly set up many iPhones, including password policies, VPN setting, installing certificates, email server settings and more. Once the configuration is defined it can be easily and securely delivered via web link or email to the user. To install, all the user has to do is authenticate with a user ID or password, download the configuration and tap install. Once installed, the user will have access to all their corporate IT services.
The iPhone 2.0 software release will contain the App Store, a new application that lets users browse, search, purchase and wirelessly download third party applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch. The App Store enables developers to reach every iPhone and iPod touch user. Developers set the price for their applications -- including free -- and retain 70 percent of all sales revenues. Users can download free applications at no charge to either the user or developer, or purchase priced applications with just one click. Enterprise customers will be able to create a secure, private page on the App Store accessible only by their employees. Apple will cover all credit card, web hosting, infrastructure and DRM costs associated with offering applications on the App Store. Third party iPhone and iPod touch applications must be approved by Apple and will be available exclusively through the App Store.
The iPhone SDK provides a reliable, fast and secure way to create innovative applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. In addition to the rich set of iPhone OS APIs, the iPhone SDK also provides advanced tools for creating native iPhone and iPod touch applications including: Xcode(R) for source code editing, project management and graphical debugging; Interface Builder with drag and drop interface creation and live preview; Instruments to monitor and optimize iPhone application performance in real time; and the iPhone Simulator to run and debug applications.
During the beta iPhone SDK program, a limited number of developers will be accepted into Apple's new iPhone Developer Program and offered the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing. The Standard Program costs $99 (US) per year and gives members an iPhone SDK and development tools; access to pre-release iPhone software; technical support; the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing; and distribution of applications via the new App Store. The Enterprise Program costs $299 (US) per year.
In addition to these new iPhone network and security features, the beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.
Pricing & Availability
Apple plans to release the final iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and new enterprise features, as a free software update for all iPhone customers by the end of June. Third party applications created for the iPhone will also run on the iPod touch, and iPod touch users will be required to purchase a software update to run these applications. The free beta iPhone SDK is available immediately worldwide and can be downloaded at developer.apple.com/iphone/program. The iPhone Developer Program will initially be available in the US and will expand to other countries in the coming months. Apple is accepting applications beginning today from enterprise customers who would like to join the private iPhone Enterprise Beta Program (http://www.apple.com/iphone/enterprise).
iPhone/ iPod Touch Enterprise Features
Today Apple announced the iPhone/iPod touch Enterprise features, here is a quick look at them
Enterprise features in iPhone 2.0 software beta.
Upcoming iPhone support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and industry-standard corporate security standards will allow I
T professionals to seamlessly integrate iPhone into their enterprise environments.
New features include:
- Push email
- Push contacts
- Push calendar
- Global Address List
- Certificates and Identities
- WPA2/802.1x
- Enforced security policies
- More VPN protocols
- Device configuration
- Remote wipe
Enterprise-grade networking.
iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPsec VPN to ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption for transmission of sensitive company information. Employees will be able to authenticate via password, two-factor token, or digital cert
ificate. iPhone will also support WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x authentication — the standard for Wi-Fi network protection. These features help provide safe access to sensitive company information on iPhone.
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support.
If your office uses Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or 2007, iPhone 2.0 software will allow you to wirelessly push company email, calendar events, and contacts over Wi-Fi or EDGE networks to iPhones. With secure push email and over-the-air contacts and calendar features, users will stay up to date wherever they go. And thanks to the iPhone Multi-Touch display, users will find it easier to perform common tasks such as accepting meeting invitations and finding contacts in the company directory or Global Address List (GAL).
IT administrators can securely manage any iPhone that contains confidential company information with remote wipe and enforced security and password policies. These device configuration and remote management capabilities allow IT departments to quickly and seamlessly deploy iPhone throughout their companies.