Tag Archives: apple

Galaxy S3 vs iPhone 5

Head-to-head ... the Samsung Galaxy SIII, left, and Apple's iPhone 5, right.

Even with a bigger screen, Apple’s iPhone 5 struggles to match Samsung’s Galaxy S III, at least on paper.

Apple’s new iPhone 5 is so incredibly thin and light that it even puts the waif-like Galaxy S III to shame. Even so, Apple lovers hoping to make up ground on Samsung’s 4.8-inch Android champion are likely to be underwhelmed by the iPhone 5’s extra screen real estate.

The iPhone 5’s larger, four-inch screen is only taller, not wider, than the iPhone 4 and 4S, so it doesn’t make what’s on the screen any larger (unless you turn it sideways, to watch a movie, for example). Its improved colours and whiter whites still look better than the slightly overblown colours on the Galaxy S III.

Read more here

Apple staffer loses test iPhone in bar – again

Police called in for search as ‘priceless’ prototype iPhone 5 is left in Mexican restaurant in San Francisco, according to report

 

A man uses an Apple iPhone

An Apple employee left a prototype iPhone 5 in a Mexican restaurant on San Francisco, according to a report. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Have you heard this one before? An Apple employee walks into a bar in California with a top-secret iPhone prototype – and leaves it behind. Apple then scrambles to recover the phone, involving the police in the process after it has been sold by a finder, eventually getting it back under wraps.

 

It happened in April last year – and now, says CNet, it has happened again with a prototype of the very latest iPhone, expected to be launched within the next few weeks.

 

But this time Apple does not appear to have got the phone back.

According to the report, the phone was lost while being tested outside the Apple campus in a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco’s Mission district, and then sold on Craigslist for $200 (£123).

It was initially left in a bar called Cava22, which says it takes “real pride in bringing a live and festive Mexican experience, for all our cleints [sic] to enjoy” including a margarita sweet-and-sour mix, by an Apple employee who appears to have been testing it off Apple’s campus. The company carries out external testing by letting selected staff take prototypes to urban and other locations in order to test its behaviour in normal settings, rather than the laboratory conditions of its own headquarters.

 

But they are not meant to leave them behind. “I guess I’ll have to make my drinks a little less strong,” the owner, Jose Valle, told CNet.

CNet says Apple contacted the San Francisco police as soon as the loss was discovered and told them that the phone was “priceless” and that the company wanted its safe return.

It was eventually tracked down via a location-tracking system built into the phone to a single-family home in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights area, says CNet. But when police and Apple’s investigators visited the house, the occupant denied any knowledge of the phone, and it wasn’t recovered despite a search – with the occupant’s permission – of the residence.

Apple has not commented on the events, which come as interest in the successor to the iPhone 4 – which has variously been guessed at as being called the iPhone 4G, 4S and iPhone 5 – is growing. With the existing model now comparatively old in smartphone terms, having been released in June 2010, the expectation is the next model will have to bring dramatic improvements in performance to compete with rival handsets from companies such as Samsung, Motorola and HTC using Google’s Android operating system.

 

New versions of the iPhone are expected to use more powerful processors and have a different arrangement of the antenna system in the casing. The external antenna caused a media furore last year after some users complained that reception seemed to drop when their hand completed a contact between two metal components. One source at a carrier company suggested to the Guardian the problem arose because the prototype phones are principally tested on the Apple campus, in areas with relatively strong mobile signals; the signal drop from the antenna “bridging” was principally seen in areas with weaker reception.

 

Apple is understood to provide carrier companies with iPhones for testing that are shipped in sealed boxes so that staff cannot see the exterior. The tests are necessary to ensure that the phones comply with network software requirements.

 

Last year a prototype of the iPhone 4 was left in a beer garden by Gray Powell, an Apple engineer. That eventually made its way to the gadget blog Gizmodo, which published pictures and a video of the device. Apple called in the police, who got a warrant to search the home of Jason Chen, Gizmodo’s editor. Early in August, prosecutors in San Mateo filed criminal charges against two men, alleging that they sold the iPhone 4 prototype to Gizmodo. It is illegal under California law to take lost property if you know who the owner is likely to be, punishable by up to a year in prison.

 

Samsung beats iPhone in Android sales

http://androidheadlines.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/samsung-android.jpg

Samsung Electronics Co, maker of the Galaxy mobile phone, may have surpassed Nokia and Apple Inc in smartphone sales for the first time on demand for devices that run on Android software, a research company said.

Samsung is estimated to have sold between 18 million and 21 million smartphones globally in the April-June quarter, compared with 16.7 million for Nokia and 20.3 million iPhones, Neil Mawston, a London-based analyst at Strategy Analytics, a research company based in Boston, said in an emailed response to questions on July 22. The data exclude tablet-computer sales.

The estimates show Google Inc’s Android is gaining ground on Apple in smartphones as Nokia, which is turning to Microsoft Corp for software support, struggles to keep up with the pace. Samsung, which also produces low-end phones that aren’t capable of downloading applications, has said it aims to more than double sales of high-end devices this year.

Read more here

Apple iOS 5

The iOS preview stole the limelight at the WWDC event in San Francisco. The event also saw the beta release for iOS Developer Program members. The prominent features announced were Notification Center, iMessage, Twitter integration, Newsstand, Game Center, and Airplay.

Apple claims that the Notification Center provides an innovative way to easily access notifications such as text messages, missed calls, calendar alerts, app alerts, and more. This is a nice addition, but it cannot be labeled as innovative, knowing that it’s already present on Androids.

Considering the popularity of Twitter, its integration was inevitable. Twitter integration runs down to apps such as Contacts, Photos, Camera, Safari, YouTube, and Maps. Interestingly, there is no word on Facebook integration. Makes us wonder if the relations between these two companies aren’t that good.

With iMessage, you get the functionality of iPhone messaging to all of your iOS devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The application lets you send text messages, photos, and videos to other iOS devices. Thankfully, it not only works with Wi-Fi but also with 3G. iMessages actually sounds like BlackBerry Messenger to me. After all, there is nothing wrong in taking inspiration.

Newsstand will help you organize all your newspaper and magazine subscriptions at one place. Game Center will now let you add photos to your profile. It will also let you find new friends online. Airplay is essentially Apple’s version of DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), letting you stream videos to your HDTV wirelessly – provided your HDTV supports it.

The Camera app gets a long awaited update. The volume rocker on the phone now doubles up as a shutter key. This is weird, knowing that the Camera + app with the same functionality was banned from iTunes last year.

Apple’s iCloud service announced

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/06/06/phpQ8paLHdownload_610x399.png

Apple CEO Steve Jobs today announced an online cloud storage service called iCloud, designed to make it simple to wirelessly share music, e-mail, photos, calendars, and other data between handheld gadgets and desktop computers.

The new Apple service, which has been the subject of intense speculation for more than a year, attempts to harness the power and flexibility of cloud computing for home users. It uses techniques that have already proved popular with businesses to make it easier to move data back and forth between multiple devices and applications.

Jobs introduced iCloud this morning at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco as part of a broader announcement that also highlighted the forthcoming version of Mac OS X Lion, available in July for $29.99, and new features for iOS including a newsstand and tabbed browsing on the iPad.

iCloud represents a direct response to Google’s cloud-based offerings, which already use services like Gmail, Calendar, Picasa, and Google Docs to show users the same document across multiple devices. In addition, Google recently announced Google Music and Amazon.com unveiled Amazon Cloud Drive.

About 10 years ago, Jobs said, Apple had one of its most important insights: The PC would become the digital hub for your digital life and store photos, video, and music, which would in turn be synchronized with mobile devices plugged in to it. Now, he said, we’re at a similar turning point, where iCloud can store data and wirelessly push it to every device you own.

iCloud will be supported by new versions of applications including Calendar, Mail, and Contacts, so if information is changed for one contact, it goes to the cloud and then is pushed to the other devices. Cloud backup is another part of the service, including daily wireless backup of an iOS device. Third-party apps can also store documents in the cloud through new interfaces that will be made available to developers.

Read more: @ Cnet

iPhone 4 to arrive in India by May 27

After various announcements, the last of which was more than a month and a half ago, operators Airtel and Aircel are finally making good on their claims of bringing the iPhone 4 to India. The duo will be launching it by May 27, or Friday, almost a year after it was launched in the United States, last June. So far, only Aircel has revealed pricing, and as expected, it has a slight premium attached.

The 16GB Apple iPhone 4 will retail for Rs. 34,500, and, the 32GB version will retail for Rs. 40,900. A requisite bumper, to avoid the ‘death grip’, will be charged for separately. This news fortunately is not too confusing for potential customers, as at that price, there are plenty of other phones with better specs, including the just-launched Samsung Galaxy S II, available for around Rs. 33,000.

Customers opting for a new connection will get a micro SIM for the device, and we expect some provision from the operators to help cut SIM cards for existing customers. We were hoping the iPhone 4 would launch with some sort of contract, enabling customers to buy it at a lower price. Aircel has come up with some plans, but we aren’t too sure they will entice customers.

Aircel postpaid customers will be able to get the phone for “free” in the Premium Money Back plan, by paying up front, and then availing voice and data plans that are equal to the phone’s value, valid for 24 months. The Advantage Money Back plan is the same thing, at half the phone’s value and for one year validity. Let us hope Airtel comes up with better plans.

http://www.thinkdigit.com/FCKeditor/uploads/iphone4-seam%281%29.jpg

Mac Defender Crashes Apple Security Myth

Mac Defender is turning out to be somewhat of an epidemic that neither Apple, nor Mac users seem prepared for. The Mac malware has caught the Apple ecosystem off guard and threatens to shatter the reality distortion field that Apple thrives on.
Apple, and the Apple faithful would like to pretend that Mac malware doesn’t exist. But, thanks to some awesome investigative reporting by Ed Bott, Jacqui Cheng, and others, we know that AppleCare technicians are seeing an explosion of malware issues, and that Apple has specifically directed support technicians not to get involved.
Cheng points out that there is at least tacit acceptance by Apple that the possibility for malware exists because Apple actually sells multiple malware protection products. And, although Apple Store reps are quick to point out the superior security and lack of malware concerns on the Mac, internally Apple mandates the use of Norton malware protection.

via PCworld

Demystifying Hi Speed Thunderbolt Interface

 

File:ThunderboltIO.jpgThunderbolt (originally codenamed Light Peak) is an interface for connecting peripheral devices to a computer via an expansion bus. Thunderbolt was developed by Intel and brought to market with technical collaboration from Apple Inc. It was introduced commercially on Apple’s updated MacBook Pro lineup on February 24, 2011, using the same port and connector as Mini DisplayPort.

Thunderbolt essentially combines PCI Express and DisplayPort into a new serial data interface that can be carried over longer and less costly cables. Because PCI Express is widely supported by device vendors and built into most of Intel’s modern chipsets, Thunderbolt can be added to existing products with relative ease. Thunderbolt driver chips fold the data from these two sources together, and split them back apart again for consumption within the devices. This makes the system backward compatible with existing DisplayPort hardware upstream of the driver.

Apple’s iMac 2011 showed that this compatibility is limited to the video output, as video input is incompatible with DisplayPort and mini-DisplayPort devices, and only allow Thunderbolt-equipped computers to send a video signal to 2011 iMac’s through Thunderbolt cables, exclusively, breaking compatibility with existing DisplayPort and mini-DisplayPort equipped computers.

The interface was originally designed to use flexible optical fiber cables, but a version using conventional copper wiring was also developed to furnish the desired 10 Gb/s bandwidth at lower cost. Intel’s implementation of the port adapter folds Thunderbolt and DisplayPort data together, allowing both to be carried over the same cable at the same time. A single Thunderbolt port supports hubs as well as a daisy chain of up to seven Thunderbolt devices; up to two of these devices may be high-resolution displays using DisplayPort. Apple sells existing DisplayPort adapters for DVI, dual-link DVI, HDMI, and VGA output from the Thunderbolt port, showing broad compatibility.

Beam Music, Movies, Photos from iPad to Mac With AirServer

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2011/05/AirServer.jpeg

AirServer is a Mac app that turns your computer into a receiver for AirPlay. We have seen this kind of thing before, in the shape of Banana TV, but AirServer works better, and adds in some functionality not found in Banana TV.

AirPlay is what lets you throw content from an iPad or iPhone wirelessly to speakers or your TV. To do this, you need to have an AirPort Express next to your speakers, or an Apple TV hooked up to your TV. Bluetooth speakers show up in the list, too. What you can’t do is beam movies from your iOS device direct to your big-screen iMac.

AirServer is a $3 app that adds in this last piece of the puzzle. With it running on your Mac, a new entry will show up in the AirPlay popover of any iOS device on the same network, as you’d expect.

Music just appears magically from your Mac’s speakers, or whatever speakers are hooked up to it. Movies open after a second in the Quicktime player, and it’s on-screen controls let you play, pause, scrub and change volume on the Mac itself.

Both of these (usually) work just fine in Banana TV (although that app can also use its own video viewer). The difference is with photos. With AirServer, you can not only view individual photos, but you can also run a slideshow. Pick your album in the Photos app, choose slideshow and a popover will pop, erm, over to let you choose a destination. You need to select a photo in that album to see the popover, and the promised transition is replaced by one photo simply appearing to replace another, but it works.

via Wired

Apple beats Google

In a recent brand survey by Millward Brown, Apple has taken the top spot from Google as the world’s most valuable brand. The survey revealed the Apple brand to be worth a staggering $153 billion; which was a huge increase on last year’s figures. This resulted in Apple coming out on top and ended Google’s four year reign at the top.

Peter Walshe, global brands director of Millward Brown, says Apple’s meticulous attention to detail, along with an increasing presence of its gadgets in corporate environments, have allowed it to behave differently from other consumer-electronics makers. ”Apple is breaking the rules in terms of its pricing model,” he told Reuters by telephone. “It’s doing what luxury brands do, where the higher price the brand is, the more it seems to underpin and reinforce the desire.”

Out of the top ten brands revealed in the survey, six were technology and telecoms companies. Google at number two, IBM at number three, Microsoft at number five, AT&T made number seven and China Mobile number nine.

The survey takes the value that the company puts on its own brand in its earnings report as a starting point. This is then combined with the perceptions of over 2 million consumers in the market who are surveyed over a 12 month period. A factor is then applied based on the company’s short-term future growth prospects.

[Millward Brown via Reuters]