Apple News, Analysis and Podcasts
 This past Monday, Phil Schiller launched the updated MacBook Air during Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote, but the update fell on deaf ears, as the MacBook Pro lineup was left unchanged. The current MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro with retina display were not even given Intel's latest processor upgrade, know as "Haswell." Many are wondering what was behind Apple's decision to leave their flagship laptop languishing while the entry level MacBook Air was given so much attention.
Currently, only Apple and a handful of niche vendors (such as Dell's Alienware gaming division) are getting a supply of Intel's Haswell chipset for their ultrabook laptops. Intel's shortage of processors during their production ramp may be one of the reasons Apple was unable to deliver both MacBook lineups with the processor upgrade, by why did Apple choose the Air over the Pro?
Read More >
Yesterday, at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference, Phil Schiller stole the show during the Keynote presentation when unveiling the new Mac Pro. “Can’t innovate anymore — my ass!” said Schiller. The crowd erupted in laugher and applause. "The new Mac Pro looks like no other computer, ever." Schiller said the new Mac Pro was a forward looking product, meeting the needs of video editors, photographers, musicians and graphic artists. But what about Server Admins? Couldn't the new Mac Pro be a great Server too? The answer is, of course it could.
Read More >
With WWDC just around the corner, and no doubt new hardware on its way, we thought we might help you get creative with your current (soon to be old) Mac. If you don't want to sell it, maybe some of these ideas will be useful, if not entertaining. (The pic above is called Mac Sofa King from Technabob).
Read More >
Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference is coming next week and most are expecting solid updates to OS X and iOS. WWDC is the best place to reveal new features because developers can learn how to add them to their software, but OS updates may not be the only big items coming to WWDC.
Read More >
 Apple CEO Tim Cook announced at last week's AllThingsD conference that Apple had sold 13 million Apple TVs, and of them, nearly half that figure was sold in the last year. Host Walt Mossberg and co-host Kara Swisher asked about a new Apple HDTV and what it would entail. Cook was mum on anything resembling an answer, but one thing became abundantly clear: Demand for a way around the cable industry via an Apple solution is ripening at a rapid pace. While Cook used the term "intense interest" to describe Apple's devotion to the TV industry, there is still no indication as to when Apple would enter with its own solution.
The most plausible launch time for an Apple HDTV would seem likely to take place in early 2014, as much needed updates to iPads and iPhone are likely slated for Fall 2013.
Read More >
 Is Apple about to break the Babe Ruth rule of doing one thing, and doing it well? That is very likely to be the case with Apple delivering a larger screen iPhone, but all eyes are on WWDC and whether or not Apple will also be showing off a summer iPhone 5S update to the market.
Steve Jobs was against a multiple device mobile lineup, and felt his simplified ideal should be the only way Apple approached the market. But Jobs isn't in charge anymore, and it appears Tim Cook is setting the sails towards filling out the iPhone lineup with multiple screen sizes.
Read More >
 Unless you've been living under a rock the past few months, it has been virtually impossible to escape Microsoft's Surface ad campaign. TV, the web, and probably soon, radio and direct mail Surface SPAM will be entering your life. The Redmond software giant is using a massive portion of it's $1.5 billion advertising budget to promote Surface. However, advertising budgets do not equal sales, something that Microsoft does not seem to understand. Surface sales continue to fail even the lowest of expectations.
Microsoft launched the Surface under a campaign known as "The Surface Movement" containing youth oriented Dubstep music, with young and attractive business professionals, all dancing with Surface tablets. This ad campaign failed miserably, so Microsoft is trying a new approach. This week the campaign shifted to an all out attack on Apple's iPad. Two ads have been released so far, but they are attempting to use Apple's ad format in an effort to discredit the iPad as limited and dated when compared to Surface. The main issue with these ads is they approach the viewer as if it were 1990, assuming the public is truly ignorant about what make tablets work.
Read More >
 Apple, Inc's World-Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) is fast approaching, and while Apple CEO Tim Cook has allued to having no new hardware arriving until this fall, software will be the big focus for Apple's annual developers event. A new version of Apple's mobile iOS and desktop OS X software is going to be shown, but perhaps more important than these fundamental pieces of Apple's ecosystem is iCloud. The future of computing, how we access and manipulate data is rapidly moving to server-side solutions, or "cloud" architecture, and Apple has been falling behind its competition at a rapid rate.
Google and others have taken an aggressive approach in developing a wide array of cloud services and tools, wasting little time in building robust ecosystems. Google, clearly out in front with an impress user base, has built a formidable Microsoft Office competitor in Google Docs. But Google's cloud platform has gone well beyond email or users loading and creating documents stored online. Google's entire cloud platform covers development for data mining, custom cloud storage, Enterprise search and much more.
Read More >
 What the next version of AppleTV will look like or whether it will even be called AppleTV (some rumors think it will be called iTV) is anyone's guess. Mark Reschke has postulated that the next AppleTV will include a 60" screen and be 4K. It is not a far fetched idea, if Apple can keep the price down so mere mortals can afford one. Apple surprised everyone with the incredibly low introductory price with the original iPad. They certainly could do this for a 4K HDTV too.
Yet another feature rumored to be on the horizon for the next generation AppleTV is Siri. Siri would change the way people interact with their TVs. Instead of looking for that silly remote that likes to hide between couch cushions and run away to rooms far, far away, you could just use your voice to control what show or movie plays on your TV. However, a big feature no one seems to be talking about, that would be huge, is Game Center for AppleTV.
Read More >
Google announced a slew of new services at its I/O developers conference today. Many of these services are new from Google, but they are not new to the market place. The company showed their continued march to integrating as much as possible into Google+, clearly taking aim at converting Facebook users to Google+ users. But the overall results of Google's announcements were very Microsoftian, being late to the table with little to differentiate their products from others already in the market with well established solutions. The show seemed more tailored towards Google fanboys, and the fact they should give up Pandora or Facebook simply because Google now offers their own also ran products.
Read More >
|
|
