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Apple Introduces New iPad Mini and Refreshes Lineup

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Today Apple has introduced their new iPad mini along with updating the iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, and iPad. Here’s a quick rundown of what was announced.

iPad Mini

The much anticipated iPad mini has been unveiled and it looks great. Consumers who were looking for an Apple device to better compete with devices like the Google Nexus 7 can now rejoice as Apple has done just that.iPad_mini

The new iPad mini features a 7.9 inch display which is slightly larger than the Nexus 7 which features a 7 inch display. Apple chose to describe the size difference in square inches rather than on the diagonal when comparing it to a 7 inch tablet, which works out to be 21.9 square inches (7″) and  29.6 square inches (7.9). Schiller went on to explain how much better your web browsing experience is with their 7.9″ design over their competition and then he compared apps on iPad mini vs other tablets and discussed how they offer a richer experience on the iPad mini.

The iPad mini will also feature the new Lighting connector along with new accessories like Lighting to HDMI. The body of the iPad mini -no surprise here- is made of an all aluminum unibody. Apple has also brought its iSight camera to the iPad mini and the all mighty A5 chip. If you’re planing on using the iPad mini on a cellular network, you will have the ability to take advantage of LTE.

iPad

Even though it has only been about half a year since the release of the iPad 3rd generation with retina display, Apple has just introduced the new 4th generation iPad that features a new A6X chip that’s 2x as fast as the previous generation iPad. The 4th generation iPad also has the latest in Wi-Fi technology and will be able to pick up both 2.4GHz and 5GHz (dual-band). Also, the new Lightning connector is now a part of the 4th generation iPad.

 

iMac

The iMac was one of my favorite unveilings that Apple had to offer. The new iMac looks great with it’s brand new slim design that has a screen edge of only 5mm. The back of the display is a much wider than the edge but it is done in a way that’s easy on the eyes.newiMac

Speaking of easy on the eyes, you will be dealing with 75% less reflection. The new iMac uses 50% less power than previous generations and has been equipped with the latest (ivy bridge) processors from Intel including both i5 and i7 chips. Graphics get a bump up to the latest Keplar architecture with the option to get the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX on the 27″ model.

Fusion Drive

The fusion drive is a combination of flash storage and traditional HDD storage. The flash storage will hold 128GB and the traditional HDD can be 1 or 3 TB. The Fusion Drive isn’t just a mix of both technologies it actually implements some really cool software that moves your applications from one drive to the other depending on it’s performance needs. The OS and pre-installed software will be placed on the flash storage for best performance and initially all of the apps you install will be stored on the HDD. OSX will then recognize which programs you use the most and which programs require the most performance and then move them to the much faster flash drive accordingly. Pretty cool idea considering most of us are already doing this manually with our computers.

 

Mac Pro

Apple continues to push their most popular laptops forward and the Mac Pro 13″ has now been updated with a retina display, a new thinner design and an all flash architecture.MBP13Retina

Mac Mini

The Mac mini remains basically the same except it gets up bump up in processing power by now featuring the new Ivy Bridge Intel chips. It should be said that the Mac mini really didn’t need much else, the Mac mini is affordable and can be a real workhorse considering it’s small size, cool little box.

For complete details on these new products you can head over to Apple.

 

Apple to Hold a Special Event

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Apple has set the date, on October 23rd they will hold a special event for making some major announcements.

Apple Logo

Many of us are expecting to see a mini version of the iPad (iPad mini) which should better align Apple to compete with Amazon and Google. It would make sense to see Apple offer a broad array of tablet solutions to bombard the market with different price points,sizes and features to try and grab prospective tablet owners who may be currently on-the-fence about which tablet to buy.

At this point no one really knows for sure exactly what else Apple has up it’s sleeve. Although it will be nice to confirm, we are hoping to see more than just an iPad mini.

I personally would like to see some updates for Mac desktop solutions like the Mac Mini which could use a bit more love. For now we can only speculate and we will just have to wait and see what comes out of the event, which will be held in San Jose, Calif. on October 23rd.

 

 

The Windows 8 Desktop and Moving on From the Mouse

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The desktop computer has been number one in homes around the world until recently. We demand portability and technology has forever changed because of it.  Laptops and tablets have replaced our big box desktop computers and it seems very few are missing them. However, desktop computers are still necessary for many things and are still widely used by businesses and those who just need a little more than what a laptop can offer.magictrackpad_handWEB

For the longest time companies like Microsoft had been trying to emulate the Windows desktop experience on portable handheld devices, which was ok but not ideal for a touch screen. Eventually, things began to change and the mobile OS began to stand out on it’s own.

Apple’s iOS  and the iPhone changed how we thought a mobile OS should work. Mobile operating systems began to be developed and designed primarily around touch input . These changes worked so well that software companies started creating OS software for desktops that integrated many of the UI features of mobile operating systems into the desktop experience, and it worked.

OSX is a great example of how bringing mobile features to a desktop UI can work really well. Many iOS users will likely find it very easy to get into OSX as it has a similar feel to it. Microsoft has done the same with Windows 8, which looks and feels a lot like Windows Phone.

So, we have a touch based UI on the Windows PC and this is where the main disconnect for Windows 8 comes into play. I have mentioned before that Windows 8 overall looks pretty good  and should work very well with any tablet but it feels downright weird to use with a mouse in a desktop environment. One of the features of OSX that I really like is the ability to use gestures on the touchpad and this is exactly what I think Windows 8 needs in order to feel right.

The mouse has long since been a part of our graphical user interface experience and never before have we needed to move away from it, until now. The touchpad with gestures, in most scenarios will make your interaction with Windows 8 on both desktops and laptops much smoother. With the exception of maybe gaming, I can’t see why I would need a mouse when you can have a touchpad that offers everything you need and more.

iOS 6 Rundown

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So, we got the update but.. what changed? I notice a few different icons on the screen but what else has happened? Well, we round up some key features of iOS 6 here so you don’t have to. Apple Logo

Facebook

Facebook is now fully integrated into the OS it self, which is really nice for Facebook users out there as it allows you to connect with Facebook without you having stop what your doing and switch apps. Facebook events are tied directly into Calendar and sharing links is super easy. ‘Likes’ are now part of iTunes and the Apps store.  It almost feels as if Facebook was meant to be a part of iOS from the start.

Maps

Well, no more Google Maps as Apple has decided it’s time to do the map business all by itself. The new map application looks really good and it would seem that, at least initially, Google Maps users should’t miss much. The new maps are quite detailed and look really slick even standard mode. I test drove the the 3D view by flying around Los Angeles and everything seemed to work really well. Turn-By-Turn navigation also makes an appearance with this map update, which has been long overdue.

Siri
Our old friend Siri gets some improvements as well, including movie reviews,facts and trailers from Rotten Tomatoes. Siri can also help you find something to eat by listing restaurants by price and rating. Need to know any sports scores? Siri covers that for you too, simply ask what the score is of a specific team and you’re good to go. You can also open applications by simply asking Siri what to launch.  Siri has seen quite a few improvements with this update and I can see Siri becoming more and more useful in the future, especially if Siri is to be integrated into new automobiles.

 

Safari

Safari gets iCloud Tabs which will allow you to view any open tabs form one iOS device on any other connected iOS device. Safari now features full screen landscape browsing, which looks great. Safari will also save entire webpages so you can view them offline later.

 

Facetime

Facetime will now work over a cellular network. Simple enough but I have yet to see it in action, I am wondering how the overall quality will be.

Phone

Well with everything the iPhone can do I think we tend to forget that it actually makes phone calls. Apple has added some features for the phone including being able to instantly send a text message to a recently declined phone call. You can also set call reminders when you decline a call or use a do-not-disturb mode to completely block all calls or only allow calls from high priority contacts.

 

Mac will also see the integration of Facebook into OSX Mountain Lion along with a few other updates in the new version 10.8.2. These are just a few of the new features on iOS 6, if your interested in everything head to Apple’s official site.

MacBook Pro Retina Display A Bit Fuzzy

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The latest version of the MacBook Pro from Apple features a retina display screen that crams 5.1 million pixels into a 15.4 inch display with a max resolution of 2880 x 1800, which looks absolutely stunning. This is the kind of technology that makes you wonder how you ever used any other display.MacBookRetina

However, once you get your new MacBook Pro home and unboxed and once you finish choosing your picture for your desktop as you drool over how much detail you can see in each image, you decide it’s time to move on and start browsing the inter webs. You open Safari and see the ever-so familiar Apple website appear and of course it looks amazing but as you begin to navigate the web, you start to see something a bit unsettling, you notice that things look a bit blurry.

Yes, it sucks but its true, much of the web just isn’t made for a retina display. Sometimes it can be bad enough to make your eyes water and that’s no fun at all, but what makes things worse is that as you begin to install and work with your favorite applications, you notice that they don’t look so good either.

There is a solution, albeit temporary but nonetheless, a solution. You can adjust your display settings by going to System Preferences->Display, then choosing “scaled” instead of ” Best For Retina Display”. Once you choose scaled, you can choose to work with larger text or more space in order to accommodate your needs. This does work well enough to get you by in most cases but it’s really only a temporary solution.

When you first run into this problem you might tend to look at this as an Apple problem but as you step back and look at the big picture here, it’s really more about the display it self being a bit ahead of everything else. Let’s not get too frustrated here, as most likely your apps will get an update to work correctly with the new display and sooner or later your favorite sites may follow, but by no means do I think that this puts the new MacBook at any disadvantage. Overall, the Retina display MacBook is designed with the future in mind as it moves away from optical drives, replaces the old hard disk with a new solid state drive, and adds in one of the clearest displays we’ve ever seen.