Technology Word: Apple

Apple etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster

The tablet may be the latest product darling of the tech world, but its success is hindering PC growth.

According to the market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), shipments of PC computers are expected to drop by nearly 8% this year, and by 2015 tablets will overtake the entire PC market, including both portables and desktop devices.

"What started as a sign of tough economic times has quickly shifted to a change in the global computing paradigm with mobile being the primary benefactor," said Ryan Reith, program manager for IDC's mobile trackers, in a statement. "Tablets surpassing portables in 2013 and total PCs in 2015, marks a significant change in consumer attitudes about compute devices and the applications and ecosystems that power them."

Bar-room chatter that the next-gen iPhone will feature a fingerprint scanner got a new layer of credence today, in the wake of a tell-tale job notice from Apple.

Spotted by Apple Insider, the ad seeks a software engineer to form part of a team based at Melbourne Design Centre on the Space Coast in Florida.

Noting that this is the location of fingerprint technology dons AuthenTech, which Apple acquired last year, the site has surmised that Apple is looking to step up development of a fingerprint scanner with a view to incorporating it in the next iPhone.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given Apple’s penchant for secrecy, the vaguely worded job description doesn’t make any mention fingerprint sensors.

However, the fact that it is seeking an applicant who can write "low-level code to configure and control hardware" suggests that this is exactly what the purveyor of high-end kit is after.

Last week, Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets surfaced in the tech press claiming to have held meetings with supply-chain insiders who informed him that a fingerprint scanner is in development and could feature on the much-rumoured iWatch and the seventh-gen iPhone.

The tech is purportedly earmarked for “essential security purposes” and as an extra layer of security on credit card payments.

Source:

The next-gen iPhone will see Apple broaden its product colour palette, it has been reported, but not quite as extensively as earlier leaks suggested.

Until now, every iteration of the iPhone has been available solely in none-more-black and whiter-than-white. However, purported leaks from Apple’s supply chain from earlier this year suggested that was about to change dramatically with the seventh-gen model.

Citing information from unnamed insiders, Brian Topeka of analysts Topeka Capital Markets claimed that the phone would land in eight colour options, including pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and the standard black and white. A red edition that’s tied to a charity was also mooted.

Today, though, the notion that Apple could tear up the formbook so comprehensively seems a bit less likely, after a separate report disclosed that while more options are on the way, the tech giant will limit our choices to three colourways.

The way Japanese blog Mac Otakara tells it, the handset is likely to come in traditional black and white and one other, unspecified colour and will be showcased in July, ahead of an August release date.

The site also posits that the much-rumoured low-cost iPhone – that’s the handset informally dubbed the iPhone 5S in some quarters - will also come in the same trio of colours.

News of Apple’s plans come amid separate rumours that future iPhones could feature fingerprint scanners to add a fresh layer of security and will pack a much improved, more convincingly ‘human’ version of voice commands app Siri.

Via:

Apple is investigating new screen technology with a view to slimming down the next full-size iPad, reports suggest.

According to NPD DisplaySearch, the next 9.7-inch iPad will swap the current screen for an LED display with a modified backlight to make the device as thin and light as is feasible.

Analyst Paul Semenza told CNET: "It's likely that part of the thinner/lighter design will be reducing the size of the LED backlight, partly by making the display more efficient and partly by using more efficient LEDs.”

If Semenza can be believed, the tech giant will also adopt thin film-based touch sensors – a move that will also help to create a slimmer tablet.

Previous leaks suggest that the fifth-gen iPad will feature a different design that lifts elements of the compact and bijou iPad mini.

The last-gen model adhered rigidly to the blueprint for earlier models, prompting the usual round of catcalls that Apple was shortchanging fanboys with incremental updates to its key product lines.

Source:

EE, Orange and T-Mobile have cut the cost of owning an iPhone 5 on pay-monthly tariffs as part of a blink-and-it’s-gone offer.

EE has dropped the upfront fee for Apple’s latest flagship smartphone from £99.99 to £49.99 when you take up a contract for £36 a month over a two-year term.

This entitles you to unlimited minutes and texts, plus 500MB of mobile internet allowance per month for browsing and downloading at up to five times the speed of 3G.

Orange is also offering the iPhone 5 for £36 a month on its Works 36 tariff with a one-off charge of £49.99 (£69.99 previously). This furnishes takers with unlimited texts, minutes and 1GB of data every month.

Orange’s partner network T-Mobile, meanwhile, has confirmed a price cut on the iPhone 5 on its Full Monty plan, although at the time of writing it has yet to update its website to reflect that.

Assuming it’s still going ahead with the reduction, punters will have to pay £69.99 for the iPhone 5 as opposed to £99.99, with a monthly outlay of £36 a month, which comes with unlimited minutes and texts each and every month, as well as unlimited data.

The price drops are only available until April 30th, just days after the hotly anticipated release of the Samsung Galaxy S4, which lands on April 26th.

Via:

The majority of smartphone fans don’t feel that iPhone owners are missing out on Facebook’s new Home app-cum-social networking skin, it has emerged, after it was confirmed that it would be exclusive to Android handsets.

Unveiled last week, Facebook Home effectively takes over the look and feel of handsets, putting the social networking service slap bang on its homescreen and at the core of the user interface.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg said he would have liked to bring it to the iPhone, but that Apple’s tight restrictions and insistence on controlling its handsets’ user experience kyboshed any chances of that happening.

However, judging by the reaction from smartphone fans in a uSwitch Tech poll, Facebook Home isn’t exactly top of many people’s iPhone app wishlists.

Asked whether they felt that iPhone users are missing out by not being able to download the app, 79.22 per cent (879 people) answered no. Pretty emphatic we’re sure you’ll agree.

Whether that’s a reflection on the perceived quality of the app or privacy concerns isn’t clear. But we think not.

The result is probably more informed by iPhone owners’ innate tendency to favour simple, clear usability of iOS above the freedom to customise a phone’s layout that Android offers.

Either that, or, after years of doomsaying in the tech press, the Facebook bubble might really have burst.

The next-gen iPhone will pack a top-end 12-megapixel camera with improved performance in low-light conditions, rumours suggest.

According to an insider cited by Vietnamese blog Tinhte.vn (MacRumors is on translation detail), the handset will be home to lens that offers a f/2.4 aperture alongside a backside illuminated sensor for better results when snapping at night.

The same source, who it seems works at the fantastically named iPhone camera module maker Wonderful Saigon Electrics, claims that the camera could also introduce technology to minimise the purple haze that some iPhone 5 owners have complained of.

Expected to drop around September, the iPhone 6 putative spec sheet takes in a completely revamped version of the handset’s iOS software care of newly incumbent head of UI Jonny Ive, as well as a fingerprint scanner to add an extra layer of security.

Rumours suggest that development of the handset, which we’re told won’t differ too much from the iPhone 5S on the looks-front, was overseen by Steve Jobs, making it among the last products that the totemic one-time Apple figurehead was intimately involved with

Via:

The hype and hoopla surrounding the Apple iWatch is reaching crazy proportions.

Although we know that Apple is working on something timepiece-related, with stories earlier this year emerging about 100 staff working on the project, we appear to have reached a stage of extremely tenuous gossip.

Over the weekend, a story emerged about Apple board member Bill Campbell telling workers at Intuit, a company where he acts as chairman, that we were going to see the ‘application of technology to really intimate things’.

He then went on to talk up Google’s Project Glass, before sending fanboys into raptures by suggesting such ‘intimate things’ could include a watch.

Let’s be clear. Campbell never said the word smartwatch. In all likelihood, he was simply reacting to the raft of chat about smartwatches that has dominated the web in recent months.

Samsung and Microsoft are known to also be working on such devices. But because he’s an Apple employee, everyone thinks this is yet another iWatch indicator.

It’s time to step back and assess this, and other iWatch gossip, for what it really is.

Aside from stories clearly leaked to top tier publications like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, we remain in the realms of salacious tittle tattle. Nothing more, nothing less.

We are currently at the point where we’re talking about hopes and dreams, not specs, designs and facts.

Even iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 stories have more meat on them, specifically because we can see components and already know a fair bit about what an iPhone looks like.

But when it comes to the iWatch, we’re clueless. Shooting in the dark.

Yes, Apple is investigating flexible displays and Jony Ive has asked Nike about watch design.

But that’s hardly a smoking gun and very little to get excited about.

We’re talking about a product that’s unlikely to see the light of day until late 2014 at the earliest.

Apple is notorious for taking its time with hardware, ensuring it’s perfect.

It won’t rush the iWatch, in the same way it took time to release the original iPhone, knowing it would blow all rivals out of the water.

So, for now, let’s all just chill out.

Trying to read something into what Bill Campbell said is pointless.

We’ll know more in the months ahead, sure, but not from second guessing some comments made at a staff meeting.

Until we see images, get supply-side quotes and hear details from someone inside Apple, it’s time we forgot about the iWatch and focused on some of the more concrete and equally fascinating forthcoming smartphone tech: iOS 7, updated Android, new iPhones and iPads.

The iWatch can, and must, wait.

Reports that the next full-sized iPad will get an iPad mini-style makeover looked a soupcon more credible today, after what it’s claimed are images of the device’s rear casing leaked online.

Brought to the attention of the tech press by the bloggers at Tactus, the snaps reveal suggest that the next-gen iPad will essentially retain the same shape as the current model but with a smaller bezel and a volume rocker and power output repositioned in line with the iPad mini.

The slate will also be a slimmer bit of kit all round, the casing suggests, once again blurring the lines between the top-end iPad and its more compact baby brother.

Earlier this month, it emerged that Apple is investigating new screen tech, purportedly with a view to trimming down the iPad 5.

According to NPD DisplaySearch, the next 9.7-inch iPad will trade the current screen for an LED display with a modified backlight that ought to make it thinner and lighter.

The last iPad refresh came in for excoriating criticism in some quarters amid claims that it was little more than an iterative rehash of its predecessor.

Via:

Facebook has brushed aside rumours that it’s in discussions with Apple to bring Facebook Home to iOS.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that The Social Network is in talks with Apple over the possibility of expanding its freshly launched bespoke Android launcher to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s Director of Product, told the biz news outlet: “We’ve shown them what we’ve built and we’re just in an ongoing conversation.”

He added, however, that it would ultimately be Apple’s call as to how Facebook Home is integrated with iOS, meaning it could look distinctly different from its Android counterpart.

“It may or may not be Home,” said Mosseri. “We could also just bring some of the design values to the iOS app. That might be how it ends up. Or we could build just the lock screen. Maybe then it’s not called Home, it’s called something else.”

Today, The Next Web reports that it’s been told by Facebook that although it has “good relationships with both Apple and Microsoft, right now no discussions have taken place to bring Home to those platforms”.

It’s likely that Facebook has only approached Apple and Microsoft to demonstrate Home and what possibilities it offers rather than enter actual negotiations to make it available on iOS and Windows Phone.

That said, the social networking giant doesn’t necessarily rule out eventually moving Facebook Home to newer pastures and making it available to as many of its billion users as possible.

After the unveiling of Facebook Home earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg told Fortune: “We’d love to offer this on iPhone, and we just can’t today, and we will work with Apple to do the best experience that we can within what they want.”

Unfortunately for The Zuck, iPhone owners don’t quite feel the same the way. In a uSwitch Tech poll, eight out of 10 iFans said they won’t miss Facebook Home on their handsets.

Still, for the remaining two that will miss it, Facebook has just brought one of its main features in Home: ‘Chat Heads’, in a new update to its official iOS app.

Chat Heads, if you’re unaware, lets you have a conversation with a group of friends as pop-up bubbles over the screen while you’re doing other things. Unfortunately, on iOS it only works within the Facebook app and doesn’t come with SMS integration like the Android version does.

Via:

The Next Web, Bloomberg

Google Now has at long last landed on the iPhone and iPad, bringing live updates for news, interests and vital information that were previously exclusive to the Android operating system.

Google released a new version of its official iOS app on the App Store, now augmented with the widely acclaimed features of its clever data assistant on Android.

Using a nifty card-based interface, Google Now updates you with information throughout the day, such as live weather for your home, work or current location, scores for your favourite teams, traffic updates on your next likely destination, flight status and commute times on public transit.

Users also benefit from reminders on their next calendar appointments, showtimes for movies, stock updates, breaking news and the ability to track packages.

The update’s arrival, which long thought to have been obstructed by Apple, means Google has now effectively positioned a proverbial Trojan horse in Apple’s platform, with the ability to compete with Siri and other onboard applications.

The app is free to download right now for the iPhone and iPad from the App Store and we strongly recommend you check it out.

Let us know what you think of Google Now’s appearance on the iPhone in the comments section below.

Rumours around the next iPhone are gathering pace today, amid claims that the handset could be here as July.

In the latest round of speculation, for whom we’ve got iOSDoc to thank, it’s posited that the handset will feature an improved front-facing two-megapixel camera with a view to improving the video calling experience offered by Apple’s FaceTime app.

The site, which claims to have gleaned its information from an unnamed software engineer at Apple, also reveals that, pending a delay, the tech giant is planning to equip the snapper with a built-in dual-shot mode.

Enabling users to take snaps with both cameras simultaneously and blend the results, this feature will be exclusive to the seventh-gen iPhone and will not arrive on earlier models when the new version of Apple’s iOS software is pushed out.

Earlier today, rumours surfaced claiming the iPhone 6 will go on pre-order in mid-June, ahead of an early July release and will pack a 13-megapixel rear-mounted camera and fingerprint-scanning technology.

Calls for Apple to significantally update the iOS operating system that powers the iPhone will be answered when the next iteration of its smartphone lands later this year, leaks from Infinite Loop suggest.

According to “multiple people who have either seen or have been briefed on the upcoming iOS 7” cited by 9to5Mac, the refreshed platform will sport a rethought user interface that “will be attractive to new iOS users” but won’t frighten off long-time Apple apostles.

Changes we can expect to see in the ‘very, very flat’, pared down UI include less of the cutesy skeumorphism that so riled Ive in the past, but which Scott Forstall insisted on. That means that note-taking apps that take on the look and form of a traditional notebook will be no more.

However, mindful that iOS’s simplicity is what’s made it such a hit with punters, the new software has been conceived so there’s no new learning curve for buyers to embark on. Very much still present and correct, for instance, are the home and lockscreens that have been core to iOS from year dot, but alongside them are rethought icons for native apps and an all-new toolbar.

iOS 7, which is apparently codeamed Innsbruck around Cupertino, is expected to be unveiled to the world at the WWDC gathering of the dev tribes in June.

That month is also rumoured to be marked by the arrival of the iPhone 6, suggesting that Apple could break with recent form and introduce a new handset at the conference.

Source:

iPhone renders are a dime a dozen, but for once we have been graced with a concept for Apple’s next flagship phone that seems very much a possibility.

Created by Arthur Reis, a budding designer who aspires to join the ranks of Jony Ive and Shin Nishibori someday, 3D renderings of the iPhone 6 imagine a handset that looks largely identical to iPhone 5 (think: anodised aluminium casing with chamfered edges), but an impressive 20 per cent slimmer at just 6.1mm thick.

The handset also features a 12-megapixel camera with an ‘iSight Pro’ sensor boasting an f/1.8 aperture and a ‘Magic TrackPad’ that replaces the physical home button with a touch-sensitive equivalent.

As far as we’re concerned, this is one of the best iPhone concepts we’ve seen, principally because it doesn’t go crazy on novel or unrealistic features as most concepts do.

Apple is always trying to make its handsets slimmer, so a more slender iPhone is within the realms of possibility. And with Samsung upping the ante with a 13-megapixel camera on the freshly launched Galaxy S4, we can certainly expect the iPhone 6 to match its competition in the imaging stakes.

The iPhone 6 is hotly tipped to land this summer, possibly sometime in July. Although there’s still a chance that Apple might stick to an autumn release cycle for new iPhone launches.

What do you think of Reis’s iPhone 6 concept? Let us know in the comments section below.

Google is pushing the boundaries of Apple’s iOS regulations, after it revealed a new Chrome API for Cupertino’s mobile operating system.

The new software allows devs to tweak apps so that users can access Chrome for iOS when web browsing in-app.

What’s more, users with Chrome installed will be able to open pages directly in Google’s browser when following links.

Until now, Safari has been the default option for users flicking from an app to their browser.

The new tool will allow developers to offer end users the choice of opening web-based material in either Safari or Chrome.

It comes just days after Google updated its Gmail iOS app to allow links within its Apple-flavoured email client to be opened in Chrome.

With Cupertino currently cracking down on App Store-aping add-ons, this is no time for Mountain View to provoke Tim Cook and co.

After unveiling an update which allows Gmail for iOS to bypass Apple Maps and head for Google Maps instead, this is the latest move in an attempt to give fans of Big G apps on Apple’s platform a better service.

Whether Apple sees it like that is another matter.

Source:

Vodafone has reduced the upfront cost of the BlackBerry Z10 and is now offering the handset free on its range of pay-monthly tariffs.

Customers who pick up a Z10 on a two-year contract with Vodafone from £33 per month will be entitled to a free phone, along with monthly allowances of up to 600 any network minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data.

Available in black and white, the Z10’s USPs include a 4.2-inch display with a retina-popping 355 ppi density, a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and an eight-megapixel primary camera.

It is also powered by the all-new BlackBerry 10 operating system, which has been completely rebuilt from scratch and brings a host of new features such as BlackBerry Hub, which unifies all your incoming missives and notifications in one place, and a new and improved BlackBerry Messenger that now lets you make both voice and video calls.

Vodafone has also dropped the monthly tariff for the ageing but still hugely popular iPhone 4, which is currently free from £21 per month, down from £29 previously.

This gets you the same allowances as the Z10 tariff detailed above, however the offer is for a limited time only, so you’ll have to move fast before the price goes back up.

Keep ‘em peeled as we bring you more price cut announcements in the days and weeks to come.

Kaydol: Kayıtlar (Atom)