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Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Review: Apple's iPad mini
I think I'll just upgrade my phone instead. I just can't see the need for a tablet when you have all that in your pocket.
Nice review from Apple Insider.
What is the iPad mini?
Apple's new iPad mini, at first glance, appears to be an attempt by the company to annex the only portion of the tablet market it doesn't already own: the niche between the new 4-inch iPod touch and the full sized, 9.7-inch iPad.
Amazon, Google and a variety of other Android licensees have attempted to establish a position in 7-inch tablets that they can use to grow upward (and in some cases downward) in size. To many observers, the iPad mini is simply following this trend, albeit with a significantly more expensive entry point.
Apart from price, critics are also complaining that the iPad mini lacks the high-end Retina display of the latest iPad 3 and 4 (and Apple's most expensive new MacBooks, and all models of iPhone and iPod touch currently being sold).
However, looking at the iPad mini as a low end, 7-inch rival is just as misleading as the perspective of those who saw the original iPad as a poor netbook option saddled with such flaws as not having a physical keyboard or mouse and lacking the ability to run conventional desktop apps. People who thought that in 2010 were blindsided by the success of the iPad and the collapse of netbook sales.
Similarly, the iPad mini is not a cheap, low end tablet trying to establish the first rung of a new platform by stretching some existing smartphone apps across a larger screen.
Instead, it's a reinvented iPad, designed to be as thin as the company's newly released, 4-inch iPod touch and iPhone 5 while running the full library of tablet-optimized App Store titles (and a wide array of custom corporate apps being used in government and the enterprise) that fill out Apple's full sized iPad ecosystem.
iPad mini: a new form factor of iPad
Most of the critical engineering decisions Apple made in the design of iPad mini were clearly aimed at delivering a functional and popular mobile device, not just a very low priced one.
Apple could have reached lower into the bargain bin to give it A4 "celeron" power, created an entry point offering a paltry 8GB of storage, or relied on other OEMs to crank out a generic, thick slab of plastic and simply label that product with the sales power of its "iPad" brand, all of which are commonplace practices in the tech industry.
On the other hand, Apple could have sourced a mini-sized iPad Retina Display, paired it with its new A6X processor and 128GB of storage, and sold it to a few million people who would pay anything (probably around $1200) to have the latest iPad device.
Instead, Apple gave the iPad mini specs comparable to iPad 2, but reduced in size. This reduction sheds a lot of weight (from 1.33 lbs or 601 grams to the iPad mini's 0.69 lbs or 312 grams). In addition to its new thinness and more hand-friendly rounded rectangle shape (shown below, next to iPad 3 and iPhone 4S), this huge weight reduction makes iPad mini far more portable.
It's still too big to stick in your jeans pocket (a smartphone level of mobility that Steve Jobs said no tablet could realistically offer), but it's effortless to hold or carry around. It's a very different kid of iPad experience. It makes full-size iPads feel clumsy and heavy in comparison.
In addition, the new iPod touch/iPhone 5 body style of the new iPad mini also makes it easier to hold, and its two-thirds size makes it both easy to grab in one hand and much less of a stretch to thumb-type or play games on when held in landscape orientation.
It feels a lot more like a "big iPod touch" than the full sized iPads, but this comes at a cost: the screen is scaled down. Text on the screen is smaller, but interestingly, the title bar and lock screen text and graphics that appear about 60 percent smaller than other iPads is now about identical to the size of those elements on the iPhone. This evokes memories of lugging around a 17-inch MacBook Pro until realizing that, if you can get the same resolution in a smaller, lighter machine, why wouldn't you?
Most of the critical engineering decisions Apple made in the design of iPad mini were clearly aimed at delivering a functional and popular mobile device, not just a very low priced one.
Apple could have reached lower into the bargain bin to give it A4 "celeron" power, created an entry point offering a paltry 8GB of storage, or relied on other OEMs to crank out a generic, thick slab of plastic and simply label that product with the sales power of its "iPad" brand, all of which are commonplace practices in the tech industry.
On the other hand, Apple could have sourced a mini-sized iPad Retina Display, paired it with its new A6X processor and 128GB of storage, and sold it to a few million people who would pay anything (probably around $1200) to have the latest iPad device.
Instead, Apple gave the iPad mini specs comparable to iPad 2, but reduced in size. This reduction sheds a lot of weight (from 1.33 lbs or 601 grams to the iPad mini's 0.69 lbs or 312 grams). In addition to its new thinness and more hand-friendly rounded rectangle shape (shown below, next to iPad 3 and iPhone 4S), this huge weight reduction makes iPad mini far more portable.
It's still too big to stick in your jeans pocket (a smartphone level of mobility that Steve Jobs said no tablet could realistically offer), but it's effortless to hold or carry around. It's a very different kid of iPad experience. It makes full-size iPads feel clumsy and heavy in comparison.
In addition, the new iPod touch/iPhone 5 body style of the new iPad mini also makes it easier to hold, and its two-thirds size makes it both easy to grab in one hand and much less of a stretch to thumb-type or play games on when held in landscape orientation.
It feels a lot more like a "big iPod touch" than the full sized iPads, but this comes at a cost: the screen is scaled down. Text on the screen is smaller, but interestingly, the title bar and lock screen text and graphics that appear about 60 percent smaller than other iPads is now about identical to the size of those elements on the iPhone. This evokes memories of lugging around a 17-inch MacBook Pro until realizing that, if you can get the same resolution in a smaller, lighter machine, why wouldn't you?
Monday, November 5, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
OS X Mountain Lion Brings The Mac Into The Game
OS X Mountain Lion Brings The Mac Into The Game: 
Gamers, start your engines, lift your fruit-slicing swords, and lace up your Temple-running shoes.
Game Center, Apple’s gaming/social hub for iOS, has finally made it’s way over to the more mature Apple OS, OS X Mountain Lion. This is huge. Not because you’ll be able to enjoy the features of Game Center while playing around on your Mac (which will likely be great fun, too, I’m sure), but because gaming will now bust through the platform barrier allowing you to duke it out with anyone on just about any Apple device.
That’s right. We’re no longer in the era of PC-to-PC/phone-to-phone gaming as OS X Mountain Lion will enable Mac-to-iPhone, Mac-to-iPad, and Mac-to-iPod touch gaming. Like I said, that’s huge.
Apple claims to have over 100 million registered users and 20,000+ Game Center-enabled games on iOS, which is a solid starting point. Of course, developers will have to go in and tweak their apps to provide a beautiful gaming experience across all of these devices, but according to MG’s account of the cross-platform gaming in action, “it works very well.”
Gamers, start your engines, lift your fruit-slicing swords, and lace up your Temple-running shoes.
Game Center, Apple’s gaming/social hub for iOS, has finally made it’s way over to the more mature Apple OS, OS X Mountain Lion. This is huge. Not because you’ll be able to enjoy the features of Game Center while playing around on your Mac (which will likely be great fun, too, I’m sure), but because gaming will now bust through the platform barrier allowing you to duke it out with anyone on just about any Apple device.
That’s right. We’re no longer in the era of PC-to-PC/phone-to-phone gaming as OS X Mountain Lion will enable Mac-to-iPhone, Mac-to-iPad, and Mac-to-iPod touch gaming. Like I said, that’s huge.
Apple claims to have over 100 million registered users and 20,000+ Game Center-enabled games on iOS, which is a solid starting point. Of course, developers will have to go in and tweak their apps to provide a beautiful gaming experience across all of these devices, but according to MG’s account of the cross-platform gaming in action, “it works very well.”
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Apple's New iMacs Add Thunderbolt, More Graphics Muscle, and Monster Quad-Core Guts [Apple]
Apple's New iMacs Add Thunderbolt, More Graphics Muscle, and Monster Quad-Core Guts [Apple]: "Goodbye miniDisplay ports, and hello Thunderbolt: Apple's latest iMacs include the faster Thunderbolt connection, but that's not the only new addition from Intel. The computers, which come in 21.5 and 27-inch size options, also run on Intel's latest Sandy Bridge Core procession line. More »
"
Friday, January 7, 2011
Walt Mossberg Says Colleges Will Deal With a Deluge of Tablets
Walt Mossberg Says Colleges Will Deal With a Deluge of Tablets: "
Las Vegas—In his keynote address at the Higher Ed Tech Summit, Walt Mossberg, the influential technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, told an audience of higher-education officials and company executives that their future held many tablet computers. And not just the iPad, but some of the 70 or so new tablet devices that have been announced this week at the Consumer Electronics Show here.
Speaking yesterday, Mr. Mossberg noted that CES this year should be renamed “TES” because there were so many of the things. (There was Motorola’s new Xoom, for instance, and Dell’s Streak 7, Lenovo’s IdeaPad Hybrid—a laptop with a detachable tablet—and devices from Samsung, Toshiba, Motion …)
And tablets will matter in higher education, Mr. Mossberg said, because students will bring them to campus, and colleges and—in particular—publishers will need to meet their needs. “The actual users, like students and faculty, will barge in,” he said.
Books should cost less, and they should be digital, Mr. Mossberg said. He is a trustee of Brandeis University, and “I vote on cost-cutting at every meeting. So the idea of having to spend a fortune on books is just primitive.” Course materials, including books, are less expensive in digital form, and tablets make them easy to use. “The multi-touch tablet computer has a serious chance of challenging the mouse-based interface, which has been around since the 1960s and came to fruition in the 1970s,” Mr. Mossberg said.
The technology columnist pointed out that the other major trend that will affect colleges is cloud computing, or the use of Internet-based software. Now, it may seem this news is less than surprising, as software companies have been beating this drum loudly for years. Still, colleges have not been listening. The latest Campus Computing Project survey, completed in the fall of 2010, reported that only 15 percent of campuses have a strategic plan to address cloud computing. So perhaps the reminder from the Brandeis trustee was timely.
Las Vegas—In his keynote address at the Higher Ed Tech Summit, Walt Mossberg, the influential technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, told an audience of higher-education officials and company executives that their future held many tablet computers. And not just the iPad, but some of the 70 or so new tablet devices that have been announced this week at the Consumer Electronics Show here.
Speaking yesterday, Mr. Mossberg noted that CES this year should be renamed “TES” because there were so many of the things. (There was Motorola’s new Xoom, for instance, and Dell’s Streak 7, Lenovo’s IdeaPad Hybrid—a laptop with a detachable tablet—and devices from Samsung, Toshiba, Motion …)
And tablets will matter in higher education, Mr. Mossberg said, because students will bring them to campus, and colleges and—in particular—publishers will need to meet their needs. “The actual users, like students and faculty, will barge in,” he said.
Books should cost less, and they should be digital, Mr. Mossberg said. He is a trustee of Brandeis University, and “I vote on cost-cutting at every meeting. So the idea of having to spend a fortune on books is just primitive.” Course materials, including books, are less expensive in digital form, and tablets make them easy to use. “The multi-touch tablet computer has a serious chance of challenging the mouse-based interface, which has been around since the 1960s and came to fruition in the 1970s,” Mr. Mossberg said.
The technology columnist pointed out that the other major trend that will affect colleges is cloud computing, or the use of Internet-based software. Now, it may seem this news is less than surprising, as software companies have been beating this drum loudly for years. Still, colleges have not been listening. The latest Campus Computing Project survey, completed in the fall of 2010, reported that only 15 percent of campuses have a strategic plan to address cloud computing. So perhaps the reminder from the Brandeis trustee was timely.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Ten most significant gadgets of 2010
No big surprises here. IPad is #1 and it just makes me want a Kindle even more. Actually, I like the Nook Color for its ability to run Andriod, but that's another story.
Ten most significant gadgets of 2010: "When this year began, we were feverishly speculating about an Apple tablet, looking forward to 3-D TV sets, and optimistically waiting for the end of the cable companies' cruel grip on our wallets.
Ten most significant gadgets of 2010: "When this year began, we were feverishly speculating about an Apple tablet, looking forward to 3-D TV sets, and optimistically waiting for the end of the cable companies' cruel grip on our wallets.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Apple TV Review
I am certainly pleased with mine. I find it works very well puts me one step closer to my dream of having all my media accessible at each television without having a complete PC in each room.
Since there is just a simple HDMI connection, you can easily move it from one room to the next if needed. Of course at $99 a pop, you can also just spring for a couple of these little gems.
It is small and compact and easily hidden just about anywhere near the TV. I'll admit the little remote had me worried at first but there are iPhone apps that easily work just as well if not better. If nothing else, a little velcro will keep it secure to the regular remote.
The interface is simple and easy to navigate. Setup is a chore with but it is only needed once and the on screen keyboard is nice compared to some. The Apple "channel" is a bit lacking. It will allow you to 'rent' a selection from the Apple Store but not 'buy' one. I think that's lame. Who wants to pay $3.99 to rent a movie when you can buy it for $9.99. Also, the choice for HD vs. SD is hidden away in the settings. Personally, I'd like to be able to choose between HD and SD when I buy the show, not in the overall preferences on the account. I might want to buy Disney's Earth in HD but don't really care to watch (or pay for) season three of SpongeBob in HD.
There are also a lot of selections in the Apple store for rent that can be watched a channel away on Netflix for free. I imagine this interface will change greatly over time. There will be channel additions and deletions without a doubt. Hulu would be nice to see but I'm not holding my breath.
Now, if I can just get all my TVs updated with nice new HD flat panels that will take HDMI.
Apple TV Sales Hit One Million: "
Does this mean that Steve Jobs's Apple TV is finally something more than just a hobby? The set top box has managed to sell one million units in around 11 weeks--not spectacular, but certainly a marked increase over its predecessor, which took closer to a year to achieve that number. The second generation Apple TV also faced stiffer competition when it launched at the beginning of October, thanks to an ever increasing number of entries (like Google TV) all competing in a field that seems far from mature."
Since there is just a simple HDMI connection, you can easily move it from one room to the next if needed. Of course at $99 a pop, you can also just spring for a couple of these little gems.It is small and compact and easily hidden just about anywhere near the TV. I'll admit the little remote had me worried at first but there are iPhone apps that easily work just as well if not better. If nothing else, a little velcro will keep it secure to the regular remote.
The interface is simple and easy to navigate. Setup is a chore with but it is only needed once and the on screen keyboard is nice compared to some. The Apple "channel" is a bit lacking. It will allow you to 'rent' a selection from the Apple Store but not 'buy' one. I think that's lame. Who wants to pay $3.99 to rent a movie when you can buy it for $9.99. Also, the choice for HD vs. SD is hidden away in the settings. Personally, I'd like to be able to choose between HD and SD when I buy the show, not in the overall preferences on the account. I might want to buy Disney's Earth in HD but don't really care to watch (or pay for) season three of SpongeBob in HD.
There are also a lot of selections in the Apple store for rent that can be watched a channel away on Netflix for free. I imagine this interface will change greatly over time. There will be channel additions and deletions without a doubt. Hulu would be nice to see but I'm not holding my breath.
Now, if I can just get all my TVs updated with nice new HD flat panels that will take HDMI.
Apple TV Sales Hit One Million: "
Does this mean that Steve Jobs's Apple TV is finally something more than just a hobby? The set top box has managed to sell one million units in around 11 weeks--not spectacular, but certainly a marked increase over its predecessor, which took closer to a year to achieve that number. The second generation Apple TV also faced stiffer competition when it launched at the beginning of October, thanks to an ever increasing number of entries (like Google TV) all competing in a field that seems far from mature."
Monday, October 4, 2010
iPhone 4 tripod mount and stand on Kickstarter
iPhone 4 tripod mount and stand on Kickstarter:
For $20 you can fund a Kickstarter project and get a Glif iPhone 4 tripod mount and stand. The video at Kickstarter has information about the designers / makers of the Glif, as well as examples of how to use the versatile gadget.
For $20 you can fund a Kickstarter project and get a Glif iPhone 4 tripod mount and stand. The video at Kickstarter has information about the designers / makers of the Glif, as well as examples of how to use the versatile gadget.
The Glif will be manufactured with a Santoprene (grade 101-87) hard rubber. This material feels great to the touch, and holds the phone securely. It is also recyclable.Glif - iPhone 4 Tripod Mount & Stand
Glif is the labor of love of just two individuals: Thomas Gerhardt and Dan Provost. We put a lot of thought and energy into this thing, and we hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed making it. Additional information can be found at www.theglif.com.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
iOS To Make Its Desktop Debut With Next iMac Revision?
iOS To Make Its Desktop Debut With Next iMac Revision?: "
IOS on the next iMac? That’s the rumor going around this morning. The deal is that Apple wants to bring touch controls to its desktop offerings, and will use the next iMac revision to test the waters a bit. So, you’ll have your standard Mac OS X installation, but then when you activate “touch screen mode,” you’ll switch over to iOS.
IOS on the next iMac? That’s the rumor going around this morning. The deal is that Apple wants to bring touch controls to its desktop offerings, and will use the next iMac revision to test the waters a bit. So, you’ll have your standard Mac OS X installation, but then when you activate “touch screen mode,” you’ll switch over to iOS.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Apple TV worth looking into...
The next Apple TV revealed: cloud storage and iPhone OS on tap... and a $99 price tag: "
If you thought that Apple's foray into the world of home entertainment died with the last iteration of the Apple TV, you're quite wrong. A tip we've received -- which has been confirmed by a source very close to Apple -- details the outlook for the next version of the Apple TV, and it's a doozy. According to our sources, this project has been in the works long before Google announced its TV solution, and it ties much more closely into Apple's mobile offerings. The new architecture of the device will be based directly on the iPhone 4, meaning it will get the same internals, down to that A4 CPU and a limited amount of flash storage -- 16GB to be exact -- though it will be capable of full 1080p HD (!). The device is said to be quite small with a scarce amount of ports (only the power socket and video out), and has been described to some as 'an iPhone without a screen.' Are you ready for the real shocker? According to our sources, the price-point for the device will be $99. One more time -- a hundred bucks.
Not only will this be priced to sell (like hotcakes), it seems that Apple is moving away from the model of local storage, and will be focusing the new ATV on cloud-based storage (not unlike Amazon's streaming scheme, though we're talking instant-on 1080p, a la Microsoft). For those still interested in keeping their content close, there will be an option to utilize a Time Capsule as an external storage component, but the main course will be all about streaming. The new ATV will do away with its current OS X-lite variation as a operating system, and will instead adopt the iPhone OS for the underlying experience. There's no word at this point on whether apps and the App Store will be coming along for the ride, but it makes sense given the shared platform. Of course, scaling iPhone apps to that 52-inch plasma in your living room isn't exactly a no-brainer. Perhaps not surprisingly, Apple won't deliver the ATV news at the upcoming WWDC -- that event will be focused on the capabilities of the new iPhone -- but development on the product is most definitely full steam ahead. Is your TV screen the next battleground in the platform wars? Survey says: hell yes.
Not only will this be priced to sell (like hotcakes), it seems that Apple is moving away from the model of local storage, and will be focusing the new ATV on cloud-based storage (not unlike Amazon's streaming scheme, though we're talking instant-on 1080p, a la Microsoft). For those still interested in keeping their content close, there will be an option to utilize a Time Capsule as an external storage component, but the main course will be all about streaming. The new ATV will do away with its current OS X-lite variation as a operating system, and will instead adopt the iPhone OS for the underlying experience. There's no word at this point on whether apps and the App Store will be coming along for the ride, but it makes sense given the shared platform. Of course, scaling iPhone apps to that 52-inch plasma in your living room isn't exactly a no-brainer. Perhaps not surprisingly, Apple won't deliver the ATV news at the upcoming WWDC -- that event will be focused on the capabilities of the new iPhone -- but development on the product is most definitely full steam ahead. Is your TV screen the next battleground in the platform wars? Survey says: hell yes.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
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