Here comes the next Apple Special Event, 2nd in the year(counting the NY education special event)..of course this one is full of speculations, as a matter of fact, a year-full of speculations and rumors.
Time's come to put an end to them, as the 'most admired' company sets out to reveal what it has in store for the next year of tablet computing.
Nothing too fancy about the title, comes from the press invite of Apple's iPad event.
But has a bit too much to say about the next generation iPad.
Of course, the Retina display flagship that started out with iPhone 4, breaking the barrier of human eye's limit of distinguishing individual pixels, is yet to come to iPad, but of course, too hard to speculate as yet.
The image that bore the words had a hint, an astonishingly sharp iPad display(a sight which still eludes the iPad users).
But, with a higher resolution display, comes a plethora of other confusing view-points,
mine have been pretty general,
Apple has touted itself as the best market for developers because of one big advantage,
universal resolutions, universal display sizes, with the iPad and the retina display, a new era came in, of Universal App Store apps, which tend to run on both the iPad and iPhone(retina) resolution, and apps which could run on the older generation iPhones and the Retina display iPhones.
With a new resolution, a whole new array of apps will need to be revised for the much higher resolution,
thus also increasing the average app size, which in turn will demand a much higher capacity iPad,
increasing the overall cost of the device, so is it advantageous? Pleasing to the eyes, but the new technology may make it cumbersome for the developers.
Also, it's to be noted, when the iOS 4 came out, it bore a feature that could automatically render much of the older generation apps to higher resolution, significantly reducing the hard work for developers.
That's it about the display.
Comes in spotlight, is the phrase we've got something to "Touch"...
This is something I'm excited about, I've always been envious about the android users with one thing, their phone kinda vibrates with key presses, slick but pretty useful,
of course jailbreak tweaks could manage it on the iOS devices, but originally has it's own pleasure.
Maybe, Apple might have something new in store for it's customers, a tactile feedback display, might change a lot about how devices give us feedback and response.
now that's what I'd call WOW.
(and no I'm not talking about SRS WOW, although that would be a nice addition too :D)
I hope Apple manages it somehow.
Now, the iPad will of course bear a new processor and some more RAM in it's core(it has to run a display much higher than full HD, if it's going to be a retina display), a new GPU, seriously, I want to see something way better than PS VITA's GPU. A quad-core processor would be no harm either, seeing tablets from Asus have the Tegra quad core processors, Apple has to tout something viable and competitive.
Coming to the part where Radios are concerned, There's a chance for a new WiFi radio, and a Bluetooth 4.0, which will be there for sure. A 4G LTE chip might make it's way in, Apple doesn't want to fall behind in the line.
At last, Re-design?
I never really speculate this about Apple, Apple re-designs only if it needs to, a good design is carried on for ages and ages. I'm hoping the design might be the same although to accommodate new backlighting
for the new display might end up getting larger space occupation.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Of iPhone 4S
This phone has recieved a mix of opinions from critics, According to some, they were waiting for 'iPhone 5' and they got a '4S' instead. Weird I must say, Either they just wanted a good enough excuse to not buy the iPhone or they have mixed feelings about it, either way, pretty stupid.
Seriously, On what basis were these people hoping for an 'all new radical design' I simply cannot understand.
Trend with apple has always been to maintain a design for atleast 2-3 device cycles.
The iPhone 4S of course borrows it's design from it's ancestor, the iPhone 4, and as I anticipated, there's an improved antenna system, The same alumino-silicate glasses now house a completely new surge of power underneath.
What's New in Hardware-
1) A bit late, but Apple is finally in the line of dual core smartphones.
The CPU and Graphics division have revamped their power with the 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and a PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU(all this rubbish is short for a dual core graphics processing unit), in combination, they are called the Apple A5 chip.
2)There's unmentioned increase in the memory and cache of the CPU.(probably RAM is now 1024 MB)
-Update: There's no increase in RAM, it's still 512 MB.
3)Camera- The camera in iPhone 4S is something marvellous. There's now a 5 element lens(more elements mean better picture in simple terms) compared to the 4 Element lens featured previously.
There's a new hybrid IR filter to filter out the image spoiling Infrared rays. The number of pixels is increased to 8 Megapixels, what we need to really watch out here for is, more megapixels not always mean a better picture, Photography is about capturing photons, and that is the most difficult task in a phone camera, as the lens is too small. They have made some really impressive gestures to make an improvement on that, By increasing the lens aperture to f/2.4(which simply means there will be more exposure now) and by creating larger size of pixels. There's better Auto White Balance and uniformity of colors with the new A5 chip.
With iOS 5, we also have AE/AF(Auto Exposure and Auto Focus) Lock and Grid available.
Video is now full 1920x1080p HD, and there's video stabilization using Gyroscope(A sensor to measure 3 Axis motion - 1 of them being - around th gravity) to measure movements.
4)Siri- Yes it's here.! The most talked about feature of the iPhone 4S. Voice recognition at it's best.
It's one of the most natural forms of communication and now the phone will be able to talk to you just like a person, with all the sense of context, meaning, depth and natural language.
It just works, just hold the home screen button, and unlike the previous blue screen of Voice Control, A microphone with purple hue/glow appears, tap on it and speak, and Siri will do it for you.
Siri was a personal assistant application purchased by Apple recently, and is still in Beta.
It's 4S exclusive.
Update: I wrote this post a while back(in October) but forgot to post it. Siri has been ported unofficially to older devices and it works perfectly fine, Except the 'Raise To Speak' functionality, which lets user to activate Siri just by holding the phone near their ear and speak, this hasn't been working in the ports, probably due to the inclusion of a new type of gyroscope in the iPhone 4S.
There's slight improvement in the LCD in terms of brightness, although, it's a year old technology now, It's still one of the best displays in the market.
Improvements in Performance-
The processing of iPhone 4S is twice as fast as the iPhone 4 and has a massive graphics improvement(up to 7x faster). The graphics performance is almost 9x of the previous generation.
The new processor enhances camera performance as well, you can now capture the 1st image in less than 1.1 seconds(2nd Picture is even less, 0.5 secs. The new Image Signal Processor on the A5 enables face detection, real-time video stabilization and better auto white balance on the camera(unto 20%).
Epic Games showcased the power of the iPhone 4S by showcasing the upcoming version of their wildly popular and highly praised game Infinity Blade.
When I used the phone, it felt better in every way. Loved the performance.
Improvements in network reception-
The iPhone 4S has dual antennas which can switch in real-time to make call drops a thing of past as the phone switches to a different antenna as one gets attenuated. The phone now employes both CDMA and GSM radios, making it a World Phone.
The iPhone 4S is here and now the question is, Is it better than then all previous generation iPhones?
Of course it is, on the contrary I feel this is the phone which is now going to last for at least 3-4 generation of iPhone in terms of support(Like the iPhone 3GS), So buying it is a really good investment. Unless you're a person who's completely tied with apple with a disk-load of purchased Apps and long time Apple fan, you can always look at other options which in terms of hardware might offer you much more.
But there's no denying, the charm of Apple, is never lost.
Although If you're expecting a large screen (or if you were), It's not going to happen, as for a phone, the screen is best possible in terms of 'finger-reach'.
To the iPhone 4 owners,
It's not obligatory for you to upgrade unless you're charmed by Siri, but believe me, it's not that great, and not worth shelling out a $1000 dollars...(Unless of course you're a rich enough fan boy)
The accent recognition is very limited, and it's messed up if you're not in the Americas.
If you want a better camera and more processing power, than it's an upgrade for you, and a very good one, Don't wait for an 'iPhone 5' as most probably this is the 2nd phone after 3GS which will be a given a very long term support due to it's hardware which will be long lasting.
Though the iPhone 4 is still an amazing phone compared to others phones in the market.
Conclusion- This phone is Apple's answer to all the dual core beasty-phones out there. People are happy to know that Apple is now at par in providing functionalities that it did not previously, although like Apple says it, It takes time to put things just right.
Thumbs up, iPhone 4S.
Seriously, On what basis were these people hoping for an 'all new radical design' I simply cannot understand.
Trend with apple has always been to maintain a design for atleast 2-3 device cycles.
The iPhone 4S of course borrows it's design from it's ancestor, the iPhone 4, and as I anticipated, there's an improved antenna system, The same alumino-silicate glasses now house a completely new surge of power underneath.
What's New in Hardware-
1) A bit late, but Apple is finally in the line of dual core smartphones.
The CPU and Graphics division have revamped their power with the 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and a PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU(all this rubbish is short for a dual core graphics processing unit), in combination, they are called the Apple A5 chip.
2)There's unmentioned increase in the memory and cache of the CPU.(probably RAM is now 1024 MB)
-Update: There's no increase in RAM, it's still 512 MB.
3)Camera- The camera in iPhone 4S is something marvellous. There's now a 5 element lens(more elements mean better picture in simple terms) compared to the 4 Element lens featured previously.
There's a new hybrid IR filter to filter out the image spoiling Infrared rays. The number of pixels is increased to 8 Megapixels, what we need to really watch out here for is, more megapixels not always mean a better picture, Photography is about capturing photons, and that is the most difficult task in a phone camera, as the lens is too small. They have made some really impressive gestures to make an improvement on that, By increasing the lens aperture to f/2.4(which simply means there will be more exposure now) and by creating larger size of pixels. There's better Auto White Balance and uniformity of colors with the new A5 chip.
With iOS 5, we also have AE/AF(Auto Exposure and Auto Focus) Lock and Grid available.
Video is now full 1920x1080p HD, and there's video stabilization using Gyroscope(A sensor to measure 3 Axis motion - 1 of them being - around th gravity) to measure movements.
4)Siri- Yes it's here.! The most talked about feature of the iPhone 4S. Voice recognition at it's best.
It's one of the most natural forms of communication and now the phone will be able to talk to you just like a person, with all the sense of context, meaning, depth and natural language.
It just works, just hold the home screen button, and unlike the previous blue screen of Voice Control, A microphone with purple hue/glow appears, tap on it and speak, and Siri will do it for you.
Siri was a personal assistant application purchased by Apple recently, and is still in Beta.
It's 4S exclusive.
Update: I wrote this post a while back(in October) but forgot to post it. Siri has been ported unofficially to older devices and it works perfectly fine, Except the 'Raise To Speak' functionality, which lets user to activate Siri just by holding the phone near their ear and speak, this hasn't been working in the ports, probably due to the inclusion of a new type of gyroscope in the iPhone 4S.
There's slight improvement in the LCD in terms of brightness, although, it's a year old technology now, It's still one of the best displays in the market.
Improvements in Performance-
The processing of iPhone 4S is twice as fast as the iPhone 4 and has a massive graphics improvement(up to 7x faster). The graphics performance is almost 9x of the previous generation.
The new processor enhances camera performance as well, you can now capture the 1st image in less than 1.1 seconds(2nd Picture is even less, 0.5 secs. The new Image Signal Processor on the A5 enables face detection, real-time video stabilization and better auto white balance on the camera(unto 20%).
Epic Games showcased the power of the iPhone 4S by showcasing the upcoming version of their wildly popular and highly praised game Infinity Blade.
When I used the phone, it felt better in every way. Loved the performance.
Improvements in network reception-
The iPhone 4S has dual antennas which can switch in real-time to make call drops a thing of past as the phone switches to a different antenna as one gets attenuated. The phone now employes both CDMA and GSM radios, making it a World Phone.
The iPhone 4S is here and now the question is, Is it better than then all previous generation iPhones?
Of course it is, on the contrary I feel this is the phone which is now going to last for at least 3-4 generation of iPhone in terms of support(Like the iPhone 3GS), So buying it is a really good investment. Unless you're a person who's completely tied with apple with a disk-load of purchased Apps and long time Apple fan, you can always look at other options which in terms of hardware might offer you much more.
But there's no denying, the charm of Apple, is never lost.
Although If you're expecting a large screen (or if you were), It's not going to happen, as for a phone, the screen is best possible in terms of 'finger-reach'.
To the iPhone 4 owners,
It's not obligatory for you to upgrade unless you're charmed by Siri, but believe me, it's not that great, and not worth shelling out a $1000 dollars...(Unless of course you're a rich enough fan boy)
The accent recognition is very limited, and it's messed up if you're not in the Americas.
If you want a better camera and more processing power, than it's an upgrade for you, and a very good one, Don't wait for an 'iPhone 5' as most probably this is the 2nd phone after 3GS which will be a given a very long term support due to it's hardware which will be long lasting.
Though the iPhone 4 is still an amazing phone compared to others phones in the market.
Conclusion- This phone is Apple's answer to all the dual core beasty-phones out there. People are happy to know that Apple is now at par in providing functionalities that it did not previously, although like Apple says it, It takes time to put things just right.
Thumbs up, iPhone 4S.
Friday, October 7, 2011
The Voice of Human Cruelty : Extinction
It's Ironic, How the human specie evolved from the apes and now since it walks on 2 legs, has shed most of it's hair, and learnt to live in a materialistic world, it has chosen to forget the animal counterpart of it's existance. It was not long back(just a few million years) that this same human was itself limited to the forests. We have chosen to forget a legacy that was supposed to be immortal, when it was written by the quill of nature.
Over the course of time, since the 1st wave of industrialisation swept the lands of europe, the world has seen a significant growth in land use for farmlands, housing, industries(which includes all it's siblings - Offices, Manufacturing Plants, Treatment plants etc), so absorbed we are in the race to conquer every land available on Earth, We made a decision that is now yielding it's results. We chose ignorance over vigilance, We chose to start a white murder of the life-forms which were unfortunately not so intllectually capable to compete with us in our race for land acquisition. Yes, a white murder, rather then drenching our hands with their blood we conspired, we stole their land, leaving them no place to grow and die at the hands of our mercy. Shall We? because we walk on hind feet, assume to ourselves the only privilage of imperishability. Only to find their names on the some lists which we have started to call "Endangered Species". And sometimes, some of them are even more unlucky enough to find their way to these places, called Zoos, which are basically like a place for these animals to try and understand the human behavior! Waking up, Are We?
Each species of animal, that walks this planet, is a masterpiece, a creation assembled and encrusted with extreme care and genius. We often hear of these poor animals, One horned Rhinos, Tigers of India, Whales...dying out, again we choose to ignore. completely. entirely.
With the Indian hunters killing a tiger every other day because it entered their Village, not realizing, Why it entered their village, It's not as stupid as we are, leaving the beauty f the forest and coming to live in cities and villages, Well, It's just, it's got nowhere else to go, and so upon it's arrival in our lands, they face death at our cruel hands. When The Japanese finish with their whaling, we'll probably be left with no whales, A reality show "Whale Wars" to make some drama out of it, and probably some remorse or regret. That's it, We're humans, We learn to forget. We've forgotton so many species that have become extinct, Do we even care, when we reproduce at an alarming rate, who cares about the extinction of other species.
And when we enter the regions of these magnificient creatures and die at their hands, We put labels on them such as "The Man eaters of Kumoun" or "Killer Whales". Wow, that's the beautiful irony of human nature. A Living Oxymoron of Life and death.
We stretch small regions with electrified wires and call them National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries, It's like, being imprisoned in your own house, but that's the best we can do, when we can't ever fulfill our instiable desire of having beutiful large houses, farmlands and smoking factories, that's all these creatures can get. And probably, someday they'll too learn to satisfy themselves with these 'really large prisons' built for them, and If not, they will have no option but death and extinction from the face of this planet.
This world, it's a beautiful place, and when It was created, every creature was meant ot live in harmony with it, but one specie 'outdeveloped' every other, and every other specie is now feeling it's wrath. This wrath can't be taken away, but only reduced, for human nature is that of conquering with no limit. Someday, When it dawns upon, that one of the creatures that we admired with pride has gone instinct, It will be just another to remember the crimes of humanity.
Over the course of time, since the 1st wave of industrialisation swept the lands of europe, the world has seen a significant growth in land use for farmlands, housing, industries(which includes all it's siblings - Offices, Manufacturing Plants, Treatment plants etc), so absorbed we are in the race to conquer every land available on Earth, We made a decision that is now yielding it's results. We chose ignorance over vigilance, We chose to start a white murder of the life-forms which were unfortunately not so intllectually capable to compete with us in our race for land acquisition. Yes, a white murder, rather then drenching our hands with their blood we conspired, we stole their land, leaving them no place to grow and die at the hands of our mercy. Shall We? because we walk on hind feet, assume to ourselves the only privilage of imperishability. Only to find their names on the some lists which we have started to call "Endangered Species". And sometimes, some of them are even more unlucky enough to find their way to these places, called Zoos, which are basically like a place for these animals to try and understand the human behavior! Waking up, Are We?
Each species of animal, that walks this planet, is a masterpiece, a creation assembled and encrusted with extreme care and genius. We often hear of these poor animals, One horned Rhinos, Tigers of India, Whales...dying out, again we choose to ignore. completely. entirely.
With the Indian hunters killing a tiger every other day because it entered their Village, not realizing, Why it entered their village, It's not as stupid as we are, leaving the beauty f the forest and coming to live in cities and villages, Well, It's just, it's got nowhere else to go, and so upon it's arrival in our lands, they face death at our cruel hands. When The Japanese finish with their whaling, we'll probably be left with no whales, A reality show "Whale Wars" to make some drama out of it, and probably some remorse or regret. That's it, We're humans, We learn to forget. We've forgotton so many species that have become extinct, Do we even care, when we reproduce at an alarming rate, who cares about the extinction of other species.
And when we enter the regions of these magnificient creatures and die at their hands, We put labels on them such as "The Man eaters of Kumoun" or "Killer Whales". Wow, that's the beautiful irony of human nature. A Living Oxymoron of Life and death.
We stretch small regions with electrified wires and call them National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries, It's like, being imprisoned in your own house, but that's the best we can do, when we can't ever fulfill our instiable desire of having beutiful large houses, farmlands and smoking factories, that's all these creatures can get. And probably, someday they'll too learn to satisfy themselves with these 'really large prisons' built for them, and If not, they will have no option but death and extinction from the face of this planet.
This world, it's a beautiful place, and when It was created, every creature was meant ot live in harmony with it, but one specie 'outdeveloped' every other, and every other specie is now feeling it's wrath. This wrath can't be taken away, but only reduced, for human nature is that of conquering with no limit. Someday, When it dawns upon, that one of the creatures that we admired with pride has gone instinct, It will be just another to remember the crimes of humanity.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
In Memoriam : Steve Jobs Remembered
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life," he said. "Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." -Steve
"If you live each day as if it was your last, someday, you'll most certainly be right"-Steve
When I woke up today, I as usual checked my iPhone, opened NewYork Times, and the 1st thing my eyes couldn't miss was the news of his death, world flipped before my eyes, there were 100s of different memories, of the WWDC, of the 1st iPod launch, of the speech of Stanford which I read nearly everyday....there were 100s of flashbacks, and so absorbed I was I couldn't get up from bed for nearly 4 hours, maybe it was hurt, shock or sadness, but tears came out, He was much more than an inspiring leader, he was in fact a mentor to me who had inspired me to be the way I am today.
I couldn't think of writing a status update dedicated to him or tweet, Steve Jobs desrves more...atleast a holiday in his rememberance. It's why I waited to write this, when I could hold myself.
I 1st heard of him when I was in my 3rd standard, I was reading a copy of Digit, It was a small column, not really big, back then the world hardly knew of him, but to me, he became a hero, a real hero,
People worship in temples when some great actors fall ill, and luckily they survive, all I ask today is, what have they done, Did they change the entire world with their acting in movies? or have the revived the poor, but yet they have these 1000s and lacs of people worshipping them as gods...
what about the people who really change our lives? The one who invented computer? the one who invented a TV? If they hadn't been there there would be millions of people who didn't have a job, because there had been no computer, Why do we forget to pray for these people?
I doubt a single temple had a prayer session dedicated to Steve when he was dying...
The world is undoubtedly cruel, to those who really care to be the change...
Steve no doubt, created a dent in the universe of which he talked. He was the change that he wanted to see in the world, and he succeeded...
The world is a different place with all the 'i'devices, with people on their iPads, iPhones, iMacs...and I'm myself writing all of this on the last iPhone he introduced as a CEO of the company.
He died young, and it's nature's cruelty it takes people away who make an impact on it...
I just am left to imagine what he would have done if he had lived a 30 years more...
Or perhaps death is a strong motivation, his prospect of death made him what he was...
HE, in the truest sense, has conquered death, has defeated it, for it could not come in his way.
He was an amazing mentor to me, Just reading about him made me realize what one is capable of doing, I corresponded with him only once, but even that one instance was amazing to me and near unforgettable. If I was granted two wishes that would be fulfilled, with one wish I just want to revive him back and meet him once, the other one...I can't talk of.
He would always be remembered in hearts of those who remember him as a change, as an era of technology.
Steve Jobs was never proud or vain, he could find something to value in anyone, however apparently insignificant or wretched and I believe his early losses endowed him with great humanity and sympathy. I shall miss him all my life as someone who guided me to a new dimension of this world, That he was the most inspiring and loved leader I have seen.
He died as he lived...working always for the inventions in which he lived and to his last hour, as to live like every day as his last...
PS- How ironic it was for me, 2 hours before his death I watched his stanford university speech, and his last address at the WWDC 2011, thinking when I'd get to meet him in person. He will always be one of the 2 most close people to me in the world(apart from family)
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Of iOS 5
The Apple special event October 2011 went like a breeze with people stuck to their favorite gadget news sites following it live(me including, thanks to Engadget liveblog).
There were a lot of speculations, including my own, and I'm feeling really good that most of the ones that I thought of turned out correct.
Starting with iOS 5- I'm just covering up the best ones, rest all you can always find on Apple's website.
iOS 5-
They call it the most extensive software update until now, and no doubt, it definitely is, both in terms of the number of devices that are going to get it(6 devices, not including the iPhone 4S) and in terms of features(more than 200).
Let's shine the spotlight on some of the most amazing new features of the iOS 5 -
1)Notification Center - current iPhone users will really love it as they suffered from the previous notification system where the notifications disappeared after unlocking the screen or interuppted the user in midst of something when they recieved a notification. New iPhone users will have a comfort as they will start of with something revamped and improved. All notification are now in a notification center which can be pulled out by swiping down from the status bar.(Some may call this a rip off from Android, but well you got to pull it out of somewhere). You can also find all your notifications on the lock screen.
2)iMessage- In people's terms, it's BlackBerry Messsenger for iPhone, and quite literally, it is, so basically it's free messaging between iOS 5 users on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch over data connection or WiFi. So apart from free messages, what's new? Read Reports, when a person reads yours message, you get an alert with a time stamp when they read it. Quite cool, huh? Of course you can share pictures, videos etc over it.
3)News Stand- News stand was demoed only on the iPad, but it appears it has an icon for iPhone as well in the screenshots and as seen in the betas(Until now, there was no special store available on the app during the beta stage so it remained empty). Sadly there have been really few number of magazines available on iPhone, of course you can always download a PDF and sync it to iBooks and read in near same comfort but of course the luxury of a subscription, with a new copy waiting for you every time it gets out is something we can't really deny.
So Newsstand brings all your subscruptions, from newspapers and magazines(I don't know if in India Times of India or Hindustan Times will be offering one) in one place, organized. It features background downloads, so you don't have to download again and again, wake up and you'll find your copy of day's newspaper waiting.
4)Camera- 1st up, the Camera app is now available from the lock screen, double click on the home button, and Camera Icon appears, no hassle of going through the passcode or anything else. You can now snap a pic from the Volume up button/shutter button.
There's on the fly editing now available in the photos app.(Red Eye, Auto Enhance, Cropping etc).
There's grid available on the camera as well so you can use the rule of thirds to compose.
5)Reminders- Really nice app, does what it says in it's name, Gives you reminders for anything you want. But what's so cool, a lot can do that. There's location based reminders, One very good use that I found, I frequently forget my license while driving out, so I can set a reminder on my phone to remind me to take my license while i'm driving out of my home. Really cool.
6)Twitter Integration- Twitter itself is very excited about it, expands a whole new market once again, people will be more comfortable as one can use twitter from all around the phone, tweet photos directly, tweet locations, updates etc, all from one log in. It may have much more to it, which we'll get to know on october 10 and 12, when I believe Twitter is holding a developer tea time just for iOS integration.
7)Now, a very important one, and one which makes a big difference to the current line of iPhones, that is, PC Free, Yes, now you don't need to own a computer to set up your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, just start off right away.(There's a lot of integration with iCloud which we'll talk about later)
There are much more, Game Center improvements, New mail improvements, Wireless Sync, Multitasking gestures for iPad(you can get them on jailbroken iPhone as well with a simple tweak), Safari updates(Tabbed browsing on iPad and Reading lists) new Accessibility options, Assistive touch, Custom Vibration patterns, LED flash alerts. For the developers, there are a host of new APIs.
There are a lot more features, and like it was said, there's a feature for everyone.
Just try it for yourself. iOS 5 comes out on October 12.
It's available for iPod Touch 3rd and 4th Generation, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, iPad 1 and iPad 2.
A note to users of Jailbroken devices - Avoid updating to iOS 5 when it comes out, unless there's an untethered jailbreak available at hand. For those who don't get it, untethered means, you can use your device independently, and when you switch off and on again, the jailbreak remains, which is not the case in tethered jailbreaks, where the jailbreak is gone after you switch it off and on again, you need a computer to boot up in jailbreak mode, thus the term originates, from being tethered.
If you rely on all your apps pirated and 'appsyncd' or from 'installous' avoid updating to iOS 5.
Users of unlocked devices should beware most, you may end up updating your modem firmware(or else called baseband) which will render your device useless.
There were a lot of speculations, including my own, and I'm feeling really good that most of the ones that I thought of turned out correct.
Starting with iOS 5- I'm just covering up the best ones, rest all you can always find on Apple's website.
iOS 5-
They call it the most extensive software update until now, and no doubt, it definitely is, both in terms of the number of devices that are going to get it(6 devices, not including the iPhone 4S) and in terms of features(more than 200).
Let's shine the spotlight on some of the most amazing new features of the iOS 5 -
1)Notification Center - current iPhone users will really love it as they suffered from the previous notification system where the notifications disappeared after unlocking the screen or interuppted the user in midst of something when they recieved a notification. New iPhone users will have a comfort as they will start of with something revamped and improved. All notification are now in a notification center which can be pulled out by swiping down from the status bar.(Some may call this a rip off from Android, but well you got to pull it out of somewhere). You can also find all your notifications on the lock screen.
2)iMessage- In people's terms, it's BlackBerry Messsenger for iPhone, and quite literally, it is, so basically it's free messaging between iOS 5 users on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch over data connection or WiFi. So apart from free messages, what's new? Read Reports, when a person reads yours message, you get an alert with a time stamp when they read it. Quite cool, huh? Of course you can share pictures, videos etc over it.
3)News Stand- News stand was demoed only on the iPad, but it appears it has an icon for iPhone as well in the screenshots and as seen in the betas(Until now, there was no special store available on the app during the beta stage so it remained empty). Sadly there have been really few number of magazines available on iPhone, of course you can always download a PDF and sync it to iBooks and read in near same comfort but of course the luxury of a subscription, with a new copy waiting for you every time it gets out is something we can't really deny.
So Newsstand brings all your subscruptions, from newspapers and magazines(I don't know if in India Times of India or Hindustan Times will be offering one) in one place, organized. It features background downloads, so you don't have to download again and again, wake up and you'll find your copy of day's newspaper waiting.
4)Camera- 1st up, the Camera app is now available from the lock screen, double click on the home button, and Camera Icon appears, no hassle of going through the passcode or anything else. You can now snap a pic from the Volume up button/shutter button.
There's on the fly editing now available in the photos app.(Red Eye, Auto Enhance, Cropping etc).
There's grid available on the camera as well so you can use the rule of thirds to compose.
5)Reminders- Really nice app, does what it says in it's name, Gives you reminders for anything you want. But what's so cool, a lot can do that. There's location based reminders, One very good use that I found, I frequently forget my license while driving out, so I can set a reminder on my phone to remind me to take my license while i'm driving out of my home. Really cool.
6)Twitter Integration- Twitter itself is very excited about it, expands a whole new market once again, people will be more comfortable as one can use twitter from all around the phone, tweet photos directly, tweet locations, updates etc, all from one log in. It may have much more to it, which we'll get to know on october 10 and 12, when I believe Twitter is holding a developer tea time just for iOS integration.
7)Now, a very important one, and one which makes a big difference to the current line of iPhones, that is, PC Free, Yes, now you don't need to own a computer to set up your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, just start off right away.(There's a lot of integration with iCloud which we'll talk about later)
There are much more, Game Center improvements, New mail improvements, Wireless Sync, Multitasking gestures for iPad(you can get them on jailbroken iPhone as well with a simple tweak), Safari updates(Tabbed browsing on iPad and Reading lists) new Accessibility options, Assistive touch, Custom Vibration patterns, LED flash alerts. For the developers, there are a host of new APIs.
There are a lot more features, and like it was said, there's a feature for everyone.
Just try it for yourself. iOS 5 comes out on October 12.
It's available for iPod Touch 3rd and 4th Generation, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, iPad 1 and iPad 2.
A note to users of Jailbroken devices - Avoid updating to iOS 5 when it comes out, unless there's an untethered jailbreak available at hand. For those who don't get it, untethered means, you can use your device independently, and when you switch off and on again, the jailbreak remains, which is not the case in tethered jailbreaks, where the jailbreak is gone after you switch it off and on again, you need a computer to boot up in jailbreak mode, thus the term originates, from being tethered.
If you rely on all your apps pirated and 'appsyncd' or from 'installous' avoid updating to iOS 5.
Users of unlocked devices should beware most, you may end up updating your modem firmware(or else called baseband) which will render your device useless.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Let's Talk iPhone
There's a day left to the October 4, 2011 iPhone event. Speculations for what the next iPhone may look like and the surprize feature of the next iOS have certainly generated a huge traffic on Internet.
There's still a huge margin of doubt if Apple may even announce the new iPhone or may just bail out with a super-cool iOS feature added to the current 4th Generation iPhone.
Let's shine some spotlight on the current rumours for the yet to arrive iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S and iOS 5.
iPhone 5/iPhone 4S-
The 5th generation iPhone may be called the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S. If we follow the past Apple trend(iPhone 3G with some improvements was called iPhone 3GS - S represented speed for the processor and RAM improvements). Thus, following the past trend certainly means, If the next iPhone comes dressed as iPhone 4 with better guts and brains, it may just be called iPhone 4S.(Of course, there's a chance for iPhone 5 as well).
There are speculations the next iPhone will feature a completely radical new teardrop design, but there are few negative aspects of the new design,
1st, Apple went over to redesigning and making over the iPhone 4 juts last year, and it has been Apple's trend it keeps a design for atleast 2-3 product cycles, So, I doubt Apple have gone to the trouble of redesigning it all over again. 2nd, iPhone is also one of the most popular gaming platforms, the assymetrical designs beats the purpose.
What is plausible right now is, Apple may keep the old 'beautiful old lycra camera' design for now, with improvements in the Antenna design as to address the Antennagate(attenuation issues in the iPhone 4). Life may as well be easier for Apple if it were to keep the same dimensions and squeezed newer components in the same housing.
The 2nd, most popular rumor is, Larger, 4" or 3.7" screen, Again, it's highly unlikely Apple will do it.
Apple considers iOS and iOS devices better than Android and it's devices for one very main reason, standard resolutions, and standard screen sizes, Apps on the App Store run on every latest device(I say latest as some apps are only supported on iOS 4 or later).
Now, Imagine, a new iPhone with a new screen, Apple can do 2 things, either stretch the 960x640 resolution to the large screen and lose the 326 ppi density to a meagre class of displays whose pixels are visible when brought close to eye. I doubt Apple would want that after bragging the Retina Display on last years WWDC at San Francisco. The other thing Apple can do, is create another resolution, which brings down the total number of resolutions on iOS devices to 4, 320x480, 960x640, 1024x768(iPad) and whatever the new resolution it will be. iOS 4, was intelligent enough to allow most apps universally(run both on iPhone and iPad)...and was able to render the graphics of old apps to the retina display resolution, but I really doubt Apple wants to get into this mess of varied sizes and resolution, thus a new screen size is highly unlikely.
It may sport a new storage size of 64 GB as people like me with a lot of music and movies plus heavy apps definitely like to get it big, and the most plausible rumor of a dual core 1Ghz A5 chip, sporting ARM Cortex-A9 processor and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU(All this crap means a faster iPhone, better graphics, and a more responsive user interaction) and a boost in RAM size to 1GB.
Addition of NFC(Near Field Communication- A technology similar to bluetooth) is also unlikely, when Apple doesn't even allow bluetooth interaction with other devices(3rd Party)...and file transfers, I doubt it will go to that trouble, nor there's a chance they may do it just for the sake of wireless payments when there are 3rd parties like SquareUp on the racecourse.
Making a world phone with both CDMA and GSM network radios may shorten the market as even with the GSM models, it takes Apple almost a year to take out the phone in a lot of countries. HSPA+ upgrade for higher data speeds upto 21 Mbps is likely to be added but at the same time LTE is unlikely.(LTE - 4G - 4th generation of mobile communications - many people had the habit of calling the iPhone 4 as iPhone 4G, which is in fact stupid as 4G points to it's cellular ability so basically it's just going to give you really high speed internet access probably more than 20-30 Mbps) There's a chance Sprint will become the 3rd carrier in the US to offer the phone on contract officially.
No New iPhone-
There's also a tiny bit of chance there maybe no new iPhone this year, which is possibly due to 2 reasons, Apple worked on the CDMA radios to work out the iPhone for Verizon this year, and just in May it also launched the iPhone 4 in white finally, which meant a lot of hard work for Apple.
If there was already a new iPhone around the corner, I doubt apple have had produced a new batch of 2 new devices of the same class. Of course, this is as small a chance as Tyler Perry winning the grammy.
So that's it about the next iPhone.
iOS 5-
A lot is already known about the iOS 5 with the beta stage stretched to 7 betas and developer preview first released on June 7. Apple may out the Golden Master release tomorrow which is the developer preview of the final build of the OS.
There's a rumor for an Assistant feature to be added as a surprise feature in the iOS 5(which is already being called the most extensive update ever). With Apple's purchase of the personal assistant application from Siri, there was a wave of rumors about Apple building a completely voice operated iPhone. If rumors are right, we can't help but be amazed as always. Of course there's also a rumor that only the next iPhone will support it, I doubt it as well, as it would mean, iPhone 4 becoming the device apple lost support for features on it's OS.(history proves it wrong, iPhone 3GS is still with us, healthy with iOS 4 and eligible for upgrade to iOS 5).
It's integration with iCloud is also very much already shown on the WWDC 2011 and iCloud is hardly given a wave of rumors thus it's image is crystal clear.
Rest we'll get to know tomorrow at the Apple's October 4 Event. Let's Talk iPhone.
Watch it Live on http://www.apple.com/apple-events
There's still a huge margin of doubt if Apple may even announce the new iPhone or may just bail out with a super-cool iOS feature added to the current 4th Generation iPhone.
Let's shine some spotlight on the current rumours for the yet to arrive iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S and iOS 5.
iPhone 5/iPhone 4S-
The 5th generation iPhone may be called the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S. If we follow the past Apple trend(iPhone 3G with some improvements was called iPhone 3GS - S represented speed for the processor and RAM improvements). Thus, following the past trend certainly means, If the next iPhone comes dressed as iPhone 4 with better guts and brains, it may just be called iPhone 4S.(Of course, there's a chance for iPhone 5 as well).
There are speculations the next iPhone will feature a completely radical new teardrop design, but there are few negative aspects of the new design,
1st, Apple went over to redesigning and making over the iPhone 4 juts last year, and it has been Apple's trend it keeps a design for atleast 2-3 product cycles, So, I doubt Apple have gone to the trouble of redesigning it all over again. 2nd, iPhone is also one of the most popular gaming platforms, the assymetrical designs beats the purpose.
What is plausible right now is, Apple may keep the old 'beautiful old lycra camera' design for now, with improvements in the Antenna design as to address the Antennagate(attenuation issues in the iPhone 4). Life may as well be easier for Apple if it were to keep the same dimensions and squeezed newer components in the same housing.
The 2nd, most popular rumor is, Larger, 4" or 3.7" screen, Again, it's highly unlikely Apple will do it.
Apple considers iOS and iOS devices better than Android and it's devices for one very main reason, standard resolutions, and standard screen sizes, Apps on the App Store run on every latest device(I say latest as some apps are only supported on iOS 4 or later).
Now, Imagine, a new iPhone with a new screen, Apple can do 2 things, either stretch the 960x640 resolution to the large screen and lose the 326 ppi density to a meagre class of displays whose pixels are visible when brought close to eye. I doubt Apple would want that after bragging the Retina Display on last years WWDC at San Francisco. The other thing Apple can do, is create another resolution, which brings down the total number of resolutions on iOS devices to 4, 320x480, 960x640, 1024x768(iPad) and whatever the new resolution it will be. iOS 4, was intelligent enough to allow most apps universally(run both on iPhone and iPad)...and was able to render the graphics of old apps to the retina display resolution, but I really doubt Apple wants to get into this mess of varied sizes and resolution, thus a new screen size is highly unlikely.
It may sport a new storage size of 64 GB as people like me with a lot of music and movies plus heavy apps definitely like to get it big, and the most plausible rumor of a dual core 1Ghz A5 chip, sporting ARM Cortex-A9 processor and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU(All this crap means a faster iPhone, better graphics, and a more responsive user interaction) and a boost in RAM size to 1GB.
Addition of NFC(Near Field Communication- A technology similar to bluetooth) is also unlikely, when Apple doesn't even allow bluetooth interaction with other devices(3rd Party)...and file transfers, I doubt it will go to that trouble, nor there's a chance they may do it just for the sake of wireless payments when there are 3rd parties like SquareUp on the racecourse.
Making a world phone with both CDMA and GSM network radios may shorten the market as even with the GSM models, it takes Apple almost a year to take out the phone in a lot of countries. HSPA+ upgrade for higher data speeds upto 21 Mbps is likely to be added but at the same time LTE is unlikely.(LTE - 4G - 4th generation of mobile communications - many people had the habit of calling the iPhone 4 as iPhone 4G, which is in fact stupid as 4G points to it's cellular ability so basically it's just going to give you really high speed internet access probably more than 20-30 Mbps) There's a chance Sprint will become the 3rd carrier in the US to offer the phone on contract officially.
No New iPhone-
There's also a tiny bit of chance there maybe no new iPhone this year, which is possibly due to 2 reasons, Apple worked on the CDMA radios to work out the iPhone for Verizon this year, and just in May it also launched the iPhone 4 in white finally, which meant a lot of hard work for Apple.
If there was already a new iPhone around the corner, I doubt apple have had produced a new batch of 2 new devices of the same class. Of course, this is as small a chance as Tyler Perry winning the grammy.
So that's it about the next iPhone.
iOS 5-
A lot is already known about the iOS 5 with the beta stage stretched to 7 betas and developer preview first released on June 7. Apple may out the Golden Master release tomorrow which is the developer preview of the final build of the OS.
There's a rumor for an Assistant feature to be added as a surprise feature in the iOS 5(which is already being called the most extensive update ever). With Apple's purchase of the personal assistant application from Siri, there was a wave of rumors about Apple building a completely voice operated iPhone. If rumors are right, we can't help but be amazed as always. Of course there's also a rumor that only the next iPhone will support it, I doubt it as well, as it would mean, iPhone 4 becoming the device apple lost support for features on it's OS.(history proves it wrong, iPhone 3GS is still with us, healthy with iOS 4 and eligible for upgrade to iOS 5).
It's integration with iCloud is also very much already shown on the WWDC 2011 and iCloud is hardly given a wave of rumors thus it's image is crystal clear.
Rest we'll get to know tomorrow at the Apple's October 4 Event. Let's Talk iPhone.
Watch it Live on http://www.apple.com/apple-events
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