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10 June 2012
Posted in
Apple
Perhaps one of the biggest rumours to appear before WWDC this year is the one about the all-new MacBook line. According to AppleInsider and other sources, the new MacBook line will sit between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines as a sort of middle ground between the two ends of the spectrum. The new MacBook line is speculated to have the portability of the MacBook Air, with the same optical drive-less design, but with all the power of the MacBook Pro line. It's also rumoured that the MacBook line will feature retina displays, and come in both 13- and 15-inch models.
Apple has been granted what The Verge are calling a broad patent on the wedge design of the MacBook Air, putting every Ultrabook machine in jeopardy of infringing a patent. The patent has been termed broad because it covers a wide variety of aspects, but because the patent doesn't claim various aspects of the wedge design, it means that a company could tweak everything from the feet of the laptop to the hinge design and still infringe on Apple's patent.
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07 June 2012
Posted in
Apple
New Macs have been rumoured to be launched at WWDC, and less than a week out from the event sees a leaked spec sheet of upcoming Macs and a few peripherals. The spec sheet doesn't actually list the specs of new Macs, but it does reveal model numbers, names, and prices — all plausible values for future Macs. Note that the spec sheet also lists prices in Australian dollars — read into that what you will.
An analyst from Garner says Macs are breaking the Windows stronghold on the enterprise market, due in part to the popularity of tablet computers. The tables are going to turn around anytime soon, but instead of outright refusing Macs in the workplace, more and more workplaces are now embracing them. While some workplaces are still limiting Macs, their continued acceptance — however begrudgingly — means that eventually, maybe we'll see enterprise environments which openly embrace Macs.
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06 June 2012
Posted in
Apple
After nearly two years of exactly zero updates, it's rumoured Apple may finally update the Mac Pro next week, along with the much of the rest of the Mac lineup. Part numbers and prices have been leaked via 9to5Mac, so a Mac Pro update during WWDC is very likely — the only real question is whether Apple will include Ivy Bridge processors in the new Mac Pro, but I don't really see them doing anything else.
News from research firm Gartner says Apple turns over inventory much faster than any of their competitors. In fact, Gartner's report says the only company that turns over their entire inventory faster is McDonalds. Having a company as big as Apple and turning over their inventory every five days is no mean feat, a testament to the genius of Tim Cook as a master of supply chain management.
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05 June 2012
Posted in
Apple
Matrox has announced a Thunderbolt dock that features many connectivity options for Thunderbolt-equipped PC and Mac users alike. The DS-1 features audio I/O, USB 2 and 3 ports, gigabit ethernet, and a DVI port. The DS-1 will cost US $249 and ships in September. Not to be outdone, the third iteration of the Belkin Thunderbolt express dock now comes with USB 3 and eSATA, with the main difference to the DS-1 being that the Thunderbolt Express Dock features two Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining. However, the Thunderbolt Express dock is also quite a bit more expensive than the DS-1 too, at US $399.
John Gruber from Daring Fireball has posted speculation regarding the number of to-be-announced sessions in the WWDC schedule. This year, Apple has moved a few of the usual suspects around: the Apple Design Awards, for one, are now on Monday afternoon instead of Wednesday. But what's really interesting are all the TBA sessions: are these related to new announcements that won't be revealed to the general public until the keynote on Monday morning?
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30 May 2012
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Apple
Tim Cook took the stage at AllThingsDigital's D10 conference just yesterday, and in his interview with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg he had quite a few interesting things to say. For example, he mentioned that Apple would be doubling down of product secrecy, while declining to mention what the company would be announcing at this year's WWDC. He also noted that the Apple TV is a very successful unit, with 2.7 million sales this year.
Boy Genius have an exclusive on the new TV OS from Apple, reportedly set to debut next week at WWDC. They say the new Apple TV OS will be much more feature-complete than the current one that runs on Apple TVs today, and will also be the OS running on the oft-rumoured Apple television. It's rumoured that the new Apple TV OS will feature a ambitious "control out" API, allowing users to control any peripherals connected to the Apple TV.
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29 May 2012
Posted in
Apple
Apple has confirmed all sorts of things to do with WWDC: they've confirmed that there will be a keynote, released the WWDC app for iOS devices, and have posted the talk schedule for attendees. There's not much else that can be said at this point, because until that keynote starts, we won't really know much about what new products or new software Apple will announce, although it's pretty likely that we'll see a Mountain Lion of some kind.
RBC capital markets expects there to be new models of MacBook sometime later in Q2 2012, which would pave the way for a new iPhone later this year in either September or October. We've been waiting on Ivy Bridge-equipped machines for a little while now, so it's very likely that a MacBook update could happen sooner, rather than later.
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28 May 2012
Posted in
Apple
If you had any doubt about Apple producing their own line of telvisions, rumour has it that Apple are now manufacturing the first test batch of these "smart TVs". One of Foxconn's smaller plants in Shenzhen is producing the smart TVs in a trial run, which means low numbers for design test verification stages at Apple. Provided the test TVs pass Apple's verifications, we could see an announcement in the near future.
Anandtech has published a review of the LaCie 2big NAS. The 2big NAS is an updated version of their previous product, the 2big Network. It features two drive bays for expandability, and comes in either diskless or 6TB versions at US $300 and $649, respectively.
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27 May 2012
Posted in
Apple
Patently Apple has quite an in-depth read on what a 3D-enabled Safari might look like, and how it might work. As it turns out, Apple has been filing patents on something called "Safari 3D" for a while now, and they all point to some kind of Safari implementation where users can stack bookmarks, emails, documents, and other apps in a 3D representation. A 3D GUI means a new method of interaction, and Apple has seemingly patented all the right concepts: rotating UIs, presenting and browsing items in a 3D space, and so on.
Cobook has been branded the intelligent address book app for the Mac, and you'll be very pleased to know it has finally been made available. It makes managing your address book incredibly easy and fast, and it is exactly to Address Book what Fantastical is to iCal. It's currently free in the Mac App Store.
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24 May 2012
Posted in
Apple
Fortune has profiled Tim Cook and how he's changing Apple as we know it. Fortune's Adam Lashinsky says that Cook has instigated "subtle but significant changes" at Apple, "leaving an indelible mark on Apple and its corporate culture." The report also reveals how Steve Jobs downplayed the labor issues in China, whereas Tim Cook was one to visit the factories and meet workers. Make no mistake: Apple is changing, and we have Tim Cook to thank for it.
Panic's Coda 2 has been released, and Macworld says it's a dramatic improvement over what was already very good software in their review. Coda 2 is for working with HTML+CSS, and it's currently one of the best software tools for doing so. There are improvements such as the upgraded code editor, a new sidebar panel, and a new way of file navigation using thumbnails.
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23 May 2012
Posted in
Apple
Sir Jonathan Ive is now officially Sir Jonathan Ive, after the ceremony which happened today in London. His title is now Knight Commander of the British Empire, and it gives him the right to be referred to as Sir Jonathan Ive. What's even more interesting is in his interview with the Daily Telgraph, Ive was asked what product he would most be remembered for. His answer was "what we’re working on now feels like the most important and the best work we’ve done, and so it would be what we’re working on right now, which of course I can’t tell you about."
The story of Apple and publishers colluding to fix the price of ebooks has been argued in the courts for some time now, but a US Judge has said that Apple "knowingly joined" the ebook conspiracy. His comments don't mean that Apple are guilty of anything just yet, but it does mean that the class action lawsuit will be moving forward.