Category Archives: News

The new iPad is here! Sort of. In case you haven’t heard, Apple made an announcement on Tuesday about a new version of the fourth generation iPad with Retina Display that boasts twice as much storage capacity than before. The new model will provide a staggering 128GB capacity, making the 64GB version look like an entry-level model by comparison. If you have ever had trouble storing your content then you would be hard pressed to max out this model.

Of course, with a big storage capacity comes a big price and this iPad certainly does not come cheap. According to the Apple website, the suggested retail price of the iPad with Wi-Fi is $799, while the iPad with Wi-Fi and Cellular will set you back around $929. Naturally the pricing has attracted a lot of criticism and rightfully so. This is a lot of money to pay for a tablet and it might be better spent on a shiny new MacBook instead. But of course, your view on this will depend on how much you are willing to spend, how useful that space will be for you and what exactly you need from a device.

Is this really a wise move for Apple and does it say anything about its plans for future iPads? With some doubt at Wall Street over Apple’s prospects following a 12% drop in the value of its shares, it is a very risky move to release a new version of a product that may not exactly have the broadest appeal. On the one hand, it is actually good value since it doubles the storage capacity for a mere $100 extra but on the other hand, it is a lot to pay for one device and will only really appeal to those who absolutely cannot make do without all that space, as well as completists who have the money to burn.

Not everyone will be in a hurry to buy one since the fourth generation iPad is still in its infancy but there are plenty of iPad 3 owners who skipped it since the same still applies to their own, but it will be this crowd who will anticipate the iPad 5 more and a more powerful iPad 4 is unlikely to convert them. It is always good to provide customers with as many options as possible but who exactly is this version aimed at? As it turns out, it may just have its audience as Apple has hinted that it is good for enterprises. This could mean the company is attempting to appeal to businesses rather than the everyday consumer and it may find its home in offices across the world.

Strangely enough Microsoft has only just launched its Surface Pro Tablet with 128GB of memory. Apple has never been one to let other companies outdo it so it is only natural that a decision to at least equal it would be made. Apple has cited Tuesday February 5 as the release date for the new supersize iPad. Customers may not be lining up around the block for this one but it might just find its home.

You couldn’t make a story like this up and if you did, people would think it were the plot of a sitcom. But sure enough these things do happen in real life and they are no less ridiculous when they do. The story in general involves an everyday robbery, followed by another every robbery, followed by some incredibly stupid behaviour from the original criminal.

Every day iPhones and iPads get stolen and New York City is witness to quite a few of these thefts, whether they happen on the street, in the park or on the subway. If you think you are safe talking on your iPhone in a crowded area then think again because such an environment provides perfect cover for someone to sneak up and grab it from you. So common is this occurrence, it has boosted the number of overall thefts significantly and accounts for 14% of all crimes.

But it is not every day that the same iPhone gets stolen twice and it is even less likely that the victim of the second theft, the one who stole the iPhone in the first place, would notify the police. Nevertheless, a criminal did indeed make this mistake last year back in November last year. A 16 year-old girl was in Prospect Park when she encountered three boys around the same age as her. One of them managed to wrestle her iPhone 4S away from her and made off with it, prompting her to quickly report the theft to some police officers nearby. They drove around the park on the lookout but unfortunately the thief was nowhere to be seen.

However this thief ran into some bad luck of his own when he tried to sell the iPhone on Bedford Avenue. Sure enough, the man interested in buying the iPhone chose to snatch it away instead and ran away. The original thief should have left it there and accepted that he should never have had it in the first place, but instead he stopped a police car and reported the theft, in an attempt to pass himself off as the victim. The second thief was easily found and taken to the station, along with the first thief/second victim.

Meanwhile, the poor girl was still driving around with the police looking for the original thief when they decided to try calling the iPhone. Sure enough they did and another police officer at the station answered. After some confusion in which one cop pretended to be the victim and accused the other of being a thief, the two police officers figured out who was who and what had actually happened.

Sure enough, the girl was taken to the station where the boy, oblivious to the fact that the police know exactly what was going on, was still playing the victim. On turning up, the girl was able to identify him as the thief and prove the iPhone was hers by unlocking it, which the boy was unable to do. Both thieves were taken into custody, while the girl was reunited with her iPhone and learned to be a bit more careful from now on.

The iPhone 5 is clearly old news already because the internet is already buzzing with excitement about the iPhone 6. While some are anticipating the larger iPhone Math, if it does indeed exist and that is its actual name, others are keeping their fingers firmly on the pulse of what they hope to be the iPhone 6 and one of the most notable rumours currently circulating about it is the inclusion of fingerprint detection technology.

Allegedly, Apple has done some dealing with security specialist AuthenTec, which happens to do a lot of work with fingerprint recognition, and many people are wondering if this could be for a new security feature Apple will be incorporating. It would certainly be a useful feature and a logical step for Apple’s devices. It wouldn’t have been unwelcome on the iPhone 5, which many will agree may have been a fine piece of hardware but was generally lacking in the innovations department.

But it seems this will not be the case with the iPhone 6, which will endure more of a technological overhaul to bring us something new. Rumours are coming from all corners of the internet, some more believable than others but the most plausible one that has me intrigued is the prospect of fingerprint detection. How many times has your iPhone fallen into the wrong hands, only for your Facebook wall to be spammed with abusive statuses apparently written by you? A visit to a bar with friends would suddenly be a lot safer. But of course there are more serious security issue than mischievous friends that would be helped greatly by this kind of technology. It would at least protect the contents of your iPhone if it were stolen, which is a common thing to happen unfortunately.

If the rumours are to be believed, and in this case they certainly have some credence, the fingerprint sensor is to be combined with the Home button so that only its owner can use it. What makes it so believable is the fact that Apple has recently acquired AuthenTec and, since the deal cost the company $356 million, there have to be some serious plans in the pipeline. AuthenTec is known for providing mobile security software and fingerprint technology, which some companies have already integrated into various phone apps, especially those that deal with online payments.

Another interesting point is the fact that AuthenTec informed its customers shortly after the acquisition that it would not continue to offer its services to them in 2013. It seems Apple calls the shots now and hopes to surpass its rivals by providing something they don’t have access to. But the fingerprint detection could go further than just reading prints as these can be copied. What it is said to be capable of is recognising certain properties in the owner’s finger skin so that even if someone else were to try and copy the prints, it would recognise them as fake and not grant access. This all sounds very futuristic and exactly the kind of innovation we want in an iPhone. Let’s hope the rumours are right.

Can the iPhone 5 really be decreasing in popularity already? That certainly seems to be the case this quarter as number of orders received for the latest iPhone model has seen a sharp decrease since the last quarter and as a result, Apple has ordered fewer components to meet the demands.

Just a few short months ago the iPhone was a must-have item that flew off the shelves and sold out during its first weekend. But it seems in the wake of the holiday season, demand has decreased significantly for the iPhone 5. For this reason, Apple has only ordered half of the amount of iPhone 5 screens that was originally intended for the January-March quarter of 2013. There are also reports that Apple has cut its orders for other components too. Apple allegedly notified its suppliers last month that the order would be cut and it certainly seems that the Christmas rush has satisfied the majority of those without the iPhone 5.

This is not a convenient time for Apple’s customers to lose interest as the company has already been facing stiff competition from Samsung, Google and other rival smartphone manufacturers. Apple may have dominated the smartphone market initially with the original release of the iPhone in 2007 but the popularity of the technology giant seems to be waning in favour of other electronics suppliers. In terms of market share, Samsung has already overtaken Apple as the world’s largest smartphone supplier, while there is now more demand for cheaper smartphones from Chinese manufacturers than before.

Apple’s share of the worldwide smartphone shipments peaked at 23% in the October-December quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. However, by the third quarter of 2012, this number dropped to 14.6%, while Samsung’s share rose to an all-time high of 31.3% during the same period. Samsung has had a hugely successful year and it also expects to reach another high in the fourth quarter of 2012, beating its own profit record. The Samsung Galaxy line has been overwhelmingly successful and is expected to have garnered an operating profit of between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion in the final quarter. Apple will report its earnings for the same period later on this month.

In its own right the iPhone 5 has been hugely successful so far and it has been a strong contender in the increasingly competitive smartphone market, with such features as its longer four-inch screen. However it looks as if these screens are not enough to draw in the crowds as rival brands are easily holding their own against the iPhone’s success.

Initially the primary concern was the Apple’s suppliers would be unable to manufacture the components and handsets quickly enough to meet customer demand and that was indeed the case for a while as factories struggled to meet deadlines. This was only exacerbated by the release of the iPad Mini just weeks afterwards but now demand is moving in the other direction and while there is less pressure to meet demands, the primary concern now seems to be that Apple may not sell enough. This drop could also affect the component manufacturers as until now, Apple has been a primary customer of theirs and if they are supplying less to the company, they will need to find alternative buyers as soon as possible.

The iPad Mini was a huge success, but then that was more or less guaranteed long before it came out. Apple said nothing before the official launch of course, apart from the almost subtle hint that it had “a little more” to show us, but enough information was leaked for us to figure that one out months in advance and, despite the lack of a Retina Display, the resulting product did not disappoint.

As always, speculation is rife online and many people are wondering whether 2013 will see the release of an iPad Mini 2. Of course it will. It would be a stupid move not to follow up the hugely successful iPad Mini with a new and improved successor and Apple is not the kind of company to let an opportunity like that slip through its fingers. But if this is indeed the case then what will the next iPad Mini bring to the table?

It seems that the analysts are all agreed on one thing; the screen will be far superior. The original iPad Mini display had a resolution of 1024×768 pixels, which looked just fine in its own right but it obviously was not as good as the Retina Display and we know Apple can do better. The competition certainly can as, where the Mini displayed 163 pixels per inch, Amazon’s Kindle Fire managed 254 pixels per inch, while Google’s Nexus 7 was also superior. The iPad 4’s Retina Display meanwhile squeezed in 264 pixels per inch so we know the capabilities are there and Apple can certainly rise to the occasion.

In fact the general consensus is that Apple will do just that. Rumours have mentioned the possibility of a 2048×1536 pixel resolution on the next Mini, which will equal the larger iPad’s Retina Display. In addition to that, we can also expect the A5 chip to be replaced with the faster A6. Of course, such innovations do not come cheap and this would drive the price of the iPad Mini 2 up considerably but the results would be worth it.

It may end up being the case that Apple releases two versions, one with the regular resolution and one with a Retina Display, in order to reach out to as many customers as possible. It makes sense that a faster processor would be put in, after all the iPhone 5 already has one and with everything else around it being developed further, the iPad Mini needs to be able to keep up. It works well as it is but no one can deny that it does not quite live up to the speed of its big brother.

The iPad Mini 2 will not be released overnight however and it will take time to manufacture. Apple struggled enough to meet the high demand for the iPad Mini and its successor will probably take longer to produce, considering the technology supposedly going into it. But if the original model is anything to go by, it will be worth the wait.

It would seem that the crime rate has risen exponentially in New York City over the last year and the mayor of the Big Apple has drawn an interesting parallel between these numbers and a certain electronics company. According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the increased number of Apple product thefts has caused the overall crime rate to rise.

It has been reported that there were 3484 more major crimes recorded in 2012 than in the previous year but the number of Apple thefts alone is 3890 higher than those recorded in 2011. With numbers like that, it can be seen very clearly that New York thieves tend to favour Apple products and according to Bloomberg, these figures relate only to Apple and do not include thefts of products from any of Apple’s competition. This comes as no surprise and is hardly limited to New York, after all news stories have been popping up all over of stolen iPhones and iPads. It seems as Apple continues to develop new, exciting products and demand for them increases, so too will the thefts.

Bloomberg’s advice to Apple product owners is to keep all Apple products, and indeed all other valuables, in an interior pocket in order to make it harder for thieves to get their hands on them. It will also be easier to tell if anyone is attempting to reach in and steal them. Bloomberg’s assertions that Apple products are to blame have also been asserted by his press secretary, Marc La Vorgna, who insists that Apple is solely responsible for this jump in crime figures. Take away the Apple thefts from 2012 and the crime figures would actually be lower than those in 2011, he insists.

New York was witness to 108,432 major crimes throughout 2012, which is a 3.3% increase in comparison to the 104,948 reported in 2011. These crime statistics had already been recorded earlier in the year, as revealed by a report from the New York Police Department in September. This report stated that of all the crimes committed in New York between January 1 and September 23, 2012, 14% of them were attributed to the theft of Apple products, which showed a 40% increase from the same period the previous year. Considering the date, it would come as no surprise that the release of the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini after the report would lead to even more thefts.

In fact such incidences were expected and the police did in fact address the many customers lining up for the new iPhone, encouraging them to register their new products in case they were stolen, in order to make it easier to track them down. This formed part of their Anti-Apple Picking Campaign, a free service offered by the police to help protect valuable Apple products. Thefts may be on the rise and will continue to do so as Apple release more products but at least this way, customers have a better chance of getting them back.

The rumours and speculation about a big-screen TV from Apple have been running rampant on the internet for some time and while we still do not officially know whether the company has such a thing in the pipeline but according to an unnamed source working at Foxconn, the technology is currently in the early stages of testing.

Foxconn is a company known for assembling and manufacturing Apple’s products and has most recently been building the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini units. According to Marc Andreesen, co-founder of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz, rumours are strong and we could be seeing a TV from Apple by 2015. He does however admit that he has no solid inside information since Apple is famously an extremely secretive company when it comes to revealing its upcoming projects so it is not exactly clear just how well-founded his claim is.

However it is not such a big secret that Apple has another big thing in the pipeline. After all, doesn’t it always? Andreesen may not  be able to say for sure what is going on but he does have a talent for keeping an eye on what is going on in Silicon Valley and his claims are not the only ones when it comes to the possibility of an Apple TV; the Wall Street Journal also reports that a pair of executive suppliers to Apple have revealed that the company is testing designs for a high definition TV.

This rumour is nothing new and people have been speculating about it for some time but last year the rumours became a lot more prevalent. Many analysts predicted a release for the end of 2012, although it is clear now that this will not be the case and they have since moved the predicted date back a year. What does provide slightly more solid evidence however is the fact that Apple has been discussing display panels with Sharp.

With such a product becoming a more believable possibility, Apple fans are already getting excited about what kind of features the TV will include. Some are predicting that Siri will extend its reach beyond the iPhone and iPad and become part of the TV experience. This will certainly prove revolutionary if viewers can talk to their TVs but the technology is already there when you look at such examples as Kinect with its motion sensors, which makes gestures a big possibility. But this being Apple, there will no doubt be much more than this to enhance the experience and make sure it stays ahead of the competition in terms of innovation.

Of course, at this point there really is no way of knowing and we will just have to see but we do already know that Apple has a stake in the world of TV in the form of its set top box. Apple rarely leaves something alone if it works so it is very likely that it will continue to explore this avenue. You can guarantee that whatever emerges next will be a huge success.

The rise of technology making more or less every aspect of life easier and the world of medicine is no exception. While there are many health and fitness apps out there, some of the more devoted minds have been working on something a bit more complex that can actually potentially save a life. You may have heard of AliveCor before, an electrocardiogram accessory that plugs into your iPhone and provides a reading of your heart rate. This can then be sent to your cardiologist who will assess the results. Such an app could revolutionise the world of medicine as customers will be able to carry out vital tasks themselves that would normally be left to the doctors and as a result, they will save time and money. Of course, there has been some doubt as it can be dangerous to put your faith into a homemade app for this purpose, but those doubts may soon be put to rest because the FDA has approved it.

The traditional electrocardiogram method involves attaching electrodes to the chest, arms and legs so that they can track the heart rate and identify any irregularities. However AliveCor provides a much simpler solution that people can use quickly and easily in the comfort of their own home as all it involves is placing your fingers on two leads, which are connected to the iPhone. On receiving the data from the reading, the iPhone will then use an accompanying app called AliveECG to analyse them. All data received is stored on the company cloud and can be sent to your cardiologist for further analysis.

AliveCor was first developed in 2008 although it has come a long way since its initial creation and now with the approval of the FDA it seems all that work has paid off as it has now become a fully functioning ECG device that could improve the health of many people. While it may not be available to the public just yet, it will not be long until it receives a wider release. Currently it is already available to doctors, who can order one for $199 if they go to the AliveCor website and enter their license information, and in turn they can prescribe them to their patients. Everyone else will have to wait a little longer but when it becomes publicly available, it is expected to retail at the more accessible price of $99.

However AliveCor still has some work to do and the device needs to be made compatible with the iPhone 5, as well as with Androids too. In addition to its current incarnation, we can also expect a pad-shaped version that takes a reading from the palm of a patient’s hand instead. Of course, any new devices released will first need the approval of the FDA so there may be more of a wait for this second version. Of course, the FDA is just one authority of health and AliveCor has not yet gained approval from any others but hopefully they will soon follow and confirm that this is a genuinely helpful and reliable device.

Most people use the iPod for music, videos and various other apps but you might not associate it with saving a life, not unless you play an inspirational song to wake someone out of a coma. But for a surgeon in Indiana, the device is good for more than just entertainment as he was able to use it as a navigation system during surgery with positive results.

Dr. Timothy Williams, a surgeon at St. Francis Health in Indianapolis, was performing surgery on a patient’s knee but in addition to the usual methods, he also had an unconventional tool in the form of an iPod Touch in a sterile cradle. The iPod had probes attached to it, which provided a detailed 3D view of the inside of his patient’s knee. Using this method he was able to carry out the surgery in a less invasive manner and because it provided a more accurate view than the more conventional way of just looking, he was able to carry out the delicate surgery more effectively.

The use of the device for such a purpose has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for some time in Europe but this is the first time such an operation has been performed in the United States. It could however be a revolutionary step forwards in the realm of surgery and Brainlab have developed Dash Smart Instrument Technology for this very purpose.

While the application itself is free it does not qualify just anyone to perform surgery and a key element of the process is the use of the instruments in conjunction with it. The screen provides the information but it is the probes that create the image. There are other navigation systems out there but they are cumbersome and expensive and the use of an iPod in this manner cuts a lot of practical corners without diminishing the safety and accuracy of the operation. The navigation equipment is still expensive but allegedly less so than the traditional apparatus. In addition to cutting costs, it is also easier to move the equipment around considering its size, providing more flexibility when the patient needs to be moved.

The Dash technology gives surgeons all the benefits of traditional computer navigation but in a more efficient way. In this case, Williams was able to confirm that the components placed in the knee were correctly aligned. However at this point he knows better than to depend entirely on it and rather than use it to generate calculations, he will use it to confirm that his own are correct. If his and those of the app match then he will go ahead with the procedure but as long as there are no discrepancies, the system is a reliable way to navigate in cases where it would be difficult to get a good view of the patient’s anatomy.
Of course it is too early to tell if such a system is a suitable replacement but so far results have been positive and it could usher in a new era of more accurate surgery.

It is now widely accepted among the internet’s many speculators that Apple will be bringing us its next update of the iPhone by summer next year and while some are optimistically hoping for an iPhone 6, the general consensus is that we should expect an iPhone 5S, or at least an equivalent thereof.

Of course there is no guarantee that this will happen but the predictive powers that be are usually very accurate at this type of speculation and a look at Apple’s recent history of release trends suggests that an update is very likely. With that much more or less a given, there is much talk of what features the new phone will have, as well as what its name will be.

While some are expecting subsequent releases to follow a pattern and therefore result in an iPhone 5S, others are not so sure this would be the case. After all Apple CEO Tim Cook himself said that the S in 4S stood for Siri, which made its debut in the iPhone 4S. Earlier phones did not have this feature but now it is a standard addition to the iPhone and with that line of thinking, it would make no sense to call it the 5S. That is unless Siri happens to be one of the significant changes in the new model. We all love Siri and it gets more intelligent and offers more services every day. For example we can ask Siri for information on movie times, sports scores and restaurants, and it can even perform functions for us, such as calling people, booking a ticket. However there is a lot of room for improvement and the possibilities for Apple are endless so if Siri is indeed going to receive a revamp, that could be worth getting excited about. Who knows just how much of a personal assistant Siri could be? Maybe we’ll soon be able to have full, in-depth conversations with it.

But even if Siri remains untouched, apart from the odd update it receives already, we could still be receiving an iPhone 5S. The 4S did have Siri as a significant change but there were other updates too and it could be that Apple does indeed want to continue the name trend. The company is known for its incremental updates and the iPhone 5 had its fair share of them, including the aluminium metal backing, the change in shape, the faster processor chip and many others but after all the hype, speculation and leaks the actual unveiling was slightly anticlimactic, not because the phone was disappointing but because so many of the features had already been predicted. Hopefully Apple will be able to surprise us again with some brand new and exciting features. May be those will inspire a new name and there is every chance we could see an iPhone 5M once they sort the Maps app out and turn it into something worth flaunting.