By Alex Brooks Apple’s October 23rd event invite sent out to select members of the media
Today is the day that Apple will show off its latest offering, with expectations resting on a smaller, thinner and lighter iPad. Invites went out last week to select members of the media inviting them to the California Theatre in San Jose for a special event, Apple teased members of the media and onlookers with the simple phrase “We’ve got a little more to show you”.
Whilst I’m not a fan of overanalysing Apple’s invites it’s a safe assumption based on the strength of rumours and past knowledge of Apple’s subtle hints on invites that little is referring to the smaller 7.85-inch display iPad—expected to be dubbed “iPad mini”.
However the smaller iPad might not be only smaller product Apple has up its sleeve today, many are also expecting a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display to join its larger sibling that was released in June this year.

iPad mini
The iPad has been a rumour heavily debated for many months, unlike the iPhone 5 the number of actual product leaks for the iPad mini are few and far between. However solid sources have all but confirmed that the iPad mini will feature a 7.85-inch display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 giving a pixel density of 163ppi, higher than the iPad 2 but much lower than the Retina iPad’s 264ppi. Many have suggested that it would be stupid of Apple to release a new iPad mini with a low resolution display but it seems that for the sake of price Apple will debut the iPad mini with a non-retina display and revise it in coming years.
Details of the rest of the features of the iPad mini remain slim, speculation suggests that we’ll see the iPad mini feature Apple’s A5 processor rather than the newer A6 and only 512MB of RAM. As with the larger iPad it’s expected that Apple will ship WiFi and cellular models, purported inventory leaks in recent weeks have suggested a total of 24 models of iPad mini with models starting at 8GB ranging up to 64GB available in black and white.
Pricing has also been up for much debate, the most recent rumours suggest that the lowest end iPad mini will come in at $329 in the US and range up to $659, cellular models look to carry a $130 premium over the WiFi models. This pricing is much higher than Google’s $199 entry price for the Nexus 7 (see chart below).
The iPad mini will feature a considerably smaller case and is said to be similar in design to the new iPod touch in that it has a slightly squarer case rather than the strong bevel of the iPad. The iPad mini is also expected to have a thinner front bezel on the sides to make the enclosure slimmer in width.
Expectations are for the iPad mini to be available for pre-order on October 26 with a general sale on November 2.
9.7-inch iPad
I covered some of my thoughts last week on what I think might be happening to the larger iPad. However outside of my theories there are rumours that the iPad will get a minor refresh, some sources suggest it’ll be more serious than others.
At the low end of the scale some expect that Apple will simply refresh the iPad to include Apple’s new Lightning connection. However there are some rumours that Apple will also take the opportunity to update the LTE compatibility of the iPad expanding its reach into European countries, Australia and some Asian countries. It’s also possible Apple will take the opportunity to update the A5x SoC and battery as well.
However Apple refreshes the iPad, if at all expect it to not be a feature of the event. It’s far more likely that Apple would do such an update quietly.
Macbook Pro with Retina Display
At WWDC in June Apple announced its first Mac with a Retina display—the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Rumours now suggest that Apple will release a smaller counterpart for the 15-inch in the form of a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
The 13-inch MBPwRD is expected to start at $1699. Specs are unknown but the display is said to have a resolution of 2560 x 1600.
In line with the 15-inch it’s easy to speculate that the 13-inch model will feature a fully “flash” architecture with an SSD as standard.
What Else?
Today’s event looks set to be a busy one, alongside the iPad mini and new Retina MacBook Pro it’s also rumoured that Apple will unveil new iMac and Mac mini models. Rumours have suggested that Apple will introduce a significantly slimmer iMac model, however the rumours did not pinpoint a specific date for the announcement.
For more details of what is expected in a future iMac and Mac mini refresh see this post I wrote about Apple’s Ivy Bridge updates.
Education
Mirroring Apple’s event that it held in January to unveil a new focus on education and textbooks today’s event is set to renew this focus. Apple is said to be making the iPad mini centre stage as a tablet for education markets. Over the weekend references to iBooks 3 also started popping up suggesting that Apple will update its software and also expand the availability of iBooks into new markets.
Coverage
World of Apple will not offer live coverage of today’s event. However those with an Apple TV will be able to stream the event live with the addition of the new “Apple Events” app on the Apple TV front screen today.
Today’s Apple event will kick off today at the following times:
10:00AM – Pacific
11:00AM – Mountain
12:00PM – Central
1:00PM – Eastern
2:00PM – Rio de Janeiro
6:00PM – London
7:00PM – Paris
9:00PM – Moscow
2:00AM – Tokyo (Wednesday 23rd)
3:00AM – Sydney (Wednesday 23rd)
5:00AM – Auckland (Wednesday 23rd)

For those without an Apple TV some live coverage can be found on the World of Apple Twitter account or the following sites:
GDGT
The Loop
The Next Web
Macworld
The Verge

World of Apple will offer news and detailed analysis following the completion of the event.

Source: World of Apple

By brolloh Siri is a fully formed restaurant king (or queen if you live in the USA) he can help you search for restaurants, read reviews, view them on a map and book, but there’s still a Siri tip for after the meal!
First things first, we want to eat!
“Siri, what are the best restaurants in this area?”

We can now tap on the restaurants of our choice to read reviews, see where it is, call the restaurant and book. An impressive and quick way to perform this task we hope you agree.
We’ve had the meal now and it was great, the staff were fantastic, they need a tip – time to do some calculations, let’s get Siri on board to help out.
“Siri, what is a 15% tip on £86.74 for four people?”

Continued…

Now that’s handy!
More soon…

The post #SquareCMD Episode Sixty: Restaurants and Siri appeared first on SQUARE.

Source: SquareCMD

By brolloh iOS 6 has simplified adding attachments to emails for the first time since the first iPhone. Simply place and hold your finger anywhere in the main body of text to bring about the pop-up menu, tap once to the right and you’ll see the option to “Insert Photo or Video”. Tap this and you’ll be prompted to select the image or video of your choice.

Alternatively, you can continue to choose attachments in the traditional way, by first deciding what attachment you wish to email, then starting your message.

The post #SquareCMD Episode Fifty Nine: Email Attachments appeared first on SQUARE.

Source: SquareCMD

By Alex Brooks The new iPad with Retina display | Image courtesy of Apple
So there we have it, we’ve got a date—October 23rd. Invitations with the inevitable subtle clues are yet to grace the inboxes of the select few that will stream into the very same auditorium that Steve Jobs took to the stage exactly 11 years ago on October 23 to announce the iPod and change the direction of Apple forever but what will it be about this time?
All bets are on an iPad mini, a smaller 7.85-inch iPad with a distinctly slimmer shape in every dimension. It’s this newer iPad, whose name nobody knows yet, that may see Apple sew up the tablet market for a long time to come. You can bet those same dollars as you’ve got on the device actually turning up on how Apple will tout the smaller sibling to the positively huge original 9.7-inch iPad. A smaller iPad has different uses: it is lighter, so makes reading easier; it’s not as wide and much thinner so easier to throw into a bag or stick in your inside suit pocket.

However it’s not as small as its nearest competitor the Google Nexus with its lowly 7-inch display. In the same way as Apple has been showing off the benefits of one-handed operation of the iPhone 5 with its perfectly sized 4-inch display Apple will no doubt exclaim that the 40% display advantage that the iPad mini would have over the Nexus 7 makes it a tablet in a category of its own.
Pricing is another sticking point for onlookers expecting the iPad mini (I like this name, can you tell?) or more precisely where will Apple price the newer, smaller iPad? It’s really a subject for another day but just take a look and see where Apple could position the smaller iPad.
Believe it or not the iPad mini is not the main subject of this piece. In fact I wish to resurrect an incorrect theory I alluded to over a year ago in August 2011. To save time trawling through the article which is primarily made up of my theory of Apple’s Mac updates I’ll put the pertinent quotes here.
[In response to year-over-year declining iPod sales Apple will] shift the normal timeline, the iPods will be refreshed but the usually music focused event in September will be an iOS focused event including the official release date of iOS 5 and the iPhone 5, as well as a refreshed iPod touch.
A scenario that played out almost to the word this year. But the point of this is the iPad, so I move onto say:
There is of course an anomaly here: the iPad. By my outlined logic if Apple is releasing a new version of iOS then surely it should have new iPad hardware too?
It is precisely this dilemma that has arrived but this year there’s rumour of a possible change to the timeline, spurred on by a number of catalysts.
The current iPad has been on the market since March and packs the A5X system-on-chip which CPU wise is not a huge improvement over the previous generation iPad with the A5. But to help drive that very high resolution display Apple packed in a GPU capable of driving all those pixels. In a change to previous years Apple has innovated with the iPhone first and just last month included the A6 SoC with the iPhone 5, double the speed of the iPad 3′s A5X in terms of CPU in a considerably smaller package and with significantly less power consumption.
Also included in the iPhone 5 and the latest models of iPod touch and iPod nano is the new Lightning connector, which will no doubt make it to the iPad mini too leaving Apple with an iPad model on the market using the archaic 30-pin Dock connector.
To help solidify my theory The Guardian have heard that the iPad 3 will be revised with LTE that will work in more regions—presumably bringing it in line with iPhone 5 levels of compatibility.
Is a faster and more efficient SoC, a major change to Apple’s universal iOS connector and an expansion of LTE capacity enough for Apple to release a second 9.7-inch iPad model in a single year? I suspect so.
The real question is whether Apple will take this update all the way through until later next year and move away from the March hardware updates and instead coincide iOS updates with new iPad models and new iPhone models? Not only is such a move risky in the fast paced tablet market but how will Apple handle the marketing of a refreshed iPad that looks the same on the surface and has no hardware version number?

Source: World of Apple

By roman “Can I use your computer to check something for a minute?” asks a colleague/peer/stranger.  You could politely refuse, but if you’re feeling generous you could log your mac into the guest user account in about five seconds without affecting your own open … Continue reading →

Source: MacTip.net

By brolloh As well as a wealth of handy Siri aids under iOS 6, he’s also been given a healthy dose of film based sarcasm. Ask him questions regarding famous Sci-Fi movies (especially those featuring robots or A.I) and he’ll tell you his feelings regarding the plot.
If you find any more, let us know!
“Siri, What is the film (INSERT FILM NAME HERE) about?…”

The post #SquareCMD Episode Fifty Eight: Siri Humour appeared first on SQUARE.

Source: SquareCMD

By Alex Brooks Tim Cook speaks about the iPhone 4S at Apple headquarters on October 4, 2011 | Photo: REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
Apple on Friday once again strayed into new territory. Since taking the helm as CEO of Apple there have been changes, Tim Cook is putting his mark on the company and leading the way he feels he should. Last week was no different as we saw the first real admission from Apple that its iOS 6 bundled Maps have failed to live up to the expectations consumers expect from Apple products.
The furore has been deafening over the quality of Apple’s maps, excuses have been made for both sides of the argument and pundits from every corner have jumped on board to kick Apple while they’re down. The pressure clearly became too much and Apple has relented, posting an open letter to the Apple.com homepage with an apology from Cook.

The letter, no doubt covered by everybody by this point, is notable in a number of ways. First is the clear acceptance of Apple making the wrong judgement call on maps, falling short of Apple’s commitment to “world-class” products. The second is outlining some of Apple’s reasoning for why they pushed so strongly for a new maps release, explaining that “[t]he more our customers use our Maps the better it will get”. Then the third and most shocking of all is a recommendation to use other products including Apps from the App Store and a dedicated page on how to add Google and Nokia web maps to an iOS 6 home screen.
Apple doesn’t apologise often, some of the more recent and memorable apologies—if you can call them that—were of course “antennagate” and the MobileMe debacle. Both ended in Apple giving something back to the consumer, a position Apple has clearly decided not to take with this particular apology.
Cook’s apology tells us that the CEO has no intention of leading in the spirit of Steve Jobs and for this we should celebrate. Whilst it may have been Jobs’ style to hold Apple to the highest standard even when it was clearly in the wrong Cook feels that humble, honest and progressive apologies and solutions are what makes one of the largest company’s in the world able to continue growing.
However one great trait that Jobs instilled in Apple stills remains and that is calculated responses. From the point of Apple releasing the iPhone 4 on June 24 and the slowly developed “antennagate” coverage it was 22 days until Apple gave an official response in the form of an invite only press event (not to mention the nameless open letter to iPhone 4 owners denying any hardware issue). In the case of Apple’s map troubles the response was quicker but still much of the media was met with days upon days of stone cold silence from Apple.
As any PR practitioner would testify it pays to think about and calculate a response to a crises, many companies large and small fail on this point. Apple is the king of calculated even if it is to the annoyance of the media and consumers.

Source: World of Apple

By brolloh iOS 6 gave us a vast number of improvements, one of which is an ability that’s been a mainstay of the App Store for many years – Panorama. Even Microsoft brought panorama to the iPhone before Apple! As is now standard practise for Apple, it’s the integration and usability of Panorama which really sets it apart.

Found within the Camera app alongside the options to display a grid and HDR mode. Panorama instructs the user to swipe the iOS device from left to right. The instructional arrow also tells us when we go off-centre, a little bit like that famous helicopter game, Apple have made it a little bit of a mini-game.

When you’re mid-flow be aware that at it’s full width your panorama will be 28 Megapixels in total, taking in just under 180

By brolloh Siri was the star of the iPhone 4S launch and it’s only improved under iOS 6. Siri provides a much deeper experience than previously, some new services even offer the user an ‘app-like’ level of information.
One such service is cinema times at a cinema in your locality, or a specific cinema of your choice.
As always the joy of Siri is it’s conversational style, so no specific commands like other SquareCMD episodes. To find film times at a specific cinema ask Siri something like:
“Show me film times at Cineworld Eastbourne”
for your current locality try:
“Show me film times at the nearest cinema”

Tap on a film to get a plot rundown and the chance to watch a trailer:

Delve even further by tapping on the Rotten Tomatoes review score along the right, you’ll gain access to all of the reviews available for the film, amazing!

More soon!

The post #SquareCMD Episode Fifty Six: iOS 6 Siri appeared first on SQUARE.

Source: SquareCMD

By Alex Brooks Apple’s Maps on iOS 6 | Image courtesy of Apple
Apple has today made the next major update to iOS available to download. iOS 6 which is available for the iPhone 5, 4, 4S, 3GS, iPad 3, 2, and the iPod touch 4th and 5th generation comes just two days ahead of the official release of the iPhone 5. Apple has been testing iOS 6 with developers since after the WWDC 2012 keynote back in June.
iOS 6 is said to pack upwards of 200 hundred new features but as ever Apple has some headline features that make iOS 6 a real update for iPhone and iPad users. iOS 6 shares the same design aesthetics as all previous iOS versions with only minor UI changes here and there. The lack of live updating information on the home screen of iOS is becoming a glaring omission as Android and Windows Phone operating systems continue to offer more and more information at a glance.

As this is not a review (you’re all going to try it anyway so why review it?) I’ll just recap some of Apple’s headline features.
First up is deep Facebook integration which goes hand in hand with Apple’s upcoming 10.8.2 update to Mountain Lion which will see contacts, calendars and notifications more integrated. On iOS 6 the same is true with built in ability to upload photo and video to Facebook from the iOS Photos app , syncing of the Facebook address book to iOS and the same with calendars.
In iOS 6 Apple also expanded previously explored features such a smarter Siri which is now available on iPad that has the ability to check up on sports teams, book restaurants and open apps. Also expanded is Photo Stream which previously just held the recently taken photos from the Camera roll but it is now possible to share these Photo Streams with friends and family so that photos can be shared across many devices but also commented on and liked.
iOS 6 also comes with subtle changes and refinements to apps that have been relatively unchanged since the early days of iOS. The Phone app for example has had some minor UI changes and now the ability to reject an incoming call and immediately reply with a pre-defined text message or to set a reminder to call the person back. Mail also gets some changes with a VIP inbox, and pull to refresh and the ability to insert photos or video from a context menu right in a message. Safari also gets a dose of changes with iCloud tabs synced across all iOS 6 and Mountain Lion devices, full screen landscape mode on the iPhone and now Apple’s Reading List is offline.
iOS 6 and Passbook on Black iPhone 5 | Image courtesy of Apple
Apple also packed some innovation into iOS 6, the most obvious and useful to most will be the new Do Not Disturb mode which allows the silencing of all notifications (including noises or the screen waking up) between set hours or there’s a toggle switch in Settings to switch it on anytime.
Apple has also been touting Passbook heavily which is effectively Apple’s current software solution to NFC. Passbook is basically a repository for all the apps that currently have scannable codes in them such as a Starbucks card to pay for coffee but Apple has taken it further by encouraging airlines to jump on board with scannable boarding passes that change and notify if the gate changes and once in the airport are easily accessible from the lock screen.
One of the most controversial changes comes in the form of Apple’s new Maps which replaces Google Maps as the default on the iPhone. Building on top of years of work Apple is finally deploying its own mapping to all iOS devices with iOS 6 with potentially frustrating effect as the maps pale in comparison to those from Google. Users will also discover that Apple has removed the YouTube app as part of the ongoing separation between Apple and Google.

Source: World of Apple