By Matt Swain iTunes 11 is the most radical update for iTunes in a long while. It’s a fairly comprehensive redesign, although it’s quite clearly the same app under the surface. Here’s a collection of cool new things you can do in iTunes 11.

Up Next

Up Next is the headline new feature that is a great improvement on iTunes DJ which it replaces. For any song you can right-click and choose Play Next to add it to the top of the Up Next List, or Add to Up Next to add it to the end. You can also just drag a song up to the centre display in the top toolbar. Alternatively, just hold down the Option key and click the plus (+) icon that appears next to the song, or press Option-Return while the song is selected.

All of the above applies to entire albums and playlists as well as individual songs, or an arbitrary selection of multiple songs. It even works with songs from a shared library on another Mac or on a connected device.

Unfortunately the rarely used song voting features that were part of iTunes DJ have gone, but Up Next is much simplified and will undoubtably be more widely used.

Click and drag

Since the sidebar is now gone, you could be forgiven for thinking you can no longer just drag songs into a playlist or onto a connected iPhone, iPod or iPad. But if you try it, you’ll find a sidebar slides in from the right as soon as you start dragging a song — allowing easy access to all your playlists and devices.

The new miniplayer

iTunes has had a miniplayer for years, but it has been completely redesigned in iTunes 11 with a few new features. Firstly, the way you switch to and from the miniplayer has changed: Instead of clicking the green zoom button, there’s now a small rectangular icon in the top right of the iTunes window, next to the full screen button. You can also use keyboard shortcuts – Command-Option-M will switch to the miniplayer, and Command-Option-3 will open up a separate miniplayer in addition to the regular iTunes window. The benefit of having both is that you can have the main iTunes window full screen, with the miniplayer still present on other desktop spaces.

The miniplayer displays the song and artist until you place your mouse cursor over it, when it switches to display playback controls. Be aware that if you have full keyboard access enabled in the Keyboard section of System Preferences, the miniplayer will only display the controls. You can tell this is the case if you have a blue “halo” around one of the control buttons that moves when you press the Tab key.

The best new feature of the miniplayer is that you now have access to your entire music library without having to switch back to the full size iTunes window. Just click the magnifying glass search button (or press Command-F) and begin typing the name of the artist, album or song you want to play. You can play it right away by selecting it and pressing return, or add it to the “Up Next” list by pressing Option-Return.

If you find yourself wondering where the volume controls have gone, try clicking in the AirPlay button. This should display a popup that allows you to control the volume on your Mac and separately for any connected speakers.

Navigate with the keyboard

With the sidebar gone, navigating to the different areas of your library can feel a bit harder, even though it’s only one extra click away. To make things easier, you can use the Command key with the numbers one through seven to access different areas:

Command-1 : Music
Command-2 : Movies
Command-3 : TV Shows
Command-4 : Podcasts
Command-5 : iTunes U
Command-6 : Books
Command-7 : Apps

You’ll need to make sure none of these sections are disabled in the iTunes Preferences otherwise the shortcut won’t work.

Another cool trick is navigating with the arrow keys in the album view — up, down, left and right will move the selecting from album to album, sliding out the song lists as the selection moves. Press Tab to move the selection to the song list, then Escape to go back to the albums.

Redeem gift cards with your camera

While in the iTunes Store, clicking Redeem in the menu on the right now brings up a camera view in addition to a simple text field. This allows you to hold up your gift card and the code is inserted automatically. I haven’t been able to test this as it doesn’t seem to be available for me, possibly due to being outside the USA. Also, interestingly this feature was the result of a collaboration with a 3rd party app developer named Geppy Parziale, who may have got a telling off from Apple for blogging about the work.

Search your entire library

The search feature in iTunes used to just act as a way to filter the list you were currently looking at. Now, as you type in the search field, items from your library appear in a popover, no matter what you are currently looking at. The order does change depending on where you are — the media type you are looking at (movies, music, podcasts, etc.) appear higher in the list.

Typing a search term and pressing return will filter the current view, just like older versions.

Change it back!

So you hate everything new? It’s not too tricky to get iTunes back to roughly the same as it used to be. First, click Songs in the navigation bar across the top to return to the classic song list. Next, chose Show Sidebar and Show Status Bar in the View menu to bring those elements back. You might also want to choose Hide Music in the Cloud in the View menu.

Show duplicates

It’s gone! Walt Mossberg assures us though that it will be back soon in the next minor bug fix update of iTunes. It is also likely that minor bugs with missing album artwork and marking a song as a podcast will also be fixed. On the other hand, apparently Apple has no intention of restoring the Cover Flow album art view.

Home videos

There’s a new Home videos classification for movies. This prevents the awkward situation where any videos stored in iTunes had to be shown alongside either your movies or TV Shows from the iTunes Store. Videos imported to iTunes from elsewhere automatically get this classification. To change the classification on a movie, just choose Get Info (Command-I) and change the Media Kind drop-down menu under Options.

Source: Mac OSX Tips

  

By Alex Brooks Steve Ballmer demos some Windows 8 devices | Image courtesy of Microsoft
A few weeks back Microsoft CEO and chief ass Steve Ballmer was asked in an interview with the Wall Street Journal if he’d like Microsoft to evolve to Apple’s business model, that is to say would Microsoft enjoy being in control of both software and hardware? In response Ballmer said that “[i]n every category Apple competes, it’s the low-volume player, except in tablets,” adding that “In the PC market, obviously the advantage of diversity has mattered since 90-something percent of PCs that get sold are Windows PCs. We’ll see what winds up mattering in tablets.”
To even the most casual of Apple watchers it would be obscene to believe that Apple is a “low-volume” player in the smartphone market, MP3 market or even arguably in the hardware side of the PC market.
So what led Ballmer to label Apple has as a low-volume player, apart from the fact that he is completely unable to see or predict an industry trend through the mind warping success of Microsoft’s recent endeavours. Is this just a defensive quip from Ballmer as he faces the pressure of a number of failing ventures into the post-PC and smartphone markets?

The smartphone industry is one where Apple is most commonly associated these days. The release of the iPhone in 2007 has revolutionised mobile computing and Apple’s business model, it’s also shaken up Microsoft something good with their Windows OS (formerly Windows Mobile, now Windows Phone) having little to no foothold in the smartphone market and forced them into a position where they’re chasing Apple.
So is Apple a “low-volume player”? Definitely not when it comes to revenue. During the most recently reported quarter Microsoft revealed a quarterly revenue of $16.01bn. For the same same quarter Apple announced quarterly revenue of $17.1bn just for the sales of the iPhone. Small player indeed (Thanks to Horace Dedui for letting me take a look at his numbers).
But that’s not fair, how about if we actually delve into where exactly Apple plays in the smartphone market. This is remarkably difficult as the majority of other manufacturers don’t report their numbers quarterly so instead we’re going to have to rely on estimates.
Well in the last quarter Apple sold 26.9 million iPhones, leaving them in second place marketshare wise to Samsung who has a large lead and was estimated to have shipped 56.3 million devices worldwide. Important to note that this figure for Samsung is an estimate and that they also ship a considerably large variation in devices compared to Apple’s three handset approach to the market. Sticking with the Microsoft theme though let’s look at Nokia’s shipments last quarter, as they are a major distributer of Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, well they were estimated to have shifted just 6.3 million units—more than a million less than beleaguered RIM.
But I’m sure Nokia’s not worried because Apple is such a low-volume player and they have Microsoft’s OS to save them.
Well, how about the PC market, a field that is dominated by Microsoft’s Windows operating system? With the recent release of Windows 8 Microsoft is banking on the PC market to help with its recovery. But there’s a problem, the PC market as we know it is in decline. Traditional computing is a dying breed, there will always be a place for the PC but more of its role is being covered by ever more powerful and capable tablets.
Chart of total quarterly PC shipments (Q409 – Q312) | Data from Gartner
The chart shows total PC shipments as recorded by Gartner since the end of 2009 until the most recently reported quarter. Growth is stagnant and in four of the last eight quarters it is in decline. Some could argue that this recent decline is anticipation of the release of Windows 8, yet with Microsoft reporting initial upgrade sales of just 4 million in three days it would appear that demand wasn’t as pent up as originally thought.
With Apple selling (Apple records sales where as the industry records shipments which could sit unsold for months) around 5 million Macs a quarter it’s clear that Apple could be considered a small-time player in the PC industry in terms of software. In the US Apple regularly falls into the top three hardware manufacturers of PC hardware according to Gartner.
Microsoft isn’t involved in the potentially high margin PC hardware business and instead relies on third parties to license its software. Is it wise for Microsoft to be banked so firmly on a declining market and not be in control of the hardware?
Microsoft Surface with Red Touch Cover | Image courtesy of Microsoft
Apple perceives the iPad as a “post-PC” device. This phrase goes beyond just marketing and is clearly what Apple believes through its core, the company truly sides with the idea that tablets represent the majority of future computing. It’s an understandable but odd position for Apple to take, primarily because unlike the PC-market as a whole Apple’s Mac growth is bucking the trend and heading skyward, slowly. But as we’ve seen the Mac share is tiny in comparison to the whole market.
But what about the post-PC market? Ballmer fully admitted that Apple is the dominant player in this market but it’s a fresh market, ripe for new competitors and arguably still in its infancy with all manufacturers but Apple.
But herein lies Microsoft’s problem and based on Ballmer’s comments, a fair amount of jealousy to boot. Microsoft is keen on blasting into the tablet market, Microsoft is keen to do this whilst not alienating the hardware partners that have been so good to the company for decades. Which has led to the current situation that Microsoft finds itself in, it looks like a mess from the outside and for all we know could very well be creating huge concern on the inside (recent executive departures may say so).
Microsoft has its first serious punt at making a post-PC device, with the Surface tablet Ballmer has clearly decided to the take the Apple approach to the tablet market and hold control of both the hardware and software. But the very same software that is being designed to run on the Surface is also designed and built to run on competing hardware. So as has been Microsoft’s challenge for decades the company is once again stuck creating the most widely compatible software that’ll work with a number of hardware partners.
This problem is compounded by legacy thinking on the part of Microsoft and the huge enterprise customers who are unable to move quickly and efficiently and therefore require the maximum possible amount of legacy compatibility. The approach Microsoft is taking, unlike Apple, is to build one operating system for all platforms and all hardware, it’s the wrong thinking and Microsoft is unfortunately going to find this out the hard way.
Microsoft’s experienced and established hardware partners will in the face of the threat of the company building better software just for its own hardware begin competing on price with the Surface, forcing down the margins of the Microsoft hardware and eventually pushing it out of the hardware market.
Then there’s the software problem which will also eventually alienate the hardware partners. In striving to create software that works equally as well in touch environments as it does in the land of pointing devices the software ends up a confused mix of small target areas and large target areas and juxtaposed user interfaces. It’s unlikely to directly annoy the hardware manufacturers that already run with such low standards of quality but there’s no doubt that the consumer will speak with its feet.
Microsoft will of course defend its position, claiming that the freedom that this model of software running on lots of different devices and able to run a large swathe of software both old and new will win over the consumer.
In the words of Ballmer “legacy, legacy, legacy”, or something like that.

Source: World of Apple

    

By Alex Brooks Scott Forstall introduces the ill fated iOS 6 Maps at WWDC 2012
In a way we all liked to state how much of a mark Tim Cook was leaving upon Apple. Almost every move he made the writers and the bloggers would burst out into the open and exclaim about this was Tim leaving his legacy upon Apple, doing as Steve Jobs wanted and not leading in his shadow.
However with the largest shakeup in Apple leadership since Jobs took over from Gil Amelio in 1997 we can now really see Tim Cook leaving his mark on Apple. And under the guise of a closed stock market due to Hurricane Sandy and a distracted press a release was pushed out notifying of huge changes at the top (as was pointed out to me by a friend, when Katie Cotton is on the bottom of the PR you know it’s serious).

The release is long but the bottom line is clear. Scott Forstall previously in charge of iOS development is gone, Forstall has been around since the early days when he was snapped up in the purchase of Steve Jobs’ startup NeXT. Forstall was on the front line for Siri and iOS 6 problems, whilst he’s listed as staying on as an adviser this is just due to non-disclosure practices. Whilst not thanking Forstall in the press release Cook did however extend his gratitude towards him in an internal email to Apple employees.
In a less ceremonious exit the controversially hired John Browett is gone after little more than six months as head of retail. Cook made it clear to extend a large amount of thanks to retail staff but Browett’s head has rolled. It can be reassuringly assumed that Cook saw the error of his ways.
Some more interesting observations from the release will show that Jony Ive the famed designer behind almost all of Apple’s hardware in recent history is also now overseeing software design—or as Apple puts it Human Interfaces. Some have pointed towards the prevalence of skeuomorphism in OS X and iOS as being Forstall’s doing, Ive reportedly heavily dislikes such design decisions. It’ll be interesting to see where this leads Apple’s software design in the future, if true.
In terms of software services Eddy Cue, infamous for his work on saving MobileMe and turning it into iCloud as well as the successes of the iTunes and App Stores is now heading up Apple’s two biggest software as service challenges—Siri and iOS Maps.
On the hardware side, Bob Mansfield who earlier this year retired is back for another two years as head of the Technologies group. The press release points towards this work being in the area of semiconductors with a team “who have ambitious plans for the future.” This can be read into quite a bit, Apple continues to push the boundaries with the iPhone and iPad when it comes to how much of the silicon is designed in-house and manufactured without the help of Samsung. I’ve speculated before that Apple may not wish to be bound by Intel’s future roadmaps on the Mac and may even expand its interests in semiconductor design to CPUs for notebooks.
There’s plenty of opinion and some inside track out there already. Viticci over at MacStories remarks on the timing and the supposed political struggles at the top between Scott Forstall and other execs. Adam Lashinsky who has a great record with the inside word from Apple looks towards Forstall’s turbulent relationship with Jony Ive alongside Forstall reportedly refusing to sign the iOS 6 Maps apology letter, leaving Cook high and dry alone. The New York Times chimes in with reports of struggles at the top, some so strong that Ive wouldn’t attend the same meetings as Forstall.
The underlying thread mentioned in both the press release and internal email is that there is now a smaller management team and those that remain are closest allies of Tim Cook. This smaller, tighter management team now criss cross each other in terms of hardware, software and services. The kind of integration that Apple is famed for could well benefit from such a huge strategic move.
Whilst the benefits of this management reduction will no doubt yield results beneficial to both Apple and customers, I can’t help but fear the future of such a small, ageing and increasingly wealthy group of men. Any more departures from the top will leave a drastically small senior management team.

Source: World of Apple

    

By Alex Brooks Apple Quarterly Q412 Revenue with Q113 Estimate
Apple today announced financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2012 which ran from July 1 until September 30. The Company posted revenue of $36 billion and net quarterly profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $28.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $6.6 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40 percent compared to 40.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
During the quarter Apple sold 4.9 million Macs representing a 1 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 14 million iPads during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter as well as 5.3 million iPods during the quarter, representing a 19 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
Apple also sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter in which the iPhone 5 was released, representing 58 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter

“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”
“We’re pleased to have generated over $41 billion in net income and over $50 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2012,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75.”
iPhone Unit Sales (Q412)

Source: World of Apple

    

By Alex Brooks On Thursday Apple will reveal its fiscal results for the fourth financial quarter of 2012 as well as the end of year figures. Once again Apple is expected to report a bumper quarter with a number of key product releases having occurred during the quarter.
Apple is highly likely to buck the trend that occurred last week amongst its staunchest competitors with many of the technology giants revealing less than ideal financials. Google was engulfed when an accidental press release revealed a sharp 20-percent drop in net income which caused the stock to tumble with the end result knocking more than nine percent of the company’s market value.
The news wasn’t great elsewhere with Microsoft announcing a greater-than-expected 22 percent drop in quarterly profit. The company is due to begin selling its Surface tablet in the coming weeks and release Windows 8 at the end of this week.
In the smartphone market Apple’s competitors RIM and Nokia continue to go from bad to worse. Nokia continues to cut jobs and slash spending on marketing and research. Last week Nokia revealed another quarterly loss and warned of further trouble ahead despite the impending release of the Finnish company’s Lumia handsets running on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 operating system.

In what seemed like an unlikely turn of events RIM last week gave some moderate optimism to the market when it revealed stronger than expected Blackberry sales (7.4 million for the quarter) and managed to add to its previously dwindling cash reserves. RIM also reaffirmed a release of Blackberry 10 in early 2013, the company’s only hope to prevent its continued downward spiral. However RIM mirrored Nokia and revealed a quarterly loss over $200 million.
Apple’s fourth quarter which ran from July 1 until September 30 will in contrast to competitors be more in line with market expectations and judging by recent quarters could outgrow even the most bullish onlookers. During the quarter the third-generation iPad was released in China—Apple’s fastest growing market. It is unknown how much sales of iPhones will have been dented with anticipation of the iPhone 5 which was only available for just over a week before the quarter ended.
Apple’s Q412 estimated revenue
Apple also had two large software releases during the quarter with OS X Mountain Lion coming to the Mac App Store in July and iOS 6 becoming available in mid-September. Both will likely have boosted sales of related devices with particularly strong Mac sales during the back to school season.
Market expectations are for Apple to reveal sales of 5.6 million Macs a healthy rise year-over-year. iPad sales are expected to be around 19 million a sharp rise from 11.1 million in the year-ago quarter. iPhone units look to rise year-over-year to 28 million bouyed by strong iPhone 5 pre-orders but constrained by limited stock (Update: Since writing AT&T and Verizon have published higher than expected iPhone activation numbers, AT&T activated 4.7 million during the quarter and Verizon 3.1 million).
iPods will likely continue to tumble to sales of about 5 million but in the current quarter will likely rise with Christmas season and new iPod nano and touch models.
Overall expectations are for Apple to reveal revenue of $39 billion.
However eyes will be on the coming quarter and Apple’s estimate. Some are predicting that Apple could cross the $60 billion mark for quarterly revenue during its first fiscal quarter of 2013. To put this in perspective earlier this year I wrote how breaking the $40 billion quarterly revenue barrier was impressive, Apple eventually announced revenue of $46.33 billion.

Source: World of Apple

    

By Alex Brooks iPad mini | Image courtesy of Apple
Apple today announced both the new iPad mini and a brand new updated version of the larger 9.7-inch iPad. Ahead of the announcement of the new iPads Apple took the opportunity to discuss iPad sales and related content. During the keynote CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple has recently sold its 100 millionth iPad and growth of iPad sales continue to outgrow that of the PC market 15% to 2%.
Apple also announced a new version iBooks with continuous scrolling, iCloud syncing and sharing options via Facebook and Twitter. Apple also released an update to iBooks Author to continue in the proliferation of Textbooks in the education market.

Before revealing the new iPad mini Apple surprised many by releasing an all new iPad, dubbing it the iPad 4th generation. iPad 4 includes a new A6X system-on-chip, expanded LTE compatibility and features the new Lightning connector. Apple claims that the A6X includes twice the CPU and GPU performance than the A5X found in the iPad 3.
iPad mini in hand | Image courtesy of Apple
As expected Apple also revealed the new iPad mini, a smaller iPad featuring a 7.9-inch display with the same 1024 x 768 resolution as the original iPad meaning that all apps will work on day one. The iPad mini is 23 percent thinner and 53 percent lighter than the larger iPad and still includes 10 hours of battery life.
The iPad mini has an Apple dual-core A5 SoC, FaceTime HD and iSight cameras, 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi and global LTE.
The 7.9-inch display delivers the same iPad experience in a design that has 35 percent more screen real estate than other 7-inch tablets and up to an astonishing 67 percent more usable viewing area when browsing the web in landscape mode.
Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2 alongside the 4th generation iPad and iPad mini.
The iPad mini and all models of the fourth generation iPad will be available to pre-order on Friday, October 26 through the Apple Online Store in the US, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
WiFi models of the iPad mini and iPad will be available on November 2.
The iPad mini starts at $329 (£269) for the 16GB WiFi model and tops out at $529 (£529) for the 64GB WiFi model. Cellular iPad minis carry a $130 price increase.

Source: World of Apple

    

By Alex Brooks 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display | Image courtesy of Apple
During today’s event Apple released a slew of Mac updates including updating the Mac mini, completely refreshing the iMac and releasing a brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
Apple’s Phil Schiller kicked off with the brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display which joins the 15-inch as the top end of Apple’s notebook range. The 13-inch model packs over 4 million pixels into the 2560 x 1600 pixel display. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display features 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processors with the option to choose faster 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 processors, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 8GB of RAM, and up to 768GB SSD. Two Thunderbolt and two USB 3.0 ports allow users to connect to multiple displays and high-performance devices, and a HDMI port.
Moving on from the Mac mini Schiller moved on the iMac which has received a complete refresh including an all new super-thin enclosure. Apple has also decided to remove the optical drive on the iMac. Measuring just 5mm at the edge the iMac is 80% thinner than the previous generation and is still a powerhouse.

21.5- and 27-inch iMac (late 2012) | Image courtesy of Apple
The new iMac features third generation quad-core Intel Core i5 processors that can be upgraded to Core i7. The latest NVIDIA GeForce processors deliver up to 60 percent faster performance for advanced gaming and graphics intensive apps. Every new iMac now comes standard with 8GB of 1600 MHz memory and a 1TB hard drive, and customers can choose to configure their iMac with up to 32GB of memory and a new 3TB hard drive, or 768GB of flash storage for ultimate performance. With two Thunderbolt and four USB 3.0 ports, the new iMac delivers even greater expandability and support for high-performance peripherals.
Apple also announced a new software and hardware based configuration called Fusion Drive which is available on the iMac. Fusion Drive combines 128GB of flash with a standard 1TB or 3TB hard drive to create a single storage volume that intelligently manages files to optimise read and write performance.
Apple also pushed a basic refresh of the Mac mini with an update to Intel’s Ivy Bridge architecture and an optional quad-core processor as well as up to 16GB of RAM.
The brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display starts at $1699 (£1449) for a 2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory and a 128GB SSD.
The all new iMac is available for $1299 (£1099) for the 21.5-inch model with a 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M. The 27-inch model starts at $1799 (£1499) for a 2.9 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M.

Source: World of Apple

    

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.

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Source: SquareCMD