Thanks to a leak through Apple’s own website, we’re all expecting a refresh to its MacBook Pro family to introduce faster Sandy Bridge processors. According to the latest rumor, they’ll be ready to purchase from next week.
The weird revelations coming from the AP’s bizarrely “purchased” early copy of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs bio continue. Here’s another one: he hates Bill Gates!
Despite its new dual-core A5 processor, its much-improved 8-megapixel camera, and a wireless chip that allows the device to use both CDMA and GSM networks, Apple’s new iPhone 4S only costs the Cupertino company around $0.49 more than the iPhone 4.
While sometimes it may seem that Samsung tries its hardest to taunt Apple’s legal department, the company’s mobile president has revealed that its latest Galaxy Nexus smartphone was built to avoid Apple patents, saving the Korean company yet another legal battle.
So you’ve got your new iPhone 4S, and now you want to talk to Siri (and maybe friends) and enjoy some tuneage. Step one: Donate those pathetic white buds that came with your iPhone to your favorite charity, if they’ll take ’em. Step two: Get yourself a snazzy pair of microphone-equipped canalphones — earphones that fit snugly in your ear. Why? Because a good set of canalphones are the best accessory ever made for an iPhone; they’ll create a seal that will block out ambient noise while enhancing sound coming from the earphones, especially bass — which means better conversations with friends (or Siri), and better music.
Around $100 seems to be the point at which there’s a big jump in quality; also, most in that range are now equipped with inline volume controls (in addition to the play/pause and track-skip controls like the ones on Apple’s stock buds).
We’ve assembled an Apple Store’s worth of canalphones at that level, and we’ll be reviewing them over the next several days. Up first is Sennheiser’s MM 70 iP earphones ($100).
According to reports on Twitter, Apple’s Steve Jobs memorial event is well underway, and it’s already looking like a touching tribute to a great man by the company he built.
A tweet by Rodger Lizaola says ex-Vice President and Apple board member Al Gore has already arrived.
Meanwhile, Nora Jones is reportedly playing a tribute song in memory of Steve Jobs that Kevin Rochowski says “really sets the right tone.” The song she played was Forever Young.
Coldplay also performed, according to Twitter user Larley.
Tyler Stone tweeted: “Wonderful speech by Tim [Cook]. Wonderful speech by Bill Campbell. Wonderful performance by Norah Jones. This really helps bring closure.”
We’ll be updating this post as we get more.
Siri is one of the iPhone 4S’ biggest selling points, and I think anyone who’s had chance to try out the feature would agree that’s it’s pretty exceptional. For the time being, it’s exclusive to Apple’s latest iPhone, but one hacker claims to have it running on any device running iOS 5, and says a jailbroken device is not necessary.
Wow, big news! The iPhone 4S is officially coming to a fourth American network in the coming weeks!
Bad news for the millions of T-Mobile customers using their jailbroken iPhones on the fourth-largest American wireless network, though: the iPhone 4S is coming to a network you’ve probably never heard of.
It’s always said that Steve Jobs lived and breathed for Apple, up until the very day he died, but it’s easy to discount how literally true that seemingly trite adage actually was. A new anecdote from Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son puts Steve’s dedication to his company in stark relief, proving that Jobs was working on Apple’s next product up until the day before he died.
Before the iPhone came along in 2007 and changed the way in which we use mobile devices, touchscreen smartphones were very different to what we have today. They were big, clunky and slow; it was hard to find and install applications for them; and every one of them came with a damn stylus that was either lost or broken within the first six months.
Things are completely different now, though, thanks to Apple’s smartphone. But it took a long time for us to get here. This awesome video from CNET UK offers an animated journey through the history of the iPhone and how Apple’s revolutionary device was born.
Apple has updated its website this morning introduce a ‘Remembering Steve‘ page which shares a selection of tributes left by Apple fans from all over the world since Steve passed away on October 5.
Let’s just say it: any smartphone that recognizes my lineage by calling me a queen is right as rain in my book. (Namely because it saves those tiring discussions about “You don’t know who you’re dealing with!” etc.)
The learning curve with Apple’s new iPhone 4S voice activated personal assistant Siri may or may not be steep – depending on your point of view – but a Twitter feed launched Oct. 15 compiling the more unusual responses is exceedingly droll.
During today’s Q4 earnings call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer talked about how “pervasive” iPhone rumors hurt Apple’s fiscal business. While nearly every product saw a significant increase in sales for the fourth fiscal quarter, the iPhone saw a lackluster 17.07 million iPhones sold. That’s 21% year over year growth. The iPad saw 166% year over year growth.
It’s typical for product sales to taper off right before a refresh, but this last fiscal quarter’s iPhone sales were even lower than what Apple expected. Oppenheimer blamed the rumor mill for hurting Apple’s fiscal business with regards to the iPhone.
Apple today announced its earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter, with $28.27 billion in revenue and $6.62 billion in profit. In Q4, Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones, 11.12 million iPads, and 4.89 million Macs.
This is the first time in years that Apple has missed its Wall Street predictions. However, Apple surpassed its own estimates of $25 billion for the fourth fiscal quarter.
Sometimes is seems as though Samsung puts its greatest efforts into causing a ruckus with Apple’s legal team. The Korean electronics giant is already involved in countless legal spats with Apple for allegedly copying the iPhone and iPad, but it continues to closely follow Apple’s products… or just rip them off completely.
It’s USB charger, for example, is an exact replica of Apple’s, only in black instead of white. It recently littered one its retail stores with a bunch of Apple icons for the App Store and Safari. And its latest trick? Using an iPhone screenshot to sell its Galaxy Player 5.0 media device.
Apple pushed out another update to its Apple TV yesterday which was set to fix a number of bugs in the 4.4 firmware, however, version 4.4.1 comes with a major issue of its own, so we’re suggesting you ignore this update for the time being.
Following recent rumors that claim a refresh to Apple’s MacBook Pro lineup is imminent, I’m sure many of you are eagerly awaiting the new models before you go out and purchase a shiny new notebook. You may not have much longer to wait, according to Apple’s own website, which hints the new models are just weeks away.
I’ve been using the iPhone 4S for a whole weekend now, and I have to say, this device is a magnificent beast. That dual-core A5 processor makes everything super speedy and incredibly seamless, while the 8-megapixel camera takes terrific photos, and the Siri assistant — although in the U.K. — is just plain awesome.
Externally, however, the iPhone 4S is just as fragile as its predecessor, and nowhere near as robust as its biggest rival, the Samsung Galaxy S II.
A Steve Jobs memorial held at Stanford Memorial Church on Sunday attracted a huge number of people who came to pay their respects to Apple’s former CEO and co-founder. Among them were a long list of celebrities, musicians, CEOs, and even a former president.
So, that device that nobody wanted, which looks just like the iPhone 4 with a couple of internal improvements, actually did pretty well for itself during its launch weekend. Apple has just announced that it sold a whopping 4 million iPhone 4S handsets this weekend, which is considerably more than the 1.7 million iPhone 4 units sold during its debut weekend last year.
Do you find the iPhone 4 is a little too quiet for you? I certainly do, especially in crowded places. But thankfully, the speaker on the new iPhone 4S is significantly louder than its predecessor, as demonstrated in this video.
Since Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, we’ve seen a stack of awesome of tribute images created from MacBook parts, Minecraft building blocks, and even salt. However, this has to be one of my favorite: a portrait of Steve created with 4,001 Post-it notes.
If you are an AT&T Customer and you upgraded to an iPhone 4S this weekend you might want to check your account settings. Something fishy is going on with customer messaging plans. I got wind of it from a friend who is currently traveling in Alaska.
Apparently if you previously had Messaging Unlimited with Mobile to Any Mobile Calling on your old phone you’ll find out like I did that AT&T switched you to the Messaging Unlimited plan. That plan does not including the Any Mobile to Mobile calling feature.
Planted in your shiny new iPhone 4s and in the iOS 5 are the seeds of tomorrow’s Mac of the future, and indeed the future of all computers. You can find them if you know where to look. (And I’ll tell you where below.)
It’s not supposed to be this way. In the Microsoft world, at least, new technology starts at the top and “trickles down” from bigger and more powerful computers over time to mobile devices and eventually cell phones. If you’re focused on the machines, this makes sense, as larger computers are more capable of handling powerful new features.
But if you’re focused on the user, as Apple is, this approach doesn’t make sense. Apple has developed what I believe is a unique strategy: introduce new interfaces and new ways to interact with computers and the Internet on the smallest devices first, then scale them up over time, eventually ending up as desktop features.
The big question about the iPhone 4S is whether it’s worth the upgrade.
The answer is yes, and that’s because of Siri, the talking personal assistant.
Siri is unbelievable; a paradigm shift. It’s new way of interacting with computers that’s as big a breakthrough as the original Macintosh with its mouse, windows and icons. In fact, it’s bigger. It’s a much more natural way to interact with machines. It’s a glimpse of the future of computing.
Like the first Mac, it’s far from perfect. We’re at the very beginning of this revolution. But if you want to join the party, you need the 4S.