Isaiah's Tech

Steve Jobs came out to, obviously, a standing ovation and huge applause. Of course, today is all about software so don't expect a new iPhone to be announced today. It's all about Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud. Apple decided to start things off with Lion which has 250 new features, according to them. However, there are 10 key features to their new OS: Multitouch gestures, Full Screen apps, Mission Control (unified Expose and Spaces), Mac App Store, Launchpad (iOS Springboard), Resume (when you launch an app it'll start from where you were last), Autosave, Versions (saving all versions of a document), AirDrop (P2P file sharing - like HomeGroup on Windows), and a "new" Mail version (looks a whole lot like the iOS version). If you want to get one, it'll be available only through the Mac App Store. The OS (4GB download) will cost you just $29, when it's available next month - July. Definitely worth it.

Next up is iOS 5. iOS apparently has 44% of the market share while Android is only at 28%. There are 90,000 apps solely for the iPad and, of course, Android doesn't come close to that number. Anyways, back to the major release that they have in store for us in the near future. The next iOS has over 200 new features and, again, 10 major ones. They are: Notification Center (new and improved Notifications thanks to Peter Hajas who created MobileNotifier for jailbroken devices - it's just like Android), Newsstand, Twitter (integration as rumoured), Safari (Reader, Reading List, Tabbed Browsing), Reminders (to-do list), Camera (a lot more like the Camera+ app), Mail (iPad only), PC Free (finally, wireless syncing and OTA updates), Game Center, and iMessage (new messaging service for iOS users - think BBM for the iPhone). The last one is huge and could put a huge dent in RIM. Looks like it's a BBM killer unless RIM can do something quick. Anyways, all of that is coming this Fall - along with the next iPhone, of course.

iCloud time. "iCloud stores your content, and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices" and it's "integrated with your apps, so everything happens automatically." The core apps for iCloud are now contacts, calendar, mail, App Store (if you purchase an app on your iPhone then it'll be free when you re-download it on your iPad), iBooks, Backup, Documents, Photo Stream, and iTunes. The worst part about Photo Stream is that it only saves your last 1,000 photos and only does so for 30 days. Interesting. iTunes in iCloud will work exactly like the App Store does. Purchased songs will be free to download on another device. Yes, there's nine of them now. It's definitely replacing MobileMe; and it's free. You can get iCloud right now (devs only) and it'll store 5GB of storage.

Oh, there's one more thing; a small thing. It's called iTunes Match. This will cost $24.99 a year and it'll scan the songs you have and will upgrade it to 256k AAC DRM free. Not useful for me but maybe for you. And that's it! This Fall will definitely be exciting.

[This Is My Next]

Apple looks like they're going to be starting WWDC 2011 this year on June 6th which is a Monday. Usually, this is where the company unveils the next iPhone but recent rumours suggest that this might not be the case this time around. It says that we'll be joining them "for a preview of the future of iOS and Mac OS X" so we should get another look at Lion as well as iOS 5 - hopefully, release dates on both. We're still crossing our fingers for the next-generation iPhone to be announced.

[Engadget]

Of course, Steve Jobs kicked off the keynote today and after blabbing a bit about other things, he announced the next iPhone which be simply called [drumroll please] the iPhone 4 - not the iPhone HD. This smartphone has a Retina Display which has 4 times the amount of pixels in a regular display. The bottom line is that the iPhone 4 features a 3.5-inch touchscreen (IPS) display with a 960 x 640 resolution (326 ppi) and an 800:1 contrast ratio - but it also seems a bit darker than the 3GS, then again it's much crisper. Jobs also mentioned that the IPS technology is better than OLED right now, but we'll have to see some side-by-side testing in the future for that - it does look like it'll be crisper though. At the event, they tried to demo some more awesome differences the retina display makes but they had some network difficulties...

The iPhone 4 is also equipped with a 5MP camera with an LED flash, 5x digital zoom, and 720p HD video recording capabilities at 30fps, a front-facing camera, an Apple A4 CPU (presumably the same one in the iPad), a microSIM slot, up to 32GB of internal storage (no 64GB model here, folks), Bluetooth / GPS / WiFi 802.11n support, a noise-cancellation microphone, a gyroscope (and accelerometer) for 6-axis motion-sensing, the renamed iOS4 (iPhone OS 4), and an all-new design that we've all seen repeatedly before. The front and the back is glass with steel around the sides and it's 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS aka the iPhone 4 is 9.3mm - which claims the title for the world's thinnest smartphone. This new iPhone has "brilliant engineering" and has integrated antennas - they had to do anything they can to make calls on AT&T's network... The battery life is said to be 7 hours of 3G talk-time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and 300 hour of standby.

Apple also went on to introduce their own app for iPhone 4, called iMovie. With this app you'll be able to make your own movies and edit your [HD] videos on the go. They've added Bing to their search engine list on the iPhone 4 but Google is still the default engine - for now at least. They're bringing iBooks to the iPhone 4 which isn't surprising but also doesn't interest me too much. Of course, with new iOS, you get Apple's new iAds free of charge! To cap things off, Steve Jobs and Jony Ive showed off a video call, named FaceTime, on the iPhone 4 that froze up for a second. You'll only be able to use this over WiFi, which kind of sucks. Of course, video-calling isn't exactly the newest feature out there but it's definitely welcomed on the iPhone 4. You'll be able to switch from the front-facing camera to the rear camera if you please, which is actually pretty smart. This will be available in black and white, the 16GB model will be going for $199, while the 32GB model will be going for $299 on a 2-year contract. If your contract expires anytime in 2010, you'll actually be able to upgrade to the iPhone 4 right away, which is great! The pre-orders will kick off on June 15th and they'll be shipping it in 5 countries on the 24th (including the US, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK). In July, 18 more countries will get a stab at the iPhone 4 as well - hopefully that includes Canada. Don't forget that the 8GB iPhone 3GS will now cost you just $99.

Apple also introduced their own cases for the iPhone 4. They'll cost you $29 and they'll come in a bunch of different colours. That's all folks.

[Engadget, GDGT]

This WWDC should be a big event and Apple looks like the iPhone won't be all that they'll be announcing. To conjure up a bit more hype, a new trackpad from Apple has just leaked out. Of course, the name isn't confirmed but it's being dubbed the "Magic Trackpad" for now. This will connect to whatever you want (desktop or laptop) via Bluetooth and will reportedly have handwriting recognition. To be honest, I hate finger input (trackpads) on laptops, so I probably won't be going out of my way to purchase this. Of course, if a company were to change the way we do things with out devices it'll be Steve Jobs, right? Well, look out for it later!

[Engadget]

If this is to be believed, the website of the iPhone HD has just leaked out and the smartphone is going to cater to a wider audience this time around. This webpage shows that the iPhone HD will be available in five colours: red, blue, green, white, and black. There's not much else this webpage tells us but I'm sure that Steve Jobs will clear everything up for us in less than 24 hours (at the time of writing).

[The Cellular Guru]

There's a rumour going around that Apple is going to be announcing Safari 5 and even Mac OS X 10.6.4 at WWDC on Monday. Safari 5 is said to "render Javascript up to 25% faster [than Safari 4] bringing it in line with recent improvements to Chrome and Opera." Safari will also bring a new "Reader" feature which will "view articles on the web in a single, clutter-free page." It'll also have a Bing search options, maybe the first of search engine switches from the Apple camp - since Google is their number one enemy right now. Right now there's no word on if Safari will support extensions so that means I'll still be sticking with Chrome.

Surprisingly, the Mac OS X 10.6.4 won't be anything too significant and it doesn't mention adding touchscreen support right now. Other improvements are listed below - thanks to 9 to 5 Mac.

[TUAW, 9 to 5 Mac]

There's a new rumour going around that Apple will be releasing their next-gen iPhone on Friday, June 18th. Apparently, AT&T employees are expected to sell 25 - 30% more than usual - their sales quota has gone up - for the month of June. Of course, all of our questions should be answered at WWDC which takes place on Monday. Take it away, Steve Jobs.

[Boy Genius]

There's a rumour going around that Apple will be updating their Mac Mini PC in the near future. Of course, we heard a while ago that they'll be replacing the DVI port for an HDMI port. Inside you'll also find a new Nvidia MCP89 chipset. With WWDC on Monday, we'll hopefully see a brief announcement on this refresh. They could start offering the new Mac Mini on June 14th.

[Gizmodo]

The buzz today is about the iPhone HD making another appearance in front of the camera. This one is showing off the white casing, which will be announced next week at Apple's WWDC event. Of course, all you can do right now is wish you could buy one so just enjoy the pictures for now. The rumours are pointing to the next iPhone to have 32GB and  64GB of internal memory.

[Fone Arena]

There's a rumour going around that AT&T is telling their employees that the next-gen iPhone is expected in mid-June - anywhere from the 11th to the 18th. This will be just shortly after the announcement that'll take place at WWDC on June 7th. This is somewhat expected so don't be too surprise. It should hit the FCC in a couple of weeks.

[Gizmodo, Electronista]

This is a yearly thing now. Right before WWDC, all of these wild rumours fly out about the iPhone - most of them turn out to be just rumours. The latest one is that we'll be seeing a CDMA iPhone hit Sprint in September of this year. Of course, this will be contradicting the 5-year deal that Apple made with AT&T so I doubt this will turn out to be true. If this is true, I assume that the handset will be capable of running on their 4G network - I can start rumours too!

[Slash Gear, Electronista]

Steve Jobs will, of course, be kicking off Apple's WWDC this year on June 7th. It's just two weeks away folks, get ready for the next-gen iPhone. This WWDC is said to be one to remember, especially with Google harassing them. I'm sure Jobs has some fighting words as well.




[Gizmodo]
Picture Source: Crunch Gear

Digitimes has just reported that Foxconn will ship a bunch of next-generation iPhones this year - 4.5 million units in the first half of this year and 19.5 million units for the rest of the year, to be [somewhat] exact. Apparently, the next iPhone will sport an IPS panel with a much higher resolution, possibly 960 x 480, and these are coming from LG Display and Prime View International. There's expected to be 512MB of RAM in the next iPhone which is double what you'll find inside the iPad and the iPhone 3GS. Of course, we already know that it'll feature the Apple A4 chip. Look out for this on June 7th at WWDC.

[9 to 5 Mac, Electronista]

This is a back and forth topic. Apple is releasing an iPhone for Verizon then they end up not doing it, so take this one with a grain of salt. Apparently, Apple is expecting to produce 10 million CDMA iPhones this year and they've "clinched a contract" with Pegatron to have these made. This is coming from Digitimes, just in case you're wondering. The launch is apparently set for August / September of this year but nothing is for sure with Apple. We'll really just have to wait until the official word from them at WWDC this June.

[Slash Gear]

Not much to tell you here but Apple is planning to hold their WWDC 2010 this year and it'll be starting on June 7th. We're expected to see the iPhone 4G / HD announcement at the event and Apple looks like they'll also be focusing on their iPhone OS 4 as well as some iPad stuff. There won't be too much stuff regarding Mac OS X, but maybe they'll announce their latest iteration to include some touchscreen capabilities.

[Crunch Gear]

If you take a look at the chart above, Apple's claims this morning may have been false. Safari 4 is, though, the world's fastest stable browser, but it's definitely not the world's fastest browser - as a whole. Google Chrome 3.0.182.2 edges out Safari 4, according to the chart above. Either way, Safari and Chrome beat out the rest of the competition, special thanks to Webkit. Check out a full analysis of the chart above at the link below.

[Beta News]

Apple has just taken Safari 4 out of beta status and is now calling it the "world's fastest browser." Of course, tests have not been done yet to confirm these claims, but I'm sure those will surface soon. I enjoyed using the Safari 4 beta when it came out, but it was pretty crashy. Apple has announced that Safari 4 is now crash-free, so I'll just have to test that out for myself later today - or tomorrow.

[Life Hacker]

At WWDC, Apple announced that the iPhone 3.0 OS will finally be available on June 17th. iPhone 3.0 OS will give your iPhone 3G / iPod Touch the ability to: cut and paste, undo, MMS support, and some gaming upgrades, according to Kotaku. For everything you need to know about the iPhone 3.0 OS, click here.

[Kotaku]

Starting on June 19th of this year, the iPhone 3GS will be available. The 16GB and 32GB models of the iPhone 3GS will be going for $199 and $299 USD, respectively. But, what about the iPhone 3G? Well, if you like the slowness and the weak battery life of the iPhone 3G, don't worry because Apple (and AT&T) will still be selling them. The 8GB iPhone 3G will be available for $99 USD and the 16GB model will be retailing for $149. They will all be available via AT&T on 2-year contracts.

[Boy Genius]

Yes at this afternoon's WWDC, Apple announced the next iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 3GS. I'm fairly disappointed because it's basically just a faster iPhone 3G. Most people will be praising it, but I'm definitely disappointed - to say the least. No black plastic matte backing and no OLED display, which is what I was looking forward to the most. On a side note, it is fast. The iPhone 3GS also has: a 3MP camera with video recording at 30fps (VGA), a built-in compass, Nike+ support, and a better battery life. Check out the full report over at the link below.

[Engadget]