Isaiah's Tech

Apple's awaited event has come and gone but it was one to remember. Tim Cook, the new CEO, showed up to announce a bunch of new things. First off, he announced that Lion was downloaded 6 million times which is a great number for digital downloads. Afterwards, Tim boasted numbers for their iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices which are pretty astonishing. An unexpected twist happened when Apple announced the new "Cards" app which will allow you to create a card on your iPhone and Apple will do the rest: print it out and mail it for you. All for $2.99 in the US.

Moving along, they recapped the great parts about iOS 5 which you should already know about: new Notifications, iMessage, Twitter integration, Reminders, Newsstand, improved Camera, Tabbed Browsing, etc. Along with mentioning Find my iPhone, there's also a new feature called Find my Friends which does what it says. Oh yes, of course, they briefly mentioned iCloud again and 5GB of storage will be free!

Apple decided that the first thing they would announce would be a new iPod Nano. Since Apple noticed that a bunch of people last year were using the Nano as a watch, they decided to add 16 new clock faces so you'll be able to stay fresh. The 8GB model will be $129 and the 16GB model will be $149. It'll be available today.

Next up is the new iPod Touch which will, obviously, have iOS 5 at launch. It's touted as having an ultra-thin design, a gyroscope, a Retina Display, and as the number 1 portable game player. 8GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399. It'll be available in black and white on October 12th. Oh, there's also a new Shuffle which is 2GB and costs $49.

Now, the good stuff! Apple has also announced the iPhone 4S - it's official! This one has a similar design to the 4 and sports an 8MP camera (with a Hybrid IR filter, face detection, better colour accuracy, etc.) with 1080p video recording, HSPA+ (14.4Mbps), Siri (voice control), and iOS 5 with the dual-core A5 CPU - same as the iPad 2. Yeah, it'll reportedly be great at playing games so they demoed Infinity Blade 2 which looked very impressive. Yes, they also boasted battery life, a new antenna system, and the fact that it's a world phone - finally! So, the 8GB iPhone 3GS is now free on a 2-year contract, while the 8GB iPhone 4 will be $99.

On October 14th, the 4S will be available in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Germany, and Japan for $199 (16GB), $299 (32GB), and $399 (64GB). Yes, it'll hit Sprint, geez! Seriously!? That's it, a mediocre update. I was hoping for more Apple!

[This Is My Next, Engadget]

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]

Yes, as expected, Verizon announced that they'll be launching a CDMA iPhone! This will be available for $199 (for the 16GB model) and $299 (for the 32GB model) starting on February 10th - pre-orders start on February 3rd for existing customers. With a purchase of the iPhone 4 on Verizon you'll also be getting a 5-device mobile hotspot. The antenna and the buttons are in a slightly different place than the one's you'll find on AT&T's model. Every other spec on Verizon's iPhone 4 are the exact same. Check it out on Verizon.

Update: The iPhone 4 on Verizon is running iOS 4.2.5 which will likely get released when the Verizon model launches on Feb. 10th.

Update: Engadget has just mentioned that this smartphone just hit the FCC.

[Engadget]

Apple kicked things off by announcing iOS 4.1 and 4.2 (for the iPad) but that's not what we'll talk about here - you'll have to wait until November for iOS 4.2 on your iPad by the way. We're focusing on the iPod refresh that took place today, and Steve Jobs said that this is the biggest iPod update ever. The first thing he announced was the new iPod Shuffle. After the third-generation failed, they've brought the buttons back in its small factor. It has the clip on the back and comes with 2GB of internal storage. This will cost you $49 and will be available in 5 colours (gray, blue, pink, green, and yellow) each with 15 hours of audio playback. Keep scrolling down for the new iPod Nano.

Next up is the new iPod Nano, which is being touted as a small iPod Touch. As expected, it's a plain (and small) touchscreen with no buttons on the front. On the side there's the volume button and on the back there's a clip which is great if you like to clip it. I put mine in my pocket so that doesn't really matter to me. It has a multitouch display along with 24 hours of audio playback. This reminds me of the third-gen (fat) iPod Nano so let's see how successful this turns out to be. This will come in a bunch of (they say six, I see seven) colours and they're all above for you. The 8GB model will be available for $149 while the 16GB model will only cost $30 more, at $179. iPod Touch next.

Update: The iPod Nano does not have video playback, I repeat does not. You won't be able to watch of your movies or podcasts on this device. Yup, no video playback.

Of course, this event wouldn't be complete without the most important iPod of all, the Touch. This model is even thinner and comes with a flat back. This iPod Touch sports the same retina display you'll find on the iPhone 4 and it also sports the Apple A4 CPU along with iOS 4.1 (with Game Center), 40 hours of audio playback, a front-facing camera, and a rear-facing camera with 720p HD video recording for FaceTime. You can pre-order them right now and they'll be going for $229 for 8GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB. Yes, there's no more 16GB model. They'll be available starting next week in the US (I don't know about the Canadian release dates).

[Engadget]

Hmm, well, this is interesting. According to the iOS 4 code, BGR might have spotted something very interesting. Apparently, the Verizon CDMA iPhone and the next iPad could be being tested as we speak. This code usually shows up before the launch of a major iPhone / device release BGR points out. Of course, we won't be seeing leaks of what the device looks like again; that iPhone 4 leak was a once in a lifetime chance.

[Gizmodo]

What you see above was leaked this morning and it's said to be Apple-branded. It's a mini-touchscreen display measure 3 x 3cm in size and could be for a bunch of different products. It could be a new iPod Touch Nano, an iPod Shuffle, an iPhone Nano (which doesn't really make sense), an iWatch, or even for a touchscreen-touchpad. The touchscreen touchpad is what I'm betting this will be for. I think that this mini-touchscreen could actually be running iOS and could be implemented somehow. We'll really just have to see what happens because it does seem a bit small to be a touchpad. Maybe it'll be something on the side.

[9 to 5 Mac, iPodnn]

There's a big rumour going around that Apple will be updating their iPod line-up and possibly the biggest update of them all will go to the iPod Touch - of course. To catch up to the iPhone 4, Apple's PMP is rumoured to be getting a 5MP camera on the back (presumably the same as the iPhone 4) with an LED flash, a gyroscope, direct YouTube video uploads, and a front-facing webcam for FaceTime. I'm going to assume that they're going to put their own A4 chip inside as well for the slight speed boost. Of course, this PMP should be running iOS 4.0 as well. As usual, you can expect the iPod refresh to come this September!

Update: According to 9 to 5 Mac, the two pictures below could be the face of the new iPod Touch coming in September of this year. Since there'll be no earpiece in the top, the front-facing camera looks like it could actually be in the center of the PMP, keeping the symmetry of the device.

[Slash Gear]

There's a new rumour going around about Apple's all in one PC, the iMac. What's expected is that the iMac will get a touchscreen display but that's not all. The rumour states that it'll actually have Mac OS X on it along with a "touch interface for iOS." This rumour likely started because a lot of people believe that Apple plan to fuse the two operating system's together or they'll work in harmony or something like that. We'll see what happens. Oh yes, this iMac should actually be unveiled in the next 60 days so start saving up.

[9 to 5 Mac]