iOS 7 and other Apple Annoucements…

iOS 7…

Yes I’m testing it, what do I think so far?

Thinks that make you go hmmmmmmmmm…….

2013 – We all didn’t die!

Well it’s New Years Eve here in Australia and just over an hour left of 2012.

2013 is just around the corner, the Myans were wrong, we all didn’t die!

So what’s next?

2013 for me will be more work, more AR Drone flying in particular some long range flights when I install my RC mod when it arrives in a few days.

There’s a lot slated for release by Apple next year, I’m due for a new Macbook so will be interesting to see what comes next in that range.

All in all it looks like another busy year in our ever increasing busy lives.

Stay safe everyone!

Darren

Well what can I say?

Title says it all doesn’t it?

The new products Apple have just announced, well all I can say is WOW!

The iPad mini looks good, it’s size is just about right for those who want a small mini tablet for email and calendar functions etc just like a PDA! And even the price isn’t too bad. People can experience an iOS device with a great screen and touch surface for a much lower price than the larger iPad. I won’t bother with one of course as I already have 2 iPad’s and see no need for a smaller one at this stage but the idea of using one for an in-car media player suddenly springs to mind as I write this!

The new iMac is a very nice piece of kit, the ultra thin screen looks really good and would be even better if it was retina but even still with the power and options on the new model desktop users should be more than happy! Not to mention the cheap as Mac Mini which can be used as a server or a small media PC in your loungeroom. Again the in-car idea springs to mind!

I’m a little peeved at the annoucement of the new iPad 4 model complete with A6 chip, 4G (LTE) and lightning connectors. I just got my iPad 3 only a couple of months ago and would surely have waited for this one especially as it compares with my new iPhone 5 feature wise. Even so the next iPad surely should have some even better features. I can understand the update especially to bring it into line with the launch cycle of the iPad mini. I can see Apple releasing both at the same time with comparable feature sets but different sizes in the future.

The new iBooks sounds interesting as well as the sharing features, I was recently miffed at the fact that a book I purchased on iBooks was not also readable on my Macbook Pro when in fact Apple promotes the ability to share your content amongst all your iDevices but seemingly forgot about this at the time!

It really looks like Apple is on the warpath marketing wise and is really pushing out the product the last 18 months, with an uptake of their mobile OS known as iOS with a recent major upgrade over 600 million devices recently upgraded to iOS 6 in the last 2 months… amazing!

What will the next 18 month have in store for us from Apple?

I look forward to finding out!

Updates & New iPhone

Yes I know I said I was back, and yes I am but I’ve been so busy with work/life stuff that I just get no time to spend updating this blog much.

But I’m here now so stop yer nagging!

Seems there is going to be a new iPhone in town!

No not the iPhone 5, they are dropping the model number just like the “New iPad” this year it will be just known as the “New iPhone”.

All reports so far point out to a larger screen, smaller dock connecter, 2 tone look amongst many other new features. It’s looking like a September 12 announcement with a September 21 launch date.

Just scored myself a new iPad a couple of weeks ago, and i’m running iOS 6 Beta 3 on it along with my iPhone 4 and it’s just magic and a huge improvement over the iPad 2 as far as speed and graphics go. It’s been interesting to have Siri on board the iPad even if she did mistake something I said for the word “bitch” 🙂

Speaking of iOS 6 and OS updates, who has updated to OSX Mountain Lion yet? I’ve been using the beta’s for a few months and found it pretty good in testing but the public release seems nice and stable and is everything they said it would be.

Stay tuned for more updates…

There is one in every crowd!!!

Seems there is always one in every crowd.This was apparently taken at an Apple University lecture.

If this was you, I hope your feeling ashamed of yourself 🙂

Apple working to adopt 802.11ac 5G Gigabit WiFi this year

By Daniel Eran Dilger Published: 02:34 PM EST on Apple Inside

Apple is expected to rapidly deploy support for the new 802.11ac specification this year, adding so called “Gigabit WiFi” to new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV,notebooks and potentially its mobile devices.

The new 802.11ac standard achieves much faster wireless networking speeds than the existing 802.11n specification (in use on the latest Mac, AirPort and iOS devices) by using 2 to 4 times the frequency bandwidth (from 80 to 160MHz), more efficient data transfers through sophisticated modulation, and more antennas (up to 8; existing standards support up to 4, while Apple’s Macs currently use up to 3).

While not yet finalized as an official standard by the 802.11 Working Group, progress on the new 802.11.ac standard is occurring faster than previous efforts in wireless networking have.

Multiple suppliers have already issued chipsets supporting 802.11ac for consumer grade applications. Key Apple component maker Broadcom announced chips supporting the standard earlier this month at CES.

In addition to reaching networking speeds above 1 Gigabit (about three times as fast as 802.11n networks can manage), 802.11ac promises better networking range, improved reliability, and more power efficient chips, thanks to parallel advances in reducing chip size and enhancing power management.

Apple popularizes WiFi with AirPort

While Apple wasn’t the first company to sell wireless devices, it was first to bring the technology into the mainstream beginning in 1999, when Steve Jobs dramatically demonstrated Apple’s initial AirPort technology onstage at the July Macworld Expo as “one more thing” after showing off the company’s new consumer iBook notebook.

Jobs pretended to hold his new iBook notebook up to provide a clear view for the camera operator, but he then continued to use the web as he walked across the stage to the delight of the audience that suddenly realized the new notebook had a wireless connection.

 

While Intel and others were promoting wired home networking schemes using landline phone wiring, Apple quickly brought WiFi into common use with support for AirPort across its Mac desktop and laptop line and its new AirPort branded base stations, making secure wireless technology both affordable and easy to use.

The WiFi technology Jobs demonstrated was second generation 802.11b; an earlier 802.11 version had previously been developed but only offered a tenth of the speed, making it less than practical for mainstream users. At the same time, 802.11b wasn’t formally ratified until September of 1999, making Apple’s inclusion on the iBook a forward-looking innovation. It also made the iBook the first mainstream computer sold with integrated WiFi.

In January 2003, Apple launched AirPort Extreme, its brand name for the improved 802.11g standard. While backwardly compatible with 802.11b devices, the new AirPort Extreme base station and compliant computers could now achieve wireless networking speeds up to five times faster. The 802.11g standard wasn’t formally ratified for another six months after Apple released its first implementation of it.

Apple sneaks out 802.11n

In September 2006, Apple offered a sneak peek at Apple TV. It seemed immediately obvious that Apple would empower this using the new 802.11n standard, but it was widely doubted at the time that Apple could release support for the much faster new version of WiFi before the standard was ratified.

However, in January 2007 Apple announced that Apple TV did indeed use 802.11n, alongside new AirPort base stations also supporting a draft version of the still unfinished specification. The company also acknowledged that it had secretly included support for the fast new “draft n” specification in all of its previously released Core 2 Duo Macs.

Due to accounting concerns, Apple planned to charge a nominal $4.99 fee for distributing the drivers needed to activate this unadvertised hardware feature on recent Macs. After a hailstorm of caustic criticism, Apple dropped the fee to $1.99, and subsequently included the drivers into the next version of Mac OS X for free.

The 802.11n standard wasn’t formally ratified until October of 2009, nearly three years after Apple began rolling it out. By May 2008, Apple was recognized by NDP Group as having a 10.6 percent share of WiFi base station sales, and AirPort Extreme was named the top selling 802.11n router in the US.

AirPort advances since 802.11n

The new 802.11ac isn’t expected to be fully approved as a finished standard until late next year, but Apple is poised to adopt it well before then. Since the initial rollout of 802.11n Macs, AirPort base stations and Apple TV in early 2007, Apple has incrementally advanced support for new facets of the 802.11n specification and has also developed new practical applications tied to wireless connectivity.

In 2008 Apple launched support for 802.11n base stations and clients operating in the 5GHz band at the launch of Time Capsule. In this frequency band, WiFi devices can double their bandwidth allocation to a wide 40 MHz to allow faster networking speeds, nearly doubling the theoretical maximum. For existing Macs, this boosted top speeds from 130 to 300 Mbps.

In 2009 Apple enhanced AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule products with support for simultaneous 2.4 and 5GHz band operation and guest access.

The following year, Apple launched iPad with support for both 802.11n and 5GHz networks. iPhone 4 followed with support for 802.11n, although it could not connect to 5GHz networks.

Last year, Apple’s Thunderbolt Macs silently incorporated support for three send and receive antennas, enabling them to achieve a top data rate of 450 Mbps on 5GHz networks with wide channels.

 

Apple also enhanced its AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule last summer, increasing their range and radio power output and adding support for new Mac’s triple antennas while extending simultaneous operation to automatically use both 2.4 and 5GHz bands.

Software applications for WiFi

In addition to hardware advances, Apple has introduced a variety of technologies that focus on WiFi networking, including Bonjour-discoverable disk and printer sharing from AirPort Extreme base stations, AirTunes wireless audio distribution introduced alongside AirPort Express, and Mac OS X Leopard’s Time Machine backups designed to work with Time Capsule.

 

Last year, Apple introduced AirPlay as a replacement for AirTunes, enabling iTunes and iOS devices to wirelessly stream both audio and video to Apple TV. AirPlay Mirroring on iPad 2 and iPhone 4S enable those devices to export their primary video display to an HDTV via Apple TV.

In Mac OS X Lion, Apple introduced support for AirDrop, enabling nearby users to share files without configuring a WiFi network.

The tremendous speed gains possible with 802.11ac will continue to make Apple’s wireless technologies from AirPlay to Time Machine faster and more efficient, virtually erasing any advantage in using wired network cabling in most cases.

ooVoo Releases Multiuser Video Chat App for the iPhone

By Ryan Lawler May. 26, 2011 on Gigaom

Online and mobile video chat provider ooVoo has just released a new app for the iPhone  that offers multi-platform video chat for Apple devices. By doing so, iPhone and iPod touch users now have one more way to launch multi-user video chat wherever they are.

The mobile video chat market is heating up, ever since Apple launched its FaceTime app with the introduction of the iPhone 4. Since then, a number of companies have sought to cash in on the phenomenon, including Skype, Tango, Yahoo and others. Like most of these video chat apps, ooVoo works on both 3G and Wi-Fi networks, and enables users to chat with friends on the web and on Android mobile devices.

The big differentiator ooVoo has is the ability to do multi-user chat. The app allows up to six different video chat partners to be logged into a call at once, and it does so with pretty fantastic video quality, even on mobile networks. In that respect, it primarily competes with Fring, which launched a multi-party, multi-platform group video chat app in early April.

There’s one other crucial difference: ooVoo’s user base. The company has long had a video chat application available on the desktop, where it mostly competed with Skype. But while Skype is used by many enterprise users and web-savvy professionals, ooVoo is being adopted by a very young user base, a trend being accelerated with the launch of its Android app. I have two teenaged sisters, and anecdotal evidence from their usage of the app shows that ooVoo is pretty cool with youngsters.

In a phone interview a few weeks ago, ooVoo CMO Matt deGanon confirmed my suspicions that the app has become a popular way for teenagers to keep in touch. According to him, about 57 percent of all ooVoo users are under the age of 25, and the overwhelming majority of that group are under 18. Surprisingly though, those teenagers aren’t necessarily using the app to just speak with their friends; deGanon said young ooVoo users were using the app to connect on social networks and meet new people live.

ooVoo has more than 25 million registered users now, but the launch of the iPhone app will surely drive that much higher. After announcing availability of the iPhone app to its 1 million Facebook fans, it has seen registrations at about three times its usual level, and expects to hit a record for registrations today.

5 Alternatives to Skype on iOS and Mac

Posted 05/10/2011 at 2:59pm | by J.R. Bookwalter on MacLife

As you’ve no doubt heard, Microsoft has snapped up popular VoIP developer Skype for a whopping $8.5 billion. If you’re not too fond of your favorite video chat software now being in the hands of the Borg, you’ll be happy to know there are other choices available.

It’s hard to believe that Skype has been around less than a decade, with most of that time being spent as under the ownership of another company — first eBay in 2005, then Silver Lake in 2009. Tuesday marked a new era for the little VoIP company that could, with Microsoft acquiring the company outright for $8.5 billion and big plans to set up its own Skype division in Redmond.

As with any such acquisition, there’s a bit of anxiety brewing among longtime users of the Skype service, particularly after the company’s Mac client got an unwelcome, Windows-style update recently. Could worse updates be in store? Here’s a look at a handful of Skype-esque services you might consider if Microsoft doesn’t improve things.

5 Skype Alternatives

FaceTime

Available on the Mac (99 cents via the Mac App Store) as well as iOS devices, Apple’s own FaceTime service is a great free alternative to Skype — assuming you don’t need text chat, file transfer or the ability to connect over 3G. In the case of the iPad 2, it’s one of the only native video chat services currently available, and the price is certainly right.

fring

Although there’s no desktop-based version, fring is a great solution for iOS users, particularly if you want group video calling, live text chat and even the ability to make cheap international calls (via “fringOut,” the company’s own version of SkypeOut credit). fring is also available on Android devices, which broadens the scope of who you can call up.

Nimbuzz

In addition to bundling IM services from AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, GoogleTalk, Facebook, and MySpace, the Nimbuzz iOS app also offers their own Skype-esque service with free HD voice quality calls. For now, it’s voice and text only, but there’s also a Mac and PC client so you can keep in touch from your computer as well.

Tango Video Calls

If you’re primarily looking for free voice and video calls, Tango has what you’re looking for — and unlike FaceTime, it works over both 3G and Wi-Fi, although the iOS client isn’t optimized yet for the iPad 2. Sadly there’s no desktop connectivity as yet, but since our iOS device is always with us, who cares?

VoxOx

Is it possible to outdo Skype? VoxOx thinks so, and its desktop software provides all of Skype’s key features, as well as free voicemail, conference calls, translation, and even fax services. The free VoxOx Call iOS app allows the key features to be used while on the go. Did we mention it’s free to sign up and get started?

Can Your iPhone Keep a Secret? Password Managers Compared

By Geoffrey Goetz May. 5, 2011 on Gigaom

In light of recent events regarding the security of online password managers, it’s worth a look at some of the alternatives out there, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. I’ve been using password managers on devices I carry around with me for almost 10 years now. When the first iPhone came out, I remember wanting one, but the reason I did not get one was because there were no third-party apps. I was a long-time Palm owner and had a Treo 650 running SplashID. I have well over three hundred accounts, combinations, locks, and little secret bits of information to manage. So I was excited when I saw that Apple was going to support third-party apps.

So Many to Choose From

SplashID couldn’t keep up with the times (it was slow to offer sync and multitasking support was not up to par). But what password manager to switch to?  I turned to an App Store search technique I’ve perfected:

1. Use a search term to find a collection of apps that suit your needs.
2. On the iPad, iPhone and Mac App Stores, filter out everything but those ranked four stars and above.
3. Sort by popularity.
4. Ignore the free apps (everyone rates free apps higher because they are free).

And there you have it: a short list made up of 1Password, mSecure, and DataVault.  Keep in mind that I also took the number of comments across all versions into consideration, as well as the fact that there was an iPhone, iPod and Mac version available.

mSecure ($14.99 for Mac, $4.99 for iPhone/iPad). On the surface, it appears to meet all my minimum requirements for a password manager. Data is secure with 256-bit blowfish encryption.  There is an iPhone, iPad and Mac version.  All three versions can automatically generate strong passwords.  It supports multitasking on iOS devices, and you can sync data from one account to multiple iOS devices. The multitasking support is what I really noticed.  mSecure doesn’t get too fancy with protecting your data in a multitasking iOS environment. mSeven’s mSecure has the multitasking transition down and have successfully implemented a working auto-lock feature. After porting my data over from SplashID into mSecure, I found I had other needs as well.  I wanted categories and the ability to customize field names on an item without having to create a new type.  There is the ability to create custom types, and in these custom types you can define any number of fields you like.  Overall, for a $20 total investment, it’s a solid offering and has everything one needs to manage their passwords effectively.

DataVault ($19.99 for Mac, $19.99 for iPhone/iPad). Stepping up in both price and features, Ascendo’s DataVault is a solid performer as well. If you want more control over your secure items, and you can handle a little more complexity in order to get that control, then DataVault is the tool for you.  It has everything the mSecure has to offer and a little bit more.  mSecure’s concept of types is akin to DataVault’s implementation of templates. DataVault also has types and even categories, but these are used more for organizing records than defining them.  It was the user interface that left me wanting.  Pardon my saying, but the app was more Android than iPhone.  I had all the features and control I wanted, but the look and feel, while certainly high-res, was a little rough around the edges.  After using DataVault for a while, I actually started to prefer mSecure’s simplicity, and was convincing myself that the control I thought I wanted, wasn’t what I wanted at all.

1Password ($39.99 for Mac, $9.99 for iPhone, and $9.99 for iPad). Weighing in at a whopping $60 for the bundle, 1Password is definitely the most expensive of the three solutions.  There’s a universal iOS version for $14.99 if you need both iPhone and iPad versions. This is the only one of the three that is not for sale via the OS X Mac App Store, which means you’ll have to purchase additional licenses to run it on multiple Macs (a family pack is available for $69.99).  1Password is very different from the others in that you are almost forced to live with a limited set of ‘vaults’ to store your secure items in. But you can customize each and every item by adding fields and renaming field names.  The workflow for creating a new item takes some getting used to.  Since the only way to generate a strong password is to create a password item first, then create the full item you really care about in one of the vaults.  That being said, the Mac version is the deepest and most feature-rich password manager of the three.  With full multi-device Dropbox sync support, complete browser integration with auto forms, and a truly unique feature called 1Passwordanywhere that proved to be quite be useful when installed on a USB key, 1Password does earns its keep. It has a polished look and feel throughout and gives you control in places you never knew you wanted control.

Conclusion: mSecure for Most, 1Password for the Rest of Us

I was originally tempted to settle on 1Password without trying alternatives, but I never would have met mSecure had I done that. With its simple design and straightforward approach to managing passwords, it’s everything almost anyone would ever need in a password manager.  I would definitely recommend it for the $20 complete price tag. While DataVault was certainly more of a match in features to SplashID, its user interface and overall design left me wanting, quite frankly, less. Which brings me right back to 1Password.  It’s definitely the most expensive password manager out there.  Is it worth it?  You do get what you pay for.  But if you don’t need all the features it offers, then perhaps mSecure is the right-sized solution you need.

Rumor: Apple plans to move laptops from Intel to ARM processors

By Sam Oliver on AppleInsider

A new rumor claims that Apple plans to ditch Intel processors to instead adopt the ARM architecture currently found in devices like the iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s alleged move to ARM processors is expected to take place “as soon as possible,” likely when 64-bit variations are available at the end of 2012 or by early 2013, according to SemiAccurate (via MacRumors. The site is run by Charlie Demerjian, previous editor of U.K. tabloid The Inquirer.)

Though SemiAccurate is not a frequent source of Apple rumors, the site did report in July 2009 that Apple was moving away from Nvidia chipsets at a gradual pace. Currently, Apple’s new MacBook Pros and iMacs exclusively feature AMD Radeon graphics, or Intel’s integrated option.

In addition to laptops, the report said that Apple would “presumably” be looking to move its desktop Macs to ARM architecture as well. It characterized the transition to Apple-made chips for its line of computers as a “done deal.”

“Now you realize why Apple is desperately searching for fab capacity from Samsung, Global Foundries, and TSMC,” the report said. “Intel doesn’t know about this particular change of heart yet, which is why they are dropping all the hints about wanting Apple as a foundry customer. Once they realize Apple will be fabbing ARM chips at the expense of x86 parts, they may not be so eager to provide them wafers on advanced processes.”

The rumor comes just days after a report indicated that Intel could be interested in building mobile chips for Apple, like the A5 processor found in the iPad 2. Intel currently makes the CPUs powering Apple’s notebooks and desktops, but Apple has turned to ARM processors for a range of devices, including its iPods, Airport base stations, and iOS devices, including the new Apple TV.

Apple even entered the chip designing business starting with the A4 processor that powers the iPhone 4 and first-generation iPad. Apple gained the ability to design its own systems-on-a-chip through the acquisition of PA Semi for $278 million in 2008.

Even Microsoft has plans for the ARM architecture in the future, as mobile devices offer longer battery life with the low-power chips. The Redmond, Wash., software giant revealed at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show that the next version of its desktop operating system, Windows 8, will run on the ARM’s architecture.