WWDC 2010 announced June 7th to 11th
Apple has announced the World Wide Developers Conference, for the year 2010 on the dates June 7th to 11th held in SanFrancisco this year.
The Conference is being said to be "The Center of the App Universe" which indicates that the conference and Apple are focussing on iPhone OS-based devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
The conference which is held every year by Apple to give out something new and make life more interesting for the Tech Freaks.
The Pre conference discussions makes it more interesting and one to look for as Steve Jobs always has something up his sleeves for the world.
This year the pre conference discussions were filled up with the rumors of the New Generation iPhone supposed to be getting unveiled this Year.
The things which we have to look out for at this years Conference are:
- The New iPhone
- iPhone OS 4.0
- Game Center
- iAds
- Application Frameworks
- Core OS
- New Macbook / imac
So hopefully we will see a very interesting WWDC 2010 from Apple
Apple iPad Specifications and Price
Apple and Steve Jobs have released the much awaited Apple Tablet which is named Apple "iPad" there were a lot of speculations and gusses about the design of the device. But eventually it was out on 27th Jan 2010.
Steve Jobs unveiled it by his own hands.
The Apple iPad has the following Specifications:
Dimensions:
- Height – 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
- Width – 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
- Depth – 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
- Weight – 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model, 1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G mode
- Screen: 9.7-inch LCD screen
- Resolution: 1024×768 pixels
Battery Backup:
- 10 hrs on full usage
- 1 month on standby
Location services:
- Wi-Fi
- Digital compass
- Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
- Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
Hardware:
- Chip - 1 GHz Apple A4 chip. They went in-house instead of going to Intel.
- Memory - Three models with 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB solid state hard drives.
Features:
Videos: The large, high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching any kind of video: from HD movies and TV shows to podcasts and music video.
Images: Th Albums can be seen as a stack and one tap opens up the stack to show all the pictures.
iPod App: With the iPod app, all your music is literally at your fingertips. Browse by album, song, artist, or genre with a simple flick. To play a song, just tap it. iPad even displays album art at full size. Listen to your music with the powerful built-in speaker or with wired or Bluetooth wireless headphones.
iTunes: A tap of the iTunes store icon lets you browse and buy music, TV shows, and podcasts — or buy and rent movies — wirelessly, right from your iPad
App store: iPad runs almost 140,000 apps from the App Store. where you ca find Gaming apps also.
iBooks: It is a new native application for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that allows you to browse, download and read e-books given presently by Penguin, Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillian and Hachette and also McGraw-Hill.
Maps: See maps on the go with the help of the 3G version, where we can get the GPS facility whereas in the basic Wifi enabled piece we cannot enjoy the GPS facility.
Notes: Te massive screen makes it easy to jot down notes even in a class. Its the same as seen in the iPhone and the iTouch
Spotlight Search: helps you search each and everything present on the iPad in just one go.
Pricing:
$499: 16 GB, Wi-Fi only
$599: 32 GB, Wi-Fi only
$629: 16 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G
$699: 64 GB, Wi-Fi only
$729: 32 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G
$829: 64 GB, Wi-Fi and 3G
iPad is iFail
The much anticipated iPad was supposed to be the biggest release by Apple in the beginning of 2010, Everyone was stuck to the computers on 27 and it was finally "Released" from the hands of Steve himself.
There was a lot of Expectations form the device, but it let us down very badly. Lets see where the iPad went horribly wrong.
No Multi Tasking:
This device which is supposed to be a gadget built to fill in the gap between a smart phone and a Mac, does not support multi tasking, then how in the world can they say that it is something near to a laptop. Even a basic Smart phone supports Multi tasking. This is the major let down by apple they just copied the Features of the iPhone and elongated it into the iPad.
The least apple could have done is including Multi tasking into the iPad, to make it something worth giving a try.
The Design:
What can be told about the design, it is just a copy of Apple iPhone minus the curves. The Design is just taken from the iPhone and put into the iPad it is just an Elongated thinner version of the iPhone.
Apple could have done much better than just making it a taller brother of the iPhone, with the same central key and the Sleep buton on the top.
Does not Support Flash:
This is another disappointing feature, the iPad does not support Flash and this is the same taken from the iPhone, insted of correcting and including Flash Apple has just made it more worse by not including Flash atleast for the iPad.
This means that we cannot have Flash based games and the Flash based websites cannot be viewed to their full capacity.
No USB Slot:
There are no USB slots included in the iPad, which also adds to the misery of using this Tablet, we cannot transfer stuff from other computers easy and fast. The only thing which we can do is use this tablet as a Netbook and god knows why Steve made the statement that this is a device which will fill in the gap between Smartphone and Laptops, and it is just another Net book like the many other devices we can find out there.
No Camera:
There is neither a camera, the feature available in the iPhone is also absent in this.
The Same Apps as iPhone:
The iPad supports the same Apps as that of the iPhone, without any Flash even the Apps which support Flash cannot be used in this. The App developers are left helpless due to this and we have to suffer with the same 3rd party apps available in the App store.
No Full GPS:
The Wi-Fi-only versions flat out have no GPS support whatsoever. The basic versions have to compensate of GPS. The 3G versions have Assisted GPS, which makes use of the cellular connection to help pinpoint your location.
No SD Slot:
The absense of an SD slot makes the iPad memory very costly, with 15$ for 250 MB we have to shell out a lot of money to get to the higher end version of the iPad.
The Pricing is based on the memory:
For a Tablet i think this is just a lame thing to do, by placing the pricing based on the memory and that too by giving 250 MB for 15$ is such a shame.
Overall looking at the Device we can say that, iPad is not living up to its expectations. There were way too high expectations on the device and it has got nothing near it.
"We can say that iPad is just and Elongated iTouch"
Palm Pre Updated – But doesnot Sync with iTunes
Palm released webOS 1.2 this week, which is the latest update for the Palm Pre the iPhone competitor.
Palm in its new update gives:
- Enabling access to the Amazon MP3 Store
- The ability to download files in the Web browser
- And filtering of e-mails by search
- You can now tap a phone number in a calendar note to dial it (so you can get to the joy of music-on-hold for your conference calls even faster!).
- Pause a podcast and, by default, you’ll pick up where you left off when you unpause
- Web pages and emails are now cut-and-paste-able.
All the inclusions are fine but what happened to the Palm and Apple fight ???
Has Palm given up its fight against Apple as the new upgrade Does not Sync the Palm Pre with iTunes 9.
Hope the new Palm Pixie will come with a new OS and it will be able to access iTunes.
Apple planning Multi-Touch Surface ??
Apple has disclosed plans of a multi-touch surface that could accommodate two full hands and distinguish between palms and individual fingers for typing, gestures and more.
This information has been gathered from the new patent application (filed by Morrison and Foerster LLP in Los Angeles in June 2009 on behalf of Apple) Apple has put forward.
The Details which are revealed from the document are:
- Integration of typing
- Resting
- Pointing
- Scrolling
- 3D manipulation
- Handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device.
The described system in the Documents say that we can:
Individually detect all ten fingers and separate palms on a person's hand.
With this feature you can type, write, draw and interact with a device large enough to support multiple hands (Which again leads to the Tablet alone which can accommodate both hands)
Via Appleinsider.com
Key points of the invention, as described in the application, include:
- Integrating and distinguishing different types of input, such as typing, multiple degree-of-freedom manipulation, and handwriting, via different hand configurations that are easy to use and recognize.
- Includes an electronic system which minimizes the number of sensing electrodes to allow easier understanding of a variety of hand configurations.
- Provide a multi-touch surface that is contoured to be comfortable and ergonomic under extended use.
- Provide tactile key or hand position feedback without interfering with a hand resting on the smooth touch-sensitive surface.
- Provide images of "flesh proximity" to a variety of sensors that can distinguish hand configuration.
- Understand when the user wants cursor motion, and ignore commands when deceleration by the user is detected.
- Understand the movement of two or more hands to allow manipulation of two-dimensional electronic documents, like rotation and scaling of photos.
“Apps for everything” Page Appears on Apple.com
In Apple.com there is a new page which has appeared out of no where which says "Apps for Everything" in this page you can see the apps arranged in the an organized manner with 12 major categories and each one having 8 to 24 programs and each one has got a brief description stating what it is about and why it is present there.
I think that this is just an attempt to get the >85000 apps in an organized way and make life easy for app hunters who are in search for a suitable app for their need.
Here is a list of the 10 Categories listed in the Page:
- Apps for Cooks
- Apps for Keeping Current
- Apps for Great Outdoors
- Apps for Music
- Apps for Moms and Dads
- Apps for Work Out
- Apps for Going Out
- Apps for Managing Money
- Apps for Travelling
- Apps for Fun and Games
Have to try it out and see how well it stays up to it's name.
You can see the page here: "Apps for everything"
Microsoft to release iPhone competitors in 2010
Microsoft is going to challenge Apple in yet another segment after challenging it with the Zune HD against the iTouch, which is quite impressive.
Steve Jobs iPhone which is on top of the shelf with the best smartphone ever and is still going strong, will be targeted by Microsoft which is said to be releasing 2 Slider phones at CES in January 2010. Developed under the project "Pink".
They will be done with collaboration with SHARP and will be named "Microsoft+Sharp" products.
One of the Sliders is codenamed as "Turtle" as you can see form the picture that it shows some similarity with the creature.
And the other one is a candybar slider more like all the other phones and is named "Pure" which is rumored to be having a software "Pink" which is a combination of Windows Mobile and Zune Software.
These are expected to be on Verizon, but we never know till they really appear.
iTunes 9 does not Sync Palm Pre
Apple released the iTunes 9 in its event conducted on 09-09-09, The event mainly was dedicated to Music "Its only Rock and Roll Event".
Then Apple released the updated version of iTunes as the iTunes9.
In the previous version where Palm had built its mobile in such a way that it was recognized in iTunes and was compatible with it, now Apple has countered Palm and this new version of iTunes does not accept Palm and Palm pre cannot be synced into it.
As the Apple vs Palm war continues there was a new announcement of Palm coming out with the younger brother of the Pre the "Palm Pixi"
Now we have to see if palm breaks the code and makes the Pixi syncable with iTunes or not ????
Apple “Its Only Rock and Roll” Event Summary
Apple with "Its Only Rock and Roll Event" has been high on expectations and there were high expectations on many new releases from Apple, but i can say that it is a disappointing Event compared to the expectations.
The Apple CEO Steve Jobs was present at the event he was seen sharing things about his health particularly about the Transplantation.
It was a relief on seeing Steve as he was out of business for many months and returned some days back.
The Summary of the Event:
- iTunes 9 Released- Available for free download with many new options.
- Change in iPod Nano 5G- A Video Camera which comes with the Option of uploading videos to Youtube directly. And it is coming in some exiting colors to choose from.
- iPod Classic- With increase in size from 120 GB to 160 GB for the same price as before.
- iPod Touch: This is the biggest surprise of the event, when they could put in a camera into Nano why the hell they din put it in the Touch ??? With the only changes being in Pricing 8 GB- $199, 32 GB- $299, 64GB- $399.
- iPod Shuffle: It comes at $59 for 2GB and $99 for 4 GB.
These are the 5 new things which were seen in the event apart from Steve Jobs appearance on the stage and him talking about his Helath.
Apple Media Event Sep 09
Apple media event is going to be held on Sep 9th i.e tomm, and heard that it is going to be focused around Music.
What can be expected from the event:
- New iPods with cameras: Mostly with a 3.2 Mp camera to take pictures and videos.
- A new version of iTunes: The iTunes 9 mostly should be announced tomm and this will be with some features like Music sharing from Twitter and Facebook.
- And the much talked about Apple Tablet: Which mostly wouldnot be released tomm.
- iPhone OS 3.1 release with improved Video editing, MMS, and improved Bluetooth.