latechna » apple

iPhone 4

logtech — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:56:23 +0000

WWDC 2010– Apple announced their new iPhone at the recent WWDC 2010 conference. The new iPhone 4 will have a new body design and a few new hardware and software features. The design change includes a squarer rounded edges and a “stainless steal band”. There is also the new Retina display which is suppose to provide higher more crisp picture on the iphone’s screen. The phone also now has the A4 processor made by Apple which is suppose to make it much faster.

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Other more interesting features include two cameras, one in the front and one in the back. According to Apple the camera on the back will shoot 5-megapixel pictures and HD video (720 p; 30 fps) The camera also a a small LED flash. Along with the camera there is also going to be a iMovie app coming to the App Store for $4.99.

There are other smaller features that will ship with this new phone this summer, but the most talked about at the conference was, “FaceTime”. FaceTime is a video conference call on the iPhone. You will be able to call other iPhone 4 users and be able not only to talk but see. However, the app only works on Wi-Fi and you can only call other iPhone 4 customers. We will also see whether other company like Skype launch service which will do the same thing but reach to a larger connection network.\

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Over all the iPhone 4 is a nice upgraded, however it seems to be just that. If you currently own a iPhone and you are not eligible for the upgrade than you may want to take a second look before paying out. Even though it has some nice new features like FaceTime and the new camera, you will still get the new iOS4 as a iPhone 3G customer. If your in the market for a new phone it is definitely worth a look, but take a second look if you are just upgrading.

Available July 14th for $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB)

Opera Mini iPhone/iPod Touch

logtech — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:49:26 +0000

Opera Mini has finally been released on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. From the current test it is 10 times better than Safari. The first thing you will notice is speed. Pages load much faster than Safari (lifehacker chart). The speed of a loading website makes a considerable different especially when on Edge or 3G. The tab browsing on Opera is nice, it is out-of-the-way and easy to use. Page zooms are quick, however we found sometimes they were to quick. We also found there is only one zoom level, however, Opera will re size everything so you don’t have to worry about that too much. One feature which we found useful was search in the website which Safari lacks. With some test we found that Opera had some trouble with formatting pages, cutting off text, and making headers too big. However, this does not take away from the over all experience. Over all it is a speedy browser that has some issues like startup time and zoom, but is probably one of the best mobile web view experiences yet.

Update: Skyfire another mobile web browser may come out on the iPhone and iPod Touch soon; it might have flash.

Whats next for the tablet

logtech — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:05:43 +0000

The iPad official launch was Saturday and it went well. With the over hyped media saying that this will revolutionize the industry, what are other companies doing to keep up. There are the rumors that the Microsoft Courier will hit the market soon with its double-sided note taking capabilities, however so far it seems to be only that. More resent the HP “Slate” is said to be a pretty powerful competitor to the iPad with several advances over the iPad. According to Engagdet who said they got their hands “on what looks like an internal HP Slate presentation”, breaks down some pretty cool statics. The HP Slate is said to be around the same price as the iPad but have a more powerful possessor. It was also said to have a card reader, USB port, and a HDMI port. The report also said that it would contain two camera one of them a VGA camera, which unfortunately the iPad lacks any camera. And finally it said that the HP Slate would run Window 7 which means Flash and full web capabilities. Over all the HP Slate appears to be a very nice competitor to the iPad and in my opinion over shoots the iPad by far. However, this is all speculation and who knows when and if this device ever comes out. Right now the iPad is solo in this new market and it could be for some time until we see some good competition

Tip: Loop Video on the Apple TV

logtech — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:30:29 +0000

The Apple TV can do a lot. However, one thing it can’t do is a simple loop of a video. Let’s take for example you want to use the Apple TV as a small video player to loop one or many videos over and over. There is no checkbox to loop the video so you have to do a little workaround. It is not so much of a trick as just playing with playlist. Here are the steps.

1.Connect the Apple Tv to your iTunes library as the main library not as a shared library.
2.In iTunes create a normal playlist.
3.Drag your video into the playlist.
4.Now sync the Apple TV so the playlist transfers.
5.In the Apple TV’s Settings menu select Audio and Video.
6.In Audio and Video settings make sure that “Show playlist” is set to “All”
7.Now go to Movies and My Movies
8.You will see something that says playlist once selected you should see the playlist you transferred.
9.The movie will loop

Tips:
When the video transitions to the next replay of the video the transition is sort of harsh (a quick flash). If you want to better transition just place about .5-1 second of black at the end of the movie. You may also choose to add to the front of the video and add a fade transition.

The Way of the Apple

logtech — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:05:37 +0000

Apple’s new iPad came out this Wednesday, and many were expecting a revolutionary device. Except for some features like iWorks, and a larger screen size, the iPad is not too different from the iPod touch.

Many were expecting a high price, but then again we were expecting a better device. Granit it is the first generation, however Apple should have enough experience with the iPad’s brother the iPod. Overlooking the similarities of Apple’s previous devices, the iPad doesn’t include many essential features that we would expect from a device of similar price. It doesn’t include multitasking, which would be helpful in a netbook replacement. [picappgallerysingle id="7695472"]Also another cool feature would be a camera which would allow for teleconferencing and other video applications. One of the biggest things missing, however, is Flash support. Flash makes up a very large part of web content and a device that is suppose to give you, “the best web experience”, does not deliver. There is a lot brewing up on the web about the Flash support and Adobe themselves, the makers of Flash, respond to the no Flash iPad in a blog post. Stating on the Adobe blog, Adrian Luidwig said, “It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers.” It is clear that Apple should rethink the web experience and hopeful come out with an update that includes Flash support.

Apple’s new book store, iBooks, was bound to come. Considering the expanding market for e-books and e-readers, it was clear that Apple had to get in. Although the iPad has nice 9.7 inch, LED backlit display, it does not mean it is a good reading device. I have not got a chance to try the device out for myself, but from what I have seen there is no way it could replace the quality of e-ink devices (or a real book). Because of this, the iPad will not cut away too much at the Amazon Kindle market, and other markets. The iPad is made much more for reading textbooks and business documents, not full novels.

It is clear that this is not a device that could replace the laptop. Despite that it is light and carries features like a stripped down version of iWorks and the Apple Appstore, does not mean it is a replacement for a netbook, let alone a laptop. It is clear that the iPad (1st gen.) may go the way of the Newton, but I hope that Apple can make a better 2nd gen. tablet that is more like a netbook or even a laptop replacement.

Apple's iPad

logtech — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:27:37 +0000

Despite the name, Apple’s new iPad is an attractive device. In essence the tablet is a 9.7 inch iPod touch with the ability of 3G. It runs on a new version of the iPhone software and has a fairly high quality screen. It has a very nice browsing experience (except no Flash yet) and a good mail client. Viewing pictures is a clean and easy process however there is not build in camera which is a disappointment. Video including Youtube, will play in HD . The AppStore and iTunes are the same except for the addition of iBooks. iBooks is like iTiunes for books, and that’s about it. iBooks is defiantly not a new idea but will help a industry. And of course there is a maps app and a calendar app. Most apps in the store will work on the device. The most important part of this however is the price. The starting price is at $499.99. This was a lot lower than expected, however it is not surprising because if they priced it at 999 for example, it should be more like a computer which it is not (Price list below). The 3G is a lot cheaper than you get with a computer at $ 30.00 for unlimited data. The iPad is said to last 10 hours and a month on standby. Over all this is a sleek device that will create a new category that we will see change the way we do computing. However, this is probably not the device to define this new tablet category. (The iPad wifi is available in 60 days and the 3G in 90 days).

	16 GB	32 GB	64 GB
Wi-Fi	$499	$599	$699
Wi-Fi + 3G	$629	$729	$829

Dunking for "Apple's" (Macworld 2009)

logtech — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:49:48 +0000

MacWorld is coming ,along with CES. And Macworld most of the time take the spot light for announcements. Most of the time it is because of one man Steve Jobs. However recently Apple announced that not only will it pull its out of MacWorld but also give up Steve Jobs popular keynote. This anouncement was a little abrupt and disappointing to many. Many suspect it is his health but, personally I think it might have to do with Jobs leaving Apple.

Apple announces final MacWorld, Steve Jobs won’t deliver keynote