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Apple set to launch Sandy Bridge Mac Pro and Mac mini this fall
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Rumors,
It wouldn't be a weekend without a brand-new Apple rumor to feast upon. And today's no exception: According to Cnet's Brian Tong, unidentified sources have told him that Apple's going to launch an upgraded Mac Pro and Mac mini this fall.
Details on the configurations are scant, save for the two obvious upgrades that Apple would want to put in a refreshed system line: Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs and Thunderbolt connections. The timeline for the systems is a little nebulous as well—the systems could appear in late July or early August, though Tong claims that an August launch is the more likely scenario. Expect the refreshed systems to feature Mac's latest operating system iteration, OS X Lion.
Tong's source is allegedly the same individual that correctly predicted an early May refresh of Apple's iMac line—lo and behold, new iMacs sporting Intel's quad-core Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt support hit stores on May 3.
Click to continue reading Apple set to launch Sandy Bridge Mac Pro and Mac mini this fall
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Video: Latest Apple iPad 2 ad: ‘Now, There’s This’
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Videos,
Apple has debuted a new ad for its popular iPad 2, touting things that Cupertino said wasn't possible before its tablet.
The ad, titled "Now," highlights the versatile nature of iPad apps. "Now, you can watch a newspaper," a voiceover says, zooming in on someone flipping through the Wall Street Journal app. "Now you can listen to a magazine," the voice says, switching to an interactive "Fantastic Mr. Fox" feature from Spin magazine.
The ad also flashes to someone watching "The King's Speech," video chatting via FaceTime, and taking an online class. "Hold an entire bookstore [via iBooks] and touch the stars," the ad concludes, flashing to an astronomy app, "because now, there's this."
This, of course, is the iPad 2, and the commercial ends with a shot of the updated tablet sitting on a table, presumably waiting for you to dole out hundreds of dollars for the pleasure of its company.
Click to continue reading Video: Latest Apple iPad 2 ad: ‘Now, There’s This’
Apple Store: Here are the secrets of its amazing success
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News,
What's the real inside dirt on how Apple runs its equally successful and secretive Apple Stores? The Wall Street Journal claims to be privy to Apple's secret sauce after poring through Apple Store training manuals, a recording of a store meeting, interviews with current and former store employees, and conversations with outside analysts.
In a report published yesterday, the Journal serves up the dish on everything from Apple's store design strategy to the granularity of employee sales training. Some of the information the newspaper dug up is fairly obvious—for; example, Apple doesn't do cookie-cutter designs for its Apple Stores, but rather "constantly evolves its stores' look and feel."
But some of the reported Apple Store skinny touches on areas that may have been guessed at, but have now been apparently confirmed. To wit, current and former Apple Store employees say store techs aren't allowed to "prematurely" acknowledge product glitches that are already widespread, and writing about Apple online will get you fired from an Apple Store.
The Journal also layers in plenty of Apple Store stats—did; you know that more people now visit Apple Stores in a single quarter than went to Disney's four biggest amusement parks last year?
Here's a quick look at some more interesting Apple Store tidbits that the paper either uncovered, confirmed, or highlights in the article.
Click to continue reading Apple Store: Here are the secrets of its amazing success
OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 update now available
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Software,
Hot on the heels of the release of OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 at WWDC 2011, Apple has already released the next update to the Lion build. No details yet on the fixes/additions/improvements in this one, but if you are running the latest OS X 10.7 Preview, you can find this update waiting for you in Software Update. Go ahead and run it, and if you find anything interesting, do let us know, mmkay?
Six reasons why Apple is selling unlocked iPhones in the US
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Editorial, Handhelds,
Yesterday we told you that Apple started selling unlocked iPhone 4s here in the U.S. We do have to admit that the move leaves us scratching our heads a bit. The iPhone 4 is a year-old device at this point. That leaves the question: why?
The GSM iPhone 4 only works well on AT&T. Sure, you can run it on 2G EDGE with T-Mobile, but that's a lousy user experience, and Apple is all about providing smooth user experiences. I just can't accept that T-Mobile users want the iPhone so desperately that they're willing to give up 3G for it, although I may be wrong about that, too.
Boy Genius Report's Jon Geller is right when he says that Apple sells unlocked iPhones in 85 other countries. But those countries all have more than one GSM iPhone-compatible 3G carrier. Canada has three. Dave Zatz points out this morning that for Americans, the "unlocked" iPhone will cost $450 more over two years than the locked model, because AT&T doesn't give any discounts for bringing your own phone. That's "an extra $450 mostly for the privilege of feeling more liberated and fancy free," he concludes.
Click to continue reading Six reasons why Apple is selling unlocked iPhones in the US
Pop-up alerts still available as an option in iOS 5
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds,
Apple spent a portion of its WWDC 2011 keynote going over the new notifications system in iOS 5, where they replaced pop-up alerts with subtle banners that would appear at the top of the screen. Many were very happy to see the change (us included,) but we did hear from some that they actually enjoyed the pop-ups. Well, while I was snooping around in iOS notification settings this morning, I found that pop-ups aren't totally gone. Now they're an option. On a per-app basis, you can go in and choose if you'd like that specific apps notifications to come through the new banner system, or the old-school pop-up alert. It's nice to see Apple left that choice in there for all the crazies that can't let go of the past.
Apple now selling unlocked iPhone 4 starting at $649
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds,
Apple is finally selling unlocked GSM iPhone 4 models in the US, although you'll have to pony up a pretty penny to get it. You can get an unlocked black or white iPhone 4 directly from Apple for $649 for the 16 GB model, and $749 for the 32 GB model, making these the most expensive iOS devices in the Apple portfolio, save for the 64 GB iPad. Why would you want an unlocked iPhone 4 in the US? Well, if you frequently travel abroad, this would allow you to easily swap SIM cards to take advantage of local calling rates. You can also use the unlocked model with T-Mobile without risking the loss of your jailbroken unlock due to a software update, however, the iPhone 4 won't take advantage of T-Mobile's 3G speeds, so you'd be stuck with EDGE. At this point, with the iPhone 5 set for a September release, we aren't really sure who'd wanna rush out and pick up an unlocked iPhone 4 at these prices. That said, here's hoping that the next iPhone launches with an unlocked option right off the bat.
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| Unlocked iPhone 4
Tip: Use Dropbox to replace discontinued iDisk
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Internet, PC / Laptop, Software,
We've been hearing from quite a few disgruntled MobileMe subscribers who are wondering what the heck they're supposed to do now that Apple will seemingly be discontinuing the iDisk service with the launch of iCloud. As awesome as iCloud is, we do agree that iDisk is definitely a nice feature, and it's a shame to see it go away. However, Dropbox is a great alternative, and we've actually found that it often works better than iDisk does. You can sign up for free and you'll get 2 GB of space right off the bat. If you want more, you can upgrade...but it certainly doesn't hurt to try it out. Dropbox integrates right into your Finder, similar to iDisk, and gives you updates on syncing across all your devices, plus you can access your files from through the Dropbox mobile apps as well.
Read More | Dropbox
OS X Lion will allow you to boot right into Safari
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Internet, PC / Laptop, Software,
Borrowing a tiny page from Google's Chrome OS, Apple has snuck a feature into its upcoming OS X Lion release that allows users to reboot their systems into Safari.
Why would you bother doing that? In a word, security. When you elect to restart your system into Safari, you're effectively placing the Web browser into a sandbox. When it boots, your system will give any users with physical access to your machine the ability to surf the Web. But that's it. Users won't be able to access the system's files or applications.
And thanks to Lion's new auto-save and application restoration capabilities, users that slap their systems in Safari-only mode will be able to restore back to their full desktop exactly as they left it. Since Safari mode runs off of a system's recovery partition, you'll still be able to access the Web and research new methods for fixing your system should your primary partition suffer some catastrophic upset.
The comparison to Chrome OS stems from the fact that Google's operating system runs entirely Web-based: The browser is the primary method for interacting with the system. There's no underlying desktop layer to speak of.
Click to continue reading OS X Lion will allow you to boot right into Safari
New MacBook Air now in production
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Rumors,
If you're thinking about buying an Apple MacBook Air, you may wanna wait, as an updated model will likely be released shortly.
Apple has reportedly placed an order with its Asian manufacturers for 380,000 next-generation MacBook Airs, equipped with Intel's newest Sandy Bridge processors, Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note obtained by AppleInsider.
Kuo said 55 percent of these new models will be 11.6-inch versions, and the rest will be 13.3-inch models. In addition, Kuo said Apple has scaled back production of current models, announced back in October 2010, to 80,000.
Kuo has been saying since April that Apple will launch its next MacBook Air in June or July. At the same time, he said he expected the popular notebook would be equipped with Sandy Bridge processors and high-speed Thunderbolt transfer technology. In early May, Taiwanese newspaper DigiTimes cited sources who said the same thing. By late May, a Japanese blog reported that Apple was testing MacBook Airs with an A5 chip inside, the same chip used in the iPad 2 (though Steve Jobs has said once that Apple has no interest in building a netbook).
Click to continue reading New MacBook Air now in production
