2012 WWDC Announced: June 11 to 15

Apple has officially announced its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that will run from June 11 through June 15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West.

For those that are unfamiliar with the event; This is the event most anticipated by developers to get a sneak peek at what’s next for iOS and OS X and what will be available to allow them to build incredible new apps.

This year’s WWDC includes:

• more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of technology-specific topics for developing, deploying and integrating the latest iOS and OS X technologies;
• 100 hands-on labs staffed by more than 1,000 Apple engineers providing developers with code-level assistance, insight into optimal development techniques and guidance on how they can make the most of iOS and OS X technologies in their apps;
• the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iOS and OS X developers from around the world—last year more than 60 countries were represented;
• engaging and inspirational lunchtime sessions with leading minds and influencers from the worlds of technology, science and entertainment; and
• Apple Design Awards which recognize iPhone®, iPad® and Mac® apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.

If you’re a registered developer, you could have purchased your tickets here for $1599.00 a piece; Unfortunately they’re all sold out.

Apple Orders Larger iPhone Screens For Next Generation (Rumour)

A mocked up image of a larger screen iPhone! According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has ordered screens from a supply chain in Asia that are the biggest yet seen on any previous iPhone device since launching in 2007. Reports suggest that manufacturing of the 4-inch diagonal screens is set to begin next month.

The current iPhone 4S has a physical screen size of 3.5 inches. The source reports that the larger screen is Apple’s way of keeping up with increased competition, from devices like the Samsung Galaxy, which has the largest smartphone screen on the market – 4.8 inches.

Of course, Apple hasn’t confirmed nor denied these claims, but experts love to speculate. I think a larger screen should be in order for the next generation iPhone, but they should (and likely will) consider that making the screen too large could jeopardize comfort of use. If the screen goes too large, we may not be able to use one hand when using the on screen keyboard. I can still comfortably use one hand, and one thumb to navigate the entire screen surface area as it stands, and would be bummed out if that wasn’t possible once the screen get larger.

The benefits could be things like 5 icons wide on the home screen, and less scrolling when you’re using your phone to view websites and/or using apps. There’s some food for thought.

Apple Replaced My iPod Nano

Shout out to Clare on Twitter for giving me a heads up on the iPod replacement program being undertaken by Apple. I don’t know many people that still have an iPod 1st generation laying around, but I do/did.

Apple press released a public recall to anyone that has a 1st Generation iPod Nano on the basis that they had detected a defect in the battery, that would cause it to over heat and could potential explode, cause a fire, etc., and they had managed to pin point the problem to one manufacturer of the batteries and it affected iPod nanos that were sold between September 2005 and December 2006 – you could go on this site and input your serial number to see if you qualify.

After I entered my info, they confirmed that my 1GB 1st generation iPod Nano was one of the units affected, so they shipped my a package from Apple in Markham to send them back the unit. It came with a prepackaged envelope, instructions and shipping label making it very simple to send them my Nano.

By the way, the entire process was updated on their website, and I was informed via email, when they received my old nano, the repair and replacement. It felt good to be kept in the loop. No guessing game.

After a week without my iPod nano, I received a notice that they had shipped a replacement unit and to my surprise I received a 6th generation iPod Nano 8GB in silver.

The entire process took 1 week – from the moment I shipped them my 1st gen, to the moment I received my replacement. And I must say that this experience has made me love being an Apple customer that much more. It’s the little things that count and this was one of the things that make me proud to be an Addict.

iPhone 4N May Be Next (Rumour)

If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the next generation iPhone (most have called it “iPhone 5″) you may have to wait a little longer. On a recent domain name registration that has leaked online, it seems as though Apple just revealed the name of the next Apple iPhone, the iPhone 4N; Based on whois record below:

What is interesting (and perhaps suspect) is that this domain name, iPhone4n.com, was registered through Godaddy, and not MarkMonitor. A review of the Apple iPhone.com domain name shows that the registrar is MarkMonitor and not Godaddy. This might just be a formality, as once you purchase a domain name it can be transferred to another registrar in the future.

The timing of this new registration is interesting, with this year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in June, it would make sense to secure this domain ahead of any formal announcement.

And because the latest iPad went from the iPad 2 to the New iPad, not the iPad 3, The iPhone 4N name would be inline with what we saw in March with the New iPad.

While it’s all just speculation, I believe we can confidently say that if the next generation iPhone keep the “4″ in the same somewhere, that we won’t see a complete redesign of the phone itself, rather we’ll get the same physical device with more upgrades – maybe even NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. Making it possible to pay for everyday purchases from your iPhone. No need for physical credit or debit cards cards.

Share your feelings on our Facebook page.

“iPhone 5″ LM Concept (Mock Up)

Before anyone yells “fraud” – I should preface this post by saying that the following pictures are not official and are just renderings by Antoine Brieux’s and his perception of the next-gen iPhone.

I had to share, because his view is so enthusiastic and definitely included elements I hope (and wish) for in the next generation iPhone, set for announcement this summer – if we’re lucky at the WWDC in June. The neatest idea is that of a virtual ‘Home Button’ that would replace the physical one we’ve gotten used to. It’s always good to dream – and dream big.

“Do Not Disturb” Coming to Mountain Lion

The Mountain Lion developer preview has unveiled a new feature, which most people have been asking for since the release of iOS 5, that would silent the notification centre alerts.

The “Do Not Disturb” switch is along the top of the slide-out notification centre’s menu, as announced to be added to the next update to OS X v.10.8 aka Mountain Lion.

Mountain Lion is scheduled for release this summer, but no official public release date has been announced. The anticipation, and speculation, is that a similar feature will be included as part of an iOS 6 release set for 3rd of 4th quarter 2012. Stay tuned.

Hope everyone has an awesome Easter week

Hope everyone has an awesome Easter weekend!

iPad 2 vs. The New iPad: What’s New?

So a little under a month now since the release of The New iPad and I get asked a few of the same questions, “Should I buy the iPad 2 for $399?” and “Is it worth getting rid of my iPad 2 to get the new iPad?” – So to answer those very two questions, I’ve summarized the main features that stand out when it comes to shopping for a new iPad.

Outside.
The iPad 2 and new iPad have the same outer design with slight modifications that wouldn’t be noticeable unless you compared them side by side. The New iPad is 0.03 inches thicker than the iPad 2 and 0.11 lbs. heavier. So any case/holder that you had for your aging iPad 2 won’t fit The New iPad. Sorry.

Display.
Apple’s main landing page has the headline: “RESOLUTIONARY”, and that it is. The physical size of the screen hasn’t changed (Still 9.7″ since the iPad 1) but there are many more pixels in that same area. 3.1 million pixels in the 2048 x 1536 resolution Retina Display on the new iPad is pretty sweet. The higher resolution makes it look as if you are holding an HDTV in your hand; pictures look incredibly crisp, video even crisper, and text is much sharper – If clarity is a major factor, this is for you.

Inside.
The new iPad’s A5x processor with quad-core graphics is faster the previous iPad’s A5 processor. The new processor helps make beautiful graphics possible. When I compared a game like Infinity Blade on the new iPad and the iPad 2, the difference was clear (and sharper). The game on the new iPad was more vivid and more responsive, actually felt more like a video game console as opposed to a tablet.

Things like web browsing, checking e-mail, reading books and standard apps performed at the same speed they did on the iPad 2. No noticeable improvement there.

Dictation.
Introduced exclusively for the new iPad you can now speak your notes in to the new iPad’s mic and it will translate your speech into text entering directly into a new note, email, iMessage. Originally rumoured to be Siri on the new iPad – it’s not. Great concept and idea, but nothing something I’d personally find THAT useful. I’m sure there’s lots of people out there that were just waiting for this feature. Who knows, we may see Siri in a future generation iPad, but not this time around.

Camera.
The new iPad comes equipped with an iSight 5.0 megapixel camera. Let’s face it, the iPad 2′s camera wasn’t that great, often taking grainy and blurry pictures. Not as great as the iPhone 4s’s 8 megapixel monster, it does take noticeably better pictures.
Ask yourself – how often will you be using your tablet to snap pictures?

LTE 4G.
The new iPad is equipped with LTE (4G) wireless cellular network capability. Which means that if your mobile carrier offers LTE, it will perform faster than older technology 3G. This ‘upgrade’ will be most noticeable for someone that’s constantly on the go and not often connected to a wifi network.

Below is a side-by-side chart with the numbers so you can have an table of the differences.

The iPad Turns 2

The iPad turns 2 today. Officially released to the public on April 2, 2010 in retail and online stores, it came under heavy fire by many critics at the time. Everyone had an opinion about Apple’s latest tablet and ideas that it was setup for failure.

Originally unveiled in January 2010 by Steve Jobs – he claimed “It’s so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone.” – And he was right.

Forward 2 years later and it’s success continues to grow, year over year. Apple has sold 55.28 million iPads since launching. (Up until December 31, 2011). Estimation and speculation suggests that Apple would sell another 48 million iPads in 2012 alone.

The biggest quarter yet for iPads was Q4 2011, with the company selling 15.43 million units. That’s a 111 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago. To put that in perspective, Apple sold 32 million iPads during all of its fiscal 2011.

Instead of cooling off, all signs point to the iPad gaining more popularity. With last month’s release of the New iPad, Apple reports sales of 3 million units sold in the first weekend (the highest number sold on a launch weekend for any of the previous generations)

While the official 2nd birthday of the iPad was January 27 (Since it was unveiled), today is the second anniversary since its availability to the public. Happy anniversary iPad!

iPad 3 May Be a “Mini”

Further to yesterday’s entry about why I don’t believe we can expect an iPad 3 just yet, hatches a new rumour that Apple plans to compete with the Amazon’s recent 7-inch tablet success and release an iPad “mini”. Not officially named that, but I’d be more comfortable saying that THIS could be the iPad 3 everyone is expecting on March 7. 1/3 smaller than the original 10-inch screen from the iPad 1 and 2. This would be a compact and comfortable child-freindly version.

And since they can’t sit around and wait for Kindle to gobble up that market entirely, they could speed up the release for later this year. (Q3 would be my guess) Which means this could be available to the public in the fall.

But why?
The top answer would be price. Rumoured to be in the $249-299 price range added to the recent success of the Kindle Fire means that a smaller sized tablet market exists. Then there’s a parent that wants to buy an iPad-like tablet for a child to throw around, possibly damage, that would consider a cheaper solution than a current $900 iPad.

That said, the idea of a smaller iPad is confusing to me, especially since Steve Jobs dissed the idea. But times change. Amazon has shown that a 7-inch tablet can strike a chord with consumers. Additionally, the 7.85-inch iPad can be expected to have the same 1,024×768 resolution of the iPad 2, meaning that no changes need to be made to apps to accommodate the smaller screen. Hmm, it’s like it’s already existed all along. Now it can be official.