This post was written by Mary Joseff
To say that Apple TV is the world’s best media streaming device could be considered faint praise, the tech equivalent of calling someone the world’s tallest midget. Setting up our $299 Apple TV was a breeze, and anyone who’s used an iPod will be instantly familiar with its extravagantly attractive interface. With a 40GB hard drive for storing content, the sleek device appears to be able to avoid the picture break-ups and glitches that frequently come with streaming video over a wireless network.
Apple Mac Pro looks identical to the old G5. Build quality is something that no other desktop-PC case manufacturer has ever come close to. Once the side panel’s been removed, the internals look very different to a standard PC. The basic speed of the Mac Pro is what you’d expect from a machine equipped with two 3GHz Core-micro-architecture CPUs. It’s hard to recommend a machine costing almost £5,000 that won’t be running in a “fully supported” mode. If price isn’t a problem, the Mac Pro is one of the best-engineered workstations on the planet.
Apple has certainly improved on the dismal bundled earbuds in terms of fit and output with its ‘In-Ear Headphones’. The fit is comparable to the Ultimate Ears Loud Enough earphones or the Skullcandy iPhone FMJ. Ironically, however, most audiophiles are probably going to spend more on after-market ‘phones, and the audience for this product—popular music lovers—will most likely crave a bit more bass. The allure of Apple’s In-Ear Headphones is primarily the in-line remote control and the Voice Memo feature they unlock on the newer iPods.
Apple has filed for a patent that would cover a means of using a multi-touch device with gloves. The US Patent Office application notes that capacitive touchscreens like those on the iPhone and iPod touch are problematic in colder weather. As they depend on the electrical response from a user’s fingertips, which is often blocked off when wearing insulated gloves, the screens either force users to take off their gloves or else sit tight until they return indoors.
Apple has released the client and server versions of the OS X 10.5.6 update, which includes a range of bug fixes and security patches. OS X 10.5.6 shores up the performance of Airport WLAN connections and specifically addresses issues that Intel based Mac users were having while roaming in large wireless networks. The update also addresses issues with Apple’s MobileMe, and ensures that contacts, calendars and bookmarks on a Mac automatically synchronize within a minute of the change being made on PCs, devices, or online at me.com, according to the release notes.
Apple will demonstrate the latest version of its OS in January and will take the opportunity to wrongfoot Microsoft. Apple and its partners have been privately dropping hints to developers that its upcoming release of its Mac OS X operating system, dubbed Snow Leopard, will ship earlier than expected – and it will debut two new technologies that promise to speed up software without demanding any changes to the hardware. The first technology, Grand Central, is designed to make better use of the Intel processors that sit inside the current range of Macs.
The Apple iPhone now has a 30 percent market share in the U.S. smartphone market and 16.6 percent of the worldwide smartphone market. Apple is now second only to Nokia, which, while still very strong, saw its share plummet from 63.3 to 43.6 percent year over year. Most of that loss went directly to Apple. Additionally, Apple’s strong iPhone launch has prevented this market segment from stalling. The launch of the iPhone is the “only reason” the smartphone market didn’t show a drop in numbers.
Apple Inc.’s servers on July 11 reached their breaking point as people in the United States and 21 other countries rushed to stores to buy and activate their new iPhones or tried to update older models with the latest firmware. People waiting in line at stores reported very slow progress in getting their hands on Apple’s media player-smartphone hybrid. Others trying to update older models with the latest 2.0 firmware, the same operating system powering the new gadgets, fared even worse, since incomplete downloads of the software left their iPhones unusable. Although Apple was not immediately available for comment, it appeared that the company’s servers were overwhelmed with the amount of requests they were receiving.
A couple of months back Apple launched their updated notebooks, and one of the new features was the Mini DisplayPort. This new port becoming more popular as Apple is offering no-fee licenses for those who are interested in developing products that will use the Mini DisplayPort. This new port from Apple is a miniature version of the VESA-approved DisplayPort, the Mini DisplayPort fully supports the protocol, but has been reduced in size. This is not the first time that Apple has used miniaturized versions of VGA and DVI, Mini DisplayPort is keeping up with that tradition.
Apple Inc. has released a fix for a serious security flaw in the Windows version of the Safari Web browser, which allowed the download of software from a malicious Web site without giving the victim any advanced warning. The patch, part of a security update recently issued by Apple, has changed Safari in a way that it would first seek permission from a user before downloading an application from a Web site to the desktop. In a description of the patch, Apple seemed to place the blame on Microsoft, saying the vulnerability stemmed from “how the Windows desktop handles executables.”