Apple Education Event Details Uncovered

January 18, 2012 By

Apple Education Event LogoIt seems that whenever there’s an Apple event on the cards, the rumours fly fast and furious. Even for a smaller do like Apple’s education announcement, the pundits have been weighing in with what they expect to be released.

Ars Technica first reported that the event would be a showcase for Apple to release an eBook creation suite, along similar lines as GarageBand. The tools, which are expected to support the ePub 3 standard, may be partially based on the older iWeb software, which allowed Apple users to easily design and publish websites. Apple is also likely to announce that iBooks will support the standard.

The Wall Street Journal also published about the event, stating that they expect Apple will unveil new textbooks that are designed for the iPad, as part of a partnership with large American textbook publishers like McGraw Hill and Pearson PLC.

The latest word this morning comes from the WSJ again, who report that the initiative will be under the jurisdiction of Apple vice president of productivity applications Roger Rosner.

This is a fairly sensible and not particularly shocking story, but the fact it’s worthy of being published in the Wall Street Journal really speaks volumes about the influence this deal could have on the American education system – and Apple’s power to create media coverage on demand.

Tune in tomorrow to find out what Apple announces.

This post was written by William Judd. Will is a self-facilitating media node for Mobile Fun, the UK’s largest online phone accessories retailer including BlackBerry covers and a Bluetooth speaker.

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Hack brings Siri to iPhone 4 and iPod Touch

November 2, 2011 By

Siri running on an iPhone

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of the Kindle cover, including the new Kindle cover and the Kindle cover with light.

We’ve received word that over the weekend, dedicated hackers working on the iPhone 4 were able to successfully port Siri to the device. The exploit that the hackers used has not yet been released, but a video has.

The video shows Siri running completely naturally and at 100% speed on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Apple held back Siri from the older devices to make more money rather than Siri having problems running on the slower CPU found on the iPhone 4.

While Siri looks to work perefectly on the iPhone 4, it’s not quite as successful on the iPod Touch, due to the less sensitive microphone. The hack still loads and runs correctly, but you need to speak quite loudly and clearly in order for Siri to hear you properly; speaking at a normal tone barely raises the microphone indicator.

The hack hasn’t yet been released for public consumption, but one of the developers responsible has issued a statement, saying that he is happy to do so once the hack has been checked to ensure that it does not interfere with the operation of any other parts of the iOS system. There’s no ETA listed for this release, as the developer said he doesn’t want to “anger the hive” with broken promises.

We’ll let you know when Siri for the iPhone 4 is officially (or unofficially) available. In the meantime, you’ll have to make do with watching the many hilarious Siri videos on YouTube.

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Samsung to try and block iPhone 4S sales in Europe

October 6, 2011 By

Samsung vs AppleThis article was written by William Judd. William writes for MobileFun.co.uk, the UK’s largest online retailer of Samsung Galaxy S2 accessories.

Samsung announced today that they will be filing patent infringment claims against Apple in European courts. These claims will seek to ban the newly announced iPhone 4S from being sold in France and Italy, ahead of their planned release dates of October 14th and October 28th, respectively.

The claims are on the basis of Apple’s alleged infringement upon the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access standard, better known as W-CDMA. Samsung has announced that it will attempt to prevent the sale of the iPhone 4S in other European markets later, but has chosen France and Italy first as these countries allow bans of products before they have begun to be sold, and are also key markets for the iPhone 4s.

While Samsung has claimed that the move is because ‘Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights’, in reality it’s a response to Apple’s continuing legal attacks elsewhere – to date, Samsung and Apple have sued one another in twenty cases in ten countries this year.

Most recently, Apple was successful (at least temporarily) in blocking the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from sale in the EU, following an injunction from a German court. In that case, Apple was found to have doctored images in order to make the Tab and the iPad 2 looks more similar than they were, and the ban was restricted only to Germany.

Having the iPhone 4S being blocked from sale in Europe would be a great blow to the company, which is expected to see its shares fall further following news of the death of Steve Jobs yesterday. Shares in Samsung, on the other hand, rose 1.7% the day after the iPhone 4S announcement.

With the lacklustre announcement of the iPhone 4S, Apple will be looking to prevent their Android rivals from gaining ground, and the legal battlefield is one in which they must not lose. As Samsung and Apple continue to compete in the smartphone market and seem unwilling to settle their differences, expect more legal action between the two companies across the world.

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Apple announces the iPhone 4S

October 5, 2011 By

iPhone 4S

People’s devotion to Apple is a strange phenomenon. It’s almost religious in its fervour sometimes, as people sift through all the available information to try and find the kernel of truth at the core. I’m not saying this as an outsider looking in, either, I’m one of those people who happily read the rumours of what shiny new piece of technology is about to be released and try to work out what is true and what isn’t.

I tried to look nonchalant as Twitter exploded with information about Apple’s media event yesterday, but I still ended up reading one of the many live blogs to try and find out what was happening.

And what was happening? Well, if the media predictions were to be believed it was the unveiling of the iPhone 5, but in a half-expected twist, it turns out that Apple were actually unveiling the iPhone 4S.

If you’ve paid attention to the iPhone’s evolution over the last few years, you’ll know that the iPhone 3G was superseded by the 3GS, then the 4… see the pattern here? I will admit I was a little disappointed at first, but having taken a little time to look over the iPhone 4S’s specs and capabilities, that feeling is fading fast. Let’s look at the 4S in more detail then.

Physically, it looks the same as the iPhone 4, which is going to be something of a shock to the many phone case makers who were given the specs for a unit with a thinner profile and larger screen. The internals, however, are completely different:

  • The processor is Apple’s A5 chip, a dual-core processor which delivers two times the processing power of the iPhone 4, and up to seven times faster graphics.
  • Battery life is now 8 hours talk time on 3G (14 hours on 2G), and 6 hours 3G browsing or 9 hours WiFi.
  • The iPhone 4S is GSM and CDMA compatible. If this doesn’t mean much to you, it means that it is able to speak to mobile phone networks worldwide and should work in any country.
  • An 8 megapixel camera will be installed in the new iPhone which, as well as taking high quality photos, can shoot video in 1080p HD. I’m a big fan of my DSLR camera, but it will be great to have a quality camera on my phone for those times when it’s not appropriate or possible to take a larger one with me.
  • An improved dual-antenna system should also prevent those annoying drops when making phone calls because, you know, it should actually work well as a phone.
Perhaps the most interesting feature, though, is Siri voice control. This allows you to do more than just dial numbers from your phonebook – you can ask your phone “What’s the weather like in London?”, or “Tell my wife I’m going to be 30 minutes late” and it will fire up the weather app or send off a text message. I particularly like the example of, “do I need an umbrella today?”, which elicits an appropriate response based on the local weather. Now, I don’t get on particularly well with voice control, possibly because of my Scottish accent, but I will be very impressed if this works.

iOS 5

The latest version of the iPhone’s operating system will be released on Wednesday 12th October, before the iPhone 4S’s launch date of the 14th. iOS 5 includes over 200 new features. Again, let’s take a look at a few:

  • iMessage – a text-based messaging service that’s “unlimited”. By unlimited, Apple mean messages will go over your data connection most of the time. They may be sent via SMS if iMessage is unavailable, however. It will allow instant messaging between iOS devices, and I’m thinking it might be something of a response to Blackberry Messenger. If you have used What’s App on your iPhone, it looks like it will be pretty similar.
  • Twitter integration – tweet straight from Safari, YouTube, Photos, Camera and Maps. Nice, but I wonder if this will herald the beginning of the end for iPhone Twitter app developers?
  • The camera will be useable straight from the lock screen – no more faffing around with trying to unlock the phone before taking a photo, only to realise the moment has passed. It will also be possible to edit and touch up your photos with the built-in photo app.
The iOS 5 update will be free for iPhone 3GS or later.

iCloud

iCloud is a wireless syncing service. When you buy something on one of your iCloud enabled devices, which will include the iPhone 4S, it will automagically be downloaded to your other devices, such as home Mac or iPad. Take a photo with the iPhone, and you will be able to access it on your Mac. No more mailing photos as attachments or plugging in the cable to download them to Aperture.

If you want your friends to be able to find you, you can broadcast your location so that you show up on their Find My Friends maps, and if you’re somewhere you don’t want others to know about, we are assured that it is a simple matter to take yourself off the grid for a while.

All of this sounds great, especially the idea of being able to access all your past iTunes purchases over the cloud (I keep forgetting to sync them to my iPhone) but there is one slight concern. This could really eat through your data usage, so I’m hoping there’s a way to limit iCloud to syncing when on WiFi or when items are under a certain file size.

Roundup

I’ll say again, I was a little disappointed not to be writing about a redesigned iPhone 5 today but, actually, the iPhone 4S looks like it’s going to be very, very good. Will I be in the queue at an Apple store for launch? No. Will I be enquiring about upgrading to a 4S when my mobile phone contract expires (very shortly)? You bet – watch this space for more information when I get my hands on one.

What do you think about the Apple announcement? Is there anything missing you think should have been included? Any features you think look particularly attractive? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. 

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Macs aren’t completely immune to viruses

September 19, 2011 By

Apple Logo

This is a guest post by Sofie Olsen

Contrary to common belief, Macs are not invincible machines. They have a reputation for being virus-free, but many people believe this is simply because there are less Macs than Windows PCs. The smaller market share means virus writers have traditionally focused their efforts elsewhere, leaving the Mac alone. Macs are, however, not immune.

Initially, Macs and the Mac OS X operating system fitted as standard were seen as being protected against all things malware related. As time has gone on, the volume and sophistication of viruses and malware attacks has increased, putting increasing numbers of computers at risk.

Many Mac users feel they won’t fall victim to any virus lurking on the worldwide web, but this isn’t entirely true. According to Kapersky, there are more than 30,000 new internet threats detected every single day, which emphasises the importance of having adequate antivirus software to protect your Mac.

Earlier this year, a fake antivirus program specifically targeted Mac OS X users who were running Safari. While it wasn’t a virus, the trojan – called MAC Defender – did infect Macs, making the computer open websites at random, as well as giving users’ personal information to third-party sites. Apple was fairly quick to stem the problem, issuing a patch shortly after reports surfaced, but it proved that Macs are not invulnerable.

Macs are unlikely to ever be as at risk as their Windows PC counterparts, but they are still susceptible to viruses and malware. For the thousands of attacks launched against PC users each day, Mac users only ever see two or three, but they do still occur.

Downloading antivirus for your Mac is a good way of protecting it against the majority of threats lurking around online. As well as this, users would be wise to follow the general rules of internet safety – avoid downloading programs from unknown sites and never give out any of your security details.

Do you use antivirus software on your Mac? Do you see it as a necessity, or is it just a way for antivirus companies to make money by scaremongering? Tell us your thoughts in the comments. 

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Paddle Battle for iPad [Review]

April 4, 2011 By

At first glance, Paddle Battle for the iPad sounds like a bit of a rip off of Breakout, the classic arcade game that had you busting blocks by bouncing a ball around the screen on a paddle. It becomes clear early on, however, that while there are similarities, Paddle Battle is a different kettle of fish.

Yes, you bounce balls around with paddles. Yes, there are obstacles in the middle of the play-field that are eliminated by hitting them with said balls. But at the other end of the play-field is another paddle, controlled by your opponent, who’s hitting balls back at you. The basic idea is to knock out your opponent’s shields before he or she does the same to you.

Ok, so far it’s just two player Breakout. Hardly innovative, is it? But there’s more.

Destroying some of the obstacles in the centre of the play-field brings power ups. Collect these and you’ll be able to deploy guided missiles, dumb missiles, autonomous UFOs and a load of other weapons designed to distract or destroy your opponent and make it easier to get through to their shields.

An effective tactic (and I’ve both used this and had it used against me) is to save your power ups and then release them in one almighty barrage in an attempt to overwhelm your opponent. It’s fun, but boy is it hectic.

The iPad‘s touch screen also adds a nicely tactile feel to the game as you swipe your finger back and forth to move your paddle, although I did find that the rounded back (on the iPad 1) meant it rocked a little during play.

Still, Paddle Battle turned out to be a great fun 2-player game (no single player option here). It looks stylish, has enough of a Breakout feel to appeal to retro game geeks, and makes great use of the iPad’s touchscreen controls. Now if only I could convince my wife that we should use it to decide who does the dishes…

Paddle Battle is available from the App Store.

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Sky News comes to iPad

March 23, 2011 By

Sky News has launched an iPad app that allows users to control their own interactive news service, supported by a dedicated editorial team.  The app gives you a new way to get your news: live video, expert analysis and rich interactive graphics.

The main screen is a timeline, showing the major news stories and bulletins from the day. Tap on a bulletin and you get a video which can be enlarged for easier viewing. Where the Sky News app is really clever is when there’s additional information, as in the case of the Libya and Japan stories. If there is additional information is is arrayed around the central video, inviting you to tap on it and explore the background to the video you are watching.

What I often find when watching content on, say, the BBC News website, is that I want to open a link to read some of the background but forget that by doing so I will also navigate away from the video content. With Sky News for iPad, the video shrinks into the corner of the screen and continues to play, allowing you to explore without interrupting your viewing.

Should you wish, you can also watch the live feed of what’s happening on Sky News right now. Let’s say you choose to do that, and realise you’ve missed the beginning of an item… well, you can choose to rewind to before you started watching and see what you missed.

It all feels very slick, and despite not being a big watcher of news programmes (I prefer to read it), I’ve found myself firing up the app to find out what’s happening with certain events. I actually think the Sky News app is a good template for how content makers should be moving with iPad magazines – rather than just doing an electronic copy of a mag, why not fill it with interactive and video content?

Sky News for iPad is available for free from the App Store on iPad. The app will continue be free, but moves to a paid, monthly subscription in the near future for non-Sky customers, available through In-App Purchase. Sky customers will continue to be able to access the app’s content as part of their Sky subscription.

Further information can be found on the Sky News for iPad website at http://www.skynews.com/ipad.

Have you tried Sky News for iPad? If so, what did you think? Do you see this as a good direction for media providers to take? Could this be a good direction for iPad magazines as well? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

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Apple announces the iPad 2

March 2, 2011 By

Steve Jobs has taken the stage at Apple’s iPad 2 event to announce the new device. There’s been plenty of speculation over what it’s going to look like, and what features it’s going to have. So now that the cat’s out of the bag, what’s the real deal?

“New Design”

It’s hard to radically alter the design of something as simple as the iPad. It’s effectively a large glass touchscreen, so what can you change? Well, the iPad 2 is 33% thinner than the original iPad, and has a front and rear facing camera. The cameras should make it useful for apps like Facetime and although it’s a but unwieldy as a camera, should mean you can at least grab a few photos with your new toy.

Both black and white versions of the iPad 2 will be available.

Faster and more powerful

The iPad 2 uses a new dual-core processor called the A5. This will give up to 2x faster processing, with up to 9x faster graphics when compared with the current generation of iPads. You would think this is going to hurt the battery life but Apple are claiming that the A5 iPad has the same low power consumption of the A4, giving 10 hours of use or 1 month on standby between recharges.

It’s got USB ports, right?

Er, no. It doesn’t seem to have any more connectivity than the current iPad, although an HDMI cable was demonstrated at the announcement that allows anything displayed on the iPad 2 to be shown on your HD TV.

Oh go on then, how much?

The iPad 2′s pricing will be the same as the current lineup, starting at $499. It remains to be seen whether the price will also be the same in the UK, but I would imagine so. If it is, the range will start at £439.

Are you in the market for the iPad 2? What do you think of the changes? Is it enough of an upgrade, or a little too similar to the iPad 1? I’d love to know your thoughts, so feel free to share them in the comments.

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So, is this the iPad 2 or not?

January 12, 2011 By

Apple is, you may be aware, notoriously secretive about upcoming products. Details of major iterations are usually released at keynote addresses, unless you count the time the iPhone 4 was unveiled by being left in a bar. On the whole, though, little gets out without Apple’s say so.

Which makes the story of an iPad 2 mockup being spotted at CES quite odd. Have a look at this video:

Gadget website, GearZap says this about it:

This video is of a dummy iPad 2 which we believe was given to a Chinese supplier to help build iPad accessories and cases before the official launch by Apple, so it’s a pretty good indication of what the iPad 2 will look like, given the release date is so close.

See, I honestly find that hard to believe. Would a manufacturer really be so foolish as to unveil Apple’s new product before it’s meant to be done? Wouldn’t that run a very high risk of Apple refusing to supply them with future mock-ups and, consequently, they would miss the boat for bringing accessories to market for launch-day? At the other end of the scale, I would assume doing this could land the supplier in legal trouble as Apple would most likely have a non-disclosure agreement in place.

OK, so that’s a “common sense” argument about why I’m unconvinced about this mock-up, but there’s something else. Listen to the crowd noise in the background of the video. Am I imagining it, or does it sound like it’s on a loop?

What do you think about all this? Do you think we’re seeing leaked iPad 2 details, or is it a hoax designed to give the Chinese supplier in question a bit of publicity? I’d love to be proved wrong, but I’m leaning towards hoax at the moment. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

[via GearZap]

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iPhone apps that can save you money

January 11, 2011 By

This is a guest post by Andreas Nicolaides, personal finance author at moneysupermarket.com. Andreas writes about all things money, from balance transfer credit cards to cash ISA savings, and this time he has decided to share with us iPhone apps that can save you money.

There are so many iPhone apps that you can currently download; you can get an iPhone app to do just about anything. The magic date was June 11 2007, when Apple announced that their new iPhone would support third party applications, and now there are over 260,000 applications available for download.

With it being the turn of the year, a lot of us tend to set New Years resolutions, and many of them will probably include trying to save money. Now I know saving money is no easy task, however, there are some iPhone apps amongst the thousands available that can be an incredible help, and here’s my top 4 in no particular order:

0870

0870Don’t you hate it when you need to get hold of a company to ask them a question and then you find out that they use a pricey 0870 number? With the 0870 app, you can check to see if there is an alternate cheaper number that you can ring. Ringing an 0870, 0845 or even an 0800 number from our mobiles can be incredibly expensive, normally around 35p per minute, but this app will help to save you money on your phone bill. This app costs 59p from the app store which is still a bargain considering the amount of money you could save.

Currency

CurrencyThis is a great iPhone app for those jetsetters amongst you. It’s simple and yet very effective purpose is to note the exchange rate of more than 90 different countries, including amongst others, the US dollar, Japanese yen and Turkish lira. If you’re going away on business or pleasure, it’s a great way to look ahead to see how much money you will need and you can work out any costs before you travel, a great way to save money. Again, this app is completely free to download.

moneysupermarket.com Vouchers

moneysupermarket.com vouchersLaunched in summer 2010, the moneysupermarket.com vouchers app is brilliant for saving you money. It’s a great way to find some exclusive offers that aren’t available anywhere else. You can simply search from where you are, and find out what vouchers are available nearby for restaurants, takeaways, pubs, clubs and loads more. You can also search via keyword and there are thousand of vouchers available to choose from. The app is completely free from the iTunes store.

Red Laser

RedLaserIf you love a good deal then red laser is the iPhone app for you, it has a built in scanner that you can use to scan a barcode on a particular item. All you have to do is use your iPhone camera to swipe the barcode. The application will then search major websites, like Google and Amazon to find the best price available for that product; it’s brilliant if you like to find the best possible deal. This fantastic app used to cost money if you wanted to download it but it’s now available free straight from the iTunes store.

So that’s my top four money-saving apps. Why not give them a go and see what they can do for you? Are there any other apps you use to save you money or time? We’d love to hear about them in the comments.

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