Apple announces new OS X 10.7 “Lion”

Yesterday Steve Jobs announced the newest upcoming version of OS X, “Lion”, during a press conference titled “Back to Mac”.

The new OS will be available in the summer of 2011, so this probably just ruined your Black Friday shopping because Jobs pretty much warned you that the Mac you buy today will be obsolete in less than 9 months.

What’s new? An App Store, a Launchpad (a-la iPad), running apps full-screen, Mission Control (think Exposé on steroids), and nothing else was leaked.

The premise is to bring the “magic” of iOS to the Computer hardware.

For more: www.apple.com/macosx/lion

Is Apple your friend or foe?

Apple has applied for a patent that will allow it to take measures if “unauthorized” users get a hold of someone’s device. With its new patent application Apple is trying to become proactive in deterring theft, and cracking of its devices.

What  does this mean for rightful owners could mean good news, if you have an untouched device or in other words a device that has not been hijacked or jailbroken.

If, on the other hand your device has been jailbroken could mean you may not be able to use after Apple disables the device. Using some sort of “listening” or interactive application Apple could determine if an unauthorized user has gotten a hold of a device and disable it remotely alerting the owner and even authorities of the location of such device.

This method however will disable purchased devices that had been tampered to allow applications other than those sold by Apple. Learn more HERE

Apple to address iPhone 4 issues in press conference today

I don’t know about you, but I am getting tired of companies not doing their proper testing and then releasing crappy products, or products with tons of issues.

Toyota that was the best example of quality worldwide just had a major recall of the Prius because of issues with their accelerators; their response: “we did not find this issue in any of our tests”

Well, you guys did not design your tests very well, I would start by firing your testing department and restaffing it with more skilled engineers.

As a Mac fan it hurts to see Apple deliver poor quality. If you have been paying attention, they have had issues with iMacs monitors, iPod scratches and screen issues, battery recalls, iPhone AC adapter recalls, etc.

Honestly if you buy an Apple product nowadays you would be stupid if you don’t buy the Apple Care extended warranty, because it’s very likely that you will have to take your product (more than once) to the Genius Bar for repairs or replacement.

Steve Jobs: There is no wrongdoing in admitting you screwed up the antenna. Just make it good for all of  us, loyal customers.

AT&T to eliminate Unlimited Data Plans for iPhone & iPad

Beginning on June 7, new iPhone users will no longer be able to get Unlimited data plans, but rather choose from a 15GB plan for $15/month, or 2GB for $25/month. Each extra GB will cost you $10. 10 bucks!

Existing users get to keep their existing plans, but if you want to save money AT&T won’t extend your contract for another 2 years if you want to switch.

AT&T will send you warning text messages when you approach your limits.

Tethering will also be available but at an extra $20/month (or perhaps it’s time to unlock your phone, screw the warranty and use PdaNet to do it for free).

iPad users will face the same luck.

Hasta la vista unlimited!

The iPad has Arrived!

The iPad finally arrived

As reported by The Huffinton Post  in ““Apple Tablet News: UPDATES On Expected “iPad” Release(PICTURES)” the pics of the new iPad look like those pics in the report

Many arrived at the Yerba Buena Center this morning to attend the Apple event, with the curiosity for the unveiling of the so awaited iPad

Steve Jobs himself began the presentation giving a little history of his company since its start back in 1976, following by some financial statements and a comparison among Sony, Samsung, and Nokia with Apple, which according to Jobs Apple is larger than Sony and bigger than Samsung and Nokia

Jobs then continue through pics of the releases of Apple products like the MacBook, iPod, and the iPhone as the expectancy for the iPad unveiling climaxed

At this point jobs was talking about the netbooks and their slow response to apps, he show pics of the new iPad and then the physical unveiling of the iPad

Jobs proceeded to demonstrate how the apps would work, making some browsing on the internet, flicking through pictures, playing a game, opening calendar and email apps, zooming maps, etc

But to all of this you may be asking yourself, Steve what are the specs of the new iPad? Here you go

iPad Specs:

Casing                         0.5 in

Weight                        1.5 lb

Display                        9.7 ISP

Full capacity Multi-touch screen

Processor                    1.0 GHz Apple A4

Bluetooth                    2.1 + EDR

WiFi                             802.11n

Speaker

Microphone

30-pin connector

Accelerometer

Compass

Battery                        10 Hours (video) or more than one Month standby

The iPad will be offered in 16, 32, and 64 Gb storage models

and one model with 3G network

Apple has struck a deal with AT&T to have a 250MB/14.99 a month plan or an unlimited data plan for 29.99 a month, and free AT&T WiFi hotspots

So, now you have it and hear it here!

UPDATE:

The iPad cost?

16 Gb – WiFi $499

16 Gb WiFi+3G $629

32 GB WiFi $599

32 Gb WiFi+3G $729

64 Gb WiFi $699

64 Gb WiFi+3G $829

WiFi Models ship in 60 Days

WiFi+3G Models ship in 90 Days

AT&T will keep the exclusivity for the time being with Apple

Blast from the Past

Next Wednesday Apple will show the world the so awaited Apple Tablet, but this time it will not be the “Bashful”

In the eve of this announcement Frog Design thought just right to show some unearthed pics of what Apple was working on in 1983, but I will not spoiled it for you with pics

Take a look at some of the pics and read more about it here

Coming to a Museum Near You

What can take your corporation into the doors of one of the most renown museums these days?

Why, nothing short than style, and innovation, although the latter has been in around for quite a while for Apple Inc

Recently Apple opened one of its stores in the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, an upscale shopping center beneath the famous Louvre art gallery, sending a statement to MS Corp: “It is style that will take you into one of the most chic places, being a PC does not”

A second Apple store in Montpellier opened as well, while MS Corp has a store at Rue Sebastopol, customers there can try, but not buy Windows 7

Where will be the next stop for Apple? Maybe the Moon…

 

Apple does it again: Macs, Mouse, Mini

Apple released today a series of upgrades to its current lines as well as a few additions:

New, Faster iMacs

• Starting at 3.06GHz
• Wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse
• 21.5″ and 27″ LED backlit displays
• $1,199 and $1,699
• Up to 2TB of storage
• Up to 16GB of memory

Newer Unibody MacBooks

• $999
• 7-hour battery
• 13″ backlit LED display
• Glass multi-touch trackpad
• Durable unibody enclosure
• 2GB Memory
• 500GB Hard Drive
• 2.26GHz

Newer Mac Minis

• $599 with OS X
• $999 with OS X Server
• 2.66GHz
• Up to 4GB of Memory
• Up to 1TB of  Storage

Mighty V3.0 Magic Mouse

• Multi-touch surface
• Laser track-engine
• Wireless Bluetooth

Mac Office 2004 support extended to 2012

October 13 was set to be the day Microsoft was going to pull the plug on Mac Office 2004 support, but instead it has been extended to 2012, announced  Mike Tedesco in a posting on the Mac Business Unit blog.

The main reason was to extend the support for VBA macro support which will be available again in the next version of Mac Office in 2010.

This effort is a lot of hard work and speaks to the dedication of the Mac BU folks, so kudos for keeping your customers in mind