Tag: Apple

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Let’s Speculate: What Will Apple Do With Beats Electronics?

dr dre jimmy iovine billboard beats audioI’m leaving this one up to you folks! The pundits are weighing in on the announcement that Apple will be snatching up the love child of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine for $3.2 Billion. The general consensus? No one really knows why Apple is making this move now, or what they really stand to gain from it.

tim cook apple logoIt makes some sense following the announcement that the former head of the Nokia camera division was moving to Apple, that Cupertino is looking to make a bigger multimedia push for future devices, but if the Beats buyout is approved, it’ll mark Apple’s biggest acquisition in the company’s history.

Also, Beats recently bought out HTC’s stake in the company to fly solo. At the time they discussed diversifying the brand and moving into more professional audio solutions. An Apple buyout would seem to contradict those plans.

Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine Buy Beats Back From HTC

Drop me some comments below. What does Apple really stand to gain here? Does the Beats brand help restore some of Apple’s “cool factor”? Will consumers be more likely to consider Apple products if they come with Beat Audio?

Honestly, my readers out there are probably better informed than the pundits commenting on this story, so let’s speculate! Go nuts!

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Samsung, Apple, Lawsuits, and Consumer Fatigue

samsung appleBy now you’ve probably seen that a Californian Jury has handed down their decision in the most recent legal saga between Samsung and Apple. Who was the big winner?

Nobody.

Neither side really came out ahead. Sure Apple was awarded more money, but both sides walk away with a mere fraction of what they wanted. Apple claimed Samsung infringed on five patents covering covering functions such as slide-to-lock, universal searching, quick linking, automatic word correction and background syncing. They were asking for $2.2 Billion, and the jury awarded them $120 Million. Samsung claimed Apple had infringed two of its camera patents, one related to video compression and transmission, and asked for $6 Million. It was awarded $150,000. Continue reading “Samsung, Apple, Lawsuits, and Consumer Fatigue”

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Contest: Giving away Tech21 Impact cases for the iPhone and Galaxy Note 3!

tech21 case contest for iphone and galaxy note 3 somegadgetguyMajor thanks to the folks at Tech21 for sending these my way! On tap, we’ve got two screen protector + mesh case prize packs, one for the Note 3 and the other for the iPhone 5/5s. There are two ways to enter.

Continue reading “Contest: Giving away Tech21 Impact cases for the iPhone and Galaxy Note 3!”

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Good Night iPad 2, You Had a Good Run…

apple ipad 4And with barely a blip, the reign of the iPad 2 was ended.

Long used as an “entry level” tablet, Apple quietly pulled the plug on the lower resolution sibling to the iPad Air. It survived as the back up option over three additional iPad releases, but over this last year, began to show how aged and out classed it was opposite newer, low-cost Android and Windows gear.

Moving forward, Apple has replaced the iPad 2 with the iPad 4. Similar housing, but now all of the full sized iPads will have Retina displays and Lightning Connectors. This leaves only the original iPad Mini with a low resolution “Non-Retina” display.

In a world of yearly iteration, the iPad 2 had a pretty good run, but now it’s time to move on…

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Happy 30th Birthday Apple Mac

4.0.1

It’s an icon.

For all of our tech gamesmanship, Apple vs PC, iOS vs Android, days like today are fun to celebrate regardless of which team you’ve sided with.

The Mac is 30 years old.

Many are focusing on the revolutionary ad which played during Superbowl XVIII. Seeing “18” in Roman numerals makes me feel damn old, as I was actually alive for that presentation. We of course have that video linked below, but I wanted to focus briefly on the actual Mac itself, and what we might still be able to learn from it today.

It’s impossible to overstate how important the Mac was in making computing accessible to consumers. For many people my age, it was likely their first computer and graphical user interface. In schools, it was often the computer used to populate labs where we learned basic programming skills, supplemented traditional math, science, and writing education. It was probably one of the first machines we were able to play games on. I’m pretty much always down for a round of Oregon Trail.

What made it so revolutionary was a focus on the user experience. Utilizing precious little computing power by today’s standards to draw pictures and icons on the screen. It gave many first time users a much clearer understanding of what they could accomplish on a little magic box. We live in a world now where my watch is more powerful than those cute little Macs of old, so this aesthetic wasn’t easy to pull off.

A multi-disciplined team of individuals was responsible for bringing Mac to life, including doctors, artists, even an archaeologist. All working together to bring a more informative UI to the user than the flashing text prompt of UNIX and DOS. It’s where we first started having conversations about conveyance and skeuomorphic design.

As we move forward…

As we look towards the next 30 years, we must keep asking ourselves the same questions those early Mac pioneers struggled with. We must keep demanding efficiency, but not at the cost of experience. We’ll constantly be evolving, receiving more powerful devices, but we must have applications for that power.

Lastly, we need to start having frank conversations about our social use of technology and ergonomics. How we incorporate it into our daily lives, use it respectfully and safely.

Happy birthday Mac! You’ve been an inspiration for generations.

(Photo courtesy of  Mac History)

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iFixIt gives new Mac Pro 8 out of 10 for upgrades and repairs!

mac pro 2013 disassembled ifixitGood news everybody! Apple has apparently figured out how to manufacturer a powerful and compact workstation which is fairly easy to upgrade and repair! Someone should tell their laptop and tablet divisions, but I digress…

iFixIt tore the sucker down and found a refreshing lack glue or proprietary screws. Opening the casing allows you to easily get to the RAM. The SSD is proprietary but easy to swap out, which hopefully might encourage some companies to build 3rd party solutions. Even the CPU, while buried deep into the internals, is a stock Intel socket. iFixit estimates you could save almost $1000 buying a low end Mac Pro, and then swapping out the processor yourself.

Maybe the harshest criticism came from the proprietary graphics cards. Flanking the triangular heat sink, Apple had to design their own connectors and shape so they’d fit in the casing. iFixIt worries that this might prematurely age the system if Apple can’t keep up with newer graphics chipsets and offerings.

All in all though, this assuages most of the concerns I personally had over the construction of the Mac Pro. No machine badged a “pro” should ever lock out the user. A workstation is a MUCH longer term investment than a regular destop, and this radical new design from Apple looked like it might have followed in the same footsteps as their MacBooks, glued shut and with RAM soldered onto the logic board. Happily this is not the case, and I’m surprised that Apple themselves didn’t make more noise about it. The ability to improve the system over time larger destroys the perceived “Apple Tax” and should make homebrew OSX systems a little less cost/time effective for those looking at Bang for Buck.

If you’re shopping a high end workstation, I’d highly recommend checking out the iFixIt teardown guide, as they detail the whole process of stripping the machine with their usual wit and humor.

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Apple Mac Pro available to order December 19th

MacPro_Core_Exposed_PRINT.tifIt’s been a long time coming.

For you professional types out there, Apple might FINALLY have a reason for you to open up your wallet for some new gear. The Mac Pro has been languishing of late, but it’s getting a top to bottom refresh, and a new smaller design. The guts have been radically improved. It’s assembled right here in the US of A, and it’s available to order starting tomorrow!

The base model featuring a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs, 12GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD starts at $2999. All hardware considered, not too Apple Tax-y. If you’re rocking an OSX work environment, this might be just the trick to get your workstations up to date.

No word yet on when you might expect delivery, but you can secure a place on line starting tomorrow. Full PR after the jump.

Continue reading “Apple Mac Pro available to order December 19th”

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PlusUs unveils LifeLink cable for Apple and MicroUSB devices, smallest fold-able charge cable.

LifeLink in Hand PhotoLooks like ChargeCard has a little competition…

There’s just never a cable around when you need one, right? You use your phone to its fullest, and the battery will probably be dead by dinner time, if you’re lucky. LifeLink looks to help ease some of those usage issues. A small plastic card unfolds, allowing you to connect your phone to a computer, battery, or charger. If you’re losing your charge cables, forgetting to take them with you, or they’re becoming a rats nest of tangles in your bag, Lifelink could be a nice peace of mind solution to help insure you can recharge your phone on the go.

Available in Apple Lightning connector or MicroUSB flavors, they’re currently pre-order only, and should ship “early next year”. Grab one now for $19 during the pre-order period. The price jumps up to $24 when it goes full retail. A portion of every LifeLink sale will go towards a charitable cause of the customer’s choice. A very nice sentiment indeed.

Full PR after the jump.

Continue reading “PlusUs unveils LifeLink cable for Apple and MicroUSB devices, smallest fold-able charge cable.”

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