:: digital introvert » keynote

Podcasts To Benefit From iCloud?

Tom — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:52:34 +0000

After last night’s pretty damn epic WWDC Keynote I, like many, were eagerly awaiting footage of the event. In the past Apple have posted a stream on their website followed by an update to their Apple Keynote Podcast. I’m usually the sort to wait for the full download as I hate a busy stream cutting out halfway through. Last night saw no update to the Podcast, though. I fully expected it to be available when I woke up this morning, but it isn’t. At the time of writing this post there’s still nothing. Now I’m not saying they won’t update it, but it clearly shows the focus is shifting towards streaming media, and could lead to a completely new way of handling Podcasts through the iCloud. No more clogging up all your Macs with Keynotes from 2008 onwards, everything will be up on the iCloud and ready to watch. Only got halfway and fell asleep in bed? Resume tomorrow with your laptop, the iCloud will remember, as it does your entire digital life. This will definitely change the way Podcasts work, and for the better I say.

Apple: ‘Come See Our Latest Creation’

Tom — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:18:39 +0000

After weeks of rumours it seems Apple have finally come out and officially announced it will be staging an event on Wednesday Jan 27th at 10am PST. It will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, in San Francisco. For us UK peeps this will be at 6pm, so make sure you get home from work sharpish! The event has been labeled ‘Come see our latest creation’. This is the biggest indicator yet that Apple will be showing it’s iSlate Tablet device, the first new product since the iPhone debuted at Macworld 2007. So what can we expect? Well so far the strongest rumours suggest…

10-inch Touch Sensitive Display
Runs custom ‘Tablet OS’ a mixture of iPhone OS and Mac OS X
Tablet Apps on AppStore – Custom made for bigger screen
Subscription based Digital Content such as the New York Times delivered to Tablet
SIM Card Slot for 3G Mobile Broadband Connectivity

Steve Jobs himself is supposedly ‘very happy’ with the device, this after he actually dismissed Tablet PCs in 2008 claiming they were ‘only good for browsing the web on the can’ Does this mean Apple have something special on the cards? Are all them patents purporting ways of giving touchscreen keyboards more tactile feedback going to come to fruition? I certainly hope so.

Macworld getting closer.. new Mac mini? iPhone nano?

Tom — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:48:28 +0000

As Macworld quickly approaches the rumor mill is running wild on possible new Apple products and updates. Here’s a run down of what we’ve been hearing the most.

Mac Mini – new update to include faster processors, N-spec WiFi, the same GeForce 9400m used in the new MacBook’s. The other rumors suggest Apple will be including a removable SATA optical drive in the new Mini, this can then supposedly be swapped for another SATA hard drive for those wishing to use their Mini as a Media Hub. Aesthetically the new Mini is said to swap the white top of the current model with black to bring it in line with the new Apple look.
iPhone nano – case manufacturers around the globe are slipping up with listings for a new iPhone nano model. Usually when you start finding this happening from multiple sources you know something is going on. But how can Apple dumb down the existing iPhone? By making it smaller but with the same features, it would surely just attract everyone to the nano? My guess, no GPS, no Camera and less Memory.
Mac Media Centre – probably my most wanted Apple product ever. If, like me, you have a big media library on your main Mac at home, what happens when you have a multiple Macs in the household? Most of us have laptops these days, what happens then? Do you keep a totally separate library on your laptop? What about playlists, ratings, play counts and iTunes purchases? All this needs to resolved and quickly. I bought a Time Capsule and had limited success turning into a truly useable Media Hub.
Netbook or Mac Tablet – I think it’s highly unlikely we’ll see either of these products at Macworld. I’m guessing these will make an appearance towards to mid part of 2009, maybe even in the fall, depending on market conditions.

My guess is Apple will either release a software update for the Time Capsule enabling it to become a true Media Hub, or they will market the new Mac mini as one. For me the way to go would be the Time Capsule. If you think about it the Time Capsule comes in two sizes, 500gb or 1TB. The most anybody would fit in the rumored Mac mini at the moment would be 2 x 320GB drives. It makes sense to go with the Time Capsule because it also uses a network grade drive making it less susceptible to failure. The only problem you would face then is that you’d be using your backup drive to store all the files you really should be backing up in the first place!