[Video] Apple Releases iPhone 5c Commercial
You may not have noticed it if you were tuned in to the Steelers/Bengals game last night, but there was a bit of history made as Apple unveiled the first commercials for their newly-unveiled iPhone 5C. The new version is basically a plastic version of the iPhone 5 and has been lambasted by critics since it was first announced to the public last week. While the specs are beside the point, Apple's marketing team seemed to take a page out of 2006 with the white background and kitschy music. "Ring Ring" by Sleigh Bells plays in the background as the mold is seemingly poured for the plastic pieces. If you were wondering, this version comes in a variety of colorways, but you'll figure it out quickly if you weren't privy to that knowledge. Check out the ad below.
http://youtu.be/8k2iR2RrBRk
Apple Announces Launch Date for iTunes Radio
It looks like Apple is ready to step into the ring with Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, and Google Play Music All Access by officially announcing that it's music streaming service iTunes Radio will be available September 18. Apple's newest music feature will be released as part of the new iOS7 update. "Its focus is placed on playlists or stations based on the music that already exists in users personal libraries, this is generated from iTunes entire catalogue." You will be able to use iTunes Radio on all Apple devices as well as with iTunes Windows based devices. There is no cost to using iTunes Radio and it is completely free but like other services it will supported by ads but there is an upgrade that's ad free for a price.
[Via Hypetrak]
Apple Announces iPhone 5S, 5C
Legions of the tech-savvy flocked to Cupertino, California today like Dorothy and friends traveling the Yellow Brick road to Oz to find out what CEO Tim Cook and the team had up their his sleeve this time. With murmurs of 5S and 5C, not much was due to change, but folks showed up and logged on in droves to get the news of the latest products to don the iconic bitten apples logo. With all the rumors of a lower-end plastic version and even a fully gold-encased version, the announcements were a bit closer to the chest, tinkerings with earlier versions and a reason to have a bunch of people over for a show.
Highlights from the announcements included talks of the latest operating system, IOS 7, which Craig Federigh, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering said would "quickly become the world's most popular operating system" and included a new home and lock screen as well as a swipe feature from the bottom of the phone that brings up a new control center. Siri got a male voice upgrade and ability to do Wikipedia searches. Playing on the Instagram craze, the camera will feature built-in features and new ways to group your pictures by year/location. As one of the nearly 200 new features in IOS 7 has to be iTunes Radio, which premieres on the new operating system available for free September 18 that Federigh described as "getting a whole new device."
Celebrate the App Store's 5th birthday with free games and apps
With Apple's App Store approaching its 5th birthday, both Apple and some of the App Store developers have made their apps and games available for free. Apple is featuring five top-rated games and apps to commemorate its anniversary for iOS-based devices (iPhone, iPad), including the games Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Infinity Blade II, Tiny Wings, BADLAND, and Where's My Water? and apps Barefoot World Atlas, Day One (Journal/Diary), How to Cook Everything, Over, and Traktor DJ for iPhone. A large number of other developers have also made their apps and games free, as well.
Techtola has a small number of the games and apps available for free, with updates to follow as they're discovered. I personally recommend Tiny Wings, Sword & Sworcery, and Infinity Blade II. Happy birthday, App Store!
[via Techtola]
[Trailer] Jobs
[yahoo id="movies.yahoo.com/video/jobs-trailer-161011991" mode="normal" align="center"]
Last year, when Ashton Kutcher was announced to portray the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, many met the news with mixed reactions. After all, with Kutcher best known as a wayward ladies man in That 70's Show, it's no surprise that his attachment to the film wouldn't be well-received. With this first trailer released, Jobs is looking a bit iffy. Directed by Joshua Michael Stern, the film covers a four decade span of Jobs' life with a focus on some of the landmark achievements during his illustrious career.
Its Sundance premiere earlier didn't receive a great response, but there should still be appeal for the Apple crowd. I feel mixed about the film myself, especially given the mixed tone of the trailer that is desperate to leave an emotional mark on viewers. And while I have nothing against Kutcher, I just can't dive into this without being able to separate him from Steve Jobs, which is never a good sign for a film, biopic or otherwise.
We can all take a bite out of Jobs when it hits theaters on August 16th.
[via Yahoo]
Apple announces iTunes Radio, iOS 7, OS X Mavericks, new Mac Pros at WWDC
This week is a big week for tech with both Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) and Apples Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) taking place. Apple just finished their own keynote conference, revealing a plethora of new software and hardware for the upcoming year. iPhone, MacBook, and iPad fanatics, take note, because there are a lot of changes being made this year.
iOS 7 will update mobile devices much more dramatically than previous updates, both visually and systematically. The entire visual appearance of iOS devices have been overhauled for iOS 7. Now, the OS works in layers, with idle apps simply thrown to the background. It's a simple aesthetic change, but one that helps make upcoming mobile Apple devices more modern and contemporary looking. There will also be a Control Center that will give easy access to stock applications, such Music, Camera, Settings, etc. with just an upward swipe rather than having to go to the home screen to access everything. Sharing files between friends is also made easier with AirDrop. For example, to share photos amongst friends, you can just tap the photos you want to send, the people's names, and which means to send them (text, email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Simplicity is a common theme with the new iOS, as they've also added better bluetooth functionality with cars, as well as an upgraded Siri, which will make hands-free driving even more hands-free. You can see a list of compatible devices here.
Apple also announced iTunes Radio, which will serve as a direct competition with Pandora. Much like the aforementioned service, iTunes Radio will serve as a music discovery application that will stream music online based off of your preferences. It will be free with an iTunes Match subscription or with advertisements. It hasn't been announced which engine will power the service, but will definitely be interesting to see how the parameters will work.
A new version of Apple's desktop OS was announced. OS X Mavericks will be a huge upgrade for Mac users, as the operation system is made to help boost performance. A notable upgrade includes full use of multiple monitor display, meaning users who are using both a Macbook and iMac can easily switch from monitor to monitor, as well as pull up the dock on either monitor as opposed to the "primary" screen. Mavericks will also utilize a technology called Time Coalescing that will smooth the transition between active and passing states, which will allow CPU usage to run smoother as opposed to from one state to the other. Mavericks is also going to run up to 1.5x faster than the current OS X, Mountain Lion, which should help people like me who have multiple, performance heavy programs open all the time. You can read more about Mavericks here.
The biggest surprise to come out of today's conference is Apple's return to Mac Pros. The Mac Pros were constructed with a modern aesthetic, as they come in a cylinder shape, which takes up considerably less space than the large, rectangular boxes previous Mac Pros came in. The new Mac Pros also pack an enormous amount of power with up to 12 cores of processing power, 40 GB/s of PCIe bandwidth, 60GB /s of memory bandwidth, 7 teraflops of GPU performance, next generation PCIe flash storage (which is actually kind of sad, but should mean faster access to files/programs), and more hardware options. The new Mac Pros will be a beast of a machine when they come out later this year. You can read more about them here.
A lot of news was unleashed today by Apple. To summarize: New Mac Pros, new iOS 7, new OS X Mavericks, iTunes Radio, and a new line of MacBook Airs, all coming later this year.Read more