Definitive Designs

Today at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference of 2010, Steve Jobs has unveiled the new iPhone. The fourth generation iPhone comes with the new iPhone 4.0 OS, and such features a slimmer design with glass casing. Two cameras (one front and one back with LED flash), reworked volume buttons, micro SIM card, second mic with noise cancellation. The metallic bezel of the case doubles up as a large antenna which helps boost the reception signal.

The new IPS screen has four times the amount of pixels compared to the original iPhone, with pixel density being 326 pixels per inch with a screen resolution of 960×640 and 800:1 contrast ratio. This results in a much sharper text. The phone is powered by the A4 CPU just like the iPad, and has an improved battery time with 7 hours talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours of standby. There will be up to 32GB of storage, a gyroscope for up to 6 axis of motion sensing, along with 802.11n network adapter.

The camera on the back is 5 megapixels with 5x digital zoom and auto focus. The camera also records 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. You can keep the LED flash on while recording, and share it with just a few easy steps. Additionally there will also be a version of iMovie for the iPhone. The front facing camera enables video calling.

The operating system has been renamed to iOS 4, which will also be available for the older iPhones (3G and 3GS) and free for the iPod Touch. One of its biggest new additions is multitasking made in a way that would drain as little amount of battery power as possible while running multiple applications in the background. Other features included in the new OS are folders for sorting applications for easier access, social gaming network, ibooks, iads for in-app advertising, and more. Today, the iOS4 goes Gold master, which means that it’s close to being released to the general public.

The new iPhone will be available in white or black/ It goes on sale June 24th  (pre-orders start June 15th) from AT&T and Apple, and will be priced as follows: $199 for 16gig and $299 for 32gig. More information is available on AT&T and Apple websites.

After many months of speculation, the Apple tablet is finally here. The device is officially named the Apple iPad. It comes with a 9.7 inch IPS LCD display, is 0.5 inches thick, weights 1.5lbs, has 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of storage, accelerometer, compass, speaker, microphone, a built-in 802.11n wireless adapter, 3G (for wireless phone provider data plans), several connectors including speakers, microphone and 30 pin (for such things as the keyboard dock), bluetooth, a 1GHz Apple A4 chip, multi-touch surface, and it has 10 hours of battery life with about a month’s worth of standby. The iPad is capable of web browsing (no visible signs of a Flash player), and has a built in iTunes app store. This device can also run games and apps from the AppStore (runs iPhone’s apps at windowed iPhone resolution, or scales to double the size), YouTube, movies, television episodes, has an email client, book reading (iBook), iWork ($9.99) for iPad, and more.

The WiFi iPad will cost $499, $599 and $699 according to storage size. The 3G versions of the iPad will cost $130 extra. The WiFi versions will be available around April, with 3G versions coming out a month later. The 3G data plan for iPad will be $14.99 for 250 megabytes, and $29.99 for unlimited (no contact required for either plan), along with free WiFi hotspots all from AT&T. The 3G devices will be unlocked, and will use GSM micro SIMs. There will also be an optional keyboard dock for easy typing on the device.

Dev Team has once again came through with their promises. Tonight, about 12 hours away from iPhone’s 3.0 software release they have demonstrated a working jailbreak and unlocking work-around. They have not released the applications to patch iPhone’s software yet because they don’t want Apple to fix it at the last minute before the official 3.0 release, but have promised that it will be out shortly after 3.0 is out. If you want more information, visit Dev Team’s blog website, but remember – jailbreaking and/or unlocking your phone voids the iPhone’s warranty.

Additionally to announcing the new iPhone, Apple has also announced the next operating system named Snow Leopard, version 10.6. Some new features present in the new operating system are integrated Expose into the dock. Up to 45% faster install, with 6GB space recovered after upgrading over Leopard. Mail is 2.3x faster, and Safari 4 Final will be released today. Preview is 2x faster with better PDF support. Also a new version of QuickTime called QuickTimeX has been demoed which has been completel redisigned. Upgrade to Leopard 10.5 will cost $29, while Family Pack will be $49 on sale in September. The official site contains more information about the features and updates to the software.

Today Apple has demonstrated the upcoming iPhone 3.0 operating system. Coming this summer, the next version of the iPhone OS will have many new features which customers feel should have been available at the time of the phone’s release. Some of these new features will include the following:

-In-App Purchasing: Allows the sales of additional content from developers.
-Peer-To-Peer: Sharing of data.
-Third-Party Accessory Applications: Applications to interact with other hardware.
-Push Notification: Push badge, text, and audio alerts from servers instead of using background process.
-Cut, Copy and Paste: One of the most anticipated updates, this feature will allow users to cut, copy and paste text across entire platform.
-Landscape Keyboard: For easier typing, the users will be able to use the keyboard in a landscape mode.
-MMS: Picture messaging – another long-awaited feature for the iPhone.
-Voice Memos: Record voice, etc.
-Spotlight Search: System wide search available across the platform.
-A2DP Bluetooth: Support for stereo Bluetooth headsets.

The beta is available as of now for developers, and will be available some time in the summer to general public. The iPod Touch upgrade will cost $9.95, while the rest will be free of charge. The first generation iPhone will most likely not be able to take advantage of some features such as MMS and stereo Bluetooth due to architectural limitations. For more information visit the website that Apple has launched for the iPhone 3.0 OS.

Several new additions can been spotted over at the Apple Store. The speeds of the mid-range MacBook Pro 15″ notebooks have been increased from 2.53GHz to 2.66GHz, and from 2.8GHz to 2.93GHz. Additionally, you can optionally purchase a 256GB SSD hard drive for the 13″ MacBook and 15″ MacBook Pro.

Another noticable update at the store is the new keyboard. It comes without the num pad, and can be purchased for $49. Great for space saver.

It looks like the people who were speculating on wether Apple would update or axe the Mac Mini don’t have to speculate anymore. Today Apple has released new and updated systems for everyone, starting with Mac Mini, iMac, and Mac Pro. Some of the configurations are for everyday computer users who don’t need much power, while others offer business production level of performance. Below is the list of some of the options that these systems have to offer.

The Mac Mini gets new Intel Core 2 Duo processors, more storage space, the NVidia 9400M graphics chipset, and up to four gigabytes of RAM. It is followed by iMac which gets storage boost from 320GB all the way up to 1TB. RAM is upgradable to 8GB, while video card chipsets range from NVidia 9400M, nVidia GeForce GT120, nVidia GeForce GT130, and ATI Radeon HD 4850. According to Notebookcheck, the GT130 card is like 9650M GT clocked at faster speeds, while GT120 is like 9650M GT, but clocked lower, and with lower power consumption. The screens remain 20 inch and 24 inch.

On the business-oriented side of things, the Mac Pro now has the Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nihalem” processors. The system either comes with just one CPU (2.26GHz or 2.93GHz), or two (2×2.6GHz, 2×2.66GHz, or 2×2.93GHz). RAM (1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM) can be expanded from 3GB (on the single CPU system) to 8GB, and 6GB (on the dual CPU system) to 32GB. The two hard drive sizes offered are 640GB and 1TB. Graphic cards include nVidia GeForce GT120 as a standard, and can be upgraded to ATI Radeon HD 4870.

Visit Apple’s website for more information on the newly released systems, and their pricing.

Just several weeks after releasing the jailbreak for the iPhone 3G, the Dev Team is once again ready to unveil their next project – a jailbreak for 2nd generation iPod Touch. The software isn’t final yet, but it seems as if its release is just around the corner. Once again, stop by Dev Team’s blog for more information on when the application will be released.

Several web browsers have appeared in the AppStore starting last night. In the past Apple has not allowed the sale of such applications in their online store, but now it appears that they’ve lifted the ban. Some of these browsers include:

Edge Browser (Free)
Webmate: Tabbed Browser ($0.99)
Incognito ($1.99)
Shaking Web ($1.99)
Squeaky – The Clean Web Browser ($3.99)

This marks an important step in mobile browser design, because it opens up the possibility for release of mobile versions of such great browsers as Opera and FireFox.

Today at the MacWorld in San Francisco, Apple announced the new MacBook Pro 17″ notebook. Some of the key features include:

-Up to 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo CPU with 6MB Cache
-Up to 8GB of 1066MHz RAM
-320GB 5400RPM, 7200RPM or a choice of 128GB or 256GB SSD hard drives.
-9400M GT and 9600M GT graphics chipset.
-17″ 1920×1200 Glass or Anti-Glare LED Display.
-6.6lbs in weight.
-Up to 8 hours of battery life.
Prices starting at $2,799.00, or higher depending on options.

Other things announced included iLife ’09, iWork 09 and iWork.com services, DRM-Free music downloads from iTunes, and more.

Head over to Apple’s website for more information on these updates.