Living With Inbox by Google..

So while most thought that email had had its days, the guys at Gmail think otherwise, and this new refreshing tool (lets be honest thats what it is) gives us much needed functionality which I can easily see incorporated into email clients over the coming years.

After first impressions my favorite feature most definitely has to be the snooze function that the team have incorporate so effortlessly into the usual email architecture, adorable in equal measure to that snooze button that everyone enjoys when they just don't want to roll out of bed, the elegance by which one can either choose to be reminded at a future date or time or by geolocation is genius. Mirroring how Boomerang transformed sending emails, Inbox helps you manage rather then forget those emails that you don't want to see right now but want to see later.

Everything from, receiving that email from your energy company asking you to submit a meter reading in the middle of the day when you busy at work and miles away, to that dinner reservation that you just don't have time right now to follow up on, all become simpler, no more is there a need to set reminders in your diary, or write quick scruffy notes on post-its, all that is required is to put your email on ice, and have it thaw exactly when you want.

Along with the snooze and reminders functions, the team have conjured up interesting and new ways of sorting emails into groups (Bundles) in an attempt to economise on viewing and sorting mail. Although being very much an extension of its tab's email sorting function, mixed together with an elegant UI, and the ability to create custom groups, the user is put in the driving seat and given the ability to make the experience their own.

Initial Verdicts are nothing but praiseworthy - Great Move Google!

Bend? or just bending the truth?

As everyone is probably more then aware, in recent times, iPhone releases have come hand in hand with some type of controversy, the iPhone 4, had antennagate, the iPhone 5 was coming out of the box with dings and scratches (scratchgate), and now the iPhone 6 seems to suffer from bendgate.

The first two issues were verified and dealt with accordingly by Apple, but at the moment it is too soon to suggest that bendgate is a real issue that Apple will need to target head on. From the videos flooding the internet, one thing which is clear is that the forces that are being applied to iPhones to get them to show any signs of bending would be impossible to replicate if the phones were being used for their intended purposes. Although some users have suggested that such bending has occurred while their phones have been in their pockets, looking objectively at how and where the devices are giving way and how reviewers have replicated such bending on their videos, what becomes questionable is the ability for such forces to be applied while an iPhone is contained within a pocket.

All materials have weak points, I am pretty sure I could also bend an iPhone 5, a samsung galaxy, or a HTC one, if I really tried. Bearing this in mind one should look pragmatically at the claims that the iPhone 6 is bendy, especially when the persons facial expression from trying to bend an iPhone seems to replicate a person desperately trying to induce bowl movements while having a severe case of constipation...    

Here come the newbies... iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch, and a U2 freebie

Behind the curve but ahead of the game -

While Apple has been accused of playing catch up by a host of competitors and early on Apple stock has taken a 1.5% dive, what remains beyond doubt is the fact that Apple is a game changer, unless you go back to the Apple I  everything in Apples modern history has been a reincarnation of some technology that failed to launch. Smart phones existed prior to the iPhone, MP3 players before the iPod and tablets before the iPad. But with the release of each of these products a market was defined and consumer wants were turned into consumer needs.

What Apple have a knack for is building products that people want. It's true that NFC has been included in numerous high and mid range android devices over the past few years, but the fact remains that using mobile phones to make payments at a point of sale never really took off, but with Apples drive towards using NFC for its Apple Pay platform, we are sure to see a surge in the number of people using the technology for this purpose.

A perfect example of this resonates in the newly uncovered and well received Apple Watch. Its fare to say that smart watches existed prior to the unveiling of the Apple Watch yesterday yet, Apple have finally legitimised the market for such a device, a year ago, the device category existed, yet I'm pretty sure that you would have been hard pressed to find someone who owned one, and even if on a rare occasion you did come across someone with one, I'm also pretty sure you would have written off the experience to the person being an eccentric. What this tells us is that the clout that Apple has far outweighs the power of its competition, just because the competition adopt a new technology does not mean that they are able to make game changing moves, this therefore reveals not Apples ability to give consumers new technology when they want it (as many commentators suggest) but rather Apples ability to tell consumers exactly what they want.

Many businesses succeed because of the excellence of their services - they simply do everything better then everyone else, others because of the simplicity of their products and finally the last group because they bring products and services into the market that change our lives so much that we systematically change the way we live our lives and therefore are bound to such advancements. What Apple does is all of the above but at the same time their focus remains on telling us what we need, so long as the company can woo the masses and create a desire for its products the company will remain at the pinnacle of the industry.

I guess in light of all the press, the good and the bad,  one is always reminded of the little but impactful story of the tortoise and the hare...

The one more thing moment..... Apple Watch...

"The Next Chapter in Apples Story" (Cook)

Annnnddddd the dates set... 9/9/2014 - Apple drop clue on iPhone 6 release

Apple have confirmed that they will be holding an event on the 9th of September, plenty have been waiting patiently and we all know whats coming, the real question is what else is coming?

In the meantime checkout this video thats surfaced on the internet with what seems to be a working iPhone 6.

Stay tuned...

UPDATE: 31/08/2014 -

So plenty of speculation and iPhone insides aren't really whats making the headlines, but just a quick update, NFT seems to be a hot favourite in the new phone lineup and also Apple seem to be sticking with 16gb as their entry lineup, obviously all of this is down to speculation so don't quote me on it :)

The real headlines are in relation to the upcoming release of some form of wearable device, call it an iWatch or whatever Apple will end up calling it, but many speculators believe that the grand unveiling will happen on the 9th of Sep, while many seem to think that Apple will not drop this product in time for the christmas rush I think otherwise. If a wearable device is unveiled then expect it to hit the shelves by mid to late October...

anyway peeps... stay tuned, the next week is going to include mountains of speculation but only time will tell...

Why Apples budget iMac makes sense...

So as many reviews online have been stating Apples new budget iMac is one to stay away from, some have gone as far as saying Apple is short-changing customers by giving them 50% less computer for a 18% reduction in price.

Whats important here is the question of - Who Apple is attempting to attract with such machines? I do not believe for one second that the consumer desktop market is what Apple are hoping to take over with this reduced price iteration, but rather it is obvious that Apple have set its sights on the Corporate / B2B customer. Most B2B customers buy in bulk and do not run processor intensive tasks, many run VMware off dedicated servers hence the box that its employees sit in front of is merely an input/output device connecting the person to the companies server, with this in mind all that computer offers is access to a network and hence the hardware requirements for such computers is minimal. The question therefore becomes - Is $1099 not too much to spend when windows equivalents can be easily procured for a fraction of the price, my guess would be that Apple will not only offer huge discounts to its Corporate clients, but may even lease out the machines with support packages providing them with extremely fruitful business.

Apple is well positioned currently to push forward with such a move, especially as 97% of fortune 500 companies currently endorse the iPhone and 98% use the iPad in some way, shape, or form, therefore meaning that the Computer is the final piece of the puzzle for Apple.  

If done correctly Apple can not only begin to pry away enterprise customers from Microsofts dominant base but, it could signal yet another new beginning for Apple. For those cynics that thought Apple is close to having its day, I would say watch-out, as from where i'm sitting, Apple is far from done with being market leader and i'm pretty certain that we will be seeing a lot more of Apple, whether it be at work or at home.

Some Thought On Apple

Apple is evolving, some may over look its discounted MacBook Pro’s as still being too expensive but if you look objectively at each lineup they have become hardware leaders in their class and are also massively competitive. $1099 for a 13" MacBook Pro would rank amongst the best bargains when comparing, build quality, longevity, and user experience.

Apple have a simple equation when it comes to product design, its marketing is equally simple, It focuses on what the world wants and then builds the best product that it can. Sometimes this takes time, other-times its quite obvious that an iteration has been held back for a future release, as long as it does not make a habit out of the second point it will continue to prosper. As the company matures its strategy has been slightly modified but on a whole it would be easy to suggest that Apple has been able to do something that most could only dream of, this is of cause is moulding the perfect customers. Apple is great at telling its customers what they want, such is its influence that the products of other manufactures hang in the balance until Apple make their move. A clear example of this is the currently sluggish take up of smart watches. One can almost certainly guarantee that as soon as Apple begins to sell its highly anticipated iWatch sales for all other types of smart watch will soar through the roof.

As a company, having the ability to convince customers that they are making lifestyle choices when they purchase your products is an extremely fortunate position hold, while the market is flooded with functional equivalents, in the world of business, fortune does not bestow itself upon anyone, fortune needs to be worked for, and Apple work damn hard, hence the reason why Apple is still able to charge hundreds of dollars above competitors prices, and we could go as far as to suggest that it is also the reason why it has been able to single handily created the fortunate market of premium products that its competitors now also occupy.

If one was to take a step back and question why anyone would pay over $500 for a mobile phone when one could also be bought for $100, to most the idea would sound ludicrous, but Apple has been able to fashion perceptions as far as making people believe that there is rather then a material want, a material need for the consumption of its products. The technology industry has always been about wowing people into believing in the necessity for the products and services that it produces, Today we have no iWatch, there is no real reason why we would need a smart watch, but nevertheless in years to come people will question how they lived their lives without such a device.

Over the years Apple have gone from being a quirky, artsy, or hippy company, to a a company that nearly went bankrupt, the genius commitment to music, helped shoot the stock price through the stratosphere, and kickstarted its journey to dominance. What has carried through its whole journey has been its dedication to a slogan that it first used in the 1970's. Apples dedication to simplicity has always been well founded and as long as it maintains its focus on this ethos, its dominant run can continue to march forward.

Tick Tock... Here comes the iWatch...

So folks some exciting news has emerged following a CNBC Report where the head of Jewellery and watches at Tag Heuer - Jean-Claude Biver admitted that Tag Heuer's Sales Director has been poached by Apple for its upcoming iWatch.




Some may be wondering why such news is exciting, we can only say it is exciting because hiring sales people is usually a businesses final prerequsite prior to a product launch. These details emerging in July could signal the product could be revealed as soon as September with it becoming available to buy in time for 2014 Christmas rush, if the iWatch was to launch in September it would most probably be alongside or placed just after the release of Apples long awaited new iterations of its iPhone models.

The revelation of both these eagerly anticipated products are expected to send Apples stock price north, our predictions suggest that if both iPhone and iWatch is revieled alongside each other then Apples stock price could rise anywhere in the region of 5-7% upon announcement as investors try to get their hands on Apple stock to cash in on its expected returns over the upcoming quarters.  

For the time being all we can tell you is you're going to have to just ride the wave and see where Apple plans to take you...

See below for some of what we think are the nicest looking concepts floating around on the internet.

Q3

As Q3 edges closer, the time has come to revisit the Apple lineup and put our predictions in.

After a hubris statement for WWDC, our hardware prediction were rather then being wrong, incorrectly timed. With hindsight it is easy to say WWDC was always going to be about the software, and now that we know this, and with iOS 8 poised to be released in Q3 a shiny new handset is guaranteed to join it on release day.

We stand by our predictions of a larger iPhone 6  with many similarities to the iPad mini. Along with this Apple is due to release newer versions of its MacBook's and MacBook Pro's with the only differences being beefed up insides.

The iPad lineup is expected to see new insides and Touch id on the outside.

Stay Tuned

iPhone 6... about time I said something...

So the rumours have been flying around for a while now, and with WWDC 2014 only a few months away, I thought it only worthwhile to have a look at whats been floating around.

Firstly our predictions:

I definitely expect to see a larger gorilla glass screen size but, nothing phablet sized, if you look back to my post on iOS 7.0 then you can see how Apple have been subconsciously pushed the need for a bigger screen on its customers. Apart from the new screen size, I expect to see a redesigned outer housing, as a scaled up version of the current lineup would look and feel very cumbersome, with that in mind, I lean towards believing that the next generation of iPhones will sport a very similar look and feel to the current line of iPad mini's. Furthermore the usual, hardware upgrades of beefing up the CPU / GPU offerings, a camera upgrade that rather then increasing the resolution provides better low light functionality and of cause providing a battery which will keep your new powerhouse working all day.

As I have said in the past if you are looking for a more then pragmatic revision to the current lineup then be prepared to be disappointed. The update will be more then capable of keeping you up to speed with the newest apps & games over the coming two years but i you expect your new iPhone to be able to teleport you to another galaxy then unfortunately not...

On other notes, NFT has to be included right? I'm really not sure on this one but, the incorporation of an Apple made health app seems prophesied and will most probably work with an additional accessory, will this be an iWatch? too soon to say but if all the rumours are true then why not.

anyway stay tuned and for now, bask in the glory of some images (thanks MacRumors) that have been floating around the WWW.

Stay tuned...
            
 

The Update

Wow guys, as impressed as I am with the new Apple line up I'm more impressed with our looking into the future skills.

Just to get it out of the way, the only thing that we wrongly predicted was the fact that we would be seeing Touch ID on the new iPad line up. Heres a prediction for the next iPad launch - Touch ID added...

Otherwise the Apple Machine has lived up to our expectations, now I know some of you will say another let down by Apple, but lets be realistic, we were never going to see Apple joining the auto manufacturing market, although an Apple iCar that would probably teleport from location to location and would run off a Tony Stark powered arc reactor would be cool... I guess we'll have to wait a few generation to see that happen.

Today it provided a new lineup of iPads and Mac's, yesterday it started developing its next instalment. Apple is constantly thinking ahead, sometimes consumers see this as a bad thing especially so when they want features or products now, but Apples philosophy has alway been perfection before production.

Along with the hardware updates Mavericks is also available, and at an awesome update price of $0, is hoping to wipe Snow Leopards, Lions, & Mountain Lions out of sight. This makes us smile and the expectation that Mavericks is backwards compatible up to the 2007 Macbook lineups is also great news, furthermore if it lives up to its efficiency claims we'll regard it an 100% upgrade requirement.

iPad & Mac Time....

As always the Apple store has gone down worldwide and we are minutes away from yet another release day announcement.

Todays lunchbox will definitely feature new versions of both the ipad and ipad mini, from all the noise on the internet we have bet on a smaller factor 9.7" ipad with a beefed up processor, a much more energy efficient display and the widely praised Touch ID system from its smaller brother the iPhone 5S.

The iPad Mini is bound to finally give users a retina display along with the necessary GPU and CPU upgrades.  

We are also predicting a new lineup of  Mac's and Mavericks being available following todays event.



Right thats enough predicting, stay tuned for the full press release.

          

iPhone 5s + iPhone 5c - the recap

So I hate to say "I told you so" but hours before the official release the predictions were in and it was like we had a crystal ball on our end, or maybe it was a rogue employee that drip fed us the information.

for legal reasons I must say neither of the two are correct, what we did do was sum up all the rumors and understand that it was too early for an iWatch and that the leaked iPhone 5c pictures were too real (and not wacky enough) to be fake, Bravo Apple for orchestrating yet another staged leak in the run up to a product release, everything from the itinerary to the date and time seemed to end up on the net before any official announcements.

Moving onto the tech, the biggest tech advance this season has to be the 5s' Touch id system, once set up it will allow a user + 4 other saved fingers to unlock their iPhone, make purchases from the apple ecosystem and work with apps that incorporate the feature, it is poised to be a simple alternative to tapping in a passcode, but could be limited by apples closed system, or may finally help passbook relaunch itself as a mobile keychain equivalent. 

  

The 5c has been launched by Apple as the cheaper alternative to the flagship models. the biggest problem here is whether the 5c is cheap enough attract the customers that Apple is trying to focus on. Many carriers may promote the 5c as a cheaper alternative, to the 5s and this may work against apples interests rather then for them.

I guess only time will tell what the outcome of this new endeavour is.

Stay tuned folks!

10/09/2013

New colorful iPhone, iPhone 5s with fingerprint recognition.... I guess we'll know in a few hours

stay tuned  

The Home Truth...

I just saw the above picture comparing the current ios home screen to the ios 7 home screen and one thing jumped out at me straight away, let me ask, do you see it?

ios 7's icons are all that little bit bigger then the current ios's icons, now you may ask, why would Apple have increased the size of its icons? The only logical explanation that came to mind was that it was unconsciously prepping its consumers needs.

So even as I write this I can hear you questioning: But why?

I do applaud who ever came up with the idea, but I do also question if more people will see through this little ploy. Apple are in desperate need for an excuse to increase the screen size on its iPhone lineup, after all a year ago when it released the iPhone 5 it had to explain to customers why the 5" screen with its given proportions was the best possible option that consumers could go for, now it would look and most probably feel quite silly if it had to say, well actually a larger screen iPhone such as what Samsung have offered for over two years is actually the way users can get the best possible experience.

Only time will tell if I've hit the nail on the head or if I should start wearing a tin foil hat on my head.

stay tuned for further updates!

Multiplication through Duplication...

So as Apple eye's catch up, I ask if their strategy has moved away from innovation and more towards duplication.

In the past year, Samsung have released numerous models catering for every need, desire, and infatuation. From a wide range of sizes and varied price brackets rumors suggest at Apple are keen to get in on the action.

Similar rumors have surfaced in the past so the question we must ask is are Apple willing to sacrifice its premium product branding to gain mass appeal? Yes Samsung seem to have gained massive market share with their products but as a technology enthusiast, I personally do not own any Samsung products. My main reason for this being, everything that Samsung makes someone else makes better, on the outside their products may look flash but we all know that we should not judge a book buy its cover.

Take TV's as an example, Samsung sells more units then most manufacturers yet when comparing their TV sets with like for like models, concentrating on picture quality they are rarely the best, Aesthetically the TV sets looks amazing, and they may even have more bells and whistles compared to their competitors equivalent models, yet on the one element that consumers should base their sale on, they do not come out on top.

The same can be said about the companies laptop lineup, the companies washing machine line up, come to think of it, their refrigerators are not so bad but I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult.

In response Reuters Article: Apple looking at bigger iPhone screens, multiple colours 
  

Checkmate! PS4 trumps Xbox One on numbers

Sony has announced at E3 that they will sell the new PS4 for £349 in the UK, $399 in the US and 399 euros across Europe. 

This stacked up against Microsofts  £429 in the UK, $499 in the US and 499 euros. 

The Price is good, Sony have not imposed as may restrictions (vs Xbox's pre owned games policy, necessity to connect to the internet every 24 hours)

Watch this space for release dates! More after the break

WWDC 2013 - The Highlights

1)

OS X Mavericks - 

Key Features:

- New Finder

- Multiple Displays

-App Nap

- Safari 

- iCloud Keychain

- Push Notifications

- New Calendar

- New Maps

Due: Fall 2013

2)

All New Macbook Air's

Features:
- Taking Advantage of Intel's Haswell CPU's, providing outstanding battery life (11'' = 9 hours, 13'' = 12 hours)
- Ships Today!

3)

Mac Pro

- 12-core Intel Xeon processor, 256-bit processor.
- ECC memory, 1,866MHz DDR3 memory. 60GBps performance.
- Flash storage, PCIe with 1.25GBps reads!
- "It's 10 times faster than any hard drive you could put in a Mac Pro before."
- "For those of you who use OpenCL, and you all know you should..." it's 7 teraflops of performance. 
- Supports 4K displays 
- Made in the USA

4)


iWork for iCloud

- MS Office cross compatibly 

- Full on web based experience via browser,

5)

iOS 7

Features:

- New Slide to unlock screen
- Icons redesigned
- Apple Apps redesigned
- Multitasking for all apps
- New Safari
- Airdrop
- Activation Lock
- New Camera Interface
- Siri (male / female - new languages, Twitter, Wikipedia, & Bing integration)
- Automobile integration (iOS Car - 16 manufacturers singed up to date)
- App store (new interface + and more importantly = Auto Update!!!)
- iTunes Radio

Coming soon on:

iPhone 4 and later
iPad 2 and later
iPad Mini


In-depth reviews to follow after the break...

2013 it begins!

In the next few hours, we will know what Apple have brought to the table, conservatives suggest that we'll get to see a glimpse of the new iOS and OSX 10.9, the imaginative among us shout for iWatchs, iPhone 5S's, and iPad Mini's with retina displays.

My predictions are more subtle, I take the same caution when making predictions as I do to adding salt to any meal that I'm making, hence I have compiled the following list:

1) iOS 7.0 preview
2) OSX 10.9 preview + intimidate download via app store
3) Updated Mac lineup with Intel Haswell chipset  

Everyone can agree that by this evening Apple will be selling something new on their website, what actually happens may be a different story.

Stay Tuned!
 

The new iPhone has a new number

The 5 and all its gory details:

Price (on contract)	$199 16GB, $299 32GB, $399 64GB
Processor	Apple A6
Memory	1GB (tbc)
Display	4-inch IPS 1,136 x 640
Pixel Density	326 ppi
Storage	16GB / 32GB / 64GB
Primary camera	8 megapixel AF with flash and f/2.4 aperture
Secondary camera	"FaceTime HD" at 720p
Video recording	1080p at 30fps
Cellular	GSM / CDMA / LTE
WiFi	Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.0 (tbc)
Orientation sensing	Accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope
Navigation	A-GPS, GLONASS
FaceTime	WiFi and Cellular
SIM standard	TBC
Battery life	Up to 8 hours talk time on 3G
	Up to 8 hours data on 3G
	Up to 8 hours data on LTE
	Up to 10 hours data on WiFi
	Up to 40 hours audio
	Up to 10 hours video
	Up to 225 hours on standby
Weight	112 grams / 3.9 oz
Dimensions	(TBC) x 7.6mm
Colors	Black / White