Showing posts with label Apple iPhone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple iPhone. Show all posts

Report: iPhone 4G packs potent chip

Thursday, 13 May 2010 0 comments
Report: iPhone 4G packs potent chipA prototype iPhone 4G is powered by an Apple processor similar to the one found in the iPad, according to published reports Wednesday.
If reports are accurate, the iPhone 4G would use a version of the A4 processor--a chip that Apple initially adopted for the iPad.
iFixit said Wednesday that the iPhone 4G prototype torn down on a Vietnamese Web site uses a chip that has markings similar to the iPad's A4 processor.

"(Wednesday's) photos from Vietnam of a leaked iPhone 4G prototype contain legible part numbers revealing (the) new iPhone's processor: the Apple A4," iFixit said.

If an Apple A4-class chip actually makes it into the final version of the iPhone 4G, consumers would likely see another appreciable jump in performance. The A4 chip was custom-designed by Apple "to be extremely powerful yet extremely power efficient," according to an Apple description of the chip on its iPad page. Needless to say, the iPad has a much larger screen (1024-by-768) than the iPhone (480-by-320) and uses the added horsepower of the A4 to, among other things, push around the extra pixels on its larger screen. Whether the iPhone 4G would use the same processor or a slightly tamer version because of its size constraints, remains to be seen.
And as a quick refresher, by definition, the A4 is a system-on-a-chip, or SOC, that integrates the main processor, graphics silicon, and other functions like the memory controller on one piece of silicon--in this respect, not unlike other ARM SOCs from companies like Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Marvell.
The A4's central processing unit (CPU) is thought to be based on a design by Intrinsity--a company Apple recently acquired--and manufactured by Samsung. Analysts have speculated that Apple may have also enhanced the A4's capabilities by modifying functions such as the 3D graphics engine. Along these lines, last year, Apple hired former chief technology officer Bob Drebin of the Graphics Products Group at Advanced Micro Devices, who is now listed as a senior director at Apple.
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What iPhone news might January 27 bring?

Monday, 25 January 2010 0 comments
Though the long-awaited Apple tablet is expected to take center stage at Wednesday's Apple event, we can't discount the possibility that the company will drop some iPhone news as well. After all, January has brought us updates to Apple's handset ever since the very first iPhone was unveiled at MacWorld 2007. And now that Apple is no longer attending the MacWorld party--that event has been moved to February--the January 27 jamboree would serve as a natural forum for any iPhone news.

So what can we expect? Now that we have multimedia messaging, the list of missing "must-have features" is narrowing. But even so, we still have an iPhone wish list and many people still hope that the iPhone will jump to another U.S. carrier.
For your convenience we've wrapped up the most rampant speculation here. As of now, all of these rumors remain just rumors, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to spread them around. After you're done reading the dish, be sure to click on the poll to tell us what you expect to happen.
New OS
If any iPhone news breaks on Wednesday we expect that this will be it. Apple hasn't unveiled a major iPhone update since last march (that was iPhone 3.0) so we're certainly due for an upgrade. The most probable scenario is that the iPhone could see its user interface revamped to go along with the mythical tablet. And on a related note, AT&T could finally enable tethering so the iPhone could connect to the tablet.
Outside of the tablet, other OS changes are very possible. The Boy Genius Report is predicting we'll get multitasking, expanded multitouch functionality, syncing changes for calendars and contacts, and more graphical UI enhancements. We also could see more home screens and better app organization on the device.
A new handset
We consider this prediction somewhat less plausible. Over the past two years, Apple waited until June and its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference to introduce new hardware and we expect that the company will do the same in 2010. But then again, Apple loves pulling "one more thing" surprises out of its hat, so anything can happen. Among the rumored features for a fourth-generation device are a 5-megapixel camera, a camera flash, and an OLED display. We've heard of a removable battery as well, but we're pretty doubtful that will ever happen.
A 4G iPhone
Somewhat related to but not to be confused with the above is an iPhone that can support fourth-generation networks like LTE. This seems unlikely, at least for now. Carrier 4G networks are still in their infancy in the United States and it's not like Apple to throw its weight behind a technology that has limited coverage and that hasn't been really proven...which brings us to our next rumor.
Verizon iPhone
The Verizon rumor has been around as long as the iPhone itself and, as we inch closer to Wednesday, analysts are falling over themselves to predict a device for America's largest carrier. We're still skeptical, partially because we still don't know when AT&T's exclusivity will end.
On the other hand, we can't imagine that Apple would forgo the chance the sell more iPhones, even if it is to the carrier that shunned it before. When that happens, we still think it will be a hybrid CDMA/GSM version or a device that supports the aforementioned LTE networks.
Of course, it's only a few days until we'll know all. But in the meantime, tell us what you think Wednesday will bring.


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Top 10 Reasons to Buy the iPhone 3G S

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 0 comments
iPhone 3G S
The iPhone 3G S is the fastest iPhone, yet. I hate stuffing multiple gadgets into my jeans. But it is uncool for a tech guy living in Silicon Valley to carry around a manbag. I’ve tried and it feels a bit awkward. So far my iPhone has been the best all-in-one pocketable device but with a few areas that needed improvement. The weakest feature of the iPhone 3G is the camera–it sucks. The new iPhone 3G S has a much improved camera and a whole lot more. If you want just one device in your pocket (or purse) that does it all and does it well the iPhone 3G S, in my opinion, is simply the best pocketable do-everything gadget available. Yes, better than the Palm Pre. Here are ten reasons why you should seriously consider getting the iPhone 3GS, in no particular order:

1. 3.5” Widescreen Display
The screen is huge and crystal clear thanks to a 3.5”, 320x480 px display at 160 ppi. That’s a whole lot of pixels and consequently, a whole lot of clarity. The colours are vibrant and sharp and everything looks just lovely. The problem with a lot of portable devices in the past has been the screen size. By making the screen the whole unit and with no keypad in site, Apple have been able to maximise screen size and create a truly multimedia handheld device.
2. Touch Screen
This is the really clever bit. Touch screen has been used in electronic devices and interfaces for years now, but the iPhone takes touch-screen implementation to a whole new level. The whole screen changes depending on your needs, so at one point it might be a kaypad, whilst at others it will be your music library or a short video clip for your viewing pleasure. You can scroll down through lists with a flick of your finger and the whole things just works brilliantly.
3. Mac OSX
Not the full operating system, that would be stupid. The version of OSX that Apple use on the iPhone is fully customised and streamlined for mobile use. Upgrading the OS should be as simple as it is on an iPod or a Mac but it has not yet been made clear how different the iPhone OS will be from its all-singing all-dancing bigger brother. The iPhone's version of OS X includes the software component "Core Animation" which is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface, so that’s how it looks so slick.
4. The Look
Which brings us rather nicely onto how the thing actually looks. The screen is excellent, the design is slick and the whole phone is really well put together. It measures in at 115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46”) and weighs 135 grams (4.8 ounces). When you consider how much is squeezed into the iPhone, that’s small. The aesthetics of the whole thing are lovely, lots of nice lines and the sort of finish that Apple are famous for. Hopefully it’ll stand up to daily wear and tear well too.
5. It's Clever
The iPhone is a clever piece of kit. It has a built-in accelerometer that tells it whether you are holding it vertically or horizontally and adjusts the screen accordingly. It is these little things that make a big difference. How about scrolling through a huge contacts list or iTunes library? You can simply flick your finger up or down the screen and the list will whizz done quickly and then ease to a stop. It looks great and more than that it serves a purpose too. This is just the tip of the iceberg, the iPhone is stuffed full of cool features.
6. Wireless Capabilities
As standard, the iPhone has Wi-Fi which will be able to take the device online so long as it is in range of a wireless network point. The iPhone also has Bluetooth built in and works with wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth 2.0 technology and for file transfer. The tech bit? Well, the iPhone is a quad band GSM phone along with a 802.11g/b Wi-Fi, supports EDGE data transfer (for high speed internet and data transfer), and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR.
7. It's Stylish
Okay, so it might be a bit of a lame reason, but trust us, the iPhone is going to be very cool...if it isn’t already. Everything Apple touch at the moment seemingly turns to gold (or shiny white). The iPhone has a great look, some great features and is sure to be the next ‘must have’ gadget. So if you can afford the price point, you’ll be the envy of all your friends. Just don’t sit there playing with it all evening in the pub or at work, you’ll look like a twit.
8. Full Web Browsing
It uses Apple’s Safari Browser and displays web pages in their full form. So no pokey little optimised site, but a full on, glorious World Wide Web. You can view them either vertically or horizontally and zooming is done in style by simply ‘pinching’ (double-tapping) a section of the screen to zoom in on. The email client on the phone displays mail in full HTML glory so you can embed images into your emails and also receive pretty looking messages as supposed to plaintext emails. The best bit though is the use of Google Maps on the iPhone. Steve Jobs demonstrated how this optimised version of the web tool can be used on the iPhone by finding a nearby coffee shop and placing a call to it by simply tapping the screen. Clever stuff.
9. Supports iTunes
The iPhone will come in two versions at launch: 4GB and 8GB. Whilst this isn’t a huge amount of memory, it is still enough to store a fair bit of music for your day to day use. You can browse through all your music in style with a lovely little interface. Video can be viewed in widescreen, so you can watch TV shows and films using the whole of the screen. The combination of a phone that has full iTunes compatibility is a major selling point for the iPhone.
10. Widgets
If you know anyone who uses a Mac, or you yourself use one, you have no doubt heard about or love Widgets. These ingenious little things allow you to do important and unimportant things with consummate ease. You can check the weather, check stocks, check flight times and much more. Just how Widgets will be implemented into the iPhone is still unknown, but we’ve got high hopes for them!

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iPhone and education

Monday, 11 January 2010 0 comments
iphone
How do you educate a generation of students eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones and video games? Easy. You enable them by handing out free iPhones — and then integrating the gadget into your curriculum.
That’s the idea Abilene Christian University has to refresh classroom learning. Located in Texas, the private university just finished its first year of a pilot program, in which 1,000 freshman students had the choice between a free iPhone or an iPod Touch.


The initiative’s goal was to explore how the always-connected iPhone might revolutionize the classroom experience with a dash of digital interactivity. Think web apps to turn in homework, look up campus maps, watch lecture podcasts and check class schedules and grades. For classroom participation, there’s even polling software for Abilene students to digitally raise their hand.
The verdict? It’s working quite well. 2,100 Abilene students, or 48 percent of the population, are now equipped with a free iPhone. Fully 97 percent of the faculty population has iPhones, too. The iPhone is aiding Abilene in giving students the information they need — when they want it, wherever they want it, said Bill Rankin, a professor of medieval studies who helped plan the initiative.
“It’s kind of the TiVoing of education,” Rankin said in a phone interview. “I watch it when I need it and in ways that I need it. And that makes a huge difference.”
The traditional classroom, where an instructor assigns a textbook, is heading toward obsolescence. Why listen to a single source talk about a printed textbook that will inevitably be outdated in a few years? That setting seems stale and hopelessly limited when pitted against the internet, which opens a portal to a live stream of information provided by billions of minds.
“About five years ago my students stopped taking notes,” Rankin said. “I asked, ‘Why are you not taking notes?’ And they said, ‘Why would we take notes on that?…. I can go to Wikipedia or go to Google, and I can get all the information I need.”
Conversely, the problem with the internet is there’s too much information, and it’s difficult to determine which data is valuable.
These are the specific educational problems Abilene is targeting with the iPhone. Instead of standing in front of a classroom and talking for an hour, Rankin instructs his students to use their iPhones to look up relevant information on the fly. Then, the students can discuss the information they’ve found, and Rankin leads the dialogue by helping assess which sources are accurate and useful.
It’s like a mashup of a 1960s teach-in with smartphone technology from the 2000s.
Each participating Abilene instructor is incorporating the iPhone differently into their curriculum. In some classrooms, professors project discussion questions onscreen in a PowerPoint presentation. Then, using polling software that Abilene coded for the iPhone, students can answer the questions anonymously by sending responses electronically with their iPhones. The software can also quickly quiz students to gauge whether they’re understanding the lesson.
Most importantly, by allowing the students to participate in polls anonymously with the iPhone, it relieves them of any social pressure to appear intelligent in front of their peers. If they answer wrong, nobody will know who it was, ridding students of humiliation. And if students don’t understand a lesson, they can ask the teacher to repeat it by simply tapping a button on the iPhone.
“Polling opens up new realms for people for discussion,” said Tyler Sutphen, an ACU sophomore who has participated in the iPhone initiative for a year. “It’s a lot more interactive for those who aren’t as willing to jump up and throw out their answer in class. Instead, you push a button on the iPhone.”
Kasey Stratton, a first-year ACU business student, said her favorite aspect of the iPhone program was how apps are changing the way students interact socially. Many Abilene students use Bump, a free app downloadable through the App Store [iTunes], which enables them to swap e-mails and phone numbers by bumping their iPhones together. Also, the campus’ map app helped her become familiar with the campus quickly when she arrived.
“At ACU it’s like they see [the iPhone] is the way of the future and they might as well take advantage of it,” Stratton said in a phone interview. “They’re preparing us for the real world — not a place where you’re not allowed to use anything.”
Implementing the iPhone program wasn’t easy. In addition to writing custom web apps for the iPhone, the university optimized its campuswide Wi-Fi to support the 2,100 iPhones. Rankin declined to disclose exact figures for money invested in the iPhone program, but he said the initiative only takes up about 1 percent of the university’s annual budget. To offset costs, the university discontinued in-dorm computer labs, since the vast majority of students already own notebooks. Students who opted for iPhones are responsible for paying their own monthly plans with AT&T.
After a successful run, the university plans to continue the iPhone program, with plans to upgrade to new iPhones every two years. Rankin said some UK universities plan to launch similar initiatives as well. In the United States, Stanford doesn’t hand out free iPhones to its students (yet), but it offers an iPhone app called iStanford for students to look up class schedules, the Stanford directory, the campus map and sports news. Stanford also offers a computer science course on iPhone app programming, whose lectures are streamed for free via iTunes.
“For us, it isn’t primarily about the device,” Rankin said. “This is a question of, how do we live and learn in the 21st century now that we have these sorts of connections?…. I think this is the next platform for education.”



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Apple iPhone 3GS 32GB

Friday, 30 October 2009 2 comments
Apple iPhone

Price:$1,078.99

The Fastest iPhone Ever

The first thing you’ll notice about iPhone 3GS is how quickly you can launch applications. Web pages render in a fraction of the time, and you can view email attachments faster. Improved performance and updated 3D graphics deliver an incredible gaming experience, too. In fact, everything you do on iPhone 3GS is up to 2x faster and more responsive than iPhone 3G.

Video

Now you can shoot video, edit it, and share it — all on your iPhone 3GS. Shoot high-quality VGA video in portrait or landscape. Trim your footage by adjusting start and end points. Then share your video in an email, post it to your MobileMe gallery, publish it on YouTube, or sync it back to your Mac or PC using iTunes.

3-Megapixel Camera

The new 3-megapixel camera takes great still photos, too, thanks to built-in autofocus and a handy new feature that lets you tap the display to focus on anything (or anyone) you want.

Voice Control

Voice Control recognizes the names in your Contacts and knows the music on your iPod. So if you want to place a call or play a song, all you have to do is ask.

Compass

With a built-in digital compass, iPhone 3GS can point the way. Use the new Compass app, or watch as it automatically reorients maps to match the direction you’re facing.

Cut, Copy & Paste

Cut, copy, and paste words and photos, even between applications. Copy and paste images and content from the web, too.

Landscape Keyboard

Want more room to type on the intelligent software keyboard? Rotate iPhone to landscape to use a larger keyboard in Mail, Messages, Notes, and Safari.

Messages

Send messages with text, video, photos, audio, locations, and contact information. You can even forward one or more messages to others.

Search

Find what you’re looking for across your iPhone, all from one convenient place. Spotlight searches all your contacts, email, calendars, and notes, as well as everything in your iPod.

Accessibility

iPhone 3GS offers accessibility features to assist users who are visually or hearing impaired. These features include the VoiceOver screen reader, a Zoom feature, White on Black display options, Mono Audio, and more.

Internet Tethering

Surf the web from practically anywhere. Now you can share the 3G connection on your iPhone with your Mac notebook or PC laptop.

Voice Memos

Capture and share a thought, a memo, a meeting, or any audio recording on the go with the new Voice Memos application.

Nike + iPod

iPhone includes built-in Nike + iPod support. Just slip the Nike + iPod Sensor (available separately) into your Nike+ shoe and start your workout.

Stocks

Stocks on iPhone shows you charts, financial details, and headline news for any stock you choose. Rotate iPhone to see even more detailed information.

YouTube

Watch YouTube videos wherever you are. Log in to your YouTube account to save and sync bookmarks and rate your favorites.

Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe

If you misplace your iPhone, Apple’s MobileMe service can help you find it. Log on to me.com to view a map that shows the approximate location of your iPhone. If it’s nearby, have it play an alert sound to help you find it, or display a message on the home screen to help someone return it to you. If displaying a message hasn’t resulted in its safe return, you can initiate a remote wipe and restore your iPhone to factory settings.



Features
Improved performance
3-megapixel autofocus camera
Video recording
Voice Control
Digital compass
Cut, Copy & Paste
MMS23
Spotlight Search
Landscape keyboard
Voice Memos


Tech Specs
Size and weight
Height: 4.5 inches (115.5 mm)
Width: 2.4 inches (62.1 mm)
Depth: 0.48 inch (12.3 mm)
Weight: 4.8 ounces (135 grams)
Cellular and wireless
UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Power and battery
Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter
Talk time:
Up to 12 hours on 2G
Up to 5 hours on 3G
Standby time: Up to 300 hours

Internet use:
Up to 5 hours on 3G
Up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback: Up to 10 hours
Audio playback: Up to 30 hours
Display
3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi
Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
Audio playback
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Video playback
Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Camera, photos, and video
3 megapixels
Autofocus
Tap to focus
Video recording, VGA up to 30 fps with audio
Photo and video geotagging
iPhone and third-party application integration
In the box
iPhone 3GS
Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic
Dock Connector to USB Cable
USB Power Adapter
Documentation
SIM eject tool

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