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Apple Australia Lets You Reserve An iPad 2 For Pickup

If you’re on the hunt for an iPad 2 and live in Australia you might just have a good chance of snapping one up from an Apple Store by reserving one online. That’s right, Apple Australia is letting customers reserve iPad 2’s for pick-up at an Apple Store and the next day no less!

There is however a (large) caveat in that you can only reserve an iPad 2 if that particular store has them in stock – and after going live only 3 hours ago I’ve looked through most of the Australian Apple Stores and none have stock of any of the 12 models.  Apple Stores do however receive stock fairly frequently, at least a few times a week so keep checking if you’ve missed out in this first batch of reservable iPad 2’s.

If you live close enough to an Australian Apple retail store and want to reserve an iPad 2 for pickup, jump over to the Apple retail site. At this stage it seems that Apple isn’t offering to do reserve iPad 2’s in any other country but one would suspect they may transition this system internationally and hopefully soon as it sure beats going to an Apple store everyday to ask if they have the model you want in stock.

[Via MacTalk]

 


Apple Design Awards 2011 To Feature Both iOS and Mac Apps

Together with the official announcement of WWDC 2011, Apple also put a teaser page up for the Apple Design Awards, which recognize “apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.” Unlike last year, this year’s ADAs will feature both iOS and Mac apps: in 2010, Mac software was surprisingly excluded and iOS was the focus. Steve Jobs said that it was “just the normal cycle of things”. Among the winners of the 2010 edition: Flight Control HD, Star Walk and Doodle Jump.

At the WWDC 2011 Apple will award outstanding apps for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Apps that  are “currently on the App Store and demonstrate excellence in the following areas:”

  • Design: Well designed apps are delightful, elegant, intuitive, engaging, exciting, compelling, and reliable.
  • Innovation: Innovative apps are revolutionary, inspirational, unique, and do things in completely new and exciting ways.
  • Technical excellence: Technically advanced apps have excellent performance and make extensive use of the latest Apple technologies to deliver innovative, platform differentiating, and advanced features.

To be eligible for the Apple Design Awards 2011, apps must be available in the App Store by May 23. More details and frequently asked questions here.


Apple Announces WWDC 2011 Dates: Kicks Off June 6

Apple just announced the official dates for the WWDC 2011. The developer event kicks off in San Francisco on June 6 and it runs through June 10. With more than 100 sessions and support by over 1,000 Apple engineers, the WWDC is the perfect place to connect with fellow iOS and OS X developers around the world. Apple is heavily betting on the WWDC 2011 to “unveil the future of iOS and OS X”:

At this year’s conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “If you are an iOS or Mac OS X software developer, this is the event that you do not want to miss.

Furthermore, there will be Apple Design Awards for iPhone, iPad and Mac apps this year. Last year, Apple didn’t include Mac software in the Design Awards, which “recognize apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design”.

Tickets are available now starting at $1,599 here. Press release below.

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Steve Jobs: Once Again One Of The “World’s Best CEO’s”

Just like every year, online publication Barron’s has posted its list of the “world’s best CEO’s”, and like last year Steve Jobs is included and considered “without a doubt” the most valuable one. The list, which includes names like Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, is made of 18 CEO’s of US-based companies and eight of them are new entries. Steve Jobs is mentioned – in spite of his medical leave of absence – for the amazing milestone of 100 million iPhones sold, the release of the iPad and the continuous success of Apple’s products overall.

Recently, Fortune named Apple “most admired company”. Complete list below, courtesy of Setteb.it:

  • Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
  • Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway)
  • Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase)
  • Larry Ellison (Oracle)
  • Larry Fink (BlackRock)
  • Reed Hastings (Netflix)
  • Steve Jobs (Apple)
  • Patrick Kron (Alstom)
  • Ma Huateng (Tencent)
  • Fujio Mitarai (Canon)
  • Alan Mullaly (Ford)
  • Gordon Nixon (Royal Bank of Canada)
  • Michael O’Leary (Ryanair)
  • Sam Palmisano (IBM)
  • Bruce Rockowitz (Li & Fung)
  • Peter Sands (Standard Chartered)
  • Jim Sinegal (Costco Wholesale)
  • Jim Skinner (McDonald’s)
  • Fred Smith (FedEx)
  • Tim Solso (Cummins)
  • Rex Tillerson (Exxon Mobil)
  • Miles White (Abbott Laboratories)

New entries after the break. Read more


Here Comes The (Fake) Angry Birds Movie Trailer

They say you can tell the success of a franchise from the number of additional material, gadgets, toys and extra stuff it generates besides the main line of products. Angry Birds is the perfect example: it started as an iPhone app, then it landed on the iPad, Android, home consoles. Then Rovio outsourced the production of plush toys, cellphone and tablet cases, made a deal with Universal for a movie tie-in (that’s actually well done) and there are thousands of fans worldwide coming up with the craziest Angry Birds-related creations every day. Like cakes and LEGO. The next step, the discovery of a fake movie trailer on Youtube, doesn’t come as a surprise at all at this point.

The video is embedded below, and it’s somewhat disturbing. If only because it feels “real”, with the “government” studying the behavior of the birds in secret labs and the main character feeling bad about fighting pigs but killing the birds in the process.

Totally crazy. Oh, and it’s directed by Michael Bay! Check it out below. [via The Next Web] Read more


Curious iPad 2 Camera Bug Generates Color-crazy Photos & Videos

A few days ago we reported the FaceTime app on the iPad 2 might have some issues with the cameras “freezing” on the last displayed video call until a user restarts the device. I experienced this problem personally and it’s very annoying, as it forces you to close everything and reboot. Yet the issues with iPad 2 cameras reported by Cult Of Mac (and other users in my Twitter timeline last week, too) certainly are more interesting. Mainly because the screenshots taken to demonstrate the issue are completely crazy.

I compiled some still images from a recording that I made while inside a car wash. I had my iPad 2 in my bag, and I figured that, since I’ve yet to record a video on it, I could just record my trip through the car wash. During the two and a half minutes that I was in there, I noticed that the colors were “glitching-out.” It’s happened three times now.

Apparently the issue hasn’t been fixed in iOS 4.3.1, and it’s unclear whether it’s a software-related problem, a more serious hardware flaw. When I saw the first Twitpics of these crazy iPad 2 shots last week I thought it was an isolated issue happening to a couple of users, now Cult Of Mac says they received dozens of similar reports. I, for one, can say the issue with FaceTime and the cameras freezing is most definitely real, although I can’t confirm on the “color glitching” problem reported above. If you’re experiencing problems with your iPad 2’s cameras, drop a comment below or, even better, open a thread on Apple Discussions.

 


Rumor: Cloud-based iOS 5 Coming this Fall with New Location & Music Services

Following the speculation that Apple might soon seed a GM build of OS X Lion to developers, TechCrunch now reports the long-awaited major revamp of iOS, dubbed iOS 5, has been pushed back to fall, with a possible WWDC preview in June. The rumor is interesting because it breaks Apple’s usual release cycle and media event pattern: in the past years, Apple previewed a new version of iPhone OS (and then iOS) with a media event in March / April, and then released it by the WWDC, or soon after that together with the availability of a new iPhone model. And in the past years, this plan has worked quite well for Apple: developers had time to test the OS in the months leading up to the WWDC, whilst everyone else was getting ready for a new iPhone in June / July. According to TechCrunch, this is about to change.

Citing “two solid sources”, MG Siegler reports this year’s plan involves a preview of the new OS at the WWDC, and a public release “this fall”. Putting the pieces together, as TechCrunch also notes, pushing iOS 5 back to fall would play well with Apple’s usual music event in September. But why would Apple use the music event to do some major iOS-related announcement? TechCrunch speculates it’s all about the cloud: the rumored “music locker” service will be ready this fall, and being a major new feature of iOS 5 Apple might as well wait until September to unveil it. iOS 5 is also rumored to introduce a new UI, a new notification system, direct OS X integration. Read more


Cydia 1.1 Is Here! Speed, Stability and Search Improvements Plus A Resume Feature

Jay Freeman, a.k.a Saurik just tweeted out that Cydia 1.1 is out; the update focuses on being even “faster, slimmer and more stable”. It also adds an improved search algorithm and a “resume where you left off” feature in what is a really solid update to the app. To get the update all you need to do is run Cydia and it will prompt you to run some updates.

Cydia 1.1: faster, slimmer, and more stable; including an improved search algorithm and “resume where you left off”. Available in Cydia now!

Many people will be glad to hear that speed has most definitely been improved in the app and it is now far quicker at loading to a fully loaded state as well as checking for updates, searching and loading the various categories of repositories. As Freeman says in his tweet, there is a new search algorithm, which as he explained in a comment earlier this month includes “an integer-arithmetic radix-sorted relevancy algorithm” which does make a little bit of difference from my quick testing. Perhaps more helpful is that the search results screen has been tweaked to make the results slightly smaller so that more can fit on the screen at any one time, helpful to quickly scan across the results to the one you want.

One of the oft-requested features for Cydia was support for multi-tasking, however as Freeman explained in some comments, this is not feasibly possible because of the requirement that Cydia run as Root whilst SpringBoard (which controls the suspension and resumption of apps) does not, meaning it could not control Cydia like it can a normal app and let it run in the background. However in Cydia 1.1, Freeman has managed to largely resolve the issue of multi-tasking with a “resume where you left off” feature which lets you quickly (I experienced less than 4 seconds wait time) get back to exactly where you were in the app, whether it be on a search page or inside a section folder.


Retina Display Featured In Latest “If You Don’t Have An iPhone” Ad

The iPhone 4’s Retina Display is the latest feature to be showcased in Apple’s new advertising campaign characterized by the “If you don’t have an iPhone” tag line. It highlights how without a Retina Display,  ”movies aren’t this dramatic”, “maps aren’t this clear”, “emails aren’t this detailed” and “memories aren’t this memorable”.

Jump the break to watch this latest ad, as well as the other four featured in the “If you don’t have an iPhone” ad series which demonstrate Game Center, the App Store, iBooks and the iTunes store.

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