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Posts tagged with "apple"

“New and Innovative Features” Coming to iOS Maps App, According to Job Posting

It’s no secret Apple is working on new functionalities for its iPhone and iPad Maps application to introduce in iOS 5, but a new job posting on Apple’s website seems to confirm that the focus for the next major version of Maps will a completely new user interface, and a series of “innovative features” that, supposedly, will dramatically change the look and feel of the app. Apple already emphasized in the past through other job postings that they were looking for engineers to bring Maps “to the next level” with deeper integration with navigation software, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that the team is still looking for new designers and developers to enhance the Maps experience.

Come work for the team that revolutionized the mobile technology industry as it continues to define what computing looks like in a post-PC era. The Maps team is looking for a proactive and hardworking software engineer to join our team. Along with excellent skills in object-oriented software design and programming, the successful candidate will have real-world experience developing sophisticated user interfaces. Excellent communication skills are also a must, as you will be collaborating closely with Apple’s peerless human interface team to add new and innovative features.

Whether the new version of Maps will be bundled with iOS 5 is still unknown at this point; Apple confirmed last week that they are currently working on an improved traffic service to launch in the next years, but several reports in the past indicated iOS 5 – coming out later this year, with a preview at the WWDC in June – would be heavily based on location, Maps, and other cloud-oriented features. Many even speculated Apple could leverage its own version of mapping software, thus ditching Google Maps, to build a new social location service to include in the new MobileMe / iCloud. Speculation about the new iOS Maps application is running wild lately, and the job postings from Apple do nothing but increase the amount of guesses and rumors we’re hearing on the subject. Seeing an improved Maps app in June wouldn’t surprise anyone, but it’s unclear how many of the new functionalities Apple is working on will be rolled out this year with iOS 5. [via 9to5mac]

Apple Introduces New iMacs with Thunderbolt and New Quad-Core Processors

Right on cue, Apple has just introduced an updated line of iMacs on its online store, which notably feature the Thunderbolt technology and come with the new quad-core processors from Intel. The refresh brings the iMacs in line with the MacBook Pros that received an update in February, which also added Thunderbolt and “Sandy Bridge” processors, as well as a general speed bump. The new iMacs also feature a FaceTime HD camera and new AMD Radeon HD graphics for better gaming performances, photo editing and video processing; the 27-inch models come with two Thunderbolt ports for greater expansion with future Thunderbolt-enabled peripherals.  The new iMacs feature quad-core Intel Core i5 “Sandy Bridge” processors, but customers have an option to order a Core i7 in the configuration page (only for high-end 21.5-inch and 27-inch models, base models don’t support Core i7).

With next generation quad-core processors, powerful new graphics, Thunderbolt technology and a FaceTime HD camera, we’ve made the world’s best desktop even better.”
“Our customers love the iMac’s aluminum enclosure, gorgeous display and all-in-one design,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With next generation quad-core processors, powerful new graphics, Thunderbolt technology and a FaceTime HD camera, we’ve made the world’s best desktop even better.”

The new iMac features quad-core Intel Core i5 processors with an option for customers to choose Core i7 processors up to 3.4 GHz. These next generation processors feature an integrated memory controller for an amazingly responsive experience and a powerful new media engine for high-performance video encoding and decoding. With new AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, the new iMac has the most powerful graphics ever in an all-in-one desktop.

Press release is available here and embedded below. The official iMac page on Apple.com has just been updated with a detailed explanation of all the new specs.

As for other specs:

Graphics:

  • 21.5-inch iMac base model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
  • 21.5-inch iMac: AMD Radeon HD 6770M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
  • 27-inch iMac base model: AMD Radeon HD 6770M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
  • 27-inch iMac: AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory (Configurable to AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 2GB GDDR5, only at the Apple Online Store.)

 

Video support and Camera:

  • FaceTime HD camera
  • Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to a 30-inch display (2560 by 1600 pixels) on an external display
  • Support for extended desktop and video mirroring modes

Connections:

  • One Thunderbolt port on 21.5-inch iMac
  • Two Thunderbolt ports on 27-inch iMac
  • Mini DisplayPort output with support for DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI (adapters sold separately)
  • One FireWire 800 port; 7 watts
  • Four USB 2.0 ports
  • SDXC card slot
  • Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive with 4x double-layer burning (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
  • Audio in/out
  • 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
  • IR receiver

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MG Siegler Affirms “Castle” Speculation, Internal Name For Cloud Services

Apple’s cloud ambitions have been resurfacing over the last week with several rumours surrounding Apple’s reported purchase of icloud.com and now references to a service called “Castle” in Lion. Trusted Apple blogger, MG Siegler, tonight weighed into all the speculation, endorsing previous speculation by TUAW that “Castle” refers to Apple’s internal nickname of their new cloud services.

The discovery in Lion by Consomac.fr last week found references files that cited an “upgrade from MobileMe to Castle”. Siegler provides some more information in that the internal codename had originally been “Newcastle” but was recently shortened to “Castle”. Furthermore, as far as he is aware, the official shipping name may not yet be decided and “Castle” is still being used internally. The recent speculation over the icloud.com domain may just be one of the potential names for Apple’s cloud service.

On the rumours that AppleInsider reported on Friday, Siegler is reasonably confident that Apple is testing their cloud service internally with new versions of iOS and OS X but with the “Castle” codename rather than iCloud that AppleInsider reported. The cloud service being developed is highly likely to be revealed at this years WWDC, just five weeks away now, whether it be called iCloud (Siegler believes it to be a frontrunner for the name) or something else.

[Via TechCrunch]

 

LucasArts Licenses Unreal Engine 3 In Multi-Year Deal

Late last week Epic Games announced that it had struck a multi-year, studio-wide licensing agreement with LucasArts for its Unreal Engine 3. The agreement covers multiple projects to be developed by LucasArts using the engine for multiple platforms.

Unreal Engine 3 is the game engine that Epic Games developed and was designed to run on Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and most recently iOS. It certainly opens up the possibility of LucasArts expanding their development of iOS games, which currently only consists of The Secret of Monkey Island given the simplification of porting games is made with Unreal Engine 3 across platforms.

In their announcement, Epic Vice President Mark Rein said, “LucasArts is now primed to capitalize on Unreal Engine 3’s ability to scale across platforms, from mobile, through PC and console all the way up to the next generation of games.” Earlier this year Gameloft revealed that they had licensed the Unreal Engine for four iOS games following the success of Epic Citadel and Infinity Blade - demonstration games made by Epic Games that showed the power of the game engine on iOS.

[Via TouchArcade]

Safari “Reading List” Discovered In Lion, Apple Taking On Instapaper and Readability?

A new feature uncovered in OS X Lion by MacRumors reveals that Apple plans to take on “read it later” services such as ReadItLater, Instapaper and Readability. It has implemented a new bookmarking feature in that latest Lion builds of Safari that Apple is calling the “Reading List” and can be used by users to save pages for later reading. Apple describes it feature saying:

Reading List lets you collect webpages and links for you to read later. To add the current page to your Reading List, click Add Page. You can also Shift-click a link to quickly add it to the list. To hide and show Reading List, click the Reading List icon (eyeglasses) in the bookmarks bar.

The feature is currently hidden away in the latest OS X Lion build and no mention of the feature has yet been made by Apple in any of its announcements or documentation of Lion. One question certainly is about how robust the feature will be and whether it will become a service that synchronises the bookmarks across devices, including mobile devices. Marco Arment, the creator and developer of Instapaper, appears not to be to worrying about it so far and believes that “Instapaper would still have a market even if Apple implemented Reading List synced to iOS devices.”

[Via MacRumors]


Apple Is Now More Profitable Than Microsoft (“Bill, Thank You. The World’s a Better Place”)→

Apple Is Now More Profitable Than Microsoft (“Bill, Thank You. The World’s a Better Place”)

Another remarkable–and remarkably ironic–milestone for Apple, which surpassed Microsoft in market cap last May. It was Microsoft, after all, that breathed new life into a struggling Apple back in 1997 with a $150 million investment in the company (see video below). What was it Bill Gates said at the time? “We think Apple makes a huge contribution in the computer industry. And we think it’s going to be a lot of fun helping out.”

A lot of fun indeed. Paczkowski reports that Microsoft reported a net income of $5.23 billion on Thursday, whereas Apple’s net income was $5.99 billion for the second quarter. Bill Gates was the best thing that could have happened to Microsoft, and I don’t see where Steve Ballmer is bringing fresh blood into the company. The focus has been on “Windows,” and not refactoring to make really great products. Arguably Windows Phone 7 isn’t bad, but is the future of Microsoft to re-skin everything to look Metro? (It feels the hip Zune style is playing a big role in where Microsoft wants to go interface wise - it’s at least fresh and exciting.) Microsoft can’t survive on Microsoft Office, and they need to work hard to remove the “Windows” stigma. Heck, I think Joe Belfiore (who is an excellent image for the company) has a better vision to take Microsoft places out of any of the execs currently running the corporate giant. Just look at where the corporate culture is taking RIM.

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E-Books Fail To Save Publishers From Revenue Decline

Research published yesterday by IHS iSuppli reveals that the US book publishing industry has reached a “major inflection point” in which there will be a long-term decline in revenue, as e-book sales fail to reach the levels required to compensate the fall in physical book sales.

Over the period of 2010-2014, the book publishing industry will face a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) decline of 3% for both e-books and paper books. This reflects a fall in revenue from $25 billion between 2005 and 2010 to $22.7 billion between 2010 and 2014. Driving the decline is a 5% fall in the CAGR of physical book revenue, which far outweighs the 40% CAGR in e-books. This is mostly due to the fact that the selling prices of e-books are on average 40% lower than those of paper copies.

Dedicated e-readers, however, are forecast to triple in sales from 2010’s 9.7 million sales to over 30 million units in 2014. Previous figures did forecast over 40 million sales, but IHS iSuppli believes devices such as the iPad and other tablets will limit the market for such dedicated e-reading devices. IHS iSuppli also reveals in its analysis that since the introduction of the iPad, e-reader manufacturers have been forced to shrink margins from 35% to far lower levels.

[Via IHS iSuppli]

 

Square Set To Add Encryption To Next Generation Of Card Readers

Yesterday Square revealed that it had received from financial services superpower, Visa, strategic investment of an unspecified size. However in a lower key announcement it also revealed that this summer they will be releasing a new card reader that uses encryption on the read head.

You may recall the little squabble a few months back where VeriFone and Square traded blows over whether the Square card reader was secure enough. VeriFone claimed it wasn’t and that Square should recall all their readers because thieves could easily skim credit card information using the device. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square, hit back at VeriFone saying it was “not a fair or accurate claim and [that] it overlooks all of the protections already built into your credit card.”

Yet despite all that, Square will soon be addressing those “concerns” that VeriFone had, and release a card reader that employs encryption. The Square COO, Keith Rabois, notes that they are adopting Visa’s newly released (yesterday) mobile application best practices. He says that the “adoption of best practices will help increase trust in innovative payment solutions” although equally stresses that Square currently complies with all industry standards. TechCrunch rightly highlights that it is clearly no coincidence that Square’s endorsement of Visa’s best practices came on the same day as their funding announcement.

TechCrunch inquired as to whether users would have to replace their current readers but Rabois declined to comment specifically but he did continue to affirm Square’s previous rejection of VeriFone’s demand to recall the Square readers. Rabois also noted that encryption will not be the only new feature of the third iteration of readers coming this summer.

[Via TechCrunch]

White iPhone 4 Sells Out In Hong Kong And Beijing

It was delayed and delayed for 10 months but yesterday the white iPhone 4 went on sale…and promptly sold out in Hong Kong and Beijing where there were long lines around Apple stores and resellers. Some shoppers in Hong Kong began queuing up at midnight the day before, and they are probably glad they did, in some stores in China the device was gone within an hour.

It was a different and much more subdued affair in the US where few, if any lines were reported at Apple Stores, and as far as we are aware most stores should still have stock. Although on the online Apple Store there is a 3-5 day wait before shipping for the white model, with the black model shipping in the standard 24 hours.

No one is really sure why the white iPhone 4 sold out in China and not in the US but one could guess at a few factors from the white being more preferred, less stock given to Chinese stores or perhaps an increasing appeal of Apple in China. In any case its an early sign of the expected rapid retail sales growth of Apple products in China which Forbes predicts will propel Apple shares upwards.

[Via Cult of Mac]