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Apple iOS 6 to come this fall

Apple has announced that this fall, iOS 6 will be released. Most current iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users will end up upgrading to iOS 6 in hopes of new features, and we hope that Apple doesn’t let us down. Based on what Apple has announced so far, most people are excited to get iOS 6 on their devices and take advantage of the newest features. I will go over some of the new features that Apple has announced so far.

The first thing that iOS 6 will provide is an upgrade for the Maps app. For those who have used the Maps app on previous iOS, they will notice that Apple has completely redesigned the app and has made it much more vivid and detailed. The new Maps app also provided turn-by-turn directions and offers different routes if traffic conditions have changed. Maps uses real-time traffic conditions to help you avoid traffic accidents and slowdowns. The app also has a 3D view of major areas that gives you a very clear image of the location you are viewing. Siri works well with Maps to help you get to your destination. You can even tap a pin on the map and view different information about that location, especially with the integration of Yelp into the Maps app.

Siri has also been improved. Siri works in more countries, understands more languages, and will now be available on the new iPad. You can tell Siri to look up the scores for a sports game, look up movie show times, find local restaurants, and even tweet or update your Facebook. Siri can even launch apps for you.  Apple is also working on getting Siri integrated in cars, a feature called Eyes Free. This will allow you to press a button on your steering wheel to communicate to Siri and allow you to call people, select music, text message your friends, and much more, without even lighting up the device’s screen.

Facebook will now be integrated into iOS 6. You can share photos from your Camera or Photos app, post your location from Maps, post your score from Game Center, integrate your friend’s profile information into Contacts and integrate events into Calendars.  Facebook is now part of every aspect of your device and you can even click the Like button in iTunes and the App Store. Not only are Apple apps integrated with Facebook, non-Apple apps can also connect to Facebook. This update is definitely going to be attract those who use Facebook frequently to post updates and pictures because it adds even more convenience to the use of mobile applications.

iOS 6 also gives you the option to Share photos from the Photos app with friends and family. If they are using iCloud on an iOS 6 device or a Mac running OS X Mountain Lion, the photos you share with them are delivered straight to their Photos app or iPhoto.  People can even like or comment it, similar to Facebook. If you want to share it with someone who doesn’t have an iOS 6 device or Mac running OS X Mountain Lion, they can view it on the web on the iCloud website.

A new application that Apple is adding is Passbook. Passbook is your organizer that replaces a wallet for coupons, tickets, boarding passes, etc. Passbook also takes advantage of time and location to coupons and passes will appear on your lock screen when it is appropriate, like when you are about to reach the airport or walk into the store where you will use the coupon. Airplane tickets also update if the airline announced changes. Passbook provides convenience in one simple application. The only problem is that companies need to support the app for it to be useful.

Apple has finally announced the use of FaceTime over cellular networks, instead of only Wi-Fi. This means you can FaceTime with your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Mac, wherever you are as long as you have Wi-Fi or a cellular network. This feature is something I would have expected of FaceTime previously, but it’s better late than never.

iOS 6 also improves the Phone app. This improvement will be very useful for those using the iPhone.  The new feature gives you the option to send a preset text message or custom text message if you can’t answer a call. You can also set a time- or location-based reminder to alert you to call someone back. There is also a Do Not Disturb setting that will silence all incoming calls and notifications for a certain period of time or schedule, depending what you choose. It can even allow calls from specific people but silence the rest. This provides you with a whole new set of features for your iPhone.

With iOS 6, even the Mail and Safari app is updated. In the Mail app, you can set up a VIP list for important contacts. When you receive an email from someone on your VIP list, there will be a notification on your lock screen and those emails can be found in your VIP mailbox. Apple has made it easier to add photos and videos with just a few taps and allows you to use the swipe down to refresh your mailbox. Safari now has iCloud Tabs to keep track of webpages open on any device connected to your iCloud account. Safari also saves webpages in your Reading List so you can view them while not connected to the Internet. You can also post a photo or video from your Camera Roll or take a photo or video to post without even leaving Safari.

There are many new features on the new iOS, but some features will also be removed. Something of note is that Apple will remove the YouTube app with the update of iOS 6. Its license with Google to include the YouTube app has expired, but Google is already developing a standalone app for the Apple App Store. This isn’t a major difference but may be taken as a move by Apple to deviate away from Google apps.

With all these new features with the coming of iOS 6, who can wait? Improvements to many of the apps already provided by the previous iOS will make a big impact on the user experience. I’m definitely going to upgrade to iOS 6. The most exciting thing about iOS 6 for me is the new features with Maps and Phone, and the use of Passbooks. What are you looking forward too?

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An Ode to Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was more then the CEO of Apple. He was the one that started a trend for decades to come. With his innovative ways, Steve Jobs entered the technology world into a whole different category. iTunes, iMac, iPod, iPad, iPhone, all of these devices that Steve Jobs created, have been a huge success in the past decade and they won’t stop there. Not only will Apple miss Steve Jobs, but the world will miss Steve Jobs.

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What is iCloud?

What is iCloud? iCloud is like a hard drive through the internet. iCloud is arriving this fall. It is accessible from your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC. It gives all your devices instant access to your music, movies, photos, apps, and more. iCloud automatically keeps all your devices up to date. Once you update your iOS devices to iOS 5, your apps become integrated with iCloud and all your content is kept up to date. When you sign up for iCloud, you are given 5GB of free storage, which is a lot when your purchases from iTunes don’t take up any space. Mainly your mail, documents, Camera Roll, account information, settings and other app data are the only things taking up space.

With iCloud, you can purchase music from iTunes and iCloud automatically stores it and pushes it onto your other devices, so it’s automatically on all your devices as long as they are connected over Wi-Fi or 3G. You don’t even have to sync your devices. You can also look through your purchase history and download any of your past purchases onto your devices. iTunes Match is another option if you have a lot of songs you didn’t purchase from the iTunes store. For just $24.99 a year, iTunes will scan and determine which songs you have and will match it automatically with the song in iTunes, which will be added to your iCloud library. You have to upload the songs that iTunes can’t find a match for. Even if the original copy of the song is low quality, iTunes Match lets you play it at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality.

Whenever you take a photo with your iOS device or import a photo onto your Mac or PC, it is automatically stored on iCloud and pushed to all your devices, as long as there is Wi-Fi. When new photos are pushed onto your iOS devices, only the last 1000 photos will appear on your Photo Stream, but if you want to make sure the photo is saved on your iOS device, you can save it from your Photo Stream to one of your photo albums. Your Mac or PC automatically keeps all your photos.

Certain apps, like Apple iWork apps, make it possible for you make documents, presentations, and other documents, but now with iCloud, your apps can store that information in iCloud and that gives you access to your documents with whichever device.

With iCloud, all the apps you download can be automatically pushed to all your devices. Another cool feature about iCloud is that when you use iBooks app or the iBookstore, all the books you save can be pushed to all your devices, and when you leave a bookmark, highlight text, or make notes, they are automatically pushed to all your devices. How convenient is that? iCloud also automatically backs up your iOS device daily over Wi-Fi. Backup is convenient and seems completely effortless because it backs up only the changes you made, so it is quick and efficient. iCloud Backup takes care of everything when you need to restore your device, just connect your device to Wi-Fi and enter your Apple ID and password.

iCloud also stores your email, calendars, and contacts and also automatically pushes them to all your devices.

Feel free to leave a comment.

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Which iOS features should be on the Mac OS X?

Which iOS features would you want on your Mac? Touch screen definitely sounds like a fun feature for the Mac. Wouldn’t it be cool to change your Mac into a touch screen like an iPhone and change it back? There are rumors that Apple is planning to make an iMac with a screen that pivots into a horizontal touch mode. It sounds like it will be a combination of a Mac and an iPad. It sounds like they should call it a MacBook touch or something like that. Combining the features of both would be really cool because the touch screen is what attracts many users to iOS devices. There are also many other features that would be great for Mac OS X.

Virtual iPhone dashboard widgets could be a possible feature for Mac OS X. Your Mac would have a screen that looks similar to an iPhones, with wallpaper, apps, and etc. It would be easy to organize your programs and it would make use of all the free space on your desktop. When you look at your Mac desktop, it looks very empty and spacious, but your iOS devices have different pages of apps. Some may prefer to have this feature offered on their Mac. It should be an optional feature.

What else does your iOS device do that your Mac doesn’t? Your iOS device has the option to alert you automatically if you receive an email, even if your device is on sleep mode. Wouldn’t it be smart to give that feature to your Mac? The idea of having your Mac alert you that you have received a new email while the Mac is on sleep mode is fairly simple. Apple should definitely allow people to use that feature and for those that don’t want to, turn it off.

Have you ever noticed that when you play music off your iPod touch or your iPhone, it is simple and organized, but when you play music off iTunes, it can look pretty cluttered? Don’t you think it is time that Apple made an iPod app or Music app on your computer that may be simpler and more organized then your iTunes? I think so. Also, my iTunes can be really slow, so I think having an iPod app might help.

When you are outside, you take out your iPhone and can surf the internet from wherever if you have 3G, right? If you are lost, you can just check your GPS on your iPhone too and find directions. There are many people that also take their MacBook everywhere, so shouldn’t they have the same features as an iPhone? Should there be 3G for the MacBook? I think that 3G should be made available for MacBook users, especially when it is made available for the iPad.

Another feature that iOS devices have is that many iOS apps have notifications that are provided by third-party software. It notifies you if there is new information and other important news. Apple should definitely provide a feature that provides notifications for your apps on your Mac too.

When you go on an airplane, you can click Airplane Mode on your iOS device. But can your Mac do that? Not that I know of. If Apple adds that feature, that will be really helpful to those that travel a lot with their MacBooks. You should definitely add that feature on so people don’t have to manually turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth separately.

Your iOS device has iBooks and Game Center, but your Mac still doesn’t have either of them. It is about time that Apple provides iBooks as a feature. If I wanted to read a book on my Mac, rather then my small iPhone, I would really want that feature. Game Center should also be a feature for Mac OS X. People get pretty competitive with gaming on the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s time for the competition to get started on the Mac.

All and all, I figure that Mac OS X definitely needs an upgrade. Why does iOS have so many features that Mac OS X doesn’t have? It’s not because it isn’t useful on the Mac, so it’s probably about time for Apple to improve Mac OS X. Once Mac OS X gets more features such as an iPod app and touch screen, I can’t wait to use my Mac.

What do you think?

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iTunes to go to the cloud with Safari?

First of all, let’s talk about Safari. What is Safari? Safari is a web browser. It is designed to remove the majority of distractions by having a browser frame that is a single pixel wide. The scroll bar appears only when needed. Safari works on iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. Safari Reader removes distractions such as ads and helps you focus on the online articles you want to read. Safari also has Private Browsing, which makes it so Safari does not remember information such as your history and cookies.

Now let’s talk about iTunes. What is iTunes? iTunes is a free application that runs on Mac and PC. It organized your music and movies into a library. iTunes can play your music, movies, videos, and TV shows on your Mac or PC. iTunes also has the iTunes Stores, a marketplace that sells music, videos, movies, and TV shows for you to download for a cheap price. iTunes also makes it easy to sync your music and videos onto your iPod, iPad, and iPhone. iTunes can also wirelessly sync your iTunes library to your Apple TV.

There have been rumors that iTunes is going to the Cloud with Safari. Apple may be preparing to merge Safari and iTunes. In December 2009, Apple bought the company Lala for $80 million. Using the technology from Lala, Apple will be able to incorporate iTunes into Safari and permanently make iTunes a web-only application that is exclusive to Safari. If this happens, Safari will most likely become a more popular web browser.

If iTunes goes to the cloud, there will be advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of iTunes going to the cloud is that you will be able to access your whole entire library from anywhere where you have access to the internet. The disadvantage of iTunes going to the cloud is that you won’t have access to your library from your computer alone. All the music, videos, movies, and other stuff that you purchased from the iTunes store would not be stored onto your computer if iTunes goes to the cloud. If iTunes were to shut down, all the money you put into buying the music and videos would go to waste.

What do you think? Is this a good idea or a bad idea?

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