You have to admire Google. It makes the boring business of search just a little more interesting at time, with interactive Google Doodles and screens that have snowed, barrel rolled and tilted on certain search commands in the past.
If you’re a fan of the Assassin’s Creed series, check out the video series that is currently being released – a behind the scenes look at developing the new game. (more…)
Netflix is bringing more Irish content to its lineup, announcing today that it has done a deal with RTE Digital to bring a number of the broadcaster’s shows to the streaming service.
7.58pm: And we’re done. I’m off to go elbow my way to an iPhone.
7.44pm: Cook has been back, and left us with the Foo Fighters. For one horrible moment, we though it might have been Coldplay.
7.38pm: Will there be a one more thing? Who knows: We’re being given a preview of the new iPod ad.
7.34pm: You have the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod and now… the EarPods. Apple has been designing these things for 3 years. Maybe they’ll actually fit in my ears now.
7.31pm: Siri will be supported on the iPad touch. Also, it has better wireless and some sort of loop thing on the back. And it comes in colours. Colour coordinated with loops of course (there was a small snort at that)
7.27pm: Winding down a bit now. iSight camera for the Touch. 5mp.
7.22pm: iPod Touch gets dual core processing. And it’s got a pretty nice display too.
7.18pm: Video is coming back to the iPad nano, fitness and a pedometer is (still) built in. New bluetooth integration in to the Nano.
7.16pm: The iPod line is also getting a makeover – 5mm thick Nano, with the new lightning connector.
7.14pm: What we haven’t seen anything about yet on the iPhone 5 – NFC and the holographic keyboard that was rumoured.
7.11pm: There’s a mini player inside iTunes. iCloud integrated with iTunes. They just showed my favourite bit of the Avengers, so they get a pass on the Maroon 5 torture.
7.09pm: Unfortunate choice of Maroon 5 while showing off the new iTunes software. Seriously, no one needs to hear “Payphone”.
7pm: We have to wait another week – September 28th. IOS 6 on Sept 19th.
6.59pm: iPhone 5 will cost the same as what the 4S does now, iPhone 4S gets bumped cheaper. Preorder from 14th, shipping on the 21st as expected – but not in ireland.
6.56pm: More video.
6.52pm: The iPhone will be available in black and white (though they make it sound better than that, trust me). And according to Phil, it’s the best iPhone yet.
6.45pm: We’re being taken through everything again – Safari with cloud tabs, Passbook… you get the general idea.
6.41pm: As expected, the iPhone 5 is using iOS 6. They’re demoing on stage now – starting with maps.
6.40pm: Thunderbolt and lightning though… I can’t be the only one here singing Bohemian Rhapsody in my head.
6.39pm: there’s an adapter though – so no panic just yet.
6.38pm: The connector. Ah damn. Bye bye 30pin connector, hello “lightning”. Much of the functions are now done over the air. Eight signal design, adaptive interface , all digital, and its 80 per cent smaller.
6.36pm: next up: audio. Three mics – front, back and bottom of the phone. And you get a noise cancelling ear piece too – better call quality.
6.35pm: Video has also been improved. Face detection for up to 10 faces, take photos while you’re recording, and the camera on the front is a Facetime HD camera.
6.34pm: I think I may need to go to San Fran and test out the panorama feature. In the interests of journaism, you understand.
6.33pm: Also new: shared photo streams for friends and family – they can like and comment. Panorama mode.
6.31pm: They’re showing some photos taken with the iPhone 5. It looks impressive actually.
6.30pm: The camera: 8 mp sensor, backside illumination, five element lens, f2.4 aperture, but in a 25% smaller camera. And there’s now a dynamic low light mode, and precision lens alignment.
6.29pm: Now: battery life. Phil is promising 8 hours of talk time and browsing, 10 hours on wifi – the battery is better than the iPhone 4S (in theory)
6.28pm: Some demos of the phone’s capability on games.
6.23pm: Phil is promising everything has been updated: an Apple A6 chip. 2x faster CPU, 2x faster graphics. And it’s smaller, so more energy efficient.
6.21pm: LTE is confirmed.
6.20pm: I think it’s safe to say that not ALL the rumours will come true. The display has 44 per cent more colour saturation than the 4S. Touch sensors are integrated into the display rather than sitting on top, making it thinner – also makes the image sharper.
6.19pm: the apps will look the same – black borders for apps that aren’t optimised for the larger screen.
6.17pm: You get a fifth row of icons – more apps on the screen. They’re showing off all the Apple software on the new screen.
6.16pm: Looks a bit more like the 4S than we thought. But it has a 4inch display – 1136 x 640.
6.15pm: 7.6 mm thin – 18 per cent thinner than the iPhone 4s. A fifth lighter than the 4S
6.14pm: “An absolute jewel, the most beautiful product we’ve made bar none”. Glass and aluminium, apparently.
6.13pm: The iPhone 5 is official.
6.13pm: Phil’s up to tell us about the iPhone. First launched in 2007, an “incredible breakthrough”.
6.12pm: The App Store has been a “revolution”, Tim says, and Apple has sold 400 million iOS devices (cue lots of clapping). Apparently no one could have predicted this – although I bet Steve Jobs would have aimed for it.
6.11pm: The App Store has more than 700,000 apps now, 250,000 specifically tailored for iPad.The average customer is using more than 100 apps.
6.09pm: iPad is claiming a 68% share of the market, despite the launch of hundreds of rival tablets, according to Tim.
6.08pm: That’s 84 million to date – not bad going.
6.06pm: 7 million copies of Mountain Lion have been downloaded, and the Mac is apparently outgrowing the PC. 17 million iPads sold between April and June
6.04pm: Wait: Mac is up. Talking up Mountain Lion.
6.02pm: But first, Apple Stores. There’s a disturbing amount of high fiving going on in this video.
6pm: And we’re live. Tim has some “really cool stuff” to show us.
5.54pm: Also, that pesky antenna problem may be a thing of the past if they change the design of the iPhone. Remember: you’re holding it wrong.
5.51pm: Don’t know what 4G is? More here. Don’t worry though, we don’t have it in Ireland yet.
5.49pm: Room is pretty full at this point. Fingers crossed the wifi holds out….
5.43pm: If you’ve been wondering about that nano-sim the new iPhone is said to have, here’s some more details
5.40pm: This is what we’re currently looking at:
5.34pm: A new dock connector is also on the cards if the rumours are right. So be prepared to either put up with an adapter, or to buy new equipment if you’ve already got some iPhone compatible docks at home.
5.31pm: We could also be looking at a bigger display but a thinner iPhone. Speculation is rife that the glass panel that the iPhone 4 and 4S sported will be dropped in the new generation of phones.
5.30pm: First up is the strong rumour that the iPhone 5 will have 4G LTE. That could kick off a whole new patent battle with Samsung.
Apple is getting ready to announce what everyone expect will be the iPhone 5 – events kick off at 6pm. We should be bringing you live updates through this blog, but in the meantime, here’s some of the rumours that are going around.
It’s only a day to go until Apple reveals what we’re all assuming will be the next iPhone. So what are we all expecting from the new handset? Apple isn’t giving anything away, but there is plenty of speculation.
Rushing headlong into the brave new (!) world of mobile apps is Ryanair, the budget airline that gets everyone talking. And it’s managed to do it again. The airline has unveiled its new app for iPhone and iPad that will allow customers to buy flights, check out fares, check in online and manage bookings by adding priority boarding or bags.
All for the princely sum of €2.99. Yes, €2.99.
Have a quick look at the competition. Aer Lingus app: fare check, flight purchase, mobile check in and even mobile boarding passes. Cost? Free. British Airways: flight booking, check in boarding passes, travel news. Also free. CityJet: the same. In fact, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and rival EasyJet all offer free apps with similar or better functionality.
Still, it’s currently number three on the paid apps list on the App Store. I think I’ll pass though.
Apple has scored a victory against Samsung in a US court case over patent infringements. If you’ve been following this, you’ll know that Samsung and Apple have been suing and counter-suing each other in a whole heap of lawsuits in recent times. To be exact, more than 30 legal suits have been filed since 2010 across four continents.
Ever heard of Startup Grind? It’s an event that started in Silicon Valley in 2010, but it has now spread to 20 cities around the world, and Dublin just happens to be one of them.
If you’ve been following our digital challenge start-ups and their progress, here’s the second instalment:
http://www.irishtimesidealab.com/2012/08/06/video-diary-week-two/
