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Turn Off Time-Zone Sensing To Improve iPhone Battery Life? [iOS Blog]
Oct 31, 8:45PM
Switching off automatic time-zone sensing in iOS 5 can improve iPhone battery life significantly, according to iDownloadBlog. The site claims that a bug in iOS 5's GM release causes the GPS-enabled location tracking connected to the automated time-zone function to run constantly. This unnecessary use of the GPS circuitry may drain the battery exceptionally quickly.
To fix the alleged bug and avoid the battery drain, head to the Settings app in iOS 5 and tap Location Services and then scroll to "System Services" at the bottom of that window. Then switch off "Setting Time Zone".
It's not an official bug yet, though Apple is reportedly working on iOS 5's battery life issues. Anecdotal evidence suggests flipping this switch may significantly improve battery life.
Apple 'Questioning' the Future of its Mac Pro Line?
Oct 31, 7:20PM
Late last week, we noted that with pricing information on Intel's upcoming Sandy Bride E Xeon processors surfacing, Apple's options for a potential "Early 2012" Mac Pro have begun to clear up. The Mac Pro has not been updated since mid-2010, and delays in Intel's new chips have pushed their availability out from late this year to early next year. But despite the new processors now being in sight, AppleInsider reports that Apple is reportedly "questioning" the future of the Mac Pro line and whether it will even release updated models.
Although the Mac maker has reportedly developed a revision to the existing Mac Pro that may or may not see the light of day, people familiar with the matter said management as far back as May of 2011 were in limbo over whether to pour any additional resources into the product line.The report's source indicates that with Intel's new Thunderbolt connectivity standard making its way across all of Apple's Mac products, those products now have enhanced flexibility to assume some of the tasks that have historically been handled the Mac Pro. Combined with a continuing shift towards notebooks that has seen the desktop share of Apple's Mac business fall from 70% ten years ago to under 30% today, the increasing power of Apple's other Macs has resulted in the Mac Pro becoming only a minor portion of Apple's product lineup.
According to these people, the consensus among sales executives for the Cupertino-based company was that the Mac Pro's days -- at least in its current form -- were inevitably numbered. In particular, internal discussions were said to focus around the fact that sales of the high-end workstations to both consumers and enterprises have dropped off so considerably that the Mac Pro is no longer a particularly profitable operation for Apple.
Speculation in the report suggests that Apple could elect to offer higher-end versions of its iMac or Mac mini models in an attempt to appease those buyers looking for the power of a Mac Pro. Those smaller form factor machines are, however, unable to match a number of the Mac Pro's other features, although Apple apparently believes that Thunderbolt could serve as a means to bring some of that expandability from the Mac Pro to other Macs.
Media Server Plex Releases Major Update [iOS Blog]
Oct 31, 7:04PM
A major update to the Plex Media Server was released over the weekend, with significant updates to both the server and client software. Plex is a media player, similar in some ways to Apple's Front Row, but much more powerful. The software automatically organizes movie and television files ripped from DVD's or acquired from other sources and pulls title and plot descriptions from online databases. Plex also integrates with iTunes and iPhoto giving a unified interface for collecting all media (photos, music, and video) in one application. It also supports a number of plugins to pull content from other sources, such as YouTube, TED, or The Daily Show websites.
The new version of Plex, code-named Laika, includes a large number of new features, some of which are covered in this video. One of the largest updates is a new feature called MyPlex, a cloud service that allows easy remote access and sharing of media to other users.
There is also an updated version of the Plex app for iOS. The software allows users to browse media, play video, and control Plex installations, including playing back media on the iPad, including remotely.
The Plex Server and Client are free downloads from the Plex website, and the universal Plex for iOS app is available on the App Store for $4.99.
In-Store Pickup for Apple Online Store Orders Expanded to New York City
Oct 31, 6:11PM
Earlier today, we noted that Apple is planning a number of enhancements to its online and retail store shopping offerings, perhaps most notably allowing retail store customers purchasing shelf-stocked accessories and other items to utilize a self-checkout option through the company's Apple Store iOS application.
One other enhancement that first rolled out last week is the ability for customers to place orders through Apple's online store and have them shipped to a local Apple retail store for pickup. The new feature is convenient for those who have difficulty receiving shipments at their homes or who wish to not utilize home or office delivery for some other reason.
The in-store pickup program launched as a pilot program at the three Apple retail stores located in San Francisco, but quickly expanded to include all sixteen stores in the San Francisco Bay Area.
As noticed by AppleInsider, the program has expanded yet again, now offering support for Apple's four stores in New York City: the iconic Fifth Avenue store as well as the Upper West Side, West 14th Street, and Soho stores. The Soho store is currently undergoing renovation and expansion, and Apple is operating a temporary store a block and a half away from the permanent Soho location in the meantime.
Apple has given no indication on exactly how quickly it will expand the pickup program to all stores in the United States, and perhaps internationally. But with the program already expanding to include 20 stores in less than a week, it's clear that the company is rapidly filling out the pilot program with an eye toward offering in-store pickup at as many stores as possible heading into the holiday shopping season.
Apple Planning Surge in Retail and Cloud Spending in 2012
Oct 31, 4:15PM
Last week, Apple released its annual 10-K report, offering a summary of the company's financial performance and other items of interest for fiscal 2011. One interesting tidbit from the report is gaining some attention for its glimpse into the future, as GigaOM reports on a new research note from UBS analyst Maynard Um addressing Apple's planned capital expenditures (CapEx) for fiscal 2012. From the 10-K report:
The Company's capital expenditures were $4.6 billion during 2011, consisting of approximately $614 million for retail store facilities and $4.0 billion for other capital expenditures, including product tooling and manufacturing process equipment, real estate for the future development of the Company's second corporate campus, and other corporate facilities and infrastructure.The projected 74% increase in capital expenditures is evidence of Apple's commitment to both retail stores other infrastructure needs, many of which are related to Apple's cloud-based initiatives. On the retail front, Apple has noted that it is planning to open forty new retail stores during fiscal 2012, and is also planning to expand or replace a number of its existing stores that are too small to adequately serve customer demand. Other infrastructure needs include cloud-focused facilities like the North Carolina data center where Apple is building a solar farm and the new corporate campus in Cupertino.
...
The Company anticipates utilizing approximately $8.0 billion for capital expenditures during 2012, including approximately $900 million for retail store facilities and approximately $7.1 billion for product tooling and manufacturing process equipment, and corporate facilities and infrastructure, including information systems hardware, software and enhancements.
Horace Dediu at asymco has taken a different look at Apple's CapEx within the context of iOS device sales, noting that sales have been been closely correlated with CapEx over the past several years. Dediu's conclusion is that the significant increase in budgeted non-retail CapEx points toward Apple expecting yet another year of 100% growth in iOS device unit sales.
(via Daring Fireball)
Redesigned 5th Avenue NYC Apple Store Unveiling on Friday? [Mac Blog]
Oct 31, 8:28AM
Artist Rendition
We've heard a couple of reports that Apple will finally unveiling their newly renovated 5th Avenue Apple NYC store on Friday, November 4th.
Apple began work on the $6.6 million renovation back in June. Since then, the 5th Avenue Store has been surrounded by barriers and the store has remained open as the construction has continued. The redesign involves replacing the cube's 90 glass panels with only 15 larger ones. The new design is rendered artistically above.
Steve Jobs, himself, had much input into this Apple Retail Store's design. The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that Jobs had a very hands-on role. The developer said:
"[Steve Jobs] is solely responsible for the cube," Mr. Macklowe said. "I had different shapes and different ideas, and his cube was somewhat different than what it is now, but it's Steve Jobs's idea."Jobs has had a long fascination with the cube shape. During his time at NeXT he created the NeXTcube workstation housed in a magnesium enclosure. Apple even created a Power Mac G4 Cube in 2000, a few years after Jobs' return to Apple.
A November 4th unveiling falls in line with the original permits which estimated "early November" as a possible completion date. If the grand unveiling is indeed taking place this Friday, we expect Apple will make an announcement this week to inform the press.
Apple Has Already Started Work on Mac OS X 10.8
Oct 31, 6:48AM
Apple has already begun work on the next major revision to Mac OS X which is being labeled as version 10.8. Apple only just released the final version of OS X 10.7 (Lion) to customers in July. OS X Lion was the first version of Mac OS X to be distributed through the Mac App Store and it included a number of new features for the Mac. These included an iOS-like application launch screen known as Launchpad, full-screen apps, a new combined interface for Dashboard, Expose, and Spaces known as Mission Control, enhanced Multi-Touch gestures, and improvements to a number of core applications such as Mail.
While Apple has yet to announce plans for the next major version of OS X, evidence of 10.8 first began appearing in our web logs in August, and have since accelerated. This graph shows an increasing number of web visits from Mac OS X 10.8 users over the past several months.
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8) AppleWebKit/535.6.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.2 Safari/535.6.2
While it is trivial to falsify these records, the requests originated from Apple, Inc. IP addresses and surrounding areas. Also, the overall clustering is consistent with limited internal testing. We saw a very similar pattern for the early OS X 10.7 requests which began in October, 2009:
Note that the first appearance of 10.7 was almost a full year before the first developer preview, and nearly 20 months before the public release.
So far, there have been no hints as to what we might expect to see in Mac OS X 10.8. Historically, Apple's major OS X releases are released every other year: 10.3 in 2003, 10.4 in 2005, 10.5 in 2007, 10.6 in 2009, and 10.7 in 2011. Based on this pattern, we expect Apple to preview Mac OS X 10.8 sometime in 2012, with the final public release happening in 2013.
Another question is what Apple will call OS X 10.8. Apple has been naming their major OS X releases after feline animals such as Tiger and Leopard. "Lion" naturally seems like it may be the end of the line for those names. While Apple had previously trademarked the names "Lynx" and "Cougar", the company has since abandoned those trademarks. It should be noted that Lion hadn't been trademarked until after their first public announcement, so the choice of name could still be wide open.
AirPlay Mirroring and iMessage Coming to Mac OS X Lion
Oct 31, 6:03AM
AirPlay Mirroring and iMessage are reportedly coming to OS X Lion, according to 9to5Mac's sources.
Airplay Mirroring demoed on an iPad 2
AirPlay Mirroring is a feature that first made its appearance on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. It allows you to wirelessly stream whatever's on your iPad or iPhone display to your HDTV via Apple TV. The Mac implementation is reportedly going to be similar, allowing broadcast of your desktop to your TV.
AirPlay Mirroring for the Mac will allow a user to wirelessly mirror exactly what is shown on their Mac's display to an Apple TV connected to a projector, television, or external monitor. AirPlay video streaming is also being integrated into QuickTime X.
Meanwhile, iMessage is again being said to be coming to the OS X Lion. We had previously reported on iChat strings that have suggested work was already underway. Though it seems the decision to make iMessage a separate app or a part of iChat has reportedly not been finalized. iMessage is Apple's new messaging solution for the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone found in iOS 5. It allows customers to send SMS-like messages over standard data connections rather than expensive text messaging plans. OS X Lion integration with iMessage would allow you to send iMessages to friends and family with iOS 5 devices from your Mac.
Apple Retail Stores to Allow Self-Checkout via iOS App for Accessory Purchases
Oct 31, 5:08AM
MacRumors has learned that Apple is planning to launch an update to its retail store iOS app that will allow consumers to utilize self-checkout for purchases of accessories and other shelf-stocked items at the company's retail stores. According to our source, self-checkout purchases will be charged via the Apple Store app to the customer's iTunes Store account. It is not entirely clear what will happen once a user has checked out via the app, although store employees will of course be on the lookout for store visitors walking out with merchandise in hand, as they are already. Customers who have made a purchase through self-checkout will be able to show an emailed receipt to any employee, confirming their purchase.
High value products such as Macs, iPhones, and iPods are kept in the stockroom at Apple retail stores, meaning that customers purchasing these items will still require assistance from a store employee. We have, however, been told that customers will be able to pre-purchase these items through the app and simply pick them up with the assistance of a store employee. But for the plethora of accessories, cases, and other items stocked directly on the sales floor at Apple retail stores customers will soon be able to purchase these items without needing to catch the attention of a store employee with an EasyPay device to complete the transaction.
Heylookitseric is reporting similar information, claiming that the update to the Apple Store app enabling self-checkout is scheduled to arrive on November 3rd. The report also notes that Apple will continue to expand its program allowing customers to have their orders from the online Apple store shipped to their local Apple retail stores for pickup. That program launched at the company's three San Francisco stores last Wednesday and is now available at all sixteen stores in the Bay Area with further expansion apparently coming soon.
Finally, Apple is said to be enhancing its online store to allow a single order of multiple items to be routed to different shipping addresses. Rolling out in time for the holiday shopping period, the enhancement will be particularly useful for customers wishing to purchase all of their Apple gift items in a single transaction and have them shipped to different recipients at checkout.
iPad FaceTime Halloween Costume Lets You See Right Through Your Body [iOS Blog]
Oct 31, 3:51AM
As noted by Gizmodo, one NASA engineer has used the iPad 2's FaceTime video conferencing feature to his advantage when creating a Halloween costume:
A very smart dude by the name of Mark Rober figured out that if you strap two iPad 2's to yourself, you can create this incredible, freaky hole effect.The two video conferenced iPads gives the impression of a gaping hole in the middle of his torso.
Apple Ramps Up iPhone 4S Advertising with 3 New Ads featuring iCloud, Siri, and Camera
Oct 30, 8:46PM
Apple is starting to ramp up its iPhone 4S advertising and has posted 3 new ads to their YouTube channel. The new ads focus on specific features found on the iPhone 4S and iOS 5, including Siri, iCloud and the new Camera.
This marks the second Siri ad that Apple has aired. The first ad was more of a teaser, only revealing Siri at the very end. This new ad shows more explicit examples of what Siri can do.
