Yesterday Apple showered us with new devices:
- a full-size iPad
- a somewhat smaller iPad
- a 13" MacBook with Retina display
- 21.5" and 27" iMac.
The full-size iPad is the same size as the previous iPads (9.7"), but has doubled performance compared to generation-3, LTE and a new connector so-called Lightning. The new iPad has the Retina display like its generation-3 predecessor.
The somewhat smaller iPad called iPad mini is 7.9" without Retina display. Apple claims the new iPads have twice as fast WiFi. Both have Siri, the intelligent companion. iPad mini has an even smaller SIM-card, which is called nano-SIM. It is also 100% software compatible with previous iPads generations.
The iMacs are at least as good looking as the previous ones. It's so incredibly thin. I definitely want one of those, because this iMac is the most beautiful computer ever made.
I'm sure the iPad mini will become a big hit and the main reason is price. I will stay with the larger versions though, because the larger the screen, the easier it reads.
ITU, the International Telecommunication Union, says the worldwide number of subscriptions were 6 billion at the end of last year (i.e. 2011). As a comparison, at the end of 2010 there were 1 billion less. The number of people was 7 billion+.
In my household of 4 people we have 3 subscriptions. While I think that's quite a lot, we're still being beaten by the world as a whole :-)
Some other news:
iPad mini will probably be released on October 23rd, according to AllThingsD. According to a leaked inventory from the german retailer MediaMarkt the cheapest model will cost €249, which will have WiFi and 8GB persistent storage, but not cellular. The WiFi + cellular and larger memory models will cost more, so the most expensive model will cost upwards of €650.
Apple has licensed the Swiss railway clock in iOS6. The reason is that Apple was approached by SBB after they found out the iOS6 clock looks remarkably like their clock. There's not supposed to be a lot of money involved in the deal, but the Swiss want some credit.
The maps in iOS6 have had some serious bashing recently. A lack of accuracy has been demonstrated in several cases. But Apple's maps are better in one respect at least: they consume less data, about 7 times less.
The reason is that Apple's maps use vector graphics, while Google maps use raster graphics. That means when you zoom, the maps resize dynamically and iPhone doesn't download any more data! Google Maps downloads new maps when a user zooms in or out, and that's a whole lot of data. Read it all here:
http://gizmodo.com/5948066/there-is-one-thing-that-apple-maps-is-a-lot-better-than-google-maps-at
Google keeps improving its products. Gmail now searches text in attached files.
This is very handy. You used to have to detach any attachments if you wanted them easily accessible and searchable. Detaching takes time: you have to select the attachment and select a sensible location to save it to. I think this is a major improvement! For the time being it only works for recent documents.
Google has been closing down many of its services this year; as many as 60 services. It seems they're focusing on quality rather than quantity. And that makes me wonder if they will be axing the 20% time slot that Google employees get to spend on pet projects. Improving existent products doesn't seem like a typical pet project to me.
