These apps have been updated for the new screen format of iPhone5:
- GPS MegaTape - Tape Measure
- Elephant Super Memory Challenge - Recall This!
- Reverse Talk
- Timestables on 3 Wheels
- NumberWiz for Diehard Programmers
- I Practice Plus And Minus (awaiting approval)
The SMS-Fast update is in the making.
The icons for "Elephant Super Memory Challenge - Recall This!" and "Timestables on 3 Wheels" have changed to:
The cheapest iPod touch now has 32GB storage. The cheapest iPad mini has 16GB. In my country Sweden, they are similarly priced. iPod touch for 2895 SEK and iPad mini at 2990 SEK. I suspect that will be a serious disadvantage for the iPod touch, which means a lot less iPods are going to be sold.
I guess Apple has thought of this and done their utmost to make the iPod touch as attractive as possible. They have introduced more colors, doubled the storage, iPhone 5's screen and most of iPhone5's apps except for Siri (the intelligent assistant).
But then there's the size. I look at the two products and I see that they can both do the same things, but the iPad mini has a larger screen. Never mind that it's not Retina quality. It's bigger! It reads more easily than the mere 4 inch screen on iPod touch. The movies are bigger. The sites are bigger. You name it and it's bigger.
Ok, they're made for different activities and different groups of people and there will always be many who prefer small to big, because for them portability is top priority. The larger storage is attractive too for music and movies.
I still think the price difference will have to increase. The iPad mini can't go up in price, because that would drive buyers away from it, to competitors or to the larger version. Hence I think the solution is to lower the price of iPod touch. I believe it's going to start edging down within six months.
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.
The new app from Proctele AB will arrive in the App Store any moment now.
It's called "GPS MegaTape - Tape Measure".
It is a tape measure and an odometer. It measures distances with GPS. Hence it's meant to be used outdoors. It has two screens.
The tape measure measures the distance as the bird flies. The odometer measures the distance along the path you're walking, cycling, driving etc. Here's its icon:
You'll find it among the utilities category and the lifestyle category.
It costs $0.99
Apple has confirmed 2 million pre-orders in 24 hours. That statistic more than doubles the pre-order record of approximately 1 million units held by the iPhone 4S. The corresponding number for iPhone 4 was 600,000.
I wonder if this suite will be continued by the next generation iPhone.
Here's a schedule for the next release wave:
iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Ref: http://9to5mac.com/2012/09/17/apple-announces-iphone-5-preorders-hit-two-million-in-24-hours
