New iPod Touch released today!

Apple just announced a new, 7th Gen. iPod touch with a faster A10 Fusion chip and a new 256GB storage option.

The device features the same design, color options, thickness, battery life and weight as the 6th Gen model, with a 4-inch Retina display, the same 8-megapixel rear camera and 1.2-megapixel front camera, home button (no Touch ID,) a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Lightning connector, and a single speaker and microphone.

However, with the new A10 Fusion Chip, Apple says the new iPod touch has up to two times faster performance and up to three times faster graphics compared to the previous-generation iPod touch, and allows support for Group FaceTime and ARKit on the iPod touch for the first time.

From the Source; Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Vice President of Product Marketing:
“We’re making the most affordable iOS device even better with performance that is twice as fast as before, Group FaceTime and augmented reality starting at just $199. The ultra-thin and lightweight design of iPod touch has always made it ideal for enjoying games, music and so much more wherever you go.”

You can get it on Apple.com with in-store availability at Apple Stores and authorized resellers starting later this week. Pricing wise, you’re looking at $199 for 32GB , $299 for 128GB, and $399 for the new 256GB option.

Memorial Day Apple Watch? Yasss!

Today, you can get a Watch Series 3 GPS – 38mm – Sport Band – Aluminum Case – for $199, down fro $279! Get yours!

Apple registers new iPhone models!

Ooooooh! It’s been discovered that Apple has registered ELEVEN unreleased iPhone models in the Eurasian Economic Commission database this week, including models A2111, A2160, A2161, A2215, A2216, A2217, A2218, A2219, A2220, A2221, and A2223.

Likely, these are the models that will be in the new iPhone line up expected to be announced, as per usual, in September 2019.

We’re probably not looking at anything uber fantastic in this refresh, but a slightly more advanced versions of the phone we saw released last year. (Which, I mean, still pretty advanced?) We should expect a 5.8 and a 6.5-inch OLED iPhone, and a 6.1-inch LCD iPhone.

The high end models might have an additional rear camera lens, there may be a complete removal of 3D touch, with an expansion of haptic touch instead, frosted glass back casing, larger batteries, larger RAM, and possibly the additional of new colors for the 6.1 model. Like hypercolor.

(Not really, the new colors are rumored to be Lavender and Green,  but wouldn’t that be rad? Or are we just showing our age?!)

We can look forward to seeing all the new software features that will be run on the new phones come June 3rd during the annual WWDC keynote – which features a unicorn on it’s media invite, btw – and the iPhones themselves are still obviously unnamed, although iPhone X1 and iPhone X11 are being thrown around the Apple Rumor tree.

Are you excited to see the new models? ( Hypercolor for the win)

Who’s psyched for WWDC?!

Apple has just sent out media invites for the keynote event of the 30th annual Worldwide Developers Conference:

The WWDC keynote focuses on new software that will be released this year from Apple – iOS 13, macOS 10.15, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13, and although not typically about hardware, sometimes we do see fancy shmancy hardware unveilings – so there is a possibility of it.

If you were one of the lucky 5000 developers attending – you should be getting pretty pumped, having been given your ticket by randomly selection back in march, or if you’re one of the 350 students and STEM organization members attending – you’re also pretty pumped, having been given scholarships to go and stay at the event!  For the rest of us, you can catch the Keynote streaming live online at Apple’s website, or through Apple TV.

The keynote takes place at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. Are you psyched?!

Surprise! New Macbook pro models announced

Happy Tuesday!! Apple celebrated their Tuesday with a surprise announcement and launch of new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models – the fastest Mac notebooks ever at the top of the line, featuring Intel’s 8th and 9th-generation processors.

Other new features include an updated keyboard, using new material in the keyboard’s butterfly mechanism that should cut down on issues like double key presses and missed key presses.

The display has 500 nits of brightness, P3 wide color gamut, and True Tone technology and the models are equipped with Apple’s T2 security chip, Thunderbolt 3 ports, and immersive stereo speakers like prior machines.

From Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac Product marketing:

“Whether it’s college students mastering a course of study, developers building world-class apps or video editors creating feature films, we’re constantly amazed at what our customers do with their MacBook Pro. Now with 8-core processors for an incredible performance boost, along with its stunning Retina display, fast storage, all-day battery life and running macOS, MacBook Pro continues to be the world’s best pro notebook and we can’t wait to get it into our customer’s hands to see what they do next.”

If you want to be one of those customers, you’re looking at a starting price of  $1,799 and $2,399, respectively, for the 13 and 15-inch models and you can get it into your hands right now through Apple’s online store, or later this week in retail stores.

Happy Birthday Apple Watch!

Happy Birthday Apple Watch! After a reveal in September 2014,  the original Apple Watch launched in nine countries on April 24, 2015!

Four years later, we’re on to the Apple Watch Series 4 – complete with a better and bigger display, water resistance, important health and fitness features, and more bands than we can poke a stick at.

The Apple Watch has also impressively grown to become the global smartwatch leader, holding 51 percent of the global smartwatch marketshare last year, albeit down from 67 percent in 2017.

And, as per usual for Apple, they’re not done. The Apple Watch Series 5 will most likely launch in September of this year, and it and further iterations of the device could have features such as blood glucose monitoring, a microLED screen, a sleep tracking app, better battery, and many more.

Go on, Apple Watch, have that cake. You deserve it.

WWDC 2019!!

Apple’s 30th annual Worldwide Developers Conference will be from Monday, June 3rd and last until Friday, June 7th,  at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.

The keynote will be held on the first day and will debut new software (iOS 13, macOS 10.15, tvOS 13, and watchOS 6) and… hopefully some new hardware too (Mac pro, new iPad?) .

From Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing:

“WWDC is Apple’s biggest event of the year. It brings thousands of the most creative and dedicated developers from around the world together with over a thousand Apple engineers to learn about our latest platform innovations and to connect as a community. Our developers are incredibly passionate about creating the next generation of mind-blowing experiences for the world through apps. We can’t wait to get together with them and share what’s next.”

Developers are able to register to attend here, and will be chosen using a lottery system, after which tickets are priced at $1599, although in order to enter the lottery to begin with, devs must have been a member of the Apple Developer Program or the Apple Developer Enterprise Program as of March 14, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Registration will be open until March 20, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, and developers who win a ticket will be notified by March 21 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

If you aren’t lucky enough to be a chosen developer,  Apple is also making up to 350 WWDC Student Scholarships available to students and members of STEM organizations. Scholarships include a free WWDC ticket, free lodging, and a free one-year membership to the Apple Developer Program.

Sound awesome? Yup! All you need to do in order to enter to win is  create an interactive Swift Playground that can be experienced within three minutes. Apple is taking applications until Sunday, March 24, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. PDT, with scholarship winners to be notified by Monday, April 15.

You will also be able to livestream the keynote through the Apple Developer website or the dedicated WWDC app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

We’re sure to hear more about what to expect in the lead up and we’ll let you know anything we hear on the Apple vine!

Apple’s plans to blow us away

Apple plans to blow us away with plans for future products. What plans? Well, this is Apple, so we don’t have very much of an idea. But here’s some tiny shreds of ideas we do have.

In the annual investor’s meeting this morning,  CEO Tim Cook said he was “rolling the dice” on some future products that will “blow you away.”

So there’s the blow you away part.
Then he said that one of Apple’s goals is to reduce the price of the 2018 Retina MacBook Air, (currently at $1,200) and that  there’s a “long, great roadmap” of “fantastic” products on the horizon.

We’re thinking Airpods 2, possibly in new colors and with wireless charging and Siri functionality, and something WAY more exciting is the prospect of augmented reality smart glasses based on some recent patent filings. Some are still hopeful of a full self driving vehicle, but we’re not so sure about that now, after Apple recently laid off a bunch of folk in that department.

We can also likely expect a new entertainment streaming service and news service being unveiled in the next couple of months.

On another note, during the call, Tim Cook also advised that Apple is well on its way towards meeting the goal it set in 2016, which was to double its $25 billion revenue by 2020.

That’s a whole ‘lotta apples.

Innovative Technology in Schools celebrated by Apple

Apple has just launched a new article series which highlights very deserving teachers and students who use innovative technology at school.

First up, we have Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts (APA) in California, who host an annual student-created show called “Playlist” as part of the Music, Media and Entertainment Technology (MMET) program at the Academy. MMET is the brainchild of Apple Distinguished Educator alum Jamie Knight and Apple Distinguished Educator Michael Simmons, along with Huntington Beach APA.

To help in the creation of the show, students use Apple computers and iPads and software such as Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro X, and learn how to do so as part of their curriculum. Students also have access to a recording studio and a Yamaha CL5 digital mixer for controlling sound levels in the theatre.

Jamie Knight says:

“We don’t just focus on the technology, it’s that performing arts experience that gives them leadership skills, confidence, team work, all of those soft skills that businesses want. You have to perform to get that, and then when you marry that with the technology and you give the kids the ability to have a real recording studio to work with, they’re going to be the next Steven Spielberg, or the next Paul McCartney.”

You can read all about it, and keep up with how Apple technology is being used in other Schools across the country, here, in Apple’s Newsroom. 

Shot on iPhone winners announced

Looks like these people used the ‘How to shoot on iPhone’ tutorial series Apple ran, huh?

Robert Glaser (Germany), iPhone 7

Apple just announced the 10 winners of its ‘Shot on iPhone’ photography challenge. The competition ran from January 22 to February 7.

The winners are Alex Jiang, Blake Marvin, Elizabeth Scarrott, Andrew Griswold, Bernard Antolin, and LieAdi Darmawan from the U.S., Darren Soh from Singapore, Nikita Yarosh from Belarus, Dina Alfasi from Israel, and Robert Glaser from Germany.

Each of the winners used different iPhones varying from the iPhone 7 through iPhone XS Max, and their winning creations will be featured on Apple Billboards, on the Apple website and socials, and in Apple retail stores.

The judges included marketing chief Phil Schiller, a group of Apple employees as well as well-known photographers Pete Souza, Austin Mann, Annet de Graaf, Luísa Dörr, Chen Man, Kaiann Drance, Brooks Kraft, Sebastien Marineau-Mes, Jon McCormack, and Arem Duplessis.

View all of the photos at the Apple Newsroom.