Next Apple Event October 22nd!

Thanks to AllThingsD, we’ve got a date of the next Apple event! With announcements of new products and upgrades and wheeee!

(so far unconfirmed by Apple, but that’s pretty normal.)

Pencil it in kids: October 22nd, 2013.

The event will most likely focus on all things iPad, although Mavericks OS X and the new Mac pro will also probably get a look in.

The fifth gen iPad is expected to be announced, with more than a passing resemblance to it’s little bro the mini, with a thinner, lighter design and smaller side bezels ( the bits beside the screen).

It is also expected to have  a 64-bit A7 processor and an improved 8-megapixel camera.

Sahweet!

According to up and coming tech leaker Sonny Dickson – these are leaked pictures of the 5th Generation iPad next to the current gen.

The mini is expected to have a nice little upgrade, with similar 64-bit chip and camera improvements as it’s big bro as well as a retina display. FANCY.

Just a word of warning- According to some, the iPad mini won’t have much availability once it is released. Because it’s fancy, ya see.

There have been leaks (unconfirmed) that the upgraded iPads MIGHT come in the gold color seen in the much sought after in the iPhone 5S, and/or equipped with the Touch ID also seen on the iPhone 5S.

Both the 5th generation iPad and the upgraded iPad mini should be offered in Silver & Space Grey, if not Gold as well.

With the announcement looking like it’s 99% on October the 22nd, we’ll probably be seeing the launch of the upgraded products on November 1st.

In the tech world, the date of Apple’s fall event coincides with both Nokia’s Innovation Reinvented showcase, and the retail debut of Microsoft’s new Surface 2.

What do you guys think, are you excited about the announcement or over it for the year?

Will you get a new iPad or iPad Mini?

Image courtesy of iftodayisyourbirthday.com , Sonny Dickson & Zazzle.

Meanwhile, Samsung quietly launched a smartphone with a curved screen

Our deals of the day!

Well, we might not make it rain, but we’ll… stop the rainclouds? Something witty like that.

Here’s our deals of the day!

These ones come all the way from that place where you think you can spend lots of money but then you realize you don’t have that much money, so you should really sell that stinky old iPhone in the drawer so you can get CASHMONEY and you can buy tickets to that sumo & sushi night AND buy these awesome accessories.

In other words – Living Social.

<breath>

These two deals are all about keeping your device going and going and going and going! Battery power! Yeah!

You can get an Enerpak Tube 5000 mAh external battery pack for $29 here! You will need to bring your own USB cable to the table, but for $29, some extra battery you can carry around in your pocket is not too shabby of a deal.

ANNND you can get a Purgoodies solar paneled charger for your device for $29.00 here. USB cable is included in this deal, sahweet! Extra good for camping or electricity blackouts, or hanging out kickin it at the park for a really long time.

These are both offered at pretty excellent prices – so go check ’em out!

Groovy!

Got Denied Your Apple Warranty? It’s Class Action Lawsuit Time!

GUYS THIS IS LIKE RON BURGUNDY. KIND OF A BIG DEAL.

Image courtesy of askmen.com, squidoo.com, sonnyradio.com & vh1.com

Meet Siri

Is it weird that millions of people around the world know this lady’s voice, and that they communicate with her, sort of, every day without her knowing anything about it?

It’s weird, right?

It’s Susan Bennett’s life. She’s a voice over actress from Atlanta, and has for the first time been publicly identified (by CNN) as the voice behind Siri.

Probably.

“I’m the voice actor who provided the voice of Siri,” Bennett told CNN in an interview, although Trudi Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment.

CNN said an audio-forensics expert “has studied both voices and says he is ‘100 per cent’ certain the two are the same.”

Hi Siri! Thanks for letting people record your answers to our stupid questions from the future!

Super nice of you.

Image courtesy of eonline.com

Thanksgiving yaya!!

Brace yourselves: Thanksgiving is coming!

You guys probably don’t really need to brace yourselves though, cos thanksgiving means yummy foods and cool leaves and family (maybe brace yourselves a bit).

It also means holidays! And this year, like many in the past, Apple employees are in for extra special thanksgiving- with extra days off to be thankful for!

Thanks Tim Cook! (Is what we’d say if we were given days off for thanksgiving. And we worked for apple).

Apple employees all over the world get the entire week of thanksgiving off WITH pay. WHHHOOOOOOOP!

Peeps who work in retail and customer service, as well as those for whom thankgiving means, well, not a lot, i.e. those in other countires, can take those paid days leave at other, convenient, staggered times.  Whoop.

Here’s the email Tim Cook Sent to his loved and thankful staff regarding the extra paid days off, thanks to 9to5mac.

Team-

It’s been an exciting summer. For the first time, we’ve launched two new iPhone product lines. iOS 7 was created from a deep collaboration between our design and engineering teams, bringing to our customers a stunning new user interface and amazing new features. We unveiled OS X Mavericks and the most powerful Mac ever. The App Store celebrated a new milestone — 50 billion downloads. And we continued to express our love for music with iTunes Radio and the iTunes Festival.

I had the opportunity to visit a few of our stores during the iPhone launch. There is no better place to see and feel why Apple is special. The best products on Earth. Energy. Enthusiasm. The best customers in the world. Passionate team members focused on enriching people’s lives. Innovative products that serve humanity’s deepest values and highest aspirations.

And I am proud to tell you that Apple is also a force for good in our world beyond our products. Whether it’s improving working conditions or the environment, standing up for human rights, helping eliminate AIDS, or reinventing education, Apple is making a substantial contribution to society.

None of this would have been possible without you. Our most important resource is not our money, our intellectual property, or any capital asset. Our most important resource — our soul — is our people.

I realize many of you worked tirelessly to bring us this far. I know it required great personal sacrifice. In recognition of your incredible efforts and achievements, I’m happy to announce that we’re extending the Thanksgiving holiday this year. We will shut down with pay on November 25, 26, and 27 so our teams can have the whole week off.

Retail, AppleCare and a few other teams will need to work that week so we can continue to serve our customers, but will receive the same number of days off at an alternate time. Please check with your manager for details. Our international teams will schedule the vacation days at a time that is best suited for their specific country.

I hope you find the extra time restful and relaxing. You deserve it. Details will be available on AppleWeb soon. I am exceedingly proud of all of you. I am in awe of what you’ve accomplished and couldn’t be more excited about the future.

Enjoy the time away!

So that’s cool. But hey, even if we’re not Apple employees and aren’t getting more full paid days off over Thanksgiving, at least we’ve got Captain Halloween to look forward to.

And, if you guys are anything like us, lots to be thankful for.

Shenanigans!

Shenanigans!

Yes, we really like that word, but also, Samsung and others are totally participating in SHENANIGANS! And so we thought we should tell you about them. The SHENANIGANS!

The smart phone market is one wrought with lawsuits, competition edging on plain schoolyard bullying and lots and lot of money. Hence, the top competitors in the smartphone industry put a lot of work into making their product seem the best.

‘Seem’ being the operative word.  Sometimes, the competitors just wanna make sure it seem like their product is doing really well. Take Samsung, who recently have been caught artificially increasing the CPU speeds on it’s Galaxy Note 3 smart phone when benchmark apps are running. 

Benchmark apps are apps that measure the performance of your device and compare the scores with similar devices, in this case, other smartphones.

Ars Technica have found out that inside Samsung’s operating system on their smartphones sits a special little code. this little code identifies when benchmarking apps are being used, and in turn boosts CPU clock speeds and prevents CPU cores from entering low-power modes.

They’re big fakers, basically. In this specific case, anyway. Allegedly. And stuff.As a result of this special code, the Galaxy Note 3 benchmarks report CPU performance roughly 20 percent faster than most apps will experience on the device.

According to the guys at Ars:

“The difference is remarkable. In Geekbench’s multicore test, the Note 3’s benchmark mode gives the device a 20 percent boost over its “natural” score. With the benchmark boosting logic stripped away, the Note 3 drops down to LG G2 levels, which is where we initially expected the score to be given the identical SoCs. This big of a boost means that the Note 3 is not just messing with the CPU idle levels; significantly more oomph is unlocked when the device runs a benchmark”.

AND HERE”S THE BEST BIT:

According to Apple exec Phil Schiller via Twitter-

“shenanigans”.

Awesome.

Now… Anandtech has published evidence suggesting that nearly all mobile manufacturers, WITH THE EXCEPTION of Apple and Motorola, use CPU/GPU optimizations to game benchmark tests.

WHAAAAAA? IT’S ALL A LIE!

“With the exception of Apple and Motorola, literally every single OEM we’ve worked with ships (or has shipped) at least one device that runs this silly CPU optimization. It’s possible that older Motorola devices might’ve done the same thing, but none of the newer devices we have on hand exhibited the behavior. It’s a systemic problem that seems to have surfaced over the last two years, and one that extends far beyond Samsung.”

Way to destroy our trust and beliefs everyone except Apple and Motorola. What else can we believe in if not technical benchmark data? At least we have Captain Halloween coming soon. Gosh we love Captain Halloween. You know, the guy.

You know the guy.

Image courtesy of gsmnation

Virgin offering shiny new iPhones at shiny new prices!

Virgin Mobile USA, a subsiduary of Sprint Mobile, has begun selling the shiny new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C!

And here’s the extra good bit- the pre-paid brand are offering a$100 discount from the normal (unsubsidized) pricing!

Sahweeeeht!

The 16Gb phones will be available both online and in retail stores whilst the 32 GB and 64 GB iPhone 5s and 32GB iPhone 5c are only available at Virgin Mobile’s website.

As is to be expected, stock is somewhat limited, especially on the gold iPhone 5s and the yellow 16Gb iPhone 5C models.

Another Sprint subsidiary, Boost, is expected to be offering a similar deal in the weeks to come.

Yay for Virgin!

Image courtesy of 9to5mac.com

Apple is now the most valuable brand in the universe

Who’s the most valuable company in the world? Who is?! Apple is! We always get Run DMZ in our head when we read that sentence for some reason. So, naturally, now you guys get to have it in your head…

There! Ok, so last week Apple was named the world’s most valuable brand. In the world. Technically, in the universe. Alf got nothing on you, Mr Cook.

We miss Alf.

Back in 2000, a company called Interbrand began compiling a ‘Best Global Brand’ survey of the top 100 brands worldwide. The company that produces that sweet, sweet, black gold, Coca Cola, has been number one every single year.

Until now. BUM BUM BUUUUUUUM

This year, Coca Cola has fallen to the number 3 position and Apple has taken place at the top of the brand castle, thank you very much.

Apple climbed from the number 2 position in 2012, and all the way from the number 8 position in 2011.

According to Interbrand’s report, Apple’s brand value has increased by 28% from last year, sitting at 98.3 Billion. That’s… a lot of apples.

Google, with 93.3 billion, placed 2nd this year, and 5 of the top ten were tech companies, a trend that should only become more clear in the years to come.

How many people have upgraded to iOS 7?

iOS 7 has been out for just over two weeks and although there have been some bugs surrounding the software upgrade (hi iMessages and Mail), and despite some of the media beating up on it, the general consensus is that iOS 7 is a good thing.

With the help of the guys over at Mixpanel, we can track the the number of people who have upgraded their devices to iOS 7.

The number is currently sitting at just over 65% and is still rising, which is much greater than the uptake of iOS 6. Maybe those media beater upperers had a plan…

Anyway, Apple is fixing the bugs that came along with the release and millions of people using it, and a new version of iOS 7.0.3 is due next week.

Have you upgraded? Check out this link to see the status of how many people have upgraded their devices ( it’s updated by the hour).

https://mixpanel.com/trends/#report/ios_7

Image courtesy of Cult Of Mac.