The New Mac Pro

 

We got a sneak peak today, with a big drum roll please announcement of the new Mac Pro.  Apple’s line of Mac Pro’s are generally used a lot by graphic designers, software developers, video editors, people who need a lot of power.

 

The new Mac Pro is innovative in it’s size and cylindrical design, and sounds just basically miraculous and perfect. And we’re not ones to go over the top. Much.

 

There are some people who say it looks like a giant pill. One of those ones that doesn’t go into your mouth…we disagree. We think it looks svelte and sexy, so there.

 

The Mac Pro is one of Apple’s products that haven’t had the privilege of being updated in quite a few years. And now it got the privilege, it got it all over the place. The old Desktop Mac looked like this:

 

 

This new one is 1/8^th of the size! But it’s also faster, better, stronger and, well, not harder. Just the first three then. The casing can be rotated using a handle at the top and the computer will use motion sensors to light up the input panel so you can see all the ports.

 

 

It’s assembled completely in the United states ( Go Patriotism!), we have no idea how much it costs yet ( but probably expensive) and it will be released later this year sometime vague.

 

So, here’s what’s so impressive about it apart from the new design and size. It’s 2.5 times faster than the previous model, and according to Apple, will provide twice the performance.

 

 

According to Apple, the specs are as follows;

 

The next generation Mac Pro is architected around an ingenious unified thermal core that allows the desktop to efficiently share its entire thermal capacity across all the processors. The result is a pro desktop with breakthrough performance packed into a design that is one-eighth the volume of the current Mac Pro. Next generation Intel Xeon E5 processors with up to 12 core configurations deliver double the floating point performance. With two AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs, the all-new Mac Pro is up to 2.5 times faster than the current Mac Pro and delivers up to an amazing 7 teraflops of compute power. The new Mac Pro also features PCIe-based flash storage that is up to 10 times faster than conventional desktop hard drives and includes the latest four-channel ECC DDR3 memory running at 1866 MHz to deliver up to 60GBps of memory bandwidth. With all that power, the new Mac Pro lets you seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K video while simultaneously rendering effects in the background.

 

So, it’s super fast and powerful and stuff. And it looks really cool. We want one. For Christmas. Please. We’ll use it to make the best penguin meets llama animation that anyone has ever seen, promise.

 

 

Images courtesy of; Engadget, Inrumor, Gizmodo & Macrumors.

iOS 7

 

 

Yesterday we were given a preview of iOS 7, and apart from the fact that we only saw a teensy snippet of one of our personal favs and the man mainly responsible for iOS 7, Jony Ive, the new iOS announcement exceeded even our expectations. And we had high hopes!

 

Now, this system update will not change your life drastically, it will not do your job for you or make you a more beautiful person, but what it does is promise to enhance your life, with it’s combination of a pared down and simplified beauty and increased functionality.

 

This seventh system update is the biggest change to iOS since the iPhone came out with the user interface changing pretty drastically as well as the addition of a number of new features.

 

As was predicted ( or leaked in a timely manner by Apple), the new iOS has none of the skeumorphic, life like graphics or icons as seen in the previous versions.There is a whole new color palette, completely new icons and the overall impression is a much cleaner, flatter, brighter and simpler user interface.

 

There is a translucent feel to the screen, which gives depth to the phone, even down to the wallpaper, which you can now see behind app icons, and that moves intuitively in relation to the motion in your hands.The typography, also, has been redesigned to be bigger, spacier and cleaner.

 

Apple has said that this is the future of iOS, that as well as being the biggest change to iOS since the original iPhone, it is a new beginning.And, well, we haven’t tested it out yet, but we like the way it looks. We like the new features, and we like the direction Apple is going with it.

 

Here are some new features that make iOS 7 super, double rainbow exciting.

 

Control center
Swiping up from the bottom of the device, you can find the all-new control center. This innovation provides quick access to preferences and settings. You will find switches for wifi, Airplay, a flashlight, do not disturb, brightness, airplane mode, and quick music buttons.

 

 

 

Weather, Messages, Calendar

Messages and the Calendar app have both been cleaned up and simplified. The updated weather app has animation representing live weather, (the lightening looked particularly cool) with the ability to see more details such as humidity, and scrunch all your favorite places together to see not only the weather in each, but the time in world clock format.

 

Multitasking

Pressing the power button twice will now give previews of apps that are open, rather than the small app icons that we see right now on iOS 6.

 

The phone will intuitively learn which apps you use most often and at what time. Background processing will then provide updated content, ready and waiting for the time that you use them.

 

This also applies with apps that send push notifications- when that happens, the phone will start processing updates because it knows that you will more than likely be opening that app soon.

 

The phone will recognize and take advantage of power efficient times, such as when it is connected to Wi-Fi, to update apps.

 

 

 

Airdrop
This is a new function, sadly only available on the most recent devices ( iPhone 5, iPad etc).

 

Airdrop makes it super easy to share photos, videos, contacts and other stuff between friends with iPhones. Connecting via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, you can simply click the share button and choose the recipient from those around you.

 

You can send whatever you want ( from apps that support Airdrop) and the person receiving can choose to save the item- it will then be located in the appropriate app. Photos in iPhoto, etc.

 

 

Safari

Safari is updated with a new full screen look and smart search tab, one tap access to favorites and better parental controls.

 

You also have the ability to see and browse your tabs from other devices.

 

Also… and this is kind of a biggie… no more eight tab limit! Oh my god apple, why did that take so long, but thank you, thank you.

 

Tabs are also now organized differently- vertically in 3D instead of horizontally, with the ability to reorder the tabs. To get rid of one tab you just swipe it to the left.

 

 

Photos and camera

The camera app now includes 4 camera options- Normal, square cropped, video and panoramic. You also have the option of a number of live filters to apply to photos.

 

The photos app has a brilliant way of organizing your photos using time and location to bundle your photos into ‘moments’, which are photos from the same time and/or place. These ‘moments’ can then be organized into ‘collections’, which are groupings of moments using that same organizational information.

 

You can also view your whole collection via year, see what locations you were in for each year, and scrub to find a specific photo.

 

 

Siri

Siri now has not one but two new voices, a more human like female and male voice!

 

A new interface, with sound waves to represent Siri when he/she’s processing, French and German capabilities and a whole whack load of higher intelligence makes Siri exciting again.

 

The results can now include photos within the app and has the ability to answer more questions more intelligently, with Twitter, Wikipedia and web search results from Bing integrated into the app. Interesting choice with Bing, but we’ll ride with it for a while…

 

Siri itself has also become more integrated into your device, and can perform functions such as turning the brightness down, turning Bluetooth on etc.

 

 

New app store
For starters, the new app store looks way better. Secondly, all of your apps will now update automatically, (down with those little red numbers!) and thirdly, we now have some new search options.

 

You will be able to search for apps based on your location, or or an event or festival you’re at. You can also now search for and find apps using age range, which is designed with kids in mind.

 

 

Itunes Radio
We have a whole other section on iTunes Radio, go here to read it ☺

 

 

Ios in the car
iOS will soon be integrated into your car by having your device display through the in-car monitors. A bunch of cars will begin to be integrated with Siri, Maps, messages and more in 2014.

 

The introduction to this was pretty broad, however there will be more details to come. The car manufactuors who will be including iOS in at least one of their models include Honda, Mercedes- Benz, Nissan, Volvo, Kia, Acura, Ferrari, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Opel, and Chevrolet.

 

 

OK, so those are the big features. There are also a ton of different, smaller features in iOS 7, like the updated notification centre that can now be accessed from the lock screen, and synced across all of your devices, and the activation lock to try to prevent theft ( no-one can use your iphone unless they know your iCloud username & password.)

 

 

We think that iOS 7 is really pretty cool, especially considering that we’ll be getting at least a few more cool features in the hardware component around the same time (Fall this year). What do you guys think?

 

 

iOS 7 will be available to the public in the Fall. Demos for iOS 7 are available on Apple’s site- here.

 

 

First image courtesy of techradar.com, all others courtesy of Apple.com

OS X Mavericks

 

 

We would have suggested OS Liger ( rawr!), but Apple went ahead without consulting us and decided with this system update to start over with the naming process, leaving the big cat names behind.

 

Coinciding with their new ‘Designed by Apple in California’ ads, and the announcement that the Mac Pro will be built solely in America, Apple have started a new naming scheme for their operating system based on locations in California.

 

To start it off, announced yesterday at WWDC, we have OS X Mavericks. Mavericks is a surfing location particularly well known for its dangerous big wave riding in Northern California, just north of the town of Half Moon Bay.

 

 

Now, it’s also the new Apple operating system. Is it as cool as beach with big wave breaks? Well, kinda? We may have trapped ourselves in that comparison- it might not be that cool, but it is very cool.

 

Here’s the double rainbow of coolness for you guys;

 

 

New Finder Tabs.

 

 

Just like in your Internet browser, you can now have independently controlled tabs in your finder windows. You can merge these finder windows and take the finder full screen.

 

 

 

Tagging.

 

 

Filed under ‘I wouldn’t have though of this, but now that you did, it looks really freakin useful’ is tagging.

 

With Mavericks you will be able to ‘tag’ documents and media – save it, tag it as sports, home, to do, etc. and it catalogues these under their tags in the side bar of the finder.

 

You can tag documents with multiple tags, create new tags on the go, and the best part? Searching using tags. For instance, searching for ‘iphone stuff’ and ‘the best’ will naturally take you directly to your saved iPhone Antidote Wallpaper.

 

 

 

Multiple Displays

 

 

Users will now be able to access the menu bar and dock separately on each screen with multiple display support. You will also be able to load separate and independent applications on each screen, and drag them from screen to screen.

Apple TV is not forgotten here either, as it can now be a fully powered OS X display, with access to menu bar dock and independent applications also.

 

 

 

Extended Battery Life

There is a heap of new processing elements included in Mavericks to extend your battery life and reduce CPU utilization by up to 72%.

 

We particularly like a new feature called app nap, which figures out what applications and web pages are in use, and which are not. The system will then simply stop giving power to the web pages and applications that you’re not currently looking at.

 

Compressed memory pretty much does what it says, compressing inactive memory to provide spare memory to running applications when needed.

 

Timer Coalescing groups low end operations together , creating tiny periods of time when your computer can enter into an idle, low power state, which in turn saves your battery.

 

 

 

 

Safari

 

Safari is updated with Mavericks, starting with an all-new homepage with top sites and a sidebar with your bookmarks and access to your reading list. This will also include shared links from people you follow on Linkdin and Twitter.

 

Safari uses less energy in this update and includes accelerated, smoother scrolling and one click bookmarking.  In your readin list, you will be able to scroll continuously through all of your articles, one after the other.

 

 

 

iCloud keychain

 

Cross device safe keeping of all your passwords and credit card information starts with iCloud Keychain.

 

This new feature will store all your passwords, across all your devices, so you don’t have to think about them ever again. Sounds pretty good right? The keychain will even suggest new passwords for you, and then will go ahead and put it in the cloud, encrypted.

 

With your credit card information, when shopping online, the keychain will offer the last four digits of all the cards you have stored, and you can pick one when paying and be done with it.

 

Although this sends little tiny shivers of scariness up the security part of our spine, it also sounds super useful and convenient.

 

 

 

 

Notifications

 

You can now get all your notifications, from all your devices, on your computer.

 

What’s also pretty great about this is you will have a number of new options for action within the notification when it appears on your screen.

 

You can respond directly to most notifications, (by replying to email, declining Skype calls etc.), within the notification banner when it appears.

 

Once you have actioned a notification, you won’t see it again on any of your other devices, and they will all be updated with your response to the original notification.

 

When the computer is awoken from sleep, all the alerts you may have gotten when it (and you!) were asleep will be listed.

 

 

 

Calendar

 

The calendar app has been updated in a really cool way- where now if you have appointments scheduled, the app will give you a ton of information you might need for them.

 

The calendar will now provide you with weather in the spot where your appointment is scheduled, as well as suggestions for restaurants etc if you require them.

 

We particularly like that the calendar will work out and tell you the travel time to and from your appointment, and will even add it to the calendar so you cant double book the time when you’re supposed to be on your way!

 

You will also get notifications of when you need to leave on your phone and/or computer.

 

 

 

Maps

 

Maps hits the computer with Mavericks! You can now access street maps, 3D flyover data and info cards. You can also push turn-by-turn directions to our iOS device straight from your computer.

 

 

 

iBooks

 

 

 

iBooks will be on your computer by Fall with this system update. Now you can access all the books in the iTunes store as well as your stored books and bookmarks, and read them full screen on your computer screen.

 

But what is really cool is for the educators and the learners amongst us.

 

iBooks for Mavericks will come with interactive textbooks, which feature videos and other media embedded within the normal text. You will also have the ability to highlight and make notes, and learn using study cards made from the material.

 

Sounds pretty awesome huh?

 

OS X Mavericks will be available to the public in the Fall.

 

 

All images courtesy of Apple. 

New MacBook Airs

 

MacBook Airs were given a small but quite amazing revamp in time for WWDC 2013.

 

The new 11-inch and 13-inch notebooks use Haswell processers, which provide better overall performance and most importantly- increased battery life or ‘all day’ battery life as described by Apple.

 

The 11 inch MacBooks will increase from 5 hours of battery life to 9 hours and the 13 inch MacBooks will increase from 7 hours to a pretty amazing 12 hours of battery life. I know we just said Amazing to describe that, but we totally think it deserves an Astounding too. Simply astounding battery life!

 

The new MacBooks also come with 40% better graphics performance, and up to 3 times faster Wi-Fi capabilities with 802.11ac compatibility.  802.11ac is the newest Wi-Fi standard, but as it is not common yet, Apple also announced a new Airport Extreme that is compatible with 802.11ac.

 

The pricing has changed a little (for the better) with the narrowing hard drive options, as the 64 GB is not available with this update. The 11″ MacBook Air starts at $999 with a 128GB hard drive and the 13″ MacBook Air with a 128GB hard drive starts at $1099.

 

Available online and in retail stores as of today (yesterday officially, but a lot of stores actually started selling them today).

 

Image courtesy of Ubergizmo.

 

More iOS speculation

 

 

 

More speculation yesterday about Apple’s upcoming iOS 7!

 

So far, we all ( think we) know that the system update will be flatter and less skeuomorphic than the iOS we all know.

 

This means that some such features originating under Steve Jobs, such as the Notes app looking like a real notepad and other real world aesthetic replication will be gone under the leadership of Mr Jony Ive who took over in October last year. Gone also will be the shine and gloss of app icons.

 

Now, according to website 9to5mac, as well as being flatter, iOS 7 will have a monochromatic design and according to their sources, each app will have a white back with a splash of color individually assigned to that app.

 

Jony Ive is said to have made his mark throughout the whole of the updated version of iOS 7, which is due to be announced and previewed at the keynote address of WWDC on June 10th in San Francisco.

 

Looking forward to it Jony!

 

 

image courtesy of Redmondpie.com

New iPhone release speculation

 

More conjecture recently about the next iPhone release date has proposed that the phone will go into mass production in June, ready for a Fall announcement and public release.

 

There were earlier suggestions that the phone could be announced at WWDC in June, however now it seems that the consensus is that the main products on display at WWDC will in fact be iOS 7 and OS X 10.9, leaving the new iPhone to be released in the Fall.

 

Japanese Newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun has reported that Sharp will begin manufacturing LCD panels for the new iPhone in June, which would make sense for a September release.

 

This would also make sense looking at the history of Apple’s past iPhone release schedule, as although the iPhone 4 was announced at WWDC in 2010, the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 were both announced in September ( Sept. 27th 2011, and Sept. 12th 2012 respectively).

 

Just to keep everyone on there toes, popular tech Twitter dude @evleaks posted that Verizon will be offering $100 off the iPhone 5, leaving some to speculate that this is so they can make room for the new iPhone- which points towards an earlier release.

 

We here at iPhone Antidote suspect that this is not the case, but, as always with Apple,  no one can be a hundred percent sure on exactly when the next iPhone will come out and exactly what features it will include!

 

Even so, we love playing the game, so we’ll be doing our best to keep you up to date with specs, release date and as much secret source stuff as you can handle! (…About the new iPhone…)

 

 

Photo courtesy of iboomer.com