Thinking about the late Steve Jobs generally conjures up images of him parading around the stage of Moscone Center wearing his blue trademark jeans and black turtle neck jumper ensemble while showing off the latest Apple creation with his infectious enthusiasm. While a large portion of his professional life was entirely dedicated to finding Apple and then ultimately spearheading the company's resurgence from Silicon Valley obscurity, Pixar is attempting to ensure that his other career successes aren't forgotten by renaming their main building in honor of him.
It should be common news by now that Apple has taken the decision to have an executive shake-up in Cupertino, with a number of notable faces set to leave the company in 2013. One of the most well-known casualties of the internal restructure is Scott Forstall who has held the role of Senior Vice President of iOS over the last few years. Forstall has been in charge of developing and handling the direction of iOS and has reportedly been shown the door due to his inability to play nice with other executives, as well as the publicly perceived shortcomings in the new Apple mapping system and the Siri digital assistant.
The general availability of the iPhone 5 is the United States has certainly improved over the past couple of weeks. The initial rush saw the Cupertino company's flagship device sell out rather quickly, but the waiting period of the much-sought device seems to be lessening as time has gone on. The on-contract iPhone 5 has sold in the tens of millions already, but those who've wanted the freedom of a factory-unlocked device have had to wait it out. However, a report over at AppleInsider suggests that wait might soon be over, and a search carried out this weekend for "iPhone 5 factory unlocked" on the US Apple site revealed the prices for the different configurations.
Apple has posted the iPad mini User Guide, and if you wish to download it, you can do so by following the link embedded at the end of this post. Whenever a new iOS device hits the market, the user guide always arrives fashionably late, and while the "Fingertips" leaflet provided with said iPhone, iPad or iPod touch gives users a general idea of how to get started with their shiny new device, the User Guide offers more in-depth coverage.
The iPad mini had only been officially in the wild for 24 hours before we were treated to a picture of the failbreak jailbreak running on the tablet. Although it has been jailbroken using the developer only method that we have been hearing about in the last month or so, it shows that progress is being made behind the scenes. In addition to the iPad mini jailbreak and iPhone 5 jailbreak, Grant Paul - a.k.a. chpwn - has now taken the opportunity to show off Cydia running on the gorgeous Retina display of the new fourth-generation iPad.
Apple's Siri may never shrug off that 'beta' moniker, but what it does mean is that the company can continue to add features to the voice-powered digital assistant, seemingly on the fly.
Apple's Lightning to Micro USB Adapter can now be purchased by those residing in the United States. Hitherto, only Europe has seen the connector, which, as the name quite overtly suggests, allows one to connect an iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector to a micro USB cable, for purpose of syncing with a computer or simply charging.
One of the biggest Apple-related news items last week - other than the launch of the iPad 4 and iPad mini - was the announcement from CEO Tim Cook that Senior Vice President (VP) of iOS Software, Scott Forstall and Head of Retail John Browett would be leaving the company in 2013.
With the iPad mini now officially available in the first wave of supported territories, it is inevitable that the reviews will start pouring in from every angle as early adopters inspect every nook and cranny of the gorgeous little tablet. One of the most talked about areas of Apple's new mini creation will undoubtedly be the 7.9-inch display, a screen that already seems to have split opinions right down the middle. In an attempt to add some clarity to the display debate, RepairLabs have put the company's iPad range under the microscope to compare the received screen quality.
Along with the release of any new hardware from Apple, we start to see an influx of TV ads soon after. The iPad mini is proving itself to be yet another blockbuster from the Cupertino company, and staying true to their previous trend, Apple has released the first ever TV ad for the miniature iPad.
