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.
Although the Apple TV is still officially classed as hobby project for Apple that takes its place behind the likes of the iPhone and iPad, it is a piece of kit that is growing in popularity and prominence with more units shipping each quarter. Apple have showed recent signs of taking the Apple TV more seriously with the addition of streaming content such as the iTunes Festival and their own media event keynotes but until they add some powerful extensions and features, it may continue to live as the company's hobby creation. Thankfully, the jailbreak world loves to pay attention to unloved iOS devices and it now seems possible to control the Apple TV using basic voice commands.
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.
The “Apple products are cool” saga only reached a conclusion last week when the fruit company made its apology, and today, Apple’s UK website has now clarified the original issue, along with ads in several UK newspapers.
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.
The iPad 3 has had the shortest shelf life of any Apple tablet in existence. Having arrived only in March in a blaze of glory, it's quickly been replaced by the fourth-generation iPad, and although the aesthetic changes are negligible (the Lightning cable has replaced the 30-pin job), internally, the newer of the two is said to be "twice as fast."
In line with the Steve Jobs vision, many of us hold our smartphones and tablets in the same regard as our cars, and as some of us have specially adapted our automobiles for compatibility with our iPhones, some companies have already been installing the iPad mini into the dashboards of cars.
Skeuomorphism within the design of iOS is something Apple's designers have squabbled over for a good while. The fake glass dock, plastic background of the calculator, beech wood effect of the Newsstand - these are all examples of ornamental elements throughout Apple's mobile OS, and although former SVP of iOS Software, Scott Forstall, was quite a big fan of the look, he has now surrendered his post. Jony Ive will be one of the Apple execs said to be overseeing tasks formerly manned by Forstall, and is reportedly planning to rid both iOS and OS X of the tacky designs.
It was only yesterday when a United Kingdom based court of appeals took the decision to reprimand Apple for their failure to act in proper accordance with an original judgment in October that stated they must issue an apology to Samsung Electronics through their customer facing UK website. Although the company has removed the initial linked statement from their website and are yet to publish the new homepage based announcement, they have started publishing the notice in UK print publications.
With iPad minis beginning to find their way into the hands of people around the globe, more and more information is beginning to circulate about just what powers Apple's little tablet. We already knew that the device was, for all intents and purposes, a shrunken down iPad 2, but we always like to be sure. Now, thanks to yet another teardown of the iPad mini, we have confirmation.
