Most of you following the news here at Redmond Pie will own a smartphone. In fact, I'd guess that all of you own a device boasting features qualifying your cell for the "smart" moniker.
I would imagine that being the CEO of Apple would be one of the most challenging but also most rewarding job in the technology industry at the moment. The company is enjoying such a tremendous run of success with their mobile and Mac products and have seen their stock price soar in recent weeks, but that doesn't mean that the position of CEO doesn't come with its fair share of stress. After being in the position full-time for the last seven months, it seems that Tim Cook is settling in rather nicely if the latest employee opinion polls are anything to go by.
Apple makes a number of premium products, but it is mainly the iPhone and iPad that have stolen the limelight in recent years. Their smartphone and tablet range are clearly their most successful products in recent years, but one of their other media devices is starting to gain some traction now, thanks to recent hardware and software updates.
The ongoing patent disputes between Apple and Samsung are constantly subject to media attention, and at present, U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh has the unenviable task of listening to the argument regarding Apple's U.S. Design Patents D558, D757, D618 and D678, related to the look and feel of its iDevice range.
Phil Schiller made sure to mention the A5X processor found in the new iPad performed 4x better than NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 chip. With a quad-core GPU, the new chip was also said to boast twice the graphics output compared with the iPad 2.
FireCore, the guys behind the Seas0nPass jailbreak tool have pushed out an update that provides a tethered jailbreak on the latest iOS 5.0 (iOS 5.1 - 9B179b) firmware. The update to the popular jailbreak tool currently only supports the second-generation Apple TV unit and therefore will not provide any jailbreak on the 1080p capable third-gen Apple TV. The tethered nature of this jailbreak obviously means that every time the unit needs to be rebooted, it will have to be connected to your PC or Mac to be put into a jailbroken state.
According to Google's own numbers, the search and mobile technology giant is currently making four times as much money from iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, as it is from smartphones and tablets running its own Android mobile operating system.
When Siri was added to the iPhone 4S late last year, some would argue that the face of interactive computing technology was changed forever. Some would argue that Apple unleashed a gimmick that nobody in their right minds would use past the initial week of the novelty factor.
While Windows 8 has received plenty of mixed criticism regarding its user interface and the desktop, there's a more unanimous agreement that it is a pretty damn good tablet OS. But, is Microsoft's unique approach to tablets going to be enough to even get a foot in the door of the tablet market? After all, it isn't even so much a tablet market as an iPad market; Apple created this market, and are doing a great job at maintaining a firm grip on it. But, while nothing will kill the iPad anytime soon, it is possible for a product to gain decent share in an Apple-dominated market. Just look at Android.
From day-to-day, we see and hear many rumors and supposed 'inside information' regarding unconfirmed, unannounced, and unspecified products. Some are plausible, and make sense, if only vaguely, whilst others seem somewhat far-fetched.
