For those among us who are Mac OS X users, you will no doubt be familiar with the Growl notification service. Growl is described as the ultimate notification service for OS X and is by far one of the easiest methods available for keeping in touch with installed applications, and any messages or alerts that they may give. Different users appreciate the simplicity of Growl for a number of reasons, with one of the main ones being that it works right out of the box and doesn't have any complicated setup procedures. Applications that are Growl compatible will simply just work with the system without any fuss.
The army of Cydia devotees had to wait quite a while for iOS 5 to be jailbroken. Thanks to a collaborative effort from some of the most talented developers in the game, the A4 jailbreak in December was closely followed a couple of weeks later by the Absinthe, A5 jailbreak for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.
Seven days after the special press event in San Francisco where the iPad 3 was unveiled, the reviews have began pouring in. With the embargo lifted, various top tech and general news sites have unleashed their hands-on opinions on the device, and we have a roundup of the top reviews from the tech pundits we know and love right here.
I wouldn't like to think how many presses, taps and clicks the 'track shipment' option on Apple's website and official app have notched up in the last few days from users who are desperate to find out where their new iPad is. The fact that Apple decided to allow customers to put through pre-orders for this new product launch means that email inboxes lit up all over the world at the beginning of the week with order progress updates advising that the order has been shipped by the company. Unfortunately for excited consumers, it seems that Apple had advised the delivery companies to hold onto the shipments and try their very hardest to make sure they were delivered on the official launch date this Friday.
As well as the obvious introduction of the new iPad, Apple also made what many deemed as a statement of intent towards eventual connected TV by introducing an updated Apple TV device.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past week, you'll certainly have heard that Apple has showcased the latest addition to its iPad family - set to release at 8AM this Friday.
The newly released iOS 5.1 contains minimal changes in the way of actual tangible feature additions, but it does include some Siri support for additional markets as well as fixing over eighty one security flaws, and if internet murmurings are anything to go by then it looks as if it has also brought improved battery life.
Apple iPad fans are currently sitting in that uncomfortable period which inevitably comes in the aftermath of the company teasing us with the details and specifications of the new device, then making us wait a whole nine days before we can get our hands on it. As is usually the case, millions of people around the world tuned in to the media event last Wednesday to get a glimpse of what Apple were bringing to the market with the new iPad, and judging by the social chatter as well as the fact that the pre-order system continually crashed, it seems that the reaction is overwhelmingly positive.
Every time Apple drops a new product - particularly when it's a and iPhone or iPad - the inevitable pilgrimage towards those iconic Stores ensues, with consumers willing to withstand lengthy queues in all weathers to get their hands on the Cupertino's next big thing.
When we think and talk about Apple and their products, we generally focus on two key aspects, form and function, both of which make devices like the iPhone, iPod and iPad stand out in the marketplace above all competition. The iPod portable music player revolutionized the way we think about and listen to music. The iPhone was one of the first smartphones to fuse together advanced features with an almost flawless design and the iPad brought about what Apple is calling the "Post-PC" era, and looks set to go from strength to strength.

