Tim Cook and his Apple team took to the stage in San Francisco as expected to announce the launch of the new iPad, throwing in a new Apple TV set top box for good measure. The announcement pretty much came as everyone had predicted, with no specifications or inclusions to blind side us. But while there has been plenty of talk about what hardware the company would introduce, little time was spent wondering about the software side of things and what the upgraded device would mean for the applications that we all know and love.
Unlike the apparent panic displayed by Apple in the run-up to the original iOS 5 release, which saw an near-unprecedented number of betas seeded to members of the fruit company's developer program, there have been comparatively few reports of what is to be expected with its first major revision - iOS 5.1.
It has hardly been a secret that Apple Inc. have been fighting a patent war on multiple fronts against multiple companies, which most notably include the soon to be Google-owned Motorola Mobility Holdings, as well as the Korean based Samsung Electronics. Motorola and Samsung are arguably two of the largest producers of Android-powered handsets, and with Apple believing both companies are heavily infringing upon company owned patents, they have been relentless in their pursuit of justice through the European legal system.
The Gold Master build of Apple's soon-to-be-announced iOS 5.1 has, after three weeks of extensive quality testing by Apple and its carrier partners, passed quality assurance tests, signifying that it's now ready for the end-user.
When Apple officially launched the public version of iOS 5 alongside the iPhone 4S in October 2011, the new and improved system wide notification system was generally perceived as a much needed and long overdue addition to the operating system. Previous versions of iOS came with an extremely ugly, and intrusive way of handling notifications by slapping a big blue alert view onto the device’s screen. Not only was this system not in-keeping with the beauty of the OS, but it also provided a terrible user experience, with the alert view making sure that the user was interrupted in whatever they were doing.
We live in an age that is becoming increasingly reliant upon computers and the ability to connect to the internet. There can be no denying that the world wide web is a marvelous resource and gives us 24/7 access to a wealth of knowledge, fun and entertainment, containing information and data which appeals across the age spectrum. That access and information is constantly going to grow due to the fact that worldwide adoption rate of smartphone and tablet devices, meaning the internet truly has become a mobile resource, accessible pretty much from any location.
While Apple employees have been out in force adorning the Yerba Buena Center for Arts with company logos and getting the insides ready to welcome the world’s media on Wednesday, those good old anonymous, but reliable sources have been out in force again spreading their teasing exclusives. The information in this instance is two fold, with iLounge citing one of their "repeatedly reliable sources", claiming that Apple are to their launch own in-house case for the new iPad which takes inspiration from the Smart Cover as well as actively working on a new design for the next-generation iPhone which comprises of a fully glass rear.
One of the great things about Apple, and one of the main reasons why so many people love the company the world over, is the service that they provide to their customers. Apple is often praised for the great products which they provide, which is a compliment they are indeed worthy of, but the truth is that a lot of technology companies manufacture exceptional products which are equal in functionality to Apple's. The thing which generally sets Apple apart is the way they go about marketing those products, and the service they provide through after sales channels, designed to breed consumer loyalty.
Regular jailbreakers all have their individual reasons why they wait patiently for the development teams to develop the required software to liberate devices. Some love the freedom and the ability to say they have defied the might of Apple, while others do it just for their one favorite tweak that they can't live without. On a personal level, I fall into a few of the individual categories and religiously jailbreak my devices not only for some must have tweaks which make using an iDevice a more pleasurable experience, but also because I truly believe that after paying many hundreds of dollars for hardware I should have the liberty to do what I want with it within the confines of the law.
In the last day or so we have heard Apple announce the fact that the twenty fifth billionth application has been downloaded from their official App Store, confirming the application hub as the biggest on the mobile planet. Whilst the statistic clearly shows that iOS users are becoming increasingly active in the App Store, we should also spare a thought for the unofficial, Cydia store, which also turns in some impressive numbers. Cydia is home to some of the finest third-party tweaks and modifications available for an iOS device, and this is being added to on a daily basis.
