Any new device worth talking about is, as a matter of protocol, subject to numerous public tests, with the drop test being by far the most popular. As well as enjoying the perverse pleasure that is watching a brand-new device sustain serious damage, viewing such a test does have its practical benefits, since if a gadget performs particularly poorly, perhaps we'll think twice before parting with our cash.
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.
Social networks are nothing new on the web and mobile devices, but although there are plenty of them around, only a few manage to capture the user’s imaginations for any length of time. Facebook and Twitter are two of the most successful and widely used social experiences in the connected world, with the fantastic personal Path experience also significantly rising in prominence in the last twelve months. Path has been one of the most widely downloaded apps on the iPhone and iPod touch in recent times, with that number now set to rise with the launch of an official and natively designed iPad app.
The coming weeks may be all about Apple pushing out new hardware in the form of the iPad mini, the fourth-generation iPad and new Macs but it seems that today is firmly dedicated to getting improved versions of iOS out to as many users as possible. In addition to the public release of iOS 6.0.1 earlier today Apple have seeded the initial beta of iOS 6.1 to registered developers via the official developers center.
Whenever a new version of iOS is released to the public (or indeed, simply to developers), the attentions of many quickly turn to the possibility of a jailbreak. Offering a freedom impossible at stock level on an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, jailbroken devices offer the iOS experience without limitation, and it's thanks to utilities like the iPhone Dev-Team's Redsn0w that jailbreaks can be achieved.
Whenever Apple pushes out a new piece of hardware to the marketplace, we invariably also see an accompanying comprehensive teardown of the device courtesy of the guys over at iFixit. The stripping down of the device and taking a peek inside has become almost as exciting as the launch of the product itself, with attention being currently paid to inspecting how the new iPad mini has been put together with Apple's new engineering and manufacturing processes.
Visually speaking, iOS’ Springboard “launcher” hasn’t changed much over the years. If you look at the iOS 1 vs. iOS 6 image we’ve placed after the jump, you’ll find the preceding statement to be very much true.
We should all know by now that the large Retina display of the iPad lends itself perfectly to drawing apps, a multitude of which already exist on the App Store. The Zen Brush app offers similar functionality to a number of other drawing apps that are already available but bundled with the unique concentration on allowing users to paint, write and draw with a beautiful and realistic ink brush rather than a never ending set of pens and pencils.
The new Apple iPad mini is set to hit shelves this coming Friday and with the majority of pre-order models already sold out, it looks like the company has another early commercial success on their hands. Although consumers seem to have reacted positively to the new mid-range tablet, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the likes of Amazon have acted quickly in attempting to convince customers that they would be much better off buying the new Kindle Fire.
