The month of October is invariably the point at which Apple takes the wraps off its latest tablet upgrades, and over the next few weeks, we're anticipating the public release of OS X Yosemite 10.10, a new iMac / Mac mini, and also iOS 8.1 to accompany the refreshed iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display. According to a very reliable source - the same source that correctly offered a concrete date on the iPhone 6 event last month, no less - the new hardware and software will be announced at a special event on October 16th, to be held at Town Hall.
Given the sheer population of China along with its market's considerable interest in Apple products as a whole, it's not too much of a shock that the launch date of the iPhone 6 in China is, once again, lagging considerably behind the UK / US roll-out. In the countries where the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is already available, Apple has enjoyed impressive early sales, but if Chinese reservation figures are anything to go on, the best may still be yet to come. Pre-orders have not yet commenced, but many retailers have started taking reservations in advance of the October 17th release, and having originally reported that 2 million iPhone 6s had been reserved in just 6 hours, the sum total for the first-day of reservations stands at a whopping 4 million.
We've already seen the iPhone 6 completely wipe the floor with Samsung's Galaxy S5 in an unofficial speed test, and with the Galaxy Note 4 now in the process of rolling out to the masses, how does it compare to Apple's latest and greatest in terms of the benchmarks?
Apple's iPhone 6, which first hit the scene two weeks ago, managed to shift ten million units in its first three days alone, and at the time, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 accounted for the lion's share of sales. This may, at least in part, have been due to the fact that the iPhone 6 Plus wasn't as readily available, and whether down to the reported production delays or an underestimation of the larger model's popularity, the Plus's shipping times quickly pushed back to 3-4 weeks. Now, it looks like the admiration of Apple's phablet is beginning to show, with a new report suggesting that the 5.5-inch handset is accounting for three in every five iPhone 6 models being shipped at present.
Apple's initial foray into the world of wearable technology has been speculated, analyzed and discussed consistently over the last 18 months, but only made official when Tim Cook introduced us to the Apple Watch on September 9th. After showing off the beautiful aesthetics of the various models, brushing over the important technical specifications, and showing the obligatory Apple marketing video pertaining to the watch, Cook would only say that the wrist wear would be launched sometime during "early 2015". So, no shiny new Apple Watch in time for the festive season, but if reports emerging from China are to be believed then we could be looking at a worldwide February 2015 launch for the wearable.
Posting an update to any social network - or sending out a plain old IM - without an emoji is considered a minor sin these days. And while iOS does feature a brilliant built-in emoji keyboard to get things done, but Apple’s implementation does lack a few things which this new third-party iOS 8 keyboard swiftly fulfills.
Last year with iOS 7, Apple took an even more minimalist approach than usual to its mobile OS, removing all sign of skeuomorphism and instead opting for clean lines and flat shapes. This ethos for keeping things simple is reflected throughout the company’s product range, and with iOS 8 having recently been released, the desire for subtlety has remained. If you’re also a fan of simplicity, you’ll be pleased to learn of a little-known feature bundled into iOS 8 that allows you to enjoy a blank home screen, giving it a desktop OS like look, and below, we’ve compiled a simple step-by-step guide on how you can achieve it.
Apple's iPhone 6 may have enjoyed a blistering start during its first few weeks on sale, but it still faces stiff competition from other high-end handsets available across the industry, and if you're still on the fence with regards to which device best suits you, then you've probably been reading a lot of specs sheets. But while a big, beefy processor should keep things running smoothly and with great fluidity, the real-world speed can only be determined by using a device to perform a multitude of day-to-day tasks, and in the most comprehensive speed comparison to date, we get to see how the iPhone 6 stands up against both the HTC One M8 and Samsung's flagship Galaxy S5.
iOS 5 and iOS 6 introduced some social integration features which, among other things, allowed users to quickly post tweets and Facebook status updates right from the Notification Center using a simple tap. It was a convenient, effective way for users to get their 2 cents in without too much hassle, but with iOS 8, it's not longer a feature. But with Apple having given third-party developers a license to develop third-party Notification Center widgets - something only previously available via jailbreak - the NC can now be filled up with useful shortcuts and functions, and one dev has naturally seized the opportunity to re-introduced those sorely-missed functions.
Apple's iOS 8.1 beta 1 was pushed to developers earlier on this week, and as well as gaining a decent insight with regards to its features, we now have what is claimed to be a solid release date in October 20th. Apple Pay is set to be the flagship implementation of the next major update, but there are a number of other tweaks besides, and thanks to the digging of one eagle-eyed developer looking into the features of iOS 8.1 beta, it has also emerged that Apple will offer much better flexibility when it comes to data usage through voice calling.
















