New reports claim that Apple is giving the Apple TV another refresh, with DVR capabilities coming to the little black box according to the Wall Street Journal.
Amid the talk of the next-generation iPhone and a smaller, "iPad Mini" device, it's easily forgotten that all of Apple's iOS devices evolved from the iPod - a long-standing series of music and media players which started off as a basic, yet elegant figure in the cauldron of digital players on the market.
There have been some major revelations over the past couple of weeks with regards to the purported "iPad Mini" device, and the consensus seems to be that it will look and feel somewhat closer to a larger iPod touch than it will a smaller iPad. Said to be releasing later on this year after the Cupertino's next smartphone - dubbed the "iPhone 5," it will not only be a great deal smaller than the 9.7-inch display of the main Apple slab, but it is also set to be a great deal cheaper than even the superseded iPad 2.
According to a report over at the Wall Street Journal, Cupertino, Calif. based outfit Apple is currently in talks with cable television networks in an attempt to utilize its Apple TV device as a proper set-top-box. Although once described by CEO Tim Cook as a "hobby" of Apple's, the gizmo has slowly but surely evolved into a decent product - one which now uses an A5 processor to pump out 1080p media to HDTVs.
The iPhone is easily the most anticipated device to be arriving from Apple in the coming months, although the purported smaller iPad, or iPad Mini as it is being referred, is hot on its heels. The device, we are led to believe, will counter the smaller tablets cropping up in the tablet market, including the cheap-yet-powerful Google ASUS Nexus 7.
Apple has been dealing Samsung a barrage of complaints in its court case against Samsung, claiming the South Korean company has infringed on many of its iPhone and iPad design patents in creating the Galaxy series. As well as the talk of hardware, Apple has, to a lesser degree, had a question or two to ask of various UI elements, but to head off its defense, Samsung has countered by claiming Apple has infringed on a number of its own software-based patents.
Considering it has been bubbling away and growing in size for the last eighteen months, it is going to be extremely interesting to see how the Apple vs. Samsung patent case progresses and ultimately pans out. It appears that both sides have fairly credible evidence to present to Judge Lucy Koh and the selected jury, but one of the most interesting parts of the case from an outsider’s point of view is the level of information that the companies have been forced to leak into the public domain as part of their own defense.
With every day passing by, we get a step closer to next-generation iPhone. With so much attention being lavished on the new iPhone over the last few months, interest in the device seems to be at unprecedented levels with consumers and technology enthusiasts all over the globe waiting with bated breath to see what Apple will bring to the table with their latest creation. The various leaked photographs that have surfaced have given us a pretty decent insight into what to expect aesthetically, but the internal specifications remain largely a mystery, with only a few educated guesses being made about what we should be expecting. With that said, we shouldn't be entirely focusing our attention on new hardware when we still have current-generation devices in circulation.
The iPhone has been around since 2007 and is about to be presented to the world in its sixth-generation form in the next month or so. In five years that has followed the iPhone’s introduction to the world, there has been a huge rise in mobile devices and their everyday use in our day-to-day lives, with a number of important points being raised about mobile technology along the way. As you would imagine, one of those important points that gets raised time and time again is just how secure mobile devices and their respective operating systems are.
As much as we are all looking forward to seeing what Apple has produced with the aesthetics of the next-generation iPhone, as well as finding out exactly what they have in store for us regarding device technical specifications, the already-committed amongst us are just waiting to find out when we can get our hands on the new piece of kit. As an iPhone owner from day one, my mind is already made up about the sixth-generation iteration and I will most certainly be adding it to my growing collection of Apple hardware. The only question remaining is; when?
