Apple just announced “The New iPad”

Apple's "new iPad"
Apple's "new iPad"

Today Apple just announced the “The new iPad”. On the surface it looks just like the iPad 2, including the classic home button, but the internal hardware has been upgraded quite a bit. First thing you will notice is the new retina display giving a 2,048 x 1,536 resolution, and the CPU have also been upgraded to a dual-core Apple A5X. (The speed of this is not yet clear however).

Apple also announced it will sell the iPad 2 alongside the new iPad, and the price for the iPad 2 will drop to $399. At this price level it can better compete with a lot of new mid-range tablets that has come out at a lower price point, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Amazons Kindle Fire. The strategy to sell the new iPad along side the iPad 2 can be a bit risky in the current financial climate, and could possible effect the sale figures for the new device in a negative way. If have been thinking about buying an iPad 2, but felt it was to expensive, you now just might buy this instead of the “new iPad”. It also depends on what you intend to use your new tablet for, do you need a dual core processor to browse the web?

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iPhone 4S battery and reception issues

iPhone 4S Reception issues
iPhone 4S Reception issues

Apple have now acknowledged that some iPhone 4S users are experiencing poor battery life with their new device. They attributes this to to bugs within iOS 5 and according to a statement sent to All Things D, Apple says that “a small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.” A Beta version of  iOS 5.0.1 have just been relased that should include the upcoming fix for the battery life.

Unfortunately there is not only issues with the battery life, but also the reception. In the Apple forums quite a few customers are also experiencing dropped calls and next to no reception. There seems to be a work around for this, that temporally solves the issue, but considering the previous ‘antennagate’  that Apple was faced with when they launched the iPhone 4, this is probably not the start they where hoping for with their new device.

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Siri bypasses your Passcode by default

Siri on iPhone
Siri can bypass the passcode on iPhone 4S

A lot of people use a Lockcode/Passcode to stop someone else from accessing their phone. Doing so you feel fairly secure that no one can access you information and use your phone without your approval. Now it seems Siri, the new digital assistant in iPhone 4S, not only assist the owner in different tasks, but also might help total strangers use the phone.

Under the right conditions, Siri will bypass your passcode and allow anyone to perform tasks on a locked phone. By default, you can use Siri to make phone calls, check your calendar, send texts and emails to people in your contacts list, and set reminders, even when your phone is locked with a passcode. But it seems you at least can’t interact with installed applications or do Internet searches. This functionality might be something you prefer, and can be very handy if you for instance want to use Siri while driving your car. The possibility to search from the locked screen can be turned on and off, but the problem is that this functionality is turned on by default.

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iPhone 4S antenna switching solution may infringe on Samsung patents.

iPhone 4S reveled October 4, 2011

Danish professor Gert Frølund Pedersen, that predicted the iPhone 4 “antennagate” controversy, thinks Apple may once again run into trouble regarding the antenna. This time it might add a new chapter to the “patent wars”, since the new antenna switching solution of the iPhone 4S may infringe on Samsung patents.

Based on available information about the design of the iPhone 4S, Pedersen think that Apple is likely to come into conflict with several patents related to antenna selection, that he and several other researchers at Aalborg University in Denmark have developed – and several years ago sold to Samsung.

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Steve Jobs have passed away

Steve Jobs passed away
Steve Jobs long time CEO of Apple

According to a statement just issued by Apple’s Board of Directors, company co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs has passed away. A little over a moth ago Jobs stepped down as CEO with the words “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”  Jobs planned to remain as Chairman of the Board at the company, as well as director and an Apple employee after he recommended Tim Cook, at the time Apple COO, to  take his place as CEO.

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Samsung claims that the iPad design is taken from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Tablets in 2001 A Space Odyssey
"Tablets" in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey

Samsung is currently caught up in a legal battle with Apple that is trying to prevent them from from selling their Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe.

A judgment made in the Regional Court of Dusseldorf in Germany granted Apple a preliminary injunction barring the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. The judge who made the decision has backed Apple’s assertion that Samsung’s tablets infringe on the patented design of the iPad 2.

Samsung has now chosen to  appeal the court decision and one element of Samsung’s defense strategy is the claim that the iPad is in fact ripped off from a tablet design created by Stanley Kubrick for 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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