Latest Gadgets, Tablets and Smartphones
Apple iCloud was finally announced yesterday. The new service aims to put all of your content in the cloud and make it an invisible process to move files between each of your Apple devices.
When buying a track from iTunes for example, you can buy it on your iPhone. The track is then loaded to iCloud and any other logged in device such as an iPad, iPod touch or a Mac each have the song downloaded automatically.
At WWDC yesterday, Apple revealed more details about OS X Lion as well as when it will launch and how much it will cost. The OS will launch in July and will cost $29.99 for those updating from Snow Leopard. This makes it about $100 cheaper than previous major updates.
As well as costing less, OS X Lion will only be available as a download. When it launches, you’ll be able to get it from the App Store on the Mac and download, install and not have to reboot.
Evernote has announced that it has now got 10 million users. Since January 1st this year, the company has added about 4 million new users. We also see that the number of premium users has also increased by 111 percent from 201k to just short of 425,000.
Just ahead of WWDC2011 that kicks off in the next few days, we are beginning to hear pricing rumours of the new iCloud service. Insiders have hinted at the initial offering being free which will later on be changed to a $25/year pricing plan. It isn’t clear how long the free period will last. It could be a month, 90 days or perhaps even longer.
Earlier this week, Apple uploaded a security update that aimed to fix the Mac Defender malware that had been causing problems for some Mac owners over the last few weeks. The update is available through the update services in OS X. When installed, it gets rid of the Mac Defender malware and also scans for variants of it.
Within 8 hours of the security update going live, a new variation of Mac Defender had been created which bypassed the new security restrictions that Apple put in place.
Yesterday at D9, Microsoft unveiled Windows 8. Windows 8 is designed for a range of devices from those that have just a touchscreen and are small (think smartphone/tablet) all the way up to large screen devices with or without a keyboard and mouse.
Microsoft has departed from the usual Windows look and feel in some ways by using a more interactive user interface.
Google first launched the +1 button back in March although this was reserved for search results and ads only. Google has now officially launched the +1 button and has made it available for anyone who wants to add the button to their website.
What the button does is allow you to recommend content to friends and contacts.
A few weeks ago some malicious software was found to be infecting Max OS X. The software is called Mac Defender and was installed by enticing users in to thinking they had a virus. The Mac Defender program then asked for CC details to get rid of the virus.
Apple has now released an update for OS X that can be downloaded via the software update menu. Once installed, the security update will rid the virus and give a prompt if you are trying to download it again in the future.
Facebook continues to grow at an astounding rate. We hear today that the company has almost 700 million users.
Apple has announced that iOS 5, Lion and iCloud will all be announced at WWDC this year. The event is being held on June 6 at 10:00am.
Each of the new software and services will be announced in the keynote presentation by Steve Jobs as well as other Apple execs.
Yesterday, we reported on a tablet app called Glowball that was specifically designed to be run on the yet to be released NVIDIA Quad-core Kal-El processor. The demo showed real time rendering of graphics as well as a comparison between dual-core and quad-core processors.
Today, we now see that a new demonstration has arrived called Shadowgun. This game will be one of the first launched that will make use of the new quad-core Kal-El processor from NVIDIA. Unfortunately, the demo isn’t running on a quad-core processor, but instead, it’s on a Tegra 2 powering the Acer Iconia.
When Sony announced the NGP in January this year we also heard that it would have 512MB RAM. To cut down on manufacturing costs, it seems that this will now be reduced to 256MB.
