Category Archives: computers

Apple’s iPhone OS coming to more platforms and devices, mostly AppleTV?

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Here’s some hot news. If you thought iPad was just enough iPhone OS then wait, there’s more iPhone OS coming! Yes, Apple is planning to bring the revolutionary App and home screen OS to many more devices.

Proof? A recent job posting which folks at ComputerWorld found, Apple is seeking a full-time engineering manager for “platform bring-up” part of the Core OS platform team.

Here’s a part of it,

The Core Platform team within Apple’s Core OS organization is looking for a talented and inspired manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms. The team is responsible for low level platform architecture, firmware, core drivers and bring-up of new hardware platforms. The team consists of talented engineers with experience in hardware, firmware, IOKit drivers, security and platform architecture.

This position requires a very technical and hands-on leader, experience in working closely with hardware team and a deep understanding of bare metal software. You must be a highly self-motivated individual who seeks to create a dynamic and creative team environment in which old problems are solved in new and innovative ways.

What Mashable observed points that Apple is looking to poach the product managers for Google Android who have experience Unix OS and to develop mobile phones supporting Unix like operating systems. Most importantly they are looking for ARM based System-on-Chip (SoC) level design too (*Cough* A4 SoC’s – the most recent ones in the iPad *Cough*) which seems to power iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch’s and Apple TV too.

So now you know the relation. iPhone could possibly come to Apple TV too as both are based of ARM SoC’s and that it currently uses a Mac OS X derived OS which could be made better if the iPhone UI is used and it will enable Multi-Touch input too.

Predictions start being made now. Firstly rather then bringing the OS to a current device, instead there might be a idea bubbling up of a newer device? Not a new product line like tablets but a revision to MacBook, or a MacBook Mini which would have iPhone OS as primary OS or a low ARM Based server.

Much more can be developed on these existing technologies as the iPhone OS defines a new era of computing with so called “apps” to perform and utilize all the hardware capabilities of the device.

Image Credit : Devian Art

Rumor : The iPad might get a inbuilt camera at launch

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iPad missed the camera. That’s what we know from the announcement for now but Mission Repair doesn’t think so. They received shipment of iPad parts few days back and then they tear it down to show us the possibilities of the camera.

They show us the metal internal frames of the iPad  and they note the “spot” left for a Camera. Next what they try is that they remove a camera (iSight) from a unibody MacBook and try to fit it in the “spot” and to their amazement, it fits exactly!

The Camera fits in the place, the lens also goes into the hole and the LED indicator for the camera fits in too and ambient light sensor hole is just right. Shocking isn’t it? Even i can’t get the fact, and i think this can’t be possible as Apple rarely adds new features after they’ve announced. I think this could be possible in the next version or maybe a device for the corporate world (business ready version) which is more likely to happen after the device enters the market.

Windows 7 now has 7% of the Operating System market

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From few years from now, when asked what is a computer, few people answered, “Windows”. I could hear those geeks laughing but they were just a minority while most others really did not know what the question meant.

Time’s changed. Windows Xp came which currently has 60%-70% of the Operating System market share and then Windows Vista came which was the biggest flop in the history of Microsoft’s OS lineup. But then Windows 7 arrived which proved to be a game changer and if reports from NetMarketShare are to be believed then Windows 7 has captured 7.50% of the market share within just three months of launch.

This has broken Microsoft’s all past records and Windows 7 has defeated Windows Vista sales by over 280%! One of the biggest reasons why this happened is because most of the computer manufacturers quickly flocked to Windows 7 as it was way better than Windows Vista and not to forget Microsoft does have a huge of army of manufacturers! NetBook sales were also all time high and Windows 7 quickly sailed it’s way to success in the Netbook river too!

Stats after the break. (click to enlarge)

What to expect at Apple’s Media Event Today : Tablets, New iPhone and softwares?

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Everyone around is confused around about what would be coming up at the Apple’s Media Event (27th January at 10 am PST- Live Coverage here) except the man himself, Steve Jobs.

Here’s a complete mashup of what could be coming up later in few hours!

Apple Tablet

Name : iSlate/iPad/MacBook Touch/iTablet/iBook.

Dimensions : 7 inch or 10 inch

Operating System : Modified iPhone OS / Mashup of Mac OS X and iPhone OS

Features : Will Run iPhone Apps/ Serve as Ebook reader/ Games would be core functionalities/ Media is also another target/ Live Television with paid subscriptions/ Music, as always/ Might have a camera

Pricing : $800 / $1000

iPhone 4G

Name : iPhone 4G / Something even better?

Dimensions : Screen Dimensions to be larger than current one of 3.5 inch (480 by 320 pixels) because partner developers had been asked to present Applications of higher resolution for the iPhone.

Operating System : iPhone OS 4.0 (hopefully)

Features : 5 Megapixel Camera and slimmer iPhone. 64Gb iPhone could be possible. LED flash to accompany. Also, rumors are up that it will have a touch sensitive back cover and a removable battery. Front facing camera could also be possible for enabling video conferencing!

Pricing : Same as before $199 for 16 GB, $299 for 32 GB and possibly $399 for 64 Gb (all with contract)

Update : Seems like only Software (iPhone OS 4.0) would be out and not hardware. OMG! [rumor]

AT&T and Apple breakup

Tens of thousands of iPhone users on AT&T network were very angry with it’s service and this does bother Apple a lot. AT&T has got a exclusive deal with Apple till mid 2010 and so, Apple might decide to chuck it off for it’s customers.

AT&T has had huge problems managing the network due to excess usage from Bandwidth eating iPhones. Rumors were also around that Apple might have a exclusive deal with Verizon to become the exclusive dealer for iPhone.

Migrating from AT&T to Verizon would require hardware changes but you see, Verizon has got 90 Million Subscribers and Apple would happily make the changes to make a shift from GSM to CDMA! [Via DailyFinance]

iPod Touch to get Camera

This rumors been around for ever since the last Apple WWDC, and actually companies which make covers for iPod touch had also published up covers with camera holes for iPod touch but nothing happened and Apple remained silent.

This time it’s much likely to happen as Apple has ordered 50 Million Megapixel CMOS Image Sensors from Omnivision and you know that Apple’s really not going to use them all for iPhone!

We had written a post as to why Apple did not add camera to iPod touch earlier in 2009 and why will it add it now, have a look.

iLife

Newer version to be out, most probably. Name could be changed to iLife X and not 2010. Ask why? Apple does not show iLife “09″ on most of it’s websites, so mostly it’s definitely  not going to be iLife 10. [Via TheAppleBlog]

Garageband

Social Media integration could be the most prominent feature. Better Facebook and Twitter integration. Also, it will make use of Snow Leopards 64 bit technology very well.

iMovie, iWeb, iDvd, iPhoto

All of the softwares will get ready for integration with Apple’s mysterious tablet device. Social Media integration is on the rise. Usage of 64 bit technology for good. Better Face recognition in iPhoto, iDvd for Blu-Ray Dvd’s (Maybe?), iMovie’s user interface could possibly get a revamp and iWeb to get better themes and better add ons this time.

iWork

Newer version of iWork could make editing of documents much easier and faster. Better stuff for iPod and iPhone and especially the mysterious Apple Tablet!

iTunes 10

This version of iTunes could bring a whole new integration of Tablet computer to your computer. App store for tablet could make an entry. Much more access to iPhone/iPod/Tablet via new version of iTunes. Social Media integration, like other, to enter here too!

The Art of leaking news : Learning it from Apple

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The first thing i see when i log on to Digg.com is some Apple news. When i start reading articles in my RSS reader, all i see is Apple Rumors on all blogs. Who gives birth to these rumors? Why is everyone interested in Apple news? How does it spread so fast?

Apple knows all the answers. Let’s take the questions one by one.

Who gives birth to these rumors/leaks?

Apple itself. Apple has a team of marketing geniuses and news hungry people. That makes a perfect combination.

What? Apple itself leaks news?

I read this article at MacObserver which gave me a deeper idea as to how Apple made leaks. It had few simple steps.

  • Some Senior Executive instructs juniors to find to talk to someone at Major news outlets and reveal some information.
  • It is done over phone or in person and never in writing or emails because then no one comes to Apple with a proof.
  • This method works out the most as it’s claimed as a “Rumor” and so it may or may not be true and in this case the reputation of the both the parties is maintained and both of them benefit, Apple get’s required buzz and the authors get reader’s interest!

How do they get people interested in their news?

There are about 94,143,486 blogs who have posted about iPhone with a collective readership of over 30 Billion readers but only 45 Million iPhone were sold.

Apple does controlled leaks and it’s famous for not revealing information. If we see, generally you would be interested to know something when the other is trying to hide it. Simple principal is that

The more one hides, the more interest it generates for the other to know

This simple principal is responsible for the companies huge marketing success.

How does Apple get people to post their news?

If there are readers, give me a reason why people wouldn’t like to read about it? I mean our blogs first Digg frontpage was a Apple story too!

Also apart from readers, they do have great communication specialists who know the right people and get them at the right time so the news is a sure hit.

Why do they need news leaks?

To capture public reaction before releasing actual news as this helps them to plan actual stuff for products. I mean they could consider this as an unofficial trial without hammering the companies reputation.

They get the buzz by doing this. I can’t speak much on this because if we compare the Operating System market share, Apple has only about 5%-6% while Windows leads the rest of the market with much higher market share.

How far is this method successful?

In terms of popularity, this method works a lot. I mean every Windows fed up user wants to buy a Apple computer (sort of?).

Frankly if we think what a Apple customer is going through, then it’s hell. Why you ask? It’s simply because first of all he’s putting a lot of money into buying a premium product and on top of that he’s quite unsure about any refresh/updates to the product line so he gets confused if he should buy the product or not and so he wastes time thinking to buy it or not.

Review: Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery

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Have your files been wiped off by a virus attack, power failure, hard drive corruption or any of the many reasons which caused your data to disappear, then here comes Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery to your rescue.

You can recover those disappeared data using this software within a very short amount of time. Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software (v4.1.01) works on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows 2000 based operating systems.

Some of the key features of this software are

  • Supports recovery from FAT16 / FAT32 / VFAT / NTFS and NTFS5 based partition drives.
  • Recovers lost and formatted logical drives / partitions.
  • Raw Recovery from CD and USB drives.
  • Recover your deleted emails from Outlook Express (DBX) and Microsoft Outlook (PST).
  • Fast Recovery of deleted Photos, Music, Videos Files.
  • User friendly interface with recovery services information and preview of lost files.

Similarly, recovery of data from unbootable PCs are also possible with the help of the bootable CD (which you have to request separately).

This software not only helps in data recovery but also  scans your hard drive to display more information about its current status, meanwhile cloning and imaging of the hard drive is also possible.

Scanning method used by this software is quite fast and data can be recovered even from compressed files within the NTFS file system, easy upgradation to the latest version of the software has been made possible by the company.

So next time when you delete anything accidentally or if your data disappears, we hope you will remember Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Software.

What? You are trying the demo of iSlate? [Super Fake?]

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Recently we posted about what could be Apple possibly do in 2010. While i was browsing through the comments i just found this interesting comment.

I have been trying out the demo of iSlate?

I couldn’t stop laughing at this. Anyway, after checking out the link i found that this guy is not good at anything except photoshop. Here is the picture which was there on the link (click to view larger version)

What do you think? Is it real or fake? (Post it down in the comments please!)

What you can expect from Apple in 2010 : We predict the future!

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Rumors always are Apple’s friends. Lot of them are currently blowing around. Lets have a look at what could be possible in 2010!

Apple Tablet (iSlate – rumored name)

What is it? : A Tablet Computer from Apple

Specs : 7″ Display or a 10″ Display (Rumored) and will run on a similar OS as to the iPhone. The App store for both will be the same.

Release Date : Announcement in January, and Mass Production after WWDC 2010.

Pricing : Upwards $1000

iPhone 4G

What is it? : Successor to the current iPhone 3GS

iPhone 4G

Specs : It is rumored to get a larger display screen with a 5 Megapixel camera. Maybe a longer battery life too.

Release Date : All eyes on the January 2010 event for more updates

Pricing : Should be same as the current pricing with contract.

iPod Touch (Refreshed)

What is it? : Successor to current iPod Touch generation

Specs : Should carry a 5 Megapixel camera and OS 4.0. Similar to iPhone 4G.

Release Date : If it is to be announced, it will be with iPhone 4G.

Pricing : Might see a drop in the current pricing because it is going to give other handheld gaming consoles a tough fight.

MacBook Pro (Refreshed)

What is it? : Apple’s Range of laptops for professionals. Would be a refresh to the existing line.

Specs : Upgrade from Core 2 Duo to Core i7 and also changes to Graphics, a shift from Nvidia graphic cards to ATI. Better Display, perhaps?

Release Date : Mid 2010?

Pricing : Could see a $100 drop

Looking at the rest of the products i think there won’t be massive changes because most of them have been refreshed sometime back. I just hope if Apple really does pull down their product prices!

iPhone 4G Image Credit : iPhoneFreakz

Mac’rs Mac it up! : I’m on a Mac

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Apple Fanboys once again make a comeback with the Rap Video, which is aimed at ripping off Microsoft (particularly Windows). Why the hell is everyone always comparing both these OS’s?

I am not sure if many of you know about this, but this campaign is run by Parallel, yea the software for Mac to run Windows on it virtually.

Video after break. BTW this video contains explicit language so kids, beware.

Drag and Drop Transcoding: A Windows 7 feature that you never knew existed!

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The media, be it online or offline is flooded with news, views, reviews and help guides on Windows 7 but not once I came across this feature mentioned anywhere. Apparently, it is only in my close circle of people who know of this feature – It is called Drag & Drop Transcoding.

unofficial-windows-7-wallpaper
You might be aware the Windows 7 Device Stage. This is further enhanced if you connect a portable media player. With the new pool of decoders and encoders, Microsoft’s also doing some building in some interesting transcoding (decoding and re-encoding from one format to another) technology in Windows. Transcoding is now actually built right into the Windows 7 shell. This removes unnecessary third-party bloatware to add content to portable devices.

When you drag and drop a media file into the drive of the PMP connected to your PC, Windows 7 automatically detects the format used by the PMP and transcodes it to that specific format on the fly, without you having to fiddle with complicated media transcoding software and codecs.

This is a revolutionary feature which can simplify our lives utterly. The fact that it hasn’t been spoken about anywhere else is quite surprising. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Windows Device stage does not support the major PMPs out there. I’m not sure how many are supported. The main reason for this feature not being publicised may be that it doesn’t support the most popular PMPs like iPod and MS’s own Zune. These are detected just as a flash storage device. As for iPod, there still isn’t a way to bypass iTunes to transfer music. As far as I know, Creative Zen is supported.

Nevertheless, this feature is further enhanced with support from AMD hardware. If you have AMD graphics card that supports tream technology (which most AMD cards in the past two years do), Windows 7 automatically detects the hardwareand makes use of the GPGPU capabilities of the ATI Stream. What this does in simple terms is that it makes use of the massively parallel processing power of the GPU for a non-graphics purpose (GP- General Purpose) of transcoding the media file. This throws some heavy weight processing power at the task at hand and hence reduces the transcoding time by almost half.

As you know, transcoding of HD videos and other data intensive media takes huge amounts of power and time. Reduction of this time increases speed and helps get your media portable pretty quickly. A great utility when you’re in a hurry. There is quite a significant difference in the transcoding time with and without the use of ATI Stream.

So, if you’re on of those lucky few who’s using Windows 7 with ATI Graphics, apart from the winderful visual experience that Windows offers in the form of graphics accelerated Aero interface, this transcoding feature is sure to blow your mind. So, let me know what you think of this feature. If you are one of these lucky ones, let us know your experience if you’ve tried this feature. How did it perform? How easy was it to use? What are your thoughts? What other feature of Windows 7, do you think, can make use of newer hardware?