Apple's handset has been seemingly unstoppable as of late. The company sold more than 37 million iPhones last quarter, making it the top smartphone manufacturer in the world over the three month period.
But what is it about the iPhone that makes it so popular? What sets it apart from the competition? Is it the sleek hardware? Is it the polished operating system? Sure. These are both big factors. But a lot of folks will tell you that it's all about the apps...
When Apple unveiled iOS 5 last summer, a lot of folks saw it as a direct shot at the jailbreak community. The new software included a number of new features that replaced popular jailbreak tweaks like Notified and Xpandr.
And not only that, but the iOS update included new security measures to make downgrading to previous firmware versions extremely difficult. So you can see why it appeared that Apple was looking to stop jailbreakers in their tracks...
All the talk these days – at least before all the iPad 3 rumors took over – has been about the much anticipated Apple Television. Apple has certainly not announced anything, and some of us still are not convinced that Apple needs to enter a crowded market, but those rumors just keep on coming.
I'm one of those that just doesn't see why Apple needs to bring a television to market, especially considering there are already hundreds of TV manufacturers in the space that are all scrambling for market share. If Apple is to make an impact, then it needs to offer something that nobody else can. Something that differentiates.
The Apple TV that we currently know and love is a sign that Apple doesn't yet take the home entertainment business seriously. Famously called a "hobby," the Apple TV is a box that is full of potential yet seems almost held back. Almost neutered...
Yesterday morning, my friend and colleague Oliver Haslam laid out an interesting case for why he believes, despite overwhelming evidence, that Apple won't implement LTE technology into any of its mobile products this year.
Oliver thinks that because there aren't 4G networks in every corner of the world, and because current LTE devices suffer from issues like poor battery life, we won't be seeing LTE in the next iPad or iPhone. But I happen to think he's wrong...
Right, I'm going to come right out and say this before I go any further: I'm going to get a lot of stick for this, and the rest of the iDB team thinks that I've lost my mind, but I'm going to write this anyway. I don't think the iPad or iPhone is going to get an LTE radio. At least, not yet.
Now I know this flies in the face of what we are being told by just about everyone, including a very recent article by the Wall Street Journal. The general consensus is that Apple will indeed bring an iPad 3 to market during the coming weeks, and that said iPad 3 will be the first Apple device to come packed with an LTE radio for hooking up to super-fast 4G networks.
I, however, think you're all wrong. Here's why...
It seems right now that Apple just can do no wrong. With record sales of its devices and huge amounts of money sat in the bank, it's all very rosy over in Cupertino. But other companies have had successful periods before, only for things to go a little awry in future years.
Despite great results from Apple ever since Steve Jobs returned to the company back in 1997, it wasn't really until the iPhone's introduction in 2007 that the world really took notice of what was going in at 1 Infinite Loop.
Now it's a worldwide phenomenon, with people owning iPhones who would never have contemplated picking up a Mac.
Throw in the beginnings of a tablet market that is still being dominated by the iPad, and Apple have every right to feel smug. But it may not last forever...
The iPad 3 hysteria is reaching a fever pitch, and even I am getting swept up in the excitement. So much so that I just sat down and made a short list of the things I would most like to see Apple add to its next tablet device.
Before I unleash my list upon the unsuspecting masses, I must reiterate that I do know that some of these are never going to happen, but that's kind of the fun of a wishlist, right? Asking for things that would be mind-bendlingly awesome but are almost impossible, or just highly improbable.
With that out of the way, onwards we go to my iPad 3 feature wishlist...
Right now it seems everyone who's ever laid eyes on an iPhone is in the middle of a giant discussion about the same thing, and it's showing no sign of abating.
The discussion of which I speak is, predictably, the one revolving around the behavior of the infamous mute switch on Apple's iPhone. Namely: should it mute everything, or should certain alerts still sound as normal?
This discussion recently came to the fore after one unfortunate fellow found himself the center of attention during a music event in which his iPhone decided to cheerfully sound an alarm, despite the handset being supposedly muted. The result? The whole performance was halted. Oops...
This year's CES seems to have raised an interesting question, and it's one that I've pondered myself on occasion. It's an issue that often comes around whenever there is a trade show that Apple does not attend, so that's basically all of them these days.
Take the recent CES as an example. Apple has not attended, and that has led many Apple blogs and fans to take a dim view upon anything and everything that has taken place. What it boils down to is this: if Apple doesn't do it, it must be rubbish. Pointless, even. Why would anyone be even remotely interested?
So the question is this: why do some people seem to be such diehard Apple fans, or even that awful term "fanboys," that they just cannot seem to appreciate anything that comes out of a company that doesn't have a half-eaten fruit on its masthead...
For some reason there has been a lot of negativity thrown in Siri's direction over the past few months. The digital assistant that was once referred to as a "major revolution in voice recognition technology" is now being written off as a mere novelty.
In fact, our very own Oliver Haslam wrote an interesting piece yesterday regarding the topic. He's obviously in favor of the latter sentiment, saying things like, "other than setting a timer once in a while — for the sheer novelty of it — Siri just does not get any use from me."
The post garnered quite a bit of responses from folks that were either for or against Oliver's argument. Today I figured I would share my 3-month impression.
With the latest news that Apple may be bringing at least the dictation part of Siri to other iOS devices in iOS 5.1, I got to thinking how much I actually use Siri on my iPhone 4S. The answer is both surprising and yet unsurprising at the same time.
When Apple first launched the iPhone 4S, Siri was hailed as a technological marvel; a real way of interacting with a device using the power of our voices in a way that resembled real language, not a set of canned commands that needed to be spoken in the right order. The theory was great, but it hasn't really panned out yet.
I'm the son of a former Nokia employee, an ex cell phone salesman, and current connoisseur. So I guess you can say that I've played with my fair share of smartphones.
And in my several-year quest to find the perfect handset, I've tried everything from the Nokia 7650 to the latest Android and WP7 devices. But I've only found one phone capable of being my everyday driver.
As you've probably already guessed by now, that phone is the iPhone. No, I'm not an Apple "fanboy" that blindly buys whatever the company releases. I just want the best handset available. And for me, that's the handset that requires me to make the least amount of sacrifices...