News/Rumors

Apple’s new flagship store now in Palo Alto

According to ifoAppleStore reports, Apple is building a new flagship store in Palo Alto, which is situated not far from the place where Microsoft opened its store last year.

The store design was offered by Apple’s architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and received approval for its life from Steve Jobs six month before he left hist position of CEO last year. The confirmation for new Apple’s building was demolition on the former building.

“We’re told that the company tests its retail products at the Stanford Shopping Center and University Avenue locations; when the company began offering self checkout, the engineers who worked on the project were in those stores testing the new systems. This new flagship location offers enormous space for testing new retail products, and makes the nearby Microsoft store an afterthought at best”-TechCrunch reported.

The work hasn’t finished yet but it can be seen that the entire front of the store will look like a glass box, with a roof floating above it.stanford2_peek_2

Apple’s US stores should be noted to be the most profitable in the world, with their income over $6,000 per square foot each year.

Apps Lists, iOS

New Camera app in iOS 7 brings new features

New Camera app in iOS 7 with a distinctive black interface brings features which are resemble to Instagram.

The standard Photo, a new Square frame and Pano for capturing the horizontal or vertical panoramas are three capture modes offered with new iOS. By the way, the capture button placed above simplifies the process of switching between modes.

To activate HDR capture, all you need is to tap on the HDR indicator positioned on the screen.

With Apple’s new Camera, by clicking on the filters icon you will be allowed to preview the eight effects or with no filter. When one of filters is applied as a live effect you will see red, green and blue colors filter icons.

Moreover, after applying a filter at capture, you can remove the effect or change to another one.

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The next step is to edit the photo within Camera app’s Camera Roll and share them via the separate Photos app, which allows your friends to add their own photos to an online album or through iOS 7′s enhanced Share Sheet, using Messages or Mail to send photos directly to a list of users or upload to Twitter and Facebook.

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Copy your images to the clipboard with menu of options, create Slideshow or use it as a wallpaper.

As for video, it also brings new features. Now you can add live filters to your videos as well. After capture you can use Apple’s separate iMovie app to add video effects. And again, you can share your videos via Apple’s iCloud in a Photo Stream, or via Facebook or Vimeo.

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Now, when sharing photos with a service like Instagram, you can rotate or crop a captured pano.

Generally, iOS 7′s new filters and sharing options are a great addition, and can be welcomed even by Instagram users.

Apps Lists, News/Rumors

Apple’s apps change lives

Apple has released a new video to its YouTube channel titled “Making a difference”. It shows how apps from Apple’s App Store can change lives completely or just make them better.

Skyscape Medical Resources, Proloquo2Go, Galileo, Cherokee Language are included in the video and influence human lifestyles greatly.

The video contains a number of stories from individuals who’s lives have been changed thanks to some apps developed for the iOS App Store.

Sure, you will be touched to see Paralympic bronze medalist rower Oksana Masters telling how her app has let her put on high-heeled shoes. By the way, the developer of Galileo, the app that influenced Masters’s life, wears a prosthesis as well. With this app it is now possible to control a part of a body thanks to the iPhone.

At Monday’s keynote, Tim Cook said that the company has paid apps developers over 10 billion dollars. We would like you to have a look at the video and decide if these apps are worth to be paid.

iPhone, News/Rumors

Apple plans $99 iPhone in a variety of colors and 5-inch iPhablets

According to Reuters’ report, Apple has intended to present a $99 iPhone in a number of colors later this year. However it seems to be impossible for Apple to reach such a low price without support from somewhere. Early this year, Apple released a cheap iPod touch for just $229. The most rumored Apple devices also include the iPhone 5S with fingerprint technology which is planned to appear later this year.

“For this year, Apple is expected to launch two new models, widely referred to as the iPhone 5S, with new fingerprint technology, and a cheaper version in plastic casing, supply chain sources have said. Apple plans to dress up the cheaper phone in a range of 5-6 colours to differentiate it from the more expensive model that has traditionally come only in black and white.”

“The U.S. firm has discussed a price of $99 for the cheaper phone, the timing of which could slip to next year, one of the people said.”

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By the way Apple is on the way toward more innovations, working with manufactures to provide iPhones or micro iPads with 4.7 and 5.3-inch displays.

«Apple is looking at introducing at least two bigger iPhones next year – one with a 4.7-inch screen and one with a 5.7-inch screen – said the sources, including those in the supply chain in Asia.»

Tim Cook’s speech about displays should be mentioned here:

“Apple sweats every detail. We want the best display. I think we’ve got it. I’m not going to comment on what we’re going to do in the future.”

News/Rumors

Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Jobs’ film to release on August 16

According to press release, the Open Road Films has finally confirmed that Apple fans can see jOBS biopic with Ashton Kutcher starring as the late Steve Jobs on August 16. The film also stars Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak , Matthew Modine as John Sculley, Lukas Haas as Daniel Kottke. “Jobs” isn’t the only Jobs-related films.

Early this year rumor site Funny or Die offered a “iSteve” comedy film starring Justin Long, who had played in Apple’s long-running “Mac vs. PC” ad campaign.  One more film which is still on the early stages of development is being written by Aaron Sorkin and is expected to be the official adaptation of Jobs’ authorized biography by Walter Isaacson.

The film with Ashton Kutcher was originally titled jOBS, but then Jobs was chosen for its release in August.

“JOBS details the major moments and defining characters that influenced Steve Jobs on a daily basis from 1971 through 2001. The film plunges into the depths of his character, creating an intense dialogue-driven story that is as much a sweeping epic as it is an immensely personal portrait of Steve Jobs’ life. Directed by Joshua Michael Stern, written by Matthew Whiteley, JOBS was shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter and produced by Mark Hulme.”

The first release received mixed-to-dismal reviews at Sundance earlier this year and was delayed from April 19th release date.

Apps Lists, News/Rumors

Pandora users like iTunes Radio

After Apple had unveiled its music streaming service, iTunes Radio social media analytics company NetBase announced results of a research based on comments.

Thus, 94 percent of social media users was found to have positive comments about iTunes Radio and only 6 percent had negative comments.

iTunes Radio has been highly discussed in the media in recent weeks and was considered to become a rival to services like Pandora and Spotify.

As NetBase reported, the most positive comments were provided for iTunes Radio though it wasn’t the only product announced by Apple on Monday. The most discussed innovation from WWDC was iOS 7.

This year Apple succeeded to receive more than double number of mentions than last year and 78 percent of which were positive.

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The results are really good, but it’s probably not enough to make all the fans of Pandora and Spotify to decide on Apple’s music streaming service. Still a search on Twitter reveals that some users have already made their choice. It should be noted that itunes’ Radio functionality and performance are almost identical to Pandora, the company that has long been the leader of Internet streaming radio stations.

 

iOS, News/Rumors

Apple Unveils iOS 7:new look, Siri, multitasking and more

It looks like a lot of people don’t like a new look of iOS 7. Well, it is probably we were not ready for such enormouse amount of innovations.

The new version provides a “flat” design with a bright color scheme avoiding mimic real-world objects.

IOS 7 refused from 3-D buttons , bringing non-button design. Now, you can touch anything as for instance in the new Control Center, where you get controls for the screen brightness, the music player and Wi-Fi.

With multitasking you can manage your apps without wasting your device’s battery. The matter is that iOs7 lets the app update by keeping track when you use any. This feature allows to update multiple apps at once.

With Notification Center, you get the information about missed calls, new emails, birthdays, weather, and traffic jams. To get access to the notifications anywhere, just swipe a finger across the sensor.

The camera received several Instagram-like filters built in, so now you have an ability to create images in a retro style.

AirDrop feature allows you to share files between some users : just click “Share” and select a recipient. Photos, videos, contacts will be sent automatically by AirDrop vie Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

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With improved Safari browser it is now more convenient to manage pages and see a greater amount of information on the screen than ever.

In iOS 7 Siri is equipped with a new design and new opportunities. Now you get answers faster than in a previous version, and a new male and female voice has become much easier for understanding.

With the Find My iPhone feature you will be able to get your stolen or forgotten iDevices back.

All of the above innovations are just a small part of what Apple offered in its iOS7. The release of iOS 7 is expected to take place this fall.

 

Apps Lists, News/Rumors

Let me introduce Apple Design Awards’ 2013 winners

As part of the WWDC developer conference, Apple announced the winners of Apple Design Awards 2013. Criteria for the selection of winners in this competition were the following – design, innovation and technical excellence. To claim victory in the category “Design”, apps for Mac OS and iOS X should be developed to have a delightful, elegant, intuitive, fun, exciting, compelling and reliable design. In the category of “Innovation” they need to implement new and completely original ideas to solve their tasks.Moreover, one other criteria was how they used present-day developments, providing their creations with high-performance functionality.

“The Apple Design Awards recognize apps that raise the bar in design, technology, and innovation.”

Among the 11 winners of this year’s Apple Design Awards are WWF Together, Procreate, Badland, Yahoo! Weather, Letterpress, Ridiculous Fishing, Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders, Coda 2, Evernote, Finish, and moaic.io

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WWF Together developed by World Wildlife Fund is a great iPad app that allows you to explore the world of animals by offering you the stories of many fascinating wild species.

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Procreate developed by Savage Interactive Pty Ltd is a exciting art app with true-to-life sets of pencils, inks, and brushes, to create unique masterpieces.

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Badland developed by Frogmind is a slendid atmospheric action adventure gamewith intuitive one-touch controls and balanced physics-based gameplay with endless obstacles.

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Yahoo! Weather developed by Yahoo! Is an great app, which displays weather details with stunning photography based on time, location, and current conditions.

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Letterpress developed by atebits is a highly addictive word game full of fun and strategy.

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Ridiculous Fishing by Vlambeer — an exciting arcade game about fishing with weapons, chainsaws, and toasters with physics-based gameplay.

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Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders developed by Atypical Games is a World War II arcade combat game in which players protect fleets of ships and attack enemy bases.

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Coda 2 by Panic, Inc. is an all-in-one editor for your web code, offering new features, resizable UI, innovative organization, and pervasive customization.

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Evernote by Evernote Corporation-a kind of notebook localized in 25 languages helps you to remember everything and anything that happens in your life.

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Finish by Student Winner: Ryan Orbuch and Michael Hansen offers a task manager which uses gestures to help people organize their to-do’s into short and easy way.

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mosaic.io developed by Student Winner: Ishaan Gulrajani, Alex List, and Zain Shah helps to connect two or more iOS devices around a single image.

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Apple TV, News/Rumors

Apple to stream WWDC 2013 keynote to Apple TV

For those who are not attending WWDC 2013, Apple offered to watch it live and added an “Apple Events” channel to users’ Apple TV main screens on Monday.

The company is panning to allow the public to view a live stream of today’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.

The company offered the Apple Events channel in October of last year ahead of Apple’s iPad mini event.

Today’s WWDC 2013 keynote is expected to announce iOS 7, Apple’s next-generation mobile operating system for the iPhone and iPad, . OS X 10.9, and a streaming music service.

Apple probably presents new Macs with a refresh of Apple’s MacBook Air lineup and gives the new notebook Intel’s new Haswell processors and new dual microphones.

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Apps Lists, News/Rumors

Adobe releases Lightroom 5 with more new feature

Adobe Lightroom 5 from Adobe is already available for $149.99/$79 via Adobe Creative Cloud. The upgrade to the professional photo organization and editing tool offers a lot of new features:

  • Advanced Healing Brush
  • Upright
  • Radial Gradient
  • Smart Previews
  • Improved Photo Book Creation

With new healing brush you can work like with an actual brush, paint on the area to be corrected and you can not only change the brush size but also move it in precise paths. Now you are allowed to detect dust spots better.

Upright is a correction tool which will straighten tilted images with a single click. The new Upright has several modes and helps to analyze images and find skewed horizontal and vertical lines.

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Radial gradients sound almost innocent, but they provide parts of your image with more flexibility and control. With this feature you can create off-center vignette effects highlighting two faces for instance.

Smart Previews are small previews of your RAW files rendered as lossy DNG files. All you need is to generate smaller stand-in files of your full-size images. Any additions made to these files will be applied to the original version. It ease your work with images, as you have not to bring your entire library.

Now you can create beautiful photo books from your images. Lightroom 5 offers a number of book templates, and opportunity to edit them to create a customized look. Just few clicks and your book is ready for printing.