Apple

Apple Releases iOS 6.0.1, Available Now as an OTA Update

There was wide speculation that Apple would time the release of the 6.0.1 update to match the launch of the iPad Mini, and that is exactly what has happened. If you head to your Software Update settings screen you will see the update is available. Here are the updates: •Fixes a bug that prevents iPhone 5 from installing software updates wirelessly over the air •Fixes a bug where horizontal lines may be displayed across the keyboard •Fixes an issue that could cause camera flash to not go off •Improves reliability of iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation) when connected…

Gear Bits, News

Watch Your Inbox for the iTunes Settlement Credit!

This morning I got the settlement details from the class action suit against Apple for selling gift cards that were based on a number of songs with an assumed $0.99 price even after the price increase of many songs to $1.29. (note, I’ve already redeemed my code, but nice try anyway!) Here are a couple of snippets from the FAQ: First the background behind the lawsuit: The Lawsuit claimed that Apple advertised, distributed, and sold gift cards which stated that songs could be purchased at Apple’s online iTunes Store for a price of 99¢ per song. It further alleged that…

Reviews

xPrintServer Home Edition Review

At long last, I have my entire staff using iPads. In addition, after months of planning we have finally set up our school’s iPads for use with the interactive Bar Mitzvah training program I have created. More and more I expect we will see the staff and school iPad being used for a host of different purposes. One of my colleagues did, however, raise a question the other day. “How,” she asked, “do we print from these things if we need to?” It is an EXCELLENT question and, as luck would have it, I had just received a review sample…

Gear Bits

The One Reason to Buy an iPad Mini

Yesterday Mike posted a piece explaining why he won’t be getting the iPad mini. He offered five reasons. All of them were well-considered, but at the end of the day I still maintain that “I’ll believe it when I see it”. I figured it might be fun to offer a counterpoint to his points on the iPad mini, so here is my singular reason why I am ordering it and why, at the end of the day, I bet he will too. How about you? Is this something that is in your gadget future? Why or why not?

Editorials

Five Reasons I Won’t Be Getting the ‘iPad Mini’

Speculation is out of control about the October 23rd Apple event and the anticipated ‘iPad Mini’. During our last Gear Chat, Dan asked me about the iPad Mini, and I declared that I wouldn’t be getting one; to which he replied that ‘he’d believe it when he saw it’! I wanted to go on record based on what we know, suspect, conjecture, and/or know about Apple in general … and put together a video list of the five main reasons I won’t be pre-ordering/standing in line/getting an iPad Mini. Take a look, and chime in with your thoughts in the…

Gear Bits

Libratone Zipp Wireless AirPlay Speaker, First Look

Every now and then a product comes along that not only meets your expectations but actually exceeds them. That’s the case so far with the Libratone Zipp AirPlay Wireless Speaker. Sure, it has a cool, unique look. And sure, the fact that you can change the wool covers then, in seconds, have a speaker that looks completely different is very cool. And sure, it has AirPlay. All that is true, but what really makes this speaker stand out is its Play Direct and its awesome sound. Play Direct means you can stream great audio wirelessly even when you don’t have an…

Gear Bits

All-In With the New iPad

Mike and Carly have discussed the fact that the iPad is their 80% Plus computer. Mike even went so far as to try to use the iPad exclusively for a few days. (You can read about it here.) Well, I am embarking on my iPad-only experiment although I do so out of necessity. You see, prior to the MacBook ProR I had at least two computers. Usually that meant a desktop and a laptop but, for a time it meant a 11″ and a 13″ MacBook Air. That meant I always has a “spare” Mac available to me. Not…

Editorials

My Journey to the Dark Side…er, Apple is Complete

A long time ago, in a service provider far, far away, I had joined the ranks of mobile phone users, sporting a Motorola Razr V3m back when it was de rigueur for mobile types. For a time I was content, and as technology evolved I migrated my mobile phones, ever searching for the trifecta of ease of use, reliability and variety of peripherals. Here is a representation of all the major phones I’ve owned and heavily used over the past seven years or so. Certainly a lot less than some Gear Diary members or readers out there, but a variety nonetheless….

Gear Bits, Music Diary, News

iOS 6 Brings Loads of SIGNIFICANT App Updates

By now we all know the mantra – when there is a new iOS update, prepare for the onslaught of app updates. It used to be surprising … now it is expected. I have probably updated 100 apps on my iPad since last week. [Oh, and I should mention that I LOVE the in-place updating!] But while some updates are just bug fixes and iOS 6 compatibility, others bring entirely new functionality. Significant functionality. And the funny thing is that it is hard to know what changes are major or minor when you see a list of a dozen or…

News

Apple iOS 6 Update Now Available for Download!

Today is iOS 6 release day, and as anticipated the update went ‘live’ close to 10AM Pacific Time. As often happens, the servers will get hit hard and make downloading and updating a slow and sometimes frustrating thing. Make sure you: – Have the space on your device – Have a good WiFi connection – BACKUP! – Have the time to leave the device in one place for the update Good luck and report on your experiences! My download is going s-l-o-w right now … If you want more details on the iOS 6 update, head to Apple!

News

Welcome to Apple PR-Nightmare Fall 2012 Edition

image from Cult of Mac Something tells me that Apple is about to have another PR nightmare, and it has everything to do with their handling of the move from the 30-pin adapter to the new Lightning port. Change happens; no one can deny that. So Apple’s decision to change the port in order to, in part, allow for a smaller size, is something that was going to happen eventually. Few argue that point. But then they went from bad, to worse to… Kaboom!!!! Bad #1. The phone doesn’t ship with an adapter. It should. The adapter costs Apple little…

Editorials, Vehicles & Gear

Five Ways the iPhone 5 Event Disappointed, and One Sign It Started the ‘Great Apple Decline’

So we have lived through yet another iPhone announcement, the first one conducted by Tim Cook and out of the ‘shadow of Steve Jobs’. The conclusions? Some pretty sweet looking iPhone hardware, promising stuff for iOS 6, iCloud and iTunes, and a welcome refresh for the iPod line. But if you look around at tech websites there is much gnashing of teeth and hand-wringing amongst the Apple fan-sites, sneering derision from Android fan-sites, and hopes of a market share beyond 5% from the Windows Phone faithful who were just happy to see the Nokia Lumia 920 in spec line-ups with…

Events

Join Us for the Apple iPhone 5 Press Event!

Are you ready to see the end of all the rumors and speculation regarding the newest iPhone? We are, too! Let’s get something straight, although we do our best not to report on rumors, it doesn’t mean we don’t read them. We have, and we’ve gotten more and more excited. Sure it does seem like pretty much everything that needs to be known about the new iPhone has already been leaked, but that doesn’t guarantee the rumors are correct and, even if they are, it doesn’t make us any less excited for the announcements and that One more thing…! And…

Editorials

Will Greed Finally Be Apple’s Undoing?

As long as I can recall – since the days when I had an Apple ][+ at least – people have been quick to call out Apple for high prices. For me as a multi-OS person who also happens to like Apple products, it has been a roller-coaster. For a long time in the 80s the utility of Apple ][ and later the Mac made it very much worthwhile – and for some things a complete necessity. Yet there have been many times – like most of the 90s – when the price to performance ratio simply wasn’t there. By…

Editorials

Where Amazon and Apple Part Ways…

Apple and Amazon have emerged as the heavy-weight market-movers in the personal tech space. They are both huge companies and major innovators and, on many levels, they take almost entirely different approaches. Here’s just one example. Last week Amazon announced a new Kindle and new (multiple) Kindle Fires. Pricing was beyond aggressive, because Amazon doesn’t look to make their money on the hardware. No, instead, Amazon uses the hardware to drive its products, both digital and tangible. Apple, on the other hand, makes their money on the hardware and the digital content that runs on them is, THEY claim, close…

Reviews

iShower Bluetooth Water Resistant Speaker Review

I’m a guy who needs constant input. Whether it’s sport talk on the radio or music from Spotify while I’m working or a television droning in the background while I’m fixing supper, I always want something to entertain me. So the five minutes I spend in the shower every morning is problematic. I do have one of those old shower radios that had a television tuner as well so I could keep up with the Today Show while I completed my morning ablutions. But once digital tv pretty much killed over the air transmission, that eliminated the usefulness of that…

Reviews

Here I Go Again: An iPad User Tries a Google Nexus 7

A short time ago I tried swapping my iPhone for a Windows Phone 7. If you read my posts on the subject, then you know I learned a lot of interesting things, good and bad, about the platform. This time I’m focused on my tablet. I’m back to try one of the most heavily discussed gadgets this year, the Google Nexus 7. A Little Perspective… I have always loved playing with new gadgets. That’s why I was interested in the Nexus 7. But understand this: I come into this as a die-hard iPad user. I have been one ever since…

Gear Bits

Apple and Samsung Profits Go to 11!

Imagine if you put $100 in $1 bills up for grabs in a classroom science experiment competition, with money divided up based on overall score decided by the rest of the school. You come into the room and ask for reports from the top 5 scorers. The first one hands you $71; the next one hands you $37 … wait, WHAT?!? That is right – Apple and Samsung combined for 108% of the total smartphone profits for the quarter. How does that work? Well, it means that the rest of the industry LOST money. Also, look at the market share…

Gear Bits

iPad Mini Oh My Aching Wrists, Let It Be REAL!

I’m sitting outside reading and checking the site on my new iPad. (Okay, and I’m also playing through Kingdom Rush for the third time. They really NEED to come out with Kingdom Rush 2 already!!) And while I’m really loving my iPad, I am hoping the rumors about the iPad-mini are actually true. Sure, as we noted here, the smaller iPad makes sense from a market perspective. It would fill the gap that currently sits between the $199 iPod touch and the $399 iPad 2. And sure, it would let Apple compete with the likes of the Google Nexus 7…

Editorials

In an Apple and Everything Else Funk

Lately I’ve been in a funk. I thought, at first, it was an Apple funk. I thought it might be about the fact that Apple today doesn’t seem to have the same excitement and vision as it did under Steve Jobs. I thought it might be about a sequence of products that is becoming very evolutionary instead of revolutionary. I thought it was about Apple and where it might be heading. But it’s more than that. It’s about where the mobile industry as a whole is heading. It’s about what kinds of things we think are important (and it’s not…

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