Jan 21 2012

iPad 3 heading our way?

Image representing iPad as depicted in CrunchBase

Rumours about the next iPad are coming thick and fast. Already there is talk of the iPad 3 rolling off the production lines in readiness for shipping in March. As for the specification of the new model, most sources expect the following:

Some pundits believe there will be two new models, with possibly one version being a sort of iPad 2S and the other being the new iPad 3, offering 4G as standard in the latter case and just 3G in the former. However, in my view, Apple likes to lead from the front and I can’t see that they will want to introduce an iPad 2S. Instead, I see them introducing the premium model, with 4G and keeping the iPad 2 on sale at a reduced price.

In terms of resolution, many are predicting a 2048 x 1536 retina display and there hints of this in iBooks 2 files and iTunes U. certainly, the combination of a higher resolution screen and the quad-core A6 processor will make the iPad 3 one desirable pice of kit, with much improved graphics performance, especially in games and video playback.

As for the camera, expect to see full HD (1080p) in line with the iPhone 4S. Other aspects remain unclear, such as the exact dimensions and weight of the new model. In addition, will the price be similar to the existing model or will there be a premium for the new model with little change in the price of the existing models?

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Jan 7 2012

Wi-Fi Issues with Lion

VirtualBox

If you happen to use the hField Wi-Fire Long Range Wi-Fi Adapter and use Leopard on your Mac, whatever you do, don’t upgrade to Lion, just yet. The problem is that once you upgrade to Lion your Wi-Fire will no longer work.

This is a real pain and according to hField, Apple have yet to help them fix the problem. Seems its something to do with the 64 bit kernel in Lion. Apparently the instructions Apple have issued to developers for updating their apps for Lion don’t seem to work, at least as far as the Wi-Fire is concerned.

Now, as some of you know, I am the Official UK Reseller of the Wi-Fire, and so this is something of a blow, both in terms of its impact on would-be customers who sue Lion and those thinking of upgrading. It also affect existing customers who have upgraded to Lion only to find they can no longer use their Wi-Fire. Now, you may be asking, why don’t they just use Airport? Well, usually customers purchase the Wi-Fire because they can’t get a decent and reliable signal using Airport or other external adapters. So, reverting to using their built-in card or another brand of external adapter isn’t an option in most cases.

Of course, wishing to everything possible to help my customers I have searched high and low for a solution. As yet, I haven’t found one and Apple certainly don’t seem interested. hField are waiting on Apple, whilst Apple seem to be taking their time to respond.

In the meantime, the only viable solution is to either downgrade to Leopard or Snow Leopard. Rather than uninstalling Lion my advice is to use VirtualBox to run Snow Leopard alongside Lion in a virtualisation set-up.

Download VirtualBox for free here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Follow walk-through here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/virtualbox-running-windows-on-a-mac-for-free-sort-of/

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Dec 31 2011

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 46,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Dec 31 2011

Apple looking at fuel cells for future devices

Fuel CellsApple has registered patents that indicate it is looking at powering future devices by fuel cells. Fuel cells are devices which convert chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidising agent. They offer the potential of longer battery life, greener energy and less weight. It was the Welsh Physicist William Grove who first developed the earliest and somewhat crude  fuel cells in 1839. However, it took until the days of the US Space Programme for them to become a practical reality when NASA used them to generate power for it’s space probes, satellites and capsules.

Although they offer great potential for the future, currently the technology is still at an early stage. Although its approaching a billion dollar industry, as yet, no company has made a profit from the manufacture and sale of them. Most analysts accept that it will be another 3 – 5 years before they become commercially viable and economic for end-users, such as Apple, so don’t be expecting your iPad to be powered by them anytime soon.

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