Apple iPad taking over Kindle market

The Kindle which has been selling through Amazon for quite some time now, was at the #1 peak for most popular product, that was until the release of the iPad. Now that the iPad is here, it has taken sales of Kindle from 62% down to 47% whereas the iPad has now gone from 16% to 32%. This isn't looking too good for Amazon's Kindle, and we can kind of expect that for paying around $300 more than a Kindle you get much more for your dollar, such as surfing the web, apps, and full colour screen which is much bigger than a Kindle.

The Kindle has also taken a hit in the customer satisfaction department, where the Kindle shows 54% of users are satisfied, whereas the iPad shows 75%. It's no surprise as Apple had taken the top spot in reliability compared to other companies back when had written a post about it, and from the charts it looks like the sales of the Kindle will just continue to drop.

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Apple Black Friday sale

Black Friday occurs every year, in the U.S. and is one of the most popular days of the year, where many international travellers go to get items at great savings. Apple has known to offer some great sales of Macintoshes and this year we will also look at lowered prices on the iPad, iPod Touch and even other accessories. Just right now I was browsing through the site and found a page which showed the slashed down prices which we will see on Friday!


The sales include: $101 off iMac's which is now at $1098, along with $101 off Macbook Pro's which now start at $1098 as well! The 13.3 inch Macbook Air starting at $1299 is now slashed down to $1198! 

Among the iOS Devices we are looking at the new iPod nano receive a minimal $11 slash down of price, to $138. With the iPad you save $41, and now it goes for $458! Which is nearly $50 off and that is pretty good, nearly the same price for a refurbished. The iPod Touch also received a slash down by $21 to $208.

This sale carries the Macintosh tradition of slashing down prices by $101 and I think the iPad will sell a lot considering it received a pretty decent slash down on pricing. Many people might consider this, while the iPod Touch and Nano have hardly any sale to offer I am pretty sure those will sell as well. But more than ever I believe the Macbook Pro's will sell, because at a price of $1098 they are simply hard to resist. 

One thing I was surprised about was the fact the Unibody white Macbook received no decrease on pricing. There are also many accessories which have marked down prices. Tomorrow seems like quite an exciting day and we hope you guys will also pick some new gadgets up! :) 


Thoughts on iOS 4.2

iOS 4.2 was released just a couple of days ago and I am sure many people have updated and have tried it by now. Users with an Apple TV, must be very excited as this update contains Airplay and Airtunes. The ability to wirelessly stream music and videos from your iOS device onto your Apple TV. So far after many people giving it a try, I noticed that Airplay isn't bang on yet... What I mean by this is, when streaming through photos, there seems to be a noticeable amount of lag and that can't be a good thing... The movie streaming from the ones downloaded on your device works, just fine. Although many people tried streaming Netflix, and that did not work so great... Apparently only audio goes through to the Apple TV and not the video... Were not sure if this bug goes towards everyone or a few users. We hope Apple will fix this issue. Other than that I say Airplay is pretty decent. 


Looking at iPad users, the most important update had to be this one because it brought through muli-tasking along with folders and basically all the features previous iPod Touch and iPhone users had. The update also brings along the feature to find you lost iPhone which is now free. One downside to some might be the lock screen switch is now turned into a mute switch. This in my opinion isn't so great. I would rather prefer to have the lock switch physical because you can still mute the device physically by holding on the "down" volume control and that isn't all that hard. But the lock screen button being on the outside makes it more seamless. That is just my thought and that's what many other believe as well. 

In fact it is said Gizmodo has launched a petition in order to bring back the lock screen switch. 

All in all the update was a positive one with a bit of quirks, hopefully those will be fixed though, and some sources which might not be reliable, believe that iOS 4.3 will be out in December... hopefully to fix these quirks and maybe bring along changes? We aren't sure yet and I highly doubt that it will be coming in December. But nonetheless stay tuned! 

iOS 4.2 released

Many iPad users will be excited because of the fact, they will finally receive multitasking, along with the other slew of features which the other iPod lineup have already received. The 4.2 gold release for developers was released around mid November and now it is officially released for the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. The 4.2 release features Airprint, which is a new feature that allows for wireless printing directly from your iOS device, but for this to be possible, your printer must also be wireless. On the other hand Airplay was also released and this allows for streaming music, movies, videos directly from your iOS device onto your Apple TV. Now making the Apple TV much more functional and usable. The previous feature that was available to mobile me users, known as Find my lost device. Is now available for free, for all iPhone 4's, iPad's, and the 4th generation iPod Touch. This will be enabled after the update. There are also small bits of new features as well. Such as the fact, notes application has the ability to change fonts, the ability to rent movies from the iTunes store and replying to events on your calendar.


Source: Apple.com

Beatles finally hit iTunes

It's been a decade since iTunes was launched and known for carrying every song and artist album, the only band which they did not keep music of was The Beatles. Now how can they keep everyone else apart of iTunes but not The Beatles for so long? This was due to the fact there were many court issues over the name "Apple" and copyright issues with EMI. It took them 10 years to reach to a final conclusion, and I am sure it's one where consumers and even Apple would like. The Beatles were probably one of the only bands where their music was not downloadable digitally, through stores. With this change will we see any change in sales of music at iTunes? Well it's definitely what most people were waiting for. Some might be disappointed because they were expecting a streaming music service to come, but that will have to wait. So things are getting better for Apple and it's great to see The Beatles apart of iTunes.

iTunes announcement coming tomorrow

I am not sure if many of you had saw this, but Apple had posted something on their site today, that we might be in for something special tomorrow. They didn't say that it will be a keynote, but they said to check back on the site tomorrow for a special iTunes announcement. There were many rumors released regarding this announcement, some already know that iOS 4.2 will be coming tomorrow, but others believe we might see a big change in iTunes? Or perhaps maybe a music subscription service? Could iTunes bring in such a change that it might affect the iPod lineup? This is something the music industry is probably interested in as well! Stay tuned for more news!

Mac OSX 10.6.5 is out

Most people were awaiting this, even the people at Macrumors, expected that this update would release today. The much anticipated Mac OSX 10.6.5 update was said to bring in Airprint to the the iPad, but when downloading it today, underneath the description it wrote of no such thing. I was kind of surprised, cause I thought Apple were going to release it along with this update. This update is available for everyone using Mac OSX 10.6 and it features the following: 

  • Improve the reliability between Microsoft Exchange servers
  • Improve performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture
  • address stability and performance of graphics applications and games
  • resolve the delay between printing jobs
  • address a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme
  • resolve an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal
  • address an issue where dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide
  • resolve an issue with Wikipedia information not displaying correctly in Dictionary
  • improve performance of MainStage on certain Mac systems
  • resolve spacing issues with OpenType fonts
  • improve reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays
  • resolve a VoiceOver issue when browsing some web sites with Safari 5

These were the bugs which 10.6.5 is set to fix and it display's nothing about, iPad and printing features. So we might have to wait for that, but other than that I was taking a look at the size of the file and was amazed when I saw it read: 517.3mb! That is indeed one of the biggest updates, I have seen, and for all Mac OSX users, to update remember to go to the left hand corner and click "Software Update" and then it will find updates and everything should be straightforward from there on. But keep yourself some time, because it seems this update will take quite a while to download... 


Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac OSX

The people at Skype most likely know that the increasing amount of popularity of the Macintosh calls for a crucial update on Skype. Many users today make use of Skype and with it's growing amount of popularity, people will want more to be offered. Before Skype had only offered chat service, along with calls with more than one person. But now with this Beta 5.0 Skype offers a whole much clean looking user interface and with the ability to integrate your address book with all your contacts, makes it seamless to talk to others and finding them is a snap. Also the main feature which people were awaiting for was, video calling! Now you are able to make a video call with multiple users at the same time, this is a feature which many people wanted and hopefully talking is seamless with no hassles in video quality. *Keeping fingers crossed* And also with the introduction of a new mini control bar, it is open on any documents you run or any webpages, that can be quiet convenient. You can video call anyone on a PC, or Mac but they must run the Beta 5.0 as well.

The members at Skype have also released a video showing the new features, check it out:


Also check out their site: Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac.

Apple discontinues Xserve

I don't know if many were expecting this but our beloved Apple Xserve has discontinued, I also was looking at the last time it would get a referesh according to Macrumors buyer guide and it was way past the average date of refresh. Well MacGeneration just noted that when searching internally in Apple's site, they found a PDF that says Xserve transition guide. Apparently a guide of how far the Xserve has come. But at the end they found that the Xserve is to be discontinued. The current Xserve will be on sale till January 31, 2011. I never really saw the Xserve sky rocket in terms of sales, judging by the huge price. Also with the release of the Mac mini server, all it did was hurt the sales of Xserve even more. But what Apple is going to offer is a Mac Pro option with Snow Leopard server, which will replace the Xserve and that will give you two options of servers now, either the Mac mini server for small businesses, or the Mac Pro server for bigger enterprises. The first Xserve was released in 2002 and the last refresh being in April 2009, shows that indeed with such a huge time frame a refresh wasn't looking likely. So for all people that would like a final Xserve, your best bet is to pick one up before January 31, 2011.

Very sad news in the Apple world, first with the Macbook Air issues, and now this.

Apple acknowledges Macbook Air issues

Remember the post yesterday where we had talked about how Apple Macbook Air's were facing an issue with the screen display showing weird colours? Well apparently it isn't a graphics card issue but rather when opening it up from sleep mode, it hasn't cycled fully therefore in the midst of it's sleep cycle waking it up will cause these issues. Well it seemed like Apple knew that this issue was going to occur because another source had found a picture of instructions internally on an Apple Store screen and noted that in order to solve this problem, put the Macbook Air into sleep again, wait 10 seconds, this way it will cycle through it's sleep mode, and wake it up again by opening the lid. Which should fix the problem. Sounds about right, but I still wonder what could be the cause of this problem? and is it likely to come back in the future? Cause from the sound of it, this way only sounds like a temporary fix. 

Source: Apple confirms Macbook Air bugs internally  (BGR)

New Macbook Air's showing issues

This was just recently released on Macrumors, and it was a video by someone showing how there was a defect in the graphics on the new Macbook Air, apparently this issue happens after waking your Macbook Air up from sleep. Causing it to show fuzzy colours, I noticed this was on Apple's forums for some of the earlier 2009 Mac mini's with the 9400m, but this Macbook Air features the 320m. Well a temproary fix seems to be rebooting the machine, but it's most likely the problem isn't gone for good. So it's best to take it into Applecare to get it checked. This issue seems to be only with a few number of defective Macbook Air's but the amount of complaints is growing, according to the article on Macrumors. This will deeply affect Apple's reputation on reliability. Other than that there also seems to be an issue with the logic board, some people have noted that their 13.3 inch Macbook Air's would randomly shut down or be stuck on the grey screen. Apple says this could be due to a faulty logic board, or something software related. Apple have said they will have a software update soon, so that might fix it hopefully. But I always had a feeling there was something going to be wrong with the logic board on the new Air, first of all looking at how crammed it is inside it's case with the flash storage right on top, and the fact they did that was to open up space for batteries.

Hopefully the issues with the Macbook Air's get taken care of as soon as possible, and looking at it so far, the issue with the graphics card only seems to loom on the 11.6 inch models, but judging by the fact both 13.3 inch and 11.6 inch use the same graphics chip, it wouldn't be surprising if we were to see that issue on the 13.3 inch as well.

Apple extending song previews on iTunes store to 90 seconds

Just when you look at the amount of illegal music being downloaded these days, you sometimes might wonder, how is iTunes still running today along with some of the other music industries? I would have to give credit to Apple because of the fact, thanks to their great commercializing of iPod's and iPad's it has brought many people to buying music from iTunes, so as far as I believe, if Apple continues to make iOS devices, then the iTunes store will always be in business. This is what I believe, but it could change. Just recently Apple have made plans to extend song previews to 90 seconds, this could be cause of the fact, more people would end up purchasing music, or because of the fact, the amount of music being sold is going down. It's no surprise earlier this year, the iPod's had also declined in sales... This might be something for Apple to think about, as time goes on is business at iTunes weakening?

We will have to wait and see what kind of an effect 90 second previews will have on the buyer, hopefully it might increase sales. Apple says this 90 second preview will only work on songs which are over two and a half minutes. I am also sure they had to work it out with all the music industries, when deciding to make this change. Only time will tell if the 90 second previews will make sales go up.

Sophos announces Anti- Virus Mac Edition

Many Mac users might believe that Mac OSX does not contain viruses, that is not entirely true, to be honest there isn't a single OS without one virus. Though it is true OSX hardly contains any viruses compared to Windows. But one thing is for sure is that not many people have anti-virus software for their Macintosh's because just like many other users they believe that the chances of them getting a virus is really low. The number of viruses grows all the time, so Sophos an anti-virus software company brought out a free Mac anti-virus software just for the Mac. This is actually a full featured program, which eliminates viruses and also has protection of the same level as many businesses. If you haven't already I recommend you guys check this piece of software

Here is the link for more information: Sophos- Macintosh Anti-Virus