This blog has come a long way, and so has Apple! Throughout this year we saw many new products, some which were revolutionary. We also saw many surprised and suspenseful events, while also looking at some of the flaws Apple had hit this year. It's been a great year overall for Apple, and I for one am impressed! Today's blog post will cover all of Apple in 2010! The good, the bads, etc.

In 2010 Apple's year had started off positively with a good record shown in their fourth quarter of 2009, sure we saw some decreasing sales in the iPod lineup but that didn't stop Apple from working harder to create better products. In terms of the 4 quarters we saw in 2010, Apple's earnings just seemed to rise and is a sign showing their products are just getting better and better.

Lets start by looking at all the products Apple had released in 2010, starting first up in January 2010 we had the announcement of a brand new tablet! That was probably one of the most exciting events of the year, because prior to this year, Apple had no actual tablet device. The iPad was a truly a revolutionary product even though many critics complained about it being "A bigger iPod Touch" there were many rumors about there being the perfect iPad killer, but from the looks of it, the current iPad will be coming to it's end of life, so did we actually see an iPad killer? Not really, which just proves that Apple yet again made such a product no competition could match. It still continues to perform in a stellar fashion with over millions sold.

Then came a product which isn't really new, just more of a performance upgrade and that was the introduction of the Intel Core i5 and Core i7 into the 15" and 17" Macbook Pro's. Still a good update overall and it was meant to happen as many PC's were starting to switch to the same CPU. The design still remains the same, but the performance boost can only be better for consumers. Later on there was also a small performance upgrade for the Macbook's which feature a 2.4ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the new 320m graphics chip.

Then there was the flawed release of the iPhone 4. Probably one of the most anticipated devices of the year, but was dumbed down because of the incident with the iPhone 4 being leaked, earlier than release. It brought in a whole new look to the iPhone lineup, not as much curved anymore but rather more of a squarish shape with the introduction of retina display. Many critics had claimed that there was a reception issue due to the 3g bands being on the outside, but after the free bumpers were given out, not much has been heard on that. Which goes to show that the iPhone 4 is still a great device to purchase.

With the addition of all these devices in June we also saw a quiet update on the Apple site, one which was not really a performance upgrade, but more of a cosmetic and that was for the Mac mini, the big thing being it now features a full aluminum shell. with easy to access RAM. The newer more slimmer Mac mini also featured an HDMI port and at that time many expected the older Apple TV would be toast. But as always Apple come back with something.

Later on in July the new iMac's saw the Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 chips being built in and that completely eliminated the Core 2 Duo line from the iMac's. While with that release we also saw a brand new mouse! This one being more like a trackpad and that was the Magic Trackpad, a newer way to browse the web with a desktop, and it had the exact same feel of the trackpads on the Macbook Pro line.

Then in September we experienced a thrilling live streaming event, of Apple's annual Music event, and we saw a newer iPod Shuffle, much smaller in size, as well as a Nano, which is now fully a touchscreen and the big addition came to the iPod Touch, which featured dual cameras and a much thinner design.
In terms of the poor sales of the first generation Apple TV, Apple also released a newer much smaller, cloud based Apple TV. With a sticker price of $99, why wouldn't it be a success?

Apple had also quietly released a new 27" Apple Cinema Display, with a $999 price tag and a new 12 core Mac Pro!

As if that many products weren't enough we also saw a brand new Macbook Air! After what was a long time, we saw a 11.6" Macbook Air with a much affordable sticker price and a 13.3" both with flash storage. This was surely able to bump up the sales of the Macbook Air.

After looking at all these products released Apple unfortunately had to say goodbye to one of them and that had to be the XServe.. This was due to the fact it accumulated poor sales and was no match, as the Mac mini server was doing much better.

Despite one draw back, I say in terms of devices Apple have had a good year!

If you also take a look at their Q4 Earnings, Apple had reached a record amount of 20.34 billion in revenue! That could mainly be due to the fact we had seen so many new products this year!

Looking at all the software released this year, we saw a dramatic new update for all iPod/iPhone and iPad users, and that was with the introduction of multi-tasking, folders, Airplay, Airtunes and many more features. Much more than just a casual security update.
During the "Back to the Mac" event we also experienced a brand new operating system "OSX Lion" and that will be coming in 2011.

Recapping all that we saw in 2010, I say this was a great year for Apple, I think the pace they are going at is quite fast and there are a number of products being released every year! With the introduction of some new lineups we see that the revenue is jumping up quite high! Apple has a bright future if they continue to strive they way they did in 2010.

I am sure Steve Jobs will be proud of the company and so should everyone else be, that pretty much sums up this blog post! Have a happy new year all!

Also I just realized this was the 200th post on the blog! Thanks for your support everyone!! This wouldn't have been possible without all you guys!!

A man in California has just filed a lawsuit after he found out that Apple has a device built within the app store that can track the activity of a person, when browsing. It was said according to PC Magazine that some apps sold private information including where a person lived, age, gender etc. (UDID) Also known as Unique Device Identifer, is something built into the iPads and iPhones and this cannot be removed by the user. The lawsuit claims that Apple is in violation of privacy laws. But then some might wonder, how could these apps still be on the app store after this violation? I just noticed that some of these apps as cited still appear to be on the app store, these are said to be Pandora, Dictionary.com, and more.

Apple were expecting the 1 millionth Apple TV to be sold end of last week, it was a bit of a delay but today Apple has confirmed they have sold the 1 millionth Apple TV. So this marks that in nearly 4 months the Apple TV has hit the 1 millionth mark. Apple should be very impressed about this as the older generation Apple TV, took quite longer and competition with the Google TV is absolutely no match.

On the other hand some speculation have noticed that the Roku sales have doubled, this is most likely because the CEO was saying that Apple has laid down the platform for set top boxes and then more people came to realize about Roku. Either way, Apple is going strong in terms of Apple TV sales, and the jump to cloud technology is certainly working.

Well after nearly a year since I have started this blog, I have got a ton of support from all you guys! And I thought that this would be the perfect time to buy a domain for this blog. Unfortunately 1-mac.com was not available :( So I went with a newer and (in my opinion better name) and that is Mactechtoday.com! I believe that after buying a domain, the site sounds much easier and typing doesn't require the .blogspot.com part. But for those also wondering 1-mac.blogspot.com will still bring you here. But if you did bookmark this site, it will be great if you can update them and change the name! :) I hope you like the new name as much as I do. And from now on, I believe I will always be on a .com domain name! :) I hope you all enjoyed this year I have been posting on this site and I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Rumors have it that the Mac OSX update 10.6.6 might be coming within the next week or so, and it will integrate the feature of having the Mac App store. But keep note that when the Mac App store will first launch it still might be in beta stage and might not offer everything that the iPhone/iPod Touch stores offer, but within due time we should see everything set. The Mac App store is set to be release on January 6th 2011. So we might see 10.6.6 near that time.

I am sure everyone is excited, as I am for sure! This is sure to change the Macintosh experience. Stay tuned for more news!

Remember when the Apple TV came out back in September? Everyone was surprised by the price of $99, but if you take a closer look at the specs, you still find that $99 still maybe over priced because you get no internal storage and the only way to watch content is to rent tv shows, and Netflix. On the other hand competition, such as Google TV, is not doing as well, as they would expect. I also thought considering it's Google, the Google TV, would sell like hot cakes. On the other hand, Roku is actually doing well, even after the release of the Apple TV. 

The iPad was first introduced in two different versions, one being just Wifi and the other being 3G. But did you know that even with the only Wifi model, it was possible to buy a device also known as Mifi and hook it up with the iPad to offer 3g, services. With the carrier of your choice. This was done by many people when the first iPad had come out, because the 3g version was delayed for a few weeks.

Now Best Buy USA is offering iPad Wifi versions bundled with a Mifi device which will make it capable of 3G. There are charging nothing on the hardware of the Mifi, but you must purchase a 2 year contract on the carrier of their choice. The prices are $499 for 16gb iPad, 32gb for $599 and 64GB for $699.

From the looks of the prices, this seems that it will hurt the sales of the iPad 3G models. Because you have to pay $130 more for the built in antenna, and that makes it more expensive.

Will this cause more sales of the Wifi iPad? I guess we will have to wait and find out.