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– via The Verge
Q: What new in iPad Mini 3?
A: A touch ID ….. sorry but it’s the same as old one
For the past few years, most of the technology world has ruled by a cold, hard truth: to get the best thing, you pretty much had to get the biggest thing. Every Android phone was bigger than the last, and the smaller ones were always disappointing. Apple, though, staunchly resisted this trend. The iPhone is smaller than competing phones — even the new iPhone 6 is smaller than your average Android flagship — but still very much top of the line. And last year, the iPad mini 2 (née iPad mini with retina display) was “every inch an iPad,” in Apple’s own words. And it was true: the iPad mini 2 was spec-for-spec identical to the larger Air. With Apple’s products, you could get the smaller thing without compromising.
This year? Not so much. The difference between the iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3 is stark. The Air is thinner and faster than last year’s model, and has a new kind of display technology that looks much better. But other than Touch ID, which uses your fingerprint to unlock the iPad, the iPad mini 3 is identical to its predecessor.
It’s a disappointment, and not because Apple released an average tablet instead of the miniaturized super tablet I’d been hoping for. No, it’s a disappointment because for the past year there was one “best” tablet, the iPad, and you could pick the smaller one if you wanted. This year bigger, it seems, is better again.
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It’s tempting to just point you to last year’s review of the iPad mini 2 and call it a day. And in fact you should read it: everything we said a year ago still applies. But times change even though the iPad mini’s hardware hasn’t — and the times have actually been surprisingly kind to this device.
Apple has released a tablet with last year’s camera, last year’s screen, last year’s processor, last year’s everything. Yet it still feels competitive with the other small tablets on the market. Whether you praise Apple for making something so great a year ago or damn the entire industry for taking a flyer on this form factor is up to you. The correct answer is probably to just do both.
THIS YEAR, BIGGER IS BETTER
The iPad mini 3 doesn’t feel staid or old, if only because the competition in the small tablet game still hasn’t caught up. The metal and glass design works as well this time around as it has since the original iPad mini, evoking a sense of quality that’s missing from the array of plastic and faux leather Android tablets it’s competing with.
Touch ID is the only new hardware feature (if you don’t count the gold color option). If you’ve been using an iPhone with Touch ID, you’ll no longer feel that moment of cognitive dissonance when resting your finger on the home button doesn’t unlock the iPad. I feel like Apple deserves more credit than it’s gotten for Touch ID — it’s remarkable how fast and how consistently it works, especially compared to fingerprint readers on other phones and tablets. If Apple Pay manages to take off, you’ll also use it to quickly make purchases in apps — but you won’t be able to use it to pay at a physical store.
Our review of the iPad mini with Retina display (now called the iPad mini 2) from last year. Not much has changed.
I can still nitpick about the hardware, but the nits I’m picking aren’t new. Because of its 4:3 screen, I still find the iPad mini a touch wide for one-handed use. It can feel just a little too heavy during extended reading sessions. Positioning the stereo speakers right next to each other on one end of the tablet still feels like an odd choice — especially when you find yourself muffling them with your palm.
Really, most of the complaints I have are only in comparison to the iPad Air or to some ideal smaller tablet I wish Apple had made instead of just rehashing last year’s model. Last year’s A7 processor still handles most apps and video fine (though truly intensive games will drop frames). The Retina screen is plainly great, even if it isn’t fully laminated and anti-glare like what you’ll find on the Air 2. That iPad has easily the most immediate, you’re-touching-the-icons screen an Apple device has ever had, and it’s viewable outdoors. Those things matter just as much as pixel density, and the iPad mini 3 doesn’t quite measure up.
A BEAUTIFUL SCREEN, JUST DON’T COMPARE IT TO THE IPAD AIR 2
And even if the screen isn’t quite as good as what you’ll find on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S, what’s on the screen is much better. iOS still has more and better apps than Android, over 675,000 of them to be exact. More than the quantity is the quality: the same app on an iPad is generally better, faster, and better-supported than its Android equivalent. It may not be the best iPad, but it’s still an iPad.
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Or maybe it’s not, which is to say maybe we need to think of the iPad mini as a different kind of tablet, one more akin to the iPod Touch than the iPad Air. Certainly the cheapest version (the original iPad mini without a retina display) fits into that category: a $250 knock-around device you’re happy to hand (or hand-me-down) to your kid. Because it’s pocketable, the only thing that the iPod does better is music — and music isn’t really as central to our devices as it used to be.
But at $399, it’s hard to justify that kind of use for the iPad mini 3. But it’s better than anything Android has to offer at this size — with apologies to the Nexus 9, which while impressive is a bit too big for people looking for a small tablet.
WOULD YOU REALLY SPEND $100 JUST FOR TOUCH ID?
So it’s not so much that I’m disappointed in the iPad mini 3, it’s more that I’m disappointed with the state of the small tablet in general — there’s simply no top-tier device if you want the smaller size. This iPad mini might be the best option, but “best option” for 7-inch tablets turns out to be faint praise.
The iPad mini 3 is still great, even if it’s not a great deal.TheiPad mini 2, on the other hand, is both — it’s nearly exactly the same device minus a huge chunk of the price tag. Really, right now is a stupendously good time to buy an iPad mini 2.
Photography by Sean O’Kane.
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More times than not, the Verge score is based on the average of the subscores below. However, since this is a non-weighted average, we reserve the right to tweak the overall score if we feel it doesn’t reflect our overall assessment and price of the product. Read more about how we test and rate products.
-viaThe Verge
Following yesterday’s iPad event, Apple has, as promised, placed the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 up for pre-order in the Apple Store. They’ll begin shipping next week.
The Air 2, the company’s thinnest iPad ever, is priced at $499 for the 16GB, wifi-only version, $599 for 64GB, and $699 for 128GB. The iPad mini 3, which is similar to the mini 2 apart from the addition of Touch ID, comes in silver, space gray, or gold, with a base, 16GB model selling for $399.
– via The Verge
For nearly two decades, the release of a new PC operating system was an event. Upgrading cost money; you had to go to the store to get the necessary floppy disk or a CD; the new OS was expected to be different and better in basically every way. I’ll never forget the first time I booted Windows XP, or the day I finally got to jump again to Windows 7.
The last few years, Apple’s taken a decidedly simpler approach. It still rents event space and touts the new features, but your new operating system arrives more like an tune-up than a new car. You open the app store, click a button, and poof: a few things change but everything stays mostly the same.
This year’s model, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, is a little different. It comes with a stylistic overhaul, a new and cleaner coat of paint for your Mac. And it improves most of Apple’s built-in apps, from Mail to Maps and everything in between. But the reason Yosemite feels bigger, more important, is that it feels like the beginning of something new for Apple. OS X still looks like OS X, but Yosemite turns your Mac into more than just a PC. It turns it into both hub and spoke of a constantly connected, conversing ecosystem of Apple products, in which you’re able to do anything you want on any device you want.
Yosemite doesn’t promise to make my Mac look like my iPhone; it promises to make them work together constantly. Perfectly.
That would be a big event.
Our original preview of Yosemite, from July.
It took about six hours for me to mostly forget that I was using Yosemite. That’s not to say it doesn’t look different — it does. It’s just that the new look feels familiar, only slightly more refined, like the finished version of what came before. After downloading and installing the update (which took about 25 minutes and a little over 5GB of disk space), I had a new wallpaper, the mountain face against pink and purple sky. All the fonts were suddenly a little smaller and a lot more Helvetica Neue (and also pretty pixelated unless I was on a Retina screen). All the icons were a little flatter. I’d love to say I have feelings about the translucency in the sidebars and menu bars of Apple’s apps, which shows a bit of the app behind whatever you’re looking at, but I don’t. I stopped noticing it almost immediately. (Of course, that’s partly because a lot of apps haven’t even updated to support translucency yet. You can also turn it off really easily.)
It’s a cleaner, calmer, more balanced look that I like a lot, even if I did change my background immediately. But there’s still a dock at the bottom of my screen, still a menu bar at the top, still the same settings and options and gestures and keyboard shortcuts. Yosemite is a new look — but it’s not a new idea.
Yosemite only changed a few things about the way I use my Mac. Some are small: there’s no “full-screen” button in the top right corner of the window, you just press the green button in the stoplight menu. Spotlight doesn’t pop up in the corner of your screen, but in the center, in a gray window like Alfred. I have a fraught relationship with the new Spotlight, by the way: it’s much more powerful, showing movie times and map results and topical Wikipedia pages, but it can’t do a simple Google search, and it would rather show me emails that reference Taylor Swift than actually help me play “Out Of The Woods.” Spotlight is so close to right, but I still use Alfred every time.
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The biggest change was that I started using Safari again. A lot. Safari is so incredibly fast to load pages that I almost think it’s cheating. The list of frequently visited sites that appears every time you click on the address bar is incredibly handy, as is the visual tab switcher. I’m a habitual opener of hundreds of tabs, and I’ve never found an easier way to wade through the morass and find what I’m looking for. If you’re not forever married to another browser, Safari is very much worth a shot.
IT LOOKS DIFFERENT… AND YET THE SAME
For all the talk of convergence and of the ever-shrinking gap between PC and smartphone and tablet, Yosemite almost makes a statement in its lack of fundamental change. It’s not Windows 10, with big ideas about how our devices are just different sizes of the same thing, how the interface and settings and apps should be consistent everywhere. Microsoft believes in a single experience for all devices; Apple believes every device ought to have its own. This is still a PC operating system, made for devices with mice and keyboards and trackpads. It feels outdated in places – the whole idea of the “desktop” just feels pointless, and saving and organizing files is still more complex than it should be in the age of limitless searchable cloud storage — but it’s true to what Apple believes in.
Plus, there’s a lot more to Yosemite than the desktop. The best features, the most important and innovative features, do affect every device you own — as long as you own Apple devices. They don’t all look or work the same, but they work together better than ever.
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If you’re using an iPhone or iPad running iOS 8.1 and a Mac running Yosemite, have Bluetooth on, and are logged into the same iCloud account and Wi-Fi network on both devices, your devices will suddenly begin to constantly talk to each other. After a surprisingly convoluted setup process (you need to change settings in three different apps on two different platforms, and enter a passcode), when your phone rings, so does your Mac.
You can actually even make and receive calls from your computer, which has more than once saved me from missing calls while digging for my phone in my bag. AirDrop finally works between Mac and iOS, meaning you can easily send photos and files between phone and computer. (FINALLY.) You can remotely activate the personal hotspot feature on the iPhone and use it to connect your Mac to the internet, which I’ve already needed a few times because Time Warner Cable is a nightmare.
My favorite feature of the Continuity group, and probably the thing about Yosemite that most changed how I go about my day, is that Messages now lets you send SMS text messages from your computer. That means I can finally text my Moto X-toting girlfriend without having to constantly pick up and put down my phone. It’s already made me more likely to quickly (or ever) respond to someone’s texts. Messages do still occasionally sit in the iMessage hell of existing on one device but not others, but I can’t overstate how much I like texting from my laptop.
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Sharing data between devices is automatic, once you get the setup right, and surprisingly pervasive. Whenever you open a new tab on your Mac, or start composing an email or text, an icon appears in the bottom left corner of the iPhone’s lock screen; swipe it up and you’ll go right to where you were on your PC. It works the opposite way, too, the icon showing up to the left of your dock on the Mac. It doesn’t always work the way I expected, though; there’s no rhyme or reason to when in the message-composition process the icon will appear on my phone, and sometimes the icon on my Mac opens Chrome but not a new page. Everything works most of the time, but it’s not quite seamless yet.
WHEN CONTINUITY WORKS, IT’S AMAZING
As long as they work, all these features together make the case for buying a Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad better than Apple ever has before. iTunes wasn’t compelling enough; neither were any previous iterations of iCloud. Now, the three devices feel synced and aligned in a totally automatic, uncomplicated way. I can do anything from anywhere, each device suited best to certain things. (This is the idea Windows had long ago, and I hope Microsoft is taking a few notes on execution.) Next, I hope more apps start to take advantage, letting me move image edits and my spot in videos and the like between devices. This is a killer feature with huge possibilities, and I’ve got hope Apple and its developers all make real use of it/cdn1.vox-cdn.com/assets/4797756/yosemite-collage.jpg)
There’s more to Yosemite, including lots of behind-the-scenes changes and graphics improvements and more access to built-in apps, Finder, the sharing menu, and Notification Center. There are also a number of features borrowed from iOS and sort of hidden around your Mac. The Today view in the Notification Center is handy, and I like having my calendar and a few widgets just a two-finger swipe away, but I keep forgetting it’s even there — and the Mac’s handling of notifications is as messy as ever. (Which is to say, as messy as iOS still is.) Developers will hopefully quickly start to take advantage of Extensions, to let you essentially use an app within another app.
If your hardware supports it, you should upgrade to OS X Yosemite. There’s really no reason not to, unless translucency makes you want to pull your hair out. In the time I’ve been using it I’ve found zero crippling bugs, few bugs whatsoever, and plenty of improvements both aesthetic and functional. It’s more secure, faster, and better all around.
The best and worst thing I can say about Yosemite is that I mostly forgot about it. It’s stable and fast and utterly familiar. Everything works as it should, including a lot of things that didn’t work before. But Yosemite isn’t really a brand-new vision of the future the way Windows 8 was. The ways it talks to and interact with your other devices is tacked on to an existing paradigm, not part of an entirely new one. Yosemite is an excellent desktop operating system, but in a world where “desktop operating system” is starting to feel as antiquated a phrase as “cordless telephone,” I don’t see Apple moving boldly into the brave unknown. I see Apple watching its PC share grow while others fall, and sticking with what still works. For now.
Yosemite is the continuation of a decade-long legacy, the result of endless tweaking and improving. OS X 10.10 is a perfectly appropriate name: it’s the best OS X ever, but it’s still OS X. When it downloads and installs onto your machine, you’ll hardly even notice.
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Extraction Apple Event
– via Tech Crunch
Also shipping today.
Nothing crazy, but a nice overall spec refresh. And a price drop to $499.
And w’ere getting an update to the Mac Mini, a fan favorite machine, today as well.15 HOURS AGO
Retina iMac $2,499. AMD Radeon R9 M290X standard and R9 M295X upgrade. Ships today. Who’s going to tell my kid she’s not going to Disney?
Shipping today.
If you’re a journalist and you clap at these events your hands should catch on fire.
Apple is now showing off a video of the innards of their new iMac panel that looks like an oil commercial. You know the ones, where you fly in through your engine and see the pistons firing off.
Apple is very proud of both its technology and what it calls its technology.
Apple created a new Oxide TFT display, and used organic passivation to reduce pixel crosstalk. Basically these speed up how fast it can refresh pixels and prevents color bleed between pixels. On top of that, it uses 30% less battery.
“There are 7 times more pixels on the Retina 5k Display than there are on your HDTV” – Phill Schiller.
And now we have an iMac with Retina display. 27″ display, 5,120 by 2,880 pixels. 14.7M pixels on one display. Schiller says this is the world’s highest resolution display. They’re calling it the Retina 5k display.
– via Wired
Not content with dominating the news cycle for a entire month, Apple’s at it again. The company sent out official invitations to its upcoming October 16th media event on Wednesday morning. The event kicks off at 10 AM next Thursday at Apple’s Cupertino campus.
Just last month Apple held a huge, action-packed media event where it announced the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, and the Apple Watch. Today’s invitation features the tagline “It’s been too long,” which seems to play on the fact that they just held an event. This one will likely be a smaller affair, however, since it’s being held at Apple headquarters.
Among other things, we’re expecting Apple to spend some more time detailing OS X Yosemite, which the company previewed at WWDC in June. We’re also expecting an array of new iPads, perhaps a larger 12.9-inch model aimed at the enterprise market, and a follow-up to last year’s ultra thin iPad Air. These iPads are expected to have Touch ID this time around, and will reportedly come in the same colors as the iPhone: space gray, silver, and gold. New MacBook Airs, also in these hues, have been rumored, but we probably won’t see them until later in 2015.
The other big thing we could see October 16th is a 27-inch retina iMac. Apple last refreshed the iMac in 2012. We could also get a spec bump on the MacBook Air, Retina MacBook Pros, Mac mini, and new Cinema Displays.
Whatever gets unveiled, we’ll be there October 16th to share the news live.
– via Gizmodo
Well, it’s official: Apple is holding an event on Oct. 16th that will reportedly air out its stale iPad. But as they often do, the invitation to the event included a cryptic tagline: “It’s been way too long.“
Taken at face value, it’s simply a note about how long it’s been since Apple released a new iPad (about a year). But these little taglines often hint at deeper, hidden meanings. In this case, it seems likely that Apple may be hinting at another refresh for a long-overdue product line. So what are the most likely contenders? With help from the excellent MacRumors buyers guide, we took a look at the Apple products that have gone the longest without a new model.
It’s been a long time since Apple updated its Thunderbolt display: More thanthree years, in fact. It’s possible that a new Thunderbolt—perhaps even a retina one!—could be in our future, though we probably shouldn’t expect it given that displays aren’t usually given quite this much attention.
The next oldest song in Apple’s book, Apple TV, is also a difficult one to predict. We’ve seen Apple working steadily towards new software and app updates, but the hardware has been the same for quite some time. We could see a new version next week, especially as Apple’s smart home ambitions grow.
It’s been almost exactly two years since Apple last updated its super-cheap, super-simple little computer. Considering the updates it’s given its other desktop models, this baby is long overdue for some love.
Sure, we got a retina update to the iPad Mini last year. But given that Apple isprobably planning a design update to the iPad Air, it’s possible that the Mini will also get a few updates, like Touch ID.
Again, it’s only been a year—but today, we saw an alleged dummy model of the new iPad Air leak online, so it seems likely we’ll get a revamp next week.
Apple’s overhaul of the Mac Pro last fall makes it fairly unlikely that it’ll be on the list of updated products, outside of a possible spec bump.
This spring, we saw the MacBook Air get a little update and a price cut. But don’t let that deceive you; it’s more than likely there’s a new MacBook Air with a retina display in our future. The question is whether that future is next week or next year.
Likewise, it’s only been a few months since the last iMac upgrade—but we’ll more than likely get majorly overhauled model next week with Retina screens that will be welcomed by anyone who sits in front of one all day.
Anything else you want to see updated or that you think might get some love? Let us know in the comments below!
– via Mashable
First there was Bendgate. Then Gapgate. And now, the latest “gate” to attack smartphones — particularly the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus? Hairgate.
Apparently, some iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners are getting strands of hair caught between the screen and the aluminum frame of the iPhone. And thus, Hairgate.
My own hair is quite long and I haven’t had any strands get caught within the frame of my iPhone 6. Still, we wanted to put Hairgate to the test. You know, for science.
At least in our experiences, Hairgate is a bust. Don’t worry. We’re sure another smartphone crisis will present itself soon. Maybe even tomorrow.
Do you have any hairy issues with your smartphone? Let us know in the comments.
Downloading Windows 10 Technical preview.
Future Posts:
— Feel the No Difference : Windows 10 & OS X
— Windows 10 & Windows 8.1 : What’s new from The OLD
Apple’s most personal
device yet.
Apple’s most personal device “The Apple Watch” rumored to be iWatch is coming Early 2015. The most personal device might not seem that attractive due to its dependency on your iPhone but carries along a lot of features for you.
What’s the Difference?
Apple Watch is the smallest wear device available in market. All of the activity your phones inform you with are displayed on the small 42mm ( or 38mm) watch. You scroll, zoom, read and select. The digital crown on the upper right side of the watch lets you scroll, zoom and select without even covering the screen.
Just like the mouse is to the Mac.
Ease Of Use:
Just like the phones, Apple watch has your favorite apps on the home screen.
Apple has kept the font easy for the users to read plus the force-sensitive Retina display keeps it easy for our eyes to go along.
As A Timepiece:
High-quality watches have long been defined by their ability to keep unfailingly accurate time, and Apple Watch is no exception. It uses multiple technologies in conjunction with your iPhone to keep time within “50 milliseconds of the definitive global time standard”. And it can automatically adjust to the local time when you travel.
Apple Watch is right there on your wrist, so it makes all the ways you’re used to communicating more convenient. And because it touches your skin, we were able to add a physical dimension to alerts and notifications — you’ll feel a gentle tap when you receive an incoming message. Apple Watch also allows you to connect with your favorite people in some new, spontaneous ways not possible with any other device.
Apple Watch gives you a more complete picture of your all-day physical activity because it measures more than just the quantity of your movement, such as the number of steps you take. It measures the quality and frequency as well. The three rings of the Activity app show your progress at a glance, and provide all the motivation you need to sit less, move more, and get some exercise. There’s also a separate Workout app for dedicated cardio sessions. Over time, Apple Watch can use what it learns about the way you move to suggest personalized daily fitness goals and encourage you to achieve them. So you can live a better day and a healthier life.
– Pictures and Information from Apple.
CHA Reviews 
The Mac Mini dropping to $499 means a lower entry point for ‘halo effect’ adopters of the Mac. Those who have an iPhone or an iPad and want to know what this Mac thing is all about.