xcelMe Blog

Mac Air Updates

• USB 3.0
• 720p FaceTime Camera
• 512 GB flash memory
• Flash memory in this new Airs is up to twice as fast.
• 60% faster integrated graphics.
• up to 2.7GHz quad-core Core i7s.
• 11-inch model 1366×768, starts at $999 and goes to $1099.
• 13-inch 1440×900, $100 cheaper than current models.
• 15-inch, $1799 and $2199.

Mac Book Pro

• Retina Display
• Weighs 4.46lbs
• 15.4-inch display with a pixel density of 2880 x 1800. “That four times the number of pixels than the previous generation of MacBook Pro display.” That’s 220 ppi. 5,184,000 pixels.
• This is the world’s highest-resolution notebook display
• Now, applications do have to be updated to take advantage of this Retina display.” Those that have not been can be pixel-doubled, but they’ll look a bit jank.
• Up to 2.7GHz quad-core Core i7s. And yes, up to 16GB of RAM!
• Kepler GT 650M graphics.
• 768GB of internal flash storage! “That’s three quarters of a terabyte.” Phil again with the math lesson.
• On the right have SD, HDMI and USB 3.0. On the left, MagSafe 2, Thunderbolt, USB 3 and a headphone jack.
• FireWire 800 and Gigabit Ethernet Thunderbolt adapters
• There’s a glass trackpad, backlit keyboard, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, FaceTime HD, dual microphones with beam forming for a “new generation” of voice apps. And, stereo speakers.
• This display has over five million pixels. That’s three million more than an HDTV
• $2199 is the starting price with a 2.3GHz quad-core chip, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage.

Mountain Lion

• Documents in the cloud
• Reminders
• Pages
• Updated Media Center
• The new voice dictation
• Power Nap
• AirPlay Mirroring
• GameCenter coming to the Mac
• Multiplayer supported Mac-to-Mac and cross-device as well. Yes, you can play from your Mac against someone on an iPhone or iPad and, yes, any of them can push that over AirPlay.

iOS 6

• 365 million iOS devices sold through March. 80 percent of their customers are on iOS 5.
• It has more than 200 new features
• Siri learned sports
• Launch apps from Siri
• iPhone App update, Remind me Later and Do not disturb, call me later, push notifications muted
• FaceTime on Cellular now
• Safari, offline reading list
• PhotoStream – shared photo streams
• New Features in Mail VIP
• Passbook. The simplest way to get all your passes in one place
• Passbook takes all of these passes and combines them together in one place, and integrates it right into the OS.
• Maps! entire new mapping solution from the ground up.
• Already ingested more than 100 million business listings
• TURN-BY-TURN NAVIGATION!!!
• Building a traffic service.” It’s a simple presentation, with red bars showing traffic slowdowns and icons showing construction, accidents, etc.
• More importantly, that traffic data comes from “anonymous, realtime” information from iOS users
• Integrated into Siri!
• Fly-Over. 3DMaps
• Maps are vector-based, again like Google Maps. There’s quick rotating and zooming with gestures. Zoom in far enough and 3D pops up. There’s very, very quick tapping through info cards. It’s incredibly smooth.
• They’re working on “Made for iPhone” hearing aids even, certified hearing assistance.
• New signatures coming for personal vs. work email accounts.
• Custom Vibrations for alerts
• There’s a “Lost Mode” for iOS devices. Send a phone number and it’ll show a notification on the screen. If anyone finds it they’ll tap, it’ll dial that number automatically.
• It ships this fall, supports 3GS and greater iPhones, 2nd generation iPads and newer, and the 4th generation iPod touch.

Post PC Revolution
-Apple sold 172 million post PC devices last year. 76% of Apple’s revenue. These include iPhone, iPad, iPods.
-iOS now runs on 315 million devices sold last year. 62 million sold last year
-There are 585,000 apps on the App store.
-25 Billion downloads from the App store
Apple TV
-Movies and TV shows on the app store are now 1080p.
-New user interface. New icons, coverflow!
-$99
New iPad
-15.4 million iPads sold last quarter. That is more than any PC maker.
-Retina display 2048×1536  3.1 million pixels
-264 pixels per inch
-No one has matched the Retina display
-A5X processor. 4 quad core graphics processor
-New and improved camera. 5-megapixel sensor. Same as the iPhone 4s.
-HD Video recording in 1080p.
-Video stabilization
-Voice dictation
-Microphone button on the keyboard
-4G LTE AT&T and Verizon
-Same 10 hour batter life. 9 hours on 4G LTE. Wow!
-9.4 millimeters and 1.4 pounds
-Same price as iPAD 2. $499, $599 and $699
-March 16th available. Goes on sale today.
New iPad Software
-Update to take advantage
-More memory and graphics processing than an Xbox 360.
-iWork (Pages, Keynote and Numbers) updates
-Garageband, can play together over bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
-iMove updated
-iPhoto for iPad (NEW for iPad!!) This is really a cool app! New interface from OS X
Photo beaming, smart browsing, multi-touch editing, brushes, photo beaming, photo journals
Works with up to 19 Megapixals photos, multi photo comparison. Auto-enhance feature. Built-in auto enhance. $4.99
-Old iPad 2
Prices drop $100 dollars. Starting at $399

I have to say Apple’s iOS Tech Conference was excellent. Talked to 5 Apple Engineers. One Engineer helped take an app from terminal “in review” to “approved” in 20 minutes. 2 other engineers found a storyboard issue as an apple bug, and the session on app performance tuning was great. To bad they only them every other year and you can’t talk to an Apple engineer more often.

Notes from Apple’s “Lets Talk” Media Event:

Stats given first. You know the drill. Stats before giving you the info on the new candy.

-100,000 people visited Shanghai store the first weekend it opened.

-357 Apple stores now open.

-Year over year growth. 4% PC, 23% growth

-Still, 77% of consumers are buying other systems, which leaves incredible room for growth

-Over 300 million iPods have been sold. “It took Sony 30 years to sell 220,000 Walkman cassette players.”

- The iPhone is five percent of the overall mobile phone market

-As for iTunes, it’s now up to 20 million songs, or more than 20Xs the catalog Apple offered when it first launched the service.

-iTunes Store remains largest music store in the world, having served 16 billion Songs.

-iPad 95% satisfaction rating in latest survey.

-Roughly 1000 Universities — including Stanford and Notre Dame — have iPad pilot programs in place.

-92 percent of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying companies. They’re not saying what they’re doing with them, but they’re at least buying ‘em.

iOS – Lots of WWDC recaps.

-Apple has also passed the 250 million iOS device sales mark.

-iOS is now the number one mobile operating system, 43 percent compared to Android’s 33 percent as of the July. ComScore number Apple is quoting.

-With a quarter billion iOS devices sold, iOS is the No . 1 mobile operating system with a 43% share.

-There are now 140,000 apps made specifically for the iPad

-Customers have download 18 billion apps — more than a billion per month.

-over halve a million (500,000) apps in the app store in total.

-1 billion App download per month.

-Hallmark, just got served. New app, “Cards” Lets you design and print greetings cards”. Apple will send them. You can create and mail cards via iPhone from your iOS device and Apple will print them out and send them on high-quality paper. $2.99 to mail a card domestically, or $4.99 to anywhere in the world.

-iCloud just works and is free. You can download and re-download your music and media anytime on any Apple device. Your photos can be in your camera roll but can also be on all your devices at the same time — they sync into the cloud then down to your other devices. Documents also get updated across all your devices.

-Apps and backups also via iCloud –

-Find my friends. Like Google’s Latitudes. You can see the location of friends and family on a Map who choose to share their location with you. You can invite friends to share their location for a limited time period as well. So if you wanted to share your location with a few friends while you visit the mall, you can, and set the location sharing to expire in 3 hours.

-iOS 5 released Oct 12th.

iPod new features

-This year the nano multitouch display can display large icons instead of smaller ones in an array.

-There’s an improved fitness experience that allows you to go on a walk or a run via Nike+ straight out of the box!

-New version available today — $129 for the 8GB and $149 for the 16GB, down from $149 and $179

iPhone 4S

-Retina display, glass on front and back with the same stainless steel band along the edges — But inside, everything is new.

-iPhone 4S has the same A5 chip found in the iPad 2 — up to 2X faster than the A4 found in the iPhone 4.

-Dual core graphics like the iPad 2 as well, yielding up to 7X faster real world performance than the iPhone 4

-iPhone 4S now offers up to 8 hours talk time on 3G

-14 hours on 2G and 6 hours of 3G browsing.

-Better Antenna, Apple has also updated the wireless system in the phone

-The new stainless steel band has two antennas and the phone can now automatically switch between the two intelligently to maintain better reception.

-Phil’s taking a shot against the Atrix, Thrill, and Inspire 4G. “The iPhone 4S is just as fast as these phones.”

-iPhone 4S now offers 14.4Mbps downloads, which is essentially what rivals have been calling “4G”

-As expected, the iPhone 4S is also a world-phone — meaning it can operate on both GSM and CDMA networks.

-This is great for travelers who may have Verizon (CDMA) stateside but need to roam on GSM networks overseas.

-8Meg camera! that’s 3264 x 2448. That’s 60 % more pixels than photos taken by iPhone 4. With lots of new stuff

-Also, iPhone 4S has a backside illuminated sensor that allows 73% more light per pixel than the iPhone 4. The capture rate is 33% faster as well. iPhone 4S also includes a Hybrid IR filter for better color accuracy and more uniform images. It also has a 5-element lens and only sports a half second delay between shots.

-And, five whole elements in the lens assembly — 30 percent more sharper, and it’ll go down to f/2.4!

-There’s a new Image Signal Processor that Apple designed, enabling face detection and 26 percent better white balance.

-Comparo tie: Bionic takes 3.7 seconds for the first picture, 2 for the Galaxy S II, Sensation 2.1. 0.5 seconds iPhone 4s

-There’s video image stabilization, with temporal noise reduction.

-Now for video recording: 1080p HD recording.

Siri Assistant – Beta

-Voice Recognition – Siri Assistant

- Ok, this is cool. It answers, when you ask. Will I need a rain coat today?

-Wake me up at 6am tomorrow. And it sets the alarm for you.

-Find me a great greek restaurant. Like the computer, on Star Trek.

- A great AI natural language experience.

-reads text messages and answers with voice

-”When can I have lunch next”

-Siri can also read your text messages to you if you’re wearing a bluetooth headset and the iPhone is in your pocket.

-Siri does currency conversion.

-You can set reminders to call your wife, pick up the kids from school, etc, all by dictating what you want to Siri. Or it can lookup Steve Jobs on wikipedia. You can also ask, for instance, “how many days until Christmas.” The demo is impressive.

-Siri also offers an interface it examples “Tap the mic to say things like”: How do i get home? Email Lisa about the trip. What is Apple’s stock price?

-there is also a microphone next to the spacebar on the iPhone keyboard, which allows for dictation.

-Dictation works out of the box but improves with time as it becomes accustomed to your voice.

-Works for English (US, UK, and Australia) plus French and German. It’ll be beta to start, but there’ll be more languages and services coming.

-the antenna design looks like the current Verizon version, with the same basic groove placement.

Pricing: 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399.

iPhone 4S launches Oct 14th.

iPhone 4 will sell for $99 in an 8GB configuration, as well, with contract.

Available in US with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

NO IPHONE 5!!

-Financial Times

-Doodle Jump

-Brushes brusesapp.com

-TabToolKit by Agile Partners

-Articles Sophiestication

-Flight Control HD Firement

-20 Minute Meals-Jamie Oliver

-Starwalk for iPad **my favorite**

-Real Racing Firemint

-Pinball HD Gameprom

The update is free at Apple | Software Update

Includes:

Addresses general compatibility issues

• Updates the help
• Adds a link to online resources in the Help menu
• Improves image handling when reducing the file size of images with Instant Alpha applied
• Improves file size management when inserting some movies

Keynote 5.0.3

• Improves the reliability of guides by changing the display frequency and relevance
• Resolves an issue with GarageBand exports
• Fixes an issue when working with Move actions in chart builds
• Addresses an issue with the preview of some charts in the Build inspector
• Resolves an issue when pasting a Numbers table that has cells with wrap turned on
• Resolves an issue where pasting multiple cells containing duration or date/time values into the Chart Data Editor would only paste zeros
• Fixes an issue with Sleep when the computer’s battery has completely discharged while playing a presentation
• Resolves an issue with updating thumbnail previews in Navigator view after sending a presentation via Mail as PDF or PowerPoint
• Improves reliability when dragging and dropping text in Outline view
• Adds a presentation preference for showing the slide switcher when scrolling

Pages 4.0.3

• Resolves an issue where copying and pasting multiple cells containing duration or date/time values in the Chart Data Editor would only paste zeros
• Improves reliability when working with objects in Full-Screen mode
• Fixes an issue with saving documents with EndNote citations containing multi-byte characters when using Mac OS X 10.6
• Resolves an issue with EndNote citations when using Mail Merge

Numbers 2.0.3

• Fixes an issue with columns and categorized checkboxes
• Addresses an issue with categories and CSV export
• Improves reliability of import and export of some Microsoft Excel files
• Addresses an issue that could cause formulas to stop working after formatting a cell
• Fixes an issue with hiding or deleting rows in categorized tables
• Improves reliability when reverting a document to the saved version
• Addresses an issue caused by quitting without saving after editing some templates
• Fixes an issue with deleting table columns containing chart data
• Resolves an issue that prevented dropping an audio file into a media placeholder

iWork.com Beta

• Enhances security with 128-bit SSL encryption and document password protection
• Improves document reviewing capabilities with Comment notification features
• E-mail invitations are now sent via iWork.com instead of using Mac OS X Mail

Scottsdale, AZ – September 29, 2009 – xcelMe, the worldwide leader in live online iPhone development and marketing training, will be presenting iPhone Development and iPhone Game Programming keynote and workshops in Beijing China October 22-24, 2009 at CSDN.net. CSDN.net is one of the largest development conferences for mobile software development in China.

Gary Bennett, xcelMe President says, “The iPhone becomes available on October 1, 2009 to the largest population of developers and consumers on the planet. We are extremely excited to be able to discuss iPhone software development to one of the world’s largest mobile software development communities. Additionally, we are looking forward to showing iPhone owners in China some of the 83,000 apps already available on their iPhone and iPhone Touch.”

xcelMe.com offers seven courses in their series, given worldwide, from 2-4 weeks in duration. Classes are taught live, twice a week, and are recorded for later viewing by any student. The cost of each course is only $97 and can also be purchased in discounted bundles.

The live online courses are:

• Intro to Object Oriented Programming and Logic
• Objective-C 2.0 for iPhone Developers
• Cocoa & xCode for iPhone Developers
• iPhone SDK Programming – Getting it Done!
• iPhone SDK Programming – Advanced
• Beginning iPhone Game Development **New**
• Introduction to Marketing iPhone Apps

Additional information about xcelMe.com or the iPhone online development courses can be found by visiting www.xcelMe.com or by calling at (480) 776-9111.