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What’s Exciting in iOS 6?
This morning at Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco Scott Forstell introduced iOS 6 – the next version of the operating system powering your iPhone and iPad that will be available in October.
You can get a full iOS 6 Preview from Apple. Here are the new features I’m most excited about.
New Maps with Turn by Turn Navigation
Sorry TomTom, like Android iOS 6 now ships with free turn-by-turn navigation and an entirely Apple designed mapping solution (no more Google Maps). Somewhat hidden in fine print turn-by-turn is only available on iPhone 4S (and powered by Siri). Siri still doesn’t officially support New Zealand English so we’ll see how well she manages telling you to turn left onto Karangahape Road. It’s totally mindboggling that Apple has gone head-to-head with Google flying their own planes to map and photo the world. Two features missing-in-action in the new Maps app, the first won’t be missed (Google ads) but it also appears there’s no longer street view.
Facebook intergration
Like it or not Facebook has become one of the default ways of keeping in touch with friends and family. Like a much better White Pages or email client Facebook is always up-to-date and organized while apps become more interesting with friends (if you all permission). Sometimes it’s the simple things that make all the difference, like seeing a friendly face when your phone rings.
Passbook
This one is likely to take a will to filter down and be widely usable in New Zealand as it requires major corporate partners to get on board. Similar in some ways to Google or Square Wallet, Passbook keeps all your loyalty cards, coupons and tickets togeter in one app. Think of this as Apple’s first shot in the upcoming mobile commerce battle.
Lost mode
A very serious new feature that you’ll never want to use. If your iPhone or iPad is lost or stolen there are additional options you can set remotely including setting a pass code and allowing the finder to call you on a specified number. Find My iPhone is already under iCloud Settings on iOS 5 and you should set it up right now if you haven’t already.
Phone
Do Not Disturb heads up the new features available in the Phone app letting you silence ringtones and notifications at certain hours and from certain people. It’s something that’s been available forever in other handsets forever as profiles but implemented nicely by Apple in iOS 6 including a way to mute repeated calls from the same number.
Finally but less exciting is no support for iPhone 3G or iPad 1 – devices just three and two years old and making iOS 6 a strong reason to update your hardware as well.…
Read MoreSpotify Lands in New Zealand
Popular music streaming app Spotify officially launched in New Zealand today. The free Spotify app is available now in the App Store for iPhone/iPad and for Mac at spotify.com
Signing up is simple and only took two taps to login via Facebook and start a 48 free-trial of Spotify Premium on my iPhone. Once the trial ends the service reverts to Spotify Free which gives ad-supported streaming access to a catalogue of some 16 million songs. Unfortunetly Spotify Free only gives access via a Mac or PC and streaming to an iPhone or iPad requires a $12.99 monthly subscription to Spotify Premium.
A quick flick through the catalogue had all the tracks I wanted available to play instantly and audio-quality was great via wi-fi. Using the in-app Settings I bumped the stream quality to High (160kbit/s) and turned on a 5 second crossfade to avoid the iTunes match style buffering gap between songs. The app uses 20-50MB of data per hour of streaming music so make sure you’ve got a good data plan or connected to wi-fi before hitting play.…
Read MoreiPad (3) Launch Day Photos
Where to buy a New iPad 3
So with just under twelve hours until the official launch of the New iPad 3 in New Zealand it’s another fairly hush-hush launch like we’ve become all to familiar with. Never fear though here’s a confirmed list of stores that will have the New iPad available tomorrow morning, most stores will be opening at the regular time and none will be open before 8am. We’ve heard bigger stores will have up to 200 New iPads in stock but still recommend getting along early to get the model you’re after.
Dick Smith
Stores open at the regular time with New iPad 3 stock available at most stores including Auckland, Hamilton, Napier, Rotorua, Taupo, Wellington, Whangarei, Christchurch, Queenstown and Dunedin.
YooBee (Magnum Mac)
Most stores opening one hour early at 8am with New iPads available in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Wellington.
JB Hi-Fi
iPad 3 available in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington and Dunedin stores which we think are opening at the regular time of 9am. Update: some stores are opening at 8am including Wellington Central
Noel Leeming
Most stores around the country will have the New iPad available. In fact with stores from Kerikeri to Invercargill Noel Leeming probably has the most locations stocking iPad 3.
Bond & Bond
Only four stores in Auckland and one in Dunedin will have New iPads available on launch day.
PB Tech
We haven’t been able to confirm which stores will have stock but PB Tech will be selling the New iPad tomorrow.
Harvey Norman
Seven stores will be opening at 8am with New iPads available. Harvey Norman wins the prize for best launch image…
Independent Apple Resellers
Ubertec is opening in Parnell, Auckland at 8am and iStore in Takapuna have so far only confirmed they’ll be updating their website at midnight 
What time are you planning on buying a New iPad (3) tomorrow and where from? Let us know in the comments and if anyone has any photos or updates from around the country let us know on twitter.
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New iPad NZ Price Announced
A strong New Zealand dollar has seen the new iPad price drop almost 10% across the board. The entry-level 16GB wi-fi only model iPad 3 price is $729 – a full $70 cheaper than the iPad 2 it replaces.
The new iPad goes on sale in New Zealand this Friday 23-March online and at Apple retailers around the country. We’ll have a post up in the next few days with the best places to buy and all your options.
New iPad NZ Prices: New iPad (iPad 3) prices on the left and iPad 2 on the right
Will the lower price make you more likely to get an iPad 3 or get a higher spec’d model?…
Read MoreNew iPad First Impressions
After Jono’s mission to Sydney last week I’ve been lucky enough to be using a new iPad (black 32GB wi-fi + 4G) for a few days and WOW everything about this device is amazing. The speed, the apps, the games and the camera are all made better by the retina display.
Firstly a bit about me, I’ve been a bit of a screen geek for the last decade always needing the clearest and highest resolution display – whether on a phone, laptop or my desk. I sold my iPad 2 pretty quickly as it was just too jarring to look at switching between my 960×480 pixel iPhone 4 (at the time) and 1440×900 pixel 13″ MacBook Air.
The Retina Display
Amazing. Having used an iPad .I think if you’re coming from the original iPad, iPad 2 or another tablet you’ll be blown away as the difference is night and day.
The 5MP Camera
It’s good but not great, using the retina display as a view finder is a novelty and being able to view photos straight away on the large bright screen is the best part. The default camera app doesn’t do HDR so you’ll need an additional app for that.
In bright light the camera performs better and without a flash lighting is going to have the biggest impact on your photos.
Setup & Apps
Easy. Mail, contacts and calendars synced quickly from my multiple Exchange and Google Accounts. I re-downloaded a few apps from iCloud and bought a few more from the app store. Music is there on-demand from iTunes match and all down over-the-air without hooking up to USB to iTunes. The one app I’m still looking forward to playing with is iPhoto which I’ll most likely sync some albums over USB. Everything flies with the A5X chips and my favourite app so far is Ashphalt 6 – a $1.29 car racing game from Gameloft that’s seriously impressive on the retina display.
The Battery
Battery life is the same as iPad 2 and considering the quad-core graphics power of the A5X driving the retina display it’s a much larger battery powering the new iPad. Not larger physically as the new iPad is just a barely noticeable 1mm thicker than iPad 2 but larger in density with 42.5Wh packed into the similar enclosure providing 70% more juice than the iPad 2.
It’s here where the only real con of the new iPad becomes apparant and that giant battery takes a long time to charge so get used to leaving your iPad plugged to a wall socket over night to be ready for the next days use.
I’ll post some more thoughts soon, if you have any questions ask away in the comments.…
Read MoreiPad 3 New Zealand launch on 23 March 2012
iPad 3 NZ Release Date
This morning Apple announced the iPad 3 will be released in New Zealand on 23 March 2012 in the second week of a global rollout that starts in the USA, Canada and UK on 16 March.
iPad 3 NZ Price
New Zealand pricing for iPad 3 hasn’t been announced yet but it’s staying the same in the United States at $499 for 16GB wi-fi, $599 for 32GB and $699 for 64GB. 4G LTE models are US$629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. There’s no new 128GB models. No word yet on a cheaper iPad 2.
iPad 3 Features
There are six major upgrades over iPad 2 though only 4 will be initially available in New Zealand.
1. Retina Display
Double the resolution of iPad and 264 pixels-per-inch – existing apps will work but need to be updated by developers to take advantage of the higher res. All Apple apps updated as part of iOS 5.1
2. A5X quad core processor
Twice the processing cores of the iPad 2′s A5 and quoted as being four times the speed of Tegra 3 that powers many high-end Android devices. It has to drive the monster retina-display so in real world use it’s likely faster but unknown by how much.
3. 5MP camera
The same 5-megapixel backside illuminated sensor on the back as iPhone 4S featuring a 5-element lens, IR filter, auto-exposure, auto-focus and ISP built into the A5X processor
4. 1080P Video Recording
No comment, great for mobile newsrooms – please think of others before taking photos or videos with iPad in public!
5. Voice Dictation
It’s not Siri and officially only supports US, UK and Australian English but iPad 3 features the same microphone icon on the keyboard letting you talk rather than type.
6. 4G LTE
No New Zealand networks currently support the faster 4G mobile data speeds up to 72Mbps but it’s nice to know the iPad you buy this month should support the upgraded networks
Battery life
Quoted as the same: 10hrs on wi-fi and 9 on mobile data – incredible with all those pixels!
Form factor
Every so slightly heavier and thicker at 9.4mm (versus 8.8 for iPad 2)
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