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Author Archives: Steve Lawrence
Mac OS X Lion still caged
It had widely been rumoured that the iOS-inspired Mac OS X Lion would launch today (14/07 in the US), but now several blogs including MacRumors are backtracking a little and claiming we won’t be seeing it this week after all, pointing to the fact that Apple have only just called for developers to submit their Lion-compatible apps to the Mac App Store. Added to this, we note that the Mac App Store’s weekly refresh of header images and featured apps has gone ahead today without any sign of Lion. All we know for certain is that it will be out in July, but the wait is excruciating! We’ll keep refreshing and let you know as soon as it drops.…
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Posted in All, Other News
iOS 5 beta 3 released to developers
Apple have just begun seeding the third beta of iOS 5 to developers along with updated betas of iTunes and XCode. Unfortunately there’s no OTA update as previously hoped but we’ll keep you posted if we find any new goodies. You can do the same in the comments.
UPDATE: You can finally add your own custom text tones. 9to5mac has the full change log here.
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Posted in iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
iOS 5 puts a newsreader in your pocket
One of the lesser-discussed but frankly downright amazing additions to iOS 5 is the addition of a new ‘speak selection’ option which will literally read out any selected text in an incredibly life-like newsreader-style voice. From a cheap-thrills perspective, this is a great novelty addition that will provide a few giggles (yes, it will read out swear words, too), from a more sober point of view it can work as a great convenience tool (by reading your emails for you as walk to work), and from a perspective that the lucky majority of us will never need to consider, this will be an absolute life-line for the visually impaired.…
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Posted in All, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
iPad + Parrot A.R Drone used to explore earthquake-ruined Catholic Cathedral
It’s a pretty amazing sign of the times when Opus engineers working on Christchurch’s quake-stricken Catholic Cathedral are able to buy an off-the-shelf iPad coupled with a $500 accessory from Dick Smith to carry out work that, in the past, would have required a massive investment in specialised equipment. An iPad, coupled with a Parrot A.R Drone has been used to fly inside and capture video footage of the interior of the Cathedral which is too dangerous for the engineers to enter themselves. Check out the footage over at the 3News website.
Thanks nz_Ark for spotting this one over in the forums…
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Posted in All, iPad, Other News
iPhone 4 now available unlocked in the US
For as long as this website has been around, we’ve been fielding emails from readers asking whether an iPhone bought in the US will work here in New Zealand, and the answer has always been ‘no’ as, unlike here in New Zealand, the iPhone has always been locked to AT&T in the USA… until now. Apple are now selling the iPhone 4 unlocked in the USA via the Apple Store retail outlets and online store, meaning it can be purchased and used on any compatible network anywhere in the world. But how much are they and how can you get your hands on one? Keep reading for the details.…
Read MoreHow to save upto 25% off OS X Lion
If you’ve got a Mac and you’re planning on buying OS X Lion when it comes out, there’s a quick and easy way to save upto 25% off that purchase. Lion will be sold via the Mac App Store which is actually the same account (and therefore the same funds) as your iTunes account. To save, all you need to do is take advantage of any sales or special offers on iTunes gift cards between now and the launch of Lion. The biggest discount we’ve seen is 25% which is just what Harvey Norman happen to have off this very weekend – they are selling two $20 cards for $30. Lion will sell in NZ for $38.99 which is already a steal for a whole new OS, but with a further 25% it’s daylight robbery so get into it.…
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Posted in All, Other News
Yesterday’s iCloud introduction leaves lots of questions, few answers
Yesterday in the delirium of the WWDC keynote, iCloud seemed like the business – the all-syncing, all-dancing digital nirvana that we could have only dreamed of a few years ago. And we have a feeling that it will pan out this way in the long run, but right now the web is starting to fill up with questions from concerned Apple customers whose current modus operandi doesn’t seem to fit in with the way we currently understand iCloud to work. Questions like “Will my MobileMe account migrate to iCloud?”, “Can I still share my Apple ID with my family for app purchases and still use iCloud?”, “What happens to iDisk?” and “What about MobileMe Gallery?”. The perception is that Apple are suddenly telling us that the way we use our accounts and sync our phones has to change. Unfortunately, while Cupertino have given us lots of information about how wonderful iCloud is, they’ve neglected to provide answers to important questions like these that would inevitably be on people’s minds. So what answers do we have? Read on.…
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Posted in All, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
