Tag / iPhone

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Apple unveils Watch and iPhones, big and bigger, at San Francisco keynote

“Can’t innovate any more, my ass,” joked Apple’s Phil Schiller last year as he unveiled the latest generation Mac Pro. After accusations of the company stagnating and failing to put out a revolutionary product since 2010’s iPad sparked the post-PC revolution, Apple’s share price tumbled despite record sales figures.

Though targeted at the likes of video professionals rather than you or I, the ‘trash can’ Mac Pro was a sign of bright things to come. With a unique construction designed to save power, space and noise, the desktop workhorse (and Schiller’s comment) appeared to perfectly represent Tim Cook’s all-new Apple. They were going to innovate. They wouldn’t be afraid to have some fun. They were going to strike back.

Along came September 9th and Cook graced the stage at San Francisco’s Flint Center, bringing with him a pair of new iPhones and the long-awaited Apple Watch. All are clear responses to the likes of Samsung and Motorola, though is the catch-up effort enough to restore Apple to the head of the pack? Continue reading →

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Apple does thing that everyone expected Apple to do, just like always

You know how Apple has an event every September in which they announce iPhones and other assorted technology devices and everyone freaks out about 2 weeks before when an invite lands in the inboxes of all the big tech blogs and has an Apple logo and a few words that don’t reveal anything useful and gets deconstructed to hell by Apple bloggers everywhere clamouring for a piece of the news that Re/code broke the day before?

Yeah, that happened. See you Tuesday 9th.

Source Kurt Colbeck (Twitter)

by Neil Thomas

Apple iPhone 5s review

I’m sure that you all know by now that Apple has announced their latest addition to their smartphone lineup – the iPhone 5s. As ever with Apple, there has been a lot of hype surrounding this launch, and that has resulted in the fact that some of the sites that have reviewed it haven’t really understood what the phone is about, or what it is trying to be. Some put it down for its “bad” specifications. Others fawned over the device just because it was sent down by the Apple gods from above.. Even though I’m pretty late with this review, hopefully I’ll be able to give my thoughts on the device, and while doing that tell you what this device is really about. Continue reading →

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Digixav Podcast 016 – August 25th 2013

You may think that it’s been a slow news week, but our triad of podcasters can always spin an hour-long show out of any news, no matter how small. From golden flip phones and iPhones to LG’s latest tablet, coined Samsung Homeboy, Xavier, Henry and Chris take you on an excruciatingly musical journey past Steve Ballmer‘s potential replacements Chandrasekar Rathakrishnany and John Legere, Xavier’s review of Nokia’s Lumia 720 and olinguitos that play video games. It’s a fun ride, so join us for the trip.

Right click and save this link to download, and you can subscribe (and rate and review the show) using iTunes! Don’t fancy iTunes or use a different podcatcher? Here’s our RSS link!

If you have any feedback, questions or comments, tweet us or send us an email to podcast@digixav.com. We’d love to hear from you!

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Digixav Podcast 012 – July 10th 2013

Twelve. That’s a mighty large number, and it’s also the number of topics in the show notes for our return from yet another unintentional hiatus. While Henry lies in a field getting fried by the British heatwave, Xavier and Chris take cover in the depths of the night to talk about Apple’s mobile product lines and web ambitions, imminent announcements from Nokia and Motorola, new devices from Sony and HTC that are scaring Xavier’s wallet and leaked information about upcoming phablets from the Korean pairing of LG and Samsung. Chris goes on to wax lyrical about rap music while Xavier enthuses about The Last of Us while finding it horribly difficult (yet completely possible) to avoid spoilers. We also answer some user questions from Twitter, thanks to our wonderful listeners and #AskChris, which we’ve chosen to hijack.

If you have any feedback, questions or comments, tweet us or send us an email to podcast@digixav.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Right click and save this link to download, and you can now subscribe (and rate and review the show) using iTunes! Don’t fancy iTunes or use a different podcatcher? Here’s our RSS link!

You should also check out our intro music on SoundCloud! It’s Melodic Trap by Harry Ling.

by Neil Thomas

Thoughts on WWDC

This year was very out of the ordinary for Apple, at least in my mind. It started when the page went live on www.apple.com. The image was completely different, it was colourful, vivid. It used a light font. It screamed “this is new”. Rampant speculation occurs. Then WWDC rolls around.

I’ll start with Mac. Mavericks came out, starting a new line of names because they ran out of cats. In my mind, as I type this on Mavericks B1, this is a very major behind the scenes update, without much of a surface change. The battery life got a major upgrade, which should go hand in hand with some of the stuff that I’ll talk about later. iBooks for Mac is also great for a student like me. Maps is kind of unneeded, but also a nice addition.

Then they announced the new Macbook Air. Apple has been very slowly iterating on the leading ultrabook and all around laptop on the planet, and this year is a huge one. Intel’s new Haswell processors push the battery life up to a claimed 12 hours, but early testing shows that the battery actually far exceeds that, with The Verge gettings 13.5 hours and PCMag almost hitting 16. This is definitely a nice upgrade, especially when it goes hand in hand with Mavericks. Then they announced the new Mac Pro, which is an amazing feat of engineering even if it does look a bit like a trashcan.

Then, iOS 7. This is what everyone was waiting to see and boy did Apple deliver. In a mere 7 months they completely redesigned the OS from the ground up and threw in a few new features to boot. It is still very unfinished, as you can see from the icons on the homescreen, but it is a huge update that the Apple team working under design guru Jony Ive should be proud of. Let’s hope they keep working on it to make it even better. As an Android user it is tempting me to switch, even though it is apparent where some of the new design features came from (Android).

Overall, this was a great WWDC – one I think that Apple, for once, over-delivered on the hype. I’m looking forward to see how all of these products do in the real world, especially iOS 7. Who knows, I might get an iPhone 5S.

by Henry Hunt

App of the week: Mass Effect: Infiltrator

Mass Effect Infiltrator

This week’s app of the week is Mass Effect: Infiltrator by EA, published for mobile platforms as a spin-off from the wildly successful game series. Set in the same universe and time period as the console games, you follow the story of Cerberus agent Randall Enzo, a veteran agent who ‘procures aliens for illicit experiments at a secret facility’. During the course of the game, Randall goes rogue and vows to take down Cerberus. You do this through an arsenal of weapons and biotic powers which, depending on how you use them, give you a number of different ways to kill the enemies which have you completely outnumbered. Each set of enemies you take down, depending on how and how fast you kill them, will earn you credits to spend on things such as armour and weapon upgrades for your character.

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The controls of the game are fairly simple and are well explained at the beginning of the game. There is a massive contrast between combat and non combat controls, with the latter being fairly slow and relaxed while the other enables you to play lightning fast, taking down multiple enemies in rapid succession. Switching between weapons to get more style points for your kills and choosing which biotic powers to use is as simple as dragging in from the top corners of the screen, something which after a while of playing becomes almost automatic.

Overall this is a fantastic game which I would recommend to both fans of the Mass Effect series and just about anyone else who enjoys shooter games with a great storyline.

Mass Effect Infiltrator, Android (£3.71) and iOS (69p)
Download it from Google Play and the App Store

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Apple event liveblog: 7.9″ iPad Mini, 13″ Retina MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini and iPad refreshes

Another month brings another Apple event, and this time we expect to see a whole plethora of new and updated devices, spearheaded by the iPad Mini. Rumoured to have a 7.85″ 1024 x 768 display and a design similar to that of the new iPod Touch, this device looks set to sport a low price tag to take on the Nexus 7 and company. Rumour also has it that the existing iPad will receive a minor update with a Lightning connector and 4G in more territories (such as with EE in the UK) and the Mac family will get minor updates across the board, with the highlight being a 13″ Retina MacBook Pro. We also expect to hear a bit more about iTunes 11 tonight, but whatever happens we will be around to liveblog proceedings on this very page. Enjoy!

Continue reading →

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

EE 4G LTE network to launch in UK on October 30th

After introducing themselves and their initial 4G plans to the UK last month, EE CEO Olaf Swantee today confirmed that the nation’s first LTE network will go live on October 30th. The network will initially become active in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield, and service will expand to Belfast, Derby, Hull, Nottingham, Newcastle and Southampton before the year is out. From that point, their ambitious rollout plans expect to have 70% of the country covered by the end of 2013, with this figure increasing to 98% a year later, matching their current 3G footprint. Device-wise, 7 compatible phones and 2 mobile broadband devices have had compatibility confirmed. These are:

Pricing and availability for these devices have yet to be confirmed, but the press release also confirms a forthcoming event where full details will be announced. As for customers who have already purchased the iPhone 5 from T-Mobile or Orange, they will be able to switch networks at launch.

Press Release

Statement to be attributed to Olaf Swantee, CEO, EE

We are delighted to announce that the official launch of our new customer brand, EE, offering the UK’s first superfast mobile 4G and fibre broadband service, will take place on the 30th October 2012. This is a significant milestone for the United Kingdom, and for the people and businesses of our country who will now be able to enjoy the huge advantages of superfast 4G technology for the first time. We are very proud to be pioneering, innovating and leading our industry in launching 4G for our nation through our new EE brand.

Notes to editors:

1. EE will be releasing invitations to a press event shortly to announce full details of its new brand and exciting new superfast services.

2. EE will be the first brand in the country to offer a mobile 4G LTE service, the pioneering new technology that offers superfast mobile internet at speeds typically five times faster than 3G speeds today.

3. EE will launch 4G in ten cities on the 30th October, and will cover 16 cities – a third of the UK population – by the end of the year. Customers on the EE brand will also have access to the biggest and best 3G network in the UK. Further towns, cities and rural areas, will follow rapidly with coverage to reach 98% by 2014.

4. 4G technology provides indoor and outdoor coverage for superfast web browsing.

5. EE’s 4G services will be available on a number of exciting handsets including the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III LTE, Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820, HTC One XL and the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE.

Via The Verge
Source EE Newsroom