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The Summary of the iPad 3
The iPad 3 has just been announced, and some major changes have been announced.
- iPhoto for iPad: Apple brought GarageBand and iMovie to the iPad, and now iPhoto joins them. The entire iLife suite has come to the iPad, and the app looks beautiful.
iPhoto for iPad
It allows for more advanced color correct, editing, multitouch edits, and more. You can buy it for $4.99
- Camera: The camera has been updated dramatically. The rear camera is now 5 Megapixels, has improved white balance, automatic face detection, and can shoot 1080p video. This is not as good as the iPhone 4s, but the same level as the iPhone 4.
- Retina Display: The iPad 3 has a major update to the display, boating over 3 million pixels on the screen, which Apple says is the highest on any mobile device. From initial looks, it looks like a fantastic update, and great for playing high quality games or those new 1080p videos you might be shooting.
- A5X: The new chip is the A5X, which is a dual core CPU, but a quad-core GPU, meaning that your graphics functionality is going to be vastly improved, which goes great with your iLife suite and new cameras, but for high quality gaming, such as N.O.V.A., Infinity Blade, and more. This could also bring more high intensity games to the iPad, such as what you see on consoles.
- 4G LTE: AT&T and Verizon will be getting their own 4G LTE enable iPads, starting at $629. No word on Sprint, though I’ll update the article when I find out. Tim Cook, the current CEO of Apple has formerly made comments about the compromises adding 4G would add to the devices, but it seems those statements are in the past. This likely means that the next iPhone will also have 4G. The battery life has only taken down by an hour is 4G is enabled, otherwise it remains at about 10 hours.
- Dictation: A lot of people were hoping for Siri on the new iPad, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The iPad 3 comes will the ability to use speech to text, just tap the microphone button on a keyboard to start. However, you can’t use the voice dictation like Siri on the iPad to schedule meetings, reminders, etc. This is something I think will come out in the future, but I’m anxious to get it.
You can preorder the iPad at http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad, and read more at https://www.apple.com/ipad/. The price scheme hasn’t change, 16-Gig WiFi-only starts at $499, and $829 for a 64 Gig 4G iPad. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this or any other topic, leave a comment below or email me at easyosx@live.com You can also check me out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube by hitting the buttons on the top of your screen. You can also check out my Google Plus Page at https://plus.google.com/107817518299218190319. Thanks!
Final Thoughts on the iPhone 4S
This is my final review of the iPhone 4S and iOS 5. Should you buy it, should you upgrade?
And yes I know this is overdue.
What is iCloud?
With the release of iOS 5 and OSX 10.7.2, the two operating systems have bonded like never before with iCloud. But what exactly is it, and what does it do?
iCloud is Apple’s replacement to MobileMe. Through iCloud, you’ll use your Apple I.D. to sync data between your iOS 5 device and your Mac running 10.7.2 and iTunes 10.5 (or Windows XP or higher machine). Without all three of these, iCloud won’t work to the full extent. You’ll also be able to see your data on icloud.com. So what’s going to be synced? Well you’ll have the option to choose between all of these, some of these though will only be Mac specific, but we’ll get to that in a minute. You get 5 gigabytes of iCloud storage for free, though you can pay to go up to as much as 50. Paying also gives you iTunes Match, allowing iTunes to scan and match up to 25,000 songs you have in iTunes and stream that from the cloud.
Universal:
- Apps: When you download apps, they’ll automatically be synced through iCloud to your Mac. When iTunes opens up, all the apps you’ve downloaded will be synced to it through the web. App data will also be synced, meaning that your 3 stars in Angry Birds will also be stored.
- Photos: With iOS 5′s Photo Stream enabled, you can have photos taken on your iDevice or from your computer streamed and synced from the cloud. These are synced across all your iCloud enabled devices. Not every picture you take is automatically sent to the cloud, only if you enable Photo Stream. 1000 are stored at any given time in iCloud.
- Music: Through iCloud, all your iTunes music is available for download on all your devices. Any music your purchase on one device can be automatically synced, or you can selectively choose what songs sync to what device. You can also redownload past purchases you’ve made through iTunes onto your devices. For iTunes Match, where you can stream your songs from the cloud, will be $24.99 a year.
- Books: Any books you’ve downloaded through iBooks will be synced through iCloud and available on all your devices, as well as any book marks and the last place you were in a particular book.
- Contacts and Calendar: Contacts and calendars on iOS 5 will be synced through iCloud, available on the website, and synced to your main computer. On Mac these will be synced to Address Book and iCal respectively, while on Windows it will sync to Microsoft Outlook.
- Mail: Signing up through your Apple I.D., you get a free @me.com. It will be synced through Apple’s Mail & iOS’s Mail App. You’ll also be able to check it on the iCloud website. That is also free, though it counts toward your storage.
- Find my iPhone: Available since iPhone 4, Find My iPhone has moved to iCloud.com. You can still use another iOS 4 or higher device to track your missing device, but now iCloud is the web home of tracking your iDevice
- Notes, Reminders: Notes and Reminders from your iDevice will also be synced through iCloud, You won’t be able to see them outside of your iDevice, but they will sync across your iDevices.
- Backup: iCloud lets you back your iPhone into your iCloud account, just like it does when you plug your iDevice into your Mac and run the sync feature in iTunes. Next time you get a new iDevice running iOS 5 or later, all your stuff will be downloaded onto that new device through the Wifi.
- Safari Bookmarks: You can sync your bookmarks in the desktop Safari with the mobile Safari, and vice versa.
- Documents in the Cloud: Using iWork for iOS and iWork for Desktop (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers), users can sync, read, and work on documents by sending them through iCloud. You can also check them out by logging into icloud.com. This does count toward your 5 gigabyte limit.
While iCloud is still new and the real test will come in the near future as more people use it, iCloud still seems like a worthy and logical upgrade for all iOS users.
