Following LinkedIn’s decent financial performance the company has given all its 3,500 employees a 32gb iPad Mini.
That works out to be a cool $1.5m.
Happy days for some people tonight.
Category Archives: Tech News
Apple quietly updates MacBook Pro and Air with higher specs and lower pricing
Apple Updates Processors & Prices of MacBook Pro with Retina Display –
CUPERTINO, California-February 13, 2013-Apple® is making the MacBook Pro® with Retina® display faster and more affordable with updated processors and lower starting prices. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now starts at $1,499 for 128GB of flash, and $1,699 for a new 2.6 GHz processor and 256GB of flash. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now features a faster 2.4 GHz quad-core processor, and the top-of-the-line 15-inch notebook comes with a new 2.7 GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory. Apple today also announced that the 13-inch MacBook Air® with 256GB of flash has a new lower price of $1,399.
Despite the lower price point, these laptops are still premium machines.
LG releases the iPhone 3GS
Actually it’s the LG E435 which has had it’s photo leaked prior to Mobile World Congress. When I looked at the photo, I swear it looked like my wife’s iPhone 3GS. What do you think?
The Sound & Vision Show 22-24 Feb 2013 Bristol
The Bristol Sound & Vision Show starts next Friday 22nd Feb until Sunday 24th Feb.
There are over 187 brands exhibiting from Sennheiser to Sony to Rega and many more. So if you like music and TV its worth a visit to see what can be achieved!
Also the shows organisers have an app to help you with the show for both android and ios. Window users are out of luck but they do have a mobile web page. Details of the apps can be found here.
The app is really good and provides details on nearly every exhibitor and anything else you might need for the day. Even if you are not going it is worth downloading the app, searching for the show, install its guide and see the interface.
Samsung and Chillingo create 100% Indie
Samsung and EA’s mobile game publishing division, Chillingo have announced a new partnership called 100% Indie which goes live from 4th March. This new app partnership is to increase the availability of indie apps.
This is a clever service as it lets the indie developers keep 100% of the revenue in the first 6 months, then the next 6 months the indie developers will keep 90%, moving to a 80/20 split in year 2 and finally to a 70/30 split thereafter.
Also the developers will still be able to publish their apps on other app stores.
This is another step towards Samsung creating its own Eco system away from Google.
Google Music on iOS
Recently on twitter several friends of mine were discussing the pros and cons of streaming music. There were arguments for local storage or streaming.
There are several services available including Google Music which allows you to store 20,000 songs for free. This is a very worthy feature as most people will be able to upload all their music library into the cloud. Amazon by contrast offers 250 songs before you need to pay and Apple is pay immediately. There are other streaming services from the likes of Spotify too.
I was thinking about the arguments for and after, and basically it boils down to whether you have a decent fast Internet coverage. And a broadband or mobile tariff that can cope with the demand in data. With on device local storage your music is always there but if you have a large music collection you are unlikely to fit it all on your phone unless you have something like an iPod Classic 160gb.
However, I think there is a major advantage of streaming instead of local storage. I have deleted all my music on my iPad and if I want to listen to anything I stream it over wifi to my iPad. This means I free up tons of space to fit more games and all my photos. It also means I don’t have to worry or think about buying a bigger capacity iPad, unless I need more space for games. But this only works because the iPad doesn’t venture away from a fixed wifi spot. If it travelled all over the place then the argument to keep the music on the local memory will win the day.
What’s your preferences?
Real Racing 3 release info
I loved the previous versions of Real Racing, especially Real Racing 2 with airplay to my TV.
The next incarnation is being released in two weeks time 28th February and it will be a free to play game. And that’s where I sigh. I just hope the game is playable and not had the fun zapped out with constant in app purchases.
I really don’t like free to play apps. Generally they remove the enjoyment and are a con just trying to exploit your bank account. I would rather pay upfront.
iOS 6.1 new speaker bug
The iOS 6.1 update fixes many huge bugs like the wifi and no service but it has introduced a new one that stops the loudspeaker from working with iOS 6.1. It doesn’t impact everyone but there is a workaround, well sort of.
Firstly you might find that not all audio is crippled. Voice Memo app may well work ok and you will also be able to hear your phone ringing and the speakerphone will function fine during the conversation, but you’ll get no sound from a music track, video file or game.
Restarting the iPhone doesn’t work. So what do you do? and where is the giveaway sign there is a problem. If you have access to AirPlay, you’ll notice something odd that the choice offered to you is usually the local AppleTV and your iPhone, but now the iPhone option alternates between it and Dock Connector. This means that your iPhone believes it’s connected to a Dock and insists on rerouting the sound to a non-existent extension.
So all you can do is restore from fresh. This will wipe your phone and data. If this doesn’t work it’s a trip to the Apple store or Apple support. Not ideal, but then it’s not affecting many people either.
iOS photography apps – iPhoto tip
Today I thought it would be useful to highlight a useful feature from iPhoto iOS app. Over the next few weeks, I will periodically select a few apps and pick a feature out that I hope you will find useful. iPhoto has many editing functions, but my favourite is using the repair brush. Look at the 2 photos. The original has a TV mast on the top left. Using the iPhoto repair brush I have been able to remove it as per second photo.
If you have any tips you would like to share, please let me know.
Tweet using your Amex Card to Buy Goods
American Express cardholders can now link their cards to their Twitter account which will allow the cardholders to purchase products, like a new Xbox or a gift card, simply by tweeting. Sounds crazy but it’s true.
Even more crazier, Amex cardholders can link their account to a number of social networks, like Foursquare, Facebook and Xbox Live, for the chance to unlock discounts.
Starting today, all cardholders will have do do is register to participate, to provide a physical address for delivering products.
After that, it is fairly easy to buy something. For example you will be able to buy a $25 American Express Gift Card for $15 this afternoon by tweeting #BuyAmexGiftCard25. American Express will reply via Twitter, asking the user to confirm the purchase in a tweet. All products will be shipped via free, two-day shipping.
Starting Wednesday, more items will go on sale, including an Amazon Kindle Fire HD for $150 and an Xbox 360 4GB console with three months of Xbox Live for $180. All deals will be offered for a three-week period.
Apparently American Express plans to expand this to other social networks like Facebook.
I wonder if other card companies will follow suit and in the UK whether this will be used by Amex. And who using Amex nowadays? That seems to be a weakness in this whole idea.
Do you believe this will work?
