Jazzy Fizzle, Fizzle, Fizzle! (If you don’t understand that, don’t worry). YouTube user Jonathan Mann duets with Apple’s personal assistant Siri with some funny responses.

iOS 5 is available this autumn and here’s the thick of it. Hang in there, there’s quite a lot to take in:

1. Finally, an overhaul of notifications in iOS. For some time Andriod has been well ahead of the notification game. Apple’s playing catch up and it looks as though it took some inspiration directly from its competitor here. Anyway, at long last, a new Notification Center aggregates all your… notifications into one. Access your notifications by swiping down from the top menu bar on your iOS device (cough-Android-cough). Dismiss notifications by tapping on a small ‘x’ button next to each entry and find new notifications displayed on your lockscreen (w00t!);

2. iOS is now features Twitter integration. A single sign-in now allows a plethora of apps to make use of your Twitter credentials. Naturally this includes includes the Camera and Photos programs allowing you to tweet images directly from your galleries;

3. Wireless syncing, another “finally!” feature. No more cables required for syncing. No more pesky cables, syncing of content and even initial activation can be done right from the devices themselves. Gone are the days of hour long downloads for iOS updates, over-the-air updates are now a go and they now contain only the data that’s changed making minor iOS tweaks only mini downloads;

4. iCloud;

5. Reminders, does exactly as you would imagine. However, the feature is intelligent enough to remind you to do things based on your location. Arrive at your hotel and iOS device will geo-locate you and remind you to call your significant other to let them know you’ve arrived safely.  Naturally Reminders will sync across all your devices;

6. Access the Camera app directly from the lockscreen and again “finally!” the volume up button now acts as a physical shutter button. Oh, and in built editing facilities, cropping, re-sizing etc;

7. iMessage. Think BBM across all iOS devices. Delivery and read receipts, typing indicators, send text messages, photos, videos and contacts and engage in group conversations. It works over WiFi or 3G and obviously uses the new push notifications system;

8. Safari Reader, much like its Mac counterpart, is a new browser feature that removes all the visual noise and presents on the text contents of a webpage making for much, much easier reading. Also, surely much to the dismay of services like Instapaper and Read it Later Apple is introducing a Reading List. Fancy reading an article but don’t have time at the moment, add it too your Reading List which will download and store the content in the background for you to come back to at your leisure;

9. Tabbed browsing. iPad users the world over rejoice;

10. A new split keyboard for iPad users allowing for far simpler portrait typing. Best illustrated by a picture.

Photographs courtesy of Engadget

From the mouth of the man himself, what is iCloud? “iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your device. It automatically uploads it, stores it, and pushes it to all your devices.”

By content we’re talking about pretty much everything; music, iBooks, photos and videos, device settings, and app data will all be backed up automatically when you connect to WiFi. Documents in the Cloud will effortlessly sync Pages, Numbers, and Keynote data between all of your iOS devices and calendars, mail and contacts will all sync for free.

Probably the most notable of all of these is Apple’s new Photo Stream cloud feature. Take a photo on any iOS device or upload a picture to your Mac, PC or Apple TV and these will automatically be placed in a cloud gallery instantly accessible from all devices. Snap a shot from your iPhone and it will automatically appear on your iPad etc. All photos are stored in the cloud, accessible for 30 days.

So, “what’s the data limit?” I hear you ask. Well all users get 5GB of storage for free but the best of it is that this data limit does not take into account any photos or music stored leaving you with 5GB to play with for iBook, documents, mail, contacts and calendar data etc.

That MobileMe service that used to cost you £59.00/year with far less features, that is no more. iCloud arrives alongside iOS 5 this autumn and its free.

Cloud based music services are all the rage as of late, first Amazon, then Google and predictably now Apple has entered the arena. The key difference being that Apple brings with it the backing of all five major music labels and some substantial experience and muscle in terms of online music downloads.

iTunes in the Cloud is not, as many speculated, a streaming music service (as such). Essentially, what it does, is allows you to download any music you’ve downloaded to all of your devices at no additional charge, a first for the music industry. All new music you purchase will  also be automatically downloaded and pushed to up to ten other authorised devices. Best of all, it’s free.

But they weren’t finished. Apple also announced a service called iTunes Match which lets you put your existing collection of music from ripped CDs or otherwise into the cloud. This might sound like it will take a long time, but fear not, rather than uploading all of your music to Apple’s servers for later distribution, Apple’s software will scan our library, matching songs to versions Apple already has. If they can’t match it, then they’ll upload it.

Unfortunately iTunes Match isn’t free and will run at $24.99/year for up to 25,000 songs. It will hit devices this autumn alongside iOS 5

Photograph courtesy of Engadget

Another quiet day at Apple’s retail store in The Grove in L.A. until the stars of the Disney Channel’s latest production, Lemonade Mouth (no, me neither), decided to make a little viral video at Apple’s expense.

Hats off to the store’s employees for not overreacting and strong-arming the mob out of the store. However, given that Apple’s grande fromage Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder in Disney I can’t but think there may have been a little collusion in this prank, even if it were somewhere slightly higher up the corporate ladder. Funny nonetheless.

• Significant processor updates to incorporate Intel’s shiny new “Sandy Bridge” CPUs throughout
• AMD HD Radeon GPUs have replaced the previous Nvidia GeForce GTs
• Thunderbolt port
• Hard drive upgrades ranging from 320 to 750 GB
• FaceTime HD camera capable of recording in 720p (new FaceTime app on Mac App Store)
• Increased trackpad size
• Decreased weight

All of this just in time for Steve Jobs’ birthday. Happy birthday from the GU.

USB has been around for quite some time now in what is now three separate guises, 1, 2 and most recently 3. USB 3 has been pushed in recent years as the future standard for data transfer, the only problem with this is that not many companies, never mind consumers have been quick on the uptake. Sure, it’s a lot faster than USB 2, and who wouldn’t want their peripherals to operate with a little more haste, the real issue however is that for a number of years now there has been a shady figure hiding in the darkened corners of the halls of Intel biding its time before leaping out to devour the competition. It seems that time may be now, or at least soon (ish).

Enter Light Peak.

It’s probably worth getting the figure out of the way to begin with. For the sake of ease, lets presume that the figures correspond with the rate of data transfer between a computer and a connected device. USB 3 has a theoretical (and that’s important) throughput of 4.3 gigabits per second compared against Light Peak’s 10 gigabits per second, and that’s right out of the gates. Intel (who have developed the technology) likes to point out that the first generation of Light Peak cables will be capable of transferring a full Blu-Ray in under 30 seconds. Think about that for a minute. It’s fast.

Remember USB 3′s theoretical 4.3 Gbps throughput? Well, Intel believes that LIght Peak’s theoretical limit is more like 100 Gbps and even then its more likely to be a limited by hardware developments than by the technology itself. But the attraction doesn’t end there, the idea is that Light Peak cables could be used for everything, not simply to replace USB cables, but every cable you currently need whether that be for power or data transfer, the technology really is impressive.

So, how does it work? Quite simply it’s based on fiber optic technology, but instead of using light-based technology, it would use copper lines. Fast and relatively cheap.

Many people have considered the slow adoption of USB 3 to be as a result of Light Peak’s imminent arrival. Intel stated in 2009 that it expected that the first Light Peak devices would reach the market in the first part of 2011. Whilst there are certainly no guarantees, who better a partner than Apple, a company consistently at the forefront of connective media? Let us not forget that the industry laughed when Apple ditched the floppy disk in favour of the CD. We’re about due a MacBook refresh and those who like to whisper without offering their name have suggested that Apple may be ready to unleash Light Peak upon the masses.

Personally, I don’t think the majority of uses are quite ready to let go of their beloved USB cables but it has to change at some point and now, before USB 3 has a chance to become ubiquitous, is probably as good a time as ever.

Over the past few days several photographs of third-party iPad 2 cases have hit the internet purportedly illustrating the shape and additional features of the inevitable refresh of Apple’s iPad line later this year.

Well, direct from the Consumer Electronics Show is the above shot published by iLounge and being shown at the show by peripheral company Gopod mobile. The company is showing off the case to illustrate its new foldable charging accessory.

Obviously there’s been nothing official from Apple yet on the iPad 2 and whilst the case shown above is not an iPad 2 and simply a mockup, it certainly reflects the information that has so far hit the internet about the slight re-design, speaker grill at the base and camera.

Delivering on its promise, Apple has sent confirmations to those who placed pre-orders that their magical mini black streaming boxes will be dispatched on 28 September.

Those having lessened their bank balance by £99/$99 can look forward to a whole load of streaming media from the likes of iTunes, YouTube, Flickr and Netflix (US and Canada only). If you’re expecting one, let us know and if you’ve got one, drop us a quick first impressions.

If you thought today’s Apple WWDC was going to be all about the iPhone, think again. Much information has been swirly around the internet over the past few weeks about what other products Apple might unveil at 6pm GMT today. There has been talk of Apple TV getting a huge redesign, the launch of Safari 5, the next update for Snow Leopard but not necessarily this. The Apple Magic Slate/Trackpad, both names are guesses. Pictures and info after the break.

This would appear to be a brand net input device from Apple following on from the success of its multitouch trackpads on its Macbook Pro line and the Apple Magic Mouse. This device will connect to desktops using bluetooth much like the Apple keyboard and allows you to control your screen in gesture based fashion and support handwriting recognition also. Anyone who has used one of the latest Macbooks will attest to how much simpler this can make navigating and organising a screen. It seems Apple’s affinity for touchy-feely input  will be making its way to more and more products.

Is it real? It’s quite likely that it is given that Apple filed for a Trademark on the name Magic Trackpad earlier this year. Only time will tell. Until 6pm!

via Engadget