I didn’t know it, at least until Antonio De Rosa showed me, but this is what my brain thinks (hopes) the iPhone 5 looks like. Introducing the iPhone SJ Concept.

Via iDownloadBlog

In August, Apple acquired C3 Technologies, the company responsible for the incredible demonstration shown in the above video. With relationships becoming increasingly tense between Apple and Google, despite Apple renewing its commitment to Google Maps with iOS 5, you’d be blind not to see what Apple has up its sleeve.

iOS 6 is likely to launch at some point in 2012 and if they can pull off anything resembling the above, they look set to blow the competition out of the water.

via 9to5 Mac

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.

I didn’t, but rather than repeat many of the things that have already been and will be written I wanted to share my impressions and thoughts on the man and his legacy.

We all knew, but didn’t want to admit that time was short and that yesterday’s news was inevitable. That didn’t make the truth any less shocking. Firstly, Steve Jobs was a father and a husband and whilst many people will be saddened by his death, his family’s loss, having suffered with him for so many years is unthinkable.

For everybody else, Steve was the man who stood in front of us a couple of times each year and announced Apple’s newest innovations. His white trainers, blue jeans, black turtle neck and glasses combo broke free of it’s cult appreciation shackles, he personified Apple, so much so that his name and the brand became synonymous not only to the few, but to the masses.

The odd snippet of email chatter aside, our connection with Steve was entirely one-way, but surprisingly, the sadness surrounding his passing is unavoidable. For a man of fifty-six to have accomplished so much is truly astounding and whilst undoubtedly he will be remembered most frequently for revolutionising the mobile phone industry, to do so is to do an incredible injustice to the his library of achievements.

The Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad are all worthy of a mention but so many other ventures that contributed to Apple’s success and the world’s delight go unappreciated . iTunes literally rescued the music industry from collapse, encouraging people to buy their music digitally and cheaply, and it worked. Let us not forget Pixar, once the unsuccessful Lucasfilm computer animation group, purchased by Steve and renamed. Pixar’s success speaks for itself and when Steve later sold it to Disney, he became Disney’s single largest individual shareholder. Brand names aside, Steve is also widely attributed for intruding the world at large to the graphical user interface and the point and click mouse, two produces which it would now be difficult to imagine daily life without. Reach into your pocket and whether or not that tiny piece of the future you hold in your palm has an Apple on the rear, if it’s touch screen, you can say a silent thank you to Steve.

Not many companies get a second chance at success and even fewer, in fact only one pull it off like Apple. The success Apple has enjoyed over the last ten years is entirely unique, achieved solely through Steve Jobs’ return. In 1996 Steve returned to Apple, having been ousted by the board of directors in 1985. In the 15 years since his return he has turned Apple, a company facing bankruptcy into America’s and arguably the world’s most valuable business.

What set Steve apart from the world however, was his ability to innovate and capture the attention of the world again and again and again. No single trait can be attributed to his success, his creative force unrivalled, his passion and intolerance legendary and his refusal to accept that good enough was good enough driving Apple to produce uncompromising and revolutionary products.

Fifty-six is no age at all and as unimportant as it is, I simply cannot comprehend what a further twenty years of Steve Jobs’ incredible brain would have given us. He refused to concede and forced reality to conform to his expectations, the world is slightly less exciting as a result of losing out on more years of Steve’s passion and ability to innovate.

To Steve’s family I extend my most heartfelt condolences and whilst insignificant, the only solace I can offer is the knowledge that your loss is also ours.

Namaste Steve.

Some of the best new features making their way to iOS 5. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting the TextExpander-esque shortcuts which will be a very welcome addition. There are quite a few les-reported fewtures in here which are worth a look at.

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

Some big rumours from Apple sources this week regarding the future direction os iOS products. Some of this is detailed so let’s keep this hard and fast for a change. iPhone 5, iPad 2 and Apple TV are all getting better this year. Now for the stuff you didn’t already know, how.

This information is purported by Engadget to come from an extremely credible source and they even go as far to suggest that the following details are concrete. In case you’re not aux fait with technological espionage etiquette, that’s a pretty brave claim.

The Verizon iPhone 4 (ok so this is no longer a rumour)
- Houses a Qualcomm chipset bringing an end to Apple’s love affair with Infineon.
- No more death-grip
- Our US counterparts now have the freedom of choice. Woot!

iPad 2
- Nowhere near as “ready” as many sources have insinuated
- Far more likely to see an April-ish reveal in line with a 12 monthly cycle
- It will be thinner
- It will have a super high resolution screen akin, but not the same as the iPhone 4′s Retina Display
- It will have both a front and back camera (shock!)
- …and and SD card slot (actual shock!)
- Furthering the move away from Infineon it will sport a dual GSM/CDMA chipset produced by Qualcomm
- It will probably sport Apple’s upcoming A5 CPU (details below)

iPhone 5
- All of the above developments are designed to make way for the iPhone 5
- With a dual chipset there will be no need for two different devices for AT&T/ Verizon
- It will be a completely redesigned handset
- It will release within the normal June/July window
- It is being tested by senior Apple staff now (strictly on campus)
- It may well be a total re-think from a design perspective
- It will sport Apple’s new A5 multi-core CPU which is apparently “blazingly fast”

Apple TV
- Second generation already in the works
- Sporting the A5 CPU apparently it puts out 1080p video like running water.

And that’s all she wrote. Original Engadget article over [here.]

There are many chat applications available for iOS devices but few are able to compile the myriad of chat services as seamlessly and elegantly as Fring.

Having the ability to compile your address book, Live Messenger, Google Talk, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM contacts into a single App may sound a little chaotic, however Fring brings one huge benefit. Video calling over either 3G of WiFi.

Fring has maintained a place on my iPhone for several years now and whilst several Apps are currently available on the App Store that offer theabihlity to make ideo calls over 3G (I’m thinking about you Tango), Fring is the only service to provide dynamic video calling, automatically adjusting video quality in line with signal strength.

Facetime’s WiFi only restrictions can be a little frustrating, however Fring is here to negate these woes. With no sign of Skype, the prime candidate for implementation of video calling, making any moves in this arena either of WiFi or 3G, Fring is currently carrying the torch

So why is Fring so much better than other apps which allow video calling over 3G? Well, it’s largely down to the aforementioned Dynamic Video Quality. Essentially, whilst prioritizing audio, the quality of video is automatically adjusted in accordance with the amount of bandwidth you have available at any given time. This all happens behind the scenes providing for a seamless video calling experience.

Fring is available now on the App Store and it’s free, what are you waiting for?