So the world waited with baited breath as Apple announced the “new’ iPad early this morning. Eager Apple fans were gaging to find out what the replacement to the infamous iPad 2 would be, would it be an iPad 3? Or maybe even a revised iPad 2S?

Well true to recent form, Apple have made a huge deal out of not a lot. The new Apple iPad looks a lot like the old Apple iPad 2 doesn’t it? Well that would be because the new iPad is built on the same chassis!

In a nut shell here are the major “upgrades” to the Apple iPad:

1. New HD Display
   Now here is something that is actually worth talking about! Apple have brought the same Retina display that we have seen in the iPhone 4 and 4S to the iPad. Boasting a 2048×1536 pixel display that is apparently “one million more pixels than an HDTV” Apple are oping that being able to watch HD movies on the iPad is going to drive sales. But what in earth is going to control this new display?
   
2. Apples new A5X Chip
   Becoming quite famous for adding a letter to their products and calling it a new device, Apple have relaunched the A5 chip and added a pretty little X on the end! Nah in all seriousness this little chip now runs a quad core that is powering four times the number of pixels that the iPad 2 has. But surely this would kill the battery? Apparently not, the iPad is still supposed to last for 10 hours.
   
   
3.  iSight Camera
   Another “new” feature the iSight camera has a 5MP camera that is capable of shooting full 1080p HD movies. I’ll have to believe this one when I see it! I have the iPhone 4S and can’t say that I am overly impressed with the “full HD” camera that they put in this one!
   
4. 4G LTE
    Now here is the icing on the cake! Apple iPad now comes with 4G LTE, AWESOME right! I can’t wait to use it with my new Telstra 4G plan, wait, what’s that Skip? The new Apple iPad doesn’t work with the Australian 4G? Well that’s bloody useless isn’t it! No surprise here really, but at least it works beautifully in America.
   One redeeming feature is that the new iPad now allows you to turn your 4G connection into a personal hotspot, allowing you to connect up to five devices!
   
5. Dictation
   Kinda like Siri on steroids! This feature might actually come in handy as we had a customer ring up and ask for a device with this feature just yesterday. Although hopefully “Dictation” has a better understanding of the human language because we have had hours of fun confusing poor Siri and making her do all sorts of random things.
   

So, at the end of the day, is the new iPad even that “new” at all? Well considering that Apple couldn’t even come up with a new name for the iPad it says a lot about the product. At best it’s just a relaunch with a few minor changes. Well we’ll just have to wait another 12 months and then maybe Apple will release the iPad 3 that we were all waiting for.

Now that we know that the iPad 2 is going to be exactly the same size as the iPad 2 you can get all your iPad accessories at the Warcom website.

Well it looks like Samsung have finally got the green light to release the new Samsung Galaxy 10.1″ Tablet down under after Apple’s efforts to block the release failed.

After months of Apple’s senior staff calling Samsung engineers copy cats, the Sydney High Court denied Apples request to block the tablet hitting stores. In the end this turned out to be some free publicity for the guys over at Samsung who are about as popular among the iSheep crowd as Microsoft.

Many claims that this tablet is an iPad killer are yet to be put to the test. My personal opinion is that even though mac iOS is more “restricted” in use than Android it is simply a better platform for the average user. Many people complain that Apple restricts use of the tablet and for this reason Android is better, but in reality what doesn’t the iPad do that you need it to?

Anyway lets take a look into the specs of the Galaxy 10.1″ Tablet.

The battery life of the unit is sufficient, not amazing, but OK. You should be able to check your emails while 0n the toilet and still have enough power to check how much flour to use when making pancake batter. As you can see, with specs like this you shouldn’t see any lag during a fast paced game of solitaire or catapulting birds into wooden structures containing pigs.

One of the things I won’t fault with this unit is the video playback. The large screen on the unit is nice, it is large and videos look good on it. I’d recommend using it for Youtube videos or watching Tv series on the train, don’t go replacing your home theatre system in place of this tablet as you won’t exactly be thrilled sitting on the couch huddled around a 10.1″ tablet with your family.

The end result is a wildly mediocre “competitor” to the iPad. Think of it as a bigger, faster and better version of the bargain basement Optus (ZTE) tablet. Hardware comparable to iPad? Yes. Software? No it’s not iOS…

… Might as well buy a kindle.

So from what I can see, it looks like Apple & AOL have just launched some sort of integration on iTunes.

If you have not loaded up iTunes for a while, might I suggest you do so. You will now be greeted with the ugly AOL logo, listed below the Apple logo.

Just login as you normally would; from what I can see, this doesn’t affect me personally as I don’t use AOL (who does?).

Anyway, so after digging around the trusty interwebs I came across this press release:

AOL Members Now Have Instant Access to Apple’s iTunes Music Store

Exclusive AOL Recordings Now Available on iTunes Music Store

“DULLES, Virginia and CUPERTINO, California—December 18, 2003—America Online, Inc. and Apple® today announced that AOL members can now preview, purchase and download songs available on AOL Music, the world’s number one music destination, by simply clicking an iTunes® button placed next to featured tracks. The iTunes button will immediately launch Apple’s iTunes Music Store, the world’s number one download music service, and automatically select the featured track for preview or one-click purchase and download. In addition, AOL members can use their AOL Wallet or card-on-file to conveniently purchase and download songs from iTunes. Starting today, AOL is also offering iTunes Music Store customers the opportunity to purchase exclusive and original music from its popular music programs Sessions@AOL and Broadband Rocks.”

“Now for the first time millions of music fans on AOL, who watch their favorite artists perform in an intimate studio setting on Sessions@AOL, have the option to purchase the song digitally via iTunes and then download it right to their iPod,” said Evan Harrison, vice president and general manager, AOL Music.

source: Apple“

Nice!

I question why Apple would actually include the AOL link in iTunes for customers that are outside of the US, but after a second glance at the article, it looks like Australia customers now have access to AOL’s “Sessions@AOL” area.

As someone who loves watching the AOL Sessions videos on YouTube and various other sources, I’m pretty excited by this!

Now I can watch them on my iPhone (if I’m correct?) – please correct me if I’m wrong.

If there’s any other bonuses that I’ve missed out, feel free to let me know and I’ll update this blog post.

Have a cracka-lacking day!

- Paul.

So I have been holding off on write a blog post about the new Apple iOS5 update for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch until I knew a bit more about the features.

“iOS 5 has some great new features, such as Notification Center, iMessage and Newsstand and we can’t wait to see what our developers do with its 1,500 new APIs,” said Steve Jobs, Apples CEO. “Perhaps iOS 5′s paramount feature is that it’s built to seamlessly work with iCloud in the Post PC revolution that Apple is leading.”

The guys over at macrumors have compiled an awesome list of the new features:

• Notifications will see a major overhaul as rumored most recently by TechCrunch. The new Notification Center in iOS 5 will aggregate all notifications, accessed by swiping down from the status bar at the top of the screen. New notifications will appear at the top of the screen and will be less obtrusive overall. Notifications will also be displayed on the lock screen along with weather and stock alerts. Tapping on a notification will automatically open the related app.
• iOS 5 will be “PC free” allowing new device activation and iOS updates over the air. Also, iTunes library syncing will be possible wirelessly via Wi-Fi. While an iOS device is being charged, it will automatically find the associated iTunes library and sync automatically.
• AirPlay Mirroring will also be possible to wirelessly mirror an iPad’s display to a television connected to an AppleTV.
• Also as rumored, Twitter will be integrated into iOS and several apps including Camera,Photos, Maps, and Safari. Contacts can also be updated automatically with Twitter handles.
• As reported by This is my next… earlier today, Apple introduced a new unified messaging service between iOS users called iMessage. iMessage will allow iOS users to send text and multimedia messages over Wi-Fi and 3G with read and delivery receipts and real-time typing indication. Messages will be pushed to all iOS devices a user owns.
• Game Center will be enhanced with profile avatars, friend recommendations, and the ability to purchase new games within Game Center.
• Mobile Safari will also get several new features including tabbed browsing and a Safari Reader feature where users can save articles for later reading in the Reading List, which will be synced across multiple iOS devices for easy access.
• A new Reminders app will offer task tracking in iOS 5 with geolocation capabilities to trigger reminders based on user location.
• Camera will get a shortcut from the lock screen for quicker access. New features include optional grid lines for better framing and on-device editing like cropping and rotating plus red-eye reduction. The volume up button can also be set to trigger the shutter.
• Mail will also see some signification changes including rich text formatting, message flagging, draggable addresses.
• Other new system-wide features include a dictionary that can be accessed by any app and keyboard enhancements to modify the on-screen keyboard.
• A new app called News Stand is also coming to the App Store with iOS 5. It will be a counterpart to iBooks featuring newspapers and magazines and will download new issues automatically in the background.

iOS 5 will be available in the fall and will support the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 3rd- and 4th-generation

As you can see.. Some of these new things are really cool!

I think the WiFi iTunes sync, iMessage and integrated Twitter will be massive winners.. Bring on the update!