Monthly Archives: November 2012

Today, Apple released it’s the 11th version of iTunes. Apple announced the new iTunes 11 during it’s media event where it announced the iPhone 5 and iPod updates. In my opinion, it is the best iTunes yet. It has new features that I know all the people who have iTunes would enjoy. Plus, unlike most Apple products, it’s free. Let’s take a look at the new features and you’ll see why you should spend a few minutes of your time downloading the best iTunes yet.

New Design

iTunes 11 features a new, slick, simplistic design. First off, you’ll notice that the new iTunes logo looks a lot like the Mac App Store (for those of you who are Mac users). After you click on this new logo, your eyes will be amazed. The new design of the new iTunes looks spectacular. Going through it, you’ll notice the boring left side bar and accompanying list that was next to it are both gone. Instead, the whole space, besides the top music control bar, is taken up by what you are looking at, whether it be your music organized by song, artist etc. or the iTunes store. Instead of the annoying side bar, there a small drop down menu that allows you to select what you want, such as music, videos, TV shows etc. This is the library drop down menu. As you move down through your different categories, the “look at” options on a sidebar below the music control sidebar changes to match what category you are looking at. Also, you can have an expanded view of your artists and albums. Just click on the album or artist to see the songs by the artist or in the album, from there you can add to your queue (which I will discuss in a moment) or play any song from the artist/album. The design of the new iTunes is stunning and you really should see it for yourself so download it or check out the image above. Okay, so we expected the looks of the app to change as it always does, what are the new features?

Up Next

iTunes 11 has a new feature called Up Next, it allows you to add music that you want played in an order to a queue. You can add the songs to it randomly or you can select exactly when you want the music to be played. So for example, you scroll through your playlist and you want a song that you see to play next instead of whatever random song Shuffle will pick for you. Instead of waiting for the song that is currently on to change and hovering over the next song you want to play, just drag the song to the top music control bar and it is in your queue. Let’s say that you already put something in your queue but you want the song you just found to play next. At any time without pausing the song you’re on, you can change the song order, delete songs off your Up Next queue and add more to it. It really is a great feature and it particularly useful when you are working. Just search a song using the search bar, and drag the song into the queue. That’s it! This feature is also very useful with another feature called…

MiniPlayer

Let’s face it. The small minimized view of iTunes on iTunes 10 wasn’t very good. However, Apple saw this problem and decided to fi it and they did a great job with it. MiniPlayer allows you to play, pause, give a rating, add current song to queue or a playlist, you can go to the other songs by the band of the song that is playing if you have any other ones, you can see the song on the iTunes store and you can search any song that you want to play. In addition to being able to play the song, artist, genre etc. you look up, you can add them to your queue, whether it be a song, a 15 song album or all the songs of your favorite artist, you can add all the songs with one click, this goes for the search bar in regular sized iTunes as well. It can do all of this and the MiniPlayer is about the size of my pinky. It can do so much in such little space.

New Store Features

There are also new features from within the Store itself. There is now a history of the iTunes previews that you have listened to or watched in the past. Also, iCloud syncs these previews so that if you see a preview or listen to one on your iPhone on the go, you can see it again when you get home on your Mac, PC, iPad, iPod touch or another iPhone, any device anytime. All of the stores have been redesigned with simplicity in mind. There are easy to browse shelves that allow you to see popular music, movies, TV shows, apps etc. iTunes also has a genius-like feature which will give you recommendations based on music in your library, it’s called In The Store picks.

iCloud features

If Apple puts more and more emphasis on iCloud we are all going to run out of our 5 GB of free storage very quickly! Of course, none of what you do of what I’m about to tell you you can do with iTunes will use space but Apple is putting more emphasis on iCloud, for better or for worse. Anyways, there are a few new iCloud features in iTunes 11. With iCloud, you can access all of your content on all of your devices. Also, once you buy something off of iTunes on nay device, all of your other devices will have it too. If you’re online, you don’t even have to download it but if you want to download it for offline purposes, you can do that too with a press of a button. Also, iCloud will save your place on anything so that you can pause a video, be it a movie, TV show etc. on one device and continue playing it on another device at the same spot.

As you can see the new iTunes 11 has many new features that are very hard to turn down even if the program wasn’t free. So go and spend a few minutes of your time downloading it, it will be well worth your time.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Image courtesy: Apple

Today marks a year that I have been writing for the Church of Apple. It has been a long time and it has been worth it. I just want to take the time today to thank our readers for following us and helping us to become a successful website. Before I joined, this page was not taken seriously due to the lack of journalistic value that had been featured on the page. After I joined and we fixed all of that, the page has improved dramatically. We are now a seriously taken informative website, instead of a website that was taken as a joke. It has been an eventful year with different Apple events to cover, an art contest several months back, a new reviews page, which has been successful thanks to different companies providing us some great products to review (our thanks goes out to them as well today) and the Facebook contest that has ended today. I am so very proud to write for a site that brings you up-to-date information about Apple and reviews on different products that can enrich the lives of Apple device users everywhere but I am even more proud of Apple itself. It has gone more than a year without Steve and it has been an eventful year. And despite the interesting turn the stock markets have had lately, I remain proud to be an Apple guy. My hope for this website is to help you become an Apple person too because we are the cool people.:) Thanks once again to our thousands of readers to a successful year and to the companies that have helped us launch our successful reviews page. You are all great.

Thanks for a great year,

Joe

At a recent event, Apple announced, among other Macs, an updated Mac mini with updated hardware to be even faster than last year’s models. This Mac mini is turning out to be the most powerful yet.

History

The history of the Mac mini goes back to a wonderfully designed yet failed computer that Apple had back in 2000 and 2001 called the G4 Cube. Apple failed with this small computer but did not fail with it’s successor, the Mac mini, released in 2005. The Mac mini has been one of Apple’s most successful products since it is Apple’s cheapest Mac yet it is high-powered. To me, you get the most out of your money from the Mac mini.

Design

The design of the Mac mini has not changed this time around. Made from a single piece of aluminum, just like other Macs, it is lightweight and durable. It is the smallest computer that Apple sells. The mini is only 7.7 inch x 7.7inch x 1.4 inch and weighs 2.7 pounds. It’s incredible! The Mac mini is stylish on any desk that is lucky enough to have it on. There is a removable panel on the bottom that allows you to add RAM. There is no power brick on the power cord. It’s just the small details in the Mac mini that make it a one-of-a-kind computer.

Technical Specs

As with the other Mac computers, the Mac mini has been updated with Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors. The lower end Mac mini will feature a 2.5 GHz dual-core i5 while the higher end will have a 2.3 GHz Quad-Core i7 processor, the second fastest processor on a computer that size. This particular model is also configurable to an incredible 2.6 GHz Quad-Core i7 processor, the fastest processor on a computer this size. The lower end 2.5 dual-core i5 can TurboBoost up to 3.1 GHz and the higher end 2.3 GHz can TurboBoost up to 3.3 GHz and the highest end Mac mini (2.6 GHz Quad-Core i7) can TurboBoost up to 3.6 GHz. We are getting closer to seeing 3 GHz Mac minis! Give it a few years, they’ll be out there.

Both Mac minis come standard with 4 GB of RAM but can be configured with up to 16 GB of RAM according to Apple. The RAM is not soldered in and you can replace it or add more to it with a few very simple steps. Of course, you can usually put in more RAM than Apple tells you you can so I would predict that you could try for 20 GB up to 36 GB of RAM. I do not see the need to do so, however.

The Mac minis have a few options for storage space. The lower end Mac mini is stuck at 500 GB of HDD space. The higher end comes standard with 1 TB (1000 GB) of space. You can also configure the higher end Mac mini with either a TB Fusion drive (takes the best things from HDD and SDD and combines them into one drive, it puts frequently used things on a SDD and less used stuff on the HDD) or a 256 GB SDD.

The graphics performance on the Mac mini is impressive too with an Intel HD 4000 graphics card which is 65 percent more graphics performance than last years Intel HD 3000 on the Mac mini.

The Mac mini offers a very versatile port selection. It has a gigabit ethernet slot, a FireWire 800 slot, HDMI slot, a Thunderbolt slot, four USB 3.0 slots, and a SDXC card slot. It also features a 802.11n Wifi, the fastest wifi available. It also has the new Bluetooth 4.0, just like Apple’s new computers.

Prices and Availability

The Mac mini is available now. The low end Mac mini is $599 while the higher end starts at $799 (it will cost more to add more things to it, such as a different drive than the standard 1 TB HDD). Anyone with last years model, I do not suggest upgrading. However, anyone with a Mac mini older than last years model or someone who doesn’t have a Mac mini, you may want to consider upgrading.

This latest update on the Mac mini shows the sheer power of the Mac mini’s performance. It may be small but it packs a huge punch, bigger than a lot of computers 5-10 times as big. It really is a small, powerful machine.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Image courtesy: www.apple.com/mac-mini/

In a recent event, Apple announced a new 13 inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display. This was the computer that I wanted to buy back in June but Apple only announced a new 15 inch MBPR then. Even now, they are still too expensive for the average consumer. Despite this, many others will be interested in this great computer. Let’s go into detail of Apple’s new laptop.

Name

The new laptop has been called by Apple the 13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Unsurprisingly, the name of the computer is not on the bottom edge on the screen like the MBA’s and regular MBP’s but on the bottom. Imagine “MacBook Pro with Retina Display” on the side of the screen! I’m just glad that its not called the “New 13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display and other things”.

Design

The new MacBook Pro has the same great design as the 15 inch MBPR. The new 13 inch MacBook is a pound lighter and 20 percent thinner. The new laptop will take away the SuperDrive, making it thinner and lighter. The MBPR is the lightest 13 inch MBP ever. It is 3.57 pounds. The computer is also all flash and minimizes the risks for breaking. As with all Macs, the MBPRs are very well crafted. The new computers, like Apple’s other computers are made out of the same unibody aluminum body. The MBPR does not have the name of the computer on the front display. It is now located on the back, out of the way. It makes sense. The name on the front display takes away from the simplicity and design of Apple’s computers, so I’m glad that it is now on the bottom. The computer is simply beautiful, just are all of Apple’s products.

Tech Specs

As with the other computers that have been updated in the past few months, the MBPR 13 inch has been given Ivy Bridge processors from Intel. Both models are 2.5 GHz i5 processors. They both Turbo-Boost to 3.1 GHz. They both are configurable to a 2.9 GHz processor. Apple has put some pretty powerful processors in the new 13 inch MBPRs.

Unlike the regular MBP’s standard of 4 GB of RAM, the 13 inch MBPR comes standard with 8 GB. This is not configurable in any other way. Like the 15 inch MBPR, the RAM is soldered into the MBPR so you will not be able to add RAM should you so desire. The 15 inch MBPRs are, however, upgradable to 16 GB of RAM should you desire that.

The storage space on the MBPR has a 128 GB (upgradable to 512 or 756 GB) flash storage on the lower end and has 256 GB (upgradable to 512 or 756 GB) on the higher end. The space, admittedly, is smaller than it should be for the price, but despite that, the computer is still worth it. As I mentioned, the drive is flash storage. Flash storage, like SSD, does not have moving parts. Moving parts cause HDDs to break easily. Flash storage also is faster and more reliable than HDDs. Flash storage, however, is expensive and costs a lot more for storage. I believe, however, that the pros of flash storage cancel the negatives of it, ten-fold.

The laptops, like the new MBAs and MBPs introduced in June as well as the new iMac and Mac mini has an Intel 4000 graphics card. This graphics card is a very great graphics card and runs fast providing you with some of the best graphics. However, the switch to Intel from Nvidia, may or may not be the best move since Nvidia has worked well with them.

I/O

The new 13 inch MBP consists of a MagSafe 2 port for charging, 2 thunderbolt ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI port, headphone jack, and dual mics. It also has Bluetooth 4.0. It no longer has a SuperDrive due to the size of the SuperDrive. Not bad for a great, thin computer, though I would have like to have seen more USB ports.

Prices and Availability

The new 13 inch MBPRs are available from Apple now, as are the 15 inch MBPRs as they have been around for a few months now. The lower end MBPR with 128 GB is available for $1699. The higher end will be available for $1999. To me, these prices are still too much for me to go to the Apple Store and pick one up on the whim.

I believe that these new MBPRs will be the future of the MBPs and will eventually replace the current MBPs after an undetermined amount of time, assuming once the price of the cost to make these computers goes down and they can decrease the price of the computers. The new MBPRs are the future and I’m looking forward to the future.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Among the other goodies Apple introduced at it’s Media Event, Apple introduced their new iMacs set to be released this month and next month. The iMac looks amazing and IS amazing. Let’s review what has change in the iMac

History

The iMac was first introduced in 1998 by then-CEO Steve Jobs. The iMac was the device that brought Apple back from the dead. It’s lollypop-like colors and nice design and better affordability made it an ideal home computer. It brought Apple back from profitability and Apple is forever changed because of the iMac. The iMac has had 7 updates and this update is it’s eighth. In my opinion, Apple has knocked it straight out of the park.

Design

For those of you who like the current iMac form factor, you are in for a surprise. Apple did not change the form factor of the iMac but did perform some drastic changes to the design of it. When you look at the computer, you ask yourself, where is the computer? To you, it would look like just a monitor. Yes, that is how thin it is. You would think to yourself that this is just a monitor when it is actually the whole computer. The iMac is an incredible 5 mm at the the edge with 40% less volume. It is so thin it can rival iOS devices! The display has some changes as well. It will no longer reflect the sun into your eyes. The new iMac has a 80% less reflection in it’s screen. It’s incredible! Of course, the iMac, in terms of aesthetics have always been incredible but it has reached a whole new level.

Technical Specs

As with the other newest updates to Mac (MacBooks and Mac minis), the new iMac will feature the new Ivy Bridge processors from Intel. The lowest end iMac will feature a 2.7 Ghz i5 processor while the highest end iMac will feature a 3.2 Ghz i7 processor, making the iMac faster and faster than the current Mac Pros (which could be discontinued). The lower end can Turbo Boost up to 3.2 Ghz and the highest end can Turbo Boost up to 3.6 Ghz. Remember when Steve was on stage telling us we’d be at 3 Ghz? Well, that finally has come. It took them awhile but they did it.

Also 8 GB of RAM comes standard with the iMac. The 21.5 inch iMacs have their RAM soldered in but the 27 inch iMacs do not. They have 4 user accessible slots that can have up to 32 GB of RAM which is incredible and that’s what Apple tells you. Usually you can put even more than Apple tells you you can. If that is true this time as well, the user may be able to have 64 GB of RAM, though I would see no point in having that much.

The storage space on the iMac is now a 1TB standard configurable up to 3TB if you get a 27 inch iMac. Also, there is something new in the 27 inch iMacs. It is called Fusion Drive. An Apple Fusion Drive is a hybrid between HDD and SDD that gives you the space overload of the HDD and the speed increases and instant on gives you in SDD. It gives you the best of both worlds. This Fusion Drive comes in an incredible 3 TB of space but yet is very fast. HDDs are cheap sources of incredible amounts of space but they are slower and break easily. SDDs are faster and more reliable but are more expensive and don’t have as much space on them. That’s where combining the two come in. The good and bad of each cancel each other’s bad out and leaves you with the good of both. Of course, if you rather would have an all flash solution, Apple has the option for a 756 GB Flash storage option.

The graphics are also turning out to be incredible. The iMac will have NVIDIA graphics chip installed with each model having a better chip. The lowest end will have a NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M with 512 MB memory and the highest end will have a NVIDIA GeForce 675MX graphics with 1 GB of memory configurable up to 2GB of memory.

As for ports, it is almost exactly the same as the 2011 iMac but the new one comes with Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.0 ports.

Prices and availability

The 21.5 inch iMac will be available sometime this month with the 27 inch coming in December, just in time for Christmas. The low end 21 inch iMac will be $1299, $100 more than the last model, but with the new design and incredible performance, it’s more than worth it. The high end 21.5 inch will be $1499. The low end 27 inch will be $1799 and the high end will be $1999. These prices may be high and those who have the 2011 iMacs, I would not recommend buying the new one. However, anyone with a model earlier than that I would recommend the iMac. Of course, anyone who doesn’t have an iMac or a Mac for that matter should get one. If there is anytime to get an iMac, it is now.

The iMac has always been a great computer and with the new iMac coming out by the end of the month, the computer will be even more great! Apple has really outdone themselves here, more so than any other product they have released in the past few months, in my opinion. It has great promise and I can’t wait to get a hands-on look at these incredible new iMacs.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Image Courtesy: http://www.apple.com/imac/

Apple announced a new iPad at it’s media event and it has been released at it’s stores and elsewhere today. The iPad, in my opinion doesn’t add a whole lot but yet it does. What the features lack in quantity it makes up for in quality. The iPad with Retina Display (it’s official name) or simply the iPad 4 (or 3S depending on how you look at it) adds a new chip called the Apple A6X chip and it adds Apple’s new controversial Lightning connector. This doesn’t sound like much but it’s actually huge. If you have not seen the kind of graphics the iPhone 5 has, check out Apple’s iPhone 5 announcement video and you’ll see how stunning it came out to be. Let’s discuss the new iPad 4.

A6X Chip

The A6X chip is advertised by Apple to be dual-core but with quad-core graphics. That’s incredible! The graphics on this device are the best Apple has produced on any of it’s devices thus far. I once said that the chip on the iPhone could rival this generation gaming consoles (PS3/360), this iPad CAN rival those gaming consoles and in some tests win. The chip adds a lot to the device and people who have the iPad 1 or 2, it is now the time to upgrade, if you don’t have and iPad yet, now is the time to buy one.

Lightning Connector

The iPad now has the new Lightning connector. This controversial connector has raised a lot of concern and people have asked the question, “Was this necessary?”. While some answers have been no, my answer is yes. I believe it was necessary. I know that Apple has had it’s original dock connector for 5 years and every Apple accessory manufacturer has produced accessories for that particular connector for the past 5 years. The thing is, Apple doesn’t work for these manufacturers and if it feels it needs to change something, it will. I think that in order for Apple to have continued it’s thinner/lighter device philosophy, they needed a thinner, lighter cord. Plus, I like the cord myself. The 30-Pin dock connector is not reversible and can be a pain when plugging your device in. The Lightning connector, like the MagSafe connector on current MacBooks, is reversible. Also, many accessory makers in the past have changed whatever needed to be changed in the past and they will continue to do so. I do believe that Apple handed them a bigger speed bump than usual but it was necessary for Apple to have done so. I am, however, not a fan of Apple’s buy-an-adapter strategy. I feel that if they are going to inconvenience people for a little while, they may as well do it without charging them for the necessary inconvenience.

Who should buy this iPad?

If you are an owner of an iPad 3, just wait on this one, it isn’t a huge change and isn’t worth selling your iPad 3 or what not. However, if you have an iPad 1, iPad 2, have a junky Android tablet you dislike, or if you don’t even have an iPad at all, NOW is the time to get one. It is the best iPad that Apple has ever produced but if you have the now second-best (iPad 3), you aren’t too far down the track, so don’t worry. You’re iPad 3s aren’t obsolete yet. Think about it…

iPad 2s are STILL for sale

Apple just doesn’t want to let the iPad 2 go and I don’t blame them. The iPad 2 was one of their most successful products in history. I have one myself and I can’t imagine life without it even though I have only had it for a year and 8 months (I got it the day it came out). It truly is a great iPad. If history is to repeat itself, it will cut the iPad 2 once the next iPad comes out (probably the iPad with Retina Display 2 or something like that, Apple never has been super great at naming things).

The new iPad with Retina Display isn’t the biggest update to iPads to-date (I believe the iPad to the iPad 2 was) but it is a pretty good update. Apple didn’t need to change anything in the iPad very much because the iPad, like the iPhone, is maturing. It is growing up very fast. With that said, to me, there is nothing more scary than a company like Apple that doesn’t innovate. I only hope Apple does something big in the next iPad, otherwise they would be going into a bad direction and I don’t need to remind you, Steve can’t save the company again. Let’s hope Apple does what it needs to in order to innovate. Innovation always conquers laziness, hopefully Apple doesn’t forget that.

Thanks for reading,

Joe

Image Courtesy: www.apple.com/ipad/overview/