Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt is a new I/O connection found on the latest generation Apple MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and their new large monitor (thunderbolt display). It replaces the display port on these models and allows for two way 10Gb/s data transfer over two channels, compared with USB 2.0's 480Mb/s over one channel. It has the speed to utilise, from one MacBook Pro, two 27 inch thunder bolt monitors and daisy chain external hard drives from the USB interfaces on the displays. Thats over a million pixels on screen real estate from one machine.

Image from Apple.com

Thunderbolt has been developed by Intel and it's integration into Apple products is only the first step. Thunderbolt is compatible with Intel chipsets and so should become widely available in the PC market. The uptake of USB 3.0 (5 Gb/s) may have to move over to allow manufacturers to make thunderbolt connections a widespread industry standard.

Image from Intel.com

For more information on Thunderbolt check out this page from Intel click here.
For more information on Thunderbolt in Apple's products click here.

Mac OS X Lion hands on

Apple released Mac OS X Lion yesterday to thousands of fans eagerly queuing outside their... well, own Mac's! Unlike previous operating system updates from Apple, Lion is a download from the (relatively) new Mac App Store.

Initial thoughts:
Great new log in screen, which also connects to known wifi networks immediately.
Lion feels like a new product, it has a very slick GUI (graphical user interface). Many design queues come from iOS on the iPhone and iPad as well as previous OS X advancements. All the dialogue windows have followed iTunes and iLife '11 in losing colour icons within the app. This means that your content (files, music, photos) become the visual focus.
New features work well and no major problems installing. One hiccup was that my two fingered scroll setting was inverted, but it is easily resolved in the System Prefences menu.

Let us know your thoughts on Mac OS X Lion below.

Google+

You have probably seen press coverage of Google+, articles such as "Google+ challenges Facebook in social network battle" (BBC News) and "Google's Facebook rival takes off" (Sydney Morning Herald). But it's difficult to try it yourself as it limited to invited beta testers, although it's expanding every day. It's up to 10 million members!

The first thing you notice is the seamless integration into your Google account. +(Your Name) appears in the top left of the toolbar in Google.com when you are signed in, just like Google Mail, Maps etc. The interface is similar to Facebook, but it's a lot easier to choose who you share information with. It encourages you to put you 'firends' or 'connections' into Circles. A word of caution, by default anyone can see you you are friends with and which circles they are in.

Google suggest Circles called: Friends, Family etc. but you can create any that you like. When you create a post you can share it with the world, any of all of your circles or any of your individual contacts. At the moment you can share and access Google+ through your web browser on a PC, Mac or smart phone. The iPhone has a great mobile site, formatted for touch screen use. Android users have access to a native app which integrates into the Android system like the Gmail app.

The similarity to Facebook continues with an equivalent service to the "like" button, on Google+ it's called "+1". One thing that is very different is the lack of third party apps, spam and advertising. But then it's only a trial at the moment!! It will be interesting to see if Google+ fully replaces the Google Buzz service which is sort of like twitter, it certainly becomes irrelevant when Google+ allows public posts. Google+ does try to share you location too, but you can customise the piracy settings in a similar way to Facebook.

Share your thoughts on Google+ by commenting below, and remember to "+1" this post!

For more information: http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/ or check out this video from Google+:

Google Updates

Google have updated their webpage with a new black navigation bar. The last refresh was only in April, as reported by Web Warp Blog (click here). The latest update comes with functionality improvements too. Google is even quicker at finding webpages than before. It is easily the market leader in internet searching. In the latest canary release of Google Chrome (the beta testing stream) Google even preloads the top webpage in search results so that when you hit the result it appears instantly for you to look at. Google continually pushes technology forward to save you another few seconds each time you search.

Wimbledon Finals in 3D

Introducing Web Warp Blog's first guest blogpost by PunctualWaffle

This weekend saw the first free-to-air Television broadcast in 3D, as the BBC showed the Ladies’ and Men’s finals of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships live from the All England Club. The matches were freely available in 3D to anyone with access to the BBC HD Channel and a 3D compatible TV. (And of course those magical 3D glasses, without which 3D viewing would be rather unfulfilling).

Sport in 3D on UK television is not a particularly new development, with Sky launching it’s dedicated 3D channel in October 2010. But this weekend’s showing was the first time that 3D viewing was available without subscription.

Wimbledon has a history of technological experimentation and advancement with regards to television, being one of the first events to be broadcast in colour, and then in HD a few decades later. This could yet prove to be an important historical event in the technological development of Television, although ultimately only time will tell.

Currently a technology available in very few homes, an event like this broadcast in 3D could be exactly what the technology needs, to capture the public’s imagination and gain popularity. Maybe the draw of one of the world’s great sporting events will result in 3D television becoming a slightly more familiar sight in the average living room.

Perhaps the relatively slow uptake of 3D television (apart from the obvious cost factor and the current scarcity of 3D content,) is due to the mixed opinion on the quality of 3D viewing in general. 3D does not appear to be universally loved by all those to have sampled it. 3D TV and indeed 3D films in cinemas appear to have split opinion amongst the public, and there are certainly differing views on which sports are best suited to 3D.

Many feel that Tennis in particular may lend itself to especially engaging 3D viewing, with it’s simple camera angles and the relatively confined environment of the court; perhaps more so than football or rugby, for example.

I for one am not a fan of the oversized glasses and am yet to be convinced of the true merits of 3D viewing, especially in the cinema. But I would love to know if seeing Tennis in 3D has converted any viewers, who until now had made a similar, sceptical judgment.

Did you watch the Wimbledon finals in 3D? Is this the kick-start of 3D TV? Or will it be just another passing fad? Let Web Warp Blog know what you think with a comment below.

PunctualWaffle