Have we already seen the iPad 3?

It probably crossed your mind too that this press invite picture for Apple's went on 7th March 2012, could well be an iPad 3...

The screen does appear to be a particularily high resolution, but without a comparison it is difficult to say. This is where Gizmodo come in. Gizmodo have tried to recreate this image with an iPad 2 and the difference in the screen resolution is immediately apparent when viewed side by side. A copy of their comparison image is shown below. The full story is on their webpage: Is the iPad 3 hiding in Plain Sight. They have also speculated as to why no home button is shown, but I guess we'll have to wait an see...

Click photo for full size - Photo from Gizmodo

iPad 3 Announcement Expected 7th March 2012

It is widely expected that Apple will unveil a new iPad, suspected to be called iPad 3, on 7th March 2012. Apple have called a press conference in San Francisco, Engadget reports.

So far the rumours of what the iPad 3 will bring seem to strongly suggest that an iPhone 4 spec retina display, which has a theoretical pixel count greater than that of full 1080p HD when scaled up to the 9.7" screen size of the iPad and the iPad2. The press image below certainly lends it self to unveiling a new high specification display. Only just over a week to go till the launch...

Image from Engadget.

Will there be a new iPhone this year? - Results!

The results are in, it is clear that most people are expecting a new iPhone in 2012. The Web Warp Blog prediction is that the announcement will be made in either September or October, in time to ship for the Christmas holiday season.


The results were generated for a poll asked in the earlier blogpost: Will there be a new iPhone this year? Thank you to all of you who took part.

Mac OS X Mountain Lion's Messages Beta

If you are excited by today's Mac OS X Mountain Lion announcement and can't wait till the summer to experience some of the apps then you are in luck! Apple have released a beta version of Messages. Messages brings you the iOS iMessage feature to your Mac. You can communicate to and from Mac's and iOS devices and even include attachments such as pictures and HD video.

You can start a conversation on your Mac and then continue it on your iPhone whilst on the move. All of your iOS devices can receive your new message notifications. You can even go from messaging a contact to joining them in a FaceTime call, to speak to them face to face.

Download the Messages beta here.

Mac OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview

Apple have announced that their next version of Mac OS X will be called Mountain Lion. It will be released in the summer of 2012. For those of you who are Apple developers you can download the developer preview today.

The new feature list is heavily influenced by iOS as many predicted and Mac OS X Mountain Lion will include dedicated Mac apps for Notes, Reminders and iMessage. All of which work with iCloud. There will also be a notification centre, which can be accessed via a trackpad gesture, to centralise notifications of new iMessages, emails and notifications from third party apps. Lots of the iOS features within apps, such as the share button will be included so you can tweet from within apps, just like on the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad.

For more information see Apple's Mountain Lion Preview.

Poll: iPhone 5 in 2012?

The tradition of the past few years is that Apple have released a new iPhone every year. We want to hear you prediction for 2012.

As a reminder:
2007 iPhone
2008 iPhone 3G
2009 iPhone 3GS
2010 iPhone 4
2011 iPhone 4S

 

No +"new tab" Button for Chrome 17

The latest public release of Google Chrome, version 17, features a streamlined "new tab" button. This is only a small change to the already sleek UI. Google have simply removed the "+" label from the button. This has been a feature of Google Chrome Canary (the development version of Chrome) for some time. The images below show the old and new "new tab" buttons.

Old new tab button, complete with a +

New button, without the +

Google Maps Style Improvements

Google Maps has become the standard for mapping in the last few years. Their maps are accessed by people all across the globe for accurate and up to date maps of the world.

The recent 2011 update is compared to 2009 on Google's Lat Long blog, the images are below.

New York is a good demonstration of how the map is easier to read as the main roads are shown narrower.

This is most dramatic change is in Sydney, where there is a large concentration of main roads. The colours used in the map are toned down, and as a result more information can be displayed. This increases as you zoom in, where labels appear and are resized at every zoom level. The images below show London's South Bank.

And zoomed in London South Bank University shows the names of individual buildings. Try it yourself in the embedded map below.

View Larger Map

So how did an internet search engine become so dominant in the world of cartography?

Apple AirPort Remote Access

Apple has released new versions of both their AirPort Utility (v.6.0.0) and their AirPort firmware (v.7.6.1). There are new features, dropped features and a iOS style UI update. The updates are available now.

The new version of the AirPort Utility breaks from a user interface that’s been used since the launch of the first Apple AirPort in 1999. The new look is almost identical to the iOS version of the AirPort Utility. Here's a quick look at the new UI:

The exciting new feature is Remote Access. By signing in to the AirPort Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express with your iCloud credentials you will then be able to access your base station remotely. All you need is a Mac running OS X Lion, signed into the same iCloud account and the new AirPort Utility v.6. This connection over the internet is secured with SSH and allows you access through AirPort Utility to remotely manage the network. Apple stress that individual network set ups, such firewalls, may prevent the connection.

From over the internet you can also access files stored on a USB hard drive connected to either an AirPort Extreme or AirPort Time Capsule. The AirPort appears in the shared list in just the same way as when you are connected to the local network (either LAN or Wi-Fi), but you will be prompted for the disk password when you attempt to access it. In effect you have your very own cloud storage solution. FAT formatted disks are not supported and Apple advise against running Time Machine backups over the internet.