KitKat 4.4 Advert Makes Fun of Apple's Jony Ive

With the unveiling of Android KitKat 4.4, KitKat (the chocolate biscuit) has released a spoof advert which seems to be making fun out of Apple's Jony Ive and the rest of the team. Are we looking at another court battle?

As you may know, whenever Apple make a new product they also film a well thought out advert; taking us on a tour of the device and mentioning the key features. KitKat seem to have taken the idea and created their own spoof advert as an act of mockery towards Apple.




To continue reading this story, visit my Apple  blog or the Macworld UK website.

OS X Mavericks

The big cats have gone, now we welcome a whole new era of OS X. Mavericks. Surf's up! (For those who don't know - Mavericks is a popular surfing destination in California, home to Apple.) OS X has been around for a while and it's good reputation is very high, so to keep the interest alive Apple needed to have something evolutionary up their sleeve. As always, they did - although the UI hasn't changed that much.

The Mac software is now super power efficient and mega fast. This is achieved using Timer Coalescing, which groups CPU operations together, allowing more idle time and faster performance. Mavericks reduces activity by 72%, saving much needed battery life. An interesting feature has been added to OS X Mavericks, App Nap. It slows down the app which you're not currently using and which isn't in view (for example, if you paused your music and started using another app), and again, it saves battery life. When you start using the app again, it works as normal and at full speed. App Nap works the same way with tabs in Safari. When you are currently viewing one tab, the others slow down to conserve energy. The best thing is that you don't even notice it.

Now, everyone hates it when various adverts are running on a web page, especially if you're not interested. Safari has a solution. The ads don't start playing by themselves, instead, you can choose if you want them to play or not by clicking a bar at the top of an ad. Simple and easy. The new version of OS X has compressed memory, allowing you to have lots of apps open without being deprived of speed at which they run in...

Read more about this on my Apple blog.

iOS 7 - The Mobile OS from a Whole New Perspective

A completely redesigned UI, a pure representation of simplicity, all-new apps and more. Ladies and gentlemen, iOS 7 is here, prepare to be amazed. Rumours said it's going to be different, rumours said it's going to be flat, rumours said it will change the whole course of iOS forever. Well, here it is:

The User Interface has got a completely new look. It's fresh. It's clean. It has a whole new sense of depth, brought to us by distinct layers, which establish order along the software. iOS 7 cleverly takes advantage of translucency, this makes even the simplest of tasks more engaging. A whole new set of motions and animations has been introduced - scrolling, unlocking, swiping and simple movements of your device make it all a little bit more interesting. Tilting your iDevice left or right, when in the home screen view, reveals new parts of your background image by moving the icons in a 3D sort of way. Each and every icon on the home screen has been radically redesigned around a new grid system. A whole new pallette of beautiful colours has been added. None of this may matter to you, but it makes a massive difference.

To read more visit my Apple blog.

Apple Devices can be Hacked Using a Malicious Charger

Current Apple devices - the iPhone, iPad and iPod - can be hacked using an innocent looking wall charger. A team from the Georgia Institute of Technology developed a charger, named Mactans, which installs malicious software onto an iDevice in less than sixty seconds.

The malware is practically undetectable, meaning that the user is oblivious to what's going on inside their iPhone, iPad or iPod. The USB charger has a BeagleBoard built into it, turning what you think is a standard charger into a harmful computer that is capable of doing quite a lot of damage. The BeagleBoard is a low-cost (£30 / $45), single-board open source computer produced by Texas Instruments to teach open source hardware and software capabilities. Once your device is plugged in, the custom software cracks the iOS code to install malware...

To read more visit my Apple blog.

iOS Much Safer Than Android

The amount of malware on mobile devices is quickly growing, putting many users at risk, many Android users. iOS is much safer than Android and attacks aren't easily made, thanks to Apple's developer program. According to F-Secure's report, the number of active mobile threat families and variants on Android has risen to 96 out of 100, from a much smaller 49 out of 74 known threats in the third quarter of 2012. It was then that Phil Schiller, Apple's head of worldwide marketing, decided to tweet (a very rare occasion) a link to the report; alongside "Be safe out there."...

To read more visit my blog or the Macworld website, where it has also been published.

iOS 6.1 Released

When iOS 6 was first released it didn't get the expected 'thumbs up' from the public. Many improvements needed to be made, including an update to the maps application. However, iOS 6.1 is now available to download. After four beta versions, the final update has been released by Apple, to the relief of customers. But is it all that we wanted?

The update is available for the iPhone 3GS and later versions of the iPhone, iPad 2 and later versions of the iPad, iPod touch 4th generation and later versions of the iPod Touch. It takes about 5 minutes to install on the iPad mini and may take longer on older devices. Here are the improvements and bug fixes that Apple have made to the software:

• LTE support for more carriers (there is a complete list of supported carriers at www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/)
• You can now purchase movie tickets through Fandango with Siri (USA only)
• iTunes Match subscribers can now download individual songs from iCloud
• There is a new button to reset the Advertising Identifier

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Although most iDevice users were hoping for a Maps update, there is no sign of one at the moment. It looks like we will maybe have to wait until iOS 7 for that to come. There aren't any 'visible' updates to the new software but there are a lot of bug fixes which improve the whole user experience. What will Apple do next?

iOS 6.0.1 Update

Yesterday, Apple released a new update for iOS 6. They haven't done anything noticeable with the software; but improvements and bug fixes have been made. The update is only available for the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS,  iPad 3, iPad 2 and the iPod Touch 4th generation. However, the iPhone 5 is not able to download software updates right now; iOS 6.0.1 will allow it to update. iPhone 5 users need to download an app from the app store to update to this new version. This problem might occur in the iPod Touch 5th generation too. Here is the full list of barely noticeable improvements:

 • Fixes a bug that prevents iPhone 5 from installing software updates wirelessly over the air
• Fixes a bug where horizontal lines may be displayed across the keyboard
• Fixes an issue that could cause camera flash to not go off
• Improves reliability of iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation) when connected to encrypted WPA2                
    Wi-Fi networks
• Resolves an issue that prevents iPhone from using the cellular network in some instances
• Consolidated the Use Cellular Data switch for iTunes Match
• Fixes a Passcode Lock bug which sometimes allowed access to Passbook pass details from lock
    screen
• Fixes a bug affecting Exchange meetings

As well as this, the App Store doesn't crash when trying to update, search apps or look in the Genius section; but it still does when you want to look at the apps you have already purchased. It seems that Apple are still working on the Maps app, which has been designed with appalling accuracy and detailing. There will hopefully be another update early next year, maybe in February or March.