AppleTalk Thursday #23

Hello everyone and welcome to another week of all things Apple. We got a lot of Apple news as Monday is WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) in San Francisco. So this week will be a lot of news and speculation, next week we will have all the facts that came out of WWDC. One thing that is confirmed is that Steve Jobs will be delivering the keynote announcement. So let's dive into things.

iCloud Rumors and News

Let's talk about the latest iCloud speculation. iCloud is the rebranding of MobileMe which was a re-brand of .Mac. Based on what we may see on Monday, the third time may be the charm for Apple. One thing that is clear at this point that the digital locker of iCloud will scan your iTunes library and replicate your music (and possibly movie and TV show library) on the iCloud without having to upload your music something that takes a long time to do and is required by the Amazon and Google Music cloud services. There is even speculation that your old Napster pirated stuff will be legit with Apple too. This is where I think Apple will trump Amazon and Google and why having deals in place with the record labels is important. The only uncertain thing is pricing. Some sources have said it will be under the current MobileMe $99 a year pricing while others say it may me be a month to month subscription plan and yet another report says early adopters of Mac OS X Lion will get the iCloud service for free for a limited time basis. We will know the details come Monday though.

iOS 5 Speculation

Another announcement we will certainly hear about is the 5th generation iOS for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. There is a bit of speculation news and now confirmed that iOS 5 will bring an improved notification system as well as widget support.  There will also be some voice recognition baked into the iOS, how much so is not so much known at this point. Another feature we may see is Twitter integration in the iOS. This makes sense with Twitter's new photo and video sharing functionality. Another confirmation in iOS 5 is according to Eric Schmidt of Google, it will continue to use Google Maps and Search.

Mac OS X Lion

Finally the third part of the keynote announcement will focus on OS X 10.7 Lion. From what is known at this point is if you have Snow Leopard, you will be able to upgrade to Lion via the Mac App Store download instead of having to go out and acquire the optical media for it. Course I have covered in previous posts of features we will see in Lion such as Mission Control, Yahoo Chat integrated with iChat, and so forth. I am quite excited about this upgrade I must admit.

One More Thing?

Of course how fun would an Apple keynote be without a "One More Thing" announcement. A Japanese Apple website is speculating that the One More Thing may i.... This is the first I have read about it though but you never know with Apple, it could happen.

So with the WWDC news and speculation done, let's move on to other Apple news. Told you this would be a lot of stuff to digest.

Apple's MacBooks sweep Consumer Reports rankings

The entire line of Apple's MacBook line trumped their PC counterparts in Consumer Reports latest rankings of laptops. That is awesome news and I get blown away every time they come out with a new line of MacBook series from the MacBook to the Pro to the Air. Just incredible machines! They also take care of their customers who have MacBook related issues as well.

MacDefender Malware Update

Last week I wrote how Apple would release an update to fix the MacDefender malware issue some users have experienced. Well, the update came out this week and just as soon as it did, the writers of the MacDefender found away around it and have a version that works around the password issue. But Apple is responding quickly with an updated malware definitions.  I don't know about you guys, but if these guys are caught I want them water-boarded at Gitmo! But with all that said, Google's Eric Schmidt still recommends a Mac over a PC with Chrome ... (something I do for the record). One more malware related issue is one spread via Facebook to both Mac and PC users.

Sparrow Gets Unified Inbox

Sparrow has a new update to its popular Mac email program. The biggest part for me is a Unified Inbox, I no longer have to jump inbox to inbox on different... as well if you are one who Facebook's, so your contacts photo in Sparrow will show their Facebook profile picture.

An iOS device friendly to Shades?

So ever been outside with your sunglasses on and want to check out your iPhone or iPad but find you have to take your shades off to see the screen better? Well, according to a new Apple patent for a new style of display, you may.... That would be super cool!

Banks and government agencies ditch Blackberries for iPhones, Alaska Airlines adopting iPads

In another sign of just how well the iOS devices are doing in the Enterprise and government sector, we have news of how more banks are leaving the world of old BlackBerry and embracing th.... Also more government agencies are trading in Blackberries for iPhones an.... You may recall recently that even President Obama is now an iPad 2 user. Another advancement in technology is Alaska Airlines using the iPad for its flight maps over paper versions.

iPad Keyboard Shortcuts

I came across this video on Cult of Mac that has some handy iPad keyboard shortcuts. Some I knew already but others I did not. So thought you might find it interesting.

Paid Apps find more Success on iOS than Android

I have spoken about this before but here is another article on how developers find it more financially worth th.... I have a basic theory that makes my Android friends mad when I say it, Android users are cheap! On average an iOS user is more likely spend money on an app than an Android user. Ok Android users, hit me with your hate mail...just get my name right is all I ask.

Apple Releases iWork apps for the iPhone and iPod touch

Pages, Keynote, and Numbers have been out for the iPad for a while and now they are available for the iPhone and iPod touch as well. So even if you are away from your iPad but have your iPhone or have your iPod touch at the gym, you can still put together a presentation on the fly.

Amazon Launches Mac Software Download Store

Amazon has launched its version of a Mac application store. It is a web browser based and it doesn't offer quite the selection of the Mac App Store, but it does offer Microsoft Office and Intuit's QuickBooks which are not part of the Mac App Store at present.

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of AppleTalk Thursday. I apologize for now iOS app reviews but we had so much news this week that there was not enough time for reviews. Hopefully I will have a few next week though. See you next for a post-WWDC wrap.