Apple to release Mountain Lion Wednesday on Mac App Store

Apple announced on Monday that OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, its next-generation Mac operating system, will hit the Mac App Store on Wednesday, July 25.

Returned my defective "new" iPad after five days

After owning the iPad 2 for about 15 months, I decided to sell it and buy the new iPad.  I had no issues or problems with my old one, but seeing photos on the screen of the new one, I was blown away with the resolution.  I had heard some complaints about the screen leaking some light and discoloration of the screen, but I figured what were my chances of getting a bad one.  I had never purchased any Apple product in the past that was in any way defective.  

Ebay used to be my choice when getting rid of “obsolete” toys, but lately I have started using Amazon to sell my stuff.  When I checked the Gazelle site, my offer was $280 (I had the iPad 2 32GB Wi-Fi model) the Amazon trade-in price was up to $380 but they only give you a gift card loaded with that amount.  I put it up for sale on Amazon instead, and priced it around $400 which was lower than all other sellers with the same LN condition. After Amazon took their cut, I was left with about the same as their trade-in price, but I got cash.

Well I purchased the “new” iPad and splurged on the 64GB model this time.  I noticed right away that the new iPad had a warmer overall look to the screen than my iPad 2.  I probably could have lived with that, but when looking at some published magazines on it, I noticed that the left side pages had a darker even more yellow look than the right side(held horizontally).  When booting up I also noticed the light leakage in at least 8 places on the edges.

I decided to return it and get my money back.  This is the first time I’ve been let down by any Apple product, and it feels a little weird to say the least.  Quality control is slipping somewhere, or suppliers are giving them lousy yet high resolution screens.  I may have to buy another iPad 2 which has a much whiter (brighter) screen than the new one.  Yes, I’ll miss the super sharp screen, but I won’t be looking at a blotchy screen. 

The picture I posted here was taken with my iPhone 4s, which gives some idea of the condition.

Apple Introduces "Next Generation MacBook Pro" with 15.4" Retina Display, and you can't afford it.

Pricing begins at $2,199 for the base model with the Retina display, a 2.3GHz quad-core Ivy Bridge i7, 8GB of RAM, a NVidia GeForce GT 650M 1GB graphics card, and 256GB of flash storage. The Next Generation MacBook Pro begins shipping today.  Retina display; 15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch.

Other notes from WWDC 2012 include:

• New Maps app with Turn-by-Turn Navigation, Real-Time Traffic, 3D Maps
• IOS 6 comes with Siri improvements, Facebook integration, Passbook, and the new Maps App
• Mountain Lion will arrive in July for $20 and feature Dictation, iCloud Tabs and Power Nap
• Small improvements in the “old” Macbook Pro and MacBook Air models
• A very minor quiet update to the Mac Pro Line with no Thunderbolt, or USB 3
• Apple also quietly discontinued the MacBook Pro 17-inch
• Introduced the redesigned AirPort Express

I’m surprised we did not see any updates to the iMac line.  Maybe they will surprise us this fall.

Apple releases Aperture 3.3 update

This version is released only a few weeks after 3.2.4

What’s New in Aperture 3.3

• New unified photo library for both iPhoto (v 9.3 or later) and Aperture; no import/export required; Faces, Places, slideshows, albums and web sharing work across both applications
• Support for AVCHD video has been added
• Aperture now lets you use camera-generated previews for faster browsing of RAW files immediately after import
• Highlights & Shadows tool has been updated to deliver higher-quality results and work with extended range data
• A new Auto Enhance button has been added to the Adjustments panel
• White Balance tool now includes Skin Tone and Natural Gray modes to simplify color balance
• Auto button has been added to the White Balance tool for one-click color balancing
• Set Desktop command has been added to Share menu so you can set a desktop background from within Aperture
• A new Manual option allows you to drag and drop projects to customize sort order in the Projects view
• New preference allows you to set the background brightness of the full screen browser
• Facebook, Flickr, and MobileMe albums are now displayed as thumbnails in the main window when accounts are selected in the source list
• Minor terminology changes, including “Original” instead of “Master” and “Info” instead of “Metadata”
• Source list includes a new “Recent” section, showing Last Import and recently-viewed projects
• Raw Fine Tuning is no longer displayed in the Adjustments panel by default
• Faces can now be named by dragging them from the Unnamed Faces browser to existing snapshots on the corkboard
• The Faces corkboard now includes a menu that allows you to set the order of face snapshots
• Newly designed monochrome source list and toolbar icons
• Addresses numerous issues related to overall performance and stability

Apple unveils an HD iPad - Just called "The new iPad" It's Resolutionary

The iPad 2 will be lowered to $399 for 16GB Wi-Fi model.  The Key features of the “new ipad” are:

• High-definition Retina Display
• New A5X chip with quad-core graphics
• 5-megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics, shoots 1080p video
• 4G LTE models allow for connections to faster wireless networks
• Still offers the same 10-hour battery life.

iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores, and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPad will also be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands on Friday, March 16.

The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white on Friday, March 16 for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model and $699 (US) for the 64GB model.  

iPad Wi-Fi + 4G for either AT&T or Verizon will be available for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model.

Still no 128GB model, that is really a shame.

Apple unleashes OS X Mountain Lion Preview

Just don’t call it “Mac” OS X.  Apple is dropping Mac from the name of OS X with the summer release of OS X Mountain Lion.  I don’t know about you, but I’m not that excited about my “Mac” operating system becoming more and more like iOS on an iPad.

Tim Cook seems to have a different opinion: “We see that people are in love with a lot of apps and functionality here,” said Mr. Cook, 51 years old, pointing at his iPhone. “Anywhere where that makes sense, we are going to move that over to Mac.”

Aperture updated to v3.2.2

Aperture 3.2.2, a maintenance release of the pro photo management and RAW conversion software from Apple, corrects a Photo Stream-related bug.

Updating my ipad to ios 5 took 4 hours

Just dowloading the update took over 3 hours and then the backup/restore part and then the verifying and the …. you get the picture.  Of course it’s my fault for wanting to have it on the first day of release when everyone and their mother, brother, uncle, sister etc want is too.  Earlier in the day I downloaded OS X 10.7.2 for my Mac Pro, and that took about 3 hours as well. 

Apple’s new data center really can’t take all this traffic, can it?  I hope all goes well with your updates.  Maybe you should wait a couple of days for the traffic to die down and you’ll probably download the updates in about 20 minutes.

Apple iPhone 4S Available October 14 in US and Canada.

The new iPhone 4S will be available for $199 for the 16GB version, and $299/$399 for the 32GB/64GB.

For the full rundown of features, go here to Engadget for the rest of the story.

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs announced on Wednesday that he is no longer fit to serve as the company’s chief executive officer, officially resigning from the position, which has been be filled by Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.

The announcement came Wednesday evening in a press release directed at the Apple Board of Directors, as well as the company’s community. Jobs said he would like to stay on as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee, a wish that was granted by the board.

This is the letter below:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve