We went with cloud technology on our work based intranet systems. If anyone thinks windoze is frustrating just wait until you have to rely on the cloud

If you loose your connection the terminal is just a dumb client, you can't even save your work. It's nice to be able to upload content to the cloud but to rely on the cloud for a unit to work is not good, this is where they seem to be taking cloud technology.

But that is part and parcel Neil. Product X has Y battery life, vs Product A which has B battery life.

There is no local cache put in place!!??

I applaud the time to write the post Charlie.

iCloud doesn't work like that Bob, it's a way of keeping devices:
1. In Sync
2. Backed up.
3. Allows you to find your device (if lost/stolen).

http://www.apple.com/icloud/ explains how it works.

I used the dictation feature in Mountain Lion

http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_use_dictation_mountain_lion

I would agree with that - it much like digital cameras. I suspect that is why apple have slowed down their investment. The returns aren't great enough and they have the finances to snap up small innovative companies with cool new tech ideas. I suspect they are also concentrating on other new products like the new TV.

You'll be please to know a new iTunes is coming - completely rewritten so hopefully it will be a great improvement.

Sure Jim

His comment about iPhone hardware not changing is wrong, his % figures for R&D are wrong (and as Andrew suggested not the whole picture), he cant make up his mind if he want Apple to follow the market trends or not and he make a number of assumptions based on....well seemingly nothing.

I think a point often missed is also ongoing apple support for its products including the iPhone.

Can't think of many mobile phone manufacturers that will release an OS upgrade which is supported on phones 3 generation back. OK there are limitations but hey its a 3 year old phone.

Apple have a relatively small amount of products:

1. iMac
2. Macbook Pro
3. AppleTV
4. iPad
5. iPhone
6. iPod Touch
7. iPod Nano
8. Apple Timecapsule
9. Airport
10. Airport Express
11. Trackpad
12. Mouse
13. Mac Pro
14. Mac Mini
15 Macbook Air
16. iPod Classic
17. iPod Shuffle

So they do not need a huge R&D budget. And the author is being disingenuous when he states "a paltry 2% of revenues, versus 14% for Google and Microsoft?" Check out the actual figures for yourself. Clue Apple's income was much bigger than either of the above.

Well it can't get worse on Windows.

LOL innocent and perhaps ignorant comment from me, but hey the photos are ravishing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kaVzt-_zajE#!

iPhone 5 booting into iOS6

Images will soon start to filter to tech blogs of the new device now it is out of NDA.

Someone with more time will post them here

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/12/apple-iphone-5-liveblog/

Looking good so far.
Camera looks promising. f2.4, 8MP, Sapphire glass lens and new low light capability, (Dynamic mode gives equivalent of 2 f stops faster allegedly)
Battery life improved over 4S
Screen as rumoured 4 inches
Real Racing 3 looked amazing
A6 Chips 2x CPU and 2xGPU faster than 4S.

New dock connector as expected.

So far the major changes (screen / 4G / CPU / dock connector) have been reported previously.

This is what I got from ijailbreak twitter feeds:

entirely made of glass and aluminium
18% thinner than iphone 4s
20% lighter than iphon 4s
4inch display
1136x640 res
New wifi and has 4G LTE
A6 Processor
8mp camera - backside illuminated, hybrid IT filter
1080p video face detection
facectime camera is hd
ios6
same price as iphone4s

Just for fun: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/12/iphone_five_reasons/

Surely the biggest thing that apple had in terms of user retention was that they all bought hardware that used the same connection. Now every dock, charger and cable needs changing...i see that as a massive own goal.

Well despite it not being a breakthrough in terms of technology or features I'm still totally sold. I sort of wish I wasn't.

No more of an own goal than when I changed from SCSI to USB, to Firewire to E-SATA to Thunderbolt!
The dock connector was originally designed for the iPod, it had too many connectors, (it was originally FW400 and only charged on fw), then became USB, was adapted to lots of different needs and progress is progress.
They are releasing two adapters to enable the old cables to fit the new phones/iPods.
That's progress. I am more annoyed by the price increase in UK.
I always purchase my iPhone outright and swap my SIM, it normally costs me £495 which I then offset by selling my old iPhone for around the £360-400 mark. But despite Tim Cook saying the price remains the same it's now £529

Even my boss, who is a total fanboy, took time from his diatribe on why my life is incomplete and will be until I embrace Apple, to make a similar comment.

No it is a good thing.

30 Pin connection has survived from 2003 in many fashions. Pins moved and protocols altered.

Now in 2012 it is a hinderence and needs to be modernised. Too much space is taken up by it and a further re-design for higher bandwidth was required.

Good job Apple for moving forward and not sticking with the connection because loads of people have it. Push forward. Lightning is far superior and being rotation independent is just the icing on the cake.

If you have a particular accessory you can adapt the connection permanently through an adapter. 9 years is a long time.

This comes from someone with more xyz to 30 Pin connector cables than I can shake a stick at. Just because its comfortable doesn't mean it isn't time to move on. My opinion but I'd rather the design didn't suffer due to legacy components.

I like the innovation chip side and the work they have been doing to open up the frequencies on voice calls so that people sounds more like people. Good news that its a UK carrier who has been working with them to implement it.

For anyone interested

http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/#video

http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/

Nick, bring me an iPhone 5 to keep or someone to change my 3GS battery over, to the AGM and I'll believe everything you say, forever

Can you point me at a reference, Nick? As I understand the GSM phone system they'd have to maintain compatibility with the rest of the world and use the low-bitrate CELP coding; could it be that they're negotiating a different standard for apple-apple calls? (To be honest, the speech audio is probably the easiest bit of a phone these days... the coders are well defined and standardised and it's down to the mic and speaker on the phone itself; the physical acoustics of it all.)

As i started this thread with a 'viewpoint' article, here's the flipside :

iPhone still innovating

From my perspective, I'm very confused by the new connector . It isnt USB 3 or Thunderbolt, it's still USB 2 (which was introduced 11 years ago), offers no performance increase over the old connector, and yet they call it "LIGHTNING!!!!!!"

Otherwise all as expected, except that the new camera is below the spec of recent rivals, no NFC, and no wireless charging. But i'm not that fussed about NFC or wireless charging. if you have a wireless charging 'pad' you still need to have it plugged into the wall somewhere, so i'm not yet sold on that but i'm happy that others are innovating into this area as it's the only way that the technology will improve (and potentially all devices will end up charging when set on a desk, kitchen top, dashboard etc)

As for the NFC...i can definatly see it's uses, not least in the 5 items or less queue at a supermarket. But again, at the moment it's still a little under developed for me, but i look forward to using it in the future.

Also, honest enquiry, can someone point me to benchmarks for the new chip. So far i've seen it banded around that it's twice as fast as the 4G but the only source is the launch speech.

Sack the Chief Engineer...

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/09/12/a...ng-vodafone-o2/

hmmmm Each to their own but for me (and i even have an (albeit old) iphone) Apple are all about gloss and style with little substance and too over priced.

Yesterday I picked up a new LG Prada 3 for under £150 for the wife to replace her aging sanfrancisco

dual core, 1gb ram, 8gb storage with sd slot, 8mp rear camera with flash and 1.3mp facing camera for skype. Basically it is everything an iphone 4S is but with larger screen and far lower price.

You get so much more for your money if you stay away from the "cool" apple branding imo.

I am thinking I my roll the dice and try something new next phone, possibly the lumia 820 windows 8. Them too however i worry are going to be over priced.

and as for their charging connector........ The fact that they refuse to use micro usb like every other smart phone just sums them up imo. Because I am stuck on iphone at the moment (not my choice at the time) every where i go with the wife i have to take 2 lots of chargers with me. PITA