So bummer news for you 3gs and iphone 4 users.

Looks like after playing around with the iOS 6 beta some developers are reporting that the 3D maps and turn by turn navigation will not work in the older iPhone 3gs and 4 models.  I guess since they don't get Siri that would make sense for the turn by turn navigation. 

Still a bummer though, I was pretty interested to see exactly what they meant that all iphones all the way back to the 3gs would support iOS 6.  I am sure we will be hearing more soon about certain parts of the OS that do not work with the older phones soon.

Is Apple finally serious about gaming?

I know, I know, but it's really hard for me to not talk about everything Apple.  Especially when it's the week of WWDC and there is so much nerd candy everywhere one looks on the inter webs!  But anywho, with Apple showing off it's new retina display MacBook Pro with Diablo III, is it a sign they are serious about gaming?

I mean they are already a huge powerhouse in gaming even though they really didn't do anything to get there.  It would make sense that with this amazing new screen developers will think again about releasing their games for mac in a more timely fashion (aka not two years later.)  Apple though, really in the past has done  nothing to really drive game developers to its mac platform.  Could this all of changed with the introduction of the Retina Display?  

You could argue simply they could take advantage of it if people simply use boot camp and boot windows from there.  But can windows truly handle the retina display.  As of right now, no it cannot.  Will there eventually be drivers or some sort of update or hack made to allow windows to take advantage of it, probably but not as smoothly has it will run on OSX, I would think. 

It is all really just speculation at this point but it will be interesting to see if developers start paying more attention to Apples OSX platform for gaming.  I for one hope they do!

Why there was no mention of the Apple Tv at WWDC.

Even though everyone was rumoring, wanting, wishing, curiously awaiting an announcement about an update to the Apple TV we got nothing.  Here is why, Apple is a hype machine.  Simply put, part of Apple's success is the hype they build over their products.  They keep such tight security and control over announcements and any info on everything that they do.  This in turns keeps people on edge waiting and speculating what the next big thing from Apple will be.  This week was the Macbook, plain and simple so why take anything away from that juggernaut?  They wouldn't, if they want the hype to build even more they will do just like they have done for everything else.  Stagger the releases and announcements.  As it is right now we have the iPad in March, Computers and iOS in June, iPhones in September/ October.  To keep their hype train rolling they keep these things all spread out all year round so that way people are always talking about the new Apple products and here is the thing, it works.  All year round there is rumor after rumor, people lining up to buy their products.  So here is my prediction we will hear about this Apple tv either in August or more than likely post iPhone 5 announcement.  Besides they need something for the holiday season since the iPods are a thing of the past pretty much.  Just saying.  Oh and if I am right you all owe me $20 dollars!

iOS 6, What we got, what we didn't.

As always when it comes to our iPhones and iPads we get all crazy on our wish lists of what we would like to see.  Sometimes we get blown away and sometimes we get disappointed in what we didn't get.

For me all in all it was a good update to a good functional operating system.  My favorite announcement is that Siri will finally be coming to the iPad with this update!

Speaking of Siri, she is getting, well useful, haha.  You will be able to ask to to tell you the score of a game, stats on a player, or better details on a restaurant that you are looking for.  She can launch apps now!  Finally for all us lazy people who hate using your finger to find things, hah.  Also a neat part of this is no lists with possible answers here.  She finds exact info now, and will launch things straight up with out having to show you a list of things you might be asking for.

Next big thing was Apple finally introduced their own Maps App.  Now I know we can all say we saw this coming a mile a way with all the buying of the Map making companies, so bye bye Google Maps.  What we get with this new Map app is turn by turn navigation (finally)  and it is narrated by Siri herself no less.  It seems to be a very good implementation of a navigation app and shows you your ETA in real time based on crowd sourced traffic info and can even reroute you if you are coming up on a traffic jam.  You also can get 3D overlay of cities and a nice sky view.  Now the only thing I will miss from Google Maps would be street view, I can't tell you how many times this has helped me find an obscure place I was trying to get to but I had no idea what it looked like.  I hope Apple will implement their own version of Street View in the near future.

Next feature that I really like is the ability to block certain phone calls and notifications during certain periods of time.  Need to get some sleep or take a nap without being disturbed then you can easily set this up to be able to block phone calls or any notifications at all.  Or you can even tell it to allow certain numbers to come through but block the others.  Now this I can think of many uses for.  Now don't worry all you stalkers out there if you call enough times the iPhone will think it's an emergency and actually allow your call through.  A well needed addition to the OS for sure.

Another feature that I liked that has been a long time coming is the ability to text back an answer to any phone call.  Say you are busy and someone calls you can just hit an answer with message button and select the message you want to send.  For example:  I'll call you back later.  or What's up?

Here is a really cool thing and the beginnings of what Apple has planned for a mobile wallet.  It is called Passport.  You can store card information here, have plane ticket, and movie ticket info.  Say you bought a movie ticket online and you pull up to the movie theater, it will detect that you are close to a theater and bring up your ticket on your homescreen.  Or you are trying to catch a plane and you are delayed, Passport will notify you of any delays, or gate changes as soon as they happen.  Pretty neat and well organized app.  I can't wait to see this develop out.

Now there are many many more features being added to iOS 6 but these are my favorites.  Let's focus now on what we didn't get.   Biggest thing we didn't get a redesigned app icon, or layout change of any kind.  Now yes I know the iPhone layout and icon's are getting kind of old in the UI phone race.  But Apple is not one to rush in to too much change to quickly.  So it doesn't surprise me that we didn't see any major graphical changes with this iteration of iOS.  I'm still holding out that they do something similar to the live tiles on the Windows phones.  Those are just really nice and user friendly. We also got no mention of what this update will do to the Apple tv, but that is a post for another time.

The mother of all laptops is here and her name is Macbook Pro with Retina Display..

Ok so the name doesn't scream, LOOK AT ME I"M ONE SEXY BEAST, but the look and specs on this computer are just awesome.  When Apple announced this product today they basically said hey guys look what we are capable of.  Now granted this sucker is uber expensive starting at over $2,000.  Yikes! That is a lot of money but you are getting early dibs on a computer that in two or three years will be the standard for all laptops.

First thing first this bad boy has a full retina display coming in at 2800 x 1800 resolution at 220 ppi.  To put this in perspective the current Macbook Pro's measure up at a 1440 x 900 resolution.  That is a huge difference.  Now add that to the Nvidia's Kepler GeForce 650 M video card and you have one beast of a graphics powerhouse.

The other really nice specs:  a Quad Core 2.7 GHz i7 ivy bridge processor 8 gigs of ram (expandable to 16 gigs) and a 256 gig SSD hard drive (expandable to 768 gigs, SAY WHAT!!!) To round it out, it comes with two thunderbolt ports, hdmi, usb 3.0, and MageSafe 2 adapter.

This is one powerful laptop, definitely a powerhouse for gamers and graphic professionals alike.  As if that wasn't enough Intel introduced in these macbook's the turboboost option for their i series processors.  Tubo boost allows the processor to over-clock itself and increase your processor speed by almost 1 GHz if it feels like you need the power, then automatically re-clock itself back down to acceptable levels for less strenuous activities.  

To show you how far Apple goes into each and every detail of it's products they even spent lots of man hours getting the fan placement just right in order to make an even and very quiet cooling system for this powerhouse.

All in all this is just one amazing laptop with Apple flexing it's muscles for good measure.  To bad I would have to sell my kidney to get one.  Maybe one day, I have a bad one anyway...  Might as well sell it while its worth something right?

What are some things to expect from today's Keynote?

So the excitement is building for all you Apple fanatics out there!  In less than an hour the keynote will start and we will hear some really cool announcements for some upcoming products and updates to the current ones we are using.  Here is a list of some possible things to look for to be announced at the keynote.

iOS 6.

The first thing that will definitely be announced will be iOS 6.  Some of things that are rumored to be included is an updated maps app that will be in house instead of Google's map product.  Updates to the app store and better integration with the iCloud server.

What I would like to see is a slight update to the UI all over for iOS and some better ways to share audio files as well as an updated youtube app.

Facebook everywhere.

Rumors are bouncing all over the place about how integrated facebook will be with iOS.  Some have it just as simple as the current iteration of the twitter integration.  Others have it being completely part of the entire OS.  I feel that we will probably see a well balanced integration with facebook.  Easier ways to share pictures, videos, update your status and possibly a dedicated facebook app preinstalled.  What I don't want to see though is an integration with the facebook messenger and the current iMessages app.  That to me would be a total mess and I don't really use the facebook messenger at all anyway.

Updated Mac's and Mountain Lion.

We have already heard lots of rumors that every Mac will get a refresh come this week including the aging Mac Pro.  Considering a lot of Mac's are pretty low in stock across a lot of different venues, it would be easy to see how this will be a possibility.

Will they have retina displays?  That is a little iffy right now.  To make some of the larger 27 inch Macs a retina display, I feel that would be a pretty expensive upgrade.  Unless Apple wants to bend the rules on what they consider a retina display.  Of course they did make that term up themselves so I guess they have the right to do so.

Apple TV.

One of the biggest and most hyped rumors going around right now is that Apple has plans to make a TV of their own.  So here is hoping that one would be announced.  It could be anything from an updated current gen apple tv getting an app store to an actual TV set.  Either way I don't think it matters much whether it is a TV or the current tv box that they have now.  What matters is how they do this whole app thing and what kind of content they can provide, how you interact with the device, and how much content it will offer.  This could revolutionize the TV industry or just be a new "pet project" as Steve Jobs has always referred to it.

If you haven't heard next week is WWDC.

As if last week wasn't awesome enough with the announcements of some really cool games, today we will hear some announcements coming from Apple about some upcoming events.  The keynote will be tomorrow at 10am Pacific time (1pm, Eastern time.)  I'll have a review of the announcements and any new cool products later this evening so keep checking back to the blog later in the evening.  Enjoy you Monday!

All Apple computers getting a refresh next week.

Rumors are circling the internet that at next weeks WWDC conference Apple will update their entire line of Macs, including their aging Mac Pro.

This would make a lot of since for most of the Macs out there right now as most of them have been out long enough to receive a refresh.  The interesting part of this rumor is the part concerning the Mac Pro.  This system has not received an update since the middle of 2010.  Many had believed that Apple was quietly going to let this system die as they changed their focus to more of a consumer stand point.  Many professionals use Mac Pros and a lot of them have been calling for a new system for a long while now.  Maybe Apple has heard their pleas and decided to give the Mac Pro one more try.

I for one just want to see a refresh of the iMac's and MacBooks and maybe a price drop in them (in my dreams.)