John Dimo Blog » Apple

Apple unveils the iPhone 4S

John — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:40:08 +0000

Apple released their new iPhone today called the iPhone 4S. Looks like they used a similar strategy as they did with they updated the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 3GS. They update the internals, add an ‘S’, and keep the design basically unchanged.

So what’s new? They updated to the A5 processor found in the iPad 2 (a dual core version of the A4 found in the iPhone 4), upgraded the camera to 8 megapixel (up from 5 megapixel), added 1080P video recording (up from 720P), turned it into a world phone (no more separate AT&T and Verizon phones), added Sprint as an available carrier, and added Siri personal assistant.

Apple says this new phone will have 2 times the processor speed and 7 times the graphics performance. This should make the phone much speedier than the iPhone 4. Judging from some of the reviews I’ve been reading, Siri looks pretty impressive and I can’t wait to get my hands on a 4S so I can give it a try.

All in all I think it is a solid update. What do you think? Let me know in the comments area.

It’s almost time. A new iPhone gets debuted tomorrow.

John — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:59:59 +0000

This is old news for those who follow Apple closely, but for those that don’t, Apple will debut a new iPhone tomorrow!

I will most likely post up all the details and features of this new phone tomorrow sometime after the media event that Apple is having. The event is schedule for 10am eastern / 12pm central. Sites like Engadget and MacRumors will be doing live coverage so it’s best to head over there if you want to follow along in real time.

Apple Announces the iPad 2

John — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:49:06 +0000

Today Apple announced the iPad 2. And it’s a good thing I waited since this model is worth the wait. New, faster processor, the A5 chip (1GHz dual core) and 2 camera’s are what I was waiting for.

The front camera is VGA and the rear will record 720p HD, just like the iPod Touch. No mention of the pixel count for the rear camera so I presume it’ll be just like the iPod Touch. It’ll take pics a resolution of 960×720 (roughly .7 megapixel). That resolution is just slightly narrower than the native resolution for 720p HD video (1280×720).

In addition to those two main additions it is also .2 pounds lighter and around 33% thinner than the original. All this and it still retains the 10 hours battery life time of the original. All in all a solid update. It’ll be available for purchase on March 11th.

More info can be found on Apple’s iPad webpage.

Apple iPad 2, March 2nd reveal

John — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:59:19 +0000

This may be old news to some, but in 2 days, Apple will be holding a press event in San Fransisco on March 2nd. Judging buy the graphic that was sent out along with the media invitations, the focus will be on the iPad 2. I was strongly thinking about picking up the original when it was released back in April last year (2010), but hesitated because of the lack of a few key features I would have like. The main one being a camera. Now the rumors I have heard from various sites around the web, all point to, at a minimum of a front facing camera for FaceTime compatibility. I’m thinking those are pretty accurate and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if there was a HD video recording camera on the back as well, just like the iPods and iPhones. Coupled with rumors of a faster processor and more ram (always a plus in my book), I’ll definitely be giving the iPad a second look. Maybe this upcoming version will be the one I pick up.

I’ll be watching all the live coverage that MacRumors and Engadget will have as the event is underway. I really hope they also talk about iOS 5. A new OS has shipped with every new iPhone during the summer and there’s been no talk from Apple about it yet for this year. I’m hoping that this event will be the first mention of what we can expect for this summer.

I’ll be posting up all the news this Wednesday as soon as the event is over.

Trying out the new HDR photo feature on the iPhone 4

John — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:08:41 +0000

As you may or may not know, Apple released iOS 4.1 last month. One of the new features added to the iPhone 4 was High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos. The basic rundown (as I understand it) of what happens is that the iPhone will take a picture 3 different ways in rapid succession, adjusting the exposure automatically for you. Then it tries to figure out which parts of the photos are the best from the 3 shots and then blends the best parts together into a single photo to give you an optimized shot. I’ve heard of this feature on high end DSLR cameras, but never on a mobile phone. I decided to try this out for myself to see how it looks.

Below you’ll see two photos, the left is the original shot and the one on the right is the HDR version. I took this photo outside my house during sundown.

You can see a huge difference between the photos. The sky is all washed out in the original photo. That’s just something you would have to deal with when taking pictures into the sun. Enter the HDR photo. The sky is fixed and looks blue like it’s supposed to be.

I’d have to say that this is a kick butt feature that I’m glad they added. This is one feature that I’ll definitely be using in the future.

MacBook Cracked Keyboard / Keypad

John — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:48:47 +0000

So this the second time this has happened to me. The right lower palm area, My MacBook started developing a stupid crack. At the top of the screen, there are stop pads that are about 1 inch long and real thin. Right where those rest on the computer is where the crack is. Only on the right side too which makes no sense. You would think that it would happen to both sides!

Last time I took it in it was fixed under warranty. I remember at the time they told me this was a problem Apple was aware of and that it was common across the entire white plastic based MacBook line of laptops. They had said to me that they were even fixing, for free, laptops that were out of warranty as well.

This time around, the computer is out of warranty so I am hoping for the best. I hope their policy on repairing out of warranty latops hasn’t changed since the last time I brought it in. I have an appointment at the local Apple store to bring in about an hour from the time of this post. I will update this post later in the day with the outcome at the store.

Maybe it’s time to dump this plastic computer and finally upgrade to the MacBook pro I always wanted. Those are all aluminum and will never suffor from this problem. At the time I purchased this computer, I didn’t have the money to pick one up at the time even though I really wanted the larger screen and dedicated graphics that it has.

UPDATE: Went to the Apple store today. It is a known manufacturing defect according to Apple and they will fix all the MacBooks automatically even if the one year warranty has expired or apple care, if you bought it, has expired. While the genuis bar tecg was looking over the computer, he spotted two cracks on the screen bezel. That will get replaced for no charge as well. Parts are on order and I’m waiting for the call to bring it in for service and have those parts swapped. Very cool.