Iphone 6 Revealed:

As you may have heard in the past few hours Apple have officially announced their new product, but can it rival Samsung's new "Galaxy Note 4".

Despite the amount of images and news stories that have surfaced in the last few months "Apple" has finally announced their latest anticipated model of their flagship smartphone the I-Phone 6. 

The demand for purchasing one is set to be high indeed, will you be one of those considering getting an upgrade? This post aims to give you the lowdown on "Apple's" latest mobile innovation.

Introducing the Iphone 6 and the Iphone 6 Plus;

The new I-phone will come in two varieties, the standard I-phone 6 and its larger counterpart the I-phone 6 Plus and will be much thinner and lighter than previous I-phone versions.

 The new Iphone will also feature the latest version of 'Apple's' proprietary operating system, IOS 8, while this brings many new features it will not be available to all of Apples current product range. IOS 8 will be available to Iphone versions 4S and above and I-pad versions 2 and above, unlike the current release of IOS 7 which had much broader product support.

This is a good move I feel as the hardware of previous Apple products were barely able to keep up to the momentum of IOS 7, weather Apple will still continue to provide any updated software firmware for previous products like I-phone4 and I-pad is doubtful, this will provide a way to finally make the upgrade should they still be using  one of the older I-phone 4, 3 variants.

(Above) The latest IOS version 8 and the devices it will be compatible with.

(Above) The I-phone 6 continues to have the new lightning connector unsurprisingly as well as the newer Nano-Sim card

Gone are the days of Micro-Sim cards and 30 pin dock connectors, since the release of the Iphone models 4S and 5C we have seen the introduction of the faster and easier to use Lightning charge and data sync connector, as well as the Nano-Sim card a fraction the size of the old standard Sim's

Specs wise the new housing boasts some tasty new tech specs,

Ram
 This is great news as the I-phone 4 came in with only a 512mb of on-board RAM, this continues over to the I-phone 4S and only received an increase in the I-phone 5 increasing to 1GB of RAM. The Iphone 6 will have 1GB ram


Camera
Previous models such as the I-phone 4 only had a 5 Megapixel camera, while newer models from 4S got an upgrade to 8MP, the new Iphone 6 models stick with an improved 8MP camera.

Chip
 The new A8 chip should blast through mufti-tasking and alleviate intensive resource hungry applications.

It is hardly surprising that rumors suggest that the I-phone 6S rumored to hit next year will also feature the latest A8 Chip, although I wouldn't necessarily wait as the phone specs will still be on par with the I-phone 6 regardless. The new chip will see a 25% processing power increase and up to 50% faster graphics

WiFi

WiFi also sees an improvement in connectivity with 802.11ac making speeds 3 times faster than the Iphone 5S model.

 

The new IOS software version combined with Apple's latest hardware improvements offer a redefined experience to the mobile smartphone user. The I-phone retains its familiarity if you have ever used one, but it builds upon what has already been in place. Quicker access to contacts while accessing the currently open apps screen is just one of the new features and shortcuts which will prove very handy instead of manually finding the messaging application.  

 The new I-phones will be ready for consumers to per-order on September 12th with a release date of September 16th, Apple seem to be dedicated to pushing their new product lines out to consumers as fast as possible.

 

 

A much needed upgrade has also come to the internal storage capacity of the new I-phones with sizes starting from 16GB, 64GB and a whopping 128GB completely skipping the 32GB model this time.

 

 

Twitter To Add Un-Removable Tweets?

Twitter adds in-removable tweets, for some of its users according to some tech sources Twitter is now integrating a new scheme to add new tweets to your timeline which you either didn't post, re-tweet or favorite before. These new "intrusive tweets" will be posts favorited by peeps you follow or even people they follow, worst of all once these tweets have been posted to your timeline there will be no way for a user to remove them.

It seems Twitter has decided to become a lot more pushy, as yet no one seems to know why, after all twitter has (had) a simple formula tweet short little posts, image upload support, follow the people you want and so on, now you will have a time line of unrelated and unnecessary content you may not even be interested in, the new feature hasn't been rolled out to the public as of yet, but it has a strong possibility of surfacing.

The problem becomes progressively worse if this were to happen on everyone's timelines, it will be like a big mash up of already generated data thrown at hundreds of other random users. So far only the more predominant of twitters user base have been targeted to test this new feature, the feedback hasn't been the most positive it could be said.

As previously stated apparently there won't be a way for a user to remove these intrusive posts themselves, aside from un-following all but the most essential people. It all seems unnecessary as you already see this pre-existing info form the people you follow in your timeline feed, effectively your timeline is now not your own. Then there is the whole side of you may not actually like, disagree with, or condone the tweets being posted. It could be said that changing to a more algorithm based feed like "Facebook" implements would potentially alienate Twitters users and prevent it from being Twitter instead of a copy-cat site.

Weather twitter will get a backlash from this new found wisdom if they roll it out publicly or actually make it useful and of value to its users remains to be seen, it all comes down to the sites ability to move forward, update it's algorithms and help advertisers position there targeted advertising . 

Star Wars theme park a go!

As far as this blog goes new technology and Star Wars stories are always a welcome read, and it appears fans of Star Wars have more than just new films to look forward to next year.

It seems that Disney taking the reins of the Star Wars franchise is turning out to be a really good thing indeed, with the news that Disney have seen the large demand for Star Wars experiences. As a result Disney is massively expanding the Star Wars presence within their theme parks. The word expanding it is believed to be creating parks and attractions which will be a large focal attraction for fans and not simply a few new rides.

Star Wars has always been a favourite for floats in annual parades.

Apparently chairman and CEO Bob Lger has revealed to investors that the company is also planning ideas and dealings for a far greater Star Wars presence and expects to unveil details about this sometime next year. Mr Lger also confirmed when asked "if it were to be as big as Universals Harry Potter franchise parks" Lger states that it "is going to be just that" 

Some concept artwork has already been floating around and may well be used as a concept from the artist "Tom Hodges" who sketched out an entire park based around the franchise which of course will probably include the new films, and being a vast franchise there are no doubt lots of ideas to explore.

Some artwork from "Tom Hodges" which would make an amazing theme park

The news of Lgers intentions have been widely reported form multiple news sources, Jay Rasulo chief of finance and senior executive Vice President for Disney said attractions which were based on major franchisees draw guests, which means it will be a worthwhile investment for the company. "They pull people from, 'Gee, 'I’m gonna go someday,'" to 'I'm gonna go this year,'" Rasulo said, according to the Los Angeles Times. Speaking for myself I'm more among the 'I’m gonna go someday" category but no doubt business will be booming once the parks and attractions open.

Disney's popular Star Tours Attraction ride.

Let's also not forget the current presence that Star Wars currently has in its various Disney parks around the world. This includes the "Star Tours" simulator ride in Disney’s Hollywood studios based in Florida, Disneyland in California, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. Interestingly the Florida and California parks include an interactive show titled "Jedi Training Academy" The "Star Tours" have proven very popular among fans which is an interstellar flight simulator which was first developed around the late 1980's in cooperation with George Lucas himself.

 Disney’s Hollywood studios also play host to what they call "Star Wars Weekends" which is a hosted annual event which incorporates parades, shows and to top it off a massive store simply titled "Darth's Mall" no doubt sporting a host of sigh and of course Jedi merchandise!

Some of the merchandise found at "Darth's Mal"

A major expansion or the ultimate fan dream of a dedicated "Star Wars" land have been many a talk among the fan community's for years now, which increased when Disney subsequently acquired Lucas film back in 2012 and announced new movies were to be added to the franchise.

As for the  next instalment of Star Wars "Episode VII" is in schedule for its planned 18 Dec 2015 release date to cinemas Lger stated.

It really feels that the larger Theme parks in general are stepping up to meet the demands of fans everywhere and offer new experiences with parks that are dedicated or Toy Story in Hong Kong and Paris, to Disney’s Cars both of which have been very successful, you can bet it won't be long before the likes of Marvel and Pirates of the Caribbean will step up to offer newer attractions.

Sum Sung cashes in at Apple.

Sumsung and Apple have a lot in common aside from their bitter rivalry that is, Sum Sung once worked for Apple. Before you begin to question this statement I am of course referring to the former Apple employee "Sum Sung" probably the guy at the reciting end of many a pun or joke.

Sum sung who worked at an Apple store based in Canada and is by no means has any association with Apples biggest South Korean competitor, this however hasn't prevented people from bidding large amounts to own Sam Sung's old business card from when he worked at Apple. http://bit.ly/ssng201

Former Apple employee "Sam Sung"

Mr Sung is auctioning his former Apple business card which also holds the name of the company's main competitor, as well as his Apple in-store shirt and lanyard presumably also with similar hallmarks. Mr Sung is selling the items in question on eBay to raise funds for the British Columbia and Yukon chapter of the Children's Wish, which acts as a non-profit organization to help and aid sick children.

Mr Sung's former Apple badge.

 The last known actual bid placed was at over $80,000 http://bit.ly/ssng201 (maybe a Samsung employee wishes to remove quite these form the market) Mr Sung had also asked in the auction for people not to place fake bids especially considering the viral nature of this particular item since the story breaking.

If you want to own such a weird yet very humorous peace of tech nostalgia for years to come and you have some ready cash, then you still have eight days to ace your bids

I guess it echoes what myself and other technology savvy users have been saying for years, if you want to sell something for a lot of money make sure it has an Apple logo on it!

General Blog Update:

Blog updates coming soon, now that I have installed the Blogger App for Ipad, I hope to streamline some new posts on the go.

Create Iphone Text or Ringtones In Itunes!

Whether you like it or hate it ITunes has improved much with each version, more so since the release of IOS 6 and 7, what many people won’t realize is just how easy (with a little work that is) it is to create a text or ringtone for an apple device such as the IPhone, from literally any audio or music file.

In this guide I aim to show you how to achieve this task and get that perfect tone you’ve always wanted but never really wanted to pay for.

To accomplish this you of course need a compatible device such as an iPhone and the latest version of ITunes installed, you will also need an audio file which you can find on your computer, in your iTunes library, or by extracting audio form a video on YouTube using a free online service such as vidtomp3.com.

In the example shown I have already selected a music clip to be used,

Once you have the file you like you need to (if you have not already done so) add it to your iTunes library,

Once this has been done all you need to do is search for the file, select it, and play it until you find the bit where you would like either your text or ringtone to start and take not of the exact amount of time the file has been playing until that particular point, for example if you want to create a tone for a music track that starts at 1:24 and is a total of 4:49 just take note of the 1:24.

Then right click which will open a large drop down menu, make sure to select “Get Info” this will load an information box with lots of tabs, all you need do is look at the top tabs and select “Options”

Now two important options that you will be changing, these are the start and stop times. Now as I said earlier you should have a time at which point you want a particular audio file to start, I gave an example of 1:29, simply enter this into the start time box, making sure to add the format as shown.

 

Once you click ok, you will notice that the run-time of the track will now have reduced from 4Mins to the time specified, if the track is over 30-40 seconds simply change the end time to a little less until you have the right amount of rack time.

 

The total length of time that can be used varies from weather you are creating a text or ringtone track, text tones can go from 0-30 seconds while ringtones are limited to a max of 30-40 seconds In length.

Next you will need to right click on the audio file and in the following drop down menu click on “Create AAC version” this will recode the track with only the specified amount of time.

This process only takes a few seconds and Tines will beep once it has completed, once it does beep, in ITunes search for the track name again, only this time you will see 2 versions listed make sure you right click on the newer one and select “go to Album” or “Go to Song”, you will instantly know as it will be shorter in length.

 

You can test your selection here by playing the file to make sure its as you would like it and matches the correct amount of playtime.

 Once you are happy with the selection right click on the file and in the drop-down menu select “Show in Windows Explorer.”

Here you will see the file you created, next you will need to slowly double click to bring up the rename feature, at the end of the filename you should see the file extension which is set to .m4a, go to the end and change the .m4a to m4r

Once you have done this simply press the enter key once, at which point a dialog box will appear asking are you sure you want to change the extension type, just press yes to this dialog.

(Note: If you cant see the extension at the end of the file after trying to change it, you will (in the explorer window) go to "Organize" > "Folder and Search Options" > "View" > and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types")

You will notice that the image for the audio file also changes as a result of this, and should look like the image above. Again drag this file into the main ITunes music library window to add the file into Itunes.

Now in the top left of ITunes select the menu button and choose Tones.

Here you will see all the available tones stored in ITunes, including the file you have edited and re-added.

Once you play the file you will notice it has the specified amount of time which was specified earlier.

Now you can plug in your compatible device such as an IPhone and select it.

In the tabs section of the IPhone select  “Tones” and then either all tones or selected tones where you can choose a few, after which all you need to do is press sync to add them to the IPhone.

 

That's about it, you can now once synced discconect your phone and you should be able to select the file of your choice for ringtones or text-tones for your contacts.

Hope this has made the process clearer and easier for you, any questions, shout-outs or comments as always below, many thanks.