Tag Archives: Apple

Fake Advert Fools iPhone & iPad Owners

September 25, 2013

An advert that has been circulating around on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter has fooled some iPhone and iPads owners into believing that their device is waterproof with the latest iOS version installed.

The fake poster that has been circulating around has been designed to look very similar to Apple�s traditional methods. With a white background, a picture of an iPad and iPhone with neat text, it is understandable how owners believed that the advert was real.

Such statements on the poster read, �Update to iOS 7 and become waterproof.� The explanation of how the device was suddenly waterproof because of the new iOS version. This statement read, �In an emergency, a smart-switch will shut off the phone’s power supply and corresponding components to prevent any damage to your iPhone’s delicate circuitry.�

To further entice owners to test this new feature, a statement at the bottom of the poster read, �Waterproofing covered by Apple’s warranty policy�

Naturally the iOS upgrade hasn�t made the iPhones and iPads waterproof and has left some owners very disgruntled as they now have a broken device.

Some owners have taken to Twitter to express their outrage. On person wrote, �Whoever said ios7 was waterproof **** you,� and another person also wrote, �Wtf iOS7 isn’t waterproof!! Now my phone’s at the bottom of the river.�

It is believed that the fake advert started on the 4chan forum which has a chequered past. Last year, fake screenshots which were made out to be written by Adam Lanza were posted on its message boards before he attacked Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Naturally, those who fell for the ad and decided to submerge their device in water have been left angry, frustrated and out of pocket as many warranty policies do not cover water damage.

Something else to consider is whether the owners had backed up the data on their device before submerging it in water. It is important that if you are ever going to be testing or adjusting any configurations on a device that can result in the device failing altogether, that a successful backup is taken before. This is also relevant if you are planning on making significant changes to a computers or server if you do not want to run the risk of potentially losing data.

Windows 8 is not aimed at existing business and enterprise customers

June 11, 2012

It is instead aimed at users of the fast growing handheld computer sector, comprising tablets, e-readers (such as Amazon�s Kindle) and smartphones. This is an area of the market in which Windows has so far been soundly beaten by Apple and to a much lesser extent, Android.

In June 2011, The Online Publishers Association (OPA) estimated the number of tablet users in the U.S. at 12% of the internet population, a figure that was set to rise to 23% by early 2012. The majority of units are iPads (62%, according to Market Watch), with android tablets making up a small but growing percentage.

The type of usage of tablets, e-readers and smartphones is important to consider. For instance, The Nielsen Company’s May 2011 survey estimated that of 12,000 owners, at least 65% of tablet and smartphone users used their device whilst watching TV and 50% used their preferred device whilst in bed.

With the mobile computer market being dominated by Apple, it is clear to see why Windows have targeted their latest OS at the handheld computer market, rather than focusing on an already well-established business and enterprise customer base.

Windows 8, when used on a desktop or laptop, is an amalgamation of the classic layout, seen in Windows 7, and Metro, the new style of OS. The two styles contrast, with Jekyll and Hyde like results, according to one article. Metro functions well on a tablet, which is yet more emphasis of the direction that Microsoft has pointed its latest OS system.

Is this latest edition a predecessor to all future Microsoft OS? Will Microsoft release another OS tailored towards business and enterprise separately within the next year or two, or will their next release be another mish-mash of systems designed for the handheld device and desktop PC? Business users will surely be hoping against the latter�

The Digital Takeover.

July 13, 2011

As everything we associate ourselves with moves into the Cloud our physical stockpile of possessions begins to shrink.

The days of people showing off their huge CD collections sitting in their living rooms are coming to an end. Movies once thought to be too large to send over the internet are now being regularly streamed.

We are now reaching a point whereby everything we own falls into a digital abyss meaning we have less and less real possessions.

Storing photographs in shoeboxes, printing pictures and developing rolls of film are all things which most people haven�t done in some time.

The question presents itself as to where ownership actually lies at times. In the traditional sense Apple and Amazon own both the playing devices and media files which they �sell,� because freedoms such as lending them to friends have been revoked.

Magazines are struggling to maintain circulation and many are beginning to die out.� In fact magazine circulation is down 10% from last year as these paper devices you flick through begin to become obsolete.

Books are another media which is loosing popularity and many people are now simply downloading eBooks. Once leading book vendors are not what they once were, Borders for example is facing bankruptcy.

Even things such as keys are rapidly becoming digitalised with the majority of smartphones now beginning to utilise �Near- field communication.� Furthermore smartphones are increasingly being used to make monetary transactions.

It seems that industries must adapt to the digital age or face extinction in the face of our never ending quest for convenience.

RIP MobileMe

June 30, 2011

MobileMe: Reaching Extinction.

Apple has suffered a recent glitch in its MobileMe service and must be getting to a stage where it cannot wait to see the back of the somewhat flop of a brand.

Multiple users have complained that both the web and IMAP access are giving error messages but as always Apple have made the scale of the problem difficult to gauge.

You can�t expect Apple to get it right every time and MobileMe has certainly been an instance where it hasn�t.

As can be seen with its predecessors such as iTool and .Mac when an idea is not working it soon ends up on the scrap heap and MobileMe is no exception.

MobileMe features several elegant-looking applications including Mail, Contacts and Calendar in addition to offering corporate style sync compatibility to all users. Furthermore Apple offered 20GB of online storage, the ability to synchronise browser bookmarks, an online photo gallery and more. There was also the added functionality to act as a Web Host specifically operable with iWeb, another Apple service on its way out.

It seems that Jobs has never been a particular fan of the service stating �It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software as well as the App Store. We all had more than enough to do and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.�

In another statement he stated �The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates we have more to learn about internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to ensure it is a service we are all proud of by the end of the year.�

MobileMe looses out in certain technical aspects to its competitors according to Macworld �MobileMe still lags behind competitors such as Gmail and Yahoo! Mail in some respects. For example server-based rules are far more limited than what OS X Mail or Gmail offer.�

However perhaps the largest factor behind the lack of success the fact that it was too expensive. At $100 dollars for the year it simply was not competitive with other syncing products such as Dropbox, Gmail and Piscasa.

You have to appreciate Jobs� honesty at the World Wide Development Conference (WWDC) earlier this year �It was not our finest hour but we learnt a lot. �

The new launch of the iCloud in Autumn promised to deliver where MobileMe failed and Apple have promised to give clear instructions to MobileMe users regarding how to make the move.

Fighting for dominance in the cloud

January 27, 2011

Cloud Computing is quickly becoming an incredibly disruptive force within the world of enterprise software. Such services have manifested in three forms, Software as a Service (SaaS) such as Dropbox, Platform as a service (PaaS) such as Heroku and Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) i.e. Amazon EC2.

The prevalence of such Cloud based services has caused Microsoft to re-think it�s corporate strategy. Ballmer has changed his focus from his renowned phrase of �three screens and a cloud,� meaning software plus web based applications. Ballmer revealed recently that 70% of Microsoft employees are now working on Cloud related projects and that this is expected to rise to 90% within just a year. You only have to look at the Windows phone 7 to realise that Microsoft is now much more focused on the Cloud.

With so many huge players now fighting for niche markets within the Cloud it is difficult to appreciate the scale of the war going on between the likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft. The interesting element is that it is not simply the long established titans such as Microsoft and Apple which are dominating the Cloud. Google has demonstrated how quickly a competitor can emerge and has established itself as perhaps the most dominant company on the web.

The most prominent market to arise from Cloud Computing is PaaS. IaaS still requires a developer to setup, configure as well as manage an infrastructure. PaaS however handles much of this administration.

Although still under the radar for many traditional vendors such as Cisco, EMC, IBM and Oracle, significant investment has come from companies such as Microsoft, VMware, Amazon and Google.

Microsoft launched Azure last year having invested $2 billion dollars in infrastructure in addition to deploying thousands of servers. Google App Engine is a platform on Google�s own infrastructure, serving millions of page views each day. Amazon has been consistently adding services such as database, auto-scaling and monitoring to its EC2 service.

Each company establishing itself within the Cloud has found an important strategic value in the market. Microsoft must act to protect core customer and enterprise software businesses. Google has to retain its dominance within the online marketing and advertising markets. Amazon is predominantly a consumer internet company however it�s enormous success through EC2 is pushing it�s focus toward developers and enterprises. In addition Amazon now realises that it�s main income from DVDs and games may begin to dwindle as more and more people start to stream from the Cloud.

A familiar scenario is developing within the market. The big players will fight it out for dominance while other smaller companies sneak under the radar. Without the burden of reputation such companies have nothing to loose, building solutions from the ground upward which are optimized for the new world.