Only took 2 days, but I did it.
So how can you control Knuckles, and what happens when you collect all the Chaos Emeralds?
The post is full of spoilers that involves when you unlock the characters and the Chaos Emeralds, so if you don’t want to know, then just admire the picture above.
But if you’re in a dangerous mood, read on and be enlightened.
Sonic 1 Remastered was released to the App Store an hour ago, which was a nice surprise to me as I was looking on the App Store and this update appeared.
I couldn’t help playing a bit through it and showing my impressions on here.
After last night’s conference call saying there would pretty much be no new products until fall (although I’m hoping for the new refresh of the Macbooks in June) iOS 7 and 10.9 are certainly to be shown.
A UI refresh of iOS is surely to come, along with Siri and Maps coming to OS X.
And in the same week as E3 as well, a good week to come, roll on June 10th.
2005 5 Inch iPhone/iPad Prototype with Ethernet, Serial & USB Ports
So while the iPod with video was being unveiled for the first time, the very early prototypes were coming out, with serial ports!
When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,”
“It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.
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Tim Cook on the future of the TV. NBC.
A year ago, I thought at the end of 2012 we would see the true Apple Television, but a year on, with all the products updated by October, it seems like 2013 is the time for it to be shown.
A really great mockup of how iOS can go beyond it’s current state. 3 Features that could do with these improvements.
The first new feature of the lockscreen is something I call “Lockscreen Cards.” Basically, they’re little informative slates that are connected to an app. You can slide between the cards in the same way that you slide between homescreen pages.
The grabber which was introduced a year ago, with the camera icon appearing next to the ‘slide to unlock’ bar, shows a method of improving this:
Quick access to the camera was a great addition to the lockscreen in mid 2011, but I think that the idea could be taken further. The grabber should be able to open any app action that you want. So, first, what exactly is an “app action?” It’s basically anything that you do with an app. Update your status on Twitter, check-in on Foursquare, take a picture with Instagram, whatever. So you can customize your grabber to be one of those things.
More on below.
So i finally got to try out the iPad Mini, and the first thing that hits me is:
This is a fuzzy screen.
Then you actually try out Safari, and some games such as Crazy Taxi, Jetpack Joyride, and that feeling of disappointment goes away.
When I was controlling the taxi, it was a lot easier than doing it on a 9.7 inch screen, and as this isn’t updated for retina anyway, it looked and played exactly the same as my iPad 3.
I’ve said it before, and this will be ideal for students, especially in Primary schools. Also with photographers so they can modify any photo with iPhoto, or just having an iPad Mini connected to a hospital network and downloading the patient records.
It’s one huge step closer to what we saw in Star Trek.
The design is a bigger iPhone 5, so that smooth back is all here, and the jewelry like edge are all present here.
And of course, it’s light as a feather.
If i wasn’t using my iPad as my primary computer and only using it as a secondary device to my Mac or PC, i’d seriously think about the Mini. Especially if I wanted to give one of these to my son or daughter down the line, the size is ideal for them.
Give it 6 months minimum and i can see a retina iPad Mini, but for now, if you’re looking out for an iPad, this is it.
Today the latest version of Mac OS X is released. 10.8, the first version i’ve missed out on in 6 years, and also the one that is driving further down the path of the coming iOS/Mac OS X Fusion.
Reading the reviews, from The Verge to Daring Fireball, to All Things D, the general concensus is that:
As the updates are now on a yearly cycle as iOS has been since its original release, one has to wonder just what 10.9 will unveil, a further fusion, possibly a Maps app on Mac OS X?
Its hard to believe that when 10.5 Leopard was in the making, it had to be delayed by 6 months just so engineers could be transferred to concentrate on having the iPhone launch on time. 5 years on, and a yearly release for both OS’ they can do with ease.
Looking ahead to see what may be on 10.9 apart from a possible dedicated Maps app, it’s too hard to say. But right now, Apple definitely has the understanding that on a PC, the function of a keyboard and mouse is always primary. If its changed too much for a one size fits all scenario (Windows 8) then there’ll be more alienation than attraction to the platform.
It may be a 0.1 release, but in 10 years since 10.0, Windows 8 seems to be the turning point of where the consumer will be able to realise what is the better, elegant, faster, more cared for OS in the PC age.
And you don’t need me to type out what the answer is.
iOS 6
The obvious one, looks stunning. When the 3D mode was being manipulated on the iPad, i was blown away.
Looks great. I can definitely see use for this on Safari and Photos.
One feature that i hoped to see, but its still the same. Except ‘Google’ is now ‘Search’..
As with Mountain Lion, the assault into China is being built upon in iOS 6. Better language support and yes, Baidu search.
It wasn’t meant to be. But then i think, this is in a way, built into Siri. So why have this in the Notification Center? Although a shortcut for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth would have been nice.
No API, but Siri is improved. Looking for Football results, i can definitely see this being used in the UK. Except for me.
This hope of mine turned out to be true. Tests have proved that asking for the nearest restaurant, hotel, bar, comes up with UK places. I wonder if the new ‘Maps’ had a hand in this being enabled?
A minor change i was hoping to see.
Nothing. Slightly disappointing.
Not completely, but there are some re-arrangements and a dynamic status bar colour change which took a while for me to get used to.
From what I’ve seen previously, the features are mostly common sense, i.e, what is the next update that people actually want? When Mountain Lion was announced, iOS 6 features are probably being shown on the 10.8 section on the Apple site. The ‘Do Not Disturb’ notification option perhaps, and more powerful Mail options?
Do Not Disturb was to be true, and looks to be really useful. The amount of times i’ve been woken up by a text message, even when it’s set to silent.. A useful feature to be carried over.
Mail has VIP and, pull to refresh, a feature i’ve been wanting since i first used Tweetie.
Mountain Lion
This turned out to be true, which works across all applications.
July for £13.99 . Cheaper than how Lion was, although this is more of a tune up release as to how Snow Leopard was.
Apple TV
This is one that i knew i should have trusted my instincts on, and instead i was half convinced by the news sites and a couple of friends. Although airplay is there, and is successfully being copied by Wii U and Xbox Smart Glass, everything will be unveiled on this soon.
One More Thing…
The Retina Macbook Pro.
I’ve yet to see one as i’m now back in Lincoln and there isn’t an official Apple Store which would have one in as there would be in London, but i’ll be keeping an eye in the local electronic shops.
It looks stunning. It’s the next level of the Macbook Air, carrying on from what was started 3 years ago. Once i actually have a go on one, a post will be written of it.
All in all, with iOS, at first i was admittedly a bit disappointed, with a ‘is that it?’ attitude.
But i realised, when iOS 5 was released, I was unsure of how it could be improved upon drastically when everything could be used with ease.
iOS 6 is a tune up, a ‘Mountain Lion’ of iOS if you wish. The little things such as the status bar blending into the app being displayed is welcome, while Maps looks to be incredible, especially with the 3D and turn by turn features.
Under a day to go before the main event, and everything thats been seen on the web, i thought i’d do a list of what i’m expecting/hoping to see:
iOS 6
From what I’ve seen previously, the features are mostly common sense, i.e, what is the next update that people actually want? When Mountain Lion was announced, iOS 6 features are probably being shown on the 10.8 section on the Apple site. The ‘Do Not Disturb’ notification option perhaps, and more powerful Mail options?
Mountain Lion
Apple TV
The next post will be how right or wrong i was based on this :)
Looking forward to 6PM tomorrow!
A brilliant article into the makings of webOS and the Palm Pre, and its subsequent downfall.
And indeed, the January event did blow minds: both the hardware and software put smiles on the faces of a spellbound capacity crowd in a ballroom at the Venetian hotel, a stalwart for big CES announcements every year. “This is a huge win for Palm. People are stoked,” our own Joshua Topolsky wrote in his Engadget liveblog. There was some confusion and disappointment that Sprint — a smaller carrier that used CDMA — had the exclusive, and the vague “first half of 2009” release window was a cause for concern. Negative comments about webOS or the Pre themselves, though, were hard to come by.
Topolsky and I were ushered into a small meeting room just minutes after the press conference where we had a half hour to play with the Pre. It was rough around the edges (both literally and figuratively), but it felt nearly as convincing as what Matias Duarte had just demonstrated before a packed room; it felt like Palm had essentially all the parts in place to ship a solid product.
When i worked in the phone shop, we was given the stock of the Palm Pre and the display models. I had the opportunity to use it a couple days before launch, and as this was before multitasking in the iPhone, it’s key marketing was the fact that it could do this, and also with the ‘card’ feature, which was really unique.
I also liked the fact that you could use the ‘Konami Code’ on it to enable the developer (unofficial add on) mode, which me and the guru got a kick out of.
All phone models and their tables were moved to make space for the Palm Pre section, set up over a long day i remember right before launch.
The launch came on a Friday, and 5 people must have come in for it.
The subsequent months where no major updates to the software arrived. When multitasking arrived on the iPhone in June, the stock was already gathering cobwebs. When the Palm Pre 2 eventually arrived, it was a meagre update that had a different way it slid up to reveal the keyboard, and the camera was only slightly upgraded, and with video.
It was a real shame, especially by the time iOS 4 had landed.
Staffers we spoke to took a more positive view, though, and one summed it up particularly well: “You ever see 24 Hour Party People? You know the scene at the end where they’re playing Happy Mondays’ Hallelujah and Tony Wilson is standing over the hacienda and he’s like, ‘well, it’s all over — we have to shut down. Take the turntables, take the barstools, let a thousand haciendas bloom’? Well, that’s what this is like. It’s that there are still people there, but a lot of people left, and they’re bringing the spirit with them. A thousand webOSes will bloom, I hope.”
Now in 2012, its already such a different place with smartphones, and Blackberry has more of a chance succeeding than’Open webOS’, and that’s a tragedy.
Someone heard what i wanted for iOS 6 it seems..
The future of Mountain Lion and iOS for 2012 is unveiled on June 11th!
Update: Tickets sell out in 2 hours. Compared with 12 hours last year and a week the year before.
About Daryl Baxter.
