Fresh Apple: TheAppleBlog (4 сообщения)

rss2email.ru

Удобные штучки

Блог о самом популярном певце лета

Хотите 1000 подписчиков?

Ген. Директор и программист – реально?

TheAppleBlog
News, reviews, walkthroughs, and real-life application of Apple products
http://theappleblog.com
рекомендовать друзьям >>

iPhone 4 Pre-orders Hit Snag
Well our day to preorder the iPhone 4 has come. However, for the majority of people, the process has ended prematurely as the AT&T verification service bombs out. This has been frustrating (to say the least) to many potential, and renewing customers. I understand AT&T has been trying to quell the massive data drain that iPhones have presented to its network, but this is ridiculous…

One would assume that AT&T knows enough to prepare for such an anticipated device, but it seems that three years of preparation have not been enough. Whether trying to order through the Apple Store online, or directly from att.com, the account verification step seems to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

However, there is an alternative if you are still not having success with the website approach. (At the time of this writing, Apple.com was still not working as expected, but att.com/wireless seemed to work intermittently.) The Apple Store doesn’t seem to be able to help — they’re still bound by AT&T’s verification steps. But if you walk into a brick and mortar AT&T shop, the good people there should be ready and able to assist you. A quick run by the local store here found no crowding, but the staff was ready and prepared for a rush.

Oh, and one other thing to be aware of: while both 16GB and 32 GB models are available for preorder today, the white model won’t be available until later this summer. Perhaps it was a last minute addition to the sales offering. But whatever the case, if you want one on launch day, you can get any color you like, as long as it’s black.

What has your pre-order experience been like?

Переслать
Buy a New Mac Mini on the New Apple Store iPhone App
Apple today unveiled a brand new unibody aluminum Mac mini that makes my HDMI-less model look like a chump, but if I get upgrade fever, I can now impulse buy the newer model using an app on my iPhone. That’s because Apple also released another brand new thing today: an Apple Store app for its iOS devices.

Despite its recent release, the Apple Store app already had 128 ratings at the time of this writing, the vast majority of which were overwhelmingly positive. Apparently people were desperately yearning for an easier way to fork over yet more of their money to Apple while on the go.

And while the timing may be coincidental with the Mac mini’s release, the goal of the app appears to have much more to do with iPhone 4. You can reserve a device for in-store pickup from Apple Store, and in fact it’s the first menu item available, and there’s a banner ad advocating the app as the fastest way to do so. Pre-orders for Apple’s much-anticipated next generation handset begin today.

At any time, you can follow two very obvious links to either get help with the app or call Apple direct, making it evident that the iPhone version of the store is designed to be as easy to use as possible. You can also access the refund and exchange policy by scrolling to the bottom of any product page, which is nice to see, since it looks like Apple is making every effort to be as transparent as possible in the limited space available on the iPhone’s small screen. No iPad version exists as of yet.

You can browse products by category, and accessory categories come up when you choose Apple’s various primary product offerings. You can add reviews for any product, and read others, and use the app to locate the nearest Apple store anywhere in the world. You can even use the app to make Genius Bar, One-to-One and Personal Shopping appointments, and the app supplies Push notifications, although it isn’t exactly clear what these will be used for yet. Probably to inform you of appointment time changes, or maybe even of order status changes for purchases made using the app.

As of right now, the new app appears to only be available in the U.S., since checking the Canadian and UK stores revealed that it hadn’t yet arrived in either. You can still use the app to make any kind of reservation at your local international store, though, so it’s worth downloading if you happen to have a U.S. iTunes account. Hopefully Apple will be rolling out the app to international stores as it launches the iPhone 4 in different world markets.

Переслать
TechUniversity: Mail 101
Apple’s Mail application is a full-featured email client that’s included with all copies of OS X. It allows you to send, receive and organize all of your email with ease.

In this TechUniversity Mail 101 screencast (subscription required), we’ll walk you through…
- Setting up a POP and IMAP email account in Mail
- The Mail interface
- Sending an email
- Organizing your inbox
Below is a sample of the video. The full screencast clocks in at just under 15 minutes.

Переслать
New Mac Mini Revealed
Today Apple revealed an updated and more powerful version of its compact desktop computer, the Mac mini.

The improved device, which prior to today’s new iteration saw an update back in October of last year, now boasts a unibody aluminium case. The new casing is said to be 20 percent smaller than the previous Mac mini, yet despite this new model being more compact, the refreshed computer also manages to house the power supply internally. Apple also revealed that the new Mac mini is 25 percent more power efficient than previous models, with the device now using less than 10W while idle — a feat which, according to Apple, now makes the Mac mini the world's most energy-efficient desktop computer.

A basic new Mac mini now starts from a base price of $699, with the standard configuration getting you a 320GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics chip, and an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz processor. If you are in need of a more powerful machine, Apple also has a higher spec configuration on offer: The $999 model will get you a 500GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM, and a 2.66GHZ chip.

Both $699 and $999 models have an integrated SD card reader, four USB ports and an HDMI-out port, a Mini DisplayPort jack and 802.11n Wi-Fi. Both of the new models can also be upgraded due to an easy access panel on the bottom of the device.

The updated Mac Mini is available now from the Apple Online Store.

Переслать