On Apple abandoning Vision Air plans for a "Smart Glass" alternative

Always felt that the Vision Pro's strategy of emulating the real world through cameras was going to be short lived.

It's surprising that Apple ever thought that cameras would be small enough to fit in a sunglasses form factor faster than displays in prescription lenses will gain resolution.


Goes back to the biggest design paradigm of our time. Do we want to build software that emulates the physical world, or do you want to build something that augments it.

"Switzerland is in Trouble"

Expectations from the iWatch
Vidit Bhargava


For a long time now, there've been rumors of an iWatch, which we might eventually see take shape sometime in the near future. There's a lot that everyone's hoping for.

And While this may not be as big a launch as the iPhone or iPad, it's certainly the most challenging piece of hardware Apple's ever made. For it's not competing with engineer-obsessed tech companies like Microsoft or Google this time. It's competing with experts in the world of Watch design.

Ive is taking on Switzerland, his watch isn't going to compete with the next Galaxy Gear or the newly released Moto 360, It'll compete with the likes of Tag Heuer, Mondaine and Rado. This is why I think Eddy Cue wasn't exaggerating when he said Apple's releasing it's best products in 25 years this fall. A Version 1 iWatch which takes on the likes of Tag Heuer is going to be a huge feat to achieve for anyone!

This is my expectation from the iWatch, Its going to be nothing like the current smart watches and I hope it beats the Mondaine watch which has long been on my wishlist

--
P.S. The title of this post is inspired from a comment that Jony Ive is rumored to have made during the development of iWatch and has nothing to do with Switzerland. 

The Next iPad. What to Expect.

Vidit Bhargava

This week Apple will unveil its next generation iPad at the Yerba Buena Center of Arts , the same place where the previous two models came out. This is hardly a rumor now, giving a glance to the invitation will confirm it.

Let's for a moment forget all speculations, rumors and leaks and think what would be a sensible upgrade to the most widely used tablet in the world.

What immediately comes to mind is that Apple will add this year's hardware. It will be a major hardware upgrade to start with. Having said that, this major overhaul is only going to be on the iPad's logic board, the casing will in probability remain the same. Purely going by the trends, the second 'update' to an iOS device has always involved bringing stability to the device, remember iPhone 3GS? It looked the same as 3G but was a completely different device on performance, the next generation iPad might also follow the same trend and add internal hardware changes than the superficial looks. Then there is a possibility that the iPad might just have a Retina Display this time. It is highly likely this year but if you'd have said the same for iPad 2 last year I would have been skeptical. It really wasn't feasible to fit a display of that quality in a 499 dollar price limit. Come 2012 and the situation is different, the displays industry has overcome the price hurdle, it seems. So Retina is very much on my list of the new iPad. A good camera is obviously a good idea, Apple's iPhone 4S had done some good stuff with the optics, i find no reason why they won't want the same technology to come their next most sold gadget. A similar looking iPad with a better display, camera and screen would be my pick for the 3rd generation iPad.

In terms of software, it might be iOS 5.1 which is obviously the long awaited minor update to the iOS that is in beta stages currently but who knows Apple might have iOS 6 under the wraps. Now iOS 6 also sounds plausible, after all it's not every year that they can afford to 'announce' a new OS at the WWDC, WWDC being their annual developers conference and  developers expect both hardware and software from it, not 'just' announcing software. But let's not deviate from the point. Whatever this new OS will be, what exactly will it have? The answer lies in Apple's Mountain Lion update. So first of all I'd like to highlight those features which the iOS is going to borrow from Mac OS X 10.8. First up, is the update to Notes. Notes are definitely set to have Picture embedding capabilities in them. Last month Apple showed us Notes coming for the Mac and it showed us how they synced well with the iCloud. So they definitely won't want to leave other devices behind in terms of the basic built in Capabilities. The next one is going to be Messages. Yes, Messages for the iOS is set to drop i from the name and become messages. It might also become more of a multi-purpose chat client, something that apple has envisioned to do with the OS X app of the same name. FaceTime will also get an HD update, that's something we had in the new OS X Lion but didn't in iOS5 so if iPad is going to get truly HD with all the retina display and airplay to HDTV's in HD, it should have FaceTime HD too. Safari is the next on the list. Apple had updated Safari last month, and now it sports a giant common search and address bar followed by a permanent Reader button. Frankly speaking Safari has never been better and the same will have to come on the iPad. All the above features will surely come on the iPad, but it all depends on how Apple plans to release its iOS and Mountain Lion. They may come later this year or they may be in your hands by the next week. And Now let's come to the iPad 2S (or 3) only features. Siri is highly possible. It might also drop the beta from the name. ILife and iWork are already present but Photos might get more Sharing options. If there is something new in works, I don't know it. I can only guess that it will either be an App Store App (which means it'll cost anything from $4.99 to $9.99) or an inbuilt app. But a few new apps are customary and will come for the next iPad only, this is certain. At the moment the best i can predict is Aperture and Final Cut Pro for iPad.

As for the name. I don't really think it is going to be iPad 3. iPad 2S, iPad, iPad HD are a few names I think the next generation iPad could be called.

Pricing will be the same. (Regardless of any rumor that is floating around.) the iPad might add the 4G LTE variant and they may merge it with 3G and charge a little more but it is slightly dubious at the moment. There might be more storage options too, 16GB iPads might make way for a 128GB model. The iPad might also have more accessories in store, an upgrade to the smart cover seems logical.

That's all there is to the mysterious new iPad. It will have no more or no less. Apple won't be showing off a 7 inch iPad. You won't be paying more for a retina display, though you might end up paying less if you are a student and the iPad won't be bulkier or have a small battery life, in short it won't have anything less than the iPad 2.

And One More Thing, The next iPad also will come with a heart melting video!

Adobe - Apple "Reportedly" fight

Vidit Bhargava

Now this is one is an old topic on my blog's news real, but it resurfaced again after, Steve Jobs "reportedly" went to WSJ and told flash a CPU HOG!

Now don't think I am just another Apple Fan (which I am not, I never really like any and everything they make for example Apple TV, I never really liked the idea). I just want my readers to know how much rumor is there on Internet these days.

Here are 3 reasons why all this is made up and non of it is true!

1. Proof? Neither do we have any proof that Apple actually opposed or condemned Flash. Neither do we have any proof of Adobe getting raged on Apple's comments.

Adobe's blog is always reported in any article of this Flash Vs. Apple fight. Adobe's Featured blog has just one paragraph on Apple in their blog (in the near past) which states Adobe is ready with the mobile version of Flash for Safari on iPhone OS. Now thats something we haven't heard since iPhone's launch. So is Flash in for the next version of the OS? Proof of the statement? here: Adobe's blog

2. No News! The CEO of the World's Most Secretive tech corp. enters WSJ office without any hype and bashes flash as a CPU Hog.

Further Kevin Lynch states in a blog post on Adobe's blog about MACS inability to run Flash!

Now WSJ would have of course covered this news on their site. Obvious isn't it. But look what happens when we search for Steve Jobs' news in the past few days: WSJ Site No News at all!

Kevin Lynch for a matter of fact hasn't blogged since 2007 on his blog, here: Kevin's blog and if u're looking for Adobe's blogpost on their official blog? Look in the first link.

3.Flash runs! Now in the first link, we also see the guy stated that Adobe supports creating apps in Flash for the iPhone. Surely, Apple wouldn't have done that if they wanted a fight with Adobe.

Flash ads are also seen running on iPhone a several times!

Now I don't want to form an Opinion on whether Flash is buggy. It falls in between, Its not the best but its good enough to beat its counterparts (Silver light). However, a few times I see Flash files crash and fail to load or sometimes the youtube video starts streaming from between also (This can be 'cos of my internet, though). And if Apple is looking for a counterpart to flash, it's hard to beat their market now.

Finally, I would keep my fingers crossed and hope for the flash to come on iPhone OS. Till then such sensationalized fights will "Reportedly" end after they got old and rotten!

30 Reasons why 3 Idiots is not 5 point Someone

Recently we saw(& read) all that shouting going on the blogs, websites, and news channels, about this awesome film '3 Idiots' not giving credit for taking 5.Someone. I've found out 3 very useful items which prove the filmmakers right!

Perhaps, the newswalas read it and show us something else! please we need more important news than this fighting!

The much hyped agreement!
3o Reasons why 3 Idiots is not 5 point Someone
SPOILER ALERT : IF U HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM, PLEASE DON'T READ IT YOU WILL BE DISCLOSED TO THE AMAZING TWIST'S AND THE CLIMAX OF THE MOVIE!

The truth behind Apple's Tabletmac!

Every time an Apple event is about to come, there are lakhs of speculations about the new Apple Tablet or shall we say, the new 'iSlate' or 'iGuide' or 'Tabletmac'? Every now and then there are reports of domain names being purchased, people claiming to have seen the Tablet device, or even stating its release date (January 26th 2010 - The recent one!)

Last time before the September 9th event, all Apple fans had their hopes up for the new Tabletmac. Their hopes were shattered and smashed just after they saw this board! :D :Music Event! eh? You probably don't expect a laptop or Tablet PC to be released here! So again the 2 year long hope of a Tablet PC from Apple were shut in the box.

Come this december and again the rumors started flying. http://t.sina.com.cn/kaifulee ; This is the link to Kaifu Lee's blog! Who's Kaifu Lee by the way? He is the ex-chief of Google China. This person states in his blog that the new device will weigh less than half as much as a MacBook Air, though it was unclear whether the message was speculation or came from Lee's friend.

Having said that, Lee wouldn't have had any actual experience of the device he is talking about as Apple inc. is always very secretive about their products until the very end.

Some other rumors involve photos like this; with a caption : 'Proof of Apple iSlate's existance':

The Tabletmac in this case is my speculation of the new device coming from Apple. According to me if there is an Apple Tablet in there. This is the most likely version of the tablet.

Finally, we are at a point where nothing is sure. This isn't to say of the confirmation of the Apple Tablet but we still can't deny with speculation from media running faster than ever. The 26th January 2010 event exists & there will be a mac release in this(according to paterns).I suspect that Apple is decreasing its prices not that the economic recession has eased off & Apple will be upgrading the specs which are quite drowsy at the moment! Also I am hoping of a new product launch this month from Apple.

Apple iTablet

This is my take on the much rumored Apple iTablet, a netbook in between the price of iPhone and Macbook, say about $399 . These might probably be the features of iTablet :
Apple MAC OS X 10.6
Touch Screen 13"
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00GHz
2GB DDR3 RAM
4MB L2 Cache
NVDIA 9400GT
Twistible Screen to provide a full size Keyboard - The one used in Macbooks
No CD Drive,
160 GB SATA HDD
2 USB 2.0 Slots and Standard ports.

EA Sports Cricket 09 - Pre Release Features

We all cricket game fans are keen and waiting for a new Cricket game to come from EA after their 2007 release which had lots of bugs.

I know we all have given are suggestions at the - EA Sports forum but how often do they consider the suggestion just 3 to 4% of the suggestions are taken in.

So, I have a list of features which will probably be there in this version:

1. More Shots for the 360 degree controller
   
2. Inclusion of Proper Free Hit and Powerplays
   
3. A new graphics engine
   
4. means better graphics and also because they have used the old for a long time now
   
5. Licenced kits and players from the Asian countries also (India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan). [Thought there is not much hope of it being correct]
   
6. More licences of Bats, and probably Helmets aswell
   
7. They also might get licence to names back.
   
8. Ashes 2006-07 Scenarios, and T20 Scenarios (Only for licenced teams)
   
9. T20 world Cups (2007 and 2009 with correct schedule)
   
10. Minor improvements in Create Player
    
11. Removal of the World Series and addition to multination tournaments (ODI)
    
12. Inclusion of T20 Special Kits.'
    
13. Inclusion of more stadiums, better whether conditions, larger grounds and day/night matches(right now they are either day or night), and better pitches
14. Other Minor improvements to bugs.
    

Though I still believe only a few will be there in the official feature list even though the expectations are very grounded.

EA Sports Cricket 09

Hello every one!

EA Sports Cricket 07 was quite good, but it has been 2 1/2 years Since we have heard any news about a new Cricket game though still there is no 'OFFICIAL' news

Just there have been a few indications which say that their might be a Cricket game on PC ONLY by EA for the T20 world Cup in 2009 latest by 8th May 2009. Some websites show that the game is going to be released by the name of EA Sports Cricket T20 World Cup 2009; while some claim there has been an official information of the game, by EA to them.

I don't whether this is true or not but I am also waiting for the new Cricket game.