Rumors

Major changes coming to MacOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS during WWDC 2016

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Right from the mouth of Mark Gurman (during the Jay and Fared Show Podcast), first reported by O’Grady’s Powerpage;

  1. No hardware announcements (that we already know)

  2. Siri in MacOS, to be featured in top right corner alongside Spotlight

  3. iOS Design Refresh with more colors – this is big. There are still many who insists that iOS 7 to 9 have been pretty bland and boring design-wise, coming from design powerhouse Apple, and refreshing the UI will definitely help in the looks department.

  4. Notifications will change (among other iOS system tweaks). Probably for the sake of watchOS 3, since the current less-than-perfect notification system is weighing watchOS 2 down.

  5. Big enhancement to Photos both on iOS and MacOS (to fend off Google Photos, as well as address the demise of Aperture somewhat. After all, Google Photo’s editing features are worked on by the former team at Nik.

  6. Redesigned Apple Music. (Whatever, just bring back the old Music app please)

  7. New encryption abilities (Wow).

  8. Send money to others through iMessage

iPhone 7? Maybe not

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For all it is worth, early rumors of the next iPhone are showing something different about Apple’s strategy this time round – iPhone 7 might be the iPhone 6ss.

Nothing says more about a new iPhone being “new” than a need to buy a new case for it.

Right now the rumors are;

  1. Same industrial design (aka phone body shape and size) with the exception of redesigned antenna lines

  2. Dual-lens cameras on a brand new iPhone Pro, which will be the higher spec-ed model of a iPhone 7 Plus

  3. Will underwhelm. LOL.

Kind of a bummer.

Well, it is not like real iOS people are going to jump ship to Android all of a sudden, and the random customers who do will eventually come back when a nicer iPhone comes around in a few years’ time, so no big deal I guess.

What I want for WWDC 2012 is a new iMac and the curious case of the 15″ MacBook Pro

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The past few days had seen a crazy mix of rumors about the exact new Macs that will be announced during the keynote tonight, and much of the rumors are about the big possibility that the new 15-inch Mac notebook will not be a MacBook Pro, but instead a new “MacBook”, and that the MacBook Pro line will live on a bit longer with only updates to the internals.

This mean that the Macs codenamed J30 and J31 in my previous post could instead be updated MacBook Pros as opposed to actually being new and redesigned iMacs.

Having absolutely no rumors/news about redesigned iMacs besides extremely vaguer mentions in the major rumor sites isn’t helping either. In the days leading up to WWDC 2012, we have heard a great deal about the new Mac Pros, the new 15-inch Mac notebook, and lesser about the updated MacBook Airs, but almost absolutely nothing about the iMacs, rather than some unverified news that redesigned iMacs will not make it in time for WWDC 2012.

However, something about the whole MacBook Pro line being retained despite having a new 15-inch Mac notebook stinks though.

Apple is not a company afraid to cut old products when they introduce new ones.

Apple is also not a company to keep complex product lines.

A 11/13 MacBook Air line, with a 13/15/17 MacBook Pro line, with a new 15 MacBook line, all for Apple’s notebook lineup, is absolutely nonsensical and not in Apple’s fashion to do.

What Apple will be in favor of, is a product lineup which they have implemented since day 1 of their big switch to intel more than 6 years ago.

6 years ago, there was a 13-inch MacBook, and a 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro.

Yes, this means that the notebooks are separated into two lines based on the size of the notebooks, which made sense since Apple could really only put in Pro-level graphics cards in the bigger Mac notebooks.

If you recall, Apple was all ready to follow that lineup when they introduced the unibody MacBooks (13-inch) and the unibody MacBook Pros (15-inch and 17-inch) in late 2008. But then they realized they had to have a Mac notebook under 1000USD, and thus the MacBook White was revived, and the 13-inch unibody MacBook became the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which in itself isn’t very “Pro”, being the only MacBook Pro without a dedicated graphics card (yes there was an oddball 15-inch without a dedicated card for a while, but nobody except Elsie Law wanted one).

If the Apple today is still the Apple of Steve Jobs, I believe we will be seeing this new MacBook line-up tonight;

11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air (with Retina Displays)

and

the all-new 15-inch MacBook Pro (redesigned, with Retina Display)

And then I’ll have my redesigned iMacs too. Yay~

The new iPhone part

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The new iPhone back case machined out of a single piece of solid aluminum, I wonder if the black means it’s anodized.

What a beauty.

Take this and compare it to the pebble-shaped, faked “metal” plastic shell of the recently-released Samsung Galaxy SIII running the ugliest version of TouchWiz ever, and I seriously wonder if anyone can still tell themselves that the SIII is even a choice.

Then again, lots of commoners have no taste.

As I have previously stated, I truly believe this is legit.

The New iPhone – Scoop by 9to5mac

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9to5mac (through ifixyouri) has a big scoop on the exterior look of the new iPhone. Metal backs, new dock connector, movement of the headphone jack to the bottom of the phone, and an overall thinner profile.

Get in on the details on their site now. This stuff is legit. A little birdie chirps that from what he/she knows, the parts posted by 9to5mac are legit. And the little birdie is often right. Unless of course, this is yet another “teardrop prototype drawing leaks into the wild and manufacturers start making cases off the leaked document” incident. Only this time there were actual parts made, parts that 9to5mac can order from a real iPhone parts OEM.

Possible pricing for iPad 2 (wifi only) in Singapore?

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Some information came in regarding possible prices when the iPad 2 launches in Singapore next Friday, 29th April 2011.

16GB $668

32GB $798

64GB $928

Only time will tell if they are accurate, but if they are, it will represent quite a major drop from the original pricing for the iPad 1 when it launched in Singapore last July, for the original 16GB wifi set cost $728, and will also put it in line with my previous information that the 16GB wifi will launch with a price between $650 to $690.

Why is Apple hiring for the “Apple Travel Team”? What is that?

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Maybe I am really ignorant, but this is the first time I have ever heard of the “Apple Travel Team”.

Apple is currently hiring for the following positions in the “Apple Travel Team”;

i. Travel Counselor

ii. Operations Manager

iii. Operations Supervisor

For example, the Apple Travel Counselor position lists;

The Apple Travel Team in Singapore is seeking Travel Counselors who will be responsible for providing outstanding service and professionalism to travelers, make accurate and timely travel reservations, and maintain high levels of productivity in our fast pace Regional Service Center (RSC). This is an exciting position for an individual that is extremely customer focused and has a passion to provide service excellence to customers. The right individual must have a thorough knowledge of the travel industry, travel reservation systems, pricing, and international markets.

The successful candidate will:

•Professionally interact with travelers to respond to all travel inquiries including reservations, price quotations, and customer service issues

•Ensure optimum customer service through effective use of phone system, e-mail and positive telephone service techniques

•Achieve individual and team service level goals related to telephone, quality, accuracy and productivity

•Knows and properly uses airline terminology, codes, fare basis, airline rules and tariffs, resource guides, books, and industry contacts

•Maintaining a favorable company image when interfacing with outside resources

•Effectively work in a team environment supporting management and staff, follows policies, providing feedback, assisting in special projects, and taking on additional responsibility

•Outstanding organizational skills that result in high productivity

•Efficiently and effectively respond to customer service issues

•Must work weekends, may require night shift..

All these positions have been posted a few days ago. No one seems to have reported anything strange, which is why I am skeptical of this being something interesting. But never before have I seen the words “Apple Travel” on the Apple jobs site in all my lousy attempts at applying for a job at Apple.

It’s no secret that a large part of Apple’s call centre services for their Online Stores and sales is located in the Singapore campus, but I have never heard of Apple providing “outstanding service and professionalism to travelers, make accurate and timely travel reservations, and maintain high levels of productivity in our(Apple’s) fast pace Regional Service Center (RSC)”.

Pardon me but that totally sounds like the work of a TRAVEL AGENT.

And since when is Apple a travel agent?

Is Apple providing a new service? Maybe this has something to do with their purchase of some company providing mapping solutions a while back? Or to do with the Tim Cook visit to the Singapore campus a while back?

Or am I just plain dumb (well there’s a big chance) to the obvious presence of a “Apple Travel Team” in Apple Singapore all these years?

Anyone in the inside mind dropping me a PM? LOL.

Interesting.

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