Core INFO

Apple TV removed from Best Buy

Due to increasing rumours and predictions of a highly anticipated and speculated product, Apple’s ‘hobby’ product has disappeared from the Best Buy inventory. The device which sold over 3 million units in 2011, with 1 million coming in the final quarter alone is now not available in Best Buy as the major retailer expects a release of Apple’s own rumoured TV.

The addition of features such as AirPlay in iOS 5 and AirPlay mirroring (for iPad 2, iPhone 4S and now Mountain Lion Macs) made the small TV media centre hub an attractive buy at only $100 or £100. Tim Cook announced the importance of the Apple TV when at GST.

It is a strange move for BestBuy to make as we don’t see an Apple TV set launch until the summer, maybe BestBuy know a little bit more than we do? It is very unlikely that we will see a release of Apple’s own TV set on March 7^th with the rumoured release of the next iPad; it is more credible that it will arrive with the iPhone 5.         

Mountain Lion Revealed

In rather unusual circumstances, Apple developers found themselves with a rather unusual package being delivered to them. To everyone’s surprise, it was the preview version of OS X 10.8 aka ‘Mountain Lion’. This move came just in time to steal most of the possible glory from soon-to-be-released Windows 8. This was such a shock as Apple normally announce a new version of the OS at a conference, such as the preview of OS X Lion, however the arrival of OS X Mountain Lion came largely unannounced.

The highlight of the new features to OS X:

-        iMessage – this service recently brought to iOS is revealed for Mac to replace iChat.

-        Reminders – now a separate app, again similarly on iOS, is available to create tasks, view and check off reminders. This spares the previously hidden interface of iCal which was used to manage tasks before.

-        Notes – similar to the iOS Version.

-        Notification centre – pop-up notifications from apps now on your Mac

-        Game Center – a games hub, similar to the iOS app

-        AirPlay mirroring – stream your Mac’s display over the air to an Apple TV

-        Documents in the cloud – an efficient, Apple based iCloud DropBox rival.

To sum up all these fantastic features that will be available for the Mac when Mountain Lion is released in the summer, it is definitely a merging of a very successful OS X with brilliant features from iOS 5. This shows the unifying of two operating systems, which makes sense, as we enter a post-pc era.       

No iTV

After recently discussing the provisional names for the eagerly anticipated 3rd Generation iPad release, we now know that Apple will be unlikely to continue their iDevice line if we see a highly speculated Apple TV.

One obvious name for TV would be adding a simple ‘i’, something that has become the mark of revolutionary devices. However, Apple have been warned by a British television channel, ITV, against using the name and the possible threat of legal action should the name be pursued.

When Apple first launched their current line of Apple TV, a box for your current TV to form a media centre hub, the first generation was named iTV but they were quickly forced to change back to ‘Apple TV’.

The quick-fix solution could be just discontinuing their line of Apple TV’s but that would not only bring confusion but destroy a ‘hobby’ that sold 3 million units in the last year, with 1 million in the last quarter alone.

As this could be seen as a potential problem, the iPod was not the most clear cut name for a portable music player so we could see a slightly different name. Apple do also have the spending power to purchase ITV channel with tons of cash left over but this should be seen as an outside bet.