Tag Archives: consumer-reports

Apple Submits Revised Plans and Renderings for Apple’s New Campus

Posted on December 7, 2011 by admin

Click for full size As noted by iPhoneinCanada , Apple has submitted revised plans for their so-called “Spaceship” campus proposal. The massive new campus is expected to provide Apple with approximately 2.8 million square feet for up to 13,000 employees. Steve Jobs personally presented the original plans to the City of Cupertino in June. Jobs described it as follows: It’s a pretty amazing building. It’s a little like a spaceship landed. It’s got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle… It’s a circle. It’s curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It’s all curved. We’ve used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building… It’s pretty cool. With the exception of the rendering included above, many of the other renderings appear the same as the previous images released. The newly revised documents do include detailed floorplans of how the 4 story building will be laid out. If all goes as planned, the structure could be complete by 2015. Continue reading →

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Ivy Bridge to Bring Triple Display Support to MacBook Air

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin

Earlier today, we highlighted a leaked roadmap from VR-Zone detailing Intel’s plans for its mobile Ivy Bridge processors set to debut in April and May of next year. One detail of the report that bears special attention is the fact that the Ivy Bridge platform, both mobile and desktop, will support up to three independent displays, with one of those displays being an internal one. While we’re talking about graphics, as with the desktop Ivy Bridge processors, the mobile processors also support up to three independent displays, although one of these will be the built in display in the notebook, but hopefully we’ll see notebooks with a DisplayPort connector as standard come next year. The current Sandy Bridge platform is only capable of supporting two independent displays, limiting the MacBook Air to one external display. Similarly, the 13-inch MacBook Pro can only drive two external displays by turning off its internal display. More powerful machines such as the larger MacBook Pro models can currently drive two external displays in addition to the internal one due to their inclusion of discrete graphics chips paired with the Sandy Bridge platform. But with Ivy Bridge opening the door to direct support for up to three displays via the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, even owners of smaller machines like the MacBook Air will have the option of significantly expanding their screen real estate by connecting to two external displays. Continue reading →

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Consumer Reports: AT&T is nation’s worst carrier, again

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin

Consumer Reports annual rating of cell phone carriers ranks AT&T at the bottom of the list for the second year in a row. Continue reading →

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Ivy Bridge Mobile CPUs for Next MacBook Air and Pro Models Due around May

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin

VR-Zone leaks a roadmap for Intel’s next generation mobile processors, called Ivy Bridge. Apple currently uses Intel’s mobile Sandy Bridge processors in its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebooks. Ivy Bridge will offer a number of benefits for Apple’s notebook lines, opening the door to quad-core processors in the 13-inch MacBook Pro and bringing significantly faster graphics and new OpenCL capabilities to the MacBook Air. Ivy Bridge will also support ultra high resolution displays and Intel has committed to Thunderbolt support alongside USB 3.0 in the platform. VR-Zone details a wide range of processors with Thermal Design Power (TDP) ranging from 17W to 55W. The TDP tends to be the limiting factor in the size of Apple’s notebook designs. Apple presently uses 17W processors in the MacBook Air designs and 35W-45W processors in the MacBook Pro. The new processors will include the improved Intel HD Graphics 4000 integrated graphics chipset. The 35W-45W (MacBook Pro) processors range from Dual Core 2.6GHz to 2.9GHz with single core turbo speeds of up to 3.6GHz, while the 17W (MacBook Air) processors range from Dual Core 1.8GHz to 2.0GHz with single core turbo speeds of up to 2.8-3.2GHz. Apple’s choice of processors may depend on how dramatically it redesigns the MacBook Pro next year. Rumors have persisted that Apple is working on ultra-thin models that may represent a complete overhaul of some of the MacBook Pro models, making them more Air-like in design. VR-Zone notes that the TDPs on these processors are programmable, so Apple may be able to reduce their TDPs at the expense of processor speed. VR-Zone reports that the new mobile platform is expected to launch around May, with some high-end processors possibly launching in April. This gives a rough timeframe of when we should expect updates to Apple’s notebooks. Continue reading →

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Remains of the Day: Word to your (iPad-using) mother

Posted on November 30, 2011 by admin

Microsoft Office may be bound for the iPad, Apple’s painted a bull’s-eye on Target, and Consumer Reports says that the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire are the best tablets that aren’t the iPad. Continue reading →

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Criterion Collection Arrives on iTunes [Mac Blog]

Posted on November 8, 2011 by admin

The Criterion Collection , film distribution company specializing in “gathering the greatest films from around the world” and releasing them in the highest quality, has debuted 46 of its 680 films on iTunes. Criterion is offering a very small selection of films from their collection… but it is a start. They seem to be beginning with 46 films, including such hallmarks of cinema as Ingmar Bergman’s THE SEVENTH SEAL , Jean-Luc Godard’s BREATHLESS , Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI , and Francois Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS . Oddly, the movies are only available in HD on the iPad and Apple TV. Also disappointing is the lack of extras — Criterion is famous for offering extremely high quality interviews and other extras in its releases. Regardless, the films [ iTunes Store ] are $14.99 to buy and $2.99 to rent. Continue reading →

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‘Consumer Reports’ Satisfied that iPhone 4S Fixes Antenna Issues

Posted on November 8, 2011 by admin

Influential ratings and reviews magazine Consumer Reports , which famously refused to recommend both the GSM and CDMA iPhone 4 models due to antenna issues, has now determined to its satisfaction that the iPhone 4S does not suffer from the same issue. The determination means that Consumer Reports is now willing to list the iPhone 4S as a “recommended” device. Apple’s newest smart phone performed very well in our tests, and while it closely resembles the iPhone 4 in appearance, it doesn’t suffer the reception problem we found in its predecessor in special tests in our labs. In special reception tests of the iPhone 4S that duplicated those we did on the iPhone 4, the newer phone did not display the same reception flaw, which involves a loss of signal strength when you touch a spot on the phone’s lower left side while you’re in an area with a weak signal. Early reports from users had indeed suggested that the iPhone 4S did not possess the antenna issue that some users had complained about in the iPhone 4, but Consumer Reports clearly undertook its own testing of the device for its assessment. Consumer Reports also indicates that the 8 GB iPhone 4, introduced alongside the iPhone 4S as a lower-cost device, does continue to suffer from the antenna problem. While Consumer Reports is now able to recommend the iPhone 4S, it does not list the device at the top of its smartphone rankings, placing it below several Android phones with larger displays and support for faster cellular networks. That was not the case last year, when the magazine ranked the iPhone 4 first among smartphones despite the antenna problem that led it to withhold a “recommended” rating. Continue reading →

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Apple Store 2.0 app adds EasyPay self-checkout option

Posted on November 8, 2011 by admin

As anticipated, Apple has released a major update to the official Apple Store app for iOS. The key change is the addition of EasyPay, which lets shoppers scan an item at an Apple Store and perform a self-checkout. The function has several limits though; it is for instance currently US-only, and applies just to “select accessories.” Users must also have an iPhone 4 or 4S, despite the presence of cameras on the iPad 2 and iPod touch…. Continue reading →

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iPhone 4S Seems to Fix ‘Death Grip’ Antenna Issue

Posted on October 14, 2011 by admin

One of the big controversies surrounding the launch of the iPhone 4 was related to its antenna design. Several customers reported issues with significant signal loss when holding their iPhone in a natural way. The complaints grew louder until even Consumer Reports stated that they couldn’t recommend the iPhone 4 due to the signal issues. Continue reading →

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