Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
December 22, 2024

Can Apple surprise customers again?

By GEORGE ALVAREZ | October 14, 2013

Apple is in a heated competition with Samsung, Microsoft and Sony for all the new fancy toys for kids old and young, as the 2013 holiday season is quickly approaching.

What bang is Apple going to bring to the customers, who are yearning for much evolved, “cooler” devices? Here is the complete roundup on what Apple is bringing out for the holiday season:

If you haven’t already heard, Apple has already released their seventh and eighth iPhone: the iPhone 5C, which comes in new, fun, vibrant colors, that can be customizable with cases and the iPhone 5S.

Now the question that many prospective buyers may ask is, “What do I get?” For $99 and a contract, the cheaper and friendlier iPhone 5C brings you all the same specs as the outdated iPhone 5 in a hard plastic unibody casing. The vibrance is certainly more suitable for teenagers and for fashionistas.

If you are looking for the top-of-the-line technology in a phone, take a look at the iPhone 5S. For $199 and a contract with a service, you can get the sleekest, fastest phone available on the market. Much of the appeal may come from the fingerprint scanner included with the hardware. Of course, while the fingerprint scanner may not be completely necessary, it accompanies the phone with a cooler and futuristic feel.

However, that is not the heart of the novelty of iPhone. The iPhone software has been updated to iOS 7, the seventh mobile operating system from Apple, that has undergone a complete redesign from the previous iOS 6. The aesthetic appeal has definitely been raised, but many users have reported a drain of the battery life, and there have been reported problems with iMessage with a fraction of the users.

The best thing about iOS7 is that it comes with no cost, and is available on all devices marketed after the iPhone 4. Unfortunately, as it takes up almost three gigabytes of space, you may have to delete the precious photos of your dog that you collected. Before upgrading, it’s important back up all those photos and everything else that you don’t want to lose. Other devices capable of iOS 7 include the soon-to-be announced  iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2. They are some of the rumored, hot items which are expected to be announced on Oct. 22. The better camera, faster processor, lighter design and more availabilities of colors is always expected from Apple, but have they innovated a way to catch people by surprise, as the first iPod or iPod Touch did before?

Apple has made much of its profits through these iDevices, reaching out to populations around the world. Especially with the release of the iPhone 5s, Apple fanatics may be expecting vibrant colors to be available for the next lineup of iPad devices. However there are two additional things up Apple’s sleeve, rumoured to be announced on October 22nd. They are the new operating system OS X Mavericks and a completely new computer, the Mac Pro.

OS X Mavericks brings processing to another level, making the most of the operating system in terms of efficiency and organization.

It takes the latest operating system, Mountain Lion, and improves on what the user uses the computer most for. New features include iBooks, which is a way to read electronic books on your computer, and a slightly modified Safari application to make sharing information and organizing tabs easier.

On the other hand, the Mac Pro is a new computer the size of a coke can, and with up to 12 cores of computing power. Much like the Mac mini, it can be connected to a monitor to give you the full experience that an iMac or Macbook Pro provides. It’s is called Mac Pro for a good reason.

Keep on the look out for these products!

 

 


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