The day before Steve Jobs died last week, Apple held a special media event to unveil the iPhone 4S. Also discussed that day were release dates for iOS 5 and iCloud, minor updates to the iPod touch and iPod nano, and a slew of statistics about the state of Apple’s business. We have all the details for you, along with additional information about Sprint’s unlimited data plan and what the iPhone 4S’s dual-standard GSM/CDMA support means for users (not much), plus a look at the release of BBEdit 10.1.
Both iOS 5 and iCloud will launch 12 October 2011. Apple added one significant feature to what had previously been promised for iOS 5. It also showed its latest attempt at greeting cards.
The powerful text editor gains a few new features that are mostly of interest to developers, but also boasts a slew of changes and bug fixes that everyone will appreciate.
Apple is on top of the world, and is happy to share the sales and download figures that prove it. Tune in for Apple’s latest stats.
With Apple’s recent focus on the iPhone 4S, iOS 5, and iCloud, the iPod touch and iPod nano garnered only brief attention, both in last week’s media event and in Apple’s development efforts. However a few changes are worth noting.
The iPhone 4S isn’t a revolutionary phone, but it combines several bits of advanced technology into what looks like a compelling upgrade.
The iPhone 4S’s capability to switch between the dominant global GSM standard and the heavily used CDMA flavor favored by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel in the United States makes it the first dual-standard phone sold by Apple, and a rare bird among phones from all manufacturers. But this hardware feature doesn’t mean consumers have much carrier choice.
If you really want unlimited data, Sprint Nextel is the carrier to pick for your iPhone 4S purchase.
The About Face award this week goes to Netflix, which has backed down on splitting the company into streaming and DVD businesses after complaints from customers. Also this week, we point to articles at Macworld about sandboxing worries and Thunderbolt complexity, note Microsoft’s dropping of Zune players, and explain the recent SSL certificate problems.