Mac Information

Apple Macintosh, iPod, iPad and iPhone news and advice in Dublin, Ireland

Sidebar
Menu

Apple's new ad- Your Verse

Apple seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment with its adverts. The two recent pieces are some of the best advertising from Cupertino in the last few years.

Check out the new advert, called Your Verse, which is narrated by Robin Williams:

.
Comments

Looking for an iPad mini for Christmas…?

Looking for an iPad mini in time for Christmas? It’s going to be tricky. Here is a quick run down of your options:
iPad-mini-in-hand
1/ call Apple or one of the main resellers in Ireland- Compu b or Mactivate:
Apple- 1800 92 38 98
Compu b- 1850 66 88 88
Mactivate- (01) 822 4488
Typetec- (01) 500 9000
Arnotts- (01) 805 0569

2/ Other sellers:
Don’t expect great service or knowledge, but here is a list of other Apple product sellers in Ireland. Most don’t answer calls though...
Currys/PC World (no phone number!)
Harvey Normans (no phone number)
HMV (no phone number)
Tesco (yes some stores carry Apple products- call 01-2152922)

.
Comments

Apple Dominates Tablet Computing




If you need any indication of just how much Apple dominates the tablet market, you just need to glance at this chart:

ipad-traffic-by-country-comscore
© Business Insider

The developments at HP in the last week just further strengthen this position. HP announced that it had decided to stop manufacturing its webOS devices, and held a fire-sale of all HP TouchPad tablets. The TouchPad was the number two tablet on the market, even if this was far behind the figures for the iPad.

.
Comments

iPad 2 arrives- what is new?

Today Apple introduced iPad 2, which adds cameras and a new faster A5 chip to the tablet computer. The new model will go on sale in Ireland on March 25th and the prices will remain the same.



The main differences between iPad 1 and iPad 2 are:
1/ weight- 79 grams lighter
2/ thickness- the new iPad 2 is 33% thinner

.
Comments

iPad arrives in Ireland on July 23rd

The wait for the iPad to arrive in Ireland is almost over. Apple today announced that it will go on sale here this Friday, July 23rd.



Here are the prices and specs:

.
Comments

Our favourite iPad apps

Here is a quick list of iPad applications which we are using and like. Almost all are free and they can be downloaded using the App Store application on the iPad.

IPad apps for Ireland and the UK

Some of the best free apps:
- iBooks- to download books from the Apple store- lots of classic book are free
- Kindle- Amazon’s version of iBooks but access to the Amazon book store. This let’s you sync your books between your Mac and your iPad or iPhone using their Whisper Sync.
- Epicuruous- iPad version of recipes app
- Twitterific- best app for using with Twitter
- Pocket Pond- fun app- just try it!
- Planets- beautiful graphics showing the planets and stars
- Adobe Ideas- a drawing app

.
Comments

Article: Pre-ordering the iPad: It's All about the Brand

[This article appeared in TidBITS on March 29th 2010:
http://db.tidbits.com/article/11121
For more information about TidBITS please visit the site here]
TidBITS



A number of recent commentators, including one in an article reprinted by Macworld, questioned why anyone would bother to order an iPad before they had a chance to see one in a store or to read the reviews. The answer is "the brand." The strength of the Apple brand explains why people are willing to risk their hard-earned cash on something they haven't personally seen or experienced.

Strong product branding encompasses many variables, such as specifications, pricing, packaging, features, and overall utility. However, those are all part of the rational, logical reasons we buy something. Also significant, and, I would argue, even more important, are the unconscious reasons we buy a product such as an iPod or iPhone. If you talk to someone about why they bought an iPhone, they will list reasons such as the App Store, ease of synchronisation, or other functional aspects of using the phone. The closest we normally get to an emotional reason is the "cool factor," which is an acceptable way of describing your emotions towards the product without appearing goofy! However, these deep emotional keys motivate us to spend money on a product which has not yet been tried and tested.

Continue....
Comments

No word on iPad for Ireland

The announcement last week that the iPad will go on sale in the US on April 3rd, and in selected counties later in April, have left Irish customers wondering- when? Apple announced that the iPad would be available for pre-order this week (March 12th) before going on sale in the US on Saturday April 3rd. The statement went on to say " in addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April."
iPad in Ireland
This essentially follows the lines for Apple retail stores. Countries with retail stores will get the iPad first, presumably because shoppers will expect the device to be available in an official Apple store first. However countries without Apple stores, such as Ireland, do not yet have a launch date.


Continue...

.
Comments

iPad in Education

About ten years ago I spent the majority of my time travelling between libraries in the UK and Ireland, researching for my PhD. This was a notes gathering exercise for about two years, as I collected material relating to my research field in Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester, London and Dublin.

In those days I had two main tools to hand- my Apple PowerBook G3 laptop, and my trusty Apple eMate. Many people may have forgotten or may not even be aware of the eMate 300. It was launched in 1997, and was a small, light, green plastic mini device, a cross between a PDA and a laptop- a netbook without the net!

Apple eMate 300

This light PDA/laptop hybrid meant it was easy to carry around libraries, and was ideal for notes. The keys were smaller than on a standard PowerBook keyboard, but it was still comfortable to work on. It also had a stylus pen, which worked on the touch screen. There was no mouse input, and so you controlled windows and dialogue boxes using the pen on the greyscale screen.

Continue....
Comments

Apps we would like to see on the iPad

With the introduction of the iPad, and its launch coming in March, we have been thinking about what apps we would like to see on the iPad. Up to now, apps on the iPhone have normally been widget-type apps, plus games and utilities. However the iPad offers the opportunity for larger input, through typing on the touchscreen keyboard or through an external keyboard.

The combination of keyboard and larger screen offers new opportunities for existing developers. So what apps might make it to the iPad, and lure us away from our laptop. Could the iPad replace a MacBook (Pro/Air) on the road?

1/ FileMaker- we liked FileMaker's sortie into the world of iPod/iPhone apps, but would love to see a more powerful iPad database app, which allows full FileMaker editing. This could be great for client databases for sales people on the road, or for researchers in universities.
http://www.filemaker.com/
FileMaker Pro for iPad

Continue....
Comments

Top 5 groups who will want an iPad

Here is our assessment of the top five groups who should look at buying an iPad:

Top 5 iPad uses

1/ Presenters: the iPad is a great way to make presentations. With iWork available for the iPad, users can run Keynote. This means that sales people on the move could receive a presentation by email, edit it and then present it using the VGA adapter which will connect an iPad to a standard projector.

Continue....
Comments

Apple iPad arrives- plenty of surprises

Apple have launched the new iPad, a tablet based computer, which runs a modified version of the iPhone OS.

Apple's new iPad for UK and Ireland

The iPad is a new type of device, primarily for viewing data, such as webpages, email, photos and books. It has access to three stores- the App Store, the iTunes Store, and the new iBook store, where users can download books from major publishers.

A few initial thoughts:


Continue....
Comments