Coruscating consumer creations from the corridors of Cupertino
Following up Pocket-lint's five greatest Apple failures feature, we thought it a good idea to produce a follow-up feature looking at some of Apple's greatest triumphs.
Whatever you may think of Apple in terms of its business, its secretive practices, or whether it's actually that innovative a company - there's no question that many of Apple's devices have changed the way many people view and use technology.
As to whether this is down to marketing and some good timing, or whether the innovation itself has been the source of success isn't certain - rather than being distinct it's more likely to be a bit of both.
So, in no particular order here's Pocket-lint's favourite Apple successes:
Macintosh
Released:
1984
Discontinued:
1985
Cost:
$2495
The first one on our list is a bit obvious, but the Macintosh computer really does deserve its place, not only on this Pocket-lint rundown but arguably on any list of innovative and successful consumer technology.
For us, this is mainly due to the introduction of a graphical user interface, which ensured a whole new experience - the interaction with icons proving a huge hit over more conventional methods such as DOS, whereby typing commands was the norm for running programmes.
It's rather analogous to the evolution of the sandwich, whereby only after the development (and successful marketing) does everyone think it blindingly obvious. And whereas it took a certain spark (and gambling addiction) for the Earl to place meat between bread, it also required a certain amount of gumption from Apple.
The new UI, as well as the introduction of the mouse and 128k of memory, made this a classic.
PowerBook 100 series
Released:
1991
discontinued:
1992
COST:
$2500
Despite Apple's use of the word "Power" to describe its first line of rather underpowered laptops, (sorry, but we're not counting the wholly un-portable Mac Portable) this line of laptops proved quite a hit with consumers.
The low-end 100 model had a 20MB hard drive, 2MB RAM and 16 MHz processor and cost around $2500 at launch, so for the money you weren't getting great specs. So what made it a success? It was the innovative design of its keyboard that proved most successful, as it was positioned towards the back of the device rather than the front - leaving room for hand rests either side of the trackball, which was another nice feature.
Both its keyboard layout and the trackball for cursor control stood the test of time, spawning many generations in the series and forming the basis for almost all laptops since. The PowerBook series continued until 2006 where it was replaced with the MacBook Pro.
iMac G3
Released:
1998
Discontinued:
2003
Cost:
$1299
The iMac G3 was for consumer computing what Blake's 7 was for sci-fi; as beneath a quirky aesthetic and very bad peripherals/props was a really innovative product which laid the foundations for future generations of machines.
Not only did it feature a USB port, which Intel will no doubt be eternally grateful for, but it also got rid of a 3.5-inch floppy disc drive, which although at the time was rather controversial - as the format was still in use - it pushed consumers into using CDs and networking in order to transfer data, just as we do today.
As is ever the case with Apple products, marketing also had its place and the great out-of-the-box experience that was super-easy to hook up to the Internet helped to see the device through three different iterations - G3, G4 and G5.
iPod/iTunes
Released:
2001
Discontinued:
Still going
Cost:
$400 for 5GB
Although these two products are very different beasts, we've lumped them together for the very obvious reason that the iPod would not have been the success were it not for iTunes. Rather like Nestle and controversy, Nantucket and whaling or Dempsey and Makepeace - these two went hand in hand.
As the company looked to sell music downloads directly onto its hardware, it made burning shop-bought CDs to get music on your machine an unnecessary inconvenience.
Both products were launched in 2001, and are still going strong now, with a variety of updates to both hardware and software. The great marketing ploy which underlies these two Apple products is the way they tie consumers into the Apple eco-system. Once an iPod was purchased, an iTunes purchase would soon follow - cue a few new product launches, and since you've already splashed the cash on music you're far more likely to purchase the new hardware; and so it continues.
Yes, they have probably always been a little over-priced, but there's no denying the iDuo's massive impact on both the entertainment industry and the consumer electronics market since launch.
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iPhone/App Store
Released:
2007
Discontinued:
Still going
Cost:
$499/599
In a very similar way to the iPod/iTunes combo, Apple struck gold with the iPhone and its App Store. The launch of the iPhone in 2007 was greeted with much anticipation built up over months and months of speculation.
It wasn't all beer and skittles for the iPhone at launch in the beginning, however, as soon after the first incarnation went on sale ($499 for 4GB and $599 for 8GB) Jobs decided to stop selling the 4GB and cut the price of 8GB by $200 in September - initiating an angry response from early adopters.
Despite this, the iPhone was a massive success mainly due to its competent touchscreen, and an incredibly easy user interface which helped it become a mobile game changer. However, it was only when Apple, reluctantly, decided to open up the App Store to third-party developers that things really started to get moving, arguably, making the iPhone into the massive success it is today.
No phone has been as anticipated this year as Apple's update to its hugely popular iPhone 3GS, this time bringing in new hardware and a new design to complement a new operating system in iOS 4. We thought HTC Desire fever was big, but nothing can beat iPhone fever.
Apple's approach is clever, ushering iOS 4 across existing devices as well as the new model, so rather than leaving existing contract-bound owners looking enviously on, they also get in on some of the action. This point is more significant than it might seem, because whilst the iPhone on tech specs may be the best phone today, it certainly won't be come Mobile World Congress in February 2011.
But that doesn't necessarily matter, because before you even look at the hardware, the best thing about the iPhone is iOS 4 and the App Store. That's what the iPhone 4 really gives you. The hardware is merely a transitory state to carry that experience forward. Yes, there are hardware updates and it looks sexy, but it's the App Store and the user experience where it outshines its competitors.
iPhone 4 oozes Apple's industrial design, sandwiching the phone between layers of glass. The metal band offsets the gloss deep black of the front and back in a design that looks like it will be a classic. It is more interesting to look at than the last iPhone design, but it is slightly busier too: it looks more technologically sophisticated. Despite being glossy, fingerprints aren't a problem as it wipes clear in a second.
The result is a device that has a luscious feel to the front and back, but is framed by hard edges. It doesn't sit as nicely in the hand as the last iPhone or the HTC Desire with softer edges, but none of that will deter you from actually wanting one. Measuring 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm, it is slim, compact, and sturdily built, weighing in at 137g.
Buttons are still fairly restrained, but expanding functions means there is more detail around the device. The customary single home button sits bottom centre, a new forward facing camera (which gives a wonderful blue reflection) sits next to the speaker slot at the top.
Down the sides you have the silence slider and the volume buttons, all of which have a great feel to them, it really gives the impression of quality as a complete package. The top has the lock and 3.5mm headphone jack, and the bottom offers up the dock connector, external speaker and mic. Around the back is the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash.
Those hard edges are noticeable when you put the phone to your ear to make a call too, and like the past iPhone, it isn't the most comfortable for making prolonged calls. Much has been written about day 1 reception problems on the iPhone 4, due to the placement of the antenna in the bottom of the phone and your hand obscuring it when holding the device.
The problem manifests itself as a drop-off in reception when holding the iPhone 4 a particular way. We never actually dropped a call, or were left with no reception, but we did notice a dive from 5 bars to 1 bar when holding the phone with the bottom left-hand corner in the palm of the left hand - see the picture below. Being a left-hander, using it in the right hand isn't a problem, but holding it to the right ear isn't as natural, at which point that bottom left corner is more likely to be covered and closer to your cheek.
Recent reports suggest that a firmware fix will correct this problem so for the time being it is a case of wait and see, and it is worth remembering that reception is also down to your network too, so the experience will vary. We found O2 to be reliable in our tests, but we know the network has experienced problems with iPhone customers in the past.
The iPhone 4 is very much about Wi-Fi (supporting b/g/n) though. It handles Wi-Fi nicely: there is less messing around than you'll find on rival platforms. You point it to your networks(s) and that's that. In a comparison with some other devices, we found that Wi-Fi reception seemed to be a little better too. Bluetooth 2.1 is included.
One of the biggest changes and the big headline is the new display. Offering up a resolution of 960 x 640, it takes the crown as the highest resolution display available on a mobile phone. At 3.5 inches, it isn't the biggest, but it certainly has the wow factor. It beats the HTC Desire screen, offering an experience closer to that we saw on the Samsung Wave with its Super AMOLED display.
Apple have called it "Retina display", but we won't get hung-up on this name as we know they like to slap names on things. What we will do is say that it looks sensational. What the display does offer is deeper blacks, meaning there is a better palette on which to draw the colours. Contrast is excellent, meaning that existing content changes in appearance: we tested some video side-by-side with the iPod touch, and the colours are richer and more precise from the iPhone 4, which is very welcomed.
When you set your eyes on it you notice that lower resolution displays look slightly primitive. The high pixel density means that text is incredibly sharp, so sharp that it still renders correctly at sizes that you'll have to really squint to see, for example looking at a full webpage. With multi-touch offering slick and fast zooming, you can really leap in and out of things and get more from the experience. We're sure that rivals will all fire out screens of this resolution soon enough, but hats off to Apple for taking things a step further.
We've covered a lot of what iOS 4 will do over in our review and we won't cover every detail again here, just pick up on the highlights. As we said, these improvements benefit existing iPhone users too, so there is a great sense of completeness to the Apple mobile ecosystem, escaping the sort of fragmentation that now plagues Android.
The sharpness of the screen means that some apps don't look quite as slick as they used to. There is noticeable fuzz around some app icons and logos, but the challenge is for the developers to update, and update they are.
As before, the iPhone is intuitive and easy to navigate. Put it in the hands of a novice and they can operate the phone in a flash. At points you run into a lack of settings or options: this is Apple trying to keep things simple. You can't change the resolution of the camera at the point of shooting, but it resizes it to task when you do something with it. You can't make attachments to emails, you have to select to email your photo, etc. As we've seen before, Apple only lets you do what it wants you to do until it has a really slick solution. Some people will want the freedoms that rival platforms offer, rather than the constraints that Apple apply to guarantee a smooth experience.
The App Store is the star of the show, offering up the widest selection of applications for you to use your phone for whatever you see fit. Once this was just about fart noises and faux beer drinking apps, but the world has moved on and it is all about social networking, communication, productivity. It also means that Apple doesn't have to cover every detail - they can leave it to developers. Why offer in-camera photo tweaking when a Photoshop app can do it for you?
The Android Market offers a similar approach but never feels as complete; BlackBerry's App World, Ovi Store, and so on just don't have the strength and depth. The App Store has more established brands offering the services you want, so the real contest is in the hands of the developers if rivals want to compete on this level.
So the new iPhone comes with two cameras, an external 5-megapixel camera - par for the smartphone course. The internal camera is a 0.3-megapixel model, offering images and video at 640 x 480, at around 30fps. The external camera offers autofocus, snapping onto the centre of the frame and setting the metering from this point. You also get touch-focusing (on both cameras) so you can touch a point and it re-focuses and also changes the metering to get a better shot.
The camera is simple to use and the lack of options means you won't get dragged off into changing the white balance and so on, when you don't really need to. The options you get are whether the "flash" fires and the option to switch between the internal and external cameras.
The results are average for a camera phone. The biggest problem is noise, with image noise being present in shots even at ISO 80 in shadowy areas. Low light shots up at ISO 3200 are very mottled, as if painted. We also found that there was a slight yellow cast on images taken in bright sunshine, with a tendency to over-saturate reds. These points won't worry you if you want to snap images to share online, but if you want shots to enlarge to display then the iPhone will never replace your digital camera.
Video capture now offers a headline 1280 x 720 capture at 30fps. The results are good and we certainly welcome the addition of a higher resolution offering here, but there is still obvious noise in shadow areas and at the periphery of videos and low light video is affected by the same noise issues, although this is to be expected. One nice feature is being able to tap focus during video, so you can sort of perform a focus pull, or at least make sure your subject is looking sharp.
Sharing is blissfully easy, but as the iPhone compresses before sending out video, you don't get the benefit of your HD video on YouTube - you'll have to move it to your PC and upload from there, which is a bit of a pain for those who don't want to be tied to a computer - the option would be nice. The internal camera makes it easy to film yourself or take the classic portrait shot, but again, you have the limited resolution to consider.
Face Time is a new feature added to iPhone 4 that offers video calling over that internal camera. A Face Time option is in the contacts list, as well as an option in-call. It isn't a new idea, having been one of the selling points for the 3G network when it first launched in the UK. It never really took off on mobile devices and we don't know whether people will use it here. It currently only works on Wi-Fi with the video quality dependent on your signal strength. The most interesting thing will be future integration of other services, so if you can have a Skype call, then you aren't dependent on the other person having an iPhone 4 and being on a Wi-Fi network. Time will tell how this pans out.
The iPhone 4 doesn't only support the creation of HD, it also supports playback of HD content. We had a couple of HD movies in iTunes which wouldn't sync with previous devices, which now appear on iPhone 4. The screen resolution gives a great platform for watching your movies and supporting HD means you won't need multiple versions of your video files. They will, however, take up a lot of your memory and you don't have the option to expand that memory like you do in rival devices, nor do you get a wide range of format support.
With a typical rented HD movie taking up 5GB of space, its easy to see how you can fill it quickly, especially if you opted for a 16GB version, but you can at least dive into iTunes on the iPhone and rent movies to watch on the go. We downloaded Avatar in HD, but you can equally sync movies via iTunes on your computer. The results are stunning and it's another example of how the Apple ecosystem is there, ready and waiting, to easily provide you with content, albeit if you are happy to pay for it.
You'll also be able to play back this content on the big screen via the dock connector, although we haven't been able to test it. We tried it with the Logic3 LCD ProDock which has Component connections for video, but it didn't output HD content from the iPhone 4.
Sitting at the core of the iPhone is Apple's A4 processor, the same as found in the iPad. This adds extra zip to the iPhone over the 3GS which was no slouch itself. Apps open in a flash and it handles the new multi-tasking with ease, with no sign of slowdown or lag.
Most impressively, text entry and the touch response is solid. Through-out our time with the iPhone there hasn't been a time when it didn't accept a press or failed to rotate the screen when asked. This is a problem that plagues many touchscreen phones and here, even loaded with content, the iPhone still performs.
The iPhone keyboard is recognised as one of the most responsive keyboards you can get, and with (reasonably) intelligent corrections it means the odd mistake doesn't matter. That shouldn't detract from the keyboard experience that HTC offers you on Android, but on the iPhone you don't feel the same sort of clutter on the display as you get on with tasks.
The browser is exceptionally fast to render pages and although there is no sign of any Flash support, it handles YouTube and embedded YouTube clips well. You also get the benefits of pinch zooming as well as double-tap resizing of text and it all works very well.
There is a GPS and a heap of sensors on-board too (including a 3-axis gyro, which will be great for gaming), so you'll get your maps oriented to your direction of travel if that's what you like. Unlike Android, however, you don't get turn-by-turn navigation at a core level, but there are plenty of services to choose from if you want to use your phone as a navigator, again, at a cost. Maps do load quickly and we found that this is true of iPhone apps in general: they are quick to update once you open them.
Of course the iPhone also comes with full iPod credentials, so as a music player it works very well. The multi-tasking bar also offers up iPod controls, so you can be listening to music whilst browsing the web, double click the home button, and change your track, all in a flash. It's a practical consideration and works nicely in most situations, but not all apps are compatible with multitasking and some never will be. You can get music controls when the screen is locked via the same method: double click home button and music controls appear on your standby screen.
So what you have in the iPhone 4 is a collection of changes that respond to some of the criticisms that Apple has faced: you now have competitive camera specs and new features surrounding them. You have a new faster device, with more power, capable of handling modern expectations. With such a buzz around the iPhone there is a sense of inevitability that developers will respond to the new features they have to play with to give us a new set of apps to exploit the handset's power.
The downside of course is that you'll have to pay for it. The iPhone comes in at a price that puts it top of the tree and with only the one device, you are left to pay for it or go without. But that's not entirely true. With loads of iPhone 3GS handsets in existence, many are now finding their way onto the second-hand market. It's still a very capable device, so if you want the love but can't afford the price, it might be worth a shot.
As with other smartphones on the market, if you use your iPhone intensively you'll find it soon runs out of battery. We haven't seen the battery empty itself quite as rapidly as the 3GS and in testing over the days we’ve had the phone, we haven't found ourselves running short during the day. Of course, this depends on a lot of factors, but needless to say, if you are constantly on your iPhone, you'll be charging it every night.
iOS 4 didn’t usher in live widgets or offer up a rival service to something like HTC Sense, with deep connections to your online life. Out of the box, the iPhone doesn't just go off and start making these connections: yes, there is MobileMe, but that's a service you still have to pay for. Google, by contrast, offers a world of free options for you, which is a very compelling alternative in its Android platform. We'd like to see some form of live icons or an expanded notification system to make daily interaction at a glance a little more complete. But the great thing about the iPhone is that you can reliably buy in quality content so easily, which for many, is a real bonus.
Verdict:
The iPhone 4 isn't just a new piece of hardware, it's the next vehicle for the world of iOS 4 and the App Store. But those hardware changes are welcomed. The inclusion of a higher-spec screen is the most significant step, combined with a faster processor, meaning it can capture and playback HD content from the new 5-megapixel camera.
The internal camera, whilst attracting a fair amount of attention at launch may just vanish into insignificance, but if you can connect it up to other video conferencing clients successfully, then there is more of a case for it. Of course bloggers will be able to talk to camera and upload to YouTube on the fly very easily.
Is the iPhone perfect? Of course not. The experience is very well managed by Apple and many love this intuitiveness, however many will loathe the restrictions you find in place. The design, whilst it looks nice, isn’t the most comfortable phone to hold or use and the reception problems just compound a long history of discomfort around actually making a phone call.
Apple has made its play with the iPhone 4 which we expect to be its handset for the next few years. Other manufacturers will respond in kind, but gaining the strength of the Apple ecosystem is no mean feat.?While there is space to improve the iPhone, you don't necessarily feel you are missing out. What you have is a device that is an excellent multimedia platform and open to a new generation of unfolding possibilities.
Apple has refreshed its Mac mini and made more substantial changes than we saw at the last evolution of this tiny desktop computer. But does the Mac mini deliver, or is the new asking price of "649 just too much to bear"
Apple have been masters of design for some time and the new Mac mini is certainly the best looking iteration of this computer. Gone is the plastic, offering up an aluminium body, aping the design of the MacBook Pro. It is beautifully crafted, with minimalist lines and free from fuss. Compared to some of the other small format nettops out there it looks far superior.
Designed like this, the Mac mini is the sort of desktop PC you will be happy to have on display, and Apple also has its sights on the home cinema market. On several occasions when we were introduced to the Mac mini by Apple, they pointed out that people liked to connect the Mac mini to their TV, hence the inclusion of an HDMI connector, a first for Apple.
The Mac mini won't just look the part set alongside your high-end home cinema rig, but it offers up more power than your average nettop, such as the Acer Aspire Revo, which offers an Intel Atom processor, rather than the 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo on offer here.
It measures 197mm square, with a height of just 36mm and effectively offers up the same internals as the MacBook (except the hard drive is a little bigger at 320GB in the Mac mini), which adds a screen and keyboard in its plastic enclosure for an additional ?200. Fans of Apple Mac computers can't help but notice the creep in price, especially as when we reviewed the Mac mini in March 2009 it was under ?500.
Internally you get that Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.4GHz, with a 2.66GHz version available for an additional ?123. This is supported by 2GB of RAM, upgradeable to a maximum of 8GB, although that would set you back an extra ?400. There is a 320GB hard drive, with a 500GB version costing you an extra ?80. So there are configuration options available to you, but they do come at a cost.
Fortunately, one of the changes made to the Mac mini is the new removable bottom. This simply rotates and comes away, revealing the innards, so you can easily upgrade the RAM yourself, giving you the freedom to shop around, or wait until you find you need to upgrade it.
The connections are precisely arranged on the rear, offering up Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, 4x USB 2.0, an SD card slot and headphone and mic 3.5mm jacks. Arranged as they are we didn't have a problem, until it came to the SD card slot.
Putting it on the rear makes the design look tidy, but if you regularly want to use it to access files from your digital camera for example, you'll be scrabbling around the back to do so. Its less convenient for those who might have the Mac mini as part of an installation, but for those who have it sitting on a desk it isn't a significant issue. The same could be said of the USB ports, if you want to regularly move files to a USB drive, you'll need to make sure you have easy access.
With the aim of making the Mac mini a tidy little device, Apple have done away with the power brick. This is now internal, so all you have to do is plug in the cable. This again makes it much tidier, both above and below your desk. Internally you also get Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, so you'll be able to hook-up wirelessly to peripherals and your network.
On the back beneath all the connections is the exhaust outlet. With the design offering no ventilation, we found that the Mac mini runs with a purr that is barely noticeable and nothing like the volume you'd get from the fan-cooling on games consoles, some Blu-ray players and PVRs. However, the Mac mini will get warm once you set it to various tasks and you'll hear the fan changing speeds, throttling up and down. We didn't find that the slot-loading SuperDrive made much noise once running.
The Mac mini isn't a power house like some of the iMac models. Ask it to do various tasks at the same time and you'll see it slow down and struggle, just as the MacBook will. It will handle regular daily computing tasks with easy however and also being capable enough to work with our images and transcode your video. If you are planning to hook it up to your TV to play HD content from your network, then it copes well enough. Rarely will you be running a number of applications as well as your HD content, but if you are in the business of editing large amounts of HD video, you might find it won't quite be up to the challenge.
We tried some HD movies and video camcorder content and encountered no problem with playback of this type of material, thanks to the Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics chip, which Apple say offers 2x the performance of previous Mac minis. This will also handle your 3D gaming, although Windows fans will point out that you can buy a respectable gaming rig for this sort of money on their rival platform.
The inclusion of Mini DisplayPort means you'll be able to hook up to Apple's Cinema Display, or an existing monitor using one of a wide variety of adapters which will cost you around ?20 each, although you get an HDMI-DVI adapter in the box. Those with newer monitors or taking the TV route will be able to use the HDMI (no cable supplied).
A variety of resolutions are included to get the best option for your TV and we found we had to tweak the HDMI monitor settings too on the 1080p setting to get the screen to fit properly. The same will most likely apply to your TV, so you'll have to dig in the picture settings of your TV to get the best result. The HDMI will carry the audio stream, so you can easily get your audio content to your TV or AV receiver with the option of having system "Sound Effects" use the internal speaker, so they don't boom out.
Verdict:
Overall the Mac mini wins a lot of points for the design. You'd be hard pressed to find any desktop computer that looks as elegant as this. But at the same time you are paying for that design statement. You can get a more powerful Windows PC unit for a fraction of the price, but that's not the point. You buy the Mac mini because you want Mac OSX.
The addition of the HDMI is appreciated as it makes it really simple to connect it to your TV so you get all the benefits of having a proper computer connected to the big screen, for whatever reason, be it for staying connected, using IPTV services or connecting up to your network - or all of the above. We also hope that this is a precursor to HDMI coming to the next iteration of MacBooks, although this is purely speculation on our part.?
We were originally concerned that the Mac mini would run overly hot, but this didn't appear to be a massive problem in our tests. It runs quietly enough to slot into your lounge without being offensive, so is a convenient and powerful alternative to some of the devices out there.
The only issue is price. The entry-level model is expensive and upgrading makes it more expensive than is reasonable. It looks great, but if bang for your buck is important, you'll find better value elsewhere.
