The Apple Sheep

Around this time last year I wrote the  iOS 12 wish list , And to my surprise most of my prayers were answered, and iOS 12 has been wonderful for the last 5 months or so. But now we're coming up on another WWDC, Yes its still 5 months away but that hasn't stopped the rumour mill from speculating what the next version of iOS will be.Here are a few features that I'd like to see on the next version of iOS. A New Look For iOS 13 Ever since iOS 7 iOS has looked the same more or less, With its flat icons and punchy colours. I feel that the time for a refresh is long overdue. Don't get me wrong it looks great but, Its stale and I fresh new coat of paint can go wonders in making iOS 13 feel radically different. Apple has their work cut out for them if they do decide to go down this route. Finding a new design aesthetic isn't the most easiest thing in the world. Wh...

iOS has long been guilty of being terrible with files, You had third party file managers that promised to give you a great files experience. But most of them fell pitifully short, some did almost come close to being good but none came close to the flexibility and power that a file explorer on Android, Windows or MacOS could ever hope to give you.That all changed with the introduction of the files app on iOS 11. Why Bother With A Files App? Apple has been talking about  replacing the PC with an iPad for quite a while now and to truly replace a PC you need a few desktop features on iOS which is primarily a mobile OS. Ask anyone and they'll tell you that the ability to manipulate files is one of the most basic things that you'd expect a computer to do. After all one of the first GUI apps was a file explorer. So it makes sense to bring over the file explorer to iOS. But you just can't port finder over...

2017 was all about killing bezels on smartphones and as a consequence most smartphones on both sides of the fence had to kill the headphone jack . Now as per the rumour mill the new iPads might do away with the trusty old headphone jack as well. Why would an iPad with so much internal space kill something like the headphone jack. Why Kill The Headphone Jack At All?   Nowadays our phones are jam-packed with tech, No literally they're jam packed with components. Just look at 2012 when the iPhone 5 opted for a Nano SIM card instead of a Mini sim card. The difference between them is minuscule, on a physical scale but they were so strapped for space that they did benefit from that. Move over from the iPhone 5 days todays smartphones are way more complex, and much more functional and having a 100 year old port that takes up half an inc really does throw a proverbial, spa...

Ever since iOS 9, Apple has been pushing iPads as PC replacements and back in the day the software just wasn't to par that the iPad pros shipped with. For all intents and purposes iOS on the iPad was just a blown up version of iOS on the iPhone. Therefore iOS on the iPad had pretty much the same flaws that th iPhone suffered from, the lack of multitasking and the lack of pro apps. The iPad in the days of iOS 9 was still more iPad than computer. Then with the release of iOS 11 the entire iPad lineup got some much needed impetus to make them actual productivity machines. Now you had an actual file explorer where you could keep and retrieve files from. Just the addition of the file explorer was a revelation in its own little way. But iOS 11 turned the iPad into something that you could decently multitask on. I mean you could run four ap...

Back in the days, When computers burst onto the scene they looked like this. they filled up a large room, used enough energy to power a small house and they broke down... a lot. For all their size and cost they were quite incapable by todays standards. This handy graphic shows you how much we've come in terms of processing power. Its quite mind boggling to think that the tech in our pockets is more powerful than the supercomputers from just 25 years ago. The notion that your smartphone is more powerful than the computers that NASA used to send men to the moon is totally true and intact your Instagram machine blows those 1960s era computers out of the water. So how did machines that are capable of modelling nuclear detonations end up being literally child's play? Moore's Law     Moore's Law isn't really a law like Newton's laws of motion. It was just an observation by Gordon Moore which eventually came to be known as Moore's law....

So WWDC has come and gone ( Not really WWDC runs from the 4th of June all the way to the 8th). But the one mega-keynote we were all excited for is over! Trust me I am excited about iOS 12 and MacOS Mojave, which I will talk about all in good time but I think its time we took a good hard look at Apple's AI game. The Apple Photos App For the past few years Google and Facebook have been running circles around Apple when it comes to AI. Sure pick your favourite reason as to why Apple's AI has sucked for so long, from the internal power struggles to Apples own stance on privacy. But the winds of change are upon us! Sure Siri probably still cant tell you how much a chipmunk weighs, but Apple has made some headway in certain areas of AI. As I was watching the keynote, It struck me that the new Apple photos app felt really familiar. It groups faces you know and it has sharing suggestions, asking you if you want to share the photos you took with someone in the picture that ...

You probably read that title and just went, What? and then proceeded to re-read the title. Apple? Cheap products? Yeah right. Most people might scoff at the idea of Apple being a budget company, I mean who can blame poor average Joe who thinks that? Apple came out with a phone that literally costs a thousand dollars. So Apple wouldn't be high up on your list of affordable tech companies. But yet we see a growing list of products from Apple that doesn't break the bank. Why is this? What Are These Cheap Products? A few years ago you'd be hard pressed to find a few good Apple products.But over the last few years Apple has diversified it's lineup. Starting with the iPhone SE, A relatively upto date iPhone with great storage starting at $349. More over Apple is rumoured to bring out a new iPhone SE with upgraded internals and art the same price point.  Apple didn't stop at that they went further they surprised everyone in 2017 with a $330 iPad that was at it'...

Apple has never been the budget friendly option when it comes to tech. So its is quite paradoxical when Apple releases a product that doesn't cost an arm and a leg it is really surprising. This is exactly what Apple did with the 2017 iPad. A $330 iPad which is just a an iPad, an iPad for the average user. No it doesn't have Apple pencil support nor does it have a Pro Motion display or a beefed up processor. But it sold well, it sold so well that it single handedly helped in improving the iPad sales( With some help from the  10.5 inch iPad Pro), Now they're planning on bringing out a $270 iPad Why Cheaper Is Better When It Comes To iPads Unlike smartphones people arent that heavily reliant on iPads, You use your iPhone for everything under the sun from photography to gaming to texting. In comparison the average user doesn't use the iPad as much. You watch a bit of Netflix maybe some light browsing. Thats about it. This can be done by pretty much any iPad released...

Wayyy back in 2010, 8 years ago (No 2010 wasn't 3 years ago! I know right ) Steve Jobs said something that really made people go what? To quote Steve " When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farm, But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular. Innovations like automatic transmission and power steering and things that you didn’t care about in a truck as much started to become paramount in cars. … PCs are going to be like trucks. They’re still going to be around, they’re still going to have a lot of value, but they’re going to be used by one out of X people."    People at the time greeted the statement with incredulity, including yours truly. Keep in mind this is 2010 we're talking about a time before every 10 year old had an iPhone or an iPad. Back then  I used my computer for everything from playing games to doing homework to viewing pictures taken on a dedicated point and sho...