Apple and Google opt out of industry-sponsored app ratings system

The two largest mobile app providers, Apple and Google, will not take part in an application ratings initiative created by CTIA-The Wireless Association, and will instead continue to rely on their own in-house systems.

In an press release on Tuesday, CTIA-The Wireless Association and Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) announced that a new voluntary rating system for mobile applications would be adopted by six app stores, however Apple and Google were noticeably absent from the list, reports Bloomberg.

The CTIA Mobile Application Rating System, developed by the ESRB, will rate app submissions on a five-point scale, from "everyone" to "adults-only," based on factors like violence and sexual content.

The program was developed to help parents monitor their children as access to internet-connected devices like Apple's hot-selling iPad and iPhone broadens.

“It made sense as an industry to provide a ratings mechanism that will provide consumers with information about the content available on the apps,” said David Diggs, Vice President for Wireless Internet Development at CTIA. He goes on to say that mobile apps have become a "robust" source of entertainment.

Apple's App Store and the Android Marketplace now offer 500,000 and 300,000 apps respectively, and both companies have existing vetting systems in place.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into Android Market’s rating system, which now works well globally,” said Google spokesman Christopher Katsaros. “While we support other systems, we think it’s best for Android users and developers to stick with Android’s existing ratings.”

Apple declined to comment on the matter, but the company has already outlined its somewhat stringent app review guidelines.

Diggs said that the main goal of the initiative is to get information to the consumer, and he is not concerned that Apple and Google have opted out of the proposed system.

Example of ESRB video game rating | Source: ESRB

The CTIA-backed ratings are based on an online questionnaire that asks if the submitted app contains violence, sexual content, social networking features and sharing of user location data, among other criteria. Apps will receive ratings within seconds of submission, and developers have the opportunity to appeal unfavorable decisions.

The ESRB said that it will routinely test the most popular apps and field consumer complaints for the system. The board has run a similar ratings program for video games since 1994.

"We are proud to partner with the wireless industry in lending our expertise and credibility to the development of a rating system that effectively fulfills our mission of informing consumers while meeting the needs of this rapidly growing and evolving segment of the interactive market," said ESRB President Patricia Vance.

Participating wireless companies include AT&T, Microsoft, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless, while "other storefronts have indicated their interest in joining." Currently, only Microsoft, AT&T and Verizon are operating app stores.

From : www.appleinsider.com

Rumor revival: iPhone 5 to sport 4-inch display

Remember this purported bezel for a next-generation iPhone with a larger display. The rumor behind it lives on.

(Credit: iDealsChina)

Is the iPhone 4S the last iPhone to have a 3.5-inch display? That's what Japanese Apple tracking blog Macotakara is reporting.
Citing an unnamed source, the site says that Hitachi and Sony have already started shipping 4-inch LCD panels to Apple for use in "new iOS devices." The two companies are also said to be providing panels for Apple's next iPad, which is said to be "changed fundamentally."
If true, the move would suggest that Apple has not just decided on the design for the followup to the iPhone 4S, which was unveiled and released just last month--but is beginning to collect parts and produce units.
Yet the 4-inch display rumors ahead of that unveiling were numerous. In February, a snapshot out of China depicting the front screen of what looked like an iPhone with a larger and wider display cropped up. Just weeks before, component industry tracker DigiTimes claimed that Apple was eyeing bigger screens, in part to better compete with Android and Windows Phone devices.
Then, in March, something a little bit more interesting happened. Purported "mold engineering" drawings made the rounds, depicting a device that looked like an iPhone 4 but with a noticeably larger screen. This was followed in June by blog This Is My Next, claiming that Apple was working on an iPhone with a 3.7-inch display, and a slew of cases that hit store shelves designed for a slightly larger, but thinner iPhone, based on an alleged prototype device leaked from a manufacturing facility.
Alternatively, a report by our own sister site CNET France near the end of September loosely claimed Apple would use a qHD (960x540 pixels) screen that measured about 4.2 to 4.3 inches diagonally. That's compared to the iPhone 4 and 4S' 3.5-inch display that runs at a higher 960x640 pixels.
One of the most recent reports ahead of this came last week from iLounge, which laid out several rumors about Apple's product changes during 2012. On that list was an iPhone with a 4-inch display, alongside metal casing and a summer launch.
Apple currently maintains three basic sizes for apps to fall into: non-Retina Display iPhones and iPods, Retina Display iPhones and iPods, and the iPad. Changing dimensions with two additional configurations would mark another step for developers when designing their software, be it utilities or games.

From : Josh Lowensohn ( www.review.cnet.com

Apple wins patent for intelligent dock connector

 

(Credit: Patently Apple)

 

Your power management could be getting a whole lot smarter. Apple has just been granted a patent that details an intelligent dock connector able to properly adjust power levels for multiple connected devices from a single outlet source.
As with other power-related patents that Apple has applied for in the past, the technology involved here seems to be exactly the kind of thing people, including myself, have been waiting for. In a time when everything needs to be charged, be it a MacBook Pro, an iPad 2, or an iPhone 4S, having a one-and-done solution is certainly the solution many of us want.
The patent, uncovered by Patently Apple, lists some of the many functions the intelligent adapter could tackle.

• "Prevent a portable computing device from drawing a high level of current that could be detrimental to an accessory, such as a cable."
• "Allow a battery pack or other accessory to instruct a portable computing device to not charge its internal battery."
• "Allow a portable computing device to determine which power supply among multiple power supplies should be used to power an accessory."
• "Allow an accessory to get charging current parameters from a portable computing device."

Two rumor-starting inclusions in the patent application are sure to get blog sites rolling. One shows an iPad-ish device with a 30-pin dock connector port on both the vertical and the horizontal sides. That was a rumor that was floating around for the iPad 2 and may very well pick up for the iPad 3. Personally, I cannot see why Apple would do this. If for no other reason, it would be an aesthetic nightmare.

 

(Credit: Patently Apple)
 

Second, the patent mentions docking a monitor, which may very well signal the (just a rumor) forthcoming iTV or Apple-branded television set. We should all recall that Apple does sell a display though, thus making the inclusion of a display dock nothing to jump about (yet).
If this product comes to market, it could be the ultimate docking station for Apple products--a single spot to charge your iPhone, MacBook, and iPod, without having to worry about grabbing different cables and connectors. It's pretty ingenious and I imagine I'll be among the first to order one.

From : Joe Aimonetti From www.review.cnet.com

iPad Open a New Frontier

For the past week or so, I have been testing a sleek, light, silver-and-black tablet computer called an iPad. After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.
But first, it will have to prove that it really can replace the laptop or netbook for enough common tasks, enough of the time, to make it a viable alternative. And that may not be easy, because previous tablet computers have failed to catch on in the mass market, and the iPad lacks some of the features—such as a physical keyboard, a Webcam, USB ports and multitasking—that most laptop or netbook users have come to expect.

WSJ's Personal Technology columnist Walt Mossberg reviews Apple's iPad. More than an e-reader and an oversized iPod Touch, he says the tablet computer is a "robust, general-purpose device" with the potential to change portable computing as we know it.

 

Journal Community

If people see the iPad mainly as an extra device to carry around, it will likely have limited appeal. If, however, they see it as a way to replace heavier, bulkier computers much of the time—for Web surfing, email, social-networking, video- and photo-viewing, gaming, music and even some light content creation—it could be a game changer the way Apple's iPhone has been.
The iPad is much more than an e-book or digital periodical reader, though it does those tasks brilliantly, better in my view than the Amazon Kindle. And it's far more than just a big iPhone, even though it uses the same easy-to-master interface, and Apple says it runs nearly all of the 150,000 apps that work on the iPhone.
It's qualitatively different, a whole new type of computer that, through a simple interface, can run more-sophisticated, PC-like software than a phone does, and whose large screen allows much more functionality when compared with a phone's. But, because the iPad is a new type of computer, you have to feel it, to use it, to fully understand it and decide if it is for you, or whether, say, a netbook might do better.
So I've been using my test iPad heavily day and night, instead of my trusty laptops most of the time. As I got deeper into it, I found the iPad a pleasure to use, and had less and less interest in cracking open my heavier ThinkPad or MacBook. I probably used the laptops about 20% as often as normal, reserving them mainly for writing or editing longer documents, or viewing Web videos in Adobe's Flash technology, which the iPad doesn't support, despite its wide popularity online.
My verdict is that, while it has compromises and drawbacks, the iPad can indeed replace a laptop for most data communication, content consumption and even limited content creation, a lot of the time. But it all depends on how you use your computer.

 

iPad Apps

Apple See some of the applications available for Apple's new iPad.

If you're mainly a Web surfer, note-taker, social-networker and emailer, and a consumer of photos, videos, books, periodicals and music—this could be for you. If you need to create or edit giant spreadsheets or long documents, or you have elaborate systems for organizing email, or need to perform video chats, the iPad isn't going to cut it as your go-to device.
The iPad is thinner and lighter than any netbook or laptop I've seen. It weighs just 1.5 pounds, and its aluminum and glass body is a mere half-inch thick. It boasts a big, bright color 9.7-inch screen that occupies most of the front. As on all Apple portable devices, the battery is sealed in and nonreplaceable. It has a decent speaker, and even a tiny microphone.
Memory, also sealed in and nonexpandable, ranges from 16 gigabytes to 64 gigabytes. And you can order one with just a Wi-Fi wireless connection to the Internet, or Wi-Fi plus an AT&T 3G cellular connection. The Wi-Fi models will be available Saturday and the 3G models, which I didn't test, about a month later.
Prices start at $499 and go to $829, with the costlier models having more memory and/or 3G. The cellular models don't require a contract or termination fee. You can pay AT&T either $15 a month for 250 megabytes of data use, or $30 a month for unlimited data—a significant reduction from typical prices for laptop cellular connectivity.
I was impressed with the iPad's battery life, which I found to be even longer than Apple's ten-hour claim, and far longer than on my laptops or smart phones. For my battery test, I played movies, TV shows and other videos back-to-back until the iPad died. This stressed the device's most power-hogging feature, its screen. The iPad lasted 11 hours and 28 minutes, about 15% more than Apple claimed. I was able to watch four feature-length movies, four TV episodes and a video of a 90-minute corporate presentation, before the battery died midway through an episode of "The Closer."

Apple

Walt's mountain-view wallpaper with app icons arranged during his tests.

Oh, and all the while during this battery marathon, I kept the Wi-Fi network running and the email downloading constantly in the background. Your mileage may vary, but with Wi-Fi off and the screen turned down from the fairly bright level I used, you might even do better. Music plays far longer with the screen off. On the other hand, playing games constantly might yield worse battery life.
Apple says video playback, Web use and book reading all take about the same amount of juice. When I was doing the latter two tasks for an hour or two at a time, the battery ran down so slowly for me that I stopped thinking about it.
I also was impressed with the overall speed of the iPad. Apple's custom processor makes it wicked fast. Screens appear almost instantly, and the Wi-Fi in my home tested as fast as it does on a laptop.
I found email easy and productive to use, and had no trouble typing accurately and quickly on the iPad's wide on-screen keyboard. In fact, I found the iPad virtual keyboard more comfortable and accurate to use than the cramped keyboards and touchpads on many netbooks, though some fast touch typists might disagree. Apple's $39 iPad case, which bends to set up a nice angle for typing, helps.
The Web browser also works beautifully, and takes advantage of the big screen to show full pages and cut down on scrolling. It even now has a bookmarks bar at the top. As noted, however, it doesn't support Adobe's Flash technology.
I also was able to easily sync the iPad's calendar and contacts apps with Google and Apple's MobileMe.

Apple

Apple created a touch version of its Pages word processor for the iPad.

Watching videos, viewing photos, listening to music, reading books and playing games was satisfying and fun. I used the device heavily for Twitter and Facebook. And I even got some light work done in the optional iPad word processor, called Pages, which is part of a $30 suite that also includes a spreadsheet and presentation program.
This is a serious content creation app that should help the iPad compete with laptops and can import Microsoft Office files. However, only the word processor exports to Microsoft's formats, and not always accurately. In one case, the exported Word file had misaligned text. When I then tried exporting the document as a PDF file, it was unreadable.

—John Mcintosh

The iPad can run two types of third-party apps, both available from Apple's app store. It can use nearly all existing iPhone apps. These can either run in a small, iPhone-size window in the middle of the screen, which makes them look tiny, or blown up to double size. The larger size makes them fill the screen, but can make type inside them look blocky. Still, the dozens I tested all worked properly. And it can run a new class of specially designed iPad apps, of which Apple hopes to have 1,000 at launch. I successfully tested the revamped App Store, which features the iPad apps most prominently when you're on an iPad.
Based on my very small sample, some app developers may be testing higher prices for iPad apps than the 99 cents or $1.99 typical for paid iPhone apps. The paid iPad apps I saw ranged from $3.99 to $49.99. Others were free.
Apple has rebuilt its own core iPhone apps for the iPad to add sophisticated features that make the programs look and work more like PC or Mac software. For instance, there are "popover" menus that make it easier to make choices without leaving the screen you're on. And, when the iPad is held horizontally, in landscape mode, as I often preferred to use it, many programs now have two panels, making them faster and more useful. For example, in email, a left-hand panel shows your message list, while a larger right-hand panel shows the message itself.
The photo app is striking, and much more like the one on the Mac than the one on the iPhone. The device can even be used as a digital picture frame. The iPod app is beautiful, too, as are the calendar and contacts app. Unfortunately, Apple excluded some of the more familiar apps from the iPhone, including Weather, Clock and Stocks.

The iPad won't go on-sale for two more days but the Digits set features one on the set -- along with WSJ's Walt Mossberg. He tells Stacey Delo why he thinks the iPad is a "game changer" for portable computing and addresses some key issues not mentioned his review.

 

 

 

More iPad Coverage

I tested a small selection of the new third-party iPad apps Apple hopes to have available at launch, and most were also rich and feature-filled, beyond what iPhone apps offer. These included games such as Scrabble and "Touch Hockey," a database app, news services and more.
I was able to try a pre-release version of The Wall Street Journal's new iPad app (which I had nothing to do with designing), and found it gorgeous and highly functional—by far the best implementation of the newspaper I have ever seen on a screen. Unlike the Journal's Web site, or its smart-phone apps, the iPad version blends much more of the look and feel of the print paper into the electronic environment. Other newspapers and magazines have announced plans for their own, dramatically more realistic iPad apps.
I also found iBooks, Apple's book reader and store, easy to use, and read a couple of books on it. I consider the larger color screen superior to the Kindle's, and encountered no eye strain. But the iPad is much heavier than the Kindle and most people will need two hands to use it. The iBooks app also lacks any way to enter notes, and Apple's catalog at launch will only be about 60,000 books versus more than 400,000 for Kindle.
I did run into some other annoying limitations. For instance, the email program lacks the ability to create local folders or rules for auto-sorting messages, and it doesn't allow group addressing. The browser lacks tabs. And the Wi-Fi-only version lacks GPS. Also, videophiles may dislike the fact that the iPad's screen lacks wide-screen dimensions, so you either get black bars above or below wide-screen videos, or, if you choose an option to fill the screen, some of the picture may get cut off.
All in all, however, the iPad is an advance in making more-sophisticated computing possible via a simple touch interface on a slender, light device. Only time will tell if it's a real challenger to the laptop and netbook.

From : www.online.wsj.com

Apple iPad Review

How and where you'll use the iPad are of the essence.
*** Breakfast in New York. Sitting in a booth at Cafe Habana, people are staring as I type emails on the iPad. For now, it grabs too much attention, for better or worse, with its big swoopy animations and Skittles glow-erific screen. It's not as strange as if I were hammering away on a laptop. But it's no daily paper, either. When I start reading the Times and then Jack London's Call of the Wild, crossing my legs and leaning back, the feeling of unease goes away as it transforms into a newspaper, and then a book.
I ate my eggs, which were starting to get cold.
*** Many weekends of mine as a child were spent idling in the American Museum of Natural History. I visit for the first time in 20 years. Nothing's changed, except I got fatter, and my gadgets got thinner. An iPad turns out to be a good companion for the day, serving as sketchbook, elemental reference guide, dinosaur compendium and tour guide.
A little girl ignores the rare green snake in the cage to watch the YouTube video playing on the iPad, of the very same animal feeding. She's fascinated by it and not the real viper.
Using it while walking around the museum is quite strange. I want to prop my arms up on a rail or sit on a bench. Because it's almost impossibly dense, as if made from magic and lead. And while it's not at all out of place in the gemstone and meteor rooms, it is a little out of place when I try to hold it with one hand, while standing.
But, sometimes it seems light.

Indifferent to its actual mass, the feeling of it being too heavy seems influenced greatly by how we hold it:. There's a screen to smudge, and so I don't grip it with much more than fingertips as if I am holding a freshly excavated dinosaur bone that would shatter if one of the other museum patrons bumped into me.
Tyrannosaurus Rex looks so cool. I wonder how stronger animals were made extinct while soft, squishy mammals rose. Probably, good software and power management.
*** I jump into a cab and consider using my iPad, but only for a second. Wrong tool. Instead of using it with the pocket Wi-Fi hotspot we have, I whip out my iPhone for the five-minute ride. This will never change.
***
*** I recall when Apple unveiled the iPad and how the internet decried it for not having Flash. Some say it will fail for this very fact.
*** I stay up until 4am the night before the first day it's on sale, searching for iPad specific apps. I find very few high-quality programs, but I do find some: Words With Friends, an asynchronous scrabble clone. Wundermaps, for keeping an eye on snowstorms using radar animations. Netflix streaming, Pandora and the Epicurious cook book. And after I find these few, I start loving the iPad more.
*** I have to be up in three hours. But I cannot rest, so I I try to find a video on Netflix streaming to fall asleep to. I pick the September Issue, about Vogue's biggest month ever, shortly before the print media collapse. I lie down and I prop it against a pillow, but slips around a bit. I finally find the right position, sitting up like, well, I'm on a couch.
Sometimes, it needs a kickstand. Sometimes, my arm, or my knees are that kickstand.
***
We are late to Easter dinner at Chris and Alyssa's place, in the West Village. Laptops are left at home but iPads are on the loose. Eating prosciutto and mozzarella and basil with our hands, we go heavy on the napkins to keep the screen from getting even smudgier.
Appetites are sated and then pressed, and Alyssa gives us a lull before the main course to digest, watching the sun go down with a smoke.
Sitting on the couch, we watch movie trailers, and the generous screen is good for a pair, or even three folks at once, although the speaker's noise comes out lopsided out the right. Dinner's lamb and pasta are served.
Afterwards, we eat cookies and play Scrabble on our iPads, juggling five games at once between each other. I discover that the iPad is, beyond all other things, a computer for people who love lounging, but it doesn't have to be one man or woman per pad, either.
***
*** Back in my stuffy hotel room, I sit on a couch—the one true place where the iPad feels just right to use. One article is from The Bold Italic, a San Francisco "web magazine" my surfing buddy Jaimal Yogis writes for. Every page is lush. I've never been able to sit down and read an article on my laptop because it feels too much like long form for a computer. Long form being the kind of reading I do on a couch, in my bed, on a blanket during a picnic in the park. Unlike a lappie, it works perfectly, here, now, with no windowed apps to distract me, and no keyboard to incite data production from my fingertips.
*** I check my surf and snow sites and most of them work fine. Once, I see a video from some no-name site of the big storm that hit Tahoe with 50 inches of snow last week while covering the iPad launch in NY. It doesn't work. I am too stoned and cozy in my fuzzy blanket to get up and walk to the office. I bet that video was really good. Every time this happens, I get a little upset, which eats away at my affection for the iPad. This happened 3 times today, and will happen many more times before mom and pop websites get rid of Flash.
***
The battery lasts long enough to escape worry.
*** It's time for a work break. I load up an ebook and go to the office roof deck. I come back down in a minute, eyes frazzled from overwhelming screen glare. Imaginary plans for a computing picnic and work days on the beach are summarily and permanently canceled.
***
*** News is like coffee to me. To wake up, every morning I hit snooze twice and on the third beep I kill the alarm and lie in bed checking email. Monday morning, I did the same on the iPad. Reading emails was far easier with everything laid out on two columns and with all that extra screen space. But my threshold for replying to notes was not improved. The keyboard does not feel natural, and this is not an input machine. I flagged those emails as things I'd have to revisit at my laptop, on my iPad with an external keyboard, or maybe even the iPhone, which I'm so used to that even the smaller layout seems better.
I pack up all three work machines and get out the door. I could get away with two, leaving the pad at home on the couch, in its natural place.
***

Full size

*** I'm packing for my flight home to SF, and drop some movies onto the iPad. Loading one takes strategy: I don't bother transferring much more than my last few new albums, because it is too big to use as an iPod. So I save space for higher resolution videos that do the big screen justice. I'm looking forward to using it in air, because I'm done alternating between holding my iPhone up to my nose or at arms length while watching flicks. I don't think the 16GB is a viable size for movie lovers. Size counts.
***
*** iPad launch meant long hours, and I am glad to be going home. In the air, I nap as we ascend. When I wake up, and log on to Virgin America's Wi-Fi, I finally have the time to fall in love. The new flavor of interface puts menus on the left and stuff on the right, so you don't have to click around much to switch between emails, tweet streams and songs, compared to on an iPhone. What I do is type this note. Then I notice, sometimes it thinks it's still an iPhone, and not a computer. Work people IM me, and the resulting popups ruin my focus mid word. To switch to AIM from my notes, I have to hit the home button, swipe to another home screen and open another program... "This is not how a computer should behave," I mumble.
I use the case to prop up the pad tall for movie watching, and flat for typing. Best of all, I fit the small computer on my tray with a sandwich, and when the passenger in front of me reclines, it does not bash my screen.
I start to get used to touch typing. Imperfect at a sprint, but serviceable at a light gallop.
I wonder if I should read, play a hand of Scrabble or watch a movie next.
Instead I read the Times, then switch back to Call of the Wild. Eye strain never comes; I stare at screens all day for work, I need no soothing other than to dim the brightness. After turning the animated pages by swipe gets distracting, I tap to flip them. The experience, from font to page numbers to the mock up of a real book, to the landscape spread or portrait zoom, to the color wood bookshelf, all work for me.
It's time to land. With toys like these, flights seem short, and laptops seem like overkill.
*** Wilson let Eleanor play with it. Kids seem to get it, like they do with many touch interfaces.


Mark showed it to his mother, Leslie.


*** After a few days on the road, I'm home in California. I'm working in an empty house instead of the noisy office in New York. I keep the iPad next to me to check on the simple things like the weather, surf, snow, play some music, and look at pictures of people I love. It's a little bit better than a second monitor on a computer.
*** The iPad is sitting on my couch, there's nothing much I want to do with it right this moment, and so it sits crammed between some cushions. It hasn't changed my life, or the game, yet. I still need, at the end of a long day, a meal, a smoke and a hot shower and like my stack of ignored magazines, the iPad sometimes gets ignored, too. I can tell that until the app library and firmware and even hardware mature, I will have many moments hunting for some use for the iPad. It's not tomorrow's computer, yet.
***
*** "Should I get an iPad?" asks a friend.
"That depends," I say, "It doesn't do anything you can't do with you phone or laptop, and it's not really great at work or outside the home."
"So I shouldn't? Should I get something else?" she asks.
I interrupt, "But there is nothing else quite like it. And it does a few things, in a few places, better than anything."
Continuing, I say, "Tell you what—Before even thinking about buying one, go poke around iTunes, and find some apps you might like. Figure out where you'll use this thing in your daily life, and what you'll do with it. It's different for everyone. And try it. Then you'll know."
*** Finally, Joel summarizes how we all feel about it, after a few days of settling in.

From : gizmodo.com

Apple - Mac Book Air 11 inch

Tecnical Specification 

Display

High-resolution LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors.

11.6-inch (diagonal) high-resolution LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with support for millions of colors

	Supported resolutions: 1366 by 768 (native), 1344 by 756, and 1280 by 720 pixels at 16:9 aspect ratio; 1152 by 720 and 1024 by 640 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768 and 800 by 600 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio
	Size and Weight Ultrathin and ultralight unibody aluminum construction.
	Height: 0.11-0.68 inch (0.3-1.7 cm) Width: 11.8 inches (30 cm) Depth: 7.56 inches (19.2 cm) Weight: 2.38 pounds (1.08 kg)1
	Storage All-flash storage.2
	64GB 64GB flash storage 128GB 128GB flash storage Configurable to 256GB flash storage, only at the Apple Online Store.
	Processor 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with 3MB shared L3 cache $1199 model configurable to dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 with 4MB shared L3 cache, only at the Apple Online Store.
	Powered by a dual-core Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and DDR3 memory.
	Memory 2GB (model) or 4GB ( model) of 1333MHz DDR3 onboard memory  model configurable to 4GB, only at the Apple Online Store. Graphics Advanced Intel HD Graphics 3000. Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor with 256MB (model) or 384MB (model) of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory3
	Video Support and Camera Built-in FaceTime camera.
	FaceTime camera Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors
	Connections and Expansion USB 2.0, Thunderbolt, headphone port, MagSafe power port, SD card slot (13-inch model). Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps) Thunderbolt port
	Battery and Power Advanced lithium-polymer battery with MagSafe power adapter.4
	Wireless web : Up to 5 hours Standby time : Up to 30 days 35-watt-hour; 45W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management system; MagSafe power port
	Wi-Fi 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking;5 IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology Audio Stereo speakers, microphone, and headphone. Stereo speakers Omnidirectional microphone Headphone port Support for Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic Electrical and Operating Requirements Line voltage: 100-240V AC Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C) Storage temperature: -13° to 113° F (-24° to 45° C) Relative humidity: 0% to 90% noncondensing Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet Maximum storage altitude: 15,000 feet Maximum shipping altitude: 35,000 feet Limited Warranty and Service  Your MacBook Air comes with 90 days of free telephone support and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan to extend your service and support to three years from your computer’s purchase date. Only the AppleCare Protection Plan provides you with direct telephone support from Apple technical experts and the assurance that repairs will be handled by Apple-authorized technicians using genuine Apple parts. For more information, visit Apple support or call 800-823-2775. DVD or CD Sharing With the Mac App Store, getting the apps you want on your Mac has never been easier. No more boxes, no more discs, no more time-consuming installation. Click once to download and install any app on your Mac. But if an app you need isn’t available from the Mac App Store, you can use DVD or CD Sharing. This convenient feature of OS X lets you wirelessly “borrow” the optical drive of a nearby Mac or PC. So you can install applications from a DVD or CD and have full access to an optical drive without having to carry one around.
	In the Box MacBook Air 45W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, and power cord Printed and electronic documentation Included Software   OS X Lion Includes Mail, Address Book, iCal, the Mac App Store, iTunes, Safari, Time Machine, FaceTime, Photo Booth, Mission Control, Launchpad, AirDrop, Resume, Auto Save, Versions, Quick Look, Spotlight, QuickTime, and more. Learn more about OS X Lion Lion Recovery OS X Lion includes a built-in set of tools for repairing your Mac in the Recovery HD, a new feature that lets you repair disks or reinstall OS X Lion without a physical disc. Learn more about Lion Recovery iLife '11 Includes iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand. Learn more about iLife '11 Configurable Options Purchase from the Apple Online Store to upgrade processor, memory, and flash storage. 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 4GB memory upgrade 256GB of flash storage Apple USB Ethernet Adapter Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter  Configure your MacBook Air with even more options, only at the Apple Online Store

Apple - iPad2

The second generation of Apple's venerable tablet - iPad 2 - improves on its predecessor in both design and hardware. The iconic tablet is now thinner than even the iPhone 4 at 0.34" (8.8mm), and weighs just 1.35 pounds (613 grams). The big changes on the inside are a 1 GHz dual-core Apple A5 chipset, which provides 2x the CPU and 9x the GPU performance of its predecessor. All the while it keeps the same 10 hours of battery life. Dressed entirely in black or white this time, the iPad 2 also sports HDMI output via a separate cable, as well as rear and front-facing cams, plus a bunch of new cool accessories.

 

Tecnical Specification

Models
Size and Weight1	Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm) Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm) Depth: 0.34 inch (8.8 mm) Weight: 1.33 pounds (601 g)			Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm) Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm) Depth: 0.34 inch (8.8 mm) Weight: 1.35 pounds (613 g) (Wi-Fi + 3G model) Weight: 1.34 pounds (607 g) (Wi-Fi + 3G for Verizon model)
Storage2	16GB      32GB      64GB			16GB      32GB      64GB
Wireless and Cellular	Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology			Wi-Fi + 3G model: UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) Wi-Fi + 3G for Verizon model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz) Data only3 Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
Carriers
Display	9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi) Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
Chip	1GHz dual-core Apple A5 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
Cameras, Photos, and Video Recording	Back camera: Video recording, HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio; still camera with 5x digital zoom Front camera: Video recording, VGA up to 30 frames per second with audio; VGA-quality still camera Tap to control exposure for video or stills Photo and video geotagging over Wi-Fi
Power and Battery4	Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system			Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
Input/Output	30-pin dock connector port 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack Built-in speaker Microphone			30-pin dock connector port 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack Built-in speaker Microphone Micro-SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
Sensors	Three-axis gyro Accelerometer Ambient light sensor			Three-axis gyro Accelerometer Ambient light sensor
Location	Wi-Fi Digital compass			Wi-Fi Digital compass Assisted GPS Cellular
Audio Playback	Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Audio formats supported: HE-AAC (V1 and V2), AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV User-configurable maximum volume limit Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through with Apple Digital AV Adapter (sold separately)
TV and Video	AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV support at 720p Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p with Apple Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA Adapter (adapters sold separately) Video out support at 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable (cables sold separately) Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
Mail Attachment Support	Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word);         .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages);         .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text);         .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)
Languages	Language support for English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Keyboard support for English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese - Simplified (Handwriting, Pinyin, Stroke), Chinese - Traditional (Handwriting, Pinyin, Zhuyin, Cangjie, Stroke), French, French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German (Germany), German (Switzerland), Italian, Japanese (Romaji, Kana), Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cherokee, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Emoji, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic/Latin), Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Dictionary support (enables predictive text and autocorrect) for English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German, Italian, Japanese (Romaji, Kana), Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Cherokee, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Accessibility	VoiceOver screen reader Support for playback of closed-captioned content Assistive Touch interface for adaptive accessories Full-screen zoom magnification Large fonts White on black display Left/right volume adjustment
Environmental Requirements	Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C) Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C) Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
System Requirements	Apple ID (required for some features) Internet access5 Syncing with iTunes on a Mac or PC requires: Mac: OS X v10.5.8 or later PC: Windows 7; Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later iTunes 10.5 or later (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
In the Box	iPad Dock Connector to USB Cable 10W USB Power Adapter Documentation
Environmental Status Report	iPad embodies Apple’s continuing environmental progress. It is designed with the following features to reduce environmental impact: Arsenic-free display glass BFR-free Mercury-free LED-backlit display PVC-free Recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure

1. Actual size and weight vary by configuration and manufacturing process.
2. 1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.
3. 3G data plan sold separately.
4. Testing conducted by Apple in February 2011 using preproduction iPad 2 units and software. Testing consisted of full battery discharge while performing each of the following tasks: video playback, audio playback, and Internet browsing using Wi-Fi or 3G. Video content was a repeated 2-hour 23-minute movie purchased from the iTunes Store. Audio content was a playlist of 358 unique songs, consisting of a combination of songs imported from CDs using iTunes (128-Kbps AAC encoding) and songs purchased from the iTunes Store (256-Kbps AAC encoding). Internet over Wi-Fi and 3G tests were conducted using dedicated web and mail servers, browsing snapshot versions of 20 popular web pages, and receiving mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Wi-Fi was associated with a network (except for Internet browsing over 3G); the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on device settings, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPad 2 units; actual results may vary.
5. Wireless broadband recommended; fees may apply

From : www.apple.com