Apple: Best of 2015 Apps and Games, Periscope best app

Periscope which offers live video streaming was awarded the best iPhone app of the year 2015 by Apple. The best game of the year was given to Lara Croft GO, a spin-off of the Lara Croft video game series.

Children's education app The Robot Factory was named best iPad app, while the title of most innovative app of the year went to Workflow.

Periscope is an app that let's the user broadcast live video through their iPhones using the internet. It was acquired by Twitter last January.

Apple's top 10 iPhone apps of 2015:

1. Periscope
2. Enlight
3. Robinhood
4. Workflow
5. Instagram
6. HBO NOW
7. Hopper
8. Darkroom
9. Lark
10. The Everything Machine

Apple's top 10 iPhone games of 2015:

1. Lara Croft GO
2. Fallout Shelter
3. Mr Jump
4. Dark Echo
5. Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade
6. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
7. Vainglory
8. Dungeon Boss
9. Puzzle Craft 2
10. PAC-MAN 256

Top 5 iPad Apps:

App of the Year: The Robot Factory
Runners-Up: HBO Now, Patterning
Most Innovative: LiquidText
Best App on iPad Pro: uMake

Top 5 iPad Games:

Game of the Year: Prune
Runners-Up: Rayman Adventures, Implosion
Most Innovative: Her Story
Best Game on iPad Pro: Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey

Top Apple TV Apps:

HBO Now
Zova – Personal Trainer
Kitchen Stories
Netflix
Airbnb

Top Apple TV Games:

Rayman Adventures
Lumino City
Beat Sports
Skylanders SuperChargers
Guitar Hero Live

Apple Watch App of the Year:

Dark Sky

Apple Watch Game of the Year:

Rules!

13-inch MacBook Pro Retina 2015

Apple has updated their MacBook Pro Retina with Force Touch, the design is the same with the 2013 model. It is also 13-inch and has high-resolution Retina Display like before but they equipt it with major upgrades that it will no longer feel the same. It is now equipped with Intel's fifth-generation Core i-series chips, also known by the code name Broadwell. The touch pad has also change it is now Force Touch Pad, it has an awesome feature called Force Click, it is based on Taptic Engine. The new feature detects subtle differences in the amount of downward pressure that the user apply. This gives the user a deeper connection to the content on the screen which brings more functionality.

The new MacBook Pro Retina is a bit faster than before it also has longer battery life and a much clearer screen which is great for movie and games. It has also Flash memory which are similar to the solid-state drives (SSDs) found in other laptops that boost speed.

It has also retain its $1,299 starting price.

Specification:

Display    : 13.3-inch 2,560x1,600 screen
CPU        : 2.7GHz Intel Core i5-5257U
memory     : 8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,866MHz
Graphics   : 1,536MB Intel HD Iris Graphics 6100
Storage       : 128GB SSD
Networking : 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
OS         : Apple OS X Yosemite 10.10.2

Apple's Newest Range iPads

Apple, US tech giant will be unveiling their new range of iPads at a Silicon Valley launch on Thursday October 16, 2014 in the hope to revitalize their spot at the top end of the tablet market.

The event will be held in an auditorium at Apple's campus in the Silicon Valley Cupertino, California. Apple will be competing with Google's new Nexus Android tablet that will be produced by HTC a Taiwanese tech company. The world tablet market is dominated by gadgets that is powered by Android software because most of it are priced lower. Apple's iOS software is the 2nd largest followed by Microsoft's mobile Windows operating system.

Jitesh Ubrani an analyst of International Data Corporation (IDC) said that the market for tablet are heading towards low-cost devices, and companies that will stick to their premium pricing will tend to lose share. iPads are priced at $500 while the mini version is at $400 while Android devices cost around $250 or $300.

It is expected that the new line of iPads will have enhanced features like fingerprint scanning and  Apple Pay mobile wallet which are included in the new iPhones.

Battle of Smartphone Platform: Google and Apple Dominates

According to a comScore Report, Android devices are the king of smartphones there are more people using it than any other Platform. Android has a comanding lead at 51.7% against Apple's 41.6%. It is for the three-month period ending January 2014.

The best benefits in dominating the smartphone platform is that it spills over into the web properties also. comScore reported that Google Sites ranked as the top web property on smartphones at 89.4% of the mobile media audience, followed by Facebook 86.6%, Yahoo Sites 86.2%, Amazon sites 69%, and AOL 56.9%.

Apple launched iPhone trade-in program in US stores

Apple has launched their trade-in program in U.S. retail stores. You can now trade-in your older iPhone models for the latest model. They are gearing up for the launch of a new version of the smartphone, it said on Friday.

Apple store will give customers a credit for their old phones to be used toward the purchase of a new model, Apple said.

A thriving industry exists for older versions of smartphones, especially the iPhone, on websites such as eBay and Gazelle. Even broken iPhones can fetch as much as $125 from vendors, who resell them in the United States and internationally.

Gazelle Chief Executive Israel Ganot estimated the used smartphone and tablet market in the United States will reach $14 billion by 2015.

"So there's obviously a huge opportunity here for multiple players," he said.

Apple shares dipped nearly 1 percent to $487.46.

iPhone 5S are rumored to be 31 percent faster with new A7 chip

iPhone 5S and new budget version is expected to come out in September and the new iPhone is rumored to be 31 percent faster.

Fox anchor Clayton Morris said on Twitter: "Sources are telling me the new iPhone's A7 chip is running at about 31% faster than A6. I’m hearing it’s very fast."

9to5Mac website posted on their site claims that iPhone 5S include 64-bit processors.


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If you are into computer programming or development check out Jacob's blog here http://jacobsiwiti.blogspot.com/

Apple iPhone 6 and 5s rumors

iPhone fans are anticipating the new phone release and some say that instead of iPhone 6 Apple will release an S model for iPhone. The release date is rumored to be a few months from now.

The phone is expected to have an upgrade in the camera department to compete with some of the other offerings including Samsung’s Galaxy. Experts predict a 13 megpixel sensor plus Apple Insider uncovered an Apple patent which could turn the phone into something like a pro photo studio with a system to remotely control flashes and other devices.

A move onto 1os 7 is expected with the new release. Developer logs obtained by The Next Web suggested back at the start of the year that members of Apple’s software development and app teams are compatibility testing some of the more popular or well-known applications already on the App Store with this new system.

A higher resolution retina display for the iPhone 6 has been hinted at but Apple CEO Tim Cook has been widely reported in a call to investors saying the iPhone 5S is likely to featured the same retina display as the iPhone 5. That hasn’t stopped other screen speculation though - the Emirates 24/4 website claims Sharp has developed an ultra-sensitive transparent touchscreen has been developed for the new phone.

NFC, a wireless communicaton technology could become an integral part of the new phone and  help with a payments solution called iWallet which could potentially mean the new iPhone could be used to deposit money into bank accounts by taking pictures of cheques and instantly sending codes to the banks.

The new phone is also expected to have a better battery power compared to iPhone 5 which is a common complaint by current owners of iPhone 5.

Battle of the Smartwatches

There have been speculations that Apple is developing a smartwatch called "iWatch" though there have been no proof that they are really developing or producing one.

So not to be left behind, other electronic giants join the bandwagon and are also rumored to be developing smartwatches of their own. The companies are Samsung, Google, and LG.

As for me, I'm going to give it a pass. I just can't imagine myself wearing an oversized geeky watch that looks ridicolous.