BioShock Infinite has been out for awhile now, but as with many other AAA games, the Mac versions usually don’t come until several months later, if at all. BioShock Infinite is one of the few AAA games coming to Mac, and game developing studio Aspyr has announced that the Mac port is arriving on August […]
BearExtender has been making signal extenders for Macs for a few years now, such as the n3 WiFi adapter we reviewed back in 2010. Now the company has unveiled its latest two offerings, the 1200 being an 802.11n receiver and the Turbo being slated for 802.11AC. The 1200 has already been put up for pre-order […]
With the wearable device known as MYO, there’s no need for the computer to see you to understand your commands. Instead, this armband connects to your device – Mac and Windows for now, Android and iOS soon – with Bluetooth and reads gestures you make with your hand and arm through muscle fluctuations. This armband
Acclaimed author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman, known best for his Sandman series and novella-turned-film Coraline, is stepping into game development with a new project titled Wayward Manor. Gaiman says that the story for Wayward Manor didn’t begin as a game, but developed into one as he dived in deeper.
It follows an apparition in a 1920s New England house (a manor, if you will) who’s attempting to scare the house’s new residents out. Gaiman’s teaming with P.B. Winterbottom dev team The Odd Gentlemen to complete his goal — no gameplay is shown in the introduction vid, which you can see below, but it’s described as a “puzzle/adventure game hybrid.” The first piece of the game should arrive “this fall,” according to the video, and it’s headed to PC, Mac, and tablets.
Filed under: Gaming, Tablets, Software
Source: Wayward Manor official site
As expected, Apple rolled out its earnings and sales figures for the fiscal third quarter of 2013. During the three-month period, the company raked in a revenue of $35.3 billion and a net profit of $6.9 billion. Apple also saw record iPhone sales for Q3, with 31.2 million iPhones sold during the quarter.
31.2 million iPhones sold is up from 26 million units sold a year ago during the same time frame. However, it wasn’t all roses and candy, as both iPad and Mac sales were down year-over-year. Apple sold 14.6 million iPads during the third quarter, compared to 17 million a year ago. 3.8 million Macs were sold, which is just slightly down from 4 million year-over-year.
CEO Tim Cook says that there was a “strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services,” which boosted iPhone sales throughout the quarter. Furthermore, Cook notes that the company is “laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014.”
Specifically, it’s rumored that we’ll see a new iPhone, along with a budget model and some new iPads. Seeing as how iOS 7 will see a release date at some point in the fall, it makes sense that Apple has a new product to go along with it.
iPad sales saw a steep decline from last year, though, and while web traffic is screaming all iPad, Android tablets may be slowly taking over, or at least pushing Apple away just slightly, preventing them from selling more iPads. However, Q1 2014 could see some changes in that area if Apple does indeed introduce a new iPad in the fall.
iPhone sales up 20% from last year, iPad and Mac sales down is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apple today released its Q3 2013 earnings report, announcing 31 million iPhones sold in the three-month period ending June, along with 14.6 million iPad units sold. Both the iPhone and iPad sales are down from the previous quarter, but this marks the first time the iPad has seen a yearly decline in sales, a 14 percent decrease YOY.
Analysts expected Apple to sell 27 million iPhones, 18 million iPads, 3.85 million Macs, and 4.9 million iPods this quarter.
Last quarter, Apple showed a slight drop in sales from the previous record-breaking quarter with 37.4 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads sold.
This quarter’s 31 million iPhones represent a quarterly loss of 21 percent, while still being up 20 from the same quarter last year. However, the iPad is down 25 percent sequentially and is down 14 percent from last year.
Interestingly, the average selling price for the iPhone has decreased from $613 last quarter to around $580 this year, perhaps marking that cloud innovation has required users to purchase less capacity, but more likely pointing toward the near ubiquity of smartphones.
When everyone owns a smartphone, as opposed to early adopters and tech fanatics, the lower-end model becomes a more attractive option in terms of pricing, especially with aggressive promotions from carriers.
The drop in iPad and iPhone sales quarterly can be attributed to the fact that this is a historically slow time for Apple and all CE companies, and that both devices are expecting a refresh soon.
The iPhone 5 was unveiled last fall, with the next-generation Apple smartphone expected in the fall alongside iOS 7. In terms of the iPad, the most recent refresh came in November with the availability of the iPad mini.
Of course, that Christmas quarter was Apple’s strongest yet for iPhone and iPad sales, breaking previous records for both products. But things have not-so-surprisingly slowed down since the star products’ unveiling, with many now waiting for the newer models to go on sale.
Meanwhile, Mac and iPod sales remain relatively flat from last quarter. Apple sold 3.75 million Macs in the quarter ending in June, down just barely from 3.9 million last quarter. This represents a 7 percent YOY loss, down 5 percent from the previous quarter.
Obviously, the PC market is dying all around us, so flat yearly and quarterly growth is actually quite impressive.
Mac sales usually do best during the back-to-school season. In Q4 of 2012, which goes from July through September, Mac sales hit 4.9 million, which was actually a 1 percent increase from the year before.
But during Christmas, the first full quarter of the 13-inch Retina MBP’s availability, Mac sales only reached 4.1 million units, representing a 16 percent quarterly decrease. Worse yet, it was a 21 percent fall from the same time last year. Last quarter, Mac sales were essentially flat again with 3.95 million units sold, down just one percent from the quarter before and nearly flat with the 4 million they sold in the previous year during the same period.
iPods continue to lose traction with a group of users who are increasingly interested in the iPhone and iPad, both of which offer similar, yet more robust technology.
Third quarter sales totaled 4.5 million, down from 5.63 million last quarter and a YOY loss of 32 percent.
Apple has released Logic Pro X, the company’s latest version of the music workstation software, and seemingly settling concerns that the new app would be dumbed-down to GarageBand-level in the process. The new version is billed as the most advanced to-date, in fact, with more instruments and effects out of the box, together with a virtual percussion accompaniment called Drummer that can automatically play along with your track. Logic Pro X also comes with the new Logic Remote app, which turns an iPad into a remote control for mixing and mastering music.
Logic Remote can be used to adjust levels and track playback, or even as a roving instrument. the app supports keyboard, drum pad, or guitar fretboard layouts, along with a mixing board or transport control.
Apple’s Logic team has refreshed the UI for Pro X, with options to now either maximize the controls that are visible or hide them when you’d rather focus on being creative. There are also Smart Controls, which adjust multiple plug-ins and other parameters from a single place, for quicker tweaking.
Flex Pitch works like the infamous autotune, adjusting out-of-tune vocals but also capable of finessing individual musical notes within a waveform. Paired with Drummer, even the most amateur of bands should be able to coax out something halfway musical, with Apple turning to professional session players and recording engineers for the core algorithms that power the backing system. A Drum Kit Designer allows a virtual kit to be pieced together, and then played by Drummer.
As for playing, playback, and recording, there’s Track Stacks for combining and decluttering large groups of tracks, together with a new Arpeggiator, new Retro Synth for classic 70s and 80s sounds, and various electric piano, B3 organ, and clav modeling in the new Vintage Keyboards option. In fact, the whole sound library has been updated in Logic Pro X, with Apple claiming to have over 1,500 instrument and effect patches.
Over at The Loop, Jim Dalyrmple praises Logic Pro X’s continued inclusion high-end features while also making newer users at home with more straightforward controls.
Logic Pro X is available today, priced at $199. There’s also a new version of MainStage, v3, which is intended to convert Logic Pro X – and the Mac it runs on – into a performance system. It’s also available today, priced at $29.99. Logic Remote is a free download, though requires Logic Pro X of course.
Apple Logic Pro X released with Logic Remote iPad controller is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apple’s new Mac Pro may be a lesson in rethinking workstation component layouts, but wouldn’t it be better if you could actually see all that clever construction through a custom glass sleeve? Designer and 3D artist Martin Hajek thought so, and so cooked up some renders of the Mac Pro 2013 with its metal casing replaced, not only with glass – and reminiscent of the G4 Cube Steve Wozniak is so enamored with – but with perforated aluminum and even some sleek metallic finishes.
The new Mac Pro isn’t a stranger to tubular glass casings: after all, Apple used them to show off the pre-production hardware at WWDC 2013. In Hajek’s concepts, however, the glass sleeve is a lot more form-fitting, effectively replacing the glossy aluminum casing that Apple has designed.
Glass, of course, isn’t going to do much for the Mac Pro 2013′s cooling requirements. Apple has outfitted the new workstation with a single, large fan, that spins horizontally on top of the circular housing. That pulls cool air up, from the bottom of the Mac, and across the triangular “cooling stack” in the center, against which the two graphics cards and the mainboard are all fixed.
However, where aluminum would allow some of the heat to radiate out from the new Mac Pro, a glass case would act more like a thermos flask, trapping it inside. Given there are already questions from some quarters about whether the single fan will be enough to cool the Xenon E processor and dual-GPUs, it’s probably too much to ask for an effective aftermarket glass casing.
Still, most would probably agree that the Mac Pro looks pretty slick dressed in glass, at least before the dust bunnies move in. Hajek also has some more straightforward designs, including some colored anodized aluminum ones that we can imagine ColorWare delivering on.
The new Mac Pro 2013 is set to launch later in 2013; there’s more on the design and the thermal system in our SlashGear 101.
VIA Gizmodo
Mac Pro 2013 glass case concept is impractical but lustworthy is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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