Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has announced a brand new version of iBooks Author, and there’s a few very important things to note. Starting today, iBooks Author comes with a bunch of new Apple templates, making textbook creation even easier. Publishers can also use their own fonts right there in their digital books, which should do something to give their books some personality that make them stand out.

Apple has also made it easier to insert mathematical expressions into textbooks, whether those are graphs or equations or charts. Expanding on that, publishers can also put multi-touch widgets into their books, putting even more information at users’ fingertips. While all of this is cool, there’s one new feature that outshines the rest: iBooks Author publishers can now directly edit their books, so they can make changes on the fly and update information as needed. The rest of the features will definitely come in handy, but we’re thinking that the ability to edit books will prove to be invaluable.

This new version of iBooks Author is available today, and you can nab it for free. We’re sure that publishers are going to go crazy over this new edition of iBooks Author, so Apple may find itself with a lot of praise after this release. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more, and be sure to have a look at our Apple hub to make sure you didn’t miss any news from today’s event!

Apple announces new version of iBooks Author is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Apple event on the 23rd of October – next week, that is – is quite likely going to be playing host to more than just the iPad mini: in fact details today suggest that refreshes of both the Mac mini and iMac will be appearing at the event as well. This tip comes from 9to5Mac where they’ve got sources close to the line saying that three new Mac mini models will be appearing at the same prices the current models are at, that being $599, $799, and $999 – the last being a single server model. New iMac models are also being suggested to keep their pricing scale with $1199, $1499, $1699, and $1999 depending on the size and innards.

These refreshes have also been tipped to be coming with some upgrades, of course, including a Mac mini with 16GB of RAM included in two RAM slots and a denser machine overall. That’s not to say much for the weight of the machine, but the insides will certainly be jumping at leaps and bounds while the size of the unit stays relatively similar to past models. This update has the Mac mini finally able to join the official Apple ranks – rather than just 3rd party modified sales ranks – with its 8GB configuration replaced with 16GB of RAM for the standard edition.

The Mac mini may well have 32GB of RAM then with higher grade models, with four slots for RAM still being the situation on the innards. This boost has separately been tipped to be coming in at a thinner profile than before, strangely enough, this ringing true with the theme of the event, Apple showing us “a little bit more” as it were.

The iMac on the other hand will be keeping its height but reducing its thickness, with a bit of a teardrop design making this all-in-one sort of machine small as it is gigantic. The iMac has been tipped as having a price increase as well, so we’ll see whose reports add up in the end. Size reductions add to the possibility of there being a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro as well.

We’ll be live at the Apple event on the 23rd of this month – that’s next week – so stay tuned and make sure you’re ready for lots and lots of action. New hardware primarily is what we’re expecting, but we could very well see some software boosts as well – we shall see!

iMac and Mac mini refresh pricing tipped to remain the same at Apple event is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re ready for Windows Phone 8, Microsoft hears you – with an event scheduled for the 29th of October and set to show off Nokia as their brand hero right up front and center. If this doesn’t calm your mind on how Microsoft will be pushing the mobile OS, nothing will – there’s no Surface smartphone in the mix (yet, of course.) What we’ll be seeing here is several sizes of tiles, a lovely new set of integrations with Windows 8, and perhaps a few new bits of hardware as well.

This event will play host to Windows Phone 8 and many of its integrated launch-day services including Xbox Music for battle with Spotify and iTunes. We may see the elusive Verizon Nokia Lumia 822 (aka the Atlas. We’ll definitely going to see more of that “fundamental shift” that Steve Ballmer was talking about. We’ll definitely get a Windows Phone 8 pre-order date if we don’t have it by then.

We’ll hopefully just be seeing a few HTC devices including the Windows Phone 8X and the 8X as well. The 8X will be one to watch, for sure.

The folks at ZTE MIGHT have a Windows Phone 8 device at the event – though that’s unlikely. The devices we’ll certainly be seeing are the Nokia Lumia 920 and the Nokia Lumia 820, both of them ready for action right the heck after the event, we should hope. We’ll be there with bells on, you can bet -stick around!

Windows Phone 8 launch event invites sent for October 29 with Nokia as hero is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Rumors about the iPad mini are really starting to heat up and alleged leaks of the body are hitting the web with machine gun-like regularity. Now AllThingsD claims to have another piece of the puzzle — when. According to “people familiar” with the matter, Apple is scheduling a press event for October 23rd, where it will likely take the wraps off its latest (and smallest) tablet offering. The outlet reported a similar rumor ahead of the iPhone 5 launch, insisting that the littlest slate would be held until October. Now, here we are — it’s October — and we’re still waiting for our invitations. As usual, you’ll be the first to know when ours arrives and we can confirm the when and where (and we think you already know the what). As for the how and why? Well, that we’re just going to have to wait and see.

Update: Others are now chiming in to say they’ve confirmed the date with their own sources, including Reuters and Jim Dalrymple of The Loop.

Filed under: Tablets, Apple

Apple likely to reveal iPad mini on October 23rd, reports AllThingsD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s clear by now that the Galaxy S III is an extremely popular smartphone, so it’s no wonder we’ve been hearing rumors of a new version of the handset – dubbed the Galaxy S III Mini – off and on for a while. Today we’re hearing new rumors of such a device, although this time around there’s some lovely photographic evidence to go along with it. Samsung has apparently started sending out invitations to an October 11 event in Germany, and with them, the company is teasing something tiny.

According to the folks at UnwiredView, the text on the invitation (pictured below) says something along the lines of “Something small will be really big,” and, “Get ready for a little sensation.” Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure what Samsung is talking about in this invitation, but we can clearly see the “S” that Samsung has always used in the branding for Galaxy S devices pictured in the center. So, at the very least, we should be hearing about a new Galaxy S device at this event on October 11.

The text on the invite, however, suggest that this device’s size is one of the main talking points. That’s leading some to believe that the long-rumored Galaxy S III Mini will be revealed at this event, but even though the evidence is pointing toward such a reveal, we’re hesitant to say that it’s a sure thing. In short, take any rumors about a Galaxy S III Mini with a grain of salt until Samsung makes the announcement it’s teasing in this invite.

Even with all of the mystery, it would make sense for Samsung to release a Galaxy S III Mini. The Galaxy S III is a great phone, but some think that the massive 4.8-inch screen is a little on the big side. If Samsung can fix those complaints by offering a mini variant of the Galaxy S III, it would surely net a few more sales, so we’re tempted to believe the hype and assume that the company is teasing the Galaxy S III Mini here. What do you think?

[via Android Community]

Samsung Galaxy S III Mini could get a reveal next week is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.