Apple has officially confirmed that the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote will be held at 10:00am on June 11th at the Moscone West.  As usual there aren’t any other details. Everything else you will hear leading up to the keynote will be wild speculation.

I will go ahead and crush one rumor, they won’t be announcing the iPhone 5. My crystal ball says so.

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After about a month of downtime, I am pleased to say that we’re officially back on track. We had to take care of a few things on the back-end of the website. Mostly bug fixes and performance enhancements. Hopefully the kinks have been worked out. So far it seems they have been.

With that said, we will continue where we left off, so look forward to seeing more content from us starting this week.

As always you can follow us on Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and over on our very own Forum *hint hint*.

Thanks for your continued support.

Apple just released an update for the Java client for Mac OS today. This update delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability to OS X by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_31.

You can find all the details here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5056

As usual, click on that Apple icon in the top left, select Software Update and get to downloading. This update is recommended for everyone.

I just wanted to post a quick reminder, in case you missed it. There’s only three days left to get in on the savings of the MacLegion Mac app bundle sale before its over for good. It’s hard to say when a deal like this will happen again. So, if you want to get $800 worth of apps for only $49, you better act fast!

Also, every purchase is good toward an entree into the iPad 3 giveaway that the MacLegion is holding. That’s pretty killer!

You can visit the MacLegion bundle here.

Earlier we announced that iOS 5.1 was going to be coming out today. Well it’s finally here! You can update your device through iTunes by plugging it into the computer or you can use the OTA feature in iOS 5 to download just the fixes on the device itself.  The OTA update will be much faster since iTunes downloads the entire iOS package and not just what’s been updated.

This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

•    Japanese language support for Siri (availability may be limited during initial rollout)
•    Photos can now be deleted from Photo Stream
•    Camera shortcut now always visible on Lock Screen for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
•    Camera face detection now highlights all detected faces
•    Redesigned Camera app for iPad
•    Genius Mixes and Genius playlists for iTunes Match subscribers
•    Audio for TV shows and movies on iPad optimized to sound louder and clearer
•    Podcast controls for playback speed and a 30 second rewind for iPad
•    Updated AT&T network indicator
•    Addresses bugs affecting battery life
•    Fixes an issue that occasionally caused audio to drop for outgoing calls

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Apple just announced iOS 5.1 at its iPad event today, and the update will add Japanese language support for Siri. The 5.1 update is available today and will be rolling out in Japan over the next few weeks. There wasn’t really any word on any other new features or fixes. We’ll have more information once it’s available.

Just what everybody has been waiting for! Phil Schiller took the stage just a few minutes ago and he introduced the brand new iPad.  It’s feature packed it’s going to be hard to beat.

The iPad “3″ will feature an all new Apple A5x processor that supports quad-core graphics, the A5x is supposedly supposed to be 4x’s faster than the current A5 that’s in the iPad 2. The iPad “3″ also features a Retina display that will be supporting a resolution of 2048 x 1536 (264ppi) 40% better color saturation, new iSight camera that shoots videos in 1080p and stills at 5 megapixels, it’s a backside illuminated camera that also has 5 lens elements, hybrid IR, basically it’s like the iPhone 4s camera but with 2 less megapixels. It’s going to be nice!

Voice dictation is also making it’s way in, it’s similar to the iPhone 4s.  4G LTE is also making it’s way into the new iPad, it’ll offer 21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA at 42Mbps, with LTE taking the cake at 73Mbps.  Verizon, Rogers, Bell, Telus and AT&T will be the LTE partners this time around.  LTE will also allow the iPad to be a hotspot, provided the cell carrier supports it. Which in reality, that means it’ll cost you more money to use it as a hotspot. That’s not Apples problem though, you can thank the cell carriers for the additional charges.

The new iPad will also have the exact same 10 hour battery performance as the iPad 2.  It’ll be priced the exact same as the current iPad as well. 16GB $499, 32GB $599, 64GB $699

Pre-orders start today.

Tim Cook just took the stage moments ago at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for the special iPad keynote event. After running through some numbers about how many sales they have had and how much foot traffic some of their stores are getting, Tim jumped right in and started talking hardware.

Tim was explaining how iCloud will now allow you to re-download previous purchased movies, he mentioned the movies are now going to be available in 1080p.  He quickly transitioned to what you might be able to view this 1080p content on.  The next slide was an image of an Apple TV!

The new Apple TV looks pretty much the same on the outside as its predecessor. Thin, black, sexy.  There’s a new “streamlined” user interface. The new UI is full of 1080p goodness, there’s a slightly different grid layout. It’s still much like the older interface but there’s larger buttons for the third party applications that come preinstalled.  There’s also a little bit more color to the menu buttons.  They are trying to make it look a little more like iOS.  The movies, music, settings, and TV icons all look like what you’re used to in iOS.

With the new Apple TV they have brought the full iCloud experience. Users will be able to view their photos through Photo Stream, download and listen to music they have purchased and it will also support movie purchases like mentioned above. The aTV will now recommend movies for you based on what you have been watching, albeit similar to suggestions in Netflix

The price will be $99 for the new Apple TV and it’ll be available next week, March 16th.

There wasn’t anything about the hardware inside so we’ll keep you posted once Apple releases the spec sheet. We’ll assume for now that there’s an A5 chip inside.

Edit: The Apple TV is indeed running a single core A5 chip.  It supports the following formats.

• H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High or Main Profile level 4.0 or lower, Baseline profile level 3.0 or lower with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 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, 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

If you’ve ever found yourself a situation where you ended up accidentally formatting a memory card or a hard drive that you didn’t necessarily mean to format or maybe even had drive crash on you, then I’m sure you’re all too familiar with that feeling of not knowing if the data can be recovered or not. Of course, you didn’t bother to backup that data either, so what’s a humble earthling to do?  Besides face-palming or smacking your head against desk repetitively, you might have some luck with data recovery solutions.

Having some kind of a backup plan or recovery system is a must if you’re working with sensitive data on a daily basis. I’ve learned my lesson, that’s for sure. It takes one time for that data to be wiped before one really appreciates redundancy.

That’s why today’s App Deal is a must buy.  Disk Drill 1.7 is currently on sale for 3 days only! You can purchase it from the Mac App Store for the low price of, $1.99.  The normal retail price for Disk Drill is $49.99.

Disk Drill Media Recovery supports all known file systems: HFS, HFS+, FAT16 and FAT32, NTFS, EXT3, EXT4 and actually any other file system, or even disks that were formatted or initialized and currently have no file system on them. If your data is still there and recoverable, Disk Drill will get it back for you.

To purchase Disk Drill for $1.99 visit this link.

Apple sent out an e-mail invitation to some of the larger media outlets on Febuary 28th, inviting everyone to join them this Wednesday, Mar. 7th, 2012 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The contents of said invitation hinted at something to do with the iPad, and of course, like always, everybody in the Apple blogosphere started conjuring rumor, after rumor, after rumor.  Most of these “insider tips” are really just being pulled from everyone’s ass.  Like usual, everybody is over embellishing what may come to the next revision of the iPad.

We have tried to stay out of it this time around. People have been getting so carried away with added features and are making a big deal about some leaked repair parts from Chinese manufactures.  As usual, most of these predictions are going to be wrong or are just simply wishful thinking.

Like I said, we’ve stayed out of all of the speculation until now, simply because the majority of the rumors out there are just link baiting on a hot topic and we’re not going to stoop that low.

With that said, since tomorrow is going to be the event day. Why not have a little fun predicting what we’ll see at the event?

Apple TV Update

No, not an actual television set. I think Apple is long off on that one.  However, the little black beauty could use an update. The current aTV is only sporting an Apple A4 processor, while it’s still a pretty powerful processor for what the device does, with Mountain Lion adding support for screen sharing through Airplay alongside the iPad 2 and iPhone 4s, both running the Apple A5 chip, it’s going to get a little tough for the A4 based Apple TV to keep up.   Especially with the added resolution that Mountain Lion will be pushing out.

Here’s some of the things I think we might see added onto the new Apple TV refresh.

• A5 processor to keep it up to date with the current iPhone 4s and iPad 2. There’s a possibility we could see an A6 chip tomorrow if Apple bumps the specs in the iPad “3″.
• Native 1080p support. Right now the Apple Tv only does 720p. Since Mountain Lion will support higher resolutions, I think the Apple TV will need to adapt to those configurations.
• Apps: There could be a possibility that we might see some apps come to the Apple TV. While it’s certainly not needed, I could definitely see where it could be beneficial in selling more units. I think it would appeal to a broader audience.  Hulu + would be a nice addition. We might also see some new iTunes U content arriving shortly.
• More ram and slightly larger storage capacity.  Unfortunately we probably won’t have access to that storage space without jailbreaking the Apple TV, it will more than likely need more ram and storage to cache films upwards to 1080p.

That’s about all I can think of that Apple might do to the current Apple TV. I don’t think we’ll see any major design changes, the current form factor is fantastic for any living room, it’s very small and inconspicuous.  I think most everything will be internal.

iPad 3 / HD

This one is more than likely going to steal the show. It’s quite obvious Apple will be discussing things related to the iPad, unfortunately that’s all we’ve got.  There have been so many rumors flying around, people are out right convinced that the iPad 3 / HD will come with everything but the kitchen sink.  I personally don’t think so.

Here’s what I think we’ll see if a new iPad is announced.

• Retina display. While I feel the iPad doesn’t really need a retina display, I think it’s something that will be added on to make the device even more enticing.
• A6 processor. It’s a given, if they are updating the iPad then it’s definitely going to get a speed boost, there’s no doubt about that.
• Price cut or higher capacity for the same price as the iPad 2.  There’s really no reason for Apple to cut the price by any means, the iPad 2 was a success, but for some people the $500 price tag is still a bit much, especially when some of the latest android tablets are getting cheaper.  Apple could afford to lower the price a smidgen. The competition is having a hard enough time trying to catch up to Apple. If they lowered the price, there would be no stopping them.
• Better camera, 1080p recording like the 4s. I’m a little reserved on this one because it doesn’t seem like Apple is really interested in providing decent cameras in their products other than the iPhone, but if the iPad 3 / HD has a retina display, more than likely it’ll have a better camera to take advantage of the new higher resolution support.

Those are the only things that make complete sense to me. I simply cannot see Apple adding Thunderbolt support to the iPad, it’s not needed. Plus they would have to completely change the form factor to make up for the different sized port.  There’s also no logical reason for Apple to release a 7” tablet.  While a Kindle Fire / Samsung Galaxy competitor would be interesting, Apple is doing just fine with the current iPad size, anything smaller and it’ll be cumbersome to use.

We keep hearing about LTE being added to the iPad, while it might be a possibility that it’ll be an option, I don’t think Apple is going to spend a lot of time on it, LTE isn’t as glorious as people are making it out to be.  Yeah, the speeds are killer, but you have to have coverage to get those speeds, LTE is still being implemented all over the US.  There are major cities that still do not have LTE access, so it’s a very limited market right now.  So I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t hear anything about LTE tomorrow.

That wraps up my predictions for two of the hottest items of the spring. Do you have any off the wall predictions?