Round-up of Apple Announcements

On Tuesday this week Apple made a series of product updates and new announcements at their event in San Francisco. Here's a quick roundup of the important things they announced. 1. Mac Pro

We already knew most of the technical details of Apple's new Mac Pro desktop but what we didn't know was the price or a time-frame for release. We got these answers on Tuesday. The revolutionary new desktop will be available in December and will start at £2,500 for a 3.7GHz Quad-Core with 12GB RAM. The standard 6-Core is priced at £3,299.

2. iPad Mini Retina

This is the one that a lot of people have been waiting for. From the

moment the first iPad Mini was announced this time last year everybody has been waiting for it to be fitted with a Retina display. The new iPad Mini is coming towards the end of November and is priced from £319 up to £659 for a 128GB with Wi-Fi and Cellular. The iPad Mini with Retina Display also features Apple's new A7 and M7 chips which give massively improved speed and graphics.

3. OS X Mavericks

This one got a great round of applause from the audience and all of those watching online. Apple announced that their new desktop operating system - OS X

Mavericks - would be available completely free to all Mac users no matter what version they're currently on. They also had a massive dig at Microsoft who are charging around $100 for their latest operating system. OS X Mavericks comes with a range of updates including much better multiple display support, iBooks, Maps and a lot more.

4. iLife and iWork Updates

Again, this is something that we knew a little bit abou

t from Apple's developer event (WWDC) back in June this year. We did learn though that all of iWork and iLife apps have been refreshed with new graphics and UIs. We also saw a little bit more of iWork for iCloud which is Apple's answer to the fantastic Google Docs. It was also announced that all of these apps would be available for free with all new Macs and iOS devices - saving you a small fortune.

5. iPad Air

This was primarily an iPad event and so of course the regular iPad had to have an update. Not only did itget updated hardware but it got a new name - iPad Air. As I'm sure you guessed it's lighter, thinner and faster than the previous version, mostly thanks to the new A7 chip. There's a also a smaller bezel - 40% smaller in fact - around the screen, which makes a huge difference when compared to older version of the iPad.

What did you like or not like from Apple's announcements? Leave your comments below.

iPad Event set for 22nd October-314

On Tuesday this week Apple sent out invitations to the media for an event on 22nd October in San Francisco. It's highly likely that a new iPad and iPad Mini will be launched along with a possible announcement on OS X Maverics, and who knows what else.

As the wording on the invitations suggest there'll also be an update to the iPad's smart cover too - perhaps an integrated keyboard or something much more innovative and interesting.

Apple release a 128GB iPad

A 128GB version of the ever popular iPad has now gone on sale for £639. It is aimed more at the enterprise market rather than consumers. Does this signal the end of the tiny 16GB version of the iPad and maybe iPhone?

Has 'iPad' become a generic trademark?

A generic trademark, also known as a proprietary eponym, is when a brand name becomes the word used for all products of that type. The best example being Hoover. Hoover is a brand of vacuum cleaner yet the majority of people call all vacuum cleaners Hoovers.

It's extremely difficult and probably impossible to actually define the moment a brand becomes generic as it tends to happen over quite a long period of time.

In general company's do everything they possibly can to stop their brands becoming generic, after all, why would Hoover want people calling a Dyson a Hoover? Google actively discourages the media from using the term 'googling' in an attempt to stop the trademark becoming generic.

In severe cases the original company can lose all IP Trademark rights meaning any company can then use their brand name. An example is the 'Philips head screw' which was originally a trademark that Henry Philips owned. Now any company can use the term 'Philips head screw'.

There are a number of demographics that seem to use the word 'iPad' for all tablets, in particular older people and those less technologically minded.

In work they've recently installed tablets at the the till points. I'm not entirely sure what brand they are but they're certainly not iPads. Despite this my (elderly-ish) boss calls them iPads, customers comment on them saying 'Cool, you're using iPads'. For Christmas my four year old, severely spoilt nephew had a 'Child Pad'. Nearly every member of my family, including my nephew, call it an iPad despite me telling them 'IT'S NOT AN IPAD!'.

So I don't think 'iPad' is a generic trademark just yet but I'm convinced that it soon will be unless Apple and other brands like Amazon and Google do something about it.

Do you know anybody that says 'iPad' for all tablets or do you know any other interesting generic trademarks? Comment below.

Apple Release & Update Products

Apple have released the much rumoured iPad Mini aswell as updating their range of Macs.They have a new super-thin iMac, updated Mac Mini and updated the 13" MacBook Pro to include a Retina display and making it much thinner.