technology training: Week in review: iPhone event rumors, new Mavericks developer preview, iOS 7 betas and more!

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Week in review: iPhone event rumors, new Mavericks developer preview, iOS 7 betas and more!

We're here at the closing of another busy week, one filled with more Apple goodness than you can shake a stick at. Whether it's new developer previews of Mavericks, the latest beta of iOS 7, or talk of the next iPhone(s), we've had our hands full again this past seven days. Here's just a few of the highlights.

We'll start with the big one, dropping right at the end of the week. According to a new report, Apple will be hosting a special event on September 10 where they will be introducing the iPhone 5S and possibly the 'low-cost' iPhone 5C. Nothing is official until that invite starts hitting inboxes, but the source has a pretty solid track record, so there's enough to base a solid opinion on. That puts the event just a month away, so we'll no doubt find out for sure in the next few weeks. If it pans out that way, and release schedules follow suit, we could be seeing product availability 10 days later on Friday September 20. Exciting times.

Apple announcing iPhone 5S, perhaps iPhone 5C, on September 10

While we're talking new iPhones, the leaked images continued to roll this week, with Vietnamese site Tinhte acquiring a pair of mockup units from an accessory manufacturer that purport to be the new iPhone 5S and 5C. Both look pretty much as we're expecting at this point, with the 5S showing the rumored dual-LED flash on the rear, and the 5C bearing the now very familiar looking plastic rear shell. Again, pinch of salt needed but it's not altogether unlikely to expect these type of units are floating around out there.

Mockups of purported iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C emerge

We were also treated to a double whammy of new developer software builds, with first the drop of iOS 7 beta 5, closely followed by Developer Preview 5 of OS X Mavericks. Both continue to remain under NDA, but it's great for developers that the process is chugging along nicely. If you didn't grab either of these yet, both can be had from the Apple Developer Center for registered developers or as an OTA if you're running an earlier build.

Oh, and while we're talking developers; the Apple Developer Portal is now completely back up and running. It's been a slow process since the attempted intrusion, but as a sweetener for registered developers all accounts will receive a free one month extension to their subscriptions for the inconvenience.

Apple also continues to be the target for rival advertising campaigns, both from Microsoft and from Nokia. The Nokia one peaked our interest because it focuses on the camera on the Lumia 925, and we will in fact very soon be putting it to the test against the iPhone 5.

Nokia claims Lumia 925 takes better pictures than iPhone 5. Well, we'll be the judge of that!

Microsoft also made their move for former MobileMe customers this week, with a special offer for those iCloud customers who are losing their free 20GB accounts carrier over from MobileMe. Eligible applicants are being offered a free 15GB allocation on a SkyDrive account for a year. SkyDrive is a different proposition entirely to iCloud, but the free allowance is more than double the standard free account of 7GB. Can't be bad for free.

Microsoft offers 15GB of free SkyDrive storage for one year to iCloud users losing their free 20GB

Rene and Peter continued their respective previews of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks too. On the iOS front, Safari, the App Store and FaceTime Audio were all examined, whilst the Mavericks preview tackled MapKit, web notifications, LinkedIn integration and AV Kit. If you've missed any of them, it's well worth taking a look back as the excitement builds approaching launch this Fall.

So, those are some of our highlights from the last seven days, how about you? What stood out for you this week? Let us know in the comments!

Week In Review