You look around and see iPhones everywhere. Apple products have dominated the gadget industry, and its name holds value beyond comparison to that of other brands. It’s hard to compete with this… but Androids are up for the challenge.

Apple entered the music streaming marketplace with the launch of Apple Music, debuting worldwide on June 30th. The app and streaming service aims to consolidate all of your favorite features in online music and foster greater engagement between fans and artists. The release quickly produced animated debate in the tech and music communities; namely, how does Apple Music compare with existing services, such as Spotify and Tidal? Does Apple Music offer any new features that will tangibly enhance music consumption?

While it’s not the first ever piece of wearable technology, the Apple Watch is definitely the most talked about and it was one of Apple’s most anticipated releases in the company’s history. Investors, tech bloggers, fans of Apple, Apple’s competitors, and just about everyone else waited for months to see if the watch would really measure up to the claims made by CEO Tim Cook last year when he announced the watch. And now that it’s been out for a few months, watch owners are voicing their opinions.

Fitbit recently unveiled their new and improved super watch the Fitbit Charge, just in time for the Holiday season. Six months ago the company recalled their product the Fitbit Force to due the nickel content in the surgical steel affecting some consumers causing allergic reactions, thought limited in cases according to Mashable Fitbit offered a full refund, and worked hard to come back with a new and improved product. During this release, Fitbit introduced the three products it is releasing within the next year.  

Products include the Fitbit Charge, the Fitbit Charge HR, and the Fitbit Surge. Currently the only product available for purchase is the charge which offers special features that track steps, calories burn, and sleeping patterns, which can then be synched to your smart phone. The fit band also displays incoming calls and messages, so you can check your wrist before reaching for the phone. So far the Fitbit products come in black and slate, but new colors such as blue and burgundy will be released in 2015 according to Mashable.

The FitBit collections offer the combination of hardware and software unity to take health tracking to the next level. Relying on smartphone devices is less efficient, than synching the features of a smartphone and smart watch. The Fitbit HR offers heart rate monitoring during physical exertion and rest periods alike, offering extensive health insight for only a 20$ price increase. the Fitbit Charge HR offers heart rate monitoring, GPS, sleep analysis, and activity tracking. Unfortunately these two products are yet to be released to the market, but we will patiently await their release, and look forward to taking health tracking to a new level.

Apple is never far from the headlines these days, especially after their iPhone 6 and Apple Watch  launch that basically stopped time. Today, Apple released their first update to the iOS 8 operating system (which was released last week), that turned out to be an absolute nightmare.

A tidal wave of complaints and panicked rants on Twitter led Apple to immediately (and awkwardly) withdraw the update. The two largest issues were the alleged loss of service and the disabling of TouchID. The update was initially to fix a bug on HealthKit, but no word on if that got fixed since it was overshadowed by the other glaring issues.

Mashable has been keeping very close tabs on iOS 8, reviewing the good, the bad and the panicked scramble to downgrade after this disastrous update.

I myself have not yet downloaded the update (storage problems FOREVER/#regrets on not getting the 32GB in the first place) but for now, this setback just goes to show that as far as we’ve come in the technology of mobile phone softwares, mistakes are still made. Of course, no operating system is perfect and i’m looking forward to seeing how quickly Apple can fix this.

This morning at 10am PST, the whole world gathered for the unveiling of the highly anticipated iPhone 6 at the Apple Live event in Cupertino. However, Apple not only revealed the details of the next iPhone but also debuted their very first product in the world of wearable technology. The Apple Watch, described as “a smartwatch with inductive charging, a square face, sapphire glass, swappable bands, a heartbeat sensor and a rotating digital crown” by TechCrunch, is Apple’s sleekest new product proving their innovation in the advancement of technological development.

While Apple made it very clear that the watch is not simply an iPhone on your wrist (the watch is only compatible with iPhone 5 and 5s), the list of applications and functions available on the watch holds its own against its mobile counterpart. The design of the watch is classic Apple, with remarkably clean features and lines. All the watches use the innovative “digital crown”, aka the spinning thing on the side of the watch, to access the different interfaces and utilities.

A quick description of the aesthetic differences between the collections:
WATCH: The standard 38mm and 42mm watch faces with leather and stainless steel bands in a variety of loop designs and colors.
WATCH SPORT: Made to withstand sport-style use, these watch faces are made with a 60 percent stronger alloy case. This collection also includes a “sport band’ made of durable Fluoroelastomer in a variety of bright colors.
WATCH EDITION: This collection seems to be the high-end collection, with Rose and Yellow 18-karat Gold 38mm and 42mm watch faces and leather straps.

This September, a new app is going to make you feel like it’s your payday! The new iPhone 6 is supposedly debuting a new payment platform based on near field communication.  Near field communication “is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity” (Mashable).

This near field communication will not only provide iPhone users the ability to store coupons and credit card information on the phone, but also “present and anticipated applications include contact-less transactions, data exchange, and simplified setup of more complex communications such as Wi-Fi” (Mashable). The main goal of this new payment platform is to be able to replace a person’s wallet with just a simple device on the iPhone.  Instead of carrying around multiple credit cards in a wallet in your purse or back pocket, all you need to do when making a payment is to swipe your phone, how crazy!

The rumors have consisted of many people with mixed emotions about this new payment method.  The new iPhone is said to premiere on September 9th and that is exactly when the rumors will be put to rest! Excited to see how this new iPhone will turn out!

As of 1pm on Tuesday July 1st, Songza is officially part of the Google Family.

For those who don’t know, Songza is a music playlist streaming service from Long Island that has gathered about 5.5 million users in its 6 years of existence.

Songza’s curation algorithm—or its “concierge” option, is unlike any other service in that it takes into account the activities the listener is participating in at the time of day and creating a playlist to fit that specific, unique environment. The range of activities is extensive—ranging from “Lounging In a Cool Hotel” to “Waking Up On The Right Side Of The Bed”, and my personal favorite, “Shopping At A Vintage Store”.

After announcing at WWDC 2013 a month ago, Apple has already released two Beta versions of iOS 7. The latest version, Beta 3, was just released to developers and has a few tweaks to the design and functionality. Here are some pictures and screenshots of how iOS 7 will look like and some of the highlights of the new system (iOS Beta 2 on left, iOS Beta 3 on right):

Perhaps “innovator” is most appropriate to summarize Steve Jobs.  But for proper homage, a new word should be added to our vernacular, highlighting Steve Jobs’ genius of communicating his innovations—he leveraged rich understanding of marketing, type and typefaces, images and movies, letters and words: the 1984 Ad, Apple II, NeXT, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, Think Different (sans ‘ly’) to name a few. 

How about “Jobsian Marketing”?

After all, his legacy is the very act of creation paired with exceptional marketing build up, excitement of rumors and secretive roll-outs which turned millions into disciples.  We, the ambassadors, spread the gospel, hoping to convert the meek, evangelizing the culture of Steve Job’s innovations and in turn become the strongest marketing arm any corporation could hope for.

Perhaps the pinnacle accomplishment for an inventor is to revolutionize the industry of their invention.  Steve Jobs revolutionized several industries, enabling and accelerating the analogue > digital shifts of the early 21st century.  His love of both process and product turned us on, tuned us in and made us believe.

Steve Job created a true new world order, where a single person can successfully manage their global business from the palm of their hand; created a film studio that disseminates genuine storytelling in an industry easily labeled as tired and uninspired; created a brand new market to support a once unknown product now casually known as the Tablet; created convenient media consumption, changing our expectations for how, when and where we are able to enjoy our books, music, films and video games.

Embedded in his great creations, Steve Jobs delivered great simplicity.  His genius can be further seen by pushing Apple to be the first to remove the floppy disc drive from home PCs in the 1990s, or shipping units that had no dial-up modems when high speed internet was not yet available everywhere, or most recently shipping a line of laptops without a CD/DVD-ROM drive, coaxing people to depend on USB and WIFI.

Above all, Steve Job’s passion for his family, work and play immortalizes him as one of the world’s modern great thinkers, doers and innovators.  He brought us the future before it was due.

Where do we go from here?  Mimicry may be a form of flattery, but Steve Jobs would be disappointed with a legion of copy-cats.  It is all of our time to continue pushing the boundaries of innovation, creation and marketing. 

Thank you for setting the bar Steve Jobs.

Thats right, it looks as if Angry Birds and the new movie Rio have teamed up to make a new App, check out the trailer for it.  I dont know if it will be any good or just a gimmick but I do know that i’m buying it. 

I’ve never seen a trailer for an App before.

Anyways just incase you dont know what Rio is check out the trailer for it here.

Long gone are the days of records, tapes, and compact discs. But what is in store for music storage? Music streaming services are surfacing, making it possible to not only listen to music on computers, but also in cars, on TVs, throughout home sound systems, and on mobile devices. Countless services allow users to access thousands of albums and millions of songs instantly on the device of their choice. Users can create libraries of their favorite songs, listen to pre-made or personally created playlists, share songs with friends, purchase songs and so much more. While these services allow users to sync their created libraries and playlists, many music fanatics are looking for what’s next.

Have you seen Apple’s new “Find iPhone” feature?  It’s free, and no, you don’t need a paid MobileMe account (I hate MobileMe).

I highly recommend you go get the free “Find iPhone” app [AppStore link] and login with your Apple ID (which would probably be better referred to as: iTunes Username & Password).

NOTE: Your iPhone software needs to be up to date!

Now your iPhone is synced with your Apple ID, so if your phone ever gets lost or stolen, it’s not a complete goner.  Once your phone is missing, from someone else’s iPhone you can login with your Apple ID to their Find iPhone app, and it locates exactly where your phone is (if it’s turned on) on a Google Map.  If it’s turned off, it will tell you the location last detected, and how long ago that was.

Then you have the following options:

Apple has recently release the public beta version of FaceTime for the Mac.  This means that you can connect to iPhones and iPod touch from your Mac and have a face to face conversation.  Here at Oniracom we can benefit from this if we have someone stuck at the airport when they are supposed to be at a meeting in the office etc.  It works pretty smoothly as it gets all of your contacts from your cell phone and they can FaceTime with you using your email address.

FaceTime still requires you to be connected to wifi on your mobile so no meetings from the beach yet.

Download FaceTime for Mac here

“At the MobileBeat 2010 conference in San Francisco, Eric Tseng said that Facebook “really sees mobile as the future,” and that we can expect to see Facebook’s “Like” buttons in mobile applications soon.

Tseng used geolocation as an example to illustrate the power of the mobile Open Graph. If you were to walk near a coffee shop and get a location-aware notification that there’s a happy hour going on there, you’ll probably be even more inclined to visit it if the notification comes bundled with recommendations from your Facebook friends.”

The good folks over at Mashable recently published an article talking about who would buy the new iPad.  It got us here at Oniracom wondering who among us would buy the new iPad.  This is what some Oniracom employees had to say about Apple’s latest Magical hardware:

Last Friday I had a great opportunity to listen to Jay Matheson from Apple Computer speak at our local City College about personal branding.  As a small business owner, I never turn down these special moments to learn, no matter how versed I believe I may be in a particular field.  We can always learn more information, or see familiar information from new perspectives.  Please Read More…

Although the Apple Tablet reality still remains to be confirmed, some of the big name magazines are already dreaming of the possibilities.  In this case, Time Inc recently unveiled a tablet magazine demo for one of their most popular publications: Sports Illustrated.

The demo is actually pretty impressive and leaves you eager to know “what else will they think of doing”.  It definitely gets the cogs in the head turning on what all can be accomplished with the marriage of tablets and magazines.

The field of sports is a great example but what about the possibilities for music?  Clips of live shows, thousands of songs to play, exclusive interviews, etc. all at our fingertips and condensed in a nice little package.

Is this the future of magazines?  It certainly looks to be an improvement but there are a few areas of concern.  It’s doubtful that all of the current avid magazine readers will put down their trusty paper security blankets.  Additionally, websites are already pretty much doing the same thing.

If the tab mags market it right and put their focus on user-experience and ease of accessing content, I think they might have something on their digital hands.

Apple is exploring a new interactive album format code named “Cocktail” that could potentially bring new life to the Album AND the Music Industry. An executive involved in the plan is quoted by the Financial Times as saying it’s “all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music.”

That’s all well and good but it seems as though the current state of the music industry has arrived to where it’s at because of a reason - progression. This new format is supposedly all about “re-creating the heyday of the album” but what can we classify this as - progression, nostalgia, retro, all of the above or none of the above?

I realize that this new format is being created to give fans more for their money and encourage them to buy the whole album versus single tracks. However, in order for this “Cocktail” to work it will have to overcome the way of thinking that most music consumers have these days - that albums only have 2 or 3 good songs that are worth the money and the rest is usually filler.  Let’s just dream for a second and imagine if “Cocktail” really takes off.  Perhaps this is what is needed to motivate artists to create albums with less filler. 

Of course, for the die hard fans I think this concept will work. Fans are always willing and wanting to get new content from their favorite artists. The question, though, is what “exclusive content” will be offered and will it be something unique OR will it be something you can find on-line within a few minutes of searching? 

I’m glad to see that the big names in the music industry are working on new ways to entice fans into buying music. It’s a sad, true fact but “just music” isn’t really cutting it these days. I personally think the “Cocktail” is a progression and a good idea, but it needs to be done right.  And who better to lead this initiative than Apple.

Click here to read the article in the New York Times

Click here to read the article in Financial Times