Apple iMac 21.5-Inch (Late 2012)

The slimmer Apple iMac 21.5-Inch (Late 2012) still has it where it counts. It looks better, sounds better, and gets your work done quicker.

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Apple iTunes 11

Apple's iTunes media playing software has long offered the most in listening and viewing options. This major overhaul is faster and cleaner than ever.

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Apple iMac 27-Inch (Late 2012)

The Apple iMac 27-inch (Late 2012) all-in-one PC is the pinnacle of desktop design and manufacturing. It's not perfect, or cheap, but it's worth every penny.

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Apple should double down on Jony Ive, analyst suggests

Gene Munster speaks at the Business Insider Ignition conference today in New York.

(Credit:Dan Farber/CNET)

NEW YORK -- "Apple should double-down on Jony Ive." That's what Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, counseled during a state of Apple presentation at the Business Insider Ignition conference.

"The concept of the Apple's operating system has basically been copied by competitors... The real substance is the hardware side, where Jony Ive plays into it," Munster said. "The difference is in the hardware, and isn't fully appreciated."

In October, Ive was given the leadership role in developing the user interface for Apple's software, in addition to his role as head of industrial design.

After endorsing the tandem of CEO Tim Cook and Ive, Munster -- who has long been one of the biggest proponents of Apple moving into the TV business -- offered his prediction for Apple product launches over the next few years. That list includes an Apple television, an iPhone 5s, and Retina displays for MacBook Airs and theiPad Mini in 2013. 

March 2013: Apple will introduce a radio service, similar to Pandora and Spotify; an iPad Mini with Retina display; and an update of theApple TV box, including an app store.

June 2013: The impact of Ive on Apple software will become more apparent at the annual Worldwide Developer Conference, with previews of iOS 7 and OSX, Munster said. In addition, he expects enhancements to the PassBook digital wallet, commerce integration with services such as Groupon and LivingSocial, and improvements to the maps app. "Letting go of  Richard Williamson (who was in charge of the company's maps software for iOS) is an example of Apple pushing forward on maps improvements," Munster said.

Also on tap in June, MacBook Airs will gain Retina displays, he said.  

September 2013: An iPhone 5S is expected, and it may include NFC, a faster process, and a better camera than the currentiPhone 5. The iPad Mini will get some component improvements, and the 5th-generation iPad will likely come with the A7X processor.

November 2013: An Apple TV, not a set-top box, should be ready for the holiday season. Design would be a critical aspect of the TV, like other Apple products, Munster said. It would cost  $1,500 to $2,000, and be available in sizes from 42-inches to 55-inches.

"The average consumer just wants a better experience with their TV," Munster said.  "People like all-in-one products, like a TV. The selling point will be the interface, fixing the remote  control problem and offering motion capture like the Wii and FaceTime."

 However, he predicted that the Apple TV will not have a la carte channels.

"Apple wants it desperately, but it can be successful without it," Munster said. 

The future: Apple will need to accelerate the iPhone launch cycle with more frequent releases and lower price points:

Apple tried to come out with iPhone 5 to target larger screens, but customers think it's slimmer and faster. Apple hasn't solved problem of bigger screen. Expect two releases a year, with one in fall, the point upgrade, and the S version the spring. A cheaper iPhone for China and other other markets may be available in the next few years.

Munster said he also expects Apple to develop some major innovations in the years ahead, as it did with the iTunes, iPhone, and the iPad.

"Going forward there has been a suspicion that Apple will stop innovating. But over next decade Apple will cannibalize the iPhone with some other devices in the same way the iPhone cannibalized the iPod," he said. Those innovations will likely come from more automation and robotic technology down the road, Munster surmised.   

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Apple shares have fallen far enough, Citi says

Citi prefers to be optimistic when it comes to Apple.

It's not really alone in this (as the firm notes, 51 out of 56 analysts recommend investors buy Apple shares), but what is different is the optimism comes after a rough patch for Apple's stock.

Apple shares have dropped pretty badly over the past couple of months -- down about 18 percent from a high of $705.07 in September -- but that decline is likely about over, Citi says.

The firm today started coverage on the electronics giant by recommending investors buy shares and saying the stock should reach $675 over the next 12 months. It notes that Apple shares typically climb 20 percent to 50 percent following sell-offs similar to the most recent drop.

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Innovation vs. Magic: Why Apple and Microsoft Need James Bond

By Rob Enderle
TechNewsWorld

The Surface and Windows Phone announcement events arguably were better than the last several Apple events. It's as though Apple lost the Steve Jobs script and Microsoft found it somehow. Still, anyone who tries to read the script will be overshadowed by Jobs -- until someone with magic gets on stage and owns it.After seeing the new Microsoft offerings, Steve Wozniak recently lamented that Microsoft is nowout innovating Apple. Wozniak is the surviving founder of Apple, and his perspective clearly isimportant, but he was the guy who got the product to work. It was the other Steve who was largely responsible for creating the entity that was Apple, and it was the other Steve that made it a huge success.

Steve Jobs was moreof a packaging and marketing guy; once he got something that worked, he didn't mess with it much --he simply refined it and convinced us we loved the refinements. The products weren't truly magical,any more than a magic show is magical, but he convinced us they were something special -- and they weregood enough that we saw them through his eyes.

Apple wasn't the first with smartphones, tablets or even MP3 players. It was just the first to package a set of compelling technologies, wrap them upwith marketing, and get us to line up to buy them.

Windows 8 is innovative, but it is only part of something that makes up a whole; without the rest, it'snot magical. Surface comes close, but I think what's missing is a magician. Let me explain.

I'll close with the Dell XPS 12 tablet -- the first Windows 8 tablet I've received to review, and onewith the most innovative screens of the bunch.

Apple's Dying Magic

Thinking back on the first introduction of the iPod, what I didn't recognize at the time was that I was at an Apple magic show. Like most magic shows, the audience was filled with shills to create an atmosphere. In this case, they knew when to cheer and applaud.

Given that we mostly thought MP3 players were crap at the time, it was critical for us to see it assomething new and different. Even so, there were a lot of skeptics -- and for good reason. The iPod was awhopping US$500 in a market populated by under-$200 products that weren't selling. You'd have to havebeen nuts to believe a product would sell for more than twice-market.

However, that is what makes magic magic -- getting people to believe the impossible is possible. You need a magician, though. I kind of wonder if he could be Steve Wozniak?

Borrowed Magic: Surface/Windows Phone

Both of Microsoft's recent launches were directly out of the Apple script. They had people in theaudience who cheered at the right times, the products both were in areas where Microsoft had failedin the past, and both products were clearly very different from the products in market.

Unlike that first iPod, the Surface tablet is competitive with other products in the same size class, as are the newWindows Phones. In addition, unlike Apple at the time of the iPod launch, Microsoft is in good financialshape and isn't living under a cloud of impending failure.

Now there are some minor problems with the Surface tablet, and the Windows Phone 8 is having afew teething pains as well. But the first iPod used FireWire, had little capacity, wouldn't workwith Windows PC, and did nothing but play music. A lot of people who bought it ended up returningit, largely because they didn't realize it wouldn't work with their hardware. Yet it was thefoundation for the new Apple.

The Magician

Now part of why Jobs was a magician is that he was legendary in the valley. He was the founder of Apple andthe face of the company. He was amazing in front of an audience. It wasn't just the fact that he couldremember a script after one reading, either. He had presence -- he could touch you.

If you've ever seen a play with a famous actor and then gone back with a friend and seen the same play with an understudy, you can perhaps get what I mean. The understudy says the words right, even has the intonations right, but it just isn't as good. Part of the reason, I think, is that you know it won't be.

With Jobs, you knew the event was going to be legendary. Even if he was off his game, your braincould in the gaps and create the magic. At the end, this was likely more habit than performance -- buteven sick Jobs could outdo anyone who has succeeded him.

Microsoft Outdid Apple

Now the Surface and Windows Phone announcement events arguably were better than the last severalApple events. It's as though Apple lost the Steve Jobs script and Microsoft found it somehow.

Still, anyone who tries to read the script will be overshadowed by Jobs -- until someone with magicgets on stage and owns it.

Wrapping Up: Skyfall

Bet you were wondering where the James Bond reference was going to go. Well, over all the JamesBonds stood Connery -- every one of them was a pale echo of the first James Bond. However, in Skyfall, Craig and the writers reset the franchise -- Skyfall is arguably the best Bond movie ever made.

That's because itembraced the Connery history and made it part of the new future for the franchise. A hand-off is what's alwaysbeen missing -- a sense of continuity or closure, if you will, and that moment is magical. I think anyone who steps into Jobs' shoes will have to take the stage like he did, accept the unpassedbaton, and create a similar form of continuity. Then we won't see a mere attempt at magic -- we'll see a truemagician.

Product of the Week: Dell XPS 12

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Apple told to disclose HTC deal

Patent disputes with Apple have resulted in a ban on some of Samsung's gadgets being sold in the US Continue reading the main storyRelated StoriesApple and HTC settle patent casesApple loses appeal versus SamsungApple anti-Google case dismissed A US judge has ordered Apple to disclose details of its patent-sharing deal with HTC to its rival, Samsung.

Apple and HTC signed a 10-year licence agreement earlier this month, but did not make the details public.

Samsung, which is also involved in various patent disputes with Apple, asked the courts to tell Apple to furnish the information.

It said it was "almost certain" the deal covered some of the patents at the centre of its dispute with Apple.

The court ordered Apple to produce a full copy of the settlement agreement "without delay", subject to an "attorneys' eyes only" designation, meaning it will not be made public.

The deal between Apple and HTC saw the two firms settle all their outstanding disputes over patents, ending a fight that began in March 2010.

According to some reports, the two companies were fighting almost 20 cases across the globe.

Legal advantage

While that fight has ended, Apple is still involved in legal tussles with Samsung.

Continue reading the main story“Start QuoteIt is clearly a very smart move from Samsung”End QuoteAndrew MilroyFrost & Sullivan The two rivals have filed cases against each other in more than 10 countries, each accusing the other of violating its patents.

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Apple issues supplemental OS X 10.8.2 update

With or without its new Fusion hybrid drive, Apple finally has a Mac Mini that competes well against mainstream Windows PCs in the same price range.

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Samsung exec puts Apple on notice: No phone without our patents

coopeydoop A jury in Northern California would say otherwise, but Samsung's mobile chief offered a pointed reminder to Apple that the patent dispute between the two companies is far from over.

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Apple Mac mini (Late 2012)

The Apple Mac mini (Late 2012) is Apple's best yet, packing as much punch into its compact chassis as a full-size desktop, and offering the sizable, speedy Fusion drive.

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Apple moves to trademark 'iPad Mini' in the U.S.

If you want the full, polished Apple tablet experience in a smaller package, the iPad Mini is worth the premium price. Otherwise, good alternatives are available for less money.

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Apple TV won't debut until late 2013, says analyst

Lance Whitney Lance Whitney wears a few different technology hats--journalist, Web developer, and software trainer. He's a contributing editor for Microsoft TechNet Magazine and writes for other computer publications and Web sites. 

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Apple workers get free apps in time for the holidays -- report

If you want the full, polished Apple tablet experience in a smaller package, the iPad Mini is worth the premium price. Otherwise, good alternatives are available for less money.

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Apple granted design patent for turning pages

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week granted a rather noteworthy design patent for the digital equivalent of the page turn (PDF), that time-honored tradition of flipping pages while looking through a book, a magazine, or other stack of bound paper.

Apple filed for the patent, which was spotted earlier this week by The Register, on December 19, 2011. That's well after the release of Apple's iBooks software, which came out in April 2010 and employs a similar on-screen page-turning mechanism that looks just like the one in the patent drawings.

To be clear, this is a design patent and doesn't actually cover the computational underpinnings of flipping pages virtually. Unlike a utility patent, which would include various claims for things the patent does and does not cover, this type of patent is designed to protect the look and feel of the software in the event of any lawsuits. That's an important difference given any potential legal fight in which this patent could be brought out.

Apple is not the first company to go after the virtual page turn. As part of its now-defunct Couriertablet project, Microsoft applied for -- though has not yet been granted -- a utility patent for the feature in early 2009, something that caused a bit of a stir at the time. Samsung also applied for its own such page turning patent in Europe last October, and Google was granted a design patent near the end of 2010 for page turning on a "communications terminal."

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Samsung: We Won't Settle With Apple Like HTC

Those of you who thought Samsung might take a cue from HTC and settle its patent differences with Apple can think again. Samsung vs. Apple is moving full steam ahead.

Shin Jong-kyun, head of Samsung's mobile and IT division, told reporters in Seoul recently that the company has no plans to settle, according to Yonhap News.

"It may be true that HTC may have agreed to pay 300 billion won (US$276 million) to Apple, but we don't intend to [negotiate] at all," he said.

Over the weekend, Apple and HTC announced that they had settled a patent battle that dated back to 2010. The deal means the two companies will dismiss all current lawsuits in favor of a 10-year licensing agreement. Apple and HTC said terms of the deal are confidential, but "the license extends to current and future patents held by both parties," they said.

But don't expect a similar announcement from Samsung. Apple and Samsung have been fighting over patents since April 2011, when Apple fired the first shot. The case has since expanded to dozens of courts around the globe, but the biggest ruling thus far came in August, when a California jury ruled in favor of Apple and handed down damages of $1.05 billion. Samsung is currently appealing.

Prior to the start of the California trial, Samsung and Apple tried several times to hammer out a deal. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung's Choi Gee-Sung sat down in May and again just days before the trial started, but remained at loggerheads over the value of each others' patents. Cook then spoke with Samsung's Kwon Oh Hyun on the phone just before the case went to trial, but to no avail.

The fight could drag on for years; another California suit is not scheduled to go to trial until March 2014.

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Apple iPad mini (Wi-Fi)

By Sascha Segan

How much are apps worth to you? How about $120? If you want those iPad-exclusive apps and price is no object, then no other small-screen tablet will do. Beautifully made, slim, and light, the iPad mini ($329/16GB, $429/32GB, $529/64GB direct) packs precisely the power of an iPad 2  into a tablet you'll actually want to carry around.

Aside from the apps, though, the iPad mini isn't the best small tablet. Compared with the current $200 tablet crop that includes the Google Nexus 7 , the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, and the Barnes & Noble Nook HD, it's a little too wide, its screen isn't the best you'll find, and it's quite a bit too expensive. Nowadays, Android apps are good enough to keep the excellent Nexus 7 our Editors' Choice for small tablets. 

Design and Physical Features

At 7.87 by 5.30 by .28 inches (HWD), the mini is the slimmest tablet I've ever tested, and at 10.9 ounces, it's an ounce lighter than the Nexus 7. The front is a glass screen surrounded by a very narrow black or white bezel, with Apple's signature Home button below it. As always, Apple's Volume controls, Home button, and Mute/Screen Lock Rotation switch are perfectly placed and easy to find. The headphone jack lives in the left corner of the top panel, with Apple's new, compact Lightning port on the center of the bottom edge.

The back is wraparound black (or silver for the white model) aluminum, with the 5-megapixel camera up in the corner. The fit and finish make every other tablet look amateurish, and the body is beautifully rigid and flex-free. The metal back sure is beautiful, but it's an ergonomic mistake: It's too slippery. With a tablet you're supposed to be using with a single hand, you want a slightly grippy material on the back panel so you have something to grab. While the iPad mini is comfortable to hold because it's so light, its width puts its center of gravity further from your palm than with narrower tablets, and I kept feeling like it was almost about to slip out of my hand.

For me, the problem was made worse by the grip I had to hold it in, because the mini is just too wide for me to wrap my hand around. Everyone's hands are different, but I found the mini's 5.3-inch width is a real thumb-stretcher. It compared poorly with the Nexus 7, whose 4.7-inch width is easily grippable, especially when combined with the smaller tablet's textured back. Unlike the Nexus, I couldn't fit the mini into my back pocket, and it's a snug fit in a jacket pocket. I know others have called this a one-handed tablet, but I'm not finding it so.

Apple dodged another potential ergonomic bullet, though. The narrow bezel made me worry about accidental touches, but I didn't run into that problem; Apple has "thumb-detection" technology which, in my tests, successfully ignored my thumb on the edge of the screen.

The Screen

The iPad mini's 7.9-inch, 1,024-by-768 IPS LCD screen doesn't look low-res on its own, although you can definitely see the difference next to a 4th-generation iPad with Retina Display, a Kindle Fire HD, or a Nook HD. But the display here is sharper than the iPad 2's screen since it's smaller. Colors are richer and the screen is brighter than on the Nexus 7, although neither the color depth nor brightness measures up to the Kindle Fire HD and Nook HD displays. Another thing to consider: If you've gotten used to reading text on a Retina Display, text will look horribly low-res here.

The display is also quite reflective, and I found that very noticeable. Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technologies found it noticeable, too, noting in his Display Technology Shoot-Out that the mini "reflects 53 percent more ambient light than the Nexus 7 and 41 percent more than the Kindle Fire HD."

Since the screen is larger than competing 7-inch tablets, keys on the on-screen keyboard are a little larger, too. But Apple's claim of having greater real estate than competitors is belied by the tablet's lower resolution. You see a little bit less of a Web page at a time on the mini than on the Nexus 7, and noticeably less than on the Kindle Fire. On the PCMag.com home page, for instance, the Nexus 7 displays about 75 percent of the total height, while the iPad mini's display ends about three lines of text above; the Kindle, with its even sharper screen, shows two more lines of text below the Nexus 7's range. The Nexus 7 fits more icons on a home screen: 42 versus 24 on the mini. Small type looks sharper on the other two tablets, as well.

The larger screen also doesn't confer much advantage when watching wide-screen movies; you just get huge black bars above and below them. I rented "The Hunger Games" in HD from Apple, Amazon, and Google Play. Apple's encoding was the sharpest. But the video looked about the same size on the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire; much of Apple's increased screen area was wasted by larger letterboxing bars, thanks to the boxy 4:3 screen aspect ratio. The Nexus 7's 16:10 screen displayed the movie better.

Performance and Battery Life

The iPad mini shares the iPad 2's 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 processor and screen resolution, and delivers roughly the same performance. (We test iOS devices with the Browsermark, Sunspider, Guimark, GLBenchmark, and Geekbench benchmarks.) The iPad 2, the third-generation iPad, and iPad mini all offer similar performance, a little faster than the iPhone 4S  and the new iPod touch, but noticeably slower than the new fourth-generation iPad and the iPhone 5 .

Since iOS is a hugely popular platform, though, apps are generally written to work well on the A5 and you don't see a lot of slowdowns. Need for Speed: Most Wanted, for instance, played just fine on the mini. The only hiccup I could see was in zooming the Barefoot World Atlas app, which was a bit jerky on the mini but smoother on the fourth-gen iPad. Accelerometer-based games work especially well here because the mini is such a small, light tablet. It's much easier to tilt and control the mini than with a larger iPad.

Web browsing performance beats competing seven-inch tablets. Part of that is thanks to the mini's faster 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi with channel bonding, which will probably max out your home connection. On a fast corporate link using the Ookla Speedtest.net app, I got an average of 36Mbps down, as compared with about 7Mbps on a Kindle Fire HD, and 7.6Mbps on a Nexus 7. (The low result from the KFHD really surprised me, as it's supposed to have the same faster Wi-Fi as the iPad mini.) That translates into much faster app downloads, updates, and less buffering for streaming video. The mini was also the fastest Web browser, although not by much. My basket of Web sites loaded in an average of 5 seconds each on the mini, as compared with 7.1 seconds on the Nexus 7, and 10.3 on the Kindle Fire HD.

While the model we tested was Wi-Fi-only, the mini is also available in cellular versions for AT&T's, Sprint's, and Verizon's LTE networks at a $130 premium, working on those carriers' existing iPad service plans. The LTE models integrate GPS, making the mini an excellent in-car navigation system with a third-party app like Navigon. None of the new models will run on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network.

Battery life was quite good at 7 hours, 37 minutes of video playback time with the screen at full brightness and 12 hours, 47 at half brightness. That's better than the Kindle Fire HD's 7 hours at full brightness, but doesn't measure up to the 10.5 hours we got with the Nexus 7 at full brightness.

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Apple iPad (4th Generation, Wi-Fi)

By Sascha Segan

Now in its fourth iteration in two years, the Apple iPad continues its reign as king. The best large tablet you can buy today, the Apple iPad (4th Generation) has it all: top performance, a stellar screen, a surprisingly good camera, speedy Wi-Fi, and a breathtaking library of spectacular apps. Unlike other 10-inch tablets on the market, it's the full package, which makes it a very rare five-star product, and a slam dunk for our Editors' Choice.

Pricing and Physical Features

The fourth-generation iPad looks almost exactly like the previous model, and it's priced the same, too. There are 16, 32, and 64GB sizes in Wi-Fi-only ($499, $599, and $699) and same-size 4G LTE variants on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless ($629, $729, and $829). If you want to be able to keep apps, movies, and music on your tablet, I advise getting at least 32GB. The various carrier models don't work on each others' LTE networks, but the Verizon and Sprint models will work on AT&T's 3G network and T-Mobile's 2G EDGE network with the appropriate SIM card. For this review, I tested the $699 64GB Wi-Fi-only model.

Just like the second- and third-generation iPads, this tablet has a 9.7-inch screen surrounded by a black (or white) bezel, with a curved metal back, and a single Home button. Apple's magnetic Smart Cover, which was released with the iPad 2, clips on just fine. The tablet still has a sealed-in battery, and no ports other than a standard headphone jack. There's a 1.2-megapixel camera right above the display on the middle of the top bezel, and a 5-megapixel camera in its traditional location on the back upper left corner.

On the bottom is Apple's new, compact Lightning connector, which isn't compatible with earlier accessories, but Lightning accessories are starting to appear, and I'm confident the ecosystem will develop quickly with more than 8 million Lightning-compatible phones, PMPs, and tablets already in people's hands.

At 7.3 by 9.5 by 0.37 inches (HWD) and 23 ounces, the new iPad is the same size and weight as the third-generation model. It's a little heavier than the 21-ounce Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, and the Google Nexus 10 (21.2 ounces), but I didn't really notice during testing.

The 2,048-by-1,536-pixel Retina display is sharp, clear, and bright. At 263 pixels per inch, it beats every other tablet on the market right now except Google's Nexus 10, which offers a 300ppi, 2,560-by-1,600 10-inch screen. But both Web browsing and gaming look better on the iPad's screen because of superior software choices. In the browser, Apple picked better-looking, better-kerned fonts, and cross-platform games showed generally superior graphics and coding on the iPad.

The Retina display takes its toll on battery life just as it did on the third-gen iPad. I got 5 hours, 36 minutes of video playback at full brightness, almost the same figure as the previous model. (That's still longer than the Nexus 10, which clocked in at just over 5 hours on the same test.) I'll retest at half brightness as well; with the third-gen iPad, halving the brightness bumped video playback time up to 11 hours. And the big battery still takes a long time to charge: Six hours on our first try, even with the new, more powerful 12-watt charger.

Apps and Performance 

The new iPad, like the old iPad, runs Apple's iOS 6. See our full review for a look at the ins and outs of the iPad's operating system. We've also reviewed and profiled hundreds of iPad apps if you want to get an idea of the richness of the software for this device.

In the eight months since the third-generation iPad was released, most of the apps I have been using for testing have been upgraded to Retina versions. The OS smoothes and improves standard elements within many non-Retina-enhanced apps, too, including text and embedded maps.

Speaking of those maps, Apple's troubles with mapping don't affect this iPad as much as other iOS devices because the Wi-Fi-only model lacks GPS. Still, though, if it can find Wi-Fi the tablet can find its location, and you can download a third-party mapping app if you like; here are 10 solid Apple Maps alternatives.

The latest iPad packs an Apple A6X processor which Geekbench reports to be running at 1.4GHz (Apple won't confirm or deny). The custom-designed A6, as seen in the iPhone 5, was already one of the fastest CPUs available; the A6X enhances the A6 with even better graphics.

The results are stunning. The fourth-gen iPad outmatched all other Apple products on the Geekbench and GLBenchmark benchmarks, scoring 1,768 on Geekbench to the iPad 3's 749. Similarly, the heavy game "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" launched in 18 seconds on the new iPad as compared to 37 seconds on the iPad 3. Yes, it's more than twice as fast. With the iPad 3, I found apps that stressed the older A5 processor. That just isn't the case any more.

Apple's efficient software comes into play when comparing against the Google Nexus 10 too. While the Nexus 10 notched a faster Geekbench score at 2,480, the iPad creamed it on all of our actual Web-browsing tests, Sunspider, Browsermark, and GUIMark, as well as in the speed of loading pages. I saw delays and stutters in the Nexus 10's interface that I never saw on the iPad. Updating a large number of apps went more slowly on the Nexus than on the iPad. And under heavy strain, the iPad got a bit warm, but the Nexus 10 became even hotter.

Part of this is thanks to the iPad's excellent Wi-Fi performance; on PCMag's 5GHz 802.11n network, I got 37Mbps down on the iPad and 23Mbps down on the Nexus 10. Both speeds are fast, but it's the iPad's processor and software that seem to be making the difference here.

Gaming performance is significantly better on the new iPad, too. Intense games like Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Asphalt 7 run at a smooth 60 frames per second on the new iPad and render landscapes in advance of viewing; the Nexus 10 had frame-rate trouble in both games and would render buildings as I came up to them, which was distracting. Scores on the GLBenchmark graphics benchmark tell the tale. On GLBenchmark's "Egypt HD On-Screen," which renders a complex game-like scene, the iPad 3 scored 22 frames per second, the Nexus 10 hit 27, and the iPad 4 marked 42. That's a noticeable difference.

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Apple to move Macs away from Intel chips?

The rumor shows up once every year or so, and it is back again.Sources are claiming that Apple is looking to move Macs away from their current Intel chips to be replaced with proprietary ARM processor designs just like those used in iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.

The report claims that engineers within Apple are confident that A-series designs will power future Macs, including the popular Macbook Pro and Macbook Air models. The most recent design is the A6X, seen in the fourth-generation iPad and featuring an efficient and powerful dual-core processor.

That being said, the sources claim the move will not be made in the "next few years" due to contracts with Intel, but the shift is "inevitable" as devices like the iPad "blur" the lines between mobile and desktop computing.

Apple CEO Tim Cook did note earlier this year that ARM chips for Macs was a possibility into the future, without saying much else.

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Apple Ordered to Pay $368 Million in Patent Case Brought by VirnetX

Apple declined to comment, but is expected to appeal. A VirnetX representative was not immediately available for comment.

VirnetX also has filed complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Apple, alleging that its iPhone, iPad and Mac products violate the company’s patents. In addition, the company has cases pending against Cisco, Avaya and Siemens, with those cases set for trial in March 2013.

The patent holding company had previously won a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging several versions of Windows also infringed on its patents.

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Apple sells 3 million new iPads over the weekend

Apple has announced that they sold 3 million new fourth generation iPad and iPad Mini in the first weekend of availability. That figure is double the company's previous record of 1.5 million third-generation iPads sold in March.

The company did not differentiate sales between the two tablets, but the rumor is the Mini sold better than its expensive older brother.

"Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We're working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand."

Apple sold out of its pre-order iPad Mini units in under a day, with shipping times now over two weeks for delivery. Apple does not count an online sale until it actually ships, meaning the 3 million figure could be a lot higher.

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