Fans scurried their way through stores to claim “first to try”, “first to buy” or “first to have” the newest iPhone in the market.

What is it that made us really excited with the release of iPhone6?
Well, let’s have a recap shall we?

From our August Phablet Race post, we looked at some of the rumours and expectations for the new iPhone. Now that it’s released, let’s see if rumours are true or if they misled us.

 Rumoured Release Date: Probably September 9
The release did in fact happen on it’s set day, September 9, 2014.

 Cost: starts at around AU$1006|$944
A source we found say that the pricing are as follows:
16GB – AU$869
64GB – AU$999
128GB – AU$1129
Being only $7 out from the mid-range option is pretty close and a good indicator.

The target sale date in Australia is September 19, but pre-orders are open from the 12th. Here’s what the launch told us about the new iPhone.

 What to expect: major revisions, including design
Apple definitely delivered because it’s bigger and definitely better.

Dimension:
iPhone6: 138.1x67x6.9
iPhone6 Plus: 158.1×77.8×7.1
To make the device bigger without the having the uncomfortable feeling when you use it, they have made a noticeable revision on the design making the sides rounded for a smooth handling and looking a lot more slick.

Display:
iPhone6: 4.7 inches
iPhone6 Plus: 5.5 inches
Both using Retina HD Display

To compare to the current iPhone 5S, its display is 4 inches, with the iPad Mini being 7.9 inches.

 Coolest Rumour: addition of NFC
We are giving a soft check on this as well, as this functionality is not yet available and will be coming in this October.

But that doesn’t mean we can leave this off, this makes us all the more excited as this will change the way on how we do transactions. Apple Pay is a technology that provides a security feature built in you device so you can use your iPhone to pay in a hassle free way.

Apple has maintained the cool feature of iPhone6’s predecessors, improved other features and introduces other features. What to say what they’re going to do next. Only time will tell.

Even if you don’t plan on picking up the iPhone6 straight away, don’t forget to download the new iOS 8, available from September 17.

Yours in current trends,
Brio Team

Imagine a classroom where all the books are located on the one device and reading them is a total interactive experience. We have come so far with technology in the last 10 years. Feeling a little old, I remember back to the days when I had to cart text books around, reading and then writing out notes on paper. At the time, I could never have imagined anything so different. The new Apple iBooks allows students to interact with what they are learning. Tapping into more of our senses, making learning, fun, interactive and most of all memorable.

Apple iBooks is also a great tool for writers, making laying out and publishing books incredibly easy with a very professional outcome.

I challenge you to view this video and not feel a little bit jealous of the experience we never got to experience in our school days.

Yours in exploring Apple iBooks.

Belinda

This little guy, Thomas Suarez, was an inspiration to our team this morning, as we watched this video of his TED talk. He talks about how he approached his goal, to make an iPhone app. Suarez has uploaded two apps to the app store (including the very cool “Bustin Jieber” – a Justin Bieber whack-a-mole) and he’s onto his third!

Very inspiring! If he can do it, so can we!

Yours in learning-from-kids,

Anya

I love my iPhone 4 and couldn’t imagine life without it, but after watching this ad, I found myself thinking should I upgrade to the new iPhone 4S. That is the power of this soft sell ad from Apple. It doesn’t mention Siri or iPhone at all in the ad but yet the messages about the new features was so strong. Watch it yourself and let me know what you think.

Yours in soft selling

Belinda

Steve Jobs was an amazing ‘creator‘, he consistently managed to innovate and I believe he has changed the way we consume music, has changed our expectations around how computers and mobile phones should operate and has given us products that we didn’t even know we needed (iPad).

Can we imagine a future without the input of Steve Jobs?  Who will take the innovation lead within Apple?  What legacy has Steve left?

I read a book about Walt Disney a few years ago, he is another  famous ‘creator’, who has left an amazing legacy. Incredibly, before Walt died he left a series of video recordings for the board to watch each year, featuring Walt explaining where the company should be by now. Talk about leading from beyond the grave!

I know time will show us just what legacy Steve has left us, but if an article that I read yesterday is anything to go by, we are already starting to understand the genius of the man behind Apple.

According to TechCrunch, Steve Jobs had told a “veteran Silicon Valley CEO, that Apple has 1,000 engineers working to refine its processors.  The thinking being if they can develop smaller processors with longer battery life, they will only be limited by their imagination on where they can put that technology.

This direction links back to the video in the Gamification post that I made a few months ago about the possibility of computers that are so small and so disposable that they could even be inside our Coke cans interacting with us through games or asking us to buy more product for a discount.

I feel confident that Steve more instore for us.

Looking forward to sharing in Steve’s legacy,

Belinda

This week the technology, creative and business worlds lost a true pioneer. Steve Jobs was and shall remain a force to be reckoned with. He was a visionary with the courage and support to make his ideas a reality. One of our favourite Steve Jobs talks is is Stanford College Commencement speech from 2005.

[briotube]http://www.youtube.com/v/D1R-jKKp3NA?[/briotube]

Journalist Walt Mossberg tells us about the Steve Jobs he knew

A solid reminder that flash mobs are dead. Ok? | Mumbrella

Coffee turned into a $4 splurge – Debbie Millman on how brands have shaped our times | Fast Company

Cold calling for new business can be like trying to score a first date. Chris Savage shows us how it is done | Wrestling Possums

Dreamworks launch their first personal art publication, Moonshine

In praise of slow, Slow Labs list projects that inspire the art of slow design

And we leave you with this fantastic image by Brisbane-based photographer Damien Bredberg

 Now what could be better on the Kindle Fire than on the iPad I hear you asking? Well… From what I can see, not much.

It has a smaller screen, less memory, less battery life (and just these three are making me think it may not actually be worth getting one). I do admit though, I don’t have any tablet device right now, although I have been looking over the last few months, but cannot justify getting one until it has something that I will actually use on a day to day basis that I can’t really do with ALL my other Apple devices such as iPhone’s, MacBook Pro’s, AppleTV’s etc… and the list goes on.

BUT, in saying all this, when I first looked at the Kindle Fire, it actually got my interest purely because it was cheap, looks pretty good, and I can get pretty much everything on it I can on a iPad. The Kindle Fire also backs up everything on it to the Amazon cloud automatically via WiFi so you don’t loose all your data. No need to plug that baby in to a computer like every other Apple device

Mashable writer Lance Ulanoff does not think it will be very successful though.

“Will it beat the Apple iPad? Unlikely”, Mr Ulanoff said.

And you know what? I tend to agree with him. Apple sold over 28 million iPads from April 2010 to June 2011.

Yours in tablets (once again),
Lee.

“Designers, type enthusiasts and people who love to explore the world of typography, better take a seat before hearing – FontBook, the most complete reference guide of typography in the world, is now available as an App for iPad!”

– Halex Pereira for MacMagazine Brazil (translated from Portuguese)

As if I didn’t need yet another reason to go out and buy myself an iPad (yes I’m proud to say, I am a big Apple fan). When the iPad came out I told myself that I didn’t need one. I felt it was just a glorified iPhone and I already had one of those, but month by month my mind is being changed and now with exciting Apps, like this one on offer from FontBook, I find myself jealous of those who already have one, perhaps it’ll have to be a Christmas present from Santa this year!

This great App delivers 620,000 font specimens – 19 times more than the printed FontBook 4, which only had 32,000. You can use this app to look up and view fonts by typeface name, typeface classification, designer name, foundry name, year or publication, or by similarity of design. This App is like a designers dream, especially those in love with typography. What better tool do you need to flick through and preview thousands and thousands of typefaces.

Check it out or download it for yourself at http://fontbook.com/

Yours in typography,
Dawn

This puts it on par with the Apple iTunes store who recently announced that they reached 15 billion downloads.

Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller said “In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen. Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads.”

Yours in being a proud Apple fan,
Lee

When building a successful brand, it’s important to understand the impact your logo will have on how you are perceived within the market, its ability to communicate, and its appeal to your target market. This doesn’t necessarily mean it has to say or look like the product or service you are marketing.

Looking at the major brands like Pepsi, Ford, Nike and Canon, it seems the common saying still rings true: keep it simple. Apple learnt this the hard way when they first launched in 1976. Their intricate logo failed to impress their target market, and failed to communicate clearly. So they employed Rob Janoff to simplify it to the iconic apple symbol we know and love today. This symbol has evolved to not only represent the company, but the style and quality of their products. That’s why it’s so important to do the ground work in the beginning, to make sure you hit the mark! After all, first impressions count, and can last a long time!

That’s why we love branding here at Brio Group, we get to be apart of it from the beginning, to see your brand grow into something truly special! To read more about the evolution of some famous brands, click here

Yours in branding,

Tara