The iPhone 5, New iPod touch, Renovated Nano and More From Apple

Yesterday Apple announced some awesome new versions of its state of the art gadgets and technologies, including the long awaited iPhone 5, a brand new iPod touch, a renovated iPod nano, the amazing iOS6 and a whole lot more!  Get ready. Here’s the scoop:

iPhone 5 - “The thinnest, fastest, lightest iPhone ever”

• Brand new 4  inch Retina display screen  with fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating (4-inch IPS 1,136 x 640) - Updated from 3.5 inch screen on the 4s
• Longer design to accommodate for the display, allowing for an extra set of apps on the home screen
• 20 percent lighter - compared to 4s
• 18 percent thinner - compared to 4s
• Brand new A6 chip aimed to make performance and graphics twice as fast - Updated from A5 chip on the 4s
• Features the brand new iOS6
• Display has touchscreen sensor built-in —”Pixels act as touch-sensing electrodes while displaying the image all at the same time.” Apple says the iPhone 5 is the only phone on the market with this technology.
• iSight camera allows you to shoot in panoramic view (240 degrees) - no combining still shots, just pan the phone and it creates a panoramic photo
• 40 percent faster picture capture
• FaceTime now available on WiFi and Cellular via iOS6
• Better 720p front camera with new backside illuminated sensor
  
• Updated microphones and built-in speakers
• Microphones on front, back and bottom which enhance voice/recording quality – they also contain specialized noise canceling
• Enhanced battery life - 8 hours of 3G talk time, 8 hours of LTE browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 30 hours of video and 225 hours of standby.
• Faster web surfing with LTE capability
• Uses new “Lightning” dock connector
• Aluminum and glass body
• Enhanced precise manufacturing (from apple website: “During the assembly process, each iPhone 5 aluminum housing is photographed by two high-powered 29MP cameras. A machine then compares the images with 725 uniquely cut inlays to find a precise match.”)
• Colors: Black and Slate / White and Silver
• WiFi : Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Weight: 112 grams / 3.9 oz
• Dimensions: 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm
• Comes with: Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic, Lightning to USB Cable, USB Power Adapter

Price: $199 16GB, $299 32GB, $399 64GB

Check out all of the official specs here.

The White iPhone 5

The Black iPhone 5

The White iPhone 5

New Lightning connector

Panoramic camera function

Picture taken with iPhone 5 – not retouched.

iPod Touch 5th Generation - “Engineered for maximum funness”

• 4 inch retina display with fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Multi-Touch technology built into the glass
• Features the new iOS6, offering Siri capability, in addition to Facebook and Twitter integration
• iPod touch loop attachable/detachable handle
• Comes in 5 colors + (PRODUCT) RED = 6 colors
• Thin and Light design
• Comes loaded with apps like iMessage, Facetime, Notification Center and more
• 5 megapixel iSight camera (7 times better than the previous generation) featuring advanced optics, tap to focus, an LED flash, and face detection
• Backside illumination
• Panoramic picture feature
• FaceTime HD camera with 1.2MP photos and HD video (720p) up to 30 frames per second
• 1080p HD video recording
• Dual core A5 chip (2 times the processing power and 7 times faster graphics than the previous generation)
• Battery Life: 40 hours of music or 8 hours of video on a single charge
• Height: 4.86 inches (123.4 mm)
• Width: 2.31 inches (58.6 mm)
• Depth: 0.24 inch (6.1 mm)
• Weight: 3.10 ounces (88 grams)
  
• WiFi: 802.11a/b/g/n
• Uses new Lightning connector
• Comes with:  apple earpods, ipod touch loop, lightning dock connector

Price: from $299

Check out all the official specs here.

iPod Nano 7th Generation - “Completely renanoed”

• The thinnest iPod ever made - 38 percent thinner than generation 6 nano
• 2.5-inch multitouch screen
• NEW Bluetooth 4.0 capability
• Support for Nike+ gear built in
• Comes in 7 colors + (PRODUCT) RED = 8 colors
• Uses NEW Lightning connector
• Functions: music, video, radio, photos, podcasts, fitness
• Accessibility features to help people with disabilities: voiceover, invert colors, mono audio
• Battery Life: Up to 30 hours of music,  up to 3.5 hours of video
• Height: 3.01 inches (76.5 mm)
• Width: 1.56 inches (39.6 mm)
• Depth: 0.21 inch (5.4 mm)
• Weight: 1.1 ounces (31 grams)¹
• Comes with: Apple EarPods, Lightning to USB Cable

Price : $149

Get all the official specs here.

iOS6 - “It takes your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in entirely new directions”

Over 200 new features are on the way with iOS6. Updates  include:

• Passbook: your boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, loyalty cards, and more inside this neat app
• Enhanced Siri
• Facebook Integration
• Shared photo streams
• FaceTime that works over cellular networks as well as Wi-Fi
• New calling features:  instantly reply with a text message or set a callback reminder when you decline a call, turn on Do Not Disturb function and you won’t be bothered — except for priority “can’t-miss” contacts
• Enhanced web browsing
• Camera with panorama feature
• Better Maps
• Updated Find My iPhone
• Updated Find My Friends
• Redesigned mail
• Remodeled iTunes, App Store, and iBookstore
• More accessibility features for the vision, hearing, learning, and mobility impaired

Apple EarPods - “Redesigned from the sound up”

Brand new headphones created by Apple after testing 124 different prototypes on over 600 people.

They’ll ship with the  iPhone 5 in addition to the new iPod touch and nano. They can also be purchased individually.

The Earpods are designed to fit numerous different ear types and aim to:

• rest comfortably in the ear
• stay inside of the ear without falling out
• produce quality sound

Here’s what Apple has to say about its new Earpods:

“a breakthrough design for a more natural fit and increased durability, and an incredible acoustic quality typically reserved for higher-end earphones.”

“overall audio quality [that's] so impressive, they rival high-end headphones that cost hundreds of dollars more.”

Price: $29.00 as a standalone 

(Earpods come with the purchase of the iPhone 5, new iPod touch or new iPod nano)

 

iPod Shuffle – “It’s big on color”

• Same iPod shuffle, just in awesome new colors to match the Nano

Price: only $49

Extra, Extra!

Get select Apple merchandise in RED and Apple gives a portion of the purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

Click here to buy (PRODUCT) RED merchandise from Apple.

iPad Mini ?

Lots of rumors of an iPad Mini have been circulating through some usually accurate and trustworthy news/technology sources.

BUT as expected by many, it wasn’t announced with the other new Apple items on September 12th. Analysts are predicting Apple will host a second event mid- October announcing an iPad Mini, with shipping on the item following toward the end of the month.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see on this one. If true, here’s what we might have to look forward to:

iPad Mini alongside the New iPad and previous iPhone.

Predicted iPad mini compared to the new iPad and previous iPhone.

 

 

“Anti-Gay” Chick-Fil-A? Everything You’ve Heard is a Lie

Chick-Fil-A is a hot topic with news outlets, websites, and social media platforms all over the internet right now.

The commentary consists of statements accusing the company of hating gays and being homophobic. It’s hard to clarify exactly what all is true and what’s just hype and rumor, but some news outlets are announcing other companies breaking off deals and contracts with Chick-Fil-A, communities trying to ban the company, and groups organizing large boycotts.

After hearing/reading about all of this, and having looked further into the issue, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. And pardon me, but it’s just idiotic. Customers, business people, and community leaders are acting plain stupid, bashing the company and misinforming their followers and friends without even knowing the facts. I doubt most of these people have done any kind of research to find out where these accusatory statements toward the company are derived from. They’re just jumping on the bandwagon.

Come on people. You’re adults. Grow up. It’s not high school.

Here’s the truth about the situation:

Everything you’ve heard about Chick-Fil-A was twisted and blown out of proportion in an effort to bash the company for having Christian values.

Even the reporter who did the interview the media is using to bash Chick-Fil-A agrees:

The reporter who conducted the original interview with Cathy [president and chief operating officer of Chick-Fil-A] is now saying that Cathy’s remarks have been distorted in the press. Many of those reports spin Cathy’s remarks in a negative direction calling Chick-fil-a “anti-gay.” The reporter says that the term “anti-gay” never came up in the interview. “[Cathy] never even brought up that subject. Everything he stated was on the positive side … He never stated anything negative.

Here’s a great article with more information. Read it. You need to be informed.

To sum things up: It’s pathetic how far insecure people will go to hurt and defame other people and companies that are doing something that matters. Apparently we live in a “you can’t call yourself a Christian or we’ll blast you, call you anti-gay, and ruin your business and your life” world. Call yourself a Christian, people want to stone you. Call yourself anti-Christian and you hit the fame charts like Justin Bieber. It doesn’t get more pathetic than that.

People need to know the truth…and we need to stand up for it. Stop letting insecure, biased, twisted, Christian hating media dictate “reality” to you and your family and friends.

Let’s get started: This isn’t the end. It’s the beginning. Let’s let people know the truth about Chick-Fil-A. We owe it to them. Will you share this post to help get the truth out? 

Study indicates: Hire Young People. Period.

A growing number of organizations are refusing to hire anyone under 30 these days. It can get pretty depressing real quick.

Qualified, innovative, and energetic young individuals are being turned down for jobs based on preconceptions about their age group. Organizations and leaders are focused on the wreck of an economy and view hiring these young people as risky and unnecessary. Anymore, young people are seen as a liability, not an asset.

According to one recent study, among others of its kind, maybe it’s time to change your thinking.

Here are a few reasons why:

Think about it. Young people could be just what you need to bring revitalization, innovation or new energy into your organization or business.

Follow @robbinsbrandon

The Impact Factor: A Manifesto For World Changers

I’m working on a manifesto for world changers. When it’s done, it will be up on the blog for download.

In the mean time, here’s a teaser to chew on:

The Impact Factor is not just a mediocre, warm and fuzzy, run of the mill piece of literature.

It’s a manifesto for world changers.

It addresses the lies about influence our culture sucks us into and reveals what true influence and world change really look like.

Too often we look at our society and know something’s wrong, but don’t know how to fix it. The Impact Factor will help you figure out where to start.

It will make you want to get up and do something, to change the world from right where you are…

but you’ve got to stop being afraid first. The Impact Factor will help you do that.

It’s time to take out the trash, and start changing the world for real.

It starts with YOU.

Are you with me?

Why The Church Is Too Self-Centered

The church is (we are) too self-centered.

We want the attention.  We want the traffic. We are constantly asking, “Are we good enough? Are we cool enough? Are we relevant enough? What can WE do to get better?” We present these questions as an effort to impact the world, but honestly we are making it all about us.

The world is tired of us talking about us. It’s like the guy that says, “Hey, let’s go out to coffee sometime. I want to get to know you better,” then he talks about himself the entire time.

Whether or not we want to accept it, we are driving people away.

Sometimes the aforementioned questions are helpful, but more times than not, we are missing the point. We have a mindset of trying to see how many people we can fit into a building, how great we can make our buildings look, how good we can make our programs, yet we aren’t content with the results. We want better. Louder. BIGGER. 

We build new buildings, hire new pastors and staff, and switch up our programs. Then we do again. And again. Yet we’re still frustrated because our impact lacks.

Something’s not right, and this is it: We need to get the focus off of us.

We sit and wait for society to come to the “church,” but if we want to have truly great impact like we’re called to, we have to bring the Church to society.

We need to stop making church about a location, about a leader, about a production and again start making it about Christ. Our “efforts” to reach society have secluded us from society. It’s time to change that.

This is only going to happen when the Church embeds itself into community, when the Church intentionally gets involved in music, business, art, builds relationship and EARNS influence. And I’m not talking about creating some weird subculture.  We’re called to live set apart and yet influence the world, not to seclude ourselves entirely from it. You can’t influence something you isolate yourself from. Creating our own subculture does nothing but separate us from the very people we’re trying to reach. It’s time to stand up, get out of the comfort zone of our buildings, stop talking about ourselves, and start serving and loving on a whole new level.

Change needs to happen and we all know it.

Let’s do something about it.

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Caffeine Is Like Cocaine (15 Things You Should Know About Caffeine)

We as an American culture consume caffeine like it’s nothing. There are both positives and negatives to caffeine that we often don’t take time to realize. It’s good to pause every once and a while and think about what we are really putting into our bodies. When I found this infographic online, I did just that. This is great information & I figured others would appreciate it as much as I did.

 

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Wisdom for Young Leaders from Monty Hipp

A few months ago I had the opportunity to hear the great Monty Hipp speak to a group of young leaders.  Here are some of his notable statements:

• Focus on being something or doing something will drive who you should be.
• You will never meet anyone who got smarter when their mouth was moving.
• If you are a finisher, people will follow you. If you are a starter, surround yourself with finishers.
• Associate 2 words: Character & Commitment
• Figure out faithfulness. Often the right thing is silent.
• Don’t let emotion be the foundation for your faith.
• Keep your hand out [to help others]. The risk of the reach is worth the stretch.
• Prayer and study of the Bible needs to go beyond spiritual decoration and needs to become personal passion.
• There is a difference between making “a difference” and making “the difference”
• Greatness doesn’t attract a crowd in a season of preparation, but it is your faithfulness in the determined disciplines that will draw a crowd.
• If you want to make impact all across society, you have to make impact in every sector of society.
• Until a person is affected negatively or personally, the majority of people will remain neutral on an issue.
• The single biggest issue facing our culture today: The inability to make ethical and moral choices.
• Framework for making ethical/moral choice:
  • 1) You must remove ambiguity.
  • 2) You must come to a place of awareness.
  • 3) You must come to a place of agreement.
  • 4) You must act.

   

-- Monty does some incredible work with the C4 group.  Find out more about Monty and the work he does here. –

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Why the World Misunderstands Creatives

Creatives are incredibly misunderstood…but for good reason. Writer Jeff Goins explains how the world misunderstands people of the creative breed:

[Creatives] threaten the status quo [& so] find themselves frustrated with attempts to fit in or be assimilated. They are tragically misunderstood. At best, they are seen as a means to an end. At worst, they are perceived as a threat that needs to be eliminated.

People around the world are frustrated with creatives because they don’t understand how they function or why they are different. They use them for their creative needs, then call them weird, toss them aside as unimportant and label them as rebels who can’t accept the norm.  These problems arise out of the world not understanding who these people really are. Goins gives an incredible definition for the creative breed:

A creative is someone who sees the world a little differently than others. He is unique, someone who doesn’t quite fit into any box. A creative is a thought leader. He influences people not necessarily through personality but through his innate gifts and talents. A creative colors outside the lines… on purpose. In so doing, he shows the world a whole new picture they never would have otherwise seen. A creative breaks the rules, and as a result, sets a new standard to follow.

A creative is naturally wired to challenge the status quo, to go beyond the norm. Creatives are natural innovators, which brings them into a state of tension with the world. Check out the words of Amazon.com founder, Jeff Bezos:

 I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate… If you’re going to do something that’s never been done before—which is basically what innovation is—people are going to misunderstand it just because it’s new.

Creatives must live life knowing they will be misunderstood. The world sees the creative breed as people who simply won’t conform. People become frustrated at the lifestyle of innovation that creatives live, because the world doesn’t like to change. People like what’s comfortable and familiar and get uneasy when new things are brought to the table. Like Goins says, the world sees the creative breed as a threat, as people who needed eliminated and removed from the picture. But what we often fail to realize is that without these creatives, the world would not function. We would be stuck, not moving forward, not changing with the needs & demands we encounter. The creative breed is just one piece to the puzzle of human society, essential to all that we do. The creative breed is all around you. They are mixed into society, but you can’t miss them. You know when you see them. I love what Goins says about the role of creatives:

The truth is that we need more creatives in positions of influence — to color the world with beauty and authenticity. Creatives help us see life in a new light, to perceive a new dimension, a deeper way of encountering what we know. And we need more of those kinds of leaders.

Creatives don’t intend to make life hard for others. They don’t intend to cause tension. They don’t intend to stand out. The creative breed lives to make the world a better place. They live to make your life the best it can be. They live to make your dreams come true. But the thing is, change is always accompanied by a process of challenge. You can’t get better without challenge in the picture. Creatives accept challenge to move society forward. They are willing to lay their comfort and security on the line to change the world. Their rejection of the norm is not a hit against you, it is a bold move showing they are for you.

What can the creative breed do for you?

You know who they are. They live to make life the best it can possibly be. They live to change the world. But they need your help. Will you partner with them?

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IT’S YOUR TURN: What can you do to partner with creatives in order to help make a positive difference in the world? Add to the conversation in comment section BELOW.

[Live to Inspire]

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What’s Your Normal?

Check this out. Absolutely something we all need to think about. What is your normal?

http://www.actnormaltrainer.org/

http://www.actnormal.org

[Live to Inspire.]

The Truth About Our Generation: Exposed.

Our generation does not understand the value of experience… and we don’t even realize it.  If someone has no experience in a particular area, who are they to correct or contradict someone who has dealt with that particular area their whole life? It isn’t all about being the best, the coolest, the most radical.  Experience plays a huge part in what we do.  If we want to show we are serious about what we do and we want our voices heard, we need to show that by gaining experience, not by shooting off our mouths concerning something we truly know nothing about.  Experience legitimizes us, strong opinions do not.

Our generation misunderstands the concept of influence…and we don’t even think twice about it.  Too often we see influence as an exertion of authority and power.  In pursuit of power we tear others down to build ourselves up.  We intentionally or unintentionally inflict others with feelings of inferiority and in some cases an inferiority complex.  We do so by socially, intellectually, organizationally, physically, or spiritually making others feel out of place or lesser than us.  We enjoy feeling bigger and better than those around us. Once we have made others feel inferior,  we have power, so we call ourselves an influence.  But if we want to have genuine influence in the lives of others, we can’t do it by tearing others down, we do it by lifting them up.  True influence is  not gained through criticism and the projection of inferiority, but through inspiration, compassion, genuine care and love.

Check out these conclusions of research and statistics collected by the Barna Group, published in the book UnChristian by David Kinnaman, about our generation:

• “Skeptical of leaders”
• “Extremely self confident, skeptical & cynical”
• “Don’t trust things that seem too perfect”
• “Prefer the messiness of life,  and ‘off the wall’ experiences and people”
• “View life in a chaotic way”
• “Don’t mind contradiction & ambiguity”
• “May tell someone what that person wants to hear, but then do whatever they desire.”

Our generation often overlooks our shortcomings.  We ignore our faults and put the blame on everyone else when something goes wrong.  But that doesn’t make it right.  It’s time to pause and take a good look at the facts…then start asking questions.

Is this really who we want to be?

When will we take responsibility for our actions, words, thoughts, and attitudes?

Who will be a catalyst for change?

[Live to Inspire.]