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October 11th, 2011 at 7:47 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Just one day after Apple announced the release of the iPhone 4S as well as confirming iOS 5, the company had much sadder news to confirm. The man who made Apple one of, if not the biggest consumer technology companies in the world had died.
Steve Jobs served as Apple CEO through the company’s early beginnings during the inception of the Mac computer. He was also considered the visionary who pushed the company to produce such one of a kind devices such as the iPod, iPhone and of course iPad. Numerous patents associated with these popular products were held by the CEO as well.
Jobs had fought a long battle with pancreatic cancer over the course of his life and at one point it was thought he had emerged the victor of that battle. Jobs took a leave of absence a few years ago when he was first diagnosed but later returned and much like his company, seemed better than ever.
A noted taskmaster and tireless worker, there were rumors that the cancer had returned earlier this year, yet Jobs remained at the helm apparently until his disease simply would no longer allow it. He abruptly stepped down as the company’s CEO in late August of this year and handed the company over to Tim Cook. While Cook lead the presentations in regards to the iPhone 4S as well as the iOS 5, Jobs absence was noted by many people. The morning of the iOS 5 announcement, there were rumblings that Jobs wasn’t feeling well enough to attend. Less than 24 hours after the new products had been rolled out, the force behind Apple had passed on.
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October 5th, 2011 at 8:25 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
The long awaited Apple event has come and gone and now, instead of of speculating on what you might see, we now know what we are going to get. When it comes to the iOS5 the features seems to be well worth the wait. While several of the latest iOS updates have brought a little tweak here, or a little change there, iOS5 looks like it will truly change the way you use your iPad and iPad 2. So what do we get with the iOS5 updates? A ton of great stuff.
Notification Center
The Notification Center means that you can get all your notifications in one place. No longer will you have to close one app, and open another to go from your calendar, to your task list to your email. Swipe down on any screen and the Notification Center will pop up. Here you can view your new emails, calendar reminders, task reminders, friend requests (we’ll get to that in a minute) and texts. Yes you read that last word right …
iMessage
One of the coolest features, and one I’m going to get a lot of mileage from is the ability to actually text from the iPad or the iPod Touch as long as you are connected to the internet (either WiFi or 3G.) As long as you are texting someone else who has an iPhone, an iPad or an iPod, you can send and receive as many texts as you want. With other iDevices iMessage works as a chat client, as you can see when the other person is responding before they’ve type out a message. You can also include read receipts and can start talking from your iPod and finish the conversation on your iPad.
Social Network Integration
iOS5 will have much deeper social network integration in regards to Twitter and (in the near future) Facebook. Right now Twitter is the main social networking service and if you sign into your Twitter account through the settings menu, you’ll never need to sign in again. You can also tweet from photos, camera, Safari, YouTube, or Maps. Quick and easy.
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October 4th, 2011 at 10:37 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
While the biggest news coming out of Apple’s announcement today is almost certainly going to be the iPhone 5 or the iPhone 4S there are some other announcements that could make almost as much noise in the long run. The iOS 5 might actually be bigger news when it comes to the number of people it will affect because this particular operating system will affect the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad. There have already been a ton of rumors and substantiated claims when it comes to what will be offered when the newest Apple OS is announced and released and that still won’t be the biggest news coming out of today’s press conference. What could be the real news, the stuff that people will be talking about for months to come, could be what Apple is getting set to do with the iPad.
The iPad has long been able to let you watch television shows by downloading apps like Hulu or the ABC, or TBS and TNT apps. Even Netflix allows you to watch episodes of some of your favorite television shows. Of course, the drawback with all of these apps is that you aren’t going to be able to watch these shows when they are actually airing. If you want to catch a show like “Fringe” on Hulu, you are actually going to have to wait eight days to see it. Netflix adds new programs even slower and most of those shows are going to be a season or two behind broadcast television.
If the rumors are true, Apple is getting set to change all of that, and will be taking on providers like DirecTV and Dish Network in the process. Tech blogger Robert Scoble let a couple of details he’s been hearing about today’s announcement slip. While some have been paying attention to the fact that Steve Jobs may be too sick to attend, others zeroed in on his reports that Apple will be releasing an app that would be able to stream live telelvision in the very near future. Scoble says that really for the first time, Apple will be taking advantage of its “Three Screen” (iPhone, iPad, Television) initiative.
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September 28th, 2011 at 9:47 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
We all know just how much fun using an iPad can be. Whether drawing or writing or playing games, there are literally dozens of different apps that can hold our attention. With the newness of the device itself wearing off we have also seen developers go away with new entertainment uses and look to actually make the iPad a more functional device. While there are apps that provide educational resources, Apple has taken a big step in helping teachers with their new program according to a report in Fortune magazine.
Apple has announced that they will be sending 9,000 iPads to the Teach For America organization. This group focuses on putting recent college grads into low income school districts. This program is made geared towards making sure that kids who are growing up in poverty are still getting a top notch education. Apple’s iPads will go to the teachers for use however they see fit, but of course the organization hopes the teachers won’t simply use the devices for their own entertainment. One particular teacher has come up with a novel way to incorporate her iPad into her classroom. Katie Remington said that she uses her iPad as incentive. When students work fast and get their work done, they get “iPad time.”
The program, which is currently active in 38 states received a portion of their iPads from people who upgraded to the iPad 2 and were encouraged to donate their old device. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ wife Laurene Powell is on the board of Teaching for America, which most likely connects the dots as to why the company go involved with this program.
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September 26th, 2011 at 3:27 PM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Streaming live television to portable devices has been the next big thing for quite a while now. In regards to the iPad, there have already been a couple of cable companies who have tried to go with the flow by offering apps that allow cable subscribers to watch their programs on the tablet. Now it appears that Comcast is joining the fray, much in the same way Time Warner has done it according to macrumors.com. Time Warner allows you to watch certain channels on the iPad as long as you are connected to the same WiFi network that is registered to your television provider. Comcast’s new service, being billed as the AnyPlay will do roughly the same thing.
Comcast users will need to have the right kind of cable box in order for this particular app to work correctly. Apparently, as long as you are using the right box and inside the area that your network covers, you will be able to watch the same shows as you do on your television. Comcast will actually use Xfinity TV’s iPad app and will actually be a bit of an upgrade over what that app can do. Before AnyPlay was announced, Xfinity users could only watch programs that were on demand. Of course, Xfinity users could also change their DVR settings from the app and will still be able to. There is no announcement of when this service will actually launch, nor whether there will be any additional cost but AnyPlay is expected by the end of the year at the latest.
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September 16th, 2011 at 8:33 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Since its release in March 2010, there has not been any single consumer electronics device that has had the popularity of the iPad. One of the reasons why the device has been so popular is because there are so many different things you can do with it. Recently we told you that the NFL (or at least one team) was the latest to get into the iPad game when the Tampa Bay Bucs adopted the iPad as their preferred method to keep playbooks. And there was also the report of United Airlines switching out pilot flight bags in favor of the iPad. Now it appears the iPad might be making its way into government.
The Indiana legislature is apparently looking at moving towards adopting the iPad as their official computing device, replacing the laptops that are now distributed to every member of the house and State Senate. In all this would mean that Indiana government would be purchasing 150 iPads, making this move a rather large investment for the state government. Advocates of this move point out that the iPad is more portable even than the laptops they currently use. Considering that every representative and state senator is provided a paper copy of every bill, changing over to having them all in PDF versions will save the state massive printing costs. With the apps out there that allow editing PDF documents quickly and easily, members of the government would still be able to mark up the bills like they were still using paper copies.
Should Indiana adopt the iPad, they would join West Virginia as the only states in the nation to do so. Virginia and Vermont are also reportedly looking at making the move.
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