iPad and Apple
November 1st, 2011 at 1:55 PM EST | by inu846W
Since the untimely demise of Steve Jobs, little details about the inner workings of the most successful computer company in the world have been coming out in dribs and drabs. Among some of the most interesting tidbits is just how much different the iPad turned out to be than what the company originally expected. As we all know, Apple eventually decided on a 9.7” screen for the iPad, but when the device was in the development stage there were literally dozens of different sizes and aspect ratios being tossed around.
In Steve Jobs’ recently released biography, there is talk about how Jobs and Jonathan Ive finally arrived at the size and aspect ratio they did.
“They had twenty models — all rounded rectangles, of course — in slightly varying sizes and aspect ratios. Ive laid them out on a table in the design studio, and in the afternoon, they would lift the velvet cloth hiding them and play with them. That’s how we nailed what the screen size was,” Ive said in the book.
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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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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 1st, 2011 at 1:29 PM EST | by inu846W
Those who thought that all the talk about another iPad coming out either this fall or next year would stunt the sales of the iPad 2 appear to be wrong. In fact the demand of the iPad 2 and the iPad only seem to be growing amid rumors of yet another Apple tablet coming out sometime on the horizon. According to industry analysts, Foxconn is preparing to ship as many as 20 million iPad 2s to Apple in the third fiscal quarter of this year.
Should those numbers prove to be accurate it would mean that there has been more than a doubling of the demand for the iPad 2 over last quarter when 9.25 million iPad 2s were shipped. Apple has long said that the only limit on iPad sales has been the availability of units and these projections seem to prove that out. All-in-all there are expected to be over 25 million iPads and iPad 2s sold in second half of this year. That would mean that the demand is in fact increasing by more than 75 percent over first half of 2011.
In addition, industry analysts say that in total, Apple will be selling 40 million of the 65.2 million total tablets sold, meaning that Apple holds a market share of 61 percent when it comes to tablets. Tablets in general have become much more popular than they were in 2010 with an overall jump in demand of an incredible 420 percent. Now let’s imagine what the release of the iPad 3, reportedly complete with Retina display and a faster processor will do for demand in 2012.
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August 26th, 2011 at 3:16 PM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Has Apple bitten off a little more than it can chew as far as developing the iPad 3? Over the last few days and weeks we have brought you plenty of different reports and rumors about the newest iPad and when it will be released. More recently the underlying stories have been problems with developing the components in time for the planned release. Most stories have talked about how the Retina display that Apple wants included in iPad 3 has lead to moving the release back from later this fall to early 2012, but will another setback in regards to components push back the release further?
The A6 chip is another piece of equipment that is still being worked on and is also expected to be included in the newest iPad and is yet another reason for the release of the iPad 3 being pushed back. Originally reports said that the A6 chip would be done shortly after the start of the New Year but now a new report from CNET says that the faster chip may not be ready for mass production until the second quarter of 2012. The conundrum for Apple now is, do they still want to release an iPad 3 with better resolution but running on an A5 chip or do they want to wait until the A6 chip, which is reportedly going to have four processor cores (double the A5) and using the “3D” chip technology that Intel has recently begun trotting out? It is almost a certainty that at some point there will be an iPad 4 but would the company want to release two different models so close together?
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