iPad News, Updates, App and Accessory Reviews
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:42 PM EST
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inu846W
United and Continental Airline pilots will be lugging less weight into cockpits as their flight bags will soon be replaced with Apple iPads. United Airlines made the announcement today that shows how trustworthy and useful the iPad is becoming in the business world.
Pilots routinely carry flight bags filled with manuals, booklets and other items used during flight. UA’s new policy will help save fuel in the long run since bulky bags will soon be a thing of the past, being replaced by the relatively light iPad. Time and energy will be saved by not having to thumb through pages and pages of flight manuals or other documents when the pilot can easy make a few finger swipes or taps to get the information they need.
Each iPad, which weighs less than 1.5 pounds, will replace approximately 38 pounds of paper operating manuals, navigation charts, reference handbooks, flight checklists, logbooks and weather information in a pilot’s flight bag. A conventional flight bag full of paper materials contains an average of 12,000 sheets of paper per pilot. The green benefits of moving to EFBs are two-fold–it significantly reduces paper use and printing, and, in turn, reduces fuel consumption. The airline projects EFBs will save nearly 16 million sheets of paper a year which is equivalent to more than 1,900 trees not cut down. Saving 326,000 gallons of jet fuel a year reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 3,208 metric tons.
The Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck iPad app will be at least one source pilots will use in the future to help streamline efficiency in the cockpit.
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As Apple continues to ramp up to the release of their third generation iPad, the company is starting to enlist some real heavyweights when it comes to component construction. Reports are continuing to surface that the iPad 3 will be released next year as opposed to this fall. That is a bit of a set back for the computer giant as Apple had originally wanted to release the newest iPad alongside their newest iteration of the iPhone. Component problems were the culprit for the company to moving back its expected release date, but it appears that a spring 2012 release is eminently doable.
In preparation for next year, reports say that Apple has already secured three primary LCD makers and two different backlight-unit suppliers. The main problem with the iPad 3 has been the ability to get the quality to actually approach what Apple refers to as “Retina” display, but with the signing on of Samsung, Sharp and the biggest LCD panel supplier being LG, it appears Apple has found a combination of manufacturers its comfortable with.
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Earlier we told you about how Kno’s Textbooks app for the iPad is one of the best apps that someone getting ready to go back to school could have. Now it appears the maker of that particular app is making it even better with the newest features being offered. While the textbooks that are available to purchase through the Kno app are generally 30-50% lower than they if you buy the hard copy, there are now some more reasons to go get the app and see what it can do.
When dealing with chemistry texts there is a new beta function of the app that allows students to view 3D pictures of the material they are studying. Of course because this new feature is incredibly new there are going to be some shortfalls here and there but so far it appears that being able to look at a 3D representation of the lungs or the heart on the iPad will only bring more students to Apple’s tablet.
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With the approaching fall, most young people are getting ready to go back to school though unlike other generations they are able to be armed with a new device that can help them get through classes. There are several apps for the iPad that will help the average student get a jump on their classmates.
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1. iHomework ($1.99)
iHomework is sort of an a all-in-one app for the busy college student. The first feature of the app is a basic calendar for scheduling needs. There is also a feature that will allow you to quickly and easily input your class schedule. There is a task feature that will make it easier to keep track of what’s due in each class and even the ability to record the grades you receive on that homework in order to track your GPA. I wish we had this kind of program when I was in school.
2. iStudiez Pro ($2.99)
iStudiez Pro is quite similar to iHomework with different look and feels to the different functions. Whether you choose iHomework or iStudiez Pro you’re going to have an app that covers quite a bit of ground for you in keeping track of your homework and your day to day schedule. iStudiez Pro for the iPad can also sync to the desktop version of the program in case you find it easier to enter new data using a regular keyboard.
3. Evernote Peek (Free)
This app is really only going to helpful if you have an iPad 2, though if you have one it will be VERY helpful in assisting you when you’re studying for the big test. With the iPad 2’s Smart Cover you can make digital flashcards that will help you test just how much you remember from a class. With the “notebook” feature of the app, you can sort your “flashcards” by topic.
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One of the truly cool things that the iPad has been doing more and more of is porting old and well loved video games from different platforms into app form. One of those apps that has recently been brought over from the computer game version is Sid Meier’s Pirates! for iPad. Meier is probably more well known for his many, many different versions of the Civilization games but Pirates was also well known an incredibly popular in its heyday and the fact that it’s now on the iPad probably means a renewal of that popularity.
By all appearances, the Pirates app is exactly what the original computer game was. You are a young swashbuckler who has just won his own ship from an evil pirate and from here on out you can choose your path over several decades. The app allows you to choose which nationality you want to be first of all and then you can sail the open seas however you see fit. The game allows you to either go on a specific mission to find the man who attacked your family or you can simply sail around, attacking people willy-nilly and taking their men, their treasure and their cargo and selling them at different ports building up a fortune. The game weighs in at just $3.99 which is just a fraction of what version of the full computer game would cost if you were to buy it for the Mac or Windows computer it seems to have everything those more expensive versions offer.
App Store: $3.99
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It seems like more and more iPad apps are trying to get as detailed and complicated as humanly possible. Perhaps the iPad is trying to compete even more directly with console games, but whatever the reason there are more apps than ever before with deep storylines that demand total attention at all times. While those types of games are fun for the hard core gamer, sometimes the average iPad user just wants to kill a little time. The new iPad app known as Zombie Gunship fills the bill as fun time killer quite nicely.
Zombie Gunship is a rather basic game in which you serve as a member of a gunship high in the sky firing down on legions of zombies that are all trying to get into the bunker you are defending. During the adventure you will also attempt to save the civilians (white outlines) from the zombies (black outlines). The graphics are made to look as though you are looking through an ultraviolet lens in order to see your targets at night and you are far away so there’s no blood, meaning older children can play this game without exposure to totally realistic violence (though the zombies still get blown up so…)
The game “ends” when the zombie hordes eventually elude your fire and get into the bunker. It is then a matter of how many zombies you killed in order to accumulate “dollars” that you can use to upgrade your guns for another go-round. While repetitive, the $0.99 price tag makes this well worth the money as far as time wasters go.
App Store: $0.99
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