Archive for July, 2011
July 15th, 2011 at 7:37 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Since its release, there has been very little doubt that the iPad is one of the best and most popular consumer electronic gadgets in the world. With the release of the iPad 2 the buzz surrounding Apple’s crown jewel has become even louder. Of course one of the reasons the iPad and the iPad 2 are so popular is because the devices have so many apps available that can do so many different things. This week, the latest count had topped a very prestigious level in that there are now more than 100,000 apps that is available for the iPad and the iPad 2 specifically.
Whether you are looking for a game that you can play when you are around and with your kids or you are looking for something that is a bit darker and is only right for the older generation the iPad will have the games you are looking for. There are also literally hundreds of different downloadable eBooks that you can read as though the iPad is the Kindle or the Nook except that you can actually read graphic novels and comics as well. There are even some books that are great for the younger set that will read the books to them and have great interactive pictures for them to play with as well.
Of course the best part of the iPad and the iPad 2 apps is that there are plenty that can help you do a lot more than play or relax. While competitors like the Blackberry Playbook have tried to tap the market by claiming that they are better suited for business use, the iPad has shown that it is perfectly capable of being used as a business tool. In fact the iPad has even become so popular that the FAA recently approved the use of the device in exchange for their usual paper flight manual. Of course, even if you aren’t working as a pilot for one of the major airlines there are plenty of ways to use several of the 100,000 apps to help run your business or organize your life. We’ve previously written about apps such as Informant HD and Home Budget Sync which can go a long way in helping you to keep track of your daily, weekly and monthly tasks as well as noting where both your income and your expenditures are coming from and going to.
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July 11th, 2011 at 8:33 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
The newest devices in consumer technology are usually absorbed into the business community at some point and the better the devices the quicker they are absorbed. That has been especially true of the iPad as more and more people are seeing how many things the devices can do. Restaurants and bars have already handing out iPads as a way to both view the menu and browse around the company websites so their patrons get a better feel for where they are eating or drinking but the biggest step in integrating the iPad into everyday use might have come with the announcement that the FAA has approved the use of the iPad as an electronic flight manual.
The usual flight manual that is made of paper weighs in at a cumbersome 40 pounds and several thousand pages and can be a bit of a job to go through the thing. Using the iPad, all of these pages and pounds can be replaced by the iPad which weighs in at a less than hefty 1.5 pounds. Before this ruling, the airport cockpit had a ton of books that actually came together as the flight manual, but the iPad will be able to serve as the rules and regs packet as well as the flight log and everything else that makes up the 40 pounds of manual.
Technically, this is actually the second step in a multi-tiered approach to moving from totally paper manuals to digital. In May, Alaska Airlines was given permission by the FAA to use iPads to use for digital flight, performance and systems manuals that eventually cut 25 of the 40 pounds of paper that is used in the cockpit. Being able to reduce the amount of weight that is carried around is just part of the upside that is involved in using iPads. The digital flight manuals also allow the pilots to access whatever information they need quicker and easier. The iPad manuals have a ton of hyperlinks that allow the pilots to get even more information as well as full color, interactive graphics.
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July 8th, 2011 at 4:42 PM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Since the invention of the iPhone and the iPad there have been people who have been trying to make the devices able to be used outside the admittedly stringent regulations of Apple. The ability to untether these devices from the Apple store has been called Jailbreaking and while there are some definite downsides to this process there are plenty of people who want to be able to use a jailbroken device and because of this there are plenty of people who are working around the clock in order to find the newest way to jailbreak the newest devices.
First of all there is a new jailbreak available for almost all the iOS devices as hackers have found a way to untether the device using the iPad or iPhone’s mobile safari browser and an apparent weakness in the devices’ PDF reader applications. This particular jailbreak can be used even on the Apple’s newest devices such as the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 (will it work on the iPad 2 Plus as well? We’ll have to see this fall.) Of course the main thing you need to be able to have on the iOS devices is that you must have either a 4.3.3 operating system on the iPad, iPad 2 and the third and fourth generation iPod touches. This particular jailbreak also works with iOS 4.2.6 through 4.2.8 for the CDMA iPhone 4.
This particular jailbreak, through the site jailbreakme.com is being touted as safe and completely reversible if people decide they want to go back to being tethered to Apple’s services. Still, jailbreaking a device will void Apple’s warranty so you should take every factor into consideration when looking into doing this to one of your devices.
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July 8th, 2011 at 1:35 PM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
There have been plenty of rumors about when the next iPad is going to come out and what exactly it will be called. We even alluded to the fact that what was once known as the iPad 3 is set to have a display that will set the other tablets on their ear. The high resolution screens that are being promised for the iPad 3 may actually be included or they may not quite hit the levels currently talked about but one thing is clear is that there will be yet another version of the iPad and it now appears that it will be coming by the end of this year.
Of course there does appear to be a few changes that weren’t necessarily expected including the name which appears to be the iPad 2 Plus as opposed to the iPad 3. What this means for the future of iPad owners is still unclear but it could mean that Apple is looking to make their own devices obsolete at a pretty historic rate. If the iPad 2 Plus is indeed going to be the precursor to the iPad 3 then it appears this fall’s version of the iPad will be more of a bridge than the next step in the evolution of the device.
The reports that the iPad 2 Plus is coming are due in large part to industry analysts who are seeing Apple asking component makers for quotes on how much it would cost to put together the new iPads. These component makers have told these same industry analysts that the iPad 2 Plus will indeed have some serious upgrades in the screen resolution. While the company didn’t both to improve the iPad 2’s resolution, they did make some subtle changes like a lighter weight and of course the cameras that so many other tablets have been sporting. There are a few reports that now that there is going to be a third iPad, the screen resolution will be improved from the current 132 pixels per inch, to 250 to 300ppi. Of course the same industry analysts are also saying they cannot say for certain that the level of improvement of the resolution is something that can’t be confirmed until Apple starts actually hyping their new product and people begin to know when the device is going to be coming to stores.
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