iPad News
July 19th, 2011 at 2:55 PM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
When the iPad was first announced, there was very little doubt that the device was going to be a very popular little gadget. Of course when first announced there were those who claimed that there didn’t seem to really be a need for a product that actually needed you to sync with a computer in order to use it but those were mostly comments from people who were trying to behave as if they were a bit more above it all than they actually were. The truth of the matter was that when the iPad was actually released in April of 2010, there was a huge demand. What might be a little bit surprising is that despite the fact that there have since been literally of dozens of other tablet computers released onto the market, the iPad’s demand is still growing, rather than holding steady or actually diminishing.
While RIM and Google and any number of tech companies have attempted to match the sheer popularity of first the iPad and then the iPad 2 recent reports by several industry analysts seem to show that not only is it becoming increasingly hard to shove the iPad out of the number one sales slot, but that Apple is actually improving its standing. Tomorrow, Apple is expected to announce its third quarter earnings and sales and while these earnings will be including other machines and programs, it appears all eyes will be on the iPad and the iPad 2 to see just how well the feature iOS devices are going to be selling. Of course, because the earnings report has not actually been released yet, we can’t be 100% sure of just how successful Apple has been in keeping the iPad sales flowing, but if industry analysts are to be trusted it was indeed an incredibly successful year.
While some analysts are aiming incredibly high, estimating that Apple was actually able to sell over 9.5 million iPads in the third quarter alone, even the lowball estimates of six million sold are pretty impressive. If we take the average estimate of 7.9 million units sold in the third quarter that would mean that Apple saw their iPad sales actually increase 142 percent from the same quarter a year ago.
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July 18th, 2011 at 11:50 AM EST | by Kelly Kehoe
According to the Humane Society of the United States, approximately two out of every five people own a dog, and one out of three own a cat. Birds, horses, and exotics aside, this equates to millions of pet owners across the country. Like any other aspect of life in the digital age, there are now several apps available to help pet owners better care for their beloved furry friends. The following is a guide to sifting through the latest and greatest pet-friendly apps available for your iPad.
Paw Card
This app may be in iPhone format, but it offers invaluable organization techniques for pet owners. It allows you to create a profile for your pet, including important information such as identifications, medications, medical history, and veterinarian records. It is easily exportable through email for your pet sitter, dog walker, veterinarian, and more. The price of keeping your pets’ lives in order? Free.
Pet Sitter
At just $1.99, the Pet Sitter app is extremely useful in distracting your pets while you’re away. As studies have shown, pets can in fact, feel lonely when left to themselves for long periods of time. To cope with this, they resort to barking or howling for the duration of their isolation. This app plays recordings of your voice or pre-recorded sounds to keep them stimulated (and quiet) while you are out of the home.
Another use for this could be teaching your bird to talk. By setting the app on replay while you’re gone, the repetition of the words or phrases will have your bird talking in no time!
Pet First Aid
Although this is another iPhone-formatted app (available for use on the iPad), Pet First Aid” for Your Dog, Cat, Puppy, or Kitten is a must-have for any responsible pet owner. There are countless articles and videos available to suit most major medical situations, and there is room to save all of your pets’ records as well. Whether you’re looking for information on how to deal with an emergency situation or just need some basic information on what’s normal for dogs and cats (pulse, breathing rate, appearance, etc.), this app is for you. $3.99 is a small price to pay for the potential of saving your pet’s life in case of an emergency.
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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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June 28th, 2011 at 11:00 AM EST | by Oliver VanDervoort
Finding the right kind of budget tracking software on the iPad can be a bit of a hassle. While there are several that offer almost everything you could possibly want, it seems there is always one area where it falls a little short. However there is one that seems to come as close as giving you everything you could want as you are going to find on a tablet computer. The first thing that sets Home Budget apart from some of the other banking apps is that you can literally sync your accounts to any other iDevice that has Home Budget installed almost instantly. This means that if you happen to have both an iPhone and an iPad you can go do your shopping with the iPhone, make a few notes and then transfer them to the iPad.
One of the truly great things about this particular app is that when you put in a particular transaction to a certain payee, a number of things can be done with that information. The first thing is that, should you actually enter a category you can already see just how much of the budgeted amount you have spent. Should this be a particular place you do a lot of spending, say like Target you can see the total amount you have spent with the company as well as how much you spent on a certain day. Of course, no income tracking app is going to be complete without the ability to break down how much money is in each of your accounts. There is one drawback to using this particular program and that is that when you enter a transaction you cannot do it from inside the account. Instead you enter a transaction in either the expense or income ledgers and assign the transaction to an account. This is actually a pretty small drawback in the grand scheme of things.
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June 27th, 2011 at 9:09 AM EST | by Kelly Kehoe
The old method for learning a new language usually consisted of boring vocabulary lessons, complex grammar studies, and diving into dictionaries. With Chinese, this was especially difficult, making the learning process that much longer for those who bothered to stick with it. Today, however, there are many fantastic apps you can get on your iPad to make learning Chinese at least a little bit easier than sticking to the traditional ways. The following five apps are great for both beginning and intermediate learners of Chinese to get started on the road to fluency.
Chinese Essentials (AccelaStudy)
This is one of the most popular Chinese learning apps in the App Store, with both free and $9.99 versions available. Offering over 2,000 translations to help you get started, along with an audio trainer, dictionary for easy look-ups, digitalized flashcards, and quizzes to help track your progress. With Chinese Essentials, you not only learn the translations for each word, but the Chinese symbols and pronunciations are taught as well. You only learn words that are actually relevant in everyday conversations, such as colors, numbers, questions, transportation, etc. If you’re not sure if you want to pay $9.99 upfront, then try out the free version first.
KTdict Chinese-English Dictionary
A must for any digital-age learner hoping to cut their word-searching time in half, KTdict is a fabulous tool when trying to learn individual words and symbol meanings. It has over 70,000 entries in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters. There are free and $3.99 versions available (only difference is the paid one doesn’t have ads). To top it all off, it doesn’t require an internet connection, ensuring easy translations whenever and wherever you are.
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