David W. Martin - page 11

The Booqpad Agenda iPad 2 case from Booq is the perfect mix of past and future. It brings the futuristic technology of the iPad 2 and the old technology of pen and paper together making this the best iPad 2 case yet for note takers. It accomplishes all this in a package that is ready for the executive boardroom and beyond.

The Booqpad is a folio style case that is available in four styles. First, there are two models made from 100% recycled PET that come in Gray-Green and Sand-Plum colors that retail for $49.95. Second, one model made from a genuine Nappa leather exterior comes in Coffee-Cream and retails for $99.95. Finally, the last model the one that I am reviewing comes in black leatherette and grey and it retails for $49.95.

Apple has invested a considerable amount of time and money on iOS, the mobile version of Mac OS X, that powers the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV. So it just makes sense that Apple would re-invest iOS technology into the Mac version of OS X. Steve Jobs has pretty much said so himself and we’ll start to see this happen with the release of Mac OS X 10.7 bearing the code name Lion.

First of all it is no secret that Apple plans on bringing a number of features to the Mac from iOS. These features include the following:

Resuming Applications

Mac OS X will allow applications to remember open windows, etc. similar to resuming apps when launched on iOS. Automatically saving application documents will also be an integrated feature similar to what happens on iOS when you suspend or quit an app.

Apple’s iOS updates lately have been interesting because they haven’t performed a complete restore and recovery of my data — in other words I didn’t have to reload all my apps, media, etc. after the firmware was updated. This happened recently with iOS 4.3.3 and previously with iOS 4.3.2.

In some cases after short firmware updates like these I’ve experienced problems with apps, my internet connection, multitasking, and a few other things. Here are some tips that will help you eliminate these problems if you encounter them.

I often take these basic iOS troubleshooting tips for granted and I thought that this would be a good time to share them with all of you.

The SuperTooth Disco is a portable speaker that will wirelessly stream 28 watts of sound for your next parties dance floor. Here’s a hands-on review.

It won’t take the place of a dedicated sound system like the one you might have in your living room with only 28 watts of power, but for a portable Bluetooth device it is pretty impressive.

Credit: David Sedlmayer, used under a Creative Commons license.

Today is the day that will bring us one step closer to the death of the cloud. That crucial new part of the internet that is gaining popularity due to the likes of Hulu, Netflix, MobileMe, DropBox, Crashplan, etc. is about to get another blow — AT&T on Monday started restricting the amount of data its millions of broadband customers are able to use in a month. Data is now restricted to as little as 150GB a month.

That isn’t good news — users should an uproar over the whole thing. It means that a large number of people using broadband in the U.S. will be severely limited in what they can do online. They might risk extra charges or even total loss of their broadband access. This comes as Apple is rumored to be on the verge of introducing a more Cloud-based model of computing for millions of customers.

It has been a long 10 months, but the long-awaited white-colored iPhone 4 is shipping and for sale today in the US and 28 other countries. Therefore, you would expect that people would be excited to get their hands on one of these babies, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for Apple Stores in the US.

The stores I checked in the Houston, Texas area didn’t have lines forming — like you would normally expect for a product launch. China on the other hand was a completely different story as long lines were reported there.

Apple has a great recycling program, but they are not the only company to offer such a program. Both RadioShack and Best Buy offer their own recycling programs. I thought it might be nice to share some information about these alternative programs with you on Earth Day.

The reason I’m mentioning this is due to the fact that I often hear from readers that aren’t close to an Apple Store. They often tell me that they may not even have a store in their city or state. Ouch.

Country living might be restful, but I’m glad that I live in a big city since Houston has six Apple Stores accessible to everyone living in Houston or the surrounding areas. Fortunately, some of you without such good access to Apple Stores just might have access to a RadioShack or a Best Buy. So let’s take a look at what they have to offer.

The program is a win-win for customers, like myself, that are interested in recycling electronics (an effort to save the Earth), upgrading to a new iPod, iPhone, Mac, or iPad, and saving some money at the same time.

Apple released iTunes 10.2.2 today and the new version of iTunes contains a number of important bug fixes. According to Apple these fixes include:

• Addresses an issue where iTunes may become unresponsive when syncing an iPad.
• Resolves an issue which may cause syncing photos with iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to take longer than necessary.
• Fixes a problem where video previews on the iTunes Store may skip while playing.
• Addresses other issues that improve stability and performance.

iTunes 10.2 came with several new features and improvements, including:

• Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.3.

• Improved Home Sharing. Browse and play from your iTunes libraries with Home Sharing on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.3.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Get your copy now via Software Update or download a copy to install the software manually yourself later.

Moshi’s Muse is a nice iPad-sized sleeve case that works with or without a Smartcover on your iPad 2. It looks great and feels good. Moshi made good use of thick microfiber fabrics when they designed the Muse along with the excellent tailoring and stitching. As a result the Muse feels great in your hands.

According to Moshi the Terahedron microfiber inner lining protects and cleans your iPad. It cleans your iPad’s screen and body as you insert and remove it from the Muse. During my tests the Muse was like most products that make claims about cleaning — it sort of worked, but not that well. I still prefer a microfiber cloth and some elbow grease.

Apple released an update to the Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 2 last Friday.  The update is available to developers that are beta testing Lion via Software Update on the Apple menu. According to the update:

The Lion Developer Preview Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 2

The update did not include information on specific fixes or updates. If you’ve discovered something about the update please share your discovery by leaving a comment.

Apple has released the third version of its developer preview for Xcode 4.1. The new update according to Apple:

This is a pre-release version of Xcode 4.1 for both Mac and iOS development. This release requires Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview 2 Update and includes iOS SDK 4.3. Continue to use Xcode 3.2.5 or Xcode 4 on a Snow Leopard partition if you plan to submit Mac or iOS apps to the App Store.

Xcode 4.1 Preview 3 includes these new features:

• Updated to support Mac OS X 10.7 Lion preview 3 and include iOS SDK 4.3
• Improved Assistant editor logic when switching among different file types
• Fixed a bug that prevented indexing of some projects
• Fixed a bug related to nil settings in the Core Data model editor
• Fixed a bug in LLVM GCC 4.2 and LLVM compiler 2.0 for iOS projects
• Additional bug fixes and stability improvements

You can download Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 3 from Mac Dev Center.

[via iClarified]

I tried to look up something this Sunday morning on Apple’s Discussion Forums and they were down. Now fast forward to this evening after all the obligatory Sunday events and the sites back up along with a big surprise.  Apple has launched Apple Support Communities. The site is back up in a big way.

Apple Support Communities are a revised version of Apple’s popular discussion forums. The site now makes it easier for Mac, Mac OS X, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iOS users to find answers to problems or questions they might have.

AnandTech is reporting that Apple has appeared to have made some changes to the MacBook Air released in October 2010. The Macbook Air refresh last fall included some welcome surprises for Apple fans — a new 11.6″ form factor, an external case redesign, faster graphics, and larger SSD drives. All of this came at a lower price. The most interesting part of the refresh was the new SSD drives. Apple didn’t use regular 2.5″ or 1.8″ SSDs and instead introduced a whole new type of SSD form factor called mSATA SSDs a.k.a. blade SSDs.

Apple has just released Safari 5.0.5 – an update for Safari on Mac OS X  which offers unspecified bug fixes and security updates for Apple’s web browser application.

The release notes read:

This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes the latest security updates.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

In addition to the Safari update Apple has also released a Mac OS X Security Update 2011-002. The release notes read:

Security Update 2011-002 is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

All these nifty updates follow the release of iOS 4.3.2 earlier today.

As far as I’m concerned bubbles don’t have a place on my iPad 2 screen. So I’m pretty picky when it comes to placing a screen protector over huge display on my iPad. It seems that no matter what you do you’ll always end up with a bubble or two after applying a screen protector unless you are a professional installer. The Moshi iVisor AG is different. Moshi guarantees a bubble-free installation. It actually works because this screen protector is a lot different from others I’ve encountered before.

The Moshi iVisor AG adheres to the screen differently from other similar products. It only sticks to the edges of the iPad’s screen and that edge is either solid black or solid white to match the appropriate frame on an iPad 2. The adhesive is on the back side of that frame. This makes the iVisor AG a lot easier to install and remove. Once applied it acts like a bubble over the top of the display, but not a distracting one like other protective covers.

The Apple iPad turns one year old today. The first day the iPad was available was April 3, 2010. That was the day that I had  the Wi-Fi only model in my hands. It wasn’t until near the end of April 2010 that I finally got a hold of the Wi-Fi + 3G model. My life and the life of countless others hasn’t been the same since.

The iPad was met with some skepticism when it was announced in early 2010. The “magical and revolutionary” device was ridiculed, laughed about, and even mocked. People cried about it and the impact it would have on their businesses and Adobe cried about it. However, all that ended when people and developers got one in their hands.

Initial reviews like the one from Cult of Mac’s very own Leander Kahney were very positive and even first impressions were good. People loved it so much one of them even wrapped it in chocolate — only to give it away again to someone they loved.

The iPad proved itself again and again finding niche and mainstream applications for it at home and at work. The iPad may very well be the most popular Apple computing device in this decade. Although the iPhone may give it a run for its money. We’ll see. Maybe there will be a tie for that title.

The introduction of the iPad 2 last month will keep the iPad juggernaut moving along well into the 21st century. Frankly I cannot wait to see what Apple comes up with next!

Happy Birthday iPad! Congrats Apple.

Apple has released the next beta version of Mac OS X Lion. The new release dubbed Developer Preview 2 build number 11A419 is available to registered Mac OS X developers through the Mac App Store. Developers wishing to acquire this release must visit developer.apple.com and request a redemption code.

In addition to the above Apple has also made Mac OS X Lion Server Developer Preview 2 with the same 11A419 build number available. Both releases are accompanied by Xcode 4.1 Preview 2 which is the pre-release version of Apple’s Mac OS X development suite.

Contrary to rumors none of these releases have been labeled as Gold Masters. Instead according to developers the builds still have a number of issues that are outstanding and unresolved.

The release of Mac OS X 10.6.7 isn’t even two weeks old and Apple has issued a supplemental update that patches the latest OS release. The patch fixes problems encountered by late 2010 13-inch MacBook Air users who upon launching iTunes experienced crashes that left their computers completely frozen and unresponsive.

I even experienced it myself before the problem mysteriously disappeared after forcing the machine to restart by powering it off and then on again. Since then I haven’t had a problem, but for some the problem persists. Luckily Apple has a fix.

According to Apple:

This update addresses an issue that makes the system unresponsive when using iTunes. It is recommended for all 13″ MacBook Air (Late 2010) users running Mac OS X v10.6.7.

You can grab this update via Software Update on your Mac or download it directly via this support page.

Apple has been using Liquid Contact Indicators(LCI) in practically all of their devices for as long as I can remember, but it looks like with the iPad 2 they’ve stopped using them.

This makes sense because these sensors have not been all that reliable and subject to a lot of false positives from something as mundane as sweat. In 2009 this was a big news topic that I covered for CNET and I spoke to local Channel 2 news in Houston, Texas about complaints they had received from iPhone users. Even CNN had something to say about it.

It was so easy to trip these sensors that there was even a lawsuit over it.

Apple released an update to Xcode 4. The new version 4.0.1 was released on Friday and includes the following bug fixes:

• Improved Assistant editor logic when switching among different file types
• Fixed a bug that prevented indexing of some projects
• Fixed a bug related to nil settings in the Core Data model editor
• Fixed a bug in LLVM GCC 4.2 and LLVM compiler 2.0 for iOS projects

Finally here are additional bug fixes and stability improvements like practically every Apple software update ever released. Whatever they are I’m sure they are good for you!

You can get a copy of this update via the Mac App Store or if you are a developer at Apple’s developer site.

Timing for me was good this afternoon. I went to sync my iPad 2 on my Mac and iTunes told me that an iOS update was available for it. Yes indeed and much to my surprise — iOS 4.3.1 (8G4) is out.

The latest firmware offers the following improvements and fixes:

• Fixes an occasional graphics glitch on iPod touch (4th generation)
• Resolves bugs related to activating and connecting to some cellular networks
• Fixes image flicker when using Apple Digital AV Adapter with some TVs
• Resolves an issue authenticating with some enterprise web services

The update supports: iPhone 4 (GSM model only), iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPad 2, and iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation). The update isn’t available of Verizon iPhone 4 users who remain on iOS 4.2.6.

There isn’t any mention of a fix for battery woes encountered by users across practically all iOS devices, but I hope that it addresses that problem as well.

Information about security fixes in this update can be found in this Apple knowledge base document.

Please share your experiences with the update after you’ve installed it by leaving a comment.

[via iTunes]

People have had complaints about video problems on the MacBook Air since they were first released. I encountered some video problems initially, but after the plethora of updates that Apple has released the video problems haven’t returned.

These updates and suggested fixes worked for some, but unfortunately they didn’t work for everyone. People are still complaining on Apple Discussion Forums about problems they are encountering when connecting their MacBook Airs to external displays.

People were hoping that the next Mac OS X release would solve these problems. That update, Mac OS X 10.6.7, was released yesterday.

It didn’t solve the problem for some people, but we’ve gotten some clues on how to  resolve the problem for others.

I know everyone is interested in purchasing an iPad 2, but you are not sure about whether your local Apple store has any in stock. What we need is an Apple iPad availability Web tool like the one we had before for the iPhone 3GS in 2009. Back then that page declared:

The Apple Retail Store likely has your iPhone 3GS in stock. You can check the most up-to-date availability right here. Shipments of iPhone 3GS arrive most days, and availability is updated hourly. The 8GB iPhone 3G is currently available in all stores.

You could access the tool to check the availability of an iPhone 3GS in your state. I checked and the URL no longer works — even when you substitute the word iPad in it for iPhone in the old URL.

I think that Apple would probably re-launch this tool again if they had better inventory availability, but with the iPad 2 selling out and screen manufacturing problems they probably don’t really need this tool right now.

Hopefully all that will change soon and a site like this will re-launch for the iPad 2. Then you won’t have to stand in ridiculous iPad 2 lines any more.

AT&T just bought T-Mobile USA for $39 billion so there are now only three major mobile carriers in the US – AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

Both carriers use the same technologies: GSM, HSPA+ and LTE. AT&T Mobile will become a monopoly for GSM cellular services in the US.

This doesn’t bode well for consumers who will now only have one GSM carrier to choose from and one less carrier for anyone to choose from.

AT&T will become the largest US cellular carrier surpassing Verizon by a nice margin based on an estimated number of subscribers at Verizon as 94 million. Purchasing  T-Mobile will add about 34 million subscribers to AT&T’s 96 million creating a subscriber base of approximately 130 million for the combined carrier.

It also looks like T-Mobile subscribers will finally get a chance at owning an iPhone. In the last few months, the iPhone has gone from one carrier to all the major carriers except Sprint.