The iPad as well as older cousin the iPod Touch have been adopted in schools like they were the next no. 2 pencils.
We’ve been following the roll-out in schools as well as the on-going woes that parents are having with in-app purchases – so a story about schools waiting to see how the lawsuit brought against Apple caught our attention.
What a difference a letter makes: change “smuggle” to “snuggle” and the game about taking clandestine immigrants across the border becomes…a game about cuddly creatures escaping the wilderness for the comfort of a zoo, where they are provided plenty of food, shelter and “state of the art healthcare.”
The developers of Smuggle Truck changed the name and graphics to Snuggle Truck to gain Apple approval for sale in iTunes.
To create buzz at the Seattle premiere of Mike Daisey’s excellent “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” the host theater threw a lookalike contest.
Maybe you had to be imbibing the complimentary Appletinis (har!) to appreciate it, but none of these guys, or the gal, who participated look much like Steve Jobs.
Note to self: a black turtleneck does not an icon make.
But you can still catch the play until May 22.
Via Geekwire
Steve Jobs and Larry Page have been invited to testify at the May 10 senate hearing on privacy and mobile telephones.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy extended the invitation, saying in a letter to the two that: “like many Americans, I read with deep concern recent press reports indicating that” the devices “collect, store and track user location data without the user’s consent.”
Tina Fey must have thought she was just going to Google to promote her biography “Bossypants,” but she was in for some evangelism from Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and a little hostility from the crowd.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8Mkufm3ncc&feature=player_embedded#at=78
The “fireside chat” first turns to gadgets about 25 minutes into the conversation. When asked about her five-year-old daughter, Fey says she uses her phone with “4,000 pictures on it” makes the unmistakeable iPhone scrolling motion with her finger and says “the phone is a good way to see what you’re actually doing in your life.”
The helicopter pilot who rescued 28 people in the deadly Queensland floods in January told an inquiry commission how they relied on an iPhone with Google Maps to navigate.
Pilot Mark Kempton made a statement to the Queensland Floods Commission recalling how his chopper arrived over shortly before 5pm that day and his crew were shocked at the sight of the brown water rushing beneath them, taking water tanks, trucks, boats and an airplane with it.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkLJbfL16RU
The 15th series of “South Park” is set to premiere in the U.S. tomorrow, here’s a preview that features Steve Jobs launching a “new product that will once again revolutionize the way we use our phones and tablet devices” called the HumancentiPad.
Hmm. Ok. Thinking that a) although they made him look healthy in the clip, Jobs is ill so he’s not a fair target b) the Human Centipede reference isn’t as incisive a reference to how we’re all connected by tech as they would like.
The Simpsons did it better back in 2008.
What do you think?
Via Deadline.com
We’ve been following the roll-out of iPads in schools, now principals are getting them too.
Much like city councilors, the administrators are using tax dollars for iPads to reduce paper and, to some extent, paperwork.
Case in point: in Salisbury, North Carolina, all seven principals in the district are using them to perform teacher evaluations, classroom walkthroughs and assessments, calendars . The highly totable tablet allows them to patrol the halls and take notes, potentially making them more present and active in school affairs.
The rationale seems sound, until you read this:
“I walked through rooms showing my iPad off to students, taking pictures and having conversations with kids about how technology makes learning more fun,” Nancy Barkemeyer principal of West Rowan Middle school said. “Having a new ‘toy’ helped me make connections with some kids.”
Still, aside from trying to impress the cool kids (do we ever stop trying?), it might be good that school principals get up to speed, tech-wise.
What do you think about spending tax dollars for administrator iPads?
Via Salisbury Post
Here’s the official caption:
Filmmaker Spike Lee uses his iPad to photograph President Barack Obama as he greets guests at the National Action Network’s Keepers of the Dream awards gala in New York, N.Y., April 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).
But I know you guys can do better than that.
Keep it clean, play nice and make our drizzly San Francisco Monday.
Photo Via White House Flickr stream
This variation on the book safe for iPad is aimed at keeping the device in your possession when it’s out of your hands.
If you’re reaction is: “Hey, I can do that!” Here’s an are some DIY instructions.
The guy who made the DIY version reckons the project will cost you about $10, including the book, plus you’ll need rubber cement, an Exacto knife tape – and “quite a bit” of patience.
If you improve on the project – add magnets or a strap for a more secure hold – let us know.
Via Etsy
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaNALBJ39LA&feature=player_embedded
BMW’s Connected Drive program has been all about increasing communication in your car, now you can control your iPod Touch or iPhone and some of its applications using the same Apple interface on the car’s console screen.
Watching the video above where the driver uses Pandora is like a jaunty little requiem for commercial radio. Once your device is in the cradle, you can access your music library or the apps and control the volume using either the radio, the steering wheel or the iDrive Controller.
Other apps you can control from the car include what one reviewer called a “minimalist” integration of Twitter and Facebook. It may not look great, but it sounds like it may come in handy while on the road, since the app can pull your location and destination from the navigation system then post an update telling all and sundry you’ll be there in 15 minutes.
They’ve been talking about it for at least a year, the BMW Apps are available on cars made from March 2011 on and SUVs rolling off factory lines from April 2011.
What’s next? BMW say they are in talks with other app makers, so you’ll be able to do stuff like make restaurant reservations and buy movie tickets from your car.
Via Autoblog
San Francisco is launching a pay-by-iPhone scheme for parking.
Called SFpark, the pilot program starts in early May. The SFPark app, free to download, helps you find parking and pricing information from your iPhone. Users pay $0.45 for every transaction and the system charges different rates depending on demand in the area with prices ranging from $2.00 to over $4.00 an hour.
Beginning in early May, parking prices will be incrementally raised or lowered in SFpark pilot areas based on demand. Rates change no more than once a month and only in small increments.
The pilot includes 6,000 of San Francisco’s 25,000 metered spaces and 12,250 spaces in 15 of 20 city- owned parking garages. It will cover eight neighborhoods including Civic Center, Hayes Valley, the Financial District, SoMa, the Mission, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Fillmore and the Marina.
Are you willing to pay extra for the ease of paying by iPhone?
Via ABC
The next time sharp-eyed citizens in Philadelphia see waste, fraud or abuse in their local government, they can report it directly to the city controller with an app.
Called Philly Watchdog, the app offered gratis for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad in iTunes has been available since April 12 but officially launched yesterday.
“When it comes to reporting fraud and waste in Philadelphia, I’m proud to say that ‘we now have an app for that,'” said City Controller Alan Butkovitz, at a press conference. “Like any investigative unit of government, we often rely on the public to help us identify waste and fraud in city government. It is critically important for government to be on the same technological page as our citizens.”
Milan Design Week usually yields some sort of quirky Apple-inspired objects (remember the iPod Table?), this year it’s MegaPhone, a minimalist ceramic bullhorn for your iPhone.
“The form is designed to amplify and optimize the best sound output,” say young Italian designers E&IS.
Just a tad impractical, it’s mounted on a thin wooden frame that “allows the object to float off the table;” they imagine it as great for listening to music sans headphones and facilitating conference calls.
Like a lot of these quirky ideas, this one may never make it past the prototype phase. But we’ll pass on price and availability if it does.
Via FastCo Design
An iPad-only magazine called Project hopes to generate some buzz by capitalizing on the iPad 2’s gyroscope feature.
The latest edition of the magazine, which costs $2.99 in iTunes, allows readers to view a panoramic, animated landscape by moving 360 degrees on the spot.
The brainwave to exploit the gyroscope feature seems a natural fit for the ‘Summer Movie Blowout’ issue of the magazine backed by Virgin Digital Publishing and Seven, which features flicks including ‘Thor’, ‘X-Men’ and ‘The Hangover Part II’.
“Because most other publishers are creating iPad versions of their magazines, there tend to be a lot of reproductions and use of video content,” said Chris Bell, deputy editor of Project. “But because we’re building the magazine from the ground up, we’re forced to look at the latest technology such as gyroscope.”
Not sure if readers will buy it, but advertisers were willing to try. The issue has backers including T3, Audi, Becks, Ford and Nissan.
Via Mediaweek
Green Cab company is using an iPads as dispatchers for its 21-car fleet in Madison, Wisconsin.
These cabs have a custom-designed iPad app called Green Light from Promet Source. The app, website and the necessary back-end systems manages most of the duties usually handled by a dispatcher, two-way radio and meter.
“When we decided to do the cabs, we looked at dispatch software and units that are out there in the traditional taxi world – big, old two-way radios,” Jodie Schmidt, Green Cab’s operations manager said in a detailed piece in Wireless Week. “So we started throwing around a couple of ideas, and decided to use a smart piece of equipment for a lot less money than a $2,000 piece of equipment that only has one use.”
The iPhone may now rank third for smart phone market share, but it is still number one for banking applications.
Market researchers TowerGroup found that Android currently has 31.2 percent of the market share; 30.4 percent is owned by RIM; Apple has 24.7 percent. Trailing them by large amounts are Microsoft Window 7 phones with a paltry 8 percent and Palm devices are just at 3.2 percent.
But banks are writing applications for mobile services such as account access and online bill pay for the iPhone because that’s the phone for which most other industry developers are creating applications.
“But support for the Android is surging,” said Andy Schmidt, TowerGroup’s research director for commercial banking and payments, speaking at the company’s annual financial services conference in Boston.
Other banking-related findings: about 60 percent of phone purchases this year will be completed on smartphones and 56 percent of the 200 banks attending the conference offered neither mobile bill pay or mobile gift cards.
Side question: how much banking do you currently do on your mobile phone?
I downloaded my bank’s app, but the only time I actually used it was while on vacation to check credit card charges.
Via MacWorld UK
After a recent photo essay showed a bunch of Italian lawmakers whiling away the hours in parliament by playing games on iPads, you might think they would become more discreet about using them. (Like the rest of us who have that fake spreadsheet at the ready should anyone interrupt our surreptitious gaming or shopping at work.)
Not so. Instead, it seems that it has become quite the fashion trend to flaunt your iPad in parliament.
Thieves broke into an Apple reseller to swipe 22 laptops, leaving behind iPads and iPods.
Police in Brattleboro, Vermont believe the perps may be professionals who worked on commission, especially since they left behind two iPads on display and a box full of iPods.
“It’s definitely about the desirability of the product — iPods, iPads and Macs,” said Patrick Brown, owner of Brown Computer Solutions, who found his store stock a lot lighter after the 10:30 pm break-in. “If [thieves] can get 50 cents on the dollar, it’s pretty good money, and they are probably getting a lot more than 50 cents on the dollar,” he said. “If they were trying to sell Dell machines, they’d get 10 cents on the dollar.”
The recent number of smash-and-grabs at Apple stores around the country has prompted an FBI investigation.
Via Commons News
It’s always sexy time in Philadelphia, apparently.
Public health officials there are the latest in the U.S. to arm horny inhabitants with info on where to find condom dispensers via mobile phones in the hopes of helping bring down STD rates in young people.
iCondom Philly, offered free in iTunes, is launching as part of a health campaign that includes a sex ed site called Take Control Philly. The city is in the top 10 U.S. cities for sexually transmitted diseases with a disproportionate number of adolescents affected.
If you don’t live in Philadelphia, you may still be in luck. iCondom Philly piggybacks off an app called iCondom, which provides the same info for New York City and Washington D.C.
Gratis to download but ad supported, thanks to hordes of helpful randy regular joes (and josephines) who have added condom dispenser info, it can also help you locate the goods in Brazil, Spain, Australia, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and Ireland.
“When we designed iCondom, we had in mind that the application could be easily developed to meet the needs of each city’s publicly-run condom programs that exist worldwide. Philadelphia immediately understood how useful the application could be in targeting youth 11 to 19 years old,” said Morgane Danielou, Founder of iCondom.
You can just imagine the teens huddled in this iDevice-compatible park shelter listening to music. The shelter has imbedded wireless speakers that work with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. The solar-powered gathering place does not work at night, officials say.
It’s part of a park renovation project in Carterton, Oxfordshire. The £200,000 project (about US$326,000), in part funded by city coffers and in part by grants, will renew the Alvescot Road Recreation Ground.
Aside from offering a spot to sit around and scowl protected from the drizzle, there is also a play area with jungle gyms, swings and a zip-wire.
We weren’t able to find out other details about the shelter, but will update when we do.
A Texas Sheriff credits a new crime tip app for making a major drug bust.
We wrote just last week about whether the Eye on Laredo app was more “neighborhood watch 2.0,” as local law enforcement was pitching it, or digital vigilante.
The app has apparently already hit paydirt. Someone using it reported “suspicious activity” in a Blue Jeep on Mines Road (which looks to be a fairly deserted area) and tipped off police.
Police noticed the same blue Jeep at a convenience store about 12 miles from the sighting. They also spotted some large bundles in the cab, which turned out to be nearly 400 pounds marijuana, valued at $200,000.
Via Pro 8 News
Forget those china plates, iPad and iPhone apps are the new must-haves for people who want to follow the fairy tale wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William.
To makes sure there is as much interest as possible on April 29, broadcasters and publishers are crowding the iTunes store with dozens of apps, many of them free, aimed at filling the teacups of royal watchers the world over to brimming.
Among them are the Royal Wedding Insider from BBC America (with an unfortunate ad for The Tudors miniseries in it), The Royal Wedding from Hello! Magazine as well as offerings from NBC , one from People that allows you to print your own commemorative stamp and a virtual tea towel app.
Though they’ll probably never surpass the interest in the Kate Middleton doll with its big head or the fun factor in commemorative condoms, unlike ceramics (which more or less live forever) you can dump these apps guilt-free as your interest wanes post-nuptials.
Selling itself as the first app to help hunters find their prey, iHunt Journal may also be on target for controversy.
iHunt Journal, approved by Apple for use by anyone over the age four because it contains no objectionable material, calls itself the “ultimate all-in-one hunting app:”
Whether your focus is on planning your next hunt based on weather and solunar periods, keeping a trophy gallery and hunting journal, or statistics and research of your past hunts, this is the application you need.
It’s been shown that tots take to iPads like ducks to water. One school district in Maine will hand them out to 5-year-olds in the hopes of boosting reading skills.
An iPad pilot program in Auburn, Maine will put them in the hands of kids in certain classrooms in May and all six elementary schools in the district next fall.
Officials hope to improve literacy rates from 62 percent to 90 percent in two years with the iPad scheme. The school committee recently approved spending of about $200,000 for 285 iPads for both students and teachers.
