iPad - page 180

If you still need to turn your electronic documents into ink on paper, then FedEx will now let you print to its in-store photocopiers direct from your Dropbox, Box and Google Drive accounts.

There are plenty of stories out there about the explosive growth of mobile technology in the workplace. The trend towards bring your on device (BYOD) models in which employees are allowed or encouraged to bring their own iPhones, iPads, and other devices into the office is driving a massive expansion of the number of mobile devices used for work tasks. At the same time, the annual (or even more frequent) device an OS release cycles that have become common are driving up diversity of devices and resetting the mobile technology playing field every few months.

That constant change is forcing the IT professionals to adapt to new devices, apps, use cases, network models, and security threats faster than anything the IT industry has ever seen.

This is particularly visible in the mobile management space. A year ago, the primary method for handling mobile device and data security was to manage and lock down the device itself using one of dozens of mobile device management (MDM) suites on the market. Over the past six to nine months, however, MDM has been replaced by mobile app management (MAM) as the best way to secure business data. That’s a warp-speed transition in the mindset and goals of IT professionals.

Microsoft’s first tablet won’t reach customers until later this, but the company is already working on Surface 2. According to job adverts posted on its Microsoft Careers site between June and August, the company is “currently building the next generation” of “devices that fully express the Windows vision.”

It’s likely to be at least a month before Apple releases iOS 6 to the public, and so it’s unlikely apps will receive iOS 6 support for a few weeks yet. But Spotify is getting its update out of the way early. Its latest iOS release — version 0.5.4 — brings iOS 6 support, more radio stations on the iPad, and bug fixes.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned blogging about Apple, it’s that the company doesn’t stand for copycats — especially when those copycats go after patents that Steve Jobs was particularly proud of. That’s what Samsung did when it copied Apple’s inertial scrolling feature, right after Jobs told them not to.

Keeping up with all the latest Apple vs Samsung happenings can be tough, and confusing. The trials is underway in San Jose California. Some days are filled with interesting witnesses taking the stand, while others are packed with lawyers hammering boring witnesses with silly questions.

To help you keep up on the Apple vs Samsung trial we’ve compiled the entire day’s events into one short news story that consists of the best tweets from the reporters there on the scene. Here’s everything you need to about what happened in the Apple vs Samsung Trial on day four, August 6th.

Apple just released iOS 6 beta 4 to developers. So far it looks like there are a few small bug fixes and performance enhancements except for one unexpected surprise – Apple has removed the YouTube app from the iPhone and iPad.

It’s no secret that Apple has been trying to remove Google’s app from iOS and replace them with better alternatives. Some might think YouTube’s removal isan act of war, but we think it’s just as likely that Apple removed YouTube as a default app just because of plain obsolescence.

Rumors of a smaller iOS dock connector have been continuing to surface in the weeks leading up to Apple’s September fall event. Initially the consensus was that we’d see a smaller 19-pin connector in the new iPhone, but lately the word on the street is that Apple will use even less pins—possibly as few as 8. Leaked photos of the next iPhone’s exterior show a much smaller dock connector, and the change is likely to meant to accommodate the device’s slimmer design.

According to a new report today, Apple will update not one, not two, but all of its iOS devices with a smaller dock connector this fall.

Amazon is now selling more electronic books than all paper books combined – in the UK at least. The Kindle went on sale in Blighty just two years ago, and now “Amazon.co.uk customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all printed books – hardcover and paperback – combined,” says Amazon PR.

And of course the Kindle itself is far from the whole story. The Kindle’s presence on pretty much every device ever, including the iPhone and iPad, makes the Kindle store a much more compelling place to buy books that the iBooks Store, whose offerings will only work on Apple devices. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s trivially easy to strip the DRM from Kindle books, making people like me a lot happier buying them.

Apple is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. No, wait. That was Stalinist Russia.

Whatever. The two are nearly identical in their abilities to keep secrets.

As an Apple observer myself, I’m keenly aware of the iron curtain of secrecy that prevents anyone from knowing what Apple is working on, what they’re planning and what their processes are for developing new technologies.

Rumors and speculation are always so easy to come by; unannounced facts are rare — even facts about the past.

That’s one of the great things about Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. It gave rare insight into the inner workings of Apple, to some degree.

And that’s what’s so great about the current jury trial in Silicon Valley, where Apple is suing Samsung and Samsung is suing Apple. It’s forcing Apple to reveal countless facts and events that it doesn’t want to reveal.

The lawsuit appears to be far from over. But already, it’s clear that Samsung is “winning.” Why? Because it’s a contest between a company that cares deeply about its secrets — even small ones — and a company that doesn’t care as much. So the discovery and revelation is punishing Apple.

Here are the 8 secrets Apple has been forced to reveal in court in the past couple of weeks. 

The International Data Corporation (IDC) released preliminary data yesterday from its Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet Tracker. The study shows that total worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2012 are estimated at 25 million units, which is up from 18.7 last quarter. That’s a quarter-over-quarter increase of 33.6 percent, says the data analysis company, reflecting the total year-over-year growth rate of 66.2 percent of retail tablets in the US.

Guess which tablet is the largest part of those numbers?

According to an internal email revealed during the Samsung vs. Apple trial currently in progress, Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and services was in favor of the idea of a 7-inch iPad back in 2011.

In an email to Scott Forstall, Tim Cook, and Phil Schiller, Cue remarked: “I believe there will be a 7-inch market and we should do one.”

The number of companies investing in mobile management and security solutions related to bring your own device (BYOD) programs is growing, but not nearly as fast as the number of companies that are actually offering BYOD to their employees. The result is that many companies are putting themselves and their data at risk by jumping onto the BYOD bandwagon too quickly and without properly securing employee iPhones, iPads, and other devices or the business data that is stored on them.

Apple kicked off 2012 with its education event in New York. At that event, the company announced its electronic textbooks for iPad initiative, iBooks Author, and the revamped iTunes U. According the Apples latest financial data, the education initiative has paid off with both iPads and Macs being purchased by schools in record numbers.

A 21st century vision of education , however, is about more than getting the iPads and MacBooks into the classroom. It also requires technology goals, professional development for teachers, high-speed access to up-to-date content, education-centric portals for students and teachers, back-end systems, and education apps or software.

Are Apple products truly superior to the competition? Or are they just marketed a lot better? Either way, there’s no denying that Apple can build hype around a product like no other tech company on the planet, but all that superb marketing ain’t cheap.

Testifying during the Apple vs Samsung trial today, Phil Schiller revealed that Apple has spent over $1 billion marketing the iPad and iPhone since their respective launches.

Lantronix, a company which sounds like a Transformer, has added a home version of the xPrintServer to its lineup. Like its office-bound older brother, this xPrintServer lets you print to any printer in your home via AirPrint.

The USDA is working its way through an ambitious iPad deployment that may come to serve as a model for a range of government agencies within the U.S. and around the world. The challenge was to develop a simple, intuitive, and effective field survey and data collection system.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is a division of the USDA that is charged with surveying and reporting agricultural data across the country. NASS operates in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico. With a staff of around 3,000 enumerators NASS conducts thousands of survey each year about agriculture across the country. The service has been operating since the mid-1800s and, until the iPad, it conducted surveys and collected data in pretty much the same way that it had back in the 19th century – with paper forms filled out by hand and mailed to various field offices. Although various technology initiatives have been tried by NASS since the 1980s, none was a successful fit before the iPad.

It’s taken a while, but finally the pressure-sensitive iPad styluses are starting to ship after a long, long time in development. Now Adonit, the company behind the hot, hot Writer jeyboard case for the iPad, has launched its Jot Touch.

Yes, that’s “launched” as in, “you can buy it right now,” as in “$99 and ships in 1-2 days.”

The day has finally come, folks. Legendary designer Surenix has brought the benchmark iPhone jailbreak theme called “ayeco”n to the iPad. We showed you a sneak peek of ayecon for iPad last week, and the Winterboard theme is now available for everyone to get in Cydia. It look gorgeous.

As the NFL pre-season kicks off, the league has begun reminding fans about the various online programming and mobile apps that it offers. While we still have a month before the season starts, August is the time to check in with how your favorite teams are shaping up for the new season. It’s also the time to begin researching your fantasy football draft options – if you haven’t already.

For the preseason and fantasy prep time, the NFL is offering a  mobile apps – many of which will be familiar to fans with iPhones and iPads. We’ll be taking a look at the various official and third-party fantasy tools for Mac and iOS users as the pre-season rolls on, but here’s a quick look at the official options from the NFL.

Taking notes and managing tasks can be a full time job. For many of us, the competing worlds of work, home, school, and hobbies can threaten to overwhelm all but the most organized among us. Unfortunately, not many of us (myself included) have the time or mental energy to create a system from scratch, forcing us to rely on software designers’ ideas about task management. There are a ton of apps out there to manage notes and tasks, but none that do it quite like Projectbook, an iPad-only iOS app available in the App Store now for $1.99.

Even though the iPad is a really great gaming device, I pretty much only use it to read. It’s great, it just doesn’t feel like all the books I love with their neat cover art.

Out of Print is a new company that is trying to get people to start reading more by promoting classic literature in cool ways. Their latest product is a series of iPad cases designed to look like classic books by using the same materials used in real book covers.

The iPad continues to dominate the global tablet market and, according research firm IDC, the iPad is responsible for the strong growth of tablets across the board.

While the numbers announced during Apple’s most recent financials call continued to show strong year-over-year growth for the iPad, they didn’t illustrate how significant the iPad’s growth is compared to the rest of the tablet market.

It was recently revealed that jailbroken iPads are not able to use Amazon’s new Instant Video app. The issue is a common one that similar apps, like HBO GO and DirectTV, have dealt with in the past. The reason jailbroken iPads couldn’t access Amazon’s video streams seemed to be related to DRM. Amazon may or may update the Instant Video iPad app with a fix, but in the meantime, there’s an easy way for jailbroken iPad users to get around the restriction right now.

While some may consider the iPad’s Smart Cover to be too expensive and flimsy, Apple is obviously investing time and effort into the accessory. A recent patent has been uncovered that details an enhanced Smart Cover with a secondary touch display. Like Microsoft’s Surface tablet, the unreleased accessory would also have a keyboard embedded in the cover with virtual keys for typing.

By drawing power from the tablet inside, this patented Smart Cover design could extend the iPad’s screen with extra room for drawing, notifications, and icons around the device’s bezel. The patent also highlights using embedded solar cells and RF antennas to power the secondary display and keyboard. Sounds futuristic.