iPad - page 182

Last week, we reported on the IT migration that Australian airline Qantas was undertaking. That migration and overall technology upgrade includes replacing the airline’s 1,300 BlackBerry handsets with iPhones, swapping hefty pilot flight bags for iPads, and adding an on-demand entertainment system to is fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft that’s accessed using iPads provided to each passenger.

It seems that the migration strategy is even bigger than just those three components. The airline is also looking to overhaul its desktop systems as part of an upgrade to Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud suite. The migration will be completed in partnership with Fujitsu and will include both on-premise and cloud data stores as well as virtual desktops courtesy of Citrix. 

One of the best tools in a photographer’s editing kit is the crop. Finding the best part of a picture and cutting out all else is a fantastic way to make an ordinary picture into a great picture.

You can do this right on your iPhone or iPad with the Photos app. Here’s how.

As AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon continue extending their LTE networks across the country, a new market analysis suggests that most users will eventually choose not to buy LTE iPads and other 3G/4G-enabled tablets. The report, which comes from research firm CCS Insight, says that demand for iPads and other tablets with built-in mobile broadband support will continue to drop over the next four years. Following that logic, the company says that it expects Apple and other manufacturers to reduce the number of iPads and other tablets with built-in cellular connectivity.

We’re big fans of Zite and the unique way it brings readers new content that they may have never seen. Thanks to Zite’s fancy algorithm, we’ve been introduced to countless interesting stories from sources we never visit. Zite is one of the best iPad apps available that is really trying to change the world around us, which makes us really excited to announce our new partnership with them. Earlier today Cult of Mac was announced as one of Zite’s 9 new publishing partners.

What this means is that now you can load the Zite app and add a special Cult of Mac section that has all of Cult of Mac’s latest news, except rather than having us tell you the most significant news of the day, Zite’s alogrithm will display the stories that it believes are most relevant to what you’d want to read.

The Tablet Strap is exactly the kind of corporate-dorkwear iPad accessory I used to poke fun at. Now, though, having used an iPad since the first one launched all those moons ago, it’s the kind of iPad accessory I want to buy. Or I would, if it didn’t have that hideous pleather-look finish.

One of the many pros of jailbreaking is the ability to theme your iOS device. When you install a custom theme in Cydia, you’re effectively replacing Apple’s default iOS design with something new and fresh. There are many great themes for jailbreakers, but my new favorite is undoubtedly ayecon. Developed originally for the iPhone and iPod touch, ayecon is coming to the iPad on August 3rd.

I’ve been using ayecon on my jailbroken iPad for a couple weeks now, and I couldn’t be happier. Here are some screenshots to give you a taste of what to expect from this benchmark iOS theme:

Kicking off this week’s must-have apps list is a new to-do app called Checkmark, which is being labeled the reminders app Apple should have made. There’s also a great new video sharing service called Vyclone, a unique clock app, and more.

Art. It’s something we all aspire to from the earliest of age and a pursuit of all humankind, including ancient cave and modern city dwellers, folks from the suburbs and people from the Renaissance. Head into any art museum and you’ll see paintings along the walls made with a variety of styles, techniques, and philosophical points of view.

Would you like to “brush up” on your painting skills? Practice drawing with colored pencils, pen and ink, water colors? How about acrylics, oils, or pastels. You can on your iPad with Art Set, a $0.99 app from developer LOFOPI.

Kicking off this week’s must-have games roundup is Dark Knight Rises, the official game of this year’s biggest blockbuster. You’ll also find the sequal to Fieldrunners, arguably the best tower defense game on iOS; a great cycling simulator; and a humorous title featuring Usian Bolt, the world’s fastest man.

The iPhone is the top performer in the mobile ad monetization performance space, according to a new report from Opera Software. It is followed by Android devices, of course, and then a large gap in which the rest of the mobile devices are being left behind.

“The iPhone leads the smartphone OS pack with an average eCPM of $2.85,” writes the company in their first State of Mobile Advertising report. “Though it is closely followed by Android devices (at $2.10). The rest of the mobile phone field is significantly behind.”

I’m gonna be honest. I totally forgot that Homescreen.me existed. That’s because the website has been in private beta for two years, and I stopped using it after I initially uploaded my iPhone’s Home screen in 2010. So, I after finding out that Homescreen.me has opened its doors up for everyone today, I logged back into my account. Seeing the main apps I used on my iPhone 3GS at the time brought back a flood of memories. There’s something very personal about a Home screen. It represents the apps that are most special to you. But those apps change over time.

After logging back in, I uploaded my current iPhone and iPad Home screens. It was interesting to see how my layout changed two years later and what new apps had been given first page priority. I then shared my current setup on Twitter for my friends to check out.

That’s what Homescreen.me is about: sharing and discovering great Home screens with fellow geeks who love their iOS devices.

Earlier this week, we reported on the move by Australian airline Qantas to swap out the 1,300 BlackBerries used by its staff (and the related infrastructure) in favor of iPhones. It looks like Qantas is doubling down on Apple and iOS. The airline also announced this week that it will begin offering streaming entertainment on iPads across all the planes in its fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft.

Qantas is launching the new service, which it has dubbed QStreaming, following a successful trial of the service earlier this year.

We’ve had it with wireless providers charging us more money for less data and fewer features, and on our brand new CultCast, we’ll tell you why the prospect of carriers charging for FaceTime over 3G makes us mad as hell!

And then, Faves and Raves! The fun and poorly-named segment where we pitch our favorite apps and gear then vote on which is best.

Don’t miss a very fun new episode of The CultCast. Subscribe now on iTunes, or get all techie like the Dark Knight and stream new episodes right on your iPhone or iPad with Apple’s new Podcasts App.

Show notes below!

A U.K. judge recently ruled that Apple has to pay for advertisements on its website and in British newspapers saying that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab doesn’t actually copy the design of the iPad. The order was given after the same judge ruled that Samsung didn’t infringe on Apple’s designs, noting that the Galaxy Tab wasn’t “cool enough” to be confused with the iPad. Ouch.

Apple advertise for one of its main competitors? Never! The Cupertino-based company has motioned to appeal the U.K. court’s ruling.

According to a report issued by the World Bank this week, there are now six billion mobile device subscriptions worldwide and the number of phones, tablets, personal hotspots, and other mobile devices continues to grow and unprecedented rates. The report noted that the number of active mobile devices and mobile carrier subscriptions/accounts “will soon exceed that of the human population.”

That raises some interesting implications for a world mobile market in which Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are expected to dominate for the immediate and foreseeable future.

If you have a tendency to drop your expensive gadgets, and you’re looking for something a little more robust than the iPad, you should probably check out Google’s new Nexus 7. According to this drop test from warranty provider SquareTrade, Google’s $199 slate handles drops and water damage better than the new iPad.

Apple’s third-generation iPad finally goes on sale in China today, more than four months after making its debut in the United States. And unlike previous iPhone and iPad launches in China, which have been marred by huge crowds and violent scalpers, this one has been described as “quiet” and “low-key.”

I use my iPhone camera to keep track of a lot of things. When I’m in the bookstore, I take photos of books I want to buy, or show friends. I take pics of meals to track what and how much I eat, and I take photos of my kids and pets as often as possible.

I don’t take video that often, though it has been known to happen. However, I can really see the utility in having some sort of audio recording capability along with my photo taking – sort of a quasi-video thing – and Phonogram does just that.

Readdle has today issued a major update to PDF Expert, its excellent PDF management app for iPad, to introduce a number of handy new features. In addition to faster PDF rendering, version 4.1 brings Dropbox AutoSync, Microsoft SkyDrive integration, and more.

The wireless spectrum crunch is forcing most mobile carriers to consider options to address a future in which there simply isn’t enough frequency available to easily meet the ever-growing demand for 3G and LTE connections. One idea that has been floated is developing systems that can offload mobile data onto Wi-Fi networks.

That idea isn’t new. In fact most iPhone and 3G/LTE iPad users tend to offload data service to home or public Wi-Fi networks. Doing so has clear advantages to consumers in that it helps avoid any overage fees and it can provide a faster connection in some circumstances.

Dealing with limited spectrum resources, however, carriers have been forced to consider ways of offloading data themselves rather than waiting and hoping that users to take action on their own.

Apple is finally preparing high resolution graphics for its online store to accommodate the Retina displays on the new iPad and the next-generation MacBook Pro. Although the Cupertino company has already overhauled most of its website, the online store still includes plenty of old graphics that appear fuzzy on its latest devices. But not for long.

Remember that early iPad prototype we showed you yesterday, built between 2002 and 2004, which looked like an old white iBook with a touchscreen? Now some new shots have surfaced that show a comparison between this and the iPad 2, and there are some interesting differences.

First of all, Apple originally built the iPad with a 12-inch display, and it was huge.

A recent Reynolds Journalism Institute study indicates that the iPad is becoming a primary vehicle for many users to consume (read, listen to, or watch) daily local, national, and world news and that it is leading a revolution in terms of how frequently people read news as well as how much news they read on a daily or weekly basis.

The survey noted that the iPad is the preferred large media tablet on the market with news consumers surveyed with an 88% share of that market. The Kindle Fire was the top pick among small media tablets with 68% of the news consumer market. The iPhone was the overall preferred smartphone with 39% of the news consumer market.

It also noted that the iPad (and other large tablet devices) seem to be encouraging news reading among all demographics including young adults. Among young adults (18 – 24 years old), 67% read news on one or more mobile devices and averaged five hours of news reading/consumption per week. Among young adults with iPads, 84% read news on their device(s) for an average of 7.3 hours per week.

Seeking to challenge the iPad’s ongoing success in the healthcare field, Panasonic has announced an updated version of Toughbook tablet for doctors offices and hospitals. The update is the latest for Toughbook product line that Panasonic introduced in 2008.

The 10-inch screen size is about the only thing in the new Toughbook CF-H2 Health tablet offers that is similar to the iPad. The Toughbook is a Windows 7 tablet powered by an Intel Core i5 processor that relies on a 320GB hard drive rather than flash memory for storage (though a 128 GB SSD is available as a custom build option). It weighs in at a whopping 1.58 kg (3.48 pounds) – more than double the weight of the new iPad.

The Toughbook, which will ship next month, will have an entry-level price of €1,898 (approximately $2,330). That’s more than four times the cost of an entry-level new iPad and just shy of six times the cost of the entry-level iPad 2.